Christ invites unto himself Consciences that are afflicted and burdened with sin Isaiab calls all that are athirst to come without price or any exchange to the Fountains of Christ that they may be refreshed Osorius will bestow the Kingdom which God hath promised upon none but righteous men and eminent good works I beseech you Sir according to your righteousness what excellent good work brought that sinful Woman with her in the Gospel out of whom seven Devils were cast What righteousness appeared in the Thief on the Right Hand of Christ except faith only why he should after the commiting so many evil deeds enter in together with Christ on the same day into Paradise what other thing did the Woman of Canaan that was a stranger bring to Christ but an importunate cry of faith so that she carried home not Crumbs but whole Loaves of Divine Grace What deserved the miserable Woman with the bloody Issue or Iairus the Governour of the Synagogue or Zacchaeus of Matthew or other Publicans with them why they being perferred before the Pharisees who seemed so much more righteous should obtain the benefit of free favour being so obvious and exposed unto them There is almost an infinite number of others of the like condition that may be discoursed of after the same manner in whom you can find nothing worthy of so great bounty of Divine Grace but faith only Blind Bartimeus cried the Lepers cried Iesus Master thou Son of David have mercy on us and they were heard For nothing cries louder than faith nothing is more effectual to prevail Let Osorius also cry and let us all cry with the like noise of Faith and we shall be heard alike I speak of that faith which is in Christ Iesus besides which there is not any passage into Heaven nor access unto God nor way of prevailing with God Therefore that we may be heard let us come and knock but let us do it aright to wit by Faith and in the name of only begotten Otherways it is in vain to cry to God who hears not sinners but drives them away who regards not servants and guilty persons unless they come to the Son or in the name of the Son Now by what way we are heard by the same we are Iustified For the Divine reward is always joyned with righteousness Seeing then all of us mortal men are by nature sinners and servants of sin therefore we must see what that is which makes us of servants free men of guilty persons sons of sinners righteous For this is the whole subject matter of the debate this is the question on which the whole controversie depends which is not so difficult to be judged of if the authority of Sacred Scripture may prevail upon impartial judgments For the testimony of the Gospel remains sure and eternal which no mortal man can weaken at any time instructing our faith thus As many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God and that he may teach what it is to receive him he presently explains the same to them saith he that believe in his name c. Whereby it appears evidently what it is to which we are beholden for all that splendor and dignity wealth and riches yea and the possession of Heaven and Life I know that in those excellent offices of good works which you so much cry up in the exercise of charity and observance of Righteousness there is great weight and also great benefit as I consess also that the law it self hath great efficacy if a man use it lawfully Now the use of the law consists in this that it should bring us to Christ and be subservient to his glory But when you have heaped all these things together into one whatsoever were by God either prescribed to us in his Law or written within us they are far from restoring perfection to a mans deeds that are altogether imperfect or to a mans person that is wholly destroyed and ruinated They are far from making us of servants freemen of Slaves of Satan Sons of God heirs of his Kingdom co-heirs of Christ fellow Citizens of the Saints and Domesticks of the highest Father Verily that is not the Office of the Law but of Christ And it is not righteousness but grace that does this This is not the efficacy of works but of Faith which relying not upon works but being strengthned only by the promise of God brings us from bondage to liberty from death to life adopts us being reconciled unto God makes us Sons of the promise which is so far from being joyned with Charity and Works that it reconciles Charity it self and all works of life unto God and justifies them without which they could not have place in Heaven in the presence of the great God Upon what account and how Faith justifies Fallen Sinners NOW because I have demonstrated what the power of Faith is and what it performeth I must of necessity explain upon what account and for what cause Faith procureth unto it self so great efficacy and power of Iustifying how it is said to Iustifie alone without Works and what Men the same Iustifies whether the righteous or the wicked If the righteous what need is there now of Iustification or Faith when the Law is sufficient If the wicked whether those that are penitent and converted or the impenitent and rebellious If the Faith of Christ justifies the penitent frees them from guilt and makes them righteous of unrighteous which neither you your self can deny Why then do you inveigh against Luther so unmodestly and undeservedly Does Luther either say or teach any other thing Where does he at any time let loose the Reins to sin or promise liberty to the wicked or preach Iustification otherways than to those who being reformed by Repentance breathe after Christ and joyn themselves to him by Faith What Will you shut out those from all hope of pardon I trow not And what remedy then will you shew them Will you send us to the Faith of Christ or to the Sentence of the Law to heal our wounds What if the Law gives no help here and there is not any other thing in man that can help righteousness once violated except Faith only placed in Christ which neither you your self can deny And if this very Faith brings Salvation to none but those that deplore the sins they have committed which together with you Luther affirms to what purpose are those out-cries against Luther so Tragical and raised without any cause Wherefore then dost thou deceive us O Luther For when thou d'dst condemn pious tears and didst cast reproaches upon wise sorrowfulness and didst plead that all works were not only unprofitable but pernicious And presently going on in the same stile and waxing more violent For when say you thou didst put so much in faith that thou saidst there was help enough in that only the sense of thy
