if the word Justification had been found only as he affirmed If Justice Righteousness and Just be otherwise used that 's all one in the sense and almost in the word seeing it is confessed that to Justifie is 1. To make Just 2. Or to esteem Just 3. Or sentence Just 4. Or to prove Just and defend as Just 5. Or to use as Just by execution And therefore in so many senses as a Man is called Just in Scripture he is inclusively or by connotation said to be Justified and Justifiable and Justificandus And I desire no more of the Impartial Reader but to turn to his Concordances and peruse all the Texts where the words Just Justice Justly Righteous Righteousness Righteously are used and if he find not that they are many score if not hundred times used for that Righteousness which is the Persons Relation resulting from some Acts or Habits of his own as the Subject or Agent and otherwise than according to his solitary sense here let him then believe this Author § 3. But he is as unhappy in his Proofs as in his singular untrue Assertion Rom. 8.2 4. The Law of the Spirit of Life hath freed us from the Law of Sin and of Death Gal. 3.13 God sent his Son thta the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law and many more such Here is no mention of any but one legal Justification Answ 1. Reader do you believe that these two Texts are a perfect Enumeration And that if these mention but one sense or sort of Justification that it will follow that no more is mentioned in Scripture Or if many hundred other Texts have the same sense 2. Nay he hath chosen only these Texts where the word Justification or Justifie is not at all found By which I may suppose that he intendeth the Controversie here de re and not de nomine And is that so Can any Man that ever considerately opened the Bible believe that de re no such Thing is mentioned in Scripture 1. As making a Man a believing Godly Man 2. Or as performing the Conditions of Life required of us in the Covenant of Grace 3. Nor esteeming a Man such 4. Not defending or proving him to be such 5. Nor judging him such decisively 6. Nor using him as such 7. Nor as justifying a Man so far as he is Innocent and Just against all false Accusation of Satan or the World 3. The first Text cited by him Rom. 8.24 downright contradicts him Not only Augustine but divers Protestant Expositors suppose that by the Law of the Spirit of Life is meant either the quickning Spirit it self given to us that are in Christ or the Gospel as it giveth that Spirit into us And that by delivering us from the Law of Sin is meant either from that sin which is as a Law within us or Moses Law as it forbiddeth and commandeth all its peculiarities and so maketh doing or not doing them sin and as it declareth sin yea and accidentally irritateth it Yea that by the Law of Death is meant not only that Law we are cursed by and so guilty but chiefly that Law as it is said Rom. 7. to kill Paul and to occasion the abounding of sin and the Liâ—e of it And that by the fulfilling of the Law in us that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit is meant that by the Spirit and Grace of Christ Christians do fulfil the Law as it requireth sincere Holiness Sobriety and Righteousness which God accepteth for Christ's sake which the Law of Moses without Christ's Spirit enabled no Man to fulfil Not to weary the Reader with citing Expositors I now only desire him to peruse Ludov. de Dieu on the Text. And it is certain that the Law that Paul there speaketh of was Moses Law And that he is proving all along that the observation of it was not necessary to the Gentiles to their performance or Justification and Salvation necessitate praecepti vel medii for it would not justifie the Jews themselves And sure 1. all his meaning is not The Law will not absolve Men from the sense of the Law But also its Works will give no one the just title of a Righteous Man accepted of God and saved by him as judging between the Righteous and the wicked as Christ saith Matth. 25. The Righteous shall go into Everlasting Life c. 2. And if it were only the Maledictory Sentence of Moses Law as such that Paul speaketh of Absolution from as our only Justification then none but Jews and Proselites who were under that Law could have the Justification by Faith which he mentioneth for it curseth none else For what-ever the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law The rest of the World were only under the Law of lapsed Nature the relicts of Adam's Law of Innocency and the Curse for Adam's first Violation and the Law of Grace made to Adam and Noah and after perfected fullier by Christ in its second Edition 2. His other Text Christ redeemed us from the Curse of the Law proveth indeed that all Believers are redeemed from the Curse of the first Law of Innocency and the Jews from the Curse of Moses Law which is it that is directly meant But what 's that to prove that these words speak the whole and the only Justification and that the Scripture mentioneth no other § 4. He addeth Lex est quae prohibet Lex quae poenam decernit Lex quae irrogat Peccatum est transgressio Legis Poena effectus istius trangressionis Justificatio denique absolutio ab ista poena Itaque câ—m Lex nisi praestita nenimem Justificat praestitam omnes in Christo agnoscunt aut Legalis erit omnis JUstificatio coram Deo aut omnino nulla Answ 1. But doth he know but one sort of Law of God Hath every Man incurred the Curse by Moses Law that did by Adams Or every Man fallen under the peremptory irreversible condemnation which the Law of Grace passeth on them that never believe and repent Doth this Law He that believeth not shall be damned damn Believers One Law condemneth all that are not Innocent Another supposeth them under that defect and condemneth peremptorily not every Sinner but the Wicked and Unbelievers 2. Again here he saith Justification is Absolution from that Penalty But is a Man absolved properly from that which he was never guilty of Indeed if he take Absolution so loosly as to signifie the justifying a Man against a false Accusation and pronouncing him Not-Guilty So all the Angels in Heaven may possibly be capable of Absolution Justification is ordinarily so used but Absolution seldom by Divines And his words shew that this is not his senses if I understand them But if we are reputed perfect fulfillers of the Law of Innocency by Christ and yet Justification is our Absolution from the Curse then no Man is
as fulfilled or from the Reatus Gulpae in se but by Christ's whole Righteousness from the Reatus ut ad paenam 2. But if this be his sense he meaneth then that it is only the Terminus à quo that Justification is properly denominated from And why so 1. As Justitia and Justificatio passive sumpta vel ut effectus is Relatio it hath necessarily no Terminus à quo And certainly is in specie to be rather denominated from its own proper Terminus ad quem And as Justification is taken for the Justifiers Action why is it not as well to be denominated from the Terminus ad quem as à quo Justificatio efficiens sic dicitur quia Justum facit Justificatio apologetica quia Justum vindicat vel probat Justificatio per sententiam quia Justum aliquem esse Judicat Justificatio executiva quia ut Justum eum tractat But if we must needs denominate from the Terminus à quo how strange is it that he should know but of one sense of Justification 3. But yet perhaps he meaneth In satisfactione Legi praestitâ though he say praestandâ and so denominateth from the Terminus à quo But if so 1. Then it cannot be true For satisfacere Justificare are not the same thing nor is Justifying giving Satisfaction nor were we justified when Christ had satisfied but long after Nor are we justified eo nomine because Christ satisfied that is immediately but because he gave us that Jus ad impunitatem vitam spiritum sanctum which is the Fruit of his Satisfaction 2. And as is said if it be only in satisfactione then it is not in that Obedience which fulfileth the preceptive part as it bound us for to satisfie for not fulfilling is not to fulfil it 3. And then no Man is justified for no Man hath satisfied either the Preceptive or Penal Obligation of the Law by himself or another But Christ hath satisfied the Law-giver by Merit and Sacrifice for sin His Liberavit nos à Lege Mortis I before shewed impertinent to his use Is Liberare Justificare or Satisfacere all one And is à Lege Mortis either from all the Obligation to Obedience or from the sole malâ—diction There be other Acts of Liberation besides Satisfaction For it is The Law of the Spirit of Life that doth it And we are freed both from the power of indwelling-indwelling-sin called a Law and from the Mosaical Yoak and from the Impossible Conditions of the Law of Innocency though not from its bare Obligation to future Duty § 7. He addeth a Third Ex parte Medii quod est Justitia Christi Legalis nobis per fidem Imputata Omnem itaque Justificationem proprie Legalem esse constat Answ 1. When