saith nothing Yet because this still leaveth sub judice litem and certain Conclusions cannot be inferred upon premisses left uncertain I should answer secondly That the Curse pronounced and inflicted upon Adam related to him not as a private but publike person For so he fell and so was he sentenced As comprehending the Elect he had the blessing of the seed of the woman but as representing those that perish so he had the Curse But touching those things which he and the other godly do suffer the learned Sadeel Adver sus humanas satisfactiones answereth this Popish Argument here proposed by Mr. Baxter out of Augustine Posset aliquis dicere saith Augustine Si propter peccatum Deus dixerit homini In sudore vultus tui edes panem tuum spinas tribulos proseret tibi terra c. Cur fideles post peccatorum remissionem eosdem dolores patiuntur Respondemus saith Austin Ante remissionem esse supplicia peccatorum post remissionem esse certamina exercitationesque justorum i. e. Some one may say If for sin God said to man In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread and the earth shall bring forth to thee bryars and thorns c. Why do the beleevers after the remission of sinns suffer these sorrowes We answer saith Austin Before remission these are punishments of sinns after remission they are tryalls and exercises of the Righteous Whereunto Sadeel addeth Non sequitur si mors vitae praesentis aerumnae per se sunt peccati poenae quippe propter peccatum in mundum ingressae eas esse proptereà peccatorum paenas ipsis etiam fidelibus quibus peccata sunt propter Christum condonata i. e. It followeth not if death and the sorrows of the present life be in themselves the punishments of sinn because they entred into the world for or by means of sinn that they are therefore punishments of sinn to the very faithfull also to whom their sinns are forgiven for Christs sake But to do him a pleasure should we give him his Argument forgiving the unsoundnes of it what doth he conclude Thus much that the suspending of the rigorous execution of the sentence of the Law is the most observable immediate effect of Christs death that the redeemed of the Lord partake of By suspending the rigorous execution of the Law he means that he doth forbear an hour or a day or some short time to destroy their lives and cast their souls into hell But so that every moment they must stand in expectation of it and that to their greater torment at last as their sinns during the time of the suspension is increased Whosoever now of Gods redeemed ones receives comfort by this doctrine will I doubt not give his verdit for Mr. Baxter having so nobly and divinely resolved this question that He is a Divine indeed He tells us there be other effects of Christs death c. But he is not at leisure now to communicate them But if they have no more sweet and marrow than this let him keep them to himself we will not be inquisitive after them P. 68. B. To the second Quâ—stion The Elect before Conversion do stand in the same relation to the Law and Curse as other men though they be differenced in Gods Decree Eph. 2. 3 12. Very short yet not so sweet as short He saith it but he proves it not For the Scripture which he brings for proof doth onely declare what the Elect are by nature before conversion not what they are before God in relation to his Covenant of Grace But Mr. Baxter purposeth to speak more largely hereunto in another place which will give me occasion to enlarge my answer At present he is in travell with his answer to the third question and cannot be at rest untill he be delivered of so beautifull a Monster and thus it comes from him Bax. To the third question I confess we have here a knotty question The common judgment is that Christ hath taken away the whole Curse though not the suffering by bearing it himself and now they are onely Afflictions of Love and not punishments I do not contradict this Doctrine through affectation of singularity the Lord knoweth but through constraint of judgment and that upon these grounds following 1 It is undeniable that Christs taking the Curs upon himself did not wholly prevent the execution upon the offender Ge. 3. 7 8 10 15 16 17 18 19. 2 It is evident from the event seeing we feel part of the Curs fulfilled on us we eat in labor and sweat the earth doth bring forth thorns and brayars women bring forth their children in sorrow our native pravity is the Curs upon our souls we are sick weary full of fears sorrows and shame and at last we dye and turn to dust 3 The Scripture tells us that we all dye in Adam even that death from which we must at the Resurrection be raised by Christ 1 Co. 15. 21 22. And that death is the wages of sin Ro. 6. 23. and that the sickness and weakness and death of the godly is caused by their sins 1 Co. 11. 30 31. And if so then doubtles they are in execution of the Law though not in full rigour 4 It is manifest that our sufferings are in their own nature evils to us and the sanctifying of them to us taketh not away their naturall evil but onely produceth by it as by an occasion a greater good Doubtles so farr as it is an effect of sinn it is evill and the effect of the Law also 5 They are ascribed to Gods anger as the moderating of them is ascribed to his lâ—ve Psa 30. 5. and a thousand places more 6 They are called punishments in scripture and therefore we may call them so Lev. 26 41 43. Lam. 3. 39. 4. 6 22. Ezras 9. 13. Hos 4. 9. 12. 2. Lev. 26. 18 24. 7 The very nature of affliction is to be a loving punishment a naturall evil sanctified and so to be mixt of evil and good as it proceeds from mixt causes Therefore to say that Christ hath taken away the Curs and evill but not the sufferings is a contradiction becaus so farr as it is suffering it is to us evill and the execution of the Curs What Reason can be given why God should not do us all that good without our sufferings which now he doth by them if there were not sin and wrath and law in them Sure he could better us by easier means 8 All those Scriptures and Reasons that are brought to the contrary do prove no more but this that our afflictions are not the Rigorous execution of the Law that they are not wholly or chiefly in wrath but as the common love of God to the wicked is mixt with hatred in their sufferings and the hatred prevaileth above the love so the sufferings of the godly proceed from a mixture of Love and Anger and so have in them a mixture
who not acknowledging the riches of Gods Wisedome and Grace in that course of our redemption which God hath followed would accuse God of indiscretion for making much aâ— do about nothing and teach him to go a more compendious and easie way to work then his wisdom hath chosen These Criticisms upon Gods glorious wonderfull proceedings in his administrations we leave to Socinus and Arminius with their followers It is our part sapere ad sobrietatem and to understand what God hath not to tell him what he might or should have done To the Eighth Because he knoweth his assertion false he therefore saith something but conceals from us what it is tells us that all the Scriptures and reasons which are brought against his opinion do not hit it nor hurt it but will not let us to know one particular of all those Scriptures and Reasons that he hath heard or read urged against him lest that some one answering might manifest the falshood of the assertion This is safe disputing to speak so as â—o leave no footing for an answer Such baites may catch Froggs possibly but never a Fish And as he affirmeth neither Scriptures not Reasons prove more then this That our afflictions are not the rigorous execution of the Law what Scripture or Reason can be given why that believers shall not be damned in hell together with unbelievers For what is the rigor of the Law but the infliction of the Curse in its utmost extent and extremity But if the Saints be beaten with few stripes when the rebells are beaten with many and be damned but to the uppermost when the other are cast into the nethermost hell then is not the Curse of the Law executed upon them in its utmost rigor If this be not to abase the merits of Christ that hath purchased and abuse the grace of God that promiseth and abate if not to destroy the hope and comfort of believers that shall receive according to Mr. Baxter no better priviledges then this surely then nothing can do it As for that which he addeth of a mixture of love and hatred in God when he curseth the wicked and of love and anger when he curseth the godly This is a meer Chimaera of his own brain a making of God to be in a commotion against himself to carry fire in the one hand and water in the other to fight with the right against the left and with the left hand against the right sometimes the one and sometimes the other overcoming but of which side soever the Victory resteth still must the poor believer be cursed and when most under the curse we must believe Mr. Baxter telling us a strange wonder he is not at all under the hatred of God An excellent disputer to have stood alway at Marcions elbow prompting him with argument to prove this God to have been a malignant and envious God the author of all evill to mankinde what less doth Mr. Baxter affirm when he tells us that he curseth his very Friends those that trust in him those whom he hateth not yea those whom he loveth But doth he bring no Scripture to prove all that he hath said Yes one in steed of all and that as pertinent and proper to his purpose as a Pearl to a Swines snout Death hath lost his sting 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. There is no unpardoned sin in it Yet when God hath pardoned every of their sins he will neverthelesse powre upon them the Curse when they are without if not also because they are without sin ipse dixit and I must be silent To the Ninth It greeves me lesse when I finde Mr. Baxter leaving the pure fountain of Scripture stirring in his own element the puddle of humane art and wisedom then when he meddles with the word becaus he seldom toucheth it but with a defiled and defiling hand to pervert maim or add to it and so to prophane it So that his sin is greater in this than in the other The place which he quotes here 1 Cor. 15. 26. saith not that as he untruly alleageth Death is not yet overcome but onely saith The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death it is overcome already though not destroyed Yet not to strive about words Death is overcome and it is not overcome but in different respects It is overcome 1 In relation to Christ himself and his naturall body that it cannot reach or seize on him Els is not Christ risen from death and then our faith is vain But he is risen in the power of the Godhead having loosed or dissolved the pains and Chains too of Death it being unpossible he should be held by it Acts 2. 24. For how should a power finite over-power the power of God which is infinite Neither will any say that Christ escaped from the bonds of death by Treaty but by Conquest He ascended on high leading captivity captive Eph. 4. 8. Having spoyled principalities and powers he made open shew of them triumphing over them Col. 2. 15. By his death he hath destroyed not onely death it self but him also that had the power of death i. e. the Devill Heb. 2. 14. 2 In relation to the mysticall body of Christ the believers it is so overcome that it hath in it no curse to vomit out upon them That was carried away in Christs naturall body that this his mysticall body might be freed from it He took to himself saith the Apostle part of our flesh and blood that by death he might destroy him that hath the power of death i. e. the Devill and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14 15. What was that in death that the Saints so feared under the Law before the Gospel had fully cleered to them their liberty but the Curse The Law threatned them with death as with the Curse and vengeance of God This made them to live all their life-time in a sad bondage for fear of death of the curse and vengeance in death at the last But Christ hath by his death delivered us from the Curse that was in death so that now we live not in fear and bondage in expectation of death It is but a sweet dormitory to the Saints in which they put off their corruptible and dreggish that at last they may put on immortall and spirituall bodies in them to meet with Christ in the day of Judgement and be for ever with him 1 Cor. 15. 44. 1 Thes 4. 17. In these respects death is overcome But it is not so overcome but that it hath its being yea full dominion with its curse over the wicked and in this respect it is said The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is death as will appear by reading the former vers with this Christ must reign till he hath brought all his enemies under his feet The last enemy c. The Apostle here from the Authority of that Prophecy Psal 110. 1.
