truth A shrewd nip if you marke it to you learned Doctors Preachers of the Citie of London who are great pretenders to the truth and yet the nearer that hee is come to the truth and makes his unlearned followers able to see it to the bottom as he hath often told us the further off hee is from your approbation If hee be thus bold and ready to nip you who doe not approve his opinion it is no marvaile that his rude followers doe lay all slaunders reproach and aspersions on us who oppose him and charge him with Socinian haeresie and blasphemy whom they admire and proclaime to bee the great light of GODS Church in these last dayes Socinianisme Foure things there are especially which much commend an Interpretation when they are found in conjunction and establish it like that King upon his Throne Prov. 36.31 against whom there is no rising up First if the Letter or Grammar of the Scripture will fairely and strongly beare it 2º If the scope of the place will close directly and intirely with it 3º When the interpretation which is set up against it cannot stand before the circumstances of the text 4º And lastly when the judgement of able learned and unpartiall men are found in concurrence with it If these foure be sufficient to furnish out an interpretation with authority and power then shall wee need no more Scriptures to prove the innocency of our affirmative viz. the imputation of faith for righteousnes the truth of the negative inseparably accompanying it but that one Chapter onely Rom. 4. Christianisme IN these wordes hee makes his enterance into the disputing of the point before propounded to wit faith in a proper sense is imputed for righteousnes in justification which speech excludes the righteousnes of Christ from being the onely righteousnes by which being communicated and imputed to true beleevers they are justified and stand righteous before GOD. First he propounds foure things which when they are found in coniunction with an interpretation of any Scripture they commend and establish it as he saith like that King upon his Throne against whom there is no rising up Prov. 30.31 These foure things First the literal sense strongly bearing it Secondly the scope of the place concurring Thirdly the inconsistence of the circumstances of the place with the interpretation which is contrary Fourthly the Judgement of able learned men agreeing with it these I say may passe for current But whether that one place of Scripture in the interpretation whereof these concurre bee alone without more Scriptures sufficient to prove the innocency of an assertion which is agreeable to that interpretation is a question many interpretations seeme to have all these and yet are contradicted by other Scriptures as that place Hosea 11.1 When Israel was a child out of Egypt have I called my Sonne being interpreted of the Nation of the Israelites was borne up by the letter concurred with the scope and circumstances more then many contrary expositors and all the learned and able Jewes so understood it and yet the Gospell expounds it another way Mat. 2.15 The place of Scripture upon the interpretation whereof established by these foure things hee intends to build his whole dispute in this Chapter is the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans so that his proofes by which hee goeth about to set the royall Crowne which is due to Christ and his righteousnes on the head of mans imperfect faith are according to these foure things divided into foure rankes First he undertakes to prove that the Letter of that Scripture Rom. 4. doth beare up his interpretation to wit that faith in it selfe and in a proper sense is said to bee imputed for righteousnes in justification Secondly by the scope of the place Thirdly by shewing that the circumstances of that Scripture cannot beare the Doctrine of Christs righteousnes imputed Fourthly by the judgement and testimonies of able learned and unpartiall men But how poorely he performes his undertakings and how pitifully hee faileth in them wee shall in the progresse shew That his disputation is like to be very Illogicall we may gather from the foule flaw which appeares in his Logicke in this his first enterance where hee saith wee need no more Scriptures to prove the innocency of our affirmative viz. the imputation of faith for righteousnes the truth of the negative inseparably accompanying it but that Chapter onely Rom. 4. First it is against all true reason and Logicke that the affirmative should be innocent from untruth and that the negative which is opposed to it should have truth accompanying it If his affirmative faith is imputed for righteousnesse in a proper sense be true then the negative must needs be false to wit faith in a proper sense is not imputed But perhaps by the negative he doth not meane the negative of his affirmative but some other negative proposition the subject whereof is different from the subject of his affirmative His hatred and envy against Christs righteousnesse least it should get the Crowne from faith is so great that wee may well conceive that by the negative hee in heart meanes this Christs righteousnes is not imputed in justification which if hee doth wee cannot but blame him for speaking ambiguously which Logick in a disputation abhorreth But I leave his trifling and come to the ground and foundation of his discourse even that fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans on which he labours to build his hereticall opinion The words of that Chapter which seeme most to favour him are these Verse 3. Abraham beleeved GOD and it was counted to him for righteousnes and verse 5. To him that beleeveth his faith is counted for righteousnes and verse 9. For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousnes That the truth may more plainly appeare and the contrary falshoode and errour be made more fully manifest I will first lay down the true orthodoxe exposition of the words which is according to the common judgement of the most godly learned and judicious Divines of the best reformed Churches Secondly I will truely rehearse the corrupt exposition of the Apostles wordes made by the hereticke Socinus and his followers the Arminians and other fanaticall Sectaries unto which this adversary adheres and grounds his whole disputation upon it The orthodox exposition I will illustrate and confirme by the scope and circumstances of the rext and by arguments drawne from other Scriptures The corrupt exposition also I will prove to be false and hereticall And afterwards I will proceed to answer this adversaries discourse in every particular The true Exposition explained FIrst these wordes that Abraham beleeved GOD and it was counted to him for righteousnes are generally held to be improper and tropicall and that the meaning of them is not that Abrahams faith or act of beleeving by it selfe in a proper sense was counted to him for righteousnes but that the object of his faith even that
