receiving of these words by others without examining either the Truth of what by those Words or Phrases they intend to signifie or express Or the Propriety of those Expressions themselves as to their Accomodation for the signification of those things I plead not for them It is not in the power of Man to make any word or expression not found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture to be Canonical and for its own sake to be imbraced And this we further grant that if any one shall scruple the receiving or owning any such Expressions so as to make them the way of Professing that which is signified by them and yet do receive the Thing or Doctrine which is by them delivered For my part I shall have no contest with him For instance The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was made use of by the first Nicene Council to express the Unity of Essence and Being that is in the Father and the Son the better to obviate Arius and his Followers with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like forms of speech no where found in Scripture and invented on set purpose to destroy the True and Eternal Deity of the Son of God If now any Man should scruple the receiving this Word but withal should profess that he believes Jesus Christ to be God equal with the Father one with him from the beginning and doth not explain himself by other Terms not found in the Scripture viz. That He was made a God and is one as to Will not Essence and the like He is like to undergo neither Trouble nor Opposition from me Thus far that great Man And surely we come under the equitable Construction and Benefit of this Paragraph 1. The Phrases questionable are not Canonical nor found in Scriptnre 2. We question the Propriety of these Phrases to express the things they are pretended to signifie 3. Some of them express more than any Scripture Phrase doth express 4. Whatever Truth can be really contained in them we readily receive 5. These Phrases are not to be compared nor nam'd in the same Year with the expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which has a place in the Nicene Creed whereas these never shew'd their Face in any Creed whatever 6. These Phrases stand justly suspected of Hiterodoxy and carrying an Antinomian sense and therefore we are not obliged nay Be it known to all Men by these Presents we will not be Compelled to subscribe to them without better security 3. Reason You ought never more to insist upon these Phrases because after all your windings and turnings all the rounds you have run all the circles you have made you are forced to come to me and the Truth at last And your Commutation of Persons between Christ and sinners His taking upon him the Person of sinners amounts to no more in good earnest than that Christ died suffered satisfied in our place and stead Will you be persuaded to peruse your own Words p. 80. It was Objected by the Rebuke that if you look into all the Confessions at Home and Abroad you should not there find any of these Phrases c. To this you answer What though I cannot Why then say I you should have let them alone and not trouble and divide us more who are but too much divided already with these Arbitrary Expressions which if they signisie and so far as they do signifie any thing of Truth are already owned by us in owning those Confessions O but say you Is it not enough that the Controverted Phrases are included in the acknowledgment of Christ's making a proper satisfaction to God's Iustice for us Why truly Sir it 's enough for us but not enough for you For we contend for the Necessary Truth but your Zeal is for the Unnecessary Phrase And though I cannot agree with you that these Phrases are included in that Truth yet if they be and so far as they be we must necessarily own them because we own the Truth which you say contains them But how I pray are these Phrases contained in the Grand Truth A Man may Meditate upon that Truth and beat it out to its utmost length and yet these Phrases may never come in his way nor his thoughts fall upon any one of them And when our B. Saviour when the Apostles Preach'd this Truth when the Churches in all Ages bore their Testimony to it yet not one of these ever hit upon any of these Phrases But still you go on They are all virtually included in the sundry Confessions which have openly Received the Phrase of Christ's suffering in our stead But why then do you Revile and Rail at us more than the Compilers of those Confessions For we own the Confessions as well as they and if those Phrases be really though but virtually contained in them we by owning the Confessions do own virtually whatsoever is contained in them Whereas therefore you tell us p. 4. Def. that A desire to Accommodate so far as possible upon the bottom of Truth lyeth so much upon your heart I earnestly beg of you never to intermeddle more with Accommodation of matters Really Sir 't is not your Talent your special Gift is to embarras confound and perplex whatever you meddle with And