Righteous and by that Righteousness I must say with them where they have our Divines on the blind side are justified to wit according to the Law of Faith or as they are judged at the Throne of Grace but they do sin they are Unrighteous and no flesh living can be justified according to the Law of Works or at the bar of the Ten Commandements When the Apostle argues against justification by the Law he proves none can be justified by it because all do break it Those that will follow truth shall argue as strongly if we be juâ—â—ified by grace then we must be righteous and perfect according to the Law of it The Orthodox are quite out that will have any justified without a Righteousness that is perfect according to the Law that justifies him to wit in regard to the conditional though not the preceptive part of it The Quaker is quite out that will have this Righteousness perfect according to the ten Commandements which does not justifie him The lover of Truth and Mediocrity will have every man have the Righteousness of a perfect heart for his justification and yet no man be justified but by the grace of God through the Redemption which we have in Christ Jesus There is pardon of sin and justification these may be distinguished not divided Pardon refers to the law of works justification to the law of Faith or the Gospel For this cause saith the Apostle he is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by means of death for the Redemption of the Transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called may receive the promise of eternal Inheritance The first Covenant originally is that of Nature and the first Testament belonging to the Jew represented that first Covenant and the Transgressions for which Christ shed his blood are our sins only against that Covenant If there be any body sins against the new Covenant there is no Redemption for such We have a pardon then in reference to the law of works but we are justified in reference to the law of Faith To wit If we are accused as Transgressors of the Law we may confess it that we are guilty and plead our pardon through Christs Redemption but if we are charged as Transgressors of the law of grace we must not plead our selves guilty but righteous and such as perfectly come up to the terms required in the Gospel or else we are gone It is true Christ hath purchased forgiveness but it is upon condition Pardon is of the Transgressions of the Law but this condition is of Righteousness according to the Gospel and our justification lyes in the performance of the condition In the seaventh place This Opinion instead of leading these friends to the Spirit and the Life as they speak does lead them from both and bring them back to the letter and the flesh and ministration of death To understand this The Apostle we know does distinguish between the Letter and the Spirit The Letter killeth the Spirit giveth Life This distinction is expressed otherwhere by the Law of the Spirit of life and the Law of sin and death The Law of Faith and Law of Works The Covenant of Nature and Covenant of Grace The Law of Works is call'd the Letter as having been writ in stone and is the ministration of death the Law of sin and death or that which killeth because there is none but break it and so are guilty of fin and death by it The Covenant of grace is the Law of Faith that being the condition of it it is the Law of the spirit of life or the ministration of life for the contrary reason because we are enabled through grace or this spirit to the performance of this Law so as to be Righteous according to it and live by it The just man shall live by his Faith And unto the Law of the spirit of life is added in Christ Jesus because it is he hath procured this Law for us which is indeed the great benefit of our Redemption Now while the Spirit is given us for the performance of the condition of this Covenant it being the New Testament not the Law which is the ministration of the Spirit it is a great mistake in these Friends to expect such help from it as to perform the condition of the Covenant of Nature or Law of Works The Spirit indeed does help us but it is to keep his own Law the Law of the Spirit and that Law whereby we may have life If we do look to fulfill the Covenant of Nature we must return to our original Righteousness and our free will which we lost in Adam and that is to go from the Spirit to our selves who are but flesh But what Is not the Law of God the rule of our lives and does not the Spirit of God lead us according to rule and bring us to a conformity to his law I answer no doubt of it but that is a conformity so far as reaches the fulfilling the terms of the Gospel but not those of Works The law of grace does require a sincere walking before Go in all his Commandements and the Spirit of God does certainly help us so far as we sin not against that sincerity or sin no sins inconsistent with these terms but the spirit is not given to bring us up to the terms of the Law and that we should not sin at all What shall we say that Abraham as pertaining to the flesh hath found By the flesh we are to understand works as appears in the next verse and so is the spirit opposed to the flesh as it is opposed to the law of works If we seek therefore for a Righteousness by our works that is according to that law we shall find what Abraham did as pertaining to the flesh We shall find no such matter O ye foolish Galathians says the Apostle having begun in the spirit are ye now made peâ—fect by the flesh The Galathians belike who had received the doctrine of grace by Paul were come to be seduced to the opinion that they must keep Moses Law or else they could not be saved and this is their seeking to be made perfect by the flesh The flesh and nature are Synonymous terms and as in respect of those who were Jews by Nature the works of the Law as given by Moses are called flesh so must the works of the Law as a Covenant by Nature be flesh in respect to the rest of man-kind If the Quaker then is come to seek life by such a following his light as must answer the Covenant of Nature it self that is by a perfection as is without sin against the Law he is plainly under the notion of the spirit brought at last to the flesh for what he seeks In the last place It is an ancient saying that he who looks but one thing is easily mislead It seems that these Friends do apprehend that our doctrine which opposes perfection does serve
