the whole Law Christ is become of none effect to you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from Grace From these words must needs be deduced these Conclusions 1 That to be under the Law and to be under Grace are contraries and do exclude either the other so that it is impossible for the same person at the same time to be under both together If but circumcised if at all under the Law ye have saith the Apostle made Christ of none effect to you ye are fallen from grace and consequently if at all in Christ yee are not in the least part under the Law but free from the domination and Curse thereof 2 That whosoever yieldeth himself to be under the Law as a Covenant of Works in the least part hath his justification or damnation depending upon his perfect or unperfect keeping of the whole Law so saith th'Apostle if but circumcised c. ye are debtors to keep the whole Law How debtors viz. If ever ye will be justified and saved to keep it perfectly if ye fail but once to be damned for ever 3 That whosoever affirmeth whether he be a Bellarmine or a Baxter believers to be under the Law as a Covenant of Works the same by necessary consequence denyeth all actuall efficacy of Christs death that ever any soul was or shal be saved by his mediation and affirmeth all the Saints that have been are or shal be to be damned for ever For if at all under the Law then not at all under grace or in Christ but they must stand or fall according as they do or not do the whole Law which none doth ergo all must perish The same also may be gathered from Gal. 3. 10. but I have touched upon it before A noble Aphorist ye will acknowledg declaring a greater desire to bring the Saints under the Curse and damnation then there is force in his Disputes to prove them to be under it These Scriptures might suffice to satisfie every judgment that believers are not under the Law Yet I shall mention some few more to shew the copiousnes of the word in this point that there might be no doubting in this point Rom 7. 1-6 the Holy Ghost doth make out this truth as clear as the light The Law saith he hath dominion over a man onely during life as the husband hath power over his wife Let either the husband or wife dye the law or power which the husband had over the wife dyeth also If the wife dye he hath no power over the soul or ashes of his dead wife to exact under any penalty obedience from them If the wife be survivor she is no more bound to the dead ashes of her husband to fear either command or wrath thence but is wholly at liberty So also stands the relation between the Law and believers The Law in the height of its authority had power to inflict death but once upon man this death have believers suffered in Christ therefore are dead to the Law by the body of Christ have done their Law and suffered all that the Law had to inflict upon sinners in the body or humane nature of Christ suffering for them so that they are dead to the Law so far without the lists of further punishment or terrour of the Law as the Felon or Murtherer that is condemned hanged dead and buried is free from further punishment by the Law of the Land Yea the Law also is dead to them having spent it's sting and strength and life also on the naturall body of Christ and is thereby disabled for ever to re-assume the same against the mysticall body or any member thereof So that they are fully delivered from the Law All this doth th'Apostle speak out at the full in that place and no lesse in Gal. 3. 24 25. The Law was our School-master unto or untill Christ c. But after that faith is come we are no longer under a Schoolmaster This also he illustrateth Gal. 4. 1 c. by a similitude likening the Church before Christs coming to an Heir in his Minority by his fathers will put under Tutors and Governors so that though he be Lord of all yet differs nothing from a servant but is under his Tutors ferule and rod also to be constrained with fear when love becomes ineffectuall to move him to his duty such was the condition of the Church while in its minority and feeblenes of spiritual knowledge the Sun of righteousnes not being yet risen fully to enlighten them with the understanding of their liberty and glorious prerogatives During this time though they were Lords of all yet because of the weaknes of their knowledg they were kept Servant-like under hard Masters under the Commands and threats of the Law but resembling the Church under the Gospel to the same heir in his maturity of age now entred into the possession of his heritage and become rather Lord of his Tutors and Governours then any way subject or servile to their authority gently and generously accepting their wholsom Counsels but disdaining so to subject to their authority as to be brought under the rod of their power any more So also Gal. 5. 13 18 23. speaking of them that had been called to the liberty of the Gospel believing in Christ walking in the Spirit and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit concludeth of them that they are not under the Law that against such there is no Law And 2 Cor. 3. 11. cals the Law as a Covenant of works that which was done away as he doth the Gospel as a Covenant of Grace that which remaineth Yea that the case might be so plain that no Jesuiticall distinctions might pervert it the Holy Ghost at once concludeth both negatively that believers are not under the terrours of the Law at all and affirmatively that they are wholly and onely under the sweet dispensation of grace Heb. 12. 18-24 Ye are not come to the Mount c. burning with fire nor unto blacknes and darknesse and tempest nor to the words and Covenants which could not be heard and born and to the terrible voyce which made Moses himself exceedingly to fear and quake These are the things done away in reference to believers But ye are come to Mount Sion to the City of the living God the heavenly Hierusalem c. to all the prerogatives and privileges of the Kingdome of Grace So also in the Epistle to the Galathians There are two Covenants saith the Holy Ghost the one from Mount Sinai where the Law was given which gendereth to Bondage the other from Hierusalem which is above and is free the mother of us all and concludes at last of all believers negatively that they are not the children of the Bond-woman i. e. under the Covenant of works and affiâ—matively But of the free i. e. under the Covenant of Grace Gal. 4. 24 26 31. Hence is that bold triumphant challenge of the Apostle Rom. 8. 33 34.
governed untill his coming That it was he who first preached to Adam salvation by the seed of the Woman and afterward more cleerly to Abraham That it was he also which delivered the Law upon Mount Sinai and added there a second Covenant in shew and sound a meer Covenant of works Do and be Blessed Sin and be Cursed which Covenant alone is expresly called the Old Covenant and is indeed now repealed and abolished from being any more a Covenant saving to them that put themselves under it This was but a temporary Covenant an Appendix to the Covenant before made with Abraham and both this and that with Abraham were but subordinate Covenants to that before mentioned between God and Christ Here now all that were justified before Christs coming in the flesh were justified in Christ by force of the first Covenant made between the Father and the Son The promise to Adam and the Covenants made with Abraham and with the Israelites together with all the Sacraments and signes annexed to all these tended onely to bring them that were justified before in Christ to a reall and sensible participation of it and the comforts thereof by Faith within their own consciences So is it now under the Gospel administration That first Covenant is that by which our justification is compleatly finished in Christ the preaching of Faith in a Covenant way tends onely to this that as many as were before justified in Christ may by Faith have their Justification declared and evidenced to their consciences to fill them with joy unspeakable and full of glory and with that peace which passeth all understanding Not but that Christ could without any such Sub-Covenanting have filled up his elect with all the marrow and mystery of Justification by immediate Revelation from himself as he dealt with Paul the Apostle but that this way made most for his and his Fathers glory both in them that are saved and in them that perish 4 Faith it self much less any other qualification gift or act is not a condition of Justification in foro Dei there Christ hath pleaded our discharge by his blood still maketh intercession for us but a means or instrument by which we receive Christ Jesus and the righteousnes or justification that is in him to our selves for consolation and salvation in foro conscientiae so stood the case in respect of the fore-mentioned under Covenant that of the Law When the Lord Christ had published his Law upon Mount Sinai and given to Israel by Moses all his Judgments and Statutes there now passeth a solemn Covenant betwixt Christ and them the people also every one in person assenting gladly to fulfill all that they might be blessed or if in the least point they should fail to yeeld themselves cursed This Covenant was made more visibly and in every part more strictly after the nature and rule of Covenants then this under the Gospel Yet will any say that this perfect obedience so Covenanted was a condition of their justification and salvation without which none could be justified or saved Then were all damned for no one either did or could perfectly obey Nay it was added because of transgressions saith the Apostle Gal. 3. 19. i. e. as a means so to operate about sin in the discovery of it and the damnation that is by it so also to convince men that they might be driven from all supposition of their own righteousnes and seek righteousnes by Christ alone in whom alone the elect were justified before this Covenant was made In the same manner the holding forth of justification now under the Gospel in the form and likenes of a Covenant Beleeve and be saved beleeve not and perish for ever proveth not Faith to be the condition of the New Covenant as hath been said even the whole preaching of salvation by Christ and injoyning of Faith upon all to receive it is an effect of that First great Covenant of Grace between the Father and the Son and a part of Christs Propheticall Office which he undertook in that Covenant to accomplish in undertaking the Mediatorship between God and Men. An effect of that first Covenant I say For so it was agreed that All which the Father had given to Christ by him to be justified and saved should come to him i. e. beleeve in him Jo 6. 37. To this purpose it was Covenanted on the Sons part to seek and to save that which was lost Luke 19. 10. to call unto him all to participate by Faith of the life light righteousness and salvation that he had received for them Isa 55. 1. Io 7. 37. Ma. 11. 28. This was a part of his Propheticall Office to discover the treasures of Grace in his heart and to envite all to the participation thereof And then on the Fathers part it was Covenanted that he would draw to Christ all the Elect all that he had given to Christ that while the Gospel sounded in their ears he would divinely by his Spirit teach and move their hearts that they shall not but come to Christ Jo 6. 43 44. And lastly it is agreed on the Sons part again that of all that the Father thus bringeth to him he must cast out none lose none but raise them all at the last day to glorification and the reason of all is annexed It is the Fathers will i. e. that which was Covenanted between the Father and him in Heaven and he came down from Heaven not to do his own will i. e. any thing of his private will without the consent of his Father but the will of him that sent him i. e. what was Covenanted between the Father and him and concurrent with the will of both Jo 6. 37 38 39. Thus all that which Mr B. calleth the Covenant of Grace is but an effect or an Article and branch of the Covenant made of old between God and Christ And Faith not so properly termed a condition of justification as an instrument to apprehend the present comfort of it being before ours in Christ 5 That this Covenant of Grace is absolute shall be the work of the next Chapter to evince CHAP. XII That Text of Jer 31. 31 32 33 c. opened and Mr. Baxters elusions by which he would evince that it proveth not a free and unconditionall Covenant answered with some other Argumentations with Mr. Baxter about the same Question I Now come to that Testimony of Jer. 31. 31 32 33. cited in Heb. 8. 8-10 against which Mr. B. so much excepteth That New Covenant there mentioned is called the New Covenant not in opposition to the Old Covenant made in the beginning with Adam but in opposition to that Covenant made two thousand and six hundred years after at least with Israel upon Mount Sinai And that Covenant upon Mount Sinai is called the Old Covenant not in opposition to the Cov of Grace made if not from eternity according to Mr. B. yet by Mr B. acknowledgment almost 3000 years
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that hath dyed yea rather that is risen again who sitteth at the right hand of God and maketh intercession for us Having laid down these two positions as truths undeniable that Christ hath effectually satisfied and as a perfect Mediator sits at the right hand of God making intercession for believers And that God thereupon justifieth them He now boldly challengeth earth and hell who shall charge them who shall condemn them Yea his interrogations bear the force of strong negations as if he had said None can effectually charge much less condemn them yea none dares to attempt it no not one not sin nor Satan the Lords Enemies much less the Law which is just and conformed to the will of God Collect we together now but some short notions of these Scriptures what the Holy Ghost concludeth in them and by them that believers are not under the Law that it is an apostacy from Christ from grace to put themselves in the least part under the Law as a Covenant of works that they are dead to the Law that the Law is dead to them that they are delivered from the Law are no more under it were servants to it but are now free from it there is no Law against them that it is done away from having any domination over them that they are departed from the Lawes terrours and come to the Gospels celestial previledges are not under the Covenant of Works but under the Covenant of Grace have the originall of their present condition not from Sinai but from the supernall Hierusalem are sons not of the bond-woman but of the free that there is none that can condemn them none that can justly say any thing to their charge Let any man now that beleiveth there is a Holy Ghost and that the Holy Ghost speaketh in the Scriptures judge whether iâ— be possible for the wisedom of the Holy Ghost himself which is infinite to give his testimony more fully cleerly or plainly to this assertion that believers are not under the cursing power of the Law or under the Law as a Covenant of works whether this truth hath not from these testimonies of Scripture a sufficient fortification raised about it against all Jesuits and Devils Yet Mr. Baxter with horn and hoof tooth and nail assaults it partly by secret minings and partly by open batteries to subvert it I shall hold out his slights in his owne words B. Thes 11. Not that Christ doth absolutely null or repeal the old Covenant hereby viz. by constituting a New Covenant Thes 10. But he superaddeth this as the onely possible way of life The former still continueth to command prohibite promise and threaten so that the sins even of the Justified are still breaches of that Law and are threatened and cursed thereby This is his first plea his dispute in generall against the before proved Assertion The Aphorism consisteth of meer obscurities ambiguities equivocations and mentall reservations in words and phrases wherein the Aphorist hides himself that he may smite and not be smitten speaking in words of a double and doubtfull sense that he may beguile the unwary in the sense wherein he would be understood that he may deceive and yet in case that by them which are wise and wary he be called ad partes to answer for his fallacious subtlety he might fly for shelter to the other sense that he might not appear to be a deceiver And first the word nulling yea the phrase absolutely nulling is ambiguous equivocall and fallacious A thing a law a covenant may be said to be nulled i. e. made void or none either as to its essence and being or as to its power and operation yea to be absolutely nulled in some operations though absolutely in force in other Null as to such ends or persons though in its perfect validity to other But when Mr. Baxter saith absolutely null he would be taken in another sense then he dares to avouch in the sense that the words do most litterally and gramatically import viz. the whole and absolute nulling of it not onely to some but to all operations ends and persons yea not onely to its operation but to its being also For so much that distinguishing word absolutely insinuateth viz. in contra-distinction to secundum quid that it is nulled not as to this or that purpose in this or another respect but absolutely simply wholly from having any more operation or being And this equivocation of his serves him to three ends 1 To leave a secret accusation and odium among the people upon the Orthodox Divines against whom his dispute bendeth that they deny both the power and being of the Law of God and hold that it is become useless and abrogated so that the people of God must be no more acquainted with it And this is a tacit slander for who among them ever taught such things 2 To lay open to himself a wide field for a luxuriating and extravagant disputation to affirm or deny confirm or confute any thing about the present state of the Law knowing that what is incompetent to what he asserteth in one sense will be enough competent in another and he doubts not while he is thus circling and roving some pur-blind ones will be taken in his snare if none els yet at least such as are made to be taken 2 Pet. 2. 12. 3 That if his words come to a strict examination how little of simplicity and truth how much of doublenes and falshood is couched in them he may not want a place of retreat his meaning forsooth was but so and so and there is a fault in them that mistake him 2 The same might I say of the word repeal which he useth But because he repeats it again in the Explication of this Aphorism affirming that there are godly and learned men that hold the repealing of the first Covenant c. I shall there speak what els might be here not unfitly spoken 3 No less ambiguous is it what he will have us to understand by the Old Covenant which he affirms not to be nulled but to have the New Covenant super-added to it at least to what sense thereof he will stand Whether he meaneth 1 The Law of nature not sounded in the ear but written in the heart of man at his Creation Doe and live Sin and dye Or 2 That Covenant expressed in the word about a positive Command of not eating of the Tree of knowledge of good and evill Eat and dye and consequently Abstein and live Or 3 The Covenant of the Law written in stones upon Mount Sinai If the first Mr. Baxter himself sometimes declares his doubting whether there were such a Law with a clear impression of its penalty ever created and imprinted in mans soul And there are not wanting some among the most profound and Classicall Divines which hold that
saith nothing Yet because this still leaveth sub judice litem and certain Conclusions cannot be inferred upon premisses left uncertain I should answer secondly That the Curse pronounced and inflicted upon Adam related to him not as a private but publike person For so he fell and so was he sentenced As comprehending the Elect he had the blessing of the seed of the woman but as representing those that perish so he had the Curse But touching those things which he and the other godly do suffer the learned Sadeel Adver sus humanas satisfactiones answereth this Popish Argument here proposed by Mr. Baxter out of Augustine Posset aliquis dicere saith Augustine Si propter peccatum Deus dixerit homini In sudore vultus tui edes panem tuum spinas tribulos proseret tibi terra c. Cur fideles post peccatorum remissionem eosdem dolores patiuntur Respondemus saith Austin Ante remissionem esse supplicia peccatorum post remissionem esse certamina exercitationesque justorum i. e. Some one may say If for sin God said to man In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread and the earth shall bring forth to thee bryars and thorns c. Why do the beleevers after the remission of sinns suffer these sorrowes We answer saith Austin Before remission these are punishments of sinns after remission they are tryalls and exercises of the Righteous Whereunto Sadeel addeth Non sequitur si mors vitae praesentis aerumnae per se sunt peccati poenae quippe propter peccatum in mundum ingressae eas esse proptereà peccatorum paenas ipsis etiam fidelibus quibus peccata sunt propter Christum condonata i. e. It followeth not if death and the sorrows of the present life be in themselves the punishments of sinn because they entred into the world for or by means of sinn that they are therefore punishments of sinn to the very faithfull also to whom their sinns are forgiven for Christs sake But to do him a pleasure should we give him his Argument forgiving the unsoundnes of it what doth he conclude Thus much that the suspending of the rigorous execution of the sentence of the Law is the most observable immediate effect of Christs death that the redeemed of the Lord partake of By suspending the rigorous execution of the Law he means that he doth forbear an hour or a day or some short time to destroy their lives and cast their souls into hell But so that every moment they must stand in expectation of it and that to their greater torment at last as their sinns during the time of the suspension is increased Whosoever now of Gods redeemed ones receives comfort by this doctrine will I doubt not give his verdit for Mr. Baxter having so nobly and divinely resolved this question that He is a Divine indeed He tells us there be other effects of Christs death c. But he is not at leisure now to communicate them But if they have no more sweet and marrow than this let him keep them to himself we will not be inquisitive after them P. 68. B. To the second Quâ—stion The Elect before Conversion do stand in the same relation to the Law and Curse as other men though they be differenced in Gods Decree Eph. 2. 3 12. Very short yet not so sweet as short He saith it but he proves it not For the Scripture which he brings for proof doth onely declare what the Elect are by nature before conversion not what they are before God in relation to his Covenant of Grace But Mr. Baxter purposeth to speak more largely hereunto in another place which will give me occasion to enlarge my answer At present he is in travell with his answer to the third question and cannot be at rest untill he be delivered of so beautifull a Monster and thus it comes from him Bax. To the third question I confess we have here a knotty question The common judgment is that Christ hath taken away the whole Curse though not the suffering by bearing it himself and now they are onely Afflictions of Love and not punishments I do not contradict this Doctrine through affectation of singularity the Lord knoweth but through constraint of judgment and that upon these grounds following 1 It is undeniable that Christs taking the Curs upon himself did not wholly prevent the execution upon the offender Ge. 3. 7 8 10 15 16 17 18 19. 2 It is evident from the event seeing we feel part of the Curs fulfilled on us we eat in labor and sweat the earth doth bring forth thorns and brayars women bring forth their children in sorrow our native pravity is the Curs upon our souls we are sick weary full of fears sorrows and shame and at last we dye and turn to dust 3 The Scripture tells us that we all dye in Adam even that death from which we must at the Resurrection be raised by Christ 1 Co. 15. 21 22. And that death is the wages of sin Ro. 6. 23. and that the sickness and weakness and death of the godly is caused by their sins 1 Co. 11. 30 31. And if so then doubtles they are in execution of the Law though not in full rigour 4 It is manifest that our sufferings are in their own nature evils to us and the sanctifying of them to us taketh not away their naturall evil but onely produceth by it as by an occasion a greater good Doubtles so farr as it is an effect of sinn it is evill and the effect of the Law also 5 They are ascribed to Gods anger as the moderating of them is ascribed to his lâ—ve Psa 30. 5. and a thousand places more 6 They are called punishments in scripture and therefore we may call them so Lev. 26 41 43. Lam. 3. 39. 4. 6 22. Ezras 9. 13. Hos 4. 9. 12. 2. Lev. 26. 18 24. 7 The very nature of affliction is to be a loving punishment a naturall evil sanctified and so to be mixt of evil and good as it proceeds from mixt causes Therefore to say that Christ hath taken away the Curs and evill but not the sufferings is a contradiction becaus so farr as it is suffering it is to us evill and the execution of the Curs What Reason can be given why God should not do us all that good without our sufferings which now he doth by them if there were not sin and wrath and law in them Sure he could better us by easier means 8 All those Scriptures and Reasons that are brought to the contrary do prove no more but this that our afflictions are not the Rigorous execution of the Law that they are not wholly or chiefly in wrath but as the common love of God to the wicked is mixt with hatred in their sufferings and the hatred prevaileth above the love so the sufferings of the godly proceed from a mixture of Love and Anger and so have in them a mixture
the Article of Justification they wholly dissent from him It hath filled my spirit with sadness to hear not onely in the Pulpits of the Country but of the City of London pronounced by the Mouths of some in great esteem both for piety and Learning That to say God doth not punish his Saints for their sinns is flat Antinomism and affirmed that the afflictions of beleevers are punishments for their sin I beseech these men to Consider whom they here explode as Antinomians whether besides the Apostles and Fathers of the Primitive Church they do not brand all the reformed Churches and their Champions against the Papists with this ignominy Whether there be any one Article of Christian Religion that hath been more stoutly defended by these against the Papists than this which heat of zeal without knowledg or Consideration at least hath of late Called Antinomian Let them produce any besides the Socinian and Arminian Sophisters that have stumbled at this doctrine as offensive I beseech these men to read one Chamier at least Panstr Tom. 3. lib. 23. the six first Chapters where this question is not onely handled at large but also the Arguments of the Protestants who are also named Cap. 1. particularized and all the objections of the Papists against those Arguments Confuted and the Papists Arguments to prove the Contrary assertion answered The question being thus stated Vtrùm puniantur fidelium scelera utrùm dura quae ijs immittit Deus sint peccatorum paenae So much by way of answer to Mr. Baxters resolving of his third question There remain yet three questions more viz. Bax. 4. Whether it be not a wrong to the Redeemer that the people whom he hath ransomed be not immediately delivered from the Curse 5. Whether it be any wrong to the redeemed themselves 6. How long will it be till all the Curse be taken off beleevers and Redemption have attained its full effect The two former of these questions are sawcy arrogant and proud In their proposall Mr. Baxter acts the part of Satan in questioning and accusing Gods Justice In his answer to them he takes upon himself to act the part of an Angel to be an Apologist to plead for the defence of Gods justice 2 Gods justice is not cannot be injurious to any so that God needs not an Apologist to plead his cause if he needed his wisdome would not make choice of his accuser to be his Advocate 3 Mr. Baxter if he would have dealt ingenuously should have put the questions whether himself be not injurious 1 To God and his Christ 2 To the redeemed by denying their deliverance from and affirming their prostrate bondage under the Curse and not to have questioned whether his slandering of Gods justice hath made God faulty And then he should have received an answer to his resolving of the questions But as he puts the questions I reject his resolving of them as unworthy of an answer Onely by the way I say that what he speaks in answer to his own questions is all meerly sophisticall and fallacious The three first reasons that he brings to prove that Christ is not wronged by the not delivering of his ransomed ones being things in question not proved by Mr. Baxter therefore in arguing from them he doth as it is usuall with him beg the principle The fourth reason is not ad idem but so farr from the question as London from Barwick that there is no hope they will ever meet together The question speaking of beleevers The reason of Christs dealing with the world to make them beleevers And the same is evident in what he saith to the fifth question also The sixth question he thus resolveth Bax. The last enemy to be overcome is death 1 Cor. 15. 26. This enemy will be perfectly overcome at the Resurrection Then also shall we be perfectly acquitt from the charge of the Law and accusation of Satan Therefore not till the day of Resurrection and judgment will all the effects of sin and law and wrath be perfectly removed If in the conclusion he mean the effects of sin and law and wrath shall not be removed from the world untill the resurrection he speaketh truth but nihil ad rem far from the question which speaketh onely of beleevers If he mean of them that the Curse shall not be removed I have answered it before and the Scriptures here brought to prove it and will not here Actum agere CHAP. VIII Whether Beleevers are under the Law as a Covenant of works The Negative proved Mr. Baxters ambiguities and mentall reservations in stating the question and asserting the affirmative The Law not repealed to any but exauthorated to beleevers having inflicted its whole curse upon them in Christ Mr. Baxter had ended but he had not finished his dispute about the Curse upon beleevers He did but Parthian or ram-like go backward and decline a little to return with the greater force Or as an Actor upon the stage withdraw and make his exit to put on a new dress in which to appear again forthwith to act a second part So doth Mr. Baxter decline the dispute in one Aphorism and its explication which I also shall pass by without excepting against it and then he returns to prosecute the same dispute afresh yet in another dress of words that it might seem to be a resolving or determining of another question That was whether beleevers remain under the Curse of the Law This whether they remain under the Law as it threateneth and curseth And between these two questions who seeth not so vast a difference as is between an arrow in the quiver and an arrow out of the quiver within and without the quiver it is the same arrow still Yet let us attend to him stating the question which anon we shall examine The result of it is thus Bax. That the Morall Law not in its directive use but as it is a Covenant of works is still in force to threaten and bring the Curse upon beleevers in case they do in any thing transgress the Law This he undertakes to make good pronouncing it inconsideratenes to assert the contrary Thes 11. p. 78. explic p. 79. explic of Thes 12. p. 82. Here before we meddle any further with Mr. Baxter let us examine what the Holy Ghost in Scripture speaketh to this point Ye are not under the Law but under Grace saith th'Apostle to believers Rom. 6. 14. I conceive there is no one Christian upon earth that hath his head unbiassed with sophisticall fallacies and falshoods but takes the words in the same simple and clear sense wherein the Holy Ghost delivers them viz. That we are no more under the Law as a Covenant of Works when we have once attained by faith to be under the Covenant of Grace But a very thunder-bolt against Mr. Baxter and his Assertion is that Gal. 5. 3 4. I testifie to every one that is circumcised that he is debtor to do
whatsoever notions of naturall righteousnes and holines of God of good and evill of truth and falshood there are in naturall men without the word the same not to be ingraven into them by nature or remainders of any Law written in mans heart at his first Creation but of Gods immediate infusion by a generall and common operation of the Spirit in time distributed to some in a greater to some in a lesser measure to some scarce at all as his infinite wisedom shall see it to make most for his glory And from these Mr. Baxter seems elswhere not to dissent And how then can that be nulled and repealed or what new super-addition can there be made to that whith was never in being much less can a Covenant stand firm which was never existent If the second then contrary to his Assertion the Old Covenant in respect of our personall Obligation to it and of the dependence of our life and death upon it according to our personall obedience or disobedience to it is nulled there being now no accessible Paradise nor tree of knowledg of good and evill about which our obedience may be exercised or disobedience manifested If the third Mr. Baxter speaketh point-blank in contrariety to the Apostle in saying that the Covenant of Grace was added to the Law or Covenant of works For the Apostle giveth the priority to the Promise or Covenant of Grace and affirmeth expresly that the Law or Covenant of works was many hundred years after added to it Gal. 3. 17 19. So that we know not where to meet with Mr. Baxter to understand much less to answer him 4 He hath a mentall reservation also when he affirmeth that the Covenant of Grace was super-added as the onely possible way of life Who knows whether he pronounceth it the onely possible way to life as it hath fulture and supportance from the Law and Covenant of Works to which it is super-added and so Moses and Christ meeting together in the Mount do save a poor sinner and what the Law could not do of it self being weak through the flesh that could not fulfill it Rom. 8. 3. Now by the super-added help of Grace it doth perform Or as it is operative in it self and by it self saving by its own soveraign power without any help from the works of the Law Why doth not Mr. Baxter speak out Veritas non quaerit angulos Truth loveth to shew its face in the cleer light not hiding it self in the clouds I do no wrong to Mâ— Baxter in pressing upon him for his meaning herein every man may see in the sequell of his Tractate that grace and faith have with him very little power to justifie or save but what they borrow and fetch home in a Cardinals Hat or Monks Cowl from good works 5 And he leaves us in the dark and doubtfull what he means by the word hereby when he saith Christ doth not null the Covenant hereby it is a relative word and must have its meaning from that which is antecedent in the tenth Aphorism viz. Christs prescribing of a new Law and tendering of a new Covenant The old Covenant is not nulled hereby saith Mr. Baxter Doth he mean by the tendering of the New Covenant Or the offer of Grace This makes nothing to the end he drives at None conceiving that the offer or tendering of Grace to a sinner doth forth with free him from the Curse of the Law untill he accepts the tender Or doth he mean that the effectualizing of the Covenant of Grace to a sinner or the taking of him effectually into the Covenant of Grace doth not make void the Law to him as a Covenant of works This is indeed like himself and agreeable to his purpose He is not consistent with himself nor with the most subtle and sophisticall of the Papists whom he loves as dearly as himself if he do not so mean Nevertheles because he is willing here to pass under a vizzard I will not trouble my self to unmask him Himself will openly enough discover himself to us when the humour takes him At present let him be sullen 6 The same might I say of that which followeth The former i. e. The Covenant of works or the Law still continueth to command prohibite promise and threaten A wide dominion and large authority but who the subjects servants are over whom it is exercised he leaves as all the rest in an ambiguity is not disposed to tell us except the next words do it So that the sins even of the justified are still breaches of that Law and c. 7 But here also he determineth to passe away in the dark tells us onely what power the Law hath against the sins not against the persons of the justified that it threatens and curseth their transgressions but whether onely upon the person of Christ satisfying for them or els in their own persons also after Christ hath so satisfied is a secret that at this time and in this place we must not know from him though if he had not let it out before he would have been in pangs of travell with it untill he were delivered of it Thus have we found M. Baxter in this Aphorism fighting against the fore-mentioned Conclusion and the Scriptures that confirmed it with his sword in the scabbard How terrible the skirmish was they that felt either the point or edge of his weapon can tell you Suppose he should now unsheath it who could stand before his drawn sword This he is about to do by his Explication Mr. B. I acknowledge that this assertion is disputable and difficult and many places of Scripture are usually produced which seem to contradict it I know also that it is the judgement of learned and godly men that the Law as it is a Covenant of works is quite null and repealed in regard of the sins of believers Yea many do believe that the Covenant of works is repealed to all the the world and onely the Covenant of grace in force Against both these I maintain this assertion by the Arguments which you find under the following Position 13. And I hope notwithstanding that I extoll free grace as much and preach the Law as little in a forbidden sense as though I held the contrary opinion First he acknowledgeth his Assertion to be disputable and difficult We have found it not onely to be so but to be so of his own making by means of his clothing it with the darknes of such and so many ambiguities equivocations c. Against it he saith there is a two-fold authority usually produced the one Divine the othee humane The one he despiseth and blowes of as contemptible the other he falsifieth I am confident that he may have somewhat to say in answer to it 1 There is Divine authority or many Scriptures produced which seem to contradict his Assertion And here take we notice in how base esteem he hath the Holy Scriptures of those many Scriptures he
of works is repealed to all the world and the Covenant of Grace alone in force Those that hold it most probably are some Eutopians that Mr. Baxter alone and no other either man or Angel besides him have had acquaintance with or the happines to know their opinion So that Mr. Baxter might have done well to have taken a second voyage into the land of Eutopia either to have joyned with them or disputed against them upon their own happy turf and not to have troubled our unhappy Coasts with this Controversie it hath the unhappines doubtles to be pestered with so many opinionists as any Nation in the world but among all hath not such bug-bears or phrenticks that I know who maintein such an assertion But it is one of Mr. Baxters subtleties to feign such ghosts and phantasmes of men to fight against thereby taking the advantage secretly and unespyed as he hopeth to erect more cursed and monstrous assertions than all such ghosts and phantasmes as he feigneth could have devised But we cannot stop him in his Career on he posteth and Against both these imaginary opinions saith he I maintein this Assertion i. e. his 11th Thesis which we have found to be a meer fardle of equivocations ambiguities c. for explication whereof we have sought where he promised it but have found nothing but fictions imaginations and new falshoods more to obscure it Yet this peece of darknes he promiseth to maintain under the 13 posiâ—ion where we shall wait on him But in the mean while he hath a 12th Thes and an explication to intersert which we must by the way take notice of as a most noble preparative to the sublime learning which in the 13th he will deliver As for that brag wherewith he shuts up all that he hath said in the titular explication of this his 11th position I hope that I extoll free Grace as much and preach the Law as little in a forbidden sense as though I held the contrary opinion unto it I say but this If his preaching be so much better and honester than his writing we could wish him henceforth to apply himself wholly to the Pulpit not at all to the Presse And notwithstanding his brags and all his equivocations windings and fallacious argumentation we will still keep in minde the state of the question from which he seeks to avert us viz. that the Law is not nulld to beleevers but even when they are beleevers they are still under the Law as a Covenant of works This he hath promised to maintain against Scriptures and Orthodox Writers whatsoever els he speaketh and not home to this point is besides the question Attend we therefore what he hath to make this good in the next position CHAP. IX Mr. Baxters Distinctionary preparative to the Confirmation of his Assertion that beleevers are under the Law as a Covenant of works examined and all that he haeh therein manifested to be in part impertinent to the question and pertinent onely to his vain-glory in the rest to be Popish and destructive to all hope of salvation Thesis 12. BAx Therefore we must not plead the repeal of the Law for our Justification but must refer it to our surety who by the value and efficacy of his once offering and merits doth continually satisfie We assent here to his words in substance but finde Cause in the placing of them to doubt of a fallacious meaning which he hath therein 1 We do not we will not plead the repeal of the Law for our Justification But Mr. Baxter as he makes it appear by what is antecedent and following in this dispute would have us to conceive that in the not repealing of the Law is included our being under the Law as a Covenant of works Such tame fools in the lofty opinion that he hath of himself doth he account us If in the following words of the position he meant fairly he would speak plainly We must not plead the repeal of the Law for Justification c. What then but we must refer it to our surety who by the value c. Why saith he not plainly we must not plead the lawes repeal for c. but our fullfilling of it in Christ or the satisfaction which he hath once made for all the breaches of the Law which we have or shall have committed why speaks he ambiguously we must refer it to our surety what whether or when we shall be justified or to him to plead for us neglecting to seek for any ablenes to plead and give account of our hope for our selves willingly remaining uncertain of salvation all our life time And when he saith by his once offering and merits he doth continually satisfie though in a good sense it be true and good yet hath he not already actually satisfied and are not beleevers by that satisfaction actually justified we shall finde anon there was a monster conteined in the womb of these equivocall locutions In the interim let us search whether in the place of explication there be any thing spoken to explain his meaning Explication Bax. I shall here explain to you in what sense and how far the Law is in force and how far not and then prâ—ve it in and under the next head Here now he brings in a quaternion of distinctions to undermine and blow up the authority of the sacred Tâ—inity expressed in the forecited Scriptures that proves beleevers not to be under the Law as a Covenant of works and foure against three is odds Bâ—x You must here distinguish betwixt 1 The repealing of the Law and the relaxing of it 2 between a dispensation absolute and respective 3 Between the alteration of the Law and the alteration of the subjects relation to it 4 Between a discharge conditionall with a suspension of execution and a discharge absolute Parturiunt Montes What follows upon all these polite and profound distinctions many notable Conclusions doubtles Mr. Baxters nose is as right in the middle of his face since as before his disburthening himself of these distinctions But most certainly we are dull and cannot piece deeply But Mr. Baxter is no less acute than deep let us see what work he can make of it Bax. And so I resolve the question thus 1 The law of works is not abrogate or repealed but dispensed with or relaxed A dispensation is as Grotius defineth it an act of a superiour whereby the obligation of a law in force is taken away as to certain persons and things 2 This dispensation therefore is not totall or absolute but respective For 1 Though it dispense with the rigorous execution yet not with every degree of execution 2 Though the law be dispensed with as it conteineth the proper subjects of the penalty viz. the parties offending and also the circumstances of duration c. yet in regard of the meer punishment abstracted from person and circumstances it is not dispensed with For to Christ it was not dispensed with His satisfaction
was by paying the full value 3 Though by this dispensation our freedom may be as full as upon a repeal yet the alteration is not made in the Law but in our estate and relation to the Law 4 So farr is the Law dispensed with to all as to suspend the rigorous execution for a time and a liberation or discharge conditionall procured and granted them But an absolute discharge is granted to none in this life For even when we do perform the condition yet still the discharge remains conditionall till we have quite finished our performance For it is not one instantaneous act of beleeving which shall quite discharge us but a continued faith No longer are we discharged than we are beleevers And where the condition is not performed the law is still in force and shall be executed upon the offender himself I speak nothing in all this of the directive use of the morall Law to beleevers but how farr the Law is yet in force even as it is a Covenant of works because an utter repeal of it in this sense is so commonly but inconsiderately asserted That it is no further overthrown no not to beleevers then is here explained I now come to prove Here we see the off-spring of the precedent mountainous and swelling distinctions Exit ridiculus mus In the three first Conclusions a meer tattle about the repealing and abrogating or dispensing and relaxing of the Law and of its dispensation in a totality and absolutenes or in a respectivenes to persons circumstances and degrees of execution c. which is as proper to the thing that he drives at as swines flesh and a peacock strangled with all his glittering feathers to the satisfying of a Jewes hungry appetite Surely either Mr. Br. had forgotten or thought we had forgotten that he had before vented this Mysticall learning of his own and Grotius his brain or doubted that it was not finely enough set out there therefore that he might have the full praise of so curious and spiderthreeded a speculation brings it in here again in somewhat a new and more specious a dress Let him rest contented we acknowledge it all very trim If he beleeve us not let him set it as a philactery upon his garment It will tend so much to the strengthening of it as of the cause he hath in hand For the question is not whether the Law be repealed or but dispensed with But whether it be in force to beleevers as a Covenant of works with which the three first positions meddle not The word abrogating some orthodox Divines I confess do use but not in a sense equipollent with the word repeal meaning thereby onely a nullity of the lawes domination over beleevers The alteration not being in the Law as we acknowledge with Mr. Br. but in our estate and relation to it The law reigneth over all that are under it But the Saints are not Inst lib. 3. cap. 19. sect 2. under the Law saith the Apostle But as Calvin saith in Christ above it But his fullnes and plainnes in his fourth Conclusion maketh some recompence for all his Amphibologies all his dark doubtfull locutions in that which went before Here we acknowledge his ingenuity He so speaks as that an English man may understand him Here he tells us what he meant before of nulling repealing c. of the Law to beleevers that it is not so nulled abrogated repealed relaxed or dispensed with but that all their life time they are still under the Law as a Covenant of works And why could not this be spoken without so great a preparative of sophisticall equivocations and distinctions It pleased him surely to act the Alderman that deckt himself with all his robes and rich furniture to go into his stable and cutt off his horses tayl But it shall satisfie us that after some suspension he at last discovers to us his meaning Let us examine it and first we shall finde set forth in two positions two so soul-ravishing priviledges purchased by the Lord Christ for the Elect Saints that whosoever of them will rest satisfied with them may gird himself fast and depart without them 1 That they have so large a discharge from the rigor of the Law for a while as any of the worst reprobates 2 That they have no more discharge from the Lawes curse than the worst of reprobates Must we not account him a Saint that hath a fastidious stomack or sore mouth that cannot relish these dainties The former Conclusion he reacheth to us in these words So farr is the Law dispensed with to all as to suspend the rigorous execution of it for a time and a liberation and discharge conditionall procured and granted them Jam sumus ergo pares In this the sons of God are in as good a case as the reprobates and somwhat before the Devills The latter Conclusion in these words But an absolute discharge is granted to no man in this life Jam sumus ergo pares Yet have we as large cause of exulting and joy in the Holy Ghost as the reprobates that as farr as we can discern we are no neerer to hell than the children of hell whose inheritance is in hell forever To prove the latter assertion that none are that beleevers are not absolutely discharged from the law as a Covenant of works in this life he borroweth matter from Pelagians Papists Socinians Arminians and the whole rabble of professed enemies to the grace of God in Christ manifesteth Scotus like ignotum per ignotius carries us into a dungeon of darknes to discern Colors which we could not judge of in the light to his minde brings seven other Devills many other heresies worse than the first at least so bad as the first to strengthen the first Clavum clavo not extorquet but torquet figit beats in other wedges not to loose the first but to fasten all Having gotten in the paw of the beast beats and beetles in many of his hornes after to wedge fast all The Popish errors which he brings as an addition to confirm that beleevers are during life under the law are these 1 That they which are in Christ have not their sinns fully pardoned neither are themselves wholly justified in this world 2ly That whosoever shall be justified in the world to come must procure it by his own willing running persevering in this world 3 That they which are in Christ may fall away and be damned 4 That no man while he lives can be certain of his salvation 5 To this he addeth one worse than any Popish or Socinian heresie as proper to himself and from himself alone viz. That all beleevers notwithstanding Christs satisfaction for them notwithstanding their persevering faith in him yet must be at last damned forever Some of these errors are in express words asserted the rest by necessary Consequence implyed in this short dispute of Mr. B The first he expresly affirmeth Even when we do perform
