by the father of it with the name of justifying faith This definition he giveth Thes 70. pa. 279. I put this in the third place not because Mr. Baxter doth so for he hath many things between the former and this but because of its cognation if not identity with the former No doubt he saw the former argument more to shame then help his cause therefore in likelihood he brings it here again in another mode and forme if so paradventure it may relieve him Thus then runs his definition B. Faith in the largâ—st sense as it comprehendeth all the condition of the new Covenant may be thus defined It is when a sinner by the word and spirit of Christ being throughly convinced of the righteousnesse of the Law the truth of its threatning the evill of his own sin and the greatnesse of his misery hereupon and withall of the nature and offices sufficiency and excellency of Jesus Christ the satisfaction he hath made his willingnesse to save and his free offer to all that will accept him for their Lord and Saviour doth hereupon beleeve the truth of his Gospell and accept of Christ as his onely Lord and Saviour to bring them to God their chief good and to present them pardoned and just before him and to bestow upon them a more glorious inheritance and doe accordingly rest on him as their Saviour and sincerely though imperfectly obey him as their Lord forgiving others loving his people bearing what sufferings are imposed diligently using his means and ordinances and confessing and bewailing their sins against him and praying for pardon and all this sincerely and to the end Sponte Cretizantem quis neget esse Cretem Never more dubiousnesse in the most dubious Oracles of Apollo Delphicus then in this definition if indeed it be a definition because Mr. Baxter so calleth it He so speaks all that by all he might astonish some and deceive others yet if he be questioned his words bind him to nothing but that he may goe off and on at his pleasure The subtilissimus Doctor could not more warily have provided himself with evasions so sure that if all the world together should indeavour it none can catch him 1 If we demand of him whether he speak of faith quae Justificat qua Justificat which Justifyeth and as it Justifyeth he leaves us here at a losse and will noâ— tell us 2 In saying Faith as it comprehendeth all the condition c. and by all the condition understanding all the duties which the Law requireth if he be demaunded whether there be a faith which comprehendeth all these or if so whether as parts of it self or things reducible to it or if the latter why are all these or how more comprehended in faith then faith and all other of the rest in his sensu composito comprehended in any one of the rest or if in the former sense whether it be a faith of Gods making or of Mr. Baxters making made in the defining and defined in the making To no one of these our doubts that he leaves upon us by his ambiguity of speaking hath he one word to resolve us so that where to finde an answer to him he leaves us uncertain 3 If we should aske him where he saith in the beginning of of the definition It is when a sinner c. whether he means that the quando is the genus of faith or whether it be a regular definition of an act or habit to posit when it is and not what it is and if so why doth he not define it by a certain rather then by an indefinite time by Anno Mundi or Anno Domini or Imperii or Regni c. that from the Chronicle we may seek and finde it Or if by his quando we can find out the time how shall we find and know the thing Be it that we can hit the time when all that followeth is done and so upon Mr. Baxters authority conclude that then faith is yet do we not remain so uncertain as at first what it is that we may make use of it to justification he speaks nothing to certifie us that from what he saith we might take the occasion to consent with him or dissent from him 4 If we would know from him of all those things at whose being positure and acting he tels us faith is whether they include faith constitutively or else but declaratively whether faith consists of these as the whole of its parts or the genus of its species or the compound of its simples or else whether all these do but declare and evidence the truth of faith in a man If declaratively alone how then do those things which only declare faith any more then declare and evidence Justification by faith and how then holds his conclusion hence that we are justifyed before God by these because so justifyed by faith Or if constitutively as many severall parts and ingredients they make up as it were the body of faith how then doth the holy Ghost oppose faith and works even to the excluding either of other about the point of justifying as in other Scriptures so in that before mentioned Text Eph. 2. 8 9 10. Is there a conflict of flesh and spirit Jacob and Esau Christ and Eaxter in one and the same body and bowels of faith either to destroy the other as to Justification or if faith be made up of works and the holy Ghost doth so frequently in Scripture reject yea accurse works from the justification of the new Covenant how is not faith it self which is nothing else but a body and bundle of works accursed from justification also In none of these ambiguities that he hath left in his Thesis doth he speak one word to saâ—isfie us Lastly where he saith that faith is when all these duties are done sincerely to the end if we demand him whether he mean thaâ— when there is an end of doing them or of the man that doth them that then faith hath its being and not till then and so all other duties act in justifying while we live and faith after all when we are dead or whether he means that as long as these duties are done faith is but when they arâ— not done or when they cease to act faith is not but loseth its being Fuit Ilium ingens gloria Teuerorum I had once a faith and a ravishing joy in beleeving either while I was under sufferings for Christs sake but now my sufferings are ended and I am no more persecuted my faith is expired or while I waited on all the ordinances of Christ but now my sick bed or prison or banishment intercepts me from many of Christs ordinances My faith is lost which of these wayes or in what third sense he will be understood let him that can conjecture but in respect of any thing that we have under his hand in the Thesis he is yet free to choose his meaning so that in all that he
works and in opposition to works That this is Pauls doctrine and Pauls justifying Faith I suppose hath beene enough evinced before and shall God assisting bee more fully eleared in its due place when I come to examine the reasons which Mr. Baxter bringeth to proove his doctrine not to bee opposite to Pauls but the same with it Therefore in calling this Faith a soule couzening Faith hee proclaimes Paul yea Christ himselfe which revealed to Paul his Gospel a cheater and couzener learning this calumniation from that Jewish and Pharisaicall generation from which he hath derived his Doctrine Joh. 7. 12. But the testimony of the Holy Ghost runnes contrary to Mr. Baxters pronouncing them that joyne Works with Faith as necessary concâ—uses with it to Justification to bee the couzeners troublers and subverters of mens soules Col. 2. 4. Gal. 5. 12. Act. 15. 1. 24. But to vindicate the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches and therein also the doctrine of the Gospel both being one and one 〈◊〉 from having any thing in it that may give footing to this 〈◊〉 that we teach a soule-couzening Faith and to manifest that Mr. Baxter doth knowingly asperse the Doctrine of Faith and them that held it with this slander I shall collect into a few heads the doctrine which our Churches teach yea which Mr. Baxter knoweth they teach as to this Question First then they affirme That God hath layd up in one Christ alone all supplies for poore sinners to relieve them against all their spiritual wants of which supplies these 2 are principal ones righteousnesse to justification and the Spirit to Sanctification The one delivereth from guilt and condemnation the other from the domination of sin and impotency to acceptable obedience The former stateth the sinner Rectum in Curia righteous before God again having his sin pardoned and no more imputed the latter spirituallizeth quickneth and new formeth him again to the will and image of God in holinesse and righteousnesse 2 That whosoever receiveth one receiveth both these supplies from Christ none puts him on to justification but puts him on to sanctification also and so becomes a new creature as well in reality as in relation becomes inherently as well as imputatively righteous by him 3 That it is one and the same Faith which is instrumentall both to justification and sanctification though not by one and the same but by severall and different Acts. As my hand even the same hand is instrumentall both to feed and cloth me though not by the same but by different Acts. It is the will of my benefactor to hold my selfe to Mr. Baxters simily having ransommed me from Turkish thraldome and appointed me to honourable service in his house to leave open to me both his wardrop and his store house or promptuary of provisions with a command that I should pertake freely and richly of both that by the one I might be fitly habited and adorned by the other nourished and strengthened for honorable service to be done to him In both these my hand is instrumentall to serve and furnish me yet by severall Acts. It neither fetcheth meat from his wardrop nor clothing from his Pantry and Cellar but by several Acts from both and either what in both and either is laid up for me yet so as all is my Lords goods and by my pertaking thereof I am put into a capacity of dooing him faithfull and acceptable service I need not make the application every one can do it for himselfe The eternall King having layd downe the life of his owne son for the ransom of my soule hath opened to me all his treasuries in one the same Christ the treasury of his blood merits to purge me from the guilt of sin and obligation to judgement and vengeance so that having put on Christ crucified my Law is done my sin forgiven my nakednesse and filthinesse covered and I stand in Christ as perfectly righteous as if I had never offended the treasury of his spirit and spirituall gifts sufficient to turn my water into wine to renew my hart and to sannctifie me throughout that henceforth I shall hate sinn no lesse than hell and delight in the Law of God after the inner man taking no lesse pleasure in the holinesse than in the happinesse which are by Christ The eternall Father offers both together and neither without the other And the same spirit which drawes to one drawes to both The same Faith which apprehends one apprehends both is not a justifying except it be also a sanctifying Faith Yet by severall Acts and from severall treasuries in the same Christ the same Faith fetcheth justification from his satisfaction and new inherent righteousnesse from the spirit of sanctification 4 That as justification ought and doth declare it selfe to the person justified by its proper and immediate fruits peace of conscience joy in the Holy Ghost prizing Christ above all things soul contentation in him living and dwelling upon him selling all to enjoy him alone to righteousnesse and salvation counting all things dung and losse in comparison of him emptying our selves more and more of our owne righteousnesse of our owne-selfe confidence that hee may be made out all at Gods Tribunall repairing no more to Abanaâ— Pharfar no nor to Jordan it selfe but to the one fountaine of Christs blood there to Wash dayly and be cleane neither in this mountain nor yet at Hierusalem but in Christ alone to worship that we may be accepted So also sanctification doth and ought to shew it selfe to us and others by its fruits to our selves by the seeds and habits of love righteousnesse holinesse c. affecting the heart within To others by the fruits and workes of the spirit manifested in the practise without viz. all the Acts of love mercy goodnesse sanctity piety charity equity patience meeknesse c. as also in subduing the flesh by the spirit mortifying every evill affection fighting against every sinn that we may shew our selves a peculiar people of the Lord zealous of every good worke 5 That justification and sanctification by Faith in Christ do evidence either the other He that can finde himselfe truely justified may know himselfe to be no lesse truly sanctified by Christ because he that is in union with Christ so as to be pertaker of his justifying and saving righteousnesse by being so joyned to Christ is become one spirit with him saith the Apostle The spirit of sanctification discendeth and giveth influence from the head to the whole body and every member thereof So on the other side he that by being one spirit is sanctified by the same spirit of Christ may by this evidence know himselfe that Christ by the same spirit is made righteousnesse to him and is in the same relation to God with Christ being justified adopted c. a son and heir with him to all the inheritance Sanctification I say truly understood is such an evidence for none are sanctified but the justified and
was not executed on him This is a clear but an intolerable consequence 6 Scripture plainly teacheth that all men even the Elect are under the Law till they believe and enter into the Covenant of the Gospel Therefore it is said Jo. 3. 18. He that beleeveth not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him ver 36. And we are said to believe for remission of sins Acts 2. 38. Mark 1. 4. Luke 24. 47. Acts 10. 43. 3. 19. which shew that sin is not before remitted and consequently the Law not repealed but suspended and left to the dispose of the redeemer Els how could the redeemed be the children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. The circumcised are debtors to the whole Law Gal. 5. 3 4. And Christ is become of no effect to them but they that are led by the Spirit are not under the Law and against such there is no Law Gal. 5. 18 23. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin and so far under the Law no doubt that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that beleeve Gal. 3. 22. We are under the Law when Christ doth redeem us Gal. 4. 5. See also Ja. 2. 9 10. 1 Tim. 18. 1 Cor. 15. 56. Gal. 3. 19 20 21. Therefore our deliverance is conditionally from the curse of the Law viz. if we we will obey the Gospel And this deliverance together with the abrogation of the Ceremoniall Law is it which is so oft mentioned as a privilege of believers and an effect of the blood of Christ Which deliverance from the curse is yet more full when we perform the conditions of our freedom And then we are said to be dead to the Law Rom. 7. 4. and the obligation to punishment dead as to us ver 6. but not the Law void or dead of it self 7 Lastly all the Scriptures and Arguments p. 60 61. which prove that afflictions are punishments do prove also that the Law is not repealed For no man can suffer for breaking a repealed Law nor by the threats of a repealed Law yet I know that this Covenant of works continueth not to the same ends and uses as before nor is it so to be preached or used We must neither take that Covenant as a way to life as if now we must get our salvation by fulfilling its conditions nor must we look on its Curse as lying on us remediless Alas for the conscience of this man I know saith he that this Covenant of works continueth not c. yet against knowledg and against conscience will he not only teach the contrary but with all Jesuiticall arts labour to screw it into the judgments of men that are more Logicall then Theologicall How hath he suspended our expectation with promises that in and under the 13 Thesis he would bring his Reasonâ— to prove 1 That the Law as a Covenant of works is not become null and void to believers p. 79. that they are not discharged in this life from the curse of the Law p. 82. But that 2 They are under the Law as a Covenant of works still after that they are in Christ and partakers of of his Redemption Why had he not by and by proved it but that he might Bellarmine-like first busie his Reader with Sophisticall distinctions and disputes untill he had forgotten the state of the Question and then prove what he would not what he should to his forgetfull Reader For so there is not the least gry or jota in all his Arguments here that doth so much as glance upon the things that he was to prove but a labouring to confirm things which no one of those whom he makes his adversaries doth or did ever Question much less deny So that all these his Arguments are meer impostures not as he tearms them Reasons to confirm the Doctrines which he pretends to prove For first his five first Arguments or rather those three in his Thesis which in the Explication he sub-divides into five and the seventh also in the Explication tends only to prove that God hath not did not revoke repeal and extinguish the Law that it should have no more a being or remain a Law to the sons of men assoon as Adam had sinned and a promise of redemption by Christ was made Gen. 3. 15. who ever taught or thought so or what is this to prove that the Saints after they have suffered and satisfied in and by Christ the whole penalty of the Law for all their transgressions of the Law are not delivered from it as a Covenant of works Secondly the other Argument which he puts in the sixth place goes about to prove that unbelievers are under the Law And this is as potent a reason to prove believers to be under the Law as if I should thus argue Mr. Baxter is a Jesuite because Bellarmine and Maldonat were Jesuiteâ— oâ— that Mr Baxter is not the Teacher of the Church at Kederminster because Robin Hood and little John are not Teachers there This might suffice as a full Answer to his seven Arguments and to manifest his sin and shame in using them But I shall add something by way of Explication to make that which I have said plain to the weakest Not imitating Mr. Baxter who under a pretence of Explication doth in most places totally darken what was before cleer and plain First then I grant to Mr. Baxter that if Christ had from the beginning of sins entrance into the world repealed and in the proper and full sense of the word abrogated the Law those five consequences which he mentioneth in his 5 first Arguments would follow 1 That no sin but that of Adam and finall unbelief is so much as threatened with death the one being forbidden by the Law while it was in force the other by the Gospel that is still unquestionably in force Nay not any thing else in reference to the old Covenant but that of Adam should be a sin because sin is the transgression of the Law and where there is no Law there can be no transgression 2 That Christ by his satisfaction for us prevented not the wrath deserved viz. otherwise then by Adams sin but the desert of wrath 3 Neither doth he properly pardon any such sin for where no Law is there is no sin where no sin there is nothing to be pardoned 4 And then might we plead innocency or our non deserving of death except before excepted for our discharge at judgement 5 And Christ in suffering did not bear the punishment of any other sins of mankinde besides the fore-mentioned Thus we grant Mr. B. five of his Arguments without any detriment to our Caus or advantage to his Believers are as fully freed from the Law as if he had slept while he thus disputed For all these his Arguments lean upon a false supposition If the Law be so repealed and abrogated as is before supposed then and not els will these cursed Consequences take place But
