have no Sabbath under the Gospel but all holyness in dayes and difference between dayes and dayes is taken away so that to sanctifie any one day to the Lord above another is meer Wil-worship and Superstition Upon this ground they actually made use of shooting bowling and other lawful recreations upon the Lords day pronouncing it to be a use of the Liberty which Christ had purchased for them 4. They disrelished altogether that phrase of Justification by Faith as attributing somewhat to man and would that all should rather say that we are Justified by Grace or by Christ or by being found in Christ or by our union unto Christ that the praise of our Justification might be reserved whole and entire to the Grace of God in Christ alone 5. That we are justified by the Passive not the Active obedience of Christ 6. That God seeth no sinne in the justified he knows indeed when they sinne and that they have sinned but the doth not see it because themselves and it are covered under the righteousnes and cross of Christ so that the Father doth not will not see it As if the eternal God had any other eyes besides the eyes of his knowledge to see or that Gods seeing and his knowing were at least disparats and not the same thing 7. That God punisheth not sinne in his people for he seeth not sin in his people and what he seeth not that he cannot punish He hath punished it upon Christ therefore are they free from punishment 8. That whatsoever is not in precise words forbidden in the New Testament that is lawfull for a Christian to doe how strictly soever it be prohibited in the Law and Old Testament So that I have taken notice that when in disputes such and such things have been denyed to be expresly forbidden in the New Testament and that they could not finde any clear testimonies of the New Testament literally forbidding them though before they made it a case of conscience to abstain yet thenceforth notwithstanding all that is said in the Old Testament against it they have taken full liberty to commit it These things were formerly as farre as I have taken notice either all or the chief things branded with the name of Antinomianism And they that held them were called by the most Antinomists or Antinomians because either in all or most of these assertions they either did or seemed to oppose and set themselves against the Law or Old Testament In these last seven or eight years indeed wherein all the Ghosts of all the Hereticks of former Ages have been let loose from hell in full swarms to infest this Nation more then ever the Locusts did the Land of Egypt and men in wantonizing against Christ and his Truth have thought it too little to be Satans budget-bearers in some except they had their packs filled with all varieties of his hell-bred errors so that the Legion of Devils now might be found sometimes in one man which heretofore was distributed into a legion of men By means whereof many Heresies moulded together have gone under one denomination partly through ignorance and partly out of malice both all the dreames of mad Eâ—thusiâ—sts and blasphemies against the Word sometimes and sometimes the very sacred truths of the Gospel of Christ have been exposed to the hatred of the multitude under the title of Antinomianism Men ful of all subtiltie and mischief thus painting Christ in the midst of many Devils that he might be taken for one of them and the truth of his Gospel bee abandoned under the name of Heresie But as to the forementioned tenents in former times charged with Antinomianism I shall say something First those three mentioned by Sleidan as he expresseth them it is very ambiguous whether they were truths or errors Because the words by which he describes them are ambiguous and may be taken either in a good or evill sense 1. That they taught that Repentance is not to be taught out of the Decalogue It is doubtfull what his meaning is 1. Whether they denyed it to be taught simply or secundum quid either that it ought not to be thence taught at all or not to be taught thence as ordained and effectual to justification and salvation 2. It is doubtfull also what hee meanes by the Decalogue whether he means the Ten Commandements considered strictly in their own words as meer Law for so I see not how repentance can be taught properly out of the Decalogue because it commandeth perfect obedience that there may be no need of repentance or as the Doctrine of the said Decalogue is amplified and expounded in other Scriptures where we shall find indeed Repentance required in case of transgression with a promise of temporall deliverances and blessings annexed and so the teaching of Repentance out of the Law be here opposed to the teaching of it out of the Gospel and consequentially the Legall be here opposed to the Evangelical Repentance 3. Or whether his meaning be that they would not have repentance at all taught because they took it to be a meerly Legall not an Evangelical duty therefore pertaining to the administration of the Law not of the Gospel I conceive the Historian being a man singular for his moderation in all that he writes though he speaks of their opinion in the easiest words he may yet meanes that they held it in the worst sense And such have been the Antinomians in these latter times otherwise in a good sense that his words will bear this first tenet deserves not the name of Antinomianism or error To the second if his meaning be that they impugned those that preached the Law to shake the hearts of men into self-denial and to break down the proud confidence of safety and righteousnesse in themselves thereby to make way for the doctrine of Christ into them There is something indeed worthy of blame layd to their charge But if we take his words strictly as they lye viz. that they opposed them which teach that the Gospel is not to be preached untill the Law hath so convinced and shaken the conscience c. I professe my self to be an Antinomian also if this be Antinomianism For what warrant hath any Minister so to teach The commission which we receive from Christ is to preach the Gospel to every creature in all the world Mar. 16. 15. without any restriction whether they be shaken or unshaken And if we continue Law-shakers still among some people untill wee see them thereby shaken into a Palsie of selfe-despairing I know no ground we have to promise to our selves a time of preaching Gospel so long as we live And what answer can be given in such a case to Christ for following our own carnall wisdome and not his commission Neither was it one of Luthers praises pace tanti viri dixerim from the experience of Gods working upon himself which was first the laying of him prostrate by the Law under great horrors and
