stay out my Quarter yet I did and then a Writ was procured from the Colonels to apprehend and imprison me My offer was To let me have justice and I would justifie what I taught and held and let them see their errours an easie thing to do but they refused Then I went to London with intention to Petition the Parliament but friends who had better intelligence and experience disswaded and deterred me So finding little hope of relief I returned and removed my family into Yorkshire so giving place to their fiery zeal Gentle Reader I have presumed on thy patience in setting down these passages by which it is clear that they seek themselves and not Christ and his Truth and chuse rather to use Club-law as did Cain the false Prophets Pharisees and Hypocrites in all times of persecution to extinguish or suppress the light of heaven then that it should discover their nakedness and shame If thou ask Why are they bent and enraged more against you Antinomians then any other Sect Answ They can tell thee great things and would have thee believe we are unworthy to live in any Commonwealth But the truth is and many of them cannot be ignorant of it we teach onely what is Orthodox and the old-received truths of God And do desire no more favour then what Justice can deny to none viz. leave to speak for our selves before we be condemned Onely they see the inconsistencie of divers of our Tenets with theirs and Dagon or the Ark must fall And how questionable and unjustifiable their assertions are to any indifferent capacity viewing and considering them in the true light and therefore would put out our Candie It would make a Christian face to blush or his heart rather to bleed to hear what stuff they can put off and vent in their Sermons I resorted to their Exercises divers yeers yet never heard one doctrine of Free-grace of Christ Faith or Justification Legal Reformation is taken for Regeneration and Evangelical Sanctification I have spoken with old and zealous prosessors who knew not what it was to be justified by faith except this was the meaning of it That God would accept of them for their good works and duties If any one which yet Nature is principled for be framed and brought somwhat into a Legal way to performances he is judged a true Convert and may set up his rest If they do well they tell you they can believe sufficiently upon their kinde of works they build their faith The Law is not preached as the ministry of death to cast down and to kill that Christ may be the life and spiritual resurrection but the life that most speak of is to live and walk in the Law yet Paul saith I by the Law am dead to the Law that I may live to God Gal. 2.19 I am resolved of this that if people had experience of a sensible death working in them by the Law and that nothing but the curse and wrath could be had in their works and ways and had felt as sensibly a reviving and quickning in the faith and apprehension of Christ there would be little ground of difference remaining but till that be or at least that the Law be preached for death and not for life and peace as too many do how can the controversie be ended But flesh and blood may object What good success can I promise to this my enterprise I go against the full tyde and violent current of humane policie and learning of such a religious multitude all being combined and conspiring against me Are not my adversaries in number infinite rarely qualified admired for sanctity and zeal backed and invested with worldly Authority countenanced by the times and the sole-esteemed pillars of the Church What am I how dare I oppose them Who is my Patron My answer is 1. I do not come forth in mine own name or strength nor measure my self with them for then hope of prevailing is gone But when God is set against them and his invincible Verity so opposed by them how vain and light then are all these powers and excellencies 2. I have been carried against the stream almost these twenty yeers yet they could not prevail by reason of the Lords strength and presence 3. However the voyage fall out I have not much left to lose onely my outward liberty in part and a few days it may be of my natural life can be in jeopardy And hath the sacred Truth of God and the desired good of his Church been so prevalent that for their sakes I have sustained such loss suffered so many things already and shall I now shrink or be unwilling to sacrifice the loan of what is remaining The Lord leave me not to that temptation 4. In all their opposition I see nothing to convince but am rather thereby confirmed They would see a mote in Dr. Crisp's eye but will not see a beam in their own If to my self I were guilty of any their unworthy imputations or of doing or yet offering a hundredth part of that wrong I received from them or if my conscience did not witness with me that I had sought to give unto them all possible satisfaction more then was desired or would be accepted of then I should not have that inward peace and contentment which now I enjoy And 5. lastly why should I desire a Patron and so become injurious to any in engaging them or rendering them to be suspected I know the Truth is able to protect it self and the servant of it and further then I am found in the way of Verity I seek no shelter The Name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous runneth into it and is safe Prov. 18.10 Thou Lord hast seen it for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand The poor committeth himself unto thee thou art the helper of the fatherless Psal 10.14 R. Towne Vindiciae Evangelii OR The Vindication of the Gospel from the unjust Censure and all Aspertions of A 〈◊〉 ntinomy Or A Reply to Mr ANTH BURGESSE'S Vindiciae Legis c. SIR YOur other Advantages are many but God and his Truth are with us therefore we may be confident in our just Cause and Quarrel and the Victory is certainly ours Your whole Colledg and Assembly approve of and commend your Book that is I confess cause of sadness and grief to my spirits but not one jot of terror Truth is of more weight and authority with me then the Consent and Judgment of all the Learning and Principalities in the world and as Luther writ to K. H. 8. I prefer one Paul before a thousand Thom. Scotus c. You anticipate our expectation of your future Reply in your Preface to the Reader I hope you will not for I perceive by this that the light of Truth hath almost overcome you a little more glory of it may happily both convince and convert also But your Ground or Reason of not Replying
mistakes First concerning the nature of the life of grace which is not in works nor the expressions of inherent holiness or sanctification for to move and walk in the law of works or of our own active righteousness is a legal life but that is the life of grace which reviveth quickeneth and comforteth the mortified Vita anima est sentire gratiam Dei mors animae est sentire iram Dei Scult dejected and distressed conscience which lay in extreme wo and in the shadow of death being apprehensive of the sentence of condemnation passed upon him by the law and the spirit of bondage If you know not yet what this life is and wherein it consists ask the condemned prisoner whose life is gone by the law and he will say his pardon would be his life which must come from the meer grace and mercy of his Prince Your great reading may tell you that when divinity was more pure and distinct then it is now repentance was said to have two parts Justificat vitae hoc est unde nascitur vita Pisc 1. Mortification 2. Vivisication and the object of both these is the man who is spiritually slain by the law as Rom. 7. and again quickened through the faith of the operation of God and so made partaker of the first resurrection Revel 20.6 hence it s said Col. 2.13 You hath he quickened together with him forgiving you all your trespasses and the efficient or worker of both these is God who killeth and maketh alive and man is the patient the soul receiving the pardon of sins hath entrance into the presence and favour also of God and in his favour is life and his loving kindness is better then life In his presence is fulness of joy saith the Psalmist Hence we read that justification is to life Rom. 5.18 and Christ is the bread of life whoever eateth of him shall live for ever John 6. and whosoever heareth his voice shall live John 5.25 Thus life cometh by believing but law is not of faith Gal. 3.21 If there had been a law that giveth life surely righteousness which is our justification should have been by the law Gal. 3.21 for righteousness and life come both one way but you confess our righteousness cometh not in that way of the law and so I hope hereafter you will say life cometh another way Here let me commend a sentence or two unto your self and the rest of the brethren yet for your sakes I will not English them Vos falsa imaginatione decipitis miseros homines quasi ex lege vivere debent eóque praetextu in lege ipsos detinetis Evangelio interea facitis invidiam quasi in nihilum justitiam redigat quam ex lege habemus atqui lex ipsa est quae nos sibi mori cogit Rom. 7. pulchre describit Paulus neminem legi vivere nisi cui lex est mortua hoc est otiosa fine effectu nam fimul atque lex in nobis vivere caepit jem nobis infligere lethale vulnus quo perimus c. ergò qui legi vivunt nunquam senserunt vigoram legis ac ne gustarunt quidam quid lex sibi vellet Calv. Paulus est hic haereticus omnium hareticissimus estque haereses ejus inandita quia dicit mortuum legi vivere Dēo Pseudo-apostoli docebant nisi vixens legi mortuus es deo hoc est nisi vixeris secundum legem coram deo es mortuus Panlus plane contrarium dicit Nisi fueris mortuus legi non poteris vivere Deo c. hanc doctrinam ratio sapientia humana non capit ideo perpetuò contrarium dicit scilicet si vis vivere deo oportet te legem servare c. Est que hoc principium una maxima omnium Theologorum vivens secundum legem vivit Deo Luth. Est omnino impossibile aliquem simul legi Deo vivere nunc cessante lege peccato morte adsit justitia Christi salus vita aterna Quicquid est in me gratiae justitiae vitae pacis ac salutis id omne est Christi haecn ipse mihi donat aboles legem damnat peccatum mortem mortificat ut ego vivam habeam in ipso aeternam pacem justitiam consolationem vitam Sed Christum intueor amplector qui crucifixus a me apprehensus mihi dat vitam sic viverit in me Christus Corn. He that hath any Christian experience knoweth that when the soul lyeth in death and darkness the apprehension and presence of Christ who is received and cometh into the heart by faith is the onely true light life peace and consolation of it What that law is David so commended to get life by is to be known hereafter together with your second mistake here viz. that the law is the instrument to beget life and to sanctifie for it is too irksome and vain a thing to speak to these every time you east them in our way M. B. p. 153. This is remarakble that though the former tables were broken yet now God enters into a covenant of grace with them as appeareth by proclaiming him self long-suffering gracious but yet God causeth the commandments to he written again for them implying that these may very well stand with the covenant of grace which opposeth the Antinomian Answ God entred into a covenant of grace with them not now but long before see Gen. 17.4 7. As for me behold my covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a father of many nations vers 7. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee 2. Though God in great wisdom gave the ten commandments to Abrahams posterity for special ends and purposes as now also it is continued in the Church yet it is not joyned to the covenant of grace as if it should perfect or alter it or adde any thing to it It being intire of it self and distinct from the law their natures offices ends and effects so much differing one from the other Read Gal. 3.15 16 17. A place full of light and satisfaction Brethren I speak after the manner of men though it be but a mans covenant yet if it be confirmed no man disannulleth or addeth thereto vers 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made c. vers 17. And this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the law which was four hundred and thirty yeers after cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect And note by the way 1. How the covenant or Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and promise are both one with the Apostle which you stumbled at elswhere 2. That there is not one word of truth in what you say to oppose your adversary but the text is directly against your self 3. Where you say the law may