assure your self He that is born in a storm will never live easily in a calm If the Fire was the Element of which you were made and in which you have been bred you 'll never endure to dwell out of the Flames Every Creature we see dies when removed out of its proper Element To remove you out of the Quarters of Division and Contention into the milder Regions of Peace and Union will be your immediate Dissolution what is the peaceable soul's Temper is your Distemper what is his Food will be your Poison and what is his Life will be your present Death § 3. I will not complain of you that you call me Brother and sometimes for Variety sake your Reverend Brother But yet I will complain that whilest you Complement with Ioab Art thou in health my Brother You discover the Byonet in your other hand and aim at the fifth Rib to shed my Bowels out to the ground And what more Mortal Blow could you aim at my soul with all that palpable Hypocrisie than to Represent me an Unitarian a Socinian thereby to blast what of Reputation God has given me and which I value chiefly on the Account of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that I may yet be further serviceable to the Interest of my Blessed Redeemer and yet there 's nothing you more studiously drive at nothing you more industriously prosecute than to take and make occasions to misrepresent me to the thoughts of all sober and sound Christians Had I left out of my Creed Christ's perfect satisfaction given to Divine Justice as you have left Regeneration and Repentance out of yours Or had omitted the Necessity of Christ's Righteousness imputed by the Father and received
of the Churches but for the Doctrines of Faith and Repentance in Order to the Pardon of a Sinner these they wave and leave them undetermin'd 3. Whereas he says The Composers of the first Paper waved the Determination of these Matters which was no more than was done in the Composing of the seven Propositions which were renounced to the End we might express our Abhorrence of Antinomian Errors What will not this Gentleman attempt in the Twy-light who imposes thus upon us at Noon-day Let us make a Query or two upon it 1. Was there no more required in the seven Propositions than was in the first Paper For shame The Fourth Proposition of the Seven was this We Renounce this Doctrine That any may expect Pardon without Repentance If God had promis'd Pardon without Repentance we might have expected it and if we may not expect it in Faith I conclude God never promis'd it Upon what Grounds then do Men delude the Souls of others and their own who encourage them to expect Pardon without Repentance But was there any Word in the first Paper tending sounding this Way 2. Where or when were the seven Propositions Renounced especially the Fourth By the Orthodox United Brethren it was by the others never but he that can be false will be fallacious 4. Whereas he adds That Mr. W's insisting on the Assertion of the Necessity of Repentance in Order to Pardon about which the Orthodox have differing Sentiments it was at last Agreed to Assert the Necessity of Repentance and leave this Controversie undetermin'd But this is but his Coleworts boyled so often till they are Poyson For we deny that the Orthodox have different Sentiments about this Matter and affirm that they are Heterodox who deny the Necessity of Repentance in Order to Pardon And herein he manifestly contradicts himself for in the Paragraph before mention'd he asserts that the seven Propositions were renounced to this End that we might express our Abhorrence of Antinomian Errors among which seven this was the Fourth That we may expect Pardon without Repentance and yet now he asserts with equal Confidence that this was left undetermined These were some of his confused and disturbed Thoughts at that Time I will shut up this Head of Discourse with a Remark or two 1. The first Thing I observe is from a certain Author whom our Defender thinks at least asserts to be his own Self Append. to Display p. 18. where he quotes the Reverend and Learned Dr Owen in his Treatise of Justification Who can be says he more express than the Doctor for he Asserts 1. The Necessity of Faith as Antecedent to our Actual Iustification in the sight of God 2. That this Faith includes in its Nature the intire Principle of Evangelical Repentance so that its utterly impossible that a Man should be a true Believer and not at the same Time be truly Penitent 2. My next Remark shall be from an Author who I am most certain is his own Self and that is the Defender Who p. 86. tells us There may be very Material Difference about that Order of Things and reference to one another though there be agreement as to the Things themselves Now its probable this is the same Author for I assure you 't is in the same Book who says p. 66. The avoiding as much as possible a running into the Discussion and Determination of Differences of lesser Moment viz. The Controversie about the Order between Faith and Repentance which hath the