I read that he will have but one sense or sort of Justification will yet have the Denomination to be ex termino and so justifieth my distinction of it according to the various Termini And here how he maketh the Righteousness of Christ to be but the MEDIVM of our Justification though he should have told us which sort of Medium he meaneth he seemeth to me a very favourable consenting Adversary And I doubt those Divines who maintain that Christ's Rigâ—teousness is the Causa Formalis of our Justification who are no small ones nor a few though other in answer to the Papists disclaim it yea and those that make it but Causa Materialis which may have a sound sense will think this Learned Man betrayeth their Cause by prevarication and seemeth to set fiercly against me that he may yeeld up the Cause with less suspicion But the truth is we all know but in part and therefore err in part and Error is inconsistent with it self And as we have conflicting Flesh and Spirit in the Will so have we conflicting Light and Darkness Spirit and Flesh in the Understanding And it is very perceptible throughout this Author's Book that in one line the Flesh and Darkness saith one thing and in the next oft the Spirit and Light saith the contrary and seeth not the inconsistency And so though the dark and fleshy part rise up in wrathful striving Zeal against the Concord and Peace of Christians on pretence that other Mens Errors wrong the Truth yet I doubt not but Love and Unity have some interest in his lucid and Spiritual part We do not only grant him that Christ's Righteousness is a Medium of our Justification for so also is Faith a Condition and Dispositio Receptiva being a Medium nor only some Cause for so also is the Covenant-Donation but that it is an efficient meritorious Cause and because if Righteousness had been that of our own Innocency would have been founded in Merit we may call Christ's Righteousness the material Cause of our Justification remotely as it is Materia Meriti the Matter of the Merit which procureth it 2. But for all this it followeth not that all Justification is only Legal as Legal noteth its respect to the Law of Innocency For 1. we are justified from or against che Accusation of being non-performers of the Condition of the Law of Grace 2. And of being therefore unpardoned and lyable to its sorer Penalty 3. Our particular subordinate Personal Righteousness consisting in the said performance of those Evangelical Conditions of Life is so denominated from its conformity to the Law of Grace as it instituteth its own Condition as the measure of it as Rectitudo ad Regulam 4. Our Jus ad impunitatem vitam resulteth from the Donative Act of the Law or Covenant of Grace as the Titulus qui est Fundamentum Juris or supposition of our Faith as the Condition 5. This Law of Grace is the Norma Judicis by which we shall be judged at the Last Day 6. The same Judg doth now per sententiam conceptam judg of us as he will then judg per sententiam prolatam 7. Therefore the Sentence being virtually in the Law this same Law of Grace which in primo instanti doth make us Righteous by Condonation and Donation of Right doth in secundo instanti virtually justifie us as containing that regulating use by which we are to be sententially justified And now judg Reader whether no Justification be Evangelical or by the Law of Grace and so to be denominated for it is lis de nomine that is by him managed 8. Besides that the whole frame of Causes in the Work of Redemption the Redeemer his Righteousness Merits Sacrifice Pardoning Act Intercession c. are sure rather to be called Matters of the Gospel than of the Law And yet we grant him easily 1. That Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law of Innocency and was justified thereby and that we are justified by that Righteousness of his as the meritorious Cause 2. That we being guilty of Sin and Death according to the tenor of that Law and that Guilt being remitted by Christ as aforesaid we are therefore justified
an injury to be reported to think otherwise herein than I do yea and add Which neither I nor any Body else I know of denies as to the thing though in the extent and other circumstances all are not agreed and you may in that enjoy your Opinion for me This is too kind I am loth to tell you how many that I know and have read deny it lest I tempt you to repent of your Agreement But doth the World yet need a fuller evidence that some Men are de materiâ agreed with them whom they raise the Country against by their Accusations and Suspicions But surely what passion or spatling soever it hath occasioned from you I reckon that my labour is not lost I may tell your Juniors that I have sped extraordinary well when I have procured the published consent of such a Doctor Either you were of this mind before or not If not it 's well you are brought to confess the Truth though not to confess a former Error If yea then it 's well that so loud and wide a seeming disagreement is confessed to be none that your Juniors may take warning and not be frightned from Love and Concord by every melancholy Allarm Yea you declare your conformity to the Litany Remember not our Offences nor the Offences of our Fore fathers and many words of indignation you use for my questioning it All this I like very well as to the Cause And I matter it not much how it looks at me If you agree more angrily than others disagree the Cause hath some advantage by the Agreement Though me-thinks it argueth somewhat unusual that seeming Dissenters should close by so vehement a Collision But yet you will not agree when you cannot chuse but agree and you carry it still as if your Allarm had not been given without cause Must we agree and not agree What yet is the Matter Why it is a new original sin My ordinary expressions of it may be fully seen in the Disputation The phrase you laid hold on in a Preface is cited before That we participate of no guilt and suffer for no original sin but Adam ' s only I denied And what 's the dangerous Errour here That our nearer Parents sin was Adams I may presume that you hold not That we are guilty of such you deny not That it is sin I find you not denying sure then all the difference must be in the word ORIGINAL And if so you that so hardly believe your loud-noised disagreements to be but verbal must patiently give me leave here to try it Is it any more than the Name ORIGINAL that you are so heinously offended at Sure it is not Else in this Letter purposely written about it you would have told your Reader what it is Suffer me then to summon your Allarm'd Juniors to come and see what a Spectrum it is that must affright them and what a Poppet-Play or dreaming War it is that the Church is to be engaged in as if it were a matter of Life and Death Audite juvenes I took the word ORIGINAL in this business to have several significations First That is called ORIGINAL Sin which was the ORIGO of all other sins in the Humane World And that was not Adam's sin but Eves 2. That which was the ORIGO of sin to all the World save Adam and Eve communicated by the way of Generation And that was Adams and Eves conjunct viz. 1. Their first sinful Acts 2. Their Guilt 3. And their habitual pravity making it full though in Nature following the Act This Sin Fact Guilt and Habit as Accidents of the Persons of Adam and Eve are not Accidents of our Persons 3. Our personal participation 1. In the guilt of the sin of Adam and Eve 2. And of a vicious privation and habit from them as soon as we are Persons Which is called Original sin on three accounts conjunct 1. Because it is a participation of their Original Act that we are guilty of 2. Because it is in us ab Origine from our first Being 3. And because it is the Origo of all our Actual Sins 4. I call that also ORIGINAL or part of Original Sin which hath but the two later only viz. 1. Which is in us AB ORIGINE from our first personal being 2. Which is the Root or ORIGO in our selves of all our Actual Sins And thus our Guilt and Vice derived from our nearer Parents and not from Adam is our Original Sin That is 1. Both Guilt and Habit are in us from our Original or first Being 2. And all our Actual Sin springeth from it as a partial Cause For I may presume that this Reverend Doctor doth not hold that Adam's sin derived to us is in one part of the Soul which is not partible and our nearer Parent 's in another but will grant that it is one vitiosity that is derived from both the latter being a Degree added to the former though the Reatus having more than one fundamentum may be called diverse That Origo Active passive dicitur I suppose we are agreed Now I call the vicious Habits contracted from our nearer Parents by special reason of their own sins superadded to the degree which else we should have derived from Adam a part of our original sinful Pravity even a secondary part And I call our guilt of the sins of our nearer Parents not Adam's which you will either a secondary Original Guilt or Sin or a secondary part of our Original Guilt See then our dangerous disagreement I call that ORIGINAL which is in us ab Origine when we are first Persons and is partly the Root or Origo in us of all our following Actual Sin though it was not the Original Sin of Mankind or the first of Sins The Doctor thinks this an Expression which all Juniors must be warned to take heed of and to take heed of the Doctrine of him that useth it The Allarm is against this dangerous word ORIGINAL And let a Man awake tell us what is the danger But I would bring him yet to agreement even de nomine though it anger him 1. Let him read the Artic. 