be brought to leave the way that nature hath taught to find and enter into this way which the Father revealeth What then say yee is the broad way and wide gate by which men seek to enter into life I answer M. Brs. way the way of our own righteousness and strict carriage It is broad and wide because all learn it from nature corrupted which telâ—s us it was the way if we had kept it but cannot tell us that it is now blocked up to sinners so that many so many as seek for life by their own righteousness and works doe by this supposed way of life passe to destruction Not but that the way of vice is a broad way also buâ— our Saviouâ— speaks not heer of it but of the broad way by which men seek life but find destruction To this effect is that of our Saviour â—he Publicans and harlots enter into the kingdome of heaven before the strict living Pharisees Ma 21. 31 By what way did these vitious livers enter but by Christ into the Kingdom else if strictness of life had been the way to it the Pharisees had entred before them This is the interpretation of this Gospel text after the tenour of the Gospel and so Mr. Br. suo se jugulavit gladio hath brought a sword to cut the throat of his own cause B. Ma. 7. 21. Not every one that faith Lord Lord shall enter c. but he that doth the will of my Father c. This is the will and work of the Fathers willing and commanding as to life that we beleeve on him whâ—m he hath sent Jo. 6. 29. B. Ma 7. 22. 23. Many shall say in that day Lord we have prophesiâ—d c. to whom it shall be answered I know you not depart from me ye workers of iniquities Hypocrites that come with their mouths full of Works and merits to plead for Heaven shall all be shaken off and the ground of their exclusion is this I know you not ye were not built upon mee had no union with mee no setled dwelling and recumbency upon me therfore he shakes off both them and their works as workers and works of iniquity B. Ro. 8. 4. That the righteousnes of the Law might bee fulfilled in us which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The righteousness of the Law is perfect And they walk not after the flesh but after the spirit which as the same Apostle saith worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh i. e. as in the following verses he expoundeth in legall priviledges or works of their own Righteousnes Phi. 3. 3. In these the righteousnes of the Law is fulfilled They have a perfect righteousnes even Christ made Righteousnes to them which the Law weak through the flesh could not produce in them B. Ro. 8. 13. If yee live after the flesh yee shall die but if yee through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body yee shall live Who they are chiefly that in reference to life and death doe live after the flesh and after the spirit the same Apostle teacheth not only in the forequoted Text Phi. 3. 3. but also Gal. 3 3. Are yee so foolish having begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh In which words I challenge Mr. Baxter yea the whole pâ—ck of Jesuits if they dare to deny that by beginning in the spirit the Apostle means their trusting wholly on Christ for justification and salvation and by being made perfect by the flesh their seeking to perfect it by works viz Circumcision and with it the morall duties which the Law commandeth If in this place â—e will take the flesh and spirit in a larger sense yet compare we this 13 with the 1. vers of the Chapter and it will appear heer is nothing for his turn Ver. 1. he saith There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus But who are they Such as walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Let now Mr. Baxter put what sense he will upon flesh and spirit in the 13. verse it must bear the same sense as in the 1. verse And then if any demand why they that live after the flesh must die the answer is in readiness Because they are not in Christ Iesus or why they that mortifie c by the spirit shall live Every one can answer because they are in Christ Iesus So that in these there is no condemnation to the other nothing but condemnation Because he that hath the son hath life he that hath not the son hath not life 1 Jo. 5. 2. Heer according to promise I annex what I left unanswered cap. 16. of the third bunch of Scriptures quoted by Mr. Baxter p 236. referring them to this place to be examined as speaking more soundingly to glorification than to iustification by works I shall begin as I there left at B. pa. 236. lin 21. Mat. 10. 37. Hee that loveth Father or Mother more then me is unworthy of mee so of Sonne or Daughter When he meaneth the same with Bellarmine as he hath enough manifested under his 26. Thesis let him speak out the same with Bellarmine viz. That none shall receive salvation by Christ but those that by works merit it and make themselves worthy of it Let him so express himselfe and hee shall not want an expresse answer At present while he will lurk in the dark we will leave him in the dark B. Lu. 13. 24. hath been before examined Phi. 2. 12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Whether we look to that which precedes or that which followeth this Text we shall find its testimony to be to Mr. Baxters cause what a Colledge Brush alias called a hatchet to a Freshmans Gown cutting it in peeces because it will not be cleansed If to that which goeth before we are bidden v. 5-11 to follow the example of Christ as far as he was in a capacity to give him selfe a patterne to us in this kind in selfe deniall who being in the form of God and equall with God took to himselfe the forme of a servant made himselfe of no reputation abased himselfe to the death to the Cross to the Curs and so became exalted on high above all names c. So must wee deny and abase our selves in our relation as Christ did himselfe in his lay all the false glitter and glory of our works and righteousness in the dust as he did his true glory watching with a holy feare and trembling over our backsliding heart that is apt assoon as any shew of righteousness and goodness appears in our selves and works to depart from Christ and to rest in it as our sanctuary in this case is it that the Apostle requires this continuall working and heaving out selfe from our selves that Christ may be our All. And that with much fear and trembling watchfulness over our deceitfull hearts that are