Antecedence and Priority and whether Repentance be a necessary praerequisite to Pardon Now Though I with my Self and so will the Intelligent Reader think how comes it to pass that the Priority of Faith and Repentance between themselves and their Antecedence to Pardon should be a Matter of lesser Moment in one Case and yet make such a Material Difference in another This puzzled me for a while till I found out the Mystery That in the one he was purging himself and his Antinomian Brethren of their Errors and then they were Matters of lesser Moment but in the other Case he was loading with Reproach the Subscribers to Mr. Flavell's Blow at the Root The Truth is some of the most Important Controversies that have given trouble to the Church of Christ have been about the Order of Things The Order of the Divine Eternal Decrees have ministred as much matter of Dispute as the Decrees themselves and the great Controversies about Faith and Repentance have been in what Order they are to be placed in reference to Iustification Thus when our Defender has occasion for it they shall be material and momentous and when he has no such occasion they shall be trivial matters and of lesser moment I have done with our Defender at present because he has done with and undone himself He himself has Determin'd this Point That Repentance is necessary to Pardon Dr. Owen has Determin'd it too and the Scriptures of Truth have Determined it long before them both and yet now for the sake of his dear Antinomian Brethren he has undetermined it again So true is the Observation that some have made of this Gentleman that he can shift his Sails as the Wind Veres and Determine and Undetermine and if need be Re-determine the Controversie over and over to the end of the Chap ter § 6. It is seriously and sadly to be lamented that Disputations should not be managed among us for their true and proper ends to search after and find out the truth but in a cunning way either to disguise Errors that they may look like Truths or to misrepresent Truth that it may look as deformed as Error But thus it has fared with Trade which from a fair and equal way of dealing has degenerated into a Mystery of Stock-jobbing and with the Trade of War too which is changed from fair Combating in the open Field to Marching De-marching Counter-marching and a thousand Subtilties without fighting such are all our Modern Disputes perverted into a Course of Cavilling and Sophistry to subserve the Interest of a Party a notable Instance of which Artifice I shall now present to the Reader The Rebuke had said That the Phrases of a Commutation of Persons between Christ and Sinners and his taking on him the Person of Sinners were wholly unknown to those Confessions of Faith which were made the Test of soundness in the Faith by the United Ministers Nay he went higher That if you searched all the Confessions of the Reformed Churches you should not meet with these Phrases no not one of them To answer this Challenge the Defender has compased Sea and Land rummaged the whole Harmony and Body of Confessions and after all his tedious Inquiry has found or thinks he has or would perswade us he has found at least one that will furnish him with Matter for a Triumph 'T is in the Confession of the Church Who would believe it the Church of Scotland the National Church of Scotland But
Hereticks who affirmed That Christ took on him the person of sinners and these from the first Author and Founder of their Sect were call'd Nestorians who maintain'd that Christ was constituted of two persons the one the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who did assume the other a Humane Person who was assumed And I confess my self prejudiced against the phrase of Christ's taking on him our Person because it carries an odd sound that syncretizeth with the Nestorian Gibberish 4. Let any Man use the phrase that is fond of it he shall not offend me but none shall assume to himself the power to impose upon my Faith or Conscience those Arbitrary Terms for with the same ease that they propose or impose them I can reject them and stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ has made me free nor will I be intangled in and with that Yoak of Bondage for since there are choice of phrases whose signisication is clear and not so obnoxious to Misinterpretation which convey to my Mind the Import of the fundamental Truth I will chuse while I am at my own liberty to chuse some other and will never gratisie never humour these Tyrants over and Usurpers on Consciences 5. And because the Publick Confessions of all the Reformed Churches have not thought fit to use this Phrase of Christ's dying in the Person of Sinners It s a strong Argument to me that they neither judg'd it necessary to the Explication or Confirmation of that Doctrine of Christs dying in our stead and that either they were Strangers to it and it to them or at least had more Discretion than to vex and torment the Faith of Believers with a Term borrow'd from the Civillians