distinguished as Mark 1.15 Repent and believe the Gospel 2. I do not make repentance and to mortifie sin all one as I there speak of repentance 3. Neither say I that to repent and to mortifie sinne is by faith to flye to grace embrace Christ c. The Law is against you as a false witness in all these And you cannot but perceive that I speak of that legal repentance and mortification which you with others so much stand for as requisite before faith Which is when a man is so laid open to himself so effectually convinced and wrought upon by the Law that he seeth acknowledgeth and renounceth all things in him and done by him as sinne and abomination before the Lord whatever esteem he hath had of them formerly or whatever shew they may make Yea and as sinne the sting of death appears and reviveth in all which is the very mortification the wounding and killing of the soul Rom. 7.10 so all these seeming excellencies and good things become mortified within him and his heart that lived and rejoyced in them now dyeth unto them finding nothing but vanity sin and death in all things out of Christ Thus he repenteth and changeth his mind with shame and sorrow that ever he so exalted and established his own righteousness of works as did Paul and those zealous Jews being converted to the faith And because we are necessitated to carry this body of death to the grave and therefore sin and death will ever and unavoidably be in us and all our works and we can by faith in Christ alone finde true righteousness life peace confidence joy and salvation hence Christ is our onely treasure who hath our hearts delight and all else are renounced and accounted as dung and dross Phil. 3.9 You neither may nor can rightly understand my words as spoken of that Evangelical repentance or mortifying of sin in life and conversation by the Spirit of which we read Rom. 8.13 Colos 3.5 Also you know that both in the Scriptures and Authors repentance is somtimes taken largely as comprehending faith also with the effects and fruits of it and so it is divided into mortification and vivification But fince all fulness is in Christ who is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption that all our rejoycing should be in him he that liveth by faith in him is the onely mortified man Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth desired besides him Mr. Rutherf pag. 273. There be two things in the Law 1. The authority and power to command 2. To punish pag. 275. It s most false that Mr. T. saith To justifie and condemn are as proper and essential to the Law as to command 3. It s false that we are freed from active obedience to the moral Law because Christ came under the active obedience for law requires obedience out of love Reply These two authorities of the Law are repeated and inculcated by you and Mr. Burg. usque ad nanseam Dictator-like you still say It 's false it 's most false c. but where is there any truth or weight in what you say against me I can contemn your vain and reproachfull words and do account your self-coined distinctions as windy without warrant and weight You have a satisfactory answer in my former Reply I may challenge you to produce one syllable for a Law commanding without its condemning power Remember Matth. 5.17 18. 2. That the Law requires obedience out of love its true but we worke from self-love and for self-ends viz. that we may live thereby and not dye The first Adam by his obedience might have preserved himself in that life and state of holiness and happiness he had by creation but now in Christ our life and and felicity is attained and kept by faith we believe that we may live And we love and obey freely for no such ends as not standing and falling by our obedience or disobedience moral Also if our love be changed from legal into evangelical void of selfness Yet that altereth not the cords of the law nor the chaines we were in but Christ hath happily freed us from them The change is in the true Christian and in his estate but you can shew no change in the Law Neither do we destroy the Law as you slander us again but do establish it by faith Rom. 3.31 Where I see that Paul preached the same way that we do in that he was so put to clear and vindicate his Ministery as you do us This also will serve for that exception in pag. 275. where you set the same Coleworts before your Reader It is your constant doctrine that works have reward here and eternall life hereafter and that they be conditions and the way to life and glory how this will consist with faith and Christ let all judge Mr. Rutherf pag. 332. Town in Assertion pag. 56 58. A believer is as well saved already as justified by Christ and in him Divines say Our life and salvation is inchoate but they speak of life as it is in us subjectâ—è Quantum ad nos spectat or in respect of our sense and apprehension here in grace our faith knowledge sanctification is imperfect but in regard of imputation and douation our righteousness is perfect and he that believeth hath life not he shall have it or hath it in hope onely Answ If we have glory really actually perfectly but want it onely in sense we have the resurrection from the dead also actually we want nothing of the reality of heavrn but sense but we are not yet before the throne Therefore holy walking can be no way nor condition nor means of salvation c. therefore no wonder they reject all sanctification as not necessary and teach men to loose the reynes to all fleshly walking Reply Justification puts the soul into a present state of salvation The Scriptures are plain He hath saved us 2 Tim. 1.9 Tit. 3.5 Eph. 2.8 and These things have I written unto you that believe c. that ye may know that ye have eternal life 1 Joh. 5.13 This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son ver 11. and Ephes 2.5 God hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus I muse you stumble in so clear light Hence saith Musculus Before God we are all that which he willed and also hath caused us to be Christ is not alone in his eyes but we also are conjoyned to him The Assertion doth present you with testimonyes sufficient you believe so farre as you see and feel If you deny our perfection in Christ our head In whom we are compleat Col. 2.10 deny also our union with him that we have received him have him are now the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.2 Yea then deny that God hath given us as yet
is not because the Law hath lost its power to accuse and condema as you would bear us in hand but because he is not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 Gal. 4.4 Christ hath satisfied for him taking all his sins guilt and curse unto and upon himself and God hath justified and set him free so he liveth in peace and at rest by Faith in Christ who loved him and gave himself to redeem him Also the grace and benefit of his Justification doth in some sort redound upon the actions of a Believer For was it not by his Faith that Abels sacrifice pleased God Heb. 11.4 There is no such purity perfection or dignity in the best thing you can do which of it self simply considered can procure or finde acceptance with God The Scripture and all Orthodox Divinity do hold forth Christ only as the ground and reason of all acceptation of man his works and ways 1 Pet. 2.5 Ye are an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ You say Dr Crisp is wide and see not your self out of the way of Truth and Charity A man under grace is no more under the Law he is dead to the Law that he may live to God Gal. 2.19 M. B. 6 Caution Law is not to be decryed because we have no power to keep the Law Ans Who cryeth down or speaketh against the Law You cannot shew or name any And who are so much against the Law as your selves who are become vain and needless Advocates for it The blinde Pharisees pretended most zeal for God and his Law who were yet in the state of enmity and by reason of their inward malice and envy against Christ opposition and hatred of the truth of his Doctrine false accusations and seeking to entangle and bring him into danger they lived in the continual breach of the Law Well it is too evident that you with thousand others of your Fraternity cease not to quarrel with except against and to condemn us for Antinomians and yet no demonstrative proof is extant of any such Error or guilt It is easie to lay on load of accusation upon Innocency it self hence such aspersions and indignities cast upon David Paul and that immaculate Lamb Christ himself if the corrupt heart within give way and be bent thereunto How weak is thy heart seeing thou hast done all these things Ezek. 16. The weakest and worst sort have been the most zealous and confident accusers We know say the Jews that this man Christ is a sinner Joh. 9.24 yet they knew no such thing by him What accusation saith Pilate bring you against this man They answered If he were not a Malefactor we would not have delivered him unto thee Ioh. 18.29.30 If so many of that Religion say it it is unquestionably true though there be no reality nor jot of verity in the accusation yet know it that it is an Antinomian part to slander and miscal and to make no crime to appear Thus may the greatest delinquency and guilt of Antinomianism be layd at yours and your fellows doors There is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom you trust Joh. 5.45 M. B. Ibid. It is an expression that an Antinomian * Dr. Crisp useth The Law saith he speaketh to thee if troubled for sin Do this and live Now this is as if a Judg should bid a Malefactor If thou wilt not be hanged take all England and carry it upón your shoulders into the West Indies What comfort were this Now doth not the Gospel when it bids a man believe speak as impossible a thing to a mans power Answ Doth the Doctor in this saying decry the Law Your own words and judgment too do import the like impossibility What a sinister minde is this But all if voyd of prejudice and partiality may clearly see by this his expression that Doctor Crisps main desire design and scope was to instruct erect and comfort a poor distressed and troubled Soul and that therefore he so applyed and ministred Gospel-Cordials Observe the ground and reason of his words if thou be troubled for sin and then you have no cause so to reprove and censure him as you do 2. His counsel and direction differ much from theirs of your way who in such a case bid the dejected man to desire promise and endeavor his utmost to do and walk according to the Law and so put him in hope of mercy in that as it is taught the Law is mitigated Evangelized God accepteth the will for the deed c. The Doctor wisely telleth him of the impossibility of making his peace that way knowing also how apt every one is to take that course that so he may utterly despair of himself self-doings and active righteousness and more readily hearken to the voyce and tydings of the Gospel only And 3. though to believe be as impossible to mans natural power yet it followeth not but that he is rightly put upon the believing the Gospel as Paul did bid the Jaylor Act. 16. to believe in the Lord Jesus that he might be saved The believing way is the only way of life peace and Salvation and the Gospel is to be preached for the obedience of Faith Rom. 1.5 You seek a knot in a rush M. B. 7 Caution I much wonder at one speaking thus The Law doth not only deprive us of comfort but it will let no body else speak a word of comfort because it is a rigid keeper and he consirmeth it by that place Gal. 3.23 But how short this is appeareth 1. Because what the Apostle calleth the Law here he called the Scripture in general before 2. He speaks it generally of all under that form of Moses his Regiment so that the fathers should have no comfort by that means Answ Your Margin might have directed us to the Author or Book if not to the page and place where that had been candid for the circumstances there would have given much light Many sentences of your own if singled separated from what precedeth would speak strangely and make a harsh sound I think that the expression which occasioneth so much admiration in you is either D Crisps or some other reputed Antinomians and his words are Allegorical Though Pauls friends had free access and might minister unto him Acts 24.23 yet many a Martyr in Queen Maries time had not that favor So the Law being a spiritual Jaylor to the Conscience suffereth none in a Legal way to comfort it no work no duty performance or reformation nor man nor Angel The Law came by Moses but Grace Pardon Peace Favor Life Consolation by Jesus Christ 2. That place Gal. 3.23 doth sufficiently confirm it and hath been used for that purpose by such Divines as you have no exception against 3. Your Reasons are invalid For first That Scripture in general is the Law or nothing in the Scripture but the Law which concludeth all under sin Verse 22.
