all the justified by Faith are sanctified if it be sanctification indeede it may be made an evidence of justification 6 Yet neither all seeming peace and quietnesse of conscience or joy in expectation of salvation or hope that is made the ground of this joy and such other like seeming effects of Justification are alway sure evidences to a man that he is justified because not alway fruits or parts of sanctification they may proceed from another and baser principle viz. from the deceitfulnesse of their heart or self-love and self-advancing or from the spirit of slumber upon the conscience or from ignorance of Gods way and method of bringing many Children to glory Nor are all seeming holiness honesty meeknesse temperance patience and other like vertues either in their habite as they really affect the heart or in their act as they are with an ardent zeale for God brought forth into practice sure evidences of sanctification by Christ because these also may proceed from other and baser principles and not from the Spirit of Christ as from the abiding prints of the Law of Nature written in the heart or from the power and suggestions of a convinced and awaked conscience or from strong impressions made into the soule by a morall and vertuous education or other like sub-celestiall and unspirituall principles So that our certaine and known union to Christ and our justification and sanctification sensibly thence flowing may be properly and unfailingly made our sound evidence of the spirituall life and acceptablenesse of our vertues and works But these in themselves in no wise certaine evidences and demonstrations to us of our justification and sanctification by Christ Sanctification is one thing and a zealous endeavour to be in all things conformed to the will of God is or may be another The former is only from the Spirit of Christ and wrought only in them which are in Christ The later may proceed from morall principles and is incident even to them also that are aliens from Christ 7 Neverthelesse even these vertues and good works do so farr evidence that from the Negation of these a man is certainely denyed to be in Christ or to be justified or sanctified by the faith of Christ I mean that whosoever can allow himself in the habituall practice of any known sin or rejection of any known duty that man may know himself and be known of others to be an Alien from Christ Because whosoever is in Christ is a new Creature all things are become new not only in respect of his relation but of his manners and conversation also and in whomsoever the Spirit of Sanctification dwelleth it dwels in a state of reign not of bondage Withall these vertues and good works when they are found to flow from our union to Christ and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts through Christ and upon examination a man can truly say that he hath ceased to hew from any other Qâ—arrie or to dip from any other Fountain than from Christ that from his Spirit alone hee daily sucketh life as the branch from the root to bring forth fruit and from the sacrifice of Christs death a sweet odour to make himself and his fruit acceptable then they serve as good seconds to prove to his soul that he is justified and sanctified But so that his being in Christ must first prove his fruit to be good before his fruit can have any power to evidence him to be in Christ and the evidence of both his justification and sanctification consisteth not so much in the qualifications which he hath attained or works which he doth and hath done as in his continuall waiting upon Chrih from him alone to receive what hee ought to be and to do in all wel-pleasing before God and the love of God in Christ enabling to obedience 8 That although Sanctification and the fruits thereof do each in its own degree as aforesaid more or lesse evidence our Justification yet have they no concausality with Faith to the producing of it All that are in Christ are Saints in Christ yet their sanctity goes not before their being in Christ but is an immediate fruit thereof The forgiveness of sin and Adoption doth in order go before their doing of acceptable service to God and unacceptable service cannot justifie 9 The grace of God which bringeth salvation and justification teacheth men to deny ungodlinesse c. and to live soberly c. Cals upon all to stretch forth their Faith to apprehend to themselves in Christ both the imputed and the inherent righteousness so far is it from breathing a soul-cozening or a soul-corrupting faith Therefore is the justifying Faith called by the Holy Ghost a most holy Faith Jude 20. A soule purifying Faith Act. 15. 9. A sanctifying Faith Act. 26. 18. Implying its efficacy as well to sanctifie as to justifie and that there is no true sanctification but that which is instrumentally obtained or at least received by Faith Lastly that one chief end of our Justification is that we bring forth acceptable fruit to God here inchoate hereafter in perfect obedience to God and conformity with him And the Justifier doth and will attain his end in justifying therefore brings none to glory but such as have all vertues and good works at least in their root and seed while they are here and if after their effectuall calling they live to have time and opportunity do not unfeigâ—edly endeavour universally to declare the same in their practice So that to dream of any glorified man in heaven that was not actually a Saint upon earth is a dream from hell not from heaven All these things might have been largely proved both from the Scriptures and our Protestant Writers but that I esteem them all to be so known to be the consenting asserteons of all our Churches and by them so fully confirmed by the word that I should but abuse time to take it up in particularizing what is in this Case so generally written and read I have been the more large in expressing the doctrine of the Protestant Churches upon this Argument to wipe off the stain which Mr. Br. hath learned of the Papists to lay upon it in this and the former quere which are wholly framed to beguile the weaker sort having nothing in them to stagger the Judicious And now I leave it both to the strong and weak to judge whether the Accuser of the Brethren himself can possibly expresse more impudence and falshood in slandering the Churches of Christ than this man hath done or if he had not bound himself to speak after the Jesuits and Monks whatsoever they traducingly say whether there be any colour of reason for him to have layd upon us these two accusations To hold my self to that which I am now examining what is there in this Faith and Doctrine thereof which I have described deserving to be called a soul-cozening Faith And when he addeth That Faith which is by many
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.
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
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
it to that end and partly as it is the effect of Grace and wrought in us by the Spirit so that the value and efficacy thereof is to be taken not from the righteousnes inherent in us or performed by us but from Gods ordination of it to the end to which himself will make it effectuall and from the vertue of grace and the spirit of grace in whose strength it is performed So also Antoni par 4. tit 9. c. 7. ante sect sect 1 2 3. Osor de Jus li. 6. nu 151 ex Hos Confut l ih 5. pag. 451 452. Andrad Orths. explic li. 6. pag. 181. Pemb. of justif p. 34 35. sect 2. cap. 2. the rest of the Scholasticks Monks and Jesuits affirm that they do not by this doctrine Contribute any thing to mans righteousness or diminish the glory of Gods grace and Christs merits Nay they are the sole advancers of Grace and of Christ for that they attribute due power to them to make mans righteousness that is base and nothing in it self to be effectuall or meritorious to Justification That these Heretikes the Lutherans are the Cursed enemies unto Christ and grace in denying our Righteousness available to justifie and save us so streightening the vertue and power of Grace and of Christ as being unable to infuse vertue and efficacy into our righteousness to justifie and save us but more fully of this in a more proper place The same paint doth Arminius use to make tolerable if not plausible his imputation of the Act of Faith to Justification as his very words are alleaged by Mr. Pemble No marvell then if Mr. Br hath proficiently learned at the feet of such Gamaleels But what force or shew of substance is there in his and their so peevish shifts and evasions It is as he that brake up a neighbours house killed the Master and enriched himself with the Treasure thereof with this mentall reservation that the Act should be without any guilt of Murther before God or of felony before men And what either God or man could then lay any thing to his Charge So Mr. Br with those whom he followeth robs God of the glory of his grace and Christ of the honour of his merits to inrich the righteousness of their own Faith and works therewith but with this proviso first layd in their fancies and after subscribed to with their hands that God and his Christ must not take their grace and righteousnes herein wronged nor mans righteousness extolled nor the actors therein offenders and when they have layd all things so sure what hath God or man to say against them Yet is there one inconvenience and the same a shrewd one that Gods way of reckoning in the point of Justification was fixed before this of Mr. Br and his Masters and without any Consultation with them about it by means whereof it runs right Contrary to theirs And it is much to be feared because he is God he will not now Change He hath in this point set so in direct opposition mans righteousness and Gods righteousness grace and works that both Cannot shall not Consist together but either exclude and frustrate the other It must be onely Gods righteousness or onely mans righteousness according to his rule by which we must be justified he prohibits all medleyes will have no mixture of heaven and of earth of the Spirit and of the flesh the oxe and the asse must not be yoked together in this busines he that brings any of his own righteousness frustrates to himself the Grace and righteousness of God He that trusteth to grace and putts on by Faith the righteousness of God must derelinquish his own righteousness to be found in Gods alone unto Justification Rom. 9. 30 31 32. Rom. 10. 3 4. Phil. 3. 9. If by Grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work Rom. 11. 6. And other such like Scriptures which in the more proper place I shall produce What will Mr. Br answer at Gods tribunal for raising his pepper-corn as a mount from which to batter the impregnable grace and righteousness of God If this doth not what can extoll his pepper-corn To conclude what I have to say to the foresaid words of Mr. Br let him not take pepper in the nose as the Country phrase is if I take a grain or two of his own loose powder to blow up his pepper-corn that it may not be abusive to the feeble and simple Christians If these will but consider well these two things first what he means by his pepper-corn secondly how farr he will abase or extoll it they should easily see his subtlety and keep their foot from being taken in this his snare laid for them Both these are to be gathered from himself Touching the former he means by the pepper-corn the whole righteousness of man the entire righteousness which the Law requireth in the full substance though not in the full degree which the Law requireth it all personall vertues and duties which the morall Law injoyned upon men This is cleer enough by what he hath said before hinted by that which he annexeth in the application of this Similitude when he saith Even so is our Evangelicall Righteousness or Faith insinuating that by Faith he means all that Can be brought under the notion of Evangelicall righteousness in his sense which is all that the Law Commandeth and the Gospel approveth as righteousness and in the following part of his Treatise when he Comes to the Anatomizing of his Faith here spoken of he doth in express words affirm seek to confirm it Here is a pepper-corn able like Moses his rod-serpent to eat up all the pepper-corns of the East-Indies Possibly the royall Soveraign was built to fetch it from the East Indies to us it being too great a fraught for any other Shipp in England And it must not be divided for a peece will do no good in this busines but the whole is required Doth not the weakest Christian here see discovered the Cunning of the man that would have them to swallow such a pepper-corn such a Camel into themselves What room would be left then for Christ which of the Pharisees of old or of the Papists in latter ages have more extolled mans righteousness or more fully ascribed salvation to works onely though they used terms equipollent to Cover their falshood yet they did not hit upon the pepper-corn to delude poor souls with an opinion that if there were any difference between their doctrine and the Doctrine of the Scriptures yet was it as small as the weight and worth of a pepper-corn so that they might be followed without danger Touching the latter how farr he will extoll the pepper-corn of our own workes and righteousness to Justification and salvation he doth not here though afterward he doth in express words