man or Devill pluck them out of my hands Joh. 10. 28. It is the will of my Father which sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day Joh. 6. 39. If now the word of God stand and the judgement of the Churches that is grounded upon the immutable word of the eternall God then those bug-bear assertions the brats of Mr. Baxters windy distinctions which he brings as arguments to prove the slavish bondage of beleevers under the Law will appear vaporous and so vanish For if our Justification proceed not from the old age or perfection of faith its Concomitants but from our union to Chrst and no otherwise from faith than as it instrumentally closeth us with Christ which no instantaneous Faith that lives and dyes at an instant but a truly living faith can do then it will appear to be a falshood that None is justified in this life Nay all that by a living faith are united to Christ are fully justified in this life And as many as are unjustified here shall not be either justified or saved hereafter Again if our Justification spring from our union with Christ then not at all from our own willing running and persevering And so his two first Arguments fall into shivers 3 If no true and justifying faith be instantaneous and the perseverance of faith in the beleever and of a beleever in the faith depend not upon mans mutable will but upon the all sufficiency of Christs merits and the truth and omnipotency of the most high God then his two latter assertions viz. that of Apostacy from Christ and the other of the uncertainty of salvation fall into shivers also For what more fixed and certain than what by the will of God is bottomed and susteined with the rock Christ and the truth and power of the eternall God None then of his popish arguments here brought do give the least fulture to his assertion that The very beleevers are under the Law as a Covenant of Works The fift Position that all Believers according to Mr. Baxters doctrine must needs be damned ariseth from the Assertion which by the four mentioned Propositions as by so many Arguments he goeth about to prove viz. That untill death they are under the Law as a Covenant of works If so then must they be needs damned 1 Because whosoever is under that Covenant is bound to seek freedome from vengeance and possession of blessednes by the conditions Gal. 5. 3. of the same Covenant But these conditions are unpossible to man in his present feeblenes and corruption viz. the purification of himself from all sin and perfect performance of all obedience Who can perform all this except peradventure St. Francis and Mr. Baxter so that either none or at least they alone can be saved 2 Because whosoever professing the Faith is in the least part under the Law c. is fallen from Christ hath no part in the Covenant Gal. 5. 4. of Grace as I have before proved therefore must necessarily be damned 3 Because whosoever liveth and dyeth under a Covenant of works is under the curse and damnation Gal. 3. 10. That which follows in the conclusion of the Explication of this Thesis acquits me from all mens suspition of doing Mr. B. any wrong in mis-interpreting his meaning in this his dispute Himself acknowledgeth it to be his own sense In all this saith he i. e. in this whole dispute I speak nothing of the directive use of the Law viz. as it is a rule and Counseller to a Christian in all morall righteousnes but how far the Law is yet in force as a Covenant of works because an utter repeal of it in this sense is so commonly but inconsiderately asserted Let him name but one considerable man that ever affirmed the Law repealed that it may appear it is not a slander which he casts upon the Anti-Papists But he proceeds That it is no further overthrown no not to believers then is here explained I now come to prove And we shall come after him to see what he proveth and how far he proveth And that it may appear to all what sincerity is in the man two things are to be kept diligently in mind 1 What he is to prove 2 What he is not to meddle with in proving if he will shew himself honest and not a meer Imposter We utterly deny any repeal or abrogating of the Law as a Covenant of works to them that are under the Law or have not don their Law yea any repeal of the Law at all as I have made to appear Therefore if Mr. B. go about to prove either that the Law is not repealed or that unbeleevers or such as have not done their Law by satisfying for the breaches thereof are still under the Law This is fallacious dealing a proving of that which never came into Question for all acknowledg it without his proving That which he is to prove is that none no not believers are absolutely discharged from the Law but are under it as a Covenant of works to the utmost moment of their life This he promiseth throughout his whole dispute to prove let us attend how he doth it in this 13 Position under which he promiseth to do it CHAP. X. Mr. Baxter's much promised and long expected Arguments to prove Believers to be under the Law as a Covenant of works discovered to be meer impertinencies and Sophistical Impostures And the Question whether the Elect while yet Vnbelievers are so under the Law and in what respects discussed Thesis 13. B. IF this were not so but that Christ had abrogated the first Covenant then it would follow 1 That no sin but that of Adam or finall unbelief is so much as threatned with death or that death is explicitely i. e. by any Law due to it or deserved by it For what the Law in force doth not threaten that is not explicitely deserved or due by the Law 2 It would follow that Christ dyed not to prevent or remove the wrath and curse so deserved or due to us for any but Adams sin nor to pardon our sins at all but onely to prevent our desert of wrath and curse and consequently to prevent our need of pardon 3 It would follow that against eternall wrath at the day of judgement we must not plead the pardon of any sin but the first but our own non desert of that wrath because of the repeal of that Law before the sin was committed All which consequences seem to me unsufferable which cannot be avoided if the Law be repealed Unto these three Arguments he addeth four more in the Explication of this Position which thus follow B. We may plead our non deserving of death for our discharge at judgment 5 And further then Christ in suffering did not bear the punishment due to any sin but Adams first for that which was not threatned to us
have done their Law their iniquities past present and to come are blotted out their peace made and they reconciled to God This is observably set forth in Aaron and the other High Priests his successors as they were Types of Christ Aaron the High Priest must bear the Names of the Children of Israel engraven upon 2 precious stones on the two shoulders of his Ephod before the Lord for a memoriall Exod. 28. 10 12. yea he must bear their names in the breast-plate of judgment upon his Heart when he goeth in unto the Holy place viz. with the blood of the sacrifice for the expiating of siâ—s for a memoriall before God continually What memoriall that they were the men for whom the sacrifice was offered and that their sins were purged thereby that God should therefore have them in remembrance to preserve them from the Curse and judgment of the Law for so it followeth And Aaron shall bear the judgment of the Children of Israel upon his heart continually ver 29 30. These things were but figuratively done in Aaron but really and fully accomplished in Christ his Antitype who being constituted our High Priest and having received Command from the Father not onely what but for whom to offer even for Israel i. e. the elect of God which for a great part were not yet in being hâ—th by his own blood entred into the Holy place with their names engraven upon his heart having purchased for them an everlasting Redemption Not into the Holy place made with hands but into Heaven there to appear for them by way of Mediation and Intercession Heb. 9. 12 24. Rom. 8. 34. Wherefore also God hath given him not onely an acquittance for them from all their sins Heb. 10. 17. but hath also given and delivered up them into his hands as hath been before proved and Mr. B himself confesseth yet not as he insinuateth to plague and Curse them and hold them during life under the intolerable bondage of the Law but to deale with them in a gentle dispensation according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace in tender mercy to draw them unto and keep them in the Faith without all Apostacy to the end All which he performeth to all his elect as is evident from most of those Scriptures which were brought for the confirmation of the former point and elswhere Gods giving them to Christ and into his dispensation being their perfect translâ—tion from the Covenant of the Law into the Covenant of Grace And this was done before their beleeving All that the Father giveth me shall come to me first they are given and then they shall come Be not afraid but speak and hold not thy peace for I have much people in this City said the Lord Jesus to Paul of the Corinthians yet Heathen Acts 18. 9 10. They were his people before therefore must they be gathered to him by Faith I have other sheep which are not of this fold them also I must bring and they shall hear my voyce c. Jo 10. 16. he means the Gentiles that were infidels yet nevertheless his sheep that must afterward hear his voice because they were his sheep how were these termed Christs people Christs sheep while yet in Paganism idolatry and unbeleef but because they were his redeemed and justified ones Ye beleeve not because ye are not of my sheep Jo 10. 26. What is that but because they were not of the number of them for whose sins he had effectually satisfied Gods justice 3 Justification and Remission of sins may be considered also as it is brought into their own apprehension and Conscience that were justified by Christ and in Christ before And in this sense it is oftenest taken in Scriptures yea alway when we are said to be justified by Faith This is done when Christ by the manifestation and ministry of the Gospel maketh known in all ages to them for whose sins he hath satisfied the Mystery of Grace by him and frameth their hearts with all gladnes by Faith to embrace him and it thorow him unto Justification Then are they justified in themselves and remission of sins sealed up by the spirit to their own Consciences and so have the Kingdom of God within them consisting of Peace Righteousnes and Joy in the Holy Ghost Before this Christ had life for them now they are said to have it themselves Jo 20. 31. 1 Jo 5. 12. Untill now was their winter season so that all their life was in Christ as the Vine or Root now is their spring so that the life sheweth it self in them as the branches blossoming with peace and joy unto all obedience Before life was purchased and seizure thereof taken for them by Christ Now they are passed from death to life 1 Jo 3. 14. i. e. are put into the actuall possession of it Before though they were Lords of all as the Apostle in a case little different from this speaketh Gal. 4. 1 2. yet differed nothing from Servants being in their own apprehension under the threats and condemnation of the Law and so still in slavish fears and terrors But now they see their freedom and take possession of it with boldness to cry Abba Father and to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus and through the veil of his flesh with full assurance of hope c. Hebrewes 10. 19 20. These things so premissed we shall the better see whether the Scriptures which Mr. Baxter here produceth do by their own force or else by his mis-interpretation of them seem to prove that the Elect while unbeleevers are under the Law as a Covenant of works First that of Joh. 3. 18. is a threat of the Gospel Covenant against the Contemners of it and of Christ the preacher thereof and not of the Law Covenant And it is brandished against reprobats and not against elect unbeleevers Christ had now preached his Gospel a while in Galilee the elect beleeved and of them saith Christ they are not condemned The reprobates would not beleeve of them he saith they are condemned already and the reason is rendred not because they have broken the morall Law but because they have not beleeved in the Name of the onely begotten Son of God This is the condemnation that Christ the light is come into the world and men preferred their own darknes before him c. The same also is the meaning of the 36 ver which he citeth Neither of these pointing in their threat to the elect but the reprobates among unbeleevers Neither threatening for Contumacy against the Law but the Gospel Therefore nothing here proveth the elect before they beleeve to be under the Law as a Covenant of works Again those Scriptures which he saith bid us to beleeve for the remission of sinnes Act. 2. 38 c. do only prove that faith in Christ doth justifie the elect in the third consideration of Justification or remission of sinns before mentioned viz. as it evidenceth and brings
home into their apprehension and Conscience that their sinns are remitted For so run the words in that 10 of Act. v. 47. that Whosoever beleeveth in him shall receive remission of sins not denying that Christ had received it for them before but affirming only that now they should receive it from Christ Besides this promise is held forth there promiscuously to all both elect and reprobate and it is but an offer not the gift of pardon to distinguish betwixt them for whom Christ had and those for whom he had not effectually satisfied and received absolution from the Father by the ones beleeving and receiving by faith from the hand of Christ the pardon and the others refusall and manifesting thereby their abode under death and the Law still The surety had paid the penalty of the obligation taken up the bonds and acquittance or discharge of the debt Thenceforth the Creditor had no more plea against either principall or surety Nevertheles the principall knew it not therefore playeth least in sight is in continual fear of arrests thinks every bush hath a Sergeant or Bayliff under it but at length the surety gives and delivers into his hand both the acquittance the obligation Cancelled Now is his first receiving of a discharge now he first finds himself free from his Creditors obligation now hath he the first comfort of the benefit but he was discharged before though he knew it not so is it with the elect c. Therefore Mr. Baxters inference hence is unsound He addeth the Testimony of Paul Eph. 2. 3. That the redeemed were by nature the Children of wrath who denyeth it But this is nothing to the question It is not here enquired whether the redeemed drew not the seeds of sin and death by naturall propagation from their parents as much as others But whether by the satisfaction which Christ made for them according to the Covenant of grace they were not redeemed from that wrath before they yet beleeved It is true what Mephibosheth said of himself and his brethren to David We were all as dead men before my Lord the King c. 2 Sam. 19. 28. because they were the progeny of Saul that fought against David Nevertheles by means of the Covenant that intervened between David and Jonathan Mephibosheth had right to all the favour that King David could express As for those testimonies cited by way of Thesis and Antithesis out of Gal. 5. ver 3 4. ver 18 23. they make wholly against him nothing for him The 3 4 verses speak nothing to the question in hand but utterly destroy that to which in this whole dispute he driveth nothing to the question in hand The circumcised are bound or debtors to the whole Law and Christ is become of none effect to them He was to have proved that beleevers were before they beleeved under the Law This Text speaketh not of the elect before they beleeved but of professed beleevers returning to Circumcision and the Law to fetch thence help unto their justification after that they seemingly at least beleeved in Christ so here is nothing that makes for him because nothing to the present question But much against him in reference to the grand thing which he laboureth for to bring beleevers under the Law as a Covenant of works Whosoever doth so saith the Apostle in the least mite that contents not himself with Christ alone takes in but so poor a peice of the Law as Circumcision to help with Christ to Justification the same person hereby forfeiteth all his claim to Grace and Christ and must gain heaven by his perfect fullfilling of the Law or must be damned in hell for ever Into this state Mr. Baxter striveth to bring himself and his disciples I shall not wish them joy in it because I use not to wish impossibilities Touching the verses which he puts in opposition to these ver 18 23. But if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law against such there is no law If he mean simply and sincerely what the Apostle here meaneth by being led by the Spirit viz. the seeking of righteousnes by Christ alone as the same Apostle more fully expresseth himself Gal. 3. 3. Phil. 3. 3. Then by granting that such are not under the Law there is no law against them he destroyeth and recanteth all that he hath before spoken to prove beleevers under the Law But if by being led by the Spirit his aim be to bring in works to justification under the name of the fruits of the Spirit we shall here forbear to answer him because it is besides the present question leaving it to its fit place where he openly explaineth himself And no less abhorrent from the question is his next proof Gal. 3. 22. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ may be given to them that beleeve What is this to the purpose in hand we deny not the promise of or the promised Justification and remission of sinns by faith in Jesus Christ to be given to them that beleeve into their hands and possession when they beleeve by affirming that Christ hath taken possession thereof for them before they beleeve that he may let it down into their hearts when they beleeve He ascended up on high and led captivity captive and gave gifts to men Eph. 4. 8. The Apostle fetcheth his authority from the word in Psal 68. 18. where it is said He received gifts for men viz. to give them in his time But the Apostle contents himself with the scope of the word not binding himself to the bare letter and sound thereof So Christ at his ascension received for us the gifts of Justification and remission and all other benefits of his passion They were then laid up for us in his Custody so that we had them in him before our actuall existence upon earth But he gives them to us into our sensible possession when we come to be to live and to beleeve That which he citeth from Gal. 4 5. is altogether besides the question also Himself acknowledgeth that it proveth us onely to be under the Law when Christ redeemed us or undertook to pay our ransom Not that we were under the Law after he had redeemed us by paying our ransom before we yet beleeved The words are these in the 4 5 verses God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law The scope of the Apostle here is one and the same with that to which he drives Gal. 2. 15 16. We who are Jewes by nature a holy seed within the Covenant and have all the privileges of the Law and not sinners of the Gentiles that are without the Covenant and the Law knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have beleeved 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 no flesh is justified Why then do we draw the poor Gentiles to seek any furtherance to their justification by the observation of the Law by which our selves who were most privileged with it could not be justified but by Christ onely without the law So here Even they that had the law and were not a little zealous for and active in the righteousness of the law had need of a redeemer were justified and saved not at all by the lawes righteousness but onely by Christs redeeming of them What madnes is it then in you O foolish Galathians that are not of the holy stock of Israel but sinners of the Gentiles to seek any help to your justification by the works of the law which could not justifie the very Israelites that were born and brought up in it and not to repose your selves upon Christ alone If Mr. Baxter will pretend any other meaning of the Text besides he shall therein wound and not strengthen his Cause For he speaks of the same persons here to be under the law onely in the hand of a Mediator not under the Curse of the law but under such an administration thereof that even before they actually beleeved in Christ the very person of Christ are affirmed ver 1. to be Lords of all all the inheritance which is by Christ ergo not under the wrath of God before they embraced the Faith of Christ As for the other Scriptures which he annexeth yet further to prove that the very elect before and untill they beleeve are under the Law in the sense so oft manifested let him once shew how he will argue and what he will conclude and upon what grounds from them we shall be ready to answer him In the interim I profess I see not any thing in them more prevalent to his purpose than a nights lodging in a bed of snow and ice to cure the Cough Yet from all these wrested Scriptures he Concludes at last that the deliverance which beleevers have by Christ from the Curse of the Law is a conditionall deliverance viz. if they will obey the Gospel i. e. when they beleeve if they will beleeve not onely while they live but also when they are dead and buried For as we say that a conditionall proposition doth nihil ponere so it is true in the sense of Mr Bax. here that this conditionall promise doth nihil promittere The Condition as long as this world lasteth being still in performing not performed and so nothing obteined Yet will he have this new nothing together with the abrogation of the ceremoniall Law to which we never were none but the Israelites ever have been subject to be the great privilege of beleevers and effect of Christs bloud When we poor souls with our dull eyes can see no more privilege that we have herein by Christs bloud than the worst of infidells and reprobates have for they also â—ave this conditionall deliverance from the curse and freedom from the ceremoniall law And this deliverance saith he is yet more full when we perform the conditions of our freedom And then we are said to dead to the Law Rom. 7. 4. and the obligation to punishment dead as to us ver 6. This is indeed a full and perfect deliverance But what doth he mean in saying when we perform c. either when we are performing the conditions That were a contradiction to himself in what he saith p. 74. that we are not perfectly freed till the day of resurrection and judgement And so also it will be hard for another save Mr. Br. to make sense of the words That the deliverance of beleevers is yet more full when they perform the Conditions are performing the conditions of their freedom i. e. more full when they beleeve than when they do beleeve For if we should grant to Mr. Br Faith to be a condition and not rather a mean or instrument of our justification yet would we grant him no other condition thereof Or doth he mean it is full when they have performed the Conditions it seems then that some of the Conditions are left to be performed in the next world because untill then he tells us we can have no such perfect freedom This is the free Grace of God which Mr. Br boasteth himself so much to extoll p. 79. let him that delights in it be his disciple That which he speaks in the upshott for the mitigation of his harsh doctrine aforegoing that he knoweth this Covenant of works continueth not to the same ends and uses as before c. is but a trick of the Jesuits to give sugar after the poyson which was before gone down to destroy Neither can he make out how beleevers are under the law of nature as a Covenant of works and yet not bound to seek life according to the tenor and condition of that Covenant If any marvell that Mr. Baxter should so waste his spirits in abusing both divine and humane learning to prove the Saints to be still under the Curse under the law as a Covenant of works he will cease to wonder if he take notice of a further aim that he hath therein He would not out of doubt have so much insisted on it had he not looked to a further end in it If the beleevers are still under a Covenant of works as to the Curse wrath and Condemnation much more are they under a Covenant of works as unto life and Justification If the former be once granted he accounts the game wonn as to the latter Therefore doth he so much stirr in the former that he may with the more facility and less contradiction bring in afterwards the latter Justification by works which is his very busines in Compiling this book CHAP. XI Whether as the Covenant of Works was made with all mankind in Adam their representative so the Covenant of Grace was made with all the elect in Christ their Representer What relation the Covenants made with Adam Abraham the Israelites and lastly with us under the Gospel have to that Covenant made with Christ B. Thesis 14. p. 89. THe Tenor of the New Covenant is this that Christ having made sufficient satisfaction to the Law whosoever will repent and beleeve in him to the end shall be justified through that satisfaction from all that the Law did charge upon them and be moreover advanced to far greater privileges and glory then they fell from But whosoever fullfilleth not these conditions shall have no more benefit by the bloud of Christ than what they here received and abused but must answer the charge of the Law themselves And for their neglect of Christ must also suffer a far greater condemnation Or briâ—fly whosoever beleeveth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life but he that beleeveth not shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Mar. 16. 16. Jo. 3. 15 16 17 18. 36.
5. 24. 6. 35 40. 47. 7 38. 11. 25 26. 12. 46. Act. 10. 43. Rom. 3. 26. 4. 5. 5. 1 10. 4 10. 1 Jo. 5. 15. Mar. 1. 15. 6. 12. Luk. 13. 3. 5. 24. 47. Act. 5. 31. 11. 18. 20. 21. 2. 38. 3. 19. 8. 22. 26. 20. Rev. 2. 5 16. Heb. 6. 1. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Mr. Br having as he thinks laid prostrate the whole generation of Christ and antipapisticall beleevers under the Curse under the wrath of God sticks as close to them as the vulture to the carkas or the beetle to the doung or the flesh-fly to the sore For here again he concludes that the very Tenor of the New Covenant is that notwithstanding Christs sufficient satisfaction made to the law they must remain unjustified unpardoned under sin under vengeance to the end and then possibly after many hundreds and it may be thousands of yeers wherein their bodies have laid under rottennes and their souls under all hell-torments which the law can inflict they shall be justified And this very probably shall be about that time when Origens reprobates and devills shall arise from hell and fly away thence all at once and together to heaven For whosoever is not justified and pardoned here in this life shall surely not attain it untill that St Nevers day of Origen But to this it hath been answered already He seems now to bring some new thing and that which every beleeving soul gaspeth to hear made out in its fullnes viz. What the Tenor of the New Covenant is viz. That whosoeve will repent and beleeve to the end shall be justified after the end When the Serpent hath got his head into the hole the body also by little and little followes Erewhile it was he that beleeveth to the end now it is he that repenteth to the end and beleeveth to the end that shall be after all ends and worlds justified Yet this is but the head and neck of the Serpent The bulk and belly are behinde and the same full of all the qualifications and good works that Mr. Br can devise or all the herds of Monks and Jesuits have devised to his hands These all must be according to Mr. Baxters Gospel as effectuall as faith or Christ himself to Justification I should but preoccupate a dispute here to examine whether repentance be one of the many thousand conditions of Justification which Mr. Br in the sequele of this Treatise holds necessary to Justification I shall therefore leave the handling thereof to its due place Onely by the way if by repentance Mr. Br here meaneth any thing heterogeneous or specifically distinct from faith I affirm and shall in its place make good that this his assertion is totally Popish against the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles As for the Scriptures which he doth here roll out in a Crowd without rank or file to prove it partly because he neither alleageth the words nor shews how he would argue from them partly because his shuffling them together in Clusters tends onely to make the labour of his answerer almost intolerable to shew particularly how little each Scripture makes for him and how much many of them against him partly because he doth still reserve to himself whatsoever be said in answer an advantage to evade by telling us that the force of that Scripture doth in another way and not in that to which we have answered prove for him but principally because he quotes the same Scriptures over and over again in another place more proper where it shall be more pertinent to answer them I shall therefore here forbear to speak to them lest I should there be forced to omit it or to say over again what had been here said before Nay himself will not have them to be answered here for he speaks so ambiguously that he will not have his meaning understood telling us onely that upon these Conditions forsooth performed we shall be justified in another world but doth not let us know from him whether upon performance of them we may be justified in the present world But he passeth to the explication Explication Bax. Christs satisfaction to the Law goes before the New Covenant though not in regard of its payment which was in the fullnes of time yet in regard of the undertaking acceptance and efficacy There could be no treating on new terms till the old obligation was satisfied and suspended I account them not worth the confuting who tell us that Christ is the onely party conditioned with and that the New Covenant as to us hath no conditions so Saltmarsh c. The place that they alleage for this assertion is that Jer. 31. 31 32 33. cited in Heb. 8. 8 9 10. Which place conteineth not the full tenor of the whole New Covenant but either it is called the New Covenant because it expresseth the nature of the benefits of the New Covenant as they are offered on Gods part without mentioning mans conditions that being not pertinent to the busines the Prophet had in hand Or els it speaketh onely what the Lord will do with his elect in giving them the first Grace and enabling them to perform the Conditions of the New Covenant and in that sense may be called a New Covenant also as I have shewed before p. 7 8. though properly it be a prediction and belong onely to Gods will of purpose and not to his legislative will But those men erroneously think that nothing is a condition but what is to be performed by our awn strength But if they will beleeve Scripture the places before alleaged will prove that the New Covenant hath Conditions on our part as well as the old Some benefit from Christ did the condemned here receive as the delay of their condemnation and many mere mercies though they turned them all into greater judgements but of this more when we treat of generall redemption I shall here propound some questions to Mr. Baxter about his own words to be answered by some of his Chaplains or Disciples For I am not so ambitious as to expect his stooping in person to so low an office 1 Whether Christs satisfaction to the law were undertaken and so virtually made without an agreement between the Father and the Son that the Son should give and the Father accept such satisfaction Mr. Br so great a Master of reason who hath sacrificed all his religion to reason can judge whether this could rationally if possibly be done 2 If by agreement whether this agreement was not by way of Covenant between the Father and the Son and so whether the whole busines of mans justification were not transacted and concluded upon first between the Father and the Son 3 Whether Christ undertook to give satisfaction or the Father to accept it for any other besides those that in time have or shall have the full benefit thereof I mean besides the elect whom
the Son must perfectly know because he was in the bosom of the Father and was thorowly acquainted with all his bosom secrets 4 Whether any one can misse of the benefit of this satisfaction when it is once so given and accepted for him by name 5 Why Mr. Br speaking of the payment of this satisfaction doth plainly mention the time when it was made namely the fullnes of time in the very same breath speaking of the undertaking acceptance and efficacy thereof doth not also name the time when that was Covenanted and Concluded upon Did he not see that it was needfull to the Compleating of this member of the sentence in a full equipage with the former to name the time of this as well as of that Was it a beare or an evill Conscience in the way that put him to such an Aposiopesis that shook him into a dumbnes when truth honesty and plain dealing bad him speak out Whether he had said before all time or shortly upon the beginning of time he saw he should have given a deathly wound either to his Cause or to his Credit or to both therefore like a cunning sophister stops his breath and speaks nothing 6 And if the Covenant of grace in all and every of its Articles were thus agreed upon between the Father aad the Son either before the actuall existence of any man in the world or as Mr. Br here Confesseth before Adam and Eve the sole persons then existent upon earth were treated with about it how then doth he add that he accounts him not worth the Confuting which tell us that Christ was the onely party conditioned with and that the New Covenant as to us hath no Conditions so Saltmarsh c. thus Casting an Odium upon this opinion as if Mr. Saltmarsh and his Disciples alone held it and that never any before him thought of it For my own part where the Scriptures are silent I am in great dread to be loquent and where the word speaketh sparingly and darkly I dare not to conclude too peremptorily Neither in points that are controvertible in religioÌ„ but which way soever dâ—cided do not Confer much to or detract from the Basis and foundation of our salvation would I prosecute either vehement or endles disputes Every least truth in Divinity is precious indeed therefore not to be betrayed but to be preserved more carefully than our life bloud Yet our life and bloud ought not to be so deer to us as the Peace of the Churches of Christ And the disturbing of the Churches peace may sometimes more obscure the honour of the Gospel than the suspending of the defence of some not very important truths for a while could have done I should not therefore quarrell against them that ascribe to the New Covenant its Condition and make faith alone as it instrumentally receiveth Christ the onely Condition of our being justified to and in our selves I see not so great ecclipse upon the glory of Gods Grace or Christs merits caused by such an assertion that we should disturb the peace of the Churches about it were it not that the Papists and Arminians by this unscripturall phrase do seek totally to corrupt the doctrine of justification Nevertheles Mr. Baxters contumelious words shall not affright me from delivering my judgement what I think most probable and most agreeing with holy Scripture touching the point in hand Yet laying it down not as absolute and certain but as that which is yet most probable to me untill I shall by further enquiry into the Scriptures or by the help of others that have more enquired see Cause to judge otherwise As for Mr. Baxter though in humane literature and in things subject to the tryall of reason I hold his judgement not Contemptible but equall with the most yea the best yet in Gospel and spirituall things I finde him so stupified perverted and wholly spoyled with Philosophy seeing so little of the mystery of Christ yea so prejudiced against the sacred things which he knowes not that I account him one of those whom the Apostle describeth 1 Tim. 1. 17. Desiring to be teachers of the Law understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm And therefore am so little affrighted from any doctrine of this kinde by his abasing thereof that I am the more induced to search into it if it be not a pearl indeed because he hath trampled it I shall then express what I think in these following positions First as God hath made two great and generall Covenants with mankind each of them comprizing other lesser Covenants under it So because there were not existent personally at the time of making these covenants the singular individuals of mankind to whom these Covenants belonged therefore did he appoint 2 publike persons each of which then existing when either Covenant was made to be as it were represeÌ„tatives of all the singular persons that then did or after should exist to be under either Covenant with whom when the Covenants were concluded they should be in perfect force for or against all that were represented in their severall ages as though they had been but then made particularly with them in their own persons The one of these Covenants is usually termed the Covenant of works the other the Covenant of grace The publike or common person Covenanted with in the one was the first Adam in the other the second Adam Christ Jesus The case is cleer in respect of the first Adam and the Covenant of works Mr. Br himself grants every inch of it That whatsoever law or positive Commands were given to Adam whatsoever promises in cases of performance or threats in case of breach were added all pertained as full to all the future progeny of Adam as represented in him and enclosed in his loins as to Adam himself And accordingly while Adam stood we stood in him when he fell we fell in him and with him as deep under the wrath of God as himself I forbear to prove any of this because it is granted on all sides But the question is wholly about Christ the second Adam whether the Covenant of grace was so made with him as the Covenant of works with Adam and what that Covenant of grace was I conceive that both there was such a Covenant between the Father and the Son in reference to us and that this was the tenor thereof viz. that the Son in time appointed should assume to himself our nature and in it represent the persons of the elect that were equally sinners and condemned with others in Adam that he should offer himself in our flesh a sacrifice for sinn that upon his undertaking thereof the sinns of all the elect should be pardoned and they of sinners should be made righteous and delivered up into his hands no more to be accounted to Adam but to Christ and to be preserved in the bosom of his grace love to eternall glory And as Mr. Br acknowledgeth upon
before and in those thousands of years oft held out afresh and renewed but in opposition to the Covenant of Grace as it is now held forth in a new form and administration under the Gospel So that the two Covenants there mentioned are termed Old and New not for their differing in substance but for their different wayes of administration The Church of Israel then and the Churches of Christ now are and were under the same Covenant of Grace in substance but the Church then under a legall and the Church now under an Evangelicall and spirituall administration thereof That was the old this the new administration and in respect hereof the same Covenant then and now are termed the Old and New Covenant This is evident from the Text It shall come to passe saith the Lord that in those dayes I will make a New Covenant with them not such as I made with their Fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Aegypt which my Covenant they brake though I were an Husband to them saith the Lord. But this is the Covenant that I will make with them in those dayes I will put my Lawes in their minds c. And I will be their God c. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour c. For I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnes and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Here Mr. B. must 1 Grant that the Old Covenant in this place mentioned was the Covenant of the Law given in the Wildernes For this is expresly affirmed where it is said to be made with their Fathers when the Lord took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Aegypt And 2 Notwithstanding Israel being under the Covenant they were not either wholly under a Covenant of works or besides the Covenant of Grace For the Apostle maketh these two phrases to be Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and Strangers from the Covenant of Promise to sound one and the same thing Ephes 2. 12. and telleth us that the Law which was 430 years after could not null the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ so as to make the Promise of no effect but that after the addition of this Legall Covenant that Gospel Covenant made with Abraham and them iâ— him of blessednes by Christ the seed of Abraham stood firm unto them still Gal. 3. 17. This also will doubtles be granted 3 That therefore the Gospel Covenant in this Scripture promised is called a New Covenant not in opposition to that made with Abraham for that is the same with this here promised onely that was confirmed of God in Christ to come this in Christ already come and yet in opposition to that legall administration of it and additory Covenant of the Law 430 years after annexed 4 That this additionall Covenant was that Pedagogy of the Law under which the Apostle affirmeth the Jewes though Lords of all to be kept untill the coming of Christ in the third and fourth chapters to the Galathians And it consisted partly of Ceremoniall Lawes and typicall Ordinances pointing to Christ that was to come and obscurely teaching Christ and Faith in him partly of the Morall Commandments the observation whereof was injoined as a condition of attaining that blessednes before promised to Abraham in Christ yet so as this condition If ye will obey was still in the hand of a Mediator satisfying for disobedience because no perfect obedience could be fulfilled This Pedagogy or leading of the Jewish Church by the hand while it was a child in the knowledg of the mystery of salvation by Christ was needfull it could not well be without the typicall Ordinances which by Lectures read upon them by their teachers might discover and seal up much of Christ to them Neither could it well be without the promises and threats of the Law while yet the Grace of the Lord Christ was veiled to them that in the light joy and brightnes thereof they could not as the Saints now run the race of Gods Commandments of pure love without some mixture of servile fear 5 It will hence then follow that the New Covenant here promised is termed a new Covenant because exempted from that additament of the Law 1 From the Ceremoniall Law which in its revealing of Christ veiled him and let out but a dark shadow of him and the grace that is by him so that there was need of a large exposition upon every figure Circumcision Passeover Sacrifices c. Brother to teach Brother and one Neighbour another what these things meant and yet at last both teachers and learners remained exceeding dark in the mystery of Christ But it is otherwise with us under the Gospel The shaddowes are vanished and we have the very body which is Christ Col. 2. 17. Our eyes have seen we have heard with our ears and our hands have handled the bread of life 1 Joh 1. 1. All is made out to us cleerly by the Doctrine and Spirit of Christ The Law by which the Prophet speaking in the tone of the Iewes and in a phrase which under that administration they best knew understandeth the Gospel and Law of the Spirit of life is written in our hearts revealed and sealed up to our Consciences We need not say Who shall ascend up to Heaven or who shall discend to the deep c. But the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart this is the word of Faith which we preach Rom. 10. 6-8 So that there is not so much need of brothers teaching brother c. because all is held forth not in the shadow but in the clear light 2 From the conditions of the morall Law yea from all conditions which made that former administration of the Covenant terrible because conditions could not be performed The New Covenant saith the Holy Ghost shall be absolute not such as was made with their Fathers that might be broken but free and absolute all begun and ended by the meer grace of God I will teach c. I will be their God and they shall be my people I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnes and their sins and iniquity will I remember no more I am not so happy as to express my self in few words nor so either reckles or evilly subtle as under a pretence of brevity to leave things in ambiguity for self-ends This I conceive to be the meaning of this text and in these five Positions I have sub calculo melioris judicij expressed what yet I conceive to be the truth about the Covenant of Grace 1 between God and Christ 2 between Christ and man To this last thing handled that the Covenant of Grace in its present administration is free and not conditionall otherwise then I have before granted the Apostle giveth purposely his suffrage affirming the Covenant made to Abraham is that which now stands in force that the Law
was but a temporary additament to it to remain onely till the promised seed should come he means so to remain as to make the Covenant conditionall The Law therefore being in this respect done away the Covenant abides free and absolute In thee in thy seed all Nations shall be blessed Gal. 3. 8 16 17 18. This Covenant is free absolute laden with no such conditions as might make the hope of blessednes uncertain The evasions which Mr. B. useth to elude the authority of this Scripture are meerly Sophisticall having no footing upon other Scriptures and totally crossing the purpose of the Holy Ghost in this Scripture It conteineth not saith he the full tenor of the whole New Covenant Where then shall we find it if not where the Holy Ghost undertaketh professedly to declare both what this New Covenant is not and what it is This is the Covenant saith the Holy Ghost Nay it is but a peece or morsell of it saith Mr. Br. whom shall we beleeve him that speaketh from Heaven or him that at the best speaketh but from the earth But either so called saith Mr. Br. because it expresseth the nature of the benefits of the New Covenant as they are offered on Gods part without mentioning mans conditions that being not pertinent to the business the Prophet had in hand A most impudent fiction yea it was the whole or chief thing he had in hand was it not to shew the difference between these two under-covenants that under the Law and this under the Gospel But how doth it serve to this purpose to expresse the nature of the benefits of the New Covenant Did not the Elect under the Law partake of the same benefits in nature though not in measure with the Elect now Or is not this one of the differences which he makes betwixt the Covenants that the one was hedged about with hard conditions the other free Or els saith he it speaketh onely of what God will do for his Elect in giving them the first grace and enabling them to perform the New Covenant Ridiculous though right in the Monkes tone For did not God give the first and second Grace too to the Elect under the Law as well as to the Elect under the Gospel Where then is the difference hence to give a new name to the present Covenant But lastly saith he It is a production and belongs to the will of purpose not to his legislative will Now he hits the nail upon the head He makes a very Asse of this distinction and loads him with all sorts of trash It is to be doubted it will shortly get a gawld back and kick his Master in the leggs Predictions and Promises because they are not perteining to Gods legislative will must henceforth give neither fulture to our faith nor light to our judgments The rest that he hath upon this Thesis hath nothing of moment in it calling for an answer Thesis 15. B. p. 92. Though Christ hath sufficiently satisfied the Law yet is it not his will or the will of the Father that any man should be justified or saved thereby who hath not some ground in himself of personall and particular claim thereto Nor that any should be justified by the blood onely as shed or offered except it be also received and applyed so that no man by the meer satisfaction made is freed from the Law or Curse of the first violated Covenant absolutely but conditionally only I annex this Position because it is homogeneous with the many former and though Mr. Br. would seem in the Explication to distinguish the matter of it from that which the former Aphorisms conteined yet is it not onely of the same kinde but of the same substance also with it and what hath been said in answer to that which went before might suffice as an answer to this also Yet because it delights him to speak the same things in a variation of words let us see whether the words which he here useth have more â—fficacy in them to his purpose then the former We finde here as we did in some of the former Theses a fardle of ambiguities and phrases of a doubtfull sense which puts us into an uncapacity of answering his meaning because he so speaketh that he will be sure we shall not be able to prove what is his meaning First when he saith It is not the will of Christ or will of the Father he leaves us unresolved whether he mean the will of purpose or the will of precept that if we answer to the one he may evade by a pretence he meant the other If he will be understood of the former when was he rapt up into the third Heaven to search what secret purposes and decrees are hidden in the bosom of the Father or of the Son Or if he hath it by revelation why doth he not shew how and when it was given him and whether in an ordinary or extraordinary manner Or if he mean that will how shall he take it up to be the rule of his judgment which in the very last words to which I answered and so often elswhere he abandoneth from being the rule of other mens judgments If he mean the latter the will of precept why holds he us suspended in the expectation of alleaging the precept and arguing forth his Conclusions thence that if satisfactory we may submit to it if otherwise we may except against it Secondly when he tels us of Justification denying any living soul to have it only by Christs satisfaction without some ground in himself of particular right and claim thereto and except it be also received and applyed c. he leaves us doubtfull whether he meaneth Justification as compleated in Christ or as evidenced also to our own consciences If the former what will he then conclude of perishing or dying infants that they are all unjustified and in respect of the punishment of loss remedilesly damned and so with his brethren shut them up for ever in that dark prison which is termed by them Limbus infantum If the latter and that he will give us leave to take his words in Scripture-sense we will not quarrel with them but this in the Explication he seems to explode Thirdly when he tels us of some grounds of claim in our selves to Justification which in the following words he seems to determinate to consist in our receiving and applying thereof and in the Explication p. 93. he calls somwhat of man intervening to give him a legall right to it annexing that we are said to be justified by Faith in all this he mixeth together falshood and subtilty with his ambiguity putting himself into that posture wherein the Papists have painted and feigned Erasmus hovering between Heaven and Hell sometimes mounting on high sometimes sinking low again but pitching neither above nor beneath In such a motion we here find Mr. B. as he is in his gradation further making out the Mystery of Romish iniquity for a Law