they bid their owne workes of the Law adiew and do no more dreame of iustification by them Secondly that GOD for the cure of their weak consciences tells them in the Gospell that if they beleeve in Christ this beleeving shall bee as good as a perfect compleat righteousnesse by this hee would make GOD a pure Socinian one who takes the Crowne from Christ and the righteousnes from GOD and man and sets it on the head of mans Faith which in the best beleevers and even in Abraham himselfe was mingled with much doubting and many infirmities In a word though all Orthodox Divines doe according to the Scriptures acknowledge that upon a mans beleeving truly in Christ GOD doth impute to him the perfect and compleat righteousnes of Christ which is made his before he can truly apply it by Faith Yet it can never enter into the heart of a true Christian but his soule will abhorre to thinke that any mans beleeving should bee to him as good as perfect compleat righteousnes or that GOD should accept it in stead of perfect righteousnesse and rather then the righteousnes of Christ GOD and man who is made unto us of GOD righteousnes 1 Cor. 1.30 and in whom we are found to have the righteousnes of GOD by faith Philip. 3.9 To conclude this passage let me adde this as a foule absurdity For if hee speake by experience that conscience leads men naturally to thinke that there can be no iustification without righteousnesse which is a perfect fulfilling of the Law Which I confesse my conscience and my reason tell mee and GODS word teacheth mee plainely Then what is become of his conscience who contrary to all truth and reason and the common conscience of all men will teach iustification without any true righteousnesse at all either of Christ or our owne and will crowne mans weak Faith with the Crown of righteousnesse which onely belongs to Christ and his perfect obedience Socinianisme SO that now the state and drift of the question is not either First whether Faith without an object or as separated from Christ bee imputed for righteousnesse for such a Faith doubtles in the point of justification was never dreamt of by any man that kept his 〈◊〉 company men may as well fancy a living man without a soulâ— or a wise man without his witts as a Faith without an object much lesse was such a Faith conceived by any man to bee imputed for righteousnesse Christianisme IN the fourth part or passage he first propounds five foolish quaeres which he denieth to concerne the state of the question Secondly he propounds a sixt quaere and that in plaine and precise termes hee affirmes I will first particularly answere the 5. quaeres and after lay downe the â—iâ—t at large and addresse my selfe to the confutation of his discourse upon it And first whereas he pronounceth him a mad man who dreames of faith without Christ the object or thinks that faith which believes not in Christ should be imputed for righteousnesse Here I must be bold to put him in mind that thus he dreames in the next Chapter where he boldly affirmes and by divers arguments laboureth to prove that the Faith of Abraham which was imputed to him for righteousnes was not a beleeving in Christ neither was Christ and his righteousnes the object of it And therefore by his owne confession and his owne wordes hee doth there play the mad man and keepes not his wits company but his fancy runs wild while he strives to prove that Abrahams Faith imputed to him for righteousnesse was not a beleeving in Christ. The second Quaere NEither is it any part of the intent of the question to enquire whether Faith bee the meritorious cause of a mans justification For both they that affirme and they that deny the imputation of Faith for righteousnes deny the meritoriousnes of Faith every way how ever it is true that they thaâ— would seeme most to disclaime it and cast it further from them doe yet in some of their most beloved tenets draw very neare unto it as will afterwards appeare Answer HEre behold either grosse ignorance or wilfull lying against knowledge and conscience For all the learned know that Faith and beleeving are held by the Church of Rome to be a principall part of mans righteousnesse and workes which GOD imputes and accounts meritorious of justification and of eternall life ex condigno Yea he himselfe in the passage next before hath plainely affirmed that Faith to him that beleeveth as Abraham did is as good as perfect and compleat righteousnes which if it be true then Faith must needs be as perfect and compleat righteousnesse is the meritorious cause of justification And therefore that which he here saith is verified in himselfe though he would seeme most to disclaime the merit of Faith and to cast it furthest from him yet in some of his most beloved tenets hee drawes very neare to it yea hee embraceth it with his heart in his whole discourse the maine drift whereof is to exalt Faith into the place of Christs most meritorious righteousnesse and to put the Crowne upon it For what can be imagined more meritorious of justification then that which GOD in a proper sense judgeth and counteth for righteousnes and for which he doth justifie men and counts them righteous The third Quaere NEither is it the question whether faith be the formall cause of justification that is whether GOD doth justifie a man with his faith as a Painter makes a wall white with whitenes or as a Master makes his Scholler learned with knowledge or learning conveyed into him for both parties make the forme of justification to be somewhat really different from Faith which is the genuine tenet of Arminius Answer THis quere is very ridiculous for to imagine a quality or act in man to be the formall cause of justification which is GODS act is the fancy of a distempered braine and the conceit of a mad man His exposition of his quaere shews his want of Logicall skill For the whitenesse wherewith the Painter makes a wall white is a forme introduced into the wall it is not the formall cause of his action of painting and so learning produced in a scholler is forma docti the forme of a Scholler as hee is made learned not the formall cause of his masters teaching surely his expounding of his quaere by such dissonant similitudes sheweth that hee had need of a Master to teach him some better knowledg and learning and to set on him some better stamp and superscription of rationall authority His phrase of learning conveyed is somewhat improper for learning is not conveyed into a Scholer but produced and begotten in him Let him not therefore condemne tropes of speech seeing he himselfe can and doth often speak tropically and improperly But to come home to his quaere If by justification hee meanes imputative justification in which GOD justifies a man by imputing
