to be first called and then justified and then glorified Rom. 8.30 2. That which goeth before Pardon and that as a Condition goeth before Justification But Repentance goeth before Pardon Acts 5.31 Luke 24.47 3.3 Acts 2.38 3.19 8.22 1 John 1.9 Mark 4.12 But of this I have given large proof elsewhere 3. All the grace of the Spirit is a preparation for Heaven But that eminent gift of the Spirit which in Scripture is called the Seal Earnest and first Fruit is promised upon repenting and believing and therefore followeth them and is 1. The Habit of Divine Love which is the New Nature and more than the first seed of grace 2. And the Spirit related to us as an in-dwelling possessing Agent of Christ to sanctifie us to the end 3. And in those times to many the extraordinary gifts of Miracles Tongues c. 1. Faith and Repentance went before Baptism in the Adult even as a Condition of it and its benefits Mark 1.4 Acts 13.34 19.4 Matt. 3.11 John 1.26 Mark 16.16 John 4.1 Acts 2.38 41 8.12 13 36 37 38. 9.18 22.16 But that gift of the Spirit which is called the Farnesâ— Seal and first Fruit was either given in or after Baptism ordinarily though to Cornelius before but not before Faith and Repentance It is called therefore Baptizing with the Holy Ghost See Mat. 3.11 Acts 1.5 2.33.38 8.15.17 10.2 Rom. 5.5 Tit. 3.5 2. And the Spirit is said to be promised and given to believers after faith and because they were adopted sons Eph. 1.13 Prov. 1.23 Gal. 4.6 3.14 Rom. 8.15 16.30 2 Cor. 1.22 5.5 Therefore our Divines commonly put Vocation as giving the first acts of Faith and Repentance before Sanctification as Rom. 8.30 doth before Justification and Glorification And yet Faith and Repentance are gifts of the Spirit too and so are many commoner gifts in unsanctified men But as the daylight is seen before the Sun rising and as Satan is not said to possess all that he tempteth So some gifts of the Spirit and some motions and operations of it go before the proper giving of the Spirit itself and his possessing us 3. It is no absurdity but the wise order of God that one gift of the Spirit shall be antecedent to another and the reception and exercise of it by us be a condition of that other For God will morally induce us to our duty by suitable motives He that denieth this subverteth the Gospel 4. I have elsewhere at large proved the falshood of this Doctrine that Impenitent Infidels are justified by the imputation of Christs Righteousness It is enough that Christs righteousness is reputed by God to be the meritorious cause of all our grace even of justification before we are justified Qu. 48. How can faith or repentance entitle us to that righteousness of Christ which must first give us a right to themselves and all Grace Ans 1. Faith and Repentance give us not a Title in strict sence but the Covenant or Promise that is the Gospel Donation is our Title and Faith and Repentance are but Conditions of our Title which on several accounts make us morally capable receivers of Right 2. Christs Righteousness did merit all grace of God before it justifieth us and we are reputed righteous by it It is a great error to say that we must be reputed righteous by Christs Righteousness given and imputed to us to that use before we can have any fruits of the merits of his righteousness Even the outward call of the Gospel is a fruit of it Qu. 49. Is it true that we must be practical Antinomians unless we hold that only Christs active righteousness merited grace and glory for us Qu. 50. Is this proved by Rom. 7.4 Ans 1. Some mens words are used to hide the sense and not to open it What is the meaning of Practical Antinomianism Is it to be the opposers of all Gods Laws or only some and which And doth he not mean that the judgment must be first against them How far are we under the Law and how far not 1. The Law of Innocency as a Covenant requiring perfect personal obedience as the necessary condition of life we are not under It ceased by the first sin cessante subditi capacitate We must not suppose that God saith to all sinners You shall be saved if you be not sinners Conditiâ—nâ— prateâ—◠〈◊〉 transit in sententiam We are not under the Law of Mâ—â—â—s as such even that which was written in stone is done away 2 Cor. 3.7 c. If this be Antinomianism I am an Antinomian that â—â—ve written so much against them 3. We are only under the Law of Christ into whose hand all power is given And that is 1. The Law of reprieved and redeemed nature 2. All his supernatural revelation and so much of Moses Law as he hath assumed If the objecter think that we are under any other so do not I except the subordinate Laws of men 2. That Law of Grace which we have and that freedom from the Law of Works are merited both by Christs Active and Passive righteousness Ad. Qu. 50. Rom. 7.4 hath no such thing but only that Christ hath delivered men from the bondage of the Law of works which did neither justify nor sanctify and hath subjected and engrafted us unto himself that we might by him be made holy unto God Conclusion THe Reader may now perceive what abundance of great notional errours some men have corrupted the Doctrine of Justification with by presumptuous spinning webs out of their own fancies raising one errour out of another departing from the Word of God I. A radical errour is that the Law of Innocency made to Adam is it that justifieth us by its â—â—c hâ—c vivâ—s as fulfilling it in Christ II. Another is that is that Covenant of perfection which Paul meaneth by the Law of Works and the fac hoc c. And that the Jews Law was such as made Innocency its condition of life III. That the sense of Adams Law was Do this by thy self or another or else thou or thy surety shall die IV. That Christ did obey and suffer merit and satisfy in so full and strict a representing and personating every one of the Elect as that they did and suffered it in and by Christ in the sence of the Law of Works or in Gods account and that it was not in the third person of a mediator to communicate the Effects freely as he pleased by another Covenant And so that Gods imputing righteousness to us is his accounting us to have done and suffered in Law sense what Christ did This is the root of all the rest subverting the Gospel itself V. And so that God accounteth us to be Innocent and never to have sinned by Omission or Commission from birth to death and to have all that is required to merit Heaven because we did it in Christ and also to have suffered in
the nâ—â—â—ssary qualification of the Patient or Reâ—â—iver i. e. naturally and legally necessary such as dispositio materiae is said to be in Physicks 3. And as for the notion of an Instrumental Cause of Justification it is past doubt that properly taken neither Faith nor any act of ours is any such nor doth justifie us efficiently at all But if any be so fond of the invented notion of an Instrument as that they will use it though unaptly they must say 1. That it is not an Efficient but a Recipient Instrument Dr. Kendall calls it like Boys catching the Ball in their Hats or as a Spoon is in eating But it is not an Instrument of Physical Reception but Moral To Trust is no more a Reception than to Love The active Acceptance of a Saviour given with his benefits is a Moral Receiving of him which disposeth us as the Condition of the Covenant to receive Justification that is to be justified And in this lax sense you may call it all these if you please viz. a Condition a Dispositive Cause and a Receiving Instrument 4. A Meritorious Cause it is not in a Commutative or strict sense But if you will call that meritorious which is pleasing to God as congruous to his free gift and design of grace whence some are called Worthy in the Gospel so the thing is not to be denied and so all are reconciled Contr. 17. Is justifying Faith an act of the understanding or will Ans Both and therefore it is no one Physical act only nor Instrumental in a strict Physical sense Contr. 18. What act of Faith is it that justifieth as to the Object whether only the belief of the truth of the Promise or of the whole Gospel also or the affiance on Christs Righteousness or on his Truth or on his Intercession or taking him wholly for our Saviour Prophet Priest and King And whether Faith in God the Father and the Holy Ghost do justifie or all these And if but one which is it and wheâ—her all the rest are the works which Paul excludeth from Justification Ans To say that only one Physical act of Faith is it that we are justified by and all the rest are those works is a perverse corrupting of Christianity and not to be heard without detestation For it will utterly confound all persons to find out which that one act is which they indeed can never do And it will contradict the substance of all the Gospel There is no such thing as Faith in Christ which containeth not or includeth not Faith in God as God both as he is our Creator and as reconciled by Christ and as the Giver of Christ to us John 3.16 and as the end of all the work of Redemption Nor is there any such thing as Faith in Christ which is true and saving that includeth not or connoteth not the Knowledge of Christ and Love and Desire and Thankfulness and Consent Nor did ever God tell us of a Faith in Christs Imputed Righteousness only that must justifie us which is not also a Faith in his Person Doctrine Law Promise and Example and his Intercession in the Heavens And to say that only the Act of Recumbency on Christs Righteousness as imputed to our Justification is that act of Faith by which we are justified and that Believing in God his Majesty Truth Wisdom Goodness and the believing in Christ as he is the Prophet Teacher King of the Church and the Resurrection Life and Judge of all and believing in the Holy Ghost as the Sanctifier Comforter and Witness and Advocate of Christ and believing and trusting the Promise of God for Life Eternal or for any grace except Christs Righteousness imputed that all this Faith in God in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and all our Love to Christ and desire after him and prayer for his grace and thankfulness for it c. are all none of the Faith which Justification is promised to but are the Works by which no man is justified and that he is faln from grace that seeketh to be justified by such works that is by true Faith in God as God and in Christ as Christ This is a new Gospel subverting Christs Gospel and making Christianity another thing and this without any countenance from the Scripture and contrary to its very scope The Faith by which we are justified is one Moral act containing many Physical acts even our fiducial Consent to the Baptismal Covenant and dedication of our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be our Reconciled God our Saviour and our Sanctifier to give us Pardon Adoption Holiness and Glory which is our Christianity it self as such Contr. 18. But though this be the Faith quae justificat which justifieth us is it not only Recumbency on Christs Imputed Righteousness quâ— talis which hath the Office of Instrumentality and is â—ides quâ— justificans Ans Such quibbling and jingling of a meer sound of words is usual in ludicrous Disputations of Lads But it 's pity it should pass as the last remedy against plain truth in so great a matter First it must be remembred that no Faith justifieth efficiently and therefore neither quae nor quâ justificans is to signifie any such thing but a meer Moral qualification of the recipient subject so that to be justified by Faith is but to be justified by it as that which God hath promised Justification on as the qualifying Condition But if it be not the same thing that is here called Fides quae and quâ but in the first part they speak of the Habit and in the second of the Act had it not been plainer to say The same Habit of Faith hath several Acts as believing in God in Christs Intercession Kingdom c. but none of these Acts do justifie us but one only viz. trusting to the Imputation of his Righteousness And so both the quae and quâ is â—denied to all Acts save that one This is their plain meaning which is denied to be truth and is a human dangerous invention Yet it 's granted them that it is not every Act of Faith that is made the Condition of Justification or Salvation It is necessary that the formal Object Gods Veracitâ— be believed to make it true Faith and that the Gospel or Covenant of Grace be believed with Consent as aforesaid to make it to be the true Christian Faith in essence and it 's of necessity that every thing be believed which we know that God revealeth But it is the Christian Faith that hath the Promise of Justification and that not any one single Act of it but all that is essential to it and that which belongeth but to its Integrity ad bene esse when it existeth is also so far conducible to our Justification as Abrahams believing that Isaac should live and have seed when he went to sacrifice him yet Justification may be without some Acts as Salvation may without many due Acts of Obedience