and damage to his estate and again that a Christian gives only a cup of cold Water to a thirsty man in the name of Christ in the things themselves if merits only be valued there seems a very great disproportion But there is much greater inequality in the distributing the reward Though a Turk bestows many thousands of Talents upon the poor he gains not any thing at all thereby with God A Christian by one Cup not of Wine but of cold Water loses not his reward yea he finds Life What is the cause What should you think O Osorius but because those things are not valued by merits but by faith not by the condition of the work but of the worker not by the price of the thing but by the dignity of the person In Iustification not so much the Condition of the Deeds as of the Persons is regarded SEE I beseech you of how great concernment it is that a person should first be reconciled to God which unless he be received into his favour it is not possible that his works should please him at any time As in the civil and politick nature it is of no small concernment whether a Son or a Servant acteth upon the account of reward in like manner in the Heavenly generation there is a great difference between Sons and Servants The Heirs of God and Mercenaries For one thing is regarded in Servants and another thing in Sons and their condition appears to be far different It belongs to Servants to be compelled by fear but they that are Sons are drawn by love and they do so much the more in the performance of their duties how much the more gladly they endeavour to please their Father They that serve go about their business only for reward and it is given unto them no otherways than according to their merits Who when they have done all they remain nothing but Servants and unprofitable they never do any thing worthy of an Inheritance On the contrary they who are Heirs and Sons though they shew themselves no less obedient and observe the will of their Father yet they do not therefore obey that they may be made Heirs by Works but because they are Heirs Therefore they work Again they that are in a servile condition do not come but when called by their Master and perform his commands by the impulse of the Law But the case is contrariways in Sons who have always access with boldness into the presence of their Father and cry Abba Father performing much more of their own accord than by the incitement of anothers prescription Servants after they have done their task have their wages paid them according to their merits but they receive no reward of Inheritance But they that are Sons and Heirs an Inheritance is made sure to them not according to their obedience nor by their deeds nor after their deeds but by the faith of the promise and a free donation before all obedience concerning which Faith Paul said It is therefore of Faith that according to Grace the Promise should be firm to all the Seed Moreover in those that are Sons it is only the dignity of the person and not the merits of good life it is the birth and not the works that are regarded But the case is contrariways in Servants for it is not regarded what the person is but what the manner of life In short the Servant as Christ witnesseth abides not in the house for ever But the Son to whom the House is delivered wholly and for ever is never driven out of the House And here Christ only is a Son by Nature we only by the Grace of Adoption He by Birth we by Deliverance of which he himself testifies if the Son saith he shall make you free ye shall be free indeed he being partaker of his Fathers Nature is not made a Son by his life but is born a Son we being Servants by Nature are not born Sons but are born again not by works but by faith But by Christ our Deliverer we are changed from Servants into Sons Not that we cease now to be the same that we were in this life sinners miserable weak mortal for this transformation from servants into sons is not so much performed in us or in the change of our qualities but chiefly in the love of God to us For he hath so high an esteem and puts so great a value on Christ his only begotten that with a fatherly love and affection he embraceth all those of mankind throughout the world that believe in this Son of his and looking upon them now as Sons adopts them for his Sons out of their servile estate yea and makes them coheirs together with his Son Whence St. Paul said ye are not now servants but sons and if sons then also heirs of God through Christ for ye are all the Sons of God by Faith which is in Christ Iesus Whosoever of you are baptized ye have put on Christ. Ye are all one in Christ Iesus But if ye are Christs then are ye the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise Concerning which also Iohn speaks to this purpose see what love the Father hath given us that we should be called the Children of God And again presently repeating the same Dearly beloved saith he now we are the Sons of God and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be c. The Absurdities that arise from the Osorian Righteousness WHich things seeing they are guarded with most sure confirmations of Evangelical Scripture hence it necessarily follows that all this Discourse of yours about righteousness falls down from the foundation For if there is no union with God the eternal father but to those who by on exact observation of the law conform and direct all their actions to the will of God which is the law of equity and rule of Iustice you make us not now to be Sons nor Heirs according to the promise but mercenaries according to the condition of the law Moreover by this means also it will come to pals that the promise is sure to no man in his life time which is directly oppofite not only to the mind of Paul but also to the genuine condition of Sons For who in the time of this life lives so exactly according to the commands of God that hitherto he hath never passed the limits thereof or knows what he will do in the remainder of his life Whereby it will come to pass that the mind must needs waver hither and thither with a perpetual uncertainty Moreover if that be accounted sure by the word and promise of the Gospel that they are heirs as many as are ingrafted into Christ then the Kingdom of God must of necessity be an inheritance If an inheritance then it is not a recompence nor a reward but a Patrimony which is not due to deeds but to the spiritual birth-right If to the
