is their Father though they resolve against being Separate Men can though God saith they cannot partake of the Table of the Lord and of the Table of Devils 1 Cor. 10. 21. For Union and Communion with Christ be the Heart of the Benefits included in partaking of the Lord's Table Reader Weigh these things and thou canst hardly conceive what Act of God an Union before Faith can be ascribed to It 's not to the Decree for that only resolveth it shall be in future It 's not to God's appointing or Christ's engaging to be a Mediator for thereby he undertook in time to raise a Seed which in the fulness of Time God would gather in one in him Eph. 1. 10. It 's not in Christ's assuming the humane Nature for that admits all Mankind to be united to him as well as the Elect. And what Mr Sterry and others talk of a radical Union with Christ as he is the top Branch or the universal Spirit of the Creation in a Nature distinct from his Divine and Humane it's fordid to such who know of but two Natures in Christ and if granted would not prove the Doctor 's Notion of actual Union TESTIMONIES The Assembly Confess Ca. 26. a. 1. and the Elders at the Savoy Chap. 27. a. 1. affirm That we are united to Jesus Christ by-his Spirit and by Faith A. 5. Only the Elders add We are not thereby made one Person with Christ. The Lesser Catechism hath this Question How doth the Spirit apply to us the Redemption purchased by Christ A. By working Faith in us and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual Calling The New England Synod confute this as Errour 37. We are compleatly united to Christ before or without any Faith wrought in us by the Spirit They sum up their Confutation of this in these VVords If there be no Dwelling of Christ in us no coming to him no receiving him no being married to him before and without Faith But the former is true Errour 16. which Boston Church charged Mr. Hutcheson with was That Union to Christ is not by Faith Errour 38. The Synod Confutes is There can be no true closing with Christ in a Promise that hath a Condition expressed Errour 69. Though a Man can prove a gracious VVork in himself and Christ to be the Author of it if thereby he will prove Christ to be his this is but a sandy Foundation He never read Doctor Owen who did not find him as express in this as any Man can be Norton Orthod Evang. P. 291. Union in order of Nature though not of Time followeth Vocation P. 181. Union not without the Act of Faith P. 222. It 's by the Spirit and Faith The Grounds of the Dr's Mistake Because Christ is appointed and given to raise a Body eternally elected thereto therefore he thinks they are this Body before they be raised Because all After-Grace is from Christ as our actual Head therefore he thinks Christ cannot by his Spirit work the first Grace as our designed Head VVhereas the Spirit makes us an Habitation to God Eph. 2. 22. And it 's a strange conceit that Christ can exert no Act of Power on a dead Soul in order to Union but Men must infer that Union prior to it Because the natural Body cannot see without a Head therefore Christ cannot convert a Sinner to bring him into his mystical Body One might better infer the Head cannot see without the Body and the Body sees as much as the Head and the Head sees no better than the Body and so conclude Christ can see nothing till every elect Person be a Member and every Member seeth as well as Christ and the dim Sight of every Member makes the Sight of Christ as blind as his Because Christ received Gifts for the Rebellious that God might dwell among them therefore God dwells among them before those Gifts operate or be communicated to them Whereas the Apostle Eph. 4. 10 11 12. tells us how these Gifts are the Means by which the Elect are converted and made Believers and so come to partake of Union with its peculiar Effects Because from the Parable of the Vine the Gardiner puts the Graff into the Tree before there 's Sap or Fruit therefore he thinks a Man is in Christ before God puts him in Christ by the Spirit and Faith which is the only ingraffing the VVord tells us of besides external Church Privileges Rom. 11. 17 19. I may as well argue a Member of Christ must always do wicked VVorks because the Graff bears always Fruit of its own Kind and not after the Kind of the Stock into which it is ingrafted How sad is it to strain and abuse Parables or Metaphors against the Scope of the Gospel because God condescends to explain some Truths thereby as if all that belongs to the Metaphor teach and prove any Doctrine because that one Point for which the Lord useth it is illustrated thereby VVhat VVork may soon be made by fond People if this be true Because we are chosen in Christ from eternity that is elected to obtain Life by him as Mediator therefore we are one with him before any uniting Bonds Reader I forbear to represent the Nature of this Union as he seems to state it P. 104 105 648 649 615. hoping he meant better