or the Stage-Players 6. And its safe to govern our selves in all such Matters by the Rule and Reason of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. where he assigns one and the same Reason for his Advice to a clear contrary Practice ver 25 26. Eat says he making no question for Conscience-sake For the Earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof And yet ver 28. Eat not for Conscience sake for the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thâ—reof This has been and shall be the Rubrick of my Behaviour where 't is reasonably applicable If any Phrase be dubious I 'le take the safer side and forbear it and leave it to them who have greater clearness It may possibly be Innocent therefore I 'le not Iudge another But it may be dangerous therefore I will judge for my Self there are other Phrases of better Credit The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof I have heard of a plain honest Man that Address'd himself to a Learned Casuist With this Question Pray good Sir Is it lawful for me to Marry my Cousin Germain Ay said the Dr. I would have you Marry her if there was never another Woman in the World Implying that Necessity may justifie some Actions which yet a wise Man would not venture upon where there 's variety of Choice if there were never another Phrase in the World to express that Truth I would I must use it but seeing we have good store I will chuse elsewhere till I be satisfied that a competent Power has determined me and my indifferency about it 7. Though I am not averse to the Phrase yet I am really afraid of it ever since I observed Dr. Crisp and his Disciples are so enamour'd of it we must reckon our selves if we will reckon Right to be in Christs Person and Christ in our Person Now what can he mean less than that Christ dying in our Person had all our Personal filth upon him and that we suffering in Christs Person must needs be pardoned acquitted justisied from the Moment of his Death without more ado But he that reckons without God and the Scripture makes a very unconscionable reckoning 8. And I will add this further which is common to all the suspected Phrases that as they have been made subservient to Antinomianism an Engine of Division so have they been introduced into the first Paper to persecute and run down Mr. D. W's and I am abundantly confirmed in my former Suspicions from Defence p. 42. If Mr. Williams had taken this Phrase in our place and stead in the ancient and genuine Sense it would have argued that he was sound in the Faith Would it so Why then say I prove it and prove it like a Schollar as you would be thought to be without Tricks Quibbles and bare Suspicions that he has taken it in any other Sense than the ancient and genuine and for my Part I will throw up Mr. W's and your Self and all the World besides that shall be found equally guilty When some Years ago I heard a general Clamour from one sort of People against Mr. Ws his Book of Gospel Truth I was tempted to think there could not be such a loud out-cry but there must be some Wooll nor such a Smoak and Smoother but there must be some Fire and therefore I confess I came with no small prejudice to the Reading it and upon my Impartial Perusal I found this Noise was only the shearing of Hoggs But they have found an Art to render Mr. W. or any Man alive guilty of whatsoever Heresies they shall please to clap upon them in spight of their Teeths He was charged once by the six Brethren to deny the Imputation of Christs Righteousness otherwise than in the Effects To this he answered that besides the Effects of Christ's Righteousness made ours he had expresly affirmed that the very Righteousness of Christ it self is imputed to True Believers Shall he be sound in the Faith 〈◊〉 No! never while he Lives and Breaths for they can draw and wire-draw some Consequences from some of his Words in some place or other that shall evince that he believes otherwise than he intends and this Art is the Sheet 〈◊〉 that never yet fail'd the Defender at a dead lift I could wish it might be seriously considered 1. Whether these Men may not possibly be mistaken in the Inferences they draw from other Mens Words Especially when they are not direct and immediate and more especially when the Eye that pretends to discover them has the Glaucoma and is all over tinctured with the Jaundice which makes all the World of the same Complection 2. Whether any Man as well as He may not be mistaken in the Consequences of his own Words Which may perhaps be such as the Author could not foresee and which if he could have foreseen would have abhorred and retracted what he had before asserted 3. Whether there is not a great Allowance to be made to humane Frailty whose acutest Eye cannot always see to the end of a long Train of Words and Thoughts The first Paper expresses a good Temper if the Authors had seen it meet to govern themselves by their own Canon Not thinking it reasonable or Iust to charge upon any Brother such Consequences of any Expression