Penalty of Sin may be inflicted there 's a necessity that the Guilt of Sin be imputed Now to talk of Guilt imputed and not the Fault is Nonsense For what Guilt is there where there is no Fault Did Christ bare Sin and Guilt without Fault Then he bare faultless Sin and faultless Guilt which is ridiculous Well but my Dear Kratiste goes on currently for his Antinomians and saith It 's impossible indeed that we should personally have committed Adam 's Sin or performed that very Obedience which Christ performed but not impossible that the Disobedience of the one or Obedience of the other should be reckoned AS committed and performed by us How doth this agree with his equal Astonishment and Indignation at the horrid Opinion to say That the Fault of Sin was laid upon Christ O! that he would humbly own his hasty heat O! that he might recover himself and return to the Truths he owned in Antisozzo and not call it an horrid Opinion That the Fault was laid on Christ when himself owns the Guilt was lest he exasperate his tart Answerers to call him not only an Ecclesiastical Droll but a Terrae Filius Droll to talk of Guilt without Fault This might possibly occasion that severe Reflection of Fits in the Rebuker not fit to be mentioned but meliora speramus we hope better Things and such as accompany Salvation by his freeing himself from halting in the Point of Christ's Satisfaction which the Reporter chargeth him with §. CIX I proceed to convince if it may please God my Dear Kratiste of his unbenign Temper in his treating the Opposers of Mr. Williams in Pa. 60. O! how unlike are those Passages to any thing we find of our beloved Lord and Master Jesus the meek and lowly who had no Guile in his Mouth and who being reviled reviled not again But so it fares not with the Rebuker who though he was not reviled in the Report yet he Banters and Jeers his Friends that concur not with him in Page 60 with this Expression speaking of his Opposers he saith of them They will make no farther Contest with Mr. Williams I mistake saith the Rebuker but private Whisperings and evil Surmizes and insinuated Slanders and clandestine Reproaches may be multiplyed while Mr. Williams lives O what a dire Charge is here in this climax and constellation of Accusations Here are Whisperings Surmises Slanders and Reproaches and these epethited with being private evil insinuated and clandestine Nay 't is to be feared they will feed upon his Carcase See here what Cannibals he makes all the Gospel-Ministers that cannot that ought not to concur with Mr. Williams his unsound stating of Gospel-Truth May not Men write and plead for the Truth which it is obvious Mr. Williams hath wronged as on that Text Phil. 3.9 but they must be invidiously loaded as above O my Dear Kratiste I beseech the Lord to mollifie your Temper and to give you an humble broken Gospel-Sense of your too much giving way through the Temptation of the Floridness of your Stile to an excess of Carnal Passion in your Rebuke Doth not the blessed Apostle tell us in 2 Tim. 4.2 that his beloved Timothy though but a Young Divine that he should rebuke with all long-suffering How much more is it a Duty for the Elder Divines to exercise long suffering yea all long-suffering in their Rebukes cujus contrarium we see Some talk of having a Commission from all the Systematical Divines as Antisozzo had but I fear you have exceeded that as well as the Apostle's Admonition in your Rebuke to the Report §. CX Are all accounted by the Rebuker as Cannibals that write against Mr. Williams How then shall I escape who put my Mite into the Treasury of pleading for Free Grace Every one hath not a Face of Brass neither doth God say to all Contenders for the Truth as he did to Ezekiel in Ezek. 3.9 As an Adamant harder than a Flint have I made thy Forehead therefore fear them not and must we not therefore plead for Truth for fear of being called Man-Eaters I hope my Dear Kratiste will remember what Antisozzo saith in his Preface That Austin would have every Man that can hold a Pen write against Pelagius that sworn Enemy to free discriminating effectual Grace And if so why may not the Reporter or any Pen-Man write against Mr. Williams and all those Forty Nine Vouchers who declares That a degree of our Gospel-Obedience to a Law that admits Sin doth concur to our Justification quite contrary to the Scripture which saith We are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Are we bound to contend earnestly for the Faith and will you load with multiplyed Sarcasms those that cannot swallow such distastful Morsels as he cuts out Such as this That our being found in Christ Phil. 3.9 is principally meant of being found in our own Gospel-Holiness Than which nothing is a greater misprision of Treason against the Righteousness of Christ imputed to Sinners for their Justification O! that God would shew that such prophane words do eat as doth a Gangreen What bring in our Holiness to sit jigg by joul with Christ's perfect Righteousness And for opposing this shall the Servants of the Lord be accounted Cannibals to feed on Mr. Williams his Flesh §. CXI The next hard word bestowed on Free-Grace maintainers is calling them Bigots nay Bigots that never will forgive That is because they do and must contend for the Truth therefore they are accounted implacable Though I am bound to forgive all Injuries done to my self am I ever bound to suffer the Truth to be invaded and silently to sit down satisfied with it Was not meek Moses in a Transport when Aaron made the Calf yet not implacable Must many whole Churches of our Lord Jesus be called unforgiving Bigots for holding fast the Faith once delivered to the Saints Is not the Spirit to war against Fleshly Principles as long as they war against the Spirit O! that my Dear Kratiste might obtain to descend from his lofty strain and follow our dear Lord who dyed for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps in being meek and lowly of Heart and not fly into Astonishment and Indignation for being mildly opposed §. CXII O! how unlike is this treatment of this Rebuker to the treatment our blessed Lord Jesus gave to his Disciples when instead of watching with him when he was under the dreadful conflict in his Agony and instead of praying with him they fell a snoring Did he scour them off as our Rebuker has done No he sweetly gently mildly reproves them with an Excuse The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak Nay when they call'd for Fire from Heaven on the Samaritans doth he call them wild Monsters as our Rebuker No but tenderly reproves them Ye know not what Spirit ye are of He doth not cast Fire-brands Arrows and Death at them calling them horrid
