Dr. upon the next question The words are these But if the Spirit of him that raised up jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit which dwelleth in you and if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness ver 10. His interpretation of the verse is excellent in my mind and it is to this sense as I apprehend it That when we are Christians and have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and the presence of Christ by his Spirit we shall be sensible how far yet we remain unsanctified and that unsanctified part in us which the Apostle calls the body of death and desires to be delivered from will appear as ghastly and deadly a thing to us as the dead body tyed by Mezentius to the living did to him because Christ is living in us But yet now our Christian faith teacheth us to believe that though the body be dead because of sin that is there be a great part of us yet unsanctified and dead because of sinful remainders in it and by reason of this unsanctified part or body of death in us we are exceeding heavy and indisposed to all holiness and goodness yet that the Spirit of Christ in us is life and righteousness and will by degrees qvicken those very dead unsanctified parts that are yet within us for if the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal hodies that is that unsanctified part that is at present dead in sin by his Spirit which dwelleth in us Dr. More 's words are We finding a comfortable warmth in the grateful arrivals of the holy Spirit do believe That he that raised up Christ from the dead wil in due time even quicken these our mortal bodies or these dead bodies of ours and make them conspire and come along with ease and chearfulness and be ready and active complying instruments in alll things with the Spirit of Righteousness Which belief viz. that God will thus by his Spirit quicken our mortal bodies is saith he a chief point in the Christian faith and most of all parallel to that of Abrahams who believing in the goodness and power and faithfulness of God had when both himself and his Wife Saraah were dry and dead as to natural generation and so hopeless of ever seeing any fruiâ— of her Womb who had I say Isaac born to him who bears joy and laughter in the very Name oâ— him and was undoubtedly a type of Christ according to the spirit For Isaac is the wisedom power and righteousness of God flowing our and effectually branching it self so through all the faculties both of man's soul and body that the whole man is carryed away with joy and triumph to the acting all whatsoever is really and substantially good even with as much satisfaction and pleasure as he eats when he is hungry and drinks when he is dry And these now according to the designe of the Dis Discourse are acts of a Gospel-faith which justifie us as Abraham's believing in the power of God for a Son did justifie him I come now to another Question which is this How doth Faith justifie The fifth question of Iustification or under what notion and consideration doth faith justifie Now to this I answer that Faith justifies as our Righteousness It doth not justifie as some affirm only by relying upon the blood of Christ or apprehending the righteousness of Christ for I have given instances of several acts of faith which were justifying acts that had not this respect at all unto the blood of Christ at least not visibly and the reward of Justification was reckoned to them upon other accounts Abraham was fully perswaded that God was ABLE TO PERFORM and THEREFORE it was imputed to him for righteousness Rom. 4.21 22. Yea I have given instances of a faith in Christ that was justifying and yet was not directed to the blood of Christ by any thing that appears in the Scriptures quoted No faith it self is our righteousness faith in the power of God was Abraham's righteousness and faith in the power of God according as our necessities at any time require will be our righteousness But more especially faith in the power of Christ or in the blood of Christ is our Gospel-righteousness though as I affirmed before there cannot be true faith in God now in the dayes of the Gospel but it will turn into a faith in Christ as well as in God And for this Assertion that Faith is our Righteousness I shal give several Scriptures Rom. 4.3 What saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness that is his believing in God and relying upon his power and faithfulness for the fulfilling of his promise this faith of his was accepted so farr was so highly pleasing to God that God made him his friend Jam. 2.22 23. and reputed and reckoned him through grace as righteous as if he had kept the whole Law So Rom. 4. ver 5. To him that believeth in God that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted to him for righteousness What plainer expression can there be than this for our Assertion his faith is counted for righteousness to him or for his righteousness And for a little proof from the testimony of others for this Assertion I reckon is somwhat harsh see what Mr Baxter and Mr John Goodwin say upon it In his Aphorisms of Justification Thesis 20. pag. 108. saith Mr Baxter Our Evangelical righteousness is not without us in Christ as our Legal righteousness is but consisteth in our own actions of Faich and Gospel-obedience Thesis 23. pag. 125. In this sense also it is so farr from being an errour to affirm that faith it self is our righteousness that it is a truth necessary for every Christian to know that is Faith is out Evangelical righteousness in the sense before explained as Christ is our Legal righteousness And in the explication of this Thesis pag. 128. he hath these words Our Evangelical righteousness or Faith is imputed to us for as real righteousness as perfect obedience not that it is as much in true value yet it is so accepted because of the value of Christ's satisfaction Thesis 57. pag. 225. It is the act of faith which justifies men at age and not the habit yet not as it is a good work or as it hath in it self any excellency above other graces But 1. in the nearest sense directly and properly as it is the fulfilling the condition of the new Covenant in the remote and more improper sense as it is the receiving of Christ and his satisfactory righteousness Mr John Goodwin likewise declares himself not to be of their minde who conceive or teach That faith justifies as it is an instrument receiving