than many of his VVords do import but for thy own Good know that upon believing we are made Partakers of Gospel-Benefits we are related to him for all the Advantages which the Metaphors of this Union express He loveth enricheth and honoureth us as a Man doth his Wife He directs rules and quickens us as a Head doth the Members He ministers Grace for Fruit and Exercise as the Root doth to the Branches Yea This Relation he 'll keep undissolved and yet more the very Spirit that his Humane Nature received in Fulness abides in and worketh a Conformity to the Life and Temper of Christ in all his Members which at last he will perfect to the utmost of our Capacity But yet fansie not that we are deified with God or christified with Christ or one natural Person with him as if he had a superangelick Nature which was a sort of a commen Soul or that our distinct Personality shall ever cease with other Notions destructive of God's Government and of all Judgment Beware of confounding God and the Creature or making Christ the Subject of our Graces because he is the Author of them Obj. But you said in the Errour that Men are said to receive Christ against their VVills A. The Doctor tells us Our first receiving of Christ is when Christ comes by the Gift of the Father to a Person while he is in the Stubbornness of his own Heart and the Father doth force open the Spirit of that Person and pours in his Son in spight of the Receiver P. 99. In P. 98. It 's as a Physician poureth Physick down the Patient's Throat and so it works against his Will
Gospel-Truth Stated and Vindicated Wherein some of Dr. CRISP's Opinions Are Considered AND THE OPPOSITE TRUTHS ARE Plainly Stated and Confirmed BY DANIEL WILLIAMS LONDON Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey 1692. WE whose Names are subscribed do judge that our Reverend Brother hath in all that is material fully and rightly stated the Truths and Errours mentioned as such in the following Treatise And do account he hath in this Work done considerable Service to the Church of Christ Adding our Prayers that these Labours of his may as we hope they will by the Blessing of God upon them be a Means for the reclaiming of those that have been missed into such dangerous Opinions and for the establishing those that waver in any of these Truths Wiliam Bates Samuel Slater John How Abraham Hume Vinc. Alsop Nich. Blakey W. Lorimer John Reynolds Edw. Lawrence John Showers Rich. Mayo Nath. Taylor Rich. Stretton Tho. Kentish John Quick Nath. Oldfield Many more were ready to attest these Truths but the haste of the Press prevents their Subscription TO THE READER A Dislike of Contention hath long restrained my engaging in this Work tho oft sollicited thereto by several worthy Ministers Peace is the Blessing which I chearfully pursue and is with the Truth what I propose in this very Endeavour I am convinced after frequent Prayers and serious Thoughts That the Revival of these Errours must not only exclude that Ministry as Legal which is most apt in its Nature and by Christ's Ordination to Convert Souls and secure the Practical Power of Religion but also renders Unity among Christians a thing impossible Every Sermon will be Matter of Debate and mutual Censures of the severest kind are unavoidable while one side justly press the Terms of the Gospel under its Promises and Threats for which they are accused as Enemies to Christ and Grace and the other side ignorantly set up the Name of Christ and Free Grace against the Government of Christ and the Rule of Judgment I believe many Abettors of these Mistakes are honestly zealous for the honour of Free Grace but have not Light sufficient to see how God hath provided for this in his rectoral Distribution of Benefits by a Gospel-Rule By this Pretence Antinomianism so corrupted Germany it bid fair to overthrow Church and State in New-England and by its stroke at the Vitals of Religion it allarm'd most of the Pulpits in England Many of our ablest Pens were engaged against these Errours as Mr. Gataker Mr. Rutherford Anthony Burgess the Provincial Synod at London with very many others whose Labours God was pleased to bless to the stopping of the Attempts of Dr. Crisp by Name opposed by the foresaid Divines Saltmarsh Denne Eaton Hobson c. To the grief of such as perceive the tendency of these Principles we are engaged in a new Opposition or must betray the Truth as it is in Jesus I believe many Abettors of these Notions have Grace to preserve their Minds and Practices from their Influence But they ought to consider that the generality of Mankind have no such Antidote and themselves need not fortifie their own Temptations nor lose the Defence which the Wisdom of God hath provided against remissness in Duty and sinful Backslidings Who can wonder at the Security of Sinners the mistaking the Motion of sensible Passions for Conversion and the general abatement of exact and humble walking when so