Christs undertaking c. The satisfaction was so virtually and effectually made by Christ and accepted by the Father as when it was actually accomplished First it seems there was such a Covenant For the Apostle tells us Rom. 5. 14. that Adam was a figure of him that was to come which is Christ And how a figure Doubtles not onely in this that as by him the one and first man sin and death by sin immediately came upon all men so by Christ righteousnes and by it life came upon all the elect But also in the manner of the agreement of the Type and Antitype together That as Adam representing all mankinde by his unfaithfullnes in breaking the Covenant brought sin and death upon all that he represented so Christ representing all the elect by his faithfullnes in performing the Covenant c. brought righteousnes and justification of life upon all the elect represented in him Yea the Holy Ghost in expresse words testifieth to such a Covenant In the volume of thy book it is written of me that I should do thy will O God saith he when he comes into the world i. e. it is testified in the word what Covenant hath passed betwixt thee and me c. Heb. 10. 5-10 yea and testifieth to the tenor of the Covenant his coming with a body to be offered in sacrifice this will of God he came to do And moreover he giveth witnes also to the faithfullnes of Christ in offering it Lo I come and to the efficacy of it upon all immediately for whom it was offered By the which will we are sanctified i. e. no more taken for sinners but Consecrated as holy to the Lord through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all ibid. The same is implyed in that phrase which here termeth the offering of Christs body the doing of the Fathers will And elswhere obedience unto death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2. 8. Obedience and will presuppose Command and Covenant And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one righteousnes or one act of righteousnes of Christ opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that one offence of Adam for so the phrase seems to me to hold out more grammatically than the offence of one and the righteousnes of one doth not obscurely argue that one righteousnes of Christ in fullfilling opposite to that one offence of Adam in once breaking the Covenant Rom. 5. 18. And that all this was covenanted to be done and accepted for and in the behalf of the elect and to them and none but them to be effectuallized is also evident from the Scriptures For he did the will of his Father in offering himself as was before shewed i. e. did according as it was agreed and covenanted between him and the Father dyed for them onely for whom he made prayers and intercessions But when his time was come to suffer he prayed intercedâ—d not for the world but for them onely whom the Father had given him out of the world Joh. 17. 6 9. Therefore for them onely he undertook to satisfie Therefore is it that he is said to lay down his life onely for his sheep not for the goats Joh. 10. 11. 15. For them whose names were written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13. 8. The rest things conteined in this position are granted by Mr. Br himselfe therefore need no proof here I have couched together many things in this to avoyd multiplicity of positions 2 That by force of this satisfaction so given and accepted for the sinns of the Elect according to the Tenor of this Covenant between the Father and the Son all the Elect of God were Justified in Christ from the very time of Christs undertaking to be their Justifier Therefore in the last alleaged Scripture their names are said to be written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Here though the book of life which is elswhere mentioned to be Gods book will be taken by Mr. Br to be the book of Election yet this book of life of the lamb is to be understood for the book of Justification implying indeed the election of all that are written therein but primarily and in its direct sense comprehending the names of them that are justified by the bloud of the sacrificed Lamb of God And these are said to be written in Christs book that is registred in Christ and upon Christs account from the foundation of the world immediately upon Christs undertaking to satisfie for them Of him ye are in Christ saith the Apostle who of God is made unto us Wisdome Righteousnes Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. When was he so made unto us Mr. Br answereth not onely upon the payment but upon his undertaking to pay our debt Therefore is he said to be Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. And that not onely in reference to them that lived in all ages of the world but in respect of us also that in all ages of the world he hath been and will be what now he is our Jesus our Christ But this position hath been before proved in the former Chapter in answer to Mr. Baxters 13 Thesis and its explication where I spake to his sixth Argument 3 The Ministeriall way of offering and convaying the benefits of Christs satisfaction into the souls and apprehensions of men now used under the Gospel according to the command of Christ is or at least sounds like an inferior Covenant subordinate and sub-servient to this between the Father and the Son whereof we have spoken Christ having now made full satisfaction to the Father invites all and brings in his elect to taste and enjoy by faith all the perfections which he hath merited and received into his hands for them It is confessed by Mr. B. Thes 8. That God is so fully pleased with the Sons undertaking of this busines of Mediation that he hath delivered all things into his hands and given him all power in heaven and in earth and made him Lord both of the dead and living And the Lord Jesus himself affirmeth that the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son i. e. the dispensation and ordering of all things in heaven and in earth And it is the opinion of great Divines that the Lord Christ in the old world before the Law and in all ages under the Law being that person of the Trinity which had undertaken to assume our nature unto him and in it to dye for the reconciling of us to God and entring from the beginning upon his power to set in order all things to this glorious end was he that conversed with the Patriarks and Prophets sometimes in an assumed body like a man sometimes invisibly making known the mystery of Redemption by himself to them and prescribing under what administrations he would have his Church
Doctors of the holy mother Church liâ—ked by them Bear like into their own form If Scotus could now awake to see how this man hath improved and perfected his method in disputing it is a question whether envy or joy would more work in him It was his rule to evidence ignotum per ignotius an obscure point by that which is more obscure This man hath proceeded further to illustrate and prove Notissima per ignotissima that which is most cleer of it self by that which is as dark as darkness it self For what more evident and plain than the Aporism or Doctrine which he doth here pretendedly explain but the explication it self a dark labyrinth Let Aquinas now and his Cajetan riding him with his Comments both together yea the whole rabble of the Scholasticks appear and shew whether among them all there be any that in so short a room and narrow a compass couched together so many subtle questions backed them with so many dainty distinctions and then answered them with so much profoundness as this one Mr. Baxter Oh happy Kederminsterians that have attained such an Expounder and Explainer of sacred things whom when they have heard and read if they attend exactly to him what they saw before cleerly of Christ they shall so see no more How can they ever stray which have such a leader guiding them with a dark Lanthorn By that time that Master Baxter hath so fully and learnedly explained all other doctrines of the Gospel to them as he hath this Aphorism they shall be able to see so farr into the mysteries of Christ as they can kenn at Sea thorow a planck six inches thick Nevertheless Mr. Baxter I suppose will not deny but that he hath left unto others if there be any that have so much wantonness in the quirpo of their fancies and such profligated consciences that they dare to play with sacred things a power to derive from the Schoolmen whom he followeth so many pertinent or impertinent questions so many vain and sophisticall distinctions that their gleaning shall match his vintage and with these may stand in opposition to Mr. Baxter so stoutly that they may conclude in all things no less uncertainly than himself so that after many and long disputes in this Scholastick way wholly in contradiction to him they may prove themselves to be as far estranged from the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel as himself seems ambitious to be found CHAP. III. Queries about this questionary and distinctionary way of Dispute too much used by Mr. Baxter whether it be warrantable and not manifoldly hurtfull To which is added a brief examination of what Mr. Baxter hath of Christs Active and Passive righteousness BUt having spoken somewhat largely of this kind of learning in the Preface to prevent length and tediousness in the following discourse I shall here only oppose some questions to his questions and pass away And in these questions I shall be an appealer to Mr. Baxters conscience only 1. Whether he hath learned this Art of subtle superfluous and unscriptural questions and distinctions to explain holy and evangicall dioctrines from the Lord Christ or his Apostles or from any solid humble and orthodox Divines ancient or modern and not wholly from the Popish Doctors and their adherents Grotius Socinus Arminius and their Disciples 2. Whether in this questionary and distinctionary way of dispute his purpose be not contrary to what he pretends the explication of Divine truth even the same with the Papists whom he followeth to dim the truth that having left it in a mist he may take the advantage to foyst upon mens consciences the fancies and errors of his own brain under the name of truth 3. Whether it be not intolerable arrogance and presumption against the Most High God not to rest contented with that which he hath revealed by his word but audaciously to search into his secrets which he hath kept hidden in his own bosom himself acknowledging that the H G speaketh in Scripture very sparingly i. e. indeed not at all of many things that he here hath so peremptorily questioned and disputed of yet hath the front from sophisticated reason to argue and determine of them Is not this proudly to pry into the Ark of Gods presence and uncalled to make himself of Gods Cauncell If the Lord Jesus in a way of rebuke tells his Disciples It is not for them though deputed to a greater and higher charge than Mr. Baxter to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power when they sought not from their Rabbies nor from pur-blind reason nor from their own deceitfull brains but from the oracle of Christs lips when the kingdom should be restored to Israel under what rebuke lies Mr. Baxter and his fellows which audaciously search after the things which the Father hath put in his own power to be there hidden untill he shall be pleased to reveal them and them to search after not from the lips of Christ but from their own mad reason and reasonings Is not this knwledg a forbidden fruit and will not the lusting after it bring vengeance 4. Whether this were not the sin of Elimas the sorcerer who being full of subtlety and mischief perverted the right wayes of the Lord Act. 13. 10. What were the right ways of the Lord but the pure Gospel which the Apostle had preached in its simplicity and plainness And what was Elimas his perverting thereof but the use of his subtlety and mischief in his disputes to make that which in Pauls preaching was plain right and straight to seem absurd abstruse and crooked doth Mr. Baxter either here or throughout his whole book cease to use the like subtlety what more plain and streight than the Thesis or point here laid down by himself or what is his endeavour in his explication thereof but with his subtle questions and distinctions to leave so crooked and so manifold windings upon it that he makes it a very Labyrinth that without his Clew or with it there is scarce a possibility of passage in safety thorow it And the like operations of his we shall find every where in this book 5. Whether he be not in such his disputes captious of praise to himself seeking his own not Gods glory and as it tickled the ear of Demosthenes to hear the people whispering yonder comes the eloquent Demosthenes So whether he hath not an itching ambition to be accounted and called the profound and learned Mr. Baxter the great Reader the man of deepest speculations and matchless comprehensions I do but appeal to his Conscience For my part I cannot with my dull apprehension as much as conjecture what els he can in some passages of this work aim at in using so much sophistry when there is no need of it neither doth it as farr as I can see any whit further him to the end at which he driveth unless it be his own praise among unspirituall men
