would be a greater blemish to the VVisdom and Justice of God than the necessity of Holiness to our Justification can be to the freeness of his Grace Having explained in what sense our Church rejects Good VVorks from the Office of Justifying viz. That nothing which we can do is so perfect as to merit and deserve Justification it is time to consider what our Church attributes to Faith in the Justification of a Sinner and upon what account she affirms That Faith only justifies And I cannot better explain this than in the words of the Homily it self which are these Truth it is that our own Works do not justifie us to speak properly of Iustification that is to say our Works do not merit or deserve remission of our sins and make us of unjust just before God But God of his own Mercy through the only Merits Deservings of his Son Iesus Christ doth justifie us Nevertheless because Faith doth directly send us to Christ for remission of our sins and that by Faith given us of God we embrace the Promise of Gods Mercy and of the remission of our sins which thing none other of our Vertues or Works properly doth therefore Scripture useth to say That Faith without VVorks doth justifie and forasmuch that it is all one Sentence in effect to say Faith without Works and only Faith doth justifie us therefore the old ancient Fathers of the Church from time to time have uttered our Iustification with this speech Only Faith justifieth us meaning none other thing than St. Paul meant when he said Faith without works justifieth us And because all this is brought to pass through the only Merits and Deservings of our Saviour Christ and not through our Merits or through the merit of any Vertue that we have within us or of any Work that cometh from us therefore in that respect of Merit and Deserving we forsake as it were altogether again Faith Works and all other Vertues For our own imperfection is so great through the corruption of original sin that all is unperfect that is within 〈◊〉 Faith Charity Hope Dread Thoughts Words and Works and therefore not apt to merit or deserve any part of our Iustification for us And this form of speaking use we in humbling of our selves to God and to give all the Glory to our Saviour Christ which is best worthy to have it These words are so plain that they need no comment and there are three things contained in them which do evidently declare the sense of our Church in this matter First That our Church does not attribute our Justification to Faith upon account of any Merit or Desert in Faith above other Vertues and Graces for in respect of Merit and Deserving we are taught to forsake again Faith it self as well as Works and all other Vertues As our Works do not merit or deserve remission of our sins no more does Faith Secondly That the reason why our Church attributes our Justification to Faith only is to declare that we owe our Justification wholly to the Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ That God of his own Mercy through the only Merits and Deservings of his Son Iesus Christ doth justifie us And thus immediately before we are told That the meaning of this Proposition or saying We be justified by Faith in Christ only according to the meaning of the old ancient Authors is this we put our Faith in Christ that we be justified by him only that we be justified by Gods free Mercy and the Merits of our Saviour Christ only and by no vertue or good VVorks of our own that is in us or that we can be able to have or to do for to deserve the same Christ himself only being the Cause meritorious thereof So that whoever attributes the Justification of a Sinner wholly to the Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ without any other intervening Merit or Desert though he may differ in the phrase and manner of expression yet does acknowledge all that our Church means by being justified by Faith only and cannot justly be charged with deserting or opposing the Doctrin of our Church And therefore Thirdly the true Reason why our Church attributes our Justification to Faith only and not to Justice or Charity or the Love of God or any other Grace or Virtue is this because Faith only connects the necessity of Obedience and a Holy Life with the Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ and thereby both secures and enforces our Duty and attributes the glory of all to Free Grace which is the great design of our Church For Justifying Faith according to the sense of our Church as abundantly appears from what I have discoursed above includes in its own nature Repentance and the Love of God and the sincere purposes of a new Life which as opportunity serves must actually produce all the Fruits of Righteousness for without this we cannot embrace the Promise of Pardon and Forgiveness which is made upon the condition of Repentance and a new Life But then it is the proper office of Faith when we have done our best to depend upon the Mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ to pardon our many sins and defects and to accept and reward our imperfect services which attributes the glory of all not to our Merits and Deserts but to the Grace and Mercy of God Thus our Church tells us that the reason why Faith only is said to justifie is because Faith doth directly send us to Christ for Remission of our Sins and that by Faith given us of God we embrace the Promise of Gods Mercy and of the Remission of our Sins which thing none other of our Virtues or Works properly doth That is Justice or Charity or any other Virtue doth not in its own nature include a dependence on the Grace and Mercy of God for its Acceptance and Reward and therefore should we be justified by these Virtues considered as distinct from Faith which alone embraces the Promise of Mercy we must be justified by their proper Merit and Desert not by the Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ. But now Faith is not only an active and vigorous Principle of a new Life but in its own nature includes a necessary dependence on the Promise of Pardon it sends to Christ for the Remission of our sins not immediately for this is not the first act of Faith but when we have done our best it teaches us to renounce the Merit of our own Works and to trust in the Mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ for our Pardon and Reward which ascribes the Praise of all to the Mercy of God Upon the same account our Church tells us that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Love Dread and the Fear of God to be joyned with Faith in every man that is justified but yet it shutteth them out from the office of Iustifying so that though they be all present in
Saviour with the necessity of obeying his Laws and being conformed to his Example that esteem and reverence we owe to the Person of Christ with a reverence for his Laws that no man might expect to be saved by Christ though he be infinitely gracious and compassionate and inherit all the boundless Perfections of the Deity without the practice of an universal Righteousness And therefore I showed that all those Considerations which did naturally result from the contemplation of the Person of Christ as he is the Eternal Son of God who was made Man and sent into the World to accomplish the work of our Redemption did necessarily engage us to obey his Laws but gave us no encouragement to expect any thing more from him upon his Personal account than what he hath promised in his Gospel This I observed was a plain demonstration of Gods love to Mankind that he sent so great and so dear a Person as his only begotten Son to save Sinners No man can doubt of Gods good will to Sinners who sees the Son of God cloathed with our flesh and dying as a Sacrifice for our sins and this gives relief to our guilty fears and encourages us to retrieve our past follies by new Obedience No man will return to his Duty without some hope of Pardon and Forgiveness for his past sins and the proper use of Gods love in sending Christ into the World is to conquer our Obstinacy and to encourage our Hopes Thus the greatness of Christs Person gives great Reverence and Authority to his Gospel and an inviolable Sanction to his Laws as the Apostle argues If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of Reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord Heb. 1. 2 3. And this gives great Authority to his Example and lays forcible obligations on us to imitate him who was not only our Saviour but God incarnate And this assures us of the infinite value of his Sacrifice and of the power of his Intercession God cannot but be pleased when his own Son undertakes to be a Ransom and to make Atonement for sinners which is so great a vindication of Gods Dominion and Soveraignty of the authority of his Laws and the wisdom and justice of his Providence that he may securely pardon humble and penitent sinners without reproaching any of his Attributes and we can desire no greater security for the performance of this Gospel-Covenant than that it was sealed with the blood of the Son of God And this is a great encouragement to return to God when we have such a powerful Advocate and Mediator to intercede for us But then we must expect no more from Christ upon account of his personal Excellencies and Perfections than what he hath promised in his Gospel Christ is the object of our Faith and Hope only as he is our Saviour and he is our Saviour in no other sense than as he is our Mediator and he mediates for us as our Priest that is in vertue of that Covenant which he hath sealed with his blood and therefore we have no reason to expect any thing from the Person of Christ which is not contained in his Covenant much less which contradicts it for that would be in effect to renounce his Mediation and to trust to the goodness of his Nature Christ will in his own Person accomplish all those Promises he hath made whether they concern the present assistances of his Grace or his Providence and Protection in this world or the future rewards of the next but we must learn what Christ will do for us and upon what terms not from the boundless Perfections and Excellencies of his Person but from the Declarations of the Gospel though the consideration of his Person who he is and how he lived and what he taught may convince any man that he will be a Saviour to none but those who live in the practise of that Righteousness of which he was a Preacher and Example Now to silence the clamors of some men who upbraided those Preachers who spent their greatest zeal in expounding the Laws of Christ and in pressing men by all the Motives and Arguments of the Gospel the Sacrifice and Mediation of Christ the necessity of a good Life to make men happy hereafter and the many great advantages of Holiness here c. to the practise of an universal Righteousness I say to silence the clamors of those who upbraided such Preachers with not preaching Christ I considered in the next place what it is to know Christ and so consequently what it is to preach Him and the sum of it was this That to know Christ is to be acquainted with that Revelation which Christ hath made of Gods will to the world For as in former ages God made himself known by the light of Nature and the works of Creation and Providence and those partial and occasional Revelations of his Will which he made to good men now in these last days he hath sent his Son into the world to declare his Will to us And therefore the only useful knowledge is to understand those Revelations which Christ hath made of Gods Will the necessary consequence of which is that he who expounds the Laws and Doctrine of the Gospel does in the most proper sense preach Christ as Philip is said to preach Christ to the Samaritans Act. 8. 