for us to satisfie in our stead and his holy spirit to unite us to his Sonne and to bring us to communion of his satisfaction Thus wee see that they shut up the doore of Heaven and stop that onely way to eternall life by overthrowing justification which is the making and accounting of men righteous by that onely righteousnes of Christ besides which there is not any other to be found sufficient and able to beare us out before GODS tribunall of justice Now let all true Christians well weigh and consider the difference betweene truth and errour life and death true Christianity and Antichristian infidelity for such is the damned Socinianisme before discovered And if any man in the midst of the light of the Gospell shining so clearely and discovering so plainely cursed heresie will be blind let him bee more blind still and if any will be filthie let them bee more filthie still And if any love not the LORD Jesus but hate and blaspheme his truth let him be Anathema Maranatha Amen THE SECOND CHAPTER OF Socinianisme Wherein the imputation of faith for righteousnesse in a proper sense is undertaken to be proved from the Scriptures and the interpretation of those Scriptures confirmed both by reason and authority as well of ancient as moderne Divines THE PREFACE WHat it is that should be imputed for righteousnesse in justification all the wisdome and learning under heaven is not so fit or able to determine as the holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures being the great Secretary of heaven and privie to all the wayes and counsels of GOD and therefore there is none to him to take up any difference or to comprimise betweene the controverters about any subiect in Religion All the difficulty and question is because though hee speakes upon the house top yet hee interprets in the eare all the Christian world either knowes or readily may know what hee speakes in the Scripture But what his meaning and intent is in any thing he leaves unto men to debate and make out amongst them To some indeed hee reveales the secret of his counsell the Spirit of his letter in some particulars but because these are not marked in the forehead therefore their apprehensions and thoughts though the true begotten of the truth are yet in common esteeme but like other mens till some stamp or superscription of rationall authority be set upon them to make the difference yea many times the nearer the truth the further off from the approbation of many and sometimes even of those that are greatest pretenders to the truth The Answere THe first part or speech is a solid truth to wit that no wisdome and learning under heaven is so fit or able to determine what is imputed for righteousnes in justification as the holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures But this truth he contradicts in the next words which follow immediately where he saith that the holy Ghost leaues his meaning and intent to men to debate which if it be true then men are to determine and to take up every difference about any subject in Religion This beginning with contradiction is very ominous and prodigious and from hence we may gather what we are likely to find in his ensuing discourse The rule by which men are to judge of the Spirits meaning is the stamp and superscription of rationall authority set upon them so hee here expressely affirmes and in this hee openly professeth himselfe to be of the faction of the Socinian and Arminian remonstrants who doe teach that the best judge of the meaning of the Scriptures is recta ratio that is their owne carnall reason rectified by the art of Sophistrie Againe hee affirmes that all the Christian world knowes or readily may know what the holy Ghost speaks in the Scripture If this be true then they are all taught of GOD and the Spirit leaues not his meaning to men to debate and to promise betweene controverters Here is another contradiction Hee proceeds yet further in his absurdities and tells us that the holy Ghost reveales not to all the Christian world but to some the secret of his counsell the Spirit of his letter this is a contradiction to that which went next before And whereas before hee saith that all the Christian world knowes what the holy Ghost speakes in Scripture that is all saving truth here hee saith that hee reveales the secret of his counsell but in some particulars thus in every thing he contradicts himselfe and like a lunatick broken out of Bedlam he raves first saying and affirming and immediately denying and gainesaying in the same things But yet a lunatick persons have high conceits of themselves that they are of noble and royall blood right heires to Crownes Kingdoms and Empires or if not the holy Ghost himselfe yet persons wonderfully illuminated and inspired by him And many times they will not utter their conceits in expresse words but tell you of such great persons and complaine of your blockish dulnesse and stupidity if you doe not presently discerne that they speake of themselves and they are the men So here doth this illuminated Doctor deale with us He tells us of some speciall ones to whom the Spirit interprets in the eare and reveales the secret of his councell the Spirit of his letter who are the true begotten of the truth and that hee takes himself to be a chiefe among these it appeares first by his undertaking to give a reason of the counsell and purpose of GOD in his former Chapter as I have there noted Secondly by his taking upon him here to determine this question which none but such illuminated ones can be able to do And hee breakes off his prologue with a kind of complaint and exprobration full of disdaine namely this that because they meaning himselfe and his fellowes are not marked in the forehead by the Spirit of illumination therefore their thoughts and apprehensions are yet in common esteeme like other men you see non sapit humanum nec est mortale quod optat till some stamp and superscription of rationall authority be set upon them to make the difference Here hee seemes in this last clause to take courage and to conceive some hope that by the rational authority of his new coined Logick of which he lately gave us a tast whē he told us that causes are opposit ex diametro therefore the efficient impulsive instrumentall materiall formall and finall causes of mans justification and salvation cannot all or the most of them concurre in one person Christ though GOD and man hee will make the difference knowne betweene his excellency and other mens ignobility and obscurity The last clause of his complaint wherewith hee concludes his Preface is an overthwart blow to some where speaking of those first begotten of the truth he saith yea many times the nearer the truth the further off from the approbation of many and sometimes even of those that are the greatest pretenders to the
