XVIII Of the distinction of sides quâ—â— and fidâ—s qua Justiâ—icaâ— what it meaneth Cont. XIX Whether we are Justified by the Law of Innocency saying obey perfectly and live Cont. XX Whether by works Paul means acts in genere or what sort of Acts. Cont. XXI Are any works of man meritorious Cont. XXII Is obedience a part of Justifying Faith Cont. XXIII Is any more necessary to the keeping or not losing our Justification than to its beginning Cont. XXIV Is Pardon and Justification perfect the first moment Cont. XXV Is nolâ—e punire or non punire not punishing true pardon Cont. XXVI Is future sin pardoned before Cont. XXVII Is any one punished for pardoned sin Cont. XXVIII Is punishing one that Christ died for unjust punishing one sin twice Cont. XXIX Are regenerate believers under any guilt of any but corrective punishment or should ask pardon of any other Cont. XXX What is it to be judged according to our works Cont. XXXI What Law is it that Paul calleth the Law of works which cannot justify Cont. XXXII How and why it is so called Cont. XXXIII What is Pauls drift in his disputes about Justification Cont. XXXIV What is the drift of James Cont. XXXV Mâ—st a believer any way plead his Faith Repentance or Holiness to his Justification or trust to them Cont. XXXVI Hath Justification and Salvation the same conditions Do those works save us that do not justify us Cont. XXXVII Have we any Justification against false accusations of Infidelity c. Cont. XXXVIII Doth faith justify as a righteousness or any personal righteousness in subordination to Christs Abundant Scripture proof of the affirmative Cont. XXXIX Is Gods accepting Christs righteousness for us the imputing of it Cont. XL. Whether Christs sufferings merit Eternal life for us seeing the Law said Do this and live and not suffer and live Cont. XLI Whether Christ being the end of the law for righteousness prove that Adams first law justifieth us as fulfilled by Christ Cont. XLII Whether the sufferings of Christ merit our freedom from nothing but what he suffered in our stead Cont. XLIII And so whether Christs sufferings merit not our freedom from habits and acts of sin which Christ had not Cont. XLIV And so whether his sufferings redeem us from Spiritual death seeing we suffered it and not be Cont. XLV Is this the reason of our deliverance from the curse of the law because we suffered the equivalent of everlasting Hell Fire in Christ Cont. XLVI Is it true that Christs active obedience only meriteth Heaven for us and therefore that only meriteth Sanctification Cont. XLVII Is it true that Repentance can be no condition of Justification because it followeth it Qu. XLVIII How can faith and repentance give a right to the righteousness of Christ which must first give us that faith and repentance Qu. XLIX Is it true that we must be practical Antinomians unless we hold that only Christs Active righteousness merited grace and glory for us Qu. L. Is this proved by Rom. 7.4 The Conclusion A Breviate of the Doctrine of Justification Pr. 1. WE must first agree what Righteousness is Righteousness is formally a Relation And therefore must have the definition of a Relation I need not tell Schollars what that is 2. The subject of this Relation is first mens actions and habits and their Titles and Rights and then their Persons as the subject of these 3. Righteousness is a Relation to the Rule or Law And is an Agreeableness thereto If it be Gods Law it is Righteousness before God If but mans it is but humane Righteousness 4. As a Law hath two parts the precept and the retribution of reward and punishment so there are two sorts of unrighteousness and righteousness As to the precept Obedience is Righteousness and Sin is Unrighteousness As to the Retribution Right to Impunity and to the promised Reward is the Persons Righteousness and so contrary 5. Righteousness materially is either 1. Particular in some one cause or few causes 2. Or Vniversal and perfect in all causes 6. Righteousness particular is either in some small matter that we are not made happy by 2. Or in some great cause which our happiness dependeth on 7. The first Law required personal perfect constant obedience on pain of death and so justifieth none without it 8. Adam was the Father of all mankind from whom they spring but he did not so represent the Persons of all that were to spring of him as if his obedience without their own would have justified any of them at age If Adam had not sinned Cain should have been condemned if he sinned and so others 9. The first Law being broken man was made uncapable of either part of Justification by it either as one that sinned not or as one that was not by it to be condemned And so it was no more to him a Promise or Covenant of Life the Condition being now become impossible and so no condition and the threatning becoming as a Sentence 10. This Law neither gave mentioned or owned any Surety Substitute or Mediator 11. But the blessed Lawgiver our Creator would not so lose his Creature but the eternal word presently interposing undertook mans Redemption and God gave man a new Law of Life or a Covenant of Grace promising him a Mediator in the fullness of time and giving him freely for his sake both pardon of his sin and right to Life on the Terms of Grace therein prescribed and commanding him future obedience especially in the reception of his Grace and use of the means of Grace appointed him 12. This Law of Grace was made to Adam the lapsed head of all mankind and so to all mankind in him And it was renewed to Noah in the same capacity so that all fallen mankind was put under this Law of Grace in that first Edition of it made to Adam and Noah And were neither left lawless nor utterly desperate as under the meer damning violated Law which now no more offered Life to any the condition being become of natural impossibility God is not to be supposed to say now to sinners If you be not Sinners you shall liâ—â— when it 's known that they are 13. Abraham being eminently righteous according to this Law of Grace and Believing a special promise of God and not withholding his only Son in his obedience to his command God made with him moreover a Covenant of peculiarity superadded to the common Law of Grace In which he chuseth out his Seed as a peculiar Holy Nation from whom the Meâ—â—iah should come in whom all the Nations of the Earth shouâ—d be blessed This promise was renewed to Isaac and Jacâ—b Gen. 26.4 5. Because that Abraham obeyed my Voice and kept my Charge my Commandments my Statutes and my Laws 14. This Covenant of Peculiarity with Abraham nulled not the common Law of Grace made to mankind nor was it ever nulled or abroâ—ate but perfected after Though men make themselves
we one person with him but because he Communicateth it to us What further real Union there will be in our glorious perfection we cannot well know till we are there But in this imperfection our Union is not such as far as I understand it as maketh us one natural person with Christ And surely it doth not make his proper accidents to be our accidents And as to that which some call a Legal or Reputative personal Union it must be proved before it is asserted And as I know no word of God that speaketh such a thing as that Christ and we are imputatively one person so I know that they that will assent it of their own heads presume far in a tender point and if they should say that we are simply and ad omnia one person it were not by Christian ears to be endured If they will say that it is but in some respects and to some certain uses as a Servant that payeth his Masters creditor by order in some sense representeth him in that one action they must limit it carefully and shew to what uses we are one person lest they do they know not what And they must shew what sort of person they mean Whether Christ be made the same person with each believing sinner and so take our bad denominations or each sinner be made the person of Christ and have his glorious denominations or a third sort of person is made of both and what that is If meer personal Unity make us righteous by imputation because Christ is so either it must be as Christ is righteous in full perfection reputatively or else but according to the measure of our receptivity The first none will affirm that understand what they say And the second brings the effect no higher than we grant The foot doth not understand as the head doth though it be a part of the same natural body and may have its peculiar Ulcers and Diseases A crab and a sweet apple may grow on the same Tree Certainly we have a person proper to our selves which hath its own defects and evils and hath no more from Christ than he communicateth Cont. 10. Are we not righteous by being one with Christ as we are sinners by Vnion with Adam Ans 1. We were but seminally and virtually in Adam and not personally as I have opened in my disput Of Original sin And so we were but virtually in Christ when he suffered and obeyed and we were unborn 2. Nay our derivation from Adam was by nature but from Christ by his voluntary Gift and Contract 3. Had we not sinned in Adam and yet had sinned our selves we had been unrighteous And so it is though we sinned not in Christ and yet are sinners our selves against him Our radical righteousness in Adam would have happily disposed us to personal obedience as Adam himself was who yet fell And our radical righteousness in Christ is yet a more happy preparative to our necessary duty to him which is righteousness also which he that hath not shall be condemned I know that many say that if Adam had conquered that temptation or at least had never sinned all his posterity should have been confirmed against all future sin and danger as the Angels be in Heaven But I dare not add to the Word of God and I find no such thing there though I hear what others say And if that were true the first Covenant would have ceased upon Adams obedience as it did upon his disobedience and all the World would have been under either no Law or some Law to us unknown The first Adam was a living Soul indeed and the second is a quickning Spirit And as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive but every man in his own order And as we are not raised nor yet delivered from all our sin or misery by our Union with Christ as soon as we believe so neither from all guilt and unrighteousness but must daily pray forgive us our trespasses and deliver us from the evil If our Union presently made all ours that is Christs and that as it is his yea or as much as we need it we were then highly dignified indeed Marriage giveth the Wife her self no further propriety in the Husbands Estate nor use of it than he communicateth by the contract And neither