5. which in ver 12. is called Preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Iesus Christ that is the whole Doctrine of the Gospel The whole Christian Religion is the Knowledge of Christ and the Laws of Righteousness and the Motives to Obedience as principal a part as any because this was the ultimate design of Christs coming into the world to reform mens lives and to prepare them for the happiness of the next world by transforming them into a Divine Nature All that Christ did and suffered was only in order to this end and then we understand all those mysteries of the Incarnation and Death and Intercession of Christ as much as is necessary to the purposes of Religion when we understand what obligations they lay on us to a holy Life and feel their power and vertue in renewing and sanctifying our minds In the next place I observed that the foundation of the greatest and most dangerous mistakes was laid in a wrong notion of our Union to Christ of which some men discourse in such uncouth and Cabbalistical terms as no Body can understand and therefore I endeavoured to state the true notion of our Union to Christ and Communion with him And the sum of it is this that those Metaphors which describe our union to Christ do primarily refer to the Christian Church not to every individual Christian as Christ is the Head and the Church or whole Society of Christians his Body a Husband and
by Christ till we are united to him and we are not united to him till we obey him this gives the glory of all to Christ because we are justified for his sake by vertue of our Union to him and yet vindicates the necessity of a holy Life because this is essential to our Union to Christ. And this is the sum of whatever I asserted concerning the Necessity of Good Works to our Justification not that they can merit any thing of God but that they are the necessary conditions of the Covenant of Grace which was purchased and sealed by the Blood of Christ or in other words that they are necessary to our Union with Christ and thereby to give us an interest in all those Promises of Pardon and Grace and Eternal Life which Christ hath made to his Church The Righteousness of Christ is our Righteousness when we speak of the Foundation of the Covenant by which we are accepted but if we speak of the terms of the Covenant then we must have a Righteousness of our own not to merit Justification or Eternal Life but to entitle us to the Grace and Mercy of the New Covenant or which is all one to unite us to Christ by whom and for whose sake we are justified to say that Obedience to the Laws of the Gospel a new Nature and Holiness of Life are the necessary conditions of our Justification by Christ and to say that they are essential to our Union to Christ by whom we are justified are different forms of Speech but signifie the same thing because Christ justifies none but those who are united to him and none are united to him but by Faith and Obedience and so e converso those who believe and obey the Gospel are in so doing united to Christ and they and none else shall be justified by him which gives a plain account how the Virtue and Merit of all is due to Christ because we are justified by our relation to him and explains the meaning of those phrases of receiving Christ and coming to him for Life and Salvation and believing in him which signifies our being united to him by a sincere Faith and Obedience which is necessarily required of all those who would be justified by him In the last Chapter I give a short account of the nature of Christs love to us and of our love to Christ that no man might mistake the love of Christ for a fond and easie passion nor think to please him with some heats and raptures of Fancy instead of the substantial Returns of Duty and Obedience the sum of which in short is this that Christ expressed a wonderful and stupendious Love in dying for us especially in dying for us while we were his Enemies upon which account the Scripture every where magnifies the love of Christ but though this were the greatest yet it is not the only expression of his love but he manifests the same good will in all the methods of his Grace and Providence he is an easie and gentle Governour who rules with the natural tenderness and compassion of a Shepherd a Husband a Head a Friend He pities our weaknesses and infirmities and is ready to help and succour us he is now ascended up to Heaven where he personally intercedes for us and with his own hand dispences all those Blessings to us which we want and pray for in his Name And he who loved Sinners so as to die for them must needs take pleasure in good men and dwell with them as one Friend dwells with another Iohn xiv 21 23. Christ will in a more especial manner be present with such good men who are careful in all things to obey him and will give very sensible demonstrations of his presence with them will manifest himself unto them and make his abode with them And now in return to this we must consider that Christ is our Superiour our Lord and Master and therefore our love to Christ must not express it self in a fond and familiar passion such as we have for our Friends and Equals but in a great Reverence and Devotion Superiors must be treated with Honour and Respect and therefore our love to our Parents and Superiors in the Fifth Commandment is called Honour and the same religious Affection to God which is sometimes called Love is at other times called Fear which signifies a Reverential Love or a Love of Honour Reverence and Devotion and therefore the external Expressions of our love to our Saviour are as various as the Expressions of Honour and must bear some respect to the nature and condition of the Person and that relation we stand in to him Christ being the only begotten Son of God we must have regard to the Greatness and Excellency of his Person Since he became Man and died for us we must admire and praise his Goodness He being our Mediator and Advocate we must trust and confide in him and expect the returns of our Prayers and all other Blessings from the prevalency of his Intercession He being our Prophet and Law-giver we must express our Love to him in a belief of his Gospel and a sincere Obedience to his Laws as Christ requires of his Disciples If you love me keep my Commandments And when we consider our Saviour as our Guide and Example the truest expression of our Love and Honour is to imitate him to live as he lived in the World And that which perfects our Love is an undaunted Courage and Resolution in professing the Faith of Christ whatever Dangers and Miseries it may expose us to in this world For there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear These are the proper expressions of our love to Christ which are summarily comprehended in believing his Gospel and obeying it for to be a true Lover of Christ signifies neither more nor less than to be a good Christian. This is a faithful account of the Design and Doctrine of my Book which hath raised so much Noise and Clamour and hath sharpened the Pens and Tongues of so many against me but it is a vain attempt to think to out-face the Sun these are such bright and glorious Truths as will out-shine all the New Lights of present or former Ages and command belief from all honest and inquisitive Minds by their own natural Evidence The Doctrines which I designedly opposed in that Discourse are such as contradict these great Truths or at least such as I apprehended to do so either expresly or in their immediate consequences and because this is the principal thing which has anger'd so many men whose Cause and Reputation are concerned in the quarrel I shall give some brief account what those Doctrines are and in what sence I reject them which I hope may silence those scandalous reports as if I had struck at the very foundations of Christianity And first whereas I observed that to know Christ signifies the belief and knowledge of those Revelations which Christ