and Arminianism through the great Mercy of God to this Nation hath been kept alive and warm in all Parliaments since 1628 even in the Reign of King James the Second and there is no doubt of losing it in this Reign wherein His Majesty hath given good Proof that he is neither Papist nor Arminian nor inclining thereto Now whether the Quotations in this Treatise do not shew that some mentioned therein go against the Orthodox Church judge ye and the Lord give you VVisdom to withstand Thus hoping for a favourable Construction of my Endeavour pro modulo si non pro voto to vindicate the Truths of the Gospel I beg the Lord's Blessing on you and am Your Humble Servant Hananiel Philalethes 28 July 1698. To my Dear Kratiste the Author of the Rebuke and Vilifier of Dr. Crisp SIR I Cannot but be troubled that in your declining days you should inflame the Reckoning as you have done in your Rebuke to the Grief of your best Friends among whom my self am particularly concerned that you should so violently let fly against those Truths of the Gospel which have solaced the Souls of Thousands as held forth by the Doctor whom you have very ungravely treated as an Heterodox wild Monster to the Eternal Infamy of his Name and Family what in you lay I hope e're this God hath caused you often to mourn over your intemperate Management of your Rebuke and lest you should come short therein that I may provoke you seriously thereto I think it necessary to lay before you the Character I had lately from a Worthy Minister of the Gospel and Friend of yours concerning him you have so unmercifully traduced which was given by one that sometimes in the height of his Zeal was as bitter as any against Dr. Crisp except your self that is by Mr. Richard Baxter upon his Death-Bed but two days before he dyed as this Friend of yours assured me once and again that Mr. Baxter told him and he related it to you very lately as thus that Mr. Baxter said to your Friend There has been a great deal of Talk about Dr. Crisp but I look upon him to have been a Godly Holy Man and that he was Sound and Orthodox and that he brought in more Souls to Christ than any of us but this was his Fault said Mr. Baxter that being a Popular Man and mightily flock'd after he would preach Extempore Sermons which exposed him to deliver Things undigested which needed to be corrected but for the main he was Sound and Orthodox For which Testimony I thanking the Relater desired him to give me it in Writing in ipsissimis Verbis but being prudent he desired Excuse and repeated the same again to me and afterwards to others I told him as to the Extempore Sermons that was a great Mistake to my knowledge and I was glad God had convinced so great an Enemy to the Doctor Now if this be true as there is not the least grain of ground to doubt it coming from a Faithful Holy Minister then surely Dr. Crisp was not such an one as my Kratiste hath blackned him to be God having provided for the embalming his Memory with sweet Odours even from his gain-sayers when launching into Eternity to give an account of their hard Speeches unrepented of I hope it may please the Lord by his Holy Spirit striking in with this and other Occurrences to lower the top-sails of my good Friend before he brings you to the brink of Eternity when your Natural Parts will signifie nothing and that you may have more Time than Mr. B had to testifie to the World your high prizing the Free Grace of God in Christ as held out by many besides Dr. Crisp as in the ensuing Treatise and that you may testifie to the World also that your Father in Law Mr. King mistook in his Prophesie saying as I am told That his Son in Law your self had good Parts but his Pride would undo him But I hope and pray the contrary viz. That God would undo him only of Natural self and do him up again by the renewing of the Spirit To his Grace I commend you and am Your real Friend a Happy tho' Vnworthy Branch of the Doctor Hananiel Philalethes 28 July 1698. To all that love our Lord Jesus in Sincerity Grace Mercy and Peace with Growth therein while they peruse a few Remarks on a Rebuke to a Report concerning some Differences between the Congregational Ministers and Presbyterian wherein the Rebuker to Vindicate Mr. Williams hath bespattered not only Dr. Crisp and others he calls Antinomians but some great Doctrines of the Gospel which are Establish'd by Law in the Homilies and which by Act of Parliament are to be Read in Parish Churches when there is no Sermon SECTION I. I Who account my self a Happy though Unworthy Branch of the said Doctor finding in the abovesaid Rebuke that the Author has flown into frothy and bitter Invectives against the Reporter Mr. Lob for a very Modest Account he had given of the Differences among some Ministers and that the Rebuker hath branded Dr. Crisp and his Sermons with Crispian Heresies c. though mostly consonant with the Scripture and the Judgment of Thousands of serious Christians but chiefly I finding the great Doctrine of the Free Grace of God in Christ as asserted by the great Reformers to be in the said Rebuke obscured whereby Socinianism and Arminianism gets ground and being incouraged by Augustine in Antisozzo his saying That all Men that can handle a Pen are obliged to say somewhat against the Enemies to the Free Effectual Grace of God I therefore think it my Duty for the Honour of our Lord Jesus to spend a few Hours in some necessary Remarks on the said Rebuke and though but in a mean manner yet humbly to offer this Mite of my Testimony to the Truth so far as the Lord shall guide me which I humbly implore his assistance in by detecting several Blemishes cast on the Truth in the said Rebuke which I premise with that saying of our Lord Jesus Wisdom is justified of her Children §. II. So I desire these Remarks may be which begin with noteing the Sarcasms or Taunts the Rebuker casts on Mr. Lob for his Report which first entrance shews with what an unbeseeming Spirit he manages his Design To which I may say Do Men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles By their Fruits you shall know them Can any expect our Lord Jesus should be honoured in such a Discourse which begins with treating a Reverend Minister with such opprobrious Language as in the two first Pages to cast these Eleven Reflections on him As Prevaricating Partial A Learned Divine In a Jeer. Insolent Scribler A Huff Little Fooleries Fire-balls So he calls his Papers Poyson Pedantick Great Wit In a Scoff To which I Remark That doleful is the Consideration that God should suffer an Eminent Person a Reverend Divine of the First Rate in the