that nor generation itself give Wife or Child the Husbands or Fathers learning innocence or health Cont. 11. Is not Christs righteousness ours as our sins were his by imâ—utation Ans Yes As much at least or more But take heed of making Christs Gospel by your mending it and of making him no Christ while you would make him more merciful according to your own conceits I know it is said once that he was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him But as we are not properly righteousness much less Gods righteousness but are made righteous and so the instances or demonstrations of the righteousness of God so expositors commonly agree that by sin is meant a Sacrifice for sin Or by being made sin is meant being used as if he had been a sinner Undoubtedly if God imputed or accounted Christ a sinner and if he were truly so by any means practice or translation he must be by sin hateful to the most holy God even to himself and would have in him so great a part of Hell and Divine desertion as is not consistent with his personal perfection or the hypostatical Union as far as we can conceive And if indeed God imputed to him the sins of all the elect so as first to make the very sins themselves to become Christs own sins by imputation then Christ suffered for his own sins and must be more odious to God than any ordinary sinner and all good men that knew it by him must have judged accordingly For sin especially the sins of so many millions so great must needs render him whose own they are really sinful hateful and miserable Any of which to say of Christ is blasphemy Christ undertook that guilt of our sin which is nothing but the obligation to punishment and that such punishment as beseemed him to undergo There is a â—uilt of Fact and a guilt of crime and a guilt of punishment Christ undertook the last but neither of the former as in themselves considered unless as by connotation relatively he may be said to be guilty of the sin meerly because he undertook to suffer for it which is improper speech Christ condescended to the admiration of Angels in taking on him our nature and our punishment and suffering for our sins but his holiness would not suffer him to undertake our sin it self or take it to be his own sin Nay considering the communication of attributes which Divines assert from the hypostatical Union men should tremble to think of laying a ground of calling it The Sin of God by the same reason as Acts
given which is conditional and virtual and shall actually pardon it when it is Cont. 27. Is any one punished for sin that is pardoned Ans Not in the same thing and degree that he is pardoned But every man that is pardoned in this life is yet correctively punished in that degree that he is unpardoned For pardon is yet imperfect here Cont. 28. Is it not unjust to punish him that Christ died for even one sin twice Ans No Unless it were the same person that suffered or the very same punishment that was due and all that was due were expected again and unless it were against our mediators will But all is contrary in this case 1. The Law bound no one to suffer but the offender 2. Therefore Christs suffering was not the same punishment which the Law did threaten but it was Satisfaction instead of it which is the Tantundem not the idem quod debitum suit but redditio aequivalentis alià s indebiti as the Schoolmen call it For noxa caput sequitur the Law threateneth not a surety but only the sinner and ubi aliâ—â— solvit simul aliud solvitur 3. And Christ himself never satisfied with any other intent and therefore it is according to his will that they that tread under foot the blood of the Covenant wherewith they were Sanctified as an unholy thing and do despight to the Spirit of Grace should suffer the far sorer punishment Heb. 10. Yea it is Christ himself that will have it so and that doth so judge them and inflict this punishment for the contempt of grace And it is his will that his own members be punished by correction notwithstanding his sufferings As many as he loveth he doth rebuke and chasten And Christ doth not wrong himself The end of his suffering never was to excuse the redeemed from all suffering nor to make believers lawless Cont. 29. Is a man after his regeneration and Faith ever obliged to any but temporal punishments or need to ask pardon of any other Ans Obliged is a word that needeth explication The very Law of nature yet in force maketh everlasting punishment due to a believers sins till God forgive them But they are forgiven and the obligation dissolved through Christ by the Covenant of Grace to a true believer as soon as committed at least if they be meer sins of infirmity because of his general repentance and continued faith But yet in order of nature the Guilt and dueness of punishment is before the remission of them And believers must ask pardon while they live 1. Because every sin thus needeth it and asking is part of the expression of that faith and repentance which is our condition of pardon 2. They must ask the continuance of that pardon which they have 3. And they must ask still for executive remission which is not to punish poena dâ—mni vel sensus Body or Soul and so for more of Gods forfeited Grace and Spirit and the sense of his Love and Communion with him Cont. 30. What is it to be judged according to our works or what we have done in the body Ans To be Judged is the genus To be Justified or Condemned are the Species This openeth all the Controversy It is not according to our works as they are congruous to the Law of Innocency or works But as judged by the Law of Grace Therefore it is not the same works which Paul excluded from Justification for we shall not be judged according to them 2. And according to them is as much as James meaneth when he saith we are justified by them It 's all one that is the Law of Christ our Redeemer requireth sincere obedience of all that shall be saved by his blood and merits from the condemnation of the Law of Innocency and accordingly mens right to Christ Salvation shall be judged of Their right to life through Christs merits and free gift shall be justified who were sincerely penitent believing obeyers to the end and no others Cont. 31. What Law is it that Paul calletâ— the law of works and laborâ—ously proveth that its works do not justify us Ans It is the Mosaical Jewish Law as is all along evident and not the Law of Innocency as made to Adam though consequently à fortiore it 's certain that we have no works by which that will justify us either personal or imputed The words He that doth them shall live in them do not mean He that is no sinner according to the Law of perfection For 1. All men were sinners before and so this Law should have been only a condemnation in the form of a promise 2. And this Law prescribeth Sacrifices and Prayers for pardon of sin which the first Law of Innocency knew not Cont. 32. How and why then is this called a Law of works Which justify no man Ans Because it imposeth strictness in a multitude of laborious Tasks and Ceremonies and rigorously punisheth the breakers of it 2. The heretical teachers had falsly separated the Law from the promise of Christs justifying righteousness and grace which was the sence and end of the Law And Paul proveth that without the Promise and Christ the Law is but a carkass of fruitless works without a Soul and cannot justify 3. But yet a believing Jew being justified by faith in the promised seed was to obey Moses Law sincerely as his material obedience to God his Redeemer as we are now to observe the Sacraments instituted by Christ as part of our sincere obedience necessary to Salvation Cont. 33. What iâ— Pauls drift in all his disputes about â—uâ—tification Ans 1. Primarily to prove the necessity of a Saviours Sacrifice Righteousness and Intercession to save and justify us and that the doing of Moses Law how excellent soever esteemed by the Jews would not justify without him 2. To prove that the Gentiles may be saved by faith without the Law as wâ—ll as the Jews by â—aith with it And that it bindeth not the Gentiles and is aâ—rogate to the Jews and that the Law of Christ succeedeth it He confuteth their trusting to the keeping of their Law instead of Christs Righteousness and the promise of Grace and their obâ—ruding their Law upon the Gentiles as necessary to Salvation Cont. 34. What is 〈◊〉 drift of St. James Ans That bare believing the Gospel to be true will not serve to any mans Salvation without obeying Chriâ—ts Commands Nor will justify any mans Title tâ—â—alvation prove him acceptable to God It iâ— the same Justification before God â—and not only in conâ—cience or before men that Paul and James speak 〈◊〉 and the same instance of Abraham they bring 〈◊〉 by Work they mean not the â—â—me 〈◊〉 as is 〈◊〉 explained Cont. 35. Must 〈◊〉 ever trust at all to his faith repentance or holiness or pâ—ead it any way to his justification Ans It must be trusted or pleaded instead of nothing that is Christs part nor for any thing but its own part
Sponsor 3. Yea and a party equally bound 4. Then a Saviour and Grace had been by that Law which is false 5. Then Adam had been no Sinner for it was but He or Christ and not He and Christ that were bound to keep the Law by this Doctrine 6. Then no Death had been due to Adam 7. Then that Law was not broken at all for it bound but disjunctively 8. Then the Law condemneth no man 9. Then our Death and the Curse of the Earth were injuries for we kept the Law by Christ 10. Then the Law of Innocency is it by which we are justified which is false 11. Then there is no place for pardon 12. Nor for a new Law to give us pardon upon terms or new Conditions This is to subvert the Gospel Yet this is commonly said by the adversaries that Adam after his fall was justified by that same Law as saying Do this and Live because he kept it by Christ or Christ in his Name and stead so that it justifieâ—h Adam which Mr. Wotton de Recoâ—â— hath at large confuted If they say that the same Law or Covenant commanded Adam to obey perfectly and his surety also in his stead conjunctly and condemned both Adam for Sin and his Surety for the same then both must suffer as both must obey and each beareth his own part It is a fundamental fiction leading on many other errours to say that the Law of Innocency as it commanded Adam Obediâ—nce or as it threatned Death to him was fulfilled by Christ for him That Law commanded Adam only Personal perfect perpetual Obedience It mentioned or meant no â—â—carius obedâ—â—â—â—ae aut poenae Dum altus solvit aliud solvitur Anothers obeying or suffering was no fulfilling of the Law as it commanded Adam The Law commandeth each subject distinctly and personally Christ fulfilled all the