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
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
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
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
of rich glasses set in artificiall order and able to dazle the eye of the beholder what pity is it that any one of them should meet with a knock and be broken and so the beautifull order in which they were placed be on a suddain marred yet if such a thing should fall out it were no great wonder Pretinesse and strength are rarely twins and we speak of prety things but rarely long in the present tense before their perishing by weaknesse forceth us to take up another tone and to tell that there was such a delicate toy but if we seek it the place thereof is not to be found It is possible such a stroke may befall the image that Mr. Baxter hath here set up in imitation of that of Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 2. 31 32 33 c. it hath clay in the feet cannot goe without halting if it meet with a stone to crush its toes it may possibly fall all to shivers Himself seems to doubt of it therefore prepares himself to defend it as seeing it cannot defend him or it self So saith he in the Explication B. Here it will be expected that I answer to these Questions 1. Why I call the Gospell the Instrumentall cause 2. Why I call Christs satisfaction the Meritorious cause and the Causa sine qua non 3. Why I make not Christs righteousnesse the Materiall cause 4. Why I make not the imputation of it the formall cause 5. Why I make not faith the Instrumentall cause 6. Why I make it only the Causa sine qua non To these Quaeries it will be expected saith he that he answer But what if other besides these exceptions be made though it be in his power to deny his answer yet it is not in his choice or authority to restrain any from excepting 1 Perhaps some may except why he in asserting God to be the principall efficient cause of Justification lets it passe so nakedly without an adjection of any of his attributes so leaving it doubtfull whether it be the grace or the justice the love or the hatred the mercy or the wrath of God that is the efficient of Justification We may easily answer our selves as to this question It is not Gods but Mr. Baxters justification whereof the causes are here assigned such as the Scriptures are unacquainted with a justification of his own devising defining and distinguishing himself and none before himself that I know was in every point acquainted with it No marvell then if he speak differingly in setting forth the causes of his from our Divines in laying down the causes of Gods justification And indeed it is a difficult question to determine whether his justification if it were at all granted to be of God might challenge more properly the love or the hatred the grace or the justice of God for its womb It being a justification that leaves all men under the curse under the wrath of God both in life and in death untill the very day of Judgment as we have found him disputing most profoundly in and under his 9. Thesis A justification that gives only a titular title without actuall and absolute possession of any greatest or least benefit to the justifyed which according to Mr. Baxter is the same thing as if we should say to the unjustifyed A justification more unpossible to be apprehended and held then was the first justification by works that was held forth upon possible tearms exacting from a living man only continuance in the works of life this upon unpossible as respecting our present state of infirmity offering to a dead soul righteousnesse and life upon condition the dead soul will quicken and arise from the dead to fetch it thence whither if it come it must still abide empty as it came untill the day of Judgment and then Mr. Baxter will come again to tell us more of his minde whether it be at all attainable I do not at all injury the man in saying he offers justification to a dead soul c. upon condition the soul will quicken it self For let there be found but one clause in his whole book that implyeth a concurrence and effusion of grace from God more to the quickning and justifying of Peter and Paul then of Cain and Judas of the damned then of the saved Or what doth he lesse that brings in works to justification then destroy grace to set up justification after the order and rule of strict justice Or when Mr. Baxter is so exact in enumerating the Procatarcticall or outwardly moving causes to what purpose doth he jumpe over the Proegumene or inward moving cause viz. the grace love and mercy which is within God himself but to imprison it in darknesse and eclipse its glory that mans righteousnesse might have the praise which pertains to God alone 2 It may be also questioned why amongst all the causes of justification here assigned there is no mention made of union and communion with Christ when as our Divines following the rule of the Word makes our union with him the very chief cause and ground of our being justifyed or declared to be justifyed according to the Gospell justification 1 Joh. 5 12. Phil. 3. 9. 1 Cor. 5. 19. and a multitude of other Scriptures which they alleadge and if there were the least need I might here quote a score What else but an evill eye maligning the praise of God and of his Christ suppresseth in silence and suffers not to appear in the chain of the causes of justification this link of union with Christ Is it not that he will make our faith and works yet out of Christ the cause of our union with Christ and not this the ground of the other 3 To come to those questions which Mr. Baxter answereth because he conceives it will be expected 1. About the instrumentall cause we question not what he goes about to answer why he cals the promise or grant of the new Covenant or the Gospell the instrumentall cause of justification actively considered but 1. Why he makes it the only instrumental cause of justification howsoever considered For this grant and promise doth by it self no more justifie the beleevers then the infidels the justifyed then the unjustifyed Doth not God also make the spirit his instrument of justifying by declaring and unfolding the doctrine of the Gospell and evidencing and witnessing to the soul remission and justification together with the love and grace of God from which this justification floweth Why doth he stifle the working of the Spirit from having to do in this great work except either with the Sadduces he denies the being or with the Socinians the divinity and divine operation of the Spirit or else to leave open a door to let in justification by the flesh not by the Spirit by the strength of mans free will without the preventing helps of the Spirit of grace Or as justification is taken passively for our being justifyed in our selves why is not faith put as an
not of great moment but the supercilious haughtinesse of the man puft with the opinion of his secular learning so high as to puf and pif at so many excellent Divines for learning and holinesse to many of which he is not worthy to be an Amanuensis is unsufferable I shall therefore as briefly as I can expresse upon what grounds our Divines and how far they make the righteousnesse of Christ the matter of our justification as near as I may upon good probabilities conjecture The Doctrine of justification by Christ is no where in the four Evangelists held forth under the name of justification or justifying Many both Parables and clear doctrines that proceeded from the lips of Christ do indeed in other words fully display it specially John the Evangelist who made it more his task to record the doctrine then the acts of Christ because he saw those historifyed somewhat largely by the other three Evangelists which had written before him Eagle-like mounting on high to the contemplation of his Celestiall and Divine nature and doctrines very exactly sets it forth but under other words naming it Life eternall Life everlasting Life He that beleeveth in the Son hath everlasting life Joh. 3. 36. Is passed from death to life Joh. 5. 24. Hath eternall life Joh. 6. 54. My flesh which I give for the life of the world Joh. 6. 51. And ye will not come to me that ye may have life Joh. 5. 40. Except ye eat my flesh and drink my bloud ye have no life in you he that eateth me shall live by me Joh. 6. 57. In all which and many other texts of this Evangelist none can deny but by life is to be understood chiefly if not only life in law the life of justification not that of glory which is to be received above but that of grace here For so those Scriptures point out a life here in this present world enduring everlastingly to all eternity and not a life here only to be hoped for and hereafter to come into our fruition Neither do I find the word justifie used but once by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles Nor yet at all in any one of the Epistles of the Apostles St. James only excepted in one Chapter but by the Apostle Paul alone Yet the substance of justification was the chief doctrine in all their Epistles handled but the same set forth under the name of Salvation saving life and other phrases which our Saviour himself used And these phrases also doth St. Paul use as equipollent with the word Justifying in all his Epistles Now the reason why this Apostle more then the rest treats of this doctrine under the name of justification I conceive to be this Because he was forced to handle it by way of controversie against the false Apostles some professing some rejecting Christ that taught justification and salvation by the works of the Law in part and not by faith only whom therefore he must needs in his disputes treat with in their own tearms and words Their Argumentation against the Apostle as may be gathered from the Apostles answers ran in this tenour and to this effect That righteousnesse alone which justifyeth or maketh a man perfectly righteous saveth But the righteousnesse of the Law is that righteousnesse alone which justifyeth or maketh man perfectly righteous at least by procuring proper righteousnesse to him therefore that alone saveth The Apostle here granteth the proposition that no other righteousnesse but that which justifyeth or maketh a man perfectly righteous saveth But denyeth the assumption that the righteousnesse of the Law only or at all justifyeth or maketh a man perfectly righteous Because only the perfect doers of the law are perfectly righteous not the hearers But no man can perfectly do it And contrariwise proveth that the righteousness of the Gospel which he cals the Righteousnesse of God the Righteousnesse of faith the Righteousnesse of God by faith which consisteth in Christs satisfaction imputed to us is the Righteousnesse which justifyeth and maketh perfectly righteous because it cleanseth from the guilt and freeth from the imputation of all sin and unrighteousnesse Rom. 1. 