Case of a Soul Distressed with the guilt of Sin and relieved by a discovery of forgiveness with God is at large Discoursed The Grace and Duty of being Spiritually Minded declared and practically improved A Declaration of the glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ God and Man Of Temptation the Nature Power the danger of entring into it means of preventing that Danger A Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity these five by Dr. Iohn Owen A Body of practical Divinity consisting of above 176 Sermons on the lesser Catechism composed by the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster with a Supplement of some Sermons on several Texts of Scripture by Tho. Watson formerly Minister of St. Stephens Walbrook Printed from his own hand-writing recommended by several Ministers to Masters of Families and others The Confirming Work of Religion Or its Great Things made plain by their Primary Evidences and Demonstrations Whereby the meanest in the Church may soon be made able to render a Rational account of their Faith Written by R. Fleming Author of the Fulfilling of the Scriptures The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification in sundry practical Directions suited to the Case of those who labour under the guilt and power of indwelling Sin To which is added a Sermon of Iustification By Mr. Walter Marshal late Preacher of the Gospel The Confession of Faith together with the larger and smaller Catechisms by the Reverend Assembly of Divines then sitting at Westminster presented to both Houses of Parliament Again published with Scriptures at large and the Emphasis of the Scriptures in a different Character An Earnest Call to Family-Religion or a Discourse concerning Family-worship being the substance of eighteen Sermons preached by Samuel Slater M. A. Minister of the Gospel The Sure Mercies of David Or a Second Part of Heart-treasure Wherein is contained the summ and substance of Gospel-mercies purchased by Christ and Promised in the Covenant of Grace together with the several ways how they are made sure to all the Heirs of Promise and how they are to be improved for the Saints Fort and Defence Settlement and Incouragement in shaking and back-sliding times By O. Heywood OF Free Iustification by Christ. In Reading your Books Hierom Osorius concerning Righteousness though I had not leisure accurately to trace every particular on which you have enlarged yet by what I have here and there collected I think I do well enough perceive whereat you drive what you design and what you endeavour For according to my apprehension you are endeavouring not to strike at some part of Christian Doctrine of smaller concernment but to cut the very Throat and extinguish the Breath and Spirit of the Gospel and to besiege the whole state of our Felicity and the Castle and chief City of Christian Liberty and to pluck up from the very Foundation all the Munitions of Peace and Life For what other thing dost thou in all these ten Books whereby thou snatchest away out of the Hands Studies Minds and Consciences of Men and out of the Earth as the Sun out of the World that most glorious Light of our Free Iustification purchased by the great bounty of Christ and confirmed by the Eternal Covenant of God Which being taken away I see not what thou leavest remaining to us but Cimmerian and Osorian Darkness in which we may grope like blind Moles Which endeavours of thine though of themselves being vain and frivolous there is no great cause why they should be feared in their opposition against the invincible force of Divine Truth yet because they strive to with-hold from us that which is most excellent in all Religion therefore I thought it was necessary to write these things unto thee not being provoked by any Enmity or Hatred against thy Person that I might vex thee but that I might admonish thee both friendly and freely and so much the more freely in how much greater danger I see thou art entangled unless thou return back and endeavour to walk more uprightly according to the Gospel of Christ. For what think you Sir That by your deeds performed as well as can be imagined and by the steps of your vertues you can lay for your self a passage into the Kingdom of God Or think you that any man living in this slippery condition of Nature can root out all his Lusts and utterly cut off all their enticements and so contain himself within the bounds of his duty that he can equalize those habitations of Eternal Glory with a proportionable dignity of Righteousness or dare promise them to himself upon such an account unless the bounty of God had freely put this honour upon us O be not of such an opinion This is not the way to Heaven Either you must change your mind or lay down this hope Howbeit this opinion seems not to be yours only but common to you with many to wit the late School-Divines especially those who have a greater veneration for the authority of the Pope than the Writings of the Apostles who being all infected with the same contagion of error do boldly profess the same that you affirm But yet all of them do not proceed in the same manner and method Those do so frame their notions that all men may understand they are the professed Enemies of Divine Grace and our Free Iustification in Christ which they hiss out of the Schools and openly anathamatize Your arguings are somewhat different though you have undertaken obstinately to maintain the same thing that they do but you hide the same venom with a more subtile artifice so that it insinuates more easily and lies less open to rebuke For I see you write Books concerning Righteousness and those not a few nor unpolished When I look on the argument I see it is honourable and plausible When I look into your manner of Speech your painted eloquence and laudatory amplifications wherewith you adorn the Glory Loveliness and Beauty of Righteousness with a Tragedian-like sublimity of style I confess this is not unworthy of praise For who should not deservedly praise him whom he sees so inflamed with the praises of Righteousness But if any man look more inwardly and consider with himself according to right reason with what mind for what end for what pretence and with what arguments you maintain those parts of righteousness so much praised and compare them with the Gospel of Christ he will be forced to acknowledge that you are defective in many things If you will permit me briefly to give my opinion of the whole frame of this work though you have little regard to what my censure is yet if you will allow me to speak freely to you as becomes me I will do it according to my duty and I will so do it that you your self may perceive that there was nothing less in my design in writing to you than a perverse inclination to find fault with other mens writings And thus I judge you have so handled
