is suitable to our falen state Now as a conformity to the Covenant of Nature is mans Righteousness and when there is no flaw therein his Perfection according to that Covenant so a conformity to the terms of Grace is our righteousness according to this Covenant and when there is nothing wanting in our coming up fully to those terms as if there be it will not serve our turn it must be our perfection And here then is that Perfection upon which we are to be reconciled Not a perfection which consists in doing every thing in the Earth we are bound to do but a perfection that notwithstanding our many failings is not wanting in coming up to the Terms which God accepts for Righteousness to everlasting Salvation in the Covenant of the Gospel There is a Righteousness of God declared or set forth under the new Testament in opposition to Works which I have mentioned in my Paper of Justification and explained to my content in my last paper of the Covenants and it is according to this Righteousness the World is to know that the Scripture speaks N B when it makes Noah Job Daniel Zachary or any other just men righteous men and perfect men in the sight of God When else there is no flesh before the infinite Holiness that is clean or that could be justified and stand in judgment Hear O House of Israel is not my wayes equal When the wicked turneth from his wickedness and doeth that which is lawful and right be shall save his Soul This is said to be equal with God If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness Not onely merciful but just In like manner God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewn towards his Name Again it is a righteous thing with God to recomperce to you who are troubled rest when Christ shall be revealed from Heaven Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Righteous God shall give me If God it seemes from such Scriptures as these should put no difference between the penitent sinner and others he would not be righteous according to that righteousness which is ascribed to him in these and the like places although if he should destroy the world for one transgression we could not accuse him of wrong in the sense of some others Of what value then that notion about this Righteousness of God which after many years thoughts I have offered in the said two former papers p. 26.27 c. of the one p. 7.8 c. of the other I leave to Time when it hath brought the same light into some other more authoritative pen that is to forget from whence it came to make the discovery and improvement I will adde but thus much more by way of surplusage to it Justitiam in Deo sacra Scriptura saepe nominat condecentiam bonitatis ipsius ut Scholaastici lequuntur Deum justum vocat quum facit ea quae congruunt ejus sapientiae aequitati benignitati There is no man sinneth not sayes Solomon in his Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple This he enlarges in his Ecclesiastes There is not a just man upon Earth that doeth good and simmeth not The Apostle to the Romans confirms this out of the Psalmes There is none that doeth good no not one St. James likewise gives his Suffrage In many things we offend all And St. John is yet most positive If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us On the other side He that committeth sin sayes the same Apostle is of the Devil He that is born of God keepeth himself that the wicked one toucheth him not Whosoever is born of God doeth not commit sin For his Seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God St. Augustine I remember in several places of his Books does lay some two or three of these Texts together and offers us this solution That which is born of God sayes he sins not Which is as much as to say There is that which is born of God in the true Christian and that which is not born of him In other terms no man is regenerate but in part or sanctified but in part Not as if one faculty was sanctified and not another But there remaines the principle of Corruption together with the principle of Grace which is infused that is both flesh and Spirit in the same person And whatsoever proceeds from the one cannot be sâ—n as whatsoever proceeds from the other cannot be otherwise I will adde According to the prevalency there is of any of these two principles in the soul so is the person to have his denomination The Apostle therefore speaking of himself when he did the evil he would not it is no more I says he that does it but sin that dwelleth in me If it be not be then that does it the person being denominated from the will and more generally prevailing part is said to sin not And this I-take it after Austive is ordinarily received by Divines Nevertheless that which I propose here from what is said seems to me to be more clear and weighty There are some Texts say that all men are sinners and others that the regenerated do not sin and the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin I distinguish then of sin Sin is the Transgression of a Law and as there is a twofold Law so is there a twofold Transgression There is the transgression of the Law of Works Or the transgression of the Law of Faith Every man upon Earth does sin against the Law of Works in leaving undone what it requires or doing what it forbids in Thought Word or Deed even continnually but there is no man sins against the Law of Grace so as to leave