I say much to the 17 18 Aphorisms because they are but as it were a bridge of Mr. Brs making on which to pass over to the following matter Yet that he may not Complain of wrong that he is deprived of the honour of his artificiall Methode I shall transcribe his words and annex some animadversions upon them Thesis 17. Bax. p. 102. Therefore as there are two Covenants with their distinct conditions So is there a twofold Righteousnes and both of them absolutely necessary to salvation Thesis 18. pag. 103. Our Legal Righteousnes or Righteousnes of the first Covenant is not personall or consisteth not in any qualifications of our own persons or actions performed by us for we never fulfilled nor personally satisfied the Law but it is wholly without us in Christ And in this sense it is that the Apostle and every Christian disclaimeth his own Righteousnes or his own works as being no true legal Righteousnes Phil. 3. 7 8. Thesis 19. p. 107. The Righteousnes of the New Covenant is the onely Condition of or interest in and enjoyment of the Righteousnes of the old Or thus Those onely shall have part in Christs satisfaction and so in him be legally Righteous who beleeve and obey the Gospel and so are in themselves Evangelically Righteous Thesis 20. p. 108. Our Evangelicall Righteousnes is not without us in Christ as our legall Righteousness is but consisteth in our own Actions of faith and Gospel obedience Or thus Though Christ performed the conditions of the Law and satisfieth for our non-performance yet it is our selves that must perform the Conditions of the Gospel I close up all these positions together as it were in one Frontispice partly in regard of their neer Cognation in Nature and partly that the profoundnes and dexterity of Mr. Br may the more cleerly appear and that it may be here evidenced to the very senses of all what is said Gen. 3. 1. That the Serpent is more subtle than all the beasts of the field which God hath made The one part of Mr. Brs Gospel we have found in the former part of this Tractate the summe and substance whereof may be thus expressed That Christ Jesus by the will of his Father hath by the satisfaction made to justice for the sins of the Elect obteined that the whole Curse and managing thereof together with the Elect for whom he hath satisfied should be delivered up into his hand And he sheweth himself in this his power an unmercifull High Priest holding his redeemed ones under the Curse wrath and torment in soul and body not giving them deliverance untill the day of judgement He did somewhat before look unto but now really enters upon the second part which is like to the former holding forth a justification in the world to come upon such Conditions as will not bring any unto but certainly exclude all that to this end use and perform them from justification into condemnation Within the Confines of these two essentiall parts of his Gospel he comprizeth all the riches of grace by Christ which whosoever likes it may if he will partake of Such have we already found the Nature of the first part of his Gospel We are now to examine whether the second part thereof be not such as I have here mentioned if not I have wronged Mr. Br if so he wrongs Christ and works against him seeking the damnation of the Elect. And by the very words of these four propositions of his if nothing els were to be added he that is both orthodox and judicious may somewhat judge whither Mr. Br driveth finding him to set up mans righteousnes parallell with Christs righteousnes and equally necessary to our Justification so making man at least a demisaviour to himself and so in effect prove an absolute destroyer of his own soul For whosoever brings any thing besides Christ to his justification falls utterly from Christ righteousnes and salvation Yet while he thus acts the part of one of those evill workers mentiuned Phil. 3. 2. he shews himself an Artizâ—n to deceive the wits of the time no less than Muncer did himself to beguile the witles Common people in Germany He when he was vanquished taken and now under the hands of the tormentor being demanded why he had so deluded the silly vulgar multitude to his own and their ruine breaking forth into a vehement laughter answered Sic voluerunt They would have it so insinuating that because he found them little regarding the solidity and power of the Gospel but itching after novelties he attempered and even sacrified his studies to their humour untill he had subverted himself and them So Mr. Br taking notice of some affected wits that had rather perish and dye for ever by Art that which is falsely called Science or learning 1 Tim. 6. 20. than to live and be saved by the simplicity and plainnes of the Gospel composeth himself wholly to please their humour and make himself their darling handles the Case so finely and artificially that he may kill them softly they never feeling it untill they are dead and ruined for ever One peece of his artifice we have here in his invention of that twofold Righteousnes of the two Covenants absolutely necessary to justification or salvation The one in Christ the other in our selves Christs righteousnes purchasing for us a conditionall justification a possibility of righteousnes bliss in the world to come but the other our righteousnes when once finished and compleated being that which doth the deed and drives the nail to the head making both Christs righteousness and the justification purchased by it to be no longer Conditionally but actually and really ours Provided and alwayes excepted that this cannot be in this life and so the tryall of Mr. Brs doctrine by experience can never be made untill this world be wholly ended This is learning indeed such as neither the dictates of men at least totidem verbis in so fine a contexture of words nor the Oracles of God could ever teach Mr. Br. It is his own and possibly may continue his onely to the worlds end all men els proving themselves too wise or too foolish to joyn with him in this his speculation We thought that the righteousness according to the Covenant under which God hath placed us had sufficed to justification he tells us nay but we are under both the Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace too and must be righteous in the righteousnes of both The world had not the wit untill now nor yet Christ or any of his Prophets or Apostles had it ever in their Consideration to term Christ our legall and our own works and qualifications our Gospel righteousnes Mr. Br first having received it rough hewen from Papists and Arminians teacheth us this piece of distinctionary learning Neither did it enter ever into our thoughts that the righteousness of the Old Covenant was of a more noble â—ace or that the righteousnes
which is in our selves could be more excellent than that which Christ is made to us untill this new Doctor took the Chair to teach Mysteries and by inverting and misnaming Scripture-phrase hath so taught Nevertheles it behoved Mr. Br having resolved to keep on the triple Crown upon the Popes head by stablishing justification upon works though it were to the uncrowning of Christ to reject uprightnes and to seek after inventions Eccles 7. 29. First he must hold beleevers to be under both Covenants els while he builds up one peece of Babylon he should pluck down another and give his judgment against his holines in one point while he acts the Champion for him in another and adventure with all the loss of his Cause if he keep not as strong hold-fast in the Covenant of works with the one hand as in the Covenant of grace with the other 2 He must call the Condition or means of applying Christ to us or obteining interest in his satisfaction our Righteousnes els he will not be able to evade those Scriptures which assert our Justification by faith But by this feat he thinks himself in a fit posture both to answer this and to bring in all qualifications and works that he pleaseth in a partnership with faith to justifie True will he say we are justified by Faith as a part of our righteousnes and by all other good qualifications and works as other parts of our righteousnes 3 He must call faith and works our Evangelicall righteousnes having seen in what a stinking trance some of his dirty deer brethren in their disputes have been left when they would prove that good works as works of the Law do justifie and how little better they have fared who would have them to justifie onely as works of grace having not had enough subtlety to prove them Gospel or Grace works Need had he therefore to put himself upon strong and strange inventions that himself may not stick in the same mire after them But enough in generall let us hear him deliver his own minde in particulars B. Thes 17. p. 102. As there are two Covenants with their distinct Conditions So is there a twofold Righteousnes and both of them absolutely necessary to salvation The latter member of this proposition is grounded upon the former the Thesis upon the Hypothesis As true is the latter as the former But how true is the former that there are two Covenants and that they have their distinct Conditions First when he saith there are two Covenants he meaneth two Covenants in force to the very Saints in Christ that while they are under grace to salvation they are also under the Law to the Curse and Condemnation This hath been his busines to Confirm in the former part of this Treatise and he owns it in the explication of this Thesis But this is false as in disapproving of his arguments before hath been proved They are no more under the Law who are once under grace Rom. 6. 14. 2ly Neither have the two Covenants their distinct Conditions according to Mr. Br. For Thes 4. he makes the Condition of the first Covenant Perfect Obedience or Righteousnes The same he makes here the Condition of the New Covenant viz. Faith and Obedience but both as integrant parts of our own inherent righteousnes as we have partly seen and shall be forced to see more fully in that which is to come after So that we grant him that as true as there are two Covenants with their distinct Conditions in force to the same persons so true is it that there is a twofold Righteousness and both absolutely necessary to salvation if by salvation he means Justification At falsum prius ergo posterius When he brings proofs to Confirm his assertions he may meet with a larger answer In mean while a simple Negation stands fittest in opposition to his bare affirmation That which he brings in the explication to Confirm it hath been answered over and over before Onely he tells us in the upshot that He will take it as granted To which I answer that there hath been such a generation of men still upon earth so fingerative that will needs take that which was never granted and delivered to them such is the main bulk of Mr. Brs doctrine in this book taken but never delivered to him from God or his Christ Bax. The usuall confounding of these Righteousnesses saith he doth much darken the Controversies about Justification And Mr. Br doth no less cleer the Controversie than an Ecclipse the Sun-beams He proceeds to explain what this twofold Righteousnes is so absolutely necessary to salvation Bax. The legall Righteousness saith he is not in us or consisteth not in any qualifications of our own persons or actions performed by us But it is wholly without us in Christ Thes 18. p. 103. The righteousnes of the New Covenant is the onely Condition of our interest in and enjoyment of the Righteousnes of the old c. Thes 19. p. 107. Our Evangelicall Righteousnes is not without us in Christ as our Legall Righteousnes is but consisteth in our own actions of Faith and Gospel Obedience c. Thes 20. p. 108. What there is more in any of these three positions is transcribed at large before To the 18 Thesis he annexeth in the explication a dispute against the Papists not to Confute them as adversaries to the truth for joyning mans righteousnes with Christs righteousness unto justification for herein he professeth entire Communion with them but to admonish them as his loving brethren to defend this their Conclusion of Justification by their own righteousness not under the terms of their legall but of their Evangelicall righteousness Because the legall righteousnes is unpossible but the Evangelicall righteousnes according to his carving and forming of it is easie to be fullfilled and almost unpossible to be violated Not that the Papists were wholly ignorant of this mystery untill Mr. Br here teacheth them Nay many of them had and pleaded it very artificially before he was born And himself hath learned it of them But he as the most proficient of all their disciples hath more fully improved it so that now he becomes a teacher to his very Masters and exhorts them to learn of him the pious feat and fraud of making use of this distinction yet further than ever they had the wit or grace to devise even to all matters and purposes that tend to the eluding of the word of Christ and the advantaging of the holy mother Church in her doctrine of Justification that is altogether Contradictory to the doctrine of the Scriptures upon the same Argument To the 19th 20th positions he annexeth an explication of both of these and of all that was said in the two former positions also In it we shall finde whatsoever deserveth a fuller Answer than hath been yet given to all and every of these four positions or any thing in all or any of them conteined not
was a voluntary agent Called and Consecrated by the Father to be our Priest Heb. 5. 5. No man taking his life from him but himself laying it down of himself for us and in our stead Joh. 10. 18. Thus he became the purchaser of righteousnes for us and is made of God Righteousnes to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. But all this he did not by the rule of the Law or Covenant of works but of the secret and sacred Covenant made between the Father and him Therefore having mentioned the voluntarines of his suffering in the fore quoted Joh 10. 18. He addeth This Commandment have I received of my Father implying that this his satisfactory obedience in dying for us had its regulating not by the old Covenant of works or any precept of the Law given to man but by the Covenant which had passed between the Father and the Son in reference to man and a speciall positive Commandment from the Father agreeing with the tenor of that Covenant As for our apprehending and pleading the righteousnes of Christ to Justification impudency it self will neither affirm it to be done by the rule of the Covenant of law and works nor deny it to be done in Conformity to the Covenant of grace and rule of the Gospel Or because Christ hath born the penalty of the Lawes breach shall he therefore be Called our legall righteousnes as from the formall reason of the thing Nay both that Christ suffered and the Father received and accepted his sufferings in full satisfaction for our transgressions That the Father sent him to satisfie the justice of his law for us and for his satisfactions sake he doth no more impute to us the breach of his Law All this is the fruit of his grace and in conformity to the Gospel and Covenant of grace not to the Law and Covenant of works Therefore if we give the denomination from the formall reason of the thing we must call it our Evangelicall not Legall righteousnes which is in Christ Touching the other opposite term that any thing inherent in man whether the gifts of grace Faith Repentance Charity c. or their fruits and works should be called our Gospel righteousnes I see no reason for it neither can devise in what other sense they may be so called but by a Catachresticall Ironia which names a thing and means the contrary As the Mounteins are called Montes quia minime movent Mounts or Movers because they do in no wise Move or as the Fames Auri is sometimes called sacra the inordinate desire of money is termed holy quia minime sacra sed prorsus execrabilis because it is in no case sacred but wholly accursed So in no other sense may this righteousnes in self be called Gospâ—l righteousnes in reference to Justification but because it is totally opposite to the doctrine and nature of the Gospel and because the Gospel doth wholly reject and abandon it Mr. Br. peradventure may and will bring other reasons and where he doth it we shall take pains to examine them 4 Why he calls beleeving or Faith to be our Gospel righteousnes and whether it be to any other end but with the Papists upon the same grounds to bring in good works to Justification also If he deny this the whole sequele of his Book will be an enditement of falshood against him CHAP. XIV That which Mr. Baxter brings to confirm the matter of this his Doctrine examined and found both fallacious and empty And what he addeth to mitigate the asperity viz. That we perform these conditions not by our own strength but by the grace of Christ evidenced to be a meer shift borrowed from the Papists Mr. Baxter after he hath thus made a flourish and nothing but a flourish to explain and defend his phrase and make odious the phrase of Scripture now proceedeth to confirm the matter of his doctrine Let us see whether there be any thing Logicall or Theologicall and not meerly sophisticall He hath confessed before p. 109. that some who are not Antinomians but Orthodox Divines have startled at the expressions of his 19 and 20 Positions as conteining in them some self-exalting horrid doctrine therefore will he say something thereto by way of explication and confirmation Now having said something as bad as nothing to take off contention about words what doth he add for the confirmation of the matter of his doctrine He was to have proved 1 That Gospel righteousnes or the righteousnes of the New Covenant consisteth not in the imputation of the righteousnes which is by Christ to us but in our own actuall and personall faith and obedience 2 That we must be righteous in our selves first and then after be made righteous by Christ 3 That the righteousnes of the New Covenant is not sufficient to justifie and save but onely to give us right to the righteousnes of the old Covenant which doth actually and immediately save and justifie 4 That those gifts of grace vertues and endowments that are required to our sanctification are not the fruits but the causes of our justification and conditions of our interest in Christ and consequently that our sanctification hath a priority and goes before justification These were the points in which he acknowledgeth himself to be down-right opposed by some and startled at by others What doth he now say for the silencing of these down-right opposers and startlers Just so much as he that would confute all that Bellarmine had written in three words viz. Bellarmine thou liest Or what brings he for the confirmation of those his assertions wherein he is so opposed Nothing but a fardle of sophisticall fallacies consisting of begged principles and homonymies of words First he clustereth together many Conclusions without either premisses or proofs The righteousnesse of the New Covenant then being the performance of its conditions this is his first Conclusion which by the word then bearing the force of therefore he would insinuate to lean upon some foregoing premisses when contrariwise there is not so much as a peble of four grains to sustein it not a word laid as the foundation thereof It is the thing in question we deny it he brings nothing to confirm it besides his bare affirmation which to us is no more then a pillar of straw to bear up a Castle And its conditions being our obeying the Gospel or believing This is his second Conclusion taken as granted when contrariwise his opposers utterly deny it And here he plaies also with an homonymy of words as if faith and obeying the Gospel which in the Apostles sense are so in his sense also were the same thing covering his poyson untill the feat be done by it It must needs be plain that on no other terms do we partake of the legall righteousnes of Christ I will not say that self-confidence hath made the man mad but rather that he thinks all the world mad and in such a sottish slumber that none can
good from him upon that subject because that although there are many who extoll the power of mans Free-will to his conversion even to the clouding of the glory of Grace that do notwithstanding hold fast the doctrine of Justification by Christ alone without any intermixture of our own righteousnesse Yet I know no one sort or sect of men that part our Justification between Gods righteousness imputed and our own inherent but that the same also about the doctrine of Free-will are wholly Popish if not Pelagian also In the bulk and body of his Explication wherein he inveigheth against those whom hee in termes of abasement calleth sublime Platonick and Plotinian Divines when as they account themselves essentially God himselfe he hath not us dissenting from him CHAP. XV. Whether men in Scriptures are said to be personally Righteous because they perform works and duties as conditions of the new Covenant ye a only for this Master Baxters reasons by which he labours to make it good examined Thesis 22. BAx page 118. In this fore-explained sense it is that men in Scripture are said to be personally Righteous and in this sense it is that the faith and duties of beleivers are said to please God viz. as they are related to the Covenant of Grace and not as they are measured by the Covenant of Works Explication Those that will not acknowledge that the Godly are called Righteous in the Scripture by reason of a personal Righteousnesse consisting in the Rectitude of their own dispositions and actions as well as in regard of their imputed Righteousnesse may be convinced from these Scriptures if they will beleive them Gen. 7. 1. and 18. 23 24. Job 17. 9. Psal 1. 5 6. and 37. 17 21. Eccles 9. 1 2. Ezek. 18. 20. 24. and 33. 12. 13. 18. Mat. 9. 13. To these he addeth as may be there read a multitude of Scriptures more which unlesse it were to better purpose it is not worthy the labour to transcribe To this he further addeth That men are sometimes called Righteous in reference to the Lawes and judgements of men I acknowledge Also in regard of some of their particular actions which are for the substance good and perhaps sometimes in a comparative sense as they are compared with the ungodly as a line lesse crooked should be called streight in comparison of one more crooked But how improper an expression that is you may easily perceive The ordinary phrase of Scripture hath more truth and aptitude then so Therefore it must needs be that men are called righteous in reference to the New Covenant onely Which is plain thus Righteousnesse is but the denomination of our actions or persons as they relate to some rule This Rule when it is the law of Man and our actions suit thereto we are then righteous before men When this rule is Gods Law it is either that of Workes or that of Grace In relation to the former there is none Righteous no not one for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Onely in Christ who hath obeyed and satisfied wee are Righteous But if you consider our actions and persons in relation to the Rule of the New Covenant so all the regenerate are personally righteous because they all performe the conditions of this Covenant and are properly pronounced righteous thereby Neither can it be conceived how the works of beleivers should either please God or be called righteousnesse as they relate to that old Rule which doth pronounce them unrighteous hatefull and accursed All this in its substance at least might be granted to a conscientious man that meaneth as he speaketh hating all equivocations and mentall reservations For it being first granted to us what is here granted That men are called in Scripture Righteous sometimes in Regard of their imputed Righteousnesse sometimes in reference to the lawes and judgements of Men sometimes also in regard of some of their particular actions which are for their substance good and sometimes in a comparative sense as they are compared with the ungodly The 3 last of these consisting in the Conformity of persons and actions with the Lawes of God or of men though not a perfect Conformity upon this first yeelded to us we could without any prejudice to truth grant back again to such qualified men as are before mentioned that sometimes men are called personally Righteous in reference to the New Covenant i. e. in regard of their inchoat sanctification and an inherent righteousnesse flown out of Christ into them by means of their union unto Christ for which though not yet Complete and perfect in them they are à parte praestantiore termed Righteous But to Master Baxter whom we have as the wolfe by the ears prepared if we hold him to bite at our hands if we let him go to fall upon our throats or invade our face and head if we deny him what he would have to bite at us if we grant it him to improve it against Christ our head we grant nothing wee can grant nothing because in all that he speaketh he means not as he speaketh but covers under fine words fallacies and falsities First then we except against his Thesis that it is a meer fardle of Amphibologies and Equivocations That he so delivers all that he will be held to nothing For first when he saith In this fore-explained sense it is his meaning was no doubt to leave us doubtfull or at least to leave himselfe this advantage that wee should remain uncertain where to find him If we should fetch the explanation from the next Theses he might except that his meaning was of some of the more remote Theses if from the remote he would fly to the next or if wee should draw the sense from both the next and remote Theses he might evade thus that he meant not any thing that was said in any of his Theses but something in the explication of some of them And thus wee might pursue the wild-goose long enough before wee should finde her pitching Secondly When he saith Men in Scriptures are said to be personally righteous his purpose was to leave us in the like doubt whether he means the Righteousnesse of justification or the Righteousnesse of Sanctification and himselfe the like advantage to fly from the one to the other as may most further his ends Thirdly when he saith again And in this sense it is he leaves us as knowing as before what sense he meaneth himselfe hath not yet concluded what the sense shall be saving in general such a sense as upon all occasions may serve to his purposes Fourthly When he saith That the faith and duties of believers are said to please God viz. As they are related to the Covenant of Grace and not as they are measured by the Covenant of works he had a project to leave us uncertain whether by the word They and They twice used he means those beleevers or those duties and works And upon this hinge
runs the question in great part between us and the Papists whether the works make the person or the new relation of the person make his works accepted And in the Fift place no lesse ambiguity is there in the phrase Related to the Covenant of Grace not to the Covenant of works For in many respects may a person or thing be related to either Covenant and he tells us not in what respect he meaneth Now though from the whole scope of his worst we may assure our selves that he would be understood in the worh i. e. in the Popish sense in reference to all these things which he delivers in such words as may bear a manifold sense yet because the man delights to dance in the dark that he may not be yet taken wee will neither crosse his humor nor befool our selves in dancing after him untill he shall discover himself and his meaning in the light To the explication I except that it is full of extravagancies equivocations contradictions saying and gainsaying doing and undoing mentall reservations and in all of fallacious subtilties First he racks rakes together Scriptures in heaps to prove that a mans eyes are in his head not in his heeles I mean to confirm that which no rational man ever denyed viz. that sometimes men are called righteous by reason of a personal righteousnesse c. what an extravagancy is this so strongly to fortifie where there is no fear of an assault But there lurketh here a twofold fallaciousnesse and subtilty of Master Baxter 1 a trick to delude his inconsiderate readers that view his words running without any stay or stopping to consider with an opinion that he hath all the Old and New Testaments on his side in that hee can spit Scriptures so swiftly and numerously for himselfe 2. a feat to screw into the mindes of unwary men a conceit that all these Scriptures which he confides they will not examine doe hold forth justification by our own personal or inherent righteousness Which they do no more prove then a crow upon a sheeps back proves the sheep to be a crow or a red hat forced upon Master Baxters head proves him to be a Cardinal Yet this must hee mean and aim at else to use the very same words which he before used against Master Saltmarsh his Argumentation is no more to the businesse that he hath in hand then a harp to a harrow For it is not the righteousnesse of sanctification but of justification that is the subject of his dispute 2. He is liberal in his concessions grants us first that the Scripture calls men righteous sometimes in regard of their imputed righteousnesse and when they are so called in respect of their inherent righteousnesse it is sometimes in reference to the lawes and judgements of men Also sometimes in regard of some of their particular actions which are in their substance good viz. therein conformed to the law And sometimes in a comparative sense as they are compared with the wicked c. Yet with one flat contradiction recalls all again thus Therefore it must needs be that men must be called Righteous in reference to the New Covenant onely Who ever heard untill now of such a conclusion from such premisses If because we are sometimes in Scripture called righteous in regard of imputed Righteousnesse which according to Master Baxters Divinity is our legal righteousnesse and in regard of these other waies which he mentioneth none of which relateth to the New Covenant how doth it follow hence Ergo men are called righteous in reference to the New Covenant onely In this his Logick is no lesse mystical then his Divinity I can see no other ground of such an argutation in stead of an Argumentation But this Master Baxer hath granted and laid the premisses Ergo earum contrarium verum est i. e. Therefore the contrary to what he saith must needs be true But paradventure he drawes the conclusion not from those concessions but onely from the words next immediately going before viz. The ordinary phrase of Scripture hath more truth and aptitude then so Therefore c. Did he not grant that the Scriptures do call men righteous in all the former mencioned respects what is it then that he here saith The ordinary phrase of Scripture hath more truth c. Are some Scriptures more true then others And therefore doth he reject that which is affirmed by the lesse true conclude that which is affirmed by the more true Scriptures or can hee deny the Scriptures sometimes to call men righteous in the former respects No marvell if he doth so prophanely wrest and abuse the Scriptures when he takes them for such false and uncircumcised things that in his account they need also an inherent truth and righteousnesse to justifie them I should here prove that men are called Righteous not in reference to the New Covenant onely But let him first bring his proofs to confirm the contraâ—y and I stand waiting to answer him This he attempts to do in the next words Wherein wee shall find him bringing nothing else but some vain and loose propositions fallaciously and sophisticaâ—ly disposed laying them down as known principles when they are the very things in question for the most part of them yet Confirming them with no other authority than his own bare affirmation and Negation as if every paradox must be taken as sacred and undisputable when he hath and because hee hath delivered it It is plain thus saith he B. Righteousnesse is but the Denomination of our actions and persons as related to some Rule He had before said in the Explication of Thes 16. pag. 96. That Righteousness is no proper real being but a Modificatio entis the Modification of a being This he means also here in calling it the Denomination of our persons and actions as related to some Rule But what end hee hath in degrading Righteousness from the honour of a positive reall being more then other virtues I do but yet kenn at a distance and not fully comprehend This wee clearly see that he takes the chair and challengeth to himself a Magisterial power to create and destroy what his Cap thinks fit in Philosophy Logick and Divinity A famous Doctor long versed in more sublime and profound studies and by means thereof having let slip some of the poor elementary rules of Grammar having once by a mistake broken Priscians head being admonished thereof is said in great haste to have answered He would make a New Grammar that should conform to the incongruity of his words seeing his words were unconform to the congruity of Grammar Such is the animosity of Mr. Baxter where his opinions agree not with the rules of Philosophy or Divinity there he damns and annihilates the old and with the breath of his mouth creates a new Philosophy and Divinity that shall be subservient to his opinions and so God-like Diruit aedificat mutat quadrata rotundis This he doth
here in defining or describing righteousness denying it a positive and reall being herein puffing off all the Classicall Philosophers and Divines Philosophers for Aristotle affirmeth that all Philosophers call Righteousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such an habit by which men are apt to practise just things and by which they act and will just things And to them he gives also his assent calling it further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely a virtue but a perfect virtue citing and approving that Proverbial verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That all or every vertue is complexively or comprehensively in Righteousness Yea the most perfect virtue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and again it is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most excellent of virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a part of virtue but virtue in the whole So speakes he of Righteousness in the general and as in the next Chapters he distributes it into its specials he makes virtue the general of those several Righteousnesses In the same manner the choicest of all the learned and Orthodox Divines that I have met with make Righteousness thus taken in its largest sense to sound and to bee one and the same thing with virtue it self Some call it bonitatem probitatem integritatem goodnesse honesty and integrity others rectitudinem virtutis the uprightnesse or rectitude of Virtue defining its specials by Virtue when they assign the next and immediate genus by habitus when they assign the remote genus And are not Virtues and either naturall morall or infused Habits Positive and Reall Beings Must all other Philosophers and Divines vanish to nothing when Mr. Baxter comes with his Denominations Modifications or rather Noddifications Neverthelesse though we deny to him that Righteousnesse is but a bare Denomination or dead notion yet we grant to him that true righteousness both of Mens Actions and persons must relate to some rule What will follow hence B. This Rule when it is the law of Man and our actions suit thereto we are then Righteous before men True and yet latet anguis in herba under this truth there lurketh a fraudulent falshood Mr. Baxter hath his restrictions to promote but not to prevent a falshood The thing that he pretends to prove is That men are called Righteous in Scripture in reference to the New Covenant onely There he finds the word onely to make a falshood Here he cannot find it will not finde it for if it bee brought in place it will reprove him of falshood to all men Is it for mens actions suiting to the Lawes of men onely that they are called in Scripture righteous before men He would be so understood for if it be not onely for this if at all for their outward and appearing conformity to the Law of God they are called Righteous before or in the account of men his conclusion is destroyed by this prop which he brings to sustain it And yet he dares not to say onely for this they are called Righteous before men For he knoweth whole streames of Scriptures would bee brought â—o confute so bold an assertion But he proceedeth B. When this Rule is Gods Law it is either that of Workes or that of Grace In relation to the former there is none righteous no not one c. ut supra This and that which followeth is all sophisticall fallacious and catching First the distinction which he here maketh of the Law of God that it is either the Law of Works or Law of Grace is somewhat a strange phrase to chaste ears that desire to hear Scripture Doctrines delivered in Scripture termes that oppose Grace to the Law and are not wont to call it a Law Secondly it is contrary to Mr. Baxters doctrine and Gospel for howsoever he in words talketh of a two-fold Covenant of Works and of Grace to beguile such as desire to be beguiled yet really hee labours to bring all under a Covenant of Works making mans own righteousnesse the condition of both so altering the name but retaining the nature and power of the first Covenant still as I have before evinced from his disputes and himself will in the following part of his book discover more fully 3. There is an ambiguity in the word Rule he manifesteth not how farre his meaning therein in reference to the Law extendeth whether for a direction onely what is good and what is evill wherewith God will be served and what is it that offendeth him teaching us to perform the one and to shun the other Or whether also for a direction how far in what degrees the good is to be done and the evill shunned that we may bee justified and saved thereby Though we may without much difficulty smell his meaning herein yet because he reserveth it for another place clearly to expresse himselfe we also will reserve it for the same place to make him a full answer 4. He playeth his usuall game of equivocation in telling us that In relation to the former there is none righteous no not one This is not that which is concluded and nothing ought to be in the conclusion which is not also in the premises The conclusion as we have seen is that none is called righteous c. The proof here is that none is righteous These phrases much differ A man may be called righteous in reference to the rule of the Law though he be not absolutely righteous in every particular thereof to Justification and himself acknowledgeth that in many respects the Scripture calleth men righteous in reference to the Law of Works who notwithstanding shall never be justified by the Law of Works as a little before in this Explication we have seen Concerning the Righteousnesse which is by the Law I was blamelesse saith the Apostle Phil. 3. 6. And I have lived in all good Conscience unto this day Act. 23. 1. Lo even while Paul was yet a Saul a hater a persecuter of the Gospel Righteousnesse yet he is termed and called Righteous blamelesly Righteous conscientiously righteous in relation to the Law of Works Or when Judah saith of Tamar She is or Saul of David Thou art more righteous then I and Solomon of Joab Two men more righteous then himself Gen. 38. 26. 1 Sam. 24. 17. 1 Kings 2. 32. Were these here called Righteous in reference to the righteousness of the Gospell and not of the Law Or when the Lord by his Prophet calls them righteous which turned from their righteousnesse and perished in and for their wickednesse Ezek. 3. 20 21. and 18. 20 24 26. and 33. 12 13 18. was it an Evangelical or a legal Righteousnesse that gave them the denomination of Righteous persons When Isaiah calls all his all the peoples Righteousnes menstruous or filthy Raggeâ— and Paul his Righteousnesse Dung Isa 64. 6. Phi. 3. 9. yet both such as gave them the denomination of Righteous men Mr. Baxter himself will not say that these were the righteousness of the New Covenant I could
heap and hoard up Scriptures to the same purpose which call men righteous in reference to the Law of Works But in what respects men are called so in Scripture for an unperfect righteousness is not the thing in question Not that they were justified by it is certain but in whatsoever other respects it destroyeth Mr. Baxters conclusion that men are called Righteous in relation to the Covenant of Grace onely and shews the inconsequence of his Argumentation that because none is perfectly righteous viz. to Justification in relation to the Law of Works Ergo in no other respect is he called Righteous according to the Covenant of Works What he addeth Onely in Christ who hath obeyed and satisfied we are Righteous This we embrace as our Gospel Righteousness and Mr. Baxter alone without company or suffrage of Prophet or Apostle Ancient or Modern Writers affirms to be our legall Righteousness But hitherto we finde it an affirmation without confirmation It follows Bax. But if you consider our actions and persons in relation to the Rule of the New Covenant so all the Regenerate are personally righteous because they all perform the conditions of this Covenant and are properly pronounced Righteous thereby Neither can it be conceived how the works of Beleevers should either please God or be called Righteousness as they relate to that old Rule which doth pronounce them unrighteous hatefull and accursed He proceeds still in his sophistry without any the least particle of Scripture or any thing else save the wind of wit and words to prove what he would have us to beleeve It behoveth him that will fasten and screw into the judgements of men new and strange Doctrines that never sounded before at least in the same phrase of words in their ears to bring irrefragable Arguments to confirm it But such paradoxes and prodigies both of doctrines and words doth Mr. Baxter here hold forth as were never before heard of but in uttering them he is a Barbarian to us and we Barbarians to him in not understanding them yet brings nothing else but his own word to promote them The mysteries of his sophistry are so deep that our woodden wits cannot sink to the bottome to comprehend and understand it First what means he by the Rule of the New Covenant Doth he put the New Covenant here in the Passive or in the Active and Possessive sense i. e. Doth hee meane by the Rule of the New Covenant a rule extrinsecall and without the New Covenant to which the New Covenant must bee conformed that it may bee regular or a rule in the New Covenant and by it made out to us whereunto wee must bee conformed If in this latter sense then whether without or else with reference to some end if to some end whether then to Sanctification or Justification I cannot so much as conjecture that he puts the phrase in the first sense that he tels us here of a Rule to which the New Covenant must be conformed because it is altogether alien from the scope of his dispute and besides how we should be related to a rule with which the New Covenant must suit I cannot see for such a Rule I should conceive to be immanent in God and so hid from us that we cannot perceive how to regulate our selves by it This then he cannot mean 2. Neither doe I conceive that his meaning is that we are to be conformed to the Rule which is contained in and manifested by the New Covenant without respect to any end to which the rule directeth that we ought to be thus and thus qualified and thus to act onely because the Gospel so biddeth without reference to the end of such qualifications and actings For neither is this any thing to the purpose of his dispute Neither in this sense can such qualifications and actings be in any shew of reason called what Mr. Baxter here calleth them Conditions of the New Covenant For they are Conditions if at all Conditions in reference to some ends without which the end cannot be obtained Or what ends doth the New Covenant immediately point at more then either our Justification or Sanctification 3. If he mean the Rule of the New Covenant for Sanctification 1. Then I shall demand of him whether the Law of Works be not the rule of the matter and substance of those qualifications and actions which conduce to Sanctification even under the New Covenant and whether the Rule of the New Covenant or Gospel doe extend any further then to the Modification of those Qualifications and Actions directing to the Mediator from whom to derive those Qualifications and Actions and by and through whom to present our selves and them unto God 2. And then whether in reference to Sanctification men may not be called Righteous as having their righteousness relating to the rule of the Old as well as the New Covenant I cannot be so uncharitable to think that Mr. Baxter having positively affirmed that beleevers are in part under the Curse of the Law will deny them to be also in part under the rule and direction of the Law if he should hee must brand upon himself the due infamy of Antinomianism which he unduly and falsly chargeth upon others 3. And yet this will in no wise advantage his cause For we grant him that in reference to the inherent righteousnes of Sanctification men are called Righteous in the Scriptures by a personal righteousnesse But what is this to that righteousnesse in our selves equally necessary to the righteousnes which is in Christ to Justification which he had in the former Theses asserted and here goes about to prove or illustrate 4. If he mean the rule of the New Covenant to Justification which seems to me unquestionable though hee will not fully express himself then 1. I demand of him how our actions relate to this rule Is it that themselves i. e. our very actions may be justified by it This he condemneth Thess 25 and its Explication Or that they may Justifie us as conditions of our Justification This most probably is his meaning which when he confesseth he confesseth himself worse then Popish for the Papists ascribe Justification not to actions indefinitely but to some good works onely When he speaks more broadly then they let him shew himself without a vizard under the name and notion of a Papist and he will not want answerers or answers But upon this supposition let us see what he inferreth So all the regenerate are personally righteous because they all performe the conditions of this Covenant and are properly pronounced righteous thereby Let us now collect together what in probability is the whole summe of his dispute Leaving what he hath said to deny that men are called Righteous in respect of Justification by the rule of the Law because wee doe not cannot perform the conditions of the Law unto which I have already answered here he endeavours to prove that they are called Righteous onely in reference to
he do so no more that he speaks here more orthodoxly than he purposed viz. the prisoners debt to be satisfied the prisoner to be delivered restored to his house to the inheritance again by the meer grace and purchase of the Son before God which implyes no less than a full justification with by God before ever the prisoner beleeved or had a new Lease a new Covenant of grace and faith made with him a doctrine which before Mr. Br anathematizeth to hell it self and will do so again though he thereby Curse himself for that which inconsiderately here fell from him These things granted and winked at we utterly explode all the rest in the Similitude not onely as uncoherent with but as contrary to the doctrine of Grace yea utterly destructive to the nature and working of grace in our Justification and that in these particulars as I promised above to specifie 1 That it maketh our Justification mercenary and held by yeerly rent for though it be but a pepper-corn that is payd yet that is rent and payment as shall be manifested before we passe from this similitude which is contrary to the Covenant of grace and doctrine of the Gospel which affirmeth that We are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption which is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3. 24. And wholly agreeing with the doctrine of the Gospel is that of Austin Non enim gratia Dei Gratia erit ullo modo nisi gratuita sit omni modo The Grace of God shall not be grace in any respect except it be free in every respect But how is it free which is a debt acquired and held by rent and payment 2 That it maketh our Justification Conditionall if Articles of Covenant be performed then the Tenant abides in the inheritance the man is justified if through foolishnes or forgetfulnes unperformed then is the Tenant outted the man unjustified And to be thus conditionally Justified is no Justification When contrariwise the Gospel holds forth a reall and absolute Justification Son Daughter Be of good cheare thy sinns he forgiven Mat. 9. 2. Luk. 7. 48. He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit Joh. 13. 10. Being justified by faith we have peace with God and glory in tribulation Rom. 5. 1. 3. Is it not a reall and absolute but a conditionall forgivenes washing Justifying here spoken of then must the effects in these places added and attributed to such forgivenes washing Justifying be not reall but conditionall also A conditionall not reall chear comfort a conditionall not reall cleanness a conditionall not reall peace with God and glorying in tribulation But these effects are out of question reall Therefore Justification the Cause of these effects reall also 3 It delineats an unperfect Justification The Old Lease is not cancelled but kept firm to be put in suit against the Tenant after the New Lease is made The Old Covenant of works is kept in force against the beleever after he is entred into the New Covenant of grace to be put in suit against him upon occasion to his totall damnation When the Gospel pronounceth the justification of a beleever perfect the Old Covenant in respect of any power over him to be dead Rom. 7. 6. The hand writing against him and contrary to him blotted out taken out of the way and nailed to the Cross of Christ Col. 2. 14. So that he is no longer under the Law of workes to be pleaded or putt in suit against him Rom 6. 14. Nor is there now any more Condemnation to be inflicted on him Rom. 8. 1. 4 It points out a mutable justification While the Tenant payeth the rent he shall be acquit both from his debt and all other rent for the future but if he miss of payment then both the old dâ—bt and rent falls on him as a mountain again crushing him untill the pepper-corn intercede remove the mountain and then acquitt again untill the pepper-corn be lost in carriage or being round and full of volubility run besides the Landlords hand then on comes the mountain of debt upon the Tenant again c. Thus mans justification is made fast or loose according to the stedfastnes or mutableness of mans will and the grace of God in justifying of so little fixedness that a pepper-corn can weigh it and sway it up and down at pleasure When contrariwise the Scripture every where pronounceth the grace of God and Covenant of grace everlasting unchangeable and makes the Justification of man to rest not upon his own mutable and mad will but upon the stable and stablishing grace of God I will be mercifull to their unrighteousness and their sinns and iniquities will I remember no more Heb. 8. 12. I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will putt my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32. 40. with a large heap of testimonies more to the same purpose which would be here impertinent to transcribe Thus is the similitude as here framed in all these respects proper indeed to illustrate the bugbear figment of Justification in Mr. Brs brain but altogether incoherent with the Justification which the Gospel holds forth to us Yet he addeth In this case the payment of the grain of pepper is imputed to the Tenant as if he had payd the Rent of the old Lease When contrariwise the reformed Churches affirm from most full and pregnant Testimonies of Scripture that to rest any thing at all upon the imputation of such pepper payments for righteousness doth utterly frustrate the offers of grace and benefits of Christs death unto us as hath been oft before manifested That which followeth doth not take off the Odium and falshood of this his doctrine but rather augments it declaring that he hath learned of the Papists not onely their falsifications of the Gospel nullifying of the grace and righteousness of God and extolling the crest of mans pride but also their fallacious shirts to dâ—fend his dealing herein Yet this imputation saith he doth not extoll the pepper-corn nor vilifie the benefit of his benefactor who redeemed him Nor can it be said that the purchase did onely serve to advance the value and efficacy of that grain of pepper The very language of the Papists and the Arminians for â—o they when they have mounted the righteousnes of mans faith and works to be a part or the whole of the righteousness effectuall to Justification they come after with a plausible varnish of words professing that they do not herein abase Gods grace nor heave above its own proportion mans righteteousness For say they we do not attribute any thing to mans righteousness either as it is mans righteousnes or to the price and value of it as if by its own worth merit it doth Justifie but partly saith Antoninus ex ordinatione Divina as God hath ordeined