Law as it obliged himself and thaâ— fâ—r Adams Redemptioâ— who had broken it But the same Law aâ— it obâ—â—â—â—d Adam was broken by Adam and not kept by him or any for him It is not that Law that gave man a Saviour but the Mercy of the Offended Lawgiver To say the Hoc fac vives in that Law giveth us right to Life and justifieth us as perfect obeyers and so no Sinners is to deny the Gospel Many say indeed that Christ â—atisfied the Law for us but 1. That proveth that the Obligation of it on us was not fulfilled For satiâ—faction is solutio recusabilis tantidem loco solutionis eâ—usdem 2. But it is an improper speech to say that the Law is satisfied And it meaneth no more but that the end of Government by that Law is obtained And it is properly satisfaction only to the Lawgiver and not to the Law For the Law in it's sence admits not of satisfaction though it hath nothing against it It is only the subjects Obedience that it commandeth and his death as satisfaction for sin that it demandeth It is the Lawgiver as he is above his own Law and hath power to pardon that is satisfied Though as tropically some say that Finis Legis est Lex so we will not contend with them that tropically say Christ satisfied the Law while they mean but that he satisfied the Lawgiver in obtaining the End of the Law But Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law as it obliged himself upon his Sponsion And that Law justified him but no man else It is only the New Covenant that justifieth us II. The second Errour to the same purpose is that though Christ and Adam were two Natural Persons yet they were One â—erson in a Civil Legal or Reputative sense in Christs obeying and suffering and so that what Christ did and suffered in his own Natural Person he did and suffered in Adams and every Elect mans Civil Legal or Reputative Person This is but the consequent of the former Errour He may be called our Râ—prâ—â—â—nter in a limited sense in â—antum ad hoc for there is no hope of holding our opposers to Scriptures phrase But such a strict full personating Representation as is here described denieth the substance of the Gospel There are indeed several Cases in which one in Law or Civil sense doth personate another When the Law alloweth one to do the thing by another that thing is morally done by himself e. g. by my Servant Proxie Attorney Agent in Cases â—o allowed by the Law It is I that pay the debt which my Servant or any Vicarius allowed by Law payeth for me in my name Christ did not thus pay or suffer in our names as our Legal Person but for us and in our stead as a s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t Sponsor in the person of a Mediator so that it cannot be said thâ—t we did it Legally by him else all the forenamed absurdities would follow and specially that Legallâ— we never sinnâ—d and never deserved punishâ—ent nor need either Pardon or the Sacrifice of Christ for Pardon It 's certain that Christ never sinned but obeyed perfectly from first to last And if we did this Legaâ—ly by him we sinned not in Law sense that is not truly at all When we shew that it is a palpable contradiction to say that we were perfectly obedient in and by Christ from birth to death and yet that Christ must suffer for our sins it 's strange to see how some men satisfie themselves with wriggling or huddling out a few insignificant words unfit to satisfie any other And if Christs Habitual Perfection be also so imputed to us in a Legal sense we were habitually perfect from birth to death Whence it is that some assert an equality of such Perfection in all Christians The consequents I will not trouble you with reciting nor stay to enquire whether also his Divine â—ighteousness be ours in such a Law sense and so Man be deified Either Christ was our Legal Person before we were born or from the time of our being or from the time of our believing only 1. Before we had a Being we were no sinners nor bound to obey and therefore needed not to obey or suffer by another 2. When we were born we were not in Christ and perhaps not Believers till old Age And so the Elect should Legally be just while they are Infidels and never sin even in their state of Enmity 3. If only since believing we were so personated by Christ then his Righteousness is not imputed to us for all the time of our unregeneracy and then we never sinned in Law sense after our believing If they say that in suffering he represented us as unregenerate and in his obedience as Believers only then he suffered not for our sins after believing nor obeyed to merit pardon of our sins before If they say that so far as we are sinners we Legally suffered in him and as Believers further to merit glorâ— we obeyed by him the contradiction of this is shewed before If we obeyed so far as to merit glory by the Law of Works then we
for had we done all this our selves that is kept the Law perfectly from first to last we had never sinned 3. We had never deserved punishment 4. Nor needed a Sacrifice 5. Or a Pardon 6. Nor should we during the time of our unregeneracy have been left under spiritual death or at least after believing be left under remaining sin and a body of death 7. Nor have been penally deprived of any help of the Spirit 8. Nor of any Communion with God 9. Nor so long be kept out of Heaven or the Reward 10. Nor ever have been corrected 11. Nor ever had need of Word Prayer or Sacraments for the helping us to renewed Pardon 12. Nor ever have died and rotted in a grave 13. Nor would the Magistrates Execution of Justice on us for our crimes be owned as Gods Justice 14. All men wouâ—d have the same degree of Innocency and Holiness 15. It would have been a wrong to us when we had perfectly kept the Law of Innocency to suspend our right to Pardon and Salvation upon new Conditions in a new Covenant 16. We having perfectly kept the Law of Innocency as to the death as soon as we believe cannot be under another Law of the Redeemer that hath the true uses of a Law 17. Our own actions besides Christs are not capable of Reward or Punishment 18. All the Texts of Scripture that mention inherent or practical personal Righteousness would contradict our imputed Righteousness or make us supererogate and be more than perfectly righteous 19. We need not fear that any new crime should diminish our Righteousness which is perfect and can neither increase or decrease 20. Whether we should not be as righteous on Earth even under Davids or Peters sin as in Heaven and whether we should be Deified by being divinely righteous and justified by Gods Essential Righteousness as Andr. Osiandâ—r taught I leave to be considered as you further explain your self So much to your Epitome which if I wrong you by judging it all your own it is long of your self that own it as aforesaid in the gross If the Dr. be wronged it is by you and not by me § 21. In the conclusion you do no more peaceably than provedly pronounce us in a manner agreed enumerating the particulars in which we consent But I have told you wherein we are not agreed in words nor in sense if those words be not mis-used whatever we are in latent sense I still grant that Christ suffered yea and obeyed in some sort in our stead though not in our person Civil or Legal so as that we are Legally reputed the doers of it by or in him And that his assuming our Nature and being the second Adam a voluntary Sponsor and Mediator was a necessary reason of the application of the fruits to us and that we are as certainly and happily justified and glorified as if we had been the doers and satisfiers our selves so many as are saved But not on the same reasons nor in the same method or manner of conveyance Nor when in judgment we are accused as having sinned and deserved death can we deny it plead that we were innocent by another or by imputation as we should have been had we been innocent our selves But we must plead pardon and a free gift of life through the merits satisfaction and intercession of a Saviour § 21. And to all before said I may add That they who account all the Laws obligations on each person to be fulfilled by Christ and not only satisfaction given for our not fulfilling them 1. Must suppose that one person of Christ to have been Legally as many persons as he died for or justifieth For the Law laid as many distinct obligations on them as they were persons and laid them only on their persons It said Thou Adam Thou Eve shalt personally obey perfectly or die And the Law of Nature and of Moses said in sense Thou Solomon Thou Manasses and so of all others shalt do all things commanded and not sin Now that in all Christs Obedience he was Legally and imputatively so many several persons Adam Eve Solomon Manasseh and so that none of these broke Gods Law I find not in the Scripture If you say Adam was Legally as many persons as are born of him in sin I deny it He was the Root of all his Posterity and they were in him seminally and virtually but not personally actually or imputatively But by one mans disobedience as their Root and Cause many are made sinners And by one mans obedience as the Root and Cause all Believers are made righteous It is enough that one Saviour and Mediator in a third person of his own did and suffered that which by its merits and value as attaining the Ends of the Law and Government procured our deliverance from a necessity of perfect obeying as the Condition of Life and from guilt and misery and is become the Root Head and Donor of Grace and Glory 2. And if as you say it be the very thing that is imputed to us as ours to all intents as if we had done it why have you not told us whether it be all that Christ did or but some and what and how from Scripture you prove the distribution and whether we have not thus a Righteousness which is both too much and too little I. Too much For we were not obliged by the Law to be born of a Virgin by the Holy Ghost to fast forty days to turn Water into Wine to cast out Devils to heal all diseases and raise the dead to inaite the Gospel and send out Apostles c. If you say that so much only of Christs Obedience is in it self our own as we must else have done our selves I ask the proof of the limitation And II. Is it not then too little if it must be the Idem and not the Aequivalens For some of us are bound to the Offices of Parents and some of Husbands and Wives some of Servants some of Magistrates some of Souldiers some to actions proper to the sick to the old and other conditions which Christ was never in We are bound to mortifie our sinful lusts to pray for pardon and grace to receive a pardon offered to yield to the mortifying motions of the Spirit c. which Christ was not capable of It was enough that he undertook all that was fit for him and necessary by equivalency to satisfie and merit a free gift of grace and glory for us and that he performed the undertaken conditions and duties of all that Law which was laid on him without doing all the same things which were laid on us § 22. And one thing more I desire you to note which Grotius de satisf hath minded us of viz. The great difference that there is between the case of a Rector and a Creditor and between a Subject and a Debtor or a Debt of Obedience or Punishment and a Debt of Money For the name of