17. 3. 5 21 22 25 26. 4. 3 5 6 11. 5. 17 18 21. 9. 30. 10. 3 4 6. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Phil. 3. 9. In all which places and in many other the Apostle having rejected the righteousnesse of works from being asserteth the righteousnesse of God in Christ by faith to be the righteousnesse the matter and substance of the righteousnesse by which we are justifyed This he illustrateth Rom. 5. 19. by a comparison between Adam and Christ Adams disobedience and Christs obedience As by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made roghteous the ones disobedience was not only the merit but also the matter of our sin as far as sin is capable of matter the very sin it self which being imputed to us as being in him without any personall and actuall sin of our own makes us sinners So the obedience of Christ in offering himself a sacrifice for sin and giving satisfaction to Gods justice in obedience to that positive command of the Father which required it was and is not only the merit but also the matter of that righteousnesse which being imputed to us as being in Christ without any personall obedience of ours added to it constituteth us righteous and justifyed in Gods acceptance or is that for by and in which the Lord pronounceth us just and justifyed to our own consciences Such is the frequent dispute of the Apostle about the substance and matter of that righteousnesse by which we are justify ad which he concludes not to be a righteousnesse inherent in us but this Righteousnesse inherent in Christ but imputed to us and apprehended by faith to justification whom God hath set forth as a propitiation for our sinnes through faith in his blood Rom. 3. 25. And this is all that I finde our Divines to mean in saying the righteousnesse or satisfaction of Christ is the materiall cause of our justification defending against the Papists as the Apostle did againsts the Pharisees that the matter of the righteousnesse which God accepteth and imputeth to us in justifying us or unto righteousnesse and justification is this righteousnesse of Christ only not the righteousnesse of works Mr. Baxter in rejecting the phrase 1. As rude and not Logicall 2. As at the best unproper doth first accuse the Apostle and secondarily them that follow his Apostolicall doctrine and phrase of this rudenesse and impropriety of language One of them speaks out the minde of the rest Deus justitiam i. e. Obedientiam satisfactionem Sevarpius â—rs Th eol â— justif â— 925. Christi nostram facit ac pro nostra ducit c. atque ita nos antequam justos pronunciet justos facit God makes the righteousnesse i. e. the obedience and satisfaction of Christ ours
himself Sol. We make not man a stone nor degrade him into a dead block we grant of him that actus agit He hath not lost his free-will but all possibility of being saved by it all the spiritualnesse of it that without a new reparation of it it can will nothing in matters of salvation concurrent and conforming with the will of God But all mans actings of his faith when he is so renewed and moved by the prime cause is but to the receiving and application of his justification evidencâ—d to him As it is Gods instrument and acted by God so it is Gods evidence to manifest to him his justification It is Mr. Baxtâ—r and his fellowes that by their doctrine make mâ—n self-justifyers Teaching that Gods justification is conditionall and the alone instrument of God therein viz. the Gospell holds forth the same universally to all no lesse effâ—ctually to them that reject it then to them that embrace it But that it is a mans faith and obedience begun and continued in untill the day of judgment that makes this justification to be the justification of each singular person that is to be justifyed and so Gods instrument of justification justifyeth but conditionally i. e. no one singular man actually and absolutely It 's man that by his faith and works makes Gods universall justification to be his proper justification and Gods conditionall justification to be his actually and absolutely It is God that justifyeth all with a common and conditionall justification but it is every mans task to make and his own act when he hath made this justification to be really and undoubtedly his Therefore he doth but gaze here to finde a moate in his brothers eies fastening the beam in his own B. 3. For as Aquinas the action of the Principall cause and of the instrument is one action and who dare say that faith is so Gods instrument 4. The instrument must have influx to the producing of the effect by a proper causality and who dare say that faith hath such an influx into our justification I couple these two together because they are as twins that shew no malignity in their faces but are by Mr. Baxter made to carry fire in their tails Who dares to say and who dare say What if we should say it must we expect a broken head from the Challenger Is it but a word and a blow with him Or doth he affright us with Gods judgments from saying it is it his meaning who hath so little fear or conscience towards God as to offend him and derogate from his glory in saying it O that there had been but a moytie of the reverence and conscience toward God to annihilate man and advance the glory of Gods grace in Mr. Baxter which aboundeth in many of those whom he here opposeth he then surely would have cast this pernicious pamphlet of his into hell-fire if it had been possible rather then published it to the nulling of Gods and deifying of mans righteousnesse But to the matter we dare and that in the fear and presence of God to aver 1. That the declaration of a man to his own conscience and evidencing to his soul that he is justifyed in Christ to be the one and same action of God the principall cause and of faith the instrument The declaration and manifestation of justification to the soul is here the action God as the principall cause doth it by faith his evidence and instrument faith as the instrument and evidence doth it from God as the principall cause in manner before expressed God healed Naaman of his Leprosie by the water of Jordan as his instrument did many wonders in Egypt and in the Sea and in the wildernesse by Moses his Rod as his instrument subverted the wals and Towers of Jericho by the instrumentall subserviency of mens voices and the sound or winde of Rams horns and Trumpets Christ gave sight to the blind man by a plaister of clay applyed to his eyes Will he not acknowledg all these wonders to be the actions both of God the principall cause and of these so feeble instruments also The despicablenesse of the instruments and means do not spoyl God of but visibly attribute unto God the whole glory of his grace and power which in the use of more noble instruments would not appear so sensibly unto some apprehensions much more is the same action the action both of God and faith his instrument and this without all seeming ground of contradiction when we attribute not to faith any instrumentality under God to the working or effecting but only to the declaring and evidencing to man his justification before effected and compleated in God and in Christ And 2. That faith as Gods instrument hath influx in its kinde to produce this effect the evidencing of mans justification to himself by a proper causality I mean not Mr. Baxter I thinke means not by a causality that is naturally its own and proper to it but by a proper causality which God hath given it in appointing and using it as his instrument to produce the effect Will deny any this to be true of the forementioned instruments He that made them his instruments begat in them a causality and power instrumentally by and under him to produce those effects Indeed to Mr. Baxter in respect of his principles that denies Justification as an immanent act in God constituting and accepting us righteous and will have this to be done only by a temporaneous and transient act of God by the grace of the new Covenant these assertions must seem to have some monstrosity upon their faces that faith should be so the instrument of God in justifying or making us just Yet such as he can easily swallow because on the other side his justification is but an universall conditionall justification i. e. a justification in a possibility or impossibility but not at all in being and that faith should be termed the conditionall instrument of God in producing a conditionall justification I see not why it should set the man in a chafe he puts the dare to it therefore I suppose to make it too hot for the swallowing of weak and fearfull Christians To them that know whosoever are justifyed in themselves that is declared to be such within their own consciences the same were justifyed in God in Christ from all eternity so that faiâ—t is Gods instrument only to evidence them to themselves and in themselves justifyed not to justifie them in Gods mind and will for there they are justifyed without instruments there is nothing formidable nor rough in these assertions The objection which he addes by which he pretends we seek to evade we own not neither have we need in the defence of truth to seek evasions Let him name some one of his some that have so objected a passive instrument of justification or else leave us to conclude that the objection is of his own head partly to take advantage thereby yet
he hath enough manifested himself B. Some think that Faith may be some small low and impulsive cause but I will not give it so much though if it be made a Procatarctick objective cause Iâ— will not contend If he mean any other difference between the impulsive and the Procatartick objective cause besides that which is between the Generall and the Speciall it is past my skill to understand him or to comprehend what he denies and what he grants no doubt either he would not be understood or else he attributes to his righteousnesse of faith and good works an excitation but not an impulsion forsooth of the Grace of God actually to justifie those whom he beholdeth Schild Metaph li. 1. câ— 44. N. 24 25 40. fairly dressed therewith and so the beauty of the object enamors God to love and justifie And what more doe the Pâ—pists teach and so our justification as Gods act is but in posse till our righteousnesse as a sufficient cause brings it into esse or act Thus far of Mr. Baxters causes of Justification in which if he hath illustrated or confirmed any truth of God God is much beholden to him and Aristotle for it For distrusting the succour of the Scriptures he hath left them and brought nothing else but Logical and Metaphysical notions and reasons to prove all that which he hath said CHAP. XXVII Arg. Whether the sinner be justifyed only by the act not the habit of faith And whether it be not ordained to this use by reason of the usefull property which God hath infused into it to receive Christ Whether and in what sense a man may be said properly to be justifyed by faith In which also some things are intermixed about Mr. Baxters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credere and conditions of Justification B. Thes 57. IT is the act of faith which justifyeth men at age and not the habit yet not as it is a good work or as it hath in it self any excellency above other graces but 1. In the neerest sense directly and properly as it is the fulfilling of the condition of the new Covenant 2. In the remote and more improper sense as it is the receiving of Christ and his satisfactory righteousnesse It is not for nothing that Mr. Baxter puts here a restriction upon justification by the Act of faith limiting it to men of age Are then elect infants that die before they attain age and strength of reason to put forth their faith into act justifyed only by the habit of faith It