yet it follows not thence that the same Righteousnes performed is a perfect righteousnes though it be sufficient and effectuall to the end to which God ordeined it to be performed God required the use and sound of Trumpets and voices to destroy and lay levell with the earth the strong walls and Towers of Jericho and the washing in Jordan to Cleanâ—e Naaman of his Leprosie and the washing in Siloam to Cure the Man that was born blinde of his blindness These were ordeined as severall Conditions in order to those severall ends and being performed became sufficient and effectuall to the attainment thereof Shall we say then that the performance of these Conditions was their perfect righteousnes which performed them So neither if God had appointed Faith which according to Mr. Br is sanctification as a Condition of our Justification is the performance thereof our perfect righteousnes 3 This sufficiency of that which Mr. Br calleth perfect righteousnes in order to its end is no more in from it self than the before-mentioned noyces and washings were in themselves to the attainment of their ends But the sufficiency thereof is wholly from the righteousness faithfulnes and all sufficiency of God to fullfill the promises of his grace So that what he saith of beleeving in the highest degree and beleeving in sincerity is besides the matter in question Both together if they could be performed according to the tenor of the new Covenant not being of sufficiency to make up a perfect righteousnes Therefore we conclude in Mr. Brs words That our Righteousnes formally considered in relation to the condition of the new Covenant is so far from being a perfect Righteousness that it is none at all I have nothing els to say against that wherewith he concludes his explication of the Thesis enumerating the many respects in which this imaginary righteousnes of man is imperfect and consequently sinfull But this that it displayes the sin and impudency of the man that he will call that a perfect righteousnes which himself confesseth to be so deficient rotten and unrighteous Thesis 26. pag. 137. In the 26 Thesis he addeth to the perfection of Mans righteousnes merit or meritoriousnes also In my exception against him upon this point I shal take notice 1 of his position or asserting of this doctrine 2 of his lenifying mitigating the roughnes thereof that it may go down the more gently pleasantly In both which it shall suffice to shew that he speaketh the same things with the Papists his Masters that in their Tone also though I do not ex professo undertake a full Confutation of the doctrine it self leaving the reader to fetch it from those many Orthodox Divines that have copiously unanswerably done it against professed Papists In this I shall seemingly cross yet really follow Mr. Brs method putting first what was the first primary purpose of his heart to hold out unto the world viz. that our Righteousnes is meritorious though in a pretty subtlety he puts it last both in the Thesis in its explication and last that which he puts first viz. his limitation mitigation of so arrogant a doctrine which he doth so trimly â—eatily that if his reader be a fool it is possible he may think Mr. Br to deny and not to assert here the doctrine of merits though there were never any of the worst Papists that hath asserted it higher than Mr. Br here doth His assertion of merits then runs in these words in the Aphorism it self B In a large sense as promise is an obligation and the thing promised is called debt so the performers of the Conditions of the New Covenant are called Worthy and their performance Merit though properly it is all of Grace and not of Debt Rom. 4. 4 10. And all those Scriptures which he annexeth and I have before in adding this to the 24th Thesis transcribed 1 His assertion of Merit in mans righteousnes is here layd down in a Connexive proposition The performers of the conditions of the new Covenant are called Worthy their performance Merit If both members of the proposition be not true if either fail the proposition is false But where doth he mean these are so called in the Scriptures which he here annexeth all men will it is questionles his meaning is that all shall conceive For to say that they are so called by Popish Writers were to make his doctrine suspected not accepted But neither in these nor any other Scriptures are they so Called therefore his proposition is false The 13 first Scriptures alleaged affirm the contrary deny all worth all merit in our persons righteousnes pronounce the reward to be of grace not of debt a gift not a payment given freely without desert all this so fully that it appears the Holy Ghost had an aim not onely to stop the mouths of the mercenary Jewes then but also of the Popish Justiciares now whom he foresaw as enemies to the doctrine of Grace And the last six Scriptures here alleaged prove onely that the Scriptures call the Saints worthy but neither in these nor in any other Scripture can he finde that their performances are called merit or their Justification here or glorification hereafter debt 2 By the way we may take notice of his fallacious sophistry to deceive the simple in making the whole worth of the performers to consist in their performances because the performers of such an act are called worthy therefore there must be merit and worth in the performance Which is grounded upon as good reason as if I should say The Murtherer of Vriah and the abjurer of Christ were counted worthy of justification and glory Therefore was there an unproper worth at least in the ones murther the others abjuration to Justice save them None of these nor any other Scriptures do affiâ—me in express words the performers of the conditions of the new Covenant Worthy much lesse as they are performers and least of all that the performance hath worth or merit in it 3 Besides there is a great difference between Gods Dignari mans DignuÌ„ esse between Gods accounting or reckoning man worthy mans being worthy in his own deserts so that those Scriptures Lu. 20. 35. Lu. 21. 36. 2 Thes 1. 5 11. that speak of Gods accounting men worthy do not import or imply any worth in a mans own qualifications performances but a worth which God hath put upon him by imputation viz. Christ in them the bloud of Christ sprinkled upon their Conscience Christs merits imputed to them they being found in Christ the righteous not in Adam the unrighteous As the Israelites were accounted worthy of deliverance from destruction which fell upon the Egyptians in the day of Gods passing over Egypt but how worthy surely not in respect of their own righteousnes but in respect of the worth of the Paschal Lambs bloud sprinkled upon their door-posts In this sense is also that
entitle them Meritorious Neither is there any proportion between them and the Reward Do not Bellarmine and his brethren speak altogether so fully more fully seemingly to vindicate the grace of God from all ecclipsing by their doctrine of Merit Merit as strictly and properly taken say they must be 1 Ex proprijs 2 ex indebitis 3 Ad aequalitatem 1 It must be of something of our own which we have not received 2 of that which we were not indebted or bound to perform 3 It must come up to a full proportion of equality in value with the reward which it meriteth And thus say they no man can merit with God For neither hath he any thing of his own to offer unto God which he hath not received from God nor any strength to act meritoriously but what he hath received from above is inspired by grace into him So that Antoninus that Postill Schoolman Concludes that in this Case that Fathers conclusion is authentick which said it before him though not punctually in the same words Quùm enim Deus coronat Merita nostra remunerat Aâ—on par 4. Tit. 9. ca. 7 ante sec Munera sua quia scilicet ipse dedit virtutem operandi gratis When God Crowns our Merits he rewards his own gifts because himself hath freely given us the strength so to work Nor 2 Can he do any thing but is his due obedience he owes it as homage to his Creator And 3 as to proportion equality even Bellarmine that affirms quandam infinitatem a certain infinitenes in mans works not as they proceed from man but as the Holy Ghost which is infinite is the author of them yet concludes Nemopotest paria reddere Deo Our works can never mount up to an equality with Gods bounty In this proper sense therefore all the worst hornets of the Romish hive do explode Merits with as much detestation as Mr. Br. In like manner what he tels us in the beginning of the explication of Merits in strict Justice which he doth in part abandon is but a distinction which he hath learned from the Jesuits which distinguish betwixt Merits in strict Justice Merits in gracious acceptance rejecting the former and attributing unto man a power onely to perform that which God will graciously accept for Merit Yea when Calvine will express what use the whole rabble of Popish Schoolmen make of this evasion not troubling himself to alleage their particular words he contracts the summe of all that they all say into these words of his own Aiunt Non tanti esse intrinseca dignitate bona opera ut Cal. Inst li 3. ca. 14. sect 14. ad justitiaÌ„ comparandaÌ„ sufficiant sed hoc acceptantis esse Graciae quod tantùm valeÌ„t They acknowledge that mans good works are not worth a rush in their own intrinsecall worth to Merit or obtein Righteousness before God but that it is of Gods Grace accepting that they are of such value And what he saith at the end of the explication that this kinde of Meriting is no diminutioÌ„ to the greatnes or freenes of the gift or reward Because it was a free and gracious Act of God that made our works capable of this title and to engage himself by promise to us c. as it is in substance one the same thing which he had said before to make his doctrine appear sufferable so is it that which he hath suckt from the breasts of the Holy Mother Church of Rome also It is the plea of all the Popish Sophisters saith Calvin Qui bellè se absurda omnia evasisse putârunt Inst li. 3. ca. 17. sect 3. non intrinseca sua bonitate valere opera ad salutem promerenda sed ex pacti ratione quia Dominus liberalitate sua tanti aestimavit i. e. who thought that they had bravely discharged themselves of all the absurdities which follow this doctrine by saying that our works do not avail to merit salvatioÌ„ by their own intrinsick goodnes but by reason of Gods Covenant or promise because he of his free bounty hath put such a value upon them And still affirming that the Merit of works doth not at all Clowd Gods grace Quia a Gratia accâ—ptante habent suum Ibid. ca. 17. sect 15. valorem i. e. because it is the gracious acceptance of God that entitles them to this honour I shall instance no further in particulars onely in generall I affirm there is not to be found any of the most Trentified deepest branded Papists that hath in this point spoken more derogatorily to the grace of God or more superlatively to the exalting of mans menstruous righteousnes but contrariwise divers especially of the more ancient Schoolmen that have spoken more modestly moderately of both than Mr Br. So high in the conceit of his own worth perfection have the praises of his righteousnes vertues decanted by some throughout the Country coming as it is probable to his ears enthroned him Or if it be not either the proud opinion of his own vertues and righteousness or an ambition to be esteemed matchles and unanswerable in any Paradox that he undertakes to maintain or a vow that he hath made to return bring what Proselytes he can with him to Babylon which hath let him shew what it is that hath induced him thus to pervert disturb the Churches of Christ with these Antichristian doctrines by raising them to life again after they have so long layd almost dead and buryed therein But whether there be not as concinnous an agreement uniformity in Mr Brs doctrines of the perfection Merit of mans righteousnes yet while his righteousnes is thus perfect Meritorious with God he remains notwithstanding under the Curse of the Law and wrath of God untill the day of Judgement as before he hath asserted whether these things do not so trimly agree together as a Crown on the head and a halter about the neck I leave to every rationall man to Judge That which he hath in the middle part of his explication about Merits of man which the Wisdom not the Justice of God is bound to reward as also sundry passages that he hath about Merits in the strict Justice of God I leave as meer fopperies unworthy of reading much more of answering Onely this I affirm that he doth here equallize the merits of mans with the merits of Christs righteousnes for neither hath Christ merited from Gods naturall but his ordinate Justice not in the strict but in the large sense His 25 Thesis lying betwixt these 2 that I have coupled together I passe by without any particular examination of the particulars in it or in the Explication of it because it hath not any thing in it controverted between us Papists though what he saith there be said with an intention to â—app up himself in an Antipopish dress that he may be the less suspected when he comes to sowr
us with the leaven of the Papists He saw these 2 Theses which I have examined together viz. Perfection Merits of works if they should come together one in the neck of another without any Calm betwixt them would make so terrible a sound as would be enough to waken and startle all that were but sleeping and not dead for fear the Pope or the Devill had been come to assault them Therfore to keep all quiet he interposeth this Thesis and its explication in which he pulls the ears of our Divines for saying that God doth justifie first our persons and then our duties and actions pag. 134. deinceps in the explication telling us it is a doctrine of dangerous consequence many wayes and except we will take it in his that is in the Popish sense it smells rankly of Popery setts up Justification by works from the very thought whereof he starts startles away as affrighted Notable dissimulation not of a learner but of one learned in the Trade Clodius accusat Maechos Catilina Cethegum He that affirms our Righteousness equall with the righteousnes of Christ to justification that entitles it a perfect righteousnes a meritorious righteousnes is the first man in all the world that fears of the advancing of Justification by works by them whom he hateth for oppugning it If there were that which he calls danger in this phrase or doctrine of setting up such a justification would not himself be the first man to kisse it to eat it up to promote it What is it that makes him to disrelish the phrase so extremely is it not that it inverts his order in Justification that he would have the works to justifie the man when contrariwise this doctrine makes the justification of the person to be the ground of the acceptance of his obedience Is it not the very depth of Satan from which he is moved to guise disguise himself to act Satans part with all guile and subtlety to betray the Saints of Christ and the truth of Christ to damning Popery and yet here and there to transform himself into an Angel of Light a Minister of Righteousnes to blinde the eyes of the simple that they may not espy him untill they be taken in his snare and lost for ever As for the doctrine or phrase it self he knowes our Divines mean this onely when they say God doth justifie first our persons and then our duties actioÌ„s viz. That God having first justified their persons from all the guilt that was upon them doth thenceforth also justifie them in refâ—rence to all the duties which thorow Christ the Mediator they shall perform unto God not imputing to them the imperfections thereof so that they may rest Confident of Gods accepting both the performers and the performance in and through Christ the beloved In this respect and not as Conditions of the New Covenant as Mr. Br dreameth doth the Gospel teach our works to be accepted of God There is yet one link of the Popish Chain wanting without which it will be unperfect and unusefull If it were granted that there is 1 a personall righteousnes of Gods own appointment necessary to justification 2 That this righteousness consisteth in ouâ— own Faith and sanctification or good works 3 That it is a perfect and 4 a Meritorious Righteousness yet all this cannot be effectâ—all either to save or deceive us unless it be a righteousnes also possible for us to perform Thaâ— he may not be wanting therefore to the Popish Cause in any one branch of Popish doctrine he addeth this also Thesis 27 in these words pag. 141. Bax As it was possible for Adam to have fullfilled the Law of Works by that power which he received by Nature so is it possible for us to perform the Conditions of the New Covenant by the power which we receive from the Grace of Christ To which he adds in the Explication pag 142 c. Bax This possibility is to be understood not in Relation to the strength of the Agent But in the Relative sense the Conditions of the New Covenant are possible to them that have the assistance of Grace So that strength which was in Adam to fullfill was a power which he received by Nature But the strength by which we perform is the power which we receive from the grace of Christ If any should have asked him what that grace of Christ is the man was very Coy he could but he would not tell whether it were a Pauline or a Pâ—lagian Grace a grace equally extended both to the Elect and the Reprobats or a grace peculiar to the Elect a grace that comes no further than the ear or a grace operating upon the heart also c. He had other fish to fry and had not the leizure to stay câ—ack these nutts now He bids us to turn over many volumes and specially Parkers Theses to search if possibly we can finde what Mr. Brs judgment would be many years after in this poynt But it is easie to perceive the mans meaning by his gaping in many passages of this book We should have had all this in rank and file in his much promised Tractate of Vniversall Redemption by which as by a second famous atchievement he meant to endear himself to his holy Father but that unluckily there is one of his own spirit step into his Holinesses Parlour to present him with this gift and so anticipated this favour which Mr. Br would have had entire to himself so that now the expected advantage being lost he not using to open his Commodities to sale a day before the Fayr we might possibly for a couple of Capons obtein to know his meaning herein In the mean while it must needs be his intent in reserving to himself what he meant by grace to puâ— upon us a kind of impossibility to say readily yea or nay to his asserted pâ—ssibility of performing the Conditions of the New Covenant by a power which he leaves us uncertain of knowing what it is As for the two fold opposition which he puts in his Thesis 1. between the conditions of the Old Covenant New 2. Between the power which Adam had by nature and the power which we have by the Grace of Christ there is nothing but a windy sound of words therein to deceive his reader into an opinion that he hath some honest and sound meaning in what is here posited or said For neither doth he make any real difference between the conditions of these two Covenants but makes our own Righteousnesse consisting in faith and works to be the substance of the conditions of both Covenants onely he puts a supposed difference in the measure of them One an imaginary perfection of sincerity in doeing them answering to what the New Covenant requireth the other an absolute and gradual perfection in doing them without the least particle omitted or committed besides or against the rigorous exaction of the Old Covenant And this
is a difference made up of a mans dreaming fancy without any least footing that it hath in or sustentation by the Word of God which utterly shakes off all mans righteousness works and qualifications in either and both senses from having any thing to do in the businesse of justification under the New Covenant as hath been in part already and shall be in its due place if God will more fully demonstrated afterward Nor doth he mean 2 things by Adams power by nature and our power by Grace Nature there and grace here to him are one the same For was not the power which Adam had to stand a power received by Grace what a malignant eye hath he so extremely to envie the raies of Gods Grace when they lustre and by their brightness discover the dimnesse and invalidity of mans nature He will own no longer Peter Lombard himselfe to be the Magister if he affirm as hee doth affirm that the power which Adam had to fulfill the conditions of the Old Covenant was not by grace but by nature or what means he by the grace of Christ now doth he under this word point out any other power than every man hath or may have that is no more Christified or Spirituallized now than Adam was then yea than he was immediately after his fall This book of his in many parcels of it doth not obscurely insinuate thus much of him and if we judge amisse it is his fault in writing so ambiguously and refusing to explain his own meaning that ministreth cause and evidence enough so to judge But as to the thing it selfe here posited by Master Baxter wee utterly deny that God hath ever given or any where promised to give unto the best of men in the state of sinfull infiâ—mity such a measure of Grace as might put him into a possibility by the power which he hath received to performe either a righteousnesse effectual and sufficient to justification or a righteousnesse perfect and Meritorious or a righteousnes which as righteousnes and by a worthinesse in it selfe can give him right and title to the righteousness of Christ to justifie him And these are the things which Mr. Baxter here either with the grace or without and against the grace of God contendeth for but neither hath nor ever will have the grace of God from the Word of God to prove and demonstrate though he bangle and bungle never so much with his loose shifts of Sophistry to give out an appearance to them that are more delighted with appearance then with substance as if he had done it CHAP. XVIII Arg. An examination of Mr. Baxters Doctrine about the nature and use of the Moral Law upon what grounds and in what sense and degrees the righteousnesse thereof is required under the Gospel what relation it hath to the Covenants and each of them His Paradox of sincere not perfect obedience required under the New Covenant and his extravagancies about all the rest of these particulars discovered THe three following Theses viz. the 28 29 and the 30th I purposely pretermit without examination not that there is nothing in them which deserveth exception against it but because whatsoever therein calls for examination by the touchstone of the Word is either not controverted between us and the Papists about the point of Justification or else hath been said and answered before or thirdly will offer it self againe more properly to bee answered in the following part of this Tractate where we shall find Mr. Baxter speaking it out more fully then he hath done here in these Theses and their explications To the 31 Thesis pag. 154. as it is considered in and by it self I have nothing to object but to the Explication thereof pag. 155. deinceps I have somewhat to say yet not altogether by way of exception against it but partly also for the substration of some grounds to answer him in things which in the following part of this Treatise hee hath to deliver accordingly as he layes down here for delivering them His words therefore I first transcribe beginning at pag. 155. B. That the Morall Law is yet in force I will not stand to prove because so many have written of it already See Mr. Anthony Burgesses Lectures But to what ends and in what sense the Gospel continueth that Law and commandeth perfect obedience thereto is a question not very easie 1. Whether Christ did first repeal that Law and then re-establish it to sâ—me other ends So some think 2. Or whether he hath at all made the Morall Law the preceptive part of the New Covenant and so whether the New Covenant doth at all command us perfect obedience or onely sincere 3. Whether the Moral Law be continued onely as the precepts of the Old Covenant and so used by the New Covenant meerly for a directive Rule To the first I answer 1. That it is not repealed at all I have proved already even concerning the Covenant of Workes it self and others enough have proved at large of the Moral Law 2 Yet that Christ useth it for other ends and for the advancement of his Kingdom I grant What is here meant by the Morall Law must bee first understood before there can be any well-grounded consenting or dissenting in judgements about the force in which it yet standeth Both the word Law and the word Moral have their ambiguity and are used in divers senses 1. The word Law is taken sometimes onely for a rule or guide or directive to give us light to discern between truth and falshood good and evill lawfull and unlawfull to which also may be added a power therein to command duty and to prohibit what is contrary to duty Sometimes it is taken in a larger sense also comprehending all these things in it and withall a promise of reward to the performers and commination of penalty to its transgressors Here I conceive Mr. Baxter taketh the word Law in the former sense onely because pag. 156. in answer to the first question he distinguisheth and puts a difference between the Covenant of Works and the Morall Law so plainly as if he did totidem verbis tell us that hee understands by the Morall Law the rule and precepts of Holynesse and Righteousnesse as considered apart from the pactionary Adjunct of life and death going with it 2. The word Morall also hath its divers senses sometimes Divines take it in a larger sense for all whatsoever pertaines to manners and then by the Morall Law they understand all the Commandements or Rules which God giveth for the regulating of our manners in reference to the qualifications of the mind and the outward operations also Whether those Commandements bee either of naturall or of positive right written in mans heart at his creation or had their first posituâ—e in time from the word and lips of God Sometimes in a stricter sense for that which doth eminently above other things concern the life and manners And then by the Moral
men without saving any to be damned for their unrighteousness But what he hath proved before I suppose we have disapproved and that sufficiently before Yet saith he that Christ useth it i. e. the Morall Law without the separable adjunct of the Covenant of Works thereunto annexed to other ends I grant He grants that which none demands of him But what title he hath to make such a grant he shews not And I think it will cost him so much labour as will make him sweat under the saddle before he be able to shew to what other substantial and not meerly circumstantiall ends it now serveth besides those to which it served at the first creation thereof in mans innocency at least after his principles that holdeth the workes thereof now under the Gospel to tend to Justification But from this he passeth to a second question which he makes hence to arise B. Quest 2. Or whether he hath at all made the Morall Law to be the preceptive part of the New Covenant and so whether the New Covenant doth at all command us perfect obedience or only sincere To this he answereth B. 1. That the Morall Law as it is the preceptive part of the Covenant of Works is but delivered over into the hands of Christ and so continued in the sense before expressed seemes plain to me 2. That the Morall Law doth therefore so continue to command even beleivers and that the perfect obeying of it is therefore their duty and their not obeying their sinne deserving the death threatened in that Covenant 3. That Jesus Christ hath further mâ—de use of the same moral Law for a direction to his subjects whereby they may know his will That whereas our sincere subjection and obedience to Christ is part of the condition of the New Covenant that we may know what his will is which we must endeavour to obey what rule our actions must be sincerely fitted to guided by he hath therefore left us this moral Law as part of this direction having added a more particular enumeration of some duties in his Gospel That as when the Old Covenant said thou shalt perfectly obey the moral Law did partly tell them wherein they should obey So when the New Covenant saith thou shalt obey sincerely the moral Law doth perfectly tell us wherein or what we must endeavour to doe Before he pretended a purpose to speak of the Moral Law in it selfe and as considered without the Covenants but finding quickly that his Babel will not tower up out of simples he is forced either to let all fall or else himselfe must returne to his compoundings and confoundings again now mixing the moral law with the olde and by and by with the New Covenant as a part sometimes of the one and sometimes of the other as if it were a Noun Adjective which cannot stand by it selfe When contrariwise the moral Law is the rule of righteousnesse complete in it selfe the very image of Gods Nature and Will to which every reasonable creature is bound to conform that it may be like to God himselfe and so illustrate either to other the splendor of Gods glory invisible in himselfe but shining forth in their persons and performances But the Covenants are separable Adjuncts of the moral law when annexed to the moral law being free and voluntary Acts and Statutes of God which hee might pro imperio by the Soveraign authority which hee hath over his creatures either have or not have added to the moral law at his pleasure The Old Covenant making out to men the way of Salvation in strict yet equal and uncorrupt Justice The New Covenant his way of saving sinners and justifying the ungodly by free grace when in justice they were lost and unrecoverable The one of these is by the perfect fulfilling of the moral law the other without reference to the moral law at all freely by the redemption which is by Jesus Christ Here now if both Covenants were silenced and annihilated yet the moral law would abide firm still it would as well without Covenant as by Covenant speak out mans duty and obligation both unjustified and justified in his state either of integrity or infirmity to be wise holy and righteous as God made him and to act perfectly according to the perfect principles of acting first created in him even without life and heaven before him to allure him or death and hell behind him to enforce him And so the moral law is no part of either Covenant essentially that it cannot be separated from it without its nullifying Nay it was in God from all eternity and shall be in him still when all Covenants conditionall shall have their expiration Yet let us follow Master Baxter to see what businesse hee will make in the dark having thus obscured the clear light of this doctrine by his mixtures and confoundings Hee gives many answers to this 2 question 1. That the moral law as it is the preceptive part of the Covenant of workes is but delivered over into the hands of Christ and so continued in the sense before expressed seems plain to me How clear are this mans eyes I can see no plainness in the answer or any part thereof It is all intricate and almost incomprehensible to our dull understanding For 1. I see not how the moral Law is the preceptive part of the Covenant of works It contains in it I confesse the precepts of all good just and holy operations as it is the rule of all these But how it is the preceptive part of the Covenant being a distinct thing from it the Covenant being added to it and not it to the Covenant I see not 2. How it is delivered over into the hands of Christ and in what sense is hard for me to apprehend Is it taken out of God in whom it was originally and essentially so put into Christs hands that it is no more to be found in God or is that unperfect remainder of it which abode still in the Synteresis or minde and conscience of lapsed man taken thence and put into the hands of Christ that it is no more to be found in man but that after Satan had felled down the stemm and branches thereof Christ at last hath forced thence the very root thereof also that there may be no more sprouting even of an unperfect righteousnesse in any man saving by some light and mover from without him Or is it so put into Christs hand to dispose of its being and office that if he say the word that which was shall bee no more natural or moral righteousnesse much lesse the perfect rule thereof or that which was mans duty and his conformity with the nature of God if Christ will shall be so no more All these are such absurdities as cannot possibly drop from Master Baxters learned pen. Or is it delivered into the hands of Christ to bee the dispenser and disposer of it in relation to iâ—s end whether
in no wise be defended 4. Is not this Doctrine a sluce to let into the hearts of men a whole flood of carnal security idleness improficiency contempt or neglect of all the means of growth in grace each man setling himself upon his lees with this Apology that they are already squared to the minde and rule of the Gospel are sincere have the truth and true being of Faith knowledge and obâ—dience This is all which the Gospel requireth they are even with the rule why should they stretch themselves further to be beyond it This is a brand which Mr. Baxter inureth upon our or rather Christs doctrine of Justification by Faith alone Is not himselfe guilty 5. I would be informed what he meanes by sincere obedience It is very requisite that hee which vends new Doctrines in new terms should be exquisite in expressing and explaining his terms and words Sincerus say the Etymologists est quasi dicas sine cera as honey pure without the mixture of any wax in it That which is most pure and simple without any mixtures or taintures And Sincerity is usually put in opposition 1 to hypocrisie or 2. to corruption or sinful pollution As sincerity of obedience is put in opposition to that obedience which is done in hypocrisie or with sinister and self ends so ouâ— Saviour denyes the sincerity of the Scribes and Pharisees and chargeth them frequently in the Gospel with hypocrisie for their strict walkings devotions almsdeeds c. that they might bee justified by such personall righteousness of their own This hee calls hypocrisie and denyes to be sincere obedience because it aimed not simply to the glory of God but to their own ends their own justification But this I take to be Mr. Baxters main end of obedience to do it that we may bee justified by it And then according to the doctrine of the Lord Christ it is not sincere but hypocriticall obedience Or if we take hypocrisie to consist in professing and practising holyness and obedience outwardly but to baser and worldly ends lurking secretly in the heart viz. profit honour applause and praise of men c. which is there of the aliens from the Covenant of Grace that cannot pleade a sincerity this way I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day saith Paul of himself in reference to the time wherein he was yet a Saul insinuating the Morall sincerity of his heart in opposition to hypocrisie and base ends in his obedience while hee was yet out of Christ that even then he served and obeyed of good conscience and according to the measure of the light of Gods Word shining as farre as it shined in his conscience Act. 23. 1. Yea hee did in sincerity according to the dictate of his conscience whatsoever hee did against Christ I thought verily saith he that I ought to doe many things against the Name of Jesus c. which things also I did Act. 26. 9 10. It is â—hat whereof the Apostle gives his testimony to the greatest bulk of his kinred and Nation that rejected Christ They have a zeale of God saith he c. Rom. 10. 2. of God therefore sincere in opposition to base ends in all the services which they performed and a zeal this importeth an high degree of their obedience and sincerity of obeying Who is there of the carnal and ignorant multitude but can professe the like sincerity in their publick worship and private performances without proposing to themselves any base and sinister ends therein And doth the Gospel prescribe onely such a sincere obedience which is attained without any Gospel or Gospellizing of the heart Or if we take sincerity in opposition to all mixture of the flesh and corruption in our obedience in this case the sincerity must be either perfect or unperfect If perfect then the Gospel requireth the most perfect obedience contrary to the assertion of Mr. Baxter For what can be more perfect then that which is pure and free from all contamination of the flesh wholly spirituall But where is the man to bee found that can practically perform the duty That Apostle which had laboured more abundantly then they all professed himself not to have compassed it but that in the purest and liveliest operations of the Spirit in him unto good there was a counter-working of the flesh in him hindering the good which he willed and turning it into the evill which he hated c. Rom. 7. 21-23 And the same he professeth also to be the case of all other the Saints of God Gal. 5. 17. So that a perfect sincerity he cannot mean both because he denyeth that the Gospel injoyneth perfect obedience and perfection of sincerity in this kinde is the highest pitch of the perfection that is in the most perfect obedience And withall because he tels us in the next answer pag. 158. He knows not to what end Christ should command us that obdience which he doth never enable any man in this life to perform And this hee hath layd downe for a maxime That whatsoever Christ hath commanded or testified if Mr. Baxter cannot find out and fathom a good reason for it and of it meddle with it who listeth he will have nothing to doe with it Or if he mean an unperfect sincerity that according to Mr. Baxter is none at all For if the righteousnesse of our persons and actions bee much more the sincerity of our righteousnesse and obedience must be not a being but a modification of a being which doth not admit of magis and minus but must be perfect or none at all Yea what an absurdity is it to affirm that he whose office it is to perfect his Elect Heb. 10. 14. that doth not only begin but finish his good work in them hath commanded that which is unperfect Hee may be truly said to wink at our unperfectness to forgive our imperfections but to say he commands that which is unperfect is to deny the perfection of his commands and so to lay imperfection to his charge as well as to our own Besides he may according to his custom if he be put to tell us what sincerity he means fall to distinguish it into a Physical or Metaphysicall sincerity into a Morall and an Evangelical sincerity so that although wee find many of his Meashes yet shall we never find his Fourm So full of doubles and false leaps are they that deale not sincerely in handling the doctrine of Christ swaying and waving it hither and thither to make it not subservient to the advancing of Christs kingdom but of their own inventions Let Mr. Baxter labour rather practically and feelingly to know the power of Christian and spiritual sincerity within his heart then to make use of the Word to make intricate the plain doctrine of Scriptures and henceforth we shall finde that which we have hitherto unsuccessefully sought after sincere dealing in his disputes It is not all this while denyed that the Gospel
requires sincere obedience but affirmed that it calls for both sincere and perfect obedience I much doubt I should slander Mr. Baxter if I should say that hee means by sincere obedience sincerely Evangelical obedience For hee will not bee known to know what that is It is besides the Orb of Philosophers Scholasticks and Sophisters in which he moveth But if beyond our beleef he meane so then I shall consent and speak with him When the New Covenant saith Thou shalt obey sincerely i. e. purely according to the Gospel rule which teacheth us to fetch all our guidance in every work of obedience to make it Evangelical from the Word of Christ all our strength to doe it from the Spirit of Christ all our acceptance from our union to Christ presenting all and our selves withall to God through the mediation of Christ doing all not to attain Justification by all done but to glorifie God with the fruits of our thankfulness for the prizelesse gift of Justification conferred upon us in and through Christ When the New Covenant I say hath taught us to obey in a sincerely Evangelicall manner here now the Moral Law steps in and tels us as Mr. Baxter saith wherein and what we must endeavour to doe i. e. What be those duties of Moral holyness and righteousnes which being in this Gospel way performed doe receive a higher title then Moral and become Evangelical Christian and spiritual obeying If Mr. Baxter mean or will mean thus we will go hand in hand wiâ—h him or what shall be more proper give him his due precedency and follow him The next answer put in numb 4. whether it be also an answer to this second Question or intended as an answer to the third Question which else passeth without answer or else to both questions runs in these words B. But that the Moral Law without respect to either Covenant should command us perfect obedience or that Christ as the Mediator of the New Covenant should command us not onely sincere but also perfect obedience to the Morall Law and so hath made it a proper part of his Gospel not onely as a directory and instruction but also as a command I am not yet convinced though I will not contend with any that think otherwise My reason is because I know not to what end Christ should command us that obedience which hee never doth enable any man in this life to performe If it were to convince us of our disability and sinne That is the worke of the Law and the continuing of it upon the old terms as is before explained is sufficient to that But I judge this question to be of greater difficulty than moment The multiplication of nice and unnecessary questions hath been one special means to bring a darkness upon the doctrine of the Word in those parts thereof that in themselves are clear and full of light It sufficeth me to know what hath been a little before proved that the Moral Law both with respect and as considered in it self without respect to either Covenant hath been ever is and shall be ever the perfect rule and directory of Moral obedience And that Christ as the Mediator of the New Covenant hath not dissolved or made voyd any part of the Morall Law or of the Righteousness and duty which the Moral Law requireth in reference to either the sincerity or perfection in performing the same but contrariwise hath avouched the contrary and denounced that whosoever shall break one of the least of these commandements and teach men so i. e. as I conceive shall take liberty by the abuse and misunderstanding of the New Covenant to neglect or be remiss in any part or degree of that righteousness which the Law requireth and teach others the same remisnesse also The same shall be least in the kingdom of heaven i. e. A useless and unprofitable Teacher in the Gospel Church This sufficeth me to know and this the Scripture plainly affirmeth and fully confirmeth Mat. 5. 17. 19. But whether the Moral Law to them that are under the New Covenant and truly in Christ be onely a rule and directory or else a commander also Or whether Christ hath made the Moral Law a proper part of his Gospel these are things Heterogeneous from the former and first devised by those distinctionary Sophisters that to strengthen their doctrine of merits and workes of superogation have distinguished between the precepts and counsels of Christ Sure I am that the Gospel in its strict and proper sense consists not at all in bringing precepts but life grace righteousness peace joy holiness liberty and salvation from heaven and whatsoever else tendeth to the perfect and never ending welbeing of poor souls together with an alsufficient light and direction how to attain all these and manage them being attained to the advancing of the glory of the grace of the giver This is properly the summe of the Gospel and the precepts intermixed with the doctrine hereof no otherwise proper to the Gospel than as they are furtherances to the attainment of them and lights and helps to direct us how to stand fixed in the enjoyment of them and walk holily honourably and worthily in the strength and comfort of them Yet it cannot bee denyed but that still the Law Moral is a perfect rule of all perfect Moral righteousnesse and that Christ hath expunged no part of it but commands all yea writes the righteousnesse of all in the hearts of beleevers that they might will all and delight to doe all not onely after the Moral but after the Evangelical rule through Christ for whose sake their unperfect services are accepted with God as though they were full and compleat This hath been cleared before in our examination of Master Baxters second Answer to the seeond Question and express Scriptures alleadged for confirmation thereof Neither can wee think that the many infinite benefits freely conferred in the way of the Gospel upon us do exempt us from but are obligations upon us unto the fulfilling of all righteousness or that it is our bondage but our liberty to be free from sinne and the servants of righteousnesse The nature of the commands being now altered under the Covenant of Grace from what they were under the Covenant of workes Then they proceeded from meer soveraignty and power now from tender Grace and Love Then had they a sting in the tayle the curse and hell to inflict in case there were not full performance This sting and curse is now carried away in the body of Christ no threat of it to them that are in Christ but the thing commanded for the compleating of our perfection which consists in our conformity with the will and nature of God with this dammage annexed that the lesse perfectly we perform the father off we are yet from our desired perfection There the Lord commanded his servants here the father his dear Children There man was commanded to work in his own strength here the treasury