the law is not so repealed c. therefore none of these will follow For we hold that Believers are therefore delivered from the law as a Covenant of works not because the law was almost from the very beginning repealed or abrogated from being any longer a Covenant of works but because the law as a Covenant of works hath executed upon them in Christ all its penalty for all their sins and hath therefore now no more power to question them as hath been more copiously declared before The same I say also to the seventh Argument as it pointeth to the not repealing of the law whatsoever els is in it hath been in answer to the place cited sufficiently spoken to His sixth Argument about which he laboureth more then about all the rest though as I said a little before it makes nothing to his present and explicit purpose proving onely unbelievers to be under the law for this is nothing to believers yet it makes way to an implicit or secret end which he hath and determineth to prosecute with much ardency in the following parts of this Treatise There are two sorts of unbelievers the one under a temporary the other under a finall unbelief the elect and the reprobate Mr. Baxter here driveth with all his force to prove both under the law because he conceiveth that if he prove the elect before they beleeve in Christ are under the law and so granted to be it may be proved much the more easily and plainly that they are so also after they become believers For many of the strongest Arguments which are for the one are for the other and which are against the one are against the other also So that it is hard to bring reasons for the affirming or denying of either without giving advantage for the like affirming or denying of both I purpose not here to anticipate but to suspend the dispute upon this Question untill Mr. B. shall shew his face openly as a Challenger here he doth but as it were peep behind the Curtain in comparison of what he saith afterwards with full expressions of himself Yet that I may not be forced then to retreat hither again to what he doth here deliver but answer every thing in its owne place I shall at present examine those Scriptures which he here produceth whether and how far they prove elect unbelievers to be under the law as a Covenant of works And to clear up a way to the beâ—ter understanding of these and the like testimonies of Scripture I shall prefix two Positions visibly and apparently springing from the pure fountain of Gods word First that all which are elected from eternity shall in their appointed times come unto Christ and persevere in him by a living Faith I mean not onely all but onely these and none besides them As many as were ordained to eternall life beleeved when Christ was and Acts 13. 48 so still do or shall believe when Christ is or shall be preached to them If the Gospel be hid from any viz. so that they believe not in Christ manifested by the Gospel to them it is to them that perish c. 2 Cor. 4. 3. i. e. to them that are not elect but reprobates All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to I will in no wise cast out or suffer to be lost John 6. 37. To come to Christ is to believe truly in him such shall never be lost never fall away or make shipwrack of their Faith But who are they whom God giveth to Christ that they may beleeve in him Thine they were and thou gavest them me saith our Saviour Mr. B. will say they were in a peculiar manner to be Gods people at least by election and therefore given to Christ that by faith in him they might be saved Jo 17. 6. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but unto them that are without all these things are done in Parables that seeing they may see and not perceive c. Mark 4. 11 12. Why was it given to the one part to know the mystery life and spirit of the Gospel to the other onely the outside and letter thereof They were within these without the lines of Gods election They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would without doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us 1 Joh 2. 19. Not of us he means not of the number of them that are called according to Gods purpose of Election Rom. 8. 28. for then they could not have faln away All should have wrought for good to them So that hence it followeth that every elect unbeliever shall come to and continue in the Faith and whosoever doth not so is manifested not to have been elected of God 2 That justification or remission of sins may be considered in a threefold respect 1 As it is in God 2 As it is delivered over by God into the hands of Christ our Mediator 3 As it is by Christ brought home unto and given into the bosom and possession of any man As it is in God I shall pretermit to speak much of it any where but any thing at all untill Mr B. directly and exprâ—sly calls me to it least the man should be tormented before his time For he hates the very naming and thought thereof as an Act Immanent in God cane pejus angui and is ready Jew like to rend his cloaths and fling dust in the aire at any mention thereof as an article that stands in enmity to his justification by works 2 Then as it is delivered into the hands of Christ we may speak of it without such terrible offence to his patience or setting him into so direfull a commotion conditionally that we will undertake for Christ that he shall be ruled by Mr. B. to do what he appoints with it that is to keep it in his pocket and deliver it to no man but hold all under the Curse of the Law untill the day of judgement we cannot adventure upon such an undertaking nevertheles shall hold forth the truth of God in this case This is that Christ by offering himself a Sacrifice for sin and presenting the Sacrifice of himself unto God in the most Holy place i. e. in heaven at his Mercy-seat hath thereby effectually purchased everlasting redemption and remission of sins and hath received a full absolution and acquittance from the father for all his elect by name So that in Christ they are justified from all sin and freed from the Law as a Covenant of works even while they are unbelievers have this freedom I mean in the hand of Christ though not in their own apprehension and possession Though as to themselves and their own judgments and as to the apprehension of men they are under the Law under wrath yet in Christ they