them worse than himself Matt. 23. 15. And what should that be but that God takes satisfaction to his justice by his judgments upon them here that they may not have or may have the less to satisfie for in hell or in Purgatory In this therefore as in the two former points I take him expressing himself an adopted sonne of the ghostly Fathers of Trent 4. The Papists hold that there is a Purgatory which they describe to be a prison as hot and full of the same materiall fire and flames as hell it self into which the souls of Christians after this life are cast to satisfie Gods justice for all their veniall sins that they have not made satisfaction for in this life by suffering or doing and being once cast into this prison they cannot come forth out of the torment untill they have paid the utmost farthing of their debt i. e. untill they have suffered so much as may counterpoise to a very grain the sinns whereof they dye unpardoned This they prove by many undeniable Arguments specially by the testimony of many good souls that have obteined a dispensation to come thence with their bosoms so full of fire as of flesh and bones to tell them so Doth Mr. Baxter joyn with them in this opinion also Soft and fair There is skill in daubing first he will try how this Tractate will take if according to his minde probably we shall have a second part and therein he may tell us plainly his judgment in this and many other of his mysteries that here he leaves obscure and ambiguous In the interim it pleaseth him not to deliver his minde herein in words at length but in dark and uncertain figures Yet joyn we together what he saith here and there in parcells and somwhat may be made or at least conjectured of it First then he telleth us that some part of the Curse must be executed upon beleevers i. e. upon the whole man the soul as well as the body Thes 9. 2 That untill the day of Resurrection and of Judgement all the effects of sin and law and wrath will not be removed from them pag. 74. Pag. 71 Arg. 8. Therefore thirdly what he will not doth not at least say of any of their former sufferings he saith of death That there is no unpardoned sin in it which shall procure further judgment and so no hatred in it though there be anger A glorious privilege no doubt such as according to our usuall proverb a man may find at Billingsgate for a box on the ear from the worst of men that he meets with When a man hath in revengefull fury persecuted his hated nighbour with all the strokes and stormes of wrath and mischief and after many years persecution hath at last slaughtered him and trampled his dead Corps into the mire and dust now at last he ceaseth from hatred is but angry with his poor reliques forgives him all the rest when he can do no more to him and forgivenes can do him no good Such tender mercies of Cruelty as the wise man terms them Pro. 12. 10. doth Mr. Baxter here ascribe unto God in his gracious dealings with beleevers for Christs sake viz. to persecute them with all the strokes of his wrath and all the Curses of the law all their life time sparing neither their body nor soul and at last with great indignation to destroy them and trample their bodies into the earth dust and rottennes yea and their souls whither he list and under what torment he list and after this so remarkeable is his love he will hate them no more but be angry with them still When they are dead and can offend no more and God hath inflicted upon them all his judgments that he can inflict no more now their sins shall be so pardoned that they shall suffer no more no more than all which they already suffer Who denies this to be the very quintessence of mercy and spirits of love when Mr. Baxter hath so defined it and held it forth to us as the most Celestiall comfort that we shall finde in death There is saith he no unpardoned sin in the death of beleevers that shall procure further judgement Where note 1 that he saith not simply and absolutely that there is no unpardoned sin upon the Saints now dead and buryed but no sin so unpardoned that it should bring further judgement than that which is already upon them And 2 That when he denyeth that their sin shall bring any further judgement upon them he doth not deny but rather imply their sins to be yet still unpardoned as to the holding those judgements upon them that are already inflicted A comfort that the Devills and reprobates in hell shall not want after the very day of judgment in the midst of their flames That there is none of their sinns so unpardoned as that it should bring any further judgment upon them But put we all together 1 That the beleever must bear the Curse even the whole man in body and soule also 2 That he shall not be delivered from this curse in soul and body untill the resurrection 3 That although death puts him into a freedom from further judgments yet it doth not at all deliver him from those that at death are inflicted upon soul and body How shall we now make up the matter If the whole man both soul and body must suffer and not be wholly freed untill the resurrection this is not fulfilled in the suffering of the body alone If the soul also untill then must suffer then is it not forthwith upon its seperation from the body exalted to Heaven for there is no suffering no affliction Neither doth it suffer in hell for Mr. Baxter exempteth thence all that persevere in the Faith according to his definition of faith untill death Where and whence then shall it suffer but in and from the fire of Purgatory And so there is no unpardoned sin upon beleevers after death that can procure to them any further judgment beyond this If Mr. Baxter meaneth not so it is his fault to write with so much ambiguity and so little plainnes and perspicuity as to toll us on to a strong Conjecture that he meaneth so and is in this as in the rest apostatized to the Papists 5 I might add also here that he seemes to joyn with the Papists in holding beleevers in an uncertainty of their salvation all their life long It is considerable that neither in his Aphorism nor in the whole explication therof nor in all his arguments by which he goeth about to prove beleevers under the Curse doth he once name any pardon of sin or freedom from further judgment which they attain untill after death and then when they have persevered to the end and dyed in Christ now he mentions and affirms it What doth Arg. 8 p. 71. this argue but that he would with the Papists have men to hope well but to be still
was by paying the full value 3 Though by this dispensation our freedom may be as full as upon a repeal yet the alteration is not made in the Law but in our estate and relation to the Law 4 So farr is the Law dispensed with to all as to suspend the rigorous execution for a time and a liberation or discharge conditionall procured and granted them But an absolute discharge is granted to none in this life For even when we do perform the condition yet still the discharge remains conditionall till we have quite finished our performance For it is not one instantaneous act of beleeving which shall quite discharge us but a continued faith No longer are we discharged than we are beleevers And where the condition is not performed the law is still in force and shall be executed upon the offender himself I speak nothing in all this of the directive use of the morall Law to beleevers but how farr the Law is yet in force even as it is a Covenant of works because an utter repeal of it in this sense is so commonly but inconsiderately asserted That it is no further overthrown no not to beleevers then is here explained I now come to prove Here we see the off-spring of the precedent mountainous and swelling distinctions Exit ridiculus mus In the three first Conclusions a meer tattle about the repealing and abrogating or dispensing and relaxing of the Law and of its dispensation in a totality and absolutenes or in a respectivenes to persons circumstances and degrees of execution c. which is as proper to the thing that he drives at as swines flesh and a peacock strangled with all his glittering feathers to the satisfying of a Jewes hungry appetite Surely either Mr. Br. had forgotten or thought we had forgotten that he had before vented this Mysticall learning of his own and Grotius his brain or doubted that it was not finely enough set out there therefore that he might have the full praise of so curious and spiderthreeded a speculation brings it in here again in somewhat a new and more specious a dress Let him rest contented we acknowledge it all very trim If he beleeve us not let him set it as a philactery upon his garment It will tend so much to the strengthening of it as of the cause he hath in hand For the question is not whether the Law be repealed or but dispensed with But whether it be in force to beleevers as a Covenant of works with which the three first positions meddle not The word abrogating some orthodox Divines I confess do use but not in a sense equipollent with the word repeal meaning thereby onely a nullity of the lawes domination over beleevers The alteration not being in the Law as we acknowledge with Mr. Br. but in our estate and relation to it The law reigneth over all that are under it But the Saints are not Inst lib. 3. cap. 19. sect 2. under the Law saith the Apostle But as Calvin saith in Christ above it But his fullnes and plainnes in his fourth Conclusion maketh some recompence for all his Amphibologies all his dark doubtfull locutions in that which went before Here we acknowledge his ingenuity He so speaks as that an English man may understand him Here he tells us what he meant before of nulling repealing c. of the Law to beleevers that it is not so nulled abrogated repealed relaxed or dispensed with but that all their life time they are still under the Law as a Covenant of works And why could not this be spoken without so great a preparative of sophisticall equivocations and distinctions It pleased him surely to act the Alderman that deckt himself with all his robes and rich furniture to go into his stable and cutt off his horses tayl But it shall satisfie us that after some suspension he at last discovers to us his meaning Let us examine it and first we shall finde set forth in two positions two so soul-ravishing priviledges purchased by the Lord Christ for the Elect Saints that whosoever of them will rest satisfied with them may gird himself fast and depart without them 1 That they have so large a discharge from the rigor of the Law for a while as any of the worst reprobates 2 That they have no more discharge from the Lawes curse than the worst of reprobates Must we not account him a Saint that hath a fastidious stomack or sore mouth that cannot relish these dainties The former Conclusion he reacheth to us in these words So farr is the Law dispensed with to all as to suspend the rigorous execution of it for a time and a liberation and discharge conditionall procured and granted them Jam sumus ergo pares In this the sons of God are in as good a case as the reprobates and somwhat before the Devills The latter Conclusion in these words But an absolute discharge is granted to no man in this life Jam sumus ergo pares Yet have we as large cause of exulting and joy in the Holy Ghost as the reprobates that as farr as we can discern we are no neerer to hell than the children of hell whose inheritance is in hell forever To prove the latter assertion that none are that beleevers are not absolutely discharged from the law as a Covenant of works in this life he borroweth matter from Pelagians Papists Socinians Arminians and the whole rabble of professed enemies to the grace of God in Christ manifesteth Scotus like ignotum per ignotius carries us into a dungeon of darknes to discern Colors which we could not judge of in the light to his minde brings seven other Devills many other heresies worse than the first at least so bad as the first to strengthen the first Clavum clavo not extorquet but torquet figit beats in other wedges not to loose the first but to fasten all Having gotten in the paw of the beast beats and beetles in many of his hornes after to wedge fast all The Popish errors which he brings as an addition to confirm that beleevers are during life under the law are these 1 That they which are in Christ have not their sinns fully pardoned neither are themselves wholly justified in this world 2ly That whosoever shall be justified in the world to come must procure it by his own willing running persevering in this world 3 That they which are in Christ may fall away and be damned 4 That no man while he lives can be certain of his salvation 5 To this he addeth one worse than any Popish or Socinian heresie as proper to himself and from himself alone viz. That all beleevers notwithstanding Christs satisfaction for them notwithstanding their persevering faith in him yet must be at last damned forever Some of these errors are in express words asserted the rest by necessary Consequence implyed in this short dispute of Mr. B The first he expresly affirmeth Even when we do perform
