for righteousnes The orthodox exposition I will in the first place prove and confirme froÌ„ the words of the Apostle himself by other strong reasons afterward confute overthrow the Socinian hereticall exposition The true Exposition proved and confirmed FOr the right understanding of the Apostles wordes three things come first to be considered and explained 1. What is here meant by faith and believing 2. What righteousnes is here meant 3. What is meant by imputation First by faith in this text wee must not understand that naturall habit and power which is common to all reasonable men who upon their apprehension and knowledge of things spoken and promised do give willing assent unto them that they are true either for the authority of the speaker whom they doe respect and judge to bee faithfull or because they see good reason in the things spoken and promised And if the things spoken and promised bee such as tend to their owne good they rest upon them confidently and perswade themselvs that they are sure and certaine of them already or shall receive and enjoy them in due time without faile But here by faith we are to understand that supernaturall gift and grace of beleeving wrought in the elect regenerate by the spirit shed on them abundantly through Iesus Christ Tit. 3.6 which is therefore called most holy faith Iud. 20. verse This faith agreeth with the other in foure points First as that is an habit and power of beleeving so is this Secondly as that containes in it notitiaÌ„ in intellectu and assensum in voluntate that is both a notice and knowledge of the things spoken and beleeved and an assent of the will so doth this also Thirdly as that faith when it goeth no further then knowledge and assent is called hlstoricall so this also Fourthly as that faith when it reacheth to good things promised to our selves particularly to apply them and to rest on them hath also fiduciam in corde et affectionibus a trust and confidence of the heart and affections in it so hath this also and is called a firme perswasion trust and confidence But they differ in divers things First that is a naturall power or habit this is a spiritual wrought in men by the spirit of GOD dweling in them and uniting them to Christ in one mysticall body Secondly that hath in it no knowledge but naturall arising from light of naturall reason nor any assent of the will or confidence in the heart and affections but such as are drawne stirred up and wrought by meanes of naturall light and common causes This hath in it a spirituall knowledge arising from the spirit of GOD inlightning the understanding the spirit also inclines and moves the will to give assent and confirmes the heart with confidence and firme perswasion Thirdly that is common to all reasonable men This is proper to the elect regenerate and sanctified by the holy Ghost shed on them through Christ and is the first and as it were the radicall grace and vertue of renovation Fourthly that hath for the object or things beleeved either naturall and worldly things onely or things heavenly and supernaturall seene and discerned through the dimme mist of naturall reason and assented to and rested on with a carnall and unsanctified will and heart This hath for the object things supernaturall heavenly and spirituall discerned by supernaturall light assented to with an holy and sanctified will confirmed to the heart by a spirituall sense and sweet taste of the things promised wrought by the holy spirit in the true beleever apprehending and applying them But to come nearer to the text the believing which the Apostle speakes of in 3.9 and 22. verses is the faith and believing of Abraham who divers yeares before this act of believing which it here said to be counted to him for righteousnesse was called out of his owne country and by faith obeyed GOD calling and went and soiourned in the land promised to him and his seed as appeares Heb. 11.8 9. He had overcome and slaughtered foure mighty Kings and their victorious armies by faith and confidence in GODS promises And Melchizedek King of Salem the Priest of the most high GOD had blessed him as we read Gen. 14. And after these things the LORD appeared to him and sayd feare not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward and withall hee renued the promise of the blessed seed by meanes of which seed all the families of the earth should be blessed in Abraham and should become his faithfull Children besides his naturall seed and posterity which should come of the Son and heire of his owne bowels as appeares Gen. 15. verse 1.4 These were the promises which GOD made to Abraham and which Abraham believed to be true and resting upon the LORD by firme faith and beliefe for the performance of them the LORD counted it to him for righteousnesse Gen. 15.6 or as the Apostle expresseth the same sentence in the same sense though in words somewhat different it was counted to him for righteousnesse verse 3. even faith was reckoned to him for righteousnes verse 9. Now this faith was first an holy and spiritual beliefe and the faith of a man long before called of GOD sanctified by his Spirit and made obedient to GOD and his word Secondly it was a beliefe not onely of the promise of Christ the blessed seed in generall but more specially that Christ the blessed seed should according to the flesh come out of his owne bowels and that by Christ the Son of GOD made man of his seed the redemption both of him and of his faithfull seed all true believers should be wrought and performed GODS wrath appeased the Law fulfilled and justice satisfied and perfect righteousnes brought in for their justification and by his and their union with Christ by one spirit and communion of all his benefits they should have GOD for their portion and reward and for their shield and defence and should not need to seeke the blessing and reward from their owne workes or their righteousnesse and fulfilling of the Law in their owne persons but merely from the free grace of GOD and of his free gift in Christ as a reward of Christs righteousnesse freely given to them and of them apprehended by faith and believing Thirdly this faith of Abraham was not a weake but strong faith and beliefe without staggering even a full perswasion that GOD who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as if they were was able to make good and to performe what hee had promised yea it was a believing in hope against hope that GOD could out of a dead body and womb raise up a lively seed and make them spiriritually righteous which are by nature and according to the Law wicked sinners All these things are manifâ—st by the place before cited Gen 15. and by the expresse words of the Apostle in this Chapter from the tenth verse to the
are not to seeke righteousnes by our owne workes but by faith in Christ for if wee can obtaine grace to believe in him and to lay hold on his righteousnesse wee are for Christ and his righteousnesse sake upon our believing counted righteous before GOD because by our communion which wee have with Christ by the Spirit dwelling in us and enabling us to believe The righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in us imputatively by the righteousnesse of another even of Christ which is also ours for we are flesh of his flesh that is one with him these are Musculus his owne words in which hee roundly expresseth himselfe in Rom. 8.4 and 10.3.4 Luthers words at which hee catcheth in vaine are to the same purpose in Gal. 3.6 GOD for Christs sake accounts this imperfect faith for perfect righteousnesse Here Luther doth not charge GOD with error or iniquity in judgement by judgeing and accounting that for perfect righteousnesse which is imperfect for his speech is tropicall imitating the phrase of the Apostle by imperfect faith hee meanes a true believer by a weak faith laying hold on Christs righteousnesse and by perfect righteousnesse a man set in a state of perfect righteousnesse by communion with Christ and this is the sense of the words that if a true believer doth lay hold on Christ by faith which in the best of us is but weake and imperfect yet GOD accounts him perfectly righteous with the righteousnesse of Christ which is most perfect and compleat Thus Luther expounds himselfe 1 Tom. pag 32. Editionis Ienensis Christ saith hee is in us by faith yea one with us but Christ is righteousnesse and a fulfiller of all GODS commaundements therefore wee also doe by him fulfill all GODS commandements when hee is by faith made ours And 2 Tom. pag. 515. Faith puts us upon Christs workes of righteousnesse without our owne workes and translates us out of the exile of our sinnes into the Kingdome of his righteousnes And Tom. 1. pag 106. By faith our sinnes are made no more our owne but Christs upon whom GOD hath laid the iniquities of us all and againe all Christs righteousnesse is made ours for he layeth his hand on us If a man had the tongue of men and Angels hee could not speake more fully for the communion and imputation of Christs righteousnes to believers for justification and of their sinnes to Christ for remission then Luther doth in these and divers other places as I shall more fully shew in the second Chapter As for Chamiers words who calles remission of sinnes the righteousnesse which is imputed to us they shew that faith is not that imputed righteousnesse for faith or believing is our act remission is GODS act who can forgive sinnes but GOD But indeed the meaning of Chamier is the same with Calvin to wit that our cleannesse from the guilt of sinne which is Passive remission or justification is that which GOD lookes upon in us when hee counts us righteous in Christ as I have before shewed wherefore I conclude with the contradictory of his conclusion which hee inferres upon the speeches of our Homilies and of other learned Authors to weet thus That wheresoever we find in the Scriptures or any Authors of sound learning this phrase of faith or believing imputed for righteousnesse we must not understand faith in a proper sense but the righteousnesse of Christ even his fulfilling of the Law for us which together with the power and merit of it so far as every believer hath