9. of the Church of England and seeing there Original Sin is said to be that corruption of Nature whereby we are far gone from Original Righteousness and are of our own Nature inclined to evil so that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit The lust of the flesh called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound the Wisdom some Sensuality some the Affection some the desire of the Flesh not subject to the Law of God Seing a degree of all this same Lust is in Men from the special sins of their Fore-fathers as well as from Adam's Is not this Degree here called Original Sin why the Church omitted the Imputed Guilt aforesaid I enquire not 2. If this will not serve if he will find me any Text of Scripture which useth the Phrase ORIGINAL Sin I will promise
the Maledictory Sentence of the Law Answ 1. If this be untrue it 's pity so worthy a Man should unworthily use it against peace and concord If it be true I crave his help for the expounding of several Texts Exod. 23.6 7. Thou shalt not wrest the Judgment of thy Poor in his Cause Keep thee far from a false Matter and the Innocent and Righteous slay thou not for I will not justifie the wicked Is the meaning only I will not absolve the wicked from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law of Innocency Or is it not rather I will not misjudg the wicked to be just nor allow his wickedness nor yet allow thee so to do nor leave thee unpunished for thy unrighteous judgment but will condemn thee if thou condemn the Just Job 25.4 How then can Man be justified with God or How can he be clean that is born of a Woman Is the sense How can Man be absolved from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law Or rather How can he be maintained Innocent Psal 143.2 In thy sight shall no Man living be justified Is the sense No Man living shall be absolved from the Maledictory sentence of the Law Than we are all lost for ever Or rather no Man shall be found and maintained Innocent and judged one that deserved not punishment Therefore we are not judged perfect fulfillers of that Law by another or our selves Object But this is for us and against you for it denyeth that there is any such Justification Answ Is our Controversie de re or only de nomine of the sense of the word Justifie If de re then his meaning is to maintain That God never doth judg a Believer to be a Believer or a Godly Man to be Godly or a performer of the Condition of Pardon and Life to have performed it nor will justifie any believing Saint against the false Accusations that he is an Infidel a wicked ungodly Man and an Hypocrite or else he writeth against those that he understood not But if the Question be as it must be de nomine whether the word Justifie have any sense besides that which he appropriateth to it then a Proposition that denieth the Existentiam rei may confute his denyal of any other sense of the word So Isa 43.9 26. Let them bring forth their Witnesses that they may justified Declare thou that thou mayest be justified that is proved Innocent But I hope he will hear and reverence the Son Matth. 12.37 By thy words thou shalt be Justified and by thy words thou shalt be Condemned speaking of Gods Judgment which I think meaneth de re nomine Thy Righteous or unrighteous words shall be a part of the Cause of the day or Matter for or according to which thou shalt be judged obedient or disobedient to the Law of Grace and so far just or unjust and accordingly sentenced to Heaven or Hell as is described Matth. 25. But it seems this Learned Doctor understands it only By thy words thou shalt be absolved from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law and by thy words contrarily condemned Luk. 18.14 The Publican went down to his House justified rather than the other I think not only from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law of Innocency but by God approved a sincere Penitent and so a fit Subject of the other part of Justification Acts 13.39 is the Text that speaketh most in the sense he mentioneth And yet I think it includeth more viz. By Christ 1. we are not only absolved from that Condemnation due for our sins 2. but also we are by his repealing or ending of the Mosaick Law justified against the Charge of Guilt for our not observing it and 3. Augustine would add That we are by Christ's Spirit and Grace made just that is sincerely Godly by the destruction of those inherent and adherent sins which the Law of Moses could not mortifie and save us from but the Spirit doth Rom. 2.13 Not the Hearers of the Law are just before God but the Doers of the Law shall be justified Is it only The Doers shall be Absolved from the Maledictory Sentence c. Or first and chiefly They shall be judged well-doers so far as they do well and so approved and justified so far as they do keep the Law which because no Man doth perfectly and the Law of Innocency requireth Perfection none can be justified absolutely or to Salvation by it Object The meaning is say some The Doers of the Law should be justified by it were there any such Answ That 's true of absolute Justification unto Life But that this is not all the sense of the Text the two next Verses shew where the Gentiles are pronounced partakers of some of that which he meaneth inclusively in doing to Justification Therefore it must include that their Actions and Persons are so far justified more or less as they are Doers of the Law as being so far actively just Rom. 8.30 Whom he justified them he also glorified And 1 Cor. 6. â—â— Ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Many Protestants and among them Bezâ— himself expound in the Papists and Austins sense of Justification as including Sanctification also as well as Absolution from the Curse And so Arch Bishop Vsher told me he understood them As also Tit. 3.7 That being justified freely by his Grace And many think so of Rom. 4.5 he justifieth the Vngodly say they by Converting Pardoning and Accepting them in Christ to Life And Rom. 8.33 Who shall condemn it is God that justifieth seemeth to me more than barely to say God absolveth us from the Curse because it is set against Man's Condemnation who reproached slandered and persecuted the Christians as evil Doers as they did Christ to whom they were predestinated to be conformed And so must mean God will not only absolve us from his Curse but also justifie our Innocency against all the false Accusations of our Enemies And it seemeth to be spoken by the Apostle with respect to Isa 50.8 He is near that justifieth me who will contend with me Which my reverence to this Learned Man sufficeth not to make me believe is taken only in his sense of Absolution Rev. 22.11 He that is Righteous let him be justified still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which not only our Translaters but almost all Expositors take as inclusive of Inherent Righteousness if not principally speaking of it To speak freely I remember not one Text of Scripture that useth the word Justifie in this Doctor 's sense that is Only for the said absolution from the Curse of the Law For all those other Texts that speak for Justification by Christ's Grace and Faith and not by the Works of the Law as Rom. 3.20 24 28 30. and 4.2 5 25. 5.1 9 16 18. 1 Cor. 4.4 Gal. 2.16 17. 3.8 11 24. 5.4 c. do all seem to me to mean not only that we are absolved from the