seemeth then that the hue and crie hath apprehended the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere as to them and laid it fast from justifying them Again if they are justifyed by the habit of faith as a habit of inherent grace though not such as he here denyeth to have an excellency above other graces what difference doth he put between Justification and Sanctification Doth he not speak the same things here with the Papists Yea in a higher dialect then any of them For they grant to Infants justification only by the washing of Christs bloud conferred upon them in Baptism without any qualification of their own But this man if he thus say justifies them by an inherent righteousnesse of their own But if Infants are justifyed without the act of faith and yet not by its habit how are they then Justifyed but by that which he calleth Christs own justification as a publick person at his resurrection which notwithstanding he utterly denyed Thes 42. and its Explication and if they are so justifyed will it not follow then that justification by the act of faith is Gods declaring and mans applying of his justification to his present comfort and full assurance which Mr. Baxter explodeth as an unsufferable conclusion But dying Infants are to have no use of this present comfort and full assurance therefore it sufficeth them to be justifyed in Christ though not in themselves Lastly or do they depart hence unjustifyed because without actuall beleeving and receiving of Christ and so shall be justifyed in the day of judgment because at the resurrection they shall actually beleeve What a crie do the poor souls in the interim then make in that Limbus insantum And why may not then according to Origen all the Devils and reprobates in hell be then justifyed and saved also because then they may actually beleeve and according to Mr. Baxter the condition of justification lasteth untill that day B. Explication That faith doth not properly justifie through any excellency that it hath above other graces or any more usefull property may appear thus To the excellency of faith above other graces I have nothing to say But to the reasons which he brings to deny the more usefull property of it I shall speak briefly B. 1. Then the praise would be due to faith No more then when God gives us meat the praise of our nutriment and life is due to our teeth because they have a more usefull property to grind and chew the meat then our eyes or ears B. 2. Then love would contend for a share if not a priority This is only said and not proved or declared upon what grounds love should contend B. 3. Then faith would justifie though it had not been made the condition of the Covenant 1. We denie faith to be the condition of the Covenant in Mr. Baxters sense If he would have spoken directly to them against whom he argueth he should have said Then faith would have justifyed though it had never been appointed and given of God as an instrument to receive Christ the justifyer And then we should answer 2. That it is so much as if he had said Then our teeth would have nourished and preserved life although God had never appointed and given them to us as instruments to chew the nourishing meat And thus the Caveat that he addeth becomes uselesse viz. B. Let those therefore take heed that make faith to justifie meerly because it apprehendeth Christ which is its naturall essentiall propertie For none affirmes faith to justifie meerly because it apprehendeth Christ without considering also Gods ordering and fitting it to this office together with his promise and the virtue laid up in Christ to justifie all that do by faith so apprehend him B. That it is faith in a proper sense that is said to justifie and not Christs righteousnesse onely which it receiveth may appear thus 1. From a necessity of a twofold righteousnesse which I have before proved in reference to the twofold Covenant 2. From the plain and constant phrase of Scripture which saith he that beleeveth shall be justifyed and that we are justifyed by faith and that faith is imputed for righteousnesse It had been as easie for the holy Ghost to have said that Christ only is imputed or his righteousnesse only or Christ only justifyeth c. if he had so meant He is the most excusable in an errour that is led into it by the constant
expresse phrase of Scripture 3. From the nature of the thing For the effect is ascribed to the severall causes though not alike and in some sort to the conditions especially me thinks they that would have faith to be the instrument of justification should not deny that we are properly justifyed by faith as by an instrument For it is as proper a speech to say our hands or our teeth feed us as to say our meat feedeth us I shall not have need to speak much to this passage because Mr. Baxter hath before said and I have answered to the greatest part of it in examining his 23. Thes with the explication thereof Here as there I shall defend against him that it is not faith as it is righteousnesse but Christs righteousnesse by which we are said to be justifyed The first reason which he brings to evince the contradictory and contrary conclusion hath been there examined and I will not here actum agere To the second 1. He should have quoted that Apocryphal Scripture which saith He that beleeveth shall be justifyed as if he were not already justifyed I finde it not in the Canonicall 2. Those Scriptures which say we are justifyed by faith say not that we are justifyed by it as it is our righteousnesse or any part of our justifying righteousnesse and those that say it is imputed to us as Mr. Baxter will have it for righteousnesse have been sufficiently spoken to under Thesis 23. And by the way Mr. Baxter is not ignorant that the originall text may be more properly rendred unto or to righteousnesse then for righteousnesse and that the old translation and most of our Protestant Divines so render it neither have I met with any one that declares his dislike of that version And from the text so read what Mr. Baxter can suck out to stablish the righteousnesse of faith not as the same but as a collaterall with the righteousnesse of Christs satisfaction to justification I understand not 3. To his Only only and only I answer 1 That it is not the first time that Mr. Baxter hath taken the boldnesse to teach the holy Ghost to speak properly and fully 2 When the holy Ghost saith That the bloud of Christ cleanseth from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. that whosoever is washed therein needs no other washing Joh. 13. 10. that he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world Joh. 1. 29. that by his one offering he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctifyed by taking away their sins and iniquities Heb. 10. 14 17. That he is made of God righteousnesse to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. that he was made sin for us that we might become the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. That he is all in all Col. 3. 11. Will Mr. Baxter elude all these and a whole century more of the like Scriptures with this evasion yea Christ hath done and is all this in part to us leaving the other part of righteousnesse not perfected by him to be supplyed by faith his collaterall to our justification Or when it is said There is salvation in no other nor any name else given us under heaven by which we may be saved besides Christ Act. 4. 12. and the Apostle professeth it his whole labour to be found in Christ not having his own righteousnesse which is of the Law but the righteousnesse which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith so making Christ put on for righteousnesse the righteousnesse which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith not severall kinds of righteousnesse but one and the same righteousnesse which he opposeth there to his own inherent righteousnesse which he excludeth are not these speeches equipollent to that which Mr. Baxter requireth the Christ only or the righteousnesse of Christ only It is but a flourish wherewith he concludes this argument about the constant expresse phrase of Scripture For let him either produce one Scripture that affirmeth faith by any inherent righteousnesse in it self or of her own conveyed into us to contribute somewhat to our Justification or else confesse his errour to be derived from the scriblings of Bellarmine Socixus Grotius and Arminius where this Doctrine is to be found and not from the Scriptures of Gods inspiration that are wholly against it To his third reason I can say nothing because I understand nothing of his meaning therein or if I doe understand it nothing needs to be said because it hath nothing for himself or against us But to that which he addes of his thinking 1. Let him say whether by them that he saith would have faith to be the instrument c. he doth not mean all the Protestant Churches both Lutherans and Zuinglians or Calvinists as they are by some distinguished whether the best that have opposed them herein have not been the Arminians and from what Rome or Hell these first drank in their opinion he is not ignorant having fished in the same pools after them 2. When he thinks these should not deny that we are properly justifyed by faith as an instrument I answer 1 If they will not deny it will Mr. Baxter with them confesse it 2 The word properly is vox aequivoca a phrase may be said to be proper as it is enough fit and proportioned to declare the meaning of the speaker and in this sense we deny not that faith as an instrument subservient to the principall efficient doth so properly as an instrument can justifie us in our selves or to our own consciences Again it may be said to be proper in opposition to a tropicall way of speaking and in this sense we cannot say that faith doth so properly justifie specially in that extent wherein Mr. Baxter and his Masters will have it to justifie without a trope in the phrase of speaking which I would shew if it were pertinent to the question I shall spare to transcribe at large his next section which he puts under n. 4. of his Explication Because if he meant singly and precisely as he speaks all might be granted in a positive sense without prejudice to our cause or advantage to his viz. that faith doth directly and properly justifie in and to themselves those that were before justifyed in Christ as it is in a good sense the condition of the new Covenant and a means or instrument of Gods stamping by his commandement and promise to the attainment of this justification For this denyeth not that truth which before he kicked at that faith doth so justifie also in regard of that usefull and essentiall property which it hath above all other gifts of grace to be instrumentall to apprehend Christ for righteousnesse Nay even for this cause hath God either ordained and commanded faith to this end because it hath this property or because he hath ordained and given to it this property therefore he not only requireth but