cur righteousnes to Justification that it is not varied secundum Magis Minùs Indeed Schibler there concludes out of Aristotle that Relations which have their foundation in substance or quantity non recipiunt Magis Minùs have no remission or intension but an equality fullnes or perfection in their relation if I may speak a little unproperly to please Mr. Br. But that Righteousnes hath its foundation in substance he seems to deny or that it hath its foundation in quantity he saith but doth not prove We say it hath its foundation in quality such relations Schibler there acknowledgeth to admit Magis Minùs Again Schibler addeth in the second place that Relata ex parte sui hoc est secundum esse relationis ipsius non recipiunt magis minùs But this hinders not why in some yea sundry other respects they should not admit it And thus Schibler doth him no good Yet if Schibler were for him I should except that the Holy Ghost is not specially in Gospel matters a Peripatetick was never a disciple of Aristotle his wisdome is a Metaphysicks more transcendent above Aristotles Metaphysicks than Aristotles Metaphysicks are above his Physicks Therefore the Holy Ghost takes the liberty in Scriptures to affirm a Magis Minùs in Righteousnes to pronounce one more and another less righteous in reference to the Rule as hath been before shewed Br. Therefore our Divines usually say that our Justification is perfect though our sanctification be not and then I am sure our Righteousnes must be perfect A meer flam vanity of words Our Divines saith he doth he own them are they not such as he would rather tollere than extollere Our Divines and yet not Popish Divines our Divines usually say that our Justification is perfect But will Mr. Br say so Nay he saith point-blank in opposition to it Yet even hence would he force in his Conclusion then I am sure our Righteousnes must be perfect A meer sophism and fallacy we grant that the righteousnes by which we are perfectly justified must needs be a perfect righteousnes But we deny that righteousnes to be any otherwise ours than by imputation viz. Christs satisfaction As for the Righteousnes of our sanctification which Mr. Br makes the condition of our justifying we utterly deny either to be perfect in this life or to have any finger in the busines of Justification When he finds all his other shifts too weak to hide the nakednes of his Conclusion at length he flyeth to his sophisticall distinctions according to his usuall manner to obscure darken what he cannot confirm clear up in the light to be of God B A twofold perfection is here implyed saith he 1 a Metaphysicall perfection of Being 2 A perfection of sufficiency in order to its end These two he jumbles tumbles together somtimes into a Confusion then out of the Chaos that he hath made goes about to separate them again into some distinct order so far that if there be any that can see things which are not as if they were may discern either from other so perfectly at a distance that he shal never attain the one or the other as a perfection of Righteousnes to his justification The former he makes to be the Materiall entity of a non ens as he had before defined Righteousnes the Materiall Being of that which is not a being And this saith he is the sincerity of our faith i. e. of our Sanctification for so he meaneth this is the first perfection of our own righteousnes to justification Let us suppose now that there is such a Metaphysicall perfection in the sincerity of our righteousnes and the matter thereof what doth this make to his purpose that there is a perfection in our personall righteousnes to justifie us I shall demand these questions of him 1 Whether a Metaphysicall perfection of Being in the matter of our Righteousnes be the perfection of righteousnes which is required to justification Is there not a Metaphysicall being yea perfection of being in the matter of all the Acts of righteousnes which the very heathen and reprobates perform 2 Whether Sincerity be perfection of righteousnes any further than it is more or less sincere perfect sincerity being a perfect perfection unperfect sincerity an unperfect perfection perfect it may be in its Metaphysicall being that is unperfect in its degrees But must there not be also a morall perfection in a righteousness personall that shall be perfect to justifie 3 Whether there be not sin imperfection in the best sincerity of the Saints during this life a mixture of unbeleef with their faith of flesh with Spirit of doublenes with their simplicity 4 Whether this mixture be not evill and a sin in reference to the New as well as to the Old Covenant Why els doth the Lord Christ so oft reprove and upbraid his disciples with the feeblenes of their Faith O ye of little Faith c. because of your unbeleef Where is your Faith and such like 5 Grant unto a man the greatest sincerity of Faith holines attainable by the most spirituallized Christians in this life hath God ordeined it to be a perfect righteousnes or is it a perfect righteousnes either in it self or to Justification if so why doth the Apostle when he could profess not onely his personall obedience as a Christian but also his righteousnes and integrity as a Minister to be so far in sincerity and as in the fight of God in Christ that he knew nothing by himself wherin he could accuse himself as failing in sincerity nevertheles add Yet am I not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord 2 Cor. 1. 12. 2. 17. 1 Cor. 4. 4 This Mr. Br seeth and that his reader may not see the weaknes of his Metaphysicall materiall Righteousness he therefore Confounds it with the Formality of it Els should he give every reader to retort upon him his own words pag. 121. that he pronounceth that a perfect Righteousnes which is unrighteous hatefull and accursed being a righteousnes which in its matter is injoyned by the old Covenant hath for its rule in the matter thereof the Law of the old Covenant still No less vain also is that which he discourseth of the Formality of this personal righteousnes that it is a perfect righteousnes in respect of its perfect sufficiency in order to its end which is to be a condition of our Justification c. This end saith he it shall attain The tenor of the New Covenant is not Beleeve in the highest degree and you shall be justified but beleeve sincerely and you shall be justified So that our righteousness 1. formally considered in relation to the conditions of the New Covenant is either perfect or none To this I answer that God hath ordeined no righteousnes of ours as our Righteousnes to be a Condition of the New Covenant 2. If he had so done
of Christ is opened and the power of his Spirit offered and we commanded to receive our fill and in the strength of what we receive to mount higher and higher untill we come to full perfection The reason that Master Baxter bringeth why he cannot bee yet convinced that Christ commands perfect obedience to the Moral Law were from another reasonless but from Master Baxter it is but a discovery of himselfe to be himselfe i. e. an admirer I had almost said adorer of his own wisdome Because saith he I know not to what end Christ should command us that obedience which he never doth enable any man in this life to performe What more lofty arrogance he must be admitted into Christs privie Councell and have communicated to him what ends Christ hath in giving his commands else will he cast be hinde him his precepts as void and vain He should have left to Socinus and his followers thus to have argued who make humane reason the rule and bound of their Religion Had he said he is not yet convinced because he yet meets not with any punctual testimony of Scripture that expressly affirms it this would have at the worst but implyed some inadvertency in his reading the Scriptures But not to deny that the Scripture saith it and yet not to be convinced because he seeth not to what ends Christ should doe what the Scripture saith he hath done this is no lesse than the advancing the authority of his reason above the authority of Gods Word and an attributing of power to his own blindnesse of silencing and frustrating the authority and truth of the Scriptures But who is more blinde than he that will not see Or what hinders Master Baxter from seeing what ends Christ had in commanding that perfection which we cannot attain in this life fully to performe Is it not because he terminateth and boundeth Christs ends in all that he did suffered or commanded to man as both the circumference and center of all and had no aim to his own glory and the glory of his father that sent him therein How many honourable ends of Christ in this case may there bee gathered from the Scriptures 1. That God might be herein glorified Herein is my father gloryfied that ye bear much fruit Jo. 15. 8. The more fruit wee bear and the more perfect the more is God glorified in us Therefore is the perfection of our fruit-bearing commanded that God may be still more and more glorified by our greater greater fruitfulnesse every one being forced to magnify the wonderfull operation of Gods grace in Christ that hath enabled that which was erewhile a dead stock to bring forth against nature so much and so good fruit Even as an â—xpert penman or Master in writing to get honour by the proficiency of his Schollers doth not bring down and lessen the perfection of his letters which he writes for their coppy to their feeblenesse and unablenesse in writing so should they continue unskilfull and unable still but sets before them a perfect coppy commanding and teaching them to follow it and by degrees even to match it and by this means the more perfectly they write the more honour comes to the Master 2. To hold us in a constant intercourse and communion with himselfe by faith Were we perfect or had we attained all that is required of us we should be wholly apt to settle our selves upon our own bottoms and worke either not at all or else in our strength But when we see our selves deficient in what we ought to be and nothing in our selves or any where else out of Christ to supply us that without or out of him we can doe nothing this keeps us in a diligent and constant union with him to abide in him as the branches in the vine to suck from him sap and life more abundantly for the producing of more abundant growth and fruitfulnesse in us and thus the communion beeween Christ and â—s is more and more peâ—fected and he more and more honoured when we fetch all our vertue and strength from him 3. To keep us in continual selfe-denyal and to dash to nothing Master Baxters idol of Justification by our own inherent righteousnesse which when we finde to come still short of the peâ—fection injoyned and sinfull in its defectivenesse we shall be forced to with-hold our confidence from it and with the Apostle to shake it off in reference to Justification as dung and losse that we may win Christ and be found in him c. So making Christ our All and our selves nothing to our own happinesse Phi. 3. 8. 9. 4. To awaken us out of our carnal slumberings and contentation in our poor beginings and slight pittances of knowledge and righteousnesse already attained and to stirre us on with a holy agility towards perfection in our motions It was this that wrought thus with the Apostle Paul Knowing perfection to be commanded and seeing himselfe yet in a station so short of it it makes him to cry out I have not yet attained I am not yet perfect therefore forgetting those things that are behind that are already done and attained and reaching forth to the things that are before not yet attained I presse toward the marke of perfection Phil. 3. 12 13 14. For these and many other ends that might bee added doth Christ command perfection though not fully attainable in this life Master Baxter expresses himselfe to be able to finde but one and that but a seeming end or reason in this case and that hee blowes off as insufficient If it were saith he to convince us of our disability and sinne that is the worke of the Law and the continuing of it upon the old termes as is before explained is sufficient to that Sundry failings are there in this passage of his making it insufficient to the end for which he useth it 1. That it makes the Law because it convinceth of sinne to be the onely means ordained of God to convince us of sinne When contrariwise the Lord Christ tells us that the Spirit of Grace shall under the Gospel also convince men of sinne Joh. 16. 8. and that with a more effectual conviction than ever the Law as the Law could work It shall so convince men of sinne that it shall convince them of righteousnesse also of damning sinne in themselves and of saving righteousnesse laid up for them in Christ This the Law could not do Therefore is as a Covenant of workes for so Master Baxter here takes the Law neither the onely nor the chiefe means ordained of God to convince of sinne 2. That it makes the Law upon it old terms to be ordained of God in a special and proper manner to convince of sinne This indeed was the office of the Law as given to Israel upon mount Sinai upon other and new termes But upon its old and first terms as it was given to Adam this could not be the next and proper end of
be brought to leave the way that nature hath taught to find and enter into this way which the Father revealeth What then say yee is the broad way and wide gate by which men seek to enter into life I answer M. Brs. way the way of our own righteousness and strict carriage It is broad and wide because all learn it from nature corrupted which telâ—s us it was the way if we had kept it but cannot tell us that it is now blocked up to sinners so that many so many as seek for life by their own righteousness and works doe by this supposed way of life passe to destruction Not but that the way of vice is a broad way also buâ— our Saviouâ— speaks not heer of it but of the broad way by which men seek life but find destruction To this effect is that of our Saviour â—he Publicans and harlots enter into the kingdome of heaven before the strict living Pharisees Ma 21. 31 By what way did these vitious livers enter but by Christ into the Kingdom else if strictness of life had been the way to it the Pharisees had entred before them This is the interpretation of this Gospel text after the tenour of the Gospel and so Mr. Br. suo se jugulavit gladio hath brought a sword to cut the throat of his own cause B. Ma. 7. 21. Not every one that faith Lord Lord shall enter c. but he that doth the will of my Father c. This is the will and work of the Fathers willing and commanding as to life that we beleeve on him whâ—m he hath sent Jo. 6. 29. B. Ma 7. 22. 23. Many shall say in that day Lord we have prophesiâ—d c. to whom it shall be answered I know you not depart from me ye workers of iniquities Hypocrites that come with their mouths full of Works and merits to plead for Heaven shall all be shaken off and the ground of their exclusion is this I know you not ye were not built upon mee had no union with mee no setled dwelling and recumbency upon me therfore he shakes off both them and their works as workers and works of iniquity B. Ro. 8. 4. That the righteousnes of the Law might bee fulfilled in us which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The righteousness of the Law is perfect And they walk not after the flesh but after the spirit which as the same Apostle saith worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh i. e. as in the following verses he expoundeth in legall priviledges or works of their own Righteousnes Phi. 3. 3. In these the righteousnes of the Law is fulfilled They have a perfect righteousnes even Christ made Righteousnes to them which the Law weak through the flesh could not produce in them B. Ro. 8. 13. If yee live after the flesh yee shall die but if yee through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body yee shall live Who they are chiefly that in reference to life and death doe live after the flesh and after the spirit the same Apostle teacheth not only in the forequoted Text Phi. 3. 3. but also Gal. 3 3. Are yee so foolish having begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh In which words I challenge Mr. Baxter yea the whole pâ—ck of Jesuits if they dare to deny that by beginning in the spirit the Apostle means their trusting wholly on Christ for justification and salvation and by being made perfect by the flesh their seeking to perfect it by works viz Circumcision and with it the morall duties which the Law commandeth If in this place â—e will take the flesh and spirit in a larger sense yet compare we this 13 with the 1. vers of the Chapter and it will appear heer is nothing for his turn Ver. 1. he saith There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus But who are they Such as walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Let now Mr. Baxter put what sense he will upon flesh and spirit in the 13. verse it must bear the same sense as in the 1. verse And then if any demand why they that live after the flesh must die the answer is in readiness Because they are not in Christ Iesus or why they that mortifie c by the spirit shall live Every one can answer because they are in Christ Iesus So that in these there is no condemnation to the other nothing but condemnation Because he that hath the son hath life he that hath not the son hath not life 1 Jo. 5. 2. Heer according to promise I annex what I left unanswered cap. 16. of the third bunch of Scriptures quoted by Mr. Baxter p 236. referring them to this place to be examined as speaking more soundingly to glorification than to iustification by works I shall begin as I there left at B. pa. 236. lin 21. Mat. 10. 37. Hee that loveth Father or Mother more then me is unworthy of mee so of Sonne or Daughter When he meaneth the same with Bellarmine as he hath enough manifested under his 26. Thesis let him speak out the same with Bellarmine viz. That none shall receive salvation by Christ but those that by works merit it and make themselves worthy of it Let him so express himselfe and hee shall not want an expresse answer At present while he will lurk in the dark we will leave him in the dark B. Lu. 13. 24. hath been before examined Phi. 2. 12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Whether we look to that which precedes or that which followeth this Text we shall find its testimony to be to Mr. Baxters cause what a Colledge Brush alias called a hatchet to a Freshmans Gown cutting it in peeces because it will not be cleansed If to that which goeth before we are bidden v. 5-11 to follow the example of Christ as far as he was in a capacity to give him selfe a patterne to us in this kind in selfe deniall who being in the form of God and equall with God took to himselfe the forme of a servant made himselfe of no reputation abased himselfe to the death to the Cross to the Curs and so became exalted on high above all names c. So must wee deny and abase our selves in our relation as Christ did himselfe in his lay all the false glitter and glory of our works and righteousness in the dust as he did his true glory watching with a holy feare and trembling over our backsliding heart that is apt assoon as any shew of righteousness and goodness appears in our selves and works to depart from Christ and to rest in it as our sanctuary in this case is it that the Apostle requires this continuall working and heaving out selfe from our selves that Christ may be our All. And that with much fear and trembling watchfulness over our deceitfull hearts that are