Presbyterian Society to fall so much below himself as to use such Terms as are very indecent in small Matters but much more in so weighty a Matter as the Debate was about viz. The Justification of Sinners and the Satisfaction of our Lord Jesus O whither will the gratifying of a fluent Wit transport a Man that is in love with himself when the luscious Humour of advancing it is a float However his Juvenile Strains of Wit might be pleasant yea laudable in a Protestant Almanack they are not at all palatable but distastful in a grave Divine especially when treating of the greatest Points of God's Glory in Man's Salvation by our Lord Jesus O that he and I could often mind that blessed Advice of our Lord Learn of me for I am meek and lowly who when he was reviled reviled not again §. III. From this blustering Porch let us see if we may find better Weather in the House though some Men find the worst Storms within doors I come therefore to Page the 5th of the Rebuke where he saith the Reporter has left out New Obedience and Good Works out of the account he gives of the Substance of the Gospel and then by way of a smiling Banter he saith the Reporter said The Substance of the Gospel lyes in what Christ suffered for them This he seems to disallow which I look on with a sad Eye For if what Christ hath done for us all his Life as well as his Death being his Suffering if this be not the Substance of the Gospel what will become of us If the Rebuker consults Luke 2.10 he will find that our New Obedience and Good Works are not the Substance of the Gospel but that to us is born a Saviour The Angel tells the Substance of the Gospel there I evangelize to you great Joy which shall be to all People for to you is born this day a Saviour Christ the Lord. Evangelizomai I Gospelize this to you Here we see what the Gospel is it is glad Tidings And what is this glad Tidings It is that Christ a Saviour was born Here 's not one word of New Obedience or our Good Works to be part of the Substance of the Gospel they come in as Fruits of the Spirit upon receiving the Gospel but are no more the Substance of the Gospel than the Holy Law of God is the Substance of the Gospel But the Law came by Moses and Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ Surely the Spirit of God knew better how to give an account of the Gospel what it is than any he calls We poor Presbyterians And for any to jeer at Christ's Sufferings for us for its being called the Substance of the Gospel it may trouble their Consciences one day when they shall be forc'd to fly to that as their tutissimum est as Bellarmine did though some think too late O! how should we have a Care that our Wit do not put us on jesting with the Gospel which in its discovering Christ to be all in all to us our Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption is the Power of God to Salvation We should consider what the Apostle counted the Substance of the Gospel when he said I determined to know nothing among you but Christ and him crucified This was his great Study Christ and his Sufferings so it should be ours §. IV. In Page 6. he saith Give me my Bible again This Jest may be returned with seriousness It is well he call'd for his Bible again for he had spoke without Book sadly before in saying Good Works are to come in in the Substance of the Gospel This 't is for Men to speak without the Bible which alone by the Spirit makes wise to Salvation But I fear some sad use he will make of his Bible for it soon follows in the same Page that which I grieve at viz. his making a Jest of Christ's putting himself into our Place State and Condition which he jeers with the Socinian Retort If so then saith he Christ was destitute of a Righteousness and we too to intitle us to Eternal Life For Answer If Christ was not in our Place State and Condition what 's become of the Gospel We have lost it if the Just did not suffer for the Unjust if the Lord did not lay on him the Iniquity of us all if he was not the Man of Sorrows that bare our Griefs Was he not in our Place State and Condition in all this And to say that then he was destitute of a Righteousness is to deny his being God-Man or not to distinguish between his being Perfect in himself and so holy harmless separate from Sinners and his being made Sin and a Curse for us as being our Representative Methinks those that call themselves Poor Presbyterians should not so coalesce with the Socinians to enforce such a Consequence from Christs being our Surety as the Socinians do to say That if Christ stood in our Place then he wanted a Righteousness in himself You may as well say that Christ was not made Righteousness to us if he was made Sin for us how could he be both Very well He was made our Righteousness as we having his compleat God-like yea God's Righteousness as it was his Righteousness the Son of God imputed to us so he was made Righteousness to us and he was made Sin for us by the Lord 's imputing and laying our Sins on him and yet he though made Sin was still the most holy Son of God without Sin in him §. V. In the next Assault he insults over the Reporter for saying we are Sin What though that very word is not in the Text What is it less to be sinful to be sold under Sin conceived in Sin yea to be a Body of Sin But the fling is against the Change Christ's being made Sin and a Curse and we thereby delivered from Sin and the Curse Suppose Man is not said in Scripture to be Sin Sin it self and that that is a debasing Man below being born in Sin and having a Body of Sin will you find fault with him or any for lessening of Man so whereas Christ is far more lessened For it is said positively God made him to be Sin for us and that no Man can have the Face to deny that owns Revealed Religion But many will so mince his being made Sin for us that at last it shall be like some Minc'd Pyes that shall not taste a jot of the Meat in them They say in words he was made Sin but they distinguish away every bit of the Sin and say Christ only bore the Punishment due to Sin As if God should be so Unjust as to punish Christ for Sin when no Sin was upon him If Christ our Lord in being made Sin for us had not our very Sins laid on him by God and borne by himself on the Tree why was he punished Will you make God Unrighteous to lay Sin upon him to bruise him for our