Ministery and how Jerusalem the valley of vision zealous in a religious way yet did not know the things of her peace Luk. 19.41 but erred in her heart not knowing God way of peace and life Psal 95.3 In what a dangerous and deep temptation many a poor distressed soul lyeth plunged sore for want of this doctrine and consolation of free-grace 4. And that the relieving enlarging and saving of such a soul is much to be preferred before conversation of life And 5. Lastly As Luther saith That there is no danger in preaching faith free-grace without works for good works will follow where that is truely received but in preaching works and the Law so as it may be done and obeyed is much danger lest free-grace be obscured destroyed unknown men rest in the way of the Law and the gate of eternal life never be opened c. If I say you had considered these and the like you would never have condemned the innocent There be also divers things exceptable in your supposed disputable questions and some that reflect on your self as being inconsistent with what you hold at other times and confirming what you oppose but we may not dwell on what is Cursory Mr. B. pag. 31. Let us see what prejudicial inferences they gather from this doctrine of justification denying them good works to be a way to heaven Thus Doctor Crisp in page 6 c. Answ Methinks that expression of the Doctor is so clear and fully satisfactory that you should not quarrel with it and to me your language is so confused that I cannot skill of it but do fear it will lead the Reader out of the right way Let Christ be the way and good works our imployment or business in the way as he saith and then I see no error nor danger If you do truly good works you do them in Christ abiding in him Ioh. 15.4 in whom you are alive and walk continually by faith doth the soul go out of Christ or leave him when or while it worketh As ye have received Christ Jesus so walk in him Colos 2.6 Now the soul cannot walk in Christ nor have union with him save by faith the believer also walketh in the way of the Law of works but this is his way on earth amongst men and Christ is his way to God and heaven Let me add Christ is set forth so to be our way that he is our salvation also so that in him the soul is at her journies end and need not work to go further for attaining life as if it were a far off and good works were a way to carry and bring us unto it Eternal life is in the Sonne He that hath the Sonne hath eternal life also Joh. 3.36 1 Joh. 5.11 12. Also the words of Bernard are Viaregni not ad regnum of which difference see more in the Assertion of Grace M. B. Thus Matth. 7.17 Strait is the way that leadeth to life What is this way but the work of grace and godliness Answ I might here put you in minde of a threefold work of grace as you will have it First Angusta est via oportet te fieri tenuem si vis per eam venire Caeterum qui operibus onerati sunt sicut cōnchylibus onustos videmus Jacobi peregrinos ii non toterant penetrare Si veneris cum magnis saceis operum plenis depenere oportebit c. Ger. which God hath wrought in and by Christ for man 2. That which he worketh in man 3. And that which man worketh by vertue of his grace Now I need not ask you which of these you mean for it 's seen by your words you take to the third and last which as I conceive cannot be the meaning of the place and I could give reasons for it But I incline to Musculus with others which Authors I have been forced to part with who expound it so That the Doctrine of Christ and faith is the straight way which few indeed do finde and the broad way is false Doctrine and error of all sorts which leaveth the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 13.3 There is a broad way common to the religious Iews Papists and deceived Protestants which leadeth to destruction As for the way of downright wickedness all know that is the way to hell And as many in a blinde zeal are carried to damnation as by prophaness and actual outward sinning And this is a strong inducement to me thus to understand it as that to believe is the straightest way of all others and fewest finde and walk in that way with an upright foot so because Christ is there speaking of Teachers and their Doctrine and not of mans life and manners so that it is doctrine he meaneth to be the straight way for it is doctrine true or false that guideth and carrieth the soul one way or other to heaven or hell and that is either the righteousness of faith or the righteousness of works He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned and no good work can help to save him Mr. B. 2. Denying the presence of them good works in the person justified for thus saith the Author expresly speaking of that of Paul therefore we conclude that a man is justified without the works of the Law Here saith he the Apostle doth not only exclude works from having any power operative to concur in the laying iniquities upon Christ but excludes all manner of works man can do to be present and existent in persons when God doth justifie them And he instanceth of a general pardon for thieves Now one man may take the pardon as well as another Answ Your charge is heavie but I finde no evidence or proof What doth he deny the presence of good works in the person justified or after his justification did he not grant and say that they are our business and imployment in the way your words may be taken as if he denyed that ever a justified person should do good works Bona opera non precedunt justificandum c. Solis ortum sequitur aeris calafactio Melancth Cum peccata remitti constet etiamsi adhuc plena sit natura peccatis Melancth Deus nos in ca persectione in qua Christus resurrexit imactur If with Austine he hold good works do not go before a man to be justified I hope it is no error The air becometh warm not before but after the rising of the Sun Perhaps your meaning would be while justification is in fieri in doing not in facto after it is done yet your words are otherwise And this is to you so dangerous that to your charity it is inexcusable yet your great reading might tell you of divers Orthodox who speak and write as much and the Scripture will warant the same when you come professedly to handle the point hereafter Besides you cannot but know that the Doctor speaks of the sinners justification
answer 1. If Christ died not for such how could such come unto him or believe on him So that there is a sweet harmony yea who else could be saved for what difference is there originally and inwardly though not in outward expressions and out-breakings to the eye of the world the strictest Pharisee is as wicked and unclean as the loosest Libertine God looketh upon the heart But 2. you ask how can an enemy to Christ close with Christ I answer Is it not possible for enemies to be reconciled or for a Rebell convinced of his danger to submit and receive a gracious pardon being offered and when he is receiving it he may rightly and worthily be called a Rebell though afterward he become a true professed Subject 3. Neither the Text alledged nor the Doctor say enemies to Christ but when we were enemies viz. to God his justice and holiness in reference to his law For as God absolutely considered cannot be the object of mans hatred so God in Christ as Mediatour cometh under another Notion as being the onely meanes to slay enmity and reconcile both in himself You say it is more then in some places they allow Ans When you shew some place we may speak to it But how frequently read you in Doctor Crisp these and like expressions If God give thee an heart to come if thou canst believe if now thou have a mind to close with Christ c. which ought to have prevented all these exceptions as annulling the grounds and reasons of them I marvell that any understanding and experienced man should except against his Ministery it tending specially to encourage the poore and troubled soul to come freely and with confidence unto Christ assuring it there is no such force and let as the conscience of sin and his own unworthiness will suggest Oh how hard a thing is it in the feeling and horrour of sin to look up to free-grace and to receive Christ the gift of God without all disputings and reasonings about workes or qualification It is an evill rooted deeply in nature even that opinion which your doctrine maintaineth nourisheth and strengtheneth enough to overthrow the soul in the hour of tentation witness all experience And so the thought and consideration of some conceited goodness doth breed presumption and an unwarrantable perswasion of being the rather accepted If the Doctor had said that Christ is theirs and become their salvation whenas yet they had no heart to receiue or desire him you had some ground of excepting against him M. B. Christ dyed not onely to justifie but to save us Answ 1. Christ hath saved all that are to be saved Tit. 3.5 2. But it followeth not therefore that any can lay hold on salvation without justification or the righteousness of faith although he may so do without the righteousness of works Tit. 3.5 for justification is to life the Antecedent of it Rom. 5.18 M. B. Indeed the grand principle that Christ hath purchased and obtained antecedently to us in their sense will as necessarily infer that a drunkard abiding a drunkard shall be saved as well as justified Answ That Christ hath purchased and obtained all graces as you call them is so clear and fully convincing in the light of the Scripture that you cannot deny the truth of it onely our sense of it is corrupt and erroneous as you say but why do you not tell what our sense is It is out of no love that you conceal it but rather it argueth a minde in you to make the world thinke worse of us then you can make us to appear What you make or how you pervert our sense would be seen but that grand principle will necessarily infer the contrary to the conclusion you make for what Christ purchased for us must necessarily be dispensed and given therefore cannot that grace of Regeneration be withheld from them that are Christs but it cometh to them not in the preceptive way of the Law but through the word of promise which you cannot skill of If any should teach that some graces favour and part of eternal life were left to be purchased and obtained by our obedience and service that doctrine might finde more free passage and better entertainment But I wonder you are so peremptory and unadvised in making such an inference as if justification did leave a man as it found him and there were no vertue efficacy nor health in it nor that pretious faith apprehending it or as if we did teach so as by you we are slandered the contrary still lying under your eyes You need and must be forced to acknowledge that Tot us processus c. the only and whole passage from sin to righteousness from death to life from bondage under wrath and the curse unto liberty and the receiving into favour and felicity is attributed by Scripture and all sound Divines to that article of free justification so that in true and strict sense salvation is inseparable from it Yet that the world may see how the simple intent and sense of Dr. Crisp is misrepresented by you these are his words pag. 66. Christ the only way If a man saith he have a little holiness and righteousness he thinks now that in regard of that he may without presumption close with Christ Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners but it seems a man must be righteous before he have to do with the calling of Christ See now whether this be with or against the Gospel-free-grace therefore even to sinners is it no licentious doctrine nor doth it a jot maintaine the continuance in sin I say therefore that Christ doth belong to a person that closeth with him though he be in his sinfulness Christ indeed doth wash cleanse and adorn a person when he is closed with but there is none clean till Christ himself do enter who makes clean where he doth enter Do not then so misconstrue the Doctor as if his doctrine were inconsistent with the truth All that you can gather and directly conclude from him is that sinners under that very notion and name are called upon in the Gospel to come unto Christ that he is tendered unto them while they are such If God give a heart to a wicked man at this instant willingly to close with Christ he giveth him an absolute and compleat and perfect interest in Christ And these his expressions imply as much as you in truth can require For can there be a heart given to come a real willingness to close with Christ where there is no sight and sense of sin and danger why doth the soul desire Christ believe in him is it not that it may be saved from sin wrath and damnation and obtain righteousness life favor and salvation doth not the hastening unto the City of refuge sufficiently prove the man to be a manslayer so here it argueth a true inward conviction of and a real confession of a guilty estate yea a perswasion that in