be a friend to the truth that he professeth But how to make them such he pretends to no other means but earnest prayers strong arguments and meek perswasions Thou almoâ—â— perswadest me to be a Christian saith Agrippa I would to God I could do it altogether saith St. Paul And when he comes to deal with his legal-Galathians first he useth the strongest arguments that can be to convince them afterwards the kindest appellations and sweetest infinuations to get an interest in their affections I have spoken to the arguments at large the appellations and insinuations I might insist upon such as these Brethren I beseech you be as I am for I am as you are yee have not injured me at all yee know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the Gospel unto you at the first and my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not nor rejected but received me as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus chap. 4. ver 12 13 14 15. ver 19. My little children of whom I travel in birth again until Christ be formed in you I desire to be present with you c. And as St. Paul practised so he advised Timothy to do in dealing with men of a contrary perswasion to him yea with such as opposed themselves to him 2 Tim. 2.25 26. IN MEEKNESS INSTRUCTING THEM WHO OPPOSE THE MSELVES if peraduenture God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth And so he adviseth his Philippians Chap. 3.15 16. Whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing and if in any thing yee be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you The application is onely this So far as any are of a persecuting spirit so far they are Legal and I fear there are great mixtures of this in the hearts of many good men but I dare make this guess concerning them that when they have well smarted themselves by impositions and persecutions for their consciences they will be heartily glad of a TOLERATION which yet they would not have allowed to others if they had had the power in their own hand and I fear they will feel the smart as much as any sort of men and perhaps more for all that are good shall be sure to feel the sting of the Serpent and those most especially that stand next him hoping to make some accommodation but yet are true enemies to him I have done with this fourth Character I have one more considerable Character to add unto the former but before I proceed to the mention of it I shall add some few quotations out of Dr. Moore and Mr. Smith of Cambridge for confirmation of those things that I have asserted as Characters because I am loath to goalone without some restimony from others in such a considerable subject as I have here adventured through the assistance of God to treat upon Dr. Moore in his Mysterie of Godliness Iâ—â— 9. cap. 7. pag. 470. tells us That a MEER LEGALLIST is even a stranger to those things he praâ—â—ses and imitates under the Law Vpon the 〈◊〉 Chaâ—acter that the service of the Legallist consists onely in extemals and acts so as a Paâ—â—â— speaks by external imitation not from a due inwaâ—â— faculty and so again in the same pag. The Law sayes he not giving life there is no principle of life and natural genuine compliance of the soul of man wiâ—â— the SPIRITUALITY of the Law under the first Câ—venant Now if it cannot reach the spirituality oâ— the Law its service must consist onely in external conformities I shall produce somewhat 〈◊〉 the like nature out of Mr. Smith of Cambridge in that Discourse of his of the difference betwixt a Legal and Evangelical Righteousness he hathâ— these words That Righteousness of Faith which the Apostle sets up against the Law and compare with it is indeed in its own nature a VITAL and SPIRITUAL Administration wherein God converseth with men whereas the Law was meerly an EXTERNAL or dead thing in it self not able to beget any true Divine Life in the souls of men All that LEGAL RIGHTEOUSNESS which the Jews boasted so much of was but from the earth earthly consisting MEERLY IN EXTERNAL PERFORMANCES and so falling extreamly short of that internal and God-like frame of spirit which is necessary for a true conjunction and union with God c. Again in the same Discourse he tells us That the most proper and formal difference between the Law and the Gospel is this That the one is considered onely as an external Administration and the other as an internal and that therefore the Apostle calls the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ministration of the Letter but on the other side he calls the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministration of the Spirit Once more in the same fourth chapter p. 323. Under the old Covenant This reaches the first and third characters and in the time of the Law there were amongst the Jews some that were Evangelized that were re non nomine Christiani as under the Gospel there are many that do Judaize are of as LEGAL and SERVILE SPIRITS as the Jews children of the Bond-woman resting in meer external observances of Religion in an outward seeming purity in a form of godliness as did the Scribes and Pharisees of old Another out of Doctor Moore his Mystery of Godliness pag. 387. The holiness of the Gospel is far transcending the holiness of either the ancient or MODERN SCRIBES and PHARISEES and Zelotical Ceremonialists for all outward Ceremonies of time and place of gestures or vestments rites or orders they are all but signs and shews but the body is Christ Some passages out of Mr. Smith's Discourse of the shortness of a Pharisaical Righteousness That Love is an absolutely necessary principle of Gospel-obedience to shew that love is absolutely necessary to a Gospel-spirit pag. 364. saith he The spirit of true Religion is of a free noble ingenuous and generous nature arising out of the warm beams of the Divine Love which first hatcht it and brought it forth and therefore it is afterwards perpetually bathing it self in that sweetest love that first begot it and is alwayes refreshed and nourished by it This Love casteth out fear fear which hath torment in it and is therefore more apt to chase away souls once woundâ—â— with it from God rather then to allure them to God with much more to the same purpose One more out of the learned Doctor concerning the last Character mentioned Upon the fourth Character viz. a spirit of Persecution and it is this That Ishmael Hagar's son had his hand against every man Upon which he quotes a descant of Philo. that it might signifie thus much That the Legallist is a great and fierce Disputer upon the Letter a notable Polemical Divine and his ignorance and untamedness of his carnal heart makes him very hold and troublesome I shall