Word of God 1. He suffered not many temptations which yet by the merit of his sufferings we are freed from 2. He suffered not many relative evils as bad Parents bad Teachers a bad Wife and all the attendant crosses in buying and selling crosses from bad Tenants or Landlords c. which the merit of his suffering delivereth many from 3. He suffered not the torment of an accusing Conscience 4. Nor Gods hatred or displeasure 5. Nor the many miseries which sin in its own nature bringeth to the Soul as painful cares fears frustrations deceits c. 6. Nor corruption in the grave 7. Nor the final Sentence Go ye cursed into everlasting fire 8. Nor the proper Execution of that Sentence Yet he delivereth some Believers from all these and all from some by the merits of his sufferings For it was not the just same punishment that was due to all Believers that he suffered but that which was fit to make him a meet Sacrifice which was the tantundem vel aequivalens consideratis considerandis Ad 43. The affirmative subverteth our Faith Christs Death merited the full pardon of all pardoned sin But the pardon of sin is the pardon of the deserved punishment of sin and of the sin as related to that punishment But certainly the privation of Gods illuminating sanctifying Spirit and its helps and fruits is a great part of the punishment of sin Psal 81.11 12. Rom. 1.28 2 Thes 2.10 12. To be given up to mens own counsels wills lusts vile affections to a reprobate mind to have eyes and see not hard hearts to believe lies c. Sin is no farther pardoned than this punishment is by sanctifying grace remitted and removed The Scripture doth not ascribe to Christs Sacrifice some part only of our pardon of sin but the whole Rev. 1.5 He washed us from our sins in his blood and so he is the propitiation for them 1 John 2.2 4.3 He made purgation of them on the Cross Heb. 1.3 He died for them and gave himself for them 1 Cor. 15.3 Gal. 1.4 1 Pet. 3.18 Heb. 10.12 9.28 Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood for the remission of sins that are past Acts 22.16 13.38 c. And the poena damm is part of the punishment to be forgiven Therefore Rom. 4.7 Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven c. But no man is blessed that is unholy and separated from God As we all sinned and came short of the Glory of God and spiritual Death is by the objecter confessed to be part of our punishment so pardon containeth the remission of that punishment And it is falsly supposed that Christs Death is not secondarily meritorious of more than pardon even of all that his Active Obedience meriteth of which before Pardon is 1. In jure a Remission of the Obligation to punishment giving us Jus impunitatis and this giveth us Right to aâ—l that grace and blessedness which by sin we lost a Right to 2. Declarative by Sentence which giveth us a Jus judicatum 3. Executive which actually freeth us from the poena dâ—mm sensus And so Sanctification is a part of Executive Pardon so far as it giveth what so sin we were penally deprived of This is all plain and sure Qu. 44. Seeinâ— we our selves bear that pâ—rt of the Curse which lieth in Death spiritual doth it follow that Christs Sufâ—erings were not to free us from it when we bâ—re it and not he Ans It is not denied that part of the punishment of sin is born by the Elect themselves which the former Objecters deny And therefore that Pardon is not absolutely perfect at first Death and Divine denials of the Spirit and Grace are such penalties And Christ died not nor obeyed to save us from that which we are not to be saved from but was excepted from Pardon But the Obâ—ecter can never prove that the Merit of Christs Sufferings though he â—uffered not spiritual death or privation of Gods Image doth not free us 1. From so much of spiritual death or pravity as we are freed from 2. And from the duration of it for ever Or else it merited not one half our pardon To be washed from our sins in his blood can be no less than to be freed from the guilt which is the obligation to punishment first and consequently from the punishment it self Qu. 45. Is this the reason of our deliverance from the Law and being dead tâ— it because we suffered everlasting Hell fire equivalâ—ntly in Christs sufferings Ans When men once depart from the Scripture tâ—eiâ— corrupt additions hardly keep bounds 1. It 's well that this Objecter implieth that it was not the Ideâ—â— but the Aâ—quivalens that Christ suffered as to our debt 2. That which made Christs Sacrifice to be aequivalâ—nt to our endless damnation was not that it waâ— as â—â—â—at a proportion of suffering poenae sensus 〈◊〉 â—s all ours â—ogether would have been But because the dignity and perfection of the person made it an apt means for God that would pardon us to accept as a Sacrifice and so as sit a means to the ends of Government as our damnation would have been and sitter This is the aequivalency 3. We suffered not damnation at all in Christ nor doth God or his Law take or reckon us to have done so but only to receive the pardon and other benefits freely given us which he in the person of a Mediator and not in our person merited 4. We are dead to the Law both as a Covenant of Perfection and as the Law of Moses to the Jews because Christ nailed the latter to his Cross or did abrogate it as such to the Jews and to those Gentiles that needed to be Proselytes and the former ceased by the Fall and Promise But it is the Jewish Law that Paul speaketh of And also in our believing acceptance of this liberation and of the Law of Christ Qu. 46. Is it true that Christs Active Obedience only meriteth Heaven for us and therefore it only mâ—â—itâ—th the Spiâ—it or Holiness which is but Heaven bâ—gun Ans Both are false His Active and Passive Rigâ—teousness merit Pardon Holiness and Glory And their proof from Fac hoc vives is upon a great mistâ—ke and no proof Qu. 47. Iâ— iâ— true that because Regâ—neratiâ—n is the bâ—ginâ—ing of Heaven and Christs Obedience imputed â—â—â—eth a riâ—ht to tâ—e whole therefore it giveth a right to the begâ—nning and therefore Repentance which follâ—weth Justification can be no Condition of it Ans It is a fancy spun by a a mistaken mind to oppose the plain Word of God 1. If it would hold it would exclude Faith as well as Repentance from being a Condition or Antecedent to Justification contrary to the Gospel For Faith is as much a grace of the Spirit as Repentance is And it is not true that impenitent Infidels are justified though they may be predestinate
for had we done all this our selves that is kept the Law perfectly from first to last we had never sinned 3. We had never deserved punishment 4. Nor needed a Sacrifice 5. Or a Pardon 6. Nor should we during the time of our unregeneracy have been left under spiritual death or at least after believing be left under remaining sin and a body of death 7. Nor have been penally deprived of any help of the Spirit 8. Nor of any Communion with God 9. Nor so long be kept out of Heaven or the Reward 10. Nor ever have been corrected 11. Nor ever had need of Word Prayer or Sacraments for the helping us to renewed Pardon 12. Nor ever have died and rotted in a grave 13. Nor would the Magistrates Execution of Justice on us for our crimes be owned as Gods Justice 14. All men wouâ—d have the same degree of Innocency and Holiness 15. It would have been a wrong to us when we had perfectly kept the Law of Innocency to suspend our right to Pardon and Salvation upon new Conditions in a new Covenant 16. We having perfectly kept the Law of Innocency as to the death as soon as we believe cannot be under another Law of the Redeemer that hath the true uses of a Law 17. Our own actions besides Christs are not capable of Reward or Punishment 18. All the Texts of Scripture that mention inherent or practical personal Righteousness would contradict our imputed Righteousness or make us supererogate and be more than perfectly righteous 19. We need not fear that any new crime should diminish our Righteousness which is perfect and can neither increase or decrease 20. Whether we should not be as righteous on Earth even under Davids or Peters sin as in Heaven and whether we should be Deified by being divinely righteous and justified by Gods Essential Righteousness as Andr. Osiandâ—r taught I leave to be considered as you further explain your self So much to your Epitome which if I wrong you by judging it all your own it is long of your self that own it as aforesaid in the gross If the Dr. be wronged it is by you and not by me § 21. In the conclusion you do no more peaceably than provedly pronounce us in a manner agreed enumerating the particulars in which we consent But I have told you wherein we are not agreed in words nor in sense if those words be not mis-used whatever we are in latent sense I still grant that Christ suffered yea and obeyed in some sort in our stead though not in our person Civil or Legal so as that we are Legally reputed the doers of it by or in him And that his assuming our Nature and being the second Adam a voluntary Sponsor and Mediator was a necessary reason of the application of the fruits to us and that we are as certainly and happily justified and glorified as if we had been the doers and satisfiers our selves so many as are saved But not on the same reasons nor in the same method or manner of conveyance Nor when in judgment we are accused as having sinned and deserved death can we deny it plead that we were innocent by another or by imputation as we should have been had we been innocent our selves But we must plead pardon and a free gift of life through the merits satisfaction and intercession of a Saviour § 21. And to all before said I may add That they who account all the Laws obligations on each person to be fulfilled by Christ and not only satisfaction given for our not fulfilling them 1. Must suppose that one person of Christ to have been Legally as many persons as he died for or justifieth For the Law laid as many distinct obligations on them as they were persons and laid them only on their persons It said Thou Adam Thou Eve shalt personally obey perfectly or die And the Law of Nature and of Moses said in sense Thou Solomon Thou Manasses and so of all others shalt do all things commanded and not sin Now that in all Christs Obedience he was Legally and imputatively so many several persons Adam Eve Solomon Manasseh and so that none of these broke Gods Law I find not in the Scripture If you say Adam was Legally as many persons as are born of him in sin I deny it He was the Root of all his Posterity and they were in him seminally and virtually but not personally actually or imputatively But by one mans disobedience as their Root and Cause many are made sinners And by one mans obedience as the Root and Cause all Believers are made righteous It is enough that one Saviour and Mediator in a third person of his own did and suffered that which by its merits and value as attaining the Ends of the Law and Government procured our deliverance from a necessity of perfect obeying as the Condition of Life and from guilt and misery and is become the Root Head and Donor of Grace and Glory 2. And if as you say it be the very thing that is imputed to us as ours to all intents as if we had done it why have you not told us whether it be all that Christ did or but some and what and how from Scripture you prove the distribution and whether we have not thus a Righteousness which is both too much and too little I. Too much For we were not obliged by the Law to be born of a Virgin by the Holy Ghost to fast forty days to turn Water into Wine to cast out Devils to heal all diseases and raise the dead to inaite the Gospel and send out Apostles c. If you say that so much only of Christs Obedience is in it self our own as we must else have done our selves I ask the proof of the limitation And II. Is it not then too little if it must be the Idem and not the Aequivalens For some of us are bound to the Offices of Parents and some of Husbands and Wives some of Servants some of Magistrates some of Souldiers some to actions proper to the sick to the old and other conditions which Christ was never in We are bound to mortifie our sinful lusts to pray for pardon and grace to receive a pardon offered to yield to the mortifying motions of the Spirit c. which Christ was not capable of It was enough that he undertook all that was fit for him and necessary by equivalency to satisfie and merit a free gift of grace and glory for us and that he performed the undertaken conditions and duties of all that Law which was laid on him without doing all the same things which were laid on us § 22. And one thing more I desire you to note which Grotius de satisf hath minded us of viz. The great difference that there is between the case of a Rector and a Creditor and between a Subject and a Debtor or a Debt of Obedience or Punishment and a Debt of Money For the name of