undone what that requires as the condition of life who is saved It is true that as all Power is committed to the Son the Law of Nature is put into Christs hands to be commanded by him which together with remedying Grace are parts of his Law Distinguish therefore between sinning against one or other Precept of Christs Law and sinning against it as a conditional Covenant by nonperformance It will be for profit yet to multiply the same matter If thou will enter into Life says Christ keep the Commandements Neithe Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing says the Apostle but Faith working by love in one place but a new Creature in another but the keeping the Commandements of God in a third Do we make void the Law through Faith No we established it That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit The Doers of the Law shall be justified It appears by multitudes of such Scriptures as these that the Law or commandements of God are to be kept or
whole Law to man for a Covenant and if one part onely be transgressed the condition of that covenant is broken as well as if all were transgressed For otherwise he that hath layen with a woman is not therefore to be accused for mnrder nor he that hath sworn an oath is therefore guilty of theft We must understand the like in reference to the Law of faith or covenant of grace and its observation Let a mans sins be what they will so long as the condition be performed he may according to this Law be judged no transgressour In the one a man hath committed no theft no adultery nor idolatry and yet in the sense of the Apostle he is guilty of all In the other he hath bin an idolater an adulterer a thief such were some of you but you are justified and he is guilty of none The reason in both I say is the condition still in the one is broken but performed in the other As we distinguish of the Law Quâ faedus Quâ regula so may we of the performance Sub genere officii Sub genere conditionis Though we fail in our Duty we fulfill the Condition as have said already To this purpose it is not to be forgotten what is said of David that his heart was perfect that he kept Gods Commandements and that he sinned not but in the matter of Uriah And how I pray was that Do not we read of Davids Passion his Lying his Numbring the people his dealing with Mephibosheth was there no sin indeed that David did commit besides this what makes him then complain so much that he was born in Iniquity and that his sins were more than the hairs upon his head I answer there are sins consistent with sincerity and inconsistent with it Sins inconsistent with sincerity are breaches both of the Law of Works and Covenant of Grace and that sub ratione conditionis Sins consistent with it are transgressions indeed of the Law but sub hac ratione no breach of this Covenant Davids sins of the first sort were very many and his acknowledgments pious and true Davids sins of the latter sort was but only in that matter and otherwise it is said that he sinned not To be clear as I goe even for that matter As I have distinguished between the breach of our duty and the condition or of the preceptiue part of the law of grace and the conditional So must I distinguish this breach of the condition into that which may be pro tempore making the punishment so far due as that God may cut off the Sinner and damne him or else final also making it peremptorily and remedilesly due which will be ever executed by him There is a sin unto death and a sin not unto death says the Apostle A sin against the Holy Ghost Whatsoever instance there may be in which such a sin hath been committed as in the obstinacy of the Jews against Christ that rather than they would believe they would impute his Miracles to the Devil the general nature of this sin does lye in this that it is such as is inconsistent with and exclusive of the performance of the terms which are required unto pardon and life The Spirit and New Testament are one and this is to sin N. B. against the New Testament De peccato ad mortem quoniam non expressum est possunt diversa sentiri Ego autem dico id esse peccatum fidem quae per dilectionem operatur deserere usque ad mertem Concerning the sin unto death because it is not expressed divers things may be thought of it but I say that sin is this to desert or never come up to that faith which worketh by love unto death Augustine De Cor. gra c. 12. It must be demanded then what shall we think of David in the matter wherein he is accounted to have sinned I say that David according to our Brittish Divines in the Synod of Dort in that present state could not have been saved if he had died but God having Elected David provided Repentance for him that he could not dye in that estate There is a sin therefore which is inconsistent with sincerity of heart or the terms of grace at present or such a sin or sins which are exclusive of it This I said in other words but now The latter only are sins unto death The breach of the Covenant of grace sub ratione conditionis is that sin and when final that alone which is unpardonable I reassume that whatsoever sins consequently they be which any man commits if they be not such as are incompatible with Sincerity Repentance and Faith they are fins against the Law and our pardon is purchased but they are no breach sub hac ratione I must intend still of the Law of Grace no sin