come it will not tarry This was the very case with the wicked King last instanced out of 2 King 6.33 if the Visiontarry wait for it But now it follows ver 4. If you will not wait if your soul be lifted up in you with pride and impatience why this soul that is lifted up is not upright in him this Spirit is quite contrary to the Spirit of a just and justified man But the just shall live by Faith that is will be patient in such straits this is the great famous place which the Apostle Pau. makes use of to prove Justification by Faith in three several Epistles Rom. 1.17 Gal. 3.11 Heb. 10 38. Ergo Impatience weariness of the service of God is a great argument and symptom of a Legal Spirit in the service of God the thing that we have now under demonstration Now to apply this Character So far as thou findest thy self sloathful sluggish in the service of God ready to draw back and to be weary of well-doing contentious against God with Job angry as Jeremy and Jonah were in their sits of distemper So far Legality is discovered to be the principle of serving God For the Spirit of the Gospel is humble chearful I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him saith the Church in Micah ch 7 9. If God defers to hear and answer prayers yea gives denials yet the true Saints of God think it their duty to wait patiently on the Lord and to find out the cause of these denials in themselves Christ calls the woman of Canaan Dog Truth Lord saith she yet the Dogs eat of the crumbs And this is commended for an high piece of faith Mar. 7.28 I join these Scriptures of Old and New-Testament together and use them promiscuously for proof of the same thing because it is plain there were spiritual Worshippers under the Old-Testament as wel as there are Legal-Worshippers in the new Now in a consonancy to and connexion with this latter part of this last Character viz. the irksomness heaviness and weary somness that there is often found in a Legal Spirit as to the service of God I might make this a third Character That a Legal Spirit is weak and feeble and devoid of all strength in the service of God But I shall make this rather an Observation then a Character of a Legal Spirit yet I shall insist some what upon it I say then The Legal spirit is without strength in the service of God That the Legal-Worshipper is faint-hearted weak in the service of God like Ephraim in Hos 7.11 as a silly Dove without heart and it may very well be for the joy of the Lord alone is our strength Neh. 8.10 Which joy the Legallist never partakes of having never any true sence of divine acceptance And indeed what strength can the Law give us that is now through our fall become a poor weak feeble thing it self What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh c. Rom. 8.3 The Law became weak through our sinful flesh so that it can neither justifie nor sanctifie and it gives no quickness at all in the service of God it gives quickness to the body of death indeed and to the motions of sin in our members as it is Rom. 7. â— but none at all to serve God with The A postle therefore appeals to the Galatians experience that they never received the Spirit by all the preaching of the Law which they had amongst them Gal 3 2. And this was the very reason of God's nâ—aâ—ing a new Covenant of his removing his old Dispensat on by Moses which was so full of Law and so like a Covenant of Works Heb 7.8 19. For there is verily a disannulling of the Commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof for the Law made nothing perfect Thus the Law being weak the Legallist must needs be a weak imperfect thing in the service of God But now it is said They that wait on the Lord by Faith shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wirgs like Eagle they Well run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Isa 40.31 He that believeth on me saith our Saviour out of his belly shall flow kavers of living water this spake he of the Spirit which they that believed on him should receive John 7.38 39. The Gospel of Christ is and in its preportion ever was so far as at any time it was understood and embraced in the times of the Old Testament the Ministration of the Spirit In Col. 1.11 the Apostle prays for his Colossians that they may be strengthened with All might according to his glorious power in the Gospel there is ALL Mâ—GHT and a gâ—orious Power to strengthen and quicken the Saints with no wonder therefore if this quicken and encourage them mightily in the service of God beyond what ever the Law can do for its dependants and admirers I might here take fair occasion to discover what infinite quickning considerations and motiveâ— the Gospel carries in it unto the spiritual service of God beyond what the Law could afford But seeing I do not so much as make this a Character I shall not take the liberty to enlarge further upon it I shall onely now acquaint the Reader why I do not make this a Character and then pass on And truly one great reason is for the sakes of some good people I may say very many that we have amongst us who if we should make this a Character of a legal spirit that it is weak sluggish heartless in the service of God that it is not lively active and vigorous they would presently apply it to themselves and cry out that they are legal for that they find themselves that they are just thus whereas yet it is true that every true Saint the meanest Saint in the World hath more life and vigor of heart in his serving God then the devoutest and strictest legallist in the World And what if I should say in comparing the two Dispensations of the Old and New-Testament that there is never a Gospel-Saint since the day that the Spirit came down upon the Apostles but hath more life and spirit or it is hâ—s fault if he have not then the highest true Saint under the Old-Testament Would not that Scripture bear me out in it which says that John the Baptist was the greatest that ever was born of a woman before him and yet that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven which is often interpreted of the Gospel-state of the Church is greater then he Matth. 11.11 And would not that other Scripture countenance it which saith The feeble shall be as David Zech. 10.8 And accordingly I might affirm that if these complaining Saints had but the true courage of Saints and the true Character of themselves and at the same time the Character of the highest legallists yea of the most