Physical and Moral Reception when they should tell us that Faith is not the Physical but the Moral Reception of Christ to Receive in sensu Physico is nothing else but to be the Passive tâ—rminus of an Agents efficiency and is signified by Passive Verbs To receive Justification Sanctification Adoptiâ—n Physically is nothing but Justificari Sanctificari c. to be Justifâ—ed Sanctified Adopted But to receive Morally is Accipere to accept the gift by consent and exercise thâ—t consent by contract and containeth as is aâ—oresaid many Physical Acts as to receive a Tutor a Master a Physitian a King a Husband c. And such is Faith a receiving not of righteousness only but of Christ with all his offered benefits And when they say that other Acts or Graces may be Conditioâ—s but none but Faith is the Instrument 1. Certainly that called by them Instrumentality is but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crederâ— the Act it self in specie and the Conditionality is the nearest reason of its Interest in our Justification 2. And there is nothing more in the Nature of Assent Trust or any Act of Faith beâ—â—des meer Acceptance or Consent why they should be called Receiving than in Love Desire Gladâ—ess Hope or Seeking 3. And Accepting Christ as our Teacher King and Intercessor in Heaven is as much conditional and necessary to our Justiâ—â—cation and Salvation as accepting his Justiâ—â—cation and Deliverance from Punishment That which men are most averse to Love Holiness and Obedience is made the Condition of that which men more easily accept And indeed those that in sensu Phyâ—ice they call Other Conditional Acts are but modifications or parts of the same Moral Act which is the Condition The Faith by which we are justified is that true Christianity which includeth our believeing consent to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost our belief of Christ and our thankful acceptance of him to be our Teacher Intercessor or Priest and King with his offered Grace and that this acceptance is with Desire Love and Hope exprest in a holy Contract or Covenant This is the Souls Marriage with Christ and Allegiance to him and it includeth the renouncing our trust in all Creatures or in any Righteousness of our own so far as they would usurp the least part of Christ's Office Work or Honour None of all this is Justification by Works LXIV They erroneously tell us That nothing is Properly a Condition which is it self a Free Gift As if God could not Command and Give the same thing and make his Command a congruous means of Giving LXV They erroneously hold that nothing can be called a Condition of one Gift of the Covenant which is not a Condition of all Whereas God hath many Anticedent Gifts before any Condition be so much as imposed Without any Condition he gave us our Being and gave us a Saviour and the Gospel and the conditional Covenant and offers of Grace And why may not the reception and use or not rejecting of a former Gift of Grace be made a condition of the giving of more To him that hath shall be given may not Faith be the gift of God and yet be the condition of Justification and Salvation LXVI They erroneously hold that when a man is once justified the continuance of his justification is Absolute and hath no imposed conditions contrary to Christs own words Joh. 15. and many plain texts of Scripture LXVII They erroneously put Free Grace and Free Will in such opposition as if nothing could be an act of Free Grace which imposeth any condition on Free Will which is true if by Free Will they mean Freedom of Natural sufficiency as Free without Grace from vitious habits and inclinations for we have no such Free Will But these men know not what Free Will is nor distinguish Freedom from Prohibitions and from Constraint and necessitating predeterminating efficient Premotion from Moral Freedom LXVIII In some points forementioned about Faith and Justification the unapt Words and Methods of some Reformers give them advantage But Dr. Crispe and the gross Antinomians take Faith to be neither Cause nor Condition of Justification but meerly the receptive belief that we are Justified already before we were born so that Faith justifieth only in our consciences which is but to be conscious that we are Justified LXIX Accordingly Dr. Crispe maintaineth that Election and Justification are known only by two means The Spirit within revealing it and Faith receiving it that is The Spirit inwardly saying Thou art Elect and Justified and Faith believing this so that neither of these Justifie us but only make us know it LXX They mâ—stake the meaning of the Witness of the Spirit As if it were but an inward Inspiration and Impulse equal to a voice saying Thâ—u art Elect and Justâ—fied Whereas it is an Inherent Impress and so an objective Evidencing witness even the Divine Nature and Image of God and the habit of Divine â—â—lial Love by which Gods Spirit marketh us out as adopted As likeness of the child to the Father and love are an evidencing witness of true Son-ship And as Reason is a witness that we are Men And as Learning is a witness that we are Learned So Sanctity is an evidencing witness that we are the children of God Holiness to the Lord is his Mark And he that nameth the name of Christ departing from iniquity hath Gods Impres Yet there are other subsequent parts of the Spirits witness that is 1. Causing us to exercise 2. And to know the Grace that he hath given us 3. And exciting in us a joyful perception of it LXXI Hereby they destroy the assurance and comfort of most if not almost all true Christians in the world because they have not that inspiration or certain inward word of assurance that they are Elect and Justified I have known very few that said they had it And of those few some fell to Debauchery and some to doubting And though Prophetical Inspiration prove it self to them that have it it s not possible for others to know but that a counterfeit Fanatick conceit may be it LXXII Hereby the Ungodly are dangerously tempted to damning presumption and security while if they do but confidently believe that they are Elect and Justified they are quieted in sin LXXIV Dr. Crispe copiously maintâ—ineth that a Man cannot be sure that he is Justified either by Sâ—â—cerity or Vâ—iversal Obedience or love to the Goâ—ly or any such Grace To the dishonour of Holiness the contradiction of Scripture and the ovâ—â—throw of the comfort of Believers LXXV They tell us that we must not fix sâ—t times for Prayer or other Worship but stay till Gods Spirit move us or tell us when to Pray As if God were not the God of Order but of Confusion and did not move us as reasonable creatures by a rational guidance of us They would be loth to follow their crooked Rule in commoâ— things and to keep no set-times for their Trading Labours
Obj. As a sign Ans Of what and why Is it as a sign of Election But Holiness the Love of God and man c. are signs of Election and yet not prerequisite to baptism and pardon And whence is it that this sign of Election is prerequisite but that Gods precept made it a duty and the promise a condition Grant it a sign the question is still of the reason of this signs necessity to Justification 3. If Signification be the thing necessary it must be either to God to the Sinner or to the Baptizer Not to God that needs no notice by signs and so it would follow that before God Elect Infidels are justified which is false as is oft proved And to the Minister it is not certainly known Nor may he baptize any meerly as Elect if he could know it by revelation before Faith Nor might such a person claim it Nor do believers usually at the very first know their Election It 's pity that any catechized person should be so ignorant as to deny so plain a Truth as it is that the Promise maketh Faith antecedently necessary to Justification under the form of an apt condition when no used phrase can speak the thing to us so intelligibly and truly as this doth Obj It is prerequisite as an Instrument Ans Of this I shall speak by it self anon By an Instrument I hope when considered they will not mean any proper efficient Instrument of Justification Though in exciting the acts of Sanctification in us it may be called our Instrument and Gods by us But justifying is wholly and only Gods Act and the Covenant as an Act of oblivion and Grace is his Instrumentâ— giving us our Right to impunity and Life in which our Constitutive Justification doth consist But they mean a Metaphorical Receiving Instrument and to â—eceive Christ is but the very essence of Faith which they call the Tò credere and so to be justified by Faith as it receiveâ—h Christ and as a receiving Instrument and as it is the Tò credere in specie are all one And all this is true if you ask but for what Natural aptitude God made Faith the Condition of Justification And it 's more aptly called by the foresaid Dr. Causa dispositiva and yet more aptly dispositio receptiva moralis necessary and successful aptitudinally in its Nature and Actually by the tenor of Gods Promise or Donation making it a Condition that is saying He that believeth shall be justified and saved and he that doth not shall be damned if God had not given Christ and Life by a Promise of this Tenor If thou believe thou shalt have Christ and Life it's aptitude would have had no use If the King by an Act of Oblivion say All Rebels and Malefactors that thankfully come and take out their pardon and lay down arms shall live and the rest shall be unpardonable Here 1. The Act of Oblivion is the pardoning Instrument and the receivers Title and fundamentum juris 2. The Reception is made a Condition by the Act being the modus donandi seu condonandi 3. Next this Condition is performed 4. And next the effect followeth from it's proper efficient causes e. g. suppose 1. The Kings Clemency 2. His Sons Intercession 3. The Act of Oblivions Instrumentality 4. The Offenders performing the Condition which doth but make him a capable Receiver of the Effect 5. And lastly the Ministers instrumental applicatory sealing delivering and investiture This is all plain to men that by prejudice fight not against the light And that the Promises of Salvation or Glory and perseverance have their Conditions I will not for shame and tediousness stand to prove to such as you Obj. But he that performeth a Condition may boast and ascribe somewhat to himself Ans. 1. I find many that thus argue the pronest of most Christians to boast of or to defend their honour and the honour of their party against any that would vilifie them and â—o ascribe something to them even to be the best sort of men 2. God boasteth of his Servants and ascribeth much to them viz. to have his Image the divine nature to be the Salt and Lights of the Earth his Jewels the Apple of his Eye c. He bids them turn themselves save themselves and work out their Salvation and keep themselves in his Love and continue in his Love c. 3. If saying that they believe and repent and give up themselves to God in Christ be culpable boasting then all that have been baptized on such a required profession have thereby sinned and all the Christian baptism hath been sin 4. No man is a Christian justified or can be saved that cannot so boast that he is not an Infidel but a Penitent Believer 5. Is it a matter of boasting that God commandeth when he commandeth us to repent and believe the Gospel If he freely pardon condemned Sinners for the sake of Christs Sacrifice Righteousness and Intercession on Condition that they do not finally refuse the gift but believingly accept it according to it's Nature and all this by his Grace is this matter of boasting May a pardoned Traytor boast of his Merit to the King if the Condition of his pardon be that he shall not refuse it and spit in the Kings face or continue a rebel Obj. Where all is of Grace and Faith it self given and promised by the Covenant there the Covenant is not Conditional Ans 1. As to the giving of Faith it well stands with Gods method both to Command it as a duty and to make it a Condition of his Promise and to give his Word and Spirit to cause us to perform it It is a fiction that these may not consist and he subverteth the Gospel that saith they do not consist 2. As to the Promise God indeed hath promised to Christ to give him a seed and to draw them to him c. But the Covenant made with particular men and sealed and solemnized in baptism doth not promise Faith and Repentance which are first given but prerequire them as the necessary qualification of the adult And this is the Covenant that we speak of 3. It is a Condition of Pardon Justification and Acceptance that we enquire of Therefore it is the Promise of these that we must mean Now I ask whether the Promise of Pardon and Justification be a Promise of Faith or whether it be not a Promise to pardon and justifie Believers only and their Seed and so prerequireth Faith Obj. But you call the many parts of one Covenant by the name of many Covenants Ans I hope we shall not be called in matters of Catechism to Metaphysical or Logical quibbles de Vnitate Individuatione Which is too hard for mens wits about things natural or moral That is one in some respect which is many in others There is some sort of Unity of all the Universe even of all Creatures And so there is of all Gods Laws and Covenants