governed untill his coming That it was he who first preached to Adam salvation by the seed of the Woman and afterward more cleerly to Abraham That it was he also which delivered the Law upon Mount Sinai and added there a second Covenant in shew and sound a meer Covenant of works Do and be Blessed Sin and be Cursed which Covenant alone is expresly called the Old Covenant and is indeed now repealed and abolished from being any more a Covenant saving to them that put themselves under it This was but a temporary Covenant an Appendix to the Covenant before made with Abraham and both this and that with Abraham were but subordinate Covenants to that before mentioned between God and Christ Here now all that were justified before Christs coming in the flesh were justified in Christ by force of the first Covenant made between the Father and the Son The promise to Adam and the Covenants made with Abraham and with the Israelites together with all the Sacraments and signes annexed to all these tended onely to bring them that were justified before in Christ to a reall and sensible participation of it and the comforts thereof by Faith within their own consciences So is it now under the Gospel administration That first Covenant is that by which our justification is compleatly finished in Christ the preaching of Faith in a Covenant way tends onely to this that as many as were before justified in Christ may by Faith have their Justification declared and evidenced to their consciences to fill them with joy unspeakable and full of glory and with that peace which passeth all understanding Not but that Christ could without any such Sub-Covenanting have filled up his elect with all the marrow and mystery of Justification by immediate Revelation from himself as he dealt with Paul the Apostle but that this way made most for his and his Fathers glory both in them that are saved and in them that perish 4 Faith it self much less any other qualification gift or act is not a condition of Justification in foro Dei there Christ hath pleaded our discharge by his blood still maketh intercession for us but a means or instrument by which we receive Christ Jesus and the righteousnes or justification that is in him to our selves for consolation and salvation in foro conscientiae so stood the case in respect of the fore-mentioned under Covenant that of the Law When the Lord Christ had published his Law upon Mount Sinai and given to Israel by Moses all his Judgments and Statutes there now passeth a solemn Covenant betwixt Christ and them the people also every one in person assenting gladly to fulfill all that they might be blessed or if in the least point they should fail to yeeld themselves cursed This Covenant was made more visibly and in every part more strictly after the nature and rule of Covenants then this under the Gospel Yet will any say that this perfect obedience so Covenanted was a condition of their justification and salvation without which none could be justified or saved Then were all damned for no one either did or could perfectly obey Nay it was added because of transgressions saith the Apostle Gal. 3. 19. i. e. as a means so to operate about sin in the discovery of it and the damnation that is by it so also to convince men that they might be driven from all supposition of their own righteousnes and seek righteousnes by Christ alone in whom alone the elect were justified before this Covenant was made In the same manner the holding forth of justification now under the Gospel in the form and likenes of a Covenant Beleeve and be saved beleeve not and perish for ever proveth not Faith to be the condition of the New Covenant as hath been said even the whole preaching of salvation by Christ and injoyning of Faith upon all to receive it is an effect of that First great Covenant of Grace between the Father and the Son and a part of Christs Propheticall Office which he undertook in that Covenant to accomplish in undertaking the Mediatorship between God and Men. An effect of that first Covenant I say For so it was agreed that All which the Father had given to Christ by him to be justified and saved should come to him i. e. beleeve in him Jo 6. 37. To this purpose it was Covenanted on the Sons part to seek and to save that which was lost Luke 19. 10. to call unto him all to participate by Faith of the life light righteousness and salvation that he had received for them Isa 55. 1. Io 7. 37. Ma. 11. 28. This was a part of his Propheticall Office to discover the treasures of Grace in his heart and to envite all to the participation thereof And then on the Fathers part it was Covenanted that he would draw to Christ all the Elect all that he had given to Christ that while the Gospel sounded in their ears he would divinely by his Spirit teach and move their hearts that they shall not but come to Christ Jo 6. 43 44. And lastly it is agreed on the Sons part again that of all that the Father thus bringeth to him he must cast out none lose none but raise them all at the last day to glorification and the reason of all is annexed It is the Fathers will i. e. that which was Covenanted between the Father and him in Heaven and he came down from Heaven not to do his own will i. e. any thing of his private will without the consent of his Father but the will of him that sent him i. e. what was Covenanted between the Father and him and concurrent with the will of both Jo 6. 37 38 39. Thus all that which Mr B. calleth the Covenant of Grace is but an effect or an Article and branch of the Covenant made of old between God and Christ And Faith not so properly termed a condition of justification as an instrument to apprehend the present comfort of it being before ours in Christ 5 That this Covenant of Grace is absolute shall be the work of the next Chapter to evince CHAP. XII That Text of Jer 31. 31 32 33 c. opened and Mr. Baxters elusions by which he would evince that it proveth not a free and unconditionall Covenant answered with some other Argumentations with Mr. Baxter about the same Question I Now come to that Testimony of Jer. 31. 31 32 33. cited in Heb. 8. 8-10 against which Mr. B. so much excepteth That New Covenant there mentioned is called the New Covenant not in opposition to the Old Covenant made in the beginning with Adam but in opposition to that Covenant made two thousand and six hundred years after at least with Israel upon Mount Sinai And that Covenant upon Mount Sinai is called the Old Covenant not in opposition to the Cov of Grace made if not from eternity according to Mr. B. yet by Mr B. acknowledgment almost 3000 years