what Scriptures our Divines bring to prove justification to be only by faith and to deny all cooperation of works therein And herein I shall put limits to my self not letting out all that they produce for so should I offend with immoderate length but some particulars that the weakest reader may see what Mr. Baxter would not give him to see that our Churches are not destitute of strong grounds for the bearing up of their faith and assertions And when this is done I shall descend to examine the force of those Scriptures quoted by Mr. Baxter to see whether they make for him and against us I shall begin from the reasoning of the Apostle Rom. 3. 20. c. having before proved both the Jews by and under the Law and the Gentiles without the Law to be guilty before God he concludes Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justifyed c. and ver 21. The righteousnesse of God viz. to justification is manifested without the Law being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets to wit a righteousnesse which the Law is ignorant of the righteousnesse or life which is by faith From this righteousnesse the tenour of the Law or legall Covenant turns aside telling us he that doeth them shall live in them Gal. 3. 11 12. ver 22. Even the righteousnesse of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that beleeve Lo here it is denyed to be by the most righteous works which the most perfect Law of God himself prescribeth and attained by faith only ver 24. Being justifyed freely by his grace through the redemption which is by Jesus Christ what can be said more fully It shall not be impertinent to annote briefly out of Zanchy what he hath upon Hier. zanch De natura Dei Lib. 4. Cap. 2. Th. 2. this verse more largly when the Apostle saith we are justifyed by his grace Per Gratiam intelligit gratuitum Dei favorem omnibus nostris exclusis sive naturalibus sive supernaturalibus dignitatibus saith he i. e. by Grace the Apostle meaneth the free love or favour of God excluding all parts and pieces of our worth both naturall and supernaturall and addeth that the Apostle still opposeth grace to all our works and to all our inward vertues wrought in us by the holy Ghost himself as well as to our legall and morall righteousnesse yea to faith it selfe as it is a work as is manifest to every one that hath with any consideration read this Epistle Therefore saith he he excludeth all works that he may conclude our Justification to be by grace alone Yea more the Apostle saith he not contented to say we are justifyed by grace addeth thereto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his grace that is by the grace which is in God not by any gift of grace infused by him into ourselves that it might be wholly of God and not of our selves at all in the least part Yea not contented with all this he addeth freely to notifie that there is not required any work or qualification on our part to put us into the possession thereof for so it should not be wholly by the free and naked favour of God as he tearms it And lastly he addeth by the redemption which is by Jesus Christ by this work of Christ excluding all ours hitherto that profound Zanchius Neither cannot it be freely by the redemption of Christ if our qualifications and conditions be brought to interesse us to it for so should we be in some kinde purchasers and not receive it freely The Apostle proceeds ver 25. Whom God hath set forth as a propitiation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sins c. The whole thing of Gods ordination to make the redemption propitiation and remission of sinnes which is by Christ actually ours to our comfort is here assigned to be saith in his blood and not any foregoing concomitant or subsequent vertue or duty of ours annexed to it and all to declare his righteousnesse Ver. 26. His righteousnesse he saith again that he may be just and the justifyer of him that beleeveth in Jesus If Mr. Baxters fancy stand of the Legall righteousnesse in Christ and the Evangelicall righteousnesse in us the Apostles assignation of the end of Gods justifying us by Christ should be maimed For he should have said To declare to declare I say his righteousnesse and our righteousnesse that he might be just and a justifyer and we might be just and justifyers of our selves And then we are to expunge the next verse Where is boasting then it is excluded by what law of works nay but by the law of faith For boasting should not be at all excluded if our works should bear a part with faith in justifying so should we have matter of glorying in our selves still How full is the Apostle here in the confirmation of Justification by faith without works had he seen what the Papists and Mr. Baxter over their shoulders would have objected against it he could not have spoken more punctually Yet as I know what the Papists say for themselves so I am not ignorant what Mr. Baxter will except for himself But I reserve the Examination thereof for another place where he goeth about to purge his doctrine from all contrariety that it hath to the doctrine of the Apostle and from any derogation from the Grace of God A second Testimonie or authority from Scripture we may draw from Rom. 4. 1 c. I shall be short in it The Apostle here denies 1 Our father Abraham the father of the faithfull himself to have been justifyed by works for then he should have whereof to glory ver 2 3. But as Abraham was so all the faithfull are justifyed by faith without works or to render the words of the Text By faith and not by works Here Mr. Baxter hath no evasion as in the former Chapter viz. that the works of the Law only are denyed for Abraham was under the promise not under the Law nether was the Law then given and the promise under which he was was without all condition of works so that the Apostle here excludeth works indefinitely I mean not good and evill works for no man ever brought evill works as evill to be thereby justifyed But good works whether Legall or Evangelicall all acts and deeds both of naturall and infused righteousnesse and holinesse 2 In affirming of him that worketh i. e. that seeketh justification by works that the reward is reckoned of debt to him that he requires it as due and shall not receive it if it be not found due in Justice but to him that worketh not but beleeveth on him that justifyeth the ungodly his faith is imputed to righteousnesse i. e. as hath been already evinced Christ by faith apprehended is of the free grace of God made righteousnesse to him When Mr. Baxter therefore claps his bundle of works upon
she loved Christ much how good was it to be possessed of a whole legion of such white Devils that breathed into the soul possessed such strong love of Christ But why then said Christ to her Thy faith hath saved thee ver 50. did her faith only save her but her love justifie her This is one piece of Mr. Baxters new Divinity and with him I leave it Let him learn modesty and truth from Soarez himself a Prelate among the Papists Oportet advertere in hoc quod dicitur quoniam dilexit multum non prius dilexisse multum magnam dilectionem causam fuisse tantae remissionis sed vice versa quoniam remissa sunt ei peccata multa ideo dilexisse multum Soarez in locum He addes Mat. 5. 44. Luk. 6. 27 45. Love your enemies c. That ye may be the children of your heavenly Father c. What will Mr. Baxter hence conclude but that our love c. is the cause or ground of our Adoption That we love God first and then he us afterward That not his grace but our righteousnesse makes us his Children and him our father But contrariwise Christ here exhorteth the children to be like the father directs his words to the already Adopted so to put on the image and resemble the nature and operations of their heavenly Father that they may be i. e. declare themselves to be the children of the heavenly Father Like that of Joh. 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love c. And that of 1 Joh. 3. 10. In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devill he that loveth not is not of God c. So love on our part doth not make but manifest us to be the children of God But remarkeable is his next quotation Joh. 15. 12 17. This is my commandement that ye love one another ergo love justifyeth as good as if I should argue Christ commanded Peter to angle and take a fish ergo Peters angling and catching a fish justifyed him As if whatsoever Christ commanded he commanded to justification And as full to his purpose is 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard c. what the Lord hath laid up for them that love him ergo my love was the condition of Gods laying up for me as if God had not laid up for me before I loved him How agrees this with that which after he annexeth Mat. 25. Inherit the Kingdome prepared for you before the beginning of the world and Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God who are they such as are called according to his purpose if called then justifyed and who denyeth the riches of Gods grace dispensing all things for the good of his justifyed ones that love him But what is this to loves justifying And rare logick from the next two Scriptures Grace be with them that love the Lord Jesus Eph. 6. 24. And he that loveth him not let him be Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. 16. 22. Ergo love to Christ justifyeth in rank and life with faith when I make my love the ground or condition of Gods grace and cease to make the grace of Christ the foundation of my love to Christ then will I expect that Mr. Baxter will justifie me untill then I shall be in his account Anathema maranatha Again God hath promised the Crown the Kingdom to them that love him Jam. 1. 12. 2. 5. Ergo Justification is a Crown and Kingdom and love will then justifie when it brings us to the Crown and Kingdome untill then we are unjustifyed He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father Joh. 14. 21. Ergo our love to Christ begets love in the Father and ergo the love of the Father is our justification and what else Mr. Baxter will for he concludes quidlibet e quolibet I love them that love me and they that seek me early shall finde me Prov. 8. 17. Ergo God doth not love us untill we love him nor seek us till we seek him and so God is moved by us not we by him and perhaps justifyed for of this he speaketh by us before we are justifyed by him That I may cause them that love me to inherit substance and I will fill their treasures ver 21. Ergo our justification is in our chests and purses and our love prevails upon God and Christ to fill them up to the brim with this golden justification I know not whether I may lawfully follow him in his non sequiturs and playing with the sacred Oracles of God surely neither Lucian nor Corn Agrippa with his Asse could ever treat of holy things more ludibriously or expose the sacred word of God to more scorn then this man doth were it out of weaknesse that he doth it he were to be pittied But who knoweth not if Mr. Baxter knoweth not what validity or invalidity there is in every Argument to prove Where was conscience then in quoting so many Scriptures which are no more proper to prove that to which they are applyed then they are to demonstrate a world in the Moon he knoweth the most of them have neither sound nor shew that way and those that have some shew have but a shew and being thoroughly urged to his present purpose would neither prove what he would have here proved but contrariwise crush in pieces some of his former assertions which are the pillars of the whole structure made in this book and falling will necessitate the ruine of the whole fabrick All this he saw therefore stopped at the quotation without alleadging or applying the Scriptures quoted If the man were no more happy in in his Philosophy then in his Theology he should have very little thanks from Rome And it is to be doubted his esteem will be the lesse there for his pretending to be a Scripturist and over-turning or at least shaming with his fingering of Scriptures the specious frontispice which he had erected by his Sophistry Unlesse possibly this may advantage him that he shewes the same genius and spirit in arguing from Scriptures with those holy Fathers and Fryers for so profoundly do we find them arguing Thou art Peter and upon this rock c. Mat. 16. Ergo the Pope is Christ vicar and vicegerent c. Master or Lord Here are two swords Luk. 22. 38. Ergo the Pope hath both swords of Ecclesiasticall and Civill power committed to him God made two lights the greater to rule the day the lesser the night Gâ—n 1. Ergo the Popes power is so much more excellent then Kings and Emperors as the glory of the Sun surpasseth that of the Moon I beat down my body and keep it in subjection 1 Cor. 9. Ergo we must doe penance and whip and scourge our backs when there is occasion Every mans work shall be tryed by fire 1 Cor. 3. Ergo there is a purgatory of fire to be
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
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.
