Righteous and by that Righteousness I must say with them where they have our Divines on the blind side are justified to wit according to the Law of Faith or as they are judged at the Throne of Grace but they do sin they are Unrighteous and no flesh living can be justified according to the Law of Works or at the bar of the Ten Commandements When the Apostle argues against justification by the Law he proves none can be justified by it because all do break it Those that will follow truth shall argue as strongly if we be juâ—â—ified by grace then we must be righteous and perfect according to the Law of it The Orthodox are quite out that will have any justified without a Righteousness that is perfect according to the Law that justifies him to wit in regard to the conditional though not the preceptive part of it The Quaker is quite out that will have this Righteousness perfect according to the ten Commandements which does not justifie him The lover of Truth and Mediocrity will have every man have the Righteousness of a perfect heart for his justification and yet no man be justified but by the grace of God through the Redemption which we have in Christ Jesus There is pardon of sin and justification these may be distinguished not divided Pardon refers to the law of works justification to the law of Faith or the Gospel For this cause saith the Apostle he is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by means of death for the Redemption of the Transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called may receive the promise of eternal Inheritance The first Covenant originally is that of Nature and the first Testament belonging to the Jew represented that first Covenant and the Transgressions for which Christ shed his blood are our sins only against that Covenant If there be any body sins against the new Covenant there is no Redemption for such We have a pardon then in reference to the law of works but we are justified in reference to the law of Faith To wit If we are accused as Transgressors of the Law we may confess it that we are guilty and plead our pardon through Christs Redemption but if we are charged as Transgressors of the law of grace we must not plead our selves guilty but righteous and such as perfectly come up to the terms required in the Gospel or else we are gone It is true Christ hath purchased forgiveness but it is upon condition Pardon is of the Transgressions of the Law but this condition is of Righteousness according to the Gospel and our justification lyes in the performance of the condition In the seaventh place This Opinion instead of leading these friends to the Spirit and the Life as they speak does lead them from both and bring them back to the letter and the flesh and ministration of death To understand this The Apostle we know does distinguish between the Letter and the Spirit The Letter killeth the Spirit giveth Life This distinction is expressed otherwhere by the Law of the Spirit of life and the Law of sin and death The Law of Faith and Law of Works The Covenant of Nature and Covenant of Grace The Law of Works is call'd the Letter as having been writ in stone and is the ministration of death the Law of sin and death or that which killeth because there is none but break it and so are guilty of fin and death by it The Covenant of grace is the Law of Faith that being the condition of it it is the Law of the spirit of life or the ministration of life for the contrary reason because we are enabled through grace or this spirit to the performance of this Law so as to be Righteous according to it and live by it The just man shall live by his Faith And unto the Law of the spirit of life is added in Christ Jesus because it is he hath procured this Law for us which is indeed the great benefit of our Redemption Now while the Spirit is given us for the performance of the condition of this Covenant it being the New Testament not the Law which is the ministration of the Spirit it is a great mistake in these Friends to expect such help from it as to perform the condition of the Covenant of Nature or Law of Works The Spirit indeed does help us but it is to keep his own Law the Law of the Spirit and that Law whereby we may have life If we do look to fulfill the Covenant of Nature we must return to our original Righteousness and our free will which we lost in Adam and that is to go from the Spirit to our selves who are but flesh But what Is not the Law of God the rule of our lives and does not the Spirit of God lead us according to rule and bring us to a conformity to his law I answer no doubt of it but that is a conformity so far as reaches the fulfilling the terms of the Gospel but not those of Works The law of grace does require a sincere walking before Go in all his Commandements and the Spirit of God does certainly help us so far as we sin not against that sincerity or sin no sins inconsistent with these terms but the spirit is not given to bring us up to the terms of the Law and that we should not sin at all What shall we say that Abraham as pertaining to the flesh hath found By the flesh we are to understand works as appears in the next verse and so is the spirit opposed to the flesh as it is opposed to the law of works If we seek therefore for a Righteousness by our works that is according to that law we shall find what Abraham did as pertaining to the flesh We shall find no such matter O ye foolish Galathians says the Apostle having begun in the spirit are ye now made peâ—fect by the flesh The Galathians belike who had received the doctrine of grace by Paul were come to be seduced to the opinion that they must keep Moses Law or else they could not be saved and this is their seeking to be made perfect by the flesh The flesh and nature are Synonymous terms and as in respect of those who were Jews by Nature the works of the Law as given by Moses are called flesh so must the works of the Law as a Covenant by Nature be flesh in respect to the rest of man-kind If the Quaker then is come to seek life by such a following his light as must answer the Covenant of Nature it self that is by a perfection as is without sin against the Law he is plainly under the notion of the spirit brought at last to the flesh for what he seeks In the last place It is an ancient saying that he who looks but one thing is easily mislead It seems that these Friends do apprehend that our doctrine which opposes perfection does serve