their owne consciences by the inward testimony of his spirit and the inward sense and experience of inward grace and outwardly in this life before men and publiquely in the last judgements by their good workes which are evidences of their faith and of their union and communion with Iesus Christ and of their regeneration by his spirit and adoption unto GOD in him First GOD the father is the primary efficient cause of our justification Rom. 3.26.30 and 4.5 and 8.33 Secondly the inward moving cause is GODS owne free grace favour and love Rom. 3.24 Tit. 3.7 The outward moving or impulsive cause is Christs mediation Isa 53.11 Iohn 1â— 21 1 John 2.2 The instrumentall cause is Christ the mediatour communicating his whole obedience to us when by the spirit which GOD sheds on us through him wee are made one body with him 1 Cor. 12.13 Tit. 3.6 The meanes by which wee come to bee justified are either principall viz. the lively operation of the spirit spirituall union with Christ the pure and holy humanity of Christ or lesse principall the word and ministery thereof the Sacraments faith and the like as appeares Rom. 3.25.28 and 10.14 Gal. 3.8 Heb. 9.14 1 Iohn 1. â— Dan. 12.3 The materiall cause that is the righteousnesse it selfe by which they are justified that is made counted and declared to be righteous is Christs perfect righteousnes obedience and satisfaction which he GOD and man performed in our nature in the state of humiliation Rom. 3.24.25 Rom. 5.19 and 8.4 The formall cause of justification is that communion between Christ and us and that reciprocall imputation of our sinnes to Christ and of his righteousnes and full satisfaction to us which communion ariseth and floweth from the spirit which GOD sheds on us through Christ which spirit dwelling in us in some measure so as he dwelleth in the man Christ from whom hee is derived to us doth make us one spirituall body with Christ and works in us faith and all holy graces affections by which we adhere and cleave to Christ and apply and inioy his righteousnes so that it is our formall righteousnes not inherently but imputatively and by spirituall communion for it is that which doth constitute and make us righteous Rom. 5.17 18 19. and 8.4 and â—0 4 and 2 Cor. 5.21 The immediate fruit and benefit of our iustification is the state of righteousnes and of cleanenesse from the guilt of sinne and acceptation with GOD Rom. 3.25 and 4.2 also peace with GOD Rom. 5.1 The end and use of our iustification is the satisfaction and declaration of GODS iustice in that he iustifieth us by the full satisfaction of Christ and not otherwise neither by it till he communicates it to us and makes it ours Also the manifestation of his mercy free grace and bounty in that he would give his sonne to become man and to make satisfaction to the full when no other could bee found able to satisfie for us neither could his iustice by any other meanes be satisfied also in that hee would give us his spirit to unite us to his sonne and to bring us to a true communion of his righteousnes and to worke faith in us by which we receive and enioy Christ with all his benefits Rom. 3.24.26 Tit. 3.4 Ephes. 1.6.12 The contrary Doctrine of Socinus and his faction THough they grant that GOD is the chiefe efficient cause and his free grace mercy and love the inward moving cause yet they erre in the impulsive and instrumentall cause and make Christ and his righteousnes no otherwise meritorious but by procuring that GOD should count faith in a proper sense for righteousnes to them that beleeve neither any other way an instrument of iustification but by bringing faith to this honour to be accepted for or in stead of righteousnes Secondly they deny all causality of Christs righteousnes in justification except onely by way of efficiency whereas indeed and in truth it is the matter about which justification is exercised for what is justification but the communicating of that righteousnes to men and the imputing of it and declaring of them to be thereby righteous the very name of justification signifies so much and what is the forme of a justified man as he is righteous but righteousnes to imagine a righteous and justified man without righteousnes is as if one should dreame of a living man without life or soule Thirdly they deny the principall ground of justification to wit spirituall union and communion with Christ which cannot stand without imputation of Christs righteousnes for communion and union doe necessarily bring with them imputation If wee have communion of Christs satisfaction and righteousnesse GOD must needs judge and count them to be ours for his judgement is according to truth And faith which is an inferiour and subordinate meanes they set up in the place of Christs righteousnes Fourthly as they deny the materiall cause of iustification by reiecting Christs righteousnes from being the proper matter about which it is exercised so also the forme or formall cause even the mutuall communion and reciprocall imputation of our sinnes to Christ and Christs satisfaction and righteousnes to us whereby it is made our formall righteousnes not inherently but spiritually and imputatively for they acknowledge no formality but inherency Fiftly they deny the immediate fruit and benefit of justification to wit that state of righteousnes cleannesse from the guilt of sinne and acceptation with GOD wherein the justified are firmely established before GOD and stand in his sight which is the chiefe honour and prerogative of GODS Saints and their greatest comfort in all their afflictions and temptations Lastly they take away the true end and use of justification to wit the revelation of GODS infinite justice mercy bounty and free grace for they overthrow his infinite justice while they teach that GOD by his soveraign power puts his justice to silence and without Christs full satisfaction made to it for us and made ours by communion and imputation doth accept our weake faith in stead of it and makes himselfe as countable for it in all rewardes as hee would doe for the perfect fulfilling of the Law by our selves or by Christ in our stead They extenuate and vilifie GODS mercy bounty and free grace by setting up faith in stead of Christs perfect righteousnes and making it the condition of the new covenant For whatsoever is given or promised to us upon a condition to be on our part performed is not a gift of free grace and bounty And when justice may bee turned out of doores without a compleat satisfaction there is nothing left for mercy wherein to shew the power of it The infinite mercy of GOD doth appeare in this that when his infinite iustice required that wee should all be damned without a full satisfaction which none could make but the sonne of GOD in our nature and that performed for us and made ours Hee would give his onely sonne