thought to justifie his meaning is which all the Protestant Churches and Divines teach and which our people doe all most easily embrace is the receiving of Christ for their Saviour and expecting pardon and salvation by him but not withall receiving him for their Lord and King nor delivering up themselves to be ruled by him Let him now name that one Church or one Theologist in any one of the Protestant Churches that hath so taught and divided the receiving of Christ as Lord and King from receiving him as Saviour and pardoner in justifying Faith or els confess that he hath drunk deeply into the Jesuits prenciples that all equivocations frauds lyes slanders and whatsoever is worse than these are all not only lawfull but also meritorious when practiced for the advancâ—ment of the Triple Crown and the Holy Mother-Church of Rome We do indeed divide works from Faith and banish them from having any concausality with it in justifying But let Mr. Br. produce one that hath divided Christ the King from Christ the Saviour or denyed him in either Title to be the object of justifying Faith or any one that hath taught that to be a justifying Faith which expecteth salvation from Christ but will not deliver up the soul to be ruled by him I chalenge Mr. Br. to vindicate herein his reputation and to manifest that he followeth the dictates of Naturall conscience at least and not of wilful malice against the truth by naming one that hath taught any such thing The Protestant Churches and Writers are so cleer herein that they do not divide from justifying Faith the very Assent that there is a God that hee made the world that he drowned it and repair'd it that Christ was the Son of the Virgin Mary that hee was born at Bethlehem circumcised at eight days old disputed among the Doctors turned water into wine and did many miracles or whatsoever els the Scriptures in the least things affirme to be true All this the justifying Faith assents to neither can it not assent to every truth of the word yet it so assents not as justifying In this act it knows nothing but Christ and him crucified Much lesse do they so divide as Mr. B. here against knowledg and conscience objecteth They so far shew themselves abhorrent from it that they utterly deny any to come to the Kingdom of glory but through Christs Kingdom of grace But the Doctrine it self which here he reneweth about the object of Faith Christ as our Lord as well as our Saviour I have examined before in answer to his fourth Argument Thither I send the Reader for satisfaction what the Protestants hold and upon what grounds here it is besides the matter to fall into a new dispute about it It shall suffice here only to examine the new Argument which he brings to prove that the Doctrine which holds forth justification by Faith is a soul-cozening but that which teacheth justification by works is a soul-saving doctrine For this is his meaning in what he disputeth here of Christ the Saviour and Christ the Lord made the object of justifying Faith as hee hath largely explayned himself before And if hee mean not so all that he here sayth is but a hunting after Grashoppers in the snow to fight with them For none is there to be found opposing what he sayth in the words and phrase he useth But himself is a sure Interpreter of himselfe and we must take him as himself hath explayned his meaning And then his Argument is drawn from the easinesse or difficulty of receiving the one or the other Doctrine It must be a soul-cozening doctrine which all are easily perswaded to be cozened with Thus wee find him expressing himself in that part of the Query which is before transcribed Our people saith he do all most easily embrace it I meet with no one but is resolved in such a faith till it be overthrown by teaching them better They would all trust Christ for the saving of their souls c. And in the following part of the Querie B. Let any Minister but try his ungodly people whether they will not all be perswaded very easily to believe that Christ will pardon and save them c. But whether it be not the hardest thing in the world to perswade them really to take him for their Lord and his word for their Law and to endeavour faithfull obedience accordingly Surely the easinesse of the former and difficulty of the later seemeth to tell us that it is a spirituall excellent necessary part of justifying Faith to accept unfeignedly Christ for our Governour and that part which the world among us will most hardly yeeld to and therefore hath more need to be preached than the other Were he a true Israelite in whom there is no guile which speaketh all this might be granted him But because he hath fully declared that he meaneth by receiving Christ for our Saviour justification by Faith in Christ the Redeemer and by receiving him for our Lord and Governour justification by works nothing can be safely granted to him The whole summ of his Argumentation amounts to this syllogism That doctrine of Justification which the multitude doth easily embrace is a soul-cozening doctrine but that which they are not without much difficulty perswaded to receive is a soul-saving doctrine But the multitude easily embraceth Justification by Faith alone and not without difficulty Justification by works Ergo the former is a soul-cozening the latter a soul-saving doctrine He must acknowledge that he thus argueth or argueth nothing or nothing to the question To the Proposition I distinguish first about the meaning of the terms And first about the word embracing or receiving betwixt a vitall or effectuall and a meerly historicall embracing betwixt a reall receiving and an assent of the judgment that the thing is to be received or more plainly beleeving and a mans saying he doth beleeve or his profession of Faith 2 Between that which is easie or difficult in it self or to mans naturall ability and that which God makes easie by the concurrence or leaves difficult by the with-holding of his grace Having thus distinguished in whatsoever sense he takes the Terms I deny both Consequenâ—â— of the Proposition For if he mean onely an externall assent to the verity and goodness of the doctrine All men which have reason in their understandings and freedom in their wills do with the like facility choose that which is made out to them to be good and refuse that which is made out to them to be evill Or if he mean a vitall and effectuall embracing the doctrine of Justification is alike difficult to all that are of the carnall multitude It is a spirituall doctrine and the naturall man receiveth not cannot receive spirituall things 1 Cor. 2. 14. Again if he mean an easines and difficulty in it self and to mans naturall ability The true doctrine of Justification is alike difficult yea unpossible to all effectually
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
to say for the vindication of his doctrine from so fowl a scandal and blemish And here I shall in the first place onely minde the reader of what hath been before Copiously in its place manifested that Mr. Br. takes up this Feat of arguing from the Papists who to Clear their doctrine of Merit and Justification by works from being derogatory to Christ and his Merits do plead against us That they in no wise lessen the Merits of Christ by teaching that good works do Merit and Justifie But that herein they advance the Merits of Christ in ascribing to them this soveraign vertue and power to give validity and worth to mans good works to Merit and Justifie Nay the Hereticks say they degrade the Merits of Christ in teaching that mans works cannot Justifie or Merit as if there were not force enough in Christs Merits to enable them to it Whether theirs or Mr. Brs Argumentation have more shew of reason to support it I leave to the intelligent reader to judge 2 The whole Argument is Sophisticall and fallacious 1 In that his Argument is not full and wide to the proving of his position The position which by this Argument he pretends to Confirm is in his own words that This doctrine of his is no whit derogatory to Christ and his Righteousness But his Argument is shapen onely to prove that his doctrine doth not derogate from Christs righteousness not that it doth not derogate from Christ himself Were it granted that it doth not derogate from Christs righteousness yet it follows not that it doth not derogate from Christ any more than if a man should ascribe all due praises to Mr. Brs learning but should deny his honesty Charity Chastity verity or other like vertue in him yet because he doth not derogate from the learning of the man he doth not derogate from the man himself in any of his accomplishments Mr. Brs doctrine may derogate from Christ in veiling his grace mercy and fullnes in other Conditions required to the Compleating of his Mediatorship though it did where it doth not ascribe to his Righteousness its due praise and fullness 2 In that he playes with equivocation of words For to shun the deserved hatred which the Papists doctrine incurreth from the Saints of Christ he delivers their doctrine not in theirs but in the Arminian phrase putting under the name and in stead of good works Obedience to Christ For this is an equivocall phrase and as oft as it is used in the New Testament in order to Justification it is the same thing with Faith and differs not a whit from it The obedience of Faith obeying of the Gospel and obedience to Christ signifying nothing else but the deniall of our selves and our own righteousness and our trusting in Christ alone for Justification and salvation as Christ and his Gospel Command in opposition to the voyce of the Law that knowing nothing of Christ speaking nothing of faith saith Doe and work that thou mayest be saved Gal. 3. 12. But Mr. Br. takes this obedience to Christ not in that Gospel but in this legall sense for the fulfilling of the Moral works which the Law requireth to interesse us in the justification which is by Christ and so deceives his reader with the homonymy of the phrase 3 In putting a restricting in his Argument upon the Righteousness of Christ which in his position that he was to prove was left at large and in generall Christ and HIS Righteousness but in the Argument he putts a limitation upon it in the Major That Righteousness which also he explaineth to be onely the Satisfactory Righteousness of Christ as if there were no other but that righteousness in Christ whosoever derogates not from it could not derogate at all from Christs righteousness I may subscribe to the righteousness of Mr. Br. in some Acts of his though I onely desire but finde it not in other Many other Acts of righteousness were required in Christ even as he is our Mediator besides that by which he gave satisfaction to Justice for our Sinns without which his satisfactory righteousness becomes unavaileable to us And he that derogates not from the one may derogate from the other Yet see we the boldness of our Sophister what he restreigneth in the proposition about Christs righteousness in the Assumpeion he leaves indefinite loose generall and without restriction again not that righteousness but HIS Righteousness so making his Argument by his fallacy of four terms to run four-footed 4 By begging the question in Calling good works which with him is the same with Obedience to Christ the Condition of the New Covenant and Justification by Christ Well doth he put it upon himself saying He that maketh them such for neither God nor Chtist ever made them such 5 His Activity and Liegerdemain which he useth to draw off his reader from Considering the palpable sophistry used in this Argument This he seeks to do by giving and prosecuting in the explication of this Thesis a seeming reason that he bringeth to prove his assumption viz. that Christ came not to fullfill the Gospel but the Law and then spending his whole explication about it When not to speak how equivocall and ambiguous the phrase is and in its most literal and grammatical sense the assertion altogether false we utterly deny either that Christ hath fulfilled the works of the Law or the Gospel in our stead otherwise than by giving satisfaction by his death for our infirm and maimed fulfilling of them or that works done to justifie us are as all works of the Gospel but are contrariwise wise wholly works of the Law or that Christ hath any more satisfied for our infirmities in fullfilling the works of the Law than of the Gospel in that sense in which Mr. Br. distinguisheth them It was his part not to say but to prove soundly his assertion if he would not have it exploded for a new and vain fancy rather than to have answered in his explication objections of his own making that scarce touch upon the matter in question This might suffice as a full answer to his Argument to have proved it in so many particulars to be unargumentall no argument or a faulty argument not a Syllogism but a Para-logism Yea not to leave an occasion to any of excepting that the propositions of the syllogism may have some force in them or either of them apart from other to his purpose I shall afford the labour to examine them also To the Consequent of the Major I have many things to say 1 That it is as the whole Argument sophistical a meer declining of not a speaking to the question The word in that is foysted in besides the question and makes that which is said unsaid as altogether besides the question That which he undertakes to prove is in his own words that His doctrine is no whit derogatory from Christ and his Righteousness To prove this see how grossly he acts the