many affirm Sins are not to be feared as doing any hurt even when the most flagitious are committed Graces and Holiness cannot do us the least good God hath no more to lay to the Charge of the wickedest Man if he be elected than he hath to lay to the Charge of a Saint in Glory The Elect are not governed by Fear or Hope for the Laws of Christ have no Promises nor Threats to rule them by nor are they under the Impressions of Rewards or Punishments as Motives to Duty or Preservatives against Sin c. In this present Testimony to the Truth of the Gospel I have studied Plainness and to that end oft repeated the same things in my Concessions to prevent the Mistakes of the less Intelligent though I could not think it fit to insist a new upon all To the best of my knowledge I have in nothing mis-represented Dr. Crisp's Opinion nor mistaken his sence For most of them he oft studiously pleadeth Of each I could multiply Proofs and all of them be necessary from his Scheme though not consistent with all his other occasional Expressions His Scheme is this That by God's mere Electing Decree all Saving Blessings are by Divine Obligation made ours and nothing more is needful to our Title to these Blessings That on the Cross all the Sins of the Elect were transferred to Christ and ceased ever after to be theirs That at the first moment of Conception a Title to all those decreed Blessings is personally applied to the Elect and they invested actually therein Hence the Elect have nothing to do in order to an Interest in any of these Blessings nor ought they to intend the least good to themselves in what they do Sin can do them no harm because it is none of theirs nor can God afflict them for any Sin And all the rest of his Opinions follow in a Chain to the dethroning of Christ enervating his Laws and Pleadings obstructing the great Designs of Redemption opposing the very Scope of the Gospel and the Ministry of Christ and his Prophets and Apostles The Doctor had not entertained these Opinions if he had considered that God's Electing Decree is no Legal Grant nor a Formal Promise to us The Decree includes the Means and the End willing the first in order to the last and as it puts nothing in present being so it barrs not God as a Governour to fix a Connexion between Benefits and Duties by his revealed Will So if the Doctor had animadverted That Christ's Sufferings were the Foundation of our Pardon but not Formally our Pardon For them our Sins are forgiven when-ever they be forgiven without them Sin cannot be forgiven and they were endured that the Sins of all the Elect when Believers should be forgiven But yet they are not forgiven immediately upon nor merely by his enduring those Sufferings but there were by Divine Appointment to interpose a Gospel-Promise of Pardon the Work of the Spirit for a conformity to the Rule of the Promise in the Person to be pardoned and a judicial Act of Pardon by that Promise on the Person thus conformed to the Rule thereof To clear this Point Consider 1. The Law is sometimes taken for the Preceptive part of God's Will with the Sanction of the Covenant of Works In this Covenant Life was promised to sinless Obedience and Death was threatned against every Sin without admitting Repentance to Forgiveness Upon the Fall Life is impossible by the Law with this Sanction And hence to preach it to Sinners as a way of Blessedness is
Jewish Privileges as Gal. 6. 12. as many as desire to make a fair shew in the Flesh they constrain you to be Circumcised of this Number were these whom the Apostle warneth the Christians against but now by the Gospel we are brought to place our Hopes in greater and surer things 3. He enumerates these Jewish Pretensions which he had as much right to glory in as these boasting Enemies Ver. 4 5 6. He was a Jew by Birth and not a mere Proselyte circumcised as soon as any of the strictest Sect as fiery zealous against Christ as they and as ceremonious as the best touching the Righteousness which is in the Law blameless He intends not Sinless-Obedience nor Gospel-Sincerity but a Life not to be blamed by the Rule of the Jewish Pedagogie i. e. in the Judgment of strict Observers 4. Of these he professeth a Renunciation when converted to Christ. Ver. 7. But what things were gain to me That is these that I reckoned as much upon as they now do I counted loss for Christ when he met me by the way and led me to a truer Judgment of him and my self I soon preferred him his Grace his Benefits and Instruction before all these And Ver. 8. Yea doubtless c. That is I have no Suspicion of my Choice and am still of the same Mind they are still with me vain things of no value compared with that I have since known and experienced in and by Christ yea for him without repining I have not only quitted those Jewish things but I have suffered the loss of all things viz. my Name my Friends my Estate my Ease and Life it self in a fixed Purpose and do count them but Dung that I may win Christ. What these Jews do so boast of and the World so esteem even all are to me but Dogs-meat c. that I may but fully possess Christ and the full Effects of his Undertakings in perfect Peace Holiness and Glory somewhat of which are already begun in me 2. It was not Gospel-holiness which he counted Dung or Loss For 1. This was not his own Righteousness which is of the Law as opposed to that which is by the Faith of Christ. Nay This is by the Faith of Christ our Hearts are purified by Faith Act. 15. 