design therein to be none other but that of an enemy to the Son of God and Salvation of the World For that Holiness as I have shewed is none other but a Shadowish Christless Graceless Holiness and your so exalting of it very Blasphemy You proceed saying Let us exercise our selves unto real and substantial Godliness still meaning your Adamitish Holiness Let us study the Gospel not to discourse or onely to believe but also and above ALL things to do well Answ. Herein still you manifest either ignorance of or malice against the Doctrine of Faith that Doctrine which above all Doctrines is the qâ—intessence of the new Testament because therein and not Principally as you feign by doing well is the Righteousness of God revealed and that from Faith to Faith not from Faith to Works nor yet from Works to Faith Besides the Gospel is Preached in all Nations for the obedience of FAITH Neither Works the Law the Dictates of Humanity nor the first Principles of Morrals knowing what to do with the Righteousness of the Gospel which is a Righteousness imputed by God not wrought by us a Righteousness given not earned a Righteousness recived by believing not that which floweth from our obedience to Laws a Righteousness which comes from God to us not one that goeth from us to God Besides as I also have hinted before the Apostle and you are directly opposite You cry above ALL things DO well that is Work and do the Law but he Above ALL take the SHIELD of Faith wherewith are quenched ALL the fiery Darts of the Wicked Eph. 6. But you add Pag. 300. Let us do what lyeth in us to convince our Atheist that the Religion of the blessed Jesus is no trick or deviâ—e and our wanton and loose Christians that it is no notional business speculative Science Answ. This you cannot do by your Morral Natural Principles of Humanity For even some of your BRAVE Phylosophers whose Godliness you have so much aplauded were even then in the must of their and your Vertues Athestically ignorant of the Religion of Jesus And as to the loose Christian Christ neither hath need of nor will he bless your Blasphemous opinions nor feigned Godliness but Real ungodliness to make them Converts to his Faith and Grace neither can it be expected it should seeing you have not onely dirty thoughts but vilifying Words and sayings of his Person Work and Righteousness You have set your Works before his Pag. 223. calling them Substantial Indispensible and Real but coming to God by him a thing iâ— it self Indifferent P. 7 8 9. You go on and say Let us declare that we are not hearty â—elyers 〈◊〉 Christ's Righteousness by being imitators of it Pag. 300. You cannot leave off to Contemn and Blaspheme the Son of God Do you not yet know that the Righteousness of Christ on which the sinner ought to rely for life is such as consisted in his standing to and doing of the Law without a Mediator And would you be doing this What know you not that an Essential of the Righteousness he accomplished for Sinners when he was in the World is That he was Conceived by the Holy Ghost Born without Sin did all things in the Power of and Vnion with his own eternal God-head And are you able thus to imitate him Again the Righteousness on which we ought to rely for life is that which hath in it the Merit of Blood We are Justified by his Blood through Faith in his Blood Is this the Righteousness you would imitate Farther the Righteousness on which poor Sinners should rely is that for the sake of which God forgiveth the Sins of him that resteth by Faith thereupon But would you be imitating of or accompishing such a Righteousness Your Book Sir is begun in Ignorance mannaged with Errour and ended in Blasphemy Now the God of Glory if it may stand with his Glory give you a sight of your Sins against the Son of God that you may as Saul lye trembling and being astonished cry out to be Justified with the Righteousness of God without the Law even that which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe Many other gross Absurdities which I have omitted in your whole Book may perhaps be more throughly gathered up when you shall have taken the opportunity to reply In the mean time I shall content my self with this Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sin of the World Joh. 1. 29. Even Jesus who delivered us from the Wrath to come 1 Thes. 1. 10. Who when he had by himself purged our Sins sat down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High Heb. 1. 3. Christ dyed for our Sins 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3. God hath made him to be Sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. Christ was made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. He bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. He loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood Rev. 1. 5. God for Christ's sake â—ath forgiven you Eph. 4. 23. We have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of our Sins according to the riches of his Grace Eph. 1. 7. Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the onely Wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen The Conclusion That my Reader may farther perceive that Mr. Fowler even by the chief of the Articles of the Church of England is adjudged Erronious and besides the very Fundamentals of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and that in those very Principles that are the main I say and that most immediately concern Christ Faith and Salvation will be evident to them that compare his Design of Christianity with these Articles hereunder Recited The Articles concerning Free-will THe condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own Natural strength and good Works to Faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good Works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will The Article concerning justification WE are accounted Righteous before God ONELY for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works or Deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith ONELY is a most wholesome Doctrine and full of Comfort c. The Article of Works before justification WOrks done before the Grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God for as much as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ or deserve Grace of Congruity Yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the NATVRE of Sin These Articles because they respect the points incontroversie betwixt Mr. Fowler and my self and because they be
Created or made Thirdly The Law also which you call Divine Moral and Eternal is that which is naturally seated in the Heart and as you your self express it is originally the Dictates of humane Nature or that which Mankind doth naturally assent to Page 11. Now I say that a man cannot by these Principles and these qualifications please the God of Heaven is apparent 1. Because none of these are Faith but without Faith it is impossible to please him Heb. 11. 6. 2. Because none of these is the Holy Ghost but there is nothing accepted of God under a New Testament consideration but those which are the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. 3. The Man and Principles you have stated may be such as are utterly Ignorant of Jesus Christ and of all his New Testament things as such But the Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God the things of his New Testament for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 24. 4. Your qualifications and considerations know nothing at all of the adoption of Sons and of our acting and doing our Duty as such You only content your self to rest within the confines of the humane Nature acts of reason as men or Creatures only or in their supposed pure natural Principles And Sir a little by way of digression I will tell you also of our truly Christian righteousness both as to its original or first Principle and also how or under what capacity it puts the Person that is acted by it First The Principle which is laid within us it is not the purity of the humane Nature but of the Holy Ghost it self which we have of God received by believing in the Son of God a principle as far above yours of Humanity as is the Heavens above the Earth yours being but like those of the first Adam but ours truly those of the second As is the Earthly such are those that are Earthly and as is the Heavenly such are those that are Heavenly Now whosoever hath not this Principle although he be a Creature and also have the Dictates of the humane Nature yea and also follows them yet he is not Christs If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Thus therefore is the Christian Principle another from and far above your Heathenish Pagan one By 〈◊〉 is Spirit is the Christian qualified with Principles not Nâ—â—ural but Spiritual such as Faith Hope Joy Peace c. all which are the fruits of the Revelation of the forgiveness of sins freely by Grace though the Redemption that it in Jesus Christ In this Spirit and Faith we walk by this Spirit we are led even into the Joy and Peace of the New Testament of our Lord wherefore our Holy Actions are the fruits of Righteousness that is by Jesus Christ not by our humane Nature or the purity of it in us yea they are the fruits of the Spirit of God the qualifications that attend the new Covenant and those that by the work of regeneration are brought within the bounds and Priviledges thereof Wherefore Secondly The capacity that we are in who act and do from the Heavenly Principle it is that of Sons the Sons of God by adoption as the Apostle said Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father And again As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God This is a far other then is your humane description of acting as a Creature indued with a Principle of Reason for here is a man acts as a Son indued with the Holy Spirit of God who hath before the World was predestinated him to this Estate by Jesus Christ to himself As a Son therefore the Christian acts and does because he is indued with that high and heavenly Principle mentioned before by which Principle this man hath received a new Heart a new Spirit a new understanding a good Conscience so made by Faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Thus being made again anew and another man he acts from a new and another Principle then yours a Principle as far beyond and above you as is a Man above a Bruit and as is Grace above Nature Thirdly As the Christian acts does from a better Principle and under a better capacity or consideration then that you have described so to allude to your own notion the first Principles by which they receive this Spirit and Adoption are not those Principles of Morals or those originally dictates of humane Nature but it is through the hearing of Faith Gal. 3. 1 2 3. by which we understand that the Son of God became a Man dyed for our sins hath saved us from the curse of God and accounted us to be the righteousness of God in him this being heard with the Gospel and a new-Testament hearing the Holy Ghost forthwith possesseth us by the glorious working whereof we are helped through the Son to call the God of Heaven our Father Now thus being made free from sin by the only Faith of Jesus Christ we have our fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life And here come in those reasonable conclusions which you would make the very radicals of Christianity they being only remote and after conclusions drawn from the forementioned Mercy of God viz. from predestination Calling Adoption and Justification by Christs Blood sinners I say these are the things which Paul endeavored to provoke the Romans Philippians and Colossians to an Holy Conversation by 1. To the Romans I beseech you therefore saith he by the Mercies of God What Mercies Why those of Election Redemption Calling Justification and Adoption mentioned in the foregoing Chapters that you present your Bodies a living Sacrifice Holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service Rev. 12. 1. 2. To the Philippians If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any Comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any Bowels and Mercies fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded Phil. 2. 1. 3. To the Colossians If you be risen with Christ seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God set your affections on things above not on things of the Earth for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in Glory Now mark mortifie therefore therefore wherefore why because they were risen with Christ because they should appear at the end of this World with Christ himself in Glory therefore mortifie the deeds of the Body or our Members that are upon the Earth Col. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. These Sir are the Motives by which we Christians act because we are forgiven because we are Sons and if Sons then Heirs and so we act