Religion and trampled upon all Actions worthy of Praise and exercises of Eminent Vertue as things of no worth and condemned Pious Tears and judged those Men abominable and Wicked who wept and mourned for their Iniquities or upon any account lamented the Sins they committed And as if he taught a certain new way of Salvation and such a one as neither requires works of vis nor any sorrow neither occasions any trouble to sinners but teaches that confidence alone is sufficient to wit such a confidence whereby every Wicked and Ungodly Man may be supposed acceptable to God tho'he himself do not at all endeavour to restrain his wickedness or pretend to any desire after Piety but only so supposeth in his own mind that he is dear to God That the favour of God is prepared for all yea for the unclean and Wicked though sin rules and reigns with an universal dominion over them Moreover that Luther should think it a great Wickedness to lament Mans first ruine or fall and to fear punishment c. Besides other things also of the like sort no less absurd than false which being wrested by you to a wrong sense you use to lay to his charge not that they are really true of him but they are puposely feigned by you that by any means possible ye may render him odious to the ignorant People But these cunning attempts of yours avail nothing for the Writings and Sermons of Luther are publickly known There are also extant the publick Confessions of the Saxon. Churches first presented unto Carolus Caesar in the Assembly of Augusta Anno. 1530. And afterwards Anno. 1551. Shewed and offered to the Council of Trent in which what they teach concerning the true way of Iustification according to the Word of God what they Iudge and Preach of repentance and the Holy Fruits of good Works by all which they do sufficiently defend themselves against your frivolous calumnies and most vain accusations that there is no need of any other defence besides The opposite Assertions of the Adversaries against the Free Imputation of Righteousness produced and examined WHich things seeing they are so and sufficient defence hath been made for those of our Profession let us proceed to that which remains We will then first declare the opposite assertions and decrees of the Adversaries what they say and judge concerning Righteousness Faith Grace Repentance and Works and next we will compare their Opinion with ours and both together with the holy Gospel of God that it may be the more evident to the Reader what should be judged of both And here first come forth unto us Osorius none of the meanest Champions in this Cause all whose contention against Luther drives at this to destroy all imputation of Righteousness and to leave no other way of Righteousness but that which consists in works and observation of the Law and which might maintain according to the Decrees of Trent that we are not only esteemed righteous but also are really or inherently Righteous in the sight of God even unto justification In which way of justifying he doth not exclude Faith and Grace but he so mingles these together that the praise it self of Righteousness is founded on works and all else so subservient that Faith first goes before that it may only prepare and make way for the obtaining of Grace And Grace afterwards follows which brings forth good works in us and then works themselves perfect and compleat Righteousness For after this manner doth Osorius dispute in his Third Book And this is the sum of what he says therefore seeing the Law either written on Tables or received by Revelation cannot take away the unbridled lust of the mind and whilst lust remains in its vigour no man can by any means obey the precepts of the Law which are given for our attaining Righteousness Therefore it is that no man relying only on the help of the Law can be holy unless he be furnished with the immediate help of the Holy Spirit against lust and farther because we obtain this Divine help not by the Law but by Faith Therefore it is that all actions of Charity are called works of Faith not of the Law both by other Divine Writers and also by Paul who frequently by the name of Faith understands all Offices of Charity c. You have here a Specimen of the Osorian Righteousness so described by him that Righteousness seems to consist not at all in Faith without Works but in Works which are called Works of Faith not of the Law Which Righteousness whoso wants he denies that it is possible for him to be received into the favour of God 〈◊〉 chiefly upon this Argument Because that Divine Nature being most holy and most pure and which can endure no filthiness of Iniquity it behoveth him therefore that would enjoy the presence thereof to conform himself unto the same Image for there is no Communion between light and darkness there is no union between the holiness of righteousness and the wickedness of unrighteousness Which seeing it is so he therefore concludes that Luther they of Luther's Party do err first in this that they dare assert that sin in those whom that infinite purity hath united unto it self by a most Holy Love is not wholly removed nor altogether abolish'd and pluck'd up by the roots nor all its fibers quite extirpated And also that they affirm that a Law is laid upon us by God which cannot be kept In the one of which the Divine Clemency and Bounty is distrusted In the other abominable reproach is cast upon his Infinite Power and Godhead Concerning Righteousness and its definition given by Osorius and others THou hast ingenuous Reader the whole Model of Osorian Righteousness described in a short compend in which what is true and what is faulty it remains that we should examine with like brevity according to the Rules of Evangelical Doctrine beginning first at the very definition of righteousness because thereupon depends the substance of the whole Controversie For so Osorius defines Righteousness that it is a state of Soul founded on the Law of God and that bears a clear resemblance to the immutability of the Divine Vertue In like manner also Andradius not much differing from him Righteoufness saith he is an unmoveable equity and government of mind which measures all its actions and counsels by the Law of God And the same again presently Righteousness is a habit of mind fashioned by the Divine Law to obey that Divine Law and Will as it perswades to perform the Offices of every vertue C. So that I need not here gather together the definitions of others of the Party of whom I find so many to be of the same Opinion that they think a Righteous Man should be defined from works of Righteousness just as a wise Man from Wisdom a Musician from Musick and other Artificers are formally denominated from