is suitable to our falen state Now as a conformity to the Covenant of Nature is mans Righteousness and when there is no flaw therein his Perfection according to that Covenant so a conformity to the terms of Grace is our righteousness according to this Covenant and when there is nothing wanting in our coming up fully to those terms as if there be it will not serve our turn it must be our perfection And here then is that Perfection upon which we are to be reconciled Not a perfection which consists in doing every thing in the Earth we are bound to do but a perfection that notwithstanding our many failings is not wanting in coming up to the Terms which God accepts for Righteousness to everlasting Salvation in the Covenant of the Gospel There is a Righteousness of God declared or set forth under the new Testament in opposition to Works which I have mentioned in my Paper of Justification and explained to my content in my last paper of the Covenants and it is according to this Righteousness the World is to know that the Scripture speaks N B when it makes Noah Job Daniel Zachary or any other just men righteous men and perfect men in the sight of God When else there is no flesh before the infinite Holiness that is clean or that could be justified and stand in judgment Hear O House of Israel is not my wayes equal When the wicked turneth from his wickedness and doeth that which is lawful and right be shall save his Soul This is said to be equal with God If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness Not onely merciful but just In like manner God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewn towards his Name Again it is a righteous thing with God to recomperce to you who are troubled rest when Christ shall be revealed from Heaven Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Righteous God shall give me If God it seemes from such Scriptures as these should put no difference between the penitent sinner and others he would not be righteous according to that righteousness which is ascribed to him in these and the like places although if he should destroy the world for one transgression we could not accuse him of wrong in the sense of some others Of what value then that notion about this Righteousness of God which after many years thoughts I have offered in the said two former papers p. 26.27 c. of the one p. 7.8 c. of the other I leave to Time when it hath brought the same light into some other more authoritative pen that is to forget from whence it came to make the discovery and improvement I will adde but thus much more by way of surplusage to it Justitiam in Deo sacra Scriptura saepe nominat condecentiam bonitatis ipsius ut Scholaastici lequuntur Deum justum vocat quum facit ea quae congruunt ejus sapientiae aequitati benignitati There is no man sinneth not sayes Solomon in his Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple This he enlarges in his Ecclesiastes There is not a just man upon Earth that doeth good and simmeth not The Apostle to the Romans confirms this out of the Psalmes There is none that doeth good no not one St. James likewise gives his Suffrage In many things we offend all And St. John is yet most positive If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us On the other side He that committeth sin sayes the same Apostle is of the Devil He that is born of God keepeth himself that the wicked one toucheth him not Whosoever is born of God doeth not commit sin For his Seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God St. Augustine I remember in several places of his Books does lay some two or three of these Texts together and offers us this solution That which is born of God sayes he sins not Which is as much as to say There is that which is born of God in the true Christian and that which is not born of him In other terms no man is regenerate but in part or sanctified but in part Not as if one faculty was sanctified and not another But there remaines the principle of Corruption together with the principle of Grace which is infused that is both flesh and Spirit in the same person And whatsoever proceeds from the one cannot be sâ—n as whatsoever proceeds from the other cannot be otherwise I will adde According to the prevalency there is of any of these two principles in the soul so is the person to have his denomination The Apostle therefore speaking of himself when he did the evil he would not it is no more I says he that does it but sin that dwelleth in me If it be not be then that does it the person being denominated from the will and more generally prevailing part is said to sin not And this I-take it after Austive is ordinarily received by Divines Nevertheless that which I propose here from what is said seems to me to be more clear and weighty There are some Texts say that all men are sinners and others that the regenerated do not sin and the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin I distinguish then of sin Sin is the Transgression of a Law and as there is a twofold Law so is there a twofold Transgression There is the transgression of the Law of Works Or the transgression of the Law of Faith Every man upon Earth does sin against the Law of Works in leaving undone what it requires or doing what it forbids in Thought Word or Deed even continnually but there is no man sins against the Law of Grace so as to leave undone what that requires as the condition of life who is saved It is true that as all Power is committed to the Son the Law of Nature is put into Christs hands to be commanded by him which together with remedying Grace are parts of his Law Distinguish therefore between sinning against one or other Precept of Christs Law and sinning against it as a conditional Covenant by nonperformance It will be for profit yet to multiply the same matter If thou will enter into Life says Christ keep the Commandements Neithe Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing says the Apostle but Faith working by love in one place but a new Creature in another but the keeping the Commandements of God in a third Do we make void the Law through Faith No we established it That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit The Doers of the Law shall be justified It appears by multitudes of such Scriptures as these that the Law or commandements of God are to be kept or