need is communicated to him and imputed to him for justification For as a Merchant cannot be said to be enriched by the gaine of a commodity which never was his owne and in which hee never had any interest or propriety nor any man by an office which was never his owne nor by him executed So none can have the merit and benefit of Christs righteousnesse nor be said to bee thereby justified neither can any such thing be imputed to them except they have a propriety in it and communion of it Thus his instances and similitudes are turned against himselfe to the confusion of his haereticall opinion But that his sinne may appeare out of measure sinfull hee doth not content himselfe with his abusing wresting and perverting of the godly sayings of other Authors and using similitudes which are most contrary to his purpose but hee also layeth profane hands on the holy Scriptures That excellent saying Iob 33 26. which Master Perkins learnedly expounds to be meant of Christs righteousnesse which when men humbly seeke to GOD by repentance and faithfull prayers GOD renders unto them by renuing their sense and assurance of their communion with Christ in his whole satisfaction This Doctor novice most Popishly applyes to a mans owne righteousnesse and saith that GODS rendring to a man his righteousnesse is giving him the benefit of it not the righteousnesse it selfe And yet if wee should grant what hee perversely seekes it will availe him nothing for as the fruite and benefit which GOD renders to a man is not the fruit of a righteousnesse in which he hath no propriety or interest but is his righteousnesse so the fruite and benefit which we receive of Christs righteousnesse GOD renders to us when that righteousnesse is become ours in the propriety of it That place Ephes. 6.8 whatsoever good a man doth the same hee shall receive of the LORD it is for us and against himselfe for as the good which a man receives from GOD for well doing is the good fruite of his owne well doing so is the fruite and benefit which wee receive in our justification the fruite of Christs righteousnes made ours and imputed to us Those speeches Revel 13.10 and 15.10 here is the faith and patience of the Saints c. are not to be understood of the fruite and reward of their patience as the circumstances shew which are killing and slaying and leading into captivitie but of the patience and faith themselves that in such times they are seene tride and proved and GOD at such times gives them patience and faith by threatning and foretelling the finall destruction of their enemies as learned Brightman truely expounds the wordes Besides if patience and faith were here used to signifie the fruit and benefit of patience and faith yet he cannot say it is the fruit of any patience or faith but of the Saints themselves who receive the benefit Likewise if wee grant that in the other places Psal. 128.2 Labour signifies the fruit of labour and Heb. 9.28 Sin signifies the punishment of sinne and Gen. 19.15 iniquitie signifies the judgement of GOD on Sodom for iniquitie by a trope or Metonymie of the cause for the effect This proves that faith which is the hand or instrument of the soule receiving Christ with his righteousnes may by the same trope be used to signifie that state of righteousnes which we receive by it as by an hand or instrument Thus while he runs
which he beleeved to wit Christ promised for righteousnes and salvation was that which by GOD was upon Abrahams beleeving counted to him for righteousnes It was not his faith simply considered in it selfe but his faith embracing Christ promised and possessing him with his righteousnes and satisfaction which was reckned to him for righteousnes and as to him so to every one that beleeveth his faith is counted to him for righteousnes For all true beleevers who by faith lay hold on Christ the promised seed of Abraham and beleeve GOD to be their shield and exceeding great reward in him they are by one spirit baptised into one spirituall body with Christ united to him their spirituall head and made his lively members and sensible partakers of his perfect obedience righteousnes and full satisfaction for redemption remission of sinnes justification and perfect salvation and need not any more to seeke the reward of blessednes by the righteousnes of their owne workes performed according to the tenour of the Law by every man in his owne person but in the LORD Iesus Christ who is Iehovah Zid-kenu the LORD our righteousnes Ier. 23.6 and the end and fulfilling of the Law for righteousnes to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10.4 they have perfect righteousnes And in him GOD is become their reward and the lot and portion of their inheritance Psal. 16.5 And that gracious and free favour which GOD shewed to Abraham when hee beleeved in Christ promised and firmely without staggering applyed to himselfe the blessing promised being fully perswaded that GOD who of his free grace promised was by his power able to performe though by the course of nature and by reason of the deadnesse of Sara's wombe he himselfe seemed to bee and indeed was uncapable of that blessing The same hee will shew to all true beleevers who are Abrahams faithfull seed and children of promise that is as hee reckoned Abrahams faith for righteousnes so hee will count their faith to them for righteousnes that is he will accept and account them for righteous persons as indeed they are not for any workes of their owne nor by any righteousnesse performed according to the letter of the law in their owne persons but by the righteousnes which is through the faith of Christ and is called the righteousnes of faith because it is the righteousnes of Christ GOD and man given to them of GOD and of them apprehended and applyed by faith For being thus justified by faith and having communion with Christ of his full satisfaction and righteousnes GOD whose judgement is according to truth doth certainely judge and count them as truly they are righteous in his sight becomes in Christ their shield and exceeding great reward This is the Orthodox exposition of the Apostles wordes in this Chapter generally received by all both ancient and moderne Divines famous for learning and godlinesse The corrupt and hereticall exposition of the Apostles words made by Socinus and maintained by his followers the Arminians and other fanaticall Sectaries THey of the Socinian faction doe generally hold and obstinately affirme that Abrahams beleeving and his faith taken in a proper literall sense without any trope is here said by the Apostle to be counted to Abraham for righteousnes in stead of all righteousnes which either Abraham himselfe was by the Law bound to performe in his owne person or any surety could performe for him And in like manner to every one that beleeveth his faith is in a proper sense said to bee counted for righteousnes even his faith by it selfe and not the righteousnes of Christ with it This is their exposition And upon these wordes of the Apostle thus falsly and corruptly interpreted they build all their hereticall opinions and doctrines concerning justification of the faithfull before GOD namely these following First that faith as it is in every beleever even as it is inherent in him and is his owne faith and beleeving is the onely thing which GOD of his grace and mercy and out of his absolute soveraigne power and dominion is pleased to ordaine appoint and account for all the righteousnes which a man shall have for his justification though in truth and according to Law and the rule of justice it is not righteousnes being weak oftentimes and full of imperfections Secondly that the Spirit of GOD in these wordes of the Apostle did not intend or meane any communion of the righteousnes and perfect obedience performed by Christ to the Law as our surety and in our stead nor imputation of that righteousnes to every true beleever for justification nor GODS accepting of the faithfull for righteous by that righteousnes communicated to them and of them applyed possessed and enjoyed by faith By faith and believing they do not understand that applying faith which is a gift and worke of GODS Spirit in the elect regenerate and sanctified by which they do believe and are perswaded that they are in Christ and Christ is their head and they as lively members of his mysticall body have communion of all his benefits even of his full satisfaction and perfect righteousnes for justification and full remission of all their sinnes But by faith and believing they understand onely a confidence in GOD that hee will performe his promises made in Christ and an assent unto his word that it is true The tenour of which word and promises they conceive to be this That Christ in his pure unspotted humane nature hath by his righteousnesse suffering and obedience unto death meritted such high favour with GOD that GOD in honour to him is pleased to accept and account the faith of them that believe in him and rest on him for their Saviour for perfect righteousnesse and requires no other righteousnesse to constitute and make them in any sort formally righteous in their justification When they acknowledge that the perfect righteousnesse and satisfaction of Christ is the meritorious cause of our justification they do not meane that they are communicated to us and so apprehended and possessed of us by faith that we are thereby indeed and in GODS account righteous before GOD and justified or that they deserve and are worthy that GOD should so account us for them But their mind and meaning is that Christ by his righteousnesse hath merited that GOD for his sake and in favour to him should account faith to us for righteousnesse without either our owne workes of the Law or Christs righteousnesse imputed to us and made ours by communion And when they say that faith is imputed for righteousnes as an instrument they doe not meane as the instrument or spirituall hand applying Christ his righteousnes to bee after a sort the formall righteousnesse of the believer but that faith as it is the instrument by which the believer doth believe that Christ hath purchased this favour that his believing should be the only thing accounted to him for righteousnes so onely and no other way GOD reckons to him
