Spirit concurring with our Spirits therein See the Assemblies Catechism §. XXIX The like sort of Heresie to this last we find well spoken to by Famous Pemble in his Treatise of Grace and Faith in fol. 22 to prove God's being reconciled to the Elect before they believe and so to take off the Clamour from Dr. Crisp as if it were Antinomian Heresie to say we believe that we may be justified declaratively Mr. Pemble argues solidly thus Now that God doth actually love the Elect before they are regenerate or can actually believe may appear thus 1. Where God is actually reconciled he actually loves but with the Elect before they actually believe God is actually reconciled therefore he loves them before their Faith The Minor is evident because before they are born a full Satisfaction and Atonement is made by Christ and accepted on God's part whereon actual Reconciliation must needs follow He was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World 2. If God did actually love the Elect before Christ's time when an actual Reconciliation was not made then much more may he actually love the Elect after the Atonement is really made by Christ's Death even before they do believe it The former is true by the Salvation of the Patriarchs therefore the latter may not well be denyed 3. Election Vocation and Faith are Fruits of God's Love to the Elect which Graces he bestows on them because he loves them Now I argue If God loved his Elect from Eternity and this Love neither increaseth nor diminisheth as in God as Mr. Pemble saith anon then it is plain that in the Righteous Judgment of God foro Dei there was never any Guilt on them after they were delighted in by Christ For God doth not take a Sinner by the Hand that is the same as he may be said not to love guilty Souls but he doth take the Elect by the Hand from Eternity As they are chosen in Christ from Eternity so they were delighted in by Christ from Eternity therefore the Elect as Elect are not guilty in the sight of God For if they were how should they be delighted in from Eternity as having Grace given them in Christ by the Father from Eternity 2 Tim. 1.9 and Prov. 8. §. XXX And now my hand is in with Mr. Pemble and because the Rebuker and others may if the Lord please see their Mistake in their hard Censure on Dr. Crisp and others to say 't is Heretical for them to say That Justification is before Faith I shall a little inlarge on this eighth Heresie 'T is well known Mr. Pemble was no Antinomian yet he saith in concurrence with Dr. Twiss and Dr. Crisp thus In foro Divino in God's sight Justification goeth before our Sanctification for even whilst the Elect are unconverted they are then actually justified and freed from all Sin by the Death of Christ and God having accepted of that Satisfaction is actually reconciled to them 2. There is Justification in foro Conscientiae in our sense which is but the revelation and certain declaration of God's former secret Act of accepting Christ's Righteousness to our Justification And why is not the out-cry of Heresie against this Good Man who asserts so plainly the actual Justification in God's sight before the Conversion of the Elect and that the Justification in our Consciences is but the revelation and declaration of the former secret Justification before God §. XXXI To the like purpose is the Confession of the Assembly at Westminster on the Article of Justification which saith Christ by his Obedience and Death did fully discharge the Debt of all those that are justified Here our Sins are called a Debt which our Rebuker makes a dangerous word and here this Debt is fully discharged when even at Christ's Death And if so then I argue with the Apostle if the Debt was discharged then Who can lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect either of Sin or Guilt It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again Sure this was no Antinomian Assembly yet they make the Debt discharged at Christ's Death §. XXXII But Mr. Pemble goes farther in this Point and saith That Faith doth not precede Participation with Christ appears 1 Our Sanctification wrought by the Spirit conveys Life and Grace into our Souls when we are void of Faith and before 't is ask'd 2. Our Justification in God's sight which was long before we were born is purchas'd for us by Christ 'T is vain to think with the Armenian That Christ's Merits only made God PLACABILEM not Placatum no the Ransom is paid and accepted all the Sins are actually pardoned this grand Transaction between God and the Mediator Jesus Christ was dispatch'd in Heaven before we had a Being yet the Benefit of it was ours and belonged to us at that time though we never knew so much till after that by Faith we apprehended it As Lands may be settled on an Infant though he knew nothing of it till he come of Age. O! what clear Testimony is here to convince the Neonomians that besides express Scripture those that the Rebuker calls Antinomians have very good Company going with them §. XXXIII Here I cannot omit from the word Placabilem to reflect on what one of the Deserters of Pinners-hall Lecture well known to the Rebuker said there about April 1693 not without