Baxter if he think it safe with sophisticall subtleties to dispute himself into heaven Neverthelesse the position stands firm even in the fall of the credit of the assertor That such humane learning is of no force to decide judg and conclude any thing in questions meerly Evangelicall such as is Justification and all other Gospel-graces and priviledges This may be with much facility evidenced to as many as have not their eyes blinded by the God of this world as yet and that by these following reasons 1. All the Doctrines of the Gospel are transcendent high and above the reach of the most sublimated reason Eye hath not seen nor eare heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to know them 1 Cor. 2. 9. The natural man receiveth not cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned ibid. Vers 14. They are mysteries hid in God from the beginning of the world from ages and generations but at last made known by the Spirit in the preaching of the Gospel not only to the Saints on earth but also to the Principalities and powers in heavenly places i. e. to the Ministring Angels and Spirits before God in heaven Ephes 13. 9 10. Col. 3. 26 27. So that at the revelation thereof by Christ and his Apostles the very Angels desired to looke into them as learners of that sacred Doctrine which before they had not attained 1 Pet. 1. 12. But all this humane learning whereof we speak is naturall flowing originally from naturall and heathen men who in their either most profound or most sublime speculations could not see a span above Nature no nor to the top of Nature by many fathoms Therefore is there a totall invalidity in it to discern one ray of Evangelical and spiritual things To produce any thing therefore out of this humane literature to discern and judg of Gospel-doctrines is no lesse folly than to make a blind man judg of colours or a deaf man of sounds or to set a dead man to running of a race Yea to hold forth any thing hence to cleer up and evidence spiritual things is but to hold a candle nay a dark Lanthorn to the Sun for the cleering of its beams that we may see it If any object that Spiritual and Evangelical Doctrines are by none brought as Spiritual and Evangelical under the Tryall of this humane learning but as they fall under some Topicks of this or that Art or Science as Eâ—s Substantia Accidens Actio Relatio c. and so farr only they are disputed of by and according to the Maximes and Canons of those places I answer that even this is to subject supernatural Doctrines to the judgment and censure of Natural Reason It will not be denyed that the first Founders of these Arts and the precepts thereof were meerely Naturall and Morall men and neither did nor could accommodate their precepts and rules to any other but natural and Moral things were so farr unable to reach them to things supenatural that they left them in many things unperfect as to things natural so that after all the amendments of all their followers not a few of their Canons remain disputable and controverted as to Natural and Moral things still Therefore to prostrate spiritual things to the judgment of this Natural learning is to subject the Authority of Christ to the Authority of men the wisdome of the Spirit to the wisdome of the Flesh and that which is infallible to that which is both fallible and fallacious Nay all the doctrines and precepts of Philosophers are to be tryed by the word but in no wise are the dictates of the Spirit and doctrines of the word of grace to be tryed by the precepts of Men. I forbeare to speak here that otherwise not Christ but Aristotle must in matters of salvation be made our Ipse Dixit or that none but Schollars can have any stable setlednesse of faith the unlearned in humane literature remaining uncapable thereof because they cannot prove the truth of what they believe as well by the rules of Art as by the Testimony of the word of Christ I only say when Christ by his word hath said and determined here not to subject and rest satisfied but to consult with flesh and blood with the rules of humane Art for my fuller resolution is no lesse indignity to Christ than to set mans wisedom in the Chair and to prostrate Christ to be his Footstool 2. If it have any power and efficacy to this end it must be either from some naturall and intrinsicall vertue of its own or else by Gods ordination and infusion Not by any naturall vertue of its own as appeareth by what was last said and by this that none ever by such secular learning attained one least spark of Gospel-knowledg nor yet by Gods ordination and inspiring strength into it to operate for such an end For let it be declared in what Scripture God instituted or owned it as an in-strument usefull and effectualized for such a work And if neither of these ways it be powerful or in a capacity either to declare or confirm Gospel-matters then hath it no power at all to such a purpose If any thing be excepted against in this Argument it must be the latter disjunctive particle thereof in the Assumption which denieth the humane learning before mentioned to be ordained of God or qualified by him as instrumental and effectual to determine any thing in Evangelical and Spiritual Doctrines But this may be cleered and confirmed by the Reasons following 1. Because neither the Lord Christ nor any of his Apostles or Prophets have made use of it to this end Not his Prophets under the Old Testament For when they spâ—ke any thing of the Mystery of Christ and his Gospel that were afterward more fully to be revealed they did it by inspiration from God 2 Tim. 3. 16. and the revelation of the spirit of Christ which was in them 1 Pet. 1. 11. not as having dipped the same from the broken Cisterns of humane inventions and learning And when they will add a confirmation to such Doctrines the only authority which they produce is divine Thus saith the Lord The Lord of Hosts hath said it the holy the lofty the mighty one of Isroel hath spoken it without any Philosophical or Metaphysical Arguments to prove it No lesse is to be said of Christ himself our own and only Mr. when he descended from Heaven to reveal his Gospel in its fulness and glory affirming his doctrine to be onely and wholly that which his Father taught him Joh. 8. 28. which he had seene with his father Joh. 8. 38. as he had commandement from his father Joh. 10. 18. even as the father said unto him Joh. 12. 50. as he heard from his father Joh. 15. 15. Lo all from heaven from the Father nothing from earth from men in revealing the Gospel No nor to the confirmation of it being
them worse than himself Matt. 23. 15. And what should that be but that God takes satisfaction to his justice by his judgments upon them here that they may not have or may have the less to satisfie for in hell or in Purgatory In this therefore as in the two former points I take him expressing himself an adopted sonne of the ghostly Fathers of Trent 4. The Papists hold that there is a Purgatory which they describe to be a prison as hot and full of the same materiall fire and flames as hell it self into which the souls of Christians after this life are cast to satisfie Gods justice for all their veniall sins that they have not made satisfaction for in this life by suffering or doing and being once cast into this prison they cannot come forth out of the torment untill they have paid the utmost farthing of their debt i. e. untill they have suffered so much as may counterpoise to a very grain the sinns whereof they dye unpardoned This they prove by many undeniable Arguments specially by the testimony of many good souls that have obteined a dispensation to come thence with their bosoms so full of fire as of flesh and bones to tell them so Doth Mr. Baxter joyn with them in this opinion also Soft and fair There is skill in daubing first he will try how this Tractate will take if according to his minde probably we shall have a second part and therein he may tell us plainly his judgment in this and many other of his mysteries that here he leaves obscure and ambiguous In the interim it pleaseth him not to deliver his minde herein in words at length but in dark and uncertain figures Yet joyn we together what he saith here and there in parcells and somwhat may be made or at least conjectured of it First then he telleth us that some part of the Curse must be executed upon beleevers i. e. upon the whole man the soul as well as the body Thes 9. 2 That untill the day of Resurrection and of Judgement all the effects of sin and law and wrath will not be removed from them pag. 74. Pag. 71 Arg. 8. Therefore thirdly what he will not doth not at least say of any of their former sufferings he saith of death That there is no unpardoned sin in it which shall procure further judgment and so no hatred in it though there be anger A glorious privilege no doubt such as according to our usuall proverb a man may find at Billingsgate for a box on the ear from the worst of men that he meets with When a man hath in revengefull fury persecuted his hated nighbour with all the strokes and stormes of wrath and mischief and after many years persecution hath at last slaughtered him and trampled his dead Corps into the mire and dust now at last he ceaseth from hatred is but angry with his poor reliques forgives him all the rest when he can do no more to him and forgivenes can do him no good Such tender mercies of Cruelty as the wise man terms them Pro. 12. 10. doth Mr. Baxter here ascribe unto God in his gracious dealings with beleevers for Christs sake viz. to persecute them with all the strokes of his wrath and all the Curses of the law all their life time sparing neither their body nor soul and at last with great indignation to destroy them and trample their bodies into the earth dust and rottennes yea and their souls whither he list and under what torment he list and after this so remarkeable is his love he will hate them no more but be angry with them still When they are dead and can offend no more and God hath inflicted upon them all his judgments that he can inflict no more now their sins shall be so pardoned that they shall suffer no more no more than all which they already suffer Who denies this to be the very quintessence of mercy and spirits of love when Mr. Baxter hath so defined it and held it forth to us as the most Celestiall comfort that we shall finde in death There is saith he no unpardoned sin in the death of beleevers that shall procure further judgement Where note 1 that he saith not simply and absolutely that there is no unpardoned sin upon the Saints now dead and buryed but no sin so unpardoned that it should bring further judgement than that which is already upon them And 2 That when he denyeth that their sin shall bring any further judgement upon them he doth not deny but rather imply their sins to be yet still unpardoned as to the holding those judgements upon them that are already inflicted A comfort that the Devills and reprobates in hell shall not want after the very day of judgment in the midst of their flames That there is none of their sinns so unpardoned as that it should bring any further judgment upon them But put we all together 1 That the beleever must bear the Curse even the whole man in body and soule also 2 That he shall not be delivered from this curse in soul and body untill the resurrection 3 That although death puts him into a freedom from further judgments yet it doth not at all deliver him from those that at death are inflicted upon soul and body How shall we now make up the matter If the whole man both soul and body must suffer and not be wholly freed untill the resurrection this is not fulfilled in the suffering of the body alone If the soul also untill then must suffer then is it not forthwith upon its seperation from the body exalted to Heaven for there is no suffering no affliction Neither doth it suffer in hell for Mr. Baxter exempteth thence all that persevere in the Faith according to his definition of faith untill death Where and whence then shall it suffer but in and from the fire of Purgatory And so there is no unpardoned sin upon beleevers after death that can procure to them any further judgment beyond this If Mr. Baxter meaneth not so it is his fault to write with so much ambiguity and so little plainnes and perspicuity as to toll us on to a strong Conjecture that he meaneth so and is in this as in the rest apostatized to the Papists 5 I might add also here that he seemes to joyn with the Papists in holding beleevers in an uncertainty of their salvation all their life long It is considerable that neither in his Aphorism nor in the whole explication therof nor in all his arguments by which he goeth about to prove beleevers under the Curse doth he once name any pardon of sin or freedom from further judgment which they attain untill after death and then when they have persevered to the end and dyed in Christ now he mentions and affirms it What doth Arg. 8 p. 71. this argue but that he would with the Papists have men to hope well but to be still
the Article of Justification they wholly dissent from him It hath filled my spirit with sadness to hear not onely in the Pulpits of the Country but of the City of London pronounced by the Mouths of some in great esteem both for piety and Learning That to say God doth not punish his Saints for their sinns is flat Antinomism and affirmed that the afflictions of beleevers are punishments for their sin I beseech these men to Consider whom they here explode as Antinomians whether besides the Apostles and Fathers of the Primitive Church they do not brand all the reformed Churches and their Champions against the Papists with this ignominy Whether there be any one Article of Christian Religion that hath been more stoutly defended by these against the Papists than this which heat of zeal without knowledg or Consideration at least hath of late Called Antinomian Let them produce any besides the Socinian and Arminian Sophisters that have stumbled at this doctrine as offensive I beseech these men to read one Chamier at least Panstr Tom. 3. lib. 23. the six first Chapters where this question is not onely handled at large but also the Arguments of the Protestants who are also named Cap. 1. particularized and all the objections of the Papists against those Arguments Confuted and the Papists Arguments to prove the Contrary assertion answered The question being thus stated Vtrùm puniantur fidelium scelera utrùm dura quae ijs immittit Deus sint peccatorum paenae So much by way of answer to Mr. Baxters resolving of his third question There remain yet three questions more viz. Bax. 4. Whether it be not a wrong to the Redeemer that the people whom he hath ransomed be not immediately delivered from the Curse 5. Whether it be any wrong to the redeemed themselves 6. How long will it be till all the Curse be taken off beleevers and Redemption have attained its full effect The two former of these questions are sawcy arrogant and proud In their proposall Mr. Baxter acts the part of Satan in questioning and accusing Gods Justice In his answer to them he takes upon himself to act the part of an Angel to be an Apologist to plead for the defence of Gods justice 2 Gods justice is not cannot be injurious to any so that God needs not an Apologist to plead his cause if he needed his wisdome would not make choice of his accuser to be his Advocate 3 Mr. Baxter if he would have dealt ingenuously should have put the questions whether himself be not injurious 1 To God and his Christ 2 To the redeemed by denying their deliverance from and affirming their prostrate bondage under the Curse and not to have questioned whether his slandering of Gods justice hath made God faulty And then he should have received an answer to his resolving of the questions But as he puts the questions I reject his resolving of them as unworthy of an answer Onely by the way I say that what he speaks in answer to his own questions is all meerly sophisticall and fallacious The three first reasons that he brings to prove that Christ is not wronged by the not delivering of his ransomed ones being things in question not proved by Mr. Baxter therefore in arguing from them he doth as it is usuall with him beg the principle The fourth reason is not ad idem but so farr from the question as London from Barwick that there is no hope they will ever meet together The question speaking of beleevers The reason of Christs dealing with the world to make them beleevers And the same is evident in what he saith to the fifth question also The sixth question he thus resolveth Bax. The last enemy to be overcome is death 1 Cor. 15. 26. This enemy will be perfectly overcome at the Resurrection Then also shall we be perfectly acquitt from the charge of the Law and accusation of Satan Therefore not till the day of Resurrection and judgment will all the effects of sin and law and wrath be perfectly removed If in the conclusion he mean the effects of sin and law and wrath shall not be removed from the world untill the resurrection he speaketh truth but nihil ad rem far from the question which speaketh onely of beleevers If he mean of them that the Curse shall not be removed I have answered it before and the Scriptures here brought to prove it and will not here Actum agere CHAP. VIII Whether Beleevers are under the Law as a Covenant of works The Negative proved Mr. Baxters ambiguities and mentall reservations in stating the question and asserting the affirmative The Law not repealed to any but exauthorated to beleevers having inflicted its whole curse upon them in Christ Mr. Baxter had ended but he had not finished his dispute about the Curse upon beleevers He did but Parthian or ram-like go backward and decline a little to return with the greater force Or as an Actor upon the stage withdraw and make his exit to put on a new dress in which to appear again forthwith to act a second part So doth Mr. Baxter decline the dispute in one Aphorism and its explication which I also shall pass by without excepting against it and then he returns to prosecute the same dispute afresh yet in another dress of words that it might seem to be a resolving or determining of another question That was whether beleevers remain under the Curse of the Law This whether they remain under the Law as it threateneth and curseth And between these two questions who seeth not so vast a difference as is between an arrow in the quiver and an arrow out of the quiver within and without the quiver it is the same arrow still Yet let us attend to him stating the question which anon we shall examine The result of it is thus Bax. That the Morall Law not in its directive use but as it is a Covenant of works is still in force to threaten and bring the Curse upon beleevers in case they do in any thing transgress the Law This he undertakes to make good pronouncing it inconsideratenes to assert the contrary Thes 11. p. 78. explic p. 79. explic of Thes 12. p. 82. Here before we meddle any further with Mr. Baxter let us examine what the Holy Ghost in Scripture speaketh to this point Ye are not under the Law but under Grace saith th'Apostle to believers Rom. 6. 14. I conceive there is no one Christian upon earth that hath his head unbiassed with sophisticall fallacies and falshoods but takes the words in the same simple and clear sense wherein the Holy Ghost delivers them viz. That we are no more under the Law as a Covenant of Works when we have once attained by faith to be under the Covenant of Grace But a very thunder-bolt against Mr. Baxter and his Assertion is that Gal. 5. 3 4. I testifie to every one that is circumcised that he is debtor to do