due place which indeed is nothing else but this grace it self even the goodness kindness favour or merciful condescention of God to poor Sinners in accepting us as Righteous upon other terms then those which the Law of our Nature requires and it were but most just we should have performed Which as he grants for Christs sake so does he by his Spirit work in those that are his chosen that all the glory of their Salvation may be due to him only Now the perfection of the Quaker does quite over-throw all this which the Apostle teaches and in short terms it were all one for them to say Sir we deny your Argument and your Reasoning We are of opinion that all men do not break the Law of God but that some are perfect in a Righteousness answering the Law and therefore we have no need of any such grace or Christs Redemption that is of any from Christ as without or other terms whereby we should be justified and saved The Righteousness of God or the Righteousness of Faith you speak of in opposition to Works is below that of ours which we build upon for our Salvation In the fifth place This opinion is not consonant with the Vniversality of Redemption There are no greater patrons of universal grace than the Quaker This is the excellency of his strength the Ruben of his notions But if Christs Redemption lye altogether where they place it in the bringing men off from Sin and Unrighteousness unto Holiness and Perfection even such as to live without sin in this world then cannot Redemption be universal for the most of men remain in their sins and are never converted and those that are reach not to such a pitch as this is and consequently instead of Christs having Redeemed all the World or whole Man-kind there are but very sew Redeemed and indeed none at all I must confess I do not think that the Quaker alone is in the dark about this matter Yet these men I count here are most of all out They look upon the work of Christs Redemption to be the work of Christ within so they speak and so they think altogether and then wilfully confound Sanctification and Redemption whereas Sanctification is a separation of persons from the world and must be of some only that is the Elect supposing Election but Redemption is of all man-kind according to the Catechisme and the Scripture all over That which Christ hath done for us without and in the flesh is for all He was put to death in the flesh his Death was for all He tasted Death for every man But what he does for us within what he does in the Spirit that is peculiar and not alike to all and the one must not be confounded with the other It is worth our asking therefore what Redemption and its immediate fruit to man-kind is and this hath been dispatcht in my paper about Redemption The introduction of a new Covenant and other terms for man to live by is the main The Quaker now does place Christs Redemption in bringing us up to these terms the performance whereof is indeed our Gospel-perfection but he is here so miserably out that he both mistakes the terms or this perfection as if it were no less then the fulfilling every jot of the Law it self also contradicts himself in the best tenent he has For how shall the grace of Christs Redemption be universal if it be placed in that which is not universal How shall Christs death be for all if the great and immediate effect of it be that which only belongs to the Elect On the other hand our Divines we call Orthodox do generally stumble upon this same stone in their denyal of Christs Redemption to be universal It is not sufficient to them for the holding Christs Redemption to be universal that he hath procured that all may be saved if they believe and repent which are our new terms unless he hath procured also that they believe and repent But it is the Elect only do believe and repent and therefore they hold the Redemption only of the Elect. These men how many of them soever they be have not yet learned to distinguish the conditien from the perfermance and that Christs Redemption does lye in procuring the condition not perfermance for the world They know and will say that there is another condition required of us by the Law of our Creation and if man may be justified without that then must there be grace in the grant of this And this grace they are then to understand more is that grace which is so magnified in the ofpel the grace that came by Jesus Christ as the Law by Moses the grace it self of our Redemption Let the Quaker then know it is not Christs bringing man up to the terms of God but his bringing down God to the terms of man that is to such as are sutable to his falne estate wherein the great work he hath done for us is to be fixed And let these Orthodox know the same likewise that it must be therefore his procuring salvation upon our Faith and Repentance and not Repentauce and Faith for our Salvation which is the direct and immediate effect of his Redemption But what Is not our Believing and Repentance then the fruit and purchase of Christs death Be not offended Sirs our Faith and Repentance are a fruit of his Spirit the work of our Sanctification and proceeds from Election See my reasons in p. 29. of my first paper In the sixth place It seems to me that the want of more light to discern between truth and truth is the occasion of persisting to these Friends in their errour and to us in our opposition It is true what we say that no men but sin and it is true what they say the Regenerate sin not The Scripture says both The Child of God sins not so as that sin hath dominion over him when he sins The prevailing interest of his Soul is for God above the flesh and the world and so long he is right in Gods sight right Righteous or Perfect according to the Law of Crace although there be a thousand things wherein he might do more good or less evil than he does and so is imperfect unrighteous and a manifold sinner according to the Law of work The truth is there is something here at the bottom which these men see and our common Protestants do not see which makes them think they see more than we and more than they do see It is this that there can be indeed no justification of any but according to some Law where we can plead that we are innocent or that we have kept that Law and that perfectly so that we are Righteous according to it This being seen they come on too fast that they sin not before they have learned to distinguish between Law and Law Righteousness and Righteousness Justification and Justification Sin and Sin They sin not they are