what becomes of them all so that this one may come to maturity and prosper because his fancy hath made it his own as it were though as it is much to be feared to the perverting if not totall loss of himself and others He having ascribed perfection and merit to it already as fully as any of the most professed Papists See how he flaunts and glories in this imaginary peece of Huperephaneous learning in the 20 21 22. pages of his Appendix as if he had not received it from men but Mahomet-like from a celestial Dove or by the Angel Gabriâ—l from heaven insulting not over the Antinomians but over their adversaries also as he terms them i. e. all the Orthodox Divines of all the Reformed Churches scarce abstaining from cursing their ignorance in this phantasticall mystery so revealed to him when contrariwise himself hath received the substance of it if indeed there were a new substance in it from the Papists and himself hath but licked it Bear-like into a form of words best pleasing his own imagination The vanity of it will in its due place be discovered CHAP. XX. Arg. Besides other lesser things first the chief thing about which this Chapter is occupant is to discover the judgement of Protestant VVriters about Justification as an eternal and immanent Act in God and how far it is grounded upon Scripture Thes 36. pag. 166. B. The pardoning of sinne is a gracious Act of God discharging the offender by the Gospel promise or grant from the obligation to punishment upon consideration of the satisfaction made by Christ accepted by the sinner and pleaded with God I mean not here to fall upon a dispute with Mr. Baxter whether according to Mr. Baxter himself the pardoning of sinne through Christ and Justification through Christ be not one and the same thing And whether he himself doth not pag. 208. acknowledge so much Indeed pag. 186 he saith that Pardon of sin and justification in law are not punctually and precisely all one Yet addeth that the difference is very small lying chiefly in this that the terminus à quo of Remission is the obligation to punishment but the terminus of Justification or the evill that it formaâ—ly and directly frees us from is the Laws accusation and condemnation Here saith he though the difference be very narrow yet a plain difference there is How plain Can the blind man see it Yea as well as he that hath both his eyes for it is respective rather then reall But how doth the difference lye in the different termini à quibus Remission of sins and Justification free us because Mr. Baxter a more curious cummin-cutter in Logical disputes then he that Aristotle in his Ethicks speaks of was in dividing of secular goods hath thus cloven the hair into two even rafters and so hath himself layd the difference giving the one rafter for remission of sins and the other to Justification and bidden each to rest satisfied with his own and neither to intrench upon the others part I confess my self to have been so gross witted untill Mr. Baxter doth here teach us so finely to distinguish that I was apt to have argued in this case somewhat like to Mr. Baxter pag. 208. when it seems his spectacles were off and his considering cap not on and so could not see and conclude punctually where to beaâ— the wedges into the hair to cleave it exactly As there he cannot close with Mr. Burgess That Justification besides the pardon of sin doth connote a State that the subject is put into viz. a state of favour being reconciled with God Because remission it self doth connote the state of favour For if the losse of Gods favour be a part of the punishment and all the punishment be remitted then the favour which was lost must needs be thereby restored So neither should I have easily closed with another putting Mr. Baxters plain difference pag. 186 between Remission and Justification in their said terminis that the one delivers from obligation to punishment the other from the Laws accusation and condemnation Because freedom from obligation to punishment doth connote freedome from the Laws accusation and condemnation and freedome from the Laws accusation and condemnation connotes freedome from obligation to punishment and so doth Remission of sinnes and Justification i. e. Justification in Romane and Justification in Secretary hand have the same terminus à quo viz. The Laws accusation and condemnation and obligation to punishment and consequently that they are one and the same thing But let Mr. Baxter pass in this particle without further interruption It is not for that he sees a difference but that hee thinkes it will somewhat advantage him in attaining the ends to which he driveth to make an imaginary difference between pardoning of sinne and Justification in terminis Therefore doth he so acutely distinguish And I shall leave him to solace himself in his distinction without saying any more to it 2. Neither doe I account it worthy of any deep examination what in the Explication of the first words of the Definition that it is an Act of God hee doth pag. 168. trifle about the difference which he maketh between Christs Acceptance Pardon and Kingdome and Gods Acceptance Pardon and Kingdome We grant unto him that as of the two Temples that Marcellus built at Rome one dedicated to Virtue the other to Honour that to Honour had no door to it but out of the Temple of Virtue So neither is there any other entrance into the Kingdome of Glory but thorough the Kingdome of Grace But to put a difference between Christs and Gods Acceptance Pardon and Kingdom as if the one were upon Earth the other not untill we are translated hence into Heaven and so we must be in Heaven first and bee forgiven afterwards or as if Christs acceptance c. were not Gods or the Fathers Acceptance Pardon and Kingdom is a meerly imaginary dreame of one that listeth to dream waking pat indeed to Mr. Baxters purpose of setting up his two-fold or rather manifold Justifications but wholly thwarting and crossing the Scriptures which affirme Not that Christ as Mediator reconciled the world to himself but that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them 2. Cor. 5. 19. And that where Christ forgiveth there God not will hereafter forgive but already hath forgiven all our trespasses for Christs sake Eph. 4. 32. Col. 2. 13. And more often call the Kingdom of Grace here the Kingdome of God then the Kingdome of Christ And that the great Absolution at last in the day of Judgement shall be given by Christ and not by the Father in person and the same not in Heaven but before the Ascension of the Saints into Heaven as is evident by all the Scriptures of the New Testament which describe the Judgement day Neither doth the Scripture tell us of any ultimate perfecting pardon beyond or after this if ever