ex seipsis presumendo Israel vero persequens legem justitiae in legem justitiae non pervenit Quare Quia non ex fide sed tanquam ex operibus id est tanquam eam per seipsos operantes non in se credentes operari Deum Deus est enim qui operatur in nobis Finis enim legis Christus est omni credenti Et adhuc dubitamus quae sint opera legis quibus homo non justificatur si ea tanquam sua credederit sine adjutorio dono Dei quod est ex fide Jesu Christi Vt possit homo facere bona Sancta Deus operatur in homine per fidem Jesu Christi qui finis ad Justitiam omni credenti id est per Spiritum incorporatus factusque membrum ejus potest quisque illo incrementum intrinsecus dante operari justitiam Justificatio autem ex fide impetratur In tantum justus in quantum salvus Per hanc enim fidem credemus quod etiam nos Deus a mortuis excitet interim Spiritu ut in novitate ejus gratioe temperanter juste pie vivamus in hoc seculo qui in Resurrectione sibi congrua hoc est in Justificatione precedit c. 30. Fides impetrat gratiam qua Lex impleatur Cap. 28. pag. 315. Ibi Lex Dei non ex omni parte delata per injustitiam profecto scribitur renovata per gratiam Nec istam inscriptionem quae Justificatio est poterat efficere in Judaeis Lex in tabulis scripta Ibid. Cap. 9. pag. 307 308. Justitia Dei manifestata est non dixit Justitia hominis vel justitia propriae voluntatis sed justitia Dei Non qua Deus justus est sed qua induit hominem cum justificat impium Haec testificatur per Legem Prophetas Huic quippe testimonium perhibent Lex Prophetae Lex quidem hoc ipso quod jubendo minando neminem justificando satis indicat dono Dei justificari hominem per Adjutorium Spiritus Justitia autem Dei per fidem Jesu Christi hoc est per fidem qua Creditur in Christum sicut autem ista fides Christi dicta non est qua Credit Christus sic illa Justitia Dei non qua Justus est Deus Vtrumque enim Nostrum est sed ideo Dei Christi dicitur quod ejus nobis largitate donatur Justitia Dei sine lege est quam Deus per Spiritum Gratiae Credenti confert sine adjutorio legis Justificati gratis per gratiam ipsius non quod sine voluntate nostra fiat sed voluntas nostra ostenditur infirma per legem ut sanet Gratia Voluntatem sanata voluntas impleat Legem Et cap. 10. Confugiant per fidem ad Justificantem Gratiam per donum Spiritus suavitate justitiae delectati poenam literae minantis evadant Vid. Ep. 89. q. 2. Et lib. 3. ad Bonifac. c. 7. Et Tract 3. in Joan. when he saith that Omnes qui per Christum Justificati justi non in se sed in illo he expoundeth it of Regeneration by Christ Et Serm. 15. de verb. Apost Sine voluntate tua non erit in te Justitia Dei Voluntas non est nisi tua Justitia non est nisi Dei he expounds it of Holiness Traditus est propter delicta nostra resurrexit propter justificationem nostram Quid est Propter Justificationem nostram Vt justificet nos justos faciat nos Eris opus Dei non solum quia homo es sed quia Justus es Qui fecit te sine te non te justificat sine te Tamen ipse justificat ne sit justitia tua Dei justitiam dat non litera occidens sed vivificans Spiritus Vid. de Grat. Christi Cap. 13 14. Abundance such passages in Augustine fully shew that he took Justification to signifie Sanctification or the Spirits renovation of us and thinks it is called the Righteousness of God and Christ and not ours because by the Spirit he worketh it in us And when he saith that bona opera sequuntur Justificatum non precedunt Justificandum as in sence he often doth he meaneth that we are freely sanctified before we do good I would cite abundance but for swelling the writing and tiring the Reader And his followers Prosper and Fulgentius go the same way as you may easily find in their writings Johan Crocius in his copious Treatise of Justification Disp 9. p. 442. saith Augustinum Justificationis nomine utramque partem complecti id est tum Remissionem peccatorum quae proprie Justificatio dicitur tum Sanctificationem Cum quo nos sentimus quoad rem ipsam tantum dissidemus in loquendi formâ § 9. The Schoolmen being led by the Scholastick wit of Augustine fell into the same phrase of speech and opinions Lombard making Augustine his Master and the rest making him theirs till some began to look more towards the Semipelagian way § 10. And when Church-Tyranny and Ignorance had obscured the Christian Light the true sence of Justification by the Righteousness of Christ was much obscured with the rest and a world of humane inventions under the name of Good works were brought in to take up the peoples minds And the merits of man and of the Virgin Mary sounded louder than the merits of Christ in too many places And the people that were ignorant of the true Justification were filled with the noise of Pardons Indulgences Satisfactions Penances Pilgrimages and such like § 11. Luther finding the Church in this dangerous and woful state where he lived did labour to reduce mens minds and trust from humane fopperies and merits and indulgences to Christ and to help them to the Knowledg of true Righteousness But according to his temper in the heat of his Spirit he sometimes let fall some words which seemed plainly to make Christs own personal Righteousness in it self to be every Believers own by Imputation and our sins to be verily Christs own sins in themselves by Imputation Though by many other words he sheweth that he meant only that our sins were Christs in the effects and not in themselves and Christs personal Righteousness ours in the effects and not in it self § 12. But his Book on the Galatians and some other words gave occasion to the errours of some then called Antinomians and afterward Libertines when some additions were made to their errours Of these Islebius Agricola was the chief Whom Luther confuted and reduced better expounding his own words But Islebius ere long turned back to the Contrary extreme of Popery and with Sidonius and Julius Pflug three Popish Bishops made for that purpose promoted the Emperours Interim to the persecution of the Protestants § 13. The Protestant Reformers themselves spake variously of this subject Most of them rightly asserted that Christ's Righteousness was ours by the way of Meriting our Righteousness which was therefore said to be Imputed to us
God's Word Scriptures besides the former Declaration 1 Joh. 2.29 Every one which doth Righteousness is born of God 3.7 10. He that doth Righteousness is Righteous even as he is Righteous Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God 2 Tim. 4.8 He hath laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness Heb. 11.23 Through Faith they wrought Righteousness Heb. 12. The peaceable fruit of Righteousness Jam. 3.18 The fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace 1 Pet. 2.24 That we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness Mat 5.20 Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees c. Luk. 1.71 In Holiness and Righteousness before him all the days of our Life Act. 10.35 He that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him Rom. 6.13 16 18 19 20. Whether of sin unto death or of Obedience unto Righteousness 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to Righteousness and sin not Eph. 5.9 The fruit of the Spirit is in all Goodness and Righteousness Dan. 12.3 They shall turn many to Righteousness Dan. 4.27 Break off thy sins by Righteousness Eph. 4.24 The new-man which after God is created in Righteousness Gen. 7.1 Thee have I seen Righteous before me Gen. 18.23 24 25 26. Far be it from thee to destroy the Righteous with the Wicked Prov. 24.24 He that saith to the Wicked thou art Righteous him shall the people Curse Nations shall abhor him Isa 3.10 Say to the Righteous it shall be well with him Isa 5.23 That take away the Righteousness from the Righteous Mat. 25.37 46. Then shall the Righteous answer The Righteous into life eternal Luk. 1.6 They were both Righteous before God Heb. 11.4 7. By Faith Abel offered to God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous God testifying of his Gifts By Faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark by which he became heir of the Righteousness by Faith 1 Pet. 4.18 If the Righteous be scarcely saved Math. 10.41 He that receiveth a Righteous man in the name of a Righteous man shall have a Righteous mans reward 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law is not made for a Righteous man but for Many score of texts more mention a Righteousness distinct from that of Christ imputed to us Judg now Whether he that believeth God should believe that he Imputeth Christs Obedience and Suffering to us for our Sole Righteousness That which is not our sole Righteousness is not so Reputed by God nor Imputed But Christs Obedience and Suffering is not our sole Righteousness See Davenant's many arguments to prove that we have an Inherent Righteousness Obj. But they mean our Sole Righteousness by which we are Justified Answ 1. We can tell no mans meaning but by his words especially not contrary to them especially in an accurate Declaration of Faith 2. Suppose it had been so said we maintain on the contrary 1. That we are Justified by more sorts of Righteousness than one in several respects We are justified only by Christs Righteousness as the Purchasing and Meritorious Cause of our Justification freely given by that new Covenant We are Justified by the Righteousness of God the Father as performing his Covenant with Christ and us efficiently We are justified efficiently by the Righteousness of Christ as our Judg passing a just sentence according to his Covenant These last are neither Ours nor Imputed to us But we are justified also against the Accusation of being finally Impenitent Unbelievers or unholy by the personal particular Righteousness of our own Repentance Faith and Holiness For 2. We say that there is an universal Justification or Righteousness and there is a particular one And this particular one may be the Condition and Evidence of our Title to all the rest And this is our case The Day of Judgment is not to try and Judg Christ or his Merits but us He will judg us himself by his new Law or Covenant the sum of which is Except ye Repent ye shall all perish and He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be condemned If we be not accused of Impenitence or Vnbelief but only of not-fulfilling the Law of Innocency that will suppose that we are to be tryed only by that Law which is not true And then we refer the Accuser only to Christ's Righteousness and to the Pardoning Law of Grace and to nothing in our selves to answer that charge And so it would be Christ's part only that would be judged But Matth. 