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
and beleeving which wee on our part must performe for iustification life and salvation And hereby they abolish the freedome of the new Covenant and make it a Covenant conditionall and not of free grace For what soever is covenanted-and promised upon a condition to be performed is not absolutely free nor freely given and so according to their Doctrine they that are iustified by faith are not freely iustified by grace whereas they plead Scripture for their errour and alledge that iustification and life is promised upon condition of beleeving If you beleeve you shall be saved I answer that this is a grosse and absurd mistake For every conditionall proposition doth not propound the conditition of a Covenant which the party to whom a thing is promised must performe that the promise may bee made good to him for such a condition whensoever it is performed makes the thing covenanted a due debt which the promiser is bound to give But oftentimes a conditionall proposition propounds the meanes by which a free gift is received or the qualification by which one is made capable and fit to receive and enjoy a free gift as for example it is often said in Scripture if yee will heare and hearken yee shall eate the good of the land and shall live and not be destroyed Isay 1.19 Ier. 26.3 and many other places If we love one another GOD dwelleth in us 1 Iohn 4. If we walke in the light we have fellowship one with another 1 Iohn 1.2 If we confesse our sinnes hee is faithfull and just to forgive 1 Iohnâ— 9 If a man be just and do that which is right he shall surely live Ezech 18.5.21 In all which and the like places there is no condition of the Covenant propounded but onely the way and meanes to receive blessing or the quality condition by which men are made capable and fit to enjoy the blessing and somtimes the signes tokens and effects of them that are in a blessed estate And even so when GODS word saith If you believe yee shall be saved There is no condition of the Covenant propounded to be performed on our part for justification and salvation but onely the qualification by which GOD of his free grace doth qualify and fit us to be iustified and saved and the meanes by which hee enables us to receive righteousnes and to lay hold on salvation which is freely given to us in Christ. Vpon these particulars severally observed out of their owne words and writings I strongly conclude that this opinion being builded upon such a blasphemous and Hereticall ground and upheld and maintained by such blasphemous arguments must needs be most impious Hereticall and blasphemous Having already proved the Socinian and Arminian opinion to be most false and abominable I proceed to answere the particular arguments contained in this 2. Chapter which was by the Authors owne hand delivered unto me to be answered And because he and his followers shall not complaine of misrelating any of his words I will as I have done in the former Chapter first lay downe his owne words Socinianisme THe first argument brought to prove that faith and believing are in a proper sense Rom. 4. said to be imputed to the believer for righteousnes in justification and not the righteousnes of Christ. First the letter of this Scripture speakes what we affirme plainely and speakes no parable about it yea it speakes it once and twice yea it speakes it the third and fourth time and is not ashamed of it Abraham beleeved GOD and it was imputed to him for righteousnes verse 3. Againe to him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted to him for righteousnes verse 5. And yet againe verse 22. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousnes The same phrase and expression is used also verse 23.24 Certainely there is not any truth in religion not any article of our beliefe that can boast of the letter of the Scripture more full expresse and pregnant for it what is maintained concerning the imputation of faith hath all the authority and countenance from the Scriptures that wordes can lightly give whereas the imputation of Christs righteousnes in that sense which many magnifie hath not the least reliefe either from any sound of wordes or sight of letter in the Scripture Christianisme HIs first argument reduced into the forme of a syllogisme runs thus That opinion which hath the Letter of the Scripture more full expresse and pregnant for it then any truth in religion or article of our beliefe and hath all the authority and countenance from the Scripture that wordes can lightly give is certainely true This opinion concerning the imputation of faith in a proper sense is such Therefore it is a true and sound opinion That this imputation of faith may boast of the letter of Scripture and of all the authority and countenance that wordes can give hee proves because the letter of the Scripture speakes it once twice yea thrice and foure times to wit in this Chapter Rom. verse 3.5 22 23 24. to which I will adde a fift time verse 9. The more true that the proposition is the more false is the assumption wherein hee assumes most falsely to his opinion that which in no wise belongs to it and thereupon inferres a most false conclusion I answere therefore that his assumption is an heap of impudent lyes First the killing letter of the Scripture may give some countenance to it that is speeches of Scripture understood and urged literally which are spoken by GODS spirit tropically and in a figure This Saint Austin calls the killing letter because they who take the words properly and so urge them obstinately they slay their owne soules But the true literall sense of the wordes which are improperly literall will never give any countenance to this hereticall opinion as I have shewed before most fully 2 I cannot but accuse him here of most intollerable impudency in that he affirmes that this most Hereticall opinion hath more full expresse and pregnant testimony from the letter of the Scripture then any truth in Religion or any article of Religion and hath all the authority and countenance from the Scripture that words can give when as in all the Scripture faith is not once said to be imputed for righteousnes in a proper sense in all the word of GOD and is onely seven times said to be counted or imputed for righteousnes and that tropically while the Apostle useth the phrase borrowed from that improper speech which is spoken of Abraham Gen. 15.6 That when Abraham believed GOD he counted it to him for righteousnes For it is manifest that in this Chapter he altogether insists upon that speech and doth but repeat it six times and so likewise Gal. 3.6 Saint Iames also once useth it speaking of declarative justification to prove that Abraham was justified by workes Iam. 2.23 that is declared before men to be