Paul tells us The works of the flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such-like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. v. 19 20 21. I say must these and such-like places which so expresly denounce the wrath of God against all wickedness and impieties be expounded with this limitation that this shall be the portion of such men unless they be united to Christ and thereby sheltered from the wrath of God as a Wife under covert is secured from all Arrests at Law But as soon as any man hath got into Christ let him be what he will he is redeem'd from the curse of the Law and made an Heir of Eternal Life And does not this effectually evacuate all the Threatnings of the Gospel and set up the Person of Christ as a Refuge and Sanctuary for the Ungodly and make the Grace of Christs Person a Dispensation from his own Laws and Threatnings I am sure the Apostle understood not this limitation as is plain from what he adds vers 24. And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And in Rom. viii 1. There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus and that we might not mistake him he expresly tells us whom he means who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit This is essential to our Union to Christ and to entitle us to the Grace of the Gospel And it is not enough to say that Christ will save none but those who do live very holy lives because there is no reason for this saying for if men are united to Christ before they are holy their very Union to Christ gives them a title to eternal Life and this can never be reconciled with the antecedent necessity of Holiness which the Gospel inculcates not only to qualifie us for actual Salvation but to give us a right to it and therefore I had good reason to reject this notion of Union unless I would renounce the whole Gospel I reject such a notion of Union as makes it impossible for any man to â—â—ow either how to get into Christ or whether he be in Christ or not and I think every man who values the salvation of his soul or the peace and comfort of his own mind hath reason to reject this too I reject such a notion of Sanctification as makes it impossible to distinguish a sanctified from an unsanctified state I reject such a notion of Christs love to us as represents it too like a fond and foolish passion as respects the very Person without regard to any Qualifications in him whether he be a fit object of love or not which is so great an imperfection in humane love that I cannot imagine it to be the perfection of a Divine Love And I reject such a notion of the immutability of Christs love as sin it self cannot alter which is contrary to all the Declarations of his Gospel and inconsistent with the Holiness and Purity of his Nature I reject such a notion of our love to Christ as excludes all respect to the infinite love of Christ and those numerous Benefits we receive by him which the Scripture assigns as the true reason of our love to Christ. I reject such a notion of love to Christ as excludes all regard to our own Happiness and Salvation by him and must make us contented to be damned and eternally separated from him which is not only impossible to humane Nature but contrary to the Principles of Christianity I reject such a notion of our love to Christ as opposes our Love to Christ to our Duty and Obedience to him which is the most proper and natural expression of our love of him such a love as consists only in some flights of fancy and imagination in admiring and valuing the Person of Iesus Christ and in preferring him above all Legal Righteousness and blamelesness of Conversation and Duties upon Conviction and in using all Duties and Ordinances only to have us over to Christ for Righteousness and Salvation and whatever we need for this is no better than to set up the Person of Christ in opposition to his Laws and Religion This is a short and plain account of the whole Doctrine and Design of my late Discourse and the more I consider it the less reason I see to repent of my Undertaking The Doctrines I have professedly taught are the most necessary and useful Doctrines of Christianity and so plain and evident that a younger man than my self may defend them against the oldest Sophister And the Doctrines that I have opposed are as certainly false as the other are true That such Doctrines have been taught I have made it sufficiently evident already by the express Testimonies of some late Writers and because Doctor Owen is unwilling to own the Charge as far as he is concerned in it I must be forced to make it good in vindication of my own Honesty and that is all the trouble which he has given me Only I would desire the Reader to observe that since the Doctor disowns the Charge he renounces such Doctrines too and that was all I designed I have no personal quarrel with any man and should be glad to find them more Orthodox than their express words would ever suffer me yet to believe they are though I fear much that upon Examination it will appear that I understood them too well and that the Doctor is not willing to recant those Doctrines which he would seem to disown There is some reason to suspect this because he is not willing to declare his sense in plain words but endeavours to avoid the blow by jugling and sophistical Arts as will appear in what follows CHAP. II. Containing an ANSWER to some Popular Exceptions NExt to no Adversary the most desirable thing is to have a fair and ingenuous one but this must never be expected where men serve a Faction which makes them try all ways not to discover what is true but how they may palliate their mistakes and maintain their Authority and Reputation It is my unhappiness to fall into such mens hands who wanting better Weapons to defend their Cause return to their old childish tricks of flinging stones and dirt I am not so well skilled at this sport as to venture to engage with them nor shall I envy them such a Victory which will cost them some time and trouble to make themselves clean again There are several familiar Topicks of Reproach which such men use when they dare not directly engage in the Dispute They have a peculiar Gift of discerning thoughts and intentions and there never was any Book writ which they could not answer but it was writ with a very ill design Thus the Doctor would
put to it when they are forc'd to take Sanctuary in the Authority of that Church which they so much reproach and vilifie when they dare not trust to any other Weapon to defend their Cause but the despised name of the Church of England Those I am sure must be very blind who cannot see through so transparent a Cheat. The meaning then of all this noise about the Church of England is no more but this They are conscious to themselves of a bad Cause which they can no longer defend by plain Scripture and Reason and therefore shelter themselves in the Authority of the Church and would fain perswade the Bishops and the Church of England to defend them since they cannot defend themselves and having little else to say they make long Harangues about Articles and Homilies and pretend a mighty Zeal for the True Ancient and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of England And now methinks the Church of England and the Reverend Bishops are very much beholden to me for they have not had so many good words from these men in many years before and must never expect the like again but upon such another occasion and I hope the People will begin to consider what a Church they have forsaken whose Authority is much greater than all other Arguments with their own Teachers But I see it is very dangerous to be too much in love with any thing for this great zeal and passion for the Doctrine of the Church of England has betrayed the Doctor and his good Friend the Author of the Speculum to some hasty Sayings of which it may be they may see cause to repent when they are better advised They are great Friends you must know to Liberty and Indulgence and take it very ill if they may not only think and act as they please in matters of Religion but make Parties and Factions too and controul the Commands of Secular Powers and yet these very men who so much extol and magnifie an Indulgence and so much need it give plain intimations how far they would be from granting that Liberty to others which they challenge to themselves The Doctor tells me There is great reason to pity the People committed to my Charge what regard soever ought to be had unto my self i. e. though I should starve for want of my Rectorship as he expresses himself elsewhere Had this man in their days treated this Doctrine with his present scoffing petulancy he had scarce been Rector of St. George Buttolph-Lane c. Nor should I be so now could he hinder it But what becomes of Liberty and Indulgence then in matters of Religion Must the Conscience be set free in matters of External Order and Government but tied up in Doctrines and Opinions This indeed is the Doctors avowed Principle as great a Friend as he is to Liberty He would be excused himself from subscribing Three of the XXXIX Articles but as for the other XXXVI he would have no man suffered to live in England who will not subscribe them and the Doctor can remember when he proposed this very unseasonably The Author of the Speculum desires his Friend to bid me consider whether if the Parliament should meet they might not find leisure enough to censure my Discourse as they did Mr. Mountague ' s who in vain pleaded for himself that he had writ against the Puritans and was left alone to suffer though others had instigated him to write The Commons of England will scarce endure to find the Doctrine of the Church of England struck at though it be through the sides of Dr. Owen and Dr. Jacomb But now suppose the Commons of England should think it as reasonable to secure the Government and Discipline as the Doctrine of the Church what would become then of Indulgence Would not our Author then change his Note and repent of such Intimations as these Or if the Commons of England should happen to have other thoughts of that Discourse than our Author has and should think it necessary to prevent the Debauching of Mens Minds by such corrupt Doctrines as are there opposed what would become of most of the Conventicles in England Could he with any Confidence then cry out of Persecution when he himself hath sounded the Alarm to it This it is to fence with a two-edged Sword which cuts both ways and may wound a Friend as soon as an Enemy This is sufficient in answer to my Adversaries who are well skill'd at drawing up a Charge but have no faculty at proving it But I think my self upon this occasion concerned to vindicate the Doctrine of the Church of England from the mis-representations of these men as if it favoured such uncouth and absurd notions as besides the ill consequences of them have no foundation in Scripture or Reason which I doubt may represent the best Church in the World to great disadvantage with many I mean with all wife and considering men The principal thing which these Men object against me is the Doctrine of Justification as it is explained in the Articles and Homilies of our Church And I am contented the Controversie should be put upon this issue whether they or I speak most consonantly to the Doctrine of the Church of England in this matter The Doctrine of Justification is contained in Article XI which is this We are accounted Righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Merits and Deservings Wherefore that we are Iustified by Faith only is a most wholsom Doctrine and very full of comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Iustification The Article is plain and expressed in a few words without any Scholastical Subtilties we are not clogged here with the several Modes of Causality with the Efficient Formal Material Instrumental Causes of Justification which fill up every Page in the Books of Modern Divines All that our Church requires us to profess is only this that we are accounted Righteous before God only by Faith and for the Merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that neither Faith nor Works are the Meritorious Cause of our Justification but that all the Merit of it is to be attributed to Christ who died for our sins and fulfilled the Law so that whoever acknowledges the Merits of Christ and denies the Merits of Good Works answers the end and design of this Article For this was the great Controversie of those days between the Papists and Protestants whether we were Justified freely by the Grace of God and the Merits of Christ or by the Merits of our own Works and the principal design of this Article was to oppose the Popish Doctrine of the Merit of Good Works But we are referred to the Homily of Justification for a larger Account of this Doctrine and thither I willingly appeal And to proceed with all possible ingenuity I readily acknowledge that there are several Expressions in