but to speak to this more anon Perhaps you will say I deal not fairly with you because you treat as of moral so of Gospel or New Testament Laws But to that I will answer at present that in this description of your Holy Principle which is the Foundation of your Book whether the Laws be Natural or Spiritual moral or of Grace the Principle by which you do them is no other then the Principle of Nature the dictates of the humane Nature and so such as can by no means reach the Doctrines of the Gospel any farther then to make a Judgment of them by that wisdom which is enmity with God as will farther be seen in my progress through your Book Indeed you make mention of Divine Laws and that under two Heads 1. Such as are of an indispensible and Eternal Obligation as those purely moral 2. Such which you call positive precepts in themselves of an indifferent Nature and absolutely considered are neither good nor evil Of those of this kind that we have under the Gospel you say you know but three viz That of coming to God by Christ and the Institutions of Baptism and the Lords Supper Page 7 and Page 9. So then although you talk of Gospel positive Laws and particularly that of coming to God by Christ yet those which you call first Principles of Morals are of higher concern with you and more indispensible by far then this this being a thing of an indifferent Nature and in it self absolutely considered is neither good nor evil but the other is the life of the matter But a little to gather you up The Morals say you are indispensible and good in themselves but that of coming to God by Christ a thing indifferent and in it self neither good nor evil Wherefore though in this your description you talk of confirming to all those good and practical Principles that are made known either by Revelation Nature or the use of Reason yet in this your obedience you reckon coming to God by Christ but an act of a very indifferent Nature a thing if done not good in it self neither evil in it self should a man leave it undone and so consequently a man may have in him the ground and essentials of Christianity without it may be saved and go to Heaven without it for this I say whatsoever is of an indifferent Nature in it self is not essential to the Christian Religion but may or may not be done without the hazard of Eternal Salvation but say you this of coming to God by Christ is one of the positive precepts Page 9. which are in themselves things indifferent and neither good nor evil therefore not of the substance of Christianity But Sir where learned you this new Doctrine as to reckon coming to God by Christ a thing of so indifferent a Nature a thing not good in it self but with respect to certain Circumstances Page 7. Had you said this of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord I could with some allowance have born your words but to count coming to God by Christ a thing iudifferent in it self is a blasphemy that may not be born by Christians it being too high a contempt of the Blood and too great a disgrace to the Person of the Lord the King of Glory of which more hereafter but to return The intent of this your description is to set before us these two things 1. What are the essentials of the Rule of that Holiness which by the Gospel we are immediately obliged to if we would be justified in the sight of God 2. What are the principles by which we act when we do these works aright For the first you tell us they are the first Principles of Morals such as are self evident and therefore not capable of being properly demonstrated as being no less knowable and easily assented to then any proposition that may be brought for the proof of them Page 8. Such as are self-evident or evident of themselves to what To us as men that know the Principles of Reason and that are as easily assented to as any proposition such as may be as easily known as we know there is a day or night Winter and Summer or any other thing that may be brought for the proof of them This Law therefore is none other then that mentioned in Rom. 2. 14 15. which is the Law of our Nature or that which was implanted in us in the day of our Creation and therefore is said to be our selves even Nature it self 1 Cor. 11. 14. Secondly the Principle say you by which we act and in the strength of which we do this Law it is the Principle of Reason or a reasonable compliance with this Law written in our Hearts and originally dictates of humane Nature c. which certain Principle say you is this To count it most highly becoming all reasonable Creatures to obey God in every thing and as much disbecoming them in any thing to disobey him Page 8. The sum is this your Holiness both in root and act is no other then what is common to all the men on Earth I mean so common as that for the first is in their Nature as the second is also part of themselves they being Creatures whose prime or principal distinction from other consisteth in that they are reasonable and such as have reason as a thing essential to them wherefore the excellency that you have discoursed of is none other then the excellency and goodness that is of this World such as in the first Principles of it is common to Heathens Pagans Turks Infidels and that as evidently dictates to those that have not heard the Gospel I mean as to the Nature the good and evil as it doth in them that sit under the sound thereof and is the self same which our late ungodly Heriticks the Quakers have made such a stir to promote and exalâ— only in the description thereof you seem more ingenious then they for whereas they erroniously call it Christ the light of Christ Faith Grace Hope the Spirit the Word that is nigh c. you give it the names due thereto viz. A complexion or complication and combination of all the virtue of the Soul the humane Nature the dictates of it the Principles of reason such as are self-evident than which there is nothing Mankind doth naturally assent to Page 6 7 8 9 10 11. only here as I have said you glorifie your errors also with Names any Titles that are not to be found but in your own deluded Brains As that the virtues of the Souls can keep themselves incommixed that there is yet in us the purity of the humane Nature of such a disposition that can both by light and power give a man to see and powerfully incline him to and bring him under the government of all those good and practical principles that are made known either by Revelation Nature or the use of Reason But I say these principles thus
him by but as a Seal of the Righteousness of THAT Faith which he had being yet Vncircumcised Now we know that Circumcision in the Flesh was a Type of Circumcision in the heart wherefore the Faith that Abraham had before his outward Circumcision was to shew us that Faith if it be right layeth hold upon the Righteousness of Christ before we be Circumcised inwardly and this must needs be so for if Faith doth Purifie the Heart then it must be there before the Heart is Purified Now this inward Circumcision is a Seal or Sign of this That that is the onely saving Faith that layeth hold upon Christ before we be Circumcised But he that believeth before he be inwardly Circumcised must believe in another in a Righteousness without him and that as he standeth at present in himself Ungodly for he is not Circumcised which Faith if it be right approveth it self also so to be by an after Work of Circumcising inwardly But I say the Soul that thus layeth hold on Christ taketh the onely way to please his God because this is that also which himself hath determined shall be accomplished upon us But unto him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt but to him that Worketh not but Believeth in him that Justifieth the VNGODLY his Faith is counted for Righteousness Rom. 4. He that is Ungodly hath a want of Righteousness even of the inward Righteousness of Works But what must become of him Let him Believe in him that Justifieth the Ungodly because for that purpose there is in him a Righteousness We will now return to Paul himself he had Righteousness before he was Justified by Christ yet he chose to be Justified rather as an unrighteous man then as one Indued with so brave a Qualification That I may be found in him not having mine own Righteousness away with mine own Righteousness I chuse rather to be Justified as Ungodly by the Righteousness of Christ than by mine own and his together Phil. 3. You Argue therefore like him that desireth to be a Teacher of the Law nay worse that neither knoweth what he saith nor whereof he Affirmeth But you say Were it possible that Christ's Righteousness could be imputed to an Vnrighteous man I dare boldly affirm that it would signifie as little to his Happiness while he continueth so as would a Gorgeous and Splendid Garment to one that is almost starved c. Answ 1. That Christ's Righteousness is Imputed to men while Sinners is sufficiently testified by the Word of God Ezek. 16. 1 8. Zech. 3. 1 5. Rom. 3. 24 25. Chap. 4. 1 5. Chap. 5. 6 9. 2 Cor. 5. 18 21. Phil. 3. 6 7 8. 1 Tim. 1. 15 16. Rev. 1. 5. 