Faith in him or else we must feign that a Believer hath a Spiritual Life in him that is not from Christ if he have Faith before he is united to Christ as some pretend and so there would be two Spiritual Lives in a Believer one before Union to Christ which works Faith and the other from Christ upon acting our Faith But this Ass of our own Spiritual Life and the Oxe of Christ's Life in us will not draw well together So that I think I may safely conclude this is no Heresie to say that Union to Christ is before Faith much less is that which follows an Heresie to say that we partake of the Spirit by vertue of that Vnion This is brought in as part of the fifth Heresie Whence do the Branches partake of the Sap of the Vine but from the Root by Vertue of Union to the Vine 'T is strange to admiration that this should be question'd by those who like Peter seem to be Pillars in the Church to call it an Antinomian Heresie to say We partake of the Spirit by vertue of Vnion to Christ If the Spirit be not in us before Faith how can he convince of Sin in not believing and thereby work Faith Doth not the Scripture say plainly 1 Cor. 12.8 9. To one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another Faith by the same Spirit Doth the Spirit give Faith and is he not then in the Soul to work Faith before it is wrought Is not the Former before the Thing formed If so then sure my Dear Kratiste was in a great Mistake and has sadly imposed on those that profess Faith in our Lord Jesus to rank this for a Heresie That we partake of the Spirit by vertue of our Vnion to Christ which in Naturâ is before Faith The sixth as being much akin to the former I pass only with the naming of it 'T is Heresie he saith to say Justification in regard of Application must be before Believing Whose Saying this is or whence it is taken I know not If the meaning be that God applies it to us or reckons it to us before our Believing that we are Justified This is so far from Heresie that I think the contrary is a Contradiction Or 't is Nonsense for me to believe a Thing is mine before it is given me or applyed to me and so made mine And in that Sense the Application of Justification by God's Spirit to my Conscience that God hath loved me and given his Son for me this must first be applyed to me before I can believe it or else my Believing is but Presumption But if by Application of Justification before Believing he means that the Soul doth apply it to himself before his Believing I think he is to seek for any that hold that Tenet §. XXVII His seventh Heresie is this That the first Application ordine Naturae saltem is to an Vngodly Man eo nomine that he may believe That this is a blessed Gospel-Truth and no Heresie appears by what our Blessed Lord Jesus saith That he came not to call the Righteous but Sinners And his immediate Call made them follow him as Levi from being a Publican to be a believing Disciple Nay saith our Lord Publicans and Harlots enter into the Kingdom of God before you Ye believed not but the Publicans and Harlots believed Matth. 21.31 32. Here was Application to ungodly Wretches eo nomine that they might believe and when Publicans and Harlots they did believe and so came off from their Ungodliness Yea the Dog Syrophenaecian as Christ called her she had Faith given her while she was a Dog even to the Admiration of Christ himself who said O Woman great is thy Faith And saith the Apostle for a full Proof that the Application is to an ungodly Man eo nomine While we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Nay as God will have it the very word ungodly which they oppose as Heresie is asserted in the Scripture that the first Application of Christ is to an ungodly Man in Rom. 4.5 To him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness If the Blessed Apostle saith God justifieth the ungodly I trow this is no Heresie in him but if Heterodox Dr. Crisp say the same words then 't is an Antinomian Heterodoxy Now there 's a great out-cry what do you make God to be Is God such a Friend to Sin as to justifie the Vngodly Doth it become the Holiness of God to justifie an ungodly Man This is the way to vindicate all licentious Antinomianism That God justifies the Vngodly and that while he is an Enemy he is reconciled to God O out upon such profane Antinomians We can allow the Apostle Paul to use such Language because we can distinguish this into he doth not justifie the Vngodly that the Apostle means so whatever he saith but we cannot bear it that Apochryphal Tobias should say so nor that Mysterious Nonsense say so as Mr. Williams called Mr. Cole we cannot bear it in him for this is to open a gap to Profaneness to say God justifieth the Vngodly §. XXVIII The eighth Heresie is to assert That we believe that we may be justified declaratively The Case I take to be thus The Apostle saith in Gal. 2.16 We believe that we may be justified by the Faith of Jesus from whence the Neonomians conclude that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere our Act of Faith is that very Thing which justifies us or that we are justified by our Work of Faith if not by Works of Faith and Holiness which sometimes they joyn yet at least by a Work by our Act of Believing Whereas the Orthodox according to the Homilies and Doctrine of the Church of England from plain Scripture put Faith it self from us as that Act that justifies and say Faith justifies only declaratively as it manifests to the Conscience our being justified by Christ's Blood Rom. 5.9 and freely by his Grace not our Grace of Faith through the Redemption that is in Jesus Rom. 3.24 Titus 3.7 It is still ascribed to his Grace not any Grace in us our Grace of Faith being only the Instrument or Hand given us of God to receive Christ and all in him If Justification be as they would have it from any Act of ours as the Ground or Cause of it then we are not freely justified by his Grace but by our Work of Believing which if not a Popish is an Arminian Tenet to blemish the Free Grace of God in Jesus Christ So that it may be safely concluded that it is no Heresie to say our Justification by Faith is declarative in as much as the Essence of Justification is by the Blood of Jesus and the Grace of God imputing it to us is the form of our Justification which being received by Faith is thereby manifested or declared to the Conscience by the Illumination of the Holy