given which is conditional and virtual and shall actually pardon it when it is Cont. 27. Is any one punished for sin that is pardoned Ans Not in the same thing and degree that he is pardoned But every man that is pardoned in this life is yet correctively punished in that degree that he is unpardoned For pardon is yet imperfect here Cont. 28. Is it not unjust to punish him that Christ died for even one sin twice Ans No Unless it were the same person that suffered or the very same punishment that was due and all that was due were expected again and unless it were against our mediators will But all is contrary in this case 1. The Law bound no one to suffer but the offender 2. Therefore Christs suffering was not the same punishment which the Law did threaten but it was Satisfaction instead of it which is the Tantundem not the idem quod debitum suit but redditio aequivalentis alià s indebiti as the Schoolmen call it For noxa caput sequitur the Law threateneth not a surety but only the sinner and ubi aliâ—â— solvit simul aliud solvitur 3. And Christ himself never satisfied with any other intent and therefore it is according to his will that they that tread under foot the blood of the Covenant wherewith they were Sanctified as an unholy thing and do despight to the Spirit of Grace should suffer the far sorer punishment Heb. 10. Yea it is Christ himself that will have it so and that doth so judge them and inflict this punishment for the contempt of grace And it is his will that his own members be punished by correction notwithstanding his sufferings As many as he loveth he doth rebuke and chasten And Christ doth not wrong himself The end of his suffering never was to excuse the redeemed from all suffering nor to make believers lawless Cont. 29. Is a man after his regeneration and Faith ever obliged to any but temporal punishments or need to ask pardon of any other Ans Obliged is a word that needeth explication The very Law of nature yet in force maketh everlasting punishment due to a believers sins till God forgive them But they are forgiven and the obligation dissolved through Christ by the Covenant of Grace to a true believer as soon as committed at least if they be meer sins of infirmity because of his general repentance and continued faith But yet in order of nature the Guilt and dueness of punishment is before the remission of them And believers must ask pardon while they live 1. Because every sin thus needeth it and asking is part of the expression of that faith and repentance which is our condition of pardon 2. They must ask the continuance of that pardon which they have 3. And they must ask still for executive remission which is not to punish poena dâ—mni vel sensus Body or Soul and so for more of Gods forfeited Grace and Spirit and the sense of his Love and Communion with him Cont. 30. What is it to be judged according to our works or what we have done in the body Ans To be Judged is the genus To be Justified or Condemned are the Species This openeth all the Controversy It is not according to our works as they are congruous to the Law of Innocency or works But as judged by the Law of Grace Therefore it is not the same works which Paul excluded from Justification for we shall not be judged according to them 2. And according to them is as much as James meaneth when he saith we are justified by them It 's all one that is the Law of Christ our Redeemer requireth sincere obedience of all that shall be saved by his blood and merits from the condemnation of the Law of Innocency and accordingly mens right to Christ Salvation shall be judged of Their right to life through Christs merits and free gift shall be justified who were sincerely penitent believing obeyers to the end and no others Cont. 31. What Law is it that Paul calletâ— the law of works and laborâ—ously proveth that its works do not justify us Ans It is the Mosaical Jewish Law as is all along evident and not the Law of Innocency as made to Adam though consequently à fortiore it 's certain that we have no works by which that will justify us either personal or imputed The words He that doth them shall live in them do not mean He that is no sinner according to the Law of perfection For 1. All men were sinners before and so this Law should have been only a condemnation in the form of a promise 2. And this Law prescribeth Sacrifices and Prayers for pardon of sin which the first Law of Innocency knew not Cont. 32. How and why then is this called a Law of works Which justify no man Ans Because it imposeth strictness in a multitude of laborious Tasks and Ceremonies and rigorously punisheth the breakers of it 2. The heretical teachers had falsly separated the Law from the promise of Christs justifying righteousness and grace which was the sence and end of the Law And Paul proveth that without the Promise and Christ the Law is but a carkass of fruitless works without a Soul and cannot justify 3. But yet a believing Jew being justified by faith in the promised seed was to obey Moses Law sincerely as his material obedience to God his Redeemer as we are now to observe the Sacraments instituted by Christ as part of our sincere obedience necessary to Salvation Cont. 33. What iâ— Pauls drift in all his disputes about â—uâ—tification Ans 1. Primarily to prove the necessity of a Saviours Sacrifice Righteousness and Intercession to save and justify us and that the doing of Moses Law how excellent soever esteemed by the Jews would not justify without him 2. To prove that the Gentiles may be saved by faith without the Law as wâ—ll as the Jews by â—aith with it And that it bindeth not the Gentiles and is aâ—rogate to the Jews and that the Law of Christ succeedeth it He confuteth their trusting to the keeping of their Law instead of Christs Righteousness and the promise of Grace and their obâ—ruding their Law upon the Gentiles as necessary to Salvation Cont. 34. What is 〈◊〉 drift of St. James Ans That bare believing the Gospel to be true will not serve to any mans Salvation without obeying Chriâ—ts Commands Nor will justify any mans Title tâ—â—alvation prove him acceptable to God It iâ— the same Justification before God â—and not only in conâ—cience or before men that Paul and James speak 〈◊〉 and the same instance of Abraham they bring 〈◊〉 by Work they mean not the â—â—me 〈◊〉 as is 〈◊〉 explained Cont. 35. Must 〈◊〉 ever trust at all to his faith repentance or holiness or pâ—ead it any way to his justification Ans It must be trusted or pleaded instead of nothing that is Christs part nor for any thing but its own part
never sinned And if we suffered in him for all sins of Omission and Commission we merited glory without any other obedience For the Law requireth nothing but Innocency as necessary to life He that hath no sin doth perfectly obey And pardon of all sin of Omission and Commission is the pardon of all punishment of Sense and Loss and so of the loss of promised Life Besides that one that is reputed to have Legally fulfilled the Law must be unjustly corrected by the punishment of temporal afflictions or death or loss of the Spirit and Grace and hath present right to the reward of that Covenant or deliverance from all penal evil at least so that this Doctrine of strict Legal personating Representation overthroweth the New Covenant and Law of Christ and all his Kingdom of Grace and all Religion III. The third fundamental Errour which we deny and oppose is that the Vnion between Christ and the Elect say some or Believers say others is so near as that his very personal Holiness Righteousness and Sufferings are in Law sense truly our Holiness Righteousness and Sufferings as the accidents of our persons As if Christ and Adam and every Christian were one and the same subject of Holiness Righteousness Suffering Merit or Satisfaction Yet they dare not say that the Union like the hypostatical warranteth such a community of Properties or Attributes as that we may be said to be Divinely Righteous perfectly Holy never to have sinned to have satisfied for our selves to have merited our own Salvation and many such like as seeing the evil of the consequents though not of the premises And here sometime they abuse the similitude of a Husband and Wife whereas they are distinct persons and one is not wise just or guiltless because the other is so nor hath the Wife any propriety so much as in extrinsick goods but by contract in the proportion granted by the Husband Some abuse the similitude of a Head and Members whereas Natural Head and Members make one Natural Body but so do not Christ and Believers And a Political Head and Members are distinct persons and one is not guiltless righteous wise or good because the other is so But of this more before and elsewhere Some here abuse the similitude of Christs being the second Adam which you here though not to this Errour insist upon And then they feign us 1. To have beeâ— otherwise in Adam than we were 2. And his sin to be otherwise imputed to us than it was And 3. The similitude to extend further than it doth I. They feign us to have been Personally in Adam whenas we were but seminally in him and personally from him 2. They feign us to have been in him by a certain Covenant more than we were by Natural In-existence And that his sin was arbitrarily by God through that Covenant imputed to us further than we were guilty of it by any natural In-being or derivation As if God made all men sinners by his arbitrary imputation of that to them which in their natures they were not really guilty of And as if our guilt of Adams sin were just of the same sort as his yea and our guilt and his guilt were individual accidents of the same individual persons But this which Dr. Twisse oft confuteth in most of his Books I have so largely and lately cleared in my published Disputations of Original sin that you shall excuse me for not reciting it here 3. The guilt of Adams sin being ours by Natural Derivation cometh to all alike entirely according to the subjects capacity and necessarily without the consent of Parent or Child Were Adam and all Parents unwilling to communicate it in generation it would nevertheless be done But Christ being not a Natural but a contracting voluntary Root and Cause doth communicate the fruits of his Righteousness only voluntarily by gift of Contract at the time in the â—anner and measure and on the terms that he seeth meet Here it is observable 1. That both Generation and Regeneration have much unsearchable How Souls generate Souls and how the Spirit of Christ communicateth Grace to Souls will never here be clearly apprehended â—ohn 3.8 2. But it 's certain that the Soul of the Parent is not the Soul of the Child but some cause of it and so that they are not one person 3. We were not persons in Adams person either the same or distinct 4. But Adam caused us not as a man maketh a garment house c. but as one Candle doth light another by some mysterious communication of its essence so formae se multiplicant by the Divine benediction Increase and multiply and primary causation 5. Though we were not persâ—nally but virtually and seminally in Adam yet when that seed becometh a person that person is from Adam and so must proportionably be guilty For who can bring a clean thing out of the essence of an unclean 6. Adam had the common Nature of all men specifically and radically and causally though as their nature individually constitute their persons they existed not in him as extra causam 7. So Jesus Christ did more assume the common Nature of faln Man than the persons of any or the Nature as extra causas constituting the individual person 8. Ponum est ex causis integris malum ex partiali Any defeâ—t maketh sin but good must have entire causes Adams sin causeth Original sin in all ex privatione causationis boni But if Adam had not sinned every sin of their own would have made his Children unrighteous 9. Christ having suffered in the common nature of man so far did it in their stead and if you will needs so call it so far represented fallen mankind as that if they will personally receive him by faith in the New Covenant they shall not perish for Adams sin or their own supposing that the parent is the accepter for the Infant none perish for Original sin alone without the addition of neglected and refused grace and remedy 10. It is not only the Spiritual off-spring that Christ was a second Adam to but partly to all mankind For by a resurrection though not to glory all men are made alive by Christ Joh. 5.22 23 29. 1 Cor. 15. And all have a general conditional reconciliation and pardon 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Joh. 3.16 So that actual Justification resulteth to no man from Christs meer representation of him but from his free donation by the New Covenant 11. It 's doubtless that all and only the holy seed or faithful are justified actually by Christs Righteousness But in what sence it is imputed to them is all the doubt 12. It 's also doubtless that Christ suffered in our stead But in what sense how far is all the doubt Because we deserved it he voluntarily assumed it to demonstrate Gods Justice Mercy and Wisdom and deliver us You say before that It was strictest Justice that was shewed on Christ I would not strive about the