2. And that the Sinner or unrighteous Man is happy in this Imputation is also as abundantly Evident For 1. The Wrath of God and the Curse of the Law are both taken off by this Imputation 2. The Graces and Comforts of the Holy Ghost are all Intailed to and followers of this Imputation Blessed is he to whom the Lord will not Impute Sin It saith not that he is Blessed that hath not Sin to be imputed but he to whom God will not Impute them he faith Therefore the non Imputation of Sin doth not argue a non being thereof in the Soul but a Glorious act of Grace Imputing the sufficiency of Christ's Righteousness to Justifie him that is yet Ungodly But what Blessedness doth follow the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ to one that is yet Ungodly Answ. Even the Blessing of Abraham to wit Grace and Eternal Life For Christ was made the Curse and Death that was due to us as Sinners that the Blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Faith in Jesus Christ That we might receive the Promise of the Spirit through Faith Gal. 3. 13 14. Now Faith hath it's eye upon two things with respect to it's act of Justifying First it acknowledgeth that the Soul is a Sinner and then that there is a sufficiency in the Righteousness of Christ to Justifie it in the sight of God though a Sinner We have Believed in Jesus Christ that we might be Justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the Works of the Law Therefore they that believe aright receive Righteousness even the Righteousness of another to Justifie them while yet in themselves they are Sinners Why do they believe in Christ The answer is That they MIGHT be Justified not because in their own Eyes they are They therefore at present stand Condemned in themselves and therefore they believe in Jesus Christ that they might be set free from present Condemnation Now being Justified by his Blood as Ungodly they shall be saved by his Life that is by his Intercession For whom he Justifieth by his Blood he saveth by his Intercession For by that is given the Spirit Faith and all Grace that preserveth the Elect unto Eternal Life and Glory I Conclude therefore that you argue not Gospelly in that you so boldly Affirm that it would signifie as little to the Happiness of one to be Justified by Christ's Righteousness while a Sinner as would a Gorgeous and Splendid Garment to one that is ready to perish For farther Thus to be Justified is Meat and Drink to the Sinner and so the beginning of Eternal Life in him My Flesh is Meat indeed said Christ and my Blood is Drink indeed And he that Eateth my Flesh and Drinketh my Blood hath Eternal or Everlasting Life He Affirmeth it once again As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that Eateth me even he shall live by me John 6. Here now is a Man an Hungred what must he feed upon Not his pure Humanity not upon the sound Complexion of his Soul nor yet on the Dictates of his Humane Nature nor those neither which you call truly Generous Principles But upon the Flesh and Blood of the Son of God which was once given for the Sin of the World Let those then that would be saved from the Devil and Hell and that would find a Fountain of Grace in themselves first receive and feed upon Christ as Sinners and Ungodly Let them believe that both his Body and Blood and Soul was offered for them as they were Sinners The believing of this is the Eating of Christ this eating of Christ is the beginning of Eternal Life to wit of all Grace and health in the Soul and of Glory to be Injoyed most perfectly in the next World Your Twelfth Chapter is to shew That Holiness being Perfected is Blessedness it self and that the Glory of Heaven Consisteth chiefly in it Answ. But none of your Holiness none of that inward Holiness which we have Lost before Conversion shall ever come to Heaven That being as I have shewed a Holiness of another Nature and arising from another Root then that we shall in Heaven injoy 2. But farther Your Description of
us insignificant if it stand without Faith in himself Ye believe naturally in God saith he Believe also in me Faith in Jesus is as absolutely necessary as to believe immediately in the Divine being Yea without Faith in Jesus whosoever believeth in God is sure to perish and burn in Hell If you believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your Sins And to take Jesus in Morrals for example is no where called believing in him neither is there one promise of eternal life annexed to such a practice But you say If we tread in his blessed steps and be such according to our measure and capacity as we have understood he was in this World Answ. I say for a Man to confine himself onely to the life of the Lord Jesus for an example or to think it enough to make him in his life a pattern for us to follow leaveth us through our shortness in the end with the Devil and his Angels for want of Faith in the Doctrine of Remission of Sins For Christ did no where make another Mediator between God and him nor did he ever trust to another Man's Righteousness to be thereby Justified from the Curse of the Law neither did he at all stand in need thereof without which WE must be Damned and Perish Now I say these things being no where practiced by him he cannot therein be an example to us And I say again seeing that in these things by Faith in them is immediately wrapped up our Reconciliation with God it followeth that though a Man take the Lord Christ in his whole life for an example in the end that notwithstanding he abideth unreconciled to God Neither will that clause and be such help such a person at all For Justification with God comes not by imitating Christ as exemplary in Morrals but through Faith in his Precious Blood In the Law I read that the Paschal Lamb was neither to be eaten Sodden nor Raw but Roast with fire must it be eaten Exod. 12. Now to make Salvation Principally to depend upon imitating Christ's Life it is to feed upon him Raw or at most as Sodden or Sanctified and Holy But the precept is Eat it Roast with fire is the Antitype as accursed of God for Sin and induring the punishment for it The Law is compared to fire and it's Curse to a burning Oven Now under the Curse of this fiery Law was the Lord Jesus afflicted for the Sins of the World Wherefore as so considered our Faith must lay hold upon him for Justification with God This is the Law of the Burnt Offering which was the Offering for Sin It is the Burnt Offering because of the burning upon the Altar all night unto the morning and the fire of the Altar shall be burning in it Levit. 6. 9. But now I would inquire Had Israel done the Commandment if they had eaten the Passover Raw or Boiled in Water or if they had offered that Offering that was to be burnt as a Sin Offering otherwise then it was commanded Even so to feed upon Christ as he is Holy and of good life onely and also as taking him therein for an example to us to follow his steps for Justification with God this is to eat the Passover Raw and not as Rost with Fire this is to feed upon Jesus without respecting him as accursed of God for our Sin and so consequently to miss of that eternal life that by his Blood he hath obtained for every one that believeth on him I have been pleased with this observation that none of the Signs and Wonders in Aegypt could deliver the Children of Israel thence till the Lamb was slain and Roast with fire Exod. 12. 1. And I have been also pleased with this that the Father not Moses gave the Manna from Heaven which was a Type of the Flesh and Blood of Christ that whoso feedeth on shall live for ever John 6. 32. Yea Circumcision also which was a Type of inward and Heart-Holiness was not of Moses but of the Fathers and Principally a consequence of the Faith of Abraham John 7. 22. Whence I gather That no Wonder but the Blood of Christ can save That no Kindess but the Mercy of God can give this to us And that no Law but the Law of Faith can make us truly Holy in heart But you add Those that sincerely and industrously indeavour to imitate the Holy Jesus in his Spirit and Actions can never be ignorant what it is to be truly Christians Those that follow Jesus in his Spirit must first receive that Spirit from Heaven which Spirit is received as I have often said by applying first by Faith the Merits of Christ to the Soul for Life and Justification with God The Spirit is not received by the Works of the Law but by the hearing of Faith neither comes it in the Ministry or Doctrine of Morrals but in and by the Ministry of Faith and the Law is NOT of Faith Wherefore seeing you have in Page 223. of your Book forbidden Sinners to come first to Jesus for Justification with God the Spirit you talk of however you call it the Spirit Jesus can be no other then the Spirit of a Man which you also your self in Pag. 7 8 9. call the Purity of Humane Nature a Principle of Reason the first Principles of Morrals or those that are Originally Dictates of Humane Nature Wherefore by these Words in his Spirit you do but Blaspheme the Holy Ghost and abuse your ignorant Reader calling now Quaker-like the Dictates of your Humanity and your Socinian Complyances therewith the Spirit of Holy Jesus I conclude therefore that the way of Salvation or the design of Christianity as prescribed by you is none other then the Errors of your own brain the way of Death the Sum and Heart of Papistical Quakerism and is quite denyed by the Lord Jesus and by his blessed Testament And now go your ways and imitate the Lord Jesus and take the whole History of his life for your example and walk in his steps and be such as much as you can yet without Faith in his Blood first yea and if you stand not Just before God through the imputation of his Righteousness your imitating will be found no better then rebellion because by that instead of Faith in his Blood you hope to obtain remission of Sins thrusting him thereby from his Office and Work and setting your dunghil Righteousness up in his stead I come now to Your Conclusion First in Page 198. You prâ—se men to betake themselves to find that which you call the design of Christianity accomplished in their hearts and lives Answ. Seeing that the Holiness that your erronious Book hath exalted is none other but THAT which we have LOST Yea and again seeing you have set this in the Head of and before the the Righteousness of Christ I admonish my Reader to tremble at the Blasphemy of your Book and account the whole