great Trouble to some of the Auditory That Christ's Death was to make God PLACABLE As rank Arminianism as can be which was well answered there the sixth of June 1693 by Worthy Mr. Lawrence though the same Person was never answered there as I heard to a worse piece of Arminianism that he uttered there to the Scandal of Pinners-Hall viz. That Adam ' s first Sin was not ours or We did not Sin that first Sin that Sin only corrupted our Nature Which is clean contrary to the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whom all Sinned Rom. 5.12 Now we may no longer wonder to see such Persons Symbolize with and be Champions for unsound Mr. Williams who holds That more than the Elect may be Saved Witness these words of his by way of Scorn to his Opposers in his Appendix to Gospel Truth stated It is not enough saith Mr. Williams that we own that Christ absolutely redeemed the Elect so as to purchase saving Graces as well as Benefits to be infallibly theirs unless we add that all others are in state of Devils as having no real offers of Life on Gospel terms Nor is their Salvation possible if they will Repent and Believe Here he holds it possible that others besides the Elect may Repent and Believe and so their Salvation is possible Nay herein Antisozzo whom my Dear Kratiste hath a great value for doth partly coalesce in Page 103 saying When God gave the Promise to the common Parent of Mankind there was a possibility in the thing that that means of Salvation might have been derived to all those Rivulets
Perfection in himself in that he owns all the Sins of Believers to be his Sins as in Psal 40.7 compared with the 12th Verse he saith Lo I come to do thy will O God Then it follows Mine Iniquities have taken hold of me so that I am not able to look up They are more than the hairs of mine head This is spoken by our Lord Jesus as is plain in Heb. 10.9 here he owns they are his Iniquities How were they his but as he sustained the Persons of all the Elect and so was a reputed Criminal in their stead and their Sins being by the Lord laid on him he takes them on himself as his own Iniquities and saith They are more than the Hairs of his Head And again in Psal 69.4 5. Christ saith Then I restored that which I took not away O God thou knowest my Foolishness and my Sins are not hid from thee Then it follows The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up Which is plain of Christ So that our Foolishness and Sins being laid on him he calls them his and saith right for they were really his though but by Imputation as a Debt is really a Sureties though he be but a Surety yet that 's enough and so our Lord Jesus found it when he was in his Agony Sweating clodders of Blood and on the Cross crying My God why c. sure he did not cry out so terribly for faultless Sin but as a reputed Criminal for real Sin laid on him §. XXV The Fourth Heresie as he calls it is As to the Elect there never was any Guilt upon them in respect of the Righteous Judgment of God in foro Dei but that which accompanied the Letter of the Law setting in with Conscience Where he pick'd up this Offensive passage he shews not but that it goes among his abominable Doctrines this he declares Now how far this is Heresie we will at present only consult Famous Twiss who was no Antinomian and see what he says of Pardon in the sight of God before Faith nay from Eternity as it was an Immanent Act of God Twiss de Electione Sect. 25. Fol. 294. he proves Forgiveness to be before Faith even at Christ's Death nay from Eternity His words are these Quanam erit illa peccatorum remissio quae fidem consequitur This is his Question then he answers as follows Remissio enim peccatorum si Quidditatem inspicias nihil aliud est quam aut punitionis negatio aut volitionis puniendi negatio sit ergo peccata remittere nihil aliud quam nolle punire at hoc nolle punire ut actus immanens in Deo fuit ab aeterno nec fidem consequitur nec Spiritus Sancti operatione in nobis terminare deprehenditur Quod vero operatione Spiritus Sancti nobis hac parte per fidem contingit aliud esse non poterat quam SENSVS Gratiae Dei Ex quibus conficitur non potentialem tantum sed actualem peccatorum remissionem Christum morte suâ à Patre impetrasse nobis paucis concludimus immediatam mortis Christi effectionem esse expiationem Peccatorum Sive pro peccatis plenariam Satisfactionem quae quidem nobis non innotescit nisi per Fidem Spiritus Sancti operationem Which is to this purpose What is that Forgiveness of Sins which follows Faith Which he answers thus Forgiveness of Sins if you consider the Quiddity or Essence of it is nothing else but either a denying of Punishment or denying a Will to punish Therefore to remit or forgive Sins is nothing else but not to will to punish Now this not to will to punish as it is an immanent Act in God it was from Eternity neither doth it follow Faith neither is it held to terminate by the Operation of the Holy Spirit in us but what belongs to us by the Operation of the Holy Spirit in this matter can be nothing else but a SENSE of the Grace of God from which it is gathered not a Potential only but also an Actual Remission of Sins Christ obtained