comprehends and includes in it even the perfect righteousnesse and full satisfaction of Christ GOD and man for there is a metalepsis or double trope as in the place before expounded By righteousnes we must understand the state of a man justified and made righteous by the communion of Evangelicall righteousnesse and by counting and imputing we must understand the accepting approving esteeming and judging of Abraham and every true believer to bee in the state of a man justified and GODS setting on his skore and imputing to him being faithfull the righteousnesse of Christ apprehended by faith which no man can truely by faith lay hold on untill by one spirit he be united to Christ and have communion with him Heare then the true sense and meaning of the speeches in question parallelled with the sentence and speech before expounded Chap. 2.26 which I thus lay down paraphrastically Abraham upon a true inward spirituall sense of his union and communion with Christ did believe and was surely perswaded that GOD was his reward and this beliefe and faith apprehending Christ and after a sort containning in it as by a fast holding and possessing hand of the soule Christs righteousnesse GOD counted it to him for righteousnes that is set it on his skore and reckoned to him for justification and judged esteemed and accepted him for a man truely righteous as indeed hee was by Evangelicall righteousnes And so whosoever doth not rest on his owne workes for justification nor seeketh thereby to be iustified but by faith feeling himselfe by nature ungodly fleeth to Christs righteousnesse and by faith feeles himselfe to have communion of it and holds it fast and applies and enioyes it His faith is to him an evidence of his righteousnes and GOD who iudgeth according to truth knowing him to have share in Christs righteousnes doth accept it for him and counts him righteous and useth him as a man truely iustified Thus you see how the Apostles former using of this phrase in the second Chapter doth shew the true meaning of it here where it seemes to be more doubtfull The summe of the argument reduced into a short syllogisme is this That exposition of a doubtfull phrase which is most agreeable to the manifest sense and meaning of the same phrase used by the same Author in the same discourse is the best Our exposition of the phrase in question to wit faith and believing is imputed for righteousnesse is most agreeable to the manifest sense of the same phrase of speech used by this same Apostle Cap. 2.26 in this same Epistle Therefore undoubtedly our exposition is best argument 2 Secondly wheresoever the Apostle useth the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is of imputing one thing for another there the thing imputed differeth from that for which it is imputed and cannot in any proper sense be called the same as in the place before cited Rom. 2.26 Rom. 9.8 and so it is Psal 106.31 where Phineas his executing of judgement is said to bee counted to him for righteousnesse And wheresoever a thing is said in a proper sense to be counted or imputed or set on ones skore it is said simply to be counted imputed set upon a mans account as Rom 4.4 where the reward is said to be counted of debt to him that worketh and verse 6. and 8. where GOD is said to impute righteousnes and not to impute sinne and verse 11. that righteousnes might be imputed unto them and Rom. 5.13 sinne is not imputed when there is no Law 2 Cor. 5.19 not imputing their trespasses to them 2. Tim. 4.16 I pray GOD it may not be laid to their charge or counted to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Philem. 18. put that on my account Now here in the speeches controverted faith and believing are not said simply to be imputed to believers but to be imputed for righteousnes and therefore faith is not said to be imputed in a proper sense neither can it truely be counted or called righteousnes by it selfe and in a proper sense but the speech is tropicall and improper A third argument is drawne argument 3 from the Apostles words in the 4. verse where hee saith to him that worketh the reward is not reckoned of grace but of debt these words imply that the righteousnesse here said to be imputed brings the reward of blessednes to the believer which reward is of grace and not of debt Now there is nothing which can bring the reward of blessednesse in eternall life to him unto whom it is counted and set on his skore but the perfect righteousnesse and satisfaction of Iesus Christ. That all do grant to be meritorious of eternall life to all that are partakers of it and because the communion and imputation of it is of GODS free grace and the faith by which we receive and apply it is GODS free gift therefore the reward of it to wit eternall life is of free grace and not of debt as the Apostle here saith whereupon the conclusion followes that the righteousnes which GOD accepts and imputes is properly the righteousnes of Christ apprehended by faith Fourthly the Apostle teacheth argument 4 expressely verse 6. and 7. that the thing imputed simply and properly by GOD is righteousnes and such a righteousnes as being imputed brings forgivenes of iniquity covers sinnes and so makes the believer blessed Now there is no righteousnes to be found among all mankind but Christs perfect righteousnes and satisfaction and that is a perfect propitiation for all sinnes and an expiation of all iniquity to them who by faith have put on Christ therefore it is the righteousnes which is imputed to every believer for justification Fiftly that which is said to be imputed to Abraham and to every true believer is righteousnes argument 5 to justification for the discourse of the Apostle both here and in the Chapters next going before that which next followeth is altogether of justifying as appeares Chap. 3.24 25.26 28 30. and Chap. 5.1 16 17 18 19. in all which places he names expressely justification justifying and here in this 4. Cap. he brings Abrahams example and Davids testimony to shew how we are justified Now there is nothing which doth serve to us for justification but that which is found in Christ our mediator even his righteousnes and perfect fulfilling of the Law so he plainely affirmes and teacheth Chap. 5 19. and 8 3 4. and 10.3 4. and therefore his righteousnes upon the true believing of Abraham and the faithfull is counted and imputed to them and set on their skore and they by it are justified argument 6 Lastly as the imputing of any thing for righteousnes is to be taken in other places of Scripture wheresoever it is mentioned so undoubtedly it is here to be taken For the Scripture is the best expounder of it selfe and the spirit of God therein speaking doth best understand shew his own meaning Now the onely place in all
15.6 Hee simply believed GODS word and asked no signe of the LORD and hee did impute that very faith unto Abraham himselfe for righteousnes by which GOD is believed to be propense or ready for our good Hunius also saith The faith by which Abraham believed GOD promising was imputed to him for righteousnes Beza saith Here the busines is concerning that which was imputed to him namely his faith Inius and Tremellius on Gen. 15.6 GOD esteemed or counted him for righteous though wanting righteousnes and reckoned him to be in the state of righteousnes because by firme faith he embraced the promises Paraus Rom. 4.3 Wee understand by the word faith which is said to be imputed for righteousnes Abrahams resting not in himselfe or his owne merits but in the promise and good will of GOD. These testimonies are brought to begge the question for they onely affirme that faith is imputed and by believing men come to be counted righteous but there is not in any one the least intimation that faith is imputed in a proper sense but their owne words in the same places shew That faith by reason of that which it beleeveth and apprehendeth that is Christ with all his merits and benefits is counted for righteousnes which is our true genuine Orthodox exposition of the Apostles words And thus I have answered all whatsoever hee hath said for his interpretation onely his severall falshoods and manifest untruthes in severall phrases and boasting wordes prefixed before the testimonies of every Author whom he nameth I leave to the Reader to observe For indeed they are most palpable that every man of understanding may run and reade them But because I will not have such a forger and false suborner of witnesses escape away without the iust brands of forgery and notorious impudency I will bring in the best learned of the Ancients and also of late Orthodox Divines even those whom hee calls to witnesse for him and will make them speake in their owne wordes and testifie to all the world that by faith imputed for righteousnesse they understand not faith by it selfe in a proper sense but the satisfaction and righteousnesse of Iesus Christ GOD and man performed according to the Law in our nature and in our behalfe that through him the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us who beleeve in him and are lead by his spirit First Iustin Martyr testifieth that we being in our selves transgressors and ungodly cannot possibly bee iustified but in the onely sonne of GOD now if onely by being in him and by that union and communion which all have with him who are in him then onely by his righteousnesse For as the same Author saith in the same place It is his righteousnes and nothing else which can cover our sinne Iustin Martyr in Epist ad Diognetum and in exposit◠fidei hee saith that Christ as well by his exact conversation of life that is his perfect righteousnes as by his undeserved death hath abolished and covered our falls and failing which came in by Adam Irenaeus is so strict for our communion with Christ in his obedience unto death and for our reconciliation and iustification therby that he imputes Christs obedience to us and saith Jn secundo Adamo reconciliati sumus obedientes usque ad mortem facti In the second Adam wee are reconciled being made obedient even unto death lib. 4. c. 14. adversus haereses