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
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
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
in Sins and Trespasses and there must be an Almighty Power put forth to quicken them besides the bare Call Turn ye turn ye It is God that must work both the Will and the Deed for without me saith Christ you can do nothing If so what is the Call to turn without the Spirit of God effecting the turn but a manifestation of God's Right to command which you may call the triumph of the Law You will not say that God hath lost his Right to command us to turn to him though we are dead and are not able to turn till there goes forth from God with his Call an Almighty saving Power of turning us to him and on this account the Church prays Turn thou me and I shall be turned Jer. 31.18 And till then the Call is but God's triumphing in his Sovereignty in the Law over poor dead Sinners §. XLIII The eighteenth is a very weak Heresie though a long one and in truth no more a Heresie than 't is Heresie to say Christ took not the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham but however this comes in the Bed-roll to fill up the number and 't is thus The Eternal Life in which the Angels were created and confirmed by Christ differs from that Eternal Life which Believers have in Christ The one is a Creature Life or a created Life the other is the Eternal Life of God communicated in time This though not of the Essence of Christianity or a Fundamental may be a little explained and so it will appear that it is no Heresie But some Persons are glad of a small Occasion to quarrel The only Ground for quarrelling at this Expression is That the Life of a Believer is the Eternal Life of God by which I suppose is meant of God-Man the Lord Jesus Christ Now take it in that Sense then Christ being the Life of every Believer they have the Eternal Life of God-Man in them so as the Angels have not Christ took not their Nature they are not Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones and Believers are Eph. 5.30 He is not their Resurrection and Life as he is the Believers Is it not a great Truth that by Vertue of their Union to Christ by Faith in his Flesh and Blood the Flesh and Blood of him who is the Eternal Son of God they have that Eternal Life in them from him which the Angels have not As to the Eternal Life which the Angels have and shall enjoy what is it but a created Life Whereas the Life of Christ in his Saints and with them to all Eternity is their participation of his Life as he is more than a meer Creature as he is God-Man and they one with him partaking of the Divine Nature as the Branches partake of the very Nature of the Vine not that they are Godded with Christ God-Man but in an ineffable manner they partake of his Divine Nature being made one Body incorporated into him and so one with him which must comprehend an Eternal Life being in them which is more than meerly created they being filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3.19 That is as they have Christ in them the hope of Glory in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead Bodily but in Believers he dwells only Spiritually §. XLIV The nineteenth they make a great one viz. That Believers are as Righteous as Christ I mean not in a way of Similitude but in a way of Equality Here is high Disingenuity to quote part of a Sentence For Mr. Mather from whom this is taken though he said somewhat to this purpose at Pinners-Hall yet he put in several Qualifications of the Expression whereof one was That they were as Righteous as Christ as they did partake of his Mediatorial Righteousness and of that part only of that Righteousness which was wrought out for them To this there may be more said when I answer the Rebuker's saying That Mr. Williams had denyed his Redeemer if he had not denyed Dr. Crisp's Assertion of a change of Persons In the mean time I leave this Scripture to be pondered That we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Christ 1 Cor. 5.21 §. XLV The twentieth is That Christ's Incarnation was no part of his Humiliation This is brought in I suppose to insult over the Grave of Mr. Mather who could doubtless have so explained his meaning as it needed not have put Mr. Williams on shewing his great Parts and Learning to go to confute it for an Antinomian Heresie in interpreting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a new English word well enough agreeing with the Neonomian Doctrine calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exaninition which he might as well call exany-thing or to make it chime his next Interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exinanition instead of his calling it exany-nition it may be exany-wigeon or any thing else as his mighty Learning may coyn for it If Mr. Mather in that Expression meant it of meer Incarnation without respect to Mediation for Sinners how was his Incarnation any Humiliation more than God the Father his dwelling in the Heart of the Humble and Contrite is his Humiliation May not God the Father or God the Son assume what shape they please as well as the Holy Spirit assumed the shape of a Dove and yet that no Degradation or Humiliation It is true God is said to humble himself to behold things in Heaven but that is spoken Figuratively as his Eyes behold his Eye-lids try the Children of Men but to say God is humbled by it is harsh and so to say that Christ's meer Incarnation was his Humiliation is to deny him the liberty to assume what form he pleases or to make it a diminution of his Glory is what I suppose cannot well be maintained I am sure his Incarnation was a Glorious Exaltation of our Humane Nature and would it not be harsh to say he could not exalt our Nature without depressing his own God is able of Stones to raise up Children to Abraham much more is Christ able to take our Nature when made Sinless and not thereby degrade his own But let Mr. Williams run away with his Triumphs over Mr. Mather calling him Blow-flame and make an exaninition or an exany-thing of him when all is done this Expression among wise Christians will hardly pass for an Heresie to say Christ's meer Incarnation was not a part of his Humiliation though his Incarnation as Mediator was §. XLVI The last the one and twentieth is We coalesce upon believing into one Mystical Person with Christ which is distinguish'd from Legal Vnion which is before Faith Whose Expression this is I am to seek but methinks 't is very harmonious with the Gospel and if this deserves the Name of Heresie we must seek a New Gospel What can be more coalescing than that of Christ You in me and I in you Or that of the Apostle We are Members of his Body c.