of the Father for us at his Death In short We conclude the immediate Effect of Christ's Death to be Expiation of Sins or a full Satisfaction for Sins which truly is not made known to us but by Faith and the Operation of the Holy Spirit Here you see this Famous Doctor evacuates your charging it to be an Antinomian Heresie to say in foro Dei there never was Guilt on the Elect in respect of God's Righteous Judgment and to make good your Charge I hope you will not call him an Heterodox Apochryphal Antinomian §. XXVI His fifth Heresie he charges as Antinomian is that Vnion to Christ is before Faith at least Naturâ and we partake of the Spirit by vertue of that Vnion It is to admiration that this firm solid Truth should be called Heresie Can any thing be more clear than that Faith is a Fruit of Union to Christ unless it be a dead Faith Can a Branch bring out Grapes before it is united to the Vine Christ Jesus Doth he not say Without me you can do nothing I would ask whence can a living Faith come but from Vnion to Jesus Christ Can it spring out of corrupt Nature and so bring us to Christ A dead Branch may be tyed to the Vine but a living Branch grows out of the Vine The Apostle was of the mind that Christ first takes hold of us before we can by Faith take hold of him according to Phil. 3.12 I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus Here he was first apprehended of Christ as Dr. Manton told us well at Pinners-Hall and from thence infer'd as well he might that all that partake of Christ are first apprehended of him and so he unites himself to them before they can act Faith on him which is their apprehending him They must make Christians to be Monsters that make them to live as Members of Christ by Faith before they are united to him How can a Man possibly that is dead in Sins by Nature come to believe in Christ unless Christ comes first and quickens him by uniting himself to the Soul Hence the Apostle said It pleased God to reveal his Son in me Gal. 1.16 Till then he was a zealous persecuting Pharisee and could have not only called all Christ's Disciples Antinomians but have slaughtered them too as some now slay their Names but when Christ took hold of him and God revealed his Son in him then he conferred not with Flesh and Blood but in the way that they counted Heresie he worshipped the God of his Fathers believing what is written Acts 24.14 The second Adam is the quickening Spirit and quickens all his Seed before they can live You who were dead in Sins hath he quickned Sure here was Union of Christ to them thereby quickening them when dead in Sins before they could put forth any living Act of
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
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
into which his Posterity should be sub-divided If it was not I conceive the Fault was theirs not God's as if it would have been a Fault in God if he did not give means for all to be Saved when they had Damned themselves Thus Antisozzo has in a manner laid Salvation open in common to Elect and Non-elect to Vessels before of old ordained to Condemnation Jude 4. as well as to Vessels of Mercy for whom the Kingdom was prepared from the Foundation of the World Matt. 25 directly contrary to the Confession of the Assembly which they both have Subscribed though I find not that they ever recanted this Expression The Assembly say on the Point of God's Decree directly that none but the Elect can be Saved thus These Angels and Men their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be increased or diminished neither are any other redeemed by Christ effectually Called Justified Adopted Sanctified and Saved but the Elect only For the proof of which they quote 2 Tim. 2.19 John 13.18 17.9 6.64 65. 10.26 Rom. 8.28 I lay down my Life for the sheep and ye Pharisees ye believe not because ye are not my sheep Thus these great Men have asserted and this our Neonomians subscribe to in order to deceive the Simple to believe they are Orthodox when here 't is visible how Heterodox these two great Contenders for the New Law are plainly deviating from the Assembly in allowing a Possibility for the Non elect to be Saved But I beg for them the Mercy of God to give them the Eye-salve of his Spirit to shew them their Mistake §. XXXIV The Ninth and Tenth Heresies are scarce worth mentioning they being only some curtailed Expressions that the Antagonists to the Free Grace of God in his eternal Love to poor Sinners in Christ do take from the Writings of some of the Asserters of our Sins being fully done away by the Death of our Lord Jesus and from thence this Pharisaical Spirit quarrels at them and charges them for laying a ninth Heresie It is denied that God requires Faith as an indispensible Qualification in them whom he will Justifie by Christ's Merits How this is worded by his Antinomians he mentions not whether they deny Faith indispensibly in Infants or Lunaticks or no So that this Quarrel needs little answer seeing they know that we are as much for Faith as themselves if not more as it excludes Works in the Point of Justification but not for Faith to take the Crown off from the Head of Jesus and it