9. In Christ we are created thereto and by him it is wrought through Faith in all his Members who are all in him and in this Union to him I desire to continue and share in the fuller Effects of 2. This Holiness instead of renouncing or suffering the Loss of it he earnestly presseth after and expects to obtain this is the Scope of Ver. 10 11 12 13 14. that I may know him viz. perfectly in his Person and Influences and the Power of his Resurrection i. e. in a perfect Newness of Heart and Life and be conformable to his Death i. e. wholly mortified and dead to Sin If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead that is be as holy and happy as then I shall be which is without Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing If I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ i. e. be as holy and happy as he designed to make me when he seized me in my first Conversion reaching forth unto those things that are before that cannot be imputed Righteousness for this he had in his first Justification but it 's that perfect Holiness and Glory which he expected in Christ hereafter And this is the Mark for the Price of the high Calling of God in Christ viz. What God intended in his Act when he called me in Christ and what I had in my Eye when I consented to that Call as the encouraging Reward Now is not Holiness a great part of all these and instead of renouncing it he tells us he is for it by any means I follow after reaching forth I press towards which was all needless as to what he had already 3. He bewails and owns the Weakness and Imperfection of this Righteousness at present though he was pressing after it Ver. 12. Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect Ver. 13. I count not my self to have apprehended forgetting the things which are behind Can this be true of imputed Righteousness Was not that attained at first Is not that perfect when first justified Or would Paul forget this though his small Degrees of Holiness past he might so forget as that lesser Degrees should not hinder his Pursuit after more Obj. But Ver. 8. Paul speaks in the present Tense I do count all things loss and therefore it was not his former Jewish Privileges A. It was his present Act towards an Object past q. d. I even now still account them all vain yea and it may extend to all present secular Advantages also as Life Honour and Estate c. q. d. I value nothing as a crucified Christ that I may fully know and enjoy him as a living Member in Eternity it self But I hope none can think that his winning Christ is either a first Interest in Christ or the Imputation of his Righteousness for Justification for this he with Comfort knew he already had and was not now to win by Perseverance and growing Vigour Far less can any think that he accounts Holiness Dung for what more he desired of Christ was in order to perfect the Holiness begun already by Christ in him and had he lost that which was already begun he had vainly expected a further Participation of Christ for Holiness or Joy This Righteousness which is of God by Faith is that eminent Holiness he waited for and if he could be found in Christ by an abiding Union he knew he should arrive at CHAP. XX. Of Gospel-Preaching TRUTH GOspel-Preaching is when the Messengers of Christ do publish to fallen Sinners the good News of Salvation by Christ to be obtained in the way which he hath appointed in his Word freely offering Salvation on his Terms earnestly persuading and commanding Men in the Name of Christ to comply with those Terms as ever they would escape the Misery they are under and possess the Benefits he hath purchased directing all to look to him for Strength and acknowledge him as the only Mediator and his Obedience and Sufferings as the sole Atonement for Sin and meriting Cause of all Blessings instructing them in all revealed Truth and by Gospel Motives urging them to obey the whole Will of God as a Rule of Duty but especially to be sincere and upright pressing after Perfection ERROUR Gospel-Preaching is to teach Men they were as much pardoned and as acceptable to God always as when they are regenerate and while they were ungodly they had the same Interest in God and Christ as when they believe neither can Sin any way hinder their Salvation or their Peace nor have they any thing to do to further either of them Christ having done all for them and given himself to them before