receives either the inward testimony of the Spirit and is enlightned by GOD to see that he is in the state of righteousnesse absolved and iustified or by inward sense of his sanctification Faith and other graces proper to the righteous iustified is declared and made manifest to his owne conscience that he is justified and righteous and hath all his sinnes pardoned and is accepted of GOD for a righteous man This is that which wee are taught by Christ to pray for in that petition forgive us our debts or trespasses that is pacify and cleare our consciences by manifesting to us that we are justified and have remission of all our sinnes by thy free grace and by communion of Christs full satisfaction and thus wee are to understand the word wheresoever it is opposed to the accusations of Satan and the horrours and troubles of conscience as a remedie against them as Rom 8.33 Secondly it signifies declaring and proving men righteous in foro humano in the judgement and sight of men openly and that by outward fruites of Faith and externall workes of righteousnes and holinesse When GOD enableing us and moving us to doe such workes and bring forth such fruites as are by his word continually pronounced and proclaimed to be righteous and holy works and evidences of justification doth thus declare and prove us to be faithfull and righteous hee is said to justifie us before men In this sense the word is used Iob 13.18 where Iob saith that if hee may plead before GOD the integrity of his life he knoweth hee shall be justified as afterward he did cap. 31. and was thereby declared to be righteous and so justified And Iam. 2.21 where it is 〈◊〉 that Abraham was justified by workes that is declared to be a righteous man Thirdly it signifies judging and declaring men to bee persons justified and righteous in the universall judgement at the last day when the LORD Christ shall by the evidence of their workes of love and charity done to him in his members declare them to bee his faithfull servants and children of his Father justified by the communion of his righteousnes and in him worthie of eternall life and also adjudge them unto the inheritance of the kingdome of Glory In this sense the word is used Rom. 5.16.18 where it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justification of life and is opposed to the sentence of everlasting condemnation These are all the significations of the word iustifie recorded in the Scriptures And this great promiser here sheweth himselfe ignorant of them all and therefore how little satisfaction he hath given to any but such fooles as delight to fill themselves with huskes let the learned iudge Socinianisme THat Iesus Christ the naturall sonne of GOD and supernaturall sonne of the Virgin Marie ran a race of obedience with the Law as well Ceremoniall as Morall and held out with every letter iot and title of it as farre as it any wayes concerned him dureing the whole continuance of his life in the flesh no mans thoughts ever rose up to deny but those that denyed him the best of his being I meane his God-head which of you can convince mee of sinne was his chalenge to the nation of the Iewes whilst he was yet on earth Iohn 8.46 And remaines through all ages as a challenge to the whole World He that can cast the least aspersion of sinne upon Christ shall shake the foundation of the peace and safety of the Church That this Christ offered himself as a Lamb without spot in sacrifice upon the Crosse to make an atonement for the World and to purge the sinnes of it I know no spirit at this day abroad in the world that denyes but that which wrought in Socinus formerly and still workes in those that are baptized into the same spirit of errour with him I conceive it to bee a truth of greater authority amongst us then to meet with contradiction from any that Iesus Christ is the sole entire meritorious cause of every mans iustification that is iustified by GOD or that that righteousnesse or absolution from sinne and condemnation which is given to every man in his iustification is somewhat yea a principall part of that great purchase which Christ hath made for the world even as GOD for Christs sake freely forgave you Forgivenesse of sinnes or iustification is from GOD for Christs sake hee is worthie to be gratified or honoured by GOD with the iustification of those that beleeve in him It 's a truth which hath every mans iudgement concurrent with it that Faith is the condition appointed by GOD and required on mans part to bring him into communion and fellowship of that iustification and redemption which Christ hath purchased for the children of men and that without beleeving no man can have part or fellowship in that great and blessed businesse Christianisme IN this second part he doth promise foure severall propositions which hee conceives to bee out of question and undenyable By the first proposition hee makes a faire shew in words but his heart is farre removed and his meaning is wicked and so will appeare if we observe how hee in another place afterwards explaines himselfe First though hee seemes to acknowledge Christ to bee GOD yet he takes away the use of his being GOD as well as man in the worke of our redemption For if GOD by his supreme sovereigne power can dispense with the law of his iustice and instead of Christs full satisfaction made for us to the law and imputed to us and made ours can and doth accept our weake Faith for the perfect righteousnesse of the Law what use is there of Christs being GOD in our nature For all Orthodox Divines doe give this reason why it was necessary that Christ should be GOD in our nature viz. That his suffering and righteousnesse performed in our nature might be of value to iustifie all the sonnes of men who have communion of them and to whom they are imputed This communion and imputation while he denyeth hee takes away the use of Christs being GOD in our nature Secondly in affirming that Christ obeyed the whole Law in every letter jot and title he doth mock and delude his hearers and readers for he doth not hold that he fulfilled the Law onely for us but primarily for himselfe his words imply so much for he saith he obeyed the Law as far as concerned himselfe while he continued in the flesh and he dorh hereafter roundly affirme that Christ was bound to fulfill the Law for himselfe which is in effect a denying of his eternall God-head for if he be GOD infinite in glory and excellency his God-head must needes exempt the Manhood personally united to it from all bondage of the Law and make it worthy of glory at GODS right hand from the first assumption of it He continued in the flesh and obeyed the Law onely for us without all doubt as the Prophet foretold Esa. 9.6