the Moral Law For Adam received it while he was yet innocent and without sinne and in that state of his the Law could not convince him was not appointed to convince him of sinne having not all sinned 3. That it makes the Law upon its old terms i. e. according to Master Baxter as a Covenant of workes sufficient by it selfe to conviction without any need of Gospel convictions to bee used When contrariwise all the convictions of the Law so considered can worke but desperation and death in the convinced They are the convictions of the Gospel and Spirit of Grace working by the Gospel that are effectual to conversion and life For conclusion he saith B. But I judge the question to be of more difficulty than moment And I answer that the difficulty of the question is not from the Word of God but from him and his fellowes which fill with knots hard to be loosed the leading thread which Christ hath given us all displayed As for the Moment of the question let him crack at his pleasure among fooles yet the wise must needs see and acknowledge it such as if he lose it he loseth one of his chiefe pillars though it be but a paper pillar to bear up mans personal righteousnesse to justification For if it be proved that Christ requireth perfect obedience under the Gospel down falls all the perfection meritoriousnesse and efficacy of mans righteteousnesse to Justification And so he must begin all again and fit himselfe with better pillars next if any where from Rome or Jury they are to be had this proving rotten and unusefull That obedience which in relation to both Covenants to Law and Gospel too is sinfully unperfect cannot bee of any power to Justifie CHAP. XIX Arg. Whether Christ hath satisfied for sinnes against the Old Covenant and not for sinnes against the New also Thes 32 33 34 35. UNto this I may ad the quodlibetarie quidlibetarie doctrines of Mr Baxter his Niceties quiddities and nimble nothings whereof he disputes profoundly in the four next Theses viz. the 32 c. and in his Appendix in answer to the third question pag. 12. of the appendix and thence to pag. 27. in which many notable and rare speculations are unfolded viz. 1. Whether the rope wherewith Judas hanged himselfe were made of hair or hemp 2. Whether it were Simon alias called Peter or Peter alias called Simon that denyed Christ and whether it were Pontius or else Pilate that condemned him 3. Whether it were Christs Crosse or else the Crosse of Christ that Simon of Cyrene was compelled to bear Item whether hee carried it on his right or his left shoulder and which end of the Crosse was before and whether the contrary end were behind in carriage 4. Whether when Joab was put to death for killing two men Abner and Amasa for which of these two murthers he suffered for the former or the latter or for neither The same or like to these are the disputes of Master Baxter in these Theses and their explications and in the forementioned part of the Appendix viz. 1. Whether when himselfe hath laid it down for a position no lesse firm and unrepealable than the Lawes of the Medes and Persians which alter not that there is no sinne prohibited in the Gospel which is not a breach of some precept of the Decalogue and a sinne against the Old Covenant c. Yet neverthelesse there be any sinnes against the New Covenant which are not also against the Old Item whether there be any sinnes considerable in any of their respects against the Gospel onely and not against the Moral Law and then consequently whether Christ hath satisfied by his death for such sinnes as himself affirmes never have been never shall be or can be committed Thes 30. pag. 148. that is for imaginary sins which never were sins nor shall be Thes 32. 2. When he hath asserted and peremptorily concluded Thes 32. That Christ was not to satisfie for any sin committed against the New Covenant which was not is not also a sin against the Old Yet whether it be not very needfull to be questioned in the 33. Thes Whether Christ hath done what he was not to doe whether he hath satisfied for sins that violated the New Covenant as well as for those that violate the Old Covenant And consequently if he should have so done whether this were to have been reckoned as a work of supererogation above and beyond his duty to have merited superexcedently for us or an act of sin against his duty putting him into an incapacity to merit at all for us yea whereas Mr. Baxter concludeth absolutely as an undeniable truth Thes 32. Therefore Christ dyed not for any sin against the Gospel or Covenant of Grace whether that be not a sufficient argument to prove in Thes 33. that Christ hath not by his passive obedience satisfied for the sinnes that violate the Covenant of Grace who can evade the force of such an argument Christ hath not satisfied ergo he hath not satisfied specially when it hath been before proved in words at length that there is no sin against the New Covenant but is a sin against the Old also and it is satisfied for as to the Old Covenant what reason is there then that it should bee satisfied as to the New Covenant too When the Creditor is payd his full debt in the hall and hath yeelded up the bond will he expect to have the same debt payd to him in the parlor also 3. Whether when both Law and Gospel Old and New Covenant command the same thing that Christ then satisfyeth for the breach of that duty as to the Law but not as to the Gospel The Gospel then damneth men for that fault that in reference to the Law is satisfied for and consequently many poor wretches are damned by the Gospel and New Covenant which by the Law and Old Covenant should be saved Or if it be not so whether then it be not the Law that damneth even finall unbelief it self taking advantage from the violating of the grace of the New Covenant to aggravate their condemnation that under the means of Grace have lived and dyed contemners thereof 4. Whether all other sinnes which the Gospel precepts do prohibit be against Christ and his Gospel as the object of those sins onely the breaking of the conditions of the Gospel be not a sin against Christ and his Gospel as the object of that sin for so Mr. Baxter pag. 159. distinguisheth between those sinnes that have Christ and the Gospel for their object and those breaches of the conditions of the New Covenant as if these had not Christ and his Gospel for their object What then is the object of these sins or have they no object or how many thousand conditions of the New Covenant are there the breach whereof is by no sacrifice to be purged Hee tells us indeed Thes 32. pag. 159. that the Gospel threatneth death to no
other sin but final unbelief and rebellion But this finall unbelief and finall rebellion hath its belly so full of other small sins threatned in the womb of their Mother Rebellion as ever a man found of the berries in the belly of a breeding Lobster And in his Appendix pag. 23. he makes finall unbelief the genus to which he attributes but three species of which the first viz. Ordinary finall unbelief is not to bee considered as species specialissima but subalterna which being looked upon as a genus hath so many species or as a species hath so many individuals under it according to Mr. Baxters doctrine as the best Arithmetician in the world saving himselfe will not dare to yeeld up upon his casting the true summe of them to satisfie Mr. Baxters censure therein as it will appear when Mr. Baxter comes to unlace and rip abroad his Justifying Faith in its largest sense Thes 70. To these I might adde many more quaintisies of the same nature breathing out themselves from the veins of this his dispute But all the rest as those already mentioned are but tarrying irons to take up the time of men that are Malè feriati rather love to play with the buttons then to close with the body and drink in the spirit of true Christianity And what other end can Mr. Baxter have in these his chippings and mincings but to shew the delicacy of his wit Whom hath he in the substance of what he speaketh his adversary We grant and teach with him 1. That there is no sin prohibited by the Gospel or New Covenant which is not a sin against the Law and Old Covenant also 2. That finall unbelief and rebellion are sins if not unpardonable as if they exceeded the bounds of Gods grace and Christs merits to pardon them yet which have no futurition of pardon shall never be pardoned in this life or in that which is to come For so hath the Lord declared his purpose in reference to these sins 3. That both the Law and the Gospel concurre in damning such persons the Law as a Covenant of Workes properly for their refusall to submit even till death it self to the will and authority of God requiring Faith in Christ for their redemption from vengeance The Gospel improperly by withholding its shelter from the Laws sentence against them because they would never be perswaded to come under the shelter of it yea more in strengthning the hand of the Law to give them the sorer punishment for the contempt of Gods grace as well as of his Authority and Justice And thus not onely the mountains of their sinnes against the Law but also Christ the Rock shall fall upon them to their greater shivering for that they dared to dash themselves against him and would not be induced to be built against all the stroakes of vengeance upon him This is the summe of all that which Mr. Baxter here in substance saies To what purpose then are his elaborate distinctions of the differing respects and aspects senses and non-senses in which Christ hath either satisfied or not satisfied for mans sins unlesse it be Balaam-like to lay a stumbling block in the way of the simpler people of Gods Israel to occasion their fall to puzzle their judgements and consciences and to make the way of grace which is in it self as discovered by the Lord Christ easie and plaine to be unto them by his evill working therein intricate perplexed and full of snares To all sober men it sufficeth to know 1. That there is no one of their sins in whatsoever consideration it be taken but hath death and hell in the tayl of it 2. That there cannot be any other way of exemption from the death hel which every such sin of theirs meriteth by any other meanes but by the redemption which is by and in the Lord Jesus 3. That the blood of Christ hath in it a perfect efficacy to cleanse from all sin whatsoever no one excepted if it be applyed to cleanse Not the very sin against the Holy Ghost which it hath not power totally to purge out from the conscience if it were truly applyed But therefore is that sin never pardoned and purged from the soul because the Spirit of God never doth nor will apply the blood of Christ to the soul that is guilty of it nor generates Faith in such a soul to run unto and wash in the Fountain of Christs blood that it may be clean Let there be any one sin named of all the sins whereof our corrupt nature is pregnant that is so much a sin against the Gospel but that the purging or not purging away of it the absolving of the conscience from it or retaining of it upon the conscience doth not wholly depend upon the application or not application of the blood of Christ to the soul and I shall acknowledge that I have seen but the Letter and was never yet acquainted with the Spirit and drift of the Scriptures Or suppose we should take a delight to contend about that which is a meer lana caprina whether it be hair or wooll that grows upon the Goats shoulders how feeble might we manifest the reasons to be which Mr. Baxter beingeth to prove that the sins against the New Covenant are not satisfied for by the sacrifice of Christs death As 1. When the Apostle affirmeth Christ to have suffered death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first Testament Heb. 9. 15. Doth it follow thence that he hath not redeemed from the transgressions against the New Covenant also If I say that Christ forgave to Peter or Paul or Mary Magdalen all their sins committed before conversion do I thereby as much as imply that he retains still and revengeth upon them all the sinnes they committed after they were converted Or should one of Mr. Baxters acquaintance say that whatsoever Mr. Baxter preached and wrote untill four or five years since was good and Orthodox doth it follow that all that he hath since preached and written is heretical and erroneous Nay the purpose of the Apostle here is to convince the Hebrews that sought in part for righteousnesse by the Law or Old Testament that it could not make its observers perfect For Christ dyed to redeem the transgressions of them that were under the first Covenant which he needed not to have done if all the Sacrifices under the Law could have purged them And thus the Morall Law is not here at all opposed to the Gospel that the Gospel or New Covenant doe purge the sinnes onely that were committed under and against the Morall Law because all the righteousnesse of the Morall Law could not purge them but the sacrifice of Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant is here opposed to the Leviticall sacrifices under the Legall Covenant What these could not the sacrifice of Christ hath expiated 2. Where he tels us that Christ could not satisfie for sinnes committed against the New Covenant
it so terme this 3. And of as little moment is that which he hath pag. 169. in the Explication of his Definition of Pardon calling iâ— a gracious Act where he blesseth and kisseth the image Tantundem set up by Grotius and polished by himselfe denying it to bee a pardon if it be not in some sort gratuitous or free and asserting that if Christ hath payd for us the idem or the proper debt then there is no place left for pardon and wee have nothing forgiven us For the Creditor saith he cannot refuse the proper debt nor deny an acquittance upon the receipt thereof c. A meer vanity of words without either ground or substance It doth not alway hold firm in trifling debts of money Suppose I have a sonne that having received his portion of my estate from me will forthwith come and pay it me for the debt of some bankrupt debtor that I have cast into prison if indeed it be so agreed upon between my self and my said Sonne and that to this end I gave him such a portion of my estate that he should so doe with it then it were not equity in me to refuse the payment so offered But yet Master Baxter wil not deny that this agreement or covenant between me and my sonne and my receiving of my own monyes in satisfaction for that Bankrupts debt though it be the same to the utmost farthing which hee owed is an act of grace or favour in mee to the said Debtor But in case â—here were no such covenant between me and my said sonne but that I gave him the said portion of my goods for other ends and uses and not to pay the Debts of Bankrupts I suppose then it is in my choice either to receive or refuse the full debt so offered me because he which offerrs it was not bound upon the Bond as Suretie or as Excecutor or Administrator to the Debtor nor is assigned by the Debtor to make payment in his stead What is there in this case binding me to receive the debt from such an hand or to give an acquittance to him that should pay it Much lesse will the case hold in point of Life and Death Suppose some Priest Jesuit or other Traytor were by the Law condemned to dye for Treason committed The day of Execution is at hand Master Baxter interposes and offereth to dye for him Is it not in the power of the chiefe Magistrates to refuse the accepting of the death of the Innocent for the Nocent Or if they doe accept the change is it not an Act of free grace to pardon the offendor accepting anothers sufferings for him Much more is it a gracious act in God to pardon us upon Christs suffering in our stead because hee sent his Sonne and gave him a body wherein to suffer for us Heb. 10. 5. And gives us acquittance having cast him into prison in our behalf untill he had payd the utmost farthing of our debts 4. What hee saith against the ignorant Antinomians in the end of page 169 and in page 170 hee hath sayd before and it hath been before examined and his pepper-corne being crushed hath been found too hot in smell and operation for a humble and selfe-denying Christian to meddle with in the point of Justification Therefore I conclude with him nor further to trouble the Reader with those sensless conceites which have onely a plausible shew of words but no footing in Scriptures or authority from Scriptures to establish them The rest of the Doctrine which hee delivereth in this page 170 and addeth page 171 and 172 I doe in part grant him and what I grant him not wee shall finde againe so involved in his dispute whether Justification bee an immanent or transient Act of God page 173 seq that it shall be more proper there then here to take it into examination In his 173 page Master Baxter enters upon a dispute of great moment whether Remission and Justification be immanent or transient Acts of God Before pag. 93 of this Tractate in a brave challenge of the Antinomians to produce one Scripture testifying Justification to be from eternity hee promised to shew or prove that Justification is not an immanent Act in God Here he addresseth himself to the accomplishment of what he there promised and in doing it he pretendedly draws the sword against the Antinomians as the sole assertors of the opinion which he here with much gallantry seeks to confute Two things then I conceive here to call for examination First how sound the reasons are which he brings to deny Pardon and Justification to be immanent and to prove them to bee meerly transient acts of God 2. What kind of Vermine these Antinomians are against whom Mr. Baxter hath already discharged so many Gun-shots before in this Treatise and findes them nevertheless yet alive and in a capacity to bear so many more shots from him in this and the following parts of this book Before my entrance upon either of these for an introduction to the former that the state of the question may the better appear I shall endeavour with as much fidelity and simplicity as in briefe I may to lay downe the judgements of our Protestant Divines whom he slanders here and every where almost with Antinomianism about this question before mentioned which Mr. Baxter here so much opposeth I mean such of these as hold not that all have taught it to be in some respect immanent in God 1. Then in their disputes against Bellarmine Arminius Socinus and their followers about remission of sinnes and justification they tell us that justification is taken sometimes actively for a judicial act of Gods grace sometimes passively or terminatively as it hath its termination upon beleevers In the former sense it is an act internal and immanent in God not transient upon an extraneous subject or in plain words it is secret abiding and hidden in God himselfe not declared or passing into the knowledg and conscience of man That it is of the same nature with the acts of election and reprobation having its complete being as these before the persons so elected justified and reprobated begin to have being life or faith in them or to doe good or evill But in its passive sense as it is terminated upon and made out to the conscience of a man so it is a transient act of God pronouncing and declaring home to the conscience of a man now living convinced of his sinnes and trembling at the sense and burthen thereof yet resting upon and cleaving to Christ by faith that his sinnes are forgiven for Christs sake and by this act and sentence of God in his conscience the poor sinner becomes sensible and apprehensive of his full discharge and absolution at Gods tribunal thorow Christs satisfaction made to justice for him 2. That justification as taken in the former sense is an Act of Gods supreme Lordship or dominion or else of his good pleasure to use
the Apostles termes by which he freely and without necessity in relation to his justice willeth the salvation of one and willeth not the salvation of another loveth or hateth imputeth not or doth impute sinne according to his own free will But justification in the latter sense is an act of Gods righteousnes or faithfulnesse by which hee faithfully and righteously accomplisheth his promises of grace in just â—ying and absolving them which believe by the sentence of pardon pronounced to their conscience according to the Gospel promise made to beleevers No word of promise went before justification in the former sense to make it an act of justice to fulfill that promise neither could it be an act of his natural justice that by the necessity of his nature he should so justifie and love any for then should none be either loved or saved freely of God when contrariwise it was in his own free choice to love or to hate to save or condemn all or mutatis vicibus to have loved Esau hated Jacob to have willed the condemnation of the saved and the salvation of the reprobated But the word of promise preceded justification in the latter sense which it is righteousnesse in God to fulfill therefore is it an act as well of his justice or righteousnesse as of his free grace 3. That Justification in the former sense is antecedaneous or foregoing to all covenants whatsoever 1. In order of nature though not in time it goeth before that covenant between the father and the son mentioned before in the examination of the explication of Mr. Baxters fourteenth Thesis and consequently before Christs undertaking to make or the fathers Covenant to accept what he should offer in satisfaction for the sinnes of the elect For in order of nature the willing of the end alway goeth before the willing of the means conducing to the end so that Gods willing mans righteousnesse and immunity from sinne and loving him to salvation must needs goe before his willing of Christs satisfying of his justice which was but a mean appointed of God to the constituting of man righteous before him that he might be pure from sinne discharged from condemnation and partaker of salvation which was the end Not that there was any precedency or following after of these acts of God in time for they are both coeternal and before all times Whom God hath loved and forgiven their sinnes them hath he so loved and forgiven in and through Christ from all eternity and through and for the merit of his satisfaction Much more doth this immanent act of justification go before not onely in nature but in time also the other temporary Covenants both the Covenant of workes made with Adam and the Covenant of Grace made after by Gospel promise by Christ or God in Christ to us and with us For these had all their being in time But justification in its other acceptation is subsequent unto and followes after and is an effect of not onely the Covenant of Grace but of faith it selfe which the Covenant of Grace calls for as a mean to attain it None else but a beleiver nor he until he actually beleeveth is thus actually justified or hath pardon of sinnes and absolution from wrath declared and pronounced of God in his conscience And thus to be justified in Christ or in God is one thing and to bee justified in our selves by God through Christ is another The former is an antecedent the latter an effect or consequent of the Covenant of Grace 4. That neither the mediation satisfaction of Christ nor much lesse our faith in Christ nor any of the most noble gifts of grace received from Christ either in their habit or operation do move God to justifie us so as to put into him a will to pardon our sins and accept us as righteous or to change his affection from nilling to will our forgivenesse and happinesse and from hating to love and accept us because he is God and therefore immutable and there cannot be any cause of Gods will rendred any more than of God himselfe For the Will of God is God himselfe and these immanent acts of God are God himselfe acting So that the substration of all that Christ hath suffered and by his sufferings satisfied for us and of all that we doe or can doe to put our selves into union with Christ and a conformity with the Will of God are in no wise the causes or conditions or antecedents of Gods first loving owning and pronouncing uâ— righteous and pure from sinne imputed but the effects thereof For he so loveth and justifieth all that in a Covenant way have been or shall be justified in their own conscience before ever they beleeve or live But that the intervening of Christs satisfaction for our sinnes and our recumbency upon and embracing of Christ so satisfying by faith that we may be justified do ad nothing to God which was not nor alter any thing which was in his will before but do onely lay and make a way by Gods ordination how he from all eternity loving and justifying us in himselfe freely may in a course most convenient to magnify both his truth and righteousnesse and withal his grace and mercy at length actually declare us just in and to our own consciences and for ever acquit us from sinne and wrath to the admiration of Men and Angels And so the former justification is a pure simple free and irrespective act of God having no causality out of himselfe moving him to it but the latter is a foederal Gospel or Covenant justification respecting his own Covenant before made Christs satisfaction already given and pleaded in heaven by Christ and mans faith in the mediator and promiser pleading the promise and the blood of the mediator sealing it upon all which he doth he cannot but actually pronounce and declare to the conscience of the beleiver his perfect absolution from sin and vengeance This latter is indeed the justifying wherof the Scriptures primarily speak as oft as they speak of justification by faith but so as the former is also in such Scriptures implyed Neither is the Scripture silent in reference to the former as considered without the latter or apart from it 5. That although all that are or shall be justified by faith in time i. e. each onâ— in the time when he so beleeveth were justified also in Christ secretly in God before they beleived or yet lived even from eternity Yet is there no man justified by vertue of the New Covenant and promise of the Gospel proclaiming right to the Lord Christ to forgivenesse of sinnes freedome from condemnation heirship to Gods Kingdom and all other benefits of Christs Passion until he doth actually beleeve and embrace Christ thorow him to have all those pretious promises made good and effectual to himselfe Though in Christ he were Lord of all before yet differed he nothing in himselfe from a servant from a child of
wrath his life and righteousnesse were hid with Christ in God He could claim nothing from God by any evidential title but wrath and condemnation though he had right in Christ yet had he no right unto Christ though in Christ all was his because Christ had united purchased and received all into his hands for him yet had he no right to Christ by which to claim a partnership and interest in the kingdome and priviledge of grace was without all true peace of conscience all joy and consolation in the promises of grace under fears and terrors in expectation of wrath and damnation could be sensible of nothing but anger hatred and displeasure against him for sinne knew not himselfe to be one of the children of promise Gal. 4. 28. to be entitled to Christ in whom alone the promises of God are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. Therefore as if there had been no Christ no Mediator and reconciler no Covenant of Grace yea no Grace or acts of Grace eternal or temporary in God thorow Christ so he remained under a Spirit either of delusion or of bondage still But now when the father hath drawn him to Christ and Christ hath received him when Christ hath apprehended him to himselfe by his Spirit and he by faith hath apprehended Christ to himselfe for redemption reconciliation remission righteousnesse and whatsoever else is laid up in Christ for him and so hath union and communion with Christ hath Christ in him and is himselfe in Christ Now his justification which was sure before in God and in Christ is also made sure to his conscience He is now justified in his own conscience after the tenor and by the vertue of the Gospel and Covenant and promises of Grace findes and knowes himselfe through Christ absolved at Gods tribunal hath all the evidences for it that possibly he can desire the Word and the Oath of God that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to ly he may have a strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. The Word evidenceth and his faith evidenceth the Covenant is now sealed mutually and reciprocally between God and him by beleeving he hath put to his seal that God is true and God sealeth to his conscience by certifying it by his Spirit that his wrath is pacified that all accusations are silenced there is no condemnation to him being now in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. Himselfe may now rest satisfied banishing henceforth all fears and doubts and glorying in the Lord that the fear of death is past it is enough my soul is now alive Christ is made sinne for me that I might become the Righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. Now Lord lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen thy Salvation and in the interim while he is here enjoying a heaven upon earth a kingdome of Righteousnesse joy and peace in the Holy Ghost untill he was incorporated by faith into Christ Christ might indeed plead for him but he had no evidence no shew of title not an article under Gods hand or from his lips to plead at Gods barre for life or pardon 6. That neverthelesse when a man truly beleeveth then may he apprehend justification and remission of sinnes not onely as now first declared and evidenced to his own soul But also as past and compleat before the foundation of the world was laid Because from eternity Christ satisfied in that he undertook to satisfie for the sinnes of the Elect and God from eternity rested in this satisfaction undertaken by Christ and so laid aside all displeasure which without this Covenant between him and his onely Son he might have taken up as wel against them that should afterward beleeve as against them which dye in unbeleef For their justification in time doth à posteriore argue their justification before all times and where faith findes the least rivulet of the great stream sent forth it can it ought by it to ascend up to the very fountain to be filled and satisfied with the deliciousnesse thereof Thus shall we finde the Apostle almost in all his Epistles from the sense of their present enjoyments in Christ to carry upward the Saints to whom he writeth unto the very bosom of Gods eternal grace counsell and good pleasure where all was laid up and treasured for them from all eternity that thence it might in due time be shed forth upon them Faith runs not away rashly and hastily with the gift but delights to enter and pierce through the vail to contemplate and embrace the as well eternal as infinite love of the giver 7. That although no man receiveth the sensible comfort of his justification before he actually beleeveth yet every elect vessell hath besides and without his knowledge the true benefit thereof as to freedome from vengeance throughout the whole time of his infidelity was in Christ beloved accepted and owned of God as righteous in that his sinne was not imputed as fully before as after he beleeved the price of his redemption was paid all his sinnes borne and punished upon the shoulders yea the soul and body of Christ so that himselfe was no lesse exempted from the revenging wrath of God from all obligation to make any part of satisfaction in his own person for his sinnes as hee that was already in Christ by faith So that whatsoever afflictions befell him in the time of his unbelief were not the infliction of the curse as the curse for sinne but sanctified chastisements of a loving father flowing from his grace and favour not from his indignation and hatred against his person though against his sins tending all to his good not to his ruine Else if he should have born the least stroke of Gods revenging justice and in the least pittance have made but one least peece of satisfaction by his sufferings for his offences then either Christ hath made satisfaction for him but in part and is not his whole Saviour and redeemer for that himselfe hath satisfied divine justice in part or otherwise the father hath taken satisfaction twice for the same sins once from the Lord Christ and after that from the offender also But this were to slander either the perfection of Christs mediation or the incorruptnesse of Gods justice both which are unsufferable 8. That the justification which is by faith consisteth not onely in a bare apprehension of our justification and pardon from God for this is onely mans act and no express act of God but first in Gods actual declaration evidencing and certisfying the conscience of man drawn to the barre of judgement set up as it were in the conscience that God hath taken satisfaction to his offended justice from the Lord Christ for all the offenders sinnes and hath for ever quit-claimed and discharged him from all sin and wrath and admitted him into favour and family to be under the dispensations of his grace for ever And then indeed God having by this
Gods evidencing and manifesting to the beleever that he was really justified in God from eternity but also in Gods Actual and Judiciall pronouncing of the sentence of Absolution to the soul drawn to Gods Tribunal and gasping for pardon thorough Christ By means whereof the poor sinner is constituted as well as declared actually and personally righteous and that before God his Justifier 3. That as oft as the Gospel speaketh of Justification by Faith it is in reference to this Transient Act of God not that Immanent 4. That as I conceive the Covenant between God and Christ to be if I may so term it a fruit in order to that immanent act in God so I think also that the Covenant of Promise the Covenant under the Law the Covenant under the Gospel and the very Covenant of Works to be subservients to this Covenant made with Christ as a publick person representing us to work all coordinately to the advancing of the glory of Gods Grace to his Elect in justifying them in himself from Eternity Yet so that if I find a candid Teacher in any or all these to inform me better I hope I shall not be wanting to shew my docility I should have wholly forborn to touch upon this point so famous a Divine having lately taken upon him the Province but this was written before and it will not hinder his further prosecution thereof to which I hear hee will bee provoked As to Mr. Baxter let him pretend what he will of his zeal against this Doctrine because it is a Pillar of Antinomianism yet his conscience tels him that his rage against it is under this consideration as it is a slâ—dge to beat in peeces the conditional Justification Election Redemption and Grace together with the pride of mans Free-will Works and Righteousnesse uncertainty of Perseverance c. Which are the Articles of Faith common to Mr. Baxter with the Papists and Arminians If Justification as an immanent act in God from Eternity hold all these must fall and Master Baxter and his fellows bee crushed with the ruines thereof The worke of the next Chapter therefore shall bee to examine the force of his reasons and arts whereby he seekes to refute and subvert it CHAP. XXI Arg. Mr. Baxters Reasons and Dispute examined by which he endeavoureth to refute Justification as an Immanent Act in God and from Eternity B. A great question it is whether Remission and Justification be Immanent or Transient Acts of God The mistake of this one point was that that led those two most excellent famous Divines Doctor Twiss and Mr. Pemble to that errour and pillar of Antinomianism viz. Justification from Eternity For saith Doctor Twiss often All acts immanent in God are from Eternity But Justification and Remission of sins are Immanent acts Therefore c. By Immanent in God they must needs mean Negatively not Positively For Acts have not the respect of an Adjunct to its Subject but of an Effect to its Cause Now whether all such Immanent Acts are any more Eternall then Transient Acts is much questioned As for God to know that the world doth now exist that such a man is now just or sanctified c. Gods fore knowledge is not a knowing that such a thing is which is not but that such a thing will be which is not Yet doth this make no change in God no more then the Sun is changed by the variety of creatures which it doth enlighten and warm or the glass by the variety of faces which it represents or the eye by the variety of colours which it beholdeth For whatsoever some say I doe not think that every variation of the object maketh a reall chaâ—ge in the eye or that the beholding of ten distinct colours at one view doth make ten distinct acts of the sight or alterations of it much less doe the objects of Gods knowledge make such alterations But grant that all Gods Immanent Acts are Eternall which I think is quite beyond our understanding to know yet most Divines will deny the minor and tell you that Remission and Justification are Transient Acts which is true but a truth which I never had the happiness to see well cleared by any For to prove it a Transient Act they tell us no more but that it doth transire in subjectum extraneum by making a Morall change on our relatio though not a reall upon our persons as Sanctification doth But this is onely to affirme and not to pâ—ove and that in generall onely not telling us what Act it is that maketh this change Relations are not capable of being the patients or subjects of any Act seeing they be but meer Entia Rationis and no reall beings Neither are they the immediate product or effect of any Act but in order of Nature are consequentiall to the direct effects The proper effect of the Act is to lay the foundation from whence the Relation doth arise And the same Act which layeth the foundation doth cause the Relation without the intervention of any other Suppose but the subjectum fundam entuÌ„ terminus and the Relation will unavoydably follow by a meer resultancy The direct effect therefore of Gods actuall Justification must be a reall effect though not upon the sinner yet upon something else for him And thence will his passive Justification follow Now what Transient Act this is And what its immediate real effect who hath unfolded I dare not be too confident in so dark a point But it seemeth to me that this justifying transient Act is the enacting or promulgation of the New Covenant wherein Justification is conferred upon every beleever Here passing and enacting this grant is a transient Act. 2. So may the continuance of it as I think 3. This Law or grant hath a Moral improper action whereby it mâ—y be said to pardon or justifie which properly is but virtuall justifying 4. By this grant God doth 1. Give us the righteousnesse of Christ to be ours when we beleeve 2. And disableth the Law to oblige us to punishment or to condemn us 3. Which reall foundation being thus laid our relations of Iustified and pardoned in title of Law do necessarily result A matchlesse and egregious dispute able to tum all the immanent Acts of God into Transient yea if spell'd backward to turne all his Transient Acts into immanent of force enough to extort from Gods bosome all that waâ— in him from eternity that it shall abide in him or with him no longer Here is Doctrine fitted to purpose for his ignorant babes and tender lambs of Kederminster for whose sake and use this worke if wee will believe the Author was chiefly published No lesse proper for them than the Scripture in the Latine tongue by his holy mother appointed for the illumination of them that cannot read the English or their Country language What a supereminent measure of the Spirit hath this man received above Christ himselfe above Paul the most learned
every such person That these Antinomians of the former age were filthy dreamers loose livers such as turned the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into lasciviousness is very probable if not certain from that which Calvin and others have written against Antinomians and Libertines And from such we have no less abhorrence then Mr. Baxter But while Mr. Baxter declaimeth against the innocent hee proclaimes himselfe a rank Antinomian in teaching and maintaining that the perfect obedience and righteousnesse of the Law are not required and consequentially not due under the Gospel Islebius himself never spake so derogatorily to the righteousness of the Law CHAP. XXIII Arg. Mr. Baxters distinction of Justification in Title of Law and in Sentence of Judgement examined together with other distinctions equipollent to this Whether besides the present there be also a future Justification and whether it be begun and perfected together at once I should wholly have passed over the 37 38 39 and 40 Theses with their Explications as meerly shady imaginations voyd of all reality and substance without stopping to give them one word of answer For why should wee talke of Pictures that have no life in them were it not that it is Master Baxters drift to carry us through these wayes of his own chalking wholly from Christ under a pretext of leading us to Christ the Justifier To frustrate therefore his deceit I shall speak somewhat to these passages of his Tractate also Thes 37. pag. 183. B. Iustification is either in title and the sense of Law or in sentence of judgement The first may be called Constitutive the second Declarative the first Virtual the second Actual Lawyers have layd it down for a Maxim Non est distinguendum ubi Lex non distinguit i. e. We are not to distinguish of any point in the Law where the Law it self hath not made a distinction If the Laws of men are not much lesse are the Laws and Word of God to be violated with mens bold distinctions For this is no lesse then to bring Gods sacred Oracles into a subjection to mans vain fancies Let Mr. Baxter shew any Scripture that gives footing for the distinguishing of Justification into that which is in title of Law and that which is in sentence of judgement into constitutive and declarative or virtuall and actuall Justification These are the inventions of wanton wits in these latter times whose endeavour it hath been to tear in peeces and thereby wholly nullifie Gods Justification and to put many Justifications of their own in stead thereof We deny not a constitutive and declarative Justification in some sense but in Mr. Baxters sense we deny it It is granted that the Satisfaction which the Son by promise gave and the Father accepted for the sins of the Elect according to the Covenant between the Father and the Son before more then once mentioned did constitute the Elect justified in Christ before they were born who notwithstanding were not declared just to their own consciences before they actually beleeved nor to others until they manifested their Faith by their Works But Mr. Baxter explodes this constitutive and declarative Justification as an unsufferable abhomination and will not have his virtuality and actuality to these applyed And let him alleage any one Scripture that calls the sentence of life unto those that shall bee saved by grace that is to be pronounced in the last day Justification Or if he cannot but that the justification of the New Covenant wherever it be mentioned in the Word be that which is in this present life who sees not that his distinguishing here tends to the subverting of Scriptures and of the both virtual and actual Justification which the Scriptures speak of B. The Scripture speaks of it many times as a future thing and not yet done Rom. 3. 30. Mat. 12. 37. Rom. 2. 13. Explic pag. 185. This is all that he bringeth or can bring for Justification in the day of Judgement and this all is nothing It followeth not because these Scriptures speak of Justification as of a thing to come saying they shall be not they are justified that this Future tense doth point out the day of Judgement If I should say Mr. Baxter shall dye I should not be accused for speaking an untruth but if any will needs confine that shall to the day of Judgement that Mr. Baxter shall then dye who would not laugh at the absurdity of the consequence That of Mat. 12. 37. By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned and that of Rom. 2. 13. Not the hearers but the doers of the Law shall be justified speak of Justification after the tenor and covenant of the Law not of Grace therefore pertain nothing to the present purpose Hee shall but Dare verba damnably deceive with words that teacheth men to seek for Justification by the righteousness of the Law consisting in deeds and words Whosoever indeed shall neither in word or deed be found a transgressor of the Law actually or originally shall be justified by his words and deeds But this man must be sought for out of a happier generation then those of the race of Adam else if we except Christ alone we must return our Non est inventus That of Rom. 3. 30. speaks indeed in the Future tense but may be as properly rendred by the word will as shall though the difference be not very considerable thus It is one God which will or shall justifie the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through Faith The Apostle here meaneth no otherwise speaking here in the Future then what he had said before in the Present Tense of Justification And it is as if he had said God hath decreed and declared his method of justifying both Jews Gentiles to be one and the same As long as there remain or succeed any upon earth of either part to be justified the purpose of God abides firm to justifie as wel the one as the other by faith and no one of either sort by Works neither circumcision nor uncircumcision shall avail or hinder any thing but Christ faith in Christ shall bee all unto all in this businesse as long as the world endureth And what is there then in this Text to pâ—ove Mr. Baxters declarative Justification in the day of Judgement Not that wee deny the adjudging of life in the day of Judgement to all that in this life were justified but the Scriptures terming this last sentence by the name of Justification whatsoever is said of Justification by Faith or Grace is still to be understood in this life And the whole reason that Mr. Baxter hath here to coyn a Justification in the day of judgement is to lay a foundation of Popish Justification by Works as by the sequele of this his Treatise will more fully appear Else would we not contend with him about meer words did they not tend to a destructive end and that we are taught
with the constant use of the Scripture And so the Text is thus to be read Repent c. that your sins may be blotted out and that the times of refreshing may come c. upon you In this sense is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken Mat. 6. 5. Lu. 2. 35. Act. 15. 17. Rom. 34. In which soever of all these senses the words be taken this Scripture favours not at all Mr. Bax. neither hath his second justification or pardon in the day of judgement any patronage from it Yea the vanity of this distinction of pardon justification into that which is in Title of Law an◠that which is in sentence of judgement this declarative that constitutive is evident to as many as understand evidences For the whole tenor of scriptures which speakes of the last judgement tendeth to manifest it to be a pronouncing of eternall glory to the Saints because they were justified and before pardoned perfectly righteous in that sin was not imputed to them in this life not a pronouncing of pardon to them that they may be thereby received into glory Let there be any Scripture produced to evince the contrary Or why will Master Baxter have the sentence of the judge and Saviour in the last day called a declarative justification and pardon To whom shall this his sentence declare it to God He knoweth who are his and whom he hath justified and pardoned in himself and thorow Christ before the World was made therefore needs no such declaration To themselves They had in this life the word of the Gospel declaring the truth of Faith evidencing and the spirit of grace witnessing it to them and whether at the very instant they shall be affirmed to have come in spirit from the flames of Purgatory or from under the Altar in Heaven to reassume their bodies for Master Baxter keeps himself reserved in this treatise what he thinkes thereof yet their separation from the reprobates hath enough declared them to be justified so that they need no◠any further declaration to be made therein to themselves Or lastly to the World This might be somewhat usefull to the World and to themselves while they were in the World but is now utterly uselesse when they shall no more return to the World Neither is there need of a voice to declare it to the World where their instantaneous rapture up to Christ in the air to sit with Christ in judging the World shall fully enough demonstrate it And no more doth this Scripture uphold this Justification as in other termes he proposed it calling it Actuall as distinct from that which he terms virtuall All these are but windy notions to fill up the dictionary of his distinctions which have no footing in the word And when all these are fardled together they will quickly be consumed with the fire of Gods jealousie and little steed Master Baxter to dispute out his justification by works in the day of judgement No less vaporous is that which he hath Thes 40. and in its Explication where he distinguisheth most learnedly between a barre and the bar between a Wooden and an Iron Bar between a Bar and a Bar of judgement a primary and secondary bar a direct and a Consequential Bar and all with such sagacity and profoundnesse as passeth all the wisedom of the Holy Ghost in the scriptures to make out unto us pa. 190 191 192 193. B. Thes 40. When Scripture speaketh of Justification by Faith it is to be understood primarily and directly of justification in Law title and at the bar of Gods publick judgement and but secondarily and consequentially of Justification at the bar of Gods secret judgement or at the bar of Conscience or at the bar of the World And in the explication he disputeth about B. The Forum Dei and the Forum Conscientiae the Bar of God and the Bar of Conscience the Bar of God and the Bar of the World the Bar of Gods secret judgement and the Bar of his publick judgement the Bar in heaven before the Angels contradistinct I suppose to the Bar in hell before the Devills At last he gallantly gathers together all these dispersed bars justifying and unjustifying pardoning and condemning us in some sense at all the barrs and in severall senses at severall barrs according as his wit and Sophistry doth give him utterance And to what purpose is all this but to tickle witty wanton and sophistically phantasticall brains flattering them off from the simplicity plainnesse and soundnesse of the Gopsell into a disputative fangled and wordy formality of religion having the spirit and power of Conscience and the word that should regulate it enervate and evapored in to meer froth and bubbles by this questionary distinctionary and colorative shew of learning In the mean while all these barrs are by the subtlety of this Artificer made use of to bar out the poor and simple for whom Christ hath dyed from the due comfort of their justification obscuring to them the Doctrine of grace sending them from Bar to Bar for pardon and peace and leaving them unsetled and hovering to their very dying day yea till they come to the bar of Christ at the judgement day where if they be followers of this mans Doctrine they shall appear no lesse uncertainly and tremblingly before the great judge than the reprobate men and Devills For untill then all the former barrs according to Master Baxter minister no absolute pardon or acquittance to any soul so free from the Curse but that we are left under the curse acquit conditionally that is leave us fast bound to hell as it found us loose the finger to day that it may bind us up hand and foot to morrow Such and so pretiou◠Gospel doth this learned Scribe draw out of his Treasury among his Keder minsterians as by that we have already seen hath been in part manifested and by that which followes in this Treatise will more fully appear When contrary to all this Sophisticall winding circling and labyrinthicall Mazes the Scripture speaking of Justification and condemnation after the tenor of the Covenants makes onely two Barrs of judgment the Bar of justice according to the Law and the Bar of grace or Mercy-seat according to the Tenor of the Gospel or New Covenant affirming all that are judged at the one condemned and all at the other justified That as soon as we are convicted of death and vengeance onely due to us at the former we are carried out in the Spirit of Christ thorow the consecrated way of his purifying blood to seek remission of sinnes at the latter the Throne of grace the all gracious Father from the bar of grace pronounceth to our consciences peace and pardon and joy which shall never be taken from us This is the sole and all-sufficient Justification which the Scripture speakes of speaking properly of justification The subject hath heaped up Treasons against his Prince For this cause the Law apprehends and arraigns him The