Homily by many Scripture-Promises and Examples and therefore we must consider what our Church means by Repentance and the explication of this is reduced to four principal Points From what we must return to whom we must return by whom we may be able to convert and the manner how to turn to God First From whence or from what things we must return and that is From all our sins not only grosser vices but the filthy lusts and inward concupiscences of the Flesh. All these things must they forsake that will truly turn unto the Lord and repent aright For sith for such things the wrath of God cometh upon the Children of Disobedience no end of punishment ought to be look'd for as long as we continue in such things But this must be done by Faith for sith that God is a Spirit he can by no other means be apprehended and taken hold upon That is God being a Spirit we cannot see him with bodily Eyes nor go to him on our Legs nor take hold of him with an Arm of Flesh and therefore this Metaphor of returning to God and going to him and taking hold of him must be expounded to a spiritual sense is the work of Faith which discovers him who is invisible and unites our Souls and Spirits to him And We have need of a Mediator for to bring and reconcile us unto him who for our sins is angry with us the same is Jesus Christ who being true and natural God c. took our nature upon him that so he might be a Mediator between God and us and pacifie his wrath In the second part of the Homily we have this general Description of Repentance That it is a true Returning unto God whereby men forsaking utterly their Idolatry and Wickedness do with a lively Faith embrace love and worship the true living GOD only and give themselves to all manner of good Works which by Gods Word they know to be acceptable unto him And we are there informed That there are four Parts of Repentance the first is Contrition of the Heart For we must be earnestly sorry for our sins and unfeignedly lament and bewail that we have by them so grievously offended our most bounteous and merciful God c. The second is an unfeigned Confession and acknowledging of our sins to God The third is Faith whereby we do apprehend and take hold upon the Promises of God touching the free pardon and forgiveness of our sins which Promises are sealed up unto us with the death and blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Reason of this is because Contrition and Confession will avail us nothing unless we stedfastly believe and be fully perswaded that God for his Son Jesus Christs sake will forgive us all our sins for though we be never so earnestly sorry for our sins and acknowledge and confess them yet all these things shall be but means to bring us to utter desparation except we do stedfastly believe that God our heavenly Father will for his Son Jesus Christs sake pardon and forgive us our Offences and Trespasses and utterly put them out of remembrance in his sight therefore they that teach Repentance without Christ and a lively Faith in the Mercy of God do only teach Cains or Iudas Repentance That is they teach men to be sorry for their sins without any hopes of Pardon and Forgiveness which is only to be obtained through our Lord Jesus Christ. The fourth part of Repentance is an amendment of Life in bringing forth fruits worthy of Repentance for they that do truly repent must be clean alter'd and changed they must become New Creatures they must be no more the same that they were before As appears from Iohn the Baptists Exhortation to the Scribes and Pharisees whereby we do learn that if we will have the wrath of God to be pacified we must in no wise dissemble but turn unto him again with a true and sound Repentance which may be known and declared by good Fruits as by most sure and infallible signs thereof This I think is as plain as words can make it that Repentance which consists in a hearty sorrow for all our sins and in a humble Confession of them to Almighty God and in a sincere Faith and Trust in the Mercies of God through our Lord Jesus Christ together with an actual amendment of our lives is according to the sense of our Church absolutely necessary to obtain the pardon of our sins that is Iustification by the free Grace of God This has often made me wonder that any one should affix such a Doctrine as this to the Church of England That Repentance it self is not antecedently necessary to our Iustification I am sure the Learned Bishop Davenant was of another mind in this point for he expresly asserts that there are some Works sine quibus Iustificatio nunquam fuit ab ullo mortalium obtenta nunquam obtinebitur without which Justification never was and never shall be obtained by any mortal man among which he reckons true Repentance and Faith and the love of God and of our Neighbour Haec hujusmodi opera cordis interna sunt omnibus justificatis necessaria non quod contineant in se efficaciam seu meritum Iustificationis sed quod juxta ordinationem divinam vel requiruntur ut conditiones praeviae seu concurrentes sicuti poenitere credere vel ut effecta à fide justificante necessario manantia ut amare Deum c. i. e. These and such-like internal Works of the Heart are necessary to all that are justified not that they are meritorious Causes of Justification but because according to the Divine Appointment they are required either as previous or concurring conditions such as Repentance and Faith or as effects which necessarily flow from a justifying Faith such as to love God c. Where this Learned Prelate doth expresly assert that Repentance as well as Faith is a previous Condition of our Justification and I fear will hereafter be accounted one of our Innovators And that distinction which the Bishop makes between those Works which are required as previous Conditions of Justification as to repent and believe and those Works which are necessary Effects of justifying Faith which must always be present in the justified Person as to love God c. gives a plain and easie answer to the grand Exception against the antecedent necessity of Repentance to our Justification viz. Because then it must precede Faith it self I suppose because every true Believer is actually justified in the first instant of his being a true Believer whereas all good Works and therefore Repentance and Contrition which are certainly good Works are the Effects and Fruits of Faith and so consequently must follow our Justification by Faith unless we will place the Effects before their Cause But this is absolutely false that all good Works are the effects and fruits of justifying Faith for there are some good Works which
him that is justified yet they justifie not all together Where by these good Works being joyned with Faith and being present in him that is justified is meant that they are essential to a Justifying Faith and must be present as antecedent qualifications or conditions without which God will not justifie us as appears from what I have discourst above concerning the nature of Justifying Faith which includes Repentance and the Love of God c. as antecedently necessary to our embracing the Promise of Pardon and Forgiveness which is not the first but the last and completing act of Faith For if these good Works be not one way or other necessary to our Justification no reason can be assigned why they should be present in him that is justified for Faith might then justifie alone without the Presence as well as without the Merit and Efficacy of our good Works And therefore when Faith is said to shut out these good Works from the office of Iustifying that though they be all present yet they do not justifie all together the design is not to deny the Necessity but the Merit of good Works This is plain from the Reason which is immediately assigned why these good Works cannot justifie because all the good Works we can do be imperfect and therefore not able to deserve our Iustification which is the constant Doctrin of the Homilies For our Church by Justification perpetually understands a meritorious and not a conditional Justification and therefore whatever justifies in this sense must by its own Virtue or Merit expiate our sins which is the reason alledged why no man can make himself righteous that is justifie himself by his own Works neither in part nor in the whole for that were the greatest Presumption in Man that Antichrist could set up against God to affirm that a man might by his own Works take away and purge his own sins and so justifie himself SO that is by the Merit and Virtue of his own Works And Faith it self considered as our own Act hath no greater privilege upon this account than any other Grace or Virtue for in respect of Merit and Deserving we forsake altogether again Faith Works and all other Virtues Faith does not justifie as our own Act that is it does not merit our Justification as it must do if it justifie as our own Act which in the sense of our Church signifies that we do something so meritorious as to deserve Justification at Gods hands But now Iustification is the office of God only and is not a thing which we render to him that is we can offer him nothing of our own to merit our Justification but which we receive from him not which we give to him but which we take of him by his free Mercy and by the only Merits of his dearly beloved Son our only Redeemer Iustifier and Saviour Iesus Christ. But for this reason Faith only is said to justifie and to shut out our own Works and itself also considered as our own Act from the office of justifying because though it strongly enforce the Necessity of good Works yet in its own nature it excludes all opinion of Merit and Desert For Faith has a necessary respect to the Promise of Mercy and Forgiveness and whoever acknowledges