dispersed it in London and from thence into severall places of the Countrie about 28. yeares agoe was Anthony Wotton who being discovered and hotly opposed by the Author of this answer was by his zeale and the industrie of some other Preachers in London quickly quelled and his opinion suppressed but yet because he would uphold a secret faction he wrote a booke in Latine wherein he seemed to retract or rather to run from some desperate opinions and speeches which are to bee seene in his private manuscripts given by him from hand to hand and formerly dispersed For whereas in divers of them he professeth in plaine words his dissent from all our Orthodox Divines which had beene before written of Justification saying I am inforced to dissent from them all He in that booke laboured to make a shew of consent with them and did wrest some of their doubtfull speeches to countenance his Socinianisme This booke intituled De Reconciliatione some of his fiery factious and zealous disciples with much difficulty after it was rejected at Leiden and Amsterdam procured it to be printed at their owne cost brought over the Copies and sold them under hand in London And out of it wee may justly suspect that this Scribler and babler hath stollen the most part of his conclusions arguments and distinctions for I am informed that he is a great admirer of that book and of the Author also So that if this Socinian Iohn will and must needs have and usurpe that high Title which our Saviour gave to Iohn the Baptist and will bee called as his disciples stick not to stile him the shining light of the Church in these last dayes Surely he is but a borrowed light or rather a wandring light like that ignis fatuus which in darke nights leadeth the followers into ditches loggs praecipces and breakneck downfalls as the Philosophers write of it For the recalling of the ignorant who are by him seduced for the confounding of them who are by him perverted and for the stopping of the foule lying and slanderous mouthes of those factious sectaries his followers of a scarred conscience who as they have his person in high admiration so also are bold to revise and defame all godly and learned Preachers who oppose his errours and preach against them I will spend a few spare houres to sift his written discourse at least so much of it as is come to my hands hoping by evidence of truth plaine Scriptures solid reasons and testimonies of the best writers to make it manifest to GODS people that he is a mere Socinian Sophister and dangerous seducer and that his discourse is an hotch potch of pestilent errours and full of â—eâ—giversations contradictions and perverse wrestlings of Scriptures and of the words and writings both of Ancient and moderne Divines And that neither he himselfe nor his clamarous disciples may have the least colour or occasion to complaine that I have not dealt fairely with him I will first set downe his Socinianisme word for word out of his owne writings without concealing any word or sentence And to every part thereof I will oppose the contrary doctrine of Christ under the name of Christianisme And first I begin with his preface with which he begins his first Chapter The Preface to Socinianisme FOr the cleare understanding of the state and drift of the question something would be premised which for the evidence sake might be privileddg and exempted from passing under much dispute and contradiction yet if any thing be not sufficiently prepared for assent in the briefe proposall of it the ensuing discourse will labour to reconcile the disproportion And in the progresse make satisfaction for what it shall receive upon curtesie in the beginning The Answer to the Preface THis short Preface doth by the affected stile and phrase of it discover the Author to bee one who hath studied to preach himselfe more then Christ and to set forth his owne absurd conceits in the entising words of carnall wisedome not to declare the Testimony of GOD in Apostolicall plainenesse nor in demonstration of the Spirit and of power as Saint Paul did The loftie words and short cut speech which hee useth here and in this ensuing discourse are so farre beyond the capacity of his rude unlearned followers that his wooden pulpit shall assoone as they understand them unlesse he first teach them his Grammaticall skill before hee admit them into his Theologicall auditorie But belike hee knowes the ready way to catch the wavering unstable and giddie multitude those wandering Starres of these last times who are like clowdes without water carried about with windes of every new and strange Doctrine and of all people are the fittest to bee his disciples For the mouth which speaketh great swelling words is admired of them who have mens persons in admiration and farre fetcht phrases are fine fooleries to tickle the itching eares and win the hearts of such as desire to seeme and bee counted something when indeed they are nothing but bubbles and empty bladders who as they admire every bewitching Simon Magus as the great power of GOD and extoll to the Skies his most cursed errours So they abhorre and revile all sincere and godly Preachers rebukers of their madnesse blaspheme GODS word in their mouthes and speake evill of the good things which they understand not untill in the gainsaying of Core they utterly perish Moreover to give him his due he appeares to mee in his stile and phrase a very skilfull Artist in his owne way as cunning as the subtle Serpent in cloathing and trimming his strange Doctrines with strange conceited words fited to them by which they who affect strange novelties may easily be allured and insnared But when the children of truth hunt him by the smell and strong savours of his rankling errours which stink as well as fret like an eating Cancer and are ready to catch him hee doth by his inkhorne termes so obscure and darken his meaning that onely they who have a sharp quick and strong sight can lay fast and sure hold on him Wee may well resemble him to the crafty fish Sepia of which we read that when she is pursued and ready to be taken she spueth forth a black inke wherewith she darkneth the waters round about and so escapes away in thick darknesse through which she cannot be seene and discerned But to omit his stile and to come to the matter of his preface it is a promise and pretence of somewhat by him premised which shall serve for the cleare understanding of the state of the question and for evidence sake might be priviledged from passing under much dispute and contradiction but hoc aliquid nihil est this something is nothing we find no performance of promise nor truth in what hee pretendeth neither his briefe proposall nor his ensuing discourse gives us any satisfaction neither can his beginning progresse or ending receive from us any thing upon curtesie For if
