Baxter how is not then himself in famous in reference to that for which he pronounceth them famous Or in granting them at the highest the name of Theologers doth he not inure upon himself the brand of a Theologaster But peradventure he thus insignizeth them in respect of the opinion that others have of them though in his own accompt or in comparison with himself he knowes not whither to terme them Cranes or Pigmies Or it is a peece of that subtlety which elsewhere he useth frequently to abuse the ignorant with a conceit that all which he delivers is orthodox because of his pretending himself to be an admirer of such in whom verity and Godlines with profoundness in learning are met together Or lastly Ambition of popular glory and praise might invite him so to magnify them The greater the Champions are with whom he Combateth The more glorious he may conceive his victory to be if he return out of the field Conqueror And he might expect that the lesser and lower rank will be as mute as fishes when they see the Classicall Doctors of highest esteem once battered by his disputations Two Kings could not stand before him how shall we stand 2. Kin. 10. 4. so c. However it be all that know them and him will conclude certainly that hee doth in no wise so speak of them because he can say of them in the words of John whom I love in the truth 3. Jo. 1. But note ye out of the same mouth in the same breath come Blessing and Cursing The Kiss and the stab of Joab go together Majestically rather than Magisterially he mounts them to the top of the Stage to hurl them down thence in the same Momâ—nt headless Master Pemble long since while he was yet a young man slâ—pt in Christ But Doctor Twisse not untill of late in a venerable old age was laid in the grave and Master Baxter a Punie to him throwes his curses after him that he was erroneous hereticall yea one that set up the Pillar of that which he calls and detesteth as the worst of Heresies Antinomianism Dared he but to have whispered so while Doctor Twisse was yet living It is come to passe what I conceived and intimated to divers of my friends at the first coming abroad of Doctor Twisse his works that during his life we should finde none that would write against him but after his death there would be many censurers though never an answerer of him Our eyes have seene since his death brought forth into the light those Tractates which while he lived dared not come forth out of the womb of darknesse And those mouths now open after his death to snarl at him which for fear of him were as fast shut while he lived as the Egyptian doggs at the presence of an Israelite Exo. 11. 7. yet may some take it to argue an ignoble Spirit in Master Baxter so to tread on the neck of a dead Lion having not so much as looked thorow the Grate upon him while yet living and to seek honour by the Conquest of them Quorum Flaminiâ tegitur cinis atque Latinâ But there is but little harm where there is but barking onely without biting And how little impression upon Doctor Twisse his either Doctrine or reputation Master Baxters sugillation hath made we have in part and in generall seen already and may yet take notice more particularly 2. Then when in opposition to Doctor Twisse his Major proposition vizt All Acts immanent in God are Eternal he tells us that Immanent in God must needs be taken Negatively not Positively § To speake more scripturally than Metaphysically I answer I see no ground of such a necessity but that it may be understood as well positively as yea rather positively than Negatively What is immanent in God but abiding or residing in God or to use the Scripture terms hidden in God Eph. 3. 9. Col. 3. 3. Yet so that when it is revealed it abides notwithstanding and hath its immanency in God still Approbation Acceptation accounting us just and loving us in Christ are Acts of Gods Knowledge and will and both before and after we have the revelation thereof to our soules they are immanent and abiding in God fâ—om everlasting to everlasting Are there not immâ—nent Acts in the soul of man much more in the minde and will of God What man knoweth the things of a man but the Spirit of man which is in him Even so none knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 11. By the things of God and the things of a man I doubt not but it will be granted that we must understand the apprehensions volitions purposes and affâ—ctions if I may so speak of God and of men And are not these things in God as well as the things of God So they are as properly termed Acts immanent in God in a positive sense as actually abiding in God as in a Negative in opposition to their Transiency and termination upon a subject without God The latter is not onely or so much denyed as the former affirmed And thus our justification is positively and depositively immanent in God from eternity Posited in the bosom of God the Father as in the Cabbinet of his counsells and deposited in the hand of God the Son as in the hand of a faithfull Mediator and surety for us upon his undertaking to make satisfaction which God the Father accepted as present satisfaction made for our sinns 3. The reason which he annexeth to prove that Acts are not positively immanent in God is insufficient and reasonlesse For Acts saith he have not the respect of an Adjunct to its subject but of an effect to its Cause As if Acts and effects could not also abide and remain in their cause Master Baxter no doubt hath read Bellarmine Arminius and Corvinus in their disputes against the Doctrine of the reformed Churches suppose now an act of approbation hath passed within him so far as that their Faith is become his Faith also but secretly and not fully yet manifested to the World Is not this approbation an Act of Master Baxter if so is it not also an immanent Act abiding in himselfe within his owne minde as well positively the râ—siding as negatively not transient upon those Writers to produce any new relation or passion in them Himselfe and his Master Grotius concurre That the effects of efficient voluntarie causes do not alway immediately follow them That God hath decreed from eternity the transient Justification of the Elect in their own consciences yet the execution thereof follows not untill they beleeve Thes 15. and its Explication and here againe pag. 177. I demand now where this decree this act lyeth hid untill the execution thereof It must be either no where and consequently null and annihilated or else abide still and bee Immanent in God and so what was in God from eternity is immanent in him from eternity
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