that he ows his Justification to the Mercy of God who for the sake of Christ pardons his Sins and rewards his Imperfect Services as all those must do who hope to be saved by Faith in the notion of our Church does plainly confess that his Works are imperfect and cannot deserve his Justification which takes away all opinion of Merit from our selves and attributes the glory of all to the Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ. I shall only observe three things from this Discourse which are very material to our present purpose First that our Church was not acquainted with that Distinction in the modern sense of it that we are justified fide solâ but not solitariâ by Faith alone but not by that Faith which is alone the meaning of which according to some Modern Divines is this That we are justified only by that particular Act of Faith which apprehends the Righteousness of Christ and relies and rolls itself on Christ for Salvation and applies his Merits and Righteousness to the Soul without any regard to Repentance and the Love of God or any other Grace or Virtue That though at the same time God infuse the habits of all Graces and Virtues into a justified person yet in the Act of justifying he hath no regard at all to Repentance or any other Grace but we are justified in order of nature before these are infused into us and without any respect to them And some men would willingly affix this Notion as absurd as it is to our Church because she only requires the presence of these Graces and Virtues in the justified person but shuts them out from the office of Justifying But I have made it appear that these words admit a better sense and that Justification by Faith only in the modern Notion of it so as to exclude the antecedent Necessity of Repentance or any other internal Grace or Virtue is contrary to the constant doctrin of our Church which requires the presence of these Graces as antecedent conditions or qualifications though it shut them out from being the meritorious Causes of Justification And to confirm this I observe secondly that our Church doth not attribute our Justification to any particular Act of Faith She frequently indeed inculcates the embracing of the Promise of Pardon and Forgiveness as essential to a justifying Faith but the reason of that is not because that particular Act justifies us but to attribute our Justification not to the Merit of our own works but to the Mercy of God But she expresly affirms that Faith doth not justifie as our own Act that Justification is not the office of Man but of God and if we be not justified by Faith as our own Act much less can any particular Act of Faith which if it be considered as an Act must be considered as our own Act justifie which overthrows that Instrumentality of Faith in Justification which these men talk of but the plain meaning of our being justified by Faith only is this that God will pardon our sins and reward us with eternal life if we repent of our sins and believe and obey the Gospel of his Son trusting wholly in the Mercies of God and in the Merits and Mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ as it is exprest at large in the Homily That the true understanding and meaning of our being justified by Faith without Works or by Faith in Christ only is this that although we hear Gods Word and believe it although we have Faith Hope Charity and do never so many good Works thereunto yet we must renounce the Merit of all the said Virtues of Faith Hope Charity and all other Virtues and good deeds which
Wisdom as he has reveled those hidden Treasures of the Divine Wisdom which were conceled from former ages but we must not go immediately to the Person of Christ for this Wisdom but we must search for it in the Gospel where it is reveled and beg those divine Assistances which are necessary to enlighten our minds and to bless our Studies and Enquiries Thus we must receive all supernatural Aids and Assistances from Christ to renew and sanctifie our Natures and to make us holy as God is Christ hath by his Death purchast the Gift of the Holy Spirit for those who believe but we must not expect to receive these vital Influences from Christ by such a natural conveyance as water flows out of a fountain or as the animal Spirits are communicated to the Members of the natural Body but we must consider and meditate and affect our minds with all the Motives and Arguments of our Religion and derive strength and power from the consideration of Christs Death and Sufferings and Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and Intercession for us at Gods right hand c. to mortifie our Lusts and to transform us into a Divine Nature We must read and pray and watch and fast and communicate at the Lords Table and by these means put our selves under the guidance and conduct of the Divine Spirit who will never fail to do his part when we are so diligent in doing ours But a bare trust and reliance on the Person of Christ will not entitle us to his Divine Aids no more than a presumptuous Dependence on the Providence of God will secure a slothful man from want and beggery Christ is the fountain of all spiritual life but we must not look on this as a personal Grace in Christ which must be immediately derived from his Person but as an act of Goodness and Power in the Administration of his spiritual Kingdom which is therefore dispensed in such regular ways that every one that pleases may certainly know how to obtain it and that no man must expect it any other way But now those Persons whom I oppose if we may judge of their meaning by their words send sinners immediately to Christ for Life and Righteousness for Wisdom and Power c. and make all these personal Graces which must be derived immediately from the Person of Christ when indeed they are no other than the effects of his Prophetical Priestly or Regal Offices in publishing the Will of God to us or in expiating our Sins or in governing his Church and dispensing his Grace in such ways and methods as he has prescribed in the Gospel And therefore as I observed in my former Discourse they have either found out a new Person for Christ distinct from his Godhead and Manhood or which comes to the same thing have drest up the Person of Christ with such personal Graces as do not belong to his Person as God-Man but are the effects of his Mediation And here the Doctor and Mr. Ferguson and the rest of my Opponents raise a great cry and tell the world that what I charge them with as a Fault that they have found out a Person for Christ distinct from his Godhead and Manhood they think not to have done it would have been as far from Wit as Truth because the Person of Christ is of a distinct consideration from his Godhead and Manhood And here they Philosophize at large concerning the Notion of Suppositum and Persona and Hypostasis and are glad with all their hearts to find an occasion to avoid the true Question Now I readily grant that this was not warily exprest to prevent the cavilling humor of those men who have no other way to escape but by taking Sanctuary in such Retreats though what I immediately add was sufficient to inform them what I meant by it had they any mind to understand it that they distinguish the Person of Christ as Mediator from his Person as God-Man and cloath this Person with such personal Graces as belong neither to his Divine nor Human Nature nor to the Union of both Thus they talk of the Fulness and Riches and Beauty and Loveliness and Righteousness and Wisdom and Power and Grace and Mercy of Christ as personal Graces inherent in him and derived immediately from his Person to us whereas I made it appear by a particular examination of those Scripture-phrases that all this is attributed to Christ either with respect to his Doctrin or Sacrifice or Mediation and Intercession for us that they are the effects of his several Offices not properly the Graces of his Person unless they will make his Mediatory Office a distinct Person And therefore we must expect to receive the Communications of his Fulness or Riches or Righteousness or Grace or Wisdom not from a bare Union to his Person but by believing and obeying his Gospel and in the conscientious use of such means as God hath appointed for the conveyance of Grace and the Communication of all Spiritual Blessings to us This I called dressing up the Person of the Mediator with all those Personal Graces and Excellencies which may make him a fit Saviour that those who are thus united to his Person need not fear missing of Salvation This the Doctor thinks prophane because the Preparation of the Person of Christ to be a fit and meet Saviour for Sinners which I prophanely compare to the dressing up of of what good Sir Speak out and let us know the worst is the greatest most glorious and admirable effect that ever infinite Wisdom Goodness Power and Love wrought and produced or will do so to eternity Very right God's fitting Christ to be a meet Saviour for Sinners was an admirable effect of Wisdom and Power but this new Dress they have put our Saviour into contains the greatest Mystery of Iniquity and Antinomianism that ever was invented and I hope it is no Prophaneness to reprove such an uncouth Metamorphosis of our Saviours Person And here once for all I shall desire my Readers to taken notice of their great Artifice in perverting my Words either into Prophaneness or Non-sense that whatever I speak against that odd and Phantastical Representation which they make of the Person of Christ they interpret as spoken against Christ himself God-Man which is just as if a man who argues against a false and absurd Notion of a Deity should be charged with Atheism or with Blasphemy against God And that no man may any longer think that this Religion of Christs Person as it is distinguisht from the Religion of his Gospel is a peculiar Conceit and Invention of my own as the Doctor would fain persuade his Readers it is I shall now make it appear that this Distinction between the Person and Gospel of our Saviour is so far from being imaginary that it is the very foundation of Antinomianism Thus the Antinomians lay the foundation of their Religion in winning and wooing People unto