again with the strokes of his Curse so sorely that we shall be healed no more while the world lasteth I have sworn that I would no more be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee Isa 54 9. i. e. I have sworn but never meant to stand to it I might instance hundreds more of such Scriptures wherewith Mr. Brs. glosses and distinctions do as well agree as fire towe together If Mr. Br. did so much honour the very intrals of Gods word as hee doth the backside of Aristotles Topicks he would not dare so to elude and elide them But Gods authority with him must it seems stand or fall as it hath or hath not approbation from Aristotles or Socinus his Reason being submitted to the censure thereof And then what living plant of God can stand where this man brings the Axe of his distinctions to fell and prepare billets in heaps for his Cole-fires B. 2. As to the Covenant of works though he make them Concomitants with Faith in justifying and that the voyce of the New C is after his Assertion the same with the voyce of the Old Do and Live yet he denies his doctrine to be herein Legall Because there is a manifold difference implyed though not expressed between the Lawes and the Gospels justifying by works 1 The Law requireth an obedience or righteousness of works in every number and degree perfect to justification But hee makes the New Covenant or Gospell to require only sincere obedience or obedience perfect in sincerity for the attainment of this end Aph. pa. 133. 316. and Thes 77. pa. 310. and App. pa. 76 77. And the sincere covenanting of this obedience or this sincere obedience covenanted must be thus conditioned else it is not sincere 1 It must follow upon the knowledg of the Nature ends conditions of the Covenant 2 It must be done deliberately and not in a fit of passion or rashly 3 It must be done seriously and not dissemblingly or slightly 4 Freely and heartily and not through meer constraint and fear 5 Intirely and with a resolution to perform the whole Covenant and not with reservations giving themselves to Christ by the halves or reserving a purpose to maintain their fleshly interests 6 It must be the taking and obeying of Christ alone not joyning others in office with him but renouncing all other happiness save what is by him and all government and salvation from any which is not in direct subordination to him Append. pa. 33. These make up a sincere and perfect obedience a sincere and perfect Gospel-righteousness perfect in respect of Evangelicall though not of legall perfection For sincerity is our Gospel perfection being a conformity to the rule of perfection viz. the New Covenant as it is a Covenant a perfection of sufficiency in order to its end which is to be the condition of Justification Aph. p. 132 133. Who now is there of all men that hath eyes in his elbows but seeth distinctly a vast difference between the Laws and the Gospels justifying by works For it is justice which requires perfect but Grace that requireth but sincere obedience to justification All this is without book the dictates not of the Holy Ghost but of Mr. Br. and that spirit which wrought in his Masters from whom he learned it For 1. The Scriptures which he alledgeth in any part of this Treatise to make any part thereof probable have been examined and none of them found to speak for him most against him Neither do these assertions of Scripture that affirm Christ to give or promise that he will give life salvation c. to such or such qualified or working persons as to them that love him or fear him or obey him or to the meek the righteous c. any more infer that these qualifications or works have any proper or improper causality to produce their justification than when the Scriptures affirm him to give grace and life to Centurions Publicans Harlots Sinners Enemies Uâ—godly Chief sinners Samaritans Heathen do infer that their being such had any causality unto their justification 2. Nay the Scriptures utterly deny the Gospel to have to do with the Law in this voyce Do and Live as I have before oft alleged them Not by works of righteousness which we have done but of his Mercy he hath saved us by Faith not of works Not of workes but of Grace And how poor a shift Mr. Br. useth to elude the force of these and the like Scriptures hath been shewed in the examination of his vindicating himself from being contradictive to St. Paul 3. Yea if works in any notion or consideration be brought as coupled with Faith to promote Justification the Scriptures affirm them to destroy the hope of Justification and to repell the grace of Christ by which the Beleevers are justified If ye be circumcised which in Pauls sense there is if yee bring but this one work to forward your Justification by Christ ye are bound to keep the whole law Christ is become of no effect ye are faln from grace and faln under the Curse Gal. 5. 3 4. 3. 10. 4. And if works or obedience in Mr. Brs. sense which is the doing of the moral Righteousness that the Law commandeth be not as much as adjuvant to Justification then surely sincere obedience cannot be helpful where obedience yea perfect obedience is excluded This is and appears to be either an instinct or a distinction of Mr. Brs. own brain not a doctrine of the Scripture for which way shall we turn the leaves thereof to find it 5. Yea how rational or how ridiculous this distinction or gloss of Mr. Br. applyed to those Scriptures which deny justification by the obedience of works I leave both to the seeing and the blind to judg By the works of the law no flesh shall be justified saith the Apostle i. e. saith Mr. Br. by the perfect obedience of works but by unperfect obedience if sincere we may be justified Not of works but of grace i. e. not of works perfectly done but of works unperfectly yet sincerely done so grace and works may be made friends that is Gods grace and mans vain glory may kiss each other as co-equal workers of mans justification Not by works of Righteousnes which we have done but of his mercy c. i. e. which wee have done perfectly but which we have done maimedly yet sincerely If some Festus should hear such a Commentary of Mr. Br. upon Paul he would conclude sure that one of them is beside himself much learning hath made him madd Either Paul that he had not wit or words to express his own meaning that in the whole bulk of his disputes denying unto our works and righteousness indefinitely all operation to Justification doth not as much as with a Parenthesis in any place inform his Reader that he speaks not of Gospel but of legall works not of sincere but of perfect obedience that these are rejected from those necessarily
that gave and as he gave his life for the world and giveth life to the world All works are excluded that this beleeving might be reserved sole entire sacred and soveraign to receive Christ to Justification and salvation Here at length I shall put a period to my Examination of this Tractate of Mr. Br. in which I have not wittingly let passe any one particle of all that he hath brought to the re-erecting of Justification by works without examining the strength and force of it which if he had done in relation to all the Arguments which the Protestant Churches and Divines have brought against it before he adventured peremptorily to pronounce their doctrine Hâ—torodox and Antinomistick and the doctrine of the Papists in this point sound and holy I am of opinion that either this work of his had never come forth to the subverting of souls and troubling of the Church or if it had so come forth it would have been a very abomination to all that are not made to be taken and trampled under foot as an accursed thing But now having begun in that manner as we see to set up this worst piece of damning Popery under a false pretence of love to the Protestant and hatred of the Popish Religion It is not to be expected but that seeing his reputation jeoparded he will per fas nefas proceed to seek the support of it though it be to the further ecclipsing of the Grace of God and honour of Christ CHAP. XXV The Conclusion of the whole Treatise demonstrating that although we with the Scriptures exclude works from Justification yet we include them as necessary to a Christian life and that no less seriously and upon more spirituall grounds than the Evill Workers that will be justified by them HAving ended at present with Mr. Baxter I have for the Conclusion of all somewhat to say that may have relation to the weak reader It is a difficult thing to remove works from justification and not to expose our selves therein to the Censure of babish ungospellized and unstablished men that we therein banish them also from the life and practice of a Christian When we teach that the righteousness of the Gospel is revealed from Faith to Faith as it is written the just shall live by Faith not by works Rom. 1. 17. And that no man is justified by the Law i. e. by the strictest observation of the righteousness of the Law Because it is written that the just shall live by Faith Gal. 3. 11. That the inheritance is by Faith not by works lest any man should boast Rom. 4. 1 2. Eph. 2. 8 9. That it is of Faith that it may be of Grace and if it be of grace then is it no more of works else grace were no more Grace But if it be of works then is it no more of grace otherwise works were no more works Rom. 4. 16. 11. 6. That whosoever seeketh justification and blessedness by works worketh himself out of it and shall never attaine it because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works af the Law Rom. 9. 31 32. At the sound of this doctrine the unspiritual man excepteth and flesh and bloud swelleth murmuringly Crying out What profit is it then to serve the Lord Why should I fast pray give alms shew mercy study holines and purity deny my self the pleasures of sinn any more when all these have no â—fficacy in them to justifie and save It was the Clamor of men against Paul when he preached the riches of grace abounding the more by the abounding of Mans sinns We will therefore sinn said they that Grace may abound Rom. 6. 1. And do evill that good may come Rom. 3. 8. This doctrine of Faith makes voyd the Law loosing us from all obligation to perform the holines and righteousness which the Law requireth Rom. 3. 31. And as Mr. Br. teacheth them further to reply against God tendeth to drive obedience out of the world For if it be denyed that man can merit happiness by his own righteousness he will cease to be righteous and take the bitt in his teeth to run rebell So deep an impression hath the Covenant of works yet still in mans heart that though he be insufficient to do or to think as he ought 2 Cor. 3. 5. yet he will have Do and Live to be the issue of Life and Death still And Mr. Br. teacheth them to stopp the hole of mans insufficiency with this nayl not of the Sanctuary but of Alexander the Copper-Smith because we cannot perform legall therefore Gospel-obedience shall do the work as if work were not work when the Title of Gospel is written on it and because we cannot fullfill perfect therefore sincere obedience shall serve the Turn Hence is it that the Popish and Arminian doctrines wherewith this Book of Mr. Br. is fully fraughted takes every where so plausibly with and hath such Compleat acceptance among the multitude both of the learned and unlearned It is a doctrine not above but agreeing with the principles of Nature and the naturall man even the naturall Conscience suggesteth it to the unlearned to seek for happiness by their own righteousness And both that and the precepts of Moral Philosophy also together with the Law of Moses instruct the learned to seek for the Summum Bonum the best felicity all felicity in the way of vertue and vertuous performances Here now when any comes to them in the name of Christ holding forth to them the same doctrine it kindles in them so swiftly as fire in towe no need of the teaching of God or renewing of the Spirit Flesh and bloud of it self gives its suffrage to it An easie task have these teachers to perswade men and draw disciples after them and set them in an activeness and dexterity of practicing what they teach It is easily learned to swimm swiftly with the stream and to drop the Bowle down the hill But to teach men to live by Faith and yet to be fruitfull in good works too Not to seek justification and life by their righteousness yet to be zealous of all righteousnes and good works continually hic labor hoc opus est It is above the principles of Nature to apprehend it He must swimm against the stream and roll the Bowl against the Hill walk after the Spirit and not after the Flesh that puts it effectually into practice Yet that our Doctrine doth not let loose the reins to the flesh nor howsoever carnall sensuallists may abuse it to their Condemnation in the least degree blunt the spirits of the spirituall man to well-doing nor deny the both expediency and necessity of all good works in the life of a Christian is evident 1 Because although we exclude morall qualifications and works from officiating to Justification yet we retein and include them in and unto sanctification Our doctrine with Christs and his Apostles holds forth the Lord Jesus to every soul