He tells us he knows no one word in St. Paul or the Bible that hath any strong appearance of contradiction to his Doctrine To which I answer 1 That wee look not to appearances whether they be weak or strong But if there be not strong Contradictions in the doctrine of the Apostle and of the Gospel to his there is no cause of dissenting from him 2 Who more blind and ignorant than hee that will not know and see 3 No marvail if hee see not while hee looks thorow the spectacles of Naturall reason and sophisticall reasonings whereas spirituall things cannot be discerned but spiritually 1 Cor. 2. 14. 4 Let him examine whether the words of Christ be not verified upon him For judgment I am come into the world that they which see not might see and they which see might be made blind Joh. 9. 39. But blessed be God who hath hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes Mat. 11. 25. 5 If he see not know not his wilful ignorance and blindnesse must not be made the rule of other mens Faith and Judgment nor prejudice their happiness in seeing and knowing It is somewhat a lofty language he hnoweth not What then Therefore either there is no such thing or no man can know it or it is a fancy in any other to believe it Not Mr. Br. but Christ is our ipse dixit wee draw the Treasures of wisedom and knowledg from Christ not from Mr. Br. 2 Hee acknowledgeth that other men at least seem to know what he denies himself to know Scriptures that have if not a strong yet some appearance of Contradiction to him and quotes the Scriptures which he saith are usually quoted viz. Rom. 3. 28 c. Here 1 I demand of him who they are that quote and against whom they quote those Scriptures That they which quote them are the Protestant Churches and writers and that they are the Papists against whom they are so usually quoted he must needs confess because he can produce none but Protestants that do none but Papists against whom they do alledg these Scripures For although the Arminians do enough declare themselves in their writings that they hold in common with the Papists Justification by works yet I could never find that they would suffer this Tenet to be brought to a dispute but being charged therewith they have with sacred protestations adjurations denyed any such thought in their hearts and so never permitted these or any other Scriptures to be quoted against them about this question still declining the dispute It must be therefore the Papists against whom Mr. Br. saith these Scriptures have been usually quoted And this speaks out to us in many respects what the frame of this mans spirit is 1 The integrity and ingenuity of his Conscience that having but 2 pages backward verbally renounced the Papists and all concurrence of his doctrine with theirs he useth only a short digression to smooth the face end spit in the mouth of Socinus and then forthwith makes a bridg of St Paul to return and make peace and confirm a league with the Papists as it were stroking the shavelings and telling them Notwithstanding all that I have said I doubt not but ye well perceive therein the equivocations and mentall reservations which I have learned from you Still my horses are your horses my charrets your charrets I am as yee are and your Adversaries my Adversaries Mark ye well how finely I shall here divert from you the Scripture darts which the Hereticks fling at you This all may see to be the sum of his words or at least implyed therein 2 His consistency with himself that what ere-while he denyed here he affirms viz. that he is not only Popish in this point but also a patron of the Popish Cause And thus also while he endeavors to purge his doctrine from all contradiction of Scripture he becomes a Contradictor of himself 3 His honesty in explaining his meaning at last whom he pointed at throughout his Treatise under the name of ignorant Antinomians viz. all that have quoted those Scriptures against justification by works 4 His good will to the Protestant Religion and to the doctrine of grace that rather than these shall stand he will say and unsay joyn with and borrow from Papists Socinians Arminians and why not the Turkish Alcaron also or whatsoever prodigies of Doctors that send men to blessednesse by the merit of their owne works 5. His matchles worth arising out of all these for which such a confluence of Divines from all parts of England is made to him even such as were ere-while Zelots against Popery Socinianism and Arminianism untill they had fatted themselves with the spoyls of the friends thereof Hath not the Lord cause to visit upon these men the breach of his Covenant whereof they professe themselves at this day transcendently zealous Is not this one principall branch thereof Let others dream waking of the further exaltation of the present Ministry of this Land I see no ground of expecting any Change but to the abasing thereof though my self must take a share in such an abasement With such plausibility every where is this man and every seducer received in their sowing the worst errors if they will but pretend a zeal against supposed Antinomians And so generally is the doctrine of grace slighted I undertake to defend against all Opponents that Mr. Br hath no one assertion in his whole Book about Justification by works nor more than one if one proof or argument to confirm such an assertion nay scarce any word phrase or Apex which hee hath not received from the Papists Socinians or at the best from the Arminians I acknowledg in some places he runs more in the Arminian than Popish method and dialect when they speak more to the extolling of mans righteousness and annihilating of Gods grace But in no one particle is he better then they I appeal not only to the Learned but also to the rationall among the Readers of his Book when they looked upon its Title Aphorisms of Justification whether they expected not that the truth of the Gospel and doctrine of the Protestant Churches should have been stoutly defended by so Scholastick a man against Papists Arminians c. But when contrariwise they find him undertaking no Combat against them but all for them and making none other his Aversaries but Protestants sometimes under sometimes without the nick-name of Antinomians Is it not a strange piece of incredulity when hee so plainly discovereth himself not to believe him to whom he is a Friend and to whom an Adversary And a gross delusion to lick up as honey from the dirt of Mr. Brs. shoos what they detest as poyson from the lips of Bellarmin Socinus and Arminius But I incurr blame by digressing therefore return to the matter 2 I except against his quotations as done partially and unfaithfully to beget in his weak and credulous Reader