who is greater and also without the Law For albeit for our sakes he became under the Law even to the curse and displeasure of God yet the principles by which he walked in the World to God-ward they were neither humane nor legal but heavenly and done in the Spirit of the Son Wherefore it is not the righteousness you have described by which we stand just before God Thirdly The righteousness you have described cannot be that which justifieth us before God because of its imperfections and that both with respect to the principle and the power with which it is managed For though you have talked of a sound complexion of Soul the purity of the humane nature and that with this addition of power as to be able to keep it self incommixt with that which is not of it self yet we Christians know and that by the words of God that there is in man as man now no soundness at all but from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot Botches and Boyls Putrifactions and Sores We are ALL an unclean thing and our righteousness as filthy vlcerous raggs If there had been a Law given that could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the Law Could a man perform the Law to the liking of the justice of the eternal majesty then would the Law give life to that man but because of the perfection of an infinite justice and the weakness and unprofitableness of the Law through our flesh therefore though you speak yet farther of the excellency of your sound complexion and of the purity of the humane nature you must flie from your self to another righteousness for life or at the last stick in the jaws of Death and everlasting Desperation For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified Gal. 2. 16. It is therefore no better then error thus to ascribe to poor man that hath drunk iniquity like water a soundness of soul a purity of humane nature Wherefore Jude saith of you and of all such naturalists That even in the things that you know naturally as the bruit in them you corrupt your selves Jude 10. even in the very principles the first or original dictates of your nature or humanity There is none that understandeth or is good therefore there is none that doth good no not one that is none as continuing in a natural state none by the power or principles of nature for he meaneth here in your own sense as men by natural principles have to do with the justice of the Law Fourthly The righteousness which you have described cannot be that which justifieth us before God because it is that which is not of faith The Law is not of faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Gal. 3. The Apostle also in the 10 th Chapter of the Romans tells us that the righteousness that is compleated by doing the Law is one and another besides the righteousness of faith For faith in the justification of a sinner from the curse and wrath of God respecteth onely the mercy of God and forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ. God for Christs sake hath forgiven him that is enabled to believe that is trust to and venture the eternal concern of his soul upon the righteousness that is no where to be found but in the person of the Son of God For there is justice more then answerable to all the demands of the Law and the requirements of the eternal justice of God and he is our justice He is made unto us of God righteousness or justice that is the righteousness or justice that is in him is by God accounted the mans that shall accept thereof by faith that he might be made the justice or righteousness of God in him For the righteousness that saveth a sinner from damnation must be equal to that in the eternal Deity but where can that be found but in him that is naturally God as is indeed the Son of the Father in him therefore and not in the Law there is a righteousness fit for faith to apply to Besides the Law is not neither can be the object of faith to men for that which is the object of faith I speak now as to justifying righteousness it must be a righteousness already compleated and as I said a righteousness to be received and accepted being now perfected and offered and given to us by the kindness and mercy of God but a man may believe long enough in the Law before that performs for him a perfect righteousness The Law can work nothing unless it be wrath Rom. 4. No thou must work BY and not believe IN the Law Besides all that cometh out of the mouth of the Law is Cursed is every one that continueth not in every thing which is written in the book of the Law to do them which no man is capable of doing so as to escape the curse by doing that hath once or first transgressed the same Wherefore it is a vain thing yea an horrible wickedness in you thus to abuse the Law and the weakneâ—s of man by suggesting that the onely the ultimate or grand design of Christ Jesus was or is the promoting of a righteousness by the Law that is performed by humane principles in us I could double yea ten times double the number of these arguments against you but I will pass from this to the second thing The righteousness you have described is not the true Gospel inward holiness I told you before that the principles which you have described are not evangelical principles and now I will adde that as they are not such in themselves so neither do they fetch in or obtain by our adhering to them those things which alone can make or work in the Soul those truly Gospel inward acts of holiness There are three things which are essential to the inward Gospel holiness of which as your description is utterly destitute so neither can they by that be obtained or come into the heart 1. The holy Ghost 2. Faith in Christ. 3. A new Heart and a new Spirit Without these three there is no such things as Gospel holiness in Man as before I have also hinted at But now as there is none of these three found in your discription of inward Holiness so neither can you or other by all your inclinations either to those you call first principles of natural reason or the dictates of humane nature obtain or fetch into the Soul the least dram of that which is essential to that which is indeed according to the Gospel description of inward Gospel holiness as will further be manifest in this that followeth 1. The holy Ghost is not obtained by your description that consisting only in principles of Nature and in putting forth it self in acts of Civility and Morality When the Apostle would convince the bewitched Galathians that your Doctrine which was also the Doctrine of the false
Apostles was that which instead of helping forward did hinder and pervert the Gospel of Christ he applieth himself to them in this manner This onely would I learn of you Received you the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith By the works of the Law that is by putting of your principles into practice Nay may I not adde by putting of your principles into practice by a more bright and clear rule then in the beginning of your description is inserted by you for the Law as written and engraven in stones with the addition of all the Mosaical precepts was a more ample and full discovery of the mind of God then can be obtained by your virtues of Soul your purity of humane nature or the first principles of morals as they are written in the heart of man and originally dictates of humane nature Yet by these by following these by labouring to live up to the light of these their own experience told them that they neither could nor did obtain the enjoyment of the holy Ghost but that rather their now declining the word of Faith by which indeed they receive it at first whatever pretences of holiness and godliness were the arguments to prevail with them so to do was in truth none other but the very witch-craft and inchantments of the Devil Farther The Apostle sets this your Spirit and Principles and that which indeed is the Spirit of God in aline Diametrically opposite one against another yea the receiving of the one opposeth the receiving of the other Now we have received saith he NOT the Spirit of the World that is your Spirit and principles of humanity to walk by it or live in it but the Spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2. 12. But what is the Spirit of the World He tells us in the verse before it is the Spirit of a man which Solomon calls the Candle of the Lord that which searcheth all the inward parts of the Belly Prov. 20. 27. by humane principles good motions to moral duties workings of reason dictates of nature to obey God as Creator These things flow from the Spirit of a man which is the Spirit of all the World They that preach or speak by this Spirit they preach or speak of the World of the virtues of the World and the World the whole World heareth them or know in themselves what they say Now when this Spirit is received imbraced and followed as the Spirit that is of God then it must be branded with the mark of the Spirit of error and of Antichrist because the act in so doing is most wicked yea and Christ himself is made head against by it But I say the holy Ghost is not obtained by these principles nor by the pursuit of them 2. Faith is not obtained by the pursuit of your principle but by hearing of another doctrine He that presseth men to look to and live by the purity of humane nature principles of natural reason or by the Law as written in the heart or Bible he sets the word of Faith out of the World for these doctrines are as opposite as the Spirits I spake of before For Moses describeth the righteousness that is of the Law that the man that doth these things shall live by them Now he that receiveth this Law to do and live by he hath set up and is in pursuit of a doctrine of another nature then that which is called the righteousness of faith that being such as for justification aâ—d deliverance from the curse maketh no mention at all of hearing the Law or of doing good works but of hearing of the mercy of God as extended to sinners and of its coming to us through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus The righteousness which is of Faith speaketh on this wise say not in thine heart who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead but what saith it The word is nigâ—h thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach That if thou shalt confess with thy mâ—uth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10. 5 9. This then is the doctrine of faith or the righteousness with which faith hath to do Now as old covenantâ— works are begotten in men by the doctrine of works so faith is begotten by the doctrine of faith Therefore after he had said faith cometh by hearing â—e insinuates it to be the hearing the preaching of the Gospel of peace peace by the blood of the cross and the glad tidings of good things ver 14 15 16 17. of good things promised for the sake of the Lord Jesus not for the sake of good deeds done of us by humane principles or the dictates of our nature Faith Then the second essential comes into the heart not by the preaching or the practice of your principles but by another a higher and far more heavenly doctrine And hence the Apostle compleatly puts the difference betwixt the worker of good works in the Spirit of the Law and the believer that taketh hold of grace by Christ that he may be saved thereby The one he calls Them that are of the works of the Law the other They which are of Faith This being done he tells us that as they differ in the principles to wit of Faith and Works so they shall differ in conclusion For the Law is not of faith the promise is onely made to faith therefore they onely that are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham 3. The third essential is a new Heart and a new Spirit or mind and this also comes not by your principle that being but the old covenant that gendreth to bondage and that holds its Ismaels under the curse for ever there comes no new heart by the Law nor new Spirit It is by the new Covenant even the Gospel that all things are made now Jer. 31. 33. Ezek. 36. Heb. 8. 2. 2 Cor. 5. 17 18 19. The Apostle after a large discourse of the two ministrations and their excellencies 2 Cor. 3. tell us that the heart is nothing changed so long as it abideth in the works of the Law but remaineth blind and ignorant Nevertheless saith he when it shall turn from the Law to the Lord the vail shall be taken away But what is it to turn from the Law to the Lord Why even to leave and forsake your Spirit and principles and works from those principles and flie to the grace and merits the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when the heart is turned to Christ then the vail of Moses is taken off wherefore then the soul with OPEN face beholding as in a glass the glory of