are resolved to venture against the pikes of old tryed and pure truth innocency and a good conscience Well henceforth be better advised like one bemisted you have mistaken your way misrepresented your adversaries and run your credit cause and conscience into a great hazard and you may expect worse in all these without wise and timely retreat The counsel is good if it can be seasonably taken and it cometh from a friend and well-wisher M. B. page 63. This law of nature can never be abrogated And herein we may demand of the Antinomian Whether the law of nature do binde a believer or no whether he be bound to obey the dictates of his natural conscience Answ If a man were not first bound he could not be said properly to be loosed or set free It is granted yet with much limitation and in some things only that every one is bound to obey the dictates of his natural conscience and it is as true to be granted by you also that in case he hearken not at some times or in some things or in case of defect and failing or imperfection this natural law will give out sentence of condemnation for the same as Rom. 2.15 from which it is the peculiar and continual office of faith to set free and secure the conscience So that you do very improperly demand whether the law of nature do binde a believer quatenus so whereas a man believeth that he may be set at liberty in Christ In whom he in his spiritual estate towards God in the things of his peace and life is free as Christ is free with whom by a true and real union he is become one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 And so is passed from judgement of condemnation and from death to life Fidei nil proponi debet praeter meramgratiam aâ—que haec est ejus objectum Calv. John 5.24 And here faith doth not stand bound to give ear to the voice of either implanted or moral law for the procuring or preservation of peace and comfort but turning from both and not regarding them doth direct and confine ear eye the thoughts and meditations of the soul to that alone simple object Christ and to what he speaketh in the word of grace and salvation whose blood sprinkled and shed for remission of sins cryeth for better things then the blood of Abel This is the proper office obedience and exercise of faith So in God will I praise his word Psal 56. here will I settle my thoughts and fortifie them against the dictates and accusations of a natural conscience sense of sin reason law Satan or whatever assaileth If faith give not an acquiescence and rest to the foul in that free and full atonement by Christ and the goodness and favour of God in him it is in danger to be lost for ever And as you have given me this fair occasion so for the more simple and weak Christians sake who is little versed herein and principled otherwise let me further add That although nature do acknowledge a God and that he is to be worshipped and served Nil magis adversatur fidei quam lex ratio Luth. yet this opinion which is also seconded and much strengthened by the moral law is not without danger and is repugnant to the doctrine and knowledge of faith for nothing is more cross to faith then the law and natural reason the maine battel and dispute in a believer is between the dictates of his natural conscience confirmed by the moral law and the principles of his faith and as the law of faith doth enter and prevaile so it captivateth razeth and expelleth the natural and legal knowledge and thoughts of God and imprinteth a divers from them only suiting to the Gospel or covenant of Grace for now since the death of the Testator the covenant is so ratified and confirmed with God that he remembereth the sins of his people no more but abides fully In illa gratuita reconciliatione per obsignationem spiritus acquiescit It a gloria datur Deo non considerat fides quicquâ—d in nobis vel aliis creaturis ei adversari videatur Olev and for ever pleased with them in his Son and through faith herein the conscience also is made to yeeld to it to receive and imbrace it and so is led and brought into this confidence of the quietness and peace of God towards us and hereby effecteth our assured rest in God reconciled for ever which is the true Christian Sabbath Thus every high thing exalting it self against the knowledge of God according to the Gospel is to be cast down and every thought to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. And by this is glory given unto God while one thing is felt or suggested within and another is believed Let this be well marked of great and continual use in every Christian that the law implanted by nature is ever contradicting and reclaiming against the testimony of God in the word of his grace whence ariseth the difficulty and impossibility of believing save by the power and operation of God Col. 2.12 therefore in the weighty things of faith to hearken to the natural conscience or moral law will quite overthrow whole Christianity and turn aside the soul to destruction The seeds of morality and remanents of the covenant of works may be found in nature but there is no sparke nor intimation of any pure Gospel In innocency Adam was not principled to finde and receive his righteousness peace and life in another out of himself M. B. Think not that because he Christ dyed to free you from the curse of the law that therefore you are freed from the obedience Answ And do not you think nor teach that Christ came to take away the curse and condemning power from the law contrary to his own express words Mat. 5.17 18. where he saith that every jot of the Law is imperishable and in his opening and applying it afterwards he doth as command so reprove threaten and condemne 2. You will not deny but what Christ hath performed for me as my surety that I am so freed from that it may not be required of me to that end as before 3. Christ doth free us that we by his Spirit may serve freely and cheerfully and without all fear in holiness and righteousness before God all the dayes of our life Luk. 1.76 Therefore are we taken into a New covenant that giveth power and fitness so to serve wherein he promiseth the law in our hearts to put his Spirit into us to give a new heart and a new way c. which the covenant of works could not do Jer. 31. Ezek. 36.27 c. M. B. Vse of instruction against the Antinomians who must needs overthrow the directive and obligative force of the law of nature as well as of Moses Ans This is but the old slander the same false charge so often repeated It is by this
for reconciliation and peace or Christ to be a Sanctuary or hiding place or any to flie to him for refuge and salvation It seemeth you would have the law to be preached more mildly then some Antinomians do and with much mitigation of justice and yet you blame others for too little law you are not good to please and few mens Ministery like you so as doth your own But this I dare say he that was never killed was never made alive where the law worketh not to condemnation there the Gospel never brought justification to life And by this meanes the law is subordinate and subservient in making sensible of sin guilt and damnation in suppressing and destroying that pestilent opinion and conceit which every one hath of himself his own strength and righteousness And lastly when a man lyeth in that deplorable and desperate case sighing and lamenting under that burden of fin and wrath in making to desire and seek after help and remedy And in a remote and general sense or accidentally it may be said to have Evangelical purposes in that all hope of righteousness acceptance and life being quite lost and gone by the Law the minde and intent of God hereby is to drive man to believe in JESUS CHRIST But of this you will tell us your minde more fully afterwards as you say LECT XI Gen. 2.17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not cat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye M. B. pa. 105. THe Antinomian cannot by his principles avoid that Christ intentionally dyed and so offereth his grace to all Answ That is Christ intended by his death fulness perfection or sufficiency of salvation for all and that so it should be tendered to all though the elect only can conceive it through faith and that it will prove the judgement and condemnation of others who were invited to be guests but refused to come in as Mat. 22. and had it propounded and offered to them Rom. 10. ult this is a truth as received by the Orthodox Ancient and Modern so consonant also to the Scripture and hence Christ is called the Saviour of the world And there is neither errour nor danger in it You say in another place that God justly requireth faith to the Gospel of all to whom it is preached in that we all had power to believe given in Adam is not then the object of faith or the grace of the Gospel to be propounded to all with command that they believe even for the obedience of Faith Rom. 1.5 This is the commandment of God that men believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ c. how should they receive and apply Christ unto whom he is not preached or offered or how can any be reproved for rejecting of him whom they might not receive or blamed for not coming unto him to have life whenas yet they had no way nor leave given as Joh. 5.40 You will not come unto me that you might have life LECT XIII Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest c. M. B. IN page 124. and 125. For did not God deal thus with Adam If he would obey he should live but if not then be must dye will you say with the Antinomian That this was an unlawful thing and this was to make Adam legal and one that was not affected with the goodness of God to him Answ If you deal candidly you should name your Antinomian and not charge any crime upon the guiltless you think he cannot be wronged too much 2. But if the continuance of Adams felicity was upon condition of his obedience it followeth not that it is so with the Elect in the second ADAM Christ for here they have a far more free and safe estate then was that in time of innocency LECT XIV Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest c. M. B. p. 132. ANother maine question is whether the estate of reparation be more excellent then that in innocency New here we cannot say one is absolutely better then another as the first estate of Adam did far exceed this in the rectitude it had c. Answ Our slate of reparation without all controversie doth far excell that of Adams innocency even as an infinite Good exceedeth a finite yea and in respect of rectitude immortality and felicity your three instances but then we must believe more then we see or feel yea and things centrary to what these our senses are set upon In Christ Jesus there is a new creation old things are past and all things are become new he that by faith putteth on Christ beareth the image of the heavenly whereas the image of Adam was the image of an earthly man As is the earthy such are they that are earthy and as is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly But our life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Againe the state of reparation is more excellent then that of innocency in regard of immortality for the life that Christ hath purchased and brought to light can never be extinguished it is an everlasting life without fear danger or possibility of perishing here is no subjection nor propensity to death or mortality but Adams state was not so absolute and happy and though the body dye and outward man perish yet the state is imperishable and unchangeable And saith Christ He that believeth in me shall never see death Joh. 8.51 Lastly unto faith there is no infelicity for all the creatures stand reconciled in Christ unto the believer a firme and inviolable covenant is made for him with the beasts of the field the fowls of heaven and the creeping things of the ground Hos 2.18 Job 5.23 Also crosses afflictions tabulations and death it self not only cannot separate from the love of God in Christ Rom. 8. ult but all are yours saith Paul for your furtherance and hope the world or life or death or things present or things to come 1 Cor. 3.22 And all work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 But this state is not discerned save by the eye of saith yet this is the truth of the Christian condition by the means of the blood of sprinkling which hath slaine and abolished all enmity and sanctified all things unto us and as it standeth and is confirmed in the minde of God and by him is revealed and held forth in the word of atonement he that is truly and effectually called by God is stated in that grace and blessed condition where he is without fear or danger of evil The defects or imperfections which you speak of are not in the state but in our sight and apprehension not in the thing or object but in our little saith The word and ordinances are left us to use for the increasing of our knowledge faith assurance consolation and full contentment
preach it at Rome also If the Law would have served and Paul had known also this your liberty and chose to use either law or Gospel he needed not to shun nor shrinke in the preaching of it for every mans heart is principled to approve and receive that doctrine having the seeds and effect of the law naturally in his bosome but the Gospel is supernatural and the soul is indisposed to receive it of it self yea and strongly by assed and inclined against that way of peace and life revealed by it for it maketh void rejecteth and casteth downe all the excellencies of man his free-will strength righteousness wisdome goodness as being vanity folly weakness sin and vile with God so to prepare and make way in the soul to bring in and commend Gods grace to be all-sufficient and that Christ alone may be exalted and rejoyced in Hence the mystery of the Gospel was to the Gentiles foolishness and to the Iew a stumbling-block 1 Cor. 1.23 Also it is more then evident that this word of the Gospel was the instrument of converting all those Churches to whom Paul writ as his Epistles do testifie as besides these mentioned places to the Romans Corinthians and Ephesians you may also see in Gal. 1.6.8.9 Col. 1.5 Phil. 1.5 who were called into the fellowship of the Gospel But what need the lighting of a Candle at noon-day unless it be still dark Saturday with us The second remarkable place is 1 Pet. 1.23 25. Being born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever and vers 25. he expounds himself saying And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you If need were a cloud of expositors might be here produced to evince and confirm it that this instrumental word of regeneration is not the Law but the Gospel It is true some tell us of a twofold regeneration or rather a twofold sense of the word by the one the soul cometh to a second new being and by the other it hath the image of God reinstamped on it And of a regeneration of Faith and another of holiness of nature and life but I would trouble none with these distinctions yet this I add that Melancthon upon Iohn observeth that Christ calleth our justification regeneration and indeed it is a new creation and the putting of the soul into a new and happy condition for thereby it hath reconciliation and peace with God Rom. 5. 2. And there is a twofold healing 1. Of our spiritual estates and thus we are said to be healed by the stripes of Christ Isa 53.5 who is the repairer of this breach and as for that wound of conscience in that day when sin doth bite and sting and the law accuse and terrifie none other plaister can cure it but the blood of Christ who by his eternal spirit offered himself to purge and purifie the conscience Heb. 9.14 and this is done by the application of faith for health or salvation is onely in Christ and in nothing else you can name And as Moses lifted up the Serpent so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life John 3.14 15. 