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-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
of his labors that he had beleeved nothing nor witnessed or taught any thing save what is written in the law of Moses and the Prophets Acts 24. 14. 26. 22. That whatsoever Churches he had planted were built by him upon the foundations of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe corner-stone Eph. 2. 20. Nothing here of Aristotle and Plato but of the Prophets and Apostles i. e. the Doctrine which Christ had revealed to them and by them laid to support the Churches in the Faith of Christ That he had utterly exploded all humane wisdom Arts and inventions as incompetent with the Gospel of Christ That whether he laid in the hearts of men the principles and beginnings of Christ having to deale with such as were but yet in converting or else but babes in Christ he totally abstained from the words of mans wisdome from intermingling any of the artificiall disputes of the Philosophers that their faith might not stand in the wisdome of men but in the power of God or whether he treated with them that were perfect i. e. grown to a high stature in the knowledg and faith of Christ even when he spake wisedom delivered doctrines of the greatest depth and misteriousness to them yet was it not the wisedome of this world i. e. neither was the matter thereof the doctrine of the profound Philosophers and Disputers that were held the Princes of the world for wisdome but the mysterie of Christ Neither for the confirmation thereof did he use the words which mans wisedom teacheth i. e. that way of philosophicall and dialectical disputation whereof the Philosophers give their precepts but in the words which the holy Ghost teacheth c. 1 Cor. 2. 1. 13. Now if neither Christ nor his truly inspired Ministers ever used or would use this kind of learning in Gospel-matters the conclusion will necessarily follow that it was never of Gods ordination For Christ was faithfull in his house the Church Heb. 3. 2 6. and finished the worke which his Father had given him to do Joh. 17. 4. And the like may be truly affirmed and confirmed of the faithfulnesse of all those truly inspired Ministers of Christ according to their measure that with Paul they were stewards of God and studied so earnestly to be found faithfull that they knew nothing by themselves to accuse themselves of falshood or neglect 1 Cor. 4. 1 2. 4. That they kept back Act. 20. 20. 26 27. nothing which was profitable to the people but declared to them the whole Counsell of God therefore were pure from the blood of all men so that it must follow that either the use of the aforesaid humane learning in Gospel-matters is no ordinance of God and at the best unprofitable or else that Christ and his Apostles not using it yea rejecting the use of it were not faithfull But all will deny the latter therefore must grant the former A second Reason to prove it not to be an ordinance of God c. I may draw from the slighting abasing and invective terms which the Holy Ghost in Scripture useth against it The wisedom of the Holy Ghost doth in no wise slight any ordinance of God qualified and blessed by him to Gospel-ends But the use of those humane pieces of learning whereof I am speaking is much slighted and abaâ—ed by the H G as impotent and unusefull to Gospel-work and ends Ergo c. That the H G doth thus slight it in Scripture to omit what the Lord Christ speaks against the traditionary learning of the Jewish Rabbies Mat. 15. 1. 9. 23. 13 c. 11. 25 26. Joh. 9. 29-41 I shall mention only how contemptuously the H G by the Apostles pointing directly to this Gentilizing learning speaks of it They became vain in their imaginations saith he and their Rom. 1. 21-23 foolish heart was darkened Professing themselves wise they became fools and changed the glory of God into a corruptible image c. What more to the abasing of their learning he calls it at the best the very froth of light fancies and imaginations the darknesse of foolish hearts a profession of such wisedom as made them grosse fools that as it acted about religion and the way to happinesse it made both it and them a very abhomination to the Lord. Again The preaching of the Crosse is to them that perish foolishnesse As it is written I will destroy the wisedom of the wise bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world hath not God made foolish the wisedom of this world For after that in the wisedom of God the world by wisedom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that believe c. 1 Cor. 1. 18-21 c. How differing is the spirit of our Sophisters from the Spirit which wrought in the Apostle He pronounceth this Sophisticall learning to be so far from being a furtherance to the only true which is the Gospel-way of salvation as that it is an enemie to it rejects it as foolishnesse 2. Them that follow it as their rule and authority what to believe and do that they may be saved to be in a perishing condition in the ready way to damnation They that perish account the simplicity of the Gospel without the fulture or rather tainture of their Arts foolishnesse 3. He affirms God to be an enemy to it to detest any patronage from it to his mysterious Doctrine of the Gospel He hath left it upon record to curb wanton wits that he will destroy the wisedome c. 4. That according to his threat he hath executed and will still fulfill therefore challengeth the Sophisters to give answer from their own experience at last whether God hath not doth not alway so curse this wisedom of theirs that it turns to ruine and foolishnesse Where is the Scribe where the Disputer c. Hath not God c. 5. That it is a knowledg by which men know not God which while they pursue they lose utterly the saving knowledg of God 6. That in contempt of this secular learning God will by the simplicity and foolishnesse of Gospel-preaching save them that believe leaving the Disputers to reason themselves into Hell It pleased God c. Unto this I shal add but two Testimonies more the one when the Apostle hath to do with a company of Christians dwelling among the Philosophers in great jealousie fear of them he cryes out Beware ye be not spoiled with Philosophy Col 2. 7. vain decit He speaks of no possibility of any good that there should accrew unto them by the help of Philosophy but of great danger to be spoyled and corrupted by it and when is there such hazard of being corrupted by it he answers when men intermingle this learning which is but of humane invention and tradition after the Rudiments of the world