the Lord is changed from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Câ—r 3. 14 18. Objâ—ct But it seems a paradox to many That a man should live to the Law that is devote himself to the works of the ten Commandments the most perfect rule of life and yet not be counted one changed or new Answ. Though it seemeth an untruth yet it is most true That by the works of the Law no heart is made new no man made new A man from principle of nature and reason which principles are of himself and as old may give up himself to the goodness of the Law Yet these principles are so far off from being new that they are as old as Adam in Paradise and come into the world with all the children of men To which principles the Law or the first principles of morals so equally suit that as you have said page 8. they are self-evident then which there is nothing maâ—-kind dâ—th more naturally assent unto page 11. Now Nature is no new principle but an old even our own and of our selves The Law is no new principle but old and one with our selves as also you well have called it first written in mens hearts and originally dictates of humane nature Let a man then be as devout as is possible for the Law and the holiness of the Law Yet if the principles from which he acts be but the habit of Soul the purity as he feigns of his own nature principles of natural reason or the dictates of humane nature all this is nothing else but the old Gentleman in his Holy-day-cloaths the old Heart the old Spirit the Spirit of the man not the Spirit of Christ is here And hence the Apostle when he would shew us a man alive or made a new man indeed as he talketh of the holy Ghost and faith so he tells us suchâ— are dead to the Law to the Law as a Law of works to the Law as to principles of nature Wherefore my brethen you are also become dead to the Law the moral Law and the ceremonial Law by the body of Christ that you should be married to another another then the Law even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God Rom. 7. 4. Ye are become dead to the Law dead to the Law Why That you should be married to another Married to another Why That you should bring forth fruit unto God But doth not a man bring forth fruit unto God that walketh orderly according to the ten Commandments NO if he do it before faith in the Spirit of a man by the dictates of humane nature respecting the Law as that by the obeying of which he must obtain acceptance with God This is bringing forth fruit unto himself for all that he doth he doth it as a man as a Creature from principles natural and of himself his own and for none other then himself and therefore he serveth in an old Spirit the oldness of the letter and for himself But now that is yeâ— being dead to the Law and married to Christ that the Law being dead by which while in our selves we were held Now we are delivered from that law both as to its curse and impositions as it stands a Law of works in the heart of the world we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter v. 6. A man must first then be dead to your principles both of nature and the Law if he will serve in a new Spirit if he would bring forth fruit unto God Wherefore your description of the principle of holiness in man and also the principles by which this holiness is put forth by him into righteous acts they are such as are altogether void of the true essentials of inward Gospel-holiness and righteousness But there is one thing more in this description or rather effect thereof which I shall also inquire into And that is saying As it was the errand of Christ to effect our deliverance out of that sinful state we had brought our selves into so to put us again into possession of that holiness which we HAD LOST page 12. The proof of this position is now your next business that is if I understand your learning the remaining part of your book which consisteth of well nigh 300 pages is spent for proof thereof which I doubt not but effectually to confute with less then 300 lines Onely first by the way I would have my reader to take notice that in this last Clause to put us again into possession of that holiness which we had lost is the sum of all this large description of his holiness in the foregoing pages that is the holiness and righteousness that Mr. Fowler hath been describing and adds that Christs whole business when he came into the world was as to effect our deliverance from sin so to put us again in possession of that holiness which we had lost The holiness therefore that here he contendeth for is that and onely that which was in Adam before the fall which he lost by transgression and we by transgressing in him A little therefore to inquire into this if perhaps his reader and mine may come to a right understanding of things First then Adam before the fall even in his best and most sinless state was but a pure natural man consisting of body and soul these to use your own terms were his pure essentials In this mans heart God also did write the Law that is as you term them the first principles of morals This then was the state of Adam he was a pure natural man made by God sinless all the faculties of his Soul and members of his body were clean God made man upright But he made him not then a Spiritual man The first Adam was made a living Soul howbeit that was not first which was Spiritual but that which was natural and afterwards that which is Spiritual The first man is of the earth earthy 1 Cor. 15 A living Soul he was yet but a natural man even in his first and best estate but earthly when compared to Christ or with them that believe in Christ. So then the holiness of Adam in his last estate even that which he LOST and we in him it was none other then that which was natural even the sinless-state of a natural man This holiness then was not of the nature of that which hath for its root the holy Ghost for of that we read not at all in him he onely was indued with a living Soul his holiness then could not be Gospel nor that which is a branch of the second covenant his acts of righteousness were not by the operations of the Spirit of Grace but the dictates of the Law in his own natural heart But the Apostle when he treateth of the Christian inherent holiness first excluding that in Adam as earthly he tells us it is such
that their believing takes away the Curse but puts the Soul upon trusting to him that before Purged this Guilt and Curse I say before he sat down on the Right Hand of God Not to Suspend as you would have it but to take away the Sin of the World The Lord hath LAID upon him the Iniquities of us all And he BARE them in his own Body on the Tree Nor yet that he should OFTEN Offer himself for then must he OFTEN have suffered since the Foundation of the World But NOW and that at Once in the end of the World hath he Appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Mark he did put it away by the Sacrifice of his Body and Soul when he dyed on the Cross but he could not then put away the inward Filth of those that then remained Unconverted or those that as yet wanted being in the World The putting away of Sin therefore that the Holy Ghost here intendeth is such a putting of it away as respecteth the Guilt Curse and Condemnation thereof as it stood by the Accusations of the Law against all Flesh before the Face of God which Guilt Curse and Condemnation Christ himself was made in that day when he dyed the Death for us And this is the First and Principle Intendment of the Angel in that blessed saying to Godly Joseph concerning Christ He shall save his People from their Sins from the Guilt and Curse due to them first and afterwards from the Filth thereof This is yet manifest farther because the Heart is Purified by Faith and Hope Acts 9. 15. 1 John 3. 3 4. Now it is not the Nature of Faith I mean of Justifying Faith to have any thing for an Object from which fetcheth Peace with God Holiness before or besides the Christ of God himself for he is the way to the Father and no Man can come to the Father but by him Come that is so as to find Acceptance and Peace with him The Reason is because without his Blood Guilt remains Heb. 9. 22. He hath made Peace by the Blood of his Cross so then Faith in the first place seeketh Peace But why Peace First because till Peace is fetched into the Soul by Faiths laying hold on the blood of Christ Sin remains in the Guilt and Curse though not in the sight of God yet upon the Conscience through the Power of Unbelief He that believeth not stands yet Condemned Now so long as Guilt and the Curse in Power remains there is not Purity but Unbelief not Joy but Doubting not Peace but Peevishness not Content but Murmuring and Anger against the Lord himself The Law Worketh Wrath Rom. 4. Wherefore as yet there can be no Purity of Heart because that Faith yet wants his Object But having once found Peace with God by believing what the Blood of Christ hath done Joy followeth so doth Peace Quietness Content and Love Which is also the fulfilling of the Law Yet not from such Dungish Principles as yours For so the Apostle calls them Phil. 3. But from the Holy Ghost it self which God by Faith hath granted to be received by them that believe in the Blood of his Jesus But you add That Christ giveth First Repentance and then forgiveness of Sins Page 17. Answ. 1. This makes nothing for the Holiness which we lost in Adam for the Proof of which you bring that Text Acts 5. 31. 2. But for Christ to take away Guilt and the Curse from before the Face of â—ods is one thing and to make that discovery is another 3. Again Christ doth not give forgiveness for the sake of that Repentance which hath it's rise Originally from the Dictates of our own nature which is the thing you are to prove for that Repentance is called the Sorrow of this World and must be again Repented of But the Repentance mentioned in the Text is that which comes from Christ But 4. It cannot be for the sake of Gospel Repentance that the forgiveness of Sins is Manifested because both are his Peculiar Gift 5. Therefore both Faith and Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins are given by Christ and come to us for the sake of that Blessed Offering of his Body once for all For after he Arose from the Dead having led Captivity Captive and taken the Curse from before the Face of God therefore his Father gave him Gifts for Men even all the things that are Necessary and Effectual for our Conversion and Preservation in this World c. Ephes. 4. 6 7 8. This Text therefore with all the rest you bring falleth short of the least shew of Proof That the great Errand for which Christ came into the World was to put us in Possession of the Holiness that we had lost Your Third Chapter is as Empty of the Proof of your Design as that through which we have passed there being not one Scripture therein Tited that giveth the least intimation that ever it entred into the Heart of Christ to put us again into Possession of that Holiness which we had before we were Converted for such was that we lost in Adam You tell us the Sum of all is That we are Commauded to add to our Faith Vertue c. Page 35. I suppose you intend a Gospel Faith which if you can prove Adam had before the fall and that we lost this Faith in him and also that this Gospel Faith is none other but that which Origianally ariseth from or is the Dictates of Humane Nature I will confess you have Scripture and Knowledge beyond me In the mean time you must suffer me to tell you you are as far in this from the mind of the Holy Ghost as if you had yet never in all your days heard whether there be a Holy Ghost or no. Add to your Faith The Apostle here lays a Gospel Principle viz. Faith in the Son of God which Faith layeth hold of the forgiveness of Sins alone for the sake of Christ Therefore he is a great way off of laying the Purity of the Humane Nature the Law as written in the heart of natural man as the Prenciple of Holiness from whence is produced good Works in the Soul of the Godly In your Fourth Chapter also Pag. 28. even in the beginning thereof even with one Text you have overthrown your whole Book This Chapter is to prove that the onely Design of the Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel is to Promote and put us again in Possession of the Holiness we had lost For that the Reader must still remember is the onely Design of your Book Pag. 12. Whereas the First Text you speak of maketh mention of the Divine Nature or of the Spirit of the Living God which is also received by the Precious Faith of Christ and the Revelation of the Knowledge of him this Blessed Spirit and therefore not the Dictates of Humane Nature is the Principle that is laid in the Godly But Adam's Holiness had neither