he fights against natural reason perswading men never more to eat because their meat is not appointed to Clothe them or to walk naked because he saith their garments are not usefull to nourish them No more Cause hath Mr. Br. or the Papists to accuse us that we banish good works from the life of a Christian by teaching that they are not usefull or appropriated to justifie but to sanctifie very usefull in all the particulars before-mentioned How unacquainted with the frame of a Christian spirit are these objectors Either they do not experimentally know or else do stifle within themselves this knowledge that a Christ-enjoying and Gospellized soul gaspeth no less for deliverance from the bondage than from the Condemnation of sinn delights so much in performing duty to Christ as in receiving pardon from him groanes so pathetically under the body as ever he did under the guilt of sinn Cryeth with equall vehemency of affâ—ctionâ— for holiness unto God as for happiness with him for Conformity to him in righteousness as in glory makes no other use of his redemption than to run at liberty the race of obedience set before him embraceth and delighteth in sanctifying as well as in saving grace in the infusion as in the imputation of righteousness labours to dispense all for the Lord and his service whatsoever he hath received from the Lord and his free grace Therefore whatsoever the Lord powrs upon him to sanctification is received with so great joy in the Holy Ghost as that which is communicated to him to justification and he labours to be and express himself wholly Christs as well as to obtein Christ wholly his As for Mr. Brs meerly Morall Men that will receive Christ neither to Justification nor to sanctification but upon their own terms purchasing him by Fine and rent that the glory might be partly theirs and not wholly Christs It is enough that Mr. Br. hardens and subverts them in this their Moral madness wholly contradictive to the spirituallness and wisdome of the Gospel We shall not be insnared by all the nicities of his Arts and Chimicall extracts of the spirits of his spoyling Philosophy to involve our selves with him in the guilt of poysoning so many souls and turning their best righteousness and devotion into sinn by encouraging them to appropriate the same to such an end as is destructive to the glory of Gods grace and contrary to the minde and rule of the Gospel We have one Master which is Christ his dictates expressed by him and his Apostles in the plainness and foolishness of their preaching are so sacred and authoritative with us that neither the most labyrinthical mazes of sophistry shall unwinde us nor the extravagancies of the most luxuriating witts nor the most Curious plausibilities of humane reason shall by Gods Grace unreason us so from our selves as to undisciple us from him Yea though we could not in some things give a satisfactory answer to the sophisticated reasonings of these disputers against Christ and his Gospel yet should we fit down as fools with Christ and his Apostles adoring the manifold wisdome of God revealed in a mystery rather than be wise with these men to the world knowing that the foolishness of God is wiser and the weakness of God is stronger than men And we seek wisdome and happiness from the mines of Christs Gospel not from the dry quarrie of mans literature and inventions 2 Though we reject it as an arrogant and presumptuous doctrine which Mr. Br. in Common with the Papists teacheth That we are justified and saved by our good qualifications and works for our works for the merit and worthinesse of our good works yet we teach and believe that they are in respect of all that have age ability and time to perform them necessary Consequents of our Justification and Antecedents of our glorification Let a man pretend what he will of Faith in Christ yet if by Faith hee do not cleave firmly to him to derive from him power to mortifie every sinn to perform all duty if he can allow within himselfe any known evill or continue in the neglect of any known duty without striving to get the victory in the strength of Christs Spirit over every such infirmity wee take such a man so farr from Christ as Christ is from Belial A branch in Christ not bearing fruit which is appointed to be cut off and cast into the fire because he was never in Christ otherwise but by a formall profession never had vitall union to him or communion with him by the ligatures of Faith and the Spirit For sanctification is an individual companion of Justification And the office of Christ is to be the Author of both to all that believe Otherwise the work of his Mediator-ship should not be compleated in either one of these and so he should not be our Christ if a halfe Christ only to us And Sanctification is still begun and carried on towards perfection also where there is time and meanes in the kingdom of Grace before its perfecting and swallowing up into glory in the Kingdom of glory No righteousness and holiness of man is begun in the next life But there shall be the consummation in power of that which here was begun in truth though it laboured of and languished with much infirmity 3 Wee are guiltless of those Crimes wherewith Mr. Br. endeavours to defame us and our Doctrine For 1. Neither doe wee teach or think as M. Br. suggesteth that nothing is preaching Christ but preaching him as a pardoning justifying Saviour Aph. pa. 328. Indeed we preach Justification to consist if not only yet chiefly in the pardon of sinn through the mediation of Christs death That this benefit of Christ is perfected by the satisfaction which he hath made to Gods justice in suffering for us and appropriated to us by faith alone But wee deny this to be all the gospel-Gospel-grace exhibited to us by Christ and in and through him We hold him forth as the Light of the world also having all the treasures of wisedom and knowledg hid in him Joh. 8. 12. Col. 2. 3. from whom are all the irradiations and Revelations of all the mysteries of Grace effectuall to life and holiness Mat. 13. 11. 1 Cor. 2. 10. And to the word and spirit of Christ we send all men for illumination And the Life of the world not only to restore them to life in law by Justification but as the Lord and principle of Life to beget in us an inherent life active and moving to all obedience Therefore we endeavour to send all to Christ for life even for this life because the whole judgment and dispensation thereof is committed to him and he is our all to sanctification also Joh. 5. 21 22 25 26. Col. 3. 11. We indeed except against that Doctrine as more Legal than Evangelical that roars thunders Condemnation against poor Exiles in a dry wilderness where is no water fainting and even dead with
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
evill is intended to them I shall give these few premunitions First that the question it self proposed by him is meerly captious If Faith be our Righteousness it self how is it said to be imputed to us for Righteousness as if Faith either as an act or duty or habit of Evangelical righteousness were imputed to us for and in stead of the perfect fulfilling of the righteousnes of the Law to Justification This he takes as granted whereas it is one cheif thing in question All the reformed Churches with their Teachers Pastors have unanimously denyed both that faith is our justifying righteousnes and that it is imputed to us for righteousnes otherwise then as it is instrumental to apprehend Christ to be our righteousness or the satisfaction which Christ hath made for us to be imputed to us for and instead of that righteousnes which consisteth in fulfilling the Law 2. As to the plain and positive answer which he makes to the question Though we grant what he saith of our unrighteousness Christs satisfaction and purchase of the prisoners yet in that which hee addeth of the covenant that hee makes with the prisoneâ—s so bought there is nothing but guilful ambiguity viz. that Whosoever will accept and belieâ—e in him who hath thus satisfied it shall be as effectual for their justification as if they had fulfilled the Law of Works themselves To the simple and upright man that is not acquainâ—â—d with Mr. Baxters subtilties this will seem as sound a Doctrine as if an Angel from heaven had delivered it But how wide is his meaning from that which his words seem to import 1 By faith he meanth not what he calls it An accepting of and beleeving in Christ as it is such an accepting and beleeving but as it is a qualification or act Comprehending in it all qualifications and good works besides as afterward he makes his meaning evident 2 When he calls it an accepting of and beleeving in him who hath thus satisfied he means not a beleeving and accepting of him onely under this notion as he hath satisfied that this shall suffice to Justification Nay our accepting him for our law giver and performing of all things that he Commandeth and Consequently all our obedience he will have to bear an equall part to Justification 3 When he saith whosoever thus accepteth and beleeveth doth he mean that this Faâ—th or beleeving is the alone Condition of the full justification of which he speaketh or upon whâ—ch alone Christ Covenanteth to justifie Nay he attributes no less to repentance Charity mercy holines every gift of the Spirit every work of the law to which we are moved by the Spirit and Called by the Gospel about their efficacy to Justification than to Faith it self Why doth he put off the Monkes Câ—wle and put on Pauls Cloke onely to deceive the simple for whom Christ hath dyed 4 When he saith It shall be as effectuall c. putting It next to the word satisfied and next to the Clause Him that hath satisfied there is the same ambiguity and falshood with that which I noted in the second place and whether he meaneth it faith or it satisfaction shall do the work 5 Where he saith It shall be as effectuall to Justification as if they had fulfilled the law of works themselves Here he utterly destroyeth the righteousness and satisfaction of Christ as any way imputed to Justification when elswhere he makes it equally necessary with the righteousness of Faith to Justification And thus he seems to leave the Papists which he would not do for a world I think which hold that we are justified both by Christs righteousness and our own righteousnes also and to joyn onely with the Socinians which hold that we are justified onely by faith imputed to us for righteousnes and not by the righteousness and satisfaction of Christ at all For if this beleeving be by the vertue of Christs Covenant as effectuall to Justification as our fulfilling of the law of works could have been then is there no need of any act or suffering or satisfaction of Christ to be imputed to us For whosoever shall fullfill the law shall have no need of a Mediator to justifie him Therefore neither he that so beleeveth c. But how hard is it for a man that oppugneth truth and propugneth error by meer fallacies against the light of his Conscience to keep himself free from Contradictions here he Contradicts what he had before said of Christ our righteousnes and in the application of the following similitude we shall find him in substance contradicting what he here saith Touching all those things which a little before I have affirmed his meaning to be so and so let none demand how I know what is in another mans heart himself in the following part of this Tractate fully discovers it as we shall finde by reading and examining it Neither will any question it but they that have not read him or in reading have not understood him Thus much to his plain answer before he discends to his similitude which he useth as sugar to lap roll it up in that it may go down pleasantly In this answer we finde nothing but words his own words not the least pittance of Gods word to authorize it he saith all and with the same facility we deny all Proceed we after him now to his similitude 3 As to his similitude first I except that Similitudines or rather Similia illustrant non probant Similitudes are of good use to illustrate and make Cleer to the understanding that which is before proved to be a truth but of no use to prove that which is unproved and the thing still in question That which Mr. Br hath before Concluded in his answer was that Faith is both the righteousnes it self by which we are justified and 2 that it is also imputed to us for and in stead of Justifying righteousnes viz. the very Gospel Righteousnes imputed for and in stead of the legall righteousnes He hath said it without any addittament of Scripture or reason to prove it so that his similitude here is brought to illustrate onely a phantasm of his own brain not any doctrine of Gods word 2 I except against the similitude it self as being in its matter and form altogether incongruous to illustrate the doctrine of justification by Faith which the Gospel holds forth to us because it hath besides other these following incongruities to it 1 Though as in the positive answer before we did so here we grant what he saith of the Tenants forfeiture unablenes to pay expulsion from the inheritance casting into prison his Landlords son paying the debt for him delivering him out of prison putting him into his house again as his Tenant having purchased the house and all to himself provided alway that all this be done by the will of the Father the first Landlord which Mr. Br doth not deny And though we pardon to Mr. Br upon Condition that
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