for he deserves it more than the Doctor you are so displeased with Luther saying We may apply to Christs that whole 27. Deut. For as Christ is Innocent in this General Law touching his own Person so he is also in all the rest and as he is guilty in this General Law in that he is made a Curse for us and hanged on the Cross as a Wicked Man a Blasphemer a Murderer a Traytor so he is guilty in all others For all the Curses of the Law are heaped together and laid upon him He was therefore not only accursed but made a Curse for us And a little above he said That he putting off his Innocency and Holiness and taking thy sinful Person on him might bear thy Sin thy Death thy Curse Why is not this criminated for the Dregs of Antinomianism Being read with Arminian Spectacles it may pass for such but if read by the Light of the Holy Spirit in the Glass of the Word it will be found pure clear Water of Life flowing from the Fountain of Israel the Rock that followed them our Lord Jesus Christ Whom for our Everlasting Comfort God made Sin for us though he knew no Sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him I must confess I am amazed at the Uncharitableness of some Men in charging the Doctor with making Christ a Murderer c. as if he meant any otherwise than all sound Orthodox Christians do that is that he was only a Sinner by Imputation And let my Dear Kratiste but examine his Conscience on consulting the Doctor 's Sermons when his fierce Anger is allayed and he will say there is as Great and as Adorable a Sense of the Glorious Excellency of our Lord Jesus in his own Person in those Discourses as he can find in any writings he most applauds and that notwithstanding it must be still asserted or we must all be damned That for the sake of poor Sinners he was made Sin and a Curse for us And it is well known that the Doctor meant and so exprest himself that he was so only by Imputation §. LV. The next is a very unbeseeming and dreadful Charge against the Doctor in Page 38 where the Rebuker saith The Doctor had affirmed a wild monstrous Sense of Change of Person between Christ and the Elect for which he quotes Mr. Williams citing Dr. Crisp in these words pa. 31 of Gospel-Truth Mark it well saith the Doctor Christ himself is not so compleatly Righteous but we are as Righteous as he nor we so compleatly Sinful but Christ became being made Sin as compleatly Sinful as we Nay more we are the same Righteousness for we are made the Righteousness of God that very Sinfulness that we were Christ is made the very Sinfulness So that here is a direct Change Christ takes our Person and Condition and stands in our stead we take Christ's Person and Condition and stand in his stead So that if you reckon well you must always reckon your selves in anothers Person and that other in your Person This is the monstrous Sense of the Doctor upon which the Rebuker makes this dreadful following Comment And now you have it that Change of Persons which the Doctor affirms and Mr. Williams denies which had he not he had denyed his Redeemer and betrayed the Gospel So then the Doctor hath in these words in his Judgment denyed his Redeemer and betrayed the Gospel Cujus contrarium For upon search of Scripture and keeping to it it will be found that the Doctor hath said nothing but plain Scripture or clear Scripture consequence And if so it will appear that the casting this Dirt on the Doctor is not on him but on the Scripture and the Spirit of God in the Scripture Wherefore it is good to consider that word Acts 5.39 If it be of God ye cannot overcome it lest haply ye be found even to fight against God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Rebuker and Mr. Williams think to blast the Doctor but if his Assertions be clear deductions from the Word of God then their calling this a wild Monster may prove them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 §. LVI It matters not much how the Doctor is traduced but his plain Scripture Assertions to be called Antinomian Heresies will prove dangerous and to call them a wild Monster may make such fall under the character of fighters against God therefore to the Law and to the Testimony I pass by Luther who in the Doctor 's Sense saith Christ was the greatest Sinner in the World that is by imputation of Sins to him I say no more of Famous Dr. Harris Christ sustained the Person of Sinners how else could God punish him But the Word of God must be our Shield and I will oppose those two Scriptures The Lord laid on him the Iniquity of us all and God made him to be Sin for us with those other two He shall be called the Lord our Righteousness as well as He shall be called the Lord of Righteousness the 33. 23. Jer. with We are made the Righteousness of God in him These I oppose against all the Assaults of the Enemies of the Truth or Mis-staters of this Gospel-Truth of the Change of Persons §. LVII Did Dr. Crisp say Christ himself is not so compleatly Righteous but we are as Righteous as he And did he not say in the same Breath We are made the Righteousness of God which is plain Scripture Now I pray what difference is there between our being as Righteous as Christ and our being the Righteousness of God God goes higher in his Expression of our being Righteous in saying We are the Righteousness of God than if he had said We are as Righteous as Christ And God may well be allowed to speak after the manner of Men to declare his own Mind in higher Terms than it is meet for Man to do Then let us turn the Tables and say If God had said in Scripture by the Apostle Paul that Christ himself is not so compleatly Righteous but we are as Righteous as he and if the Doctor had inferred from thence that we are made the Righteousness of God we that are poor Sinful Creatures in our selves we are made the very Righteousness of God in the abstract of it that is by imputation then there might have been some Ground for Dirt to be cast on the Doctor but when he goes a degree lower than the very words of Scripture and instead of saying We are made the Righteousness of God saith We are as Righteous as Christ The opposing this must be accounted fighting against the Truth not the Doctor Pray what will Men make of this Righteousness of God which is the Righteousness of God-Man Jesus Christ the Mediator his Righteousness made ours imputed to us he being made of God to us Righteousness Do they make to be made this Righteousness is less than to be compleatly Righteous as Christ Sure they will not so