the Knowledge or Faith or Spirit of the Lord Jesus as it's Foundation or Principle Yea Nature was his Foundation even his own Nature was the Original from whence his Righteousness and good Works arose The next Scriptures also viz. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Rom. 12. 1. overthrow you for they urge the Promises as Motives to stir us up to Holiness But Adam had neither the Spirit of Jesus or Faith in him as a Principle nor any Promises to him as Motives Wherefore this was not that to which or which we Christians are Exhorted to seek the Possession of but that which is Operated by that Spirit which we receive by the Faith of Jesus and that which is encouraged by those Promises that God hath since given to them that have closed by Faith with Jesus The rest also in Pag. 29. not one of them doth promise us the Possession of the Holiness we have lost or any mercy to them that have it You add And whereas the Promises of Pardon and of Eternal Life are Frequently made to believing there is nothing more Evidently declared then that this Faith is such as Purifieth the Heart and is Productive of good Works Pag. 30. Answ. If the Promise be made at all to believing it is not made to us upon the account of the Holiness we had lost for I tell you yet again that Holiness is not of Faith neither was Faith the Effect thereof But 2. The Promises of Pardon though they be made to such a Faith as is Fruitful in good Works Yet not to it as it is Fruitful in doing but in receiving Good Sir the quality of Justifying Faith is this Not to Work but to Believe as to the Business of pardon of Sin and that not onely because of the Sufficiency that this Faith sees in Christ to Justifie but also for that it knows those whom God thus Pardoneth he Justifieth as ungodly Now to him that Worketh not but believeth Mark here Faith and Works are Opposed Now to him that Worketh not but Believeth in him that Justifieth the Vngodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness Rom. 4. You add farther That the Promises may be Reduced to these three Heads that of the Holy Spirit of Remission of Sins and Eternal Happiness in the Injoyment of God Answ. If you can prove that any of these Promises were made to the Holiness that we had lost or that by these Promises we are to be Possessed with that Holiness again I will even now lay down the Bucklers For albeit The time will come when the Saints shall be absolutely and perfectly Sin-less yet then shall they be also Spiritual Immortal and Incorruptible which you cannot prove Adam was in the best of his Holiness even that which we lost in him The Threatnings you speak of Pag. 35. are every one made against Sin but not one of them to drive us into a Possession of that Holiness that we had lost Nay contrariwise he that looks to or seeks after that is as sure to be Damned and go to Hell as he that Transgresseth the Law because that is not the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Christ the Righteousness of Faith nor that to which the Promise is made And this was manifested to the World betimes even in that day when God drove the Man and his Wife out of Eden and placed Cherubines and a Flaming Sword in the way by which they came out to the end that by going back by that way they might rather be Killed and Dye then lay hold of the Tree of Life Gen. 3. Which the Apostle also Respects when he calleth the way of the Gospel the New and Living Way even that which is made by the Blood of Christ Concluding by this Discription of the Way that is by Blood that the other is Old and the Way of Death even that which is by the Morral Law or the Dictates of our Nature or by that fond Conceit of the Goodly Holiness of Adam Heb. 10. Your Fifth Chapter tells us that the Promoting of Holiness was the design of our Saviours whole Life and Conversation among Men Pag. 36. Answ. 1. Were this granted it reacheth nothing at all the Design for which you in your way Present us with it For 2. That which you have Asserted is That the Errand about which Christ came was as the Effecting our Deliverance out of that Sinful State we had brought our selves into so to put us again in Possession of that Holiness which we had LOST For that you say is the Business of your Book Pag. 12. Wherefore you should have told us in the Head of this Chapter not so much that our Saviour Designed the Promoting of Holiness in General by his life but that the whole Design of our Saviours Life and Conversation was to put us again into Possession of THAT Holiness which we had lost into a Possession of that Natural Old Covenant Figurative Ignorant Holiness But it seems you count that there is no other then that now lost but never again to be obtained Holiness that was in Adam 3. Farther You also Faulter here as to the Stating of the Proposition for in the Beginning of your Book you State it thus That the Enduing Men with inward Real Righteousness or True Holiness was the Vltimate end of our Saviours coming into the World still meaning the Holiness we lost in Adam You should therefore in this place also have minded your Reader of this your Proposition and made it manifest if you could that the Vltimate End of our Saviours whole Life and Conversation was the Induing Men with this Adamitish Holiness But HOLINESS and THAT Holiness is alone with you and to make it his End and whole End his Business and the whole Business of his Life is but the same with you But you must know that the whole Life and Conversation of our Saviour was intended for another Purpose then to drive us back to or to Indue us with such an Holiness and Righteousness as I have Proved this to be You have therefore in this your Discourse put an unsufferable Affront upon the Son of God in making all his Life and Conversation to Center and Terminate in the Holiness we had lost As if the Lord Jesus was sent down from Heaven and the Word of God made Flesh that by a Perfect Life and Conversation he might shew us how Holy Adam was before he fell or what an Holiness that our Holiness was which we had before we were Converted Your Discourse therefore of the Life and Conversation of the Lord Jesus is none other then Heathenish For you neither Treat of the Principle his Godhead by which he did his Works neither do you in the least in one Sillable Aver the First the main and Prime Reason of this his Conversation only you Treat of it so far as a mean Man might have considered it And indeed it stood not with your Design to Treat a right with these things For had
should onely or specially fullfil or perfect the Law and the Prophets by giving more and higher Instances of Morral Duties then were before expresly given Pag. 17. This would have been but the Lading of men with heavy Burthens But know then whoever thou art that Readest that Christ's Exposition of the Law was more to shew thee the Perfection of his own Obedience then to drive thee back to the Holiness thou hadst lost For God sent him to fullfil it by doing it and dying to the most sore Sentence it could Pronounce not as he stood a single Person but common as Mediator between God and Man making up in himself the breach that was made by Sin betwixt God and the World For Thirdly He was to dye as a Lamb as a Lamb without Blemish and without Spot according to the Type Your Lamb shall be without Blemish But because there was none such to be found by and among all the Children of Men therefore God sent his from Heaven Hence John calls him the Lamb of God and Peter him that was without Spot who Washed us by his Blood Now wherein doth it appear that he was without Spot and Blemish but as he walked in the Law These words therefore WITHOVT SPOT are the Sentence of the Law who searching him could find nothing in him why he should be slain yet he dyed because there was Sin Sin where Not in him but in his People For the Transgression of my People was he stricken Isa. 53. He dyed then for our Sins and qualified himself so to do by coming Sinless into the World and by going Sin-less through it for had he not done both these he must have dyed for himself But being God even in Despite of all that stumble at him he Conquered Death the Devil Sin and the Curse by himself and then sat down at the Right Hand of God Fourthly And because he hath a Second Part of his Priestly Office to do in Heaven therefore it was thus Requisite that he should thus manifest himself to be Holy and Harmless Undefiled and Seperate from Sinners on the Earth As Aron First put on the Holy Garments and then went into the Holiest of all The Life therefore and Conversation of our Lord Jesus was to shew us with what a Curious Robe and Girdle he went into the Holy Place And not to shew us with what an Adamitish Holiness he would Possess his own Such an High Priest became us who is Holy Harmless and Vndefiled Seperà te from Sinners and made Higher then the Heavens that he might always be Accepted both in Person and Offering when he Presenteth his Blood to God the Attonement for Sin Indeed in some things he was an Example to us to follow him but mark It was not as he was Mediator not as he was under the Law to God not as he dyed for Sin nor as he maketh Reconciliation for Iniquity But in these things Consist the Life of our Soul and the beginning of our Happiness He was then Exemplary to us as he carried it Meekly and Patiently and Self-denyingly towards the World But yet not so neither to any but such to whom he first offered Iustification by the means of his own Righteousness For before he saith Learn of me he saith I will give you Rest