home into their apprehension and Conscience that their sinns are remitted For so run the words in that 10 of Act. v. 47. that Whosoever beleeveth in him shall receive remission of sins not denying that Christ had received it for them before but affirming only that now they should receive it from Christ Besides this promise is held forth there promiscuously to all both elect and reprobate and it is but an offer not the gift of pardon to distinguish betwixt them for whom Christ had and those for whom he had not effectually satisfied and received absolution from the Father by the ones beleeving and receiving by faith from the hand of Christ the pardon and the others refusall and manifesting thereby their abode under death and the Law still The surety had paid the penalty of the obligation taken up the bonds and acquittance or discharge of the debt Thenceforth the Creditor had no more plea against either principall or surety Nevertheles the principall knew it not therefore playeth least in sight is in continual fear of arrests thinks every bush hath a Sergeant or Bayliff under it but at length the surety gives and delivers into his hand both the acquittance the obligation Cancelled Now is his first receiving of a discharge now he first finds himself free from his Creditors obligation now hath he the first comfort of the benefit but he was discharged before though he knew it not so is it with the elect c. Therefore Mr. Baxters inference hence is unsound He addeth the Testimony of Paul Eph. 2. 3. That the redeemed were by nature the Children of wrath who denyeth it But this is nothing to the question It is not here enquired whether the redeemed drew not the seeds of sin and death by naturall propagation from their parents as much as others But whether by the satisfaction which Christ made for them according to the Covenant of grace they were not redeemed from that wrath before they yet beleeved It is true what Mephibosheth said of himself and his brethren to David We were all as dead men before my Lord the King c. 2 Sam. 19. 28. because they were the progeny of Saul that fought against David Nevertheles by means of the Covenant that intervened between David and Jonathan Mephibosheth had right to all the favour that King David could express As for those testimonies cited by way of Thesis and Antithesis out of Gal. 5. ver 3 4. ver 18 23. they make wholly against him nothing for him The 3 4 verses speak nothing to the question in hand but utterly destroy that to which in this whole dispute he driveth nothing to the question in hand The circumcised are bound or debtors to the whole Law and Christ is become of none effect to them He was to have proved that beleevers were before they beleeved under the Law This Text speaketh not of the elect before they beleeved but of professed beleevers returning to Circumcision and the Law to fetch thence help unto their justification after that they seemingly at least beleeved in Christ so here is nothing that makes for him because nothing to the present question But much against him in reference to the grand thing which he laboureth for to bring beleevers under the Law as a Covenant of works Whosoever doth so saith the Apostle in the least mite that contents not himself with Christ alone takes in but so poor a peice of the Law as Circumcision to help with Christ to Justification the same person hereby forfeiteth all his claim to Grace and Christ and must gain heaven by his perfect fullfilling of the Law or must be damned in hell for ever Into this state Mr. Baxter striveth to bring himself and his disciples I shall not wish them joy in it because I use not to wish impossibilities Touching the verses which he puts in opposition to these ver 18 23. But if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law against such there is no law If he mean simply and sincerely what the Apostle here meaneth by being led by the Spirit viz. the seeking of righteousnes by Christ alone as the same Apostle more fully expresseth himself Gal. 3. 3. Phil. 3. 3. Then by granting that such are not under the Law there is no law against them he destroyeth and recanteth all that he hath before spoken to prove beleevers under the Law But if by being led by the Spirit his aim be to bring in works to justification under the name of the fruits of the Spirit we shall here forbear to answer him because it is besides the present question leaving it to its fit place where he openly explaineth himself And no less abhorrent from the question is his next proof Gal. 3. 22. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ may be given to them that beleeve What is this to the purpose in hand we deny not the promise of or the promised Justification and remission of sinns by faith in Jesus Christ to be given to them that beleeve into their hands and possession when they beleeve by affirming that Christ hath taken possession thereof for them before they beleeve that he may let it down into their hearts when they beleeve He ascended up on high and led captivity captive and gave gifts to men Eph. 4. 8. The Apostle fetcheth his authority from the word in Psal 68. 18. where it is said He received gifts for men viz. to give them in his time But the Apostle contents himself with the scope of the word not binding himself to the bare letter and sound thereof So Christ at his ascension received for us the gifts of Justification and remission and all other benefits of his passion They were then laid up for us in his Custody so that we had them in him before our actuall existence upon earth But he gives them to us into our sensible possession when we come to be to live and to beleeve That which he citeth from Gal. 4 5. is altogether besides the question also Himself acknowledgeth that it proveth us onely to be under the Law when Christ redeemed us or undertook to pay our ransom Not that we were under the Law after he had redeemed us by paying our ransom before we yet beleeved The words are these in the 4 5 verses God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law The scope of the Apostle here is one and the same with that to which he drives Gal. 2. 15 16. We who are Jewes by nature a holy seed within the Covenant and have all the privileges of the Law and not sinners of the Gentiles that are without the Covenant and the Law knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have beleeved that we might be justified by the faith of
in no wise be defended 4. Is not this Doctrine a sluce to let into the hearts of men a whole flood of carnal security idleness improficiency contempt or neglect of all the means of growth in grace each man setling himself upon his lees with this Apology that they are already squared to the minde and rule of the Gospel are sincere have the truth and true being of Faith knowledge and obâ—dience This is all which the Gospel requireth they are even with the rule why should they stretch themselves further to be beyond it This is a brand which Mr. Baxter inureth upon our or rather Christs doctrine of Justification by Faith alone Is not himselfe guilty 5. I would be informed what he meanes by sincere obedience It is very requisite that hee which vends new Doctrines in new terms should be exquisite in expressing and explaining his terms and words Sincerus say the Etymologists est quasi dicas sine cera as honey pure without the mixture of any wax in it That which is most pure and simple without any mixtures or taintures And Sincerity is usually put in opposition 1 to hypocrisie or 2. to corruption or sinful pollution As sincerity of obedience is put in opposition to that obedience which is done in hypocrisie or with sinister and self ends so ouâ— Saviour denyes the sincerity of the Scribes and Pharisees and chargeth them frequently in the Gospel with hypocrisie for their strict walkings devotions almsdeeds c. that they might bee justified by such personall righteousness of their own This hee calls hypocrisie and denyes to be sincere obedience because it aimed not simply to the glory of God but to their own ends their own justification But this I take to be Mr. Baxters main end of obedience to do it that we may bee justified by it And then according to the doctrine of the Lord Christ it is not sincere but hypocriticall obedience Or if we take hypocrisie to consist in professing and practising holyness and obedience outwardly but to baser and worldly ends lurking secretly in the heart viz. profit honour applause and praise of men c. which is there of the aliens from the Covenant of Grace that cannot pleade a sincerity this way I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day saith Paul of himself in reference to the time wherein he was yet a Saul insinuating the Morall sincerity of his heart in opposition to hypocrisie and base ends in his obedience while hee was yet out of Christ that even then he served and obeyed of good conscience and according to the measure of the light of Gods Word shining as farre as it shined in his conscience Act. 23. 1. Yea hee did in sincerity according to the dictate of his conscience whatsoever hee did against Christ I thought verily saith he that I ought to doe many things against the Name of Jesus c. which things also I did Act. 26. 9 10. It is â—hat whereof the Apostle gives his testimony to the greatest bulk of his kinred and Nation that rejected Christ They have a zeale of God saith he c. Rom. 10. 2. of God therefore sincere in opposition to base ends in all the services which they performed and a zeal this importeth an high degree of their obedience and sincerity of obeying Who is there of the carnal and ignorant multitude but can professe the like sincerity in their publick worship and private performances without proposing to themselves any base and sinister ends therein And doth the Gospel prescribe onely such a sincere obedience which is attained without any Gospel or Gospellizing of the heart Or if we take sincerity in opposition to all mixture of the flesh and corruption in our obedience in this case the sincerity must be either perfect or unperfect If perfect then the Gospel requireth the most perfect obedience contrary to the assertion of Mr. Baxter For what can be more perfect then that which is pure and free from all contamination of the flesh wholly spirituall But where is the man to bee found that can practically perform the duty That Apostle which had laboured more abundantly then they all professed himself not to have compassed it but that in the purest and liveliest operations of the Spirit in him unto good there was a counter-working of the flesh in him hindering the good which he willed and turning it into the evill which he hated c. Rom. 7. 21-23 And the same he professeth also to be the case of all other the Saints of God Gal. 5. 17. So that a perfect sincerity he cannot mean both because he denyeth that the Gospel injoyneth perfect obedience and perfection of sincerity in this kinde is the highest pitch of the perfection that is in the most perfect obedience And withall because he tels us in the next answer pag. 158. He knows not to what end Christ should command us that obdience which he doth never enable any man in this life to perform And this hee hath layd downe for a maxime That whatsoever Christ hath commanded or testified if Mr. Baxter cannot find out and fathom a good reason for it and of it meddle with it who listeth he will have nothing to doe with it Or if he mean an unperfect sincerity that according to Mr. Baxter is none at all For if the righteousnesse of our persons and actions bee much more the sincerity of our righteousnesse and obedience must be not a being but a modification of a being which doth not admit of magis and minus but must be perfect or none at all Yea what an absurdity is it to affirm that he whose office it is to perfect his Elect Heb. 10. 14. that doth not only begin but finish his good work in them hath commanded that which is unperfect Hee may be truly said to wink at our unperfectness to forgive our imperfections but to say he commands that which is unperfect is to deny the perfection of his commands and so to lay imperfection to his charge as well as to our own Besides he may according to his custom if he be put to tell us what sincerity he means fall to distinguish it into a Physical or Metaphysicall sincerity into a Morall and an Evangelical sincerity so that although wee find many of his Meashes yet shall we never find his Fourm So full of doubles and false leaps are they that deale not sincerely in handling the doctrine of Christ swaying and waving it hither and thither to make it not subservient to the advancing of Christs kingdom but of their own inventions Let Mr. Baxter labour rather practically and feelingly to know the power of Christian and spiritual sincerity within his heart then to make use of the Word to make intricate the plain doctrine of Scriptures and henceforth we shall finde that which we have hitherto unsuccessefully sought after sincere dealing in his disputes It is not all this while denyed that the Gospel
other sin but final unbelief and rebellion But this finall unbelief and finall rebellion hath its belly so full of other small sins threatned in the womb of their Mother Rebellion as ever a man found of the berries in the belly of a breeding Lobster And in his Appendix pag. 23. he makes finall unbelief the genus to which he attributes but three species of which the first viz. Ordinary finall unbelief is not to bee considered as species specialissima but subalterna which being looked upon as a genus hath so many species or as a species hath so many individuals under it according to Mr. Baxters doctrine as the best Arithmetician in the world saving himselfe will not dare to yeeld up upon his casting the true summe of them to satisfie Mr. Baxters censure therein as it will appear when Mr. Baxter comes to unlace and rip abroad his Justifying Faith in its largest sense Thes 70. To these I might adde many more quaintisies of the same nature breathing out themselves from the veins of this his dispute But all the rest as those already mentioned are but tarrying irons to take up the time of men that are Malè feriati rather love to play with the buttons then to close with the body and drink in the spirit of true Christianity And what other end can Mr. Baxter have in these his chippings and mincings but to shew the delicacy of his wit Whom hath he in the substance of what he speaketh his adversary We grant and teach with him 1. That there is no sin prohibited by the Gospel or New Covenant which is not a sin against the Law and Old Covenant also 2. That finall unbelief and rebellion are sins if not unpardonable as if they exceeded the bounds of Gods grace and Christs merits to pardon them yet which have no futurition of pardon shall never be pardoned in this life or in that which is to come For so hath the Lord declared his purpose in reference to these sins 3. That both the Law and the Gospel concurre in damning such persons the Law as a Covenant of Workes properly for their refusall to submit even till death it self to the will and authority of God requiring Faith in Christ for their redemption from vengeance The Gospel improperly by withholding its shelter from the Laws sentence against them because they would never be perswaded to come under the shelter of it yea more in strengthning the hand of the Law to give them the sorer punishment for the contempt of Gods grace as well as of his Authority and Justice And thus not onely the mountains of their sinnes against the Law but also Christ the Rock shall fall upon them to their greater shivering for that they dared to dash themselves against him and would not be induced to be built against all the stroakes of vengeance upon him This is the summe of all that which Mr. Baxter here in substance saies To what purpose then are his elaborate distinctions of the differing respects and aspects senses and non-senses in which Christ hath either satisfied or not satisfied for mans sins unlesse it be Balaam-like to lay a stumbling block in the way of the simpler people of Gods Israel to occasion their fall to puzzle their judgements and consciences and to make the way of grace which is in it self as discovered by the Lord Christ easie and plaine to be unto them by his evill working therein intricate perplexed and full of snares To all sober men it sufficeth to know 1. That there is no one of their sins in whatsoever consideration it be taken but hath death and hell in the tayl of it 2. That there cannot be any other way of exemption from the death hel which every such sin of theirs meriteth by any other meanes but by the redemption which is by and in the Lord Jesus 3. That the blood of Christ hath in it a perfect efficacy to cleanse from all sin whatsoever no one excepted if it be applyed to cleanse Not the very sin against the Holy Ghost which it hath not power totally to purge out from the conscience if it were truly applyed But therefore is that sin never pardoned and purged from the soul because the Spirit of God never doth nor will apply the blood of Christ to the soul that is guilty of it nor generates Faith in such a soul to run unto and wash in the Fountain of Christs blood that it may be clean Let there be any one sin named of all the sins whereof our corrupt nature is pregnant that is so much a sin against the Gospel but that the purging or not purging away of it the absolving of the conscience from it or retaining of it upon the conscience doth not wholly depend upon the application or not application of the blood of Christ to the soul and I shall acknowledge that I have seen but the Letter and was never yet acquainted with the Spirit and drift of the Scriptures Or suppose we should take a delight to contend about that which is a meer lana caprina whether it be hair or wooll that grows upon the Goats shoulders how feeble might we manifest the reasons to be which Mr. Baxter beingeth to prove that the sins against the New Covenant are not satisfied for by the sacrifice of Christs death As 1. When the Apostle affirmeth Christ to have suffered death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first Testament Heb. 9. 15. Doth it follow thence that he hath not redeemed from the transgressions against the New Covenant also If I say that Christ forgave to Peter or Paul or Mary Magdalen all their sins committed before conversion do I thereby as much as imply that he retains still and revengeth upon them all the sinnes they committed after they were converted Or should one of Mr. Baxters acquaintance say that whatsoever Mr. Baxter preached and wrote untill four or five years since was good and Orthodox doth it follow that all that he hath since preached and written is heretical and erroneous Nay the purpose of the Apostle here is to convince the Hebrews that sought in part for righteousnesse by the Law or Old Testament that it could not make its observers perfect For Christ dyed to redeem the transgressions of them that were under the first Covenant which he needed not to have done if all the Sacrifices under the Law could have purged them And thus the Morall Law is not here at all opposed to the Gospel that the Gospel or New Covenant doe purge the sinnes onely that were committed under and against the Morall Law because all the righteousnesse of the Morall Law could not purge them but the sacrifice of Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant is here opposed to the Leviticall sacrifices under the Legall Covenant What these could not the sacrifice of Christ hath expiated 2. Where he tels us that Christ could not satisfie for sinnes committed against the New Covenant