self to wear the Honour of Saving us in whole or in part §. XXXV Such another is his Tenth Heresie All that a Believer can pray for is the farther Manifestation of Pardon for he knows that all his Sins are pardoned This is a manifest Breach of Charity for he knows they pray for more and though they may at some Seasons have full Assurance of being accepted in the Beloved Jesus wherein they see all their Sins were done away in his Blood when he to Sanctifie the People Suffered without the Gate Whereupon they upon Believing cry Glory to him who hath loved them and washed them from their Sins with his Blood Yet they daily pray for fresh Discoveries of the same which as to their Consciences is a Fresh Pardon or renewing of Pardon I hope my Dear Kratiste will not deny That by one Offering he hath for ever perfected those that are Sanctified and that he Sanctified the People with his own Blood when he Suffered without the Gate If so then all successive Pardons upon fresh Acts of Faith are only the Clearing up of Pardon to the Conscience that there should be no more Conscience of Sin Whereas the Grand Pardon in the Court of Heaven was as Mr. Pemble says when Christ was delivered for our Offences and raised for our Justification which is not manifest to the Conscience till Faith comes And thus this Heresie vanishes having only left us a Testimony that the Neonomians do Boggle in the point of Pardon and would hook in our Faith to be a Joynt-Saviour with Christ by being a procurer of Pardon rather than a Manifestation of it §. XXXVI It is an Amazement his 11th Heresie which is this A Believer is to work from Life and not for Life For answer If a Man be a Believer he is a Living Member of Christ and so he Works from Life in Christ Sure then this cannot be the Heresie intended here to say he works from Life Then this is his Heresie That a Believer works not for Life But how can that be Heresie to say A Believer doth not work for Life when the word saith The Gift of God is Eternal Life Rom. 6.23 If it be Gift then it is not Work'd for by us do Men call that a Gift that is wrought for that is Wages Death indeed is wrought for by Sin for the Wages of Sin which is in our best Works is Death but Life is the Free Gift of God How then can it be called Heresie to say A Believer works not for Life Antisozzo was once of another Mind I find but the Rebuker does well to conceal his Name for to call this Heresie must needs cast a sad Reflection What more substantial Truth is there than that a Believer works from Life and not to gain Life by his Works Whither shall we run if we do not maintain this for Truth That a Believer works not that he by his good Works might procure to himself Eternal Life No but he works from a Divine Principle of Life in him that he may glorifie God for the Gift of Eternal Life through his Son Jesus Christ O! how true is that of Luther Every Man hath a Pope in his Belly and how ready are we to run into the Dregs of Popery to Work for Life §. XXXVII The Twelfth is 'T is Heresie to say It 's a great Truth that God sees no Sin in a Believer I hope it is a great Truth and no Heresie that God saith I have blotted out as a thick Cloud thy Transgressions and as a Cloud thy Sins Isa 44.22 And if blotted out it is to shew that God doth not see them And if God saith He has cast them into the Depth of the Sea and he has cast them behind his Back and he will remember them no more Is it not the same thing as not to see them And doth he not say He hath not beheld Iniquity in Jacob not but that they had Iniquity enough but when their Sins are covered with the Robe the fine white Linnen of Christ's Righteousness then it may be said without Imputation of Heresie 't is a great Truth and a Blessed one that God sees no Sin in a Believer Sure my Dear Kratiste had strangely forgot himself to call this glorious Truth a Heresie §. XXXVIII The Thirteenth Sin can do no real hurt to a Believer Answer If as Sin abounds Grace much more abounds which
the Punishment of them but for the very Sin which deserved the Punishment Christ bare it not And so they would make God Unjust to punish him for Sin when the Sin was made none of his This is the Fruit of his denying the Change of Persons to make God Unrighteous to punish his Holy dearly Beloved Son without having our Sin made his by God's Imputation and his own voluntary Acceptation that poor Sinners might go free Once again let us try how the Scripture will run in Mr Williams's Language He was once offered to bear the Sins of many that is with Mr. Williams to bear their Sins but not their very Sins Again He shall save his People from their Sins but not from their very Sins He hath by himself purged our Sins ay saith Mr. Williams but not our very Sins He was manifested to take away our Sins but not our very Sins This is a bold Attempt to teach the Spirit of God to speak and all to cast Dirt on Dr. Crisp and Free Grace Preachers as Antinomians which in truth is casting Dirt and a wild monstrous Sense on what the Spirit of God speaks of God's making Christ to be Sin which they make not very Sin and so leave Sin to be borne by the Sinner But if one Glare of Sin should