the condition yet still the discharge remains Here he followeth Arminius because in this point Arminius over-runs the Papists conditionall saith he till we have quite finished the performance i. e. till we have gasped out the last breath So that in this life there is no discharge but a conditionall promise that possibly we may in the world to come be discharged what is this discharging but Justifying and absolving us from what but from the sinn which we have committed and from the vengeance which the law threateneth such a justification he denyeth to be attainable in this life And this argument he thus urgeth Whosoever is not perfectly justified is still under the law as a Covenant of works But the very Saints are not in this world so Justified ergo they are under the Law c. The second that Justification in the world to come must be procured by mans own willing c. He delivereth plainly enough in that he saith that we must perform yea continue performing the conditions untill we go out of this world and then we may possibly obtein to be justified in the world to come What are the conditions by which we procure the discharge Mr. B tells us afterward as we shall finde Faith and good works These must we observe and continue observing to the end to procure justification after this life ended And so it is by our own strong and lasting endeavours that after the world is ended our sins may be possibly forgiven and we saved Here if we grant unto him that we are Gods hirelings thus to work in his vineyard the whole day the whole term of our life and that Justification is the wages of our work to be paid in the evening i. e. at the end of the world then it will follow indeed what he deduceth hence that untill the world be ended we are still under the Curse of the Law 3 That they that are in Christ may fall away and be damned if they continue in their Apostacy or may after their many apostacies oft renew again their union with Christ and so at last be justified he speaks out fully in telling us It is not one instantaneous act of beleeving but a continued faith that shall quite discharge us that no longer are we discharged than we are beleevers and when we cease to beleeve the Law is still in force and condemneth Either he reasoneth from an unpossible supposition or a possible and usuall Case incident to beleevers If from an impossibility it makes not at all for his purpose If it were possible for him to fall from grace then should beleevers be under the Law again But it is not possible c. ergo they shall never be reduced under the law again But he argueth as from a possible and usuall case and then if we grant him that the Saints may fall away it will follow that they are not absolutely freed from the curse of the law in this life But in granting this we grant our selves to be Popish and may shake hands with Mr. Br. The fourth that no man can in this life be certain of salvation depends on the former For if we cannot be certain of our perseverance we cannot be certain of eternall happines and by necessary consequence it must be concluded also that we are not discharged from the bondage of the Law But we cannot grant the premisses from which such inferences are drawn unless we will grant away our selves also in despair to perdition And therefore we deny to Mr. B all his argumentation here as having nothing of Christ but all of Antichrist in it I mean not to prosecute in this place a dispute against Mr. B about these four pernicious errors which he holds in common with other Papists himself will elswhere minister to me an occasion of speaking more fully to them where he doth not onely touch upon but also professedly handle the most if not all of them Here I shall onely to preserve the simple from his guile manifest upon what fallacious grounds he pitcheth these his assertions They are principally these two 1 That Faith as an infused gift of grace and a part of our inherent righteousnesse doth justifie when it is not onely as the Papists say Fides informis but also Formata perfected both in its duration of time and in all its Concomitants the other habits vertues and gifts of grace such as are love mercy goodness temperance c. and in the fruits and acts of all these which are good works For so shall we finde him in the sequele of this tractate teaching 2 That Faith and all those its Concomitants with their fruits and effects depend upon our freewill to gain and retein refuse and lose them at the pleasure and lust of our corrupt freewill These points being granted all those foure errors will follow as necessary deductions thence But the orthodox Churches hold and the Oracles of the Gospel teach otherwise 1 That our Justification floweth from our union to Christ that All in Adam are under the Law under the Curse unblessed unjustified unpardoned But that all which are in Christ are justified pardoned c. So the Apostle Phil. 3. 8. c. All things are doung to me that I may winn Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousnes which is of the law but that which is through the Faith of Christ c. Here was the Apostles righteousnes and Justification to winn Christ and be found in him And this union unto Christ is made up principally by the Spirit by which Christ apprehendeth and uniteth us to himself No otherwise is our Justification attributed to faith than as it is the instrument by which we apprehend Christ to our selves as we are apprehended of Christ to himself and bring home into our bosom◠the benefit of this our union to him together with the sense and joy of our Justification by him This I shall have occasion to illustrate and prove more fully before I part with Mr. Baxter and because he will call me to it in another place here I shall say no more of it 2 That our Faith both in its existence and perseverance dependeth not upon the fickle sweek of our own freewill but upon the support of Gods power and unchangeable love and upon the vertue of Christs mediation and faithfullnes of the Mediator though our freewill be mutable yet the gifts calling of God are without repentance i. e. without Change Rom. 11. 29. He that hath begun a good work in you will performe it till the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1. 6. Though our faith be weak yet we are preserved by the power of God through Faith and salvation Christ hath by his sacrifice purchased to us not onely salvation but faith also both in its being and persevering to apprehend him and it to our persevering Consolation They shall never perish saith he neither shall any man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any one
is the whole difference which he putteth as may be seen by comparing the 38 and 39 Theses together To the first I demand whether the Justification in this life be not an acquitting by sentence of judgement at the bar Whether it be not a sentence of absolution pronounced to the soul and conscience of a sinner drawn to Gods bar and there impleaded and confessing it self guilty of sin and of condemnation Who was there ever of them whom Mr. Baxter vouchsafeth to call our Divines that held otherwise Where then is the difference Yes saith Mr. Baxter this latter is at the publique bar I answer so is the former even that bar of God at which all that ever have been are or shall be justified have and shall have the sentence of Justification pronounced to them Object But this latter shall be at the great and grand generall Assizes before all the host of heaven earth and hell whereas the former was but between God and the soul Sol. This is nothing else but a publick declaration to the world what God had before granted to the soul which indeed in judicatures of men which are mutable and deny oft in publick what they had before acted in secret may be of some consequence to him that is so publickly acquitted but in respect of Gods judgement who cannot be inconsistent with himself and whose acts in secret are as unreversible as those in publick here is nothing added to the bulk of justification nor any thing but the solemnity of the manifestation of it after the man is before compleatly justified to the circumstances thereof To the second I have spoken before that Satans managing of the accusation and condemnation of the Law is more properly if not onely in this life and let Mr. Baxter prove if he can any such accusation that hee shall manage against us in the day of judgement If he can prove it the thing proved proves no addition or encrease which shall be then made to our present justification because here also we are acquitted against all accusations pleaded by Satan If he prove it not then there is in this respect a magis in the circumstance of justification here beyond that imaginary justification in the day of judgement 4. When he addeth that we must understand our Divines affirming our Justification to be perfect at first and to admit of no degrees that they mean our Righteousnesse is perfect and admits not of degrees I demand which righteousness himself meaneth that which he calls our Legal or that which he calls our Evangelical righteousnesse or both If the first Christ made Righteousnes to us this is indeed the righteousness the whole and sole righteousness the Gospel righteousness which we have given to us unto Justification a righteousness without us which admits not of degrees And this righteousness is fully given us in this life and not reserved to be given us in the day of Judgement This must we are content Mr. Baxter should put upon our understandings that in this sense we must understand our Divines But this hews in peeces what Master Baxter addeth in this Thesis making the Justification here unperfect and to have but degrees toward our ful and perfect Justification at the last judgement for if so the imperfection here and the perfection there must be either in the righteousnesse given as I conceive or in the act of giving the righteousnesse Not the former for Christ whole Christ according to Mr. Baxter is the righteousness given in this life Neither will he I suppose affirme that we shall have a doubled Christ or two Christs given us for righteousness at the last judgement Nor the latter For I will not entertain so slanderous a thought of Mr. Baxter to thinke he will say that God gives Christ but unperfectly and seemingly here but there perfectly and really Nay hee gives Christ perfectly and really here There he will but own and manifest his former gift