Athanasius in his 2 Tom. pag. 270. of Cornelius edition saith that it is most necessary for us to beleeve the Scriptures that Christ who hath freed us from the curse is the first fruites of the masse of mankind who are by him redeemed and that the perfect fulfilling of the law by him the first fruites is imputed to the whole masse his wordes in greeke are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in his booke de incarnat verbi hee affirmes that we shall live and bee saved because wee are partakers of the righteousnes without spot which Christ GOD in the flesh brought into the world Gregory Nyssen Orat. 2. in Cantica saith Christ having the filth or guilt of my sins transferred upon himselfe hath communicated his perfect purity to mee and made mee partaker of that beauty which is in himselfe Ambrose saith as Adam is the patterne of death because of sin so Christ is the patterne of life because of his righteousnesse in cap. 7. Lucae lib. 5. And our iustification by faith and not by workes he saith was prefigured by Jacobs getting of the blessing in sweet smelling garments Iacob was a type of every true beleever under the Gospell Rebecca of the Church The garments of the first borne Christs righteousnesse The Iewes of the elder testament like Esau sought righteousnesse by their owne workes and true beleevers put on the righteousnes of Christ by faith being so taught by the Church their mother and obtaine by the merit of it the blessing Ambrose lib. 2. c. 2 de Iacob vita beata CHrysostome saith If a Iew aske thee how can all the world be saved by the righteous doings of one Christ thou mayest answer him even as all the world is condemned by one Adams disobedience on Rom. 5. homil 10. And in his booke de recta fide It is absurd saith he to thinke that wee should bee made heires of the punishment of the first Adam by his disobedience and should not bee partakers of the righteousnesse of the second Adam who doth bring us to life by his most perfect obedience Theodoret Serm. 10. de curand Graec. affect saith It is very convenient that he who highly praised righteousnesse should in his comming in the flesh fulfill righteousnesse for men Augustine Enchirid. ad Laurent c. 41. saith he was made sin that we might be made righteousnes not our owne but GODS righteousnesse not in our selves but in him even as he was sinne not his owne sinne but ours not in himselfe but in us And serm 6. de verb. Apost he saith GOD the father made him sinne that wee might bee made the righteousnesse of GOD in him Behold here two things the righteousnesse of GOD not our own◠〈…〉 not in our selves Leo the 〈◊〉 Epist. 70 saith that by the innocency of one we are all made innocent and that by righteousnesse from him derived unto men who hath taken mans nature upon him Bernard Epist. 190. as one hath borne the sinnes of all so the satisfaction of one is imputed to all It was not one which forfeited and another which satisfied for the head and the body is one Christ. Also in serm ad Milites templi he saith Death is made to flee away in the death of Christ and Christs righteousnesse is imputed to us and a little after Hee who hath willingly beene incarnat willingly suffered and willingly crucified will hee keep back his righteousnesse from us and againe one man sinned and all are made guilty and shall the innocency of one Christ bee imputed onely to
proposition is that faith in the judgement of every man is the condition required by GOD on mans part to bring him into that communion of justification and redemption which Christ hath purchased c. In which I finde delusion and falshood First hee doth not meane a gift grace or Spirituall qualification appointed by GOD by which as by the hand of the soule stretched out wee must lay hold on Christs satisfaction and righteousnesse for justification and redemption though his words pretend so much but hee meanes that faith is the condition of the new covenant which man must on his part performe in stead of all righteousnesse which the Law requires and so it is in the new covenant the condition of life as workes of the Law and of righteousnesse were the condition of the old covenant This is the very haeresie and damned error of Socinus Secondly he doth here make the covenant of grace a covenant of life not freely but upon a condition performed on mans part and so a covenant of workes contrary to Scripture Rom. 11.6 Thirdly hee erres grossly in imagining faith not to be a free gift of grace but a worke performed on mans part as workes were required in the old covenant Fourthly hee falsely chargeth all honest and godly men to be of his judgment I know that all Orthodox Divines abhorre and detest this opinion Fiftly hee affirmes a manifest untruth in saying that without beleeving none can have part in justification and redemption for no regenerate Infants which die in their Infancy do actually believe and yet being by the Spirit of regeneration engraffed into Christ they have communion of his ransome and righteousnesse are justified before GOD and saved Socinianisme IT 's evident from the Scriptures that GOD in the act of every mans justification doth impute or account righteousnes to him or rather somewhat for or in stead of righteousnes by meanes of which imputed the person justified passeth in account as a righteous man though hee be not properly or perfectly such and is invested accordingly with those great priviledges of a man perfectly righteous deliverance from death and condemnation and acceptation into favour with GOD. The reason of which imputation or why GOD is pleased to use an expression of righteousnesse imputed in or about the justification of a sinner seemes to be this the better to satisfie the naturall scruple of the weake and feeble conscience of men who can hardly conceive or thinke of a justification or of being justified especially by GOD without a perfect legall righteousnesse Now the purpose and counsell of GOD in the Gospell being to justifie men without any such righteousnesse the better to salve the feares of the conscience touching such a defect and to prevent and stay all troublesome thoughts or quaeres which might arise in the mindes of men who when they heare of being justified are still ready to aske within themselves but where is the righteousnesse conceiving a legall righteousnes to be as necessary to justification as Isaac conceived of a Lamb for a burnt offering Gen. 22. He GOD I meane is graciously pleased so far to condescend to men in Scripture treatie with them about the weighty businesse of justification as in effect to grant and say to them that though hee findes no proper or perfect righteousnes in them no such righteousnesse as passeth under the name of righteousnes with them yet if they truely beleeve in him as Abraham did this beleeving shall be as good as a perfect compleat righteousnes unto them or that hee will impute rihteousnes to them upon their beleeving Christianisme THe first thing in this passage to wit GOD imputing righteousnesse to every man in his justification is a thing evident by the Scriptures and I willingly grant it But I abhorre and detest as heresie that which he adds out of his owne conceit to wit that GOD doth rather impute somewhat in stead of righteousnes which cannot make a man properly or perfectly righteous This is a blasphemous imagination that GOD can iudge falsly and account a thing for righteousnes which is not and esteeme a man righteous who is not properly righteous Secondly that which immediately followes is no lesse blasphemous to wit that a man may be invested by GOD with the great priviledges of a man perfectly righteous namely delivâ—rance from sinne and condemnation and acceptation into favour with GOD though he be no such man For hereby GOD is charged either with injustice and iniquitie or with errour in his judgement Thirdly his taking upon him to give a reason of GODS purpose and counsell is Luciferian pride and presumption For who knoweth the minde of GOD or hath beene of his counsell Rom. 11.34 Saint Paul who was taken up into the third heaven could never finde out any such counsell of GOD neither durst give a reason of GODS purpose and counsell but onely the good pleasure of his owne will Fourthly in the declaration of his reason I find many errours and untruths as first that a mans conscience can hardly thinke of being justified by GOD without a perfect legall righteousnesse Every regenerate man and true beleever can upon his owne knowledge and experience give him the lye and tell him that the weakest conscience of any who hath true Faith being taught by the Gospell can very easily thinke and beleeve that GOD justifies him by an Evangelicall righteousnesse even Christs perfect fulfilling of the Law which is farre more perfect then that legall righteousnesse which the Law requires of every man in his owne person This Abraham beleeved and was fully perswaded of it this David professes and Saint Paul preached and I know no true Christian who doth not both thinke and beleeve it If any man be found doubting of this it is because the spirit of Antichrist and Socinus doth worke strongly in him Secondly the thing which he imagineth being so notoriously false there can be no reason given of it but a reason as false as the thing it self And indeed so it is here For first hee assure most falsely that GODS purpose in the Gospell is to justifie men without any such righteousnesse as the Law requires in every man that is the perfect fulfilling of the Law For though GOD doth not purpose to iustifie men by their owne fulfilling of the Law every one in his owne person yet by Christs righteousnesse and his fulfilling of the Law in their stead and by communicating and imputing that righteousnesse to them he purposeth in the Gospell and professeth that men shall bee and are by him iustified and this is in Christ such a righteousnes as the Law requires for proofe of this see Rom. 8.4 and 10.4 Secondly the fathers upon GOD his own false and wicked conceits to wit First that GOD goeth about to cure an infirmity in his people which is not to be found in any of them after they are called to beleeve in Christ and to be his people for then