with the constant use of the Scripture And so the Text is thus to be read Repent c. that your sins may be blotted out and that the times of refreshing may come c. upon you In this sense is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken Mat. 6. 5. Lu. 2. 35. Act. 15. 17. Rom. 34. In which soever of all these senses the words be taken this Scripture favours not at all Mr. Bax. neither hath his second justification or pardon in the day of judgement any patronage from it Yea the vanity of this distinction of pardon justification into that which is in Title of Law an◠that which is in sentence of judgement this declarative that constitutive is evident to as many as understand evidences For the whole tenor of scriptures which speakes of the last judgement tendeth to manifest it to be a pronouncing of eternall glory to the Saints because they were justified and before pardoned perfectly righteous in that sin was not imputed to them in this life not a pronouncing of pardon to them that they may be thereby received into glory Let there be any Scripture produced to evince the contrary Or why will Master Baxter have the sentence of the judge and Saviour in the last day called a declarative justification and pardon To whom shall this his sentence declare it to God He knoweth who are his and whom he hath justified and pardoned in himself and thorow Christ before the World was made therefore needs no such declaration To themselves They had in this life the word of the Gospel declaring the truth of Faith evidencing and the spirit of grace witnessing it to them and whether at the very instant they shall be affirmed to have come in spirit from the flames of Purgatory or from under the Altar in Heaven to reassume their bodies for Master Baxter keeps himself reserved in this treatise what he thinkes thereof yet their separation from the reprobates hath enough declared them to be justified so that they need no◠any further declaration to be made therein to themselves Or lastly to the World This might be somewhat usefull to the World and to themselves while they were in the World but is now utterly uselesse when they shall no more return to the World Neither is there need of a voice to declare it to the World where their instantaneous rapture up to Christ in the air to sit with Christ in judging the World shall fully enough demonstrate it And no more doth this Scripture uphold this Justification as in other termes he proposed it calling it Actuall as distinct from that which he terms virtuall All these are but windy notions to fill up the dictionary of his distinctions which have no footing in the word And when all these are fardled together they will quickly be consumed with the fire of Gods jealousie and little steed Master Baxter to dispute out his justification by works in the day of judgement No less vaporous is that which he hath Thes 40. and in its Explication where he distinguisheth most learnedly between a barre and the bar between a Wooden and an Iron Bar between a Bar and a Bar of judgement a primary and secondary bar a direct and a Consequential Bar and all with such sagacity and profoundnesse as passeth all the wisedom of the Holy Ghost in the scriptures to make out unto us pa. 190 191 192 193. B. Thes 40. When Scripture speaketh of Justification by Faith it is to be understood primarily and directly of justification in Law title and at the bar of Gods publick judgement and but secondarily and consequentially of Justification at the bar of Gods secret judgement or at the bar of Conscience or at the bar of the World And in the explication he disputeth about B. The Forum Dei and the Forum Conscientiae the Bar of God and the Bar of Conscience the Bar of God and the Bar of the World the Bar of Gods secret judgement and the Bar of his publick judgement the Bar in heaven before the Angels contradistinct I suppose to the Bar in hell before the Devills At last he gallantly gathers together all these dispersed bars justifying and unjustifying pardoning and condemning us in some sense at all the barrs and in severall senses at severall barrs according as his wit and Sophistry doth give him utterance And to what purpose is all this but to tickle witty wanton and sophistically phantasticall brains flattering them off from the simplicity plainnesse and soundnesse of the Gopsell into a disputative fangled and wordy formality of religion having the spirit and power of Conscience and the word that should regulate it enervate and evapored in to meer froth and bubbles by this questionary distinctionary and colorative shew of learning In the mean while all these barrs are by the subtlety of this Artificer made use of to bar out the poor and simple for whom Christ hath dyed from the due comfort of their justification obscuring to them the Doctrine of grace sending them from Bar to Bar for pardon and peace and leaving them unsetled and hovering to their very dying day yea till they come to the bar of Christ at the judgement day where if they be followers of this mans Doctrine they shall appear no lesse uncertainly and tremblingly before the great judge than the reprobate men and Devills For untill then all the former barrs according to Master Baxter minister no absolute pardon or acquittance to any soul so free from the Curse but that we are left under the curse acquit conditionally that is leave us fast bound to hell as it found us loose the finger to day that it may bind us up hand and foot to morrow Such and so pretiou◠Gospel doth this learned Scribe draw out of his Treasury among his Keder minsterians as by that we have already seen hath been in part manifested and by that which followes in this Treatise will more fully appear When contrary to all this Sophisticall winding circling and labyrinthicall Mazes the Scripture speaking of Justification and condemnation after the tenor of the Covenants makes onely two Barrs of judgment the Bar of justice according to the Law and the Bar of grace or Mercy-seat according to the Tenor of the Gospel or New Covenant affirming all that are judged at the one condemned and all at the other justified That as soon as we are convicted of death and vengeance onely due to us at the former we are carried out in the Spirit of Christ thorow the consecrated way of his purifying blood to seek remission of sinnes at the latter the Throne of grace the all gracious Father from the bar of grace pronounceth to our consciences peace and pardon and joy which shall never be taken from us This is the sole and all-sufficient Justification which the Scripture speakes of speaking properly of justification The subject hath heaped up Treasons against his Prince For this cause the Law apprehends and arraigns him The
of rich glasses set in artificiall order and able to dazle the eye of the beholder what pity is it that any one of them should meet with a knock and be broken and so the beautifull order in which they were placed be on a suddain marred yet if such a thing should fall out it were no great wonder Pretinesse and strength are rarely twins and we speak of prety things but rarely long in the present tense before their perishing by weaknesse forceth us to take up another tone and to tell that there was such a delicate toy but if we seek it the place thereof is not to be found It is possible such a stroke may befall the image that Mr. Baxter hath here set up in imitation of that of Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 2. 31 32 33 c. it hath clay in the feet cannot goe without halting if it meet with a stone to crush its toes it may possibly fall all to shivers Himself seems to doubt of it therefore prepares himself to defend it as seeing it cannot defend him or it self So saith he in the Explication B. Here it will be expected that I answer to these Questions 1. Why I call the Gospell the Instrumentall cause 2. Why I call Christs satisfaction the Meritorious cause and the Causa sine qua non 3. Why I make not Christs righteousnesse the Materiall cause 4. Why I make not the imputation of it the formall cause 5. Why I make not faith the Instrumentall cause 6. Why I make it only the Causa sine qua non To these Quaeries it will be expected saith he that he answer But what if other besides these exceptions be made though it be in his power to deny his answer yet it is not in his choice or authority to restrain any from excepting 1 Perhaps some may except why he in asserting God to be the principall efficient cause of Justification lets it passe so nakedly without an adjection of any of his attributes so leaving it doubtfull whether it be the grace or the justice the love or the hatred the mercy or the wrath of God that is the efficient of Justification We may easily answer our selves as to this question It is not Gods but Mr. Baxters justification whereof the causes are here assigned such as the Scriptures are unacquainted with a justification of his own devising defining and distinguishing himself and none before himself that I know was in every point acquainted with it No marvell then if he speak differingly in setting forth the causes of his from our Divines in laying down the causes of Gods justification And indeed it is a difficult question to determine whether his justification if it were at all granted to be of God might challenge more properly the love or the hatred the grace or the justice of God for its womb It being a justification that leaves all men under the curse under the wrath of God both in life and in death untill the very day of Judgment as we have found him disputing most profoundly in and under his 9. Thesis A justification that gives only a titular title without actuall and absolute possession of any greatest or least benefit to the justifyed which according to Mr. Baxter is the same thing as if we should say to the unjustifyed A justification more unpossible to be apprehended and held then was the first justification by works that was held forth upon possible tearms exacting from a living man only continuance in the works of life this upon unpossible as respecting our present state of infirmity offering to a dead soul righteousnesse and life upon condition the dead soul will quicken and arise from the dead to fetch it thence whither if it come it must still abide empty as it came untill the day of Judgment and then Mr. Baxter will come again to tell us more of his minde whether it be at all attainable I do not at all injury the man in saying he offers justification to a dead soul c. upon condition the soul will quicken it self For let there be found but one clause in his whole book that implyeth a concurrence and effusion of grace from God more to the quickning and justifying of Peter and Paul then of Cain and Judas of the damned then of the saved Or what doth he lesse that brings in works to justification then destroy grace to set up justification after the order and rule of strict justice Or when Mr. Baxter is so exact in enumerating the Procatarcticall or outwardly moving causes to what purpose doth he jumpe over the Proegumene or inward moving cause viz. the grace love and mercy which is within God himself but to imprison it in darknesse and eclipse its glory that mans righteousnesse might have the praise which pertains to God alone 2 It may be also questioned why amongst all the causes of justification here assigned there is no mention made of union and communion with Christ when as our Divines following the rule of the Word makes our union with him the very chief cause and ground of our being justifyed or declared to be justifyed according to the Gospell justification 1 Joh. 5 12. Phil. 3. 9. 1 Cor. 5. 19. and a multitude of other Scriptures which they alleadge and if there were the least need I might here quote a score What else but an evill eye maligning the praise of God and of his Christ suppresseth in silence and suffers not to appear in the chain of the causes of justification this link of union with Christ Is it not that he will make our faith and works yet out of Christ the cause of our union with Christ and not this the ground of the other 3 To come to those questions which Mr. Baxter answereth because he conceives it will be expected 1. About the instrumentall cause we question not what he goes about to answer why he cals the promise or grant of the new Covenant or the Gospell the instrumentall cause of justification actively considered but 1. Why he makes it the only instrumental cause of justification howsoever considered For this grant and promise doth by it self no more justifie the beleevers then the infidels the justifyed then the unjustifyed Doth not God also make the spirit his instrument of justifying by declaring and unfolding the doctrine of the Gospell and evidencing and witnessing to the soul remission and justification together with the love and grace of God from which this justification floweth Why doth he stifle the working of the Spirit from having to do in this great work except either with the Sadduces he denies the being or with the Socinians the divinity and divine operation of the Spirit or else to leave open a door to let in justification by the flesh not by the Spirit by the strength of mans free will without the preventing helps of the Spirit of grace Or as justification is taken passively for our being justifyed in our selves why is not faith put as an
to Christ that they perish not by following their own thoughts What then shall become of the wicked which are wholly full of corruption and unbeleef without any spark of faith and whom the Lord hath given up to a spirit of slumber like Bastards without all Chastisements hindering to roll themselves into ruine B. Rom. 6. 16. His servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse The Apostle here speaketh of the righteousnesse not of Justification but of Sanctification except we will say he here digresseth from that which he makes the subject of this whole Chapter But whether he means the righteousnesse of justification or of sanctification yet the obedience he here speaketh of is that which cap. 1. ver 5. he declares himself to have received commission and Apostleship to preach viz. obedience to the faith the suâ—me whereof is faith in Christ Jesus What he would infer from his two last quotations 1 Pet. 1. 2. 22. Let him that can understand declare and make answer to it I yeeld that his profoundnesse condemns my shallownesse I dare not contradict him in what he would because I have not the wit to imagin what he would say It seems he had determined such a number of quotations and took at adventure those that came next to his view to make up that precise number Any other Scriptures besides these being as to my apprehension no lesse pat and proper to his purpose then these CHAP. IV. The vanity and ridiculousnesse of Mr. Baxters second and third Arguments discovered The former that Because faith is the more principall and works the lesse prinpall condition of our Justification and that all other duties are in some respect or other reducible to faith therfore we may be said to be justifyed by other works and duties yet to be justifyed by faith alone The second drawn from a wide and irregular definition of faith that it containeth all works in its belly therefore whosoever is justifyed by those works is justifyed by faith only A second Argument he drawes from an anticipation of an objection which he prevents by turning the edge of it against the objectors and applying it to the strengthening of his own assertion The objection that he sees in readinesse against him is that this doctrine of justification by duties and works wholly overthroweth that highest and most fundamentall Gospel doctrine of justification by faith alone This he denies and affirmes Thes 62. p. 238. that although we be justifyed by a thousand duties besides B. Yet faith may be called the only condition of the New Covenant i. e. of justification True if Mr. Baxter give the denomination but the question is not what things may be called but what they are A woe is pronounced to them that call or put light for darknesse and darknesse for light good for evill and evill for good c. I shall no further presse the unaptnesse of the phrase Mr. Bavter declaring in that which followeth his meaning to be that faith may be the only condition notwithstanding which he proves thus B. 1 Because it is the principall condition and the other but the lesse principall And as the whole countrey hath oft its name from the chief City so may the conditions of this Covenant from faith 2 Because all the rest are reducible to it either being presupposed as necessary antecedents as means or contained in it as its parts properties or modifications or else implyed as its immediate products or necescessary subservient means or consequents I speak first to the latter of these two arguments because he speaks first in the explication to the confirmation of it It is almost as wise an argumentation as I knew once used by some home-bred course-spun sons of a Country farmer who having heard that their father upon a day was sworn Constable at the Court made merry at home concluding from their fathers Constableship that they were all Constables and must rule the Parish because they were his sons and dwelt in house with him or as that of the Athenian boy that boasted himself to be the ruler of Athens thus proving it that he ruled his mother and his mother swayed his father and his father being Lord Maior that year swayed Athens Yea more of reason at least lesse of reasonlesnesse is there in both these arguings then in that of Mr. Baxter theirs concluded only the sons to to partake necessarily of their fathers office this man makes all that are in any respect of kindred yea of any relation to faith for such their relation to partake of the office of faith to justifie For so he reasoneth all the rest are reducible to faith as Antecedents going before it means to obtain it or parts or properties or necessary adjuncts and modifications or products effects or consequents What then Ergo these all in regard of their alliance or affinity to faith justifie and bear a part with faith in its office of justifying And yet when these justifie as much as faith we must understand that faith justifyeth alone Because what all these allies of faith do that faith it self may be said to do This is indeed Logick to prevail with his Kederminsterians or rather such of them as know no difference between Logick and Garlick It is as if I should dispute thus God made choyce of David before all and any other of the sons of Abraham to be King and to rule over Israel therefore all the progenitours of David as well Tamar and Ruth and Râ—hab as Judah Pharez and Booz yea more specially Jesse the father of David and all the brethren of David yea all the sons and generation of David to Joseph the Carpenter let me dilate my self more boldly all the tribe of Judah which were flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone nay all Israel which were allies to him and met with him in one common father Jacob these all partaked of Davids kingship and were partners with him in the office of ruling because they all were one way or other reducible to David as going hefore him or following him c. and yet when all these were Kings with David neverthelesse David was King alone Or thus The eye only of all the members of the body is appointed to the office of seeing neverthelesse the head that holds and gives influence to it the eye-lids that cover it the veins that convey nutriment to it the cheeks nose lips and teeth that are contiguous to it the hands and feet that are guided by it c. all these and many more do partake of the office of seeing together with the eye and when all these doe see as well as the eye yet the eye doth see alone because all the rest are reducible in some way of alliance to the eye If Mr. Baxters dispute be not one and the same with this in its grounds then is all my reason gone out of my head into my cap.