unto death or no sin as can hinder the person from being judged as righteous by that Law or Covenant and to be accepted accordingly unto everlasting Salvation And now Sirs Behold here a kind of Heaven opened to you I mean to you who are the Children of God and fear his Name where all your sins and iniquities are removed and where every one of you are righteous and perfect and sin not For this is the benefit and fruit of Christs Death and Redemption that he hath delivered you from that Law which you break and would condemn you for every breach and he hath brought you under a new Law the Law of Grace which requires nothing of you but what sub rat one Conditionis you do keep for he gives his holy Spirit herein to enable you to the performance So that it is not only your sins are done away that is not imputed or forgiven The Iniquities of Judah it is faid shall be sought for and not found but this Covenant hath nothing to lay to your charge And you that were sometimes alienated hath he now reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight if ye continue in the Faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Cospel And thus we are come to our period We grant a perfection which Divines call Evangelical to the Quaker that is an integrity of heart and life which the Gospel requires of every man that shall be saved If these Friends will have more who have not understood perhaps before how much indeed this is and what truly they impugne then they must come to that our Divines call Legal righteousness or perfection which is to live so as never to break any of Gods precepts both ratione officii conditiouis and if they will maintain this either that they have it or have attain'd it in themselves or that it is necessary to others unto salvation I shall tenderly offer them these ensuing Arguments Reasons or Consideratious for reclaiming them from so desperate an opinion In the first place Be it
known that in the Diospolitan Councel An. Do. 415. this was one of Pelagius errours which was there Condemned Filios Dei non posse vocari nisi qui omni modo absque omni peccato fuerint effecti That they cannot be called Gods Sons who are not in all regards without any manner of sin Which errour also Pelagius himself there retracted In the second place it is worthy our knowing what was the ground or reason of his conviction because it is like that the same consideration or argument may prevail upon one or other and more then so of this Sect that have but the like rational judgments Nono fatetur filios dei posse vocari illos qui quotidie dâ—cunt dimitte nobis debita nostra quod utique veraciter non dicerent si essent omnino absque peccato To the nineth Article he confesses that they may be the Sons of God who say daily forgive us our Trespasses which verily they could not say if they were altogether without sin The Fathers of that Council urged this upon him that if none could be born of God that were not altogether perfect then must none of Christs Disciples be his Children for how could they pray to him to forgive their debts if they had no sin to be forgiven How could they pray daily for pardon if they were any day without transgression Nathaniel was one of the Disciples of whom it is said he was without guile and consequently as perfect as any Quaker dare presume of himself and yet Nathaniel as well as Peter and Peter as well as any other true Believer are taught by these words of their Lord that they have need of daily forgiveness It is sufficient to this Argument if that Prayer be held but a pattern and no form as some will have it so long as they do not I hope yet think they may scratch it out of their Bibles because they leave it unsaid In the third place this opinion is against the uniform constant stream of Gods word and the writings of holy men which still run thus that we are sinners that we must all repent and that we must always be renewing our repentance in making our Prayers Confessions Supplications Doing our Almes and other good works and resting on Christ for grace and pardon Without this supposition the whole course of our Religion as Christian will sink for want of a foundation These things write I to you that you sin not and if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father who is a propitiation for our sins and also for the sius of the world There is our sins St. John's sins that need an Advocate as well as the world When Ezekiel is picking out three of the most holy men that ever were which instance Augustine also uses he names Daniel Noah and Job Of Noah we have the record of Moses that he was overtaken Of Job we have his own acknowledgment If I justifie my self my own mouth shall condemn me if I say I am perfect it shall prove me perverse Of Daniel we have a whole Chapter where he is praying and confess ing his sin as himself speaks and the sins of his people What is man says Eliphaz that he should be Clean and he that is born of a Woman that he should be Righteous Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints and the Heavens are not clean in his sight and how much more abominable and filthy is man who drinketh Iniquity as water We are all unclean says the Church sutably to this in Isay and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy raggs There is one Text most full as most common not to be omitted which is that of David Enter not into judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified This is applied by the Apostle against justification by the deeds of the Law If there is or ever was any meer mortal on Earth that lived altogether without sin then must this Text be false then may some men living be justified in his sight though he enter into district judgment with them then may some flesh living be justified by works then must salvation alone by Christ and the Doctrine indeed of the whole Gospel come to the ground For In the fourth place as this is against several particular Texts before named and the general current of the Scripture and holy Writers So is it directly against the very drift of what the Apostle delivers to the Romans and Galathians It is common for men to alleadg a few scattered Scriptures against any opinion which yet is true and we Answer those Scriptures but if an opinion does cross any one Text and much more any Epistle in the very scope and purport of it such an opinion must be left or all will come to naught It is manifest now that Paul in those two Epistles is setting forth the Doctrine of justification by Faith through our Redemption by Christ Jesus For the making this good he first shews that all men whatsoever stands guilty before God of the breach of his Law This he most industriously proves of the Gentiles in one Chapter of the Jews in another and in the third What then says he are we better than they no in no wise for we have before proved both Jew and Gemile that they are all under sin Upon this Medium he argues that no man therefore either Jew or Gentile can be justified by the Law for then they should be doers and not breakers of it From this truth that they cannot be justified by the Law it follows that there must be some other means of their justification And this he declares as the great concern and Gospel he has to deliver to be by Faith through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus This is the sum of his doctrine and arguing We may if you will for our advantage put more together If we are justified through Christs Redemption by Faith when none of us have performed the condition which was required of us to our justification by the Law of our Creation then must our justification be of grace or favour as being not else due And if this grace is obtained or purchased for us through Christs Redemption then is God righteous though he accepts of us seeing it is for Christs sake without that condition And if he is righteous in his accepting any without that condition there must be some other procured by Christ upon which he accepts them seeing all are not accepted notwithstanding Christs Redemption That other is Faith as the initium and foundation of all other duty that is Faith working by Love even that Love which fulfils the Law and is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given to us as Augustine that great assertour of grace still speaks From hence does there appear that Righteousness of God which is set out in opposition to our Righteousness by the Law and mentioned before in its
Righteous and by that Righteousness I must say with them where they have our Divines on the blind side are justified to wit according to the Law of Faith or as they are judged at the Throne of Grace but they do sin they are Unrighteous and no flesh living can be justified according to the Law of Works or at the bar of the Ten Commandements When the Apostle argues against justification by the Law he proves none can be justified by it because all do break it Those that will follow truth shall argue as strongly if we be juâ—â—ified by grace then we must be righteous and perfect according to the Law of it The Orthodox are quite out that will have any justified without a Righteousness that is perfect according to the Law that justifies him to wit in regard to the conditional though not the preceptive part of it The Quaker is quite out that will have this Righteousness perfect according to the ten Commandements which does not justifie him The lover of Truth and Mediocrity will have every man have the Righteousness of a perfect heart for his justification and yet no man be justified but by the grace of God through the Redemption which we have in Christ Jesus There is pardon of sin and justification these may be distinguished not divided Pardon refers to the law of works justification to the law of Faith or the Gospel For this cause saith the Apostle he is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by means of death for the Redemption of the Transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called may receive the promise of eternal Inheritance The first Covenant originally is that of Nature and the first Testament belonging to the Jew represented that first Covenant and the Transgressions for which Christ shed his blood are our sins only against that Covenant If there be any body sins against the new Covenant there is no Redemption for such We have a pardon then in reference to the law of works but we are justified in reference to the law of Faith To wit If we are accused as Transgressors of the Law we may confess it that we are guilty and plead our pardon through Christs Redemption but if we are charged as Transgressors of the law of grace we must not plead our selves guilty but righteous and such as perfectly come up to the terms required in the