we consider the object of this consideration which is to free men from all errors and darkness and that is the Person of Christ his Offices and his Work this is the very thing I charged him with that he affirmed we must attain to a saving knowledge of Divine Truths from a consideration of the Person of Christ and what he had done and suffered for us so that I hope every one will now believe that this was no Calumny From Christs Authrority as King he observes p. 22. Men not considering the Authority of Christ either as instituting the Ordinances of the Gospel or as judging upon their neglect or abuse are careless about them or do not acquiesce in his pleasure in them This hath proved the ruine of many Churches who neglecting the Authority of Christ have substituted their own in the room thereof The consideration therefore of this Kingly Legislative Authority of the Lord Christ by men as to their present duty and future account must needs be an effectual means to preserve them in the truth and from backslidings From the faithfulness of Christ as Prophet he observes the same thing He being then ultimately to reveal the will of God and being absolutely faithful in his so doing is to be attended unto Men may thence learn what they have to do in the Church and Worship of God even to observe and to do whatever he hath commanded and nothing else This is the very first Principle of Phanaticism which undermines the most prudent Orders and wholsom Constitutions of any Church and is another instance of this way of Reasoning from the knowledge of Christ to discover those important Truths which the Gospel no where expresly teaches Neither Christ nor his Apostles have any where told us that we must do nothing in the Worship of God but what Christ hath expresly commanded but this we must learn from an acquaintance with the Person and Offices of Christ from his Authority as King and Faithfulness as Prophet which if we will believe the Doctor have left no room for the exercise of Humane Authority nor for the use of humane Prudence in Church-Affairs But all this the Doctor spake without an Adversary let us now consider how he explains his own meaning in his Answer to my Discourse which you may find in pag. 33 34. where he first denies That he ever taught any other knowledge of Christ or acquaintance with his Person but what is revealed and declared in the Gospel This as I observed above I never charged him with and he himself seems to be sensible of it and therefore adds Yet I will mind this Author of that whereof if he be ignorant he is unfit to be a Teacher of others and which if he deny he is unworthy the name of a Christian this is a dangerous Dilemma for I confess I am not at present disposed either to part with my Rectorship or my Christianity and therefore let us hear what it is namely that by the knowledge of the Person of Christ the great Mystery of God manifest in the flesh as revealed and declared in the Gospel we are led into a clear and full understanding of many other Mysteries of Grace and Truth which are all Centred in his Person and without which we can have no true nor sound understanding of them I shall speak it yet again that this Author if it be possible may understand it this is kindly done since so much lies at stake on it or however that he and his Co-partners in design may know that I neither am nor ever will be ashamed of it That without the knowledge of the Person of Christ which is our acquaintance with him as we are commanded to acquaint our selves with God as he is the Eternal Son of God Incarnate the Mediator between God and Man with the Mystery of the Love Grace and Truth of God therein as revealed and declared in the Scripture there is no true useful saving knowledge of any other Mysteries or Truths of the Gospel to be attained I wish I get well off but I will do my best endeavour to understand it By the knowledge of the Person of Christ the great Mystery of God manifested in the flesh as revealed and declared in the Gospel we are led into a clear and full understaneing of many other Mysteries of Grace and Truth which are Centred in his Person and without which we can have no true nor sound understanding of them If by this he means that we cannot understand those mysteries of Grace and Truth which concern the Person of Christ without knowing the Person of Christ this is a great Truth but contains no great Mystery As for instance Unless we have some knowledge of the Person of Christ God manifested in the flesh we cannot understand the love of God in sending Christ into the World nor the great Mystery of Pardon and Forgiveness through the bloud of Christ we can know nothing of his Death and Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and Intercession for us at the right hand of God and all those benefits we receive from it we cannot understand our Adoption in Christ to be the children of God nor our Union and Reâ—â—â—â—on to him as our Head and Husband as our Lord and Saviour nor the communications of his Grace and Virtue to us nor his Power and Authority to raise us from the Dead to judge the World and to bestow Life and Immortality upon his obedient Disciples Not that the Springs of these Truths lie in the Person of Christ or must be learnt from a contemplation of his Person but from the Revelations of the Gospel But the knowledge of Christ's Person is necessary in order to understand those other Gospel Mysteries for the same reason that it is necessary to understand that there was such a man as Alexander before you can know what he did where he was King what Battels he fought what Victories he won or by the same reason that you must first know the subject before you can know the properties and qualifications of it If this be all the Doctor intends I must confess it is very sound and Orthodox but yet I must say that time was when he meant otherwise and his obscure way of expressing so plain a thing would make any one suspect that he meant something more still and if he does then after all his soft and palliating expressions it must come to this That the Person of Christ is the Spring and Fountain of all saving Knowledge from whence we must learn all those Mysteries which are but obscurely and imperfectly revealed in the Gospel unless we make use of this knowledge of Christ and acquaintance with his Person to expound and unriddle them And indeed his second Explication of his sense in this matter plainly looks this way For under an acquaintance with Christ he includes the knowledge of him as the Eternal Son of God incarnate the Mediator between God and
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto Childrens Children to such as keep his Covenant and to those who remember his Commandments to do them And this is all that can be proved from the natural notion of an immutable love But we cannot hence conclude that God hath elected any particular persons as the objects of this unchangeable love whether this be so or no must be determined by Revelation which contains the declaration of the free purposes and counsels of the Divine Will It is impossible from the nature of God to determine whether God has from all Eternity decreed whatever shall come to pass in time because the Decrees of God are the free choice of his will and therefore he might either decree or not decree as he pleased Nor does the immutability of his Decrees depend immediately upon the immutability of his Nature but upon the immutability of his Counsel for God may if he please make temporary and conditional Decrees which shall last but for a certain time and be performed only upon certain conditions as well as those which are absolute and peremptory And therefore when the Apostle to the Hebrews would prove the immutability of the Gospel-Covenant he does not argue from the immutable Nature of God who cannot alter what he once decrees but from his immutable Counsel which he confirmed to Abraham by an Oath Heb. 6. 13 14 16 17 18. For when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater he swear by himself saying surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee for men verily swear by the greater and an Oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the Heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsel confirmed it by an Oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to the hope set before us So that the foundation of our hope rests upon the unchangeable counsel and purpose of God confirmed by an Oath which at most resolves it self not into an unchangeable love but into unchangeable truth and faithfulness that God will never alter that which he hath promised never to alter This is plainly expressed too in that Promise made to David concerning the perpetuity of his Kingdom wherein he was a Type of Christ and of the Eternal duration of his Kingdom Psalm 89. 33 34 c. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips once have I swore in my holiness that I will not lie unto David his Seed shall endure for ever and his Throne as the Sun before me Thus to give but one instance more of this nature when God by the Prophet Isaiah makes such a gracious Promise of the restauration of the Gentiles and their incorporation into his Church he confirms it in the very same manner Isa. 54. 8 9 10. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer for this is as the waters of Noah to me for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee for the Mountains shall depart and the Hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee And it is very observable that throughout the Scripture where it is said that God will not repent it refers not to the immutability of his Nature but of his Counsels Thus in 1 Sam. 15. 28 29. Samuel acquaints Saul with his immutable Decree to remove the Kingdom from him And Samuel said unto him the Lord hath rent the Kingdom of Israel from thee this day and hath given it to a neighbour of thine that is better than thou and to assure him of the Immutability of this Decree he adds And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent The like we may see in Ier. 4. 28. where God denounces his severe Judgments against Ierusalem For this shall the Earth mourn and the heavens above be black because I have spoken it I have purposed and will not repent neither will I turn back from it Whereas in other cases notwithstanding the Immutability of the Divine Nature the Scripture frequently mentions Gods repenting both of the good and of the evil which he had thought to do when the change of the Object required such a change in his affections and in the administrations of his providence Nay in that very place where God assigns his own immutable Counsels as the reason why he had not destroyed the Posterity of Iacob when they had so grievously provoked him yet he thought it no blemish to his Immutability to assure them that he would alter the administrations of his Providence according to those changes and alterations which were in them for his immutable Promise to Abraham required that he should not utterly destroy them and his immutable love to holiness and goodness required the latter Mal. 3. 6 7. For I am the Lord I change not therefore ye Sons of Iacob are not consumed Return unto me and I will return unto you saith the Lord of Hosts And this is what I asserted that the only natural Notion of an immutable love which we can learn from the Contemplation of the Divine Nature is that God always loves for the same reason that he always loves those who are good and hates those who are wicked not that he always loves the same Person let him be good or wicked And as for what the Doctor objects against this that then either God indeed never loveth any man be he who he will or that he is changeable in his love upon outward external reasons as we are I think by his good leave I need chuse neither of them the first I by no means like that because God loves none but good men therefore he loves no man for though there are but a few good men in the world yet I hope there are some and I do as little like the other for though God alter his love to any person when he ceases to be good yet this is not to change upon outward External reasons but upon such reasons as are essential to his Nature for it is contrary to the holiness of the Divine Nature to love wickedness or a wicked man God's love to holiness and hatred of evil is immutable as his nature is and therefore when any Person ceases to be good God must cease to love which does