heâ—r it tends to the promoting of his cause to affirme it And this alters the Case quoth Ploydon How rightly did Mr. Baxter describe his owne acting in this businesse p. 291. I resisted saith he the Light of this Conclusion as long as I was able It is the light of the Conclusion not of the Premises that swayeth him First hee pitcheth upon this Conclusion Works justifie there was light in this Conclusion it fell out of the Lant-horne of the Jesuits sophistry into his bosome and by that light he is swayed and having taken up the conclusion in such light of its owne from them now he digs downward for day and takes up that which erewhile he shook off as darkness for light to illustrate and prove it So his light conclusion is first formed and afterward he seeks for Crutches and reasons what come first to hand to support it sacrificing here more to hast than to reason lest his idol should fall before he returnes with his props to sustaine it And what if upon new thoughts we shall finde all that is here said all so unsaid again Let us passe to his explication peradventure we may stumble at such a stone before we come off from it B. Explication Heere I have these things to prove 1 that the Justifying sentence shall passe according to works as well as Faith 2. That the Reason is because they are parts of the condition For the first see Mat 25. 21. 23. well done good aâ—d faithfull servant thou hast been faithfull over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the ioy of thy Lord. And most plaine is that from the mouth of the judge himselfe describing the order of the processe of that day Mat. 25. 34 35. Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdome c for I was hungry c. So 1 Pet 1. 17. who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans worke So 2. Co 5. 10. we must all appeare before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body acording to that he haâ—h done whether good or bad So Rev. 20. 12. 13. They were judged every man according to his works Heb. 13. 17. Phil 4 17. Mat. 12. 36 c. but this is evident already The Scriptures that he brings to prove that the justifying sentence shall passe according to workes as well as Faith are first here put and therefore first to be examined And against his reasoning from them I except 1. as well as Faith is here foysted in being wanting in the position And why heere supplyed but to beguile the simple with a good opinion of his assertion as if he attributed something to Faith also in Christs and Pauls sense When contrariwise he teacheth that Faith hath nothing to doe in this businesse but in the notion of our Act our righteousnesse or worke so that with him to be justified by Faith is to be justified by our owne worke 2. That there is no one of these Scriptures but is alledged by Bellarmin and his fellows against the Protestants and by them fully answered manifested to make nothing for justification or salvation by works scripture after scripture no one of them pretermitted When Mr. Baxter now stands up in Bellarmins place against us is it sufficient for him to tel us what Bellarmin hath said against the truth as if we could not without him know it and to leave unanswered yea unmentioned the hundreds of our side that have retorted upon him his owne arguments to the subverting of his owne cause that by these Scriptures he would have maintained If he would have another answer ought he not to have excepted against the validety of those that have beene already given Is he worthy to heare more from vs that hath stopped his eares against all that so many worthies have said already scorning to take notice thereof Nay when he will onely alledge the Scriptures and not take the labour to tel us what or how he will conclude from them he leaves us not in a capacity to declare so much as our consent with him or dissent from him Yet for the use of the weaker sort of readers that have not ability to make recourse to those learned workes where these controversies are handled or to understand them in that language in which most of them are written I shal speak something in generall to all these Scriptures First of that of Mat. 25. 21. 23. or rather taking the whole parable together beginning at ver 14. and ending at v. 30. granting it on both sides to be the same Parable which Luke recordeth chap. 19. beginning at the 12. and ending at the 27. verse which very few have questioned no one hath had cause to deny then it suits not at all with Mr. Baxters purpose or his Judgement dayes justification For the Kingdome of Heaven and the Lords comming and reckoning with his Servants and retribution of their service is to be taken for Christs comming to preach first in his owne person and then to set up and stablish the Gospel by the Ministry of his Apostles The servants to be reckoned with are principally the Teachers of the Iewes the Talents used or abused are the mysteries of the Gospel revealed though veyled under the Law The matter of the Account is what each by his serious studies and labours had cleared up to himselfe and others of this Gospel and saving knowledge of Christ before his comming for the advancement and advantage of Christ at his comming They which had spent their labours this way received at Christs comming a double measure of the spirit of illumination in the knowledge of Christ and salvation by him and were intrusted with a fuâ—ler measure of this sacred Treasure to bee the dispencers thereof to the world But hee which â—ad wrapt his Talent in a Nâ—pkin and hid it in the earth left the Doctrine of Christ scattered throughout the old Testament under a veile as he found it without searching into it and clearing it up to others was lâ—ft in the state of infidelity rejected and bound over hand and foot by his unbeliefe to perdition And his Citizens which sent word after him wee will not have this man to rule over us we will have a Christ such a one as wee have framed to our selves in our owne immaginations but not this Christ have their doom not only denounced but executed also upon them bring them hither and slâ—y them before me Who are these but the great Body and Nation of the Iewes that professed themselves Citizens and the onely Saints of God but for their refusall of Christ were slaine and destroyed by the sword of the Romans And so the parable comprehends in it a Prophecy of the successe of the Kingdome of Grace now in the way of erecting in its power as to the Iews So saith Luke in that 19. Chapter verse 11. Hee added and spake a parable because