25. and all the Scripture assureth us of the contrary that it 's Our part that it is to be tryed and judged and that we shall be all judged according to what we have done And no man is in danger there of any other accusation but that he did not truly Repent and Believe and live a holy life to Christ And shall the Penitent Believer say I did never Repent and Believe but Christ did it for me and so use two Lyes one of Christ and another of himself that he may be justified Or shall the Vnholy Impenitent Infidel say It 's true I was never a Penitent Believer or holy but Christ was for me or Christs Righteousness is my sole Righteousness that is a fashood For Christs Righteousness is none of his So that there is a particular personal Righteousness consisting in Faith and Repentance which by way of Condition and Evidence of our title to Christ and his Gift of Pardon and Life is of absolute necessity in our Justification Therefore Imputed Righteousness is not the sole Righteousness which must justifie us I cited abundance of plain Texts to this purpose in my Confession pag. 57. c. Of which book I add that when it was in the press I procured those three persons whom I most highly valued for judgment Mr. Gataker whose last work it was in this World Mr. Vines and lastly Arch-Bishop Vsher to read it over except the Epistles Mr. Gataker read only to pag. 163. and no one of them advised me to alter one word nor signified their dissent to any word of it But I have been long on this to proceed in the History The same year that I wrote that book that most Judicious excellent man Joshua Placaeus of Saumours in France was exercised in a Controversie conjunct with this How far Adams sin is imputed to us And to speak truth at first in the Theses Salmuriens Vol. 1. he seemed plainly to dispute against the Imputation of Adam's actual sin and his arguments I elsewhere answer And Andr. Rivet wrote a Collection of the Judgment of all sorts of Divines for the contrary But after he vindicated himself shewed that his Doctrine was that Adam's fact is not immediately imputed to each of us as if our persons as persons had been all fully represented in Adam's person by an arbitrary Law or Will of God or reputed so to be But that our Persons being
The Augustane Confession Art 3 4. Christ died that he might reconcile the Father to us and be a sacrifice not only for original sin but also for all the actual sins of men And that we may obtain these benefits of Christ that is Remission of sins justification and life eternal Christ gave us the Gospel in which these benefits are propounded To preach Repentance in his Name and Remission of sins among all Nations For when men propagated in the natural manner have sin and cannot truly satisfie Gods Law the Gospel reproveth sin and sheweth us Christ the Mediator and so teacheth us about Pardon of sins That freely for Christ's sake are given us Remission of sins Justification by Faith by which we must confess that these are given us for Christ who was made a Sacrifice for us and appeased the Father Though the Gospel require Penitence yet that pardon of sin may be sure it teacheth us that it is freely given us that is that it dependeth not on the Condition of our worthyness nor is given for any precedent works or worthyness of following works For Conscience in true fears findeth no work which it can oppose to the Wrath of God and Christ is proposed and given us to be a propitiator This honour of Christ must not be transferred to our works Therefore Paul saith ye are saved freely or of Grace And it is of grace that the promise might be sure that is Pardon will be sure when we know that it dependeth not on the Condition of our worthiness but is given for Christ In the Creed this Article I believe the Forgiveness of sins is added to the history And the rest of the history of Christ must be referred to this Article For this benefit is the end of the history Christ therefore suffered and rose again that for him might be given us Remission of sins and life everlasting Art 6. When we are Reconciled by Faith there must needs follow the Righteousness of good works But because the infirmity of mans nature is so great that no man can satisfie the Law it is necessary to teach men not only that they must obey the Law but also how this Obedience pleaseth lest Consciences fall into desperation when they understand that they satisfie not the Law This Obedience then pleaseth not because it satisfieth the Law but because the person is in Christ reconciled by Faith and believeth that the relicts of his Sin are pardoned We must ever hold that we obtain remission of sins and the person is pronounced Righteous that is is accepted freely for Christ by Faith And afterward that Obedience to the Law pleaseth and is reputed a certain Righteousness and meriteth rewards Thus the first Protestants VII The 11th Article of the Church of England to which we all offer to subscribe is Of the Justification of Man We are accounted Righteous before God only 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 only is a most wholsome doctrine and very full of Comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification The said Homilies of Salvation and Faith say over and over the same thing As pag. 14. Three things go together in our Justification On Gods part his great Mercy and Grace on Christs part Justice that is the Satisfaction of Gods Justice or the Price of our Redemption by the offering of his body and shedding of his blood with fulfilling of the Law perfectly and throughly And on our part true and lively Faith in the Merits of Jesus Christ which yet is not ours but by Gods working in us And pag. A lively Faith is not only the common belief of the Articles of our Faith but also a true trust and confidence of the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a steadfast hope of all good things to be received at Gods hand and that although we through infirmity or temptation do fall from him by sin yet if we return again to him by true repentance that he will forgive and forget our offences for his Sons sake our Saviour Jesus Christ and will make us inheritors with him of his everlasting Kingdom Pag. 23. For the very sure and lively Christian Faith is to have an earnest trust and confidence in God that he doth regard us and is careful over us as the Father is over the Child whom he doth love and that he will be merciful unto us for his only Sons sake and that we have our Saviour Christ our perpetual Advocate and Prince in whose only merits oblation and suffering we do trust that our offences be continually washed and purged whensoever we repenting truely do return to him with our whole heart steadfastly determining with our selves through his grace to obey and serve him in keeping his Commandments c. So also the Apology This is our doctrine of Imputation VIII The Saxon Confession oft insisteth on the free Pardon of sin not merited by us but by Christ And expoundeth Justification to be Of unjust that is Guilty and disobedient and not having Christ to be made Just that is To be Absolved from Guilt for the Son of God and an apprehender by Faith of Christ himself who is our Righteousness as Jeremiah and Paul say because by his Merit we have forgiveness and God imputeth righteousness to us and for him reputeth us just and by giving us his Spirit quickeneth and regenerateth us By being Justified by Faith alone we mean that freely for our Mediator alone not for our Contrition or other Merits the pardon of sin and reconciliation is given us And before It is certain when the mind is raised by this Faith that the pardon of sin Reconciliation and Imputation of Righteousness are given for the Merit of Christ himself And after By Faith is meant Affiance resting in the Son of God the Propitiator for whom we are received and please God and not for our virtues and fulfilling of the Law IX The Wittenberge Confession In Corp. Conf. pag. 104 A man is made Accepted of God and Reputed just before him for the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ alone by Faith And at the Judgment of God we must not trust to the Merit of any of the Virtues which we have but to the sole Merit of our Lord Jesus Christ which is made ours by Faith And because at the bar of God where the case of true eternal Righteousness and Salvation will be pleaded there is no place for mans Merits but only for God's Mercy and the Merits of our Lord Jesus Christ whom we receive by Faith therefore we think our Ancestors said rightly that we are justified before God by Faith only X. The Bohemian Confession making Justification the principal Article goeth the same way Pag. 183 184. By Christ men are Justified obtain Salvation and Remission of sin freely by Faith in Christ through mercy without