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
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
clothing of righteousnes wherewith the beleever is cloathed in his justification Justitiam morte resurrectione Christi acquisitam a righteousnes procured by the death and resurrection of Christ. This righteousnes of Christ may be said to be the righteousnes of a beleever in such construction of speech as the knowledge of GOD and of Christ is said to be eternall life Iohn 17.3 viz. in way of causality not in that formality of it and againe the righteousnes of a beleever in his justification may be tearmed the righteousnes of Christ in such sense as the favour of GOD in deliverance of a man out of trouble is called a mans righteousnes Iob. 33. verse 26. or as the nation and people of the Jewes are often in the Scriptures called Iacob they were not Iacob in the propriety of his person but in his descent and propagation so may the righteousnes of a beleever bee called the righteousnes of Christ because it is a righteousnes descended from it and issuing as it were out of the loynes of it What hath been affirmed and what hath beene denyed in the question wee come now to prove and demonstrate the truth of both 1 o From the authority of Scriptures 2 o From the grounds of reason as for the third way of proofe and confirmation by consent of Authors we shall not assigne a peculiar place for that by it selfe but interlace our other proofes occasionally with such testimonies as we have received from learned and judicious men for confirmation of our point to be discussed Christianisme THe second thing in this last part or passage is a profession of his meaning in denying Christs righteousnes to be imputed in justification First because he would have an adversarie for him to triumph over and least his admired sophistry should be idle for want of an opposite against which it might magnifie it selfe in the eyes of senselesse sectaries hee suffers Christs righteousnes to have a being and doth not deny it in it self but doth approve and establish it and so by good hap hee escapes one base absurdity in his disputing to wit denying of the subject of the question Secondly because he would have his competitor or corrivall to be of some great note the more to glorifie his victory over him hee doth not deny an absolute necessity of Christs righteousnes both to the justification and salvation of sinners we thanke him that for saving of himselfe from the hatred and skorne of the world he would grant so much of truth openly testified in Scripture Thirdly he doth not deny a meritorious efficiency or causality of Christs righteousnesse in respect of the justification of a sinner In this hee comes somewhat neere to us but I doubt it is not in sincerity and truth but rather in show to make the ignorant to conceive better or at least not to judge so hardly of his opinion for marke his slubbering and dawbing with untempered morter I verily believe saith hee that GOD justifieth them that are justified not simply or barely for Christs sake or for his righteousnesse sake but for the righteousnesse of Christ his death being taken into consideration with it here you see a plaine contradiction for Christs righteousnesse his death being taken into consideration with it is no more but his perfect righteousnesse because his active obedience without his passive obediēce to death is no perfect fulfilling of the Law so that here is a contradiction even an affirmation and negation of one and the same thing in one continued sentence The parenthesis also which hee inserts to trouble the reader is false and frivolous to wit for a man may doe a thing for his sake whom hee much loves and respects though hee hath not otherwise deserved it at his hands First let mee aske him what is his drift in these words It seemes to mee either to be wholly superfluous or to intimate that Christs righteousnes did not deserve our justification at GODS hands but that GOD out of love and respect to Christs person without the merit of his righteousnesse doth accept us and count us righteous Secondly let mee tell him that when a man doth any thing for another out of love without desert hee doth it for his owne loves sake and for the magnifying of his kindnes and free bounty and thus GOD did in giving his Sonne for us undeserving sinners But when justice doth stand up in strength and pleades for right as in the justification of sinners then a full satisfaction must come between love can no otherwise be rightly and lawfully shewed but by making a satisfaction or by apposing one who is sufficient to make satisfaction that no evill but good may be done to the party loved and respected and thus the case stands in justification of sinners Thirdly though a man out of his corrupt and carnall love may doe a thing for his favorite without desert or just consideration yea contrary to justice yet it is not so with GOD who is no respecter of persons in matter of justice and justification Hee doth never out of his free love decree to doe any thing but withall hee decrees and ordeines a just consideration why hee should doe it so that this is a frivolous parenthesis both false and from the matter In the fourth place hee sheweth what hee denies in denying the imputation of Christs righteousnesse viz. That GOD lookes upon a believing sinner and accounts him as one that hath done in his owne person all that Christ did in obedience to the morall Law and hereupon pronounceth him righteous so that he doth stand as righteous before GOD as Christ himselfe because righteous with the same righteousnesse and so GOD makes himselfe countable to him for such obedience imputed in as great matters of reward as hee would have beene for the like obedience particularly performed by himselfe In this expression of himselfe here is much calumny error and untruth First he doth calumniate and slander the true Doctrine of Christ professed by us concerning the imputation of Christs righteousnesse for no man in his right wits did ever hold that imputation of Christs righteousnesse to believers is GODS accounting them to have performed in their owne persons every act of obedience which Christ performed to the Law This is a manifest contradiction fitter for a giddy fancy to imagine then for any true Christian to professe The truth which wee professe is this that true believers being by that one spirit which workes faith in them united to Christ and made partakers of his righteousnesse and believing and applying by faith to themselves his satisfaction particularly are accounted truly righteous before GOD by communion and imputation not by legall performance in their owne persons And though the righteousnesse by which they are justified is the very same which is in Christ and which hee performed yet it doth not follow that they thereby are as fully righteous as Christ himselfe for he is originally righteous by