thing yet remaineth which I promised to premise viz. what my intention is in excepting against Mr. Baxters book This is not either to oppose him in all things which he hath written therein For sometimes he looks out thorow truths casement that we might take him so a sonn of truth and the less suspect him when he vends his false wares In this case I will not jangle with him whether he speaks truth of envy and subtlety or of good will and sincerity Or 2. in all that shal seem to my judgment Heterodox in his Treatise but only or mainly in those things wherein he joyneth with the Romish Synagogue to maintain their damning doctrine against the truth which is and hath been professed in all the Reformed Churches about Faith and Justification Or 3. in every particular passage wherein he discovers himself in this point to be for Antichrist against Christ for sometimes he delivers himself with such ambiguities and aequivocations like Apollo of old in his Oracles that in pretence of another sense of his words than the more Grammaticall and usuall he may leave a way of issue to himself in case he cannot maintain his words in that sense wherein he would be understood that he may deceive Let it not therefore be thought all granted that shall not be here excepted against and that I approve all whatsoever I do not oppugn For method I desire no other may be expected from me than to follow Master Baxter in order as he hath written and to take up his Paradoxes and most profound and learned mistakes as they fall from him examining them not by the rules of Sophistry but by the touch-stone of the sacred Word These things thus premised we are now to begin to examine the unsavory particulars occurring in the Book it self Mr. Baxters APHORISMS Exorized and Anthorized OR An Examination of and Answer to a Book written by Mr. Rich. Baxter Teacher of the Church at Kederminster in Worcestershire ENTITVLED Aphorisms of Justification THE FIRST PART CHAP. I. Arg. In which Mr. Baxters Popish Doctrine of Implicit Faith is examined and whether the people may admit Doctrine upon trust from their Teachers THE first passage wherein he sheweth himself to smel of Popery in the point of Faith and Justification is before the work it self in the farewell of his Epistle to the Reader pag. antepenult of the Epistle where he doth not obscurely manifest himself to like well enough the Papists doctrine of Implicit Faith and to wish it more favoured and taken up at home among us His words are these speaking to his Congregation Bax. Who I hope do understand that to take upon trust from your teachers what you cannot yet reach to see in its own evidence is less absurd and more necessary than many do imagine A very proper insinuation to a people whom he would have to swallow such Doctrines as in the following Treatise he offers to them to be swallowed As far as he prevails or prevails not with this insinuation so far he hath or hath not men his Disciples This is the very foundation of Antichrists kingdom the authority of men as the foundation of Christs kingdom is the authority of the Scriptures If Mr. Baxter can perswade men to admit and suck in this Doctrine his whole business is finished and all his ends attained If they take upon trust even fundamentall doctrines from their teachers Let Mr. Baxter bring what doctrines he will with him of men and Devils nothing shall be refused all shall be taken upon his Credit By this slight he knew the Pope had gathered and many hundred years held under his vassallage in blind obedience many nations of the earth therefore will not Mr. Baxter baulk it when hee goes about to propagate the Popes doctrine among us But let us see what the Popish implicit faith is and then compare Mr. Baxter with the Papists to see whether there be not in both one mind and spirit The Papists distinguish betwixt Faith and Faith telling us there is an Explicit and there is an Implicit Faith By the Explicit Faith they mean a cleer and distinct knowledg apprehension and believeng of all the Articles and Doctrines of faith which the holy Mother Church of Rome hath prescribed to be received to salvation and that not in a bunch only but in particulars also This Faith they hold needful and expedient in the Clergy as they term their Prelats and Priests who are to rule over more than to teach the people By the Implicite Faith they mean a generall and confused apprehension and believing of all that the Church hath commanded to be taught and believed that it is all good and true though they that so believe know not in particular what the Church hath commanded otherwise than they take it upon trust of their Priests which tell them such and such things are commanded by the Church to be believed This Faith they hold sufficient for the Laity to salvation to believe what the Church believeth and enjoyneth to be true though they neither know what it is nor are acquainted with one least parcell of the word by which they may know it to be true which they have so taken upon trust to believe By the Church they mean the Pope and his Clergy by the Laity the people So that by their Doctrine if the Popes decree things in religion successively never so contrary and contradictory either to other and the titular Clergy follow them and go to Hell for it yet the people have this one supereminent priviledg that their Implicit and Colliers faith saves them as being still the same and unchanged that they believe as the Church believeth though they know not either with the Church or what believing is or what the things are which the Church believeth Compare we now Mr. Baxters words with this popish doctrine and see we if there be any difference I hope saith he you understand When Mr. Baxter saith I hope we are not to doubt but a man of such rare parts hath good grounds for his hope He knew there was means used to make them understand else would he not say I hope you understand and what means but teaching and who should teach them but Mr. Baxter their Teacher But what is it he hopes they understand it followeth That to take upon the trust of your Teachers what you cannot yet see in its own evidence is not c. Here is the Implicit Faith not to ground their opinions and belief in matters of salvation upon the known word of God but upon trust from the Teachers to believe because their Teachers say they belive it And what are the Teachers but what in Popish phrase is termed the Church the Clergy which is in their account at least the Church representative And Mr. Baxter to decline envy useth the plurall number Teachers not as I conceive that the people of Kederminster have more Teachers in ordinary besides himself for he names