and grant Object But the former acts of Justification do not forthwith and fully bring a total freedom and glorification after them as doth this last at the last judgement Sol. This is not ad idem Mr. Baxter here flirts from the question which is of Justification it selfe to the consequents and effects of justification which are total freedome from inherent sinne and from all sorrow glorification and in truth also the sentence of life at the last judgement which is not another justification but the fruit and effect of our present justification The supreme power of the Nation grants to Mr. Baxter great immunities and a large demeans to be entred upon at the next general Assizes for the County and withall appoints the Iudge of the Assizes openly to proclaim it The Iudge doth according to his commission and Mr. Baxter taketh possession by the vertue of the aforesaid grant will he say the former grant was unperfect in comparison of the Iudges proclamation at the Assizes because it put him not into the present possession are not as well the Iudges proclamation as his entry the effects of the former grant But how far and in what respects the possession of the effects of justification is suspended hath been before examined Iâ— he meaâ—s that which he calls our Evangelical righteousness consisting in Faith and Gospel obedience Thes 20. that we must understand this righteousness to be perfected at once and not to admit of degrees this were totally to confute and confound himself in whaâ— hee hath written and all the Papists his darlings in what they have written about the point of justification and would put the lye upon most passages that remain to be examined in these his Aphorisms This therefore I cannot conjecture to be his meaning I would he could as wel discharge himself of doubleness as of silliness and simplicity In the 42 Thesis hee seemes to have had a purpose to have brought somewhat against that which they whom he calls our Divines do assert of the perfecting of Justification at once in the due and proper sense of their own meaning and to yeeld forth some shew of reason that contrary to their assertion Justification begun admits of many steps and degrees one after another tending to the perfecting thereof To this end he brings in a whole legend of stairs mounting up from the bottom to the top of Justification A sack full of Heterogeneous bugbears like that army of Solomon whereof Mahomet speaks in his Alcoran consisting of men beasts angels devils creeping flying swiming crawling and hopping creatures all marching together in so comely and harmonious order as confusion and ataxie can devise with such an army comes Master Baxter here against our Divines with a catalogue of God and Christ justifying Men justifying Angels justifying self justifying acts justifying passions justifying relations justifying qualities justifying One taking it from anothers hand and each amending what the other had left defective so that at last the sinner so shifted from hand to hand
the day of judgement then for the truly Orthodox in this point to prove it to be in this life absolute and unconditional Were I the man that were fit to undertake such a dispute I should as I conceive have a great advantage against such an adversary for most of the arguments which he should bring to prove the absoluteness and immutability of justification in the Kingdom of glory would strengthen against himself the same absoluteness and immutability of justification in the Kingdome of grace And almost all that he should be able to answer for the eluding of my arguments against absolute justification above would strengthen me to answer his arguments against absolute justification here But I hold it altogether unproper to make so holy a thing the subject of ludicrous exercitations The Scripture is as full to prove the Saints perseverance in grace here as their perseverance in glory above and as possible is the falling from the latter as from the former Now before I wholly pass from these positions of Mr. Baxter to make way for the examination of other Positions of his which I shall annex to these in this Chapter because of the neer affinity of their matter with that which is contained in these I shall speak something in opposition to Mr. Baxters universall conditional Justification in Christ or as Mr. Baxter termes it in Christs own Justification First then whatsoever sins of whatsoever persons were imputed unto Christ and for which he hath made full satisfaction to Gods Justice these are no more imputed but forever remitted in Christ absolutely and unconditionally to them who were the committers thereof But all the sinnes of all the elect and of them onely and not of the world were imputed to Christ and hee hath made full satisfaction c. Therefore c. The proposition is clear unless we will pronounce God unjust For if he should impute to the offender any one sin which was imputed to Christ and for which Christ hath fully satisfied Gods Justice then should God bee unjust in taking vengeance twice of the same sin once from Christ and another time from the offender contrary to the both equity of his justice and infallibility of his truth in either of which it is unpossible for God to fail Or if any should say that their sins were but conditionally imputed to Christ and that he made but a conditional satisfaction for them this were totally to deny the truth and reality of Christs sufferings It was not a conditional but absolute and real satisfaction that he made to divine Justice they were real stripes real and absolute wounds groans torments death-pangs by which he satisfied Justice He was not conditionally but verily made fin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. was wounded for our transgression bruised for our iniquity Isa 53. 5. When all this was done absolutely and really and so a real and absolute condition made shall all this produce only a conditional and not a real and absolute justification in Christ to and for them who in him have made absolute satisfaction so that themselves in themselves must make absolute satisfaction again This possibly may agree with Mr. Baxters Justice but never with the Justice of God The assumption is thus proved as to his bearing and satisfying for the sins of the Elect only and not of the world He suffered not for such as we call Individua vaga certain uncertain persons himself not knowing who they were or should be The High Priest that typifyed him offered not his sacrifices at adventures for he knew not whom but bare the names of them for whom he offered before the Lord Exo. 28. 9 10 11 12 29. And this was to be fulfilled in Christ their Antitype I lay down my life for the sheep saith he and know my sheep Joh. 10. 11 14 15. For the sheep onely for them whom he knew to be his sheep he layd downe his life And lest any should think hee speakes here onely of his called and not his elect ones he addeth Other sheep also I have which are not of this fold i. e. of Israel but of the Gentiles them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice They are his sheep and he layeth down his life for them to satisfie for their sins before they were beleeving before they were in being and brings them home by the voice of his Gospel afterward ver 16. But to the unbeleeving Jews he saith Ye beleeve not because ye are not of my sheep ver 26. First sheep purged and redeemed by the blood of the Shepheard and then beleevers afterward And if not sheep first then unbeleevers forever Neither saith he ye are not my sheep justified and reconciled by my death because ye beleeve not but ye beleeve not because ye are not of my sheep in the number of my Elect and justified ones Justification absolute justification in Christ still goeth before faith in the so justified Again for them all and onely did Christ as our Priest offer himself in sacrifice for whom as our Priest he offered prayers to God when the offering of himselfe was at hand but he so offered his prayers not for the world but for them which God had given him i. e. the elect Joh. 17. 9. So in this part the Assumption stands firme on the other part that he bare and satisfied for all the sinnes of all the Elect is plain The blood of Christ purgeth from all sinne 1 John 1. 7. by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. When it is said they are perfected forever it is included that there remaines not one sinne unsatisfied for And this is the priviledge of all the Elect of all the Sheep both in being and in futurition both within and without the fold as before was manifested 2. If Christ hath purchased and we receive in this life onely an universall conditionall Justification It will follow also that God hath in himself decreed before all time onely such a justification to men and consequently that he neither loved nor elected to life them that are saved more then the damned For the Son was in the bosom of the Father therefore privy to his secret will to his very bosom counsels came down from heaven not to transgresse but to fulfill his will Joh. 6. 38. 4. 34. 5. 30. was faithfull to him that appointed him c. Hâ—b 3. 2 6. So that he acted in time according to the will and decree of God before all time But it is false that God decreed onely such an universall conditionall justification to all not preferring in his love and elâ—ction those that shall be saved before them which shall be damned as appeareth Act. 13. 48. Rom 8. 30. 9. 15 to the 25. Eph. 1. 4 5 6 7. Therfore it is false also that
what Scriptures our Divines bring to prove justification to be only by faith and to deny all cooperation of works therein And herein I shall put limits to my self not letting out all that they produce for so should I offend with immoderate length but some particulars that the weakest reader may see what Mr. Baxter would not give him to see that our Churches are not destitute of strong grounds for the bearing up of their faith and assertions And when this is done I shall descend to examine the force of those Scriptures quoted by Mr. Baxter to see whether they make for him and against us I shall begin from the reasoning of the Apostle Rom. 3. 20. c. having before proved both the Jews by and under the Law and the Gentiles without the Law to be guilty before God he concludes Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justifyed c. and ver 21. The righteousnesse of God viz. to justification is manifested without the Law being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets to wit a righteousnesse which the Law is ignorant of the righteousnesse or life which is by faith From this righteousnesse the tenour of the Law or legall Covenant turns aside telling us he that doeth them shall live in them Gal. 3. 