spiritual Saints under the Old-Testament they might truly conclude that their Religion was of an higher strain then either that of the one or of the other * If any will make any abate ment of this observation in the height of it as that the advancement of the least Salnt in the kingdom of Heaven above Iohn the Baptist should be meant of Gospelpriviledges let them do as they see cause and so this observation might wel serve for a Character to them Yet because the Saints of God do not always understand nor are able to make a judgement of their condition and for that I aim onely at such Characters as may be useful to persons for trial of themselves I shal at present let this pass without pressing it any further onely I could wish these multitudes of grovelling creeping complaining Saints were wel chid and awakened for they make Ministers that they cannot preach free Divinity lest they should perhaps grieve them And I verily believe that it hath spoiled many a good Sermon that would have been far more lively both for the conviction of wicked men and the quickening of other good Christians that could have born it and done wel with it meerly the stuffing it with cautions and qualifying many brave expressions lest some of these weak tender Christians should be offended which tenderness in most is rather a delicacy of spirit then the quick sence of a wounded Spirit which indeed must be tenderly dealt with Good men many of them have gotten such effeminate Antinomian Consciences that they cannot bear sound Doctrine many Gospel strains are legal in their apprehension But I must forbear this â—â—nguage lest I have little thanks for not making this a Character I shal onely say before I pass off that methinks when we serve the great God upon terms of Mercy and Grace when he offers us pardon of our sins and the salvation of our souls freely we should be mighty chearful and quick and diligent when we consider our high calling to be the children of God heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ it should mightily quicken and enoble our Spirits Seemeth it a light thing saith David to be a Kings Son-in-Law seeing that I am a poor man and lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 18.23 And certainly it argues a great want of faith hope not to be very much quickned with these considerations but pass on And as I have now avoided making this a Character which I might have made one so I shal endeavour to un-make another that hath been made one by some or at least to unmake it in part They would make this another Character of a legal Spirit A salfe Character of a Legal Spirit That it is selfish and mercenary in the service of God onely works for wages and for the reward but doth nothing out of pure love nobleness and ingenuity I have heard it delivered in a great Assembly as a great observation That self-love hath no more Religion in it than an Horse That is as I understand it so far as a man acts towards God for any good that should accrue to himself so far his Religion is unacceptable Now for the word ONELY I confess I know not what to say to that how that should be a good Spirit that worships and serves God ONELY for the reward But I suppose they that speak undervaluingly of this Principle do mean or at least should mean by the tendency of their Discourses that it is a legal Principle to serve God in hope of the reward or for the reward and that so far as we serve God from this Principle we are legal or at least we miscarry in so doing And indeed to shew that I do not slander a party I have heard several Discourses wherein this hath been hotly argued that it is not a right or at least not a Gospel-Principle to serve God for fear of Hed which is to me all one as to serve him in hope of a reward for to avoid Hell is a negative reward as the enjoying Heaven is a positive Now for my part I think whatever we may account of self-love when it is the onely principle yet that it is a very good principle in other honest company and withall I think that there is no Saint upon earth that doth act towards God meerly upon the principle of self-love which I shall shew by and by But I will say more yet and that is this That I think self-love or acting for the reward and to labour in hope as the Husbandman doth who not onely laboureth in hope but for his hope or for that which he expecteth else he would not have taken that labour I say to act for the reward or in hope of the reward and so likewise that we may avoid Hell needs not so far the association of other Principles to countenance and credit it as if it were not it self a right Gospel-Principle for I think to be encouraged by the reward which the Gospel promiseth on purpose that so we might be encouraged argues a true Gospel-spirit answering the Gospel-motive and so that outward motive from the Word or Promise becomes an inward Principle It were endless to quote the Scriptures that encourage us in holiness by the consideration of glory to come Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee the Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 One more That which ye have already hold fast till I come and he that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations and he shall rule them with a rod of Iron even as I received of my Father and I will give him the Morning-Star Rev. 2 25 26 27 28 So it is likewise a Gospel-principle to serve God that we may avoid Hell We have both together to get Heaven and avoid Hell made Gospel-motives Heb. 12.28 29 Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire And it is the advice of our Saviour Luk. 12.5 To fear God who can cast body and soul into Hell and for that reason I say unto you my friends fear him they are our Saviours Words Luke 12 4 5. Now with whatever fair shews and pretences men may impose these Doctrines upon themselves or others that they must not serve God for fear of Hell nor hope of Heaven I look upon Satan to be the Forger of these devices for if he can get us once out of the fear of Hell and out of the hopes of Heaven hee 'l make no doubt to bring us into what temptations soever he shall intice us with And I would fain know what the other principles are when these are removed upon which we should be constrained or engaged to serve God There is indeed one more lest very considerable but these men that dislike the hope of reward and fear of punishment