against the invincible rocke of the holy Scriptures and seekes to turne them like a rowling stone against a barke they rowle and rebound back and tumbling upon him grind him to powder· For if hee had ten thousand instances of Scripture wherein the fruite and benefit which men receive are signified by the names of the things which are the causes and meanes of them yet still it will appeare that the fruite is not received except men have first an interest and propriety in the causes and meanes of it And thus you see his fift part or passage proved to bee a rotten heap of stinking lyes absurdities and grosse errors Socinianisme WHerefore to draw towards the close of this first Chapter and withall to give a little more light that it may bee seene to the bottome cleerely both what wee affirme and what we deny in the question propounded First when we affirme the faith of him that beleeveth to be imputed for righteousnes The meaning is not either 1o. That it should be imputed in respect of any thing it hath from a man himselfe or as it is a mans owne act nor yet in respect of any thing it hath from GOD himselfe or from the spirit of GOD producing raising of it in the soule though it be true it requires the lighting downe of the mighty arme of GOD upon the soule to raise it Neither 3 o is it imputed for righteousnes in respect of the object or as or because it layeth hold upon Christ or his righteousnes though it be also true that that faith that is imputed for righteousnes must of necessity lay hold upon Christ and no other faith is cable of this imputation besides because if faith should justifie or be imputed as it layes hold upon Christ it should justifie out of the inhaerent dignity worth of it and by vertue of that which is naturall and intrinsecall to it there being nothing that can be conceived more naturall and essentiall to faith then to lay hold upon Christ this is the very life and soul of it and that which gives it its specificall being and subsistence Therefore to make the object of faith as such the precise and formall ground of its imputation is to make hast into the midst of Samaria whilest men are confident they are travailing towards Dotha◠It s the giving of the right hand of felowship to the Romish justification which makes faith the meritorious cause of it in part But lastly when with the Scriptures we affirme that faith is imputed for righteousnesse our meaning is simply and plainely this that as GOD in the first covenant of workes required an absolute and through obedience to the whole Law with continuance in all things for every mans justification which perfect obedience had it beene performed had beene a perfect righteousnesse to the performer and so would have justified him So now in the new covenant of grace GOD requires nothing of any man for his justification but onely faith in his Sonne which faith shal be as availeable effectuall to him for his justification as a perfect righteousnes should have beene under the first covenant this is that which is meant when faith is said to bee imputed for righteousnes which is nothing but that which is taught generally by Divines both ancient and moderne Sic decretum dicit a Deo ut cessante lege solam fidem gratia Dei posceret ad salutem Ambrosius In Rom. 4. that is that the Apostle saying that to him that beleeveth his faith is imputed for righteousnes affirmeth that GOD hath decreed that the Law ceasing the grace of GOD will require of men onely faith for salvation and again upon Chap. 9. of the same Epistle Sola fides posita est ad salutem onely Faith is appointed to salvation Calvin writing upon Rom. 10.8 hath wordes of the same importance and somewhat more cleare and full ex hac distinctionis nota colligimus sicut lex opera exigit Evangelium nihil aliud postulas nisi ut fidem afferrent homines ad recipiendam Dei gratiam that is from this distinction we gather that as the Law exacted workes so the Gospell requires nothing else but that men bring faith to receive the grace of GOD. If GOD requires faith in the Gospell for that same end for which he requireth workes or perfect righteousnes in the law it necessarily followes that he shall impute this faith for that righteousnes that is accept from men upon the same termes and bee countable unto them the same favours rewards and priviledges upon it that should have beene given unto men in regard of that righteousnes had it beene performed or fulfilled otherwise he should require it for such an end or upon such tearmes as hee would refuse to make good unto it when the creature hath exhibited and tendered it unto him To require it for righteousnes or in stead of righteousnes and not to accept it for righteousnesse when it is brought to him should bee as apparant a breach of Covenant with GOD as it would be in a rich creditour that should compound and agree with his poore debtors for 1. in the pound or the like but when they brought the mony to him should refuse to take it upon any such tearmes or to discharge them of their debt and give them out their bonds Christianisme IN this last part or passage which is a meere confusion and distraction of wordes hee gives more then a little light that his Socinian heresie in this point of justification maintained with much non sense may bee seene to the bottome cleerely First hee takes upon him to shew that faith is imputed and how it is imputed Secondly hee strives to shew that Christs righteousnes is not imputed The first is in the wordes before recited The second followes hereafter First I will sift his wordes already rehearsed And after proceed to the second The summe of his speech last recited may be reduced into a Syllogisme of non sense without forme mood or figure The proposition and assumption whereof are contradictory And the conclusion damned Socinian heresie so that here I may say with the Poet. Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici His proposition runnes thus Faith is neither imputed for righteousnes in respect of any thing which it receives from man the proper subject of it nor as it is mans act who useth it and performes the acts of beleeving nor in respect of any thing which it hath from GOD or his spirit in the production of it nor in respect of the object Christ and his righteousnes nor in respect of the life and soule of it which gives to it the specificall being and subsistence to wit the application of Christ and laying hold on him The Assumption BVt faith is imputed to men and is counted and accepted as sufficiently for justification and upon the same tearmes under the Gospell as perfect righteousnes of workes and of obedience to the whole Law
was in the first covenant and under the Law So all Divines hold both ancient and moderne The Conclusion THerefore upon mens beleeving GOD shall bee as countable to them to give them the same favour rewards and privileges that should have beene given unto them in regard of the perfect righteousnesse of workes and of the Law if they had fulfilled it First for his negatives heaped up in the proposition wherein wee have a narration of what he holds not if we lay them altogether they will conclude that faith is no way at all imputed for righteousnes for neither in respect of the subject in which the habit of it resteth nor in respect of the actes which man performes by it nor in respect of any thing which GOD by his spirit gives it in the production of it that is for no quantity quality or vertue in it nor in respect of the object Christ nor in respect of the life soule or forme which gives it the specificall being and subsistence so hee plainely professeth and besides these there is no other respect in which it may bee imputed as al reasonable men do know Therefore the conclusion is that it is not imputed at all But yet in affirming nothing but denying all respects which reason can conceive in faith and in roming from himselfe and us he kicks at us and by the way snarls and bytes at the truth For it is most certaine that faith is said to be imputed in respect of GODS production of it by his spirit and in respect of the object Christ and his righteousnes which it doth lay hold on and apply For the spirit of regenerarion being shed on us through Christ dwelling in us and making us one body with Christ partakers of his whole satisfaction doth worke iustifying faith in us and this union and conjunction which in order of nature goeth before faith and concurres to the production of it is the ground and reason of the imputation of it If Christ were not made ours and his satisfaction communicated to us faith could not truely believe in Christ nor truely apply his righteousnesse therefore the two last of his negatives are false and haereticall Besides it is not to be passed over in silence that here againe he contradicts himselfe and grants that Christ with his righteousnesse is the object of faith and laying hold on him is the life and soule of faith which hee utterly denyeth and disputes to the contrary in the next Chapter as I have touched before As for his assumption the sum whereof is that faith is imputed and accepted of GOD for righteousnesse upon the same termes that perfect righteousnes of works should have beene in the first Covenant This is Socinian haeresie in the highest degree so grosse and palpable and so openly and expressely affirmed by him that no salt of interpretation can keepe it from stinking in the nostrills of any true Christian. Here also wee may note his ignorance absurdity and nonsense for instead of shewing in what respect faith is imputed hee affirmes that hee holds it to be imputed instead of perfect righteousnesse of our owne workes and that it is in the new Covenant a condition answerable and every way as sufficient and availeable to procure all favours rewards and priviledges to us from GOD as the righteousnesse of workes was in the Covenant of workes and both here and in the conclusion hee makes faith as meritorious and as strong a bond to tye GOD and make him countable for all favours rewards and priviledges under paine of being counted a covenant breaker as the perfect fulfilling of the Law by every man in his owne person was in the