the debt of a Community deeply indebted to the King and thence bound to perpetual slavery This payment gets liberty for this and that and the other member of the Community For it is imputed to them by the King as if they had paid it But this Imputation transferreth not the honour to them but brings them to partake of the Benefit So when the price paid by Christ for all is imputed to this or that man he is taken into the society of the Benefit Pag. 503. Distinguish between the Benefit and the Office of Christ The former is made ours but not the latter Pag. 542. The Remission of sin is nothing but the Imputation of Christs Righteousness Rom. 4. Where Imputation of Righteousness Remission of Iniquities and non-imputation of sin are all one Pag. 547. God imputeth it as far as he pleaseth Pag. 548. Princes oft impute the merits of Parents to unworthy Children Pag. 551. He denyeth that we have Infinite Righteousness in Christ because it is imputed to us in a finite manner even so far as was requisite to our absolution But I will a little more distinctly open and resolve the Case 1. We must distinguish of Righteousness as it relateth to the Preceptive part of the Law and as it relateth to the Retributive part The first Righteousness is Innocency contrary to Reatus Culpae The second is Jus ad impunitatem ad praemium seu dâ—num Right to Impunity and to the Reward 2. We must distinguish of Christs Righteousness which is either so called formally and properly which is the Relation of Christs person to his Law of Mediation imposed on him 1. As Innocent and a perfect obeyer 2. As one that deserved not punishment but deserved Reward Or it is so called materially and improperly which is Those same Habits Acts and Sufferings of Christ from which his Relation of Righteous did result 3. We must distinguish of Imputation which signifyeth here 1. To repute us personally to have been the Agents of Christs Acts the subjects of his Habits and Passion in a Physical sence 2. Or to repute the same formal Relation of Righteousness which was in Christs person to be in ours as the subject 3. Or to repute us to have been the very subjects of Christ's Habits and Passion and the Agents of his Acts in a Political or Moral sense and not a physical as a man payeth a debt by his Servant or Attorney or Delegate 4. And consequently to repute a double formal Righteousness to result from the said Habits Acts and Passions one to Christ as the natural Subject and Agent and another to us as the Moral Political or reputed Subject and Agent And so his Formal Righteousness not to be imputed to us in it self as ours but another to result from the same Matter 5. Or else that we are reputed both the Agents and Subjects of the Matter of his Righteousness morally and also of the Formal Righteousness of Christ himself 6. Or else by Imputation is meant here that Christ being truly reputed to have taken the Nature of sinful man and become a Head for all true Believers in that undertaken Nature and Office in the Person of a Mediator to have fulfilled all the Law imposed on him by perfect Holiness and Obedience and Offering himself on the Cross a Sacrifice for our sins voluntarily suffering in our stead as if he had been a sinner guilty of all our sins As soon as we believe we are pardoned justified adopted for the sake and merit of this Holiness Obedience and penal Satisfaction of Christ with as full demonstration of divine Justice at least and more full demonstration of his Wisdom and Mercy than if we had suffered our selves what our sins deserved that is been damned or had never sinned And so Righteousness is imputed to us that is we are accounted or reputed righteous not in relation to the Precept that is innocent or sinless but in relation to the Retribution that is such as have Right to Impunity and Life because Christ's foresaid perfect Holiness Obedience and Satisfaction merited our Pardon and Adoption and the Spirit or merited the New-Covenant by which as an Instrument Pardon Justification and Adoption are given to Believers and the Spirit to be given to sanctifie them And when we believe we are justly reputed such as have Right to all these purchased Gifts 4. And that it may be understood how far Christ did Obey or Suffer in our stead or person we must distinguish 1. Between his taking the Nature of sinful man and taking the Person of sinners 2. Between his taking the Person of a sinner and taking the Person of you and me and each particular sinner 3. Between his taking our sinful persons simply ad omnia and taking them only secundum quid in tantum ad hoc 4. Between his suffering in the Person of sinners and his obeying and sanctity in the Person of sinners or of us in particular 5. Between his Obeying and Suffering in our Person and our Obeying and Suffering in his Person Natural or Political And now I shall make use of these distinctions by the Propositions following Prop. 1. The phrase of Christ's Righteousness imputed to us is not in the Scripture 2. Therefore when it cometh to Disputation to them that deny it some Scripture-phrase should be put in stead of it because 1. The Scripture hath as good if not much better phrases to signifie all in this that is necessary 2. And it is supposed that the Disputants are agreed of all that is express in the Scripture 3. Yet so much is said in Scripture as may make this phrase of Imputing Christ's Righteousness to us justifiable in the sound sence here explained For the thing meant by it is true and the phrase intelligible 4. Christ's Righteousness is imputed to Believers in the sixth sence here before explained As the Meritorious cause of our Pardon Justification Righteousness Adoption Sanctification and Salvation c. as is opened 5. Christ did not suffer all in kind much less in duration which sinful man deserved to suffer As e. g. 1. He was not hated of God 2. Nor deprived or deserted of the sanctifying Spirit and so of its Graces and Gods Image Nor had 3. any of that permitted penalty by which sin it self is a misery and punishment to the sinner 4. He fell not under the Power of the Devil as a deceiver and ruler as the ungodly do 5. His Conscience did not accuse him of sin and torment him for it 6. He did not totally despair of ever being saved 7. The fire of Hell did not torment his body More such instances may be given for proof 6. Christ did not perform all the same obedience in kind which many men yea all men are or were bound to perform As 1. He did not dress and keep that Garden which Adam was commanded to dress and keep 2. He did not the conjugal offices which Adam and millions
Law 13. They all agree that no Works of Mans are to be trusted in or pleaded but all excluded and the Conceit of them abhorred 1. As they are feigned to be against or instead of the free Mercy of God 2. As they are against or feigned instead of the Sacrifice Obedience Merit or Intercession of Christ 3. Or as supposed to be done of our selves without the Grace of the Holy Ghost 4. Or as supposed falsly to be perfect 5. Or as supposed to have any of the afore-disclaimed Merit 6. Or as materially consisting in Mosaical Observances 7. Much more in any superstitious Inventions 8. Or in any Evil mistaken to be Good 9. Or as any way inconsistent with the Tenor of the freely pardoning Covenant In all these senses Justification by Works is disclaimed by all Protestants at least 14. Yet all agree that we are created to good Works in Christ Jesus which God hath ordained that we should walk therein and that he that nameth the Name of Christ must depart from iniquity or else he hath not the Seal of God and that he that is born of God sinneth not that is predominantly And that all Christ's Members are Holy Purified zealous of Good Works cleansing themselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit that they might perfect Holiness in God's fear doing good to all Men as loving their Neighbours as themselves and that if any Man have not the Sanctifying Spirit of Christ he is none of his nor without Holiness can see God 15. They all judg reverently and charitably of the Ancients that used the word Merit of Good Works because they meant but a moral aptitude for the promised Reward according to the Law of Grace through Christ 16. They confess the thing thus described themselves however they like not the name of Merit lest it should countenance proud and carnal Conceits 17. They judg no Man to be Heretical for the bare use of that word who agreeth with them in the