2. There is an inchoate and partial healing of our natures hearts and lives which is effected by the Spirit of Christ renewing and changing all and every member of his mystical body whereof he is the head but as the Moral Law is not the instrument to reveal and hold forth Christ crucified so Faith by which the soul comes to be sensibly healed and having communion with Christ to receive vertue from him this Faith is onely instrumentally by the Gospel which is preached to all for the obedience of Faith Rom. 16.25 26. And if our inheritance come by the law in part or in whole then Faith is made void and the promise made of no effect Rom. 4.14 3. And lastly Conversion may be taken 1. for the change of the condition as when who was in bondage is enlarged set free delivered out of the hands of his enemies and of far off is made near as Iohn 8.36 Ephes 2.13 Col. 1.21 or 2. for the turning of the heart to God Act. 26.18 To turn them from Satan to God If thou wilt return return unto me 3. For the change and alteration in the soul when God sanctifieth a man throughout c. 4. A man may change his religion as did the Jewish-Proselytes and his outward way and manner of life being refined and reformed according to the letter of the law as the Pharisee Luke 18. Now to apply all Hence I infer and say that it is never read in the Scripture that the soul was made spiritually free and estated in grace and favour by the preaching of the Moral Law but the office of it is to arrest convince shut up the soul under sin the curse and condemnation Gal. 3.22 the law and the Gospel are the two keys that Christ gave that by the one sinners might be shut and bound and by the other set free and brought forth Mat. 18.18 2. Neither did the Law instrumentally convert and turn the heart to God for Christ is the way to the Father his blood and cross slayeth the enmity that is between divine justice and the sinner and removeth all lets whatever did hinder or separate and so openeth a free way for access Heb. 10.19 20. and his righteousness is the melius terminus bond or mean of union between God and the soul bringing them into a sure and everlasting covenant of peace he is first King of righteousness and after that King of Salem that is of peace Heb. 7.2 Now Christ his death and resurrection with the fruits and benefits thereof are the subject and peculiar treasures of the Gospel whereof Paul was made a Minister that he might preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ Eph. 3.7 9. further God cannot be com'd unto known nor enjoyed nisi in Christo suo but in Christ And he gaineth and draweth the soul with cords of love he appears gratious and merciful to poor sinners beaten downe humbled and brought to deaths door in the conscience of sin else the soul being afraid of him would with Adam flee away and hide it self from him hence passim men are exhorted to turne to the Lord because he is gratious and merciful Joel 2.13 Psal 86.5 Hos 6.12 We are to hold forth God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and not imputing their sins unto them and as Ambassadours for Christ we pray men in Christs stead to be reconciled unto to God 2 Cor. 5.18 20. Now this cannot be by the ministery of the Law by which cometh the knowledge of sin for it worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 threatneth with the curse and death Gal. 3.10 And thus the Law doth by the will and appointment of God to force man out of himself to destroy all self-confidence
the Law Rom. 3.20 Rom. 7.7 Also you are much deceived when you say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See 1 Cor. 15.45 The first Adam was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a living soul nor as if he could quicken himself or others for that is peculiar to God himself no man as yet quickned his own soul And the opposition in that place sheweth the great difference between those two words for it followeth The last Adam was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quickning spirit in that he both quickned himself being dead and quickneth all his members Lastly see that place Gal. 3.2 If there had been a Law which could have given life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 righteousness should have been by the Law In which words Paul intimates that there was never Law given that could vivifie or which had any quickening vertue to impart or communicate unto any I will not trouble you with commentaries directly contradicting and overthrowing your exposition of that place because I perceive you so abound in your own sence that their judgement is not esteemed by you and you have greater store of them to satisfie you when you please then I have And lest you should be mistaken you adde Not that we could have life by vertue of any obedience but when we by grace are inabled to obey them c. Now I thought that you rather should have thus said as more pertinent to the question in hand But that they do instrumentally vivifie convert and give us life to obey them But in this saying of yours you grant as much as we contend for for if grace that cometh by the Gospel do inable us to obey the Law then it is not the Law that instrumentally doth convert and give life and strength to walk in it And your last clause is dangerously ambiguous seeming to import that Christ is not our salvation of himself without our works or obedience to the Law you will speak out more plainly and fully in some other place And you give us a poor reason why you inclined to this your opinion viz. because Socinians deny grace and justification under the Law or old Testament as if there were no middle way to take which could like you but either you must run on the rocks on one side or other Incidit in Scyllam c. Mr. B. And thus I come to another question which is the proper and immediate ground of strife between the Antinomians and us and from whence they have their name And that is the abrogation of the morall Law Answ Toto Coelo erras This is not the controversie except you mean that you do assert the Abrogation of it for it may sooner and more easily be concluded from your tenets then any of ours who hold the Law to be inviolable but this may appear afterward 2. If their name be from hence then if you prove them not guilty of the Abrogation of the Law you and others have falsly accused and standered them for Antinomians and now you for ever quit them from that aspersion I will be bold before the encounter if he that shall prove guilty of the abrogation of it in whole or in part shall be the Antinomian then mutato nomine de te narratur fabula look to your self Mr. B. Paul maketh an objection and he doth it for this end to take away the calumny and reproach cast upon him by his Adversaries as one that would destroy the Law Do we make void the Law Answ If you and your partners in your ministery did go with a right foot in the foot in the Gospel or tread in his steps the same would be charged upon you and you might be glad to pretend or wipe off such aspersions Hoc nomine pessime audiebat inter Judaeos non mode Paulus sed Dominus queque ipse acsi tota sua praedicatione legis abrogationem moliretur Nunquam tanta cautio c. Christ himself saith Calvin who is the wisdom of God could not so preach the doctrine of free-Grace but some took occasion from his words as you from ours to say or think he destroyed the Law hence was that prohibition Do not think I came to destroy the Law Matth. 5.17 Do you think your self more wise or wary in your Preaching then Christ or Paul was if not suspect your self in that you bear not the like reproach When innocency is thus traduced Presertim ver◠facile obtinet falsa hac imaginatio inter vos qui prepostera legis intelligentia c. Calv. and condemned quis stabit The Disciple is not above his Master if Christ and Paul were counted Antinomians Abrogaters of the Law who will not take up the same Cross And it is remarkeable by whom they were so opposed and aspersed even by the preposterous Zelots of Moses Law a generation which ever have and will hinder the free passage of the Gospel and disturb the peace of the Church like Cain Ishmael c. I thought here to have ended Sic ergo nes meminerimus Evangelium dispensare ut nostro decendi modo lex stabiliatur sed nulla alia firmitaetu quam fide Christi suffulta Id. but that in the closure I observe that you approve of Austins intepretation viz. The Law is established because by the Gospel we obtain grace in some measure to fulfill the law we obtain it not then by the Law and do obtain by faith in Christ still not by the Law then obedience in some degree to it Your eyes are strangely holden if you see not how this interpretation maketh fully for us and wholly against your self You adde Which obedience though it be not the Covenant of grace yet is the way to salvation Now there is nothing out of the covenant of grace can be proved to be in a strict and prosense the way to salvation Ubi ad Christum ventum est primum i◠eo invenitur exacta legi◠justitia quae por imputationem etiam nostra sit deinde sanctificatio qua sermantur cordae nostra ad legis observantiam c. Calv. To believe in Christ is the onely way to it Act. 16.31 Mark 16. Christ dwelleth in the heart by faith and he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life Joh. 3.36 By attributing too much to the Law and our works you obscure the glory of Christ and of free-grace mingle Law and Gospel entangle and deject the hearts of the faithfull carry them from Christ and that union in spirit with him hinder the right exercise of faith and prayer c. for you teach that by the Law we receive grace conversion sanctification so that the Law enliveth filleth buildeth satisfieth It doth not make us poor feeble humble empty nothing in our selves that so we may seek out for all receive and live by faith in Christ our head grow up in him and so be built up in this way of
to meddle with by-matters You then shew what a Covenant is And as here you say You find much difference of judgement so I say You are unhappily perswaded to incline to the most unlikely unfound and palpably erronious opinion of all others if yet you have any to travel and go with you in your way but you love cross and by-wayes that you may be better noted to become famous or infamous Mr. B. The Law as to this purpose may be considered more largely as that whole doctrine delivered on Mount Sinai with the preface and promises adjoyned and all things that may be reduced to it or more strictly as it is an abstracted rule of righteousness holding forth life upon no terms but perfect obedience Now take it in the former sence it was a Covenant of grace take it in the later it was not of grace but of works Answ This is first to be premised and we take it as granted by you that however you consider the Law yet you mean onely the moral Law Yet you will not be contented with the simple and entire law as it is an absolute law in it self but do take in also unto it the preface promises and all things reduceable your extent of it is now become large indeed and to me indefinite What you draw in and reduce to it who knoweth But I smell some feare and diffidence in this great enterprize your own thoughts being apprehensive of the unjustifiableness of this strange and bold assertion you would not therefore be too narrowly kept in but will take more scope and ground then is allowable but let this pass and to come to a more particular reply Methinks the Pieface it self should have been sufficient to have stopt you in this your way or opinion Thus it is recorded Exod. 20.2 and Deut. 5.6 I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out c. out of which I collect and it is plain and undenyable That God was their God and Israel his people before the giving of the Law and that he did not in these words express his wilingness and consent to be their God if or upon condition they will keep these his Commandments which you call the first thing belonging to a Covenant therefore he saith Hear I am thy God that is I am now already thy God namely by free promise in the seed of the woman Gen. 3. or as it was made to Abraham and his posterity Gen 12.3 Gal. 3.6 To Abraham and his seed were the promises made And unto this promise or Covenant of grace then which I know no other in simple nature and essence or substance they had given and professed their consent formerly by their faith and externally by receiving circumcifion the signe of the Covenant and so avouched God to be their only God in Christ and themselves his people through him And he being their God and King it pleased him now to deliver unto them his will in this way and form of Government according to which he would rule them and they were to conform themselves to his pleasure herein 2. And this promise given by God and believed on by them so long before this promulgation and solemne delivery of the Law was entire of it self containing perfection of doctrine and holding out a free and clear way to pardon reconciliation and life And therefore it was singly made preached at first to Adam and Abraham with his posterity so that Paul saith Gal. 3.18 God gave the Inheritance that is all the blessedness belonging to a Child bylpromse denying and excluding the Law in this And hence is it that to prevent all objections against the doctrine of free grace Paul saith Rom. 5.20 Moreover the Law entered that the offence might abound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Law entered besides the promise of grace which was the prime and principall doctrine and it entered into the Church or among the people of God and yet neither to disannull nor to adde any thing unto the former Covenant or promise Gal. 3.15 as if of imperfect before it was to be perfected thereby Nor yet as if it were to be mingled with the promise and so to adulterate it but it was to be kept distinct from it as being of another nature and for another end contrary to that of the promise The Law was to uncover sin terrifie the conscience exclude the soul from Gods favour and presence the promise to cover to pacifie and comfort and to admit or give entrance again with confidence through faith in Christs blood The Law was to make sin abound that upon that occasion the ampleness and efficaciousness of the grace promised in Christ might be more abundant And as for the promises of the Law Piscator telleth you That they are to be excluded the Covenant of grace as being of a diverse nature or quality from those promises of grace The promise of grace is Nuda simplex gratuita the legall promises are Conditionales But now we will consider by what Scriptures and Reasons you would confirm it First you say Mr. B. There is nothing more ordinary with Paul in these controversies then to consider the Law so differently as take this instance Rom. 10.5.6 where he descibeth the righteousness of the Law from these words Do and live c. We find this in effect Deut. 30.16 and yet from this very chap. The Apostle describes the righteousness which is by faith And Beza doth acknowledge that that which Moses speaks of the Law Paul applieth to the Gospel Answ We might expect a more plain and clear text then this which is so knotty and difficult that it hath troubled the best commentators if yet you could produce any â—er verbum entelligit M. Legem quam Dominus voce sua promulgavit P. autom ad praedicationem Evangelii quae fuit Legis perfectio accommodat B. but your poor shift and nakedness is manifest If you stand here to Beza his words make directly against you What Moses speaks of the Law Paul applieth to the Gospel saith he Moses said thus of the Law and Paul of the Gospel Thus then by his interpretation 1. The Law is not one with the Gospel nor doth it comprehend it but containeth a doctrine in kinde differing from the Gospel or Covenant of grace 2. He seemeth to be of that judgement with many others that Paul doth but allude to that place in Moses and doth not directly and purposely cite Moses for confirmation and this is most probable in that something is added some left out and something altered Calvin thinkes the knot may easily be untied Sed totam in genere doctrinam quae â—vangelium sub se compreâ—endat c. thus If by the word we understand not the law but the whole doctrine of God in general as it comprehendeth the Gospel for saith he The word of the Law never cometh of it self to be in the