that say we are made righteous also by forgiveness and that the delivery of us from sin from the Law and condemnation by it is Justification Though really I am apt to think that this work is to be attributed rather with the Apostle to our Redemption Compare Ephes 1.7.2 Cor. 5.19 Rom. 3.24 with other places And so I come to my point of Perfection Only I must adde this Corollary Simplicissimum nobis videtur si dicamus fidem justisicare quia credenti sua sides imputetur ad justitiam Fides antem ad justitiam imputari dicitur quia Dens illum qui viva fide in Christum credit pro justo habet reputat cum a paena peccati liberans ad vitam aeternam acceptans propter Christi mortem obedientiam It is to be acknowledged that there are and may be very many Scriptures easily pressed by the Quaker and Papist for the service of their Doctrine so that there is no doubt but thus much is proved that it is our duty to be as perfect as they would have Every sin is forbidden and every good thing that is so by the Law of innocency is commanded But it is one thing to know what is our duty and another what will be accepted of God in our performance Our duty is one thing and what we can or doe attain to another God brings not his scales under the Covenant of Grace that our works should have their full weight but his touchstone expecting they be right that they proceed onely from a sincere heart and then he accepts them upon the merits of Christ Jesus Nay indeed the Duty of the Gospel is one thing and the Condition of it another The words perfect and perfection in several places of Scripture may receive an interpretation according to the purpose unto which they are applied As many as are perfect let us be thus minded By perfection there I apprehend such a degree of knowledge as the strong Christian is supposed to have other-where in opposition to the weake who understanding not their liberty by the Gospel were scandalized about indifferent things and so could not walk up to the same rule Not that I had already attained sayes the same Apostle hard by or were already perfect In the one verse of the same Chapter he is perfect in the other he is not wherein yet there is no more real difficulty then this that a man may in one thing be said to be perfect who in another is imperfect which Augustine shewes in the fifteenth chapter of his second book De peccatorum meritis remissione Indeed that Father in that book and in another De spiritu littera hath the luck to treat industriously on this matter Alia est quaestio sayes he utrum esse possit homo in hac vita sine peccato alia utrum sit It is one question whether it be possible for a man to attain to such perfection as to live without sin and another whether there be any that doe For the former question he distinguishes of what is possible by Grace And what is possible by our own Strength To hold that any man by his free will onely without grace is able to keep all Gods commandements and be without sin is that grand Pelagian Doctrine against which he sets his face and detests it But that it is possible to attaine this by grace or the special assistance of Gods Spirit he thinks it best it seemes to grant He thinks it not fit not safe to say any or all of Gods Commandements are impossible Besides where God vouchsafes his grace the work he pleads is to be ascribed to him unto whom nothing is impossible For the second question whether there is or ever was any man upon earth Christ onely excepted that does or did attain hereunto how great a measure of grace soever it be which he has or had he is peremtory in the denyal as full in his proof from Scripture there being several things he sayes which are possible and yet never shall be in the World There is no doubt now but in the dispute between the Quaker and us the terme perfection is understood alike It is a persection they hold in reference to the whole life that a man sins not And if any in the dispute do carry the matter so high against them as to deny what they contend for to be possible they may if they please choose more wariness from St. Austine for the Quaker ascribes not to themselves but to the Spirit the life the power or to Christ within all that they doe On the contrary side if these Friends will not be content with what is allowed them that our duty reaches so far as not to sin at all and consequently to be perfect as the Saints in Heaven that is to be in our kind as God in his is perfect and that it be not denied when we cannot grant that this our whole duty is possible through that spirit by which I hope some of them are lead but they will go on further to say that themselves are such as have attained and that every one who does not attain to the same pitch to wit to live without sin cannot be in a state of Grace and Salvation I shall think it time to send them if they be learned to the same Father and Books for their reproof and satisfaction As for my thoughts farther of this impossibility and what distinction is here wanting you may see p. 12. 19. in my first paper of Election It is common indeed for the Scripture to speak of men and women as perfect Mark the perfect Man Noah was a perfect man Job a perfect man The good Kings are said to walk before God with a perfect heart when yet their failings are recorded in the same chapter It is less wonder to have onr duty set forth in this manner Thou shalt be perfect with thy Lord thy God Let us go on unto perfection Walk before me and be perfect Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength Thy Will be done in Earth as it is done in Heaven Be followers of Christ And as his was so must our conversation be in the world There is no man hath a sensible knowledge of himself but he perceives dayly how far his duty is above his performance I am not ignorant neither how some Texts may be drawn out of their sence where the place must give them a right construction by one Offering sayes the Apostle Christ hath perfected them that are sanctified But we are not to conceive that at once therefore he perfects mans sanctification I deny not moreover but the end of Christs manifestation in the flesh was to redeem us from iniquity to destroy the Works of the Devil to restore us out of sin and unrighteousness and present us unto God as a peculiar People Purified by Faith Zealous of good Works Holy and without