righteousnesse to him and man is justified by believing that GOD counts him righteous in Christ then wee deny not that faith in some respect is the formall cause of justification For in this justification taken passively as it is mans receiving by faith that which GOD imputes to him that is as it is a mans believing that God reckons him among the righteous and counts him to be in the state of a justified person so his actuall faith and believing is the forme of his justification But take Justification according to his owne opinion for GODS imputeing faith in a proper sense for righteousnesse Then is faith that somewhat by which a man stands in the state of a person Justified before GOD even his formall righteousnesse or that at least which is in stead of formall righteousnes Thus he is every way taken and entangled in his owne words Lastly what that is which hee saith is the genuine tenet of Arminius hee doth not expresse whether it be that faith is really different or not different from the forme of Justification for his words are included in a parenthesis which might very well be left out onely this I know that Arminius professeth this to be his genuine tenet That faith is imputed to the beleever for righteousnes sensu proprio non mâ—tonymico in a proper sense without a trope In Epist. ad Hippolitum de Collibus If elsewhere hee alters his tenet and writes otherwise It is but the common disease the vertigo and giddinesse of the Socinian faction to doe as here their fellow disciple doth in this his hovering and wavering discourse that is to say and gainesay affirme and deny the same things through the inconstancy of their windy braines and mindes unsetled The 4 Quaere NOr yet doth the question make any quaere at all whether Christ be the sole meritorious cause of justification of a sinner for both they that goe on the right hand of the question and they that goe on the left hand are knit together in the same mind and iudgment concerning this Answere WHosoever denyeth such a Spirituall union communion between Christ and the penitent and believing sinner iustified as doth make Christs righteousnesse and satisfaction to become his ransome and righteousnesse and to be imputed by GOD to him and to make him accepted by GOD as one cleane from the guilt of sinne and righteous in his sight This man denyeth Christ to be the meritorious cause of the Justification of a sinner For till Christ with his satisfaction be communicated and appropriated to the faithfull yea till his righteousnes be so made theirs and set on their skore that they have a right and interest in it Christ is no more meritorious of Justification to them then hee is to Infidels and reprobates for it is as impossible for Christ to be actually meritorious of Justification to any man who hath not an interest in him as for one mans money to ransom another who is a captive upon whose skore it was never set noâ— so much interest therein given to him that it is paid for him and accounted for his ransome 5 Quaere NEither doth the question as it is here propounded intâ—nd any dispute at all whether the active obedience of Christ falling in with the passive and considered in coniunction with it be that whereby Christ merited the Justification of sinners or that which GOD hath a principall respect and recourse unto in the Justification of sinners for this also is acknowledged on both sides at least by the greater partie of both Answere BVt while he denyes GODS communicating and imputeing Christs whole obedience hee denies the merit of them in our Justification and when hee affirmes that faith and not Christs righteousnesse is the thing imputed for righteousnesse to iustification he denies Christs obedience active and passive to be that which GOD hath a principall respect and recourse unto in the iustification of sinners and therefore here he contradicts himselfe and saith untruely that all sides hold the merit of Christs whole obedience when in his Doctrine he utterly overthrowes it The 6 Quaere which he alloweth and affirmeth BUt lastly the question in plaine tearmes is this whether the faith of him that truly beleeves in Christ or whether the righteousnesse of Christ himselfe that is that obedience that Christ performed to the morall Law consisting of all those severall and particular acts of righteousnesse wherein he obeyed in the letter and propriety of it bee that which GOD imputes to a beleever for righteousnesse in his justification so that he that beleeves is not righteous onely by account or by GODS gracious reputing and accepting of him for such but is rigidly literally and peremptorily righteous constituted and made as perfectly and compleatly and legally righteous as Christ himselfe no difference at all betweene them quoad veritatem but onely quoad modum the justified every whit as righteous as the iustifier both righteous with the selfesame individuall righteousnes onely this difference betweene one and the other the iustified weares iâ— as put upon him by another by imputation the iustifier weares it as put upon him by himselfe or by inherency That the Scriptures no where countenance any such imputation of the righteousnes of Christ I trust the spirit of truth directing and assisting to make manifest in the sequele of this discourse and to give good measure of truth to the Reader heaped up by testimonies from the Scripture pressed downe by the weight of many arguments demonstrations running