Hereticks that fill with equal Astonishment and Indignation as of late we see in the froth of my Dear Kratiste §. CXIII I now must write in Tears this next Paragraph and O that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears over my Dear Kratiste to see that a Good Man and Eminent should be guilty of the following Passage which I fear hath been tragical and bloody O what is poor Man when the Lord leaves him to the exercise of his meer Wit and Reason The Rebuker turns quick and plays at sharp with the Manuscriptor and accosts him for saying What a Negative of the same import with an Affirmative Whereby the Manuscriptor reflected on Mr. Williams for his former asserting no Change of Persons between Christ and Believers and saying afterwards that he meant this No Change doth allow that he was for a Change on which the Manuscriptor saith What a Negative of the same import with an Affirmative Upon which the Rebuker lets fly and fastens his Talons on him with this Answer I make no question but he had heard of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Marriage and no Marriage grating on his tender Conscience Here we must take the word tender to be Ironically spoken by the Rebuker O! how can he look on this Passage without blushing and a few Tears if the Lord graciously give a due Sense of the Uncharitableness of it when he sees the direful Consequence of it the Lord 's taking the blessed holy Servant of his this object of your boasting over a repented of miscarriage from this World to himself And who knows but such a Reflection as this of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might hasten his Death to be wounded so in the House of his Friends by a Brother in the Presbyterian Ministry If the Righteous fall seven times a day how can you look God in the Face with Peace while you insult in 〈…〉 â—ner over one you cannot but own God had raised up aâ—â—er his â—ail and raised to a higher pitch of Zeal for the Glory of God and for the publishing his Free Grace in the Gospel through our Lord Jesus Christ Is such a Retort like the moving of the Spirit of God in a Christian who should in love gentleness and meekness do every Thing especially when writing a Tract relating to the great and glorious Truths of the Gospel to the Glory of God in the Name of the Lord Jesus Was this in the Name of Jesus who when reviled reviled not again to criminate a Servant of the Lord Jesus in the Ministry of the Gospel We have heard of a Cham that discovered what he should have concealed and of the Brand yea black Curse that is upon all his Seed to this day if the black Ethiopians be his Seed as is most probable O blessed Lord let not the like be on the Seed of my Kratiste The Apostle tells us Ye have heard of the Patience of Job but draws a Vail over his Passion and saith farther upon it and the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender Mercy O that the Rebuker were like him But the tender Mercies of some are cruel What would and it may be thereby kill a Man whom God had both wounded and healed The Lord give a due sense and forgive §. CXIV Again We have heard of the mocking of Ishmael Gen. 21. of which the Apostle saith He that was born after the Flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit Gal. 4. So that in God's sight a mocking fleering jibing taunting Spirit though done with the smartest Wit is accounted Persecution and if it be to those born after the Spirit it may issue in great Judgment The Dragon was cast into a bottomless Pit that cast water out of his Mouth to swallow the Woman Rev. 12. 20.3 I beseech the Lord that such mocking may not be laid to the Charge of the Rebuker in the great day of the Lord when he cometh to convince not only the ungodly of their ungodly Deeds but of their hard Speeches O that he might lay it to his own Soul now that it may not be laid to his Charge then God hath taken this aspersed Servant from the malevolent Aspersion of Man and I hope the Blood of Jesus applyed to by Faith with Repentance may prevent this Man's Blood from crying for Vengeance Which I pray his Adversaries may flee for to the hope set before them and that they take heed how they secretly Joab like stab by vituperation any of the Servants of the Lord for the time to come O! how ill might it look if any should return a worse Reflection than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on some that lift up their Heads very high being held up by the Chin by mighty swimmers But the Lord rebuke their uncharitable Spirit is the best return I can make §. CXV I am amazed or as in a Dream to see the prevaricating of the Rebuker in Page 61 where speaking of Mr. Williams's Gospel-Truth stated c. he saith Reader thou hast heard much noise about that Book and of the Subscription to it by some Ministers I could wish thou wouldst be so just to the Subscribers as to view with thine own Eyes how far the Subscription extended It was no more than this They judged that he had in all that was material fully and rightly stated the Truths and Errors therein mentioned I viewed this over and over never suspecting a plain untruth in the Rebuker but took it for granted that this was all that he had subscribed to That he judged that Mr. Williams had in all that was material done as there is declared But being provoked to be just to him and see with my own Eyes I turned to the Subscription and to my amazement found the old saying useful 'T is good to tell Money after ones Father for he fell far short of saying the Truth and the whole Truth of the Subscription for it extended far beyond what he saith it extended to For there to set off the Book he stiles Mr. Williams our Reverend Brother and such a Character to the Book is no small extolling it that he is by Forty Nine Divines called our Reverend Brother whereof my Dear Kratiste is one of the first three But looking forward with mine own Eyes I found he went ten times farther in celebrating the excellency of that Piece which made such a Noise a Noise that hath sounded into the Low Countries to indamage the Truth as I have heard and that is this We do account say the Forty Nine that he hath done considerable Service to the Church of Christ And what could they say more of Calvin Melancthon Luther Nay very little more of St. Paul's Epistles I wish they said as much of some passages therein Christ made Sin and made a Curse §. CXVI But with mine own Eyes with the help of Free Grace Spectacles not Arminian ones I find