long ago so oft said By Righteous is meant Justifiable in general And the plain meaning is Christ having merited and freely given Pardon and Life to all sinners that will fiducially accept his purchased Gift it is not now keeping the Law of Innocency or Works but only the said fiducial Acceptance of Christ and his free Grace that is required on their part to their Right or Justification If by Imputed we meant Reputing it the MATTER of our total Righteousness then it were an unsound sense But briefly and plainly Faith in Christ is reckoned to us as the Matter of our imperfect personal subordinate Righteousness and as the Instituted Medium of our Reception of our Vnion with Christ and our Right to Pardon and Life for the Merit of his Righteousness And I think this is plain and full For Righteousness to be imputed is meant no more but that Gâ—d accounteth the person Righteous But the imputing Faith to this is but to reckon it to be what it is 1. As the Matâ—er of one 2. As the Medium or Condition of the other § 13. You here give me an Epitome of Dr. John Owens Book of Justification which you judge the best that you have seen and say it is faithfully collected to save me the labour of reading it to shew me how nearly we agree Ans I have perused the Book but being now absent from it cannot judge whether you have rightly epitomized or recited it and therefore shall speak to it as yours and not as his Thanking you for endeavouring to spare my labour but not for calling me to judge of other mens Writings Only I must say I am glad of so much Moderation as is in it but I â—etter understand many other Books of Justification eâ—pecially Mr. â—ruman Sir Charles Wolsâ—ey Mr. Gibbâ—ns Sermon Mr. Wotton Mr. Gataker a Manuscript of Dr. Twisses though I agree not with him in his exclusion of Christs Active Righteousâ—â—ss as justifying us Le Blâ—nk Placaeus yea â—ohn Goâ—dwin Mr. Hoteâ—kis and many others § 14. Yâ—u take Imputing Righteouâ—ness to be the foundation of Reputing us righteous and not the same thing Ans The Controversie is de re or de nomine De re we agree that a man must be made Righteous before he is Reputed so De nomine I deny that St. Paul by imputing doth mean making us Righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by all confessed to signifie Accounting Reckoning or Reputing Making us Righteous goeth before Reckoning it to us on account John Goodwin will tell you of many more senses of Imputation than you recite and more considerable § 15. II. You suppose an Imputation of Righteousness to us which was not ours before that Imputation Ans Again de re there is a Donation of such But de nomine I deny that this is it that the Scripture calleth Imputing You make this to contain two Acts and you Name three 1. A grant or Donation of the thing it self to be ours 2. A will of dealing with us accordingly 3. An actual so dealing with us Ans 1. De nomine I deny that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth in Scripture signifie the giving of Righteousness to him that had it not but the reckoning it on account to him that by gift first had it 2. Nor doth it primarily signifie willing to use and using as righteous but only by consequence inferreth it But 2. De re here is no Explication how Imputing is giving or how Righteousness is given us There is no question but all the Righteousness that we have is given us by God But the very heart of the Controversie is How the Righteousness of Christ is given us and made ours In that Righteousness is found 1. The Matter 2. The Form 1. The matter is 1. The Habits 2. The Acts of Christ in the Divine and Humane Nature Are these given us and do we possess them in themselves The Acts are past and so are nothing now and nothing is no bodies actual possession The Acts and Habits were Accidents which sine interitu cannot pass from Subject to Subject Divers Subjects prove diversity of Accidents 2. The Form is a Relation and so an Accident also And they must needs be two Accidents that are Formal Righteousness in Christ and us unless we are the same Subject Person Therefore neither matter nor Relative form in Christ and Man is the same individual Accident How then is it ours What is there in it besides matter the subject and fundamentum and form it's plain that 1. The Benefits are given us and are our own by that Gift All that consist in jure in right as to Christ to the Love of the reconciled Father the Communion of the Spirit to further Grace Pardon Glory are all given us instrumentally by the new Covenants donative Act The inherent habits and the Acts are given us by the Holy Ghost And 2. These Benefits being given us for the Sacrifice and Merits of Christ the price is said by a Metonymy of the cause for the Effect to be given us because it is given for us It was God the Father to whom Christ paid the price of our Redemption and gave his Active and Passive Righteousness for us But Morally and Reputatively it is no unmeet phrase to say that is given to us which is given for us in our necessity and to purchase us all this If the King would ransom all his Subjects that are Slaves to the Turks and paid a million for their Freedom he may well be said to give them a million though it be but a Metonymical Speech seeing he gave it for them Though it was the Freedom or Benefits and not the Money which indeed they received And so it is here So God giveth us Christs Righteousness Merits and Satisfaction but not properly the things themselves If there be any more to be said as given us I should have been glad to know what it is but your Words shew it not Were it the very same Individual Righteousness that Christ hath Acts Habits and Formal Relation made in themselves our own accidents it would follow that we are really perfect in Acts Habits and Relation and need neither more Pardon nor increase of Grace nor should pray for any nor use means for any nor are we liable to any corrective Penalty nor to any want of the Spirits help but have present right to all that is due to a perfect righteous man with much more such which is all false Yet is it truly and fitly said that Christ is our Righteousness that is the purchaser and giver of it and that he is made of God to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption on the same account Yea though some deny it his Righteousness may be called the material cause of our Righteousness as ours is our Jus ad impunttatem vitam because it is the matter of it 's meritorious cause For if Adam had merited Life himself his meritorious Acts and
personality that is the question for so Christ himself had many Persons as one and the same man may have the Person of a Father of a Husband of a Master of a King c. But it is Physical or Substantial Personality which Mr. Crispe saith is more than natural we being one Spirit and Bone of his Bone and Flesh of his Flesh And if this be so I shall grant that we are as righteous as Christ and Christ now in Heaven and nâ—t on the Cross only is guilty of all our sins and was indeed as they call him the greatest blasphemer hater of God adulterer c. in the World But 1. If all the Elect be really many distinct Persons tâ—en either Christ must be also as many distâ—nct Persons or not be the same Person with them aâ—l or any of them But the Elect are many distinct Persons and shall be so for ever Peter was not Paul or John They do not the same Acts They be not guilty of the same numerical sins Every man shall answer for all that he hath done in the Body and not for all that all others of the Elect have done All the Elect shall not sit on the twelve Thrones as Apâ—stles All did not Preach the Gospel as Paul did nor Persecute as Paul did Overthrow distinct iâ—dividuation here or in Heaven and how dismal will be the consequence And here will not each man have right to anothers House Wife Food Goods if they are but one Person To be one in Spirit is no more to be one Person than seeing by the same Sun-light maketh all Lyes to be one Eye For the Spirit is not our personality And if you make Christ to be many Millions of Persons where is his Vnity in himself or with any 2. If Christ and the Elect be all one and the same Person then the Elect are really God himself For the Person of Christ is God These men are unfit to confute the Schools who have long maintained that the very human nature of Christ is not a part of his Person but an accident of it because he is but one Person which is the second in Trinity from Eternity and is God of which see Derodon de Supposito And if we are all one God then God suffers when we suffer and God judgeth himself when he judgeth us May not Men pray to such then and Worship them as Gods and Trust in them as Gods Is not this Idolatry worse than Image-Worship or than Anti-christianity 3. If Christ and the Elect be one and the same Person then Christ sinneth when ever they sin And Christ suffered for his own sin even that which he by them committed And then he pardoneth his own sin or who pardoneth him But all this is false 4. And it would follow that all the Elect are Mediators to themselves and dyed for their own sins and pardon their own sins and justify themselves and believe in themselves and save themselves 5. And are all Christ's threatnings against himself which are against us Doth Satan overcome him when ever he overcometh us Is his Law made for himself that is made for us Doth he command a Father to correct Christ when he commandeth him to correct his Children Doth the Magistrate hang Christ when he hangeth a Malefactor tho' Elect that sinneth by surprize 6. Where there are divers Bodies and divers Souls and divers Vnderstandings and divers Wills there are divers Persons But of all these in Christ and us there is a diversity I believe that the Vnion between Christ and the Glorified will be neerer than we can well now conceive But not such as will make us one and the same Person with Christ I have read in Phanatick Fryers such as Barbanson and Benedictus de Benedictis and in Gibienf the Oratorian of our Deification and being Goded with God and that it is the only perfection to know no being but God And I have read of such Heathen as Worshipped Demon-Gods that once were men And it is the top of the now prevalent Bruitism or Sadducism to believe that all Souls are but one God and as Candles that are individuate by the Oily Matter when extinct are all one in the common Air and that there is nothing but God and Matter But I hope few good Christians will so far lose the knowledge of themselves as to take themselves to be the same Person with him that is God Angels forbad John to Worship them tho' he took them not for God Do those Churches exercise Discipline upon such as are one Person with Christ Do they Excommunicate Christ for sin No wonder that Dr. Crispe chargeth David as speaking untruth for complaining of his sin and Gods displeasure tho' John says He is a Lyar that saith he hath no sin and all God's Saints have profess'd Repentance but I read not that Christ did ever Repent of sin I doubt some will think that I feign Mr. Crispe to say what he doth not his words are these First He accuseth me as saying To say our Union with Christ so makes us Flesh of his Flesh that we are the same PERSON with Christ this is so gross that I will not bestow time to confute it He answers Nor cannot as long as that Text is in our Bibles we are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones Ephes 5 God saith He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit which is more than a Political Member or a Natural Member either I believe that it is more than Political but not such as maketh us one Person with Christ Andrew Osiander is condemned by Protestants for feigning that the Essence of God is our Righteousness Nestorius was condemned by General Councils as supposed to feign Christ to have two Persons What would these Councils have judged of them that feign him to have Million of Persons or Millions to be all one Person with him As to Mr. Crispes Epistle it calleth more for Pitty than Confutation He pretendeth out of his Notes to tell what I Preached at Pinners Hall Jan. 17. 1673. and Aug. 11. 1674. so long since And he begins with a gross untruth that I said A mans first believing is by external Arguments not by the Operation of the Spirit but his after believing is by the Spirit I do not believe that the man purposed to lye but trusted hâ—s false Ears and Notes The World knoweth how voluminously I have written to the contrary Never such an Opinion came into my head But contrarily I have copiously proved that even common Faith much more the first justifying Faith is the work of Gods Spirit My Catholick Theology proveth it all at large I doubt not but both first and second Faith is by Scripture Argument but never dream'd that it was not the Work of the Spirit Indeed I find few of his accusing Notes that be not falsificâ—tious by his defective or patcht Recital I am sorry that he hath wronged the Memory of such