to us and our being united to him that is our being reckoned to him because the Holy Spirit which works faith in us is bestowed on us for Christ's sake and upon account of our Union to him And then certainly the Holy Spirit does not primarily unite us to Christ but is an effect and consequent of our Union to him And this I expresly asserted in my former Discourse that this Union to Christ entitles us to his peculiar care and providence to the influences of his grace to the power of his Intercession c. And thirdly for the same reason I did not so largely and particularly discourse of Christ's being an Influential Head though I expresly own those influences of grace which we receive from Christ because he is so only as he is a Political Head That is as Temporal Princes govern their Subjects by external Arts and Methods of Discipline So Christ who is a Spiritual Prince governs his Subjects and dwells in them by his Spirit The gift of the Spirit is an Act of his Regal Power is bestowed only on his Subjects and is dispensed in such regular ways as he has prescribed for the external Conduct and Government of his Church Thus the Spirit is at first conferred on us in Baptism and the daily supplies of it are administred upon our constant and devout Prayers as our Saviour has promised that God will give his Spirit to them who ask him And we must expect the constant illuminations of the Spirit and the supplies of Grace in the administration of the Word and Sacrament of the Lords Supper By these means Christ as our Prince and Saviour conveighs his Grace to us which requires our Communion with his Church in all Sacred Institutions and is the true basis and security of Ecclesiastical Authority Thus St. Paul tells us That Christ is the Head from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying it self in love Eph. 4. 15 16. and Col. 2. 18. And not holding the Head from which all the body with joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God In which places the Apostle represents the nourishment and increase of the Christian Church and of every member in it by the growth of the natural body in which every member does not receive its influences and nourishment immediately from the Head but one member communicates to another in such just and equal proportions and regular ways as may be most for the good of the whole body Thus every Christian who is a member of the Church and body of Christ does receive the influences of Grace from Christ for his increase and nourishment but he does not receive these influences immediately but they are bestowed on him by the Ministry of men in the regular administration of those holy Institutions which our Saviour has appointed for that end and this is for the publick benefit and advantage of the Christian Church to secure the Authority of Church Governours and to preserve the Unity of Christians among themselves This gives a plain account why I would not call the Person of Christ the Fountain of Grace nor send Persons immediately to Christ for life and power and all spiritual supplies because though Christ be the great Minister of Grace yet we must not derive it immediately from his Person but he dispenses his Grace in the Preaching of the Word or the administration of Sacraments and such other regular Methods as he has appointed for the Government of his Church and the increase and growth of his spiritual body Whereas Dr. Owen and Dr. Crisp and the rest of the Antinomians represent Christ as such a Person who has not only done all for us but has undertaken to do all in us and that by such natural conveyances of Grace from his Person as there is of the animal spirits from the head to the rest of the members and that men must first be united to Christ before they can be capable of any spiritual motion So Dr. Crisp very agreeably to what Dr. Owen asserts tells us That Christ is the Head now the Head is the Fountain of all animal Spirits and of all motion without a Head a man cannot hear see walk feel stir nor do any thing seeing all these operations come from the Head Christ is the Head of his Church he is the Fountain of all spiritual sense and motion you may as soon conceive that a man is able to see whilst he hath not a Head as to think a man may have spiritual eyes whether the eye of Faith to behold Christ or the eyes of mourning to lament his wretchedness before there be actually the conjunction of Christ the Head to such a Body Thus Christ is called Life and can any one be an active Creature before there be life breathed into him As a Body without a Soul is dead so every Person in spiritual Actions is wholly dead till Christ the Soul of that Soul be infused into him to animate and enliven him For these men as I observed before having destroyed all the Arguments to a good life and all the regular and ordinary Methods of Grace are forced to resolve the renovation of our minds into a Natural and Physical and Immediate operation of Christ upon our minds which makes all his Institutions very insipid and useless things and destroys the Authority and Necessity of Christian Societies if all Grace be so immediately derived from the Person of Christ. These things deserve a larger discourse but I am now a hastening towards a conclusion and this is sufficient to vindicate my self and my notions from that unjust and scandalous Imputation of Pelagianism which can be attributed only either to the ignorance of my Adversaries or to their want of better Arguments or possibly to both CHAP. VI. Containing an Answer to the charge of Socinianism and the Conclusion of the whole IAm now come to the last part of my Task which may be dispatched in a few words Dr. Owen and Mr. Ferguson and the rest of my Adversaries do at every turn especially when they have nothing else to answer charge me with Socinianizing A charge which was as much unexpected as undeserved but is now grown a very familiar Art among these accusers of the Brethren to blast the Reputation of those men who make it their design to vindicate Christianity from those absurd and sensless and pernicious Doctrines which they have broached under the name of Gospel Mysteries and to reduce people to the Communion of the Church of England from which they have been seduced through the Witchcraft and Enchantments of sublime and Seraphical non-sense and if ever it be just to express some indignation it is in this case for as the Father observes In causa haereseos neminem decet esse
the fruit of this We are thereby made the righteousness of God in him if we be righteousness where is our sinfulness to be charged upon us And he adds Many think there is such a kind of sinfulness that is a bar to them that though they would have Christ yet there is not a way open for them to take him Beloved there is no way of sinfulness to debar thee from coming to Christ if thou hast a heart to come to him and to venture thy self with joy against all objections into the bosome of Christ to discharge thee of all thy sinfulness And the Mystery of this he immediately explains The truth is men doat upon the establishing of their own righteousness to bring them to Christ and it is but presumptuous or licentious Doctrine That Christ may be their trust and they receive him and they considered simply ungodly as enemies Now one Egg is not more like another than this Doctrine is like what we find in M. Shephard Watson and D. Owen as evidently appears from those many passages cited from them in my former discourse Thus to proceed Dr. Crisp observes That Christ is a free way to all sorts of persons none excepted none prohibited for a Drunkard for a Whore-master for a Harlot an enemy to Christ. Or in Dr. Owens Phrase For the greatest the oldest the stubbornest transgressour And what Dr. Owen pleads for himself that he only represented such grace in Christ as should encourage all sorts of persons to come to him will serve Dr. Crisp as well as himself For he expresly adds Do not mistake me I do not say Christ is a free way to walk in him and yet to continue in such a condition but for entrance into him Christ is as free a way for the vilest sort of sinners as for any persons under heaven That is the worst man in the world may have as good an interest in Christ for Justification and Eternal life as the best but when Christ has got him he will make him good Of which more anon Thus Christ is a near way to the Father he brings the Father unto men and becomes such a way as that there is but one step from the lowest condition of sinfulness to the highest of being the Son of God That is he who receives Christ though at that instant of receiving him he be the greatest sinner in the world yet in the next moment is the Son of God and perfectly innocent and righteous with the righteousness of Christ and heir of eternal life And to take notice but of one passage more Christ is a spacious large elbow-room way When a man enters into Christ he enters into liberty and freedom But how is it said then Srait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life Answer By the straitness of the way is not here meant strictness