the holy Spirit is ready to fill ouâ— hearts with laughter and our tongue with singing in Col. 3.16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. in Eph. 5.18 19. Be ye filled with the Spirit speaking 〈◊〉 your selves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. So we see 't is the great duty of the Gospel for Saints to rejoice in the thoughts of God But there are several ways by which the Saints may and many do deprive themselves of comfort by falling into sins which to be sure will break their peace or else by admitting Satans subtilties against their peace hearkening to all the whispers of the Serpent against themselves who sometimes tells them they are not elected at other times that they have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost another time that they have out-stood the day of grace or that the spirit of God is departed from them and these things I believe many that have the Spirit of God dwelling in them have not out-stood their day of grace much less committed the sin against the holy Ghost may yet call into question and hear Satans suggestions about them so long till they be brought into a perfect maze and labyrinth of thoughts doubts and fears so that except the Lord should bring them our by a Miracle almost I cannot imagine how they should get out This fear and terror therefore was from their own faust at first though now they cannot help themselves 4thly Yet still I think it may be asserted that even for these very persons concerning whom the objection is made and which are mentioned in the last particular that even these when they are themselves and have the right use of their understandings for I reckon that such sad souls pass through many deliriums and irrational imaginations have all of them more kindly strains of ingenuity to God and of filial boldness than any Legallist in the world ever hath they have their lucida intervalla the smiles of God sometimes and feel the supports of the everlasting Arms or if they have not that which you may call comfort yet at least they are enabled to act towards God with a better spirit then that of a slave 5. But for others that are not thus and I hope I may say the greater part of true Saints they have a comfort and joy in the service of God and their hearts are mightily lightened and quickned by it Thy word saith David is sweeter to me then the hâ—ney or the honey-comb Psal 19.10 thy word hath quickned me Psal 119.50 I rejoiced in thy word as one that sindeth great spoil Psal 119.162 their joy bore the Apostles up above all their sufferings 2 Cor. 15. for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us siour consolation also aboundeth by Christ accordingly we are advised by our Saviour that when we suffer for righteousness sake we should rejoice and be exceeding glad or leap for joy as the word signifies Mâ— 5.12 And certainly if the joy of the Gospel be such as will carry us thorough the greatest sufferings it may well carry us thorough all the ordinary affairs and occasions of this life Yet for this see one place in the Book of Ecclesiastes ch 9.7 8. Go thy way eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart why so it follows for now God accepteth thy works When a man's ways please the Lord and he hath a sense of it which none but a Gospel-Saint ever hath it will make him go chearfully through all the actions and occasions of his life Now if there be such a general joy upon the true Saints of God arising from their Gospel-way of serving God as will carry them through sufferings and through all the actions of their lives and by consequence into the presence of God with a chearfulness and holy boldness is it not most injurious that the troubles and sadness of a few Saints brought upon themselves against the design of the Gospel through the subtilties of Satan and the Saints own default should be thought able to make this assertion too light viz. that a Gospel-spirit hath an holy boldness and a chearfulness in it and is freed from the Spirit of bondage which accompanies a Legal Spirit into the glorious liberty of son-ship and adoption I shall onely make one observation more before I pass off from the explication and proof of this Character which I think will add some light unto it and it will be of a very contrary nature from the observation which the objection fastens upon and it is this It hath been laid to the charge of the Puritans that they are too familiar with God in their Prayers Now truly I will not undertake to defend those good men that have been honoured with that Name in every thing but I think in this particular as in many other things they have a great excellency in that they know better than their adversaries how to use an holy boldness at the throne of grace And yet to shew that I am not altogether sensless of the danger that there is of erring this way I do here acquaint my Reader that I verily believe that many have grosly erred herein I have heard of one very famous once in London a Tradesman that being gotten in a Pulpit made thus bold with the great God in prayer Thou hast said O Lord that concerning thy sons and concerning thy daughters we should command thee we command thee therefore c I need not go to aggravate this boldness I have heard others my self unreasonably as I thought bold in their expressions in prayer but I dare not charge this upon those good people in the general which have been called Puritans But I am sure however it is with them in one extream it is as bad and worse with the Papists and those that are superstitiously addicted in the other that they dare not use that holy boldness which is allowed them nay which is necessary to be used They think it too great a boldness to go to God in prayer without the mediation and intercession of some Saint or Angel or if they go to the right Mediator they dare not go to him but by the intercession of the Virgin Mary all which are but over-servile fears and denials to themselves of that true liberty and boldness which the Lord admits us unto If they go to celebrate the Eucharist the Supper or Feast of Christ's body blood which we are to eat and to drink at the Lords Table for our souls health first the people must not have the Wine then the Bread must be carryed about and worshipped like a god the Table upon which it is consecrated must be an Altar it must not be received but upon your knees nor taken as the command is Take eat but received from the Priests hand into your mouths which are all