in no wise be defended 4. Is not this Doctrine a sluce to let into the hearts of men a whole flood of carnal security idleness improficiency contempt or neglect of all the means of growth in grace each man setling himself upon his lees with this Apology that they are already squared to the minde and rule of the Gospel are sincere have the truth and true being of Faith knowledge and obâ—dience This is all which the Gospel requireth they are even with the rule why should they stretch themselves further to be beyond it This is a brand which Mr. Baxter inureth upon our or rather Christs doctrine of Justification by Faith alone Is not himselfe guilty 5. I would be informed what he meanes by sincere obedience It is very requisite that hee which vends new Doctrines in new terms should be exquisite in expressing and explaining his terms and words Sincerus say the Etymologists est quasi dicas sine cera as honey pure without the mixture of any wax in it That which is most pure and simple without any mixtures or taintures And Sincerity is usually put in opposition 1 to hypocrisie or 2. to corruption or sinful pollution As sincerity of obedience is put in opposition to that obedience which is done in hypocrisie or with sinister and self ends so ouâ— Saviour denyes the sincerity of the Scribes and Pharisees and chargeth them frequently in the Gospel with hypocrisie for their strict walkings devotions almsdeeds c. that they might bee justified by such personall righteousness of their own This hee calls hypocrisie and denyes to be sincere obedience because it aimed not simply to the glory of God but to their own ends their own justification But this I take to be Mr. Baxters main end of obedience to do it that we may bee justified by it And then according to the doctrine of the Lord Christ it is not sincere but hypocriticall obedience Or if we take hypocrisie to consist in professing and practising holyness and obedience outwardly but to baser and worldly ends lurking secretly in the heart viz. profit honour applause and praise of men c. which is there of the aliens from the Covenant of Grace that cannot pleade a sincerity this way I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day saith Paul of himself in reference to the time wherein he was yet a Saul insinuating the Morall sincerity of his heart in opposition to hypocrisie and base ends in his obedience while hee was yet out of Christ that even then he served and obeyed of good conscience and according to the measure of the light of Gods Word shining as farre as it shined in his conscience Act. 23. 1. Yea hee did in sincerity according to the dictate of his conscience whatsoever hee did against Christ I thought verily saith he that I ought to doe many things against the Name of Jesus c. which things also I did Act. 26. 9 10. It is â—hat whereof the Apostle gives his testimony to the greatest bulk of his kinred and Nation that rejected Christ They have a zeale of God saith he c. Rom. 10. 2. of God therefore sincere in opposition to base ends in all the services which they performed and a zeal this importeth an high degree of their obedience and sincerity of obeying Who is there of the carnal and ignorant multitude but can professe the like sincerity in their publick worship and private performances without proposing to themselves any base and sinister ends therein And doth the Gospel prescribe onely such a sincere obedience which is attained without any Gospel or Gospellizing of the heart Or if we take sincerity in opposition to all mixture of the flesh and corruption in our obedience in this case the sincerity must be either perfect or unperfect If perfect then the Gospel requireth the most perfect obedience contrary to the assertion of Mr. Baxter For what can be more perfect then that which is pure and free from all contamination of the flesh wholly spirituall But where is the man to bee found that can practically perform the duty That Apostle which had laboured more abundantly then they all professed himself not to have compassed it but that in the purest and liveliest operations of the Spirit in him unto good there was a counter-working of the flesh in him hindering the good which he willed and turning it into the evill which he hated c. Rom. 7. 21-23 And the same he professeth also to be the case of all other the Saints of God Gal. 5. 17. So that a perfect sincerity he cannot mean both because he denyeth that the Gospel injoyneth perfect obedience and perfection of sincerity in this kinde is the highest pitch of the perfection that is in the most perfect obedience And withall because he tels us in the next answer pag. 158. He knows not to what end Christ should command us that obdience which he doth never enable any man in this life to perform And this hee hath layd downe for a maxime That whatsoever Christ hath commanded or testified if Mr. Baxter cannot find out and fathom a good reason for it and of it meddle with it who listeth he will have nothing to doe with it Or if he mean an unperfect sincerity that according to Mr. Baxter is none at all For if the righteousnesse of our persons and actions bee much more the sincerity of our righteousnesse and obedience must be not a being but a modification of a being which doth not admit of magis and minus but must be perfect or none at all Yea what an absurdity is it to affirm that he whose office it is to perfect his Elect Heb. 10. 14. that doth not only begin but finish his good work in them hath commanded that which is unperfect Hee may be truly said to wink at our unperfectness to forgive our imperfections but to say he commands that which is unperfect is to deny the perfection of his commands and so to lay imperfection to his charge as well as to our own Besides he may according to his custom if he be put to tell us what sincerity he means fall to distinguish it into a Physical or Metaphysicall sincerity into a Morall and an Evangelical sincerity so that although wee find many of his Meashes yet shall we never find his Fourm So full of doubles and false leaps are they that deale not sincerely in handling the doctrine of Christ swaying and waving it hither and thither to make it not subservient to the advancing of Christs kingdom but of their own inventions Let Mr. Baxter labour rather practically and feelingly to know the power of Christian and spiritual sincerity within his heart then to make use of the Word to make intricate the plain doctrine of Scriptures and henceforth we shall finde that which we have hitherto unsuccessefully sought after sincere dealing in his disputes It is not all this while denyed that the Gospel