of conversation But it is strait and narrow in this regard that all a mans own righteousness must be cut out of the way it must be so narrow that there must be nothing in the way but Christ which is exactly parallel with Dr. Owen's chastity of our affections to Christ in not taking any thing as our own righteousness into our affections and esteem for those ends and purposes for which we have received Christ that is not to contribute any thing to our Justification or Salvation This is the effect of making the Person of Christ in contradistinction from his Laws and Religion the immediate way unto the Father It were easie to give numerous instances of this nature but these may suffice to satisfie any intelligent man that all those precious and charming discourses of the Beauty and Loveliness and Fulness and Riches and Righteousness of Christ and of wooing and winning Souls to Christ as they are managed by these men are as formal hypocrisies as Iudas his Salutation of his Master when he betrayed him for the plain design is to advance his Person to the prejudice of his Laws and Religion whoever sends sinners immediately and directly to the Person of Christ for Righteousness and Justification and Eternal life without first requiring Repentance and the Love of God and at least the sincere purposes of a new life to entitle them to Grace and Mercy are down-right Antinomians whoever place the Essence of a justifying Faith in a meer fiducial reliance on Christ and a fancifull application of Christs Righteousness to themselves place all their hopes immediately on the Person of Christ which is to make a new Religion of Christ's Person in opposition to his Gospel But fifthly I observe farther That the Church of England makes Repentance and the Love of God and the sincere purposes of a New life antecedently necessary to our Justification as appears from what I have discoursed above but these men absolutely deny that Repentance or the Love of God or any other internal Grace or Vertue are necessary to our Justification by the Righteousness of Christ but that we are justified before and without them at least in order of nature There are none of them indeed deny that those who are justified ought to live holily but yet they assert that God hath no regard to Repentance and Holiness in the Justification of a sinner but that all these follow our Justification as the effects and fruits of it God justifies the ungodly in a proper sense while they are ungodly but whom he justifies he sanctifies too and makes them holy Now if any man should enquire what great difference there is between these two since the necessity of Holiness is universally acknowledge I answer the difference is just as much as between the necessity of an Event and the necessity of Duty which I think is a very material difference in matters of Religion to place Holiness after Justification as a necessary effect and consequent of it acknowledges the necessity of Holiness as to the Event that those who are justified shall be sanctified but it destroys the necessity of Duty and undermines all the Arguments to a Holy life God may sanctifie us if he pleases by an irresistible and uncontroulable Power but there is no necessary Argument left to induce us as free Agents to purifie our selves and to co-operate with the Divine Grace which makes the whole Gospel and all the External Ministeries of Religion useless the great design of which is to furnish us with such cogent and perswasive Arguments as by the concurring assistance of the Divine Grace may effectually bow our Wills and govern our Affections and transform us into a Divine Nature If we are justified without Repentance and a New life if God accepts our Persons as Just and Righteous only for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us and this gives us an actual Title to Life and Immortality what reason can there be assigned so cogent as to conquer our love to Sin when there is no Argument to work either upon our Hopes or
Fears The Hope of Heaven and the Fear of Hell are the great Motives of the Gospel but are of no use in this new Religion since a justified Person who yet may be very wicked is in no danger of Hell and is secure of his Inheritance in Heaven For if a justified person may miss of Heaven and fall into Hell his Justification is worth nothing a man had as good be Unjustified as to perish with his Justification And therefore though God if he pleases may sanctifie whom he first justifies yet there is no Argument left to perswade a justified person to be holy if he may be justified without it This I particularly shewed in my former Discourse where I examined Dr. Owens Reasons for the necessity of Holiness which either prove nothing or prove only the necessity of Event that God will necessarily make men holy not such a necessity of Duty as will make every considering man who hath any value for his Soul freely chuse Holiness But instead of answering what I there urged the Doctor in his Vindication transcribes a long Paragraph concerning the necessity of Holiness and leaves it to the judgment of his Readers which I must needs say was very boldly done if he thought his Readers had any judgment though it argued more craft to give me a fresh challenge as if I had yet said nothing to him The Doctor only takes notice of two or three things which I answered to his Reasons for the necessaty of Holiness and passes over all the rest as unanswerable scoffing which is his way to call that scoffing which he cannot answer As first he proved the necessity of Holiness from the command of God which had been a good Argument had it been used by another man but the Doctors Notion of Justification by the imputed Righteousness of Christ only evacuates this command and therefore I enquired where is the Sanction of this Law will he damn those who do not obey for their disobedience And will he save and reward those who do obey for their obedience Not a word of this for this destroys our Iustification by the Righteousness of Christ only And if after all these Commands God hath left it indifferent whether we obey or not I hope such Commands cannot make Obedience necessary This last Clause the Doctor recites and cries out Wonderful Divinity A man must needs be well acquainted with God and himself who can suppose that any of his Commands shall leave it indifferent whether we will obey them or no. This I confess is wonderful Divinity but I know no reason the Doctor should wonder at it because it is his own For such indifferent things he makes all the Divine Commands while he makes them unnecessary to our Justification which quite destroys their Authority and Sanction For a Law if it may be so called without Rewards and Punishments is left at the liberty of the Subject to obey it or not and such a Command cannot make Obedience necessary But the Doctor proceeds But may we not notwithstanding this Command be justified and saved without this Holiness Wherein he designs to represent my Sense though he have changed the words and answers false and impertinent we are neither justified nor saved without them though we are not justified by them nor saved for them This is warily expressed but will not serve his purpose for by our not being justified without Holiness he means no more than that God at the same time when he justifies infuses the Habits of Grace and Holiness renews and sanctifies us too and therefore we cannot be said to be justified without Holiness because we are justified and sanctified at the same instant though in order of nature we are Justified before we are Sanctified and therefore in our Justification God had no respect to any sly Antecedent Holiness which as to the present Dispute is the same thing as to be Justified without Holiness The Doctor professes it as his avowed Doctrine That Holiness and Obedience is neither the Cause Matter nor Condition of our Iustification and therefore not Antecedently necessary And expresly tells us That the Passive Righteousness of Christ only is imputed to us in the non-imputation of Sin and that on the condition of our Faith and new Obedience so exalting them into the room of the Righteousness of Christ is a thing which in Communion with the Lord Iesus I have as yet no acquaintance withal And a little before Are we then freed from this Obedience Yes But how far From doing it in our own strength from doing it for this end That we may obtain Life Everlasting It is vain that some say confidently that we must yet work for Life it is all one as to say That we are yet under the Old Covenant Hoc fac vives we are not freed from Obedience as a way of walking with God but we are as a way of working to come to him So that Holiness contributes nothing to our Justification and Eternal life and therefore we may as well be justified and saved without them which destroys the Necessity and Sanction of the Divine Laws and leaves it at every mans liberty to Obey or not to Obey were they not over-ruled like spiritual Machines and Engines by an irresistible Power In the next place the Doctor proves the necessity of Holiness from the Ends of God in Election and Redemption God Elected us and Christ Redeemed us that we might be holy This is a very good Argument too if it be rightly managed but that it can never be upon the Doctors Principles that is if we deny the Antecedent necessity of Holiness to our Justification For if God have absolutely Elected us to Eternal Life without any condition required on our part only purposing to make those holy by an irresistible Power whom he hath Elected this only proves the necessity of the Event that those who are Elected shall be holy but can be no Argument to engage any man to press after Holiness For this Election to Holiness doth not make Holiness necessary on our part with the necessity of Duty or of a Condition without which we shall not be saved but only makes it necessary on Gods part as to the regular execution of his Decree of Salvation And the same may be said of Redemption if we are so absolutely Redeemed by the Death of Christ as to have a right to all the benefits of it as Justification and Eternal Life without any condition required on our part If we are justified freely by the Grace of God through the Redemption which is in Christ Iesus without any regard to Repentance or New Obedience to qualifie us for this Grace then our Redemption by Christ cannot make it a necessary Duty in us to be holy though Holiness may follow as a necessary Effect This I expressed in fewer words but to the same sense in my former Discourse Will the Father Elect and the