somewhat cleared your Eyes you may search more exactly into the meaning of the Apostles debate and the force of his reasons And first I would have you see into this what it is the Divine Apostle chiefly treats of here what he breaths after what he drives at by this similitude whereby he compares Adam together with Christ and proposes him as a Type and Figure of Christ. But where there is a Type it is necessary there should be something which by certain agreement of similitude may be answerable to the Type On the contrary where there is no agreement there is no Type Where there is no signification there is no similitude discerned Now whereas the former Adam bears a type and resemblance of him that was to follow let us consider in what this similitude consists What in propagating sin Not at all in the very Nature of the Persons What is more unlike Where then is similitude To wit not in the persons nor things themselves but only in the manner of the thing But it must be explained what that manner is For herein lyes all the controversie between us and the Papists For otherways as touching the things themselves and the Persons we are well enough agreed in that for there is no Man who is asked concerning Adam and concerning Christ but will answer concerning both according as the thing is in truth that he is by nature earthly and in his life a Sinner and that he brought upon us not only an Example but also a cause of sinning by a certain venomous contagion of Nature And on the contrary that Christ is from Heaven Heavenly and most pure from all defilement of sin and that he only is the Saviour of the World Concerning which if I am not mistaken there is an agreement between us and our Adversaries But concerning the manner how these either good or evil things come to us from these two Originally herein consists all the matter of controversie between us for as there are many who think we are no other way guilty but that by the example of sinning we imitate Adam the first Author of Sinning So you may see many who think we are upon no other account righteous and acceptable to God but that being helped by Grace we attain unto Christs most Holy Works and his most pure Innocency of Life or do very nearly resemble the same Who though they seem to say something yet is not all contained in that For though good Education and imitation wisely used hath no small influence for the becoming Vertuous whereby it may come to pass that some perhaps may seem less wicked than others and in some respect to excel others in the praise of Piety But imitation or any instruction of discipline will never perform this In short nor any way besides will be sufficient for this that you may shake form off your neck that which you drew from Adam or that you should attain that which is in Christ that is that you should appear righteous in the sight of God unless Christ come in to your succour another way than by any of your endeavours how great soever You will say After what manner is all this No Men can tell you that better than St. Paul For after what manner the former Adam ruin'd you after the same manner the Second Adam Christ restores you That first Author of your kind whilest thou was not yet born killed thee in the root by his not by thy rebellion and drew thee into misery and destruction In Adam behold Christ for in like manner being born and having dyed for thee by his won Innocency not by thine hath restored thee again to true 〈◊〉 and Paradice As therefore the transgression of Adam was imputed to thee who didst not Sin after the similitude of his transgression So the Righteousness of Christ is imputed unto thee who didst not Work after the similitude of Christ. In the one of whom behold the severity of Iudgment in the other the excellency of Grace What if this perhaps seems hard and strange to any Man in Adam that I should suffer the punishment of another Man's Sin and that those should be punished for the crime of another who committed nothing For it must needs be another Mans crime seeing I am deprived of Righteousness not for my own fault but for the fault of my Parent Let this same Man again leaving Adam cast back his Eyes upon Christ In whom the bounty of a most plentiful clemency makes amends by a counterpoize for the severity of the former Iudgment For from one Man Death passed upon all on them also who sinned not And justly Though I do not so much regard merit here I only consider the manner of the thing Come then let us compare the Type with the Antitype from the disobedience of one Man as I said death passed upon all Men who sinned not after his example which is a thing that cannot be denied After the same manner again from the Righteousness of one Man Life is communicated unto all who did not like him work Righteousness which is agreeable by the like reason for otherways Christ could not agree to his Type Here now consider whosoever thou art Christian Reader whether the judgments of God in Adam should be more dreaded by thee in which the severity of God imputed unto thee being not yet born that which thou hadst not committed or mercy in Christ the Lord should be more loved who tothee not working but believing in him that justifies the wicked imputes the Righteousness thou didst not deserve By which you see worthy Man if Paul the Apostle should be credited how unworthy of any credit your Doctrine is whereby you take away the Grace of all Imputation and leave no Righteousness besides to miserable Sinners but what every Man purchases by his own good deeds which how true it is let us examine by that place of Paul which convinces you of a Lye and a shameful Error by this most evident Argument Argument Ma. After what manner Christ was made sin for us after the like manner we are made the Righteousness of God by Christ. Mi. Christ was made sin for us no other way but by Imputation only Concl. Therefore we are made Righteous before God no other way but by imputation only I beseech you by your Chatholick Charity what will you say or what will you feign O most dear Osorius to this so clear evidence of manifest Scripture Do you not see that you are tyed on every side with Bonds that are Apostolick and wholly of Adamant Now what Turning what Hole to escape at can you find Christ is made sin for us Wherefore That we might be made the Righteousness of God by him saith the Apostle Will you deny it I suppose you will not What way then was he made sin Will you say by committing it No By Imputation then Certainly it is so Right indeed What