over with the cleare approbation of many Authors learned and sound and every way greater then exception Multa fidem promissa levant Answere TO this question laid downe in plaine and precise termes I answer First that to move this question except with purpose to discover and oppose Socinus and his followers who affirme it and stand for imputation of faith in a proper sense for righteousnes is not to be tolerated among true Christians but to dispute for that damned errour which takes the Crowne from the all-sufficient righteousnes of Christ and sets on the head of mans weake faith is most hereticall impudency as in my whole answere I shall prove aboundantly Secondly his absurd expounding of Justification by Christs righteousnes imputed and how in this question the righteousnes of Christ and the iustifying of men by it are to be understood is a notable point either of calumny in slandering our doctrine and reporting it corruptly or of subtilty that when his opinion is proved to be blasphemous hee may have some starting holes through which hee may shift away and make an escape pleading that hee mistooke our Doctrine of being righteous by Christs righteousnesse imputed and ignorantly did oppose it First no man standing for the imputation of Christs righteousnes doth affirme that every particular act of Christ which hee performed was necessary to make up a perfect and sufficient righteousnes but that his righteousnesse containes in it all his acts
transgressor and doth pronounce him just The third is a Iudiciary sense lesse properly so called when a supreme Iudge by soveraignety of power doth acquit and absolve a man and remit the penalty of the Law which he deserves upon weighty consideration knowne to himselfe and doth deliver him and discharge him as if he were an innocent and righteous man The first Physicall sense he rejects and playes upon Bellarmine for reteining and using the word Iustifie in that sense And yet he himselfe immediatly acknowledgeth that GOD upon a mans Iustification begins to Iustifie him Physically by infusing into him habituall and inhaerent righteousnesse But this he saith is in Scripture called Sanctification The second sense he also disclaimes and in this dispute embraceth the third sense to wit that Iustification signifies GODS forgiving a man freely all that he hath done against the Law and his acquiting and discharging of a man from the guilt and punishment due by the Law for such offences not for any consideration which can be pleaded for him according to the Law but for somwhat done for him in this case to relieve him out of the course order and appointment of the Law His reason why he embraceth this sense is because he conceives Iustification to stand in forgivenesse of sinne which belongs to the Law in no respect at all In all this part and passage I find not one particle of solid truth but many grosse errors and falshoods for of all the three significations of the word Iustifie by him here named onely the first may passe in some tollerable construction but not in his sense for though GOD in the creation made our first Parents after his owne Image and similitude in perfect righteousnesse indued with a naturall and habituall uprightnesse conformable to his revealed will and Law and in this respect may be said to have Iustified that is made them upright as the wise Preacher saith Eccles. 7.29 GOD made man upright Yet whether this act of creation was a Physicall act of GOD or rather a voluntary act of his will of his wisdome and counsell and so may be called Artificial is something disputable As for the framing and making of the man Christ the blessed seed by the power of the holy Ghost pure holy upright and iust from his first conception this was a spirituall and supernaturall act and the holinesse and righteousnesse was a supernaturall gift given from above not introduced by naturall generation nor raised from naturall principles That making of men righteous in their sanctification which Bellarmine speaks of is not iustification in a naturall but in a spirituall sense For the spirit of GOD worketh those habits and graces of holinesse in men whom GOD hath begotten of his owne will in the word of truth And therefore when Bellarmine or Goodwin or any other call this a Physicall iustifying they erre grossely For if it be any iustification at all it is spirituall and morall But for my part I finde not that by the Spirit of GOD in Scripture any habituall holinesse of men begun in this life is called righteousnesse simply in it selfe But as the Saints regenerate and faithfull are called righteous in respect of their communion with Christ and participation of his righteousnes So their sanctity or habituall holinesse is called righteousnesse not simply in it selfe but by coniunction with the righteousnesse of Christ the head of the body which as it iustifies them by constituting and making them righteous so also it iustifies their rectified holy actions which they performe by the moâ—ions of the spirit and by Faith in Christ as learned Beza well observed and truth affirmeth Lib. contra Anonymum and their sanctification cannot be called iustification but by reason of coniunction with iustification in the same person For if it were possible for a sinfull man to be made perfectly holy and conformable to GODS Law in his owne person yet having formerly transgressed the Law and failed in many things â—his nâ—w conformity to the Law by reason of those sinnes and failings will prove a lame righteousnesse not fit to satisfie the Law and to be accepted for perfect righteousnesse to justification because if a man keepe the whole Law and faile in one point he is guilty of all Iam. 2 10. No righteousnesse can justifie which is not a perfect obedience and conformity of the whole man to the whol law in his whole life froÌ„ the beginning to the end Secondly that signification of the word Iustification which hee calls a judiciary sense properly so called is as he describes it a foolish fiction of his owne braine for never did any but a mad-man dreame of Iustifying sinners by a subordinate Judge absolving them from punishment according to the strict termes and rules of the Law for that were to give a false sentence and to pronounce a man free from all transgression of the Law and a perfect fulfiller of it in his