justifying is not making Righteous therefore making Righteous is no Justifying nor any part of it It s a shame to stay to cite many â—â—xts â—gaiâ—st these men where the whole Bible but especially all Christ's own Preaching and Parables are so expresly against thâ—m that I admire with what fâ—ce thâ—se men prâ—fess to believe the Scripture And I wâ—nâ—er not that some of them say that all the wâ—â—ttâ—â— Word is a Covenant of Works aâ—d oâ—ly the Spirits iâ—waâ—d Work is the Covenant of Grace And whâ—n they tell us as Crispe p. 242. Vol. 1. Ed. 1. That for any hurt that such sins can do us it is not possible for Christ hath made satisfaction I wonder why they preach against that which doth no hurt and why tâ—ey excommunicate men for sin and why they scruple Perjury Liturgies Parish-Communion or any Point of Conformity yea why some of them will suffer rather than conform when it is impossible for any sin to hurt them Why do your hearers pay you for Preaching against a harmless thing Why make you so much Complaint against Vnreformeâ—ness Sin doth God no hurt it doth not the Elect any hurt by your Doctrine for Christ hath satisfied and born all And the Reprobate are uncapable of good for want of satisfaction for them I pray you do not speak out this Doctrine to the World If you do I shall be glad that you are confined to your seduced ignorant Congregations If you will tell the World If you are elect no sin can possibly hurt you whatever Murders Adulteries Perjuries you commit it is none of your sin but Christs It cannot be his and yours too and if not elect you have no hope and if you be elect you will be never the better for praying considering charity or any Act of Religion or Justice which you do nor must once think to gain any thing by it How many Converts is this like to make And what would such a Nation come to I hope few of the publick Preachers that you call scandalous preach so scandalously as this I have one Request to you that if you or any other be questioned by the judges for Murder Adultery False-witness Perjury or Robbery you will not say as Dr. Crispe hath taught you I am no Murderer Adulterer perjured Robber c. It is Christ that is such a one and not I it cannot be my sin when he hath made it his for I doubt neither the Judges or Jury well believe you If you believe not we ask the Judges whether it be you or Christ that is the sinner I doubt it is you that will be hang'd If you say for what may not ignorance say That it is not at the Bar of man but of God only that Christ is the sinner and not we I Answer Know you not that Judges and Princes are God's Officers and that the Judgment is the Lords and that what they do according to his Will he doth by them He doth not command Rulers to hang men for a sin that is none of theirs All mens Judgments are Nullities that are against the fore-known Judgment of God It is the King that punisheth when the hangman executeth God punisheth men by Rulers and doth it righteously I write all this the rather because Mr. Cokain in his Preface exhorteth Preachers to go on where the Dr. left I humbly beseech them first to read and believe Mat. 5. 6. and 7 8. and 13.18.25 and all the Sermons and Parables of Christ and not downright to give him the Lie and call it exalting him And for them that report that there are no such Words in Dr. Crispe as I report I wonder not while they think that lying can do them no hurt and is not their sin but Christs And they that believe they are under no Law may believe that they have no Transgression nor Christ for them when they had never any And to them that talk of inherent Righteousness as less necessary than God hath made it I desire them but to mark what Christ saith of it and to remember that sin is much of Hell and holiness of Heaven And that Christ came to save his People from their sins as more righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees inhâ—rently and to make them a peculiar People zealous of good Works and holy as God is holy and to bethink them whether to disgrace the Building be to honour the Architect and whether the â—orth or the worthlesness of the Work more honour the Work-men and whether the Cure of the Sick dishonour the Physitian And whether to say that my Clock or Watch will go by artificial means or only no longer than the Work mans-Finger only moveth it do more honour the Artist And whether the Psalms would so much call us to glorifie God for his Works if all that is ascribed to his Works were taken from his Honour The Lord teach us better to understand that Word that maketh the simple wise and not to set Christ against himself and against his own Honours Government and Laws A Defence of Christ AND Free Grace c. Chap. 1. Prefatory Ortho. Sir Having my self and the Congregation which I am Related to been in danger of the Errours called Antinomian I wrote to you to intreat you who have done so much heretofore to Conquer and Extirpate those Errours to get the London Ministers to publish their Judgments against Dr. Crispe 's Book and such others now Re-printed and rising up with re-newed danger Reconcil You did so and I answered you 1. That I thought it not seasonable till the acceptance and success of that Book and such others made our danger so notorious and great as would clearly justify our Confutation I have written on that Subject so much already 1. In my Confession of Faith 2. In my Apologies against Mr. Craudâ—n Mr. Aaires and others 3. In my Disputations of Justification 4. In my Life of Faith 5. In my Justifying Righteousness and there against Dr. Tully and my last Animadversions on Mr. Cartwright 6. In my Catholâ—ck Theolâ—gy especially the five last Chapters 7. And in my Methodus Theologiae All which are unanswered to this day that I know not why I should be forward to write much more For they that will not read this that hath been so long written are not like to read it if I yet write more And I am so fearful of stirring up the hidden spark of this mischief that having written Fourteen Years ago a short Decision of a multitude of these Controversies I suspended it lest it should kindle New Oppositions 2. And I told you that we have now such publick and dangerous Controversies about Royalty Prelacy Conformity c. that it is very unseasonable to make a noise of the Errours and Factions among the Tolerated though they should somewhat increase by advantage of our silence till we see what publick settlement there will be 3. And I confess I have an opinion that accidentally the Books
which you fear will so effectually confute themselves that they will occasion more good among sober knowing Christians than hurt to the ignorant professors that will be tost up and down with every wind of Doctrine For 1. The whole tenour of the Bible is against them And will not Christians read the Bible 2. The Divine Nature on the Soul and all Christian Experience is against them And will not Christians know that Work and Doctrine of Gods Spirit in them For Insâ—ance 1. Will they that are saved from Atheism ever believe that the most Holy God is the maker of sins yea and mâ—de his own Son the greateâ—â— sinner in the World when the Devil himself cannot make one man a sinner but only tempt him â—o be suâ—â— yea that God made himself in the second Person a sinner 2. Will Christianâ— easâ—ly believe that our Saviour came to delâ—ver us â—rom sinâ— by making himself worse 〈…〉 becoming the greatest haâ—er of God aâ—d Gâ—â—â—ness the greatest Infidel Atheist Blasphemer Murderer Adulterer Lyar Thief c. in all the World and consequently like the Devil hated of God and having a Hell in himself All Christians believe that our sins were laid upon Christ as to their penalty that he was Vicarius poenae that he suffered for us the just for the unjust to reconcile us to God and that he was made for us a Sacrifice for sin that we might be healed by his stripes and washed in his Blood But what Christian can believe Dr. Crispe and his Sectaries that Christ took not only the punishment and guilt reatum poenae but all the very sins themselves of all the Elect habitual and actual privative and positive of omission and commission and so really became the most wicked man in all the World and that lie saveth us from sin by becoming a thousand times worse himself than any of us when it cannot be proved that any one Devil had so great a hand in mans sin as to make all our sins his own And Dr. Crispe well vindicateth God from false Imputation of that sin to Christ which was not his But it is by Blasphemy making that his which was never his even the very sins of all the Elect. 3. And do you think any Soul that hath the Spirit of God and readeth and believeth the Scriptures can believe this Dr. that no sin can possibly hurt the Elect because they are fully saved already by Christ And that it is against Christ and his Grace to intend our Salvation or any good to our selves by any Duty we do or to look to be ever the better for praying obeying believing but must do all only in thankfulness and for the good of others 4. Do you think that a man not to say a Christian can believe that the torments of the Stone Gout Collick Convulsion c. are no hurt or no castigatory Penalty And that it is no hurt or punishment for an Elect Person to be under decays of Holiness increase of Sin prevalency of Temptations the terrours of God and loss of his Consolations and fears of Death He that can believe all this may believe Transubstantiation against all the senses of mankind A Hundred of such Instances may be named which have so ugly a countenance that men that loved their Souls will be affrighted from Antinomianism by the reading of them And I further tell you that too sudden and eager disputing against Heresy doth but engage men to stretch their wits to find out what to say to defend it and to take those for Enemys to God and them who shame their folly And I must confess that tho' I am much for Ministers associations and consultations in order to Concord and mutual Edification I am not much for the way of deciding doctrinal Controversies by majority of Votes remembring what Councils have done that way these 1300 Years and how often either errour or unskilful decissions have the greater number so that tho' now with us they will consent against errours it may be taken for a precedent for erroneous pluralities to Tyrannize or tread down truth hereafter Ortho. But shall we therefore let Heresy spread unresisted Reconcil No But you will let it pass uncured whether you will or not You let not ignorance and pride go unresisted But if it were not uncured there would be no such Heresies If all the Ministers in England subscribe a detestation of gross ignorance and pride do you think it would cure them Doth it cure Atheism Infidelity Drunkeness Lust though all Preachers condemn them If you can prevail with these men to read and consider but one half of that which I have written on these Subjects instead of reviling that which they never read or tryed you will not need to call for more Confutations of them Ortho. But a Confutation short and newly published will be read by those that will not read Books old and large Reconcil I have staid since your first motion to see whether there be like to be any apparent necessity of any renewed opposition to this infection and I acknowledge that now some necessity appeareth to me in the new and zealous attempts of the erroneous But God in great mercy hath raised up many that are fitter to oppose them than I that in pain and languishing weakness have time little enough to meditate on my approaching change But because the erroneous have learn'd of the transformed Angel of Light and his pretended Ministers of Righteousness to call their Errours the Preaching of Christ and Free Grace and to say that all they Preach not Christ but the Righteousness of man that wrong not Christ as much as they I shall by God's help attempt briefly to try whether indeed they Preach Christ or Preach against him and whether they Exalt him or Deny him and whether they Preach up Free Grace or as Enemies Reproach it And I shall publish a brief Decision of the many Controversies of Justification which I cast by these Fourteen Years lest I should provoke any to revive the allay'd quarrels But their new and earnest Attempts do now call it out by telling us that this evil Spirit is again at work and calleth us to a renewed Defence of Truth CHAP. II. An Enumeration of the Errours which have corrupted Christianity and subverted the Gospel Reconcil BEfore I give you a Confutation of the Errours of the Anti-Gospellers I will promise these two things 1. I will here give you a Catalogue of their Errours which I am Confute 2. I think it needful to caution you what to think of the Persons that you Censure them not too hardly tho' the Errours as worded be very great I. And 1. As the general Fault of their Errours is the confounding of things which greatly differ so by this they corrupt the Doctrine of Adams Communication of sin and guilt to his posterity and thereby raise more dangerous Errours They feign that God made a Covenant with Adam and all his