justifying is not making Righteous therefore making Righteous is no Justifying nor any part of it It s a shame to stay to cite many â—â—xts â—gaiâ—st these men where the whole Bible but especially all Christ's own Preaching and Parables are so expresly against thâ—m that I admire with what fâ—ce thâ—se men prâ—fess to believe the Scripture And I wâ—nâ—er not that some of them say that all the wâ—â—ttâ—â— Word is a Covenant of Works aâ—d oâ—ly the Spirits iâ—waâ—d Work is the Covenant of Grace And whâ—n they tell us as Crispe p. 242. Vol. 1. Ed. 1. That for any hurt that such sins can do us it is not possible for Christ hath made satisfaction I wonder why they preach against that which doth no hurt and why tâ—ey excommunicate men for sin and why they scruple Perjury Liturgies Parish-Communion or any Point of Conformity yea why some of them will suffer rather than conform when it is impossible for any sin to hurt them Why do your hearers pay you for Preaching against a harmless thing Why make you so much Complaint against Vnreformeâ—ness Sin doth God no hurt it doth not the Elect any hurt by your Doctrine for Christ hath satisfied and born all And the Reprobate are uncapable of good for want of satisfaction for them I pray you do not speak out this Doctrine to the World If you do I shall be glad that you are confined to your seduced ignorant Congregations If you will tell the World If you are elect no sin can possibly hurt you whatever Murders Adulteries Perjuries you commit it is none of your sin but Christs It cannot be his and yours too and if not elect you have no hope and if you be elect you will be never the better for praying considering charity or any Act of Religion or Justice which you do nor must once think to gain any thing by it How many Converts is this like to make And what would such a Nation come to I hope few of the publick Preachers that you call scandalous preach so scandalously as this I have one Request to you that if you or any other be questioned by the judges for Murder Adultery False-witness Perjury or Robbery you will not say as Dr. Crispe hath taught you I am no Murderer Adulterer perjured Robber c. It is Christ that is such a one and not I it cannot be my sin when he hath made it his for I doubt neither the Judges or Jury well believe you If you believe not we ask the Judges whether it be you or Christ that is the sinner I doubt it is you that will be hang'd If you say for what may not ignorance say That it is not at the Bar of man but of God only that Christ is the sinner and not we I Answer Know you not that Judges and Princes are God's Officers and that the Judgment is the Lords and that what they do according to his Will he doth by them He doth not command Rulers to hang men for a sin that is none of theirs All mens Judgments are Nullities that are against the fore-known Judgment of God It is the King that punisheth when the hangman executeth God punisheth men by Rulers and doth it righteously I write all this the rather because Mr. Cokain in his Preface exhorteth Preachers to go on where the Dr. left I humbly beseech them first to read and believe Mat. 5. 6. and 7 8. and 13.18.25 and all the Sermons and Parables of Christ and not downright to give him the Lie and call it exalting him And for them that report that there are no such Words in Dr. Crispe as I report I wonder not while they think that lying can do them no hurt and is not their sin but Christs And they that believe they are under no Law may believe that they have no Transgression nor Christ for them when they had never any And to them that talk of inherent Righteousness as less necessary than God hath made it I desire them but to mark what Christ saith of it and to remember that sin is much of Hell and holiness of Heaven And that Christ came to save his People from their sins as more righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees inhâ—rently and to make them a peculiar People zealous of good Works and holy as God is holy and to bethink them whether to disgrace the Building be to honour the Architect and whether the â—orth or the worthlesness of the Work more honour the Work-men and whether the Cure of the Sick dishonour the Physitian And whether to say that my Clock or Watch will go by artificial means or only no longer than the Work mans-Finger only moveth it do more honour the Artist And whether the Psalms would so much call us to glorifie God for his Works if all that is ascribed to his Works were taken from his Honour The Lord teach us better to understand that Word that maketh the simple wise and not to set Christ against himself and against his own Honours Government and Laws A Defence of Christ AND Free Grace c. Chap. 1. Prefatory Ortho. Sir Having my self and the Congregation which I am Related to been in danger of the Errours called Antinomian I wrote to you to intreat you who have done so much heretofore to Conquer and Extirpate those Errours to get the London Ministers to publish their Judgments against Dr. Crispe 's Book and such others now Re-printed and rising up with re-newed danger Reconcil You did so and I answered you 1. That I thought it not seasonable till the acceptance and success of that Book and such others made our danger so notorious and great as would clearly justify our Confutation I have written on that Subject so much already 1. In my Confession of Faith 2. In my Apologies against Mr. Craudâ—n Mr. Aaires and others 3. In my Disputations of Justification 4. In my Life of Faith 5. In my Justifying Righteousness and there against Dr. Tully and my last Animadversions on Mr. Cartwright 6. In my Catholâ—ck Theolâ—gy especially the five last Chapters 7. And in my Methodus Theologiae All which are unanswered to this day that I know not why I should be forward to write much more For they that will not read this that hath been so long written are not like to read it if I yet write more And I am so fearful of stirring up the hidden spark of this mischief that having written Fourteen Years ago a short Decision of a multitude of these Controversies I suspended it lest it should kindle New Oppositions 2. And I told you that we have now such publick and dangerous Controversies about Royalty Prelacy Conformity c. that it is very unseasonable to make a noise of the Errours and Factions among the Tolerated though they should somewhat increase by advantage of our silence till we see what publick settlement there will be 3. And I confess I have an opinion that accidentally the Books
Posterity say some as in him that if he stood God would continue him and his Posterity and if he fell God would take it as if all his Posterity then personally sinned in him and so that either we were all then personally in him or God by Imputation would take us to have so been And so that God's Covenant and Imputation made Adams sin ours further than it is by natural propagation not truly distinguishing between our being Personally in him and being but Virtually and Seminally in him And feigning God to make Adam not only the Natural Father and Root of Mankind but also Arbitrarily a Constituted Representer of all the Persons that should spring from him and so that God made them sinners that were none and that before he made them men II. Whence they infer that Christ was by Gods imposition and his own sponsion made the Legal Representative Person of every one of the Elect taken singularly so that what he did for them God reputeth them to have done by him III. Hereby they falsly make the Person of the Mediator to be the legal Person of the sinner and deny the true Mediatorship IV. But they cannot agree when this Personating of the Elect began Some say It had no beginning but was from Eternity because Election was from Eternity and we were Elected in Christ and so were Persons from Eternity in him V. Others say That it began at the making of the World Christ being then the first of Gods Works in a Super-angelical Nature emaning from the Divine which contained all our Persons in it as the Beams are of or in the Sun VI. Others say that this Personation began at the giving to Adam the first Law or Covenant of Innocency and that Christ was a person in the Bond or Covenant And that the meaning of it was Thou or Christ personating thee shall perfectly Obey or Thou or He shall Die the threatned death for Sin VII Others say that this Personation began at the making of the Promise Gen. 3. of the Seâ—d of the Woman c. And so that Christ personated none under the first Covenant VIII Others say that it began at Christs Incarnation when he took the Nature of Man and therewith all our Persons IX Others say that it began on his Cross or at least at his Humiliation and that he only suffered in our persons X. Others say that it begins at our Believing and our Union with Christ by Faith and then he by Union personateth us XI They deny Gods Covenant or Law of Innocency that required our Personal Obedience as the condition of Life XII They forge a Law that God never made that saith Thou or thy Surety shall Obey Perfectly or Dye XIII They falsly say that God justifyeth none that are not really or imputatively perfectly Innocent Obedient and such as never Sinned but kept all that Law XIV They confound Gods Covenant with Christ as Mediator imposing on him his Mediatorial part and the Covenant of the Father and Son with faln Man imposing on them the terms of Recovery and Life XV. They hold that the first Law and some of them also Moses's Law is done away as to all the Elect but is still in force to all the Reprobates and was in force to Christ But whether it bound him to Obedience as our Representative antecedently to mans fall or only consequently they are in their confusion at a loss And they hold that its curse and penalty sentenced after the fall by God fell on all the Reprobate and on Christ but none of it on any of the Elect as having been suffered by Christ fully for them As I have said The promissary part of that Law ceased and so did the condition of the promise by mans sin making it impossible but the threat did transire in sententiam And if Christ was antecedently in the bond of Obedience for us he was bound not to Eat of the forbidden