11 12. ver 22. Even the righteousnesse of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that beleeve Lo here it is denyed to be by the most righteous works which the most perfect Law of God himself prescribeth and attained by faith only ver 24. Being justifyed freely by his grace through the redemption which is by Jesus Christ what can be said more fully It shall not be impertinent to annote briefly out of Zanchy what he hath upon Hier. zanch De natura Dei Lib. 4. Cap. 2. Th. 2. this verse more largly when the Apostle saith we are justifyed by his grace Per Gratiam intelligit gratuitum Dei favorem omnibus nostris exclusis sive naturalibus sive supernaturalibus dignitatibus saith he i. e. by Grace the Apostle meaneth the free love or favour of God excluding all parts and pieces of our worth both naturall and supernaturall and addeth that the Apostle still opposeth grace to all our works and to all our inward vertues wrought in us by the holy Ghost himself as well as to our legall and morall righteousnesse yea to faith it selfe as it is a work as is manifest to every one that hath with any consideration read this Epistle Therefore saith he he excludeth all works that he may conclude our Justification to be by grace alone Yea more the Apostle saith he not contented to say we are justifyed by grace addeth thereto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his grace that is by the grace which is in God not by any gift of grace infused by him into ourselves that it might be wholly of God and not of our selves at all in the least part Yea not contented with all this he addeth freely to notifie that there is not required any work or qualification on our part to put us into the possession thereof for so it should not be wholly by the free and naked favour of God as he tearms it And lastly he addeth by the redemption which is by Jesus Christ by this work of Christ excluding all ours hitherto that profound Zanchius Neither cannot it be freely by the redemption of Christ if our qualifications and conditions be brought to interesse us to it for so should we be in some kinde purchasers and not receive it freely The Apostle proceeds ver 25. Whom God hath set forth as a propitiation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sins c. The whole thing of Gods ordination to make the redemption propitiation and remission of sinnes which is by Christ actually ours to our comfort is here assigned to be saith in his blood and not any foregoing concomitant or subsequent vertue or duty of ours annexed to it and all to declare his righteousnesse Ver. 26. His righteousnesse he saith again that he may be just and the justifyer of him that beleeveth in Jesus If Mr. Baxters fancy stand of the Legall righteousnesse in Christ and the Evangelicall righteousnesse in us the Apostles assignation of the end of Gods justifying us by Christ should be maimed For he should have said To declare to declare I say his righteousnesse and our righteousnesse that he might be just and a justifyer and we might be just and justifyers of our selves And then we are to expunge the next verse Where is boasting then it is excluded by what law of works nay but by the law of faith For boasting should not be at all excluded if our works should bear a part with faith in justifying so should we have matter of glorying in our selves still How full is the Apostle here in the confirmation of Justification by faith without works had he seen what the Papists and Mr. Baxter over their shoulders would have objected against it he could not have spoken more punctually Yet as I know what the Papists say for themselves so I am not ignorant what Mr. Baxter will except for himself But I reserve the Examination thereof for another place where he goeth about to purge his doctrine from all contrariety that it hath to the doctrine of the Apostle and from any derogation from the Grace of God A second Testimonie or authority from Scripture we may draw from Rom. 4. 1 c. I shall be short in it The Apostle here denies 1 Our father Abraham the father of the faithfull himself to have been justifyed by works for then he should have whereof to glory ver 2 3. But as Abraham was so all the faithfull are justifyed by faith without works or to render the words of the Text By faith and not by works Here Mr. Baxter hath no evasion as in the former Chapter viz. that the works of the Law only are denyed for Abraham was under the promise not under the Law nether was the Law then given and the promise under which he was was without all condition of works so that the Apostle here excludeth works indefinitely I mean not good and evill works for no man ever brought evill works as evill to be thereby justifyed But good works whether Legall or Evangelicall all acts and deeds both of naturall and infused righteousnesse and holinesse 2 In affirming of him that worketh i. e. that seeketh justification by works that the reward is reckoned of debt to him that he requires it as due and shall not receive it if it be not found due in Justice but to him that worketh not but beleeveth on him that justifyeth the ungodly his faith is imputed to righteousnesse i. e. as hath been already evinced Christ by faith apprehended is of the free grace of God made righteousnesse to him When Mr. Baxter therefore claps his bundle of works upon
life of Christ sacrificed for us to be the Ransom Mat. 20. 28. 1 Tim. 2. 6. The Price by which we are purchased and redeemed from thraldome 1 Cor. 6. 20. 7. 23. The propitiation for our sins through faith in his bloud Rom. 3. 25. 1 Joh. 4. 10. i. e. that one and only act of Christ by which our sinnes are expiated the justice of God satisfyed and his wrath appeased so that we finde him now a God propitious and gratious to us But if we will hear the Scriptures speaking at large and articulately confirming this position that the satisfaction made by Christ is begun continued and perfected meerly and wholly in and by Christs sufferings in steed of many Testimonies which the Scripture affordeth I shall pitch upon two disputes only of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews The former in cap 9. beginning at the 11 and 12 verses That Christ being become an high Priest c. by his own bloud entred once into the Holy place having obtained for us eternall Redemption I need not explain the words for the edification of any that hath but read the Scriptures and taken but overly into his consideration how that which was yearly under the Law figured in the act of the high Priest the type was at length effectually accomplished by Christ the Antitype Again ver 13 14. If the bloud of Buls c. sanctifyed to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the bloud of Christ which by the eternall Spirit offered himselfe to God without spot purge your conscience from dead works c. An undeniable vertue and efficacy in the bloud of Christ alone without any further acts of Christ himself to purge the conscience e. i. to absolve and justifie is here affirmed And further ver 15. He is the Mâ—diatour of the new Covenant that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first Testament they which are called may receive the promise of the eternall inheritance i. e. the eternall inheritance promised by means of Christs death and not by his Legislative righteousnesse And ver 26 Christ now once at the end of the world hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself What sin All sin according to that of John The bloud of Christ purgeth from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. And if from all sin what sin is there left for Christs giving of Lawes to put away or what of justification left out for it to perfect or of full satisfaction not made for it to compleat Lastly ver 28. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many How did he bear them but as the Apostle saith He hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. and in bearing them on our behalfe he satisfyed justice on our behalf And this is affirmed to be by offering himself for us not by giving Laws to us or injoyning duties upon us His second dispute is chap. 10. where the Apostle having mentioned the feeblenesse of the sacrifices offered by the Law to take away sin brings in Christ offering himself to accomplish what these could not and declaring his ready obedience to fulfill that will of God written in the volume of Gods book to offer himself a sacrifice for sin with a Lo I come by this will of God saith he we are sanctifyed by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all ver 5 10. He saith not we have our consecration to be holy by the commands of Christ c. but by the offering of his body And that by sanctification is to be here understood purification and justification I think it will not be denyed However ver 12. it is added that he having once offered sacrifice for sins for ever sat down at the right hand of God his sitting down and resting argues his work the work of our redemption and justification perfected in every degree and number His rest is as Gods rest was from the beginning then the work of Creation now of Redemption being made absolutely perfect the rest followed and where had this work its beginning progresse and perfection In his once offering of sacrifice for sins for ever Nothing here of Christs Law-giving and rule from the bottom to the top of the work of Redemption or Justification The sacrifice alone satisfyed so far all things of man are here excluded as that nothing else of Christ is required As it is more fully yet expressed ver 14. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctifyed His perfecting Mr. Baxter will not deny to be his making of perfect satisfaction for them and this is done by one offering of Christ Will Mr. Baxter be so audacious as to oppose the holy Ghost with his Nay telling that there must be somewhat else besides this offering viz. Christs Law-giving as part of the satisfaction made for us Lastly to put all out of doubt and besides the bounds of cavilling what the Apostle should mean here by sanctifying and perfecting this also is unfolded in plain words ver 17 18. viz. The taking away of their sinnes and iniquities And where the remission of these is there is no more offering c. satisfaction is made to the full and no need of any addition for the perfecting thereof I acknowledg there are many things required to condition Christ that he might be an effectuall offerer and offering else could not the redemption and justification which are by him have been completed or the satisfaction made for us been perfect Yea that after the work of satisfaction as formerly of Creation finished and a totall resting from any further addition to it yet the Father worketh and the Son worketh hitherto in the businesse of governing and preserving of what is so created and repayred yet this doth not at all hinder but that full satisfaction is made by the alone offering of Christ And here once more I call upon Mr. Baxter and all his adherents to bring forth any one testimony of Scripture to prove that either Christs Law-giving or any other act of Christ besides this one of offering himself a sacrifice for sin is by the Scripture in whole or in part affirmed satisfactory to God for our justification Let them not as Mr. Baxter before doth from pa. 54. to pa. 61. bring their peradventures and may bees and possibles and verisimilies for are the conjectures and results of a working and self-conceited brain to be laid as a foundation whereon to build an Article of our faith But let them bring the oracle of the Word testifying either that Christ hath done or God hath required of him or accepted from him such and such works in part of satisfaction Else our ears will be deaf to hear mans prattle being attentive in such matters only to the voice of the holy Ghost This shall suffice for the opening and confirming of ouâ— Tenet untill it shall