and it s not proved that any one Devil is guilty of all mens sins they make God guilty of all yea they that lay it on Christ only after his Incarnation lay it on him that is God XXI They that feign Christ to have personated us in his first Covenant of Redemption make us by him to have Covenanted to Redeem our selves and to do the Mediator-work XXII They feign Christ to have made such an Exchange with the Elect as that having taken all their Sins he hath given them all his Righteousness not only the Fruit of it but the Thing in it self So that they are as perfectly Righteous as Christ himself and so esteemed of God But here they differ 1. Some say we have only all his Passive Righteousness Some say also all his Active 3. Others also all his Habitual 4. Others all his Essential Divine Righteousness and so are Goded XXIII This perfect Righteousness they say we have at least from the time of Christ's death before we were born or had any personal Beeing XXIV Hereby they must needs feign Christ and us to be one and the same Subject or else the same Accidents Habits Acts and Relations to be in divers Subjects still the same which is a contradiction XXV Hence they say that the elect have no sin because it is all Christ's and cannot be his and theirs also XXVI They say that Christ having perfectly done the Work of a Saviour we are perfectly saved and want nothing necessary to Salvation XXVII They say all sin past present and to come are pardoned even that not committed that is no sin XXVIII They say that it is not possible that sin can do an elect Person any hurt Christ having been a perfect Saviour from it all so Dr. Crispe XXIX They say that no Prayer or Duty or Act of Man can do us any good or further our Salvation Christ only having done it already for us so Crispe XXX They add that to pray hear read obey or do any Duty as a means to our own Good or Salvation is to sin against the Free Grace of Christ But that we must do it 1. In thankfulness to Christ that hath saved us 2. And for the good of others As if it were not as injurious to Free Graece to seek other mens Salvation as our own or we might not do good in love to our selves as well as to our Neighbours Or as if we ought not to plow sow labour eat drink build c. for our good becaâ—se Christ is all By this it seemeth that Dr. Crispe did not pâ—each or write his Bâ—oks to do any good because he took that to be a denyal of Christs Grace XXXI They say that under Moses Law David and the Elect were not pardoned till they had sacrificed But under the Gospel all the elect are absolutely pardoned without any delay or condition or means on their part as if there had been so vast difference between the Fruits of Christ and the way of his Justification then and now XXXII They say that Pardon and Justification are absolutely perfect at the first and so no more sin to be after forgiven nor any punishment to be remitted or removed XXXIII They say that no elect person suffereth any the least punishment because all is forgiven and Christ suffered all and that no Pain or Correction is now penal or for sin XXXIV They talk of our being freed from the Law in so undistinguishing universal Words as if they knew no Law but that of Innocency to Adam and that of Moses to the Jews and thought it were a priviledge to be lawless or that Christ had no Law and so there were no Transgression XXXV They hold that Christ was no Law-Maker and so must infer that he was no King and had no Laws of his own to Govern or Judge by and so deny a chief Part of his Office and his Kingdom and Government who is King of Kings XXXVI They say If God should punish any sin of the elect it would be injustice because it is all punished already on Christ and the Debt is fully paid by him XXXVII They take God's Covenants and Laws to be things so different as that a Law is not his Covenant nor his Covenant a Law Whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both that is God's Statute-Law containing the determinate Terms of Duty Reward and Punishment Life and Death and both have the same parts his Law having Precepts Prohibitions Promises and Threatnings and his Covenant as his hath the same And when it its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it becometh a mutual Covenant by mans Consent and the Law bindeth Subjects to that Consent XXXVIII They are so much for a Christ without us that they write as if the Work of Christ within us and by us were a Dishonour to Christ that causeth it if we praise it As if the Prâ—â—sâ— of the Structure were a dishonour to the Builder or the Cure were a dishonour to the Physitian or the Glory of the World if praised were a dishonouring of God God praiseth his Servants and their Grace and Works but if we praise them they say we rob Christ of his honour XXXIX They seem to hold that Christ doth all the Work of our Salvation immediately without Instruments or Means And all that is ascribed to subordinate Causes were derogate from him And so Apostles Miracles â—cripture Writings Preaching were no Means of Good or injured Christ as if Sun and Moon Angels and Men dishonoured God XL. While they say that no Duty must be done for our own good or salvation they destroy natural necessary self love and directly would drive out all true Religion from the World and harden all the wicked in ungodliness by taking away those Motives without which no men are converted or saved and kept from sin XLI They hold that whatever Law or Promise in Scripture hath any condition is part of the Law of Works And that the Law or Covenant of Grace is only of what God will actually and absolutely himself effect or that Efficience it self as if the Gospel were a Law of Works XLII Accordingly they hold that God doth not make any conditional Promise or threatning a means of his Spirit or Christs communicating of Free Grace And so that the Gospel hath no conditional Promises tho' there be conditional Words not understanding that God who is Life Light and Love Power Wisdom and Goodness worketh by all three and printeth the Image of all on his Elect working by efficient Motion sapiental Order and amorous attractive communication XLIII They hold that no mens sins were the cause of Christ's Sufferings but the Elects And that the rest are damned for want of a sufficient Sacrifice offered for them XLIV They hold that all the Mercies that the Non elect have in all the world are given them without the Purchase of Christ XLV Yea many hold that none but the Elect have any Grace or any Mercy because it
Dyet and Rest and not to work or eat or sleep till the Spirit moveth them And God maketh use of Reason and Order in things Spiritual as well as in things Natural And the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets LXXVI They reprove us for perswading Unconverted Men to Pray because the Prayer of the Wicked is abominable and they â—â—ould stay till they have the Spirit of Prayer And is a Tavern or a Whore-house a sitter plâ—ce to get that Spirit than on their knees by Prayer when God himself saith To thee shall aâ—l flâ—sh câ—me seâ—k the Lord while he may â—e founâ— call upon him wâ—ile he is near Let the Wickâ—d â—â—â—sak his way c. wicked Prayers of wicked men that are but to quiet them in sin are abominable and no prayer of an Impenitent unbeliever hath any promise of certain success But Aâ—ab and Niâ—eve and millions of Sinners have found that there are some prayers of the unregenerate that are better than none Aâ—d do they think when we perswade them to Pray that we perswade them to continue Impenitent No it is but perswading them to Turn and Live For praying is a returniâ—â— motion and we say but as Peter Repent and Pray if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart may be forgâ—â—â—â— thee Not to exhort men to Pray is not to exhort them to desire Grace and true Conversion Common Grace and Natural Self-love have their desires which are not all in vain it s better to be near the Kingdom of God than to be dispisers of it God hath fixed the time of the Lord's day and the undisposed must not say we will not keep it till the Spirit move us As it is a dutâ— to Relieve the Poor so it is to Pray as soon as God commandeth it and none must say I will not Give or Pray till the Spirit move me but wait for more help of the Spirit in the way of duty LXXVII That because no man can come to Christ too soon therefore no man can too soon believe that he is Elect and Justified though he have no evidence to prove it and though he know not God or Christ or the Spirit or the Gospel LXXVIII That men are bound to Believe that Christ Believed for them and Repented for them and must no more question their Faith and Repentance than they must question Christ as Saltmarsh speaketh as if Christ had had Sin to repent of or a Saviour to save him from it and as if this were no Covenant-Condition required of our selves as necessary to our Justification They may next say Christ that is Holy for them shall be Saved in stead of them LXXIX That to Believe that we are Elect and Justified is fides Divina a Believing the word of God because his Spirit 's witness of it by inspiration is his word LXXX That nothing done by an unregenerate man by common Grace maketh him any fitter to Believe and be Converted that if he were without it because it is sin LXXXI That it is no Grace which is not unresistible and because we cannot Merit it we cannot resist and forfeit it LXXXII That Pardon and Justification being perfect the first Moment of our Faith therefore it is only one momentous Act of Faith only that Justifieth us and no Act of Faith it self Justifieth us after that hour This is held by the more moderate sort who say not that we are Justified before Faith LXXXIII That we must act from Lâ—â—â— but not â—or Life as if Natural Life were not to be used for Spiritual Life LXXXIV They hold That Sin being all past present and future Pardoned at first we must not ask Pardon any more but only the fuller Belief and Sense of Pardon LXXXV They hold that no Sin or declining of a Justified Person should ever make him doubt of his Justification LXXXVI They hold that the meaning of Rom. 8.28 is That all the sin that an Elect or Justified man committeth shall certainly work for his greater good when the Text speaketh but of Enemies and Sufferings and all the Providences of God As if it were the way of God's Wise and Holy Government so far to encourage men to sin as to assure all that love God beforehand that the more they sin the better it shall be for them whereas he hath filled the Scripture with so many terrible threatnings against Sin and Backsliding And as if â—o â—ustiâ—ied person by sin did ever gnow worâ—e than â—efore or love God lâ—â—â— or at all displeâ—se him Or it were for our good to be worse and love God less or displease him or lose aâ—y meâ—sures of Grace and Glory 〈◊〉 Title LXXXVII They take Justification in the Great day of Judâ—mâ—â—t to be none of our proper Justification by Faith because that was done before but a Declaâ—â—â—â—â—â— of â—â— As if Justification had but one degree and the word but one sence or any were persectâ—r Justification than that and a Deâ—isive Sentential Declaration were not the most eminent LXXXVIII Those that confess works of Obedience to Christ to be the Condition of Glorification yet deny it to be a Condition of Justification in Judgment when as to Justifie us in Judgment is to Justifie our right to Impurity and Glory and so the Condition must be the same LXXXIX Though God oft and plainly saith That all men shall be judged according to their works and according to what they have done in the Body good or evil and to judge is either by decisive sentence to Justifie or to Condemn or executively to Reward and Glorify on to Punish yet many that Confess that men shall be so Judged do deny that they shall be so Justified though Justifying be Judging XC Though the word According to their works do plainly signify The Cause to be then decided in order to the sentence of Salvation or Damnation and Christ Mat. 25. and elsewhere hath largely enumerated the parts of the Cause and call it Righteousness and that with a Caâ—â—al particle and though the Scripture mention our inherent and acted Righteousness in terms of the same signification above Six â—undred times and that as the thing that pleaseth God and that he loveth hateing the contrary telling us that the unrighteous shall not enter into Heaven c. Yet do they feign that all that Godliness which hath the promise of this Life and That to come and which God is said as a Righteous Judge to Reward and Crown is mentioned only as a sign of the Elect and Rightâ—ous and of Faith and not as the Cause to be then decided or as a Rewarded thing And for whom is this sâ—â—n so solemnly produced God knoweth us without Signs His Light in our Consciences will make us know our selves by Internal Perâ—eption And if it be to confute the Devil and his servants that slander us it is for want of Righteousness and not only for want of siâ—â—s of it that we are accused and it is more than