Gospel or else we are gone It is true Christ hath purchased forgiveness but it is upon condition Pardon is of the Transgressions of the Law but this condition is of Righteousness according to the Gospel and our justification lyes in the performance of the condition In the seaventh place This Opinion instead of leading these friends to the Spirit and the Life as they speak does lead them from both and bring them back to the letter and the flesh and ministration of death To understand this The Apostle we know does distinguish between the Letter and the Spirit The Letter killeth the Spirit giveth Life This distinction is expressed otherwhere by the Law of the Spirit of life and the Law of sin and death The Law of Faith and Law of Works The Covenant of Nature and Covenant of Grace The Law of Works is call'd the Letter as having been writ in stone and is the ministration of death the Law of sin and death or that which killeth because there is none but break it and so are guilty of fin and death by it The Covenant of grace is the Law of Faith that being the condition of it it is the Law of the spirit of life or the ministration of life for the contrary reason because we are enabled through grace or this spirit to the performance of this Law so as to be Righteous according to it and live by it The just man shall live by his Faith And unto the Law of the spirit of life is added in Christ Jesus because it is he hath procured this Law for us which is indeed the great benefit of our Redemption Now while the Spirit is given us for the performance of the condition of this Covenant it being the New Testament not the Law which is the ministration of the Spirit it is a great mistake in these Friends to expect such help from it as to perform the condition of the Covenant of Nature or Law of Works The Spirit indeed does help us but it is to keep his own Law the Law of the Spirit and that Law whereby we may have life If we do look to fulfill the Covenant of Nature we must return to our original Righteousness and our free will which we lost in Adam and that is to go from the Spirit to our selves who are but flesh But what Is not the Law of God the rule of our lives and does not the Spirit of God lead us according to rule and bring us to a conformity to his law I answer no doubt of it but that is a conformity so far as reaches the fulfilling the terms of the Gospel but not those of Works The law of grace does require a sincere walking before Go in all his Commandements and the Spirit of God does certainly help us so far as we sin not against that sincerity or sin no sins inconsistent with these terms but the spirit is not given to bring us up to the terms of the Law and that we should not sin at all What shall we say that Abraham as pertaining to the flesh hath found By the flesh we are to understand works as appears in the next verse and so is the spirit opposed to the flesh as it is opposed to the law of works If we seek therefore for a Righteousness by our works that is according to that law we shall find what Abraham did as pertaining to the flesh We shall find no such matter O ye foolish Galathians says the Apostle having begun in the spirit are ye now made peâ—fect by the flesh The Galathians belike who had received the doctrine of grace by Paul were come to be seduced to the opinion that they must keep Moses Law or else they could not be saved and this is their seeking to be made perfect by the flesh The flesh and nature are Synonymous terms and as in respect of those who were Jews by Nature the works of the Law as given by Moses are called flesh so must the works of the Law as a Covenant by Nature be flesh in respect to the rest of man-kind If the Quaker then is come to seek life by such a following his light as must answer the Covenant of Nature it self that is by a perfection as is without sin against the Law he is plainly under the notion of the spirit brought at last to the flesh for what he seeks In the last place It is an ancient saying that he who looks but one thing is easily mislead It seems that these Friends do apprehend that our doctrine which opposes perfection does serve
fulfilled that the fulfilling them is required as necessary to the person justified and consequently as the condition which is all one of pardon and life To help us out here therefore we must distinguish after our more sober and best Divines The Law of God may be considered rigidly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or not rigidly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is with condescention to human frailty according to the measure in every one of the gift of Christ or according to our Model strength or grace in this Life that degree of performance formance God which requires of us precisely in the new Covenant to the obtaining Salvation It is in the latter the mild the gracious not in the former the rigid sense that such Texts are to be interpreted that the Law or Commandements are fulfilled and that the observation is made necessary to the justified and saved That is I say again not according to the model of our state of innocency but faln estate not according to the Rigour of the Law but Equity of the Gospel not according to the tale of Brick or prescript of Do this and live but according to Gods merciful acceptation of what we do through the meritorious obedience and oblation of