life of Christ sacrificed for us to be the Ransom Mat. 20. 28. 1 Tim. 2. 6. The Price by which we are purchased and redeemed from thraldome 1 Cor. 6. 20. 7. 23. The propitiation for our sins through faith in his bloud Rom. 3. 25. 1 Joh. 4. 10. i. e. that one and only act of Christ by which our sinnes are expiated the justice of God satisfyed and his wrath appeased so that we finde him now a God propitious and gratious to us But if we will hear the Scriptures speaking at large and articulately confirming this position that the satisfaction made by Christ is begun continued and perfected meerly and wholly in and by Christs sufferings in steed of many Testimonies which the Scripture affordeth I shall pitch upon two disputes only of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews The former in cap 9. beginning at the 11 and 12 verses That Christ being become an high Priest c. by his own bloud entred once into the Holy place having obtained for us eternall Redemption I need not explain the words for the edification of any that hath but read the Scriptures and taken but overly into his consideration how that which was yearly under the Law figured in the act of the high Priest the type was at length effectually accomplished by Christ the Antitype Again ver 13 14. If the bloud of Buls c. sanctifyed to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the bloud of Christ which by the eternall Spirit offered himselfe to God without spot purge your conscience from dead works c. An undeniable vertue and efficacy in the bloud of Christ alone without any further acts of Christ himself to purge the conscience e. i. to absolve and justifie is here affirmed And further ver 15. He is the Mâ—diatour of the new Covenant that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first Testament they which are called may receive the promise of the eternall inheritance i. e. the eternall inheritance promised by means of Christs death and not by his Legislative righteousnesse And ver 26 Christ now once at the end of the world hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself What sin All sin according to that of John The bloud of Christ purgeth from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. And if from all sin what sin is there left for Christs giving of Lawes to put away or what of justification left out for it to perfect or of full satisfaction not made for it to compleat Lastly ver 28. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many How did he bear them but as the Apostle saith He hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. and in bearing them on our behalfe he satisfyed justice on our behalf And this is affirmed to be by offering himself for us not by giving Laws to us or injoyning duties upon us His second dispute is chap. 10. where the Apostle having mentioned the feeblenesse of the sacrifices offered by the Law to take away sin brings in Christ offering himself to accomplish what these could not and declaring his ready obedience to fulfill that will of God written in the volume of Gods book to offer himself a sacrifice for sin with a Lo I come by this will of God saith he we are sanctifyed by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all ver 5 10. He saith not we have our consecration to be holy by the commands of Christ c. but by the offering of his body And that by sanctification is to be here understood purification and justification I think it will not be denyed However ver 12. it is added that he having once offered sacrifice for sins for ever sat down at the right hand of God his sitting down and resting argues his work the work of our redemption and justification perfected in every degree and number His rest is as Gods rest was from the beginning then the work of Creation now of Redemption being made absolutely perfect the rest followed and where had this work its beginning progresse and perfection In his once offering of sacrifice for sins for ever Nothing here of Christs Law-giving and rule from the bottom to the top of the work of Redemption or Justification The sacrifice alone satisfyed so far all things of man are here excluded as that nothing else of Christ is required As it is more fully yet expressed ver 14. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctifyed His perfecting Mr. Baxter will not deny to be his making of perfect satisfaction for them and this is done by one offering of Christ Will Mr. Baxter be so audacious as to oppose the holy Ghost with his Nay telling that there must be somewhat else besides this offering viz. Christs Law-giving as part of the satisfaction made for us Lastly to put all out of doubt and besides the bounds of cavilling what the Apostle should mean here by sanctifying and perfecting this also is unfolded in plain words ver 17 18. viz. The taking away of their sinnes and iniquities And where the remission of these is there is no more offering c. satisfaction is made to the full and no need of any addition for the perfecting thereof I acknowledg there are many things required to condition Christ that he might be an effectuall offerer and offering else could not the redemption and justification which are by him have been completed or the satisfaction made for us been perfect Yea that after the work of satisfaction as formerly of Creation finished and a totall resting from any further addition to it yet the Father worketh and the Son worketh hitherto in the businesse of governing and preserving of what is so created and repayred yet this doth not at all hinder but that full satisfaction is made by the alone offering of Christ And here once more I call upon Mr. Baxter and all his adherents to bring forth any one testimony of Scripture to prove that either Christs Law-giving or any other act of Christ besides this one of offering himself a sacrifice for sin is by the Scripture in whole or in part affirmed satisfactory to God for our justification Let them not as Mr. Baxter before doth from pa. 54. to pa. 61. bring their peradventures and may bees and possibles and verisimilies for are the conjectures and results of a working and self-conceited brain to be laid as a foundation whereon to build an Article of our faith But let them bring the oracle of the Word testifying either that Christ hath done or God hath required of him or accepted from him such and such works in part of satisfaction Else our ears will be deaf to hear mans prattle being attentive in such matters only to the voice of the holy Ghost This shall suffice for the opening and confirming of ouâ— Tenet untill it shall
is more adoe then come in and sit down and take what we have a minde to God hath put all his Sons offices into the condition to be received and submitted to Either all or none must be accepted And if all be in the condition then the receiving of all must needs justifie upon the grounds that I have laid down before It is not a new thing to see heresie usurping the chaire to condemne truth of errour The reasoning here is wholly carnall and naturall besides the rule of the Gospell When he calls faith a naturall way of receiving the mercy offered by Christ and our own worth and works implyedly the spirituall way how doth he put light for darknesse and darknesse for light giving to the truely spirituall cause of renewing that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 14. The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God c. Can Heaven and Hell be more opposite either to other then the Apostles doctrine to Mr. Baxters The Apostle cals the way of faith alone the Spirit and the way of works superadded to faith for justification the flesh Gal. 3. 3. Is it Flesh or Spirit in Mr. Baxter that makes him a contradictor of the holy Ghost speaking by the Apostle The way of faith is the way of grace supernaturall Flesh and bloud cannot reveal it unto us but our Father which is in heaven But the way of works is beneath grace dictated by nature it self therefore naturall but so that all the force of nature cannot effectuallize it to justification It is a slander that he puts upon the Orthodox whom he hateth therefore represents them as Noddies and Simpletons pretending that they teach faith to be nothing but an accepting of pardon and accepting of holinesse c. Nay we make neither pardon nor holinesse nor the c. but Christ Jesus the object of our faith adhere and cleave to him for all yet not confounding his benefits or the means by which he applyeth them but wait by faith at the severall sluces by which he conferreth his severall benefits to receive the washing away of our guilt by the effusion of his bloud and holinesse or sanctification by the effusion of his Spirit and not contrariwise holinesse by his bloud and pardon by the effusion of his Spirit So we repair by faith to Christ for all because in him as in the spring is all yet so as that in coming to him alone that hath all we come to the Sun of righteousnesse for light to the fountain for life and to the Spirit of sanctification which flowes from him for holynesse He cryes against separation and makes it as I have shewed for union and makes confusions Where doth he mention any office or operation of faith to sanctification or use of sanctification but to justification or what is faith with him but a compound of all endowments works and duties And thus he confounds faith and works Christs righteousnesse and mans righteousnesse morall honesty and Gospell sanctification of all together making up one linsy-woolsy justification or righteousness to justification which the Spirit of God never revealed but the spirit of Mr. Baxter hath hatched What he speaketh of Christ stablishing his office either is above my understanding or else is not at all to his purpose And what of accepting as under the notion of accepting or as under the notion of a condition hath been enough spoken to in what was before said about the instrumentality of faith All that followeth is wholly averse from and adverse to the doctrine of the Gospell Jewish and Popish For what meanes he by our title in Law and the wedding garment but the whole furniture of works and duties done in obedience to a supposed legislative authority of Christ Without these and before these to take possession i. e. to dare to adhere to Christ for justification is usurpation and an incurring of Gods vengeance for usurping Thus beating off from Christ sinners chief sinners for whom Christ hath dyed How doth the spirit of the rejected Jewes work upon this man when they heard of righteousnesse and Act. 22. 21 22 23. salvation offered to the Gentiles a common and profane people that were not holy how did they stretch their throats and rend their clothes in a zeal against this indignity So this man hearing of the justificition of Publicans and sinners hath his eye evill because God is good tears himself with anger crying usurpation vengeance hell-fire why because they had not put on the filthy rags of mans righteousnesse which he cals the wedding garment and thereby gotten title to Christ before they were so bold as to beleeve in him and girded on their own gaol-clothes first and then have put on Christ upon them that their own righteousnesse might have been neerest the heart and Christs righteousnesse at a further distance as having no efficacy but from our own righteousnesse effectuallizing it Unto all this I shall use only that oracle of the Lord Christ The Publicans and harlots enter into the Kingdome of God before these Pharisaicall justiciaries and whited sepulchers Let Christ alone be my wedding garment I leave all that unrighteous righteousnesse which Mr. Baxter would wrest out from the Kingly office entire to Mr. Baxter to compleat his righteousnesse to justification I know no other title to the justification of the new Covenant which the chief sinners must look after before they possesse it but the grant of grace in the new Covenant and their closure by faith with Christ in whom God presents himself to justifie and reconcile them to himself One voice of my Bride-groom crying Whosoever thirsteth i. e. is dry and empty of all good in himself let him come to me and whosoever will let him drink of the well of the water of life freely Rev. 22. 17. is of more force with me then ten thousand contradicting voices such as this of Mr. Baxter There is more adoe then come in and sit down and take what we have a mind to If this man had the imaginary place of Peter to be Porter of heaven how quickly would he forfeit his place by repelling those whom alone Christ will have admitted and admitting those that Christ will have repelled Christ admits beleevers not doers this man rejects all beleevers that are not doers before they are beleevers The rest that he saith here is sacrificed to his Goddesse the Lady Condition A deity that the Scriptures never knew nor yet all the whole University of Athens They erected an Altar indeed to the unknown God Act. 17. 23. see the depth of Mr. Baxter he hath found the Antipodas which the old Mathematicians wrote of but could never find the deity which the learned Athenians worshiped but worshiped they knew not what This Goddesse Condition by some help of the Socinians and Arminians hath M. Baxter brought to light and invested her with more glittering ornaments then they had wit to do only he hath not yet
once revealed to us and made ours in possession or in hope ought so to spiritualize us so to swallow us up into the spirit that we should no longer walk after the flesh but after the spirit to delight in the Law of God in all the holiness and righteousnes which the Law teacheth after the inner man He that seeks not so to doe hath hugd in his arms a dream of Christ not Christ himselfe hath had him possibly in his fancy never in his heart and conscience Hee that hath effectually met with God in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe and there tasted the love of God or rather God which is love hath suffered a Metamorphosis and is changed all into love hath so beheld God shining in Christ as in a glasse that he is transformed into the same image is or would bee wâ—olly configured to the likeness of God Yea we grant more that the truly justified and adopted ones of the Lord may perform these works of naturall righteousness which the Law commandeth with respect to and expectation of the future glory which shall be revealed to them and conferred on them for Christs sake as a reward of such their imperfect service yet not a reward of debt purchased by and due to their works but of free gift and grace from their indulgent father who of his infinite love and bounty is wont to recompence the mites of his dear childrens labours with the talents of his grace and bounty not because they are worthy but because he is gracious yea Grace and Love it selfe Ro. 4 4. 5. Goe ye into my vineyard and whatsoever is right or meet ye shall receive Mat. 20. 7. It must bee a boundless reward what such a father shall think right and meet to bestow upon his dear children Their reward shall bee proportioned not to the pittance of their poore service but to the riches of their fathers bounty and uncircumscriptiveness of his treasure The respect of such infinite treasure in their fathers hand and the riches of his love to bestow it in largest dimensions upon them with a gracious respect to their dutifulness and service should serve as a strong motive and attractive to them to be still doing for him When I was yet in my bloud hee loved and cleansed me Ezek. 16. 6 -9. When dead he quickned me Eph. 2. 1. When without strength to work when a sinner when ungodly when an enemy he gave his son to die for me and reconciled me to himselfe What will he now doe for mee so quickned reconciled washed and justified having attained strength if I employ that strength in his service Ro. 5. 6-10 Now wee are the sons of God but it doth not yet appear what wee shall bee onely wee know that when he appears we shall bee like him having therefore this hope we ought to purifie our selves as he is pure 1. Jo. 2. 25. 3. Thus are the saints to draw encouragement to obedience from the consideration of the reward or rather from the infinite love and bounty of the rewarder 3. That they which are out of Christ yet under the means of Grace and Ministry of the Gospel must performe all pure Gospel duties which the Law requireth onely in generall and implicitely but the Gospel specifieth expresly to the severall ends to which the wisdome of God hath severally related them some to justification some to sanctification by Christ Jesus It is their duty to hear learn study and meditate upon the doctrine of Grace and mystery of Christ duly to prize and value it to desire gasp cry and pray for the effectuallizing of it to themselves to embrace and receive Christ to repent of their long estrangedness from him to deny themselves and cast away all opinion of and confidence in their owne righteousness that Christ alone may bee embraced and the dung being cast out they may bee replenished with that which is indeed the Treasure and all this that they may bee justified and saved not by and for these duties so performed but by and for Christ to whom they seek and strive in all these duties to come into union All this the Gospel both tacitely implieth and expresly teacheth and the Law also in generall and inclusively commandeth as hath been sayd Thus the Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Here stil Christ is al to justification salvatioÌ„ Faith the alone instrument to receive him All the other actings are but subservient to Faith in this its instrumentall service to make way for it As when a treasure is offered by a munificent benefactor to a poor beggar the grace of the benefactor and pretiousnesse of the treasure is that which inricheth him and the hand the alone instrument to receive it yet must the eye guide him the understanding prompt him the wil move him the feet carry him and other actings of the minde and body bee subservient to him that the hand may rerceive that which inricheth him At length when all is done such a begger hath more apparent grounds of boasting that hee hath been and done somewhat to his owne enriching than the best of us that we have been or done any thing to our own Justification For though the Benefactor hath poured upon him freely of his own mercy not for or upon condition of his crying running to him emptying his hand of what was in it before and stretching it forth to bee filled with the treasure profered him yet the benefactor gave him neither a heart to desire nor wisdome to value nor light to guide him nor feet to carry him nor a hand to receive the treasure conferred It is otherwise in our Justification by Christ God freely gives it in Christ and all the power will actings and instruments by which we come into the possession of it Neither when we affirme all these to be our duty while yet unjustified doe we thereby affirme that all must be done before we can bee justified The grace of God oft prevents our operation in most of these justifying us by Faith before we have time to put our selves upon many of these operations In this sense I know none that denieth an obligation upon sinners to act and worke for their justification and salvation 4 They that are justified ought to be still active and industrious in all the duties of the Gospell tending to their confirmation in the Faith stablishment in Christ illumination in the misteries of the Gospell denyall of themselves and seeking to be wholly swallowed up into the Lord Iesus that they may be dayly more filled and ravished with fuller assurance and comfort of their justjfication salvation by him This we find the Apostle making his taske Phill. 3. 8 9 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. And hereunto tend the many memento's scattered by the holy Ghost in the Gospell watch pray take heed beware stand fast hold fast Run fight strive continew c. All which tend to the