owne person All our learned and Iudicious Divines doe hold that the full satisfaction and obedience of CHRIST being communicated and imputed to true believers they are absolved and have their sinnes pardoned and are counted and iudged righteous by GOD as men who have satisfied the Iustice and iust Law of GOD by CHRIST their head and surety not in their own persons which the Law in strict termes requires this is justification in the Iudiciary sense which is approved by the learned Thirdly that Iudiciary sense improperly so called which he approves allows in this dispute is an Hereticall and Socinian conceipt for so long as GOD the supreme Iudge of all the world is immutable and infinite in Iustice he neither can nor will dispense with his eternall iust Law in any iot or tittle but will have it perfectly fulfilled either by our selves or some sufficient surety in our behalfe and will forgive no sinner without a full suffering and satisfaction made to the Law in the same kind which the law requires though not in every mans person and this full satisfaction must be communicated to every one and made his owne by union with CHRIST his head before that GOD will iudge or account him righteous and pardon al his sinnes To imagin a somewhat in consideration whereof GOD forgives sinners and accepts them as if they were righteous besides the full satisfaction of GODS Justice and just law is to conceive GOD to bee mutable and not the same in his infinite justice at all times and to affirme it is Samosatenian and Socinian Blasphemy Fourthly in arguing against the second sense by him propounded he wrestles with his owne shadow and fights against a fiction of his owne braine and discovers his blindnesse and ignorance of the dictinction and difference betweene Legal and Evangelicall justification and righteousnesse Legal righteousnesse is the condition of the first covenaÌ„t of works and consists in perfect conformity and obedience to the law performed by every man in his owne person and
proposition is that faith in the judgement of every man is the condition required by GOD on mans part to bring him into that communion of justification and redemption which Christ hath purchased c. In which I finde delusion and falshood First hee doth not meane a gift grace or Spirituall qualification appointed by GOD by which as by the hand of the soule stretched out wee must lay hold on Christs satisfaction and righteousnesse for justification and redemption though his words pretend so much but hee meanes that faith is the condition of the new covenant which man must on his part performe in stead of all righteousnesse which the Law requires and so it is in the new covenant the condition of life as workes of the Law and of righteousnesse were the condition of the old covenant This is the very haeresie and damned error of Socinus Secondly he doth here make the covenant of grace a covenant of life not freely but upon a condition performed on mans part and so a covenant of workes contrary to Scripture Rom. 11.6 Thirdly hee erres grossly in imagining faith not to be a free gift of grace but a worke performed on mans part as workes were required in the old covenant Fourthly hee falsely chargeth all honest and godly men to be of his judgment I know that all Orthodox Divines abhorre and detest this opinion Fiftly hee affirmes a manifest untruth in saying that without beleeving none can have part in justification and redemption for no regenerate Infants which die in their Infancy do actually believe and yet being by the Spirit of regeneration engraffed into Christ they have communion of his ransome and righteousnesse are justified before GOD and saved Socinianisme IT 's evident from the Scriptures that GOD in the act of every mans justification doth impute or account righteousnes to him or rather somewhat for or in stead of righteousnes by meanes of which imputed the person justified passeth in account as a righteous man though hee be not properly or perfectly such and is invested accordingly with those great priviledges of a man perfectly righteous deliverance from death and condemnation and acceptation into favour with GOD. The reason of which imputation or why GOD is pleased to use an expression of righteousnesse imputed in or about the justification of a sinner seemes to be this the better to satisfie the naturall scruple of the weake and feeble conscience of men who can hardly conceive or thinke of a justification or of being justified especially by GOD without a perfect legall righteousnesse Now the purpose and counsell of GOD in the Gospell being to justifie men without any such righteousnesse the better to salve the feares of the conscience touching such a defect and to prevent and stay all troublesome thoughts or quaeres which might arise in the mindes of men who when they heare of being justified are still ready to aske within themselves but where is the righteousnesse conceiving a legall righteousnes to be as necessary to justification as Isaac conceived of a Lamb for a burnt offering Gen. 22. He GOD I meane is graciously pleased so far to condescend to men in Scripture treatie with them about the weighty businesse of justification as in effect to grant and say to them that though hee findes no proper or perfect righteousnes in them no such righteousnesse as passeth under the name of righteousnes with them yet if they truely beleeve in him as Abraham did this beleeving shall be as good as a perfect compleat righteousnes unto them or that hee will impute rihteousnes to them upon their beleeving Christianisme THe first thing in this passage to wit GOD imputing righteousnesse to every man in his justification is a thing evident by the Scriptures and I willingly grant it But I abhorre and detest as heresie that which he adds out of his owne conceit to wit that GOD doth rather impute somewhat in stead of righteousnes which cannot make a man properly or perfectly righteous This is a blasphemous imagination that GOD can iudge falsly and account a thing for righteousnes which is not and esteeme a man righteous who is not properly righteous Secondly that which immediately followes is no lesse blasphemous to wit that a man may be invested by GOD with the great priviledges of a man perfectly righteous namely delivâ—rance from sinne and condemnation and