covenant of workes and here doth more then give the right hand of fellowship to Popish justification for hee transcends them and makes GOD more obliged to men for them and more countable then any Papists ever did As for the testimonies which hee brings out of Ambrose and Calvin they are nothing to his purpose they onely affirme that as the Law was mans onely guide to salvation and the rule of righteousnesse in the old covenant So faith in the Gospel is the onely way to salvation in the new covenant and the meanes by which we receive the grace of GOD and the righteousnesse of Christ offered to us for justification and salvation Socinianisme SEcondly when we deny the imputation of Christs righteousnes in justification we neither deny the righteousnesse of Christ in it selfe we rather suppose and establish it neither 2º doe wee deny the absolute necessity of it both to the justification and salvation of a sinner neither 3º do wee deny a meritorious efficiencie and causalitie in that righteousnes in respect of the justification of a sinner but verily believe and conceive that GOD justifieth all that are justified not simply or barely for Christs sake or for his righteousnes sake for a man may doe a thing for his sake whom he much loves and respects though he hath not otherwise deserved it at his hands but for the righteousnesse of Christ his death being taken into the consideration with it why GOD should justifie those that believe in him But 4º and lastly that which we deny in denying the imputation of Christs righteousnesse is this that GOD should looke upon a believing sinner and account of him as one that hath done in his owne person all that Christ did in obedience to the morall Law and hereupon pronounce him righteous or which is the same that GOD should impute unto him those particular acts of obedience which Christ performed in that nature and property of them so that hee should stand as righteous before GOD as Christ himselfe or which is the same righteous with the selfe same righteousnesse wherewith Christ was righteous and so GOD make himselfe countable to him for such obedience imputed in as great matters of rewards as he would have beene for the like obedience personally performed by himselfe in a word this is that which we deny and this is that which we affirme concerning the righteousnesse of Christ in the justification of a sinner that GOD cloathes none with the letter of it but every man that believes with the spirit of it 1. that this righteousnes of Christ is not that that is imputed unto any man for his righteousnesse but is that for which righteousnes is imputed to every man that believeth a justified person may in such a sense be said to be cloathed with Christs righteousnesse as Pauls necessities were relieved and supplied by his hands Act. 20.24 these hands saith hee have ministred to my necessities Paul neither eate his fingers nor spun out the flesh of his hands into cloathing and yet was both fed and cloathed with them So may a believer be said to be cloathed with the righteousnesse of Christ and yet the righteousnes of Christ it selfe not to be his cloathing but onely that which procureth his cloathing unto him and so Calvin calls that
his owne personall righteousnes as the justifier they are righteous by communion and imputation as justified And as the hands and feet and other inferior members live by the same life and are sensitive by the same sense which is originally in the heart and head of the same body yet they are not so lively and sensitive as the heart and head but in a competent measure and proportion fit for every one of them So it is in the mysticall body of Christ betweene him the head and them his believing and justified members as I have before touched So that here we have an intollerable calumny and slander laid upon GODS sacred truth and the true professors of the same Secondly he utters a notorious untruth when he saith that to bee righteous by the same righteousnes which Christ performed is nothing else but to be performers of every act of his obedience in our persons Thirdly it is a wicked error to thinke as hee doth that obedience and righteousnes ether performed by ourselves or communicated to us should make GOD countable to us that is bound to give us the greatest rewards For the righteousnes of justification and the holynes and obedience of sanctification are onely free gifts which GOD gives to make us capable of eternall life and fit to stand in his presence and to see and enjoy his glory not bands to tye himselfe and to make him countable to us for if we be righteous what give we to him or what receiveth he at our hands Iob 35.7 eternall life though by Christ purchased for us yet is the free gift of GOD in Christ. Rom. 6.23 Here therefore this sublimate Doctor doth bewray his owne ignorance in the maine mysteries of salvation and is as David saith Psal. 14. become filthy stinking and abominable in his thoughts and imaginations concerning GOD himselfe while hee doateth after Socinian subtilties and sets himselfe to be singular by preaching his fond errors and heresies Lastly after all this in conclusion hee takes upon him to elude and evacuate those most plaine testimonies of holy Scripture wherein Christ is sayd to cloath and cover us with the garments of salvation and the robe of his righteousnesse Isa 61.10 that our sinnes and staines being thereby covered Psal. 32.1 sinne might no more be imputed to us but we in the robes of his righteousnesse may stand cloathed as with long white linnen robes Revel 19.8 And like Iacob in the garments of the first borne yeelding a sweet smelling savour may be accepted of GOD our heavenly father First hee saith that GOD in the justification of sinners cloathes none with the letter of Christs righteousnesse but every man that believes with the Spirit of it that is not with the righteousnesse it self but with the fruite and benefit of it that is with faith counted for righteousnesse where note that in his conceipt the righteousnesse of a justified man is a thing inhaerent in himselfe and a worke performed in his owne person not communicated to him from another ab extra as garments are and so no cloathing here is one grosse absurdity like as if one should say a mans cloathes are not on him but in him That speech of Paul these hands have ministred to my necessitie Act 20.34 are nothing to the purpose for he doth not say his hands were his necessary meat and cloathes but by working did get him necessaries and so Christ by his obedience procured righteousnesse for us which he doth communicate to us and cloathes us with and by GOD it is imputed to us and this Calvin calles righteousnesse gotten by Christs death and resurrection and all this is for us and against himselfe The other instances which hee brings from Scripture to prove that Christs righteousnesse is by a metonymie of the cause for the effect used to signifie the fruite and effect of it in us prove no such thing at all The first of them Iohn 17.3 this is eternall life to know thee the onely true GOD c. It is mistaken for to know GOD and Christ that is to have experimentall knowledge of GOD and Christ and to enjoy GOD in Christ as the word know by an Hebraisme signifies is not there mentioned as the efficient cause of eternall life but as the thing wherein it doth formally consist So also that speech Iob 33 26. as Master Perkins truely expounds it doth not speake of the fruite of a mans righteousnesse which GOD renders to him but of the righteousnesse of Christ which GOD renders to a man a fresh and after temptation doubting and distresse makes him feele and enioy it in himselfe when by repentance and humble and faithfull prayer hee seekes it And although the nation of the Israelites are often as hee alledgeth called by the name of Jacob in Scripture because he was their Father and they his naturall progeny yet this proves onely that the Scripture useth tropes of speech many times which we acknowledge willingly and in the next Chapter will prove fully Where hee forgetting and contradicting himselfe utterly disclaimes tropes and figures and exclaimes against all the learned who hold that Saint Paul useth a trope in saying that faith is imputed for righteousnesse Well for the present wee will grant him that our cleannesse from the guilt of sinne and the state of righteous and justified persons wherein we stand before GOD being the issue and fruite of Christs satisfaction communicated to us may very well be called by a trope the righteousnesse of Christ but this doth not overthrow but rather strongly prove the communion and imputation of Christs righteousnes to us Thus we see how hee labours in the fire and in vaine beats his braines and out of the confusion and distemper of them doth say and gainsay affirme and deny the same things oftentimes being like a clowd without water carried about with winds sometimes one way and againe the contrary way and never settling upon solid truth nor building upon a sure foundation Now what he promiseth in the conclusion of this Chapter you shall see how hee performeth by my answer to his second Chapter wherein as he begins here so he goeth on entangling and beating himselfe forging and falsifying and in every passage discovering his ignorance and folly mingled with much impudency hereticall perversenesse and pravity which that it may better appeare and that we may see his Socinian heresie to the bottome clearely I will lay downe the chiefe heads of the Doctrine of Justification as it is taught in the Scriptures and maintained by all Orthodox Divines both ancient and moderne Justification taken in a full sense is that act of GOD by which he justifies his elect and faithfull in his son Iesus Christ by the communion of his spirit that is doth make them righteous by Christs perfect righteousnes and full satisfaction spiritually made theirs and doth count them righteous by imputing the same unto them and doth declare them to be righteous inwardly to