sigâ—s that must coâ—fute them for our Justification And the Judgment is not to be managed as at a human juâ—icature by talking it out with every Person but by an universally convincing Light that at once can shew every man in the World his own partâ—cular case as in it self it is not Sigâ—s not Riâ—htâ—ousnâ—sâ— that hath the promises of Râ—wâ—rd And there is no Righteousness that so far maketh not a man Righteous and so far Justifiable XCI They some of them say that we shall need no Justification against any false Accusation For who should accuse us Christ will not Consâ—ience will not and Devils say they will have something else to do And they know that false accusation will be in vain before such a Judge The sum of this is that there will indeed be no day of Judgment and no Justification by decisive Sentence yea and no Salvation for actual Glorification will be a Sentence manifested by Execution which Mr. Lawsâ—n thought was called the Judgment And if no Judgment then no Judge no Reward no Condemnation and no Punishment If any Judgment there must be Persons and a Cause to be tryed and judged 1. The Cause of that day will not be whether Christ be a sufficient Saviour or have made sufficient satisfaction It is not for Christ to judge himself It is not to judge God whether he elected us It is not to judge whether we were of the Seed of Adam or whether we ever sinned Or whether the Law of Innocency condemn us And our sin deserve everlasting Punishment There is no justifying us against any such Accusation It must be all confess'd we were the sinful Children of Adam we deserved Condemnation But the Cause will be 1. Whether we are lyable by Guilt to future Punishment And against this our Pardon justifyeth us 2. And whether we have Right to the Heavenly Inheritance And in this the Gospel-Donation Covenant or Promise justifieth us and both thro' the Merits of the Sacrifice and Righteousness of Christ 3. And the other part of the Cause of that day is whether we have part in Christ and the Merits of his Righteousness In which our Faith and God's Covenant will justifie us 4. And the Question being Whether this Faith be that which had the promise and not a Counterfeit the description of it by its Acts and Part and not only by adventitious Signs must be our justifying Evidence The faith that hath the Promise is essentially Christianity or a Covenant accepting of God the Father Son and Spirit of Christ as our Teacher Priest and King by affiance expressed in assent consent and subjection And all that is essential to this yea the necessary integrality and modification have their parts in being the Cause of the day And as to the Case of Accusation 1. A Virtual Accusation by the Law which we have broken and condemneth us requireth a Justification if there were no more 2. The Glory of Christ's Merits Righteousness and Grace requireth a Justification of us against our real Guilt 3. And is not Satan the Accuser of the Brethren and that before God And did not his Malice so work against Job though God contradicted him It is certain that sentential and apologetical Justification relates to Accusation virtual or actual and Condemnation Who shall condemn us it is God that justifieth us And if we are not justified against false Accusations we shall never be justified against any But we all confess that we are made righteous efficiently by Grace and constitutively by Righteousness in despight of all Satans true accusations and against all our own unworthiness ungodliness antecedently and guilt and that before all Works and Perseverance save a true accepting Faith in Christ But if we shall in judgment be decisively deâ—lared righteous by that which constituteth us righteous of which no knowing man herein can doubt God judging all things truly as they are then certainly will men by decisive declaration be judged righteous as being pardoned and adopted by the Merits of Christ and qualified by true Faith Repentance and Obedience for that Guift XCII They absurdly hold that to be justifâ—ed as to the sincerity of our Faith from the charge oâ— Hypocrisie or unsoundness it is not the Justification of the Person A contradiction that I am ashamed to be long in confuting Is it the Faâ— and not the Person that is to be judged Is it not as it is the Persoâ—s Faith What is it to â—â—stifie his Faith but to justifie him to be a true â—elieving Christian and so to be an Heir of the Prâ—mise The necessâ—ry qualifâ—cation of Faith 〈◊〉 â—t be operative is as truly a part of the condition of the Promises as that Faith be Faith indeed Indeed some sound Divines say That Faitâ— justâ—fiâ—th us as sinnâ—rs and Works justifiâ—th our Faith as â—câ—usâ—d Believers But they never meant thâ—â— by justifying our Faith it â—ustiâ—eth not our Persons But that we are at fâ—rst coâ—stitutâ—d just and adopted upon the â—â—ndition of a consentiâ—â— covenanting Fâ—ith bâ—fâ—re we hâ—ve time to sheâ— it by outward Works and that we are contiâ—ue and judged jâ—stified and intitled â—â— Liâ—e oâ— condition of our Performance of the Essentials â—f oâ— Covenant XCIII Thâ—â— hold thâ—t we are justified â—â— the sâ—me Law or Câ—vâ—â—â—â—t of Innocency which condemneth â—â— Because â—ay they we have fulfilled it in and by Câ—â—â—â—t falsly as is aforesaid supposing that Câ—râ—st was either such a Surety as wâ—â— in the same Bond diâ—jâ—nctively with the principal or else that the principal man was allowed to do his Duty or â—ear his Suffering by another And so they deny the Gospel-Covenant and Gift which is that indeed which justifieth us by the way of Redemption falsly supposing that the very damning Law doth justiâ—e us by way of Prevention as innocent as having fulfilled it in Christ XCIV They suppose that Christ will not judge and justifie us acâ—ording to any Law by which he governed us but only by declaring his absolute Deâ—ree and Will giving no Reason of his Sentence from the cause of different performance or â—on performance of the Persâ—ns jâ—dged and so that Judgment is no act of Moral Government or of Reward contrary to all the Scripture XCV They falsly suppose that Paâ—â—â— of siâ— iâ— no Justification constitutive or senteâ—tiâ—l Because say they that doth but save us from Punisâ—ment but to be Righteous is to be by imputation such as have kept all the Law and so hâ—ve never sinned But we have no such Righteousness aâ— they thus feign when the Question is whether we are sâ—nners We must confess it and â—ot plead that we have no sin But when the Question is whether we are to be condemned Pardon is oâ—r Righteousness and having the Pardon of all sin original habitual and aâ—tual of omissiâ—n and commission we are in stâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 pâ—â—â—uâ—â— and if thâ—◠〈◊〉 enough to intitle uâ— tâ— Glory Aâ—option added to it is And so 〈◊〉 Riâ—ht is â—â—stiâ—â—â—d XCVI
and the greatest sinner in all the World and yet sinned not himself IV. They deny Gâ—d dwelling in us as Love and Christ living in us by his Spirit by feigning us to be never the better for his Grace and inward Operations as to any furtherance of our Salvation as if the Life of Christ within us were not saving V. They deny the great Ends and use of a Saviâ—ur to save us from Sin as a means to save us from Hell and as the means of our Glorification and as a Prophet by his Doctrine and Example to teach us how to seek and obtain the purchased Salvation VI. They deny the Holy Ghost by denying that his Sanctifying Work and Grace must be esteemed and used as a furtherance of our Salvation Because Christ hath saved us by himself already VII They dâ—ny the Gospel while they deny it to be the Law or Doâ—ation of God which as an Act of Oblivion is his Instrument of our Justification and Pardon our Title to life for Titulus est fundamentum juris And as the Instrument of our virtual Justification VIII They do as Anti-christians deny Christ's Prophetical Offiâ—e by which by Doctrine and Example he teacâ—eth us what wâ— must do to be saved And his Kingly Office by which hâ— maketh Laws to Rule us or to Juâ—ge us by as the imposed term of Life and Death IX They deny the Law of Innocency and forge another of their own instead of it which nameth Christ as instead of us X. They hold all the Elect Lawless and so no Subjects of Christ while they say they are under no Law XI Hereby they deny God and Christ's Government by Law XII They have no humiliation for sin and say they have no sin for since Christ's death it is none of theirs XIII They hold that there is no such thing as sin in the World of the Elect because Christ took it from them before they were born or had it and he hath none now in Heaven XIV They deny all Justification by Faith and say that it is not by Faith but by the Object of Faith only XV. They make Christ no true Mediator but such a surety as was a party in the Bond with us aâ—d suffered for his own sin and was condemned by that Law of Innocency for us XVI They deny Justifying Faith it sâ—lf while instead of it they feign a meer belief that we are Justified XVII They harden ungodly men in their damning presumption oâ—trudiâ—g on them a belief that they are Elect and Justified tho' unâ—odly and telling thâ—m that this is coming out of themselves to Christ and that they cannot believe this too soon and that Christ hath Repented Believed and been Holy for them XVIII They diâ—ectly fight against all mens Salvation by telling them that they ought to do no Duty inward or outward as a means of their Salvation lest it be against Christ and Free Grace which saveth them And that nothing that they do can do them any good nor any sin possibly can do them any hurt because they are already perfect and saved only by Christ XIX They expose Christianity to the scorn of Infidels by telling men that it consisteth in that which every novice in Lâ—gick or Reasoning knoweth to be impossible that one mans Sins and one mans Righteousness should be made anothers Not only so far as that others partake of the Effects Christ of our sins in sufferings and we of the benefits of his Righteousness which we all maintain but that the thing it self is essentially thus transferred And so the Accidents do transire a Subjecto in Subjectum And whereas Sin and Righteousness are Accidents in the three predicaments of Habit or Privation Acts and Relation they feign the Habits Acts and Relation of â—â—â—us deformity of all the Elect to become in themselves the Habits Acts and Râ—latiâ—ns of Christ And the Habits Acts and Relations of perfect Rigâ—teousness in Christ to becomâ— essâ—ntiâ—lly the very Haâ—its Acts and Relatiâ—â—s of every Person Elect. XX. They do like the Papists that hold Transubstâ—ntiâ—tion teach mâ—n to reâ—ounce â— mâ—â—â—â— sâ—â—â—â— and reason in believing that no pain or lâ—ss oâ— Gracâ— is a punishment tâ—â— ' but castigatory tâ— the Elect bâ—cause all punishâ—ent is suffered by Christ As if Câ—rists threâ—tning whâ—m I love I râ—â—â—â—e and chasten were a denying â—f himself XXI Tâ—â—y deny the very essentiâ—l principle of sâ—lf-â—â—â—e wâ—ile tâ—â—y tâ—â—â—h men to do nâ—thing for their Salvatiâ—â— XXII They coâ—sâ—queâ—tly teach men to dâ— nothing for tâ—eir Livâ—s Hâ—alth or any Corporal good to Pioâ— â—r Soâ— or Labâ—ur For if they must do nothing for tâ—â— goâ—d 〈◊〉 the Soul much less of the Body Foâ— Câ—rist is sufficiâ—nt fâ—r bâ—th XXIII Tâ—ey heâ—eby destâ—oy all Preaching and all 〈◊〉 to â—â—hers For we must love others but as â—â—r sâ—lves and if we may do nothing as for our oâ—n â—ood thâ—n not for any othâ—rs XXIV They read in Scriâ—ture aâ—ove Six Hundred Tâ—xts that speaks of Iâ—herent and Acted Personal Riâ—â—tâ—ousnâ—â—â— jâ—yned with the prâ—mises of life and Gâ—ds accâ—ptance and threatnings to thâ—m that have it â—â—t And yet they by putid Contradictioâ— say It is a Rigâ—teousness that maketh no man Righteâ—us tâ—â— ' â—ut in tantum subordinate to the meâ—â—â—â—â—â—us perfâ—ct Righteousâ—â—ss of Christ And that we are Jâ—â—tified never the mâ—re for it than if we had it not And so it is as Learning that makes not Learnâ—d or liâ—eness that maketh not like c. That is It is Righteousâ—ess and no Righteousness XXV Tâ—ey make the Baptismal Covenant and the Lords Supper to be no Covenanting or to have no Condition And yet their own Church-Covenants have Conditions and are of Works XXVI They deny all the Scripture-promises of reward XXVII They deny and reproach Heaven it self a great part whereof is in the perfection of Holiness while they make Holiness here and the Exercise of it to do us no good or save us XXVIII By all this they would make 1. The Concord of Christians impossible as if they must agree in all this Errour 2. They harden Papists in contempt and scorn of Protestants And 3. They notoriously militate for the Kingdom of Satan And now tell me whether there were ever damnable Hereticks in the World if these be none Reconcil Many that hold some of the forementioned Errours yet hold not all the rest All speak not so grosly as some do Therefore lay your charge but where it is due And all are not properly Hereticks that hold the same Errour that Hereticks do If all Errour were Herefy all men were Hereticks Ortho. But he is a Heretick who subverteth the Fundamentals Reconcil If he do it directly and knowingly he is an Infidel For he is not to be called a Christian or a Believer who denyeth any thing Essential to Christianity But you must distinguish between 1. Denying the Words and denying the Thing signified by them 2. Between denying Directly and denying by Consequence 1.