his owne personall righteousnes as the justifier they are righteous by communion and imputation as justified And as the hands and feet and other inferior members live by the same life and are sensitive by the same sense which is originally in the heart and head of the same body yet they are not so lively and sensitive as the heart and head but in a competent measure and proportion fit for every one of them So it is in the mysticall body of Christ betweene him the head and them his believing and justified members as I have before touched So that here we have an intollerable calumny and slander laid upon GODS sacred truth and the true professors of the same Secondly he utters a notorious untruth when he saith that to bee righteous by the same righteousnes which Christ performed is nothing else but to be performers of every act of his obedience in our persons Thirdly it is a wicked error to thinke as hee doth that obedience and righteousnes ether performed by ourselves or communicated to us should make GOD countable to us that is bound to give us the greatest rewards For the righteousnes of justification and the holynes and obedience of sanctification are onely free gifts which GOD gives to make us capable of eternall life and fit to stand in his presence and to see and enjoy his glory not bands to tye himselfe and to make him countable to us for if we be righteous what give we to him or what receiveth he at our hands Iob 35.7 eternall life though by Christ purchased for us yet is the free gift of GOD in Christ. Rom. 6.23 Here therefore this sublimate Doctor doth bewray his owne ignorance in the maine mysteries of salvation and is as David saith Psal. 14. become filthy stinking and abominable in his thoughts and imaginations concerning GOD himselfe while hee doateth after Socinian subtilties and sets himselfe to be singular by preaching his fond errors and heresies Lastly after all this in conclusion hee takes upon him to elude and evacuate those most plaine testimonies of holy Scripture wherein Christ is sayd to cloath and cover us with the garments of salvation and the robe of his righteousnesse Isa 61.10 that our sinnes and staines being thereby covered Psal. 32.1 sinne might no more be imputed to us but we in the robes of his righteousnesse may stand cloathed as with long white linnen robes Revel 19.8 And like Iacob in the garments of the first borne yeelding a sweet smelling savour may be accepted of GOD our heavenly father First hee saith that GOD in the justification of sinners cloathes none with the letter of Christs righteousnesse but every man that believes with the Spirit of it that is not with the righteousnesse it self but with the fruite and benefit of it that is with faith counted for righteousnesse where note that in his conceipt the righteousnesse of a justified man is a thing inhaerent in himselfe and a worke performed in his owne person not communicated to him from another ab extra as garments are and so no cloathing here is one grosse absurdity like as if one should say a mans cloathes are not on him but in him That speech of Paul these hands have ministred to my necessitie Act 20.34 are nothing to the purpose for he doth not say his hands were his necessary meat and cloathes but by working did get him necessaries and so Christ by his obedience procured righteousnesse for us which he doth communicate to us and cloathes us with and by GOD it is imputed to us and this Calvin calles righteousnesse gotten by Christs death and resurrection and all this is for us and against himselfe The other instances which hee brings from Scripture to prove that Christs righteousnesse is by a metonymie of the cause for the effect used to signifie the fruite and effect of it in us prove no such thing at all The first of them Iohn 17.3 this is eternall life to know thee the onely true GOD c. It is mistaken for to know GOD and Christ that is to have experimentall knowledge of GOD and Christ and to enjoy GOD in Christ as the word know by an Hebraisme signifies is not there mentioned as the efficient cause of eternall life but as the thing wherein it doth formally consist So also that speech Iob 33 26. as Master Perkins truely expounds it doth not speake of the fruite of a mans righteousnesse which GOD renders to him but of the righteousnesse of Christ which GOD renders to a man a fresh and after temptation doubting and distresse makes him feele and enioy it in himselfe when by repentance and humble and faithfull prayer hee seekes it And although the nation of the Israelites are often as hee alledgeth called by the name of Jacob in Scripture because he was their Father and they his naturall progeny yet this proves onely that the Scripture useth tropes of speech many times which we acknowledge willingly and in the next Chapter will prove fully Where hee forgetting and contradicting himselfe utterly disclaimes tropes and figures and exclaimes against all the learned who hold that Saint Paul useth a trope in saying that faith is imputed for righteousnesse Well for the present wee will grant him that our cleannesse from the guilt of sinne and the state of righteous and justified persons wherein we stand before GOD being the issue and fruite of Christs satisfaction communicated to us may very well be called by a trope the righteousnesse of Christ but this doth not overthrow but rather strongly prove the communion and imputation of Christs righteousnes to us Thus we see how hee labours in the fire and in vaine beats his braines and out of the confusion and distemper of them doth say and gainsay affirme and deny the same things oftentimes being like a clowd without water carried about with winds sometimes one way and againe the contrary way and never settling upon solid truth nor building upon a sure foundation Now what he promiseth in the conclusion of this Chapter you shall see how hee performeth by my answer to his second Chapter wherein as he begins here so he goeth on entangling and beating himselfe forging and falsifying and in every passage discovering his ignorance and folly mingled with much impudency hereticall perversenesse and pravity which that it may better appeare and that we may see his Socinian heresie to the bottome clearely I will lay downe the chiefe heads of the Doctrine of Justification as it is taught in the Scriptures and maintained by all Orthodox Divines both ancient and moderne Justification taken in a full sense is that act of GOD by which he justifies his elect and faithfull in his son Iesus Christ by the communion of his spirit that is doth make them righteous by Christs perfect righteousnes and full satisfaction spiritually made theirs and doth count them righteous by imputing the same unto them and doth declare them to be righteous inwardly to