Christ Jesus I must bring this yet more home As the Law is taken for the Law moral or Law of Nature the matter of the Commandement is the same I have said in the Law of Christ Grace and Gospel as in the law of Works onely this materia praecepti this matter required may be considered as materia absoluta or conditionata as our duty or as the condition of Salvation There is no man keeps the Commandements of Christ so as never to faile in any thing of his duty But every Child of God keeps them so as they are made the condition of Life in the new Covenant When a man then performes the Covenant he must be judged Righteous according to that Covenant As there is nothing lacking in that performance to the Terms he is Perfect and as he is Righteous and Perfect he sins not that is he failes not of what is required to the performance of the contition When St. John therefore speaks of sinning not we may observe how he counterpoises committing sin with being Righteous or doing Righteousness in the same Chapter The true Christian sins not so as opposes his being Righteous he commits not sin as is contradictory to doing Righteousness He is Righteous now we know or doeth Righteousness onely in regard to the Covenant of Grace and he sins not accordingly in regard to this Covenant that is as I sum all up failes not in the performance of the condition He performs not materiam absolutam the whole duty but he performes materiam conditionatam the whole condition of the Gospel By the way here when the calm Protestant will grant to the Papists such a fulfilling of the Law as does constitute a real true righteousness and that which is perfect or entire according to the covenant of grace and so accepted of God unto Life and the most violent Papists will grant to the Protestant that this righteousness nevertheless suo modo perfecta non omni prorsus caret peccato ideoque ex hac parte perfectu non est is not without all Sin but doeth both faile in the degree which the Law exacts and is intermingled with many at least venial transgressions so that it cannot abide Gods district judgment according to the Law of works without need of Christs merits Gods mercy who does not see an agreement in the purpose and mind where there-is yet so much variance in the words and pens of those that contend about those matters That Justification is a dispute of the like nature and issue I doubt not and it is an excellent pretty book of Mr. Bradshawes on that subject yet does he seem to me not to have touched this main thing which I have noted once and again in my former papers to be that the want of the notice whereof hath set the Papist and us together by the ears and the understanding whereof will as presently heal our Controversies to wit That it is not by the Law of works but by the Law of Grace that we are judged when we stand before Gods Bar for Justification There are but two things to be pleaded sayes that worthy Authour by an accused person Either that he hath not committed the fault or that he hath satisfyed for it No mortal says he can devise any other medium whereby such a person should be justifyed Our practical Divines do accordingly thunder against self Righteousness upon this foundation If we stand on our own Righteousness say they then must we be able to satisfy God for our former sins and cleanse our hearts for the time to come so as to be perfect in his sight But this is a mistake That there is a righteousness of ours that we must not wholly cast away in our Justification appeares from the Psalmist when he tells us by the rule of contrarys that it is the righteous and the righteous onely that shall stand in Judgment There is a third plea therefore which is the onely true plea which must be brought and made good or we perish and that is not that we are faultless or perfect according to the law of works either in our selves or another but that we are justifyable by the covenant of mercy as performers of the condition and that this righteouss though imperfect is acceptable through the merits of our Redeemer For the busines then of Satisfaction it must be treated a little otherwise then Mr. Bradshaw does it and others that is not to be made the matter or formal reason of that righteousness that justifyes us let me say the whole matter or formal reason for I may be out else on the otherside seeing Christs merits our faith or evangelical obedience and pardon have all their proper parts and office in it but it must be understood mainly to serve the honour and justice of God as Rector and Law giver in regard to his dealing with us otherwise then according to the Law of our creation as else he was bound for upon this score were the sufferings of Christ penall and undergone in our stead to wit that by meanes of death for the redemption of us from the transgressions of the first Covenant a new Law or Covenant might be brought in according to which we are to be judged And when it is at that bar we must stand we easily know both what that righteousness is which must be pleaded and for whose worthyness sake so inconsiderable otherwise as it is it shall be accepted unto remission and life everlasting To return the Apostle speaking of the Law does tell us that he that breakes but one of the commandements is guilty of all and the reason he renders is because he requires that one that required the rest The meaning is God gave his