untill the day of Judgement after Mr. Baxter and what may fall out as touching the apostasie of their souls before that day is uncertain And it being not known of those that should come after him who or whether any would beleeve and persevere in beleeving If of Gods justifying us in our selves i. e. declaring and evidencing us justified we do in some cases acknowledge that God hides his face and evidenceth not his love in Christ in the same degree to all beleevers but in God and in Christ they are still justified and their salvation is sure But Mr. Baxter shakes off this Act of Justification in disdain therefore the absurdities which follow in his conditions in respect of one of the former cannot be avoided I forbear to enlarge my self further in this kinde here having spoken to it before and finding a necessity of speaking more afterward But it will be expected that Mr. Baxters Arguments be rather answered then his conclusion denyed and opposed let us therefore examine them as far as I can finde they are in number two by which he proveth faith to be the condition of justification 1. It is plain and undenyable This I acknowledge is a Noli me tangere strikes dead in the place renders the respondent as mute as a fish Let a wiser man undertake it is past my skill to answer 2. The whole tenor of the Gospel shews that specially such Scriptures as give their testimony of our justification in Christ before faith entred to purifie our hearts When we were without strength when sinners when enemies we were reconciled to God by the death and justified by the bloud of his Son Rom. 5. 6 8 9 10. While we were in our blood polluted Ezek. 16. 6. While yet unborn and had done neither good nâ—r evil Rom. 9. 11. 13. When yet of the world and not served from the common masse of mankinde Joh. 3. 16. God loved us to salvation While yet dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickned and saved us by grace Ephes 2. 5. Blotting out the hand-writing c. forgiving all our trespasses unto us in Christ while yet hanging on the Crosse Col. 2. 13 14 15. making us accepted in Christ the be loved Ephes 1. 6. putting away our sin and perfecting us for ever by the sacrifice and blood of Christ i. e. in Christ offering himself and his bloud in sacrifice Heb. 9. 26. 10. 14. and all this before we had a being who now live much more before we were in a capacity of having any condition in our selves of Justification As also such Gospel Scriptures as affirm this remission or justification unreversible calling it an eternal redemption Heb. 9. 12. a perfecting of us for ever Heb. 10. 14. so that there is no more condemnation Rom 8. 1. no more remembrance of iniquity Heb. 10. 17. no more separation from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 39. and other many such testimonies before in part quoted and partly remaining to be alleadged if occasion shall require all which do concur in one harmony to evince Justification once obtained to depend upon no conditions but to be absolute and indefeasable that if any fall away it is because they only seemed but never were in the number of the truly justified 1 Joh. 2. 19. Whosoever layeth all these together and will not be convinced that Faith in Mr. Baxters sense is the condition of Justification but will beleeve the Gospel it self more then what Mr. Baxter speaketh of the Gospel for any thing that I know he may remain the Disciple of Christ and unconvinced still In the Appendix in the answer to the six and seven Questions or Objections pag. 41. to the 46. Mr. Baxter makes it his task again to prove the justification of the New Covenant to be conditionall and not absolute But so poorly doth he there handle his dispute so unlike Mr. Baxter who when Scriptures fail him is elsewhere wont to play his game with Sophistry which here doth very little help him that unto a discreet man nothing can more breed a suspicion of the goodnesse of the cause then the hard shifts confusednesse contradictions and other weak devices and extravagancies to which so accomplisht a scholar is put even when he hath no opponent but a meer question to make it seem probable How doth the man put himself here into a wood or wildernesse seeking but finding no certain way out acting his wit and study to the highest to expedite himself in a cleer way that might be visible and plain to himself and others and not finding it he at last doth what may be done in such a labyrinth trusteth to groping for what he cannot see And first he seems to have found in the dark a two-fold Covenant of Grace one absolute and the other conditional First then he follows the absolute Covenant if that will or can lead him with certainty to any safety or shew of reason what to speak of it as he makes it contradistinct to the Conditional Covenant or Justification that the former which he cannot deny may stand as a cipher but this be the Numeral and only in power and force here he is carryed in a maze of doubts and rovings not finding where to pitch 1. Pag. 41. Sect. the 42. he would shake off this absolute Justification as a Prophesie and promise made only to the Jews not extending to us but here the Apostle meets him in the way Heb. 8. 8 9. otherwise expounding the Scripture that holds it forth so that this shift fails him 2. He questions whether the Apostle mention it as an absolute promise or else in an opposition to he knows not what but foreseeing what would herein be answered he lets fall this too pag. 42. 3. He brings something which he thinks will hold water that this absolute Covenant of Justification is made with the Elect and not with mankinde in generall What is this to the purpose He is here treating of the New Covenant as it respecteth Justification And what one Scripture can he produce that tels us of all mankinde and not of the Elect only justified In what a straight is the man that in stead of distinctions which were ever wont to be his Egyptian Reed to succour him he is forced to fly to confusions for help For so he confounds together here the promulgation of Justification with Justification in its beeing or with the being of it when these are different As well might he pronounce the rich glutton to be no lesse blessed in seeing then was Lazarus by being in Abrahams bosome as to pronounce all mankinde justified because Christ is conditionally offered to all for Justification We have granted before the promulgation and offer of Justification by the Gospel to be conditionall but the gift and beeing of it to be absolute Neither is there any thing in this offer to our Justification in Christ which is absolute before and without any promulgation
or conditionall offer thereof to us Nor any thing to the justified and actually declared just in themselves Justification is no longer in a conditionall offer to them but in its absolute being within them Whatsoever therefore he addeth there pag. 43 44. is wide from the question being not limited to the Justification of the New Covenant which is the subject of his Treatise which here he shunneth and talketh extravagantly about sanctification because he cannot confute the absolute justification but that it doth and will stand and standing will not admit a conditional justification to stand with it and by it in its beeing though the offer thereof before it is in beeing be conditionall And this is all which at length he concludeth pag. 45. of the conditionall Covenant of Grace which without all this circuition would have been granted him viz. that it is propounded and offered to mankinde conditionally if they will beleeve and without this faith none hath or shall have the benefit and comfort thereof to themselves and in themselves because all these that do not or shall not being in a capacity to beleeve are reprobates and as many as are elect shall come to Christ and beleeve in him as hath been before shewed What he addeth for the application may have some pertinency to the matter there objected but it hath none to the thing here in question Therefore I passe it by as not concerning us 2. To his Causa sine qua non briefly thus 1 In so tearming Faith he denyes faith to be any cause at all of our Justification for that is but Causa â—quivoca or nomine tenus or titulo tenus hath but the name not the nature of a cause hath no causality upon gives no influx into the effect 2 Neither whatsoever it be is Faith the Causa sine qua non of Justification in that sense as Mr. Baxter taketh and defineth it either in his stricter or larger definition except he will say that no Infants are justified who do not cannot accept Christ much lesse so beleeve as in his larger definition he sets forth faith 3 Faith is not the Causa sine qua non of our justification in God no nor yet in Christs Justification as he tearms it for these are antecedaneous to our faith and our faith not an antecedent to it 4 At the utmost it can be but the Causa sine qua non of Gods declaring and evidencing of our selves to our selves justified and this justification Mr. Baxter so disdaineth and snuffs at that he will not own it much lesse mention it Yet can he not with all his Sophistry name any other act of justification in this life whereof faith can be proved to be the Antecedent Medium or Causa sine qua non 5 Why doth he call faith and all the conqualifications wherewith he loadeth the shoulders thereof and all the works which he makes its Concomitants the Causa sine qua non as if all these with their Colaterall in the other scale of his ballance Christs satisfaction did make up the one and sole Causa sine qua non of our justification can none else be named Besides other the weaknesse and infirmity of the Law to justifie as it removes the impediment of justifiablenesse in Gods Court of strict Justice For had there been a Law given which could have given life verily righteousnesse should have been by the Law Gal. 3. 21. and sin which removes the same impediment might more properly and socially then Christs satisfaction have been placed on horseback in the same saddle of Causa sine qua non had not Mr. Baxter thought Christ would blesse but these would have defiled this golden saddle of his own either making or appropriating to this use and so bespattered and undressed the righteousnesse of his Qualifications and good works that they would never more become fit to ride on horsback in procession with the Holy Wafer Thus his condition and Causa sine qua non must be new modelled ere they will be Canonicall But see we here the mans wit which never fails him at a dead lift What he cannot act by power he seeks to compasse by a stratagem Because he cannot cover the nakednesse of his assertion he labors to make bare ours and cast filth in it that having diverted the eyes of his Reader thither he may forget the vanity of his Condition or Causa sine qua non And thus he doth it B. Here by the way take notice that the samemen thus blame the advancing of Faith so high as to be our true Gospel Righteousnesse Posit 17 20. and to be imputed in a proper sense Posit 23. do yet when it comes to tryall ascribe far more the faith then those they blame making it Gods instrument in justifying In examining all these quoted Theses I have shewed both who they are which blame him or at least his doctrine which was born before ever he commenced such a Doctor viz. All the Orthodox Protestant Divines and Christians and withall for what they blame it viz. as it is Papism Socinianism and at the best Arminianism 3. To which I have also made out their just grounds of blaming it as may be there seen yet to cheat his Reader he cals these those very men as if there were some few contemptible Antinomians lately sprung up when himself knows them to be all the Churches of Christ which since the Reformation have been called Protestants But of what blasphemy or evill fact doth he accuse them That they ascribe more to Faith then those they blame making it Gods instrument in justifying Yea but we have seen or thought we had seen at least just grounds for their so doing how doth Mr. Baxter aggravate it to make it odious B. 1. And so to have part of the honour of Gods own Act. Fie upon the Hugonets and Lutherans if this be true who then will not run from them at Mr. Baxters heels to Rome But the Scriptures make Balaams Aâ—se Gods instrument to rebuke the madnesse of the Prophet Namb. 22. 28 30. 2 Pet. 2. 15 16. The Raven his Instrument to feed Elijah 1 King 17. 6. The brazen Serpent his instrument of healing the Israelites bitten with firie Serpents Joh. 3. 14. Numb 21. 9. The Assyrians his instruments of chastising and reforming his people Isa 10. 5. c. and the very Devil his instrument of trying Job Job 1. 12. and of executing his pleasure upon Ahab 2 King 22. 21 22. Shall we now fall foul with the Scriptures and accuse them that they ascribe part of the honour of Gods own acts to the Asse the Raven the Serpent the Assyrians the Devil by affirming these to be the instruments by which God acted Doth not the seeblenesse of the means and instruments speak out the whole honour of the action to pertain to the Lord Was it to honour his slaves and abase his freemen and subjects the Lords Israel that Solomon made the former
imforming and giving life and vertue to it an act apprehending Christ as its object in whom all its vertue lyeth the cloud or darknesse in which Christ dwelleth as God was formerly in a cloud or darknesse upon mount Sinai and in the Temple or as all our Divines say the hand by which we receive Christ made of God righteousnesse to us and in us Gal. 3. 27. 1 Cor. 1. 30. 2 Cor. 5. 21. That the life of justification consisteth not in works at all nor in faith considered in a sense divided from Christ but in Christ our life living in us so that the life which we live is by the faith of the Son of God by the recumbency of our souls by faith upon the Son of God which is our life and that this is to live by faith Gal. 2. 20. Col. 3. 4. Gal. 3. 11. That Christ with all his righteousnesse to remission and salvation is given us freely of God not sold as by Judas to his enemies and so made ours without money without price without fine or rent In the Covenant of grace there is nothing smelling of a Simoniacall contract it is wholly of Gods giving not in the least particle of our purchasing Isa 9. 6. Joh. 3. 16. Isa 55. 1. That the life and justification which are by the second Adam descend to us in the same manner with the sin and condemnation from the first Adam But these descended by our naturall union and communion with the first Adam not by our imitation of him For death reigned from Adam over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam Therefore also righteousnesse and justification descend to us by the union and communion which we have with the second Adam Christ Jesus and not from our imitation of him and configuration to him for when we were yet enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Not but that every one to whom the sin and condemnation of Adam once descended are thenceforth imitators of and configured to Adam or that they to whomsoever the righteousnesse and justification of Christ have descended do not thenceforth become imitators of and are configured to the image of Christ but that these imitations and configurations do follow and not goe before such union and communion declaring not producing the sin and condemnation which are from Adam or the righteousnesse and justification which are from the Lord Christ Rom. 5. 11. 19. And this is a sound Argument which the Apostle bringeth to prove that works can in no respect justifie or save For we are Gods workmanship saith he created in Christ Jesus to good works which God hath ordained before that we should walk in them Ephes 2. 9 10. where we may take notice that good works are Gods end in saving or justifying us from sin But the means do alway in order of nature go before and not follow the end in execution I mean though not in intention That we are first in Christ the justifyer and in possession of the justification that is by him and then being new created in Christ to the image of God are inabled to do good works That God hath ordained before that we should walk in them being saved or justifyed not that we should be saved or justifyed by them That the righteousnesse of God by which we are justifyed is from faith to faith not begun by faith and ended in works which according to the Apostle is a beginning in the spirit and a seeking to be perfected by the flesh Rom. 1. 17. Gal. 3. 3. Should I proceed so far as the Scriptures as a leading thread would guide me for the confirmation of justification without works I should be taken as exorbitant For the rest I shall refer the reader to such writers as have handled the point of justification against the Papists or to the disputations of the Apostle himself against the false Apostles who taught the same doctrine with Mr. Baxter though not expresly in the same words They taught that we cannot be saved by Christ by faith in Christ alone except we be circumcised and keep the Law or do the works which the Law commandeth Act. 15. 1 24. Mr. Baxter teacheth in this his 60. Thesis that B. The bare act of beleeving is not the onely condition of the New Covenant but severall other duties also are parts of that condition If we take together with his words that which in the precedent Chapter we have manifested to be his meaning in these words and that by the bare act of beleeving he understands faith without and in opposition to works for himself knoweth that it is his Pontificall-Arminian-Socinian not our Protestant Evangelicall doctrine which holds out justification by beleeving as either a bare or a cloathed act or work then he teacheth the same doctrine for which the Apostle anathematized the false Apostles and arch-church-troublers in his time Gal. 1. 7 8 9. 5. 12. And what the Apostle hath against them is against Mr. Baxter their own son I will not say in the faith but in perverting the faith and Gospell For neither did they deny faith but Mr. Baxters bare faith faith without works to be effectuall to justification Against this assertion common to him and them if there were no other Scriptures contradicting but what I have alleaged no arguments brought by our Divines to subvert it and to establish the contrary doctrine but what have been here expressed and implied al which are scarce a drop of their ful bucket yet doth Mr. Baxter declare any finglenesse of heart or sincere aime to advance the glory and truth of God in suppressing all this and all the rest in silence so to beguile his more Logicall then Theologicall readers whom he knowes to be more acquainted with Sophistry then Divinity with exotick scriblings then Canonicall Scriptures with an opinion that the stream of Scriptures runne all to his Mill and that we have nothing from the Word favouring our cause Neither let any object that our Churches do only deny the merit of works not the necessity of them as a condition to justification Herein I shall have a fit place to speak afterward as to Mr. Baxter and as it is his plea to lenifie his self-arrogating assertion In the interim to manifest the simplicity of our gudgeons that are apt to swallow the most portentous errours if offered to them involved in fine terms of logicall notions among whom some that erewhile did prosecute with bel book and candle some to death some to banishment some to sequestrations whom they thought but to smell a little of the perfumes of the purple whore These very same men now having inriched themselves with the spoyles of them whom by their outcries they erewhile pursued are mad to drench themselves with the very dregs of the cup of fornication which is in the hand of the whore and kisse the lips of Mr. Baxter which hath blessed with plausible words the doctrine
Scriptures which Mr. Baxter quotes to prove that repentance as a really distinct thing from faith justifyeth do wholly fail him For as our Divines well say against the Papists though these two acts must needs cooperate together viz. the casting out of self and the receiving of Christ yet it is the latter alone that doth properly and instrumentally justifie by receiving the justifyer and his righteousnesse the former act doth but disponere materiam as one saith not too catachrestically doth but put a man as it were in a justifiable posture and capacity doth but obiâ—em tollere pluck out and cast away the barre that might fasten the door against Christs entrance and this it doth not as a distinct vertue from faith but as a subservient act of faith to its receiving of Christ Lastly those of the forequoted Scriptures which speak of repentance in a strict sense advantagious to life after conversion and that which the Papists and Mr. Baxter call the first justification as 2 Cor. 7. 10. and some other these speak of repentance indeed really distinct from faith being an effect or fruit of faith But this repentance is in no other sense called repentance to life then as by it the Saints sometimes recover the sense and comfort of their justification that had for a while laid fainting in them or as it is impowred from above to repair confirme and increase the life of sanctification in them And this is besides the question in hand whether repentance justifyeth I shall therefore pretermit to speak futher of it And thus have we one file of his Scripture quotations examined and do finde that all which he would thence deduce to confirme a collaterall officiating of repentance as a thing really distinct from faith together with faith to justification stands him in no stead at all The second duty which he nameth as an equall condition with faith of our justification is praying for pardon and forgiving Pag. 230. others In this though he follow Bellarmine yet he holds not himself to Bellarmines words but having overtaken him runs beyond him Bellarmine thus speaketh having mentioned before two things that justifie Thirdly saith he Spes obtinendae veniae est etiam dispositio ad justitiam et remissionem peccatorum i. e. Hope of forgivenesse is also a disposition to righteousnesse and the remission of sins Mr. Baxter outruns him and saith that praying for pardon and forgiving of others too are conditions of pardon but suppose that I do hope and pray for pardon and forgive others too shall I then be forgiven Mr. Baxter will not promise that but if I do that caeteris paribus then forsooth I may hope well but what is this sensus compositus or caeteris paribus viz. if I do this and all that else is to be done i. e. all the duties which either Law or Gospell commands me But I demand if all this be done am I then justifyed Neither will he grant me this I am then conditionally justifyed as I was before I did any thing yea more I am now a probationer for justification and upon my bene se gesserit my good behaviour I am justifyed for an hour possibly untill I be unjustifyed again but if I do all and never cease to do all either while I am living c. or when I am dead there may be possibly a day when there be no more days when I may if all things faie well be justifyed But further that all may faie well will he tell me what the caeteris paribus the rest conditions are that I may perform them all and not misse in number Thus far possibly he will condescend to make known some of them and to give me some generalls of the rest and make known the materia prima in which the substantiall formes lurk yea the genera and the species that are such subalternatim but the species specialissimas infimas together with their individuals he either will not or cannot particularize the seed of Mr. Baxter in this kind is more numerous then the seed of Abraham more then the starres of heaven then the sands of the sea for multitude yet if one be wanting I am as far from justification as if I had nothing So blessed a man will Mr. Baxters conditions make me But let me on the contrary part demand of Mr. Baxter Suppose a person truely in the Covenant of grace vitally in Christ if he have never a one of these additory conditions actually moving in him is not his justification and glory as certain as anothers that hath all the conditions Mr. Baxter dares not deny the supposition to be possible for then shall he exclude all dying Infants from the kingdome of heaven which in another book of his it is said he flatly denyeth the consequent therefore cannot be denyed that justification before God is as sure without as with these conditions and so no condition at all to be granted of our justification save that which may assure and declare it to our selves What mis-spent time will it be then to bawl about two or three of many decads and centuries yea myriads of conditions by disputing whether they be conditions when if we know not and have not all the rest it shall go as well with those that have none of them as with them that have all to one I had almost said when these all brought as conditions in Mr. Baxters sense to Gods tribunall will without doubt condition him that brings them to condemnation But because Mr. Baxter and his disciples may be angry if we hear not what so great a Master saith for our own safety we will attend to hear what Scriptures he alleageth The first he brings from the prayer of Solomon 1 King 8. 30 39. Hear Lord thy servants when they shall pray towards or in this place and forgive them and give to every man according to his wayes What will hence follow either ergo whosoever prayeth in or towards Solomons Temple in Jerusalem shall be forgiven so far as forgivenesse consisteth in giving to every man according to his ways or shall be forgiven as to the famine and pestilence c. ver 38. mentioned so as he pray caeteris paribus though he be never forgiven as to hell fire or ergo there was a time when prayer for pardon was a condition of forgivenesse viz. when the Temple stood at Jerusalem if prayer were made in it or towards it but now since the desolation of the Temple this condition for the space of 1600. years hath been out of force Let him conclude better for himself from these premises if he can I can conclude no better thence to the maintenance of his assertion And it is worthy of consideration to take notice how extremely the Apostles logick and Mr. Baxters logick do differ From the like promise of salvation made in Scriptures to them that pray for it the Apostle concludes that we are justifyed and saved by faith thus
1 If we look strictly to the words Mr. Baxter must hence argue only that our confession is a condition of Gods faithfulnesse as if God either cannot or will not be faithfull except we confesse But let us give Mr. Baxter the largest advantage that he can claim in the meaning of the words that God is positively and not hypothetically or conditionally faithfull and that of his faithfulnesse he will forgive and cleanse if we confesse In this sense then whereas the Apostle speaketh affirmatively not negatively if we confesse he will forgive not if we confesse not he will not forgive I do 2 Demand whether confession be so a condition of forgivenesse that whosoever confesseth shall be forgiven This Mr. Baxter will not affirme without his caeteris paribus whereof the Text speaks not a word expresly or implicitely for him and if he conclude negatively he concludes not from the Text but his own fancie Obj. But if you deny forgivenesse upon confession made you deny what the Text affirmeth and so fight against the word it self denying what it clearly affirmeth Answ True if we deny it to them to whom the Text grants and promiseth it But the Apostle speaks here not to the unjustifyed and unforgiven but to the Sants forgiven and justifyed already and the Emphasis of the proposition or promise is in the word we if we that are in Christ confesse God will hold faithfull in keeping Covenant with us and forgive So that this is a consolation to the Saints against all their dayly infirmities They have a priviledge above all the world besides If they sin they have an advocate with the Father c. through whom when they confesse and bewail their sins the grace of God will by his Spirit testifie and seal to their consciences the forgivenesse of them 3 To descend without the Text to Mr. Baxters conditio sine qua non there must be more then a grain of salt to make his assertion savory that without confession there is no forgivenesse For if by it he mean that of the Apostle Confession with the mouth he shall exclude many thousands from justification whom the Scripture excludeth not 4 I grant to Mr. Baxter that some of our Divines have affirmed though I fear somewhat rawly and inconsiderately that confession is a condition sine qua non of forgivenesse yet far from Mr. Baxters sense viz. with these three limitations whereof Mr. Baxter will not endure the test 1 Of the forgivenesse which is by the new Covenant or as it is declared and sealed up to our consciences Not of the forgivenesse which was laid up in the hands as laid up in the hands of Christ and ours in him before we beleeved or confessed 2 Such a condition as is not in the same relation with faith as Mr. Baxter makes it the very naming whereof they detest as absolutely contradicting the nature and authority of the Gospell 3 Such a condition as explodes the caeteris paribus sensu composito of Mr. Baxter so that though they speak somewhat of Mr. Baxters words yet they are at a defiance against his sense and meaning How and in what sense they will have it a condition is no place here to treat It hath been a digression to say any thing of it because it is utterly besides the Text to which alone here I was to speak B. Act. 8. 22. Repent of this thy wickednesse and pray God if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee This Scripture I passed by in the former heap of his quotations as possibly a mistake in the quotation but finding it here again and afterward in a third place I see the man means as he quoteth and cannot enough marvell what he can fish from this Scripture to prove any thing of mans works a condition of justification If the word If here make or argue a condition it must be on Gods not on mans part that man must repent and pray upon condition that God will forgive else not if forgivenesse be not the causa sine qua non of repentance and prayer But this is nonsense to have God upon terms if he will have any duty from us He must therefore mean on the other side God will forgive upon condition of prayer and repentance But how he will perswade this Scripture to say it is past my capacity to comprehend Here is no promise himself grants there is but an half-promise of forgiving on Gods part Append. pag. 79. and nothing mentioned as a condition on mans part But contrariwise duties of naturall righteousnesse commanded or counselled to a naturall man upon such cold encouragement as the Scripture affords to the carnall devotions of carnall men carnally performed If perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven If Mr. Baxters Assertions be but so sound as his Arguments neither will serve for good Bell-mettall B. Act. 3. 19 Repent and be converted that your sinns may be blotted out c. How far repentance is a condition hath been discoursed of and discussed already B. Act. 22. 16. Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord. Is then Baptism a condition so necessary that without it there is no washing away of sin And must the Popish Tenent be found writren in Mr. Baxters Calender with red letters Sacramenta opere operato conferunt gratiam or doth Baptism prove ineffectuall to all that do not cannot call upon the name of the Lord Then whether Mr. Baxter be more against himself or against the Protestant Churches who can decide More modestly speaks even Bellarmine which makes the desire of receiving the Sacraments a condition of justification expelling from forgivenesse them that desire them not this man rigorously and cruelly shakes into condemnation those that do not because they have not opportunity to receive them though their desire be unfeigned or if he doth not so this Scripture proves not Baptism to be the condition sine qua non As for calling upon the name of the Lord I have before spoken to B. 1 Pet. 4. 18. If the righteous be scarce saved where shall the wicked and ungodly appear I should be in a Labyrinth of doubts how he would argue hence for himself were it not that elsewhere he explaineth himself in his book thus If the righteous be scarce saved by all their strivings how shall they be saved that strive not at all We deny not the duty of striving in holy things yea of striving for salvation though in Mr. Baxters sense we deny it Yet the meaning of this Text as appears by its dependence upon the verse precedent is If the corruptions and unbelief of heart be so great in the very Saints and beleevers that they must passe through the purifying fire of Gods judgments more and more to perfect them before they be made vessels of honour in the Kingdome of glory or that they need the scourge of Gods correction to whip them back
slaves future service is not a condition but a consequent of his present redemption But let us see now whether Mr. Baxter with this paint of that which he cals right Reason do fight against God or Man doth resist the placits of men or else the holy Ghost himself He required before that all might be tryed by Scriptures Let us now bring his doctrine to the touch-stone I shall not repeat all or any of the Scriptures before alleadged or that might be further alleadged against him One arrow out of that holy quiver one Scripture out of the whole body of Gospell doctrine shall suffice to smite to the heart to death it self all that he goeth about here with fine flourishes of wit to establish Eph. 2. 8 9 10. thus speaks the holy Ghost By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast For ye are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them That the word Saved is an equipollent here with Justifyed if there should be any that will deny yet Mr. Baxter will and must affirme unlesse he will beat in pieces one of the chief pillars of the fabrick erected in this book and overthrow what he hath built In this truth he must joyn with us though in other he estrange himself from us The same Act of God being called justifying as it dischargeth us from the state of our misery as considered to be a state of sin and saving as it delivereth us from it under the consideration of it as a state of condemnation and vengeance Mr. Baxter will grant cannot but grant this And then there will naturally drop from this Scrtpture these following positions 1 That the justification or salvation of the Covenant of grace is by faith 2 That it is not of works but by faith in opposition to works 3 That the very works which flow from our union to Christ and to which we are new created in Christ Jesus even those which Mr. Baxter calleth the righteousnesse of the Gospell are excluded from bearing any part with faith in our justification 4 That the not justification by works doth in no wise hinder the beleevers performing of them for they are created in Christ Jesus their hearts are new wrought by the Spirit to a holy delight in them 5 That God hath not ordained them to justifie but for the new created and justifyed in Christ to walk in them 6 That to teach otherwise of works the very works of Sanctification is to depresse Gods grace and to extoll mans boasting and vain-glory 7 Even these gospell works and righteousnesse are excluded from having any part in justifying not only as collaterals with the satisfaction of Christ but also as collaterals with faith i. e. from bearing a part either in causality or conditionality with faith to justifie I challenge Mr. Baxter and all his Legall and Anti-evangelicall disciples here to deny any one of these positions to spring naturally from this Text. And if the the holy Ghost here speak all this then by it all that Mr. Baxter speaketh throughout this whole Tractate for justification by works is by the breath of Gods mouth blown to the curse as in many things I shall by Gods help shew afterward At the present what he speaketh of works comprehended in faith to justification is here shaken off as a Sophisticall phantasticall Antiscripturall dream the holy Ghost here by the positing of faith in expresse words rejecting works Gospell works all that Mr. Baxter makes a part with faith in that which he cals Evangelicall righteousnesse from all and any copartnership with faith in saving or justifying so excludes all as that he denyeth that justification by grace can any more stand if the best Gospell works of the best Saints are put in any cooperation with faith in the promoting of it All the rest that he hath in the explication pa. 240. and thence to pa. 243. is wholly besides the question which is not whether works and duties be reducible to faith or in what respect every particular qualification and duty standeth to it But whether reduced or not reduced it doth by Gods appointment help with saith to justify us before God This we have found to be an usuall feat of Mr. Baxter where his assertions are confident and peremptory but his proofs of them light and shadie to devise in such case some witty passage wherewith to divert the considerations of his reader from the shame and nakednesse of his foregoing Arguments And this most probably was his drift and craft here having given us but words in stead of Arguments to prove that works are comprehended and implied in faith in all such Scriptures as attribute justification to faith only that the emptinesse and nothingnesse of his argumentation to make this good may not appear to the reader he tols him a way to attend to a subtle and plausible dispute of the relation that every good endowment and work hath particularly to faith In which discourse of his we will not examine how many things are true and how many false for if they were all true they are nothing to the thing in question viz. whether in the severall relations that Mr. Baxter makes them to stand to faith or in any other they help with faith to justification and that so as that when all these with faith cojustifie we may be yet said to be justifyed by faith alone When he hath spoken all by meer affirming without confirming he thus indeed at last concludeth pa. 243. B. So then when you invite a man to your house it is not necessary to bid him come in at the door or bring his head or arms or legs or cloaths with him though these are necessary because all these are necessarily implyed Even so when we are said to be justifyed by faith only or when it is promised that he which beleeveth shall be saved all these forementioned duties are implyed and included How ecliptick is falshood but sincerity open and full No man invites another to his house but to some end either to taste of some dainties or hear some good tidings or see some excellent work or for some other end He should have named the end and we would grant him all thus that as much as the door head legs armes clothes of the invited do partake with the mouth in the act of tasting or with the eye in seeing or the ear in hearing so much when we are invited to Christ do other duties and workes partake with faith in receiving him to justification A third argument if indeed it be not one and the same in substance and differ only in words from the former he draweth from a wide wilde vast confused and incircumscriptive definition of faith begotten of his own brain and now first as an overgrown monster born into the world and baptized
is more adoe then come in and sit down and take what we have a minde to God hath put all his Sons offices into the condition to be received and submitted to Either all or none must be accepted And if all be in the condition then the receiving of all must needs justifie upon the grounds that I have laid down before It is not a new thing to see heresie usurping the chaire to condemne truth of errour The reasoning here is wholly carnall and naturall besides the rule of the Gospell When he calls faith a naturall way of receiving the mercy offered by Christ and our own worth and works implyedly the spirituall way how doth he put light for darknesse and darknesse for light giving to the truely spirituall cause of renewing that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 14. The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God c. Can Heaven and Hell be more opposite either to other then the Apostles doctrine to Mr. Baxters The Apostle cals the way of faith alone the Spirit and the way of works superadded to faith for justification the flesh Gal. 3. 3. Is it Flesh or Spirit in Mr. Baxter that makes him a contradictor of the holy Ghost speaking by the Apostle The way of faith is the way of grace supernaturall Flesh and bloud cannot reveal it unto us but our Father which is in heaven But the way of works is beneath grace dictated by nature it self therefore naturall but so that all the force of nature cannot effectuallize it to justification It is a slander that he puts upon the Orthodox whom he hateth therefore represents them as Noddies and Simpletons pretending that they teach faith to be nothing but an accepting of pardon and accepting of holinesse c. Nay we make neither pardon nor holinesse nor the c. but Christ Jesus the object of our faith adhere and cleave to him for all yet not confounding his benefits or the means by which he applyeth them but wait by faith at the severall sluces by which he conferreth his severall benefits to receive the washing away of our guilt by the effusion of his bloud and holinesse or sanctification by the effusion of his Spirit and not contrariwise holinesse by his bloud and pardon by the effusion of his Spirit So we repair by faith to Christ for all because in him as in the spring is all yet so as that in coming to him alone that hath all we come to the Sun of righteousnesse for light to the fountain for life and to the Spirit of sanctification which flowes from him for holynesse He cryes against separation and makes it as I have shewed for union and makes confusions Where doth he mention any office or operation of faith to sanctification or use of sanctification but to justification or what is faith with him but a compound of all endowments works and duties And thus he confounds faith and works Christs righteousnesse and mans righteousnesse morall honesty and Gospell sanctification of all together making up one linsy-woolsy justification or righteousness to justification which the Spirit of God never revealed but the spirit of Mr. Baxter hath hatched What he speaketh of Christ stablishing his office either is above my understanding or else is not at all to his purpose And what of accepting as under the notion of accepting or as under the notion of a condition hath been enough spoken to in what was before said about the instrumentality of faith All that followeth is wholly averse from and adverse to the doctrine of the Gospell Jewish and Popish For what meanes he by our title in Law and the wedding garment but the whole furniture of works and duties done in obedience to a supposed legislative authority of Christ Without these and before these to take possession i. e. to dare to adhere to Christ for justification is usurpation and an incurring of Gods vengeance for usurping Thus beating off from Christ sinners chief sinners for whom Christ hath dyed How doth the spirit of the rejected Jewes work upon this man when they heard of righteousnesse and Act. 22. 21 22 23. salvation offered to the Gentiles a common and profane people that were not holy how did they stretch their throats and rend their clothes in a zeal against this indignity So this man hearing of the justificition of Publicans and sinners hath his eye evill because God is good tears himself with anger crying usurpation vengeance hell-fire why because they had not put on the filthy rags of mans righteousnesse which he cals the wedding garment and thereby gotten title to Christ before they were so bold as to beleeve in him and girded on their own gaol-clothes first and then have put on Christ upon them that their own righteousnesse might have been neerest the heart and Christs righteousnesse at a further distance as having no efficacy but from our own righteousnesse effectuallizing it Unto all this I shall use only that oracle of the Lord Christ The Publicans and harlots enter into the Kingdome of God before these Pharisaicall justiciaries and whited sepulchers Let Christ alone be my wedding garment I leave all that unrighteous righteousnesse which Mr. Baxter would wrest out from the Kingly office entire to Mr. Baxter to compleat his righteousnesse to justification I know no other title to the justification of the new Covenant which the chief sinners must look after before they possesse it but the grant of grace in the new Covenant and their closure by faith with Christ in whom God presents himself to justifie and reconcile them to himself One voice of my Bride-groom crying Whosoever thirsteth i. e. is dry and empty of all good in himself let him come to me and whosoever will let him drink of the well of the water of life freely Rev. 22. 17. is of more force with me then ten thousand contradicting voices such as this of Mr. Baxter There is more adoe then come in and sit down and take what we have a mind to If this man had the imaginary place of Peter to be Porter of heaven how quickly would he forfeit his place by repelling those whom alone Christ will have admitted and admitting those that Christ will have repelled Christ admits beleevers not doers this man rejects all beleevers that are not doers before they are beleevers The rest that he saith here is sacrificed to his Goddesse the Lady Condition A deity that the Scriptures never knew nor yet all the whole University of Athens They erected an Altar indeed to the unknown God Act. 17. 23. see the depth of Mr. Baxter he hath found the Antipodas which the old Mathematicians wrote of but could never find the deity which the learned Athenians worshiped but worshiped they knew not what This Goddesse Condition by some help of the Socinians and Arminians hath M. Baxter brought to light and invested her with more glittering ornaments then they had wit to do only he hath not yet
being most drawne from naturall Philosophers and Theologers mounts not above Morality tels us nothing of spirituall things that the Gospel wholly treats of shuns the very word Spiriall as a rock on which all the pride of man might suffer shipwrack and the grace of God in Christ be alone exalted Besides how far thâ—se conditions are to be stretched whether only so far as that only their absence doth hinder but their presence doth not put or inferr justification and salvation as the effects in which sence wee are wont to take the Causa sine qua non or else so far that both their absence doth hinder and their performance produce these effects In these and many other things whereof I shal be forced to speake in its proper place Mr. Baxter will not impart his meaning to us that he may take his liberty to traverse his ground and under the name of Condition ascend and descend run sometimes in a wheele and sometimes in a race play all in sight and least in sight at his pleasure reserving still to himselfe this advantage to help himself with his Conditions widening and straitening them making them the same with or more than his Causa sine qua non having kept the power in his own hand as it shal be most inservient to his ends In the meane while wee are permitted onely to heare the humming and bombing but not to see the buz whether it be a Hornet or a Beetle What hee will not himselfe directly tell us wee must therefore take leave to gather from his writing as well as we can In his Explication of this Thesis even in that part thereof which I have before transcribed being to prove that justification and salvation have the same Condition hee tells us oft that we are both justified and saved by works Here to follow his owne exposition he teacheth pa. 300 that the word By implieth more than an idle presence and concomitancy if they only stand by while the work is in doing it could not bee said we are justified by works That it speaks out works to have their agency and operation in procurement or in that kind of causality which they have And this is the same which under the 17. 18. and 19. Theses he had before delivered of a twofold Righteousness Christs Righteousnes and our Righteousness ours as absolutely necessary as his to salvation both in their kind effectually procuring it So in that which followeth in the explication where to be the condition of our salvation and to have a hand in or give right to justification are put by him as the same thing or as equipollent phrases So that under the word condition he involves all the Papists efficiency and as much as after their and his defining and modifying of Merits is comprehended in their doctrine of Merits In this sense therfore we deny Works or Obedience to be a condition of salvation 1. Because thousands are saved without works viz. all that have been or shal be saved being never in a capacity to work 2. Because the New Covenant in promising salvation makes it to follow grace and faith not works yea grace and faith in opposition to works as hath been before shewed cap. 15. of justification and salvation together And that not by the vertue of that dung and rags and filth of mans righteousness wherwith Mr. Br. filleth the belly of his faith in the largest sense Thes 70. but by the vertue of Christ its object which it receiveth Jo. 1. 12. and of the aâ—undance of the grace and righteousness which it receiveth from Christ in receiving him Ro. 5. 19. 3. Because it is by inheritance as by our union unto Christ wee are made and adopted to bee with him children and joint heirs Act. 26. 18. Ro. 8. 16. 17. Gal. 3. 18. Eph. 1. 11. 14. Gal. 3. 29. and 4. 30. 31. Tit. 3. 7. and else-where and that of Grace freely therfore without works For then should it be of debt and no more of Grace Ro. 4. 4. and 11. 6. 4. Because if it be at all by works then wholly by works Christ is excluded will not profit will be all or nothing do all without works and give no place or partnership to works with him in the business of salvation if we bring any thing of works to save us hee leaves us wholly to our works to save or damn us If ye be circumcised Christ shall not profit you ye are debtors to the whole Law i. e. If ye bring works in part to save you yee must trust wholly to works to save you Christ is become of none effect to you Gal. 5. 2. 3. 4. 5. Neither can they bee a condition in that way of causality to which Mr. Br. professes himselfe to tie it viz as the Causa sine qua non For 1. the property of that kind of causality or conditionality not extended beyond it self can only by its absence deny the effect as in this case the want of obedience and good works can onely deny them which refuse or neglect them to be saved or have right to salvation but by iâ—s presence cannot Ponere as the say i. e. conclude or evince the effect that he which doth them shall live in them or be saved by them no nor yet that they shall be saved For if they can it is by some other and not by this kinde of causality which Mr. Baxter attributes to them 2 Neither doth it as himselfe describes its opperation in its causality to salvation remove the impediments of salvation which are in generall sinne in particular chiefly unbeleefe If good workes can remove these it may save But it can neither remove the guilt of that which is past by way of purging it or satisfying for it neither is it made instrumentall to put us into the possession of Christs satisfaction and purging for it precedes not but follows it whatsoever Mr. Br. hath sayd to the contrary Nor can it stop the flux of sin and unbeleefe but that it breaks out upon every of our good works to make them in themselves evil and damnable and doth no further or otherwise remove than by denying unbeliefe so far as we doe beleeve and the neglect of duties as far as we have diligence and zeal to perform them But this cannot bee called rightly the removing of the hindrances of our salvation therfore it cannot be the Causa sine qua non of our salvation 6. Because salvation is the gift of Gods free grace Ro. 6. 23. Jo. 10. 28. 2. Ti. 4. 8. But it is a payment of justice and not a gift of Grace which is made the wages of works Didst thou not agree with me for a peny Take what thine is by contract and condition of the bargain and go thy way Mat. 20. 13. 14. Wheras contrariwise the free gift hath no other foundation or condition but Gods free love and good pleasure He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy Ro.