sense 18. In this sense they agree that our Gospel-Obedience is such a necessary aptitude to our Glorification as that Glory though a free Gift is yet truly a reward of this Obedience 19. And they agree that our final Justification by Sentence at the Day of Judgment doth pass upon the same Causes Reasons and Conditions as our Glorification doth 20. They all agree that all faithful Ministers must bend the labour of their Ministry in publick and private for promoting of Holiness and good Works and that they must difference by Discipline between the Obedient and the Disobedient And O! that the Papists would as zealously promote Holiness and good Works in the World as the true serious Protestants do whom they factiously and peevishly accuse as Enemies to them and that the Opinion Disputing and name of good Works did not cheat many wicked Persons into self-flattery and Perdition while they are void of that which they dispute for Then would not the Mahometans and Heathens be deterred from Christianity by the wickedness of these nominal Christians that are near them nor would the serious practice of that Christianity which themselves in general profess be hated scorned and persecuted by so many both Protestants and Papists nor would so many contend that they are of the True Religion while they are really of no Religion at all any further than the Hypocrites Picture and Carcass may be called Religion Were Men but resolved to be serious Learners serious Lovers serious Practisers according to their knowledg and did not live like mockers of God and such as look toward the Life to come in jest or unbelief God would vouchsafe them better acquaintance with the True Religion than most Men have § 3. One would think now that this should meet with no sharp Opposition from any Learned lover of Peace and that it should answer for it self and need no defence But this Learned Man for all that among the rest of his Military Exploits must here find some Matter for a Triumph And 1. Pag. 18. he assaulteth the third Propos They all detest the Conceit that God should aver and repute a Man to have done that which he never did And is not this true Do any sober Men deny it and charge God with Error or Untruth Will not this Man of Truth and Peace give us leave to be thus far agreed when we are so indeed But saith he Yea the Orthodox abhor the contrary if to have done it be taken in sensu forensi for in a Physical and Personal they abhor it not but deride it Doth the Aphorist abhor these and such-like sayings We are dead buried risen from the Dead with Christ Answ 1. Take notice Reader that it is but the Words and not the Matter that he here assaulteth so that all here seemeth but lis de nomine He before pag. 84. extolleth Chrysostom for thus expounding He made him sin for us that is to be condemned as an Offender and to die as a Blasphemer And this sense of Imputation we all admit But Chrysostom in that place oft telleth us That by Sin he meaneth both one counted a wicked Man by his Persecutors not by God and one that suffered that cursed Death which was due to wicked cursed Men And which of us deny not Justification by Works as Chrysostom doth I subscribe to his words It is God s Righteousness seeing it is not of Works for in them it were necessary that there be found no blot but of Grace which blotteth out and extinguisheth all sin And this begetteth us a double benefit for it suffereth us not to be lift up in mind because it is all the Gift of God and it sheweth the greatness of the benefit This is as apt an Expression of my Judgment of Works and Grace as I could chuse But it 's given to some Men to extol that in one Man which they fervently revile in others How frequently is Chrysostom by many accused as favouring Free-Will and Man's Merits and smelling of Pelagianism And he that is acquainted with Chrysostom must know That he includeth all these things in Justification 1. Remission of the Sin as to the Punishment 2. Remission of it by Mortification for so he calleth it in Rom. 3. p. mihi 63. 3. Right to Life freely given for Christ's sake 4. And Inherent Righteousness through Faith And he oft saith That this is called the Righteousness of God because as God who is living quickeneth the dead and as he that is strong giveth strength to the weak so he that is Righteous doth suddenly make them Righteous that were lapsed into sin as he there also speaketh And he oft tells us It is Faith it self and not only Christ believed in that is imputed for Righteousness or Justifieth And in Rom. 4. p. 80. he calleth the Reward the Retribution of Faith And pag. 89. he thus conjoyneth Faith and Christ's Death to the Question How Men obnoxious to so much sin are justified he sheweth that he blotted
out all sin that he might confirm what he said both from the Faith of Abraham by which he was justified and from our Saviours Death by which we are delivered from sin But this is on the by 2. But saith Dr. T. The Orthodox abhor the contrary in sensu forensi Answ How easie is it to challenge the Titles of Orthodox Wise or good Men to ones self And who is not Orthodox himself being Judg But it seems with him no Man must pass for Orthodox that is not in so gross an error of his Mind if these words and not many better that are contrary must be the discovery of it viz. That will not say that in sensu forensi God esteemeth Men to have done that which they never did The best you can make of this is that you cover the same sense which I plainlier express with this illfavoured Phrase of Man's inventing But if indeed you mean any more than I by your sensus forensis viz. that such a suffering and meriting for us may in the lax improper way of some Lawyers speaking be called Our own Doing Meriting Suffering c. I have proved that the Doctrine denied by me subverteth the Gospel of Christ Reader I remember what Grotius then Orthodox thirty years before his Death in that excellent Letter of Church-Orders Predestination Perseverance and Magistrates animadverting on Molinaeus saith How great an injury those Divines who turn the Christian Doctrine into unintelligible Notions and Controversies do to Christian Magistrates because it is the duty of Magistrates to discern and preserve necessary sound Doctrine which these Men would make them unable to discern The same I must say of their injury to all Christians because all should hold fast that which is proved True and Good which this sort of Men would disable them to discern We justly blame the Papists for locking up the Scripture and performing their Worship in an unknown Tongue And alas what abundance of well-meaning Divines do the same thing by undigested Terms and Notions and unintelligible Distinctions not adapted to the Matter but customarily used from some Persons reverenced by them that led the way It is so in their Tractates both of Theology and other Sciences and the great and useful Rule Verba Rebus aptanda sunt is laid aside or rather Men that understand not Matter are like enough to be little skilful in the expressing of it And as Mr. Pemble saith A cloudy unintelligible stile usually signifieth a cloudy unintelligent Head to that sense And as Mr. J. Humfrey tells Dr. Fullwood in his unanswerable late Plea for the Conformists against the charge of Schism pag. 29. So overly are men ordinarily wont to speak at the first sight against that which others have long thought upon that some Men think that the very jingle of a distinction not understood is warrant enough for their reproaching that Doctrine as dangerous and unsound which hath cost another perhaps twenty times as many hard studies as the Reproachers ever bestowed on that Subject To deliver thee from those Learned Obscurities read but the Scripture impartially without their Spectacles and ill-devised Notions and all the Doctrine of Justification that is necessary will be plain to thee And I will venture again to fly so far from flattering those called Learned Men who expect it as to profess that I am perswaded the common sort of honest unlearned Christians even Plowmen and Women do better understand the Doctrine of Justification than many great Disputers will suffer themselves or others to understand it by reason of their forestalling ill-made Notions these unlearned Persons commonly conceive 1. That Christ in his own Person as a Mediator did by his perfect Righteousness and Sufferings merit for us the free pardon of all our sins and the Gift of his Spirit and Life Eternal and hath promised Pardon to all that are Penitent Believers and Heaven to all that so continue and sincerely obey him to the end and that all our after-failings as well as our former sins are freely pardoned by the Sacrifice Merits and Intercession of Christ who also giveth us his Grace for the performance of his imposed Conditions and will judg us as we have or have not performed them Believe but this plain Doctrine and you have a righter understanding of Justification than many would let you quietly