Tree and bound to dress the Garden and bound to take Eve for his Wife c. which are all false If he were bound by it as our representative after the fall it bound him when it ceased and bound not us which is false And therefore it was only the Law of perfect Innocency anew imposed on himself by the Mediatorial Covenant that bound him And if the Penal Sentence and Curse be Executed on all the Reprobate then it is not ceased And then it must be a Penalty and that Curse even on the Elect before they believe because till then they have no part in Christ And after they believe they must bear part of that Penalty called a Curse which was fixed and not reversed and pardoned that is The privation of those degrees of Grace Peace and Joy which they should have had if there had been no sin The Curse on the Earth Sorrow in Child-bearing and Death These cease not now to be Penals but are Sanctified Penalties A Curse turned to a Blessing an Evil made a Medicine to our good Correction is truly Penal tho' profitable Christ suffered to attain his own Ends and not to cross them His Ends was not to free the Elect from his own Government or Correcting Justice XVI They affirm that the Covenant is made only with Christ for us but not with us As it God made none with man and Baptizing and Christianity were not Covenanting XVII They feign God to have made an eternal Covenant with his Son that is God imposing on God the Law of Mediation XVIII They most dangerously affirm that Christ took not only the punishment of our sin and that guilt or Reatum poenae which is an assumed obligation to suffer the punishment deserved by us to be Vicarius poenae but all our very Sins themselves the very Essence of the Sin of all the Elect the Reatum Culpae So that tho' he never did sin himself yet all our sins habitual and actual positive and privative of commission and omission became truly and properly Christs own sins And so that he was truly judged a hater and blasphemer of God and Holiness and the greatest murderer adulterer thief lyar perjured Traytor in all the World the sins of all the Elect being truly His sins Of which Dr. Crisp is positive and large XVIIII They say that God laid these sins of ours on him and made him properly sin for us and not only a Sacrifice for sin And so that God is the Maker of the greatest Sin XIX They say that Gods Imputation being truly but the accounting one to be what he is had not God made him a Sinner his imputing or reckoning him such had been a Lye which is true tho' they nifer Falshood from it taking Imputation of Sin strictly for a true Estimation XX. They that make this Imputation to be before the Incarnation make God to make himself this great Sinner that is Christ while he was meer God And so make us a wicked God When Satan can but Tempt us to sin
sigâ—s that must coâ—fute them for our Justification And the Judgment is not to be managed as at a human juâ—icature by talking it out with every Person but by an universally convincing Light that at once can shew every man in the World his own partâ—cular case as in it self it is not Sigâ—s not Riâ—htâ—ousnâ—sâ— that hath the promises of Râ—wâ—rd And there is no Righteousness that so far maketh not a man Righteous and so far Justifiable XCI They some of them say that we shall need no Justification against any false Accusation For who should accuse us Christ will not Consâ—ience will not and Devils say they will have something else to do And they know that false accusation will be in vain before such a Judge The sum of this is that there will indeed be no day of Judgment and no Justification by decisive Sentence yea and no Salvation for actual Glorification will be a Sentence manifested by Execution which Mr. Lawsâ—n thought was called the Judgment And if no Judgment then no Judge no Reward no Condemnation and no Punishment If any Judgment there must be Persons and a Cause to be tryed and judged 1. The Cause of that day will not be whether Christ be a sufficient Saviour or have made sufficient satisfaction It is not for Christ to judge himself It is not to judge God whether he elected us It is not to judge whether we were of the Seed of Adam or whether we ever sinned Or whether the Law of Innocency condemn us And our sin deserve everlasting Punishment There is no justifying us against any such Accusation It must be all confess'd we were the sinful Children of Adam we deserved Condemnation But the Cause will be 1. Whether we are lyable by Guilt to future Punishment And against this our Pardon justifyeth us 2. And whether we have Right to the Heavenly Inheritance And in this the Gospel-Donation Covenant or Promise justifieth us and both thro' the Merits of the Sacrifice and Righteousness of Christ 3. And the other part of the Cause of that day is whether we have part in Christ and the Merits of his Righteousness In which our Faith and God's Covenant will justifie us 4. And the Question being Whether this Faith be that which had the promise and not a Counterfeit the description of it by its Acts and Part and not only by adventitious Signs must be our justifying Evidence The faith that hath the Promise is essentially Christianity or a Covenant accepting of God the Father Son and Spirit of Christ as our Teacher Priest and King by affiance expressed in assent consent and subjection And all that is essential to this yea the necessary integrality and modification have their parts in being the Cause of the day And as to the Case of Accusation 1. A Virtual Accusation by the Law which we have broken and condemneth us requireth a Justification if there were no more 2. The Glory of Christ's Merits Righteousness and Grace requireth a Justification of us against our real Guilt 3. And is not Satan the Accuser of the Brethren and that before God And did not his Malice so work against Job though God contradicted him It is certain that sentential and apologetical Justification relates to Accusation virtual or actual and Condemnation Who shall condemn us it is God that justifieth us And if we are not justified against false Accusations we shall never be justified against any But we all confess that we are made righteous efficiently by Grace and constitutively by Righteousness in despight of all Satans true accusations and against all our own unworthiness ungodliness antecedently and guilt and that before all Works and Perseverance save a true accepting Faith in Christ But if we shall in judgment be decisively deâ—lared righteous by that which constituteth us righteous of which no knowing man herein can doubt God judging all things truly as they are then certainly will men by decisive declaration be judged righteous as being pardoned and adopted by the Merits of Christ and qualified by true Faith Repentance and Obedience for that Guift XCII They absurdly hold that to be justifâ—ed as to the sincerity of our Faith from the charge oâ— Hypocrisie or unsoundness it is not the Justification of the Person A contradiction that I am ashamed to be long in confuting Is it the Faâ— and not the Person that is to be judged Is it not as it is the Persoâ—s Faith What is it to â—â—stifie his Faith but to justifie him to be a true â—elieving Christian and so to be an Heir of the Prâ—mise The necessâ—ry qualifâ—cation of Faith 〈◊〉 â—t be operative is as truly a part of the condition of the Promises as that Faith be Faith indeed Indeed some sound Divines say That Faitâ— justâ—fiâ—th us as sinnâ—rs and Works justifiâ—th our Faith as â—câ—usâ—d Believers But they never meant thâ—â— by justifying our Faith it â—ustiâ—eth not our Persons But that we are at fâ—rst coâ—stitutâ—d just and adopted upon the â—â—ndition of a consentiâ—â— covenanting Fâ—ith bâ—fâ—re we hâ—ve time to sheâ— it by outward Works and that we are contiâ—ue and judged jâ—stified and intitled â—â— Liâ—e oâ— condition of our Performance of the Essentials â—f oâ— Covenant XCIII Thâ—â— hold thâ—t we are justified â—â— the sâ—me Law or Câ—vâ—â—â—â—t of Innocency which condemneth â—â— Because â—ay they we have fulfilled it in and by Câ—â—â—â—t falsly as is aforesaid supposing that Câ—râ—st was either such a Surety as wâ—â— in the same Bond diâ—jâ—nctively with the principal or else that the principal man was allowed to do his Duty or â—ear his Suffering by another And so they deny the Gospel-Covenant and Gift which is that indeed which justifieth us by the way of Redemption falsly supposing that the very damning Law doth justiâ—e us by way of Prevention as innocent as having fulfilled it in Christ XCIV They suppose that Christ will not judge and justifie us acâ—ording to any Law by which he governed us but only by declaring his absolute Deâ—ree and Will giving no Reason of his Sentence from the cause of different performance or â—on performance of the Persâ—ns jâ—dged and so that Judgment is no act of Moral Government or of Reward contrary to all the Scripture XCV They falsly suppose that Paâ—â—â— of siâ— iâ— no Justification constitutive or senteâ—tiâ—l Because say they that doth but save us from Punisâ—ment but to be Righteous is to be by imputation such as have kept all the Law and so hâ—ve never sinned But we have no such Righteousness aâ— they thus feign when the Question is whether we are sâ—nners We must confess it and â—ot plead that we have no sin But when the Question is whether we are to be condemned Pardon is oâ—r Righteousness and having the Pardon of all sin original habitual and aâ—tual of omissiâ—n and commission we are in stâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 pâ—â—â—uâ—â— and if thâ—◠〈◊〉 enough to intitle uâ— tâ— Glory Aâ—option added to it is And so 〈◊〉 Riâ—ht is â—â—stiâ—â—â—d XCVI