dispense them as he pleased more sparingly then then now LECT XXVI Rom. 3.27 Where is beasting theu c. WHatever your reason or ends may be for it yet I see not any good or warrantable ground thus to take and handle the Law and Gospel in a large sense as you say and when you have done I would know what of the Gospel you conceive to be legall and how much Law you take to be Evangelicall Also you prefixe a Text as your foundation but the discourse you erect doth not touch it is not at all supported by it but stands like a Castle built in the Air. Neither do I find the Lutherans posing the Calvinists about the Law in this for both affirm the Law to be a Covenant of works and superadded to the promise holding forth all favour and peace upon such hard conditions to the Jews that they might experimentally be convinced of their folly in seeking it by their own righteousness You must go over it again else what is done will not serve to prove Moses Law a Covenant of grace Indeed we grant the godly Jews did enjoy what Christ premised but it was by such Ordinances as were of grace and not of works as is the Law they eyed or looked at Christ in the promises and not in precepts And as you began so you proceed laying down differences not between the Law and Gospell but between Gospel and Gospel I mean the administration of grace before and now of which others have writ more particularly plainly and profitably Then you tell us They Jews had a twofold consideration 1. as being servile another as being Sons but under age Now that is it that we say As Sons they were free for they were so by Christ promised but their condition was servile and their immunities and priviledges were in a great part vailed and kept from them But note that the Mosaicall pedagogy is antiquated what need was it to handle law or Gospel otherwise then in their strict and proper sense To run over every thing is long and tedious What is said by you of these differences may be granted with these two exceptions first that the law strictly taken is not as you say onely for those who have a perfect and holy nature Paul doth directly cross and contradict it saying The Law is not made for the righteous but for the Lawless and disobedient 1 Tim. 1.9 And Adam was not charged with this law in his integrity but had a Law touching a thing in its own nature indifferent for the keeping of this law was then naturall to him as is flying to a Bird and bearing fruit to a Tree or Hearbe Also it is clear that the law was added because of transgression Gal. 3.19 as if there had been no sinne there should have been no occasion of giving the law And this contradicts your self elsewhere affirming the Law to be an effectuall instrument to regenerate and sanctifie Now who needs to be regenerated and sanctified he that hath a perfect and holy nature or he that is a sinner and impure if you think otherwise what a deceiver are you when you would perswade the filthy and the vile that they may be changed and renewed by the Law of works And thus as your fourth difference is utterly false so your third is found to be defective and not plenary for all is of grace It is the Gospel or word of grace that justifieth and sanctifieth God in that ministration we live under is a free giver and man a meer receiver for God having discovered and made bare the root and heart of man so as he seeth his spirituall poverty and wretchedness by his Law doth then open his graciousness and his bountifull hand by his Gospel that the believing soul may be satisfied with his goodness in every kinde So that now as a Beggar he must live by Almes of Divine liberality being thus made to walk humbly with his God Open thy mouth and I will fill it Psa 81. 2. And in your last difference you set up and pull down say and unsay At first you tell us The Law is conditionall but the Gospel absolute but this is too clear a ground for you to abide upon therefore presently you say I finde this question a troublesome one Thus you trouble your self and others without cause Repentance and faith are no Gospel-conditions but are said to be the reason and end of the preaching of the Gospel It is preached that men may repent and believe Rom. 16.26 Luk. 14.47 yea and that they may be holy too Tit. 2.12 Ephes 4.22 Secondly The Gospel is the seed of them all as is to be cleared afterward they all grow and arise out of the doctrine of grace how then can they be conditions of it for what is a condition but that which is necessarily required that a thing may be so so that it will follow It is no Gospel where there is no faith or repentance or at least none preached to me What am I called upon to believe then The Gospel is the object of faith and in believing are we said to receive and obey it 2 Thes 1.8 The Gospel offereth pardon favour and eteruall life to sinners that they may come receive and partake of all freely yea beseeches men to be reconciled And doth not bid them go and get repentance and faith and holiness elsewhere as they can and then upon condition they bring these they shall be forgiven all their sins be reconciled and saved by the Gospel Indeed where God maketh the Gospel to be effectual there it bringeth forth these fruits there is repentance and saith to believe and it giveth no peace nor consolation to any but the believing soul so as faith is after the hearing of the Gospel so comfort is after faith Rom. 15.13 The God of all hope fill you full of peace and joy in believing In order one precedes another Gospel is preached before Faith that men may believe and then comes peace and consolation upon believing But who would argue hence that Faith is a condition of the Gospel or Peace a condition of Faith They denote a certaine Order that God is pleased to set and observe in his works and dispensations As for Mortification and Sanctification you speak of they are the effects of the Gospel for the soul thereby called and implanted into Christ beginneth to dye unto all things and to live only unto Christ and God in him so increasing with the increasings of God Col. 2.19 And Repentance admitteth of divers considerations in regard of some whereof it is Legall and of others Evangelical but of this next Lecture LECT XXVII Rom. 3.27 Where is boasting It is excluded c. IF this Question Whether the Gospel preach Repentance or no be as you affirme the foundation of Antinomanisme It then much concerneth you in this to play the man that the foundation being razed all may fall to confusion and this the rather also
Ministerii sumpla and the express words in the text do make it more then manifest that the Apostles comparison is taken from the very substance of Moses Ministery to wit the Morall Law and not that part onely which is Ceremoniall as you would have it for verse 7. it is called that Ministery that is written and engraven in stones Whence it is easie to gather that Paul speaketh not of the Ceremoniall Impressum insculptum ex hoc locoisacile colligitur Paulum non agere de Ceremoniis sed de ipse Decalego B. but Morall part for it was the Decalogue that was so written and delivered in Tables of Stone 2 Your words imply that there is no difference in truth and strict sence between Law and Gospel so that the Spirit be taken with them both which directly contradicteth the Apostle who calleth one the Ministery of death and condemnation and the other of life and righteousness for the Spirit working by the Law doth kill and condemn and therefore is also called a Spirit of boudage Rom. 8.15 but the Spirit by the Gospel quickneth and giveth life being a Spirit of Adoption and liberty The Spirit is one and the same but the Ministrations be different and so are the effects produced by either You say the difference is because Christ the Author of the Gospel is the fountain of Life But is not Christ the Author of the Law also He is called the law-giver And though Christ be the Author of Life yet you cannot shew wheâ—e the Law is called the Ministery of Life as if Christ did use it to convey and give Life Also to say that the Spirit quickeneth by the Law is to enforce a sense flatly against the Apostle Moreover your expressions do make the place more obscure dark in telling us that the Gospel also without Gods Spirit is the Ministration of death because it is as impossible to believe as to obey the Law Whereas Paul therefore calleth the Gospel the Ministration of righteousness and life in that the Spirit thereby begetteth faith in the hearts of the Elect whereby they come to righteousness and life So Piscator The Law then having the Spirit working by it killeth as we see in Paul Rom. 7. But the Gospel maketh alive justifying all the Elect of God 2. You fail much in your second respect also for 1. as is proved and cleared that the opposition is chiefly between the Morall Law and the Gospel 2 However in a proper and true sense the Law is done away in the kingdom of Christ yet where infidelity is the Law remaineth but where the word of righteousness and life is there can the Ministery of sin and death have no place even no more then the darkness of midnight hath at noon-day but spirituall things are spiritually discerned 3. Paul intends that glory to be of the Law whereas you interpret it to be that accidentall glory which did shine upon Moses A word of these things shall suffice LECT XXIX Matth. 5.17 Whosoever shall break one of these least c. SEe and consider the words of the Prophet Psal 7.14 15 16. This Lecture above all yet sheweth much gall to be in your ink Now your task is neer an end The residue is but to make a grave or ditch for your Antinomian and to describe and delineate the man that all mistake being prevented he may forthwith be sentenced and sent to his appointed place but stay Where or who is he You are in a golden dream Mr. B. When there shall be a reformation and truth break forth c. then those corrupt Teachers who would poyson men should be discovered and be of least that is of no account Answ Seeing this will be when the truth breaketh forth Now Lord send forth thy light and thy truth that all false teachers and doctrines of lies and vanities may be put to shame and confusion And if your dream be true look to your self You fear not perhaps presuming upon your own supposed innocency externall sanctity the present state of our times the reputation you are in the authority and multitude of your combined fraternity c. as being now set upon a mountaine that will never be moved But the Church the Truth and quarrell is Gods He is strong that is Judge to put down the mighty from their seats to scatter the imaginations of the proud and to returne all the intended evill upon the head of the authors and devisers In him the fatherless find mercy he preserveth the simple and meek that trust in him Read Isa 66.5 Hear the word of the Lord ye that tremble at his word Your Brethren that have cast you out for my Names sake said Let the Lord be glorified but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed and Joh. 16.2.3 Some look for no better from your hands if left unto your will and have already sound the like dealing for the Scripture must be verified Mr. B. They overthrow the law when they hold such principles that will necessarily by way of consequence inferre the abrogation of the Law And thus though some Antinomians do expresly and boldly assert the abolishing of it at least to believers Yet others c. disclaiming it held such assertions as necessarily inferre the abrogation of it Answ You cannot prove and make it appear that any do assert the abolishing of it so it may be taken for a slander and false accusation 2. In way of correction as having overshot your self and would eat some of your Words You say At least to believers Now first What need believers a Law so farre as believers they live by Faith and walke by Faith yea and warre by Faith 2. The Law affordeth nothing to nourish or supply any defect in the Christians Faith 3. Yet you nor none can directly and duely inferre hence that they do abrogate the Law so much now to vindicate them But to returne your words upon your self I think that you do hold such principles that necessarily by way of consequence at least do abrogate the Law yea and make void repentance in great part after Faith is come and bring in carnal security and a false peace into the soul for one principle of yours is That direction and obligation to obedience be the sole essential constitutes of the law So that that which condemneth justifies promiseth and threatneth is not properly the Law but it hath been not onely asserted but proved already that these are as assential to a Law as the former Again What will you call that which doth condemn and promise favour and peace to the good if it be not Law I am sure it is no Gospel have you a third name for it 2. Whence have these power to condemn c. if no Law be in them The Scripture faith The Law doth curse reveal wrath c. I argue thus Whosoever denieth the Law a power to condemn and justifie he destroyeth the Law But Mr. Burg.