need transcribe no more but if the proof of these Propositions that the Legallist is for◠external conformities onely in the service of God that he hath aflat and dead spirit in his service that he is proud and conceited and yet under a spirit of Bondage c. I say if the proof of these rested upon authority I might be furnished with abundant testimonies out of these Authors and I shall name no more hitherto therefore it is evident that I go not alone either in words or matter and design I proceed now to speak to the last character The last Character which is this A man is so far Legal as he is affectedly ignorant of Christ or acts to God without Christ in the daies of the Gospel Phil. 3.7 8 9. when the Apostle had there rekoned up his external fleshly privileges which if he would have had a trust and confidence in the flesh he might have boasted of with any Pharisee of them all these saith he were once gain to me I accounted them my riches and my treasure but now What things were gain to me these I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him NOT HAVING MY OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS OF THE LAW but THAT WHICH IS THROUGH THE FAITH OF CHRIST the righteousness which is of God by Faith That I may know him c. This which I have produced is evidently to the purpose for that the Apostle is opposing the two righteousnesses of the Law and Faith and the righteousness which is of God by Faith is all one with the righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ and therefore that which he presseth forward unto is to be found in him and to know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto him in his death ver 10 11 12 13 14 15. But here I will mark before I go any further that there is an inseparable connexion betwixt the righteousness of Faith There is an inseperable connexion betwixt the righteousness of Faith and true holiness and the righteousness of Sanctification nay they seem in this place to be put one for the other for when the Apostle interprets his own expressions of counting all things losse and dung that he may win Christ and that he may be sound in him not having his own righteousness which is of the Law he speaks it in words that signifie sanctification immediately and properly But which is saith he through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith What is that it follows that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death These are expressions of sanctification so it follows ver 11. If by any means I might obtain to the resurrection of the dead Which is the highest expression of Sanctification in the whole Scripture or at least one of the highest and so to the same purpose it follows ver 12 13 14 15. * Vnless we wil say that the Apostle speaks of Justification in the 7 8 9. verand then without any formal transition passes on to speak of sanctification in the following verses Not but that there must still be a proper difference held betwixt Justification and Sanctification for they have proper different notions and conceptions Justification is an act of God without us Sanctification is an act of the Spirit within us Sanctification denominates the Person good Justification denominates the person accepted and well-pleasing to God But for any contradiction that there should be in this to say that the same inward holiness which is called our Sanctification may be the very condition of our Justification I profess I know of none not that I affirm that it is so for indeed I am somwhat shye of affirming in those very words though I shall afterwards have occasion to say something to the like purpose but if I should I were not alone in the opinion those two Authors above-named would abundantly supply me with testimonies for they frequently and strenuously assert That the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the RIGHTEOUSNES OF FAITH mentioned so often in Paul's Epistles is onely an INTERNAL HOLINESS for which I shall give you several quotations out of them and so proceed Mr. Smith in his discourse of the difference betwixt the Old and New Covenant he comes to speak unto this very Scripture Phil. 3. Where saith he The Apostle amongst his other Jewish privileges having reckoned up his blamelesness in all points touching the Law he undervalues them all and counts all but loss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus in which place the Apostle doth not mean to disparage a real inward righteousness and the strict observance of the Law but his meaning is to shew how poor and worthless a thing all outward observances of the Law are in comparison of a true internal conformity to Christ in the renovation of the mind and soul according to his image and likeness as is manifest from ver 9 10 c. in which he thus delivers his own meaning of the knowledge of Christ which he so much extolled very emphatically That I may be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith Where by the way wee may further take notice what this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousness of Faith and the righteousness of God is according to his own true meaning as he expounds himself viz. A CHRIST-LIKE NATURE IN A MAN'S SOUL or Christ appearing in the minds of men by the mighty power of his divine Spirit and thereby deriving a true participation of himself to them so we have it ver 10. That I may know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death So far Mr. Smith I shall give now the same observation out of Dr. More and so proceed Pag. 387. of his Mystery of Godliness It is plain saith he from the constant scope of the Apostle both in his Epistle to the Gal. and every where else in extolling the righteousness of Faith that he does not vilifie true virtue and morality but drives at an higher pitch and perfection thereof and that the righteousness of Faith which he prefers to the righteousness of works IS NOT BY WAY OF EXCLUSION OF GOOD WORKS OUT OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH but of urging us to exacter and more perfect works of righteousness than could be performed under the dispensation of the Law And in pag. 379 where the Doctor professeth