our selves which he teacheth to tend only to selfe-ruining B. 3. Thankefulnesse for what we have received either in possession title or promise must be a singular spur to duty But I pray you tell me Have you received all the life and mercy you doe expect Are you in Heaven already Have you all the Grace that you need or desire in degree If not why may you not labouâ— for what you have not as well as be thankefull for what you have Or have you as full a certainty of â—â— heerafter as you desire If not why may you not labour for it Al this is also totally besides the QuestioÌ„ which is not whether we may but how we are to labour whether with that most excellent and Gospel-frame of spirit consisting in love and thankfulnesse or mercenarily by works and whether in the way of Faith which the Gospel or of naturall Righteousness which the Law teacheth Many shall seeke to enter and shall not bee able faith the Master Wee through the spirit wait for the hope of Righteousness by Faith saith the Apostle Not so but by and for our Works not at all by Faith but as it is an act or worke saith Mr. Baxter let him shew his light and Authority to be greater than Pauls before hee looke that wee should run after him I shall put one question to him arising from the last of his Interrogatories which will be harder for him to resolve than a thousand such as he hath here wil be to us When hee tels us we must labour for the full certainty of Heaven hereafter is there any such certaintainty in this world attainable according to his principle of but â— conditionall justification and salvation untill the day of Judgementâ— or how is it to be obtained Let him make it out to us If he doth it I shall conclude that he can also turne Heaven into Earth and Earth into Heaven and nothing to bee unpossible to him if not let his Reader judge whether his indeavour be to delude or else to teach In the next Chapter or Section if wee attend onely to the sound and roare of words Mr. Baxter appeares more formidable from pag. 83. to the 98. of his Appendix in which hee presents us with thirteen Considerations to shew the vanity and intolerable damnable wickednesse of this supposed doctrine which he opposeth But the whole sloud of his wit wrath and eloquence heere poured out together runs into the dead Sea by a desart and desolate way in which it meets with no mortall crearure to wet or hurt it For who is there of all mankinde that hath said wee ought not to act for life in the sense which this man suborneth or otherwise than I have before oft expressed Much lesse is there any professed Christian that hath asserted as hee insinuateth That wee must not come to Christ that we may have life nor strive to enter in at the straite gate nor lay violant hands on the Kingdome of Heaven nor lay up for our selves a Treasure in Heaven nor seeke the Kingdome of God and the Righteousnesse the reof nor presse on for the attainment of the Resurrection c. Let him be named by Mr. Baxter that he may be brought forth and stoned which thus blasphemeth I shall not hinder it That which they teach is that Workes are not to be performed to this end that as works or doing as opposed to believing by and for their owne or our owne Righteousnesse in doing them they should put us into the possession of the life of justification and blessednesse If Mr. Baxter have any thing to say against this assertion or against that which I before laid as the state of the question it wil be taken into examination till then I shall leave him to fight with his owne shaddow having no loose time to spend in gazing upon the activity of such a Combatant CHAP. X. Arg. The Authour of the Booke intituled The Marrow of Moderne Divinity vindicated from the Aspersions wherewith Mr. Baxter defameth him and his Doctrine HEere because I am to follow and my taske is not to leave Mr. Baxter untill I have examined all that hee saith to prove Justification by works I am necessitated to fall into that which will be judged a Digression After hee hath enacted by a Law that to say wee must not worke for life is a Blasphemy or at least an intolerable errour and to hold it practically a necessarily damning Doctrine that whosoever doth it must be everlastingly damned for it All which wee acknowledge to bee in some sense true after the sound of the words though after the meaning of the Authour they can never be saved which practically hold the contrary as possibly I shall afterwards shew Now he proceeds to indite and arraigne to condemnation one Authour as guilty of this damning Doctrine viz. The Authour of the Book called The Marrow of Moderne Divinity and many his Accessaries viz. all those Divines that have annexed their approbatory subscriptions to the usefullnesse of it so finde we the man expressing himselfe Aphorism pag 330. B. When such a Book as that stiled the Marrow of Modern Divinity can have so many applauding epistles of such Divines when the doctrine of it is that we must not Act for justification and Salvation but onely in thankfulnesse for it This he speaketh onely in generall we shall finde his particulars following To this therefore I answer onely in generall 1 That it were to bee desired that Mr Baxter had inured no more dishonour upon thosâ— Divines to whom he dedicates his book by such his dedication than those forementioned Divines have attracted to themselves by their applauding epistles 2 And that those Divines with Mr. Baxter himselfe could mention so many sound parts in his booke both in the matter and ends of the Author as hee hath picked out imaginary errours in the other 3 As to the doctrine of that booke which he so accuseth I shall there examine in particulars where Mr. Baxter particularly drawes it into accusation and judgement Onely by the way let me thus far excuse my selfe 1 I never knew who was the Author of that worke 2. Neither have I read it otherwise than here and there a fragment as I found it lying in my friends houses so that I could no otherwise judge of it but ex ungue Leonem what the whole was but by that which my slender judgement told me the part which I read was not onely orthodox but singularly usefull 3 That I never knew there was a second part of it much lesse saw it until Mr Baxter by his quotation therof so told me But that since I have gotten both parts yet by meanes of other imployments have not had time any further to read it but where Mr. Baxter accuseth it of error 4. That if I knew the Author to be yet living I should have wholly left the defence of himselfe to himselfe It was not so much the