their actions else perfection should be in us and no need of justification if we sin not What gaine you by this you say by justification there is no removal of sin but of the guilt or obligation to eternal wrath c. But the Scripture speaketh not of guilt nor obligation to punishment but of sin and the debt it self whereof we being discharged the obligation to the curse ceaseth upon that yet we may be discharged in our accounts with God of sin and it be still dwelling in us and we confess it too Now what flashly divinity is this nay is not your doctrine truely fleshly for it is self-liking and from a carnal principle That our good works are conditions of life and salvation And that Christ saveth from eternal wrath but we must suffer temporary punishment here we may sin and the law not curse us c. hence is your doctrine so currant and acceptable to all carnal mindes M. Rutherf pag. 572. Towne by the word Law Rom. 6. I understand saith he Moral law with all its Authority Answ If we be freed from all authority of the law then hath the sixth command no authority from God to teach that murder is a sin that Idolatry is agaainst the second commandment Reply By like consequence it may be said If there be no curse nor condemnation in the law we live under as you teach us then the sixth Commandment cannot curse or condemn for murder c. Your Argument holdeth not what the law saith it is to them that are under it The law may have power though you in a true sense be not under it So the Law teacheth what sin is and what curse is annext to sin though you agree with the prophane and secure in heart who in their imaginations deceitfully separate sin and the curse as they would sin without peril M. Rutherf Then the Believer when he lyes whores c. is not obliged to know and see from the light of the law that these be sins Reply In like manner by your doctrine he is to see no condemnation nor danger by the Law for these sins but may live and continue secretly in sinning for the Law to him hath no condemning power deliver your self and acquit me M. Rutherf Mark saith T. Three grounds of mistake 1. That justification and sanctification are separable 2. To ease men by faith of the yoke of the law is to suffer them to run after the course of the world 3. That all strict conformity to the law is right sanctification Answ 1. Not any of these is owned by Protestant Divines they are all in Mr. T. forged calumnies Reply I hate forging and wish you used it no more then I you finde not me charging Protestant Divines with these but whether Mr. Burgess with the President and fellows of Sion Colledge who unanimously justifie and commend to the whole Kingdome his Sermons and Doctrine and Dr. Taylor whom your self so much defend be Protestant Divines I leave that to your thoughts For 1. Mr. Burgess saith expresly That the Law is used as an effectual instrument of Sanctification Regeneration and Conversion And D. Taylor saith If a man be freed from the Law he may whore steal c. as if there were no power in the word of Grace and spirit to renew guide and keep us in the good wayes of God And to the third I say If hundreds teach not so then I am mistaken Who is now the forger of Calumnies whether they owne them or no. I avow them as I say Yet you say we never make the Law the efficient instrument of sanctification and you know it is otherwise They for whom you so plead and against whom for that cause we except have taught and published as I say Mr. Rutherf I cannot see that sanctification is any thing by Antinomian Doctrine but meer justification Reply You want eye-salve or will not see how often may you read them distinguished in the Assertion Mr. Rutherf Mr. T. passes by all guidance of the Saints by Commandment of Law or Gospel and tells us of a leading by a free Spirit onely So that by the Antinomian doctrine we are no more under the Gospel as a directing and Commanding rule then under law What hindereth then but Antinomian justification bids live as we list 2. A dead letter forbids no sin commands no duty but the Gospel without the Spirit is a dead letter as well as Law Reply 1. Is Mr. Rutherf guilty of denying all truths he never mentioneth but 2. The Assertion telleth you of a sanctifying vertue and power of the Spirit by the Gospel to subdue sin change the heart and freely dispose it to walk according to the rule of the Law this you read And under this dominion and guidance of this Evangelical spirit of Christ are all the Sons of God Rom. 8.18 What an indirect and undue inference then do you make saying We teach men to live as they lift First there is a change in their list and will from what they were The Spirit lusteth against the flesh Gal. 5. And 2. I tell you If this Spirit have not soveraignty over you and power to renew and guide you you will neither follow the rule of Law nor Gospel The unction leadeth into all truth You call the Gospel a dead Letter It s no Scripture-phrase which saith it s the ministration of the spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 yet it makes not against me at all Mr. Rutherf If by conformity to the law in the letter Mr. T. means external obedience without faith in Christ He knows Protestant Divines acknowledge no sound sanctification but that which is the natural issue and fruit of justification and flows from faith And such strict conformity to the law we hold to be true sanctification though all enemies to holy walking cry out against it such as are all mockers of all religion the Prelatical and Antinomian party who mock strait walking Reply Bona verba quaeso But 1. I know Protestant Divines hold sanctification to issue out of justifying faith and you cannot but know many who deny it and that some will have sanctification to be coetaneous unto yea to precede justification 2. If it be the issue and fruit of faith by which the heart believeth first to justification and salvation how is it that you teach strict conformity to be a necessary condition mean or way of salvation which by faith is attained in order before holy walking He that believeth is saved Abraham did believe and work both but he did onely by faith come to blessedness and so all his children Gal. 3.9 2. You are ill-transported when in your distemper you conjoyn us with the Prelatical party though I doubt not but amongst them were divers as sound for doctrine and life as in your party and make us both mockers and enemies to holy walking Sir doth the Law now regulate you when you are so far from charity and truth The Lord forgive and
through Christ we have entrance unto the Father and Eph. 3.12 By him we have boldness and entrance with confidence by faith in him If Mr. Rutherf object But these are not in full and absolute perfection where yet true faith may be Who saith so or who but Mr. Rutherf would so closely pervert the truth that I may retort his owne words Being justified by faith we have peace c. In whom believing ye rejoyce c. God hath begotten us againe to a lively hope c. Rom. 5.1 1 Pet. 1.3 8. Nay saith Mr. Rutherf This is a close perverting of the truth for he doubts not but that there are many weak believers of a trembling timerous and troubled spirit whose faith is not yet able to over-master their fears which cause torment and disquietness but I cease And Mr. Rutherf hereby smels our faith Reply Naribus utilis yet no unsavory errour And know it that it is the effect of the law of works upon the natural conscience and the unbelief of the Gospel that keep the soul in bondage through that slavish fear Mr. Rutherf ibid. The covenant of grace commands faith and also good works as witnesses of faith but Mr. T. will have good works in any Notion of an Evangelick command to stand at defiance with the covenant of grace Repl. What contend you for if you grant grace to be the fountain-cause of all holy walking then not the law 2. If it be a lively and free fountain then doth holiness issue out of it as a pleasant stream and how now do good works stand at defiance with the covenant of grace Besides it is said Catachrestiâ—â—s abusively and not properly that the covenant of grace commands faith and good works for it promiseth to give both to them who have power to neither Lastly these works are not done as conditions to obtain eternal life for that is said passim to be by faith without works faith for salvation good works for conversation Mr. Rutherf ibid. The man under the law cannot give himself to be ruled by the law after the minde and will of God as Mr. T. saith except Antinomians be Pelagians Reply It s a palpable wrong I have no such words as that a man under the law can give himself to be ruled by it after the mind and will of God you have a strange conscience that no better bridleth you though your affections be void of love to your Adversary I might more truely reply by your doctrine That a man under the law can do it for you free none from under it or else you are not ruled by it after the mind and will of God And that is most propable who now is the Pelagian But to deal plainly what say you of Paul and many zealous Jews who in earnest applied themselves to do the things of the Law so that Paul saith touching it he was blameless and that before his conversion to the faith To do it after the mind and will of God is your addition Mr. Rutherf Paul speaks of a man under the Law in the flesh and in opposition to that under Grace married to Christ he that is dead to the Law married to Christ and serves God spiritually And it 's clear the Apostle counts it a part of deliverance from the Law and a fruit of our marriage to Christ that we bring forth fruit to God walk holily and serve in newness of spirit Reply Jam convenimus What contend you for all is granted that I desire or said for 1. then Christ and not the Law as a husband makes fruitfull 2. Then there was a serving of God under the Law in the oldness of the letter 3. Where or how then find you me to be against holy walking and according to the rule of righteousness Is not this your false slander Assert How can Christ redeem us from the Law except in the same sense and extent that Christ was under it Mr. Rutherf 1. Christ was under the Law of Ceremonies I hope Gentiles were not under that Reply The question is of the moral and you talk vainly of ceremonial Mr. Rutherf If Christ was under the Law as a rule to free us from it why commands he to imitate him Reply Christ was under the Law for life even to obtaine favour and salvation for us so he is in the end of the Law for righteousness to all that believe 2. It is by his spirit and power any imitate him walking as he did and so do keep the Law as he did freely in love not for self-self-life or self-ends for so did Christ who sought not himself Assert pag. Mr. T. hath a strange evasion The spirit is free why will you controle and rule it by the Law whereas the nature of it is freely to conforme heart and life to the outward rule of the law without the help of the law as a crooked thing is made straight c. Mr. Rutherf To do the will of God meerly as commanded from the power of an outward commandment is legal saith Saltmatsh and Mr. T. saith it is to controul the free spirit Three means saith T. are passive to hear read receive Sacraments are so many restraints laid on the free spirit Reply I say again If the spirit rule you according to the Law then neither Law nor you do rule it but the Law is onely the rule or pattern according to which the Spirit formeth you What can be more plain to him that will see and grant any truth And this makes no contrariety but a sweet harmony between the word and the spirit yea and establisheth the Law by the faith and Spirit of the Gospel And here you would range us among the old Anabaptists Enthusiasts c. and love to expatiate having burst the banks and bounds of charity and truth I am not more strange to you then this is to me That you are of such a spirit 2. Where say I that meanes are passive The Spirit is pleased to blow sweetly by all Evangelical meanes as Preaching Prayer Sacraments c. and we rightly using them do carry our selves passively that the Spirit may thereby breath and give life to our Spirits and that we may have it more abundantly Mr. Rutherf What T. meaneth in saying The spirit freely conformeth the heart to it Reply The sense is easie and plain if your mind were not finister Mr. Rutherf If the meaning be that the Law of it self cannot convert a man to God Antinomians father most falsly such dreames on us but if the Spirit conform us to the outward rule of the Law then must the Law be yet a rule to our obedience Reply When you please you can spell out my meaning But 1. Whether it be your dream or no I leave it Yet you know that your Brethren so hold and teach and may be forced to own this brat or novell-assertion of theirs 2. As if Mr. Rutherf were in a dream he in his other book would seem