Treatise what before he did but hint and whisper in a kind of darkenesse now he preacheth on the top of the house proclaiming it as the sole Soul-saving doctrine canonizing as Saints the Papists for the constant holding forth of it and Anathematizing all the Protestants Churches as Apostaticall for departing from it as by examining what followes in this his Tractate will appear For the avoiding of confusion and prevention of a voluminous prolixity into which I see my self already carried by following him Thesis after Thesis being necessitated thereby as he speaks so to examine and answer the same things often in many places I shall endeavour to reduce unto some few heads the sum of what he saith upon this Question examining that which is to the purpose and leaving the rest that is inconsideraable or impertinent to it 1 Then I shall endeavour to draw out from him the state of the Question what he holdeth and how he holds it forth to us 2 I shall examine his Arguments and Reasons by which he endeavoureth to confirme his assertion or assertions 3 I shall also examine what force there is in the Reasons which he bringeth to clear himself and his doctrine from being derogatory to the grace of God and full efficacy of Christs mediation or from all tainture of Popery Socinianism or other heresies Within this Triangle I conceive the whole fabrick of his doctrine of workes to be comprehended and in examining of these fully nothing to be left unexamined that may make for his purpose 1 The state of the Question or his assertions which he maintaineth I shall as neer as may fitly be done transcribe from him in his own words thus 1 The bare act of beleeving is not the only condition of the new Covenant but severall other duties also are part of this condition viz. of Justification For this is his meaning and if he be not so understood he is understood besides his meaning and in what he saith he saith nothing His Tractate contains Aphorisms of Justification only And the conditions of the new Covenant which tend to Illumination Sanctification Glorification c. must not be confounded with those of Justification if it were granted him that the Gospell dispenseth all or any of these upon conditions In this sense therefore he must he will be understood Thes 60. pa. 235. 2 That these duties coordinate with Faith to our Justification as conditions thereof are Repentance praying for pardon forgiving others love hearing the word consideration conviction godly sorrow knowledge of Christ assent to the truth of the Gospell subjection consent acceptance cordiall covenanting self-resigning esteeming and preferring Christ before all loving him above all sincerity perseverance affiance sincere obedience and works of love serious painfull and constant use of Gods ordinances hearing praying meditating in a word all good works i. e. all the works of Righteousnesse holinesse mercy c. which the Law requireth yet with this proviso that all these legall workes must be called not our Legall but our Gospell Righteousnesse Thes 60. p. 235 236. p. 240 241 242. Thes 73 74 p. 289. 290 291 292. 3 That the non-performance of any one of these doth hinder but it is not one or many but a concurrence of all these together in one that sufficeth to condition us unto Justification Thes 61. So that when the promise of life is made in Scripture to our beleeving in Christ or to any other inseparable concomitant of Faith you must understand it Caeteris paribus viz. that your knowledge repentance obedience good workes c. are not an inch behind your faith or in sensu composito that it is a compounded Faith hath all other vertues not only included in it but also actuated and cooperating with it for justification or else you must be shaken off unjustified yea though all the rest be in act and but one out of act Thes 61. and its Explication He saith not this indeed totidem verbis word by word But let him deny the least particle of all this to be his meaning he shall by such a denyall extremely wound if not wholly subvert his cause and yeeld it to us 4 It is not the habit of these vertues as infused from above into us but the act or work of them as set in operation by us that justifieth For so saith he of Faith it self much more implieth it of the other vertues that it is the act of faith alone as it is our act or work that justifyeth aâ—d consequentially that we are justifyed wholly by works viz. as the alone condition or causa sine qua non 5 That some of these justifying vertues or works are antecedaneous to or fore-going preparatives of some integrall parts some proper essentiall formall acts some differentiall and essentiall parts some modifications some in separable products some both parts and necessary consequents and subservient acts some necessary continuing and exercising means and lastly some separable adjuncts of Faith yet tending to the well being thereof and thus having adorned faith like the Cornish Chough with the feathers of all the best birds he sends it to scar aloft with these plumes to heaven for justification which without this borrowed help of it self it was not in a capacity to do pa. 240 241 242. In these particulars I take the whole sum of his doctrine about this Question to be comprehended He addeth indeed some lenitives here and there to mitigate and make tolerable the asperity and harshnesse of these his assertions which we shall examine among the reasons that he brings to manifest his doctrine not to be derogatory from the glory of Gods grace c. as being more proper to that then this place All the forementioned particulars may be summed up in this one That all the acts or works of all morall vertues and of all insuâ—ed Habits if he grant any such are required coordinately with faith to make up the conditio upon which we shall and without which we cannot be justifyed In opposition to this all the Protestant Churches do and still have maintained that Faith alone and the same not as it is in the consideration of a habit or vertue or as an act of ours but by way of a means or instrument as hath been before explained justifyeth without any concurrence of works with it in the act and office of justifying This assertion he endeavours to destroy and establish his own with many Arguments which we shall examine severally either after other CHAP. II. Mr. Baxters preface to his first Argument drawn from Scriptures to prove Justification by works examined and the Scriptures which the Protestant writers bring against it and Mr. Baxter would have stifled in darknesse here brought to light together with the opinion of the most eminent Protestant writers upon this Subject HIS first argument is drawn from Scriptures unto which he thus prefaceth B. 235. I desire no more of those that deny this but that