if he who knew no sin is made a sinner before God by the imputation of the sin of another What and shall not we who are by nature unrighteous in like manner be made Righteous before God by the same dispensation of mercy and imputation What can hinder but that as the rebellion of one was imputed to us all to destruction after the same manner the obedience of one may be imputed to us all for Salvation Let your Wisdom consider what you should answer in this case not only to me but also to Paul But now that this may be more clear first you see this common and fatal necessitv of Dying whereunto all mortal men are liable which with the same Foot beats at the Gates of Kings Palaces and at the Doors of Poor mens Cottages Now I would know of you whence this cause and necessity of dying had its first original and began to make havock Whether through our fault or the fault of another You will say not through our fault What if Death had snatched your self away in your Infancy you had then deserved nothing your self And yet was you not then born on that condition that you could dye Verily many Infants and Innocents are dayly snatched away who deserved nothing themselves yet they were born on those very Terms that they were Mortal and lyable to dye at some time Why so I beseech you Unless it be because they proceed from him the Transgression of which one Man was imputed to all to suffer the punishment of Death so that that is cause sufficient why you should dye because you are propagated from him who deserved Death you will say by a hard enough Law I also would fay the same with you unless the same Iustice of the Eternal Deity had opposed an equal remedy to this great calamity making amends for and alfo over-balancing just severity with a like kind of mercy You will say what way That way which St. Paul mentions in this place he that knew no Sin saith he was made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God through him What is that I pray you to be made sin for us but to undergo what was due to our Sins Which if the most merciful Father condescended to Translate unto his only begotten Son not for any demerit of his but for our sakes only Verily it cannot be neither is it agreeable to the Iustice of God nor to reason neither that he should punish both his own Son and us also for our Sins so that one of those two must needs follow that if Christ hath made satisfaction for us either Iustice hath nothing now in us that it may accuse us of Or if it have it is false then which is mentioned in this place by Paul Christ was made Sin for us and that is false which we hear in the Prophet And he shall bear their iniquities c. For how did he bear them if they remain yet tobe born by us Whence the Apostle concluding very well he reasons to this purpose That we might be made saith he the Righteousness of God through him as if he had said as Christ did bear our Sins so also we do bear his Righteousness He was punished not for his own Sins but ours in like manner we are endued with Righteousness which is not ours but his In which thing the admirable Artifice of our Redemption is seen Where Mercy encountering with Iustice doth so contend that it overcomes also and yet so overcomes that in the mean while there is not made any violation of Iustice but a just recompence for sins For as unjust as it is that he who was free from sin should suffer the punishment of sin for the guilty It is again as unjust that our sins already expiated in him for us should again be punished in us by the judgment of condemnation And upon a different account how just it was that the sin of one who sustained the person of all nature should be propagated unto all that came of him and should be given to publick condemnation Again it is as agreeable to Iustice that the obedience of one man who undertook the cause and person of all men should be likewise communicated to all regenerated of him to the imputation of righteousness But you on the contrary plead that it seems not to be just at all that any man should seem just by another mans righteousness who is unrighteous himself I answer to the contrary and thus I plead neither was it just that Christ being innocent should be 〈◊〉 into the condemnation of Death who was in himself free of all spots You object to me the definite nature of Iustice Which because it is a vertue giving to every man according to his desert therefore you argue that it cannot be but it must measure unto all men by equal right whatsoever is due to their merits Be it so and why then doth not this same justice my good friend distribute to Christ the Son of God according to his deserving Why is the innocent beaten with stripes Why is he torn unjustly with punishments wherefore contrary to his deserving contrary to Right and Iustice is he drawn to the judgment of Death and being innocent is stretched forth upon the Cross What can you answer me in this case What say you What have you whereby you may defend this distributive Iustice What will Iustice it self bring for it self which is the most exact and perfect of all things so often proclaimed by you and in so many books Which it may probably make a pretence for the receiving of so great an injury Except that it may say this only That we and the sins of us all came under punishment in this one most innocent body of his and there were with deserved punishments most justly recompensed by God Which unless it were so Iustice it self had sinned against him most unjustly Now the singular Providence of the Most High Artist hath governed the matter with that moderation that he did both wisely look to the glory of his own Son and our Salvation and also to his own justice so that there is nothing wherein his Iustice may be accused neither is any thing found in us in which the very Law of Iustice may justly condemn us Whence it is rightly said by the Apostle that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus For otherwise to what purpose did Christ dye if he died not for sins and sinners or how did he dye for sins if the punishment of sin remains to be suffered again by us How was he made sin and a curse for us if we yet fall under the Curse Or what fruit will redound to us from this most Holy Sacrifice if Christ by the right of Redemption hath not taken away that which is due to our sins by the Law of Iustice But if he took it away where is then the