acceptation into favour with GOD though he be no such man For hereby GOD is charged either with injustice and iniquitie or with errour in his judgement Thirdly his taking upon him to give a reason of GODS purpose and counsell is Luciferian pride and presumption For who knoweth the minde of GOD or hath beene of his counsell Rom. 11.34 Saint Paul who was taken up into the third heaven could never finde out any such counsell of GOD neither durst give a reason of GODS purpose and counsell but onely the good pleasure of his owne will Fourthly in the declaration of his reason I find many errours and untruths as first that a mans conscience can hardly thinke of being justified by GOD without a perfect legall righteousnesse Every regenerate man and true beleever can upon his owne knowledge and experience give him the lye and tell him that the weakest conscience of any who hath true Faith being taught by the Gospell can very easily thinke and beleeve that GOD justifies him by an Evangelicall righteousnesse even Christs perfect fulfilling of the Law which is farre more perfect then that legall righteousnesse which the Law requires of every man in his owne person This Abraham beleeved and was fully perswaded of it this David professes and Saint Paul preached and I know no true Christian who doth not both thinke and beleeve it If any man be found doubting of this it is because the spirit of Antichrist and Socinus doth worke strongly in him Secondly the thing which he imagineth being so notoriously false there can be no reason given of it but a reason as false as the thing it self And indeed so it is here For first hee assure most falsely that GODS purpose in the Gospell is to justifie men without any such righteousnesse as the Law requires in every man that is the perfect fulfilling of the Law For though GOD doth not purpose to iustifie men by their owne fulfilling of the Law every one in his owne person yet by Christs righteousnesse and his fulfilling of the Law in their stead and by communicating and imputing that righteousnesse to them he purposeth in the Gospell and professeth that men shall bee and are by him iustified and this is in Christ such a righteousnes as the Law requires for proofe of this see Rom. 8.4 and 10.4 Secondly the fathers upon GOD his own false and wicked conceits to wit First that GOD goeth about to cure an infirmity in his people which is not to be found in any of them after they are called to beleeve in Christ and to be his people for then
disdaine to take up for his constant dwelling the earthly tabernacles of mens bodies and to worke in them all graces needfull to conforme them to Christ and to make them sensibly to enjoy him with all his benefits This most wonderfully shewes GODS infinite mercy bounty and free goodnesse And all these meanes which are manifested and maintained by our Doctrine of justification this wicked opinion of the Socinians doth utterly take away First it denies GODS justice to require mans communion of such an infinite satisfaction made by Christ for him it treads GODS justice under foote by his soveraignty of power and maugre justice it makes mans imperfect faith to go current for righteousnes and to be accepted for perfect righteouses to justification Secondly if GOD by soveraignty of power can beare downe justice and make any weak and imperfect thing such as mans faith is serve in stead of Christs full satisfaction and perfect righteousnes Then hee might by the same power have appointed the sacrifice of a Lamb or any cleane beast or the satisfaction of any mere man and so it will follow that the giving of his son to bee made man was no point of wisedome but a going farre about and spending much even Christs blood when lesse might have served the turne As for GODS goodnesse mercy and bounty they are hereby made painted shewes and shadowes yea needlesse prodigality and Christs satisfaction is made vaine and superfluous Therfore this opinion which brings in such impious consequences is blasphemous and hereticall Fiftly that opinion which overthrowes the sacraments of the Gospel and takes away the true use of them is heriticall prophane and impious This opinion that Christs righteousnesse is not imputed to the faithfull doth so For the sacraments are seales of our union and communion with Christ Baptisme seales our engraffing into Christ in our new birth by which we become one with him The LORDS Supper is such a lively seale of our communion with Christ in the benefits of his death passion and full satisfaction expressed under the termes of eating his flesh and drinking his blood that it is commonly called the communion of the faithfull when it is rightly received But these Hereticks while by imputing faith in a proper sense they exclude the imputation of Christs righteousnes to the faithfull they deny their communion and union with Christ they take away the truth and the use of the Sacraments for if the faithfull are regenerate and by one spirit ingraffed into Christ and united unto him as Baptisme signifieth and sealeth and if they have spiritual communion with Christ of his righteousnes and all other benefits which the LORDS Supper signifieth and is thereof a seale to them Then GOD whose judgment is according to truth cannot but impute Christs righteousnes to them and accept it for them and account it theirs They who deny GODS imputing of it do either charge GOD with injustice and error of judgment in not counting and iudging that to be theirs in which they have communion and interest or else they deny the union and communion of the faithfull with Christ and make the sacraments lying signes and seales of false things and things which are not Therefore their opinion is most abominable profane impious and blasphemous argument 6 Sixtly that opinion which is invented and maintained by Heretiks who deny the eternall Godhead of Christ and tends mainely to perswade that there is no use of Christs being GOD and man in one person is Hereticall and blasphemous Such is this opinion of the Socinians it is an invention of Haretiks and tends to take away the use of Christs being GOD and to perswade men that there is no necessary use of his being GOD and man in one person For all Orthodox Divines give this reasō why it was necessary that Christ the mediator should be GOD in our nature even that