for us to satisfie in our stead and his holy spirit to unite us to his Sonne and to bring us to communion of his satisfaction Thus wee see that they shut up the doore of Heaven and stop that onely way to eternall life by overthrowing justification which is the making and accounting of men righteous by that onely righteousnes of Christ besides which there is not any other to be found sufficient and able to beare us out before GODS tribunall of justice Now let all true Christians well weigh and consider the difference betweene truth and errour life and death true Christianity and Antichristian infidelity for such is the damned Socinianisme before discovered And if any man in the midst of the light of the Gospell shining so clearely and discovering so plainely cursed heresie will be blind let him bee more blind still and if any will be filthie let them bee more filthie still And if any love not the LORD Jesus but hate and blaspheme his truth let him be Anathema Maranatha Amen THE SECOND CHAPTER OF Socinianisme Wherein the imputation of faith for righteousnesse in a proper sense is undertaken to be proved from the Scriptures and the interpretation of those Scriptures confirmed both by reason and authority as well of ancient as moderne Divines THE PREFACE WHat it is that should be imputed for righteousnesse in justification all the wisdome and learning under heaven is not so fit or able to determine as the holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures being the great Secretary of heaven and privie to all the wayes and counsels of GOD and therefore there is none to him to take up any difference or to comprimise betweene the controverters about any subiect in Religion All the difficulty and question is because though hee speakes upon the house top yet hee interprets in the eare all the Christian world either knowes or readily may know what hee speakes in the Scripture But what his meaning and intent is in any thing he leaves unto men to debate and make out amongst them To some indeed hee reveales the secret of his counsell the Spirit of his letter in some particulars but because these are not marked in the forehead therefore their apprehensions and thoughts though the true begotten of the truth are yet in common esteeme but like other mens till some stamp or superscription of rationall authority be set upon them to make the difference yea many times the nearer the truth the further off from the approbation of many and sometimes even of those that are greatest pretenders to the truth The Answere THe first part or speech is a solid truth to wit that no wisdome and learning under heaven is so fit or able to determine what is imputed for righteousnes in justification as the holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures But this truth he contradicts in the next words which follow immediately where he saith that the holy Ghost leaues his meaning and intent to men to debate which if it be true then men are to determine and to take up every difference about any subject in Religion This beginning with contradiction is very ominous and prodigious and from hence we may gather what we are likely to find in his ensuing discourse The rule by which men are to judge of the Spirits meaning is the stamp and superscription of rationall authority set upon them so hee here expressely affirmes and in this hee openly professeth himselfe to be of the faction of the Socinian and Arminian remonstrants who doe teach that the best judge of the meaning of the Scriptures is recta ratio that is their owne carnall reason rectified by the art of Sophistrie Againe hee affirmes that all the Christian world knowes or readily may know what the holy Ghost speaks in the Scripture If this be true then they are all taught of GOD and the Spirit leaues not his meaning to men to debate and to promise betweene controverters Here is another contradiction Hee proceeds yet further in his absurdities and tells us that the holy Ghost reveales not to all the Christian world but to some the secret of his counsell the Spirit of his letter this is a contradiction to that which went next before And whereas before hee saith that all the Christian world knowes what the holy Ghost speakes in Scripture that is all saving truth here hee saith that hee reveales the secret of his counsell but in some particulars thus in every thing he contradicts himselfe and like a lunatick broken out of Bedlam he raves first saying and affirming and immediately denying and gainesaying in the same things But yet a lunatick persons have high conceits of themselves that they are of noble and royall blood right heires to Crownes Kingdoms and Empires or if not the holy Ghost himselfe yet persons wonderfully illuminated and inspired by him And many times they will not utter their conceits in expresse words but tell you of such great persons and complaine of your blockish dulnesse and stupidity if you doe not presently discerne that they speake of themselves and they are the men So here doth this illuminated Doctor deale with us He tells us of some speciall ones to whom the Spirit interprets in the eare and reveales the secret of his councell the Spirit of his letter who are the true begotten of the truth and that hee takes himself to be a chiefe among these it appeares first by his undertaking to give a reason of the counsell and purpose of GOD in his former Chapter as I have there noted Secondly by his taking upon him here to determine this question which none but such illuminated ones can be able to do And hee breakes off his prologue with a kind of complaint and exprobration full of disdaine namely this that because they meaning himselfe and his fellowes are not marked in the forehead by the Spirit of illumination therefore their thoughts and apprehensions are yet in common esteeme like other men you see non sapit humanum nec est mortale quod optat till some stamp and superscription of rationall authority be set upon them to make the difference Here hee seemes in this last clause to take courage and to conceive some hope that by the rational authority of his new coined Logick of which he lately gave us a tast whē he told us that causes are opposit ex diametro therefore the efficient impulsive instrumentall materiall formall and finall causes of mans justification and salvation cannot all or the most of them concurre in one person Christ though GOD and man hee will make the difference knowne betweene his excellency and other mens ignobility and obscurity The last clause of his complaint wherewith hee concludes his Preface is an overthwart blow to some where speaking of those first begotten of the truth he saith yea many times the nearer the truth the further off from the approbation of many and sometimes even of those that are the greatest pretenders to the
one of his faithfull seed is here meant GODS setting of Christs righteousnes on every true beleevers skore and putting it on his account and judging counting and esteeming him no more guilty of sinne but perfectly righteous by that Evangelicall righteousnes which is called the righteousnes of GOD 2 Cor. 5.21 because GOD performed it in mans nature and the righteousnes of faith Rom. 4.13 and not of workes because it is applyed and enjoyed by faith Philip 3.9 For the confirmation of this exposition and iustifying of this truth wee need seeke no other arguments but such as may bee gathered from the Apostles owne words as in other of his Epistles so especially in this to the Romans argument 1 The first argument is drawne from the 2. Chapter of this Epistle v. 26. where this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it signifies to bee imputed or counted is first used by the Apostle in the very same phrase as here in this Chapter 4.3.5 9. If saith he the uncircumcision keep the righteousnes of the law shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision By uncircumcision in the first clause we must necessarily understand a Gentile uncircumcised as learned Beza in his notes observes and that by a trope of speech which is called Metonymia adjuncti for with some reason it may be supposed that an uncircumcised man may observe the precepts of righteousnes contained in the law but it is against common sense to suppose that the fore-skin of any mans flesh not cut off should performe the righteousnes of the Law no man in his right wits will father such a senseles meaning upon the learned Apostle The same word in the second clause as Beza also well observes cannot with any reason bee thought to signifie the foreskin of mans flesh not cut off that is uncircumcision in a proper sense for that cannot but most falsely be reputed and counted for circumcision because they are contradictories one to another But here by a trope or Metonymie called Metonymia signipro re signatâ the word uncircumcision signifies the state of Gētilisme Neither doth it signifie that state barely considered by it selfe but as comprehending in it the righteousnes of the Law which the uncircumcised man hath kept and performed in that state as the wordes necessarily imply for the Apostle doth not say that uncircumcision simply but uncircūcision which hath kept the righteousnes of the Law shall bee counted for circumcision So that here is a Metalepsis or double trope to wit first uncircumcision put for Gentilisme of which it is a signe or adjunct and secondly put not onely for that state of a Gentile but also for the righteousnesse of the Law kept by the man in that outward state of a Gentile uncircumcised which is a Metonymie of the subject containing for the thing contained Yea if wee looke thoroughly into the phrase wee shall see that the state of the man uncircumcised or the man in that estate put for that which hee hath done and performed even the righteousnes of the Law By circumcision we cannot with reason understand the outward cutting away of the foreskin of mans flesh neither taken literally and carnally as the corrupt blind Iewes did take it for a worke of righteousnesse and obedience to the Law for justification The Apostle affirmes Galatians 5.3 that so taken it was an obligation by which the circumcised was bound under paine of cutting off for ever to performe the whole Law And for a righteous Gentile to bee brought under this bondage was no benefit but a miserable condition an ill reward of