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
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
his Subscription extends yet far higher and is got near the Third Heavens for to their Commendations of a Reverend Brother and their celebrations of doing Service they add their Supplications with expectations saying Adding our Prayers that these Labours of his may as we hope they will be a means for the reclaiming of those that have been mislead Is not here a plain demonstration of a great abuse put upon his Reader and an open untruth in matter of fact to say that the Subscription 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 Was his doing considerable Service to the Church nothing Were their Prayers for the Success of the Book nothing Is this a Faithful Rebuke to a False Report Is it not rather a very False Report of his own Fact What then may be expected of his Report concerning others O how could he say it is NO MORE when 't is visibly three times more Proh Dolor §. CXVII It calls to my mind that dear Equivocation of Saphira to Peter Acts 5. when he ask'd her whether she sold the Field for so much she answered Yea for so much This was not downright for no more Upon this Peter charges her to have tempted the Spirit of the Lord and saith Behold the feet of them that have buried thy Husband Then she fell down strait-way-at his feet and yielded up the ghost There might have been some plea by a Sophister in her behalf he might with an Arminian Wit have said what Saphira said was true she answered Yea for so much so it was but she did not say it was for no more and yet she tempted the Holy Spirit which cost her at least her Natural Life But he must be a Gigantick Sophister that can remove the Block our Rebuker has laid in the way of a true Relater I don't see what Invention can save his Expression from being a solemn Untruth for him to say it was no more when it was much more a great deal and so much more had they subscribed in commendation of Mr. Williams's Book as might well make his Head giddy and turn round to be carried I will not say by what Spirit to so high a Mount yea to the Pinacle of the Temple as to have so many Ministers avouch to the World That he had fully and rightly stated Truths and Errors so as to do considerable Service to the Church of Christ §. CXVIII My Heart is troubled for exposing the Rebuker thus in this particular but how should I be faithful to him in his Remarks or better invalidate his supporting Mr. Williams's Errors if I should not shew what shifts some are driven to that will justifie him or themselves for being his upholder And though this failure be discovered in one accounted a great Master in our Israel yet the Apostle advises that when some Men sin they should be rebuked before all that others may fear 1 Tim. 5.20 When the whole World must be told in Print so great an Untruth 't is necessary they should be undeceived that the Author may retract it and own himself to have erred The Lord grant we may all learn by this fall to fear and tremble lest being left by the Spirit of God when we go to vindicate what we ought not we fall before all O that my Dear Kratiste might here see the fruit of a towring Spirit §. CXIX I would gladly contrive some Figure in speaking or writing to salve the Veracity of the Faithful Rebuke in saying the Subscription was no more when in Truth it was abundantly more I can find nothing but a far stretch'd Synecdoche of a part for the whole will do the feat and so I may say it was no more that is no more to be owned to the World when we see how many Exceptions are against the Book we subscribed to So a Man that owes him 100 l. may come to him and say Sir I have brought you 20 l. and I owe you no more How no more than 20 l. is not here your Bond for 100 l. That 's true but I owe you no more but 20 l. because I intend to pay you no more So the Subscription was no more because we intend now to own no more But if his Apocryphal Tobias had been guilty of making such Figures he would have been branded justly with a wild monstrous Sense of Change of Persons But my Kratiste may possibly be excused for haste and I wish this were the greatest Fault in his Rebuke §. CXX One word to the trite and tart Conclusion he saith If these contenders go on to exact so much and yield so little for the sake of Vnion they sell their own Innocency and the Churches Peace for nothing This is smart and quick pretty biting for a Conclusion What nothing less than selling Innocency for nothing and Peace for nothing Is the Truth nothing Half an Eye may see that 't is Truth is contended for When Hezekiah had a Sentence of Death sent him his Answer was Isa 39.8 Good is the Word of the Lord for there shall be Peace and Truth in my days He was not for a pretended Union and a formal Peace without the great Pillar of Truth to support the Building Do not the Papists argue at the same rate for Peace They are all for submitting to the dictates of their Antichristian State for the sake of Peace and Unity but the Apostle exhorts to contend for the Faith and saith We gave not place no not for an hour that the TRVTH of the Gospel might continue When the Truth is opposed oppugned undermined by bringing in Evangelical Obedience to a Law that aâ—ows some Sin and this Obedience of ours to have some share in our acceptance with God and when the vindicating the Truth shall shake the Foundations of a patch'd up Peace we are not long to question which is to be preferred the holding fast the Truth or keeping such a Peace But how can contending for the Truth be said to sell Peace for nothing Is the Change of Persons between us and Christ nothing whereby he was made Sin for us and we the Righteousness of God in him I think this is something though Mr. Williams once absolutely denyed it Is the bringing in a New Law that admits of Sin in our Obedience nothing Is denying that Christ suffered the Idem of the Law for us nothing Is Mr. Williams's denying our Redemption in a way of Justice nothing As he does Fol. 15 of his Man made Righteous I suppose those that see the Infinite Concernment of their Souls in these Points will say they are something yea Things of more value than the Peace that all the Plenipotentiaries made at Ryswick for that Peace is but finite but these Truths are of infinite duration The Wise Man bids us buy the Truth and sell it not And if not sell it at all then not for Peace