confidently affirme that there is not one Orthodox writer to be found since that time which ever held that faith in a proper sense is imputed for righteousnes and denyed the imputation of Christs righteousnes Servetus Socinus Arminius and the rest of their sect branded for hereticks are the onely maintainers of that opinion To his testimonies and his impudent boasting of the generall consent of interpreters I answere First joyntly and in generall That of all the testimonies which hee hath cited there is not one which either affirmes that faith taken in a proper sense is imputed for righteousnesse or denies the imputation of Christs righteousnes Moreover that all Divines who are the most zealous opposers of his interpretation may say the same words which he cites out of Authors and yet hold justification by Christs righteousnes imputed yea and in proving that truth may with good reason presse and urge the same words rightly understood Soe that a more odious example of folly and impudency cannot be shewed then hee here shewes himselfe by making his folly strive for Mastery with his impudency Secondly for the particular testimonies which he brings both out of ancient and moderne writers They say no more but what Saint Paul saith and wee all acknowledg and embrace for truth viz. That Abraham beleeving that in Christ and through his satisfaction GOD was become his reward was thereupon counted righteous and GOD counted faith to him for righteousnes and so are we all iustified not by our owne righteousnes of workes performed to the Law in our own persons but by faith laying hold on the righteousnes of Christ which is counted for righteousnes not in a proper sense but relatively as it comprehends Christ and his righteousnes which Calvin calls apprehending the goodnes of GOD and trusting in it First for Tertullians words I take them as he doth render and rehearse them and so the rest in order and will take a light view of them that wee may see his vanity in citing testimonies which make nothing for him but some directly against his opinion Tertulian Lib. 5. c. 3 against Marcion BVt how the children of faith and of whose faith if not of Abrahams for if Abraham beleeved GOD and it was deputed to him for righteousnesse and hee thereby obtained the name of the father of many nations wee by beleeving GOD are therefore much rather iustified as Abraham was And lib. de patientia cap. 6. Abraham beleeved and was deputed by him to righteousnesse but hee tried his faith by patience when he was commanded to sacrifice his sonne All this wee grant for here is not a word of imputing faith in a proper sense onely an affirmation that Abraham by beleeving obtained this at GODS hands that he was accounted and reputed to be in the state of a righteous man which we all professe Origen in Epist. ad Romanos Cap. 4. verse 5. IT seemes in this present place that whereas many beleevings of Abraham werk before now in this beleeving his whole faith was gathered together and so was reputed to him for righteousnesse and againe in the same place Abraham was not by GOD testified to bee righteous for his circumcision but for his faith for before his circumcision hee beleeved GODS and it was counted to him for righteousnesse If Origens meaning be as Beza gathered from these and other wordes in that place that Abrahams faith and all his acts of beleeving made up a perfect righteousnesse and conformity to GOD will and law then is hee in as great an errour as the Papists who set up iustification by a mans owne inherent righteousnesse and his testimony is to be abhorred But if his meaning bee that by his beleeving and not by his circumcision he obtained from GOD this testimony that he was righteous by a righteousnesse beleeved then he is full for us and against his interpretation Justine Martyr Dialog with Trypho ABraham not for his circumcision but for his faith obtained the testimony of righteousnesse for before he was circumcised it is said of him Abraham beleeved GOD and it was counted to him for righteousnesse Wee grant that Abraham beleeving GOD to bee his reward in Christ this faith was the evidence of his being righteous by apprehension of Christ and his righteousnesse and therefore by it he obtained a testimony from GOD that he was in the state of righteousnes And Justine Martyres words say the same and so he is cleare for us against them who make faith the righteousnes imputed in a proper sense and not the evidence of righteousnesse Chrysostome on Rom. 4.23 saith that the Apostle HAving spoken many and great things concerning Abraham and his faith saith wherefore is it written but that wee might learne that we also are justified as hee was because wee have beleeved the same GOD and on Gal. 3.6 For what was he the worse for not being under the Law nothing at all for his faith was sufficient to him for righteousnesse All this we grant For as Abrahams faith laying hold on GOD as his reward in Christ by communion of his righteousnesse was sufficient to him for righteousnesse so is our faith also sufficient for us to iustification because by it wee possesse Christs righteousnesse Augustine on the 148 Psal. saith FOr by beleeving wee have found what the Iewes lost by not by unbeleeving for Abraham beleeved GOD and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse and on Psal. 140. for I beleeve in him who justifieth the ungodly that my faith may be imputed to mee for righteousnes and in his book de natura gratia For if Christ dyed not in vaine the ungodly is justified in him alone to whom beleeving in him that justifieth the ungodly faith is accounted to him for righteousnesse and in his 68. sermon de tempore Abraham beleeved GOD and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse See that without any worke hee is iustified by faith and whatsoever was possible to be conferred on him by his observation of the Law his beleeving alone gave it all unto him where note that beleeving gives righteousnes and is not the righteousnes given in iustification Primasius on Rom. 43. saith ABrahams faith by the guift of GOD was so great that both his former sinnes were forgiven and this faith alone is said to be accepted before all righteousnes that is before all righteousnes of his owne not instead of Christs righteousnes For if it had not laid hold and possessed the full satisfaction of Christ it could not have gotten pardon of his sinnes Beda's words which he citeth concerning the faith which is imputed are onely these not every faith but that onely which worketh by love This is a certaine truth for no faith can bring to us a true sense and assurance of our communion with Christ but that which worketh by love Haymo on Rom. 43 saith Quia credidit Deo c. Because hee beleeved GOD it was imputed to him for righteousnesse