his keeping the Law Neither can circumcision be here taken sacramentally as it was an outward signe and seale of the righteousnes of faith and of mortification and all vertues of holynesse by which men are sanctified to GOD and become his peculiar people For Ishmael Esau and all the Sonnes of Belial in Israel even Elies wicked Sons and the rest were partakers of the outward signe and sacrament of circumcsion and yet being destitute of the inward grace signified their circumcision was no reward to them but was a witnes to condemne them But the circumcision here mentioned by the Apostle is an honour benefit and a good condition and therefore undoubtedly signifies the inward circumcision of the heart in the Spirit and not in the letter so the Apostle doth expound himselfe verse 29. that is true mortification and sanctification The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be counted signifies here in a full sense judging counting approving accepting and using accordingly Now all laid together the meaning of the Apostle must necessarily be this without any contradiction That if a man uncercumcised do keep and observe with all holy endeavour the commandements of GODS Law and the righteousnesse thereof his state of Gentilisme and of outward uncircumcision comprehending in it a conscionable observing of GODS holy commandement shall be accounted and judged by GOD and by all who judge aright as it is indeed the state of mortification and sanctification which by the Prophets is called circumcising of our selves to the LORD and puting away the foreskin of our hearts Ier. 4.4 And this man though uncircumcised in the flesh and a Gentile in outward estate shall be counted of GOD for a true Israelite without guile circumcised with circumcision of the heart in the Spirit whose praise is not of men but of GOD. This sense and meaning of the words of this phrase is so cleare and manifest and so perfectly agreeable to all true reason that no man can deny it unlesse hee will set himselfe to rebell against the light And this phrase being the same with that which is made the ground of this dispute Rom. 4. where the same Apostle saith that faith and believing were counted to Abraham and so are to every true believer for righteousnes yea being the onely place in all this Epistle wherein the Apostle useth the phrase of imputing or counting except onely in this 4. Chap. and once in the 5. Chapter where hee saith sinne is not imputed it must needs give light to these speeches and words in controversie and as it hath the first place in this Epistle so it deserves to goe before as a guide to lead us to the understanding of the rest Wherefore if we will follow the Apostle himselfe and tread in the same steps after him being the surest guide and best expounder of his owne meaning we must by Abrahams believing by a Metalepsis or double trope with our learned Divines understand Abraham setled in the state of a true believer united by one Spirit unto GOD in Christ and having communion of his satisfaction and righteousnes which were of force and efficacy from the beginning to save justifie all the faithfull and to make GOD their reward And by faith imputed we must not understand faith by it selfe in a proper sense but the state and condition of a faithfull man and also that which faith
the Scripture where any thing besides faith and believing is said to be counted to man for righteousnes is that place of the Psalmist Psal. 106. and 31. where the godly zealous act of Phinees in executing just judgement on Zamri and Cosbi is said to be counted to him for righteousnes Now the meaning of the wordes there cannot be that this act of Phinees was accepted of GOD and counted to him for righteousnes to justification For then it will follow that a man may bee justified before GOD by one act or worke of his owne Which the Apostle here utterly condemneth as a grosse errour and bends his whole discourse against it The true sense and meaning of the phrase is no more but this that Phinees performing such an act of godly zeale as is proper onely to a faithfull righteous man who by the spirit of regeneration dwelling in him is so united unto Christ that by faith he was a true partaker of his righteousnes GOD upon this act gave him the testimony of righteousnes and declared and judged him to bee a righteous man truly justified Therefore the Apostles phrase of counting faith to the beleever for righteousnes which he often useth in this Chapter signifieth after the same manner GODS counting a true beleever for a righteous man and giving him the testimony of righteousnes because he is righteous indeed by communion of Christs righteousnesse which hee hath apprehended applied and enjoyeth by faith The confutation of the false hereticall exposition of the Apostles wordes maintained by the Socinian faction FIrst whereas they hold that faith considered by it selfe in a proper literall sense without consideration of the object or laying hold on Christ and his righteousnes is counted to the beleever for righteousnes to justification and GOD requires in and of us no other thing for righteousnes neither our owne workes performed in our owne persons according to the Law nor Christs perfect righteousnes and fulfilling of the Law made ours by spirituall union and communion with Christ and accepted of GOD for us This I prove to bee false hereticall and blasphemous by these arguments following First faith taken in a proper sense is a part of our conformity and argument 1 obedience to the Law of GOD which above all things requires that wee give honour to GOD by beleeving him and his word and by trusting in him as our onely rock the GOD of our strength and salvation They therefore teaching that faith in a proper sense is counted for righteousnes doe teach that wee are iustified by a worke of obedience to the Law performed in our owne persons and GOD requires on our behalfe no other righteousnes for justification which Doctrine the Apostle utterly condemnes Therefore their opinion and exposition is hereticall and more impious then the Pelagian and Popish heresies concerning iustification Secondly that which was properly argument 2 imputed to Abraham and is so imputed to true beleevers is righteousnes so the Apostle in plaine wordes expresseth verse 6. and 11. but faith in a proper sense is not righteousnes For righteousnes is perfect conformity to the Law as sinne is transgression of the Law yea humane righteousnes is a mans keeping of the whole Law and his observing to doe all GODS commandements with his whole heart all the dayes of his life as wee read Deuteronomie 8. Thirdly that which chargeth argument 3 GOD with errour and falshood in his iudgement is blasphemous This opinion that GOD counts faith for righteousnes that is thinketh iudgeth and esteemeth it to bee righteousnes in a proper sense chargeth GOD with errour and falshood in his iudgement For faith is not any true righteousnes properly Therefore this opinion is blasphemy If they plead that GOD by his absolute soveraignty of power may accept and repute that for righteousnes which is not true righteousnes This doth but more entangle them and involve them in errour For GOD and his soveraigne power are all one as GOD cannot lye nor make contradictories true so his sovereignty of power cannot either make that to bee righteousnes which is not or truely iudge it so to bee Neither can his infinite iustice bee satisfied without perfect fulfilling of his Law nor allow any man to bee iustified without righteousnes nor will his truth suffer him to count any iust who is not iust Therefore by this base shift and wicked pretence devised to hide and cover their blasphemy they do runne further into blasphemy and make his soveraigne power a tyrant and oppressour of his iustice and truth argument 4 Fourthly that opinion which taketh away and denyeth the meanes by which GOD is revealed to be infinitely iust mercifull and wise and makes the satisfaction of Christ and his perfect fulfilling the Law a vaine and needlesse thing is most hereticall impious and blasphemous This opinion that GOD by his sovereigne power can and doth accept and count imperfect faith for perfect righteousnes takes away the meanes by which GODS iustice mercy and wisdome are revealed to be infinit yea it extenuates and vilifies GODS iustice mercy bounty and wisdom and makes Christs full satisfaction a vaine superfluous and needlesse thing Therefore it is an impious and blasphemous opinion First that which reveales GOD to be infinitly iust is that he cannot be reconciled to men that have sinned without execution of iustice to the full and a full satisfaction made according to his iust Law if not by men in their owne persons which is impossible yet by their mediator and surety in their behalfe and by him communicated to them and made theirs as truly as if they had fulfilled the Law in their owne persons And though this satisfaction be of infinit value yet it cannot profit them nor actually merit for them till they be partakers of it truely and really by spirituall communion This is that meanes by which GOD is known to be infinitly iust Secondly when GODS infinite iustice was so strict that nothing could satisfie it nor redeeme mankind but a satisfaction of infinite value made for them And when all the world was not able to find such a satisfaction that his wisedome should finde one out and have it ready before hand in her eternall treasures even a full satisfaction performed in mans nature by GOD the eternall son and also the meanes to make it truely and really the satisfaction of every man truely beleeving that is by the Holy Ghost shed on them through the Sonne Christ and making them one spirituall body with him This reveales GOD to be infinite in wisedome Thirdly in that GOD the Father would in this case give his onely begotten sonne to be humbled in our nature and to obey suffer and make such a satisfaction for poore miserable men in that the sonne would willingly take all this upon him to doe and suffer whatsoever iustice could require and in that the holy Ghost when this satisfaction could not otherwise profit men nor bee made theirs doth not