head-peece whosoever thinks the contrary For it were a mad contradictive proposition to say whosoever doth or shall beleeve shall be justified in himselfe before he had a self or being But this is no nearer to the matter in question than the North is to the South pole As for that barr of God in heaven that hee concludes with where his Angelical and Seraphical Doctors that better know the way thence than thither saw at their last coming thence God fitting and transacting these things before his Angels we are bidden to wait untill he shall have the leisure after he hath spoken once more with Lucians Icaro-Menippus and enquired of him the certainty thereof and then we shall hear the dream interpreted This is the summe of his noble dispute against justification as an act immanent in God from Eternity And now I appeal to the reader comparing together his bigg and swelling promises with his curt and insubstantial performance after his challenge of all the Antinomians his promise to shew that there is no such thing his charging the doctrine with the scandalous terms of errour and pillar of Antinomianism his undertaking to prove it such upon due examination to judge Quid tanto dignum tulit hic Promissor hiatu CHAP. XXII Arg. VVhat the reall Antinomians have been and are and that Master Baxter casteth this reproachfull name upon all the Churches of Christ charging the innocent with the fault whereof himself is guilty THE second thing which I promised to take into examination in his explication of this Thesis is his vellication of the Antinomians which here and elsewhere throughout this Book he defieth with unquenchable hatred charging and discharging so hotly against them as ever Iupiter did against the Giants that made a battery against the Heavens And what are they that Goliah like he should come harnessed from the head to the foot brandishing his weavers beam against them he tells us They are Ignorant animals pa. 169. Fitter to learn the grounds of Religion in a Catechism than to manage those disputes wherewith they trouble the world pa. 115. If so who can abstain from laughter to see so great a Nimrod as Mr. Baxter hunting with no lesse weapon then Hercules his Club a nest of wrens to death and with the great Monarch of the World Domitian to set himself in battel array against the gnats and flies that dared to peep into his chamber But his aim is to shew his Craft more than his power as I before in part have manifested in the preface to this examination and there promised more fully afterward to evidence The performance whereof I have reserved for this place That we may the better discern Master Baxters either singlenesse or doublenesse in this Case it shall be somewhat expedient to enquire after first the originall secondly the growth of the Antinomians properly so taken and denominated in the severall reformed Churches untill our late divisions within this land have made such a medly and confusion of all or at least many errors together that we know not punctually what error is predominant in most of the willfully erroneous that having seene them both in their birth and their full height also wee may compare Master Baxters Antinomians with the Antinomians indeed and so judge how far he goes about to confute the innocent and how far to defame and deceive the innocent The first rise of them was in Germany Anno. Dom. 1538. as Sleidan in the 12 Book of his Commentaries tells us Their principall ringleader was Ioannes Islebius Agricola I have not met with any of their Books neither know I whether there be any of them extant from which we may certainly gather their opinions Wee are forced therefore to take them at the second hand from the foresaid Author who in the forequoted place thus speaks of them Hoc Anno secta prodijt eoruÌ„ qui dicuntur Antinomi Hi poenitentiam ex Decalogo non esse docendam dicunt illos impugnant qui docent non esse praedicandum Evangelium nisi primum quassatis animis at que fractis per pradicationem legis Ipsi verò statuunt quaecunque tandem sit hominis vita quamtumvis impura justificari tamen eum si modò promissionibus Evangelij credat i. e. This year sprung forth the sect of them which are called Antinomians Their Tenents he reduceth to three generall heads telling us that first They say that Repentance is not to be taught out of the Decalogue 2 They impugn them that teach the Gospell ought not to be preached to men untill their hearts be first shaken and broken by the preaching of the Law 3 They assert that whatsoever the life of a man be and how impure soever yet is he justified if he onely beleeveth the promises of the Gospel He addeth further that Luther wrote against this Islebius who thereupon submitted and in a sort recanted and so it seemes the Sect ceased and their assertions for a while slept Such were they at their first rise In these after times they discovered themselves in more plain terms than Sleidan here discovered them About twenty years since I had acquaintance and upon that acquaintance much reasoning and many disputes with some of them in Summer set shire who much honoured and professed themselves to have received their light from that Master Wâ—otton whom Master Baxter doth seem much to applaud in some parts of this Treatise Their opinions that partly were and partly weretaken by the most tâ— be points of Antinomianism were these as in discourse with them I found them to maintain 1. That the Law is totally abrogated now under the Gospel and that not onely as a Covenant of Works but also from being any more the rule of righteousnesse That wee have but one Master Christ that since his coming into the world he is our Teacher sent from heaven the Prophet raised up like to Moses that we should hear him alone That since the time he began to speak Moses hath been silent and we are bound now to attend to the voice of God as in these latter times he speaketh to us by his Son only 2. That the whole Old Testament is as it were uncanonized though it were the Word of God the Rule and Canon of Faith and practice to them that lived under it yet to us that are under the Gospel it remains not in its former power Because the Last Will and Testament onely stands in force and when a latter Testament is made the former is thereby to all uses and purposes made voyd We may read the Old Testament as other Apocryphal and Ecclesiasticall Writings but must no more subject our judgements or consciences to it then to these For Moses and the Prophets prophecied onely untill John the Baptist were in force untill he began to preach the Gospel and ever since the Kingdom of heaven hath suffered violence the doctrine of the Gospel hath succeeded in its place 3. That we