dead from further labouring and moving to this end For what righteousness what works can bee sufficient to such an atchievement So obedience to the Faith is nipt in the very budde where there is a sense and conviction of a mans naughtiness and nothingness 3. By taking off the spirits of a Christians love joy and alacrity in beleeving and serving when a humble and selfe-denying soul is once choaked with Mr. Baxters Doctrine that all the benefit which he hath or can have by Christ is to be only a probationer for justification and life even to his dying day that till then hee is but conditionally pardoned and conditionally adopted that Gods love to him may be anon turned into hatred his sinnes againe imputed and himselfe hurried into hell That his safety still depends upon his own works righteousnes no peny no Pater noster that the grace of God is let to farme for fine and rent no one promise of the word in all this his Booke being alledged by Mr. Baxter which I can remember of any support which the beleever shall receive from God in the state of Grace but all Selfe doe and selfe have This Doctrine eyther benummeth and freezeth up all a poore Christians love and delight in serving God emasculating his spirits to obedience or reduceth him under a yoke of bondage making him to worke possibly but in feare not of love as under the rod or rather in the fire fearing death and hell all his life time And whether this bee saving in Mr. Baxters accompt obedience or disobedience let them that are spirituall judge 4. By turning the very obedience of his Disciples into disobedience and rebellion The best works done to be justified by them and for them are the greatest abhomination in Gods accompt his Grace and Salvation are either denied or refused when wee bring works to appropriate it to us Rom. 4. 4 5. what is righteousnesse in its matter is sin in its end Therefore shall wee finde still that whosoever are admitted to those that seek to ingratiate themselvs by their good works though done in Christs name are hurled off from Christ I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance I know you not depart from mee yee workers of iniquity More joy for one sinner that repenteth than for ninety nine just persons that need no repentance For a more full and satisfactory answer to the Argument contained in this Quere I leave the Reader to the perusing of the Protestant Divines that have written upon this Subject and abundantly refuted this calumny of the Papists what I have here said is rather an addition to them then a full answer to the Quere which I leave to be fetcht from them What he speakes in the Amplification of this Quere needeth no large examination First he grants That love and thankfulness should be enough to hold us to obedience and duty and will bee so when all our ends are attained in our ultimate end then wee shall act for these ends no more c. How untowardly doth this passage and and another passage of the former Quere hang together what he pronounceth here that love and thankfulnesse should be enough to hold us to duty without doing for justification and salvation and that which here should be and hereafter shall be our perfection the same he affirmes there if practiced will undoubtedly damne the Practicer So according to Mr. Baxter if a Christian endeavour sincerely to do what he should and to come as neere in this life as it is possible to the perfection which he shall enjoy in the future hee shall undoubtedly bee damned for it Who then goes about to drive obedience out of the world he or they whom he opposeth What use is to be made of the affections of feare desire hope and care to the attainment of our great ends hath been enough discussed in the examination of the former Quere and would be a meere Tautology here to do it againe Let it be proved once that God hath left Justification by workes to be a motive to obedience it shall be granted to bee a help to the destroying of Obedience to take downe this one Motive But if contrariwise Justification of sinners by Works and Morall Obedience bee erected not by God but by the Devill Mr. Baxters neither Sophistry nor Oratory shall induce us to leane upon the Devils crutch both to the forfeiting of our Justification and turning our Obedience into sin CHAP. XII Whether the doctrine of justification by Faith without workes be a soul-cozening doctrine or harden the people in a soul-cozening Faith what the doctrine of Faith which the Protestant Churches holde is and how farr from deserving this Calumny with something about the facility or difficulty to perswade the multitude to such a Faith HIs fourth Quere by which as by another Argument he goeth about to make odious and to destroy justification by Faith without works runs thus B. pag. 326. Doth it not much confirme the world in their soul cozening Faith surely that Faith which is by many thought to justifie is it that our people doe all most easily embrace that is the receiving of Christ for their Saviour and expecting pardon and salvation by him but not withall receiving him for their Lord and King nor delivering up themselves to be ruled by him I meet not with one but is resolved in such a Faith till it be overthrowne by teaching them better They would all trust Christ for the saving of their soules and that without dissembling for ought any man can discerne Are all these men justified c. A Chip of the same blocke with the former in the use of it Mr. Baxter as he hath learned of them from whom he hath received it levels against the very heart of Christ and his Gospell Had hee said with Iames that to say we have Faith and not to have workes is to cozen our souls I should have said with him But in that he speaketh not of a soul-cozening profession of Faith but layeth so horrid an imputation upon Faith it selfe this gives us cause to examine what Faith he meaneth that we may be able to discern whether that Faith or else Mr. Baxter by defaming it goe about to cozen our souls and so embrace the true friend and reject the Cheater This cozening Faith according to Mr. Baxter must needs bee that which squareth not in its nature and manner of justification with the justifying Faith viz. that Gospell Faith which neither as a deed and worke as a worke of Morall duty and worke of our owne righteousnesse of our perfect and meritorious righteousnesse doth begin and but begin to inright us to Christ and justification by him leaving to eyther vertues and works to perfect it but as an instrument ordeyned and given us of God by which we receive Christ alone offering up himselfe a sacrifice for us to bee cur whole righteousness to justification and that without
Righteousness is in this Obedience Most accursed Doctrine so far am I from this that I say The Righteousness which we must plead against the Laws Accusation is not one grain of it in our Faith or Works but all out of us in Christs satisfaction Only our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience are the conditions upon which wee must partake of the former And yet such conditions as Christ worketh in us frely by his Spirit How forcible and unresistible is the power of Conscience flying in the face of the guilty and accusing where men applaud or at least hold their peace Who either of men or Angels could have charged Mr. Br. for saying that which he had not yet said or for venting Socinian Doctrine in his writings before he had yet written What none els can do M. Br. is forced by Conscience to do against himself to arraign himself at the Bar for Socinianism Conscience is the accuser what Patron will he retein to be his defender Nothing out of himself can suffice to answer an accuser within himself Therefore he fees Reason that is his sophisticated and sopisticall wit art and craft to plead his Cause against Conscience The first of these exceptions which these make for him against the Charge is the abuse which some make of this imputation laying it upon all that speak not as they But 1. This is besides the Charge These some had not then spoken against Mr. Br. it is the accusation of his own conscience which he should have answered and he hnows it not to have confederated with those some of whom he speaketh 2. I know none of those some that have layd that aspersion upon any of those Divines which he mentioneth save one and that one I suppose would be very angry with any other man in England M. Br. alone excepted that should go about to rob him of that honour which Mr. Br. calls a reproach It is for brotherhoodssake that he hears it from him 3. But his craft herein is to befool his Readers with an opinion that he is of the same judgment with Pareus Wotton Gataker c. of whom they that are dead have as much shewed their abhorrency from and opposition against his Doctrines as any that have lived upon earth And those that are living if they be consistent with themselves in their former writings whereof I nothing doubt are as far from Mr Br. as he is from Christ and his truth 4. His jeer that he casteth upon them that are Adversaries to his Doctrine terming them Zealous Divines infinuating that they have zeale without knowledg and learning I leave as proper to him that in that way of wisdom and righteousness which his own reason either as refined with Philosophy or corrupted with Sophistry suggesteth seeks for justification and eternall glory Let us be accounted fools to the world and no bodies in that which is falsly called science so that we may be wise in and zealous for that which is the power and wisedom of God to salvation The second Plea which he makes for himself is the singlenes and sincerity of his studies bent rather to seek out what is Scripture truth than what is Socinianism that he thinks that Socinus his Nature Studies and Attainments did not so much vary from his name Faustus the happy that he should be so unhappy as to hold nothing true and consequently that neither himself is so unhappy but that he hath learned some Truths from this happy Socinus and perhaps such as he could never learn from Christ his Apostles or faithfull Ministers But 1. This may be said of Faustus the Conjurer who by giving himself to the Devill did not exterminate all notions of all truths from his soul Will Mr Br. be his Disciple also Both had the like effectuall influence from Satan neither know I which to prefer 2. Who sent Mr. Br. to learn from such Teachers to seek for light in darkness or Heaven in Hell or Scripture-Truth in the precept of Pagans or glosses of Papists or Socinus his God Reason Is it not because there is no God in Israel that he goes to enquire of Baal-zebab the God of Ekron 2 King 1. 3. The Lord Jesus rebuketh silenceth and refuseth to hear the Spirit of lies even when hee speaks truth Mar. 1. 23 24 25. and abandoneth the spirituall Devil no less than if he had blasphemed Mat. 4. So also Paul Acts 16. 16-18 The truth of Christ needs not any disdains all props from Hell to sustain it He that will not dip from the fountain but at the pools which the unclean beasts have defiled let him without our envy have mudd and dung enough in the water which he drinketh 3. It is much to be doubted the mans heart deceives him Were his studie so unfeigned and serious to know what is Scripture truth he would more study the Scripture it self and less Bellarmin Socinus Arminius and such like Sophisters whose whole study it is to corrupt all and to leave no Scripture unperverted 4. Had he not ploughed with Socinus his Heyfers or rather Bulls he could never have sowed so much darnell in the field of Christ The third Plea which he bringeth to prove that his Doctrine is free from Socinianism is because there is one point wherein hee dissenteth from Secinus That Socinus and his followers deny any expiatory sacrifice that Christ hath offred to God to satisfie his Justice for our sins or that ther is any effectual vertue in Christs death to purge our Consciences from dead works But that he becomes our Saviour only in this that he hath given us more perfect precepts of Righteousness than were contained in the Law and the Prophets and withall he hath given us a Copie or pattern by his own practice to which we must be conformed And so we must be justified not by the blood of Christ but by our own obedience in following these precepts and this pattern which he hath given us In this point Mr. Br. professeth himself so farr from joyning with him that hee casteth off this Doctrine with abhorrence But this reasoning hath no soundness in it For 1 It is the same as if I should argue that Goliah was not of the race of the Giants because he had not upon each hand six fingers and upon each foot six toes at some of the Giants progeny had and possibly the Giant himself Or that Mr. Br. should seek by this Argument to prove himself no English-man because he dwels neerer the Severn than Thames So also might the Jews elude the words of Christ and Elymas the words of Paul as slanderous arguing themselves not to be the children of the Devill because they had flesh and bone so had not the Devill They had never carried Christ aloft and set him on a pinacle of the Temple fearing they might fall headlong thence themselves so had the Devill The seed the Lusts of the Devil abiding and reigning in them spake them