praises of the man yet this act of his meriteth it not no not from Mr. B. For as far as he transcribes him p. 182. Mr. Ball no further foâ—lowes Grotius then to Gods relaxing of the Law to take satisfaction from Christ in our steed But if he had also asserted that after satisfaction actually taken they which in Christ have satisfied are yet all their life-time under the Curse of the Law to bear it in their own persons would Mr. B. have hidden it Yet this is the thing in question between Mr. B. and the Protestants whether after the giving and receiving of satisfaction for our breaches of the Law the Curs of the Law be either nulled or els onely in part relaxed as to our bearing it Yea if he â—e as Mâ— B. stiles him then have we the testimony of so great learned and holy a Divine as almost England ever bred against Mr. B. himself not being able to deny any one almost that England ever bred which hath written more directly and contrarily to Mr. B. then this man in his Tractate of Faith about Justification If elswhere he contradicts himself I shall oppose Ball against Ball yea Ball in afflictions when he lived by Faith and had nothing else but Christ apprehended by Faith to support his troubled soul to Ball nâ—w raised to a prosperous state in the world and whâ— seeing the Court infected with Popery Socinianism and Arminianism and no other bridge to prefermâ—nt so effectuall as some shew of bending at least to these wayes might possibly as far as Conscience would permit him make use of the language there held most authentick I say of the language for I cannot condemn his doctrine alledged in his three following Testimonies it taken in a good sense But his ambiguities of words seem to speak him out to have had a levell to somewhat els besides the supporting of the truth and yet his Conscience seems to hold him bound from saying any thing manifestly against the truth Mr. B. may possibly tickle himself with his words but his matter duly pondered gives him a sting sufficient to perswade him to forbear laughter Let the unbiassed judicious Reader add consideration to his reading and then judge The rest of the testimonies which he hath here cited and quoted I let passe as altogether besides the questions which Mr. B. hath set in agitation between himself and all the Protestant-Churches And thus at length have his Arguments been examined which he brings to confirm his Justification by works He hath many things tending to the confirmation of some other Paradoxes scattered in his Aphorisms beginning at p. 123. of his Appendix and ending at p. 164. but because those things are handled by way of disputation against others and Mr. B. as a challenger doth call out there by name Mr. Owen and Maccovius to a Duell with himself each after other exposing them to the world as base and silly Animals in what they have said except they come forth into open field to make it good It shall be both impertinent and uncivil in me to meddle in a business to which others and the same far more worthy and able are called as to their peculiar task I should not be excused by any herein from being one that loveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be busie in another mans office specially seeing I know not what these challenged have done or are doing in the defence of themselves and the doctrine which they have asserted Were it that their reputation alone and not a truth of Christ which they had undertaken to defend were here clouded by Mr. B. I should think it no fault in them to pass it by in contemptuous silence but seeing Mr. B. endeavours upon their ruines to erect his mounts against the City of the living God to destroy it or at least spoyle it of its principall immunities denying the full justification of the Lords redeemed ones in this world holding them under the curs and wrath of God both in their life and death I perceive not how they can be silent without betraying the truth of God which they once undertook to defend Since this was written I understand Mr. Owen hath fully vindicated himself and learnedly defended all that Mr. B. had laid on his score Thus far to his Arguments that he hath brought to prove Justification by works I find no more nor in these have I hidden any thing but set them forth in their fullest strength CHAP. XV. Mr. Baxters Plea to prove his Doctrine free from Popery examined and refuted I Come now to the most accurate finest and chiefest part of Mr. Brs. Art his Alcumistry by which hee turneth the basest metals into gold darkness into light death into life deformity into beauty and hell into heaven it self All this he with strong endeavours labours to accomplish while with strong confidence hee goes about to vindicate his doctrine from all error all infection of Popery Socinianism Pharisaism and to render it the same with the doctrine of Paul and of Christ guiltless of all derogation to the praise of Gods grace Christs merits or the Saints comfort Yea to set it forth in such a splendor that although hee hath hitherto described such a grace of God as by his donation was no more appropriated and peculiarized to Peter then to Judas to the cursed in hell than to the Saints in heaven and such a Christ as reigneth Tyrant-like in the Kingdom of grace chaining up his own all his own subjects and friends under the curse of the Law to bear the horrors and torments of it in soul and body all their life yea after death as long as the world shall continue though he hath taken away from the Saints after their self-denyall repentance building themselves by their most holy Faith upon Christ the Rock after their renovation and sanctification by the Spirit all hope and possibility of attaining any assurance of Gods unchangeable love to them or of their sinns irrevocably pardoned or of their perseverance in the state of Grace or of their indefeazable right to glory or of their exemption from the curse and wrath of God while they live or of the rest and freedom of their souls after death either from the flames of Hell or of Purgatory as long as the world standeth After hee hath taught that no man shall have any part in Christ and his benefits which procureth it not by his own righteousness his own perfect righteousness in suo genere yea by the merits of his righteousness After that he hath proclaimed that his Gospel brings no better tidings of joy than these Yet at length hee comes to varnish over such a Grace such a Christ such a Gospel such a state of believers who are all of his own faigning with such paints and fine colours as by them to enamour all men to embrace these as the only true and appetible Grace Christ Gospel and state of beleevers That this Doctrine
of Justification by Christ doth not give them any part of the work of Christs righteousness For it belongeth to Christs righteousness by it self alone and to Christ by his Mediatory righteousness alone to perfect for ever the Justification and salvation of his redeemed ones Heb. 10. 14. And that without any accessary help of their own righteousness John 13. 10. But Mr. Br. so parteth justification between Christs righteousness and our righteousnesse as that he makes them equally concurrent to our salvation and justifying That Christs Righteousness without ours can no more profit us than ours without Christs yea makes Christs righteousness wholly unprofitable to every man till by the serving and deserving of each man it be purchased and made usefull to benefit him And so by making the efficacy of it the fruit of our Merit he dis-robes it of its honour and ornament derogating from it its all-sufficiency by it self to perfect us that he may arrogate to our righteousness what is stoln from his But how farr this doctrine of his derogates both from the grace of God and merits of Christ hath been oft discussed After all that hee hath said to the defacing of both here he wipes his mouth and saith it was never foul and will have his Reader conclude that when his face of Christ is spittled yet if it be from Mr. Brs. lips touched with a Cole from Bellarmine and Arminius it is a blessing of him This one truth I acknowledg implyed though not expressed in this Argument of Mr. Br. that he acknowledgeth himself to be the man that hath made obedience or works condition of the New Covenant or of justification by Christ In this I contradict him not It is of mans not of Gods making it 's a creature of his own not created by God at least not by God assigned to this use and end It being therefore not formed to his hand but a graven image the work of his own hand we leave him sith he will do it alone without us to persist in worshipping it CHAP. XXIII Whether the Reasons which hee bringeth prove him not to be a Legallist and Anti-gospeller HIS fifth endeavour is to vindicate his doctrine from being legall and Anti-Evangelicall That although it hold Beleevers not only under the bondage but also under the Curse of the Law in life and death till the day of Judgment Thes 9. pa. 65. p. 73. and else-where oft Though it makes works the condition of the New as well as of the Old Covenant though he maintains that Doe and Live is the voyce of the Gospel as well as of the Law Append. p. 81. Yet is he not a Pharisee or Legallist nor his doctrine ungospel-like It is purely Christian and full of sweet and ravishing Consolation to a Beleever not the least tangue of the Covenant of works but the odour and very marrow of the Covenant of grace in it It would be too long to set forth in his own words all the reasons that scatteringly throughout this Book of his hee bringeth to prove a probability and likelihood of truth in this his Paradox The sum of it is this B. 1. As to the bondage and Curse of the Law though they that are in Christ are under it in part yet they are not under it in the whole as all sinners under the Law wholly out of Christ For they are conditionally pardoned and justified as he frequently expresseth himself and so there is some ground of hope to take off the extreamity of despair And it is not the whole but some part of the Curse of the Law that lyeth upon them p. 65. Thes 9. Christs death hath suspended the RIGOROVS execution of the sentence of the Law that it doth not immediately fall upon his Redeemed ones p. 67. though they suffer after they are in Christ much of the Curse in execution of the threatning of the Law and that not without rigour yet is it not in its full rigour p. 69. And Christ which hath suspended the rigour of the Curse manageth that which lyeth on them to their good and advantage pag. 72. And is not this cordiall Gospel the balm of Gilead and the healing of Christs wings to a wounded soul The force of all this hath been examined already as else-where so most copiously in the Examination of his ninth Thesis and the explication thereof to which for the prevention of Tautologizing here I refer the Reader Only let him by the way consider with me how fitly these glosses of Mr. Br. do agree with many plain and evident Sriptures Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. i. e. saith M. Br. from the rigour of the Curse not from the Curse it self for it lyeth upon us still or from the Curse that it shall not follow us to heaven after the world is ended not but that untill the worlds end it shall torment us both dead and living There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walke not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. i. e. No condemnation in its full rigour but condemnation unto and the execution of the Curse they must bear untill the day of judgment and after that he knoweth not what will become of them Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sinns are covered Rom. 4. 7. i. e. in part blessed and in part cursed The blood of Christ purgeth from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. i. e. from all sin not from all the curse and vengeance due to any one of our sins are we delivered God for Christs sake hath forgiven you all your sins and trespasses Eph. 4. 32. Col. 2. 13. i. e. hath forgiven you the fault but not the curse and punishment By one offering Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctifird i. e. hath laid a ground to perfect them if he will in the next world not that he hath perfected them in point of Justification here The time past is put for a time to come and a certain for an uncertain time Heb. 10. 14. They that are once purged by sacrifice have no more conscience of sinn i. e. when they are wholly purged in heaven not while they are but in part purged upon earth Heb. 10. 2. Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Heb. 10. 17. i. e. no more as forgiven to spare them But as long as the Sun and Moon endure I will remember to pour out the Curse and vengeance for them Wee are justified by the blood and reconciled to the Father by the death of the Son Rom. 5. 9 10. That is we have right and title so to be reconciled and justified in another world if we lose it not by the way He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and with his stripes we are healed Isa 53. 5. i. e. So healed with his stripes that he shall wound us
required to justification Or Mr. Br. that without craving leave of Paul by such gross distinetions goes about to make him unsay what he hath said and the world to believe that in all what he wrote of Justification hee meant to be understood on the contrary to what hee speaketh 6. If we bring works at all to procure justification by Christ we do by evacuating the grace of God and merits of Christ to our selves oblige put a bondage upon our selvet to fulfil the whole Law legally in its perfection else can we never be justified but abide under the Curse for ever For he that worketh requireth the reward as a debt in law and not as a gift of grace therefore except his work be so perfect as that it can in strict justice save him hee can never attain salvation as by comparing together these Scriptures will be evident viz. Gal. 5. 3 4. 3. 10. Rom. 4. 4 5. 9. 30 31 32. 7. As to the rules or qualifications which he gives to covenanting and obedience that it may be sincere they are in substance meerly legal the Name of Christ being only put in stead of the Name of God And who is there not only of the Jesuits Socinians with the Arminians from whom he borroweth most of his principles but even of the reall Antinomians whom he pretends to oppose who in all those particulars thinks not himself or gives not cause to all to think them as sincere as Mr. Br what ground have we to conclude but that they know the ends nature and conditions of the Covenant so truly and obey with so much deliberation and as little fittishness and rashness so seriously without dissimulation and slightness so freely intirely and singly aâ— Mr. Br. doth Thus every stigmatized Heretick in his own way bringing with him such a sincerity of obedience shall thereby be possessed of the investiture of Christs righteousness though he seek it in his own not in Gods way by his own righteousness and not by Faith alone which alone God hath stamped with an aptitude and efficacy to this work B. 2. The Law saith he requireth obedience and doing by its own righteousness to justifie us but the Gospel requireth it as a Medium to acquire to us Christs Righteousness by which wee may be justified So that the one requires works to justifie us withoutt the other the same works to justifie us by a Mediator This he saith so frequently in substance that it were lost labour to quote the places And it hath been almost so oft answered as said Therefore I shall referr the Reader to the places where it hath been answered and specially to the examination of those his disputes in which he labours to cleer his doctrine from all tincture of Popery from all contradiction to Paul and from being derogatory to Christ his righteousnes Here only I add that this doctrine is the same with that of the most legal Pharisees against whom the Apostle so much inveigheth wishing them accursed cut off for troubling the Churches therwith Gal. 1 9. 5. 12. For they arrogated to themselves alone part in Christ his Righteousnes because of their own personall righteousness in the works and obedience which the Law requireth resisting the Gentiles denying to them all possibility to partake in the Justification which is by Christ by means of Faith alone except they also fulfilled the righteousnesse which the Law required to give them right to him and it Yea Mr. Br. with these ascribes more to works than the very unbeleeving Pharisees For these claymed Justification only by their works but he and the beleeving Pharisees challenged for their works right both in the Justifier and in his justification also For Causa causae est etiam causa causati As farr as they ascribe to their works a Causality to make Christ theirs they make them causal to render the Justification which is by Christ theirs also B. 3. That neither is his Doctrine legall nor doth he ascribe too much to works because he maketh Faith and obedience to be but a Condition or a Mâ—dium or a poor improper Causa sine qua non of our Justification Aph. pa. 223 224. and our doing no part of satisfaction for our unrighteousness for this hee seems to have ascribed before to our sufferings in bearing the Curse but to be our Gospel-Righteousness or the Condition of our participation in Christ who is our legall Righteousness so of all the benefits that come by him App. p. 78. I say that subjection and obedience justifie 1 Not as works simply considered 2 Nor as legall works 3 Nor as meritorious workes 4 Nor as good works which God is pleased with 5 But as Conditions to which the free Law giver hath promised Justification and life Nay your i. e. the Protestants doctrine ascribeth farr more of the work to man than mine For you make Justification an effect of your own Faith and your faith an instrumentall cause of it and so make your self your own Justifier And you say your faith justifieth as it apprehendeth Christ which is the most intrinsicall essentiall consideration of Faith so faith hath much of the Honour But while I affirm that it justifieth only as a condition which is an extrinsicall consideration and alien from its essence and Nature I give the glory to him that freely giveth mee life and that made so sweet a condition to his Covenant and that enableth me to perform the said Condition App. pag. 120 121. All this hath been oft and fully examined before in its place also and how little truth there is in any part or parcell thereof discovered It would be weariness to the flesh and vexation to the Spirit but to look so often upon his great Goddess his Queen of Heaven CONDITION as he blesseth her O that his conscience had been so well acquainted with Christ as his fancy is with this Idoll he would not then have pestered the Church with such an imaginary Deity nor prostituted all that is called God at the feet of such a Proserpina I am weary any more to attend to him making the will of God i. e. God willing conditional and so the immutable God a conditional God the salvation of Christ conditional so Christ a conditional Saviour or the witness seal of Christ a conditional seal and witness and so the Holy Ghost a conditional Spirit of Adoption or the gospel of righteousness forgiveness and life a conditional Gospel and consequently nulling all thâ—se and pronouncing them no God no Christ no Holy Ghost no Gospel For a conditional proposition doth Nihil ponere and after Mr Brs. principles it is in mans righteosness to give or destroy the actual existence of every of these But I leave to him that delights therein to bury himself in this guâ—ph I conceive my self obnoxious to censure for spending and spilling so many words already to shew the deformity and
to salvation to become fools thereunto Are yee so foolish saith he having begun in the Spirit are yee now made perfect by the Flesh That by the Spirit and the Flesh is to be understood Faith and works in order to Justification cannot will not be denyed When therefore Mr. B. teacheth men to seek the beginning of Justification by faith and the perfecting thereof not by Faith onely but by works also he teacheth them to be foolish O foolish the worst fools to salvation and to be wise onely to condemnation This is to be wise according to Mr. B. wisedom in this Tractate that is wise after the Flesh not after the Spirit in seeking happiness in the way of works which the wisedom of the Flesh teacheth not in the way of Faith which the wisdom of the Spirit the wisedom of Christ his Gospel revealeth But all this together with a plain and full discovery of the vanity of this evasion hath been in its due place before held out which would be but a tyring of the Reader here again to be troubled with Onely the generall and chief thing which Mr. Br. both here and elswhere layeth as a foundation to his Justification by works it shall not be amisse briefly to examine here for the prevention of deceit to his Reader before I put a totall conclusion and period to what I have thought fit to except against this Work of his If it prove sandy and unsound his great Colossus of Justification by works falls all to shivers This is his quaint interpretation of faith in all such Scriptures as ascribe to Faith in opposition to works our justification That then by it we are to understand all Gospel duties all that Christ Commandeth not Faith in a distinct consideration from other qualifications and duties but Faith in a collective sense comprizing all morall duties and actions within it which is Faith and all its fruits yea more Faith and all that is reducible to it And thus according to Mr. Br. so oft as we are said to be justified by Faith not by works we must understand that the Holy Ghost meaneth that we are justified by Faith and works done after the tenor of the Gospel not by Faith and works done after the tenor of the Law Behold now the unfathomed depth of Mr. Brs wit and the unlimitted verge of his power His wit surpassing all the wisedom of all good and Orthodox men and Angels of whom no one had ever the reach since the world began to find with all his searching such a bugbear sense lurking in the plain Scripture Texts of the Apostle His power that with the stroking of this Mercuriall rod he makes fire and water life and death hell and heaven to lay down all their enmity each to other and sweetly to coll lodge and incorporate together Who would have thought that Paul who so seriously and sacredly professeth that he had rather in the Church to speak five words with his understanding so that he might teach and edifie others also than ten thousand in an unknown Tongue 1 Cor. 14. 17 19. And in preaching the Gospel discended to the unlearned and babes to feed them with milke to make all plain and easie to their understandings 1 Cor. 3. 2. should yet every where deliver the chief doctrine of the Gospel Justification by Christ in so dark Parables and riddles that none could find it out untill this Oedipus inspired from Socinus and Arminius rose up to unâ—iddle him For let there be named any one Protestant in any age till Mr. Br. held out his Candle to give light to the Sun that ever could dream of this Allegoricall sense after the principles of Origen lurking in Pauls words Or what hinders now but Faith may be turned into works and works into Faith Grace into strict justice and strict justice into free Grace the Law into Gospel and the Gospel into meer Law since Mr. Br. hath made a reconciliation and composure between Faith and Works in the point of Justification But whether this interpretation of Mr. B. be so firm as it is pretty and witty hath been before examined as elswhere so in the Examination of his third Argument for Justification by works drawn from his large definition of Faith which he giveth in his Thesis 70. Here onely I shall mention some phrases or names by which Justifying Faith is described in Scriptures and leave it to the judgment of every intelligent Reader to determine whether works can properly or in any tolerable sense be said to be comprized in faith as acting in the same kind of causality about such acts as those phrases or names imply 1 As Mr. Br. himself in his shorter definition defineth faith it is called our Receiving of Christ Jo. 1. 12. and that not in that wide sense which Mr. Br. fancieth but in that strict sense wherein Paul interprets it viz. the receiving of Christ to be our Righteousnes or receiving abundance of Grace and of the gift of righteousness by him Rom. 5. 16. 2 It is called the directing of the eye or looking to Christ yea to Christ lifted up upon the Cross for healing Io. 3. 14. 3 A coming to Christ for Life Jo. 6. 37. 5. 40. 4 The eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood to everlasting life Jo. 6. 53-56 5 A putting on of Christ as a Garment of Righteousness to cover our nakednesse and filthinesse Phil. 3. 9. Rev. 3. 18. I could add many the like phrases if it were needfull But these may suffice and who is there that sees not these to imply an instrumentality in faith to make Christ ours to Justification Yea and that in faith onely and not in works at all for how can Charity Chastity Mercy righteousnesse and the severall acts of these and other qualifications of which most have our Neighbour or Brother for their immediate Object about which in acting they are occupant be called the receiving intuition of and coming to Christ the eating of his flesh and drinking his blood or the putting on of him for righteousnesse It would seem strange to me that any man waking and not dreaming should conclude such works to be Antecedents and not the fruits of Justification and life by Christ Or that when faith is described by these denominating phrases works also as couched in faith should contrary to their nature be so denominated Nay Faith is thus diveâ—sly named in opposition to works yea to Gospel works For so doth our Saviour answer and determine the question put to him what to do under the Gospel that we might work the works of God i. e. what is to be done on our part that we may be justified and saved This is the work of God saith he that is this is in steed of all doings all workings that ye beleeve in him whom he hath sent Jo. 6. 28 29. which after he expresseth more fully to be a beleeving in him that came down from heaven and