the obedience suffering which he did under goe in mans nature might be the obedience and suffering of GOD and so of infinite value and though of him alone and but for a time yet of more worth then if all men in their owne persons had obeyed as much as hee did and suffered for ever in Hell They teach also that first for the removing of so great evils as the infinite wrath of GOD eternall death and torment in Hell and secondly for purchase of so great a good as is the state of righteousnesse and of grace and also of eternall glory in Heaven GODS justice could require no lesse satisfaction and righteousnes nor be satisfied with any other but that which is performed by him who is GOD and man in one person that is the perfect righteousnes and satisfaction of Christ which alone by the infinite value which it receives from his God-head is fit to remove so infinite an evil and to procure so infinite a good to men But the maintainers of this Socinian opinion by denying that GODS infinite justice stands in strength to exact such a satisfaction being over-ruled and oppressed by absolute soveraignty of power and by teaching that mercy and bounty run beyond reason freeing men from all need of such an infinite satisfaction to be communicated imputed to them and justifying them freely without righteousnes they do take away the use of Christs God-head in his mediation and the causes and reasons for which it was necessary that he should be GOD as well as man And in conclusion in places where they dare be bold to disclose the secret thoughts of their hearts they roundly deny Christ to be the Sonne of GOD of the same substance with GOD the Father Therefore this their opinion is most impious blasphemous and Hereticall And indeed it is never found in Histories to have been maintained by any but Samosatenian Heretiks deadly enemies to Christs deity Lastly that opinion which is builded upon an Hereticall and blasphemous ground and is upheld and maintained by blasphemous arguments which do shake and even raze the maine foundations of true Religion must needs be most wicked and blasphemous and such is this opinion for it is builded upon this blasphemous ground that GOD by his soveraigne power may do and will things contrary to his justice that is count and accept that for righteousnes which is no righteousnes nor worthy to be accounted an act of perfect righteousnes for such is the faith of fraile man taken in a proper sense The arguments by which it is commonly maintained are also blasphemous and wicked to wit First they argue that Christs righteousnes is not imputed to true believers neither can be made or counted theirs by GOD. Because Christs righteousnes is the righteousnes of another far different from them and GOD cannot iustify one by anothers righteousnes and therefore we are not iustified by Christs righteousnesse neither is it imputed in iustification Now what is this but a denying of the union of the faithfull with Christ for if he be one with us and we one
partakers of him and all his goods which being imputed to us are sufficient that wee may bee absolved before GOD and deemed righteous Confess cap. 4. ss 7. in notes on Romans 3.22.24 Secondly that faith sends to Christ for perfect righteousnesse to justification and that it assures us of salvation through his righteousnesse alone because whatsoever is in Christ is imputed to us as if it were our owne if so bee wee embrace him by faith The righteousnesse of Christ which is imputed hee describeth to bee the greatest and most absolute perfection of righteousnesse consisting in these two things First that he hath no sinne in him Secondly that hee hath fulfilled all the righteousnesse of the Law confess cap. 4 ss 8. in his notes on Rom 3.22.26 and Rom. 4.5 and 5.12 and Phil. 3.9 Thirdly hee sheweth that wee come to have communion of Christs righteousnesse by spirituall union and mariage with Christ. If saith he wee bee united and ioyned together into fellowship with Christ by faith nothing is more properly ours then Christ and whatsoever is Christs confess 4. ss 9. Fourthly hee pronounceth that it is no lesse then wicked blasphemie to denie the mutuall and reciprocall imputation of the sinnes of beleevers to Christ and of Christs perfect satisfaction to beleevers Lib. contra Anonymum de justificatione Fiftly hee affirmes that righteousnesse which iustifieth men before GOD must bee both a full satisfaction for sinne and also a perfect fulfilling of GODS commandements in every part on Rom 3.20 Our learned Whitakers in his answere to Campions 8th reason pagâ—8 â—8 and in the 8 Book against Duraeus pag 177.182 183. doth pithily dispute and stoutly maintaine the Doctrine of the righteousnes of Christ imputed which he proves to be the onely perfect righteousnes able to justifie us before GOD. Master Perkins also in his Golden Chaine Chap. 37. makes the translation of the beleevers sinnes to Christ and Christs righteousnes to the beleever by a mutuall reciprocall imputation the very forme of iustification Polanus in Syntagmate Theolog l. 6 c. 36. doth maintain the same dâ—ctrine with Luther Calvin MelaÌ„cthon Beza Whitakers proves every point fully by plain testimonies invincible argumeÌ„ts out of the holy Scriptures And in his Symphonia catholica he brings testimonies of the ancients affirming every article of our doctrine and in his Theses de iustifi hee shewes the consent of the most famous Orthodox Divines of the reformed religion since Luther As for Musculus and Junius whom hee brings as favourers of his errour with other later Dâ—vines let their owne writings speake and declare how wickedly hee doth abuse them in bringing their wordes to overthrow the imputation of Christs righteousnes Musculus on Rom. 8.4 expounds the Apostles wordes that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us to be meant first of all imputatively by the righteousnesse of another even of Christ which is also ours for wee are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones and Rom. 10.3.4 and by the righteousnesse which iustifieth beleevers hee understands Christs perfect righteousnesse imputed to us Also Iunius thes 35. and 36. doth affirme that the righteousnesse of faith imputed to beleevers is the righteousnesse which the Law requires performed by Christ differing onely in this that legall