Rest from the Guilt of Sin and fear of Everlasting Burnings Mat. 11. And so Peter first tells us he dyed for our Sins And next that he left us an Example But should it be granted that the whole of Christ's Life and Conversation among men was for our Example and for no other end at all but that we should learn to live by his Example yet it would not follow but be as far from truth as the ends of the Earth are assunder that by this means he sought to Possess us with the Holiness we had lost for that he had not in himself 't is true he was born without Sin yet born God and Man he lived in the World without Sin but he lived as God-Man he walked in and up to the Law but it was as God-Man Neither did his Manhood even in those acts of Goodness which as to action most properly respected it do ought without but by and in Conjunction with his Godhead Wherefore all and every whit of the Righteousness and good that he did was that of God-Man the Righteousness of God But this was not Adam's Principle nor any Holiness that we had lost Your Fifth Chapter therefore Consisteth of Words spoken to the Ayr. Your Sixt Chapter tells us That to make Men truly Vertuous and Holy was the Design of Christ's Unimitable Actions or mighty Works and Miracles and these did onely tend to Promote it Pag. 68. He neither did nor needed so much as one small piece of a Miracle to perswade men to seek for the Holiness which they had lost or to give them again Possession of that For that as I have shewed though you would fain have it otherwise is not at all the Christan or Gospel Righteousness Wherefore in one word you are as short by this Chapter to prove your Natural old Covenant Promise-less Figurative Holiness to be here Designed as if you had said so much as amounts to nothing Farther Christ needed not to Work a Miracle to perswade men to fall in Love with themselves their own Natural Dictates to perswade them that they have a Purity of the Humane Nature in them or that the Holiness which they have lost is the onely True Real and Substantial Holiness These things both Corrupted Nature and the Devil have of a long time fastned and fixed in their minds His Miracles therefore tend rather to take Men off of the Pursuit after the Righteousness or Holiness that we had lost and to Confirm unto us the truth of a far more Excellent and Blessed thing to wit the Righteousness of God of Christ of Faith of the Spirit which that you speak of never knew neither is it possible that he should know it who is hunting for your sound Complexion your Purity of Humane Nature or it 's Dictates as the onely True Real and Substantial Righteousness They are Ignorant of God's Righteousness that go about to Establish their own Righteousness and neither have nor can without a Miracle submit themselves unto the Righteousness of God They cannot submit THEMSELVES thereto talk thereof they may notion it they may profess it too they may but for a man to submit himself thereto is by the mighty power of God Miracles and Signs are for them that believe not Why for them That they might believe therefore their State is reckoned fearful that have not yet believed for all his wondrous Works And though he did so many Miracles among them yet they believed him not But what should they believe That Jesus is the true Messias the Christ that should come into the World Do you say that I Blaspheme saith Christ because I said I am
him should not Perish but have Everlasting Life John 3. God SO Loved that he gave his Son to be SO great Salvation Now as is expressed in the Text to be the better for this Salvation is to give heed to hear it for Faith cometh by hearing He saith not give heed to doing but to the Word you have HEARD Faith I say cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10. But that this hearing is the hearing of Faith is farther Evident 1. Because he speaketh of a great Salvation accomplished by the Love of God in Christ accomplished by his Blood By his own Blood he entred into Heaven it self having Obtained Eternal Redemption for us Heb. 9. 2. This Salvation is set in Opposition to that which was Propounded before by the Ministration of Angels which Consisted in a Law of Works that which Moses received to give to the Children of Israel For the Law a command to Works and Duties was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. To live by doing Works is the Doctrine of the Law and Moses but to live by Faith and Grace is the Doctrine of Christ and the Gospel Besides the threatning being pressed with an HOW shall we escape Respects still a Better a Freer a more Gracious Way of Life then either the Morral or Ceremonial Law for both these were long before but here comes in another Way not that Propounded by Moses or the Angels but since by the Lord himself How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at First began to be spoken by the Lord and was Confirmed to us by then that heard him Now Mark It is this Salvation this SO great and Eternal Salvation that was obtained by the Blood of the Lord himself It was this even to Confirm Faith in this that the God of Heaven himself came down to Confirm by Signs and Wonders God bearing them Witness both with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own Will Thus we see that to establish a Holiness that came from the First Principles of Morrals in us or that ariseth from the Dictates of our Humane Nature or to drive us back to that Figurative Holiness that we had once but lost in Adam is little thought on by Jesus Christ and as little intended by any of the Gospel Miracles A Word or two more The Tribute Money you mention Pag. 72. was not as you would clawingly Insinuate for no other Purpose then to shew Christs Loyalty to the Magistrate But First and above all to shew his Godhead to Confirm his Gospel and then to shew his Loyalty the which Sir the Persons you secretly smite at have respect for as much as you Again Also the Curse of the Barren Fig-Tree mentioned Pag. 73. was not if the Lord himself may be believed to give us an Emblem of a Person void of good Works but to shew his Disciples the Power of Faith and what a wonder-working thing that blessed Grace is Wherefore when the Disciples wondred at that sudden Blast that was upon the Tree Jesus answered not Behold and Emblem of one void of Morral Vertues but Verily I say unto you if you have Faith and doubt not ye shall not onely do this which is done to the Fig-Tree but also if you shall say unto this Mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the Sea it shall be done and all things whatsoever ye shall ask in Prayer Believing ye shall Receive Again Mark saith When Peter saw the Fig-tree that the Lord had Cursed dryed up from the Roots he said to his Master Behold the Fig-tree which thou Cursed'st is withered away Christ now doth not say as you this Tree was an Emblem of a Professor void of good Works but Have Faith in or the Faith of God For verily I say unto you whosoever shall say unto this Mountain Be thou removed and be thou cast into the Sea and shall not doubt in his Heart but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he saith Therefore I say unto you what things soever you desire when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them Mat. 21. Mark 11. Christ Jesus therefore had a higher and a better end then that which you propound in his cursing the Barren Fig-tree even to shew as himself Expounds it the mighty power of Faith and how it lays hold of things in Heaven and tumbleth before it things on Earth Wherefore your Scriptureless Exposition doth but lay you even Solomen's Proverb The Legs of the Lawe are not equal c. I might Inlarge but enough of this Onely here I add that the Wonders and Miracles that attend the Gospel were wrought and are Recorded to perswade to Faith in Christ By Faith in Christ men are Justified from the Curse and Judgement of the Law This Faith worketh by Love by the Love of God it brings up the Heart to God and Goodness but not by your Covenant not by Principles of Humane Nature but of the Spirit of God not in a Poor Legal Old Covenant Promiseless Ignorant Shadowish Natural Holiness but by the Holy Ghost I come now to your Seventh Chapter but to that I have spoken briefly already and therefore here shall be the shorter In this Chapter you say Christ's Death Answ. But not with your Described Principles of Humanity and Dictates of Humane Nature He Designed not as I have fully proved neither by his Death nor Life to put us into a Possession of the Holiness which we had lost though the Proof of that be the business of your Book 2. To make men holy was Doubtless Designed by the Death and Blood of Christ But the way and manner of the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost therein you write not of although the First Text you mention Pag. 78. 79. doth fairly present you with it For the way to make men inwardly Holy by the Death and Blood of Christ is First to Possess them with the Knowledge of this that their Sins were Crucified with him or that he did bear them in his Body on the Tree Knowing this that our Old Man is Crucified with him that the body of Sin might be Destroyed that henceforth we should not serve Sin Rom. 6. 6. So he dyed for all that they that live should not henceforth live unto themselves as you would have them nor to the Law or Dictates of their own Nature as your Doctrine would perswade them but to him that dyed for them and rose again There are two things in the right stating of the Doctrine of the Effects of the Death and Blood of Christ that do Naturally Effect in us an Holy Principle and also a life becoming such a Mercy First For that by it we are set at liberty by Faith therein from the Guilt and Curse that is due to Guilt from Death the