explaining in what sense Christs Righteousness is imputed to us and how not 3. And do they tell us with any agreement what Righteousness of Christ they call Imputed Some say only the Passive some also the Active Some also the habitual and some also the Divine Much less agree they to what Effects it is imputed and how far 4. Also the name of Faith is used without a due and true explication of their meaning One by Faith meaneth not Faith but Christs Righteousness Another calls it an Instrument and yet denieth it to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere that is the Act of Faith indeed as if any thing else was that instrument Another saith it is but one Physical act and not like contracting a Moral complication of many Physical Acts One saith it is but one Act and all other Acts of Faith he that looketh to be Justified by denieth the Doctrine of Grace or true Justification and so leave men to despair because they can never tell which that single is and how to escape the damning Doctrine of Justification by works One saith it is the Understandings assent Another that it is the Wills recumbency or trust One saith it is only Faith in Christ that Justifieth and not in God the Father or the Holy Ghost One saith it is only Faith in Christs Priestly Office and not in Christ as Prophet or King some say it is not Faith in his whole Priestly Office either his Intercession or Heavenly Priesthood but only in his Sacrifice and Obedience Another that it is only the trusting on his Imputed Righteousness Another that it is none of all these but only the belief that we are already Justified by Christ One saith we are Justified only at once by the first numerical Act of Faith and never by any after Act Another that an Act of the same Species continueth our Justification And this confusion is from the vain fantasy of men that will divide and mince and yet will not sufficiently distinguish and know not that by Faith is meant our becoming Christians and continuing such 5. So they talk loud against Works in the Case of Justification and know not what either Paul or James or Christ meaneth by works But they dream that Works and Acts are of the same signification As if every humane Act were that which Paul meaneth by works contrary to his express explication And so to be Justified by Faith must be to be Justified by Works One saith we will grant Justification by Faith if you take it aright to be a going wholly out of our selves and denying all our own righteousness and going to Christ and his Righteousness alone But is their chosen Metaphor of Going out and Going to an Act or no Act If an Act than it is works if they may be believed If no Act then their meaning is we confess that you are Justified by Believing if you do not believe You are Justified by Faith if Faith be nothing and by coming to Christ if you come not to him or it be nothing Such is the sence of these Confounders and Corrupters But these and many such mistakes are to be opened in their proper place That which I here intend is not a confutation of this or that writer but to give them a breviate of my own Judgment who will not read what I have largely written in many books long ago pretending that the length of the books is their reason and yet have not so much conscience as to suspend their censures no nor their back-biting false accusations of that which they have not leisure to understand or read They judge hard cases which they never digested by any answerable Study and Scruple not Judging and Slandering perâ—ons unheard Corrupting the Gospel and so excellent a Subject as the Doctrine of Grace and of the Office and Merits and Judgment of Christ and so of Christianity it self is a matter that conscience should more tenderly fear than wearing a Surplice or kneeling at the Sacrament or communicating with a Church that useth the Common-Prayers To think those unworthy of their Communion that use such Ceremonies or forms of prayer and at the same time to prophane so high a part of the name of God as is his Grace in Christ and his Justifying Governing and Saving works and this quoad verba by corrupting it even in Essentials and then to defame as erroneous those that are not as Ignorant and Erroneous as themselves and to foment malice and errour and Sects by such lying defamations This is a Nonconformity which I earnestly desire that no man that loveth Christ or Free grace or the Church or his own Soul may ever take for his duty or his honour or rashly as a sequacious admirer of any mistaken leader be ever guilty of What is straining at a Gnat and swallowing a Camel if this be not And of how ill a constitution is such a blind and partial conscience I shall here study brevity and first explain the Doctrine of Grace and Righteousness and Justification in some self-evident Propositions And next briefly resolve about fifty doubts or Controversies hereabout THE CONTENTS 1. THe nature of Justification explained Controv. I. Whether it be an Immanent Act in God and from Eternity Cont. II. Whether the Covenant of Grace be made only with Christ or with us also Cont. III Whether the Covenant of Grace have any condition required of us Cont. IV Whether our performance of the Condition efficiently justify us Cont. V. Whether we are justified by Christs righteousness imputed to us And whether the Scripture say we are Cont. VI. In what sense is Christs Righteousness imputed to us Cont. VII What Righteousness of Christ is it that is ours and imputed to us the Passive the Active the Habitual or the Divine or all Cont. VIII Whether Christs Righteousness be the Efficient Material or Formal cause of our Righteousness or Justification Cont. IX Whether the Vnion between Christ and believers be not so near as maketh them the same Subject and so the Accident of Christs righteousness to be ours in itself Cont. 10. Are we not so righteous by an Vnion with Christ as we are sinners by our Vnion with Adam Cont. XI Is not Christs Righteousness ours as our sins were his by imputation Cont. 12. Doth Christs Righteousness cause our Sanctification in the same sort of Causality as it causeth our Justification Cont XIII Is it faith itself that is said to be imputed to us for Righteousness or only Christs or Christs Righteousness Cont. XIV Whether Grace be Grace and free if it have any condition Cont. XV. Whether Repentance be any condition of Pardon and Justification and to affirm it do not equal it with Faith Cont. XVI Whether faith justify us as a meritorious cause or as a dispositive cause of receiving Justification or as a meer condition or an Instrumental cause Cont. XVII Is Justifying faith an act of the understanding or of the Will Cont.
uncapable of the benefits 15. God useth none of fallen mankind according to the severity of the first Law but givâ—th to all men undeserved forfeited Mercy and bindeth them to use some means for their recovery to repent in hope and to receive and thankfully use the measures of mercy which he vouchâ—â—â—eth them And all men shall be judged according to that edition of the Law of Grace which they were under and the receiving and using the Grace or Mercy which was given or offered them 16. When the peculiar Seed was formed into a Nation God gave them by Moses a peculiar Law which exempliâ—ied the Holiness of the first Law but had the Promises and Grace of the second with the peculiar additions and plainlier pointed out the Messiah to come but by a way of operous Ceremonies and severe Discipline suitable to their rude minority 17. In the fulness of time Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost in a Virgin and being God and Man aâ— made by the Will of the Deity was made a Subject under a Law peculiar to himself according to his peculiar works and this Law given to our Mediator had three parts 1. That he should perfeâ—tly obey the Law of Innocency so far as it was fitted to his case and overcome the Tempter 2. That he should perfectly keep the Law of Moseâ— so far as it agreed to him 3. That he should perfectly do all that was proper to the Redeemer in being a Sacrifice for sin clearing and publiâ—hing the New Covenant sealing it by Miracles rising again instituting his Word Sacraments and Ministry ascending giving the Spirit interceding in Heaven c. his promised reward being the success of his undertaking the saving of his Church and his Glory in the glorifying of God the Father This is the peculiar Law to the Mediator 18. That which is called The Covenant between the Father and the Son is this Covenant made to and with Christ Inâ—arnate and the fore-decâ—â—eing thereof with the Prophecies of it If there be more it is past our reach 19. Christ perfectly fulfilled all that he undertook and this as the second Adam not a Natural Root but a Voluntary Sponsor Not our Substitute or Servant sent by us but chosen by tâ—e Father and sent by him to do all his Will for Mans Redemption 20. As he took the common Nature of Man so the sins of all and not only of the Elect were the causes of his sufferings and said upon him and the fruits of his sufferings and merits were some common and some peculiar to the Elect. 21. He being not as Adam our natural Parent was not meerly by natural generation to convey his benefits to the Redeemed but by such means as he should chuse and Man consent to even by a holy Covenant or Contract being also his Doctrine and his Law in several respects which Covenant having great and precious Promises is Gods Instrument of Donation and Condonation and our title to all the blessings promised by which God doth give us right to Pardon and Salvation This Law of Grace is the Rule of our duty and the Rule by which we shall be judged 22. This Law or Covenant giveth a Conditional Pardon to all in the tenour of it with Adoption and Right to Life Eternal But actual Pardon and Right accrueth to none till the Condition be performed which is to be Believers or their Infant seed dedicated to God by Covenant Consent 23. This Condition is not that we our selves make God amends or satisfaction or give him any thing that hath any merit in Commutative Justice or do any kind of work which shall make the reward to be of debt and not of grace But it is the Belief of and Consent to the Covenant of Grace and the Believing Acceptance of the gifts and grace of the Covenant according to their nature and 〈◊〉 their proper use and is the same thing which is to be professed in Baptism which is the solemnizing of this mutual Covenant and in which God the Father Son and Holy Ghost do give themselves to us for grace and glory and we give up our selves by consent to him believingly accepting his grace and penitently renouncing the lusts of the flesh the world and the Devil and so are sacramentally invested in a state of Justification Adoption and Spiritual Life 24. The profession of this Faith and Consent in Baptism maketh men visible Christians and Church members and true heart consent in Faith maketh men Living and Justified Members 25. This belief and consent or performance of the Condition is not the Efficient Cause of our Pardon or Justification but is the necessary 〈◊〉 position or qualification of the Receiver in the very nature of the Act suitable and needful and by Divine Institution and Promise made the Condition and acceptable 26. Though we are not capable Receivers of Justification till we thus penitently and believingly consent yet when we do so it is the merit of Christs Righteousness by which we are justified For the Covenant of God is but his Instrument by which he giveth us Christ to be our Head and Life in and with him and so giveth us Justification as procuâ—â—d by his Merits 27. Justification is a word of many senses sometimes it signifieth making us righteous sometimes the Law or Covenants virtuâ—l judging us righteoâ—s it being the Rule of Judgment sometimes Gods esteeming us righteous in his own mind sometimes for a Justifying by â—vidence or Witness sometimes by â—poloâ—y of an Advocate sometimes by the Sentence of the Judge and sometime for the Execution of that Sentence But the notable special sorts are three Making just â—udging just and Vsing as just And they that will dispute of Justification and not tell in what sense they take the word do but abuse their time and talk 28. No man is judged righteous by God that is not first made righteous 29. He that is made righteous is justifiable in Judgment and virtually justified in Law 30. No sinner is made righteous as to the Preceptive part of the Law of Innocency it being a contradiction to have been a sinner and no sinner 31. Pardon of sin doth not make the fact done to be undone or not done nor the sin to be no sin nor not to have deserved punishment But it remitteth the punishment and the fault so far as it inferreth punishment because of the merit and satisfaction of the Mediator and delivereth the sinner from that which he was bound to suffer by the violated Law 32. To make a man righteous before God that hath sinned all these things must concur 1. He must have a Mediator that must answer the Ends of the Law that condemneth him and so meriteth his Justification 2. This Saviour must make him a Pardoning and Justifying Covenant to convey the right of the purchased benefits to him 3. He himself by grace must perâ—orm the Conditions of that Covenant accepting the free gift believingly according to its