stare in its hideous hue in the Sinners View and Conscience O! what frightful work would it make If Sin on Christ made him in that Agony and cry out my Soul is exceedingly troubled what would it make a poor sinful Wretch do I never heard any Man set it out like Excellent Mr. Christopher Fowler O saith he if God should let one flash of Sin in its true Nature fly in the Face of a Sinner there would be such yelling screeking and roaring and tearing themselves that this great Room the Meeting-place by Three Cranes would not hold them they would make away themselves immediately if possible And yet Mr. Williams and the Socinians whom he follows will not grant that Christ bore our very Sins but hath left them on the Sinner and so David's Murder and Adultery must be upon David to all Eternity notwithstanding Christ's bearing the Punishment and Guâ—lt thereof and this though God hath said Their Sins and Iniquities I will remember no more their Sins shall be sought for and not be found O that this Socinian Divinity that our very Sins were not borne by Christ were cast by the great Angel into the bottomless Pit and chained up there the Thousand Years that it might deceive the Nations no more And in the mean time let all the maintainers of such Doctrine know that thereby they contradict the Spirit of God and will be found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 §. LXII But it may be he means this to be Dr. Crisp's Monster his saying We are the same Righteousness for we are made the Righteousness of God I Answer To call this a monstrous Sense of Change of Persons is very strange for it is plain Scripture that we might be made the Righteousness of God 2 Cor. 5.21 And is there any difference between our being the same Righteousness of Christ and our being made the Righteousness of God Sure not any in an unprejudiced Mind §. LXIII But the Doctor said That very sinfulness which we were Christ is made that very sinfulness Answer If Christ was made Sin it was not his own Sin but our Sin And if made Sin it was very Sin And if made very Sin and our Sin then for him to say Christ was made the very sinfulness that we were is the same as to say he was made Sin Do but grant that God made Christ to be Sin when he laid on him the Iniquity of us all or you must deny plain Scripture and that on which our Salvation depends I say grant this and you grant all that the Doctor hath said in as much as to be made Sin is as much if not more than to be made Sinfulness §. LXIV The Doctor proceeds saying So that here is a direct Change Is this the wild Monster I am sure it had been an hideous Monster to say Christ was made Sin any otherwise than being made our Sin or our Sinfulness And if he was made our Sin then sure this is a direct Change But if you will not allow the Change then Christ was made his own Sin which is horrid Blasphemy And at whose door will the wild Monster lye now Therefore let me a poor Worm advise you to have a care of disallowing the Change of Persons between Christ and us when he was made Sin for us lest haply you be found not only a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only a fighter against God but a murderer of our Lord Jesus Christ which I know my Dear Kratiste will be aware of and I will pray that his Friend Mr. Williams may escape from being so §. LXV But it may be he is gravel'd at this that follows in the Doctor Christ takes our Person and Condition and stands in our stead If he allows loco nostro how can this taking our Person and Condition confound him as uncouth novel and non-sense Whereas in our stead is brought in to explain what he means by taking our Person and Condition Most Men know what a Surety in a Bond of 1000 l. is he sustains the Person of the Debitor and is he not in his Condition when he lyes in Goal for him and payes his Debt for him If the Rebuker had felt the smart of that he might better understand this Christ's taking our Person and Condition than to call it unintelligible Nonsense When our Lord Jesus was sweating clodders of Blood in his Agony in the Garden and when nail'd to the Cross did he sweat Blood for himself and pour out his Soul in extream Anguish for himself or did he then sustain the Persons of the Elect Sinners Were they his own Sins or the Sins of the Elect that he cryed out of My Sins are more than the Hairs of my Head Psal 40. Surely not his own but the Sins of those given him of the Father from all Eternity whose Persons he sustained or stood in the place of which is all one and so accounted before my Dear Kratiste could handle a Pen by Men of great Integrity and Sense §. LXVI Well but what shall we think of this part of the Monster We take Christ's Person and Condition and stand in his stead I hope it is no Monster to say Thou art all fair my Love there is no spot in thee as our Lord Jesus saith of his Spouse who was fair through his Comeliness put on her Ezek. 16.14 though she in the sense of her Sins said of her self Look not on me because I am Black Did not she appear as in the Person of Christ cloathed with his Righteousness Nay was she not joyned to him when thus all fair and so being joyned to the Lord became one