But we are to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints which Faith seems to be taking wing and leaving us under that sad word of our Lord When the Son of Man cometh shall he find Faith on the Earth There being very little of it now what with open Enemies scoffing at all Revealed Religion on one side and seeming Friends though as bad Enemies on the other side that joyn Man's Obedience with Christ's Righteousness as concurrent causes or means of our Justification and Salvation and so bringing in our Gospel-Holiness as co-partner with our Lord Jesus the Alpha and Omega the First and the Last the Author and Finisher of our Salvation To whom with the Father and Blessed Spirit even to him that sits on the Throne and to the Lamb that was slain and is alive in the midst of the Throne and to the seven Spirits before the Throne be Honour Glory and Praise for ever §. CXXI Now that these plain Remarks on some of the great Truths of the Gospel which have been struck at may be beneficial to the humble Peruser to settle him on our Lord Jesus the only Foundation in order to be built up in the most holy Faith by him who buildeth all Things who is God Heb. 3.4 is the fervent Prayer of the unworthiest I say of the unworthiest in his own Eyes of any that sincerely desires to cast in his Mite to the Treasury of the Testimony of Jesus God blessed for ever §. CXXII Having taken the freedom out of love to the Truth and zeal for the Glory of God's Grace therein manifest to be a little plain with my Dear Kratiste hoping for a Blessing of the Lord thereby on his and others Souls I find my self ingaged to make some Remarks on the Reporter the first occasioner of this thus-handled Debate And first I must and do own that I humbly judge that he hath done great and good Service to the Truth by delivering his Report with much plainness and perspicuity however it be censured by the Adversary and I take it that he deserves Thanks of Thousands besides my self who make the Truths of the Everlasting Gospel their daily Study for his ingenious Vindication of his Report from the Slander of its being called false by the Rebuker §. CXXIII But two Things wherein I take him to have exceeded I hope may be rectified that is his hard pressure on my Dear Kratiste and his tart Passages on Dr. Crisp As for the Rebuker was it not enough when the Reported had sufficiently foiled him nay and had laid him so flat on his Back as to be for ever unable to stand upright again in that Cause by clearing his Report from being false But when he had him down sure he should not have prest him to Death or worse by his Printing such a Letter as tax'd him not only with Buffoonry but with being by fits delirous and to charge him with denying Christ's Satisfaction for our Sins §. CXXIV As for the first I that have known him above Twenty Years never heard before or saw the least Tendency to those unhappy Fits Though upon inquiry of the ground of such a Charge 't is said The Writer knew well what he said But however this I take to be too severe a Reprimand for his Rebuke considering how terrible a blemish it is to so eminent a Person 's Ministry to be tax'd with being delirous O how few can be free if every Transport shall lay a Man under such a Censure Therefore this I would advise the Reporter to be humbled before the Lord for considering how in many things we offend all §. CXXV As for the Reporter's Argument That the Rebuker denies Christ's Satisfaction for Sin because he saith Christ's Death was for our good and it was impossible it should be more and that therein he Justâ—fies the Socinians I answer this Conclusion That he denies Christ s Satisfaction hereby looks like a strain upon the words beyond the meaning of the Rebuker for it seems apparent in this Rebuke especialâ—y in his other Writings That he expresly owns Christ's Satisfaction for Sin Though in that Expression of his in Fol. 37. he hath unhappily gratified the Socinians too far by saying It is impossible that Christ's dying in our place and stead should signifie any more than for our Good God forbid that my dear Kratiste should mean by that word only for our Good as the Socinians do That Christ's dying was only for our good as an Example or to confirm his good Doctrine only No He means I hope That Christ by his Death took away the Sins of all the Elect That he bare their Sins and bare them away into a Land of Forgetfulness never to be remembred more as our Scape goat That he suffered for their Sins That he wash'd them from their Sins in his Blood And so he died for our Good that we should have the Good and Benefit of his taking away our Sins and of his becoming a Propitiation for us a Sin-offering for us a Ransom to the Father for us and also himself to be ours the Lord our Righteousness for which let us ascribe Honour and Glory to him continually for that he hath loved us and washed us from our Sins in his Blood §. CXXVI Then for the Reporter's Tartness against Dr. Crisp I am Amazed so florid a Person should so far blemish his Discourses be so Dis-ingenious to the Doctor as to say He believes there is somewhat Dangerous in the Doctor 's Writings in Page 87. of his Vindication and not to give one Instance of it His words being these If there is any thing Dangerous in the Doctor 's Writings as I believe there is It would have been fair to have given one dangerous Passage at least but for want of that I turned to some of the most severe Passages of Mr. Williams's against the Doctor and to Dr Chancy's Apology for the Doctor to see what was so dangerous and I found in P. 37. of Gospel Truth Mr. Williams had loaded the Doctor thus Reader how horrid a sound must it have to a Christian Ear to say A Christ odious to God abhorred by the Father Here Mr. Williams speaks as if Dr. Crisp had said these words A Christ odious to God abhorred by the Father But Mr. Williams deals unjustly herein for as to the word A Christ odious there is not such an Expression in the Doctor and as for abhorred by the Father the Doctor s words are Christ is as it were abhorred by the Father But suppose it were as Mr. Williams brings it in How much more Horrid a Sound is it to say Christ is odious to God than to say Christ is made Sin by God himself If we had due Thoughts of the Horridness of Sin and that Christ was made Sin that is by Imputation we should think it as much a Debasing of our Lord Jesus to be made Sin by God as to be accounted Odious or Abhorred