without any disadvantage to our Cause For suppose we grant that Faith is Dead which is not moved with a desire of doing good Works according to the saying of St. Iames yet it doth not therefore follow from hence that no Faith Iustifies without Works From which two things do follow worthy of consideration First That no Faith justifies that is not lively And next though it abounds in good Works and never is without them yet it only without Works Iustifies This will appear evident by the Example of St. Paul Who though he was not conscious to himself of any Wickedness yet he durst not affirm himself to be thereby Iustified I think nothing hinders but the whole Argument may be yielded unto if so be the terms are rightly placed The Adversaries gather out of the Apostle Iames that Faith is dead which is without Works and herein we do not much oppose them But what follows from hence Therefore as they say dead Faith without Works doth not justifie And I deny it not But what Conclusion flows from this manner of Arguing Therefore only Faith doth not justiste Why so If no Faith but that which is lively justifies and if it receives Life only from Works then this is the consequence that Faith justifies only upon the account of good Works I Answer First though we grant it is true that the Faith which justifies us in the sight of God is lively and always joyned with a Godly Life Yet that this Faith justifies and reconciles us no other ways but upon the account of good Works is most false For this is not a good consequence from the premises Because Faith is not alone in the Life of the Believer therefore Faith is not alone in the Office of justifying Or because the Faith that justifies is not a dead but a lively Faith therefore it doth not justifie alone without Works For herein is a fallacy of the Consequence But you may object Whence then is Faith said to be lively and not Dead but from Works Which if it be so of necessity it must draw all its Life and Vertue from Works Nay the matter is quite contrary For though in the sight of Men Faith is not discerned to be Lively and Vigorous but by Works yet Faith receives not Life from Works but rather Works from Faith As Fruits draw their Life and Sap from the Root of the Tree but not the Root from them Iust so external actions proceed from Faith as the Root which if they be good they evidence the Root to be sound and lively and this is all they do but they communicate no Life thereunto And this Life and Vertue of Faith is not one but Twofold And it acteth partly in Heaven and partly in Earth If you ask what it doth amongst Men upon Earth It does good to its Neighbour working by Love But before God in Heaven it justifies the Ungodly not by Love but by the Son of God whom it only lays hold of Therefore those Men seem not to have got a clear insight into the Vertue and Nature of the Grace of Faith that suppose the whole Life thereof to consist in Love as if Faith of it self could do nothing but as it receives Vertue and Efficacy from Charity Indeed both may seem to be true in the External Actions of Human Life in which Faith lyes like a dead thing unless it be enlivened by Charity to the exercise of good Works And hereunto belongs that saying of Paul whereby he so much commends Faith working by Love understanding such Works as Faith working by Love brings forth to the view of a Human Eye Yet with God Faith hath a far different operation for it only without any reliance upon Works or assistance of Charity but trusting to the naked promise of God and the dignity of the Mediatour climbs up to Heaven and gets access into the presence of God where it does great and wonderful things combating with the Iudgment to come fighting against the terrours of Death Satan and Hell pleads the cause of a Sinner obtains his pardon absolves and justifies him from the accusations of a guilty Conscience takes away all Iniquity reconciles God to the Sinner appeases his wrath subdues the power of Death and the Devil and procures Peace yea and Paradise it self with theThief that had led a wicked Life and yet at Death was justified by Faith in the Redeemer Who would desire more or greater things And now so many and great things being done by Faith let us enquire After what manner it does them Not as it lives and works by Love but as it lives only by Christ and relies on the promise for the Life of Faith which lives before God is not Charity but Christ not receiving Life from Charity but communicating life unto it and justifying Works that they may be acceptable to God which would otherways be abominable Unto the truth of this we have a sufficient Testimony given us by Paul When he says my Life is Christ and again the Life that I now live in the Flesh I live not by the Love but by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me And elsewhere speaking of himself he says That he was not conscious to himself of any VVickedness and yet he denies that he is thereby Iustified as the same Apostle discoursing about the works of Abraham though they were never so Eminent for Holiness yet he saw nothing in them which that Great Patriarch might make a matter of Glorying before God Hereunto may be added the Arguments of others that have been strangely wrested out of Scriptures There are six Reasons principally which they pretend the Evangelists furnish them with against the Righteousness of Faith First they draw an Argument from these words of Christ Come ye blessed of my Father to the Kingdom prepared for you For I was an hungred and ye gave me Meat Argument Da. That which is the cause of blessedness is also the cause of Iustification Whom he hath Iustified them he hath also Glorified c. Rom. 8. Ri. Works of Mercy are the cause of blessedness for I was an hungred and ye gave c. Mat. 25. I. Therefore Works of Mercy are the cause of Iustification Answer I deny the Minor For Works of Mercy as they are considered in themselves are not the cause of Iustification or blessedness but rather effects and furits of Iustification for they are no otherways pleasing to God but as they are performed by persons in a justified state and it is by the Faith of Christ that they become acceptable For unless Faith go before and justifie the person of him that worketh his works are not at all regarded by God because they do not satisfie the Law of God being tainted with the corruption of depraved Nature and come far short of that perfection which Divine Iustice requires Wherefore if we will Reason aright about