all hearts witnesse for him that no good will to Popery in generall provoked him to trouble the Church with his doctrine I will not judge But if good will to this part of Popery that consists in justification by works unto which if all the rest garbage of Popery be compared it is insufficient to counterpoise it in mischief did not provoke let him shew what hath provoked him to it Is it in hatred to the Papists that he hath laboured so stoutly to maintain their Kingdome Is not this the pillar of all Popery and if this be demolished what is there of all their heresies but will fall after 3. As to his sincerity in this businesse in following conscientiously his judgment I know I finde in my self the heart is deceitfull above all things and desperately evill who can finde it out I search only my own not anothers heart that is out of my orb and beyond my fathom But I should give the more credence to Mr. Baxter speaking of his own sincerity in this businesse did I not see him forsaking the fountain and digging to himself cisterns deriving from every puddle of Papists Arminians Socinians and Atheists both his tenents and all fallacious Sophistry to maintain them leaving the pure word of God and tossing it either from him or for himself at his pleasure 4. As for his prayer if presented to God after his own principles as an Act helping to justifie him and no further through the mediation of Christ then as the same mediation take efficacy as to him from his own works and worth no marvell if the justice of God flung it back as dirt in his face and left him to that de luding spirit which worketh by those false Apostles whom he had studied so many years having spent but a few days upon the Scriptures as himself confesseth So the Pharisee after his praying departed from the presence of God unjustifyed unregarded Such devout Protestations may possibly take impression upon the weak and ignorant But Satan in the vizzard of an Angell of light and Satan in his own ghastly visage is to them that are strong in the faith the same Satan and alike shunned Besides when men rest not satisfyed with the sacred truth of the Word but will as it were rake the very dung of Gods enemies for quaintifies of knowledge which the Word hath not if they are blacked no marvell for their delight is to dwell with Colliers And God hath threatned to send them strong delusions that they should beleeve a lie c. 2 Thes 2. 10 11 12. Yeelding them up to waxe worse deceiving others being themselves deceived or self-deceivers 2 Tim. 3. 13. He promiseth some proofs of what he saith and one argument he puts in this explication thus B. If faith justifie as it is the fulfilling of the condition of the new Covenant and obedience be also part of the condition then obedience must justifie in the same way as faith But both parts of the Antecedent are before proved An Herculean Argument as soon may a man wrest the Club out of Hercules his hand as make void the conclusion which is inserred by this Argument If my eye discerneth colours upon condition it look diligently upon them and my hand doth inrich me upon condition that it stretcheth forth it self to receive a Princes beneficence and my heel be put into the same condition with my eye and my hand then my heel doth discerne colours in the same way with my eye and enrich me in the same way with my hand But both parts of the Antecedent are as firmly proved before as the both parts of Mr. Baxters antecedent Ergo the conclusion is as very a blank as Mr. Baxters If Mr. Baxters oft saying of the same thing doth prove the thing to be true then this cannot be denyed to be a truth For who can number the times that he hath kissed and spit in the mouth of this Ashteroth Condition setting it up cheek-mate with Christ himself in justifying us For Thes 56. he yoaks together Christ and faith in the same way of causality to justification and here and every where faith and obedience or works so that Christ faith and works are collaterals in justifying how as they meet together in this one Great Colossus condition or causa sine qua non Christ is the condition even in his satisfaction and faith is the condition and works is the condition so that Condition it seems by him justifyeth more then works or faith or Christ for neither works alone nor faith alone nor Christ alone doth justifie But this mouth-almighty Condition when like Bel and the Dragon she hath eaten up and swallowed into her bowels Christ faith and works doth of and by her self alone justifie such a Justifyer and such a Justification I should speak more seriously if Mr. Baxter had ministred to me more serious matter whereof to treat Chaffe is wont to be exposed to the winde when the Wheat as more substantiall is allotted to a more substantiall handling The rest of his Arguments which he brings in other Theses I shall examine by themselves CHAP. VI. The fift Argument answered and the dispute of St. James Cap. 2. opened and the Reasons drawn thence to prove justification by works refuted THe former was Mr. Baxters great Argument the fift in number is like to it yet not so much hugged and honoured by him as the former because that was his own born of his own brain This he takes up as fully formed by the Papists to his hand and use so that he is not to have the entire honour of it but every petty Monk and Sacrificer will challenge his part therein This is indeed their great and sole Argument against the Protestants The rest they bring is unworthy the hearing This therefore Mr. Baxter here that the Popish cause may stand and ours fall Atlas-like puts his shoulder and whole strength under to support B. Thes 75. pa. 292. The plain expression of St. James should terrifie us from an interpretation contradictory to the Text and except apparent violence be used with his Chap. 2. 21 24 25. c. it cannot be doubted but that a man is justifyed by works and not by faith only Eusebius Hierom. I mean not here to seek an evasion by pleading that this Epistle in the primitive times of the Church before the controversie about justification by faith or by works and faith was in agitation was questioned by some and denyed by others to be of divine authority Or that * Erasmus Luther Musculus Cajetan a Cardinall of the Romish some great Divines of these latter times have not received it into the Canon or that among those that embrace it as Canonicall it is much disputed what James is the Authour of it For besides the Syriac interpreter that weakly attributes it to James the brother of John who in the cradle of the Church was slain with the sword by Herod Act. 12.