Propositions thoroughly believed are the foundation of all true Religion By faith we receive the notion of God rootedly in our fouls and then all the discoveries of God in any the effects of his wisdome power and goodness in his Works or in his Word in his Works Heb. 11.3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear Whether faith takes this Proposition That the worlds were made by the word of God out of the Scriptures or meerly by observation from the works themselves it comes all to one as to my present purpose which is this to prove that it is faith that strongly and effectually in us ownes the being of God and the works of God Again it is faith receives all the revelations of God by any messengers that he sends unto us at any time * And indeed this is the most proper notion of faith viz. an asfent to testimony Who hath BELIEVED our report saith Isaias and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed Isai 53.1 If the arm of the Lord be not revealed to men in the preaching of the word it is because they do not rightly believe the report The word preached did not profit them not being mixed with saith in the hearing of it Heb. 4.2 3. and hence it is for that faith is the proper instrument of receiving the word of God that the Saints in the New Testament are called as often by the name of BELIEVERS as by any other name Acts 5.14 1 Tim. 4.12 and the word of the Gospel is called the word of Faith Rom. 10.8 Nay faith doth not only in the first place receive God into the soul then all the discoveries of God in his Works and Word but it pitches upon all the particular objects that are there discovered in the Word and brings them particularly into the soul faith doth not only receive the doctrine of the Gospel as true in the general and from God but because Christ is there revealed it receives Christ himself and brings Christ into the soul and so Christ comes to dwell in our hearts by faith Eph. 3.17 which is indeed a figurative expression there is faith in Christ as well as faith in God the Father and there is faith in the blood of Christ c. but of these things I have spoken largely above in the last character I bring them in only here as proofs of the excellency of faith in that it brings all spiritual objects home unto the soul that so the soul may converse with them in the exercise of all its graces and virtues In one word our whole life here at a distance from God must necessarily be a life of faith We walk by faith not by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 for till we come to the beatifical Vision of God we must see him and all his glories and excellencies by faith and our treatings with God the Father and the Son must be by faith I have a long time dearly loved that Scripture 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom speaking of Christ having not seen ye love in whom though now you see him not yet believing ye rejoice with â—oy unspeakable and full of glory Faith must come into set love on work upon an unseen Christ or else none of that glorious and unspeakable joy could arise to a Christian so that by what hath been said in this first particular Faith is the root-grace in this present state of things 2 Excellency of Faith But secondly Faith is not only the first grace in order and a root-grace but it is certainly productive and efficacious in the actuating all other graces and setting them on work when once saith hath brought all these glorious objects into the soul first God and all his glorious Attributes then his Revelations and especially Christ and his Blood and realized them all unto the soul it is almost impossible but all other graces should in their several courses and respects which they have to these objects move and work regularly and intensly Love we know is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 in rational creatures it is the fulfilling of the Law perfectly even in degrees in broken creatures it is the fulfilling of the Law sincerely in its desires and endeavours Now this faith makes its great instrument to work by Faith worketh by love Gal. 5.6 and I shewed above how faith sets hope on work now these three Faith Hope and Charity are the three great graces 1 Cor. 13.13 all other graces are reducible to these three and of these three faith is the root-grace And therefore we finde often in the Scriptures that all Religion is put upon the bare assent of faith Rom. 10.9 If thou confes with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved 1 John 4.2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come into the flesh is of God Not as if a meer confession or profession of Christ were saving for there are many that do profess themseves Christians that shall go to hell But according to that in the Romanes if they did believe with their heart that God had raised Christ from the dead together with the ends of his death resurrection certainly all those other things which accompany salvation or have salvation annexed to them would follow because true saith hearty unseigned faith is a working faith it works by love to the making a man a new creature and to the keeping of all the commandements of God And according to this positioâ— I make no doubt that place in James is to be under stood Jam. 2. where there is a supposition of a superation betwixt Faith and Works that either that place speaks onely of a false and onely pretended faith and then indeed there may be such a Faith without Works a dead and unactive Faith that is the resemblance and appearance of Faith or else â—t speaks of a true Faith and then it is onely by way of supposition that the Apostle there speaks that upon supposition any one's Faith though it were the highest and truest Faith in the World should not be accompanied by Works it would not justifie and it is very true upon that supposition Because Works are as well required as Faith not but that where-ever there is a true and lively Faith there will be Works necessarily attending it and this I believe all will readily acknowledge Mr. Baxter is so much of this opinion that Faith is an operative Grace and puts the soul where it is upon gracious actions towards God that be puts works and obedience into the desinition or description of Faith In his Aphorisms pag. 279 Thesis 70. Faith saith he in the largest sense as it comprehendeth all the condition of the New-Covenant may be thus defined It is when a sinner by the Word and