nothing is more Glorious than that Bond whereby the Miserable and Mortal Daughter of Adam is joyned unto the Immortal Son of God the frail Church to the Heavenly Bridegroom that they both become one flesh and have God to be one Father to them both and have the same Family the same House the same society of Life and the same possession of all Goods Which thing is so exceedingly wonderful that it surpasses all human understanding Iust as if a great King being desirous to shew forth the Riches of his munificence should invite Beggars and the Blind and the Cripple and every one that was least worthy and entertain them with a Feast and enrich them with abundance of his best gifts Is it possible that any Man among them durst imagine that this was due to his own Vertues or Merits It remains that we should view the Guests themselves and also the garments of the guests whom he invites to this Marriage banquet and not only invites but compels them to come in Call the Poor saith he and the Lame and the Blind and compel them to come in that my House may be filled Who are these Poor and Blind and Feeble and Naked but such as have no provision of their own Works Who have nothing in themselves whereof to Glory but only in the Lord. Such as were the Publicans of Old and Sinners of the Gentiles and Pagans concerning whom Paul Discourses in words of great weight The Gentiles that followed not after Righteousness laid hold on Righteousness that is the Righteousness that is of Faith But contraryways Israel that followed after the Righteousness of the Law attained not thereunto Wherefore Because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law How great stupidity then and abominable impudence is this in vain glorious Men who being by Nature wretched and Blind and Naked and most miserable Beggars notwithstanding all this are exalted to the highest dignity of union with God and that not for any merit of their own but the free donation of Christ that yet they neither acknowledge their own nakedness nor testifie their thankfulness to God for the Riches of his Grace but think themselves abundantly beautified with their own ornaments and sufficiently furnished with merits to attain unto Righteousness But what a Righteousness is this of theirs If it be the Righteousness of Works Who then are those poor and needy that are admitted to the Marriage They that are adorned with the beauty and glory of Merits and abound with Riches of good Works How can we account such to be poor and blind and lame And if they are said to be compelled to come in where is the free will of the Tridentines Or its co-operation But on the contrary if by the poor here be understood such as have no good works that can commend them nor any help of free will that are decked with no ornaments but are admitted or rather drawn to the Marriage-feast by the grace of Christ only How then can Charity abounding with the works of the Law be truly called the Wedding-garment Howbeit I know there are some great Divines that rather approve of this interpretation that the wedding-garment here mentioned Should signifie Charity But when I consider exactly the circumstances of the Parable if without offending those that have better Iudgments I may freely profess what is my Opinion I do rather suppose that our Lord's design was to signifie the same that Paul the Apostle expresly speaks of himself that I may be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the saith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by faith And if we are not blind we all see evident proof of the same not only by words but by the example of the Israelites Wherefore if none are entertained in this Marriage-feast but they that have on the wedding-garment and if Israel that followed after Righteousness is said to be rejected upon no other account but because they sought it by works and not by faith can it be doubted that this Nuptial ornament consists not in works but in the faith of Christ I know there are many kinds of garments as also there are many differences of things of Men and of places But all things agree not with all places nor with all Kingdoms One thing is suitable to a Court of Iustice another thing to a banquet Iudges sitting on the Bench and Guests at a Marriage feast do not only differ in the frame of their Spirits but also in their outward Garb. A suitableness of things places and times should be observed The Law hath its own Kingdom and Christ also hath his and both have their own Inhabitants As the Kingdom of the Law receives none but the righteous so the Kingdom of Christ rejects none though they be wicked if they are brought to Repentance by believing And though both Kingdoms belong to God and are under his dominion yet the manner of administration of both Kingdoms is not the same For in the dominion of the Law God was pleased to manifest his Righteousness but the Kingdom of Christ is the gift of Grace and Mercy And as by the free gift of God it is offered to all that believe so it receives none but such as are glad freely and willingly to embrace the Grace offered And for the same reason chiefly this Kingdom of Christ is by a very fit similitude compared to a Marriage Feast and a wedding garment And not without cause for if in a Marriage Feast all things abound with mirth and joy how much more should we rejoyce and be glad in Christ by whose procurement we obtain the manifold riches of Everlasting Salvation and Glory Therefore what remains but that we should with thankful hearts gladly receive these great benefits of our dear Saviour and especially because by the wedding garment in this place nothing else can be understood For as a wedding garment is a token of the joyfulness of the mind at the Marriage Feast so by this weding garment is signified with what joy and gladness with what holy reverence and thankfulness the Guests of this Banquet will enjoy the heavenly benefits Whereunto the Apostle exhorts more than once with so much vehemency that we should not be over-sollicitous for any thing but always rejoyce in the Lord and glory in nothing but in the Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ praising God in our hearts as it is expressed in that sacred Hymn Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glory But how do those superstitious Papists glory in the Lord who trust to their own Works whose rugged and burdensom Religion consists wholly in Watchings Vows Ordinances of Men sleeping on the ground and such like hardships and an affected austerity of life But let us proceed to the Arguments that remain Another