from helping to wash away the Guilt or Fault that they need to be wash'd in the Blood of Christ to take away their own Guilt and Fault and the making one Debt for our Lord Jesus to satisfie even that of the Fault in our best Works is a strange way for our clearing our selves from a former Debt or Fault §. CXLV I would humbly recommend to all that stagger in this Point but especially to the Dignified Persons of the Church of England to look again and again into the Sound Fundamental Doctrines of the Church as they are exemplified in the Homilies appointed by several Acts of Parliament to be read in the Churches when there is no Sermon which Acts have never been yet repealed and I may say are as necessary in this Degenerate Age of the evacuating the great Truths of our Religion as when first made These Homilies speak home to the Point that the Bishop is upon of Christ's bearing our Sins Those Holy Servants of the Lord that composed them soon after the Nations coming out of the Blind Popish Religion they say in the second Sermon of Man's Misery thus He Christ paid our Ransom to God with his own Blood and with that he CLEANSED us from our Sin They don't say he bare the Punishment only but he by his Blood shed on the Cross then at that time he cleansed us from our Sins How could that be if our Sins our very Sins were not then translated to Christ as Dr Crisp from the Scripture and these Homilies saith So that for Mr. Williams or the Bishop or any Man to say it is near Blasphemy to say our very Sins were laid on Christ is to run a Dagger to the Heart of the Doctrine of the Church of England and to evade plain Scripture as well as to make Dr Crisp an Antinomian for it for the Doctor herein runs parallel to the Sound Orthodox Doctrine of the Church for which besides the main Bulwark of the Scripture he hath many Acts of Parliament to back him from the Slanders of the Despisers of the Free Grace of God §. CXLVI I being now perusing these Homilies and considering how the Reverend Bishop in his Letter insists so much on Conditions required by God of Man in order to God's Favour I make bold to make a little Remark how much the Bishop differs from those Antient Doctors of the Church and from himself if he be true to his Subscription to the Doctrines of the Church First let us see what the Bishop saith then what the Homilies say In Page 67 the Bishop saith I could easily prove that in all the Transactions between God and Mankind some Conditions on our side were required in order to his Favour So it was in the State of Innocency a tydy Argument so it continued after Man's Fall But I pass over these and come to the Terms of Salvation as declared by Christ himself The main Business of his Preaching was to put Men upon performing such Conditions as were necessary to their Salvation Promising Blessedness to the Humble Merciful Pure in heart Matt. 5.3 4 c. What do these things mean if they be not Conditions on our parts necessary in order to Happiness But God he still insists on our own endeavours by striving to enter c Do not these note the necessity of the Performance of Conditions on our side And therefore all Imaginary Notions of such a Change of Persons as hath no regard to any Act of ours is wholly repugnant to the main Scope and Design of the Gospel Thus the Bishop What is become here of the whole Tenor of the Gospel we are Saved by Grace being Justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus not of Works lest any boast this is thrust quite out of doors for what are these Conditions and these Acts of ours but Works which though called for and necessary to glorifie God by way of Service and Thanks yet not any way to Justifie us or Save us For we are Saved by Grace and not of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace 'T is for another end that all our Holiness is called for to Repent be Humble Pure of Heart and Merciful 'T is to magnifie God that hath saved us by Christ Saints shall be Holy Humble Pure of Heart in Heaven Is that in order to get God's Favour No but to serve and glorifie God for his Favour and we are to do the Will of God as near as we can on Earth as it is done in Heaven not to get Heaven which Christ alone hath bought for us but to magnifie God for giving himself Son and Spirit to us and for giving Heaven and all Spiritual Blessings with him begun in this Life and perfected above to make our Works Conditions on our parts to get Heaven is to Rob our Lord Jesus of his Crown and Glory and to set it on the Head of our sorry imperfect Works But besides the whole Current of the Gospel that we are saved by Grace let us see what the Bishop hath signed to and is dignified by even the Doctrines of the Church of England and they are clear for our Interest in Christ and Salvation to be all of Grace they drive us from all Works of our own and say in that second Sermon of Man's Misery No part of our Justification is of our selves no part not the least dram of our Works is to come in for any share in our Justification And in the next line they say Our Justification cometh only by Jesus Christ Here is not the least tittle of our Acts of Obedience insisted on or Gospel-Conditions to get Salvation 't is only by Christ all they insist on is to render Thanks to God for Free Salvation by Christ as it follows What Thanks worthy and sufficient can we render to him Let us burst forth with joyful Voice praising this Lord of Mercy Then they reiterate our not being able to do any thing of our selves wholly to renounce our selves and say very unlike the Bishop's Letter In our selves we may not glory which of our selves are NOTHING but Sinful neither may we rejoyce in any Works we do How nothing but Sinful and no rejoycing in any Works we do May we not Joy in performing the Conditions and doing Acts to obtain God's Favour No no there is no rejoycing in any thing for we are nothing but Sinful As for Conditions to get God's Favour they knew none but Jesus Christ he was the great Condition he being the great only compleat Saviour the Alpha and Omega first and last in our Salvation This Doctrine would be accounted Rank Antinomianâ—sm in Dr. Crisp a dangerous Error to take Men off from good Works to tell them we are nothing but Sinful and we may not rejoyce in any Works we do But this is honest good sound Orthodox yea glorious Doctrine in the Hearts of those that have tasted of Salvation by Free Grace and is establish'd as