that gave and as he gave his life for the world and giveth life to the world All works are excluded that this beleeving might be reserved sole entire sacred and soveraign to receive Christ to Justification and salvation Here at length I shall put a period to my Examination of this Tractate of Mr. Br. in which I have not wittingly let passe any one particle of all that he hath brought to the re-erecting of Justification by works without examining the strength and force of it which if he had done in relation to all the Arguments which the Protestant Churches and Divines have brought against it before he adventured peremptorily to pronounce their doctrine Hâ—torodox and Antinomistick and the doctrine of the Papists in this point sound and holy I am of opinion that either this work of his had never come forth to the subverting of souls and troubling of the Church or if it had so come forth it would have been a very abomination to all that are not made to be taken and trampled under foot as an accursed thing But now having begun in that manner as we see to set up this worst piece of damning Popery under a false pretence of love to the Protestant and hatred of the Popish Religion It is not to be expected but that seeing his reputation jeoparded he will per fas nefas proceed to seek the support of it though it be to the further ecclipsing of the Grace of God and honour of Christ CHAP. XXV The Conclusion of the whole Treatise demonstrating that although we with the Scriptures exclude works from Justification yet we include them as necessary to a Christian life and that no less seriously and upon more spirituall grounds than the Evill Workers that will be justified by them HAving ended at present with Mr. Baxter I have for the Conclusion of all somewhat to say that may have relation to the weak reader It is a difficult thing to remove works from justification and not to expose our selves therein to the Censure of babish ungospellized and unstablished men that we therein banish them also from the life and practice of a Christian When we teach that the righteousness of the Gospel is revealed from Faith to Faith as it is written the just shall live by Faith not by works Rom. 1. 17. And that no man is justified by the Law i. e. by the strictest observation of the righteousness of the Law Because it is written that the just shall live by Faith Gal. 3. 11. That the inheritance is by Faith not by works lest any man should boast Rom. 4. 1 2. Eph. 2. 8 9. That it is of Faith that it may be of Grace and if it be of grace then is it no more of works else grace were no more Grace But if it be of works then is it no more of grace otherwise works were no more works Rom. 4. 16. 11. 6. That whosoever seeketh justification and blessedness by works worketh himself out of it and shall never attaine it because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works af the Law Rom. 9. 31 32. At the sound of this doctrine the unspiritual man excepteth and flesh and bloud swelleth murmuringly Crying out What profit is it then to serve the Lord Why should I fast pray give alms shew mercy study holines and purity deny my self the pleasures of sinn any more when all these have no â—fficacy in them to justifie and save It was the Clamor of men against Paul when he preached the riches of grace abounding the more by the abounding of Mans sinns We will therefore sinn said they that Grace may abound Rom. 6. 1. And do evill that good may come Rom. 3. 8. This doctrine of Faith makes voyd the Law loosing us from all obligation to perform the holines and righteousness which the Law requireth Rom. 3. 31. And as Mr. Br. teacheth them further to reply against God tendeth to drive obedience out of the world For if it be denyed that man can merit happiness by his own righteousness he will cease to be righteous and take the bitt in his teeth to run rebell So deep an impression hath the Covenant of works yet still in mans heart that though he be insufficient to do or to think as he ought 2 Cor. 3. 5. yet he will have Do and Live to be the issue of Life and Death still And Mr. Br. teacheth them to stopp the hole of mans insufficiency with this nayl not of the Sanctuary but of Alexander the Copper-Smith because we cannot perform legall therefore Gospel-obedience shall do the work as if work were not work when the Title of Gospel is written on it and because we cannot fullfill perfect therefore sincere obedience shall serve the Turn Hence is it that the Popish and Arminian doctrines wherewith this Book of Mr. Br. is fully fraughted takes every where so plausibly with and hath such Compleat acceptance among the multitude both of the learned and unlearned It is a doctrine not above but agreeing with the principles of Nature and the naturall man even the naturall Conscience suggesteth it to the unlearned to seek for happiness by their own righteousness And both that and the precepts of Moral Philosophy also together with the Law of Moses instruct the learned to seek for the Summum Bonum the best felicity all felicity in the way of vertue and vertuous performances Here now when any comes to them in the name of Christ holding forth to them the same doctrine it kindles in them so swiftly as fire in towe no need of the teaching of God or renewing of the Spirit Flesh and bloud of it self gives its suffrage to it An easie task have these teachers to perswade men and draw disciples after them and set them in an activeness and dexterity of practicing what they teach It is easily learned to swimm swiftly with the stream and to drop the Bowle down the hill But to teach men to live by Faith and yet to be fruitfull in good works too Not to seek justification and life by their righteousness yet to be zealous of all righteousnes and good works continually hic labor hoc opus est It is above the principles of Nature to apprehend it He must swimm against the stream and roll the Bowl against the Hill walk after the Spirit and not after the Flesh that puts it effectually into practice Yet that our Doctrine doth not let loose the reins to the flesh nor howsoever carnall sensuallists may abuse it to their Condemnation in the least degree blunt the spirits of the spirituall man to well-doing nor deny the both expediency and necessity of all good works in the life of a Christian is evident 1 Because although we exclude morall qualifications and works from officiating to Justification yet we retein and include them in and unto sanctification Our doctrine with Christs and his Apostles holds forth the Lord Jesus to every soul
he fights against natural reason perswading men never more to eat because their meat is not appointed to Clothe them or to walk naked because he saith their garments are not usefull to nourish them No more Cause hath Mr. Br. or the Papists to accuse us that we banish good works from the life of a Christian by teaching that they are not usefull or appropriated to justifie but to sanctifie very usefull in all the particulars before-mentioned How unacquainted with the frame of a Christian spirit are these objectors Either they do not experimentally know or else do stifle within themselves this knowledge that a Christ-enjoying and Gospellized soul gaspeth no less for deliverance from the bondage than from the Condemnation of sinn delights so much in performing duty to Christ as in receiving pardon from him groanes so pathetically under the body as ever he did under the guilt of sinn Cryeth with equall vehemency of affâ—ctionâ— for holiness unto God as for happiness with him for Conformity to him in righteousness as in glory makes no other use of his redemption than to run at liberty the race of obedience set before him embraceth and delighteth in sanctifying as well as in saving grace in the infusion as in the imputation of righteousness labours to dispense all for the Lord and his service whatsoever he hath received from the Lord and his free grace Therefore whatsoever the Lord powrs upon him to sanctification is received with so great joy in the Holy Ghost as that which is communicated to him to justification and he labours to be and express himself wholly Christs as well as to obtein Christ wholly his As for Mr. Brs meerly Morall Men that will receive Christ neither to Justification nor to sanctification but upon their own terms purchasing him by Fine and rent that the glory might be partly theirs and not wholly Christs It is enough that Mr. Br. hardens and subverts them in this their Moral madness wholly contradictive to the spirituallness and wisdome of the Gospel We shall not be insnared by all the nicities of his Arts and Chimicall extracts of the spirits of his spoyling Philosophy to involve our selves with him in the guilt of poysoning so many souls and turning their best righteousness and devotion into sinn by encouraging them to appropriate the same to such an end as is destructive to the glory of Gods grace and contrary to the minde and rule of the Gospel We have one Master which is Christ his dictates expressed by him and his Apostles in the plainness and foolishness of their preaching are so sacred and authoritative with us that neither the most labyrinthical mazes of sophistry shall unwinde us nor the extravagancies of the most luxuriating witts nor the most Curious plausibilities of humane reason shall by Gods Grace unreason us so from our selves as to undisciple us from him Yea though we could not in some things give a satisfactory answer to the sophisticated reasonings of these disputers against Christ and his Gospel yet should we fit down as fools with Christ and his Apostles adoring the manifold wisdome of God revealed in a mystery rather than be wise with these men to the world knowing that the foolishness of God is wiser and the weakness of God is stronger than men And we seek wisdome and happiness from the mines of Christs Gospel not from the dry quarrie of mans literature and inventions 2 Though we reject it as an arrogant and presumptuous doctrine which Mr. Br. in Common with the Papists teacheth That we are justified and saved by our good qualifications and works for our works for the merit and worthinesse of our good works yet we teach and believe that they are in respect of all that have age ability and time to perform them necessary Consequents of our Justification and Antecedents of our glorification Let a man pretend what he will of Faith in Christ yet if by Faith hee do not cleave firmly to him to derive from him power to mortifie every sinn to perform all duty if he can allow within himselfe any known evill or continue in the neglect of any known duty without striving to get the victory in the strength of Christs Spirit over every such infirmity wee take such a man so farr from Christ as Christ is from Belial A branch in Christ not bearing fruit which is appointed to be cut off and cast into the fire because he was never in Christ otherwise but by a formall profession never had vitall union to him or communion with him by the ligatures of Faith and the Spirit For sanctification is an individual companion of Justification And the office of Christ is to be the Author of both to all that believe Otherwise the work of his Mediator-ship should not be compleated in either one of these and so he should not be our Christ if a halfe Christ only to us And Sanctification is still begun and carried on towards perfection also where there is time and meanes in the kingdom of Grace before its perfecting and swallowing up into glory in the Kingdom of glory No righteousness and holiness of man is begun in the next life But there shall be the consummation in power of that which here was begun in truth though it laboured of and languished with much infirmity 3 Wee are guiltless of those Crimes wherewith Mr. Br. endeavours to defame us and our Doctrine For 1. Neither doe wee teach or think as M. Br. suggesteth that nothing is preaching Christ but preaching him as a pardoning justifying Saviour Aph. pa. 328. Indeed we preach Justification to consist if not only yet chiefly in the pardon of sinn through the mediation of Christs death That this benefit of Christ is perfected by the satisfaction which he hath made to Gods justice in suffering for us and appropriated to us by faith alone But wee deny this to be all the Gospel-grace exhibited to us by Christ and in and through him We hold him forth as the Light of the world also having all the treasures of wisedom and knowledg hid in him Joh. 8. 12. Col. 2. 3. from whom are all the irradiations and Revelations of all the mysteries of Grace effectuall to life and holiness Mat. 13. 11. 1 Cor. 2. 10. And to the word and spirit of Christ we send all men for illumination And the Life of the world not only to restore them to life in law by Justification but as the Lord and principle of Life to beget in us an inherent life active and moving to all obedience Therefore we endeavour to send all to Christ for life even for this life because the whole judgment and dispensation thereof is committed to him and he is our all to sanctification also Joh. 5. 21 22 25 26. Col. 3. 11. We indeed except against that Doctrine as more Legal than Evangelical that roars thunders Condemnation against poor Exiles in a dry wilderness where is no water fainting and even dead with
thirst if they do not arise work and fulfill their task We require first that the Rock be cloven with the Rod of God that the water of life may gush out in full Rivers and that the fainting souls be brought to drink thereof and then called upon in the life and strength which they have hence received to work and be doing Yea to come to this stream often to drink that their strength and spirits may be daily more revived that they may bâ—come daily more enabled for and more abundant in the work of the Lord. We have not with Mr. Br. yet learned the skill of preaching good works to make Christ ours but follow the rule of the Scriptures to preach Christ into the hearts of men to make them fruitfull in good works Neither doe wee count all formall obedience and righteousnesse of men though conscientiously and by the guidance of Naturall Conscience performed to be either sanctification or the fruit thereof That onely is sanctification which flowes from the heart of Christ and is infused by the Spirit of Christ For the attaiâ—ment thereof we call all men into union and fellowship with Christ so far are we from holding that Nothing is preaching Christ but the preaching him as Justifier and Saviour that we hold it an empty Preachment that preacheth any good thing without Christ or out of Christ of which men are not taught to make Christ the Alpha and the Omega We leave it to Mr. Br. and his brethren to urge works duties obedience c. and once in a Moon upon an auspicious Tropick thereof to remember Christ and grace and tell us that all must be done by the help of grace and without Christ we can do nothing Yet leaving us uncertain still whether it be the Grace and Christ of Pelagius or else of God reconciled to us that he speaketh I should be too long in expressing fully how we hold forth Christ whole Christ and only Christ to Adoption protection perseverance strengthening comforting perfecting c. In a word to all that is either good to be received or good to be done In him wee teach that God will have all his frâ—sh springs to reside that without him we are nothing can do nothing that in him and by him we have all and can do all things That therefore we preach nothing but Christ yet preach all that is to be preached in preaching him because in him it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell Col. 1. 19. even all fulness for us so that in him we are full out of him meer emptiness We would not have one beam of this Sun of Righteousness clouded but labour to discover to our people his full glory and Soveraignty to all those sacred ends to which God hath consecrated him that if any would have nothing of Christ to be preached but his pardoning and saving the sin may be wholly theirs not ours that they will receive the skirt of Christ and consequently refuse Christ when we preach to them whole Christ and all the benefits that are by him Nor 2 do we deny an ordinate and subordinate love to our selves as Mâ— Br. slanders us no lesse bitingly than secretly App. pa. 81 82. in teaching that it is the most Gospel-â—rame of Spirit to perform duty out of meer love to God without seeking by such duties wrought quasi opere operato remission of sins redemption from Hell and right to glory by the Merit thereof as he teacheth us to do thinking no doubt his glory shall be great if he can there perswade where all the suâ—tlest sons of Satan the Jesuits have not been able Nay we maintayn that none can regularly love himself who loveth not God above himself and seeks not Gods glory more than his own good That whosoever in a pretext of love to himself brings his fardle of trashie works at the feet of Christ by them to purchase to himself the benefits of his death is of all men the worst enemie to himself incurs rejection and expulsion from Christ and all the benefits of his death and resurrection For hee was sent to seeke oâ—ely that which was lost came not to call the righteous but sinners to repenâ—â—nce He loves himself indeed and spiritually that for his love to God denies himself The self-dejected Publican is acceâ—ted with God when the prating Pharisee is hurled with his mouth full of works out at the door Or is there any great difference between this and the Devils doctrine preached to our first Parents Ye shall be as Gods said the Devill Ye shall be all Christs Saviours Justifiers saith Mr. Br. Your righteousness and Christs righteousness shall jump together into the same kind of Causality to justifie and save you Our first Parents hearkned and seeking to become Gods became Devils or what is worse slaves to the Devill We have all felt the smart yet many and that of them which are termed Angels listen earnestly to the like hissing of the Serpent now again We can but mourn for them that in madd love to themselves will hasten up to heaven by climbing high Steeples that look fairly thither-ward but can never heave them up to it nay contrariwise can give them no such sustentation but that they fall thence and dash themselves into shivers Yet in our doctrine is contained a wise and ordinate love to our selves Though we use not works as waxen wings to soar aloft to kisse the Sun and settle our selves in the same Sphere with him yet wee make use of our qualifications and duties to the continuall encrease of our sanctification and to what greater good for himself can mans strongest love to himself aspire than to his full and real perfection consisting in his restitution to Gods image and conformity to his will and nature This shall be the Consummate blessedness which we shall enjoy above and it is a blessedness inchoate and increasing while we passe from strength to strength in it here Who are the self-haters and self-destroyers the Papists or we the success will at length evidence and such professed Divines and Christians among us as have not their eyes soyled with Kederminster dust and smoak can discern already Nor thirdly doth our doctrine tend to drive obedience out of the world So that we may answer Mr. Brs question Aphor. p. 325. If men once beleeve that works are not so much as a part of the Condition of our Justification will it not much tend to relax their diligâ—nce with the authority of the Apostle who having taught his Ephesians that we are saved by grace through faith not of works lest any man should boast Eph. 2. 8 9. Yet concludeth that as many as have learned Christ truly and heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus These all have learned to put off concerning the former conversation the old Man which is corrupt c. and to be renewed in the spirit of the mind and to put on