enjoy who tell you That Faith is not imputed for Righteousness that it justifieth you only as an Instrumental Cause and only as it is the reception of Christ's Righteousness and that no other Act of Faith is justifying and that God esteemeth us to have been perfectly Holy and Righteous and fulfilled all the Law and died for our own sins in or by Christ and that he was politically the very Person of every Believing Sinner with more such like And as to this distinction which this Doctor will make a Test of the Orthodox that is Men of of his Size and Judgment you need but this plain explication of it 1. In Law-sense a Man is truly and fitly said himself to have done that which the Law or his Contract alloweth him to do either by himself or another as to do an Office or pay a Debt by a Substitute or Vicar For so I do it by my Instrument and the Law is fulfilled and not broken by me because I was at liberty which way to do it In this sense I deny that we ever fulfilled all the Law by Christ and that so to hold subverts all Religion as a pernicious Heresie 2. But in a tropical improper sense he may be said to be esteemed of God to have done what Christ did who shall have the benefits of Pardon Grace and Glory thereby merited in the manner and measure given by the free Mediator as certainly as if he had done it himself In this improper sense we agree to the Matter but are sorry that improper words should be used as a snare against sound Doctrine and the Churches Love and Concord And yet must we not be allowed Peace § 4. But my free Speech here maketh me remember how sharply the Doctor expounded and applyed one word in the retracted Aphorisms I said not of the Men but of the wrong Opinion opposed by me It fondly supposeth a Medium betwixt one that is just and one that is no sinner one that hath his sin or guilt taken away and one that hath his unrighteousness taken away It 's true in bruits and insensibles that are not subjects capable of Justice there is c. There is a Negative Injustice which denominateth the Subject non-justum but no◠injustum where Righteousness is not due But when there is the debitum habendi its privative The Doctor learnedly translateth first the word fondly by stolide and next he fondly though not stolidè would perswade the Reader that it is said of the Men though himself translate it Doctrina And next he bloweth his Trumpet to the War with this exclamation Stolide O
define them If you have a Bishoprick because you define a Bishoprick or have a Lordship a Kingdom Health c. because you can define them your Axiome hath stood you in good stead The Definition is but Explicatio rei But Rei explicatio non est ipsa res Individuals say most are not Definable But nothing is truly Res but Individuals Vniversals as they are in the Mind are existent Individual Acts Cogitations Nâ—tions As they are out of the Mind they are nothing but Individuorum quid intelligibile The Definition of Learning of a Doctor c. may be got in a day If Learning and Doctorship may be so what useless things are Universities and Books Perswade a hungry Scholar that he hath Meat and Drink or the Ambitious that he hath Preferment or the Covetous or Poor that he hath Money because he hath in his Mind or Mouth the Definition of it and quibble him into satisfaction by telling him that Definitio definitum sunt idem re We know and express things narrowly by Names and largely and distinctly by Definitions The Definition here is Explicatio nominis as Animal rationale of the name Homo and both Name and Definition as they are Verba mentis vel oris or Verborum significatio are surely divers from the things named and defined known and expressed unless by the Thing you mean only the Knowledg or Notion of the Thing Therefore though Cui competit definitio eidem quoque competit definitum contra quod convenit definitioni convenit definito Yet say not that Imputed Righteousness in Re is the same with the Definition as it is the Definers act By this time you have helpt Men to understand by an Instance why St. Paul so much warneth Christians to take heed lest any deceive them by vain Philosophy even by Sophistry and abused arbitrary Notions Remember Sir that our Case is of grand Importance As it is stated in my Direct 42. which you assaulted it is Whether if the Question were of the Object of Predestination of the nature of the Will 's liberty Divine concourse and determining way of Grace of the Definition of Justification Faith c. a few well studied Divines are not here to be preferred before Authority and the major Vote Such are my words I assert 1. That the Defining of Justification Faith c. is a work of Art 2. And I have many and many times told the World which you seem to strike at that Christians do not differ so much in their Real conceptions of the Matter as they do in their Definitions 1. Because Definitions are made up of Ambiguous words whose Explication they are not agreed in and almost all Words are ambiguous till explained and ambiguous Words are not fit to define or be defined till explained And 2. Because both selecting fit terms and explaining them and ordering them are works of Art in which Men are unequal and there is as great variety of Intellectual Conceptions as of Faces 3. And I have often said That a Knowledg intuitive or a Simple apprehension of a thing as Sensate or an Internal experience or Reflect act and a general notion of some things may prove the truth of Grace and save Souls and make us capable of Christian Love and Communion as being true saving Knowledg 4. And consequently I have often said that many a thousand Christians have Faith Hope Desire Love Humility Obedience Justication Adoption Vnion with Christ who can define none of these Unless you will speak equivocally of Definition it self and say as good Melancthon and as Gutherleth and some other Romists that Notitia intuitiva est definitio who yet say but what I am saying when they add Vel saltem instar definitionis If all are without Faith Love Justification Adoption who cannot give a true Definition of them how few will be saved How much more then doth Learning to Mens salvation than Grace And Aristotle then is not so far below Paul or the Spirit of Christ as we justly believe The Case is so weighty and palpable that you have nothing to say but as you did about the Guilt of our nearer Parents sins to yield all the Cause and with a passionate clamour to tell Men that I mistake you or wrest your words of which I shall appeal to every sober Reader that will peruse the words of mine which you assault and yours as they are an Answer to mine In a word you go about by the abuse of a trivial Axiome of Definitions 1. To sentence most Christians to Hell and cast them into Desperation as wanting the Grace which they cannot define 2. And to destroy Christian Love and Concord and tear the Church into as many Shreds as there be diversities of Definitions used by them 3. And you would tempt us to think much hardlier of your self than we must or will do as if your Faith Justification c. were unsound because your Definitions are so I know that Vnius rei una tantum est Definitio speaking 1. Not of the Terms but the Sense 2. And supposing that Definition to be perfectly true that is the truth of Intellection and Expression consisting in their congruity to the Thing while the thing is one and the same the conception and expression which is perfectly true must be so too But 1. Our understandings are all imperfect and we know nothing perfectly but Secundum quaedam and Zanckez saith truly that Nihil scitur if we call that only Knowledg which is perfect And consequently no Mental Definition is perfect 2. And Imperfections have many degrees 3. And our Terms which make up that which you know I called a Definition in my Dir. 42. as it is in words are as aforesaid various mutable and variously understood and used § XV. Pag. 24. Again you are at it Whom do you mean by that one rare Person whose single Judgment is to be preferred in the point of Justification and to whom Answ 1. No one that knoweth not the difference between an Invididuum vagum determinatum 2. No one that is of so hard Metal as in despite of the plainest words to insinuate to the World that these words A few well-studied Judicious Divines do signifie only one and that these words One Man of extraordinary understanding and clearness is to be preferred before the Rulers and major Vote in difficult speculations do signifie one individuum determinatum in the World and that the Speaker is bound to name the Man No one that thinketh that Pemble who in his Vind. Grat. hath almost the very same words said well and that I who repeat them am as criminal as you pretend No one who either knoweth not that almost all the World even Papists agree in this Rule or that thinketh his judgment fit herein to bear them all down No one who when his abuses are brought into the open Sun-shine will rather accuse the Light than repent But pag. 25. After some