9. 15. So that it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy verse 16. Many other Arguments have our Divines against the Papists about this question which I intreat the Reader to fetch from them for his fuller satisfaction Now let us see what Mr. Baxter brings to prove that obedience and good workes are the condition of our salvation Yet by the way let us note that the Argument it selfe which here Bell. de ju 〈…〉 4. 〈◊〉 he seeks to confirme is the Papists and great is Belarmines striving to maintaine it as his great prop of justification and salvation by works Si promissio vitae aeternae est conditionata faith he ut C 〈…〉 probavimus certè necessarium est implere conditionem si quis salvus fieri velit â—â—e if the promise of eternall life be conditionall 〈◊〉 I have proved in the first Chapter certainly he must nec 〈…〉 fill the condition that willâ—eâ— saved This Condition of which hee speakes is the same with Mr. Baxters viz. the Condition of works Neither shall it be impertinent heer to take into consideration some rules of our Divines for the right understanding of the minde of the holy Ghost in promising eternall life unto persons of such and such qualifications or that perform such and such duties before wee descend to examine the particular promises and testimonies which Mr. Br. alleadgeth These are principally such as follow 1. That they belong so farre as to bee effectuallized to none else but such as are vitally within the covenant of Grace under the protection of the bloud of the Lamb in spirituall union with Christ Jesus the mediator of the new Covenant according to that of the Apostle All the promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen never effectuallized to them that are not in him 2 Co. 1. 20. To Abraham and his seed were the promises made he saith not his seeds as of many but of one and to thy seed which was Christ viz. in him alone and to them alone to be confirmed which are in Christ Gal 3. 16. Therfore the blessedness which Matthew in sound of words seems to hold forth more generally Ma. 5 3. c. Luke as the Expositor of him or rather of the mind of Christ in those promises contracts to the right objects or persons to whom they were to bee made good thus Jesus lifted his eyes upon his disciples and said Blessed be YEE poor for yours is the Kingdome of God Blessed are YEE that hunger YEE that weep c. implying that the blessedness was to come upon them not by the vertue of these Acts and qualifications mentioned but upon this ground alone that they were his Disciples by him Gospellized and received into Covenant this is that which Augustine so much presseth in such promises to looke to the Root which is Christ and that the reward is not from their works because they are holy but because they are holy or Saints which wrought them and that they are thence saints from whence righteous not from the works but from the Faith of the workers 2. That in such promises the qualifications or works of the persons to whom they are directed are mentioned not as the ground or foundation of the blessednesse promised but to shew the method and order which God observes in bringing them to the possession therof Because he is holy pure spirituall therfore he powrs into them his purifying sanctifying and adopting spirit to conform them to his own will and nature before hee brings them into the full and reall fruition of himself So hee promiseth all the heaven of felicities to the meek the righteous the saints to them that love him that fear him that obey him not therby insinuating that hee found them but that he hath made or will make them such as many as he will crown at last with glory Heerin the power of that father of Spirits excelleth and exceedeth the power of the fathers of our bodies He new creates their hearts new forms their wills puts into them a new spirit therby making them as Peter saith partakers of the Divine Nature and to enjoy the kingdome of God within them heer before they be translated to it above 3. Nevertheless the foundation of all these promises is not such acts and qualifications in us but the relation of sons in which wee stand before God Such God beheld us in Christ before wee were born such hee hath made us that truly beleeve by the grace of the new Covenant having begotten us to himself of incorruptible seed 1. Pet. 1. 23. we are born of God and have received the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father So that our salvation dependeth not upon the vertues and good works which are mentioned in the promises but upon this our relation of sons if sons then heirs c. Ro. 8. 15. as a speciall friend of Mr. Br. who walks by the same rule and the same spirit with him hath acknowledged heerin consenting with our Divines and stoutly maintayning their Assertion at least because it seemed to give some fulture to his cause And I suppose Mr. Br. will not heer leave him whom in all the rest he followeth 4. Yet what the Lord giveth to and hath prepared of endlesse glory for his children as his children he doth oft-times hold forth and promise to them as a reward of such gifts of grace in them and of works which they have done or sufferings that they have undergone for his sake Not but that it was provided for them and promised to them before all such works and sufferings as they were children but for some other honourable ends which I shall in part mention having first instanced some promises of this kind Before the birth of Isaac long had the Lord of free grace promised to Abraham all blessedness corporall and spirituall present and future that his seed should be as the dust of the earth as the stars of heaven numberless that he should bee blessed and in him all nations of the earth be blessed that the land of Canaan the type and the eternall land of Promise the Antitype should be his and his seeds for ever Ge. 12 2. 3. and 13. 15. 16. and 15. 1-6 and 17. 1-8 Yet afterward cha 22. when Abraham had shewed that notable fruit of his faith fear and love to God in offering his son Isaac in obedience to Gods command God called from heaven to him by an Angel and sayd By my self have I sworn because thou hast done this thing and hast not with held thy son thy only son That in blessing I will blesse thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars in heaven and as the sand c. and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice Ge. 22. 15-18 We see heer that promised as a reward of this act of
upon what terms salvation runneth under the Legall or old Covenant B. Rev. 22 14. Blessed are they that doe his commandements that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in by the gates into the City The doing of Christs commandements heer is the same which Heb. 5. 9. is called the obeying of Christ and the meaning of both is there explained Faith which Christs commandement calls for gives right to the tree of life and to all the priviledges of the new Hierusalem B. Ja. 1. 22. 23. 24. 25. What he would infer from the three former of these verses hee saith not and I dream not Any other three verses in the whole Bible might have been quoted as pertinent to his purpose as these as far as my dull brain can comprehend To the 25. if by the Law of Liberty he understands the Law of the Old Covenant or of the Decalogue and by blessed everlasting salvation as he erewhile termed it then hee prescribes salvation hence to bee sought by the Law and not by Christ by the covenant of works not of grace and so the salvation of man shall stand or fall upon these terms as hee doth or doth not forget to doe all that is commanded in the Law and Christ must not be at all looked after heer is no mention at all of him and thus to argue is worse than Popish even Jewish But if he understand by the Law of Liberty the Gospel then hath it the same sense with the former Scriptures teacheth us to seek salvation in a Gospel way as a free gift from free grace as children of liberty whom the son hath made free and not as children of bondage by works He that doth thâ—s shall be blessed in this his deed Some of our Expositors I know expound it another way yet not with but against Mr. Baxter B. Ma. 5. 1. to the 13. To this enough hath been sayd a little before in this Chapter B. Especially Mat. 5. 19. 20. The former verse runs thus Whosoever therfore shal break one of the least of these CoÌ„mandments and teach men so to do the same shal be least in the Kingdom of Heaven But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shal be great in the Kingdom of Heaven Christ here speaketh of Teachers under the Gospel And the sense as may be gathered from the precedent verses is this Whosoever under a pretence of the liberty of the Gospel shall take to himselfe or instill into others a licentiousnesse to break the Commandements of the Law or to neglect any of that holiness and righteousness which is the matter of the Law that man shal be an instrument of little yea of no use in the Gospel Church But whosoever shal so learn and teach Christ as in and thrrough him to take into his owne and presse upon other mens affections and practise all the duties of holiness and righteousnesse which the Law requireth in a Gospel way this man shall be an instrument of great good in the Gospel Church as one that hath learned and teacheth Christ to salvation and to sanctificâ—tion also If this in its substance be not the meaning of this Scripture I know not the meaning of any one Text of Scripture The latter which is the 20. verse is read in these words Excâ—pt your Righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heaven True Theirs was their owne Righteousness the Righteousnesse of works which could never satisfie for or expiate their unrighteousness Except we trample this as dung in respect of confidence in it to put on Christ for righteousness who hath both satisfied and expiated we shall never enter into the spirituall Priviledges of the Kingdome of Grace much lesse into the joyes of the Kingdome of glory What is there in either of these verses to promote Mr. Baxters salvation by Works B. Mat. 7. 13. Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in therat But strait is the gate and narrow the way that leadeth to life and few there be that find it And will Mr. Br. take up the broad and vulgar way of expounding this broad and that narrow gate and way That by the broad way and wide gate are to be understood the way of prophaneness Atheisme Lust Luxury Carnall security c. and by the strait Gate and narrow way strictnesse of life and conversation unless he ride in this common Rode there is nothing to be found that will square with his purpose But that this interpretation is wide from the scope of Christ will appeare 1. by comparing Luke with Mathew who Luke 13 24 thus renders the words of Christ Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many shall seeke to enter in and shall not bee able Whence it appeares that both these Gates and Wayes are such as men seek to enter into life by And was there ever that man so mad so void of the naturall light of reason and conscience that did strive to enter into life by Prophanenesse Lust Atheisme and impure living Doth not the Apostle tell us that the most stupified among the Heathen do so far know the judgement of God as to know these things to be worthy of death Rom. 1. vers ult â— When it is said of the narrow way and gate few there be that finde it if it should be understood of the strictness of Morall holinesse and righteousnesse it might well be said few there are that enter by it but to say few there be that finde it is not agreeable to reason For who is there that findes it not The very Light of nature teacheth all men this naturall way to life by the strictnes and perfection of their naturall and morall righteousness And this is the greatest beam in their eye blinding them that they cannot see the straight and effectuall way indeed What then is the strait gate and narrow way to life wherof Christ heer speaketh Let Christ himselfe interpret himself I am the way I am the door by mee if any man enter none can come to the Father but by me Jo. 10. 9. and 14. 6. The way into the holiest i. e. into heaven consecrated or new made for us through the vail of Christs flesh saith the Apostle Heb. 10. 19. 20. or let Mr. Br shew that the Gospel owneth any other way to life This is the way that few find when Peter had seen and spoken but of a glimpse and glance of it Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona saith our Saviour for flâ—sh and bloud hath not revealed it to thee but my Father which is in heaven Mâ— 16. None can enter into it except the Father draw him Jo 6. 44. Except he be taught and have learned of the Father ver 45. And great striving must there be against ouâ— own wisedome before we can
this purpose in his Answer to the tenth eleventh Questions in his Appendix and to shew how hee there fights with his own phantasm feigns an Adversary and then quells him falls out with his own shadow never comming neer that which hee hath made to be the Question between him and the Protestant Churches but when the Adversary is Eastward hee rides out in indignation Westward beating every bush and wounding every bough that he meets with proclayming it an Adversary and so returns at last with as much gallantry as ever did William the Conquerour it shall be expedient for the disabusing of such as are apt in this kind to bee abused to premise something for the right stating of the Question heer controverted First then the doings duties and works about which the Question is conversant are of two kinds Legall or Evangelicall such as have their foundation in that law which is of Natural and Moral or such as are founded on precepts and doctrines of Gospell Positive right By the former I mean such works and duties as the naturall conscience specially if holpen by the written Law can apprehend to be and urge upon man as duty though there had never been a Christ or Gospell to adde further light By the later I meane such duties as are only in generall comprehended in the Law whatsoever the Lord shall at any time declare to bee his will and impose upon thee as thy duty thou shalt observe and do but cannot possibly be known in speciall to bee duties without a new revelation from heaven such as the Gospell is The former duties are naturall founded in Nature it selfe the later supernaturall because without a supernaturall manifestation they cannot be known and without a supernaturall power infused they cannot bee effectually performed All this Mr. Br. himselfe granteth in this his Treatise saving the very last clause which also because I finde him not any where flatly denying I shall forbear to prove taking it as granted with the rest 2. That this naturall righteousness and obedience was the Condition of the Old Covenant as to life and so remayneth still to them that remayn under the Old Coveant but so as that no man living can be saved by it since Adams fall but that whosoever is saved the same is saved after the tenour of the New Covenant i. e. the Covenant of Grace or the Gospel This also Mr. Baxter hath frequently taught and granted 3. That the duties of the New Covenant are of two sorts eyther more or lesse principall the more principall is fayth or receiving and embracing the Lord Christ together with the justification and salvation that are by him The lesse principall duties which are also pure Gospel duties are such as are subservient to faith or to the receiving of Christ alone to justification quickening illumination sanctification c. or to the reteyning of him and fuller closing with him to all these all other Evangelical ends for which he is given to us by the Father These 3. Positions are so frequently granted by Mr. Baxter in this his Book that I forbear to quote the places 4. That justification and salvation as the Scripture terms them a reward if indeed it doth ever so term justification as properly and strictly taken may bee considered first as benefits already conferred and in our possession in part or in the whole or else as rewards heerafter to be conferred the ground and foundation wherof was layd in our first conversion and union to Christ by faith together with the earnest and pledge of the spirit given to us by God to assure us of our full possession of all the fruits therof in the future And 2. if future the Gospel proposeth these as rewards of his free grace and benignity or else as rewards of dâ—bt due to our service and for the service done to him Neither in this can Mr. Baxter oppose or dissent 5. Then to come home and close to the Question it remains to be expressed how far all these duties are to be done for life I mean how far all or any kind of these are to bee performed for the attayning of justification and salvation as a reward and how far onely in love and thankfulness for the reward alrâ—ady made ours in possession or in hope 1. We grant that theâ— which are wholly under the Old Covenant having never the Gospel revealed unto them are bound to seek justification and salvation by the works of the Law or naturall righteousness still but they shall never attaine what they so seek because they are impotent to fulfill the condition Yet their unableness is no prejudice to Gods authority and obligation upon them It is otherwisâ— with them that live under the Gospel and have the Covenant of Grace in Christ revealed to them but have not yet so â—ffectually received Christ by fâ—ith as to beâ— justified and declared righteous within their own souls These are indeed to seek for justification and sâ—lvation yet not by the workes of the Law or legall naturall and meerly morall righteousnesse for this were to reject the new Covenant or Gospel with the justification which is by Christ and to hold themselves fast under the old Covenant in an incapacity to be justified and saved The best works of naturall righteousness which they can performe being but dead works of dead men like the stinch of Carrion offensive to the pure nosthrills of God who will therefore condemn not justifie for them 2. They that are in Christ and have obtayned justification and inchoat salvation by him i. e. have their conscience absolved and saved from sin and obligation to vengeance by faith in his bloud are to perform those works of naturall righteousnes not for life but from life not to procure thereby the life of justification for they have it already in Christ and to seek it more compleatly to be perfected by such works is as hath been before shewed to be so foolish as having begun in the spirit to seeke to bee perfected by the flâ—sh but in duty and thankfulness for so full and free a pardon and Gal. 3. 3. absolution which all our doings all our sufferings are insufficienr to answer Nevertheless the intuition of so great a redemption already attayned and in our possession together with the promise of so glorious an inheritance for the future life already confirmed to us by the seal of the spirit in the bloud of Christ are of such infinite value that we are to walk still in the splendor and glory of it so that our spirits should bee sublimated above earth and selfe to dwell and to spend our selves and be spent in the bosome of that Grace from which wee have received so much and expect yet so much more of ravishing and never ending felicity What neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man in a naturall way conceived of the riches of the incomprehensible bounty and free grace of God being
live the other sayth Live and doe this the one sayth Doe this for life the other sayth Doe this from life But I have provedfully that the Gospel saith also Doe this for life 1. Now hee manifesteth wherin the haynousnes of the doctrine of this Book and the intolerable damnable wickedness of the Author consisteth viz. in his blindness that hee did not foresee what Antichristian doctrine Mr. Baxter would afterward divulge to the world and say hee had fully proved it but for lacke of this foreknowledge doth heer deliver the contrary truth of Christ prepossessing the minds of men therewith against Mr. Baxters future impostures But 2. Let him not say he hath fully proved but let him fully prove that doing and works as the Scriptures doe oppose the same to faith and receiving of Christ in which sense this Author speaketh are injoyned by the Gospel to justification of life or the life of justification and then let him expect that his Gospel shall stand and the Gospel of Christ lie prostrate at his feet 3. Because Mr. Baxter will never bee able to prove this the true Disciples of Christ will still hold this as one principle difference between the two Covenants that the one requires us to seeke life after the tenour of Justice the other after the tenour of Grace The one bids us to seeke it by Works the other by Fayth The one presupposeth the originall righteousness given us in Adam bidding us by it to follow after happiness the other offereth Christ unto us as the fountain of life both of Justification and Sanctification calling upon us to receive or beleeve in him for both that both may be ours when Christ is ours He is our life and when Christ our life not works our life shall appear we also shall appear with him in glory This is all that this Author meaneth in this passage as himselfe makes evident If in this he be an Hereticke let mee live and die with him in his Heresie To prevent mistake I meane heere the Covenant of works in Mr. Baxters sense throughout this his Treatise viz. the first Covenant made with Adam B. So in his second part page 190. his great note to know the voyce of the Law by is this That when in Scripture there is any Morall worke commanded to bee done eyther for the eschewing of punishment or upon promise of any reward temporall or eternall or else when any promise is made with the condition of any worke to bee done which is commanded in the Law there is to bee understood the voyce of the Law A notorious and dangerous mistake which would make almost all the New Testament and the very Sermons of Christ himselfe to bee nothing but the Law of works I have fully proved before that Morall duties as part of our sincere obedience to Christ are part of the condition of our salvation and for it to be performed And even Faith is a Morall duty It is pity that any Christian should no better know the Law from the Gospel especially one that pretendeth to discover it to others About the matter heer delivered by this Author enough hath been spoken before in examining what Mr. Baxter hath sayd in many parts of his Aphorisms contrary to it Touching the proofe of the contrary Assertion Mr. Baxter hath sayd no more than nor so much as Bellarmine had sayd before him and left prepared to his hand Hee should therefore more properly have sayd Not I but Bellarmine hath fully proved and therefore fully because Mr. Baxter so affirmeth As to the Assertor of it why doth hee pitch upon this Author alone when Calvin Fulk Mr. Fox as I have before Chap. 15. alleadged and quoted them Dr. Amesius Medul Theol. lib. 1. cap. 22. Se. 19. In a word all Protestant Divines from Luther till this present time have in substance and most of them that have occasion to pitch upon the same Subject have even totidem verbis delivered the same doctrine as to mercenary or rewards of debt having learned the same from the Apostle why doth he single out this one as a singular man Let him with Bellarmine Stapleton Maldonat and the rest of that hair roar out against all the Reformed Churches A notorious and dangerous mistake c. A herd of Hereticks and ignorant Animalls It is pity that any Christian should no better know the Law from the Gospel especially such as pretend to discover it to others As to his Morall duties and even Faith as a Morall duty to bee performed for salvation hee speaks like such morall men as nature now blinded and corrupted formeth whose principle it is Naturam ut optimam ducem sequi to follow Nature and naturall instinct or Reason as their best guide knowing not spirituall things because the Naturall man cannot receive them If he savoured so much the Gospel as Philosophy why doth not the phrase which Christ his Apostles use of the spirit and spirituall things so much delight him as that of the Philosophers Morall and Moralities As much was Christs offering himselfe a sacrifice and giving satisfaction to the Justice of God a Morall duty and so not meritoricus for us because due to God from him by the Law for himselfe as Faith in Christ and other purely Gospel duties subservient unto Faith For both these duties on Christs and on our part are comprehended under this one generall of the Law of nature Whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt doe I shall leave the justification and salvation by Morall Faith and Morall duties to Mr. Baxter and with the Apostle through the Spirit wait for the hope of Righteousnesse by Faith Gal. 5. 5 B. So in the next page 191. he intelerably abuseth the Sripture in affirming that of 2. Thes 2. 12. to be the voice of the Law and so making Paul a Legall preacher Is then every teacher after Mr. Baxters Canon which declares what the voice force curse and condemnation of the Law is a Legall and Anti-Evangelicall preacher So he affirmes Paull to bee if he speake out what the curse and condemnation of the Law is Then not onely Paul but Christ also and all his Apostles are Legall not Gospel preachers For he will not deny them to have so made out the Law in its force c. Or when the Apostle in that quoted Stripture speakes of their Damnation which would not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse doth he not leave them under the damnation of the Law for not embracing the Gospell doth not the Law hereby take occasion to damne them the more deeply for neglecting and rejecting the truth The proper office of the Gospell is not to condemn but to save Onely when its salvation is contemned it yeelds backe the contemners under the greater guilt to the Law to power out on them the larger if not largest measure of its curse and wrath Do not thinke saith our Saviour to the Iewes that rejected his Gospell
Qu. 14. that he so layeth this position that he may thereby lay a ground-work for Justification by works Doth Dr. Preston to this end make Christ as Lord the object of Justifying Faith or any where affirm him to be offered as a Law-giver or Commander of morall works and duties to our justifying Much less doth he affirm that such works have any thing to do with Faith in justifying A notable skill hath Mr. Br in confounding when he should divide and distinguish and in distinguishing when there is no need as either may serve to his purpose He knowes that Dr. Preston when he treats of the New Covenant comprehends under it the whole doctrine and all the Promises of Grace made Yea and Amen in Christ as the same Christ is given to us not onely to Justification but also to regeneration illumination sanctification and whatsoever the Grace of the Eternall Father hath made him to us And when he treats of Faith he handles it as the instrument by which not onely Justification but also all the other benefits of Christ may be made ours in receiving Christ the treasury spring of all appropriated to us Therefore in describing the New Covenant he describes it in generall as the womb of all the blessings which are attainable by Christ and not of Justification and Salvation alone And in describing Faith he describes it as the instrument by which we apprehend and appropriate to our selves not onely Christ as righteousness and salvation but also as wisedome and sanctification yea all that tends to the perfecting of a poor sinner to our selves Therefore is it that he speaks more largely of the Covenant and treats more fully of it then needed if he had been to speak of it onely to Justification and Blessedness and that he speaks of Faith more largely and mentioneth other acts of it then are required to this one end And necessarily must he so do else should he have maimed both the Covenant of Grace and the Faith of Christ Here whatsoever Dr. Preston speaketh of the Covenant and Faith in generall of which some part belongeth to the interessing of us to sanctification and other blessings which are by Christ Mr. Br to beguile his Reader confoundeth and confineth to Justification as being spoken of it alone When contrariwise the Doctor doth enough cleerly express the distinct benefits of the Covenant and the distinct acts of Faith receiving the distinct benefits in the very words which he alledgeth out of him App. p. 117. Thou shalt receive the gift of Righteousness wrought by him for an absolution for thy sins and for a reconciliation with me This is our Justification And thereupon thou shalt grow up in love and obedience towards me This is our sanctification But suppose he should have affirmed that Faith as it cleaveth to Christ not onely for the sprinkling of his blood for Justification but withall for the effusion of his spirit to sanctification and the shedding forth of his beams for illumination and the stretching forth of his Almighty arm for supportation c. doth in all these acts justifie as some Divines do seem to speak though without prejudice to their reputation not enough advisedly yet both he and they are so far from making either the most spiritual knowledge and wisedom which are the immediate fruits of illumination or love righteousnes and holines and their acts or works which are the immediate fruits of sanctification to be in any respect usefull to justification that they utterly deny peace joy and hope the immediate fruits of Justification to be any way effectuall and usefull in this business But I find not Dr. Preston any where laying that ground-work much less erecting such a building on it To the five last points if Mr. Br hold them in that which I have expressed to be Dr. Prestons sense yea which himself expresseth to be his own sense I have nothing to say against him The tenth onely excepted to which I must be also mute because neither doth Mr. Br alledg what the Doctor saith and I have not that Treatise of his to inform me But all this is but a playing with holy things he might as well have said Dr. Preston consents with him in confessing there is a God a Christ a Justification a man a sinner to be justified as have said most of what he hath here said We expected he should have produced testimonies of other Divines speaking in common with him what he speaks in common with the Papists in opposition to the doctrine of the Protestants In his Appendix p. 167. and thenceforth to the end of the Book he brings a new supply of Testimonies which he intituleth Bax. Sayings of excellent Divines added to satisfie you who charge me with singularity I shall examine so many of them as have any shew of agreement with Mr. Br in those things wherein he fights against the doctrine of the Protestant Churches Bax. 1 He alleadgeth Dr. Twisse his discovery of Dr. Jacksons vanity p. 528. What one of our Church will maintaine that any one obteins actuall Redemption by Christ without Faith esspecially considering that redemption by the blood of Christ and forgivenesse of sins are all one Eph. 1. 17. Col. 1. 14. How prettily would he here instill into the thought of his Reader that Dr. Twisse is a man of levity here a subverter of Antinomianism whereof in his Aphorisms p. 173. he complained him to be a Pillarer that here he subverteth Justification from eternity whereof elswhere he is an assertor Nay here he speaketh of the Justification which is by vertue of the New Covenant of the obteining of it actually to our selves This neither Papist nor Protestant neither Dr. Twisse noâ— Mr. Br ever affirmed to be without Faith Bax. 2. Bishop Hooper cited by Dr. Jackson Christ onely received our infirmities and originall disease and not the contempt of him and his Law Expounded by Dr. Twisse against Dr. Jackson p. 584. His meaning in my judgment is onely this that Christ hath made satisfaction for the imperfection of our faith and holiness although we continue therein untill death But he hath not made satisfaction for the contempts and hatred of his word c. in case men do continue therein unto death Here is nothing of that which Mr. B. hunts after that Christ hath satisfied for no offence no infirmity committed against the New Covenant but this alone is the sum of it that they shall have no benefit by Christ no one sin committed against the Law or Gospel pardoned to them who live and dye impenitent and unbelievers According to that of our Saviour Jo. 8. 24. Therefore I said unto you ye shall dye in your sins for if ye beleeve not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins B. 3 Alstedius Distinct Theol. cap. 17. p. 73. The Condition of the Covenant of Grace is partly Faith partly Evangelicall obedience or holiness of life proceeding from Faith in Christ 1 In
how different a sense from Mr. B. the Protestants take the word Condition hath been before expressed 2 But in that sense in which they that use it take it it is one thing to be the condition of the New Covenant another to be the condition of Justification which is but one of many benefits of the Covenant of Grace Had Alsteed in the Explication of himself affirmed holiness of life a condition of justification we should have had it at the full from Mr. B. About the second thing wherein he alledgeth this mans testimony I know no man questioning Mr. B. Neither is his next Testimony alledged from Sadeel any thing of all the things wherein Mr. B. joyneth with the papists against the Protestants therefore I spare the labour to transeribe it B. 4 Rivet in disputat de satisfactione God was not bound to accept the satisfaction performed by another though sufficient c. Therefore there was a necessity that a Covenant should intercede and God himself propound a Mediator That there must an agreement intercede on his part who was satisfied without which the satisfaction had been in vain Idem ibid. Thes 4 5 6. The act which in satisfaction God performeth is of a supreme judge relaxing his own Law and transferring â—he penalty of it upon another so that in this relaxation Gods supreme dominion may be observed c. And by the transferring the penalâ—y from the sinner and exacting it of the surety the relation of a party offended as such is remâ—ved from God c. Jâ— 4 12. God did relax his Law as being positive and so relaxable it is abrogate c. The rest is off from the Quâ—stion To what purpose he here produceth the Testimony of this famous Doctor except it be to declare his consent with himself and Grotius that the Law is not abrogated but relaxed onely by means of Christs mediation I know not If so Rivet hath nothing for him but much directly against him 1 He affirms what no rationall man ever denied that the Grace of God is free and not bound How else should it be Grace 2 Yea it is free not onely from Co-action but from absolute necessity also Onely the purpose of God being presupposed that he would so save by grace as that no one title of his justice should fall it was necessary there should be the interceding of a Covenant and a Mediator But is this to any other purpose then what he concludes with viz. to fill up the vacant pages p. 188. 3 That there must also an agreement or Covenant to this end pass between the Father and â—he Son is ours not his doctrine 4 The relaxation of the Law in passing this Covenant between the Father and the Son is the common doctrine of all protestants as also that this is an act of Supream dominion of God that is under no Law But when this Covenant is ratified so that Christ becomes the undertaker and God the accepter of satisfaction in relation to them for whom the satisfaction is made so that the penalty of the Law as to their sins is transferred upon Christ whether the Law be not so abrogate to them that they are no longer under the Curse of it is the thing in question And here Dr. Rivet gives his verdit for us against Mr. B. That to these the Law is abrogate and God no more stands in the relation of a party offended against them What more proper sword-man could he have brought forth to have hewn in pieces his own Cause B. 5 Dr. Twiss vindic grat and against Cotton consid of Til. Syn. Dort c. What doth he mean by citing the Testimony of this Doctor so frequently and catching fragments from him whom he knows in the whole bulk of his works to destroy what himself would set up yea though he complains against him for erecting the main pillar of Antinomianism will he at length become his Disciple and build pillars with him Dr. Twisse doth enough wash his hands from Mr. Br doctrine even in these passages here cited from him as I could fully manifest But because I see the task would be tedious to examine particularly every particular testimony which he citeth The same persons speaking in severall of the quoted places the same thing and many speaking no more then one at once hath said before I shall therefore abridge my self in shewing in generall the dissenting judgment of those writers from him however he would deceive his Reader with a credulous opinion that they consent with him This will be done with an easie labour when contrariwise to speak singularly to every singular testimony would not yeeld forth fruit worthy the labour First then all the Testimonies of Dr. Twisse Append. p. 172 173. That of Junius p. 173. of Pareus Piscator Aretius p. 174. Dr. Willet p. 179 180. Mr. Burges of Justification p. 187. are here compiled to tell them that are no friends to the doctrine of grace though it alone must befriend them if they will be saved that all these Divines consent with him in his doctrine fiâ—st of a universall conditionall redemption or justification purchased by Christ without any more effectuall satisfaction made to the justice of God for them that shall be saved then for them that shall be damned and secondly that morall obedience and good works are Concauses or Collaterall conditions with faith to justification To manifest how faithfull he is in these his allegations I shall briefly express what the judgment of all Protestants is about these points that the advised Reader may judge whether these dissent from the rest and prepared the way for Mr. Br to prosecute his Assertions 1 They grant that the promulgation of righteousnes life is to be made universally conditionally to all God knoweth who are his but the Heralds of his grace know not Therefore by the command of Christ they are to testifie this word of life to all without exception promising upon condition of beleeving in the name and by the word of Christ righteousness and salvation In mean time they meintein Christ hath satisfied onely for those that the Father hath given him so effectually as that by vertue of Christs purchase they shall receive power from above to beleeve unto salvation 2 They are wont oft to use the word salvation as the Scripture also doth for glorification hereafter and so take it as a distinct thing from justification and involve into the condition of salvation more then into the condition of Justification 3 By the word Condition they understand oft all the necessary antecedents and sometimes also the necessary consequents either of justification or salvation But so as they term such Antecedents the conditions without which going before those ends cannot be attained and those Consequents the conditions without which following we cannot attain the certain knowledge that we are justified and inrighted to glory 4 That as oft as they speak of conditions of justification they
is as smooth as Esau's hands as free from Popery Socinianism from all injurie against the grace of God all-sufficiency of Christs merits consolation of the Saints yea from all error whatsoever as Lazarus was from sores or the poor Gadaren from Devills that had but a legion of them within him That it agrees so harmoniously with the doctrine of Paul as light with darkness Christ with Belial and the Temple of God with Idols That in these things the Covenant of Grace consisteth indeed therefore invites all at the consideration of the innocency and profundity of this his Gospel to follow him in seeking a sure salvation by their own righteousness in the Curse of the Law To insist no longer upon generals I shall examine the particular Apologies which he makes for this his Doctrine of Justification by works to cleer it from the false imputations which the ignorant Antinomians that is in his Construction Luther Calvin Twisse Pemble and their followers might charge it withall His first Task which he appoints to himself is to vindicate it from having any smack of Popery how so doth not both he and they maintain in the same words that we are justified by works this he cannot deny But forsooth there is a great difference in this whose pen it is that drops the assertion The Papists do it with a quill of a Capitoline Mr. Br. with a quill of a Kederminster goose This alters the case saith Ploydon makes the same Proposition to be Popery and no Popery But let us hear himself speaking and multiplying his reasons why it must not be taken for Popery Br. Aphor. p. 304 305. How this differeth from the Popish Doctrine I need not tell any Scholar that hath read their writings 1 They take justifying for sanctifying so do not I. 2 They quite overthrow and deny the most reall difference between the Old Covenant and the New and make them in a manner all one But I build this Exposition and Doctrine chiefly upon the clear differencing and opening of the Covenants 3 When they say we are justified by the works of the Gospell they mean only that we are sanctified by works that follow faith and are bestowed by grace they meriting our inherent justice at Gods hands In a word there is scarce any one Doctrine wherein even their most learned Schoolmen are most sottishly ignorant then in this of Justification So that when you have read them with profit and delight on some other subjects when they come to this you would pitty them and admire their ignorance 4 They take our works to be part of our legal Righteousnes I take them not to be the smallest portion of it but only a part of our Evangelicall righteousness or of the condition upon which Christs righteousnes shall be ours Suppose all these things were true and the difference between him and the Papists were so great and manifold as in these particulars he pretendeth yet all this nothing evinceth his Doctrine not to be Popish especially among Scholars to whom he appealeth For 1 All this would but excuse him a tanto non a toto that in these particulars he is not though in many other and greater he be Popish 2 Though he differed from them in the premisses yet he is one with them in the conelusion Bellarmine brings his arguments and Stapleton his to prove that works justifie Are they not both Papists because their arguments differ when their Conclusion is one Mr. Br thinks that in some particulars his curious wit hath prompted him with a finer and surer way of demonstration to stablish Justification by works than ever entered into the Cardinals Cap or Cranion Doth this deny him to be a Papist because he speaks more for them than they could for themselves 3 Though Bellarmins and Brs. way of arguing do in some particulars differ yet is the later as great an opposite to the truth of the Gospell in his way as the former in his Both oppugn with their utmost strength the doctrine of grace though they divide the battell between them the one scaling from the North the other from the South 2 But it cannot be truly sayd that there are truly those reall differences between Mr. Brs. and the Papists Doctrine which hee here particularizeth For 1 Though in some of these particulars he speaks not the idem yet he speaks the Tantundem with them 2 Where he speaks not the very idem hee speaks more grosly Pharisaically and adversatively to the truth then they For the manifesting hereof let us particularly examine those particulars in which he saith he differs from them 1 Saith he They take justifying for sanctifying so do not I. 1 This speaks out their Doctrine to be more tolerable then his For the Scripture denies not the increase of sanctification to be in part by works which is all that the Papists hold But accurseth them that shall attribute Justification either in its beginning or growth if there were any such thing to works 2 It is not true that the Papists make whole or all Justification to consist in Sanctification For in their many divisions and distinctions of Justification among the rest they have this There is a first and a second justification The former of Infants and new Converts conferred in baptism This consists in remission of sins meerly by the blood of Christ sprinkled by the Spirit in Baptism upon Infants that are not of age actually to believe and received also by Faith by believing Converts in their Baptism The later end indeed they make to consist in the infusion of the habit of grace and sanctification when the justified man ex justo justior fit is more and more justified This will afterward be manifested So that all Scholars must acknowledg Mr. Br. to have the Tantundem and almost in every apex the Idem of this Doctrine Yea worse is his doctrine in this particular than theirs For he makes Sanctification and good works a Collateral with the righteousness of Christ in justifying They abandon this doctrine teaching that they are but fruits of Gods grace and Christs merits Thus he sets up vain man as Cheek-mate with Christ they set him at his foot-stool or appoint him to follow and apprehend the hemm of his garment to draw vertue from him though indeed to other and prouder ends then he hath ordained Br. They quite overthrow and deny the most reall difference between the Old Covenant and the New and making them in a manner one I build upon the clear differencing and opening of the Covenants 1 All this is said not shewed and proved 2 If the Papists did wholly as he saith Mr. Br. to every particle of what he charges them with might tune up the Poets Epigram Jam sumus ergo pares Jam sumus ergo pares In all this we shake hands What fouler confounding of the Covenants can there be then what Mr. Br hath committed when he makes DO and LIVE to be the voyce of
not Trid. Conc. in the forecited place the only Condition of the New Covenant but severall other duties also are parts of that Condition I desire no more of those that deny this but that the Scripture may be judg Whosoever shall reduce the contrary Doctrine Bell. de Justif lib. 1. cap. 13 c. into practice viz. to seek salvation and Justification by faith only not at al by works it wil undâ—ubtedly damn him Those other duties that justifie are Repentance praying for pardon forgiving others Love sincere obedience works of Love i. e. all good works not faith alone or some of these works and vertues with it but all must have their concurrence to justifie Aphor. p. 235 236 237. 325. Nay so far are both parties from this Faith that Faith onely justifieth that Both teach we are justified by Works only For We are still said to be justified by Bell. de Justif lib. 1. Faith which is an Act of ours Append p. 80. Morall duties are part of the condition of our salvation aâ— for it to be performed And evâ— faith is a Morall duty So thâ— Daventria So Pemble cites the Papists objecting Treat of justif p. 37. according to Mr. Brs. doctrinâ— Morall works and duties alonâ— as such are required of us to Jâ—stification and not Faith it seâ— this way usefull but as a moraâ— work and duty Append. p. 80. When the Apostle saith by worâ— and not by faith only hee plainâ— makes them concomitant in procurâ—ment Bell. de necessitate operum ad salutem or in that kind of Causalâ— which they have especially seeing â— saith not as he is commonly inteâ—preted not by faith which is â— lone but not by faith onely â— the phrase Justified by works tâ— word by implyeth more than an â—dle concomitancy If they should onâ— stand by while Faith 〈◊〉 all â— would not be said we are justifiâ— by works Aph. p. 299 300. Faith in the largest sense as comprehendeth all the conditions See Weimrichius l. 1. in Epist ad Romanos c. 3. p. 207. the N C is when a sinner c. do beleeve the truth of the Gospell aâ— accept of Christ as his only Lord aâ— Saviour c. and sincerely thouâ— imperfectly obey him as his Lord foâ— Osor lib. 3. de Instit n. 70. giving others loving his people beâ—ring all what sufferings are imposeâ— diligently using his Means and Orâ—nances c. And all this sincerely â— to the end Aph. Thes 70. Apâ— Bel. lib 4. de Justif c. 10. Qu. de veritate honor operum p. 243. This personall Gospell-righteoâ—ness is in its kind a perfect Righâ—ousness and so far we may admit the doctrine of personall perfection Aphor Thes 24. The first point of Justification and that which is but a point the first point must needs be a very small pittance Bell. de Juâ—if lib. 1. â—ap 20. Malden in Matth. 9. of it I grant to be Faith alone but the accoÌ„plishment i. e. the perfitting thereof is not without the joynt procuremeÌ„t of obedience Aph. p. 302. In a Larger sence as promise is an obligation and the thing promised is â—el de Mer. called Debt so the performers of the Condition are called worthy and the thing promised is called Debt Thes â—ea all the â—apists as â—lleaged â—y Cal. Inst â—b 3. ca. 14. â—ect 12. â—ap 17. â—ect 3. 15. 26. Yea in this Meriting the obligation to reward is Gods ordinate Justice and the truth of his promise and the worthiness lieth in our performance of the Condition on our part Aph. pa. 141. As it was possible for Adam to have fullfilled the Law of works by that Bell. lib. 4. â—le Justif â—ap 1. power which he had received by nature So is it possible for us to fullfill the Conditions of the New Covenant i. e. the righteousness which the Law requireth by the power which we receive from the Grace of Christ But whether this be grace or no grace Pelagius his imaginary or the Gospel real grace he wil not let us know so that herein the Papists are more ingenious than he for they express themselves plainly of effectuall Grace indeed Thes 27. The Doctrine of Justification by Hos in Conâ—ut pa. 140 â—b 3. Faith onely tendeth to drive obedience out of the world For if men do once beleeve that it is not so much Canis inprefat in Andr. Vega Andr. Vega de Justif in Epist prefat Osor de Justif lib. 2 7. as a part of the Condition of their Justification will it not much tend to relax their diligence And it doth much confirm the world in their Soul-cozening Faith c. Aphor. pag. 325 326. It was not the intent of the Father Trident. Cone Sess 6. cap. 14 16. Sess 14. cap. 8 9. Bel. de Purgatorio Bel. de Poenitent lib. 4. or Son that by this satisfaction the offenders should be immediately delivered from the whole Curse of the Law and freed from the evill which they had brought upon themselves but some part must be executed in soul and body and remain upon them at the pleasure of Christ And this Curse is upon not onely affenders in generall but also upon the Elect and beleevers Aph. p. 65 66 68. Not till the day of Resurrection Judgement will all the effects of Sin Bellarmine and all his fellows Bel. de Justif lib. 4. cap. 7. Syn. Trid. ib. can 12. and Law wrath be perfectly removed from the beleevers justified Beleevers after they be justified are under the Law as it is a Covenant of works for life and death Aph. p. 78 79. 82. Onely a conditionall but not an absolute Andr. Vega de Fide operibus q. 2 So also Thomas Seotus Bellarmine discharge is granted to any in this life When we do perform the coÌ„dition yet still the discharge remains conditionall till we have quite finished our performance and where the condition is not performed the law is still in force shall be executed A. p. 82. The justification of beleevers in this life is conditionall ut supra Men that are but thus conditionally Bellarmine prosecuteth this Argument at large pardoned and justified may be unpardoned and unjustified again for their non-performance of the conditions and all the debt so forgiven be required at their hands so that there can be no certainty of perseverance to salvation Aph. Thes 44. He seems in the explication to lenifie his assertion but to it I have spoken before Our Legall Righteousnes is not personal or in our selves and in our own qualificatioÌ„s actions c. but wholly without us in Christ Our Evangelicall Bel. de justif Lib. 1. Righteousness consisteth in our own Actions of Faith Gospel obedience This is the onely Condition of our interest in the Righteousness of Christ Now by reason of this personall righteousnes consisting in the Recâ—â—tude of their own dispositions