righteousnesse is every mans fulfilling of the Law in his owne person but this Evangelicall is the fulfilling of the Law by Christ GOD and man our surety and mediatour And for this Socinian hereticall opinion of faith imputed in a proper sense for righteousnesse in iustification No man can shew greater enmity against it nor with greater detestation oppose and condemne it then Paraeus in his commentary on the Romans and in other his workes Thus much for the vindicating of the best learned both Ancient writers and moderne Divines from the foule slanders most falsly belched out against them by this most impudent forger of false witnesses without any feare of GOD or shame of men And by their owne testimonies and plaine wordes rehearsed out of their owne writings I have made manifest their unanimous consent in the true Doctrine of iustification by the righteousnesse of Christ imputed to true beleevers and of them apprehended and applyed by faith Now I leave it to all indifferent readers and zealous Christians to consider whether it bee not their dutie both to take heed to themselves and also to admonish others that they have no fellowship with so openly profest Socinian sectaries as this man and his followers are you see the Doctrine which they maintaine is wicked and blasphemous heresie And after many admonitions given by grave learned Divines divers publick coÌ„fuatations censures often passed in publique against this errour they still persist in their pestilent heresie and are more mad to disperse it then before And when truth cannot help them they flee for aide to the father of lyars and make lyes their refuge and in forging lyes they sinne being condemned of themselves even against their knowledge and conscience as the Apostle foretold of heretikes Tit. 3.11 How wilfully against the known truth and his owne conscience this desperate man hath proclaimed Luther Calvin Beza Musculus Iunius and others to bee of his opinion I have sufficiently proved if ever he hath looked into the writings of any of them his own eyes have taught him how opposite they are to his heresie But it is no new and strange thing for heretikes to sin being condemned of themselves when they are once subverted The Apostle hath foretold us that we must expect no better from such in that place before named Tit. 3 11. Now in conclusion I appeale to all Christian readers and desire their opinion and judgement in the particulars following First whether I have not in all this answere declared and expressed what I meane by the righteousnesse of Christ which I have proved to be imputed to beleevers for justification If I have made manifest by plaine profession that by the righteousnes of Christ I understand his perfect fulfilling of the whole Law of God and performing whatsoever the Law requires of man for righteousnesse even a full satisfaction made in mans behalfe to the Law of justice Then I appeale to the judgement of all reasonable men whether my adversary hath not most wickedly belyed me in word and writing for he hath both wayes charged me that I neither hold Christs habituall holynes and uprightnes of his humane nature nor his active obedience to the whole Law or any righteousnes of workes by him performed nor both these together to be the righteousnes of Christ imputed and thereupon he clamours against me that I hold and teach a righteousnes of Christ which never was in Christ I confesse I have ever taught and held That neither the habituall nor actuall righteousnes of Christ alone nor both together without his satisfaction of justice by bearing our sinnes and suffering the punishments due to them are a sufficient ransome to redeeme us nor a compleat and perfect obedience and fulfilling of the whole able to justifie us in the sight of GOD and to reconcile us to him Now to affirme that all three together are imputed is not to deny the imputation of the two first though they that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Calumniators may so wrest the words Secondly whether hee who hath beleeved and preached and in writing maintained for 28 yeares last passed to this houre what hee in this answere hath professed held and maintained can without wilfull lying and more then Jesuiticall forging be reported abroad confidently charged for a turnecoat whom this Adversary by this his Socinian learning and Sophistry hath so confounded and convinced him that hee is wholly turned to be of the same opinion and hath vowed to maintaine his Socinianisme both publikely and privatly to the utmost of his power So this mans followers have reported and have withall added that so many as have come within his breath are all illuminated by him and being converted to his opinion do rejoyce in the light by which he hath shined into their hearts Thirdly whether this Answer to his Socinianisme be such that both it and the Author of it have nothing in them but words and passion and that herein hee is strangely and monstrously metamorphosed from a Minister of Christ into an Angell of darknes besmearing the brightnes of his face with the foot and grease of Hell that the words and phrases of this answere are the black Princes coine and there is little in it besides cursing and rayling For many such fiery darts hath this Adversary throwne against the Answerer in a scurrilous Libel fraught with lies forgeries absurdities contradictions and blasphemies and sent forth under the name of a replie which is also confuted by the Answerer and the filthynesse thereof so plainely discovered that all true Christians and modest men will say of it that the reciting of it is a full confutation From all such wicked spirits the GOD of truth defend his Church and People and grant a free passage to his Gospel and to his faithfull Ministers a doore of utterance that they may preach among all men every where the unsearchable riches of Christ. To this GOD of truth let us consecrate our tongues and pens and resolve with both to maintaine his truth by his grace and the assistance of his Spirit so long as strength breath and life shall last And to him let us give all glory now and ever Amen FJNJS December 8. 1640. Jmprimatur THOMAS VVYKES Epistolica Collatio cum Bertio pag 1. 2. Lib. con Anonymum Wotton de Reconciliatione 1 Cor. 2.12 1 Part. 2 Part. 3. Part. 4. Part. Ans. Answer Answere Answere