contrary Yet that both Tree and the Fruit the believer and his work are acceptable in Christ is no new divinity but according to Scripture and all the Orthodox Tit. 1.15 To the pure all things are pure Your Scriptures 1 Joh. 1.8 Jam. 3.2 do speak of works as proceeding from us not as presented in Christ who justifieth and freeth us from all the evil and filth cleaving to them I retort If God can accept of us or our performances out of Christ what need we then continually to deal with God in Christ 1 Pet. 1.6 Heb. 13.15 By him let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually Whatsoever you do in word or deed Do all things in the name of our Lord Jesus giving thankes to God even the Father by him Colos 3.17 But this is open wrong which you do us in saying that we hold works perfect simply in themselves or to be accepted for any worth or inherent dignity in them which is your doctrine rather we teach That Abels sacrifice was accepted by faith that is by Christ believed on and not for any merit in it Heb. 11.4 The Scriptures and Testimonies of the Orthodox which you read in the Assertion might have prevented all this labour if you had been so advised Consider that of Calvin in that l. 3. cap. 17. sect 8.9 Qua jam sequuntur bona opera Sepulto etiam imperfectionis vitio quod bona opera fedare folet quae fiunt a fidelinus b. opera justa confentur c. c. Those good works which follow after justification are esteemed and valued otherwise then by their own desert or dignity for whatever imperfection is in them it is covered with Christs perfection whatever blemish or filthiness in them it is cleansed by his purity lest it should be questioned or examined before Gods judgement seat Therefore saith he the fault of all our transgressions being blotted out whereby men are hindered from bringing forth any thing acceptable to God and the imperfection and defect which is wont to defile all good works being buried all the good works of the faithfull are acknowledged to be just c. Thus may all see how palpably you have mistaken me in this as in the other passages And how indirectly and falsly you do inferre That we may be justified by works or we make them meritorious c. whereas we say plainly that the person is first justified without and before all works and that then they become accepted and pleasing by the same way and reason that the person came into favour For as God stands and appears propitious to us in Christ and so his works and dealings with us and disposals of us be pleasing and welcome to us even so we being received and accepted in Christ what we do through him is pleasant to God but not because of any formal and intrinsecal dignity in the work So that we study to deal with God onely in Christ and are now incouraged unto all good works for who can have a heart to do any good work till he by faith know that he pleaseth God by Jesus Christ So Christ alone is exalted and magnified Salus semel donatur ut oporibus acquirenda non sit To seek Heaven by works and deservings is to wrong yea to shame Christs blood and unto such it is shed in vain When the Gospel is preached unto us we believe the mercy of God and in believing receive the Spirit the earnest of eternal life and be in eternal life already and feel in our hearts already the sweetness thereof and are overcome with the kindness of God and of Christ and therefore love the will of God and of love are ready to worke freely and not to obtain that which is given already and whereof we be heirs by Grace freely Tindall Martyr A brief REPLY to the Exceptions taken by Mr. Rutherford in his Tryal and Triumph of Faith against the supposed Antinomian Errours 1 Exception THe first Exception is against the Assert of Grace pag 112 113. Where it is said That Christ onely did bear our sinnes and the punishment of them so that the justified are not punished for sinne Mr. Rutherf answereth with a twofold distinction 1. Of justice legal and sinne revenging 2. Of a mixt justice which is in a Father and so saith That the sinnes of the Saints are not onely against the legal but also a wrong done against his mixt justice Where God doth punish their sinnes though not satisfactorily to his Law Reply 1. To assert a mixt justice is to temper and mingle Law and Gospel without warrant and to hold forth God in a Covenant made up both of free-grace and works which yet be inconsistent Rom. 11.6 2. Our Divines distinguish indeed between punishment and chastisement and so call these corrections of Children and not punishment properly for that every punishment is in some sort satisfactory And so will that be inferred which by them is objected against the Papists viz. If the Saints be punished for their sinnes temporally then Christ satisfied for pounds and left us to satisfie for pence 3. The true and intrinsecal nature and property of all justice offended requireth satisfaction so that our punishments must be satisfactory also so far as the sinne deserveth else who or what satisfieth doth this mixt justice take its pennyworth and full due out of the flesh and bones of Gods Children so as God neither can cease beating till he hath given all the stripes the fault deserveth and when correction is past then the Fathers justice is quieted 4. And if you put them under the Government of justice tempered with mildness and mercy which is Law Evangelized a new crotchet and dream then the Law of strict justice which is the decalogue is no longer a rule our sinnes must be no longer examined and measured by it but judged as they are offences of this mixt and fatherly justice So now Christ may be set aside we shall no more need him for Advocate neither is there use of faith when we sinne but our sufferings must in this condition pacifie not Christs passion that onely was of use and efficacy to bring us into this state and under this Government Who now are become the total abrogators of the Moral and pure Law yea and as it is a rule to live and walk by Can you tell us how much of justice and what a measure of mercy is in this new rule and Government But the result is That our sins after justification have a double relation and had but one before one to the strict Law and that Christ contented the other is to a milder justice against which our stripes must be opposed that by them we may be healed It s granted during the Mosaical-pedagogie there was some shew yea ground for somewhat but not for all that here you assert for God did in that dispensation veil his Paternity which now in Christ is done away And your Scriptures
his book I muse that men of wisdom and parts will so fight and contend against so mnnifest truths You grant the believer sinneth dayly and that every sinne yea least omission is Hell by the Law and thus he is dayly brought under reverence of Divine justice now how can that be and yet no condemnation or curse left in the Law Hell is but a fiction or a painted fire the man need not fear it though he sinne nor he need no Faith nor Christ to preserve and secure him Thus one of your Tenets cutteth the nerves of another 5 Exception same pag. Mr. Rutherf They object That holiness and good works be not the way to salvation Answ There be three things 1. the will of God to save 2. Jus or Law-right to salvation 3. Actual salvation Now touching this last holiness is the way to it Reply 1. The way by which we can onely go and enter into Heaven is that New living way dedicated by blood Heb. 10.20 21. In which way the soul can onely walk and continue by believing Hence it is said That through faith they inherite the promises Heb. 6.12 He that walketh in Christ is holy and walketh holily but he walketh not in Christ by his holy life As ye have received Christ so walk in him Colos 2.6 In walking or living holily we as it were move in another sphere by faith we live and walk in Christ and in the way of peace and life which is by his righteousness by love we walk the legal way of our own active righteousness saith Luther Doth not the Scripture call us to come to Christ to be found in him to abide walk and continue in him All which can only be effected by faith In this way the soul meeteth with the most and strongest temptations and oppositions which it resisteth and overcometh by faith alone 1 Pet. 5.8 9. 1 Joh. 5.4 You tell us what the faith of Libertines is It may be you know it and what your own is to you but if you censure and asperse them for Libertines who are not so whose condemnation is that be not so rash in judgeing they stand and fall to Christ not to you Rom 14.4 And if your faith which should elevate and carry up the soul unto Christ and the way of free justification by his grace for continual peace favour acceptance and everlasting salvation do yet let you seek and labour to receive all in the way of your own works and obedience it may well then be questioned Gal. 2.19 20 21. Further your expression is not home but falleth short when you say that Christ onely giveth a right to salvation Christ and salvation cannot be parted you would place Christ in the beginning salvation in the end and your good workes maketh the way and leadeth and guideth from Christ to salvation this is your divinity But eternal life is in Christ He that hath Christ hath life 1 Joh. 5.11 12. You may as well say A believer hath not Christ but onely hath a right to him now Christ dwelleth in the heart by faith Eph. 3. And his Kingdom is in you which is in righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 I am sure if you find and walk in a holy and clean way it is by faith or rather the blood of sprinkling cleanseth and maketh your way undefiled before God and no perfect obedience of yours But spiritual things are spiritually discerned Mr. Rutherf In answer to the fifth object The principle of Love and Law are not contrary Reply To work from a Law-principle is to work as a servant for hire Do and live but love is free and seeketh not her own 1 Cor. 13.5 You adde that the Law directing is not abolished by Grace or by Love Rep. True no more is the Law condemning for any thing you have yet or can shew We must still bear your indignities cast on us in your way but know full well that all your logick cannot number us amonst your old Libertines You delight your self in your witty expressions if you understand them it is well 6 Exception Of the Law converting the soul Reply In this you are one with Mr. Burgess also Read your answer there and study a second reply with him A legal reformation is no Gospel-conversion nor Christian sanctification Unto your answer of 6 Object I say I leave it to the Author because he is living and able also to satisfie you 7 Exception against Dr. Crisp Mr. Rutherf Dr. Crisp objects Christ putteth forth a general proclamation to all Answ It 's true the Gospel excepteth no man from pardon but the promise of the Gospel is not simply universal as if God intended all and every should be actually redeemed and saved 2. It 's most untrue that Christ belongeth to sinners as sinners for then Christ should belong to all unbelievers how obstinate soever Nay Christ belongs onely to sinners elected to glory and to believing sinners as believing in regard of actual union 3. It 's false that sinners as sinners receive Christ so should Judas receive him Onely believers receive him 4. It 's false that sinners as sinners believe in Christ This way of Libertines is a broad way for Sorcerers Theeves c. remaining in that damnable state to believe where as sinners as thus qualified are to believe that is humbled wearied self-condemned onely Reply You know that Dr. Cr. speaks onely of the proclamation and Gospel-tender which is to every creature Mark 16.15 and not of Gods intention which he granteth is onely to gather and save the elect Also you said a little before That the obligation of believing lyeth on all yea though they be damned so then the Gospel is to be preached indiscriminatim unto all for the obedience of faith Rom. 16.26 2. You here again pervert and restrain his meaning for he speaks of the free tender of Christ unto all and you say he is intended onely to sinners elected to glory This argueth a minde disposed to cavil and to let nothing pass without a Carp how pure soever Christ in the dispensation is to be preached and made known to unbelievers that they may become believers Gospel findeth not men believers it is well if it leave them so Faith cometh by hearing and after faith comes actual union To your 3. If sinners as sinners do believe then as sinners they receive Christ For what is it to believe but to receive Christ Joh. 1.12 Your expression is Christ belongs to believing sinners To receive is to take a thing offered or given as Joseph took unto himself Mary Matth. 1.30 So Rom. 5.11 To your 4. If sinners be wearied and self-condemned are they not sinners still Because they are sensbly so are they less so or not formally sinners Prove that further And though all be not so prepared or qualified yet it 's plain by your own confession before that they are bound to believe the obligation lieth on them 2. In