the Cross and Christ nailed the Law to the Cross and all this without violence or affront offered to the Law it being but naturally consequent upon what the Law did first to Christ for if the Law set upon Christ as our Surety and do the utmost to him that it can it must needs follow that it hath no strength left against those for whom he undertook and so must die and expire by the same death that our Saviour dyed it being nailed to the Cross which is but a sigurative expression And yet I shall carry the Allegory a little further herein still following the Apostle Paul Is it any wonder now is it any unreasonable thing now that the Law is dead and taken out of the way that we should be married to another husband that we should reckon our selves to be no longer under the Law The woman which hath an husband saith the Apostle Rom. 7.23 is bound by the Law to her husband so long as he liveth but if the husband be dead she is loosed from the Law of her husband So then if while her husband liveth she be married to another man she shall be called an adulteress but if her husband be dead she is free from that Law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man ver 4. Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the Law or the Law is become dead to you BY THE BODY OF CHRIST that ye should be warried to another even to him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God The Law is every soul's first Husband since the fall so every one's actual sin the Law is an intolerable husband there is no living with it it so sets on guilt presseth the soul w th terrors nay instead of producing good works the natural fruit of this Marriage-relation of the Soul to the Law whilest in innocency it now produceth all manner of lusts according to the 5. ver of that 7. chap. When we were in the flesh the MOTIONS OF SINS WHICH WERE BY THE LAW did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Now God in much mercy to mankinde finding that if the Law and the conscience or soul of man keep together his creature will be lost and himself lose those fruits of good works which the soul was first created for he provides another husband for the soul which is Jesus Christ only Christ must redeem his Spouse from that tyrannical Husband which now it lives with else the Soul shall be but an Adulteress to pretend marriage to Christ that is the way of grace whilest the Law can make a just claim to her as a wife which it might have done as long as it lived The manner of the rescue I have before declared it was by suffering and yielding to the Law yet so as in it the Law destroyed it self and then is it lawfull for the Soul that was before wife to the Law to be married to another husband and who so fit as he that redeemed her Now the Soul shall have it's forbearance under failings which the Law would not endure and God shall have a kindly and ingenuous Service there will be fruits unto God and this is the passage from Works to Faith from the Law to Grace I though the Law saith the Apostle am dead to the Law that I might live to God Gal. 2.19 that is through what the Law hath done to Christ it hath nothing to do with me But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter Rom. 7.6 One Scripture more to this purpose it is Rom. 8.1 23.4 There is therefore now no condemnation to ohem which are in Christ Jesus who are married to Christ and have accepted the terms of the Gospel who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit for the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death this chiefly relates to sanctification that the inward law or power of corruption which was occasionally and accidentally strenghtned by the Law of God was now broken by that inward power spirit and life which is conveyed by the Gospel of Christ and is called the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus ver 3. for what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh that is it could neither justifie nor sanctifie both these did God bring to pass by sending his Son in the likeness of sinfull flesh when for sin that is Christ's making himself a Sin-offering so answering the Law God condemned Christ in the flesh that is destroyed it both in the guilt and power of it out of us that were sinners so it follows that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit that is that the Law might no longer accuse us being answered by our Saviour and that we might attain to that which is the chief designe of the Law to wit righteousness and holiness which if we had continued under the Law we could never have attained unto What so common now with the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romanes as to tell them that now they are not under the Law but under grace by this means namely the BODY OF CHRIST offered and that therefore there shall be no condemnation and that therefore sin shall not have dominion over them which are the two great effects of the death of Christ though the first chiefly belongs to that subject which I am upon viz. Justification Having given now all these things in an allegorical and mystical dress yet herein only following the Apostle I shall deliver the same thing somewhat plainly and so conclude this first particular The summe of all this is Man was made holy had a Law to live by to which there was a threatning annexed In the day thou eatest thou shalt die the death or shalt surely die * This threatning I take it is due by the Law to intended against all sins according to that of the Apostle The wages of sin is death Ro. 6.23 speaking of sin indefinitly besides wise Adam might have committed any other sin and not have dyed Man did eat and so was to die death accordingly entred by this sin into the world that is a natural death and for eternal death hereafter and the spiritual death of the soul here which consist's in alienations from God both which all men at age are obnoxious unto being sinners as for children I neither affirm nor deny any thing the Lord in mercy designing to deliver men from provided a Saviour who should first live a perfect life that so he might be the more acceptable Sacrifice and his terms of saving men must be these that he must freely offer himself up to