the Glory that we shall â—ossess in Heaven is questionable as to your notion of it your â—â—â—â—on is That the substance of it Consists in a perfect resemblance to the Divine Nature Answ. Therefore not in the Injoyment of the Divine Nature it self For that which in Substance is but a bare Resemblance though it be a most perfect one is not the thing it self of which it is a Resemblance But the Blessedness that we shall enjoy in Heaven in the very Substance of it Consisteth not wholly nor Principally in a Resemblance of but in the Injoyment of God himself Heirs of God Wherefore there shall not be in us a Likeness onely to but the very Nature of God Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ Rom. 8. Hence the Apostle tells us that he rejoyced in hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5. Not onely in hope of a Resemblance of it The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul But this is like the rest of your Discourse You are so in Love with your Adamitish Holiness that with you it must be God in Earth and Heaven Who they are that hold our Happiness in Heaven shall come by a meer fixing our Eyes upon the Divine Perfections I know not But thus I Read We shall be like him Why or how For we shall see him as he is Our Likeness then to God even in the very Heavens will in great part come by the Visions of him And to speak the truth our very entrance into eternal life or the beginnings of it here they come to us thus But we all every one of us that shall be saved come by it onely thus with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2. Cor. 3. 18. And whereas you tell us Pag. 124. That the Devils themselves have a large measure of some of the Attributes of God as Knowledge Power c. though themselves are unlike unto him In this you most Prodigiously Blaspheme Your Thirteenth Chapter is to shew That our Saviours preferring the Business of making Men Holy before any other witnesseth that this is to do the best Service to God But still respecting the Holiness you have in your first Chapter Described which still the Reader must have his eye upon it is false and a slander of the Son of God He never intended to Promote or Prefer your Natural Old Covenant Holiness viz. that which we had lost in Adam or that which yet from him in the Dregs thereof remaineth in Humane Nature but that which is of the Holy Ghost of Faith of the New Covenant I shall not here again take notice of your 130 Page nor with the Error Contained therein about Justification by Imputed Righteousness But one thing I observe that in all this Chapter you have nothing Fortified what you say by any Word of God no though you Insinuate Pag. 129. and Pag. 131. that some Dissent from your Opinion But instead of the Holy Words of God being as you Feign Conscious to your self you cannot do it SO well as by another Method viz. The Words of Mr. John Smith therefore you Proceed with his as he with Plato's and so wrap you up the Business You come next to an Improvement upon the whole where you make a Comparison between the Heathens and the Gospel shewing how far the Gospel helpeth the Light the Heathens had in their Pursuit after your Holiness But 〈◊〉 the Excellency of the Gospel as you have vainly Dreamt is to make Improvement First of the Heathens Principles such good Principles say you as were by the Light of Nature Dictated to them Pag. 133 134 135. As 1. That there is but one God that he is Infinitely perfect c. 2. That we owe our lives and all the comforts of them to him 3. That he is our Soveraign Lord. 4. That he is to be Loved above all things Answ. 1. Seeing all these are and may be known as you your self confess by them that have not the Gospel and I add nor yet the Holy Ghost nor any saving Knowledge of God or Eternal Life Therefore it cannot be the Design of Jesus Christ by the Gospel to Promote or help forward this Knowledge simply from this Principle viz. Natural Light and the Dictates of it My Reason is because when Nature is strained to the highest Pin it is but Nature still and so all the improvement of it's Light and Knowledge is but an increase of that which is but Natural Now saith Paul The Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. But the Gospel is the Ministration of the Spirit a Revelation of another thing then is found in or can be acquired to by Heathenish Principles of Nature I say a Revelation of another thing or rather another discovery of the same As 1. Concerning the Godhead the Gospel giveth us another discovery of it then is possible to be obtained by the Dictates of Natural Light even a discovery of a Trinity of Persons and yet Unity of Essence in the same Deity 1 John 5. 1 5 8. 2. The Light of Nature will not shew us that God was in Christ Reconciling the World to himself 3. The Light of Nature will not shew us that we owe what we are and have to God because we are the Price of the Blood of his Son 4. The Light of Nature will not shew that there is such a thing as Election in Christ. 5. Or that there is such a thing as the Adoption of Children to God through him 6. Nor that we are to be saved by Faith in his Blood 7. Or that the Man Christ shall come from Heaven to Judgement These things I say the Light of Nature teacheth not but these things are the Great and Mighty things of the Gospel and those about which it chiefly bendeth it self touching upon other things still as those that are knowable by a Spirit Inferior to this of the Gospel Besides as these things are not known by the Light of Nature so the Gospel when it comes as I also told you before doth Implant in the Soul another Principle by which they may be received and from which the Soul should act and do both towards God and towards Men as Namely the Holyâ—Ghost Faith Hope the Joy of the Spirit c. The other things you mention Pag. 138 140 142 143. viz. 1. The Immortality of the Soul 2. The Doctrine of Rewards and Punishments in the Life to come 3. Of the forgiveness of Sin upon true Repentance c. Answ. All these things may be Assented to where yet the Grace of the Gospel is not but yet the Apprehension must be such as is the Light by which they are discovered but the Light of Nature cannot discover them according to the Light and Nature of
more involved in Error concerning it then your self being truly what you charge upon others 1. Grosely ignorant 2. Too highly Opinionate 3. Proud in affection 4. Lignorish 5. A Self-Lover 6. And for your Blasphemy under the just Judgement of God If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this World hath blinded the minds of them that believe not least the light of the Glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. I am come now to your last Chapter Pag. 281. which tells us wherein the essence and life of Christianity Censisteth viz. In a good state and habit of mind in a holy frame and temper of Soul Answ. 1. It consisteth in a Life of Faith when I live in the belief of this that Christ loved me and gave himself for me The Life that I now live in the Flesh saith Paul it is by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me 2. And besides a good state and habit of mind or an Holy frame and temper of Soul in your notion of them which respecteth purely obedience to Morrals from Natural Impulses or Dictates of our Humanity they are rather Heathenish then Christian and being alone end in Death rather then Life As many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse he saith not they that Sin against it but they that are OF the Works of it such as do Justice Righteousness Charity Goodness Mercy Patience and all kind of Morral Duties from Principles Humane Natural or as Men they are under the Curse because they have sinned first and also are in firm and weak in their pursuit after the perfections they desire These follow after Righteousness but that flyes from them wherefore they do not obtain it because they seek it not by Faith in Christ but as it were by the Works the Righteous Good and Holy Works of the Law But you add It is such a habit of mind such a frame and temper of Soul as esteemeth God as the chiefest good and preferreth him and his Son Jesus Christ before all the World and that prizeth above all things an interest in the Divine Perfections c. Answ. 1. God must needs be esteemed the chiefest good by all that have but and are ruled by the light of Nature because they see him by his Works to be Almighty Merciful and Eternal but this may be where the Knowledge of the Man the Mediator is not therefore this in this and in your sence cannot be of the Essence of Christianity for that it is common to all the World That estimation of God which is common to Natural Men cannot be of the Essence of Christianity because they want that knowledge of him that comes by Jesus Christ and so are not capable to esteem of him under a Christian consideration But you say it is that good habit and temper of mind that preferreth God and his Son Jesus Christ before all the World Answ. He that esteemeth God above all must needs at least in his Judgement so prefer him but whereas you add and his Son Jesus Christ you put in them Words but as a Cloak For your self have not preferred his Son Jesus Christ no not before a Morral Law no not before your obedience to it although but by Humane Principles Yea you have accounted the Command of God by which we are injoyned by him to come to God a thing in it self but like Levitical Ceremonies or as Baptism and the Lord's Supper a thing in itâ—self indifferent and absolutely considered neither good nor evil Pag. 7 8 9. You add It is such a tempâ—r as prizeth above all things an interest in the Divine Perfections such as Justice and Righteousness Vniversal Charity Goodness Mercy Patience and all kind of Purity Answ. Seeing by these expressions you onely intend Morral Vertues and those that are inherent in you and originally operations of Humanity it is evident that you have but Impiously and Idolatrously Attributed to your own goodness so high and blessed a Title For whatsoever is in your Nature and Originally the Dictates thereof and whatsoever proficiency you make therein by Humane Principles and helps of Natural Indowments these things are but of your self your own Justice your own Righteousness your own Charity Goodness Mercy Patience Kindness c. Now to call these the Divine Perfections when they are onely your own Humane Vertues bespeaks you I say Fond Impious and Idolatrous and shews you in the midst of all your prentended design to Glorifie God such an one who have set up your own goodness with him yea and given it the Title of his blessed Grace and Favour That Scripture you mention Rom. 14. 17. Although by the Word Righteousness there is intended obedience to the Morral Law yet to it by persons already Justified by Christ's Righteousness hence they are said to do it in the Joy and Peacâ— of the Holy Ghost or by the Joy and Peace which they had by Faith in Christ's Righteousness as Revealed to them by the Spirit of God Hence again they are said in IT to serve Christ or to receive the Law at his hand which he giveth to them to walk after having first justified them from the Curse thereof by his Blood 2. The Law was given twice on Sinai the last time with a Proclamation of Mercy going before and he that receiveth it thus receiveth it after a Gospel manner For they as Justified persons are dead to the Law as a Covenant of Works by the Body of Christ that they might live to another even to him that is raised from the Dead But you by this Scripture intend not this Doctrine for you make Justification by Christ come after not before obedience to the Law Yea you make obedience thereto the Essential and coming to God by Christ but a thing of a more remote Nature from true and substantial Gospel-Righteousness In Page 283. you speak again of the old Principle and thus you comment A Principle of Holiness that respecteth Duty as with respect to the Nature of the Command so not with respect to the Duty as occasioned by certain External Inducements and Motives but from a good temper and disposition of Soul Answ. This I say still respecting your old Principle of Humanity and the Purity of your Nature the most amounts but to this Your Principle is confined to a liberty of Will and Affections with respect to doing of the Law of Work which many have professed to have and do before you and yet have come short of the Glory of God For as I told you before I tell you now again that the Gospel-Principles are the Holy Ghost and Faith which help that Soul in whom they dwell to count believing in Jesus Christ the great Essential part of our Christianity and our reckoning our selves pardoned for the sake of him And