never sinned And if we suffered in him for all sins of Omission and Commission we merited glory without any other obedience For the Law requireth nothing but Innocency as necessary to life He that hath no sin doth perfectly obey And pardon of all sin of Omission and Commission is the pardon of all punishment of Sense and Loss and so of the loss of promised Life Besides that one that is reputed to have Legally fulfilled the Law must be unjustly corrected by the punishment of temporal afflictions or death or loss of the Spirit and Grace and hath present right to the reward of that Covenant or deliverance from all penal evil at least so that this Doctrine of strict Legal personating Representation overthroweth the New Covenant and Law of Christ and all his Kingdom of Grace and all Religion III. The third fundamental Errour which we deny and oppose is that the Vnion between Christ and the Elect say some or Believers say others is so near as that his very personal Holiness Righteousness and Sufferings are in Law sense truly our Holiness Righteousness and Sufferings as the accidents of our persons As if Christ and Adam and every Christian were one and the same subject of Holiness Righteousness Suffering Merit or Satisfaction Yet they dare not say that the Union like the hypostatical warranteth such a community of Properties or Attributes as that we may be said to be Divinely Righteous perfectly Holy never to have sinned to have satisfied for our selves to have merited our own Salvation and many such like as seeing the evil of the consequents though not of the premises And here sometime they abuse the similitude of a Husband and Wife whereas they are distinct persons and one is not wise just or guiltless because the other is so nor hath the Wife any propriety so much as in extrinsick goods but by contract in the proportion granted by the Husband Some abuse the similitude of a Head and Members whereas Natural Head and Members make one Natural Body but so do not Christ and Believers And a Political Head and Members are distinct persons and one is not guiltless righteous wise or good because the other is so But of this more before and elsewhere Some here abuse the similitude of Christs being the second Adam which you here though not to this Errour insist upon And then they feign us 1. To have beeâ— otherwise in Adam than we were 2. And his sin to be otherwise imputed to us than it was And 3. The similitude to extend further than it doth I. They feign us to have been Personally in Adam whenas we were but seminally in him and personally from him 2. They feign us to have been in him by a certain Covenant more than we were by Natural In-existence And that his sin was arbitrarily by God through that Covenant imputed to us further than we were guilty of it by any natural In-being or derivation As if God made all men sinners by his arbitrary imputation of that to them which in their natures they were not really guilty of And as if our guilt of Adams sin were just of the same sort as his yea and our guilt and his guilt were individual accidents of the same individual persons But this which Dr. Twisse oft confuteth in most of his Books I have so largely and lately cleared in my published Disputations of Original sin that you shall excuse me for not reciting it here 3. The guilt of Adams sin being ours by Natural Derivation cometh to all alike entirely according to the subjects capacity and necessarily without the consent of Parent or Child Were Adam and all Parents unwilling to communicate it in generation it would nevertheless be done But Christ being not a Natural but a contracting voluntary Root and Cause doth communicate the fruits of his Righteousness only voluntarily by gift of Contract at the time in the â—anner and measure and on the terms that he seeth meet Here it is observable 1. That both Generation and Regeneration have much unsearchable How Souls generate Souls and how the Spirit of Christ communicateth Grace to Souls will never here be clearly apprehended â—ohn 3.8 2. But it 's certain that the Soul of the Parent is not the Soul of the Child but some cause of it and so that they are not one person 3. We were not persons in Adams person either the same or distinct 4. But Adam caused us not as a man maketh a garment house c. but as one Candle doth light another by some mysterious communication of its essence so formae se multiplicant by the Divine benediction Increase and multiply and primary causation 5. Though we were not persâ—nally but virtually and seminally in Adam yet when that seed becometh a person that person is from Adam and so must proportionably be guilty For who can bring a clean thing out of the essence of an unclean 6. Adam had the common Nature of all men specifically and radically and causally though as their nature individually constitute their persons they existed not in him as extra causam 7. So Jesus Christ did more assume the common Nature of faln Man than the persons of any or the Nature as extra causas constituting the individual person 8. Ponum est ex causis integris malum ex partiali Any defeâ—t maketh sin but good must have entire causes Adams sin causeth Original sin in all ex privatione causationis boni But if Adam had not sinned every sin of their own would have made his Children unrighteous 9. Christ having suffered in the common nature of man so far did it in their stead and if you will needs so call it so far represented fallen mankind as that if they will personally receive him by faith in the New Covenant they shall not perish for Adams sin or their own supposing that the parent is the accepter for the Infant none perish for Original sin alone without the addition of neglected and refused grace and remedy 10. It is not only the Spiritual off-spring that Christ was a second Adam to but partly to all mankind For by a resurrection though not to glory all men are made alive by Christ Joh. 5.22 23 29. 1 Cor. 15. And all have a general conditional reconciliation and pardon 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Joh. 3.16 So that actual Justification resulteth to no man from Christs meer representation of him but from his free donation by the New Covenant 11. It 's doubtless that all and only the holy seed or faithful are justified actually by Christs Righteousness But in what sence it is imputed to them is all the doubt 12. It 's also doubtless that Christ suffered in our stead But in what sense how far is all the doubt Because we deserved it he voluntarily assumed it to demonstrate Gods Justice Mercy and Wisdom and deliver us You say before that It was strictest Justice that was shewed on Christ I would not strive about the
Habits would have been fitly called the matter of his Righteousness that is of the fundamentum Relationis Yet this is the difference Adams Right or Relation of Just would have resulted immediately from his own Acts and Habits câ—â—pared with the Law whereas ours resulteth from Christs Merits or Righteousness not immediately as ours in it self but mediately as paid for us to God and the Benefit of Right and Righteousness given us by the Covenant for the said Merit of our Mediator § 16. Next you say that this Imputation supposeth not the Person to have done and suffered himself what is imputed to him and note their mistake that suppose the Doctrine of Imputation to imply that Christ did commit our Sins and we perform his Righteousness Ans This granteth much towards Concord But I hope you understand that the Question is not whether we did Physically do and suffer what Christ did even in our Natural Persons but whether we did it Morally Legally Civilly Reputatively as a Man acteth by an Instrument Attorney Vicar or Personating Representer â—o that the Law reputeth it his Act. Why did you not note this and tell us whether you deny this also as well as our Physical performance If you deny not this our Legal or Moral doing and suffering in and by Christ you did not fairly in your Description of the Mind of your opposers as far as ever I could understand them But if you deny this our agreement seemeth very feasible But then you must go over the Explication of Imputation and Donation of Christs own Righteousness again and better tell us what you mean by them than these described words do § 1â— Next you tell us of Imputation 1. Ex justitia 2. Ex Voluntaria Sponsione 3. Ex injuria 4. Ex gratia 1. Things imputed ex justitia you say are 1. For Fâ—deral Relation as Adams sin 2. For Natural Relation and that only as to some temporal Effects Ans Here we must suppose by your former explication that by Imputation you mean not Estimative reckoning or accounting that to a man which he before hath but 1. Donation 2. Vsage congruously anâ— will so to use one But Adams sin was no giâ—â— to us and came not by donation Nor is Donation Imputation 2. What you say of Adams sin being ours by Covenant Relation as distinct from Natural Relation is unsound and the matter needeth fuller explication which as aforesaid I have attempted in my Disputation of Original Sin And as unsound is it that Natural Relation brings none but Temporal Evil. It