what to be certain of It were more tolerable and excusable for me to leave the grounds of one single man giving his private interpretation of this Scripture despised unexamined and unanswered than for him so to deale with all the Churches of Christ But I will not be a follower of him that followes not Christ in lowliness and his Precept in selfe-deniall His dispute here is two fold 1 to prove that Iames speaks not of the declaration of our justification before men 2. To prove that he speaks of our justification before God when he mentioneth justification by works To the former all that he saith is Sophisticall and Fallacious For if wee grant that by the World hee meanes the whole generation of men both good and evill which yet can hardly bee drawne from his dispute which to make our assertion odious would make it out as relating only to the wicked of the world that these must be the alone Judges Notwithstanding his whole Argumentation is a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a waving the question with a false assumption that by Justification before men we meant a raising of a Tribunall upon earth in opposition to Gods in heaven there to set up men to be judges and to passe sentence of justification and remission of sinnes one upon another according to the evidence of every ones works The falshood wherof hee proves by the illegality of such a judicature and incompetency of the judges and evidence for it And what is this but a Devill of his own raysing and laying again For what one rationall man in any of the Reformed Churches ever dreamed of such a justification All that wee understand heerby is but a declaration and discovery of the tree by its fruits of the state of a man before God that he hath justified or not justified him according as we see the fruits of justification i. e. the works of sanctification following or not following the profession of faith And all this not by a judiciall sentence given for or against any nor by the judgement of infallible faith or knowledge but in the judgement of charity alone which hopeth all things beleeveth all things thinketh no evill except by strong evidence it bee drawn to it 1. Co. 13. 5. 7. In fighting against this doctrine Mr. Baxter fighteth against Christ against the Holy Ghost the Author of it not onely heer but elsewhere also By their fruits ye shall know them saith our Saviour Mat. 7. 16. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if yee love one another Io 13. 35. that the World may know that thou hast loved them Io 17. 28. He that is of God heareth us he that is not of God heareth us not hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error 1. Io 4. 6. Let your light so shine forth before others that they seeing your good workes may glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Ma 5. 16. I magnifie my office if by any meanes I may provoke my bretheren c. and save some of them Ro. 11. 14. By your orderly carriage c. the unbeleever shall be convinced fall downe worship God and report that God is in you of a truth 1. Cor. 14. 24. 25. That he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having nothing evill to say of you Tit. 2. 8. Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speake evill of you they may by your good works which they see glorifie God 1 Pet. 2. 12. Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme 2. Sam. 12. 14. God hath begun and will perfect in you the good worke as it is meet for me to judge of you because c. Phil. 1. 6 7. I am perswaded of you things that accompany salvation because of your works and labours of love c. Heb. 6. 9 10. Wee give thanks to God for you c. since we heard of your Faith in Christ Jesus and love to all the Saints for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven Col. 1. 3 4 5 To the Saints which are at Rome Corinth c. and hundreds of the like Scriptures which testifie the declaration such a declaration of the Faith Saintship Justification and salvation of others by the evidence of their works that we ought that it is a sinne in men by the judgement of Charity not to acquiesce therein And on the contrary part testifying the want of such an evidence to be an occasion given to all men to reject our Faith and justification in the profession thereof as spurious and vaine Against all these Mr. Baxter excepreth pronouncing that mans judgement herein is illegall incompetent and the evidence insufficient therefore to make use of any judgement or discerning in this kind is usurpative Doth he herein fight against men or against God Suppose that the event in any thing prove contrary to our judgement yet is there not sin in such judgement while we follow Christs Rule and to be deceived by Charity rightly ordered if it may be called a deceivednesse yet is it no sinfull deceivednesse What hee produceth from the Apostle Vnto me it is a small thing to be judged of you or of mans judgement c. 1 Cor. 4. 3. is nothing subservient to his turne For the Apostle there speaketh of their unjust Censures of him besides and against Christs Rule the Rule of Charity from which while they erred their judgement was not to be regarded and in relation to the future judgement which followes not mans but Christs owne knowledge of us Thus have we found one part of his arguing vaine and wide from the scope in going about to prove that James his Justification by works is not to be taken for the declaring of us to men to be truly justified His second dispute is to prove that this Justification by Works is to be understood of our justifying by works at Gods Tribunall His Reasons to prove it are partly in his words before transcribed partly in a new supply thereunto added The first Reason in the former is B. 1. It is such as Salvation dependeth on ver 14. Brevis esse laboro Obscurus fio No mans immoderate prolixity and tediousness hath ever so much troubled mee as this mans pretended affectation of conciseness and brevity By it when hee speakes nothing he gets the advantage to bee thought of fooles that he speaketh great and mysticall things Were it not that I regard such as are too apt to run after his whistle though they know not his tune I should rather kick at such Delphicke mystericall passages of his than take them up to looke on them If James here take not justifying and saving for the same thing then to use Mr. Baxters words I am not certaine what to be certaine off So that when he saith it is such a justification as salvation dependeth on it is one as if hee