due place which indeed is nothing else but this grace it self even the goodness kindness favour or merciful condescention of God to poor Sinners in accepting us as Righteous upon other terms then those which the Law of our Nature requires and it were but most just we should have performed Which as he grants for Christs sake so does he by his Spirit work in those that are his chosen that all the glory of their Salvation may be due to him only Now the perfection of the Quaker does quite over-throw all this which the Apostle teaches and in short terms it were all one for them to say Sir we deny your Argument and your Reasoning We are of opinion that all men do not break the Law of God but that some are perfect in a Righteousness answering the Law and therefore we have no need of any such grace or Christs Redemption that is of any from Christ as without or other terms whereby we should be justified and saved The Righteousness of God or the Righteousness of Faith you speak of in opposition to Works is below that of ours which we build upon for our Salvation In the fifth place This opinion is not consonant with the Vniversality of Redemption There are no greater patrons of universal grace than the Quaker This is the excellency of his strength the Ruben of his notions But if Christs Redemption lye altogether where they place it in the bringing men off from Sin and Unrighteousness unto Holiness and Perfection even such as to live without sin in this world then cannot Redemption be universal for the most of men remain in their sins and are never converted and those that are reach not to such a pitch as this is and consequently instead of Christs having Redeemed all the World or whole Man-kind there are but very sew Redeemed and indeed none at all I must confess I do not think that the Quaker alone is in the dark about this matter Yet these men I count here are most of all out They look upon the work of Christs Redemption to be the work of Christ within so they speak and so they think altogether and then wilfully confound Sanctification and Redemption whereas Sanctification is a separation of persons from the world and must be of some only that is the Elect supposing Election but Redemption is of all man-kind according to the Catechisme and the Scripture all over That which Christ hath done for us without and in the flesh is for all He was put to death in the flesh his Death was for all He tasted Death for every man But what he does for us within what he does in the Spirit that is peculiar and not alike to all and the one must not be confounded with the other It is worth our asking therefore what Redemption and its immediate fruit to man-kind is and this hath been dispatcht in my paper about Redemption The introduction of a new Covenant and other terms for man to live by is the main The Quaker now does place Christs Redemption in bringing us up to these terms the performance whereof is indeed our Gospel-perfection but he is here so miserably out that he both mistakes the terms or this perfection as if it were no less then the fulfilling every jot of the Law it self also contradicts himself in the best tenent he has For how shall the grace of Christs Redemption be universal if it be placed in that which is not universal How shall Christs death be for all if the great and immediate effect of it be that which only belongs to the Elect On the other hand our Divines we call Orthodox do generally stumble upon this same stone in their denyal of Christs Redemption to be universal It is not sufficient to them for the holding Christs Redemption to be universal that he hath procured that all may be saved if they believe and repent which are our new terms unless he hath procured also that they believe and repent But it is the Elect only do believe and repent and therefore they hold the Redemption only of the Elect. These men how many of them soever they be have not yet learned to distinguish the conditien from the perfermance and that Christs Redemption does lye in procuring the condition not perfermance for the world They know and will say that there is another condition required of us by the Law of our Creation and if man may be justified without that then must there be grace in the grant of this And this grace they are then to understand more is that grace which is so magnified in the ofpel the grace that came by Jesus Christ as the Law by Moses the grace it self of our Redemption Let the Quaker then know it is not Christs bringing man up to the terms of God but his bringing down God to the terms of man that is to such as are sutable to his falne estate wherein the great work he hath done for us is to be fixed And let these Orthodox know the same likewise that it must be therefore his procuring salvation upon our Faith and Repentance and not Repentauce and Faith for our Salvation which is the direct and immediate effect of his Redemption But what Is not our Believing and Repentance then the fruit and purchase of Christs death Be not offended Sirs our Faith and Repentance are a fruit of his Spirit the work of our Sanctification and proceeds from Election See my reasons in p. 29. of my first paper In the sixth place It seems to me that the want of more light to discern between truth and truth is the occasion of persisting to these Friends in their errour and to us in our opposition It is true what we say that no men but sin and it is true what they say the Regenerate sin not The Scripture says both The Child of God sins not so as that sin hath dominion over him when he sins The prevailing interest of his Soul is for God above the flesh and the world and so long he is right in Gods sight right Righteous or Perfect according to the Law of Crace although there be a thousand things wherein he might do more good or less evil than he does and so is imperfect unrighteous and a manifold sinner according to the Law of work The truth is there is something here at the bottom which these men see and our common Protestants do not see which makes them think they see more than we and more than they do see It is this that there can be indeed no justification of any but according to some Law where we can plead that we are innocent or that we have kept that Law and that perfectly so that we are Righteous according to it This being seen they come on too fast that they sin not before they have learned to distinguish between Law and Law Righteousness and Righteousness Justification and Justification Sin and Sin They sin not they are