and actions the godly are called Righteous in Scripture and their faith and duties are said to pleas God viz. at they are related to the Covenant of grace i. e. as they are coÌ„ditions procuring our Justification by Christ as well as in regard of the imputed Righteousnes which he addeth but as a cypher bringing no proof for it but all seemingly for the former Aphor. Thes 18 19 20 22 and its explication p. 119. c. We are justified by works commanded This is the generall vote of all Popish writers none excepted in the Law yet as they make up not our Legall but our Evangelicall Righteousness not as they are done upon legall terms but as they are conditions of the New Covenant This is the chief substaÌ„ce of Mr Brs whole book and it is a poorer shift to elude the doctrine of Paul than is that of the Papists Love is an essentiall part of Justifying Faith not properly a fruit of of it Aph. p 266. When Faith therefore The common Tenet of Papists not love is said to justifie it is said so to work in its essentiall work of accepting by Love pa. 268. That both are necessary to salvation are concurrent in apprehending Christ is doubtless p. 271. Love doth truly receive Christ c. p. 224. The people are to understand that for them to take upon trust from their Teachers what they cannot yet reach to see in its own evidence is less absurd and more necessary that many This also is a known Tenet among the Papists do imagin Epistle to the reader in the last page save two These may suffice for a Taste by which the reader may judge whether Mr. Brs and the Papists Barrells are filled with the same Herring or not Should I proceed to Compare also his and their equivocations ambiguities mentall reservations together with their purposed and not unwary Contradictions when to say and deny the same thing in severall places as may severally make for their advantage But specially if I should go on to Compare them how they bring the same arguments to prove their severall assertions and the same distinctions and other shifts of Sophistry to elude the Scriptures and reasons which make against them I should procedere ad infinitum almost begin but finde no end In alleaging the words of the severall Authors something here and there hath perhaps been abbreviated some words standing as cyphers without waight in reference to the questions Controverted interserted to make up some orderly Connexion of the following with the foregoing particular cited But no where have I wittingly Committed any such alteration of the words as to alter in one Title the sense of the Writer as will be evident to all that will but take the pains to examine the citations with their authentique or books from which they are cited Neither is there any one thing alleaged in which the two parties Cohere but what hath been still Controverted between the Papists and Protestants Else would it be easie to produce a thousand particulars wherein the Pope and Luther themselves speak one and the same thing without opposition or difference If any where when Mr. Br and the Papists speak the same words yet Mr. Br means not punctually the same thing with the Papists in every such allegation I undertake to manifest that he is worse and delivers more self-exalting Grace-depressing doctrine than they Yet all this is too little to set forth the frame of Mr. Brs spirit he may take himself injured and left too obscure if he be but matched with the Papists and have no pre-eminence granted him before and above them in exalting mans righteousnes and nullifying the Grace of God in Christ That we may not rob him of the praise to which his ambition seems to aspire we will grant to him that the Papists are but the Pigmies and he the Giant that in the battell between Michael and the Dragon he hath superexcelled more deserved the Scarlet Hat Miter Crosier yea Triple Crown it sâ—lf than they that have and wear them if not by his Art yet at least by his daring boldnes in his undertakings This service therefore I shall do him to manifest not onely his equality with but also his exâ—perancy above many of the famous Champions of Rome That many of the brave Cardinals Bishops Jesuits and Fryars of the Church of Rome are Protestants in the poynt of Justification as compared with Mr. Br and that he sheweth himself in many particularâ— about this doctrine a Papist of a deeper dye than the more modest Papists yea than some of the most Jesuitized and Trentified Rabbi's among them This shall be the business of the next Chapter CHAP. XVII A comparing of Mr. Baxters Doctrine with the Doctrine of some of the more Modest and other more Trentified and Jesuitized Papists in which he is found more Antichristian than they Papists 1 IT is to be noted that the Scripture attributeth this imputation of Righteousness to no other thing but Faith 2 Faith hath not of it self any efficacy as it is our act to forgive and reconcile but all its vertue proceeds from its object namely Christ whose vertue and merit God hath disposed to apply to the sinner unto Justification by Faith on him 3 If it be enquired how the Law of Faith is distinguished by Paul against the Law of works even of morall works when Faith also is comprehended under the genus or kind of works for to beleeve is our work The solution is that to beleeve in him that justifieth the ungodly leaneth upon the Righteousnes of another to wit of God through Christ but other works do lean upon their own Righteousness every work is in or after it self good and makes him good that hath it 4 If Faith as it is a certain Act and of it self should procure Righteousness then were not Righteousness given freely God hath not used works to justifie as he hath used Faith that men should not boast attributing Righteousness to the vertue or merit of works 5 Faith is not counted to us for Righteousness as if it self were made our Righteousness but because it brings a Righteousness on man before God not as it is an act of man then Grace should be of works for to beleeve is a kind of work but of Gods will as he hath willed that Righteousness should be given to man by Faith and the vertue of Christ upon whom man beleeveth should be communicated to the beleever This is to count or impute Faith to Righteousness before God 6 Whereas we attain a twofold Righteousness by Faith an inherent Righteousness c. by which we become pertakers of Gods nature and the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us c. It remains to be enquired upon which of these we ought to lean or trust and to account our selves justified before God My judgment is that we are to rest to rest I say as upon a stable
thing that firmly susteineth namely the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us and not on the holiness and grace inherent in our selves For this is unperfect c. therefore we cannot for it be counted Righteous before God But the imputed righteousness of Christ is a perfect righteousnes in which there is nothing that can offend the eyes of God but all things that can abundantly please him Vpon this alone therefore are we to rest as upon a thing sure and stable and to beleeve that by it alone we are justified 7 This may undoubtedly be affirmed and it is the opinion of all Divines that God can justifie men and make them pleasing and amiable to him without any inherent quality or habits infused 8 To the same purpose and somewhat more fully speaketh Bellarmine The guilt or obligation to punishment saith he may be taken away without the infusion of Righteousnes For nothing hinders by how much the less God can will the not ordeining to punishment and the pardoning of the offence and the not accounting him for an enemy to whom he hath not granted the gift of habituall Righteousness 9 The Scope of James in the second Chapter of his Epistle is to shew that we are justified not by a barren but by a fruitfull Faith 10 The meaning of James is not that Faith without works is dead c. For it is evident that we are justified by Faith even without works But his meaning is that Faith without works that is which refuseth to work or is noâ— disposed to work is a dead Faith vain and justifieth not What therefore James alleageth out of Gen. 15. Abraham beleeved God to this purpose he alleageth it that he beleeved being in readiness to work Therefore he saith that in the work of offering his Son the Scripture was fulfilled speaking of his Faith prepared to work It was fulfilled I say as to the execution of that great work to which his Faith was prepared 11 If any where in Scripture thou hearest reward or wages promised know that it is no otherwise due then by Gods promise freely he hath promised freely he gives If thou wilt abide in his Grace and Favour make no mention of thy Merits 12 All Papists consentingly make the Merits of Christ the foundation of mans merits as far as he can merit Neither Faith nor works nor doing nor sufferings say they have any other vertue to merit then what they receive from the merits of Christs death then as they are dipt in his blood this makes them acceptable to the Father 13 When Christ saith of the woman Luk. 7. 47. Many sins are forgiven her for she loved much it is to be understood not that she loved much and so her much love was the cause of her great forgiveness but contrarywise that because many sins were forgiven her therefore she loved much 14 To be given freely and to be a retribution to works are as much opposit as that which is free and that which is from Justice or as not due and debt And this way of inference the Apostle useth in the beginning of this 4th Chapter viz. speaking of Justification by Grace 15 The work of Justice is wages or Reward and this way of Justice Grace excludeth whose work is meer gift or Donation 16 In this verse the Apostle concludeth that Christ hath saved us from all the evill both of fault and punishment That there is nothing of condemnation remaining to them that are in Christ because all judgment is taken away both to the fault and the punishment 17 It is certain that when originall sin is remited that the evils which it brought are not remitted and taken away as all finde by experience Notwithstanding they remain not under the consideration of punishment because the fault being taken away there can be no desert as to punishment remaining 18 I will remember their iniquities no more saith the Lord i. e. I will neither in this world injoin any Penance for them nor in that which is to come inflict any punishment for them So hath the Holy Ghost promised that our sins shall be forgiven by the New Covenant of Grace 19 In regard of the uncertainty of our own righteousness and the danger of vain glory it is most safe to repose our whole confidence in the sole mercy and benignity of God Baxter THe bare act of beleeving is not the onely condition of the New Cardinall Contarenus in Rom. 4. Covenant but severall other duties also are parts of that Condition The Common opinion that justifying faith as justifying doth consist in any one single act is a Wretched Mistake by the one act of faith he means Faith in opposition to works Aph. p. 235 248. Faith it self is our righteousnesse viz. our Evangelicall as Christ is our Legall Righteousnesse It self Toletus a Iesuite upon Rom. 3. is imputed to us for righteousnesse Aph. p. 125 126. It justifieth as it is an act of ours and as it is a morall duty App. p. 80. 102. Both Faith and workes make up one condition one righteousness one perfect righteousness of our own by Cardinall Cajetan upon Rom. 3. which we merit to be justified by God by the legall righteousness which is in Christ And consequently Faith doth not lean upon anothers and works upon their own righteousness but both make up one compounded righteousness and goodness which make us righteous and good also and by this righteousness and goodness deservers of justification salvation Aph. Thes 17 18 19 20 23 24 26. and scatteringly throughout the whole Book Faith as an act of ours and of it self with other workes procureth Righteousness And God hath used Toletus the Iesuit up on Rom. 1. works to justifie as he hath used faith even in the same kinde of causality So we have found Mr. Br. oft affirming as may be seen in our former quotations Let him deny that he holds the consequents of these two Antecedents if he will It is so far from being an error to affirm that Faith it self is our righteousness that it is a truth necessary for every Christian to know yea it both is our Righteousnesse and is imputed to us for righteousnesse The very personall performance of faith shall be imputed to us for a sufficient personall payment of righteousnes Idem in Rom. 4. as if we had paid the full duty and righteousnesse which the Law requireth This is the substance of his words though not his very words which being continued in terms of a Metaphor cannot without the citing of the whole similitude be expressed to the understanding otherwise Aphor. p. 125 126 129. There is a two-fold righteousnesse attainable by Christ at least in words the one an inherent righteousnesse in our selves consisting in the seed and acts of Faith Love Holinesse c. the other in Christ but made over to beleevers by Gods Donation if not imputation Both of these are absolutely necessary to salvation neither is
pious and not unlearned men that have taken some infection of the Epidemicall disease of our times too easily to drink down errors differing herein only from the vulgar that error is more appetible to them from a learned and sophisticall than truth from a plainer though faithfull hand Let a man once have the name of a learnnd Scholar and strict-walking Pharisee all his Doctrines by such men are concluded to be of rare use and excellency before they be seen whether they be white or black from Heaven or from Hell Not a few of these men having in my hearing stood firm and up moved in the defence of the doctrines of this book of Mr. Brs. not being able to speak any thing to refell the objections made against it but this that the Author thereof is an eminently learned and pious man As if Satan had not the wit to make choyse of his instruments that have the most compleat aptitude and power to deceive or that the Jews had not so much to say for their Pharisees the Papists for their Bellarmine and the Remoâ—strants for their Arminius or the Devill had forgotten his ancient subtlety when he will seduce from the verity of Christs Gospel to change himself into an Angell of Light or that no damning errour could proceed from a self-saving or rather self-deceiving Pharisee To cleer up the truth to such at lest to give their occasion to search the Scriptures by which they may cleer it to themselves I shall lay and compare together Paul and Mr. Br. in that which Mr. Br. saith was the question about which Paul disputed that it may be made evident whether they agree or contradict either the other To this purpose by the way there is to be taken out of the way a fallacy that lurketh in Mr. Brs. words where he saith The dispute of St. Paul is upon this Question It is not enough to say this was A Question excâ—pt he say also it was the Question yea the Onely Question upon which the Apostle disputed in those places where he excludeth works and inferreth Faith alone to be ordeined as effectuall to justification He disputed in some of his Epistles upon many questions To reduce what hee disputed severally to the severall questions all to one were to make non-sense of the whole The same may be said of all mens yea of the most Scholastick disputes of Mr. Br. himself who is a greater Philosopher and more studied in Logick and Metaphysicks than ever the Apostle was But I deny it to be the onely or the chief question about which St. Paâ—l so disputeth what is the Righteousnesse which wee must plead against the Accusation of the Law or by which wee are justified as the proper Righteousness of the Law I grant it to be one but a less principall question upon which he disputes But the more principall question is in generall by what means we may be interessed into Christ or obtain the righteousness of Christ to become ours and so still retâ—in it to justification More particularly whether the Native Faederall holiness of the Jewes and the priviledges of the Covenant in part mentioned Rom. 9. 4 5. Phil. 3. 5. Gal. 2. 15. Or their actuall and personall righteousnesse and sincere obedience to the Law mentioned Phil. 3. 6. Mat. 20. 12. and the 19 20. together with all the Typicall purgings mentioned in the 9. 10. Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews On the other side whether all the Naturall and Morall righteousness of the Gentiles which they performed by the instinct of the Law of Nature written in their Consciences without the help or knowledg of Gods written law or their exemption from the Covenant of God made with the Jews For some of the believing Gentiles reading the promises made of calling unto the grace of Christ them that were not Gods people or beloved before weakly concluded that their former uncircumcision and uncovenant-ship was a speciall furtherance to their admission unto Christ as may be probably gathered from Rom. 11. 19. Gal. 5. 6. whether any of these kinds of holinesse and works of righteousness either with Faith or without Faith or whether Faith alone without all or any of these be required as instrumentall subservient and effectuall to inright us to the Justification which is by Christ This was the more principall question upon which Paul disputeth in the places before mentioned Somewhat he saith to the former but lesse principally and seldom but in subserviency to this So the question upon which Paul disputes in his Epistles and Mr. Br. in his Aphorisms is one and the same but their Conclusions absolutely contradictory either to other The one concludeth that Faith alone without mans works and righteousness The other that not faith alone but Faith as a work together with all other works of righteousnesse do justifie and all morall duties collaterally with Faith are required to make the Righteousness of Christ ours to justification No greater or more palpable Contradiction can be devised Whosoever shall preach another Gospell of Justification otherwise than by Faith in Christ without works let him be accursed saith Paul Whosoever shall be practically a solifidian trust to a bare Faith and not work for Justification shall be Damned saith Mr. Br. If one of these be granted to be an Apostle of Christ the other must needs be proclaimed to be the Apostle of Antichrist But whether this which I have expressed be indeed the principal question on which the Apostle so disputeth adhuc sub judice lis est We are left uncertain on both hands may some say True and if I onely say and not shew it I shall be guilty of the fault which I blame in Mr. Br. And so we may deserve both to be laught at as Triflers This therefore is the next thing to be added First then if we do but consider to whom and against whom the Apostle handleth these disputes for Mr. Br. reduceth them all to his Epistles it will be more than probable to every rationall man that his most principall question is By what means we possesse and continue in the possession of the righteousnesse which is by Christ to Justification And but secondarily less principally and in subserviency to this question What the righteousnesse is by which we are to be justified The persons to whom he writeth were all Christians the purest and most eminent Churches of Christ that had received the pure doctrine of Christ by the preaching of the Apostles viz. that whereas sinn and death and the Curse by sinn reigned over all men in all the world so that all wete Children of wrath and every soul guilty before God Christ was given of the Father to be the Author of Righteousness and life by the Mediation of his death that in him and in no other name under heaven was salvation attainable that whosoever would beleeve in him should have everlasting life should be Justified freely by Grace
of Justification by Christ doth not give them any part of the work of Christs righteousness For it belongeth to Christs righteousness by it self alone and to Christ by his Mediatory righteousness alone to perfect for ever the Justification and salvation of his redeemed ones Heb. 10. 14. And that without any accessary help of their own righteousness John 13. 10. But Mr. Br. so parteth justification between Christs righteousness and our righteousnesse as that he makes them equally concurrent to our salvation and justifying That Christs Righteousness without ours can no more profit us than ours without Christs yea makes Christs righteousness wholly unprofitable to every man till by the serving and deserving of each man it be purchased and made usefull to benefit him And so by making the efficacy of it the fruit of our Merit he dis-robes it of its honour and ornament derogating from it its all-sufficiency by it self to perfect us that he may arrogate to our righteousness what is stoln from his But how farr this doctrine of his derogates both from the grace of God and merits of Christ hath been oft discussed After all that hee hath said to the defacing of both here he wipes his mouth and saith it was never foul and will have his Reader conclude that when his face of Christ is spittled yet if it be from Mr. Brs. lips touched with a Cole from Bellarmine and Arminius it is a blessing of him This one truth I acknowledg implyed though not expressed in this Argument of Mr. Br. that he acknowledgeth himself to be the man that hath made obedience or works condition of the New Covenant or of justification by Christ In this I contradict him not It is of mans not of Gods making it 's a creature of his own not created by God at least not by God assigned to this use and end It being therefore not formed to his hand but a graven image the work of his own hand we leave him sith he will do it alone without us to persist in worshipping it CHAP. XXIII Whether the Reasons which hee bringeth prove him not to be a Legallist and Anti-gospeller HIS fifth endeavour is to vindicate his doctrine from being legall and Anti-Evangelicall That although it hold Beleevers not only under the bondage but also under the Curse of the Law in life and death till the day of Judgment Thes 9. pa. 65. p. 73. and else-where oft Though it makes works the condition of the New as well as of the Old Covenant though he maintains that Doe and Live is the voyce of the Gospel as well as of the Law Append. p. 81. Yet is he not a Pharisee or Legallist nor his doctrine ungospel-like It is purely Christian and full of sweet and ravishing Consolation to a Beleever not the least tangue of the Covenant of works but the odour and very marrow of the Covenant of grace in it It would be too long to set forth in his own words all the reasons that scatteringly throughout this Book of his hee bringeth to prove a probability and likelihood of truth in this his Paradox The sum of it is this B. 1. As to the bondage and Curse of the Law though they that are in Christ are under it in part yet they are not under it in the whole as all sinners under the Law wholly out of Christ For they are conditionally pardoned and justified as he frequently expresseth himself and so there is some ground of hope to take off the extreamity of despair And it is not the whole but some part of the Curse of the Law that lyeth upon them p. 65. Thes 9. Christs death hath suspended the RIGOROVS execution of the sentence of the Law that it doth not immediately fall upon his Redeemed ones p. 67. though they suffer after they are in Christ much of the Curse in execution of the threatning of the Law and that not without rigour yet is it not in its full rigour p. 69. And Christ which hath suspended the rigour of the Curse manageth that which lyeth on them to their good and advantage pag. 72. And is not this cordiall Gospel the balm of Gilead and the healing of Christs wings to a wounded soul The force of all this hath been examined already as else-where so most copiously in the Examination of his ninth Thesis and the explication thereof to which for the prevention of Tautologizing here I refer the Reader Only let him by the way consider with me how fitly these glosses of Mr. Br. do agree with many plain and evident Sriptures Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. i. e. saith M. Br. from the rigour of the Curse not from the Curse it self for it lyeth upon us still or from the Curse that it shall not follow us to heaven after the world is ended not but that untill the worlds end it shall torment us both dead and living There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walke not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. i. e. No condemnation in its full rigour but condemnation unto and the execution of the Curse they must bear untill the day of judgment and after that he knoweth not what will become of them Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sinns are covered Rom. 4. 7. i. e. in part blessed and in part cursed The blood of Christ purgeth from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. i. e. from all sin not from all the curse and vengeance due to any one of our sins are we delivered God for Christs sake hath forgiven you all your sins and trespasses Eph. 4. 32. Col. 2. 13. i. e. hath forgiven you the fault but not the curse and punishment By one offering Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctifird i. e. hath laid a ground to perfect them if he will in the next world not that he hath perfected them in point of Justification here The time past is put for a time to come and a certain for an uncertain time Heb. 10. 14. They that are once purged by sacrifice have no more conscience of sinn i. e. when they are wholly purged in heaven not while they are but in part purged upon earth Heb. 10. 2. Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Heb. 10. 17. i. e. no more as forgiven to spare them But as long as the Sun and Moon endure I will remember to pour out the Curse and vengeance for them Wee are justified by the blood and reconciled to the Father by the death of the Son Rom. 5. 9 10. That is we have right and title so to be reconciled and justified in another world if we lose it not by the way He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and with his stripes we are healed Isa 53. 5. i. e. So healed with his stripes that he shall wound us
ugliness of this imaginary Chimera Here therefore it shall suffice leaving the Reader to the perusall of what hath been said already upon this subject to mind him of these two things 1. That both the whole and every least fragment of all that is here collected whether we look to the substance or Artifice used about it is not his but borrowed partly from the Papists partly from the Socinians and their Apes the Arminians as hath been before shewed and if I shall be called thereto I am ready more fully to shew by quoting the Authors out of whom he hath transcribed all almost word for word to his use So that the Reader may consult with such of our Writers that have answered their sophistry if he desire to read more fully and largely upon this subject and not expect it from mee who have already transgressed as some will judg by my too much largeness thereon as to Mr. Baxter 2 That although the voyce here be the voyce of Jacob yet the hands are the hands of Esau Sweet words but subverting doctrine in matter and substance Pills of poyson wrapt up in gold we except not against the gold but the poyson therein inclosed not against the Terms of words considered by themselves but against the pernicious doctrine which they palliate Whether we ascribe too much to Faith by making it an instrument see the examination of his answer to the last question which he propoundeth in the explication of Thes 56. But how false and fallacious his flaattering words which he useth here to make tolerable yea sweet his arrogant doctrine of Justification by works viz. that Wee that is I and the Papists with Socinus and Arminius make our righteousnesse but a Condition or Medium or a poor improper Causa sine qua non no part of satisfaction for our unrighteousness Not as works simply considered nor as Legall works nor as Meritorious works Nor as good works with which God is pleased but as our Gospel-righteousness and conditions to which the free Law-giver hath promised justification and life will easily appear to him that considereth what how much hee ascribeth to works Though he cals works a poor Causa sine qua non yet himself affirmeth that some Causes sine qua non deserve farr greater praise in morall respect than some that have a proper Causality do Aph. pa. 216. which though in words he deny of Faith meaning by faith all obedience and good works which hee calls the severall Acts of Faith Aph. p. 126. that it doth so deserve Aphor. p. 224. yet in matter and substance he affirms it And Nulla fides verbis cum res adversa loquatur For as I have more than hinted before 1 He maketh our righteousnes of works and Christs satisfactory righteousness co-ordinate and collateral in the procurement of our Justification the one as absolutely necessary as the other to the attainment of this end the one to purchase a possibility of Justification the other to render that which was but in possibility actual and effectual to us Both satisfactory the one as a sufficient Fine and payment the other as satisfactory Rent and homage Aph. Thes 17 18 19. pa. 129. 2 He puts both in the same order and kind of Causes making our righteousness and Christs satisfaction to be both the Causa sine qua non Thes 56. For although he names Faith there yet himself declares himselfe under Faith to mean and comprehend obedience also This Civility alone he vouchsafeth to Christ that he names Christs satisfaction before our faith or obedience because it seems that is the elder But in order power and authority to the producing of this effect Christ hath no pre-eminence given him above man 3 He affirms mans righteousness to be as perfect as Christs righteousness in order to Justification viz. both perfect in suo genere Christs righteousness perfect to do its work mans to its work or as he explains himself both perfect in the perfection of sufficiency in order to its end So that here also is a parity no efficiency in Christs righteousness without mans nor in mans without Christs to justifie But when the two perfections meet if neither lose its perfection they may after the world is ended perfect our justification Thes 24. p. 132. In the mean while till our works be added to Christs satisfaction what he saith of faith that he every where implyeth of the satisfaction of Christ that it is dead being alone as to the use and purpose of justifying And so as works make faith alive so they make Christs satisfaction alive as to the attainment of its end justification 4 That works justifie in the same kind of Causality and procurement with faith not only proving Faith to be sound but themselves being in the same obligation with Faith not idle Concomitants only standing by while Faith doth all which some fools might imagine hee meaneth when he calls them onely necessary Antecedents of Justification pa. 223. Nay they are Concomitants with Faith in the very Act of procuring it and in that kind of Causality which they have p. 299 300. 5 They do all this as they are works Even Faith it self justifieth as it is an Act of ours Append. p. 80. and as a morall duty Append. p. 102. So do all other Morall duties as they are part of our sincere obedience to Christ ibid. 6 That we are justified not only by works Aph. p. 300. and according to our works but also for our works pa. 320. that good works are a ground and Reason of it p. 221. 7 That we are justified for our works that is for the Merit of them Not Merit in the most proper and strict sense which is the performance of somewhat not due by one that is not under the Soveraignty of him to whom it is performed of that worth in it selfe which bindeth him to whom it is done in strict and naturall justice to requite him Such an obligation can no creature lay upon God Neither could perfect obedience in respect of the Law of Works if man had continued still upright have so merited But so far as it was possible for a perfect man to have merited under the Covenant of works hee may now merit also under the Covenant of Grace by his works viz. in an improper way of Meriting where the obligation to reward is Gods Ordinate Justice and the truth of his promise and the worthinesse lyeth in our performance of the Condition on our part Thus farr might Adam in his perfection have merited according to the Law of works and so farr may wee merit according to the Covenant of Grace Aphorism Thesis 26. pa. 138. 140 141. Let all this be laid together and who can but per-force acknowledge together with the horns of the Lamb the voyce of the Dragon also and all that he hath spoken pretendedly to the diminution of works under the fine terms of his causa sine qua non his
or else be free and absolute and in what sense it may be granted to be Conditional pa. 1. p. 108. to 118. The numerousnesse and withall unprofitablenesse of the Conditions which Mr. Br. assigneth part 2. p. 31 32. His vain ascribing to Conditions part 2. p. 26 83 108 109 c. 272 273. His Reasons to prove it examined part 1. p. 353 to 356. The hurtfullness of the contrary doctrine which Mr. Br mainteineth part 1. p. 351-353 His dispute to prove it still after we are in Christ to remain Conditional par 1. p. 292. to 308. VVhat the judgment of the Protestant Divines in this point is part 2. p. 17 to 22. 204 205. The promulgation offer of it may be granted Conditionall but once in being and possession it is absolute part 1. p. 355 356. The rashnesse of some Ministers in closing with Mr. Br. in this his Popish Arminian doctrine pa. 2. p. 22 23 25 237. Whether the Covenant of Grace were originally made between the Father and the Son and what the Covenant was and upon what terms so made p 1. p. 99. to 107. What relation all the other Covenants made in time between God and man had to this ibid. Mr Br. after the Papists distinguisheth between the Commands and Counsels of the word part 1. p. 213 214. The doctrine of Justification by Faith alone not a soul Cozening doctrine p 2. p. 173 c. Beleevers not under the Curse as the Curse or revenging punishment for sin part 1. largely discussed from p. 24. to p. 61. The Question stated ib. p. 32. c. The Reasons brought by the Protestant Writers to prove the Negative against the Papists ib. p. 33. to 37. Mr. Brs Arguments for the Affirmative ib. p. 29-31 His Arguments answered ib. p. 38. to 49. How many wayes popish and pernicious this his doctrine is ib. p. 49. to 62. D Darkening in stead of cleering Truths common to Mr. Br. with the Papists part 1. p. 5 9 10. The Death and blood of Christ onely expiatory and satisfactory to Justification part 2. p. 64 65 67. to 70. VVhether Justification admit of Degrees or magis minus part 1. p. 286. to 291. VVhether the Devil shall manage the accusation of men in the day of Judgement part 1. p. 281. Distinctions in Divine matters not grounded upon the word viz. Arts Sophistry Doctrines not to be judged of after the personall splendour of their Authors pref p. 4 5. Doe viz. Life and Live E VVhether it be Easie to perswade men to embrace Justification by Faith but difficult by works part 2. p. 181. to 184. Sanctification a sure Evidence of Justification so convertibly pa. 2. 176. to 178. In what respects good works do so Evidence ib. F Faith without works not competent to justifie according to Mr. Br. part 2. p. 4. How farre he followeth the Papists in the doctrine of implicit Faith part 1. p 1 2 3 c. His doctrine herein directly pointed against the Protestants ib. p. 4. We must not admit doctrine of Faith upon the authority of our Teachers ib. p. 6. The evils attending the doing thereof ib. p. 7 8. Mr. Brs wild and irregular definition of Faith to prove justification by works discovered to be ridiculous pa. 2. p. 56. c. The doctrine of the Protestants about Faith and works part 2. p. 174. c. What Mr. Br. meaneth by Faith or his To credere part 2. p. 71. c. How different Mr. Brs sense is from some of the Protestant writers that with him call Faith the Condition of justification part 1. p. 349 350. Forgiving of others not a Condition of Gods justifying and forgiving us part 2. p. 31 33 c. to the 37. Mr. Brs Fraud in hiding all that the protestants have written against his popish doctrines part 2. p. 17 18. 128 129. G The Genius of men when conspiring is apt to draw each other into truth or error pref p. 10 11. By what means the Gospel was so much and so suddenly propagated at the begining of the Reformation by Luther pref p. 39 40. How the further propagation of it was stopped ib. p. 40 41. Gospel Comforts are Antidotes against sin and carnall liberty not fomenters of it par 2. p. 162 163 167 168. Mr. Brs Reasons to prove his doctrines not to be legall and against the Gospel examined part 2. p. 266. to p. 276. Whether or in what respects Christ hath or hath not satisfied for sins against the Gospel as for sins against the Law p. 1. p. 219-227 Whether works as holpen by Grace justifie part 1. p. 139. to 143. Mr. Br. the papists vainly make this their common plea to excuse their arrogance in ascribing justification to works ib. p. 175 176 H Whether beleevers ought to serve for fear of Hell part 2. p. 155-157 Hiding viz. Fraud I What the judgment of many learned protestant Divines hath been and is about justification as an Immanent and eternal act in God part 1. p. 231. to 238. What Scriptures they bring to prove the affirmative ib. p. 238. to 247. Mr. Brs dispute against them examined ib. p. 248-262 Faith the Instrument of justification p. 1. p. 330. And the some both Gods and mans Instrument and in what sense each is such ib. p. 332 334 336 to 341. Mans Instrument 334-336 342-348 Mr. Brs cavils against this doctrine answered ib. p. 358. to 361. 364. to 368. 370. Whether believers as well as the reprobates shall be judged for according to their works in the last day largely discussed against Mr. Br. p. 2. p. 124-136 Whether the Scriptures which speak in the future tense of justifying do denote the day of Judgment p. 1. p 278-280 Judgment viz. Devil 282. The State of the question between Mr. Br and the Protestants about Justification by works Part 2. p. 4 5 6. Justification by works denyed ibid. c. Scriptures produced to prove that Workes have no part with Faith in justifying ibid. p. 10. to 17. The Scriptures cited by Mr. Br to prove the contrary assertion examined ibid. Chap. 3. VVhether according to his own principles he rightly calleth Faith the more and works the less principall Condition of Justification ibid. p. 49. 51 278 279. And if so whether this proveth that when we are said to be justified by Faith onely we are said to be justified by works also and yet justified by Faith alone ibid. Or whether the Reducibleness of all works to faith in some kinde prove it ibid. p. 49 50 52 53-56 278 279. Justification considerable in 3 respects 1 in God 2 in Christ 3 in our own persons and how in every of these Part 1. p. 89 -91. Mr. Brs distinction of justification and pardon into Title of Law and sentence of Judgement Constitutive and Declarative virtuall and Actuall examined and proved unscripturall and vain and his reasons to prove a Justification in the day of Judgement answered
VVhether the inherent Righteousness of Beleevers be perfect Part 1. p. 181 to the 186. Whether Faith as our Righteousness Justifie Part 1. p. 366-368 S. What to judge of some passages that fell from Mr. Saltmarsh his pen. Part 1. p. 138. Salvation twofold the state of Grace and of Glory Part 2. p. 104 105. In the former sense it is the same with Justification ibid. p. 105. Whether in the latter sense it runs upon the same Conditions with Justification ibid. p. 105 Mr. Brs arguing for the affirmative proved fallacious and invalid ibid. p. 102 oth e 1 12. The Scriptures which he alledged to prove works the condition of Salvation found incompetent and invalid to prove it ibid. p. 116. to the 123. As soundly may we argue from Justification to Salvation that it is universally conditionall as convertibly p. 1. p. 331. Satisfaction vid. death Schoolmens Learning and studies described Pref. p. 37 38. Mr. Br. pretends to admit the Scripture as Judge in the Controversie of Justification by works but fallaciously Pa. 2. p. 7 8. What Scriptures he produceth to prove Justification by works pa. 2. p. 25 c. These all collected by the Papists to his hands ibid. These severall Scriptures examined whether they make for him ibid. p. 25. to the 48. His calumny that the Protestants wrest and implyedly that the Papists truly expound the Scriptures ib. p 9 85 86 87 89. Whether and in what respects God doth see or not see sinn in his pâ—ople Part. 1. p. 70. to 72. Signes vid. Evidences Similies prove not but illustrate what is proved Part 2. p 172. Sincerity what it is Part 1 p. 210. Whether the Gospel requires Perfection or sincerity onely ibid. p. 208. to the 217. Part 1. p. 270. Reasons ministring doubts of Mr. Baxters much applauded sincerity Pref. p. 5. to the 9. Mr. Brs oft excusing himself from affectation of Singularity true yet examined upon what grounds it is true and that he doth it Part 1. p. 331. Whether and how far Mr. Brs doctrine is tainted with or free from Socinianism part 2. p. 229. to the 234. Mr. Brs Sophistry and the evils thereof discovered p. 1. p. 8. to 21. 284. to 281. Sophisticall distinction how pernicious part 1. p. 180 189 278 382. How incoherent with the mind of Christ ib. p. 350. Whether to affirm that Christ Suffered the idem for us denies pardon and free grace part 1. 229 230. T Tertullians judgment of secular intermixed with Divine learning in Gospel matters pref p. 34 35. The Testimonies of those eminent writers whom Mr. Br. citeth as Patrons of his opinion manifested to be against him not for him part 2. p. 197-208 W Word alone competent to determine in Gospel matters pref p. 16 18. to 21. Works and duties co-ordinate with Faith to justifie according to Mr. Br. part 2. p. 4. what duties and works these are ib. p. 5. In what consideration and sense he makes them to justifie ibid. How far we are justified by them before men viz. Charity Mr. Brs and the Papists arguing from St. James for justification by works examined and refelled part 2. p. 184 to 102. His arrogant ascribing to works under his Causa sine qua non or condition part 2. p. 274-276 VVhether when we are said to be justified by Faith works be comprized in faith part 2. p. 281. to 284. How apt mans nature is to put it self under the Covenant of works part 2. p. 285 286. Mr. Brs untoward question answered whether if God had ordeined any work or vertue to justifie it should not have done it part 1. p. 379. c. In what sense our Divines say God justifieth first the person then his actions pa. 1. p. 193 194. Covenant of works see Law More of works see Life and Live Grace and Justification In what sense and respects the Scripture calleth the Saints worthy part 1 p. 187 188. FINIS
vouchsafeth not to answer one no nor to cite one why but that he thinks when the Scriptures and his own assertions do contradict either the other the authority of his own judgment not only to parallel but also to over-weigh the authority of the Scriptures What Papist what Enthusiast hath or can have the Scriptures in less esteem then this Aphorist shews himself here and elswhere to have What Scriptures are brought against him he disdaineth them an answer yea a glance of his eye to see them or tongue to read them to us But if he finds any Scripture whose point with much bowing and wresting he thinks he may turn about against us that have no more wit but to think their authority venerable and requiring our submission thereunto of these he makes use to befool yet more such fools as regard them If I fail in my censure the Lord forgive to me the mistake of my judgment and to Mr. Baxter his giving occasion yea cause of such a mistaking And as the authority of Scriptures is pufft from him with less then a piff or pish so do we find humane authority in all probability falsified by him I know saith he that learned and godly men are of this judgment that the Law as a Covenant of works is quite null and repealed in regard of the sins of beleevers I do not doubt but by these learned and godly he means some Protestant Divines whom somtimes he will flatter smooth and almost spit in their mouths to allure them to run after him Now if he do not falsify their assertions let him name but one of them that ever affirmed the Law to be so repealed I may possibly acknowledg him to be in the main learned and godly but I believe I shall never account him to have been considerate in laying down such an assertion For it directly contradicts the doctrine of our Saviour Think not saith he that I am come to destroy the Law c. I am not come to destroy but fulfill Verily verily Heaven and Earth shall pass but not one jot or tittle shall not pass from the Law till all be fulfilled Mat. 5. 17 18. Or to whom should it be repealed not to unbeleevers for it is consented in both sides that they are under the Law under the Curse Nor to beleevers for the Law hath pursued their sins unto death in the body of Christ and by Mr. Baxters acknowledgment hath inflicted upon him for them upon them in him the tantundem if not the idem which it ever threatned against sinners And how is the Law repealed in any of its power that doth or hath executed all its power upon all that have been transgressors Mr. B. very well knoweth what doctrine is taught in the Reformed Churches but will needs falsify it as he doth also the Holy Scriptures We affirm that the Law is still in force and shall be til the worlds end We preach not a repeal of any of its power or righteousness which it had from God at any time Neither on the other side do we attribute to it a power or unrighteousnes which God never gave it We grant it a power to take full vengeance upon every sinner for every sin committed during life But we deny that if any be raised to a second life after death as was Christ having born the whole wrath due to the sins of the former life that such a one comes under the power of the Law again the Law hath never more dominion over him But so stands the case with believers They have suffered in Christ done their Law in Christ are dead in Christ and in him they have satisfied the Justice of the Law for the sins of their whole life If now they are also risen with Christ and are dignified with a new life the life of grace so that though they live it is not so much they that live as that Christ liveth in them and the life which they live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. In this new life which they have by their union unto Christ now triumphant the Law can no more reach them then Christ himself triumphant So the Law is nulled to them but never repealed nulled because it hath inflicted upon them its whole penaâ—ty and after it hath so done it hath no more power over the very reprobates much lesse over the Saints So that the Law being null or of no force to believers hath received no diminution to its power holding it still firm and entire as ever no more then the Law of the Land is weakened for that when it hath inflicted death upon the Felon or Traytor it hath no further power to question him As before they had existence in Adam their not existing yet in him and under the Law by being in Adam argued no weaknes in the Law So when they have don their Law for the sins committed while under the Law and that by their new union unto and existence in Christ they cease to be under the Law that the Law hath no power over them argues no wound or weaknesse or detriment that the Law hath sustained any more then it doth because it is null in power to the Angels in Heaven over whom it had never power or null unto Christ now in Heaven over whom it had once power Mr. Baxter acknowledgeth that the penalty of the LAW is due to none but the transgressors of the Law to the unrighteous and withall affirms Thes 16. p. 96. and Explication page 98 99. That Satisfaction for disobedience is our Righteousnes makes a man so perfectly righteous as to the Law and further penalty thereof as if he had never disobeyed Yet we find him here fighting not onely against Heaven and Earth but against himself also to deny the nullity of the Law to them that have satisfied by CHRIST for their disobedience to the Law making it one and the same thing with the repealing of the Law This word repealing being here foisted in by himself partly to make way for his sophisticall and bombasticall distinctions which are no less deer to him then his life therefore in the Explication of the next Thesis comes in great ostentation no less trappled with them then a Cart-horse with his painted Collar bells and fethers partly to give occasion of his riding in state upon Grotius his shoulders to shew what new subtle and fine-spun learning he hath drawn from so noble and Apostaticall a Doctor no less fit to the Argument he hath in hand than the shoo iâ— for the hand or the glove for the foot But lastly and principally that having according to his wonted and inbred subtlety put on a false vizzard upon the doctrine of the reformed Churches he might in the 13 Thes and its explication dispute victoriously against the vizzard having nothing to say against the doctrine in its own nature and verity As for the other pretended opinion that the Covenant