have done their Law their iniquities past present and to come are blotted out their peace made and they reconciled to God This is observably set forth in Aaron and the other High Priests his successors as they were Types of Christ Aaron the High Priest must bear the Names of the Children of Israel engraven upon 2 precious stones on the two shoulders of his Ephod before the Lord for a memoriall Exod. 28. 10 12. yea he must bear their names in the breast-plate of judgment upon his Heart when he goeth in unto the Holy place viz. with the blood of the sacrifice for the expiating of siâ—s for a memoriall before God continually What memoriall that they were the men for whom the sacrifice was offered and that their sins were purged thereby that God should therefore have them in remembrance to preserve them from the Curse and judgment of the Law for so it followeth And Aaron shall bear the judgment of the Children of Israel upon his heart continually ver 29 30. These things were but figuratively done in Aaron but really and fully accomplished in Christ his Antitype who being constituted our High Priest and having received Command from the Father not onely what but for whom to offer even for Israel i. e. the elect of God which for a great part were not yet in being hâ—th by his own blood entred into the Holy place with their names engraven upon his heart having purchased for them an everlasting Redemption Not into the Holy place made with hands but into Heaven there to appear for them by way of Mediation and Intercession Heb. 9. 12 24. Rom. 8. 34. Wherefore also God hath given him not onely an acquittance for them from all their sins Heb. 10. 17. but hath also given and delivered up them into his hands as hath been before proved and Mr. B himself confesseth yet not as he insinuateth to plague and Curse them and hold them during life under the intolerable bondage of the Law but to deale with them in a gentle dispensation according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace in tender mercy to draw them unto and keep them in the Faith without all Apostacy to the end All which he performeth to all his elect as is evident from most of those Scriptures which were brought for the confirmation of the former point and elswhere Gods giving them to Christ and into his dispensation being their perfect translâ—tion from the Covenant of the Law into the Covenant of Grace And this was done before their beleeving All that the Father giveth me shall come to me first they are given and then they shall come Be not afraid but speak and hold not thy peace for I have much people in this City said the Lord Jesus to Paul of the Corinthians yet Heathen Acts 18. 9 10. They were his people before therefore must they be gathered to him by Faith I have other sheep which are not of this fold them also I must bring and they shall hear my voyce c. Jo 10. 16. he means the Gentiles that were infidels yet nevertheless his sheep that must afterward hear his voice because they were his sheep how were these termed Christs people Christs sheep while yet in Paganism idolatry and unbeleef but because they were his redeemed and justified ones Ye beleeve not because ye are not of my sheep Jo 10. 26. What is that but because they were not of the number of them for whose sins he had effectually satisfied Gods justice 3 Justification and Remission of sins may be considered also as it is brought into their own apprehension and Conscience that were justified by Christ and in Christ before And in this sense it is oftenest taken in Scriptures yea alway when we are said to be justified by Faith This is done when Christ by the manifestation and ministry of the Gospel maketh known in all ages to them for whose sins he hath satisfied the Mystery of Grace by him and frameth their hearts with all gladnes by Faith to embrace him and it thorow him unto Justification Then are they justified in themselves and remission of sins sealed up by the spirit to their own Consciences and so have the Kingdom of God within them consisting of Peace Righteousnes and Joy in the Holy Ghost Before this Christ had life for them now they are said to have it themselves Jo 20. 31. 1 Jo 5. 12. Untill now was their winter season so that all their life was in Christ as the Vine or Root now is their spring so that the life sheweth it self in them as the branches blossoming with peace and joy unto all obedience Before life was purchased and seizure thereof taken for them by Christ Now they are passed from death to life 1 Jo 3. 14. i. e. are put into the actuall possession of it Before though they were Lords of all as the Apostle in a case little different from this speaketh Gal. 4. 1 2. yet differed nothing from Servants being in their own apprehension under the threats and condemnation of the Law and so still in slavish fears and terrors But now they see their freedom and take possession of it with boldness to cry Abba Father and to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus and through the veil of his flesh with full assurance of hope c. Hebrewes 10. 19 20. These things so premissed we shall the better see whether the Scriptures which Mr. Baxter here produceth do by their own force or else by his mis-interpretation of them seem to prove that the Elect while unbeleevers are under the Law as a Covenant of works First that of Joh. 3. 18. is a threat of the Gospel Covenant against the Contemners of it and of Christ the preacher thereof and not of the Law Covenant And it is brandished against reprobats and not against elect unbeleevers Christ had now preached his Gospel a while in Galilee the elect beleeved and of them saith Christ they are not condemned The reprobates would not beleeve of them he saith they are condemned already and the reason is rendred not because they have broken the morall Law but because they have not beleeved in the Name of the onely begotten Son of God This is the condemnation that Christ the light is come into the world and men preferred their own darknes before him c. The same also is the meaning of the 36 ver which he citeth Neither of these pointing in their threat to the elect but the reprobates among unbeleevers Neither threatening for Contumacy against the Law but the Gospel Therefore nothing here proveth the elect before they beleeve to be under the Law as a Covenant of works Again those Scriptures which he saith bid us to beleeve for the remission of sinnes Act. 2. 38 c. do only prove that faith in Christ doth justifie the elect in the third consideration of Justification or remission of sinns before mentioned viz. as it evidenceth and brings
home into their apprehension and Conscience that their sinns are remitted For so run the words in that 10 of Act. v. 47. that Whosoever beleeveth in him shall receive remission of sins not denying that Christ had received it for them before but affirming only that now they should receive it from Christ Besides this promise is held forth there promiscuously to all both elect and reprobate and it is but an offer not the gift of pardon to distinguish betwixt them for whom Christ had and those for whom he had not effectually satisfied and received absolution from the Father by the ones beleeving and receiving by faith from the hand of Christ the pardon and the others refusall and manifesting thereby their abode under death and the Law still The surety had paid the penalty of the obligation taken up the bonds and acquittance or discharge of the debt Thenceforth the Creditor had no more plea against either principall or surety Nevertheles the principall knew it not therefore playeth least in sight is in continual fear of arrests thinks every bush hath a Sergeant or Bayliff under it but at length the surety gives and delivers into his hand both the acquittance the obligation Cancelled Now is his first receiving of a discharge now he first finds himself free from his Creditors obligation now hath he the first comfort of the benefit but he was discharged before though he knew it not so is it with the elect c. Therefore Mr. Baxters inference hence is unsound He addeth the Testimony of Paul Eph. 2. 3. That the redeemed were by nature the Children of wrath who denyeth it But this is nothing to the question It is not here enquired whether the redeemed drew not the seeds of sin and death by naturall propagation from their parents as much as others But whether by the satisfaction which Christ made for them according to the Covenant of grace they were not redeemed from that wrath before they yet beleeved It is true what Mephibosheth said of himself and his brethren to David We were all as dead men before my Lord the King c. 2 Sam. 19. 28. because they were the progeny of Saul that fought against David Nevertheles by means of the Covenant that intervened between David and Jonathan Mephibosheth had right to all the favour that King David could express As for those testimonies cited by way of Thesis and Antithesis out of Gal. 5. ver 3 4. ver 18 23. they make wholly against him nothing for him The 3 4 verses speak nothing to the question in hand but utterly destroy that to which in this whole dispute he driveth nothing to the question in hand The circumcised are bound or debtors to the whole Law and Christ is become of none effect to them He was to have proved that beleevers were before they beleeved under the Law This Text speaketh not of the elect before they beleeved but of professed beleevers returning to Circumcision and the Law to fetch thence help unto their justification after that they seemingly at least beleeved in Christ so here is nothing that makes for him because nothing to the present question But much against him in reference to the grand thing which he laboureth for to bring beleevers under the Law as a Covenant of works Whosoever doth so saith the Apostle in the least mite that contents not himself with Christ alone takes in but so poor a peice of the Law as Circumcision to help with Christ to Justification the same person hereby forfeiteth all his claim to Grace and Christ and must gain heaven by his perfect fullfilling of the Law or must be damned in hell for ever Into this state Mr. Baxter striveth to bring himself and his disciples I shall not wish them joy in it because I use not to wish impossibilities Touching the verses which he puts in opposition to these ver 18 23. But if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law against such there is no law If he mean simply and sincerely what the Apostle here meaneth by being led by the Spirit viz. the seeking of righteousnes by Christ alone as the same Apostle more fully expresseth himself Gal. 3. 3. Phil. 3. 3. Then by granting that such are not under the Law there is no law against them he destroyeth and recanteth all that he hath before spoken to prove beleevers under the Law But if by being led by the Spirit his aim be to bring in works to justification under the name of the fruits of the Spirit we shall here forbear to answer him because it is besides the present question leaving it to its fit place where he openly explaineth himself And no less abhorrent from the question is his next proof Gal. 3. 22. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ may be given to them that beleeve What is this to the purpose in hand we deny not the promise of or the promised Justification and remission of sinns by faith in Jesus Christ to be given to them that beleeve into their hands and possession when they beleeve by affirming that Christ hath taken possession thereof for them before they beleeve that he may let it down into their hearts when they beleeve He ascended up on high and led captivity captive and gave gifts to men Eph. 4. 8. The Apostle fetcheth his authority from the word in Psal 68. 18. where it is said He received gifts for men viz. to give them in his time But the Apostle contents himself with the scope of the word not binding himself to the bare letter and sound thereof So Christ at his ascension received for us the gifts of Justification and remission and all other benefits of his passion They were then laid up for us in his Custody so that we had them in him before our actuall existence upon earth But he gives them to us into our sensible possession when we come to be to live and to beleeve That which he citeth from Gal. 4 5. is altogether besides the question also Himself acknowledgeth that it proveth us onely to be under the Law when Christ redeemed us or undertook to pay our ransom Not that we were under the Law after he had redeemed us by paying our ransom before we yet beleeved The words are these in the 4 5 verses God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law The scope of the Apostle here is one and the same with that to which he drives Gal. 2. 15 16. We who are Jewes by nature a holy seed within the Covenant and have all the privileges of the Law and not sinners of the Gentiles that are without the Covenant and the Law knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have beleeved that we might be justified by the faith of