cannot be proved nor is to be affirmed that without natural derivation we derive by meer Covenant the guilt of Adams sin no nor that Covenant derivation is before the natural nor yet that it goeth any further or that we contract any more guilt by Covenant than we do by nature but the Law of nature it self and Gods congruous Covenant is that which virtually judgeth us guilty when natural derivation hath made us guilty as Dr. Twisse oft as aforesaid Do you mean that guilt resulteth from Gods part of the Covenant or from Adams or from his Posterities Not from ours for we exisâ—ed not and made no such Covenant Not from Adams part antecedent to Natural Derivation For 1. No man can prove that ever Adam made such a Covenant 2. Or that God gave him any such power much less Command to bring sin and death on his Posterity by his Consent or Will or Contract further than by the Law of Nature they must derive it from him if he sinned 3. Not by Gods Covenant act For 1. No such Covenant of God can be shewn that made men sinners further than Natural Derivation did 2. Else God should be the Author of sin even of all mens Original sin if his Arbitrary Covenant made them sinners where nature did not Nay more it is not meer Natural Relation much less such Covenant Relation that doth it for Relation doth not so operate of itself but it is that Generation which causeth Fundamentally at once both the Relation of Sons and the adherent guilt And in my foresaid second Disputation I have proved that Natural derivation even from nearer Parents deserveth more than Temporal hurt § 18. II. Your second ex voluntaria Sponsione you exemplify in Onesimus and Judah to Jacob Gen. 43.9 Ans 1. There is no talk of Imputation in either of the Texts as to the receiver Much less of an Imputation which is Donation Indeed Paul undertaketh to pay Onesimus's debt to Philemon and so bids him set the debt on his account that is take him for the pay-master If this be Imputing the debt to Paul we are agreed that so not our reatus culpae but poenae our 〈◊〉 of punishment was imputed to Christ that is he undertook to bear it for us Paul gave not the money to Onesimus but for him by promise He was not an antecedent surety but a consequent He did not promise to pay it in Onesimus Legal person Nor is the payment properly imputed to Onesimus as any way done by him but only the Effected benefit given him And Judah only undertaketh to bring Benjamin again or else to bear the blame for ever No doubt but Christ undertook our ransom and also to effect our actual deliverance If you will call this Giving or Imputing his own Righteousness to us so as that in se it is made the same accident of every believer besides giving them the benefits of that which he gave to God for them I will not imitate you III. That of Bathsheba 1 Kin. 1.21 taketh Imputation as the Scripture doth For accounting and reckoning them to be sinners and using them accordingly and not as you do for making them such by making anothers Fact or guilt to become theirs All these instances are for what I assert None of them mention any such thing as imputing one mans Acts or Habits to another so as to make them or repute them to be really his IV. Your fourth sort of Imputation ex merâ gratiá you say is the imputing of that which before that act we had no right to And you do well to say there is no other instance of it in Scripture But you do not well to say without proof that this is it that 's meant Rom. 4. God maketh us Righteous by donation before he imputâ—th it to us Imputation there is Reckoning Accounting and Judging a man to be what he is Abraham had Faith before God imputed Faith to him for Righteousness And that Faith was such a Righteousness as God imputed it to be To say it was an imperfect one is no wonder Aâ—â—aham had none personally or properly in se but what was imperfect The sum of all our Controversie is what Righteousness believers have You before noted that Righteousness as it is a conformity to the â—â—eceptive part of the Law is one thing and as it relateth to the retributive part and is our Jus impunitatis vitae
which you fear will so effectually confute themselves that they will occasion more good among sober knowing Christians than hurt to the ignorant professors that will be tost up and down with every wind of Doctrine For 1. The whole tenour of the Bible is against them And will not Christians read the Bible 2. The Divine Nature on the Soul and all Christian Experience is against them And will not Christians know that Work and Doctrine of Gods Spirit in them For Insâ—ance 1. Will they that are saved from Atheism ever believe that the most Holy God is the maker of sins yea and mâ—de his own Son the greateâ—â— sinner in the World when the Devil himself cannot make one man a sinner but only tempt him â—o be suâ—â— yea that God made himself in the second Person a sinner 2. Will Christianâ— easâ—ly believe that our Saviour came to delâ—ver us â—rom sinâ— by making himself worse 〈…〉 becoming the greatest haâ—er of God aâ—d Gâ—â—â—ness the greatest Infidel Atheist Blasphemer Murderer Adulterer Lyar Thief c. in all the World and consequently like the Devil hated of God and having a Hell in himself All Christians believe that our sins were laid upon Christ as to their penalty that he was Vicarius poenae that he suffered for us the just for the unjust to reconcile us to God and that he was made for us a Sacrifice for sin that we might be healed by his stripes and washed in his Blood But what Christian can believe Dr. Crispe and his Sectaries that Christ took not only the punishment and guilt reatum poenae but all the very sins themselves of all the Elect habitual and actual privative and positive of omission and commission and so really became the most wicked man in all the World and that lie saveth us from sin by becoming a thousand times worse himself than any of us when it cannot be proved that any one Devil had so great a hand in mans sin as to make all our sins his own And Dr. Crispe well vindicateth God from false Imputation of that sin to Christ which was not his But it is by Blasphemy making that his which was never his even the very sins of all the Elect. 3. And do you think any Soul that hath the Spirit of God and readeth and believeth the Scriptures can believe this Dr. that no sin can possibly hurt the Elect because they are fully saved already by Christ And that it is against Christ and his Grace to intend our Salvation or any good to our selves by any Duty we do or to look to be ever the better for praying obeying believing but must do all only in thankfulness and for the good of others 4. Do you think that a man not to say a Christian can believe that the torments of the Stone Gout Collick Convulsion c. are no hurt or no castigatory Penalty And that it is no hurt or punishment for an Elect Person to be under decays of Holiness increase of Sin prevalency of Temptations the terrours of God and loss of his Consolations and fears of Death He that can believe all this may believe Transubstantiation against all the senses of mankind A Hundred of such Instances may be named which have so ugly a countenance that men that loved their Souls will be affrighted from Antinomianism by the reading of them And I further tell you that too sudden and eager disputing against Heresy doth but engage men to stretch their wits to find out what to say to defend it and to take those for Enemys to God and them who shame their folly And I must confess that tho' I am much for Ministers associations and consultations in order to Concord and mutual Edification I am not much for the way of deciding doctrinal Controversies by majority of Votes remembring what Councils have done that way these 1300 Years and how often either errour or unskilful decissions have the greater number so that tho' now with us they will consent against errours it may be taken for a precedent for erroneous pluralities to Tyrannize or tread down truth hereafter Ortho. But shall we therefore let Heresy spread unresisted Reconcil No But you will let it pass uncured whether you will or not You let not ignorance and pride go unresisted But if it were not uncured there would be no such Heresies If all the Ministers in England subscribe a detestation of gross ignorance and pride do you think it would cure them Doth it cure Atheism Infidelity Drunkeness Lust though all Preachers condemn them If you can prevail with these men to read and consider but one half of that which I have written on these Subjects instead of reviling that which they never read or tryed you will not need to call for more Confutations of them Ortho. But a Confutation short and newly published will be read by those that will not read Books old and large Reconcil I have staid since your first motion to see whether there be like to be any apparent necessity of any renewed opposition to this infection and I acknowledge that now some necessity appeareth to me in the new and zealous attempts of the erroneous But God in great mercy hath raised up many that are fitter to oppose them than I that in pain and languishing weakness have time little enough to meditate on my approaching change But because the erroneous have learn'd of the transformed Angel of Light and his pretended Ministers of Righteousness to call their Errours the Preaching of Christ and Free Grace and to say that all they Preach not Christ but the Righteousness of man that wrong not Christ as much as they I shall by God's help attempt briefly to try whether indeed they Preach Christ or Preach against him and whether they Exalt him or Deny him and whether they Preach up Free Grace or as Enemies Reproach it And I shall publish a brief Decision of the many Controversies of Justification which I cast by these Fourteen Years lest I should provoke any to revive the allay'd quarrels But their new and earnest Attempts do now call it out by telling us that this evil Spirit is again at work and calleth us to a renewed Defence of Truth CHAP. II. An Enumeration of the Errours which have corrupted Christianity and subverted the Gospel Reconcil BEfore I give you a Confutation of the Errours of the Anti-Gospellers I will promise these two things 1. I will here give you a Catalogue of their Errours which I am Confute 2. I think it needful to caution you what to think of the Persons that you Censure them not too hardly tho' the Errours as worded be very great I. And 1. As the general Fault of their Errours is the confounding of things which greatly differ so by this they corrupt the Doctrine of Adams Communication of sin and guilt to his posterity and thereby raise more dangerous Errours They feign that God made a Covenant with Adam and all his