Righteousness is in this Obedience Most accursed Doctrine so far am I from this that I say The Righteousness which we must plead against the Laws Accusation is not one grain of it in our Faith or Works but all out of us in Christs satisfaction Only our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience are the conditions upon which wee must partake of the former And yet such conditions as Christ worketh in us frely by his Spirit How forcible and unresistible is the power of Conscience flying in the face of the guilty and accusing where men applaud or at least hold their peace Who either of men or Angels could have charged Mr. Br. for saying that which he had not yet said or for venting Socinian Doctrine in his writings before he had yet written What none els can do M. Br. is forced by Conscience to do against himself to arraign himself at the Bar for Socinianism Conscience is the accuser what Patron will he retein to be his defender Nothing out of himself can suffice to answer an accuser within himself Therefore he fees Reason that is his sophisticated and sopisticall wit art and craft to plead his Cause against Conscience The first of these exceptions which these make for him against the Charge is the abuse which some make of this imputation laying it upon all that speak not as they But 1. This is besides the Charge These some had not then spoken against Mr. Br. it is the accusation of his own conscience which he should have answered and he hnows it not to have confederated with those some of whom he speaketh 2. I know none of those some that have layd that aspersion upon any of those Divines which he mentioneth save one and that one I suppose would be very angry with any other man in England M. Br. alone excepted that should go about to rob him of that honour which Mr. Br. calls a reproach It is for brotherhoodssake that he hears it from him 3. But his craft herein is to befool his Readers with an opinion that he is of the same judgment with Pareus Wotton Gataker c. of whom they that are dead have as much shewed their abhorrency from and opposition against his Doctrines as any that have lived upon earth And those that are living if they be consistent with themselves in their former writings whereof I nothing doubt are as far from Mr Br. as he is from Christ and his truth 4. His jeer that he casteth upon them that are Adversaries to his Doctrine terming them Zealous Divines infinuating that they have zeale without knowledg and learning I leave as proper to him that in that way of wisdom and righteousness which his own reason either as refined with Philosophy or corrupted with Sophistry suggesteth seeks for justification and eternall glory Let us be accounted fools to the world and no bodies in that which is falsly called science so that we may be wise in and zealous for that which is the power and wisedom of God to salvation The second Plea which he makes for himself is the singlenes and sincerity of his studies bent rather to seek out what is Scripture truth than what is Socinianism that he thinks that Socinus his Nature Studies and Attainments did not so much vary from his name Faustus the happy that he should be so unhappy as to hold nothing true and consequently that neither himself is so unhappy but that he hath learned some Truths from this happy Socinus and perhaps such as he could never learn from Christ his Apostles or faithfull Ministers But 1. This may be said of Faustus the Conjurer who by giving himself to the Devill did not exterminate all notions of all truths from his soul Will Mr Br. be his Disciple also Both had the like effectuall influence from Satan neither know I which to prefer 2. Who sent Mr. Br. to learn from such Teachers to seek for light in darkness or Heaven in Hell or Scripture-Truth in the precept of Pagans or glosses of Papists or Socinus his God Reason Is it not because there is no God in Israel that he goes to enquire of Baal-zebab the God of Ekron 2 King 1. 3. The Lord Jesus rebuketh silenceth and refuseth to hear the Spirit of lies even when hee speaks truth Mar. 1. 23 24 25. and abandoneth the spirituall Devil no less than if he had blasphemed Mat. 4. So also Paul Acts 16. 16-18 The truth of Christ needs not any disdains all props from Hell to sustain it He that will not dip from the fountain but at the pools which the unclean beasts have defiled let him without our envy have mudd and dung enough in the water which he drinketh 3. It is much to be doubted the mans heart deceives him Were his studie so unfeigned and serious to know what is Scripture truth he would more study the Scripture it self and less Bellarmin Socinus Arminius and such like Sophisters whose whole study it is to corrupt all and to leave no Scripture unperverted 4. Had he not ploughed with Socinus his Heyfers or rather Bulls he could never have sowed so much darnell in the field of Christ The third Plea which he bringeth to prove that his Doctrine is free from Socinianism is because there is one point wherein hee dissenteth from Secinus That Socinus and his followers deny any expiatory sacrifice that Christ hath offred to God to satisfie his Justice for our sins or that ther is any effectual vertue in Christs death to purge our Consciences from dead works But that he becomes our Saviour only in this that he hath given us more perfect precepts of Righteousness than were contained in the Law and the Prophets and withall he hath given us a Copie or pattern by his own practice to which we must be conformed And so we must be justified not by the blood of Christ but by our own obedience in following these precepts and this pattern which he hath given us In this point Mr. Br. professeth himself so farr from joyning with him that hee casteth off this Doctrine with abhorrence But this reasoning hath no soundness in it For 1 It is the same as if I should argue that Goliah was not of the race of the Giants because he had not upon each hand six fingers and upon each foot six toes at some of the Giants progeny had and possibly the Giant himself Or that Mr. Br. should seek by this Argument to prove himself no English-man because he dwels neerer the Severn than Thames So also might the Jews elude the words of Christ and Elymas the words of Paul as slanderous arguing themselves not to be the children of the Devill because they had flesh and bone so had not the Devill They had never carried Christ aloft and set him on a pinacle of the Temple fearing they might fall headlong thence themselves so had the Devill The seed the Lusts of the Devil abiding and reigning in them spake them
Readers with Affection and prejudice the two worst Clouds which oft bemist the judgement of them that are both pious and prudent that in seeing they do not because they would not perceive the truth for a season The Affections of many he attracted to himself by professing himself a zealous Presbyterian This pretext made not a few to look over and beyond his Contagious doctrine to behold and regard the person of the man for his unanimity with them in discipline This vizzard is at length so faln from his Face that the most do and all may see him under this profession to have been but as the Anabaptized Jesuit taking his station there from whence he thought to have most advantage to promote his Popish doctrines Concluding that under that name his Fraud would not be so easily espyed And is there now any which seeth not he would be Episcopal Presbyterian Independent for any Government for no Government helping him to drive home to the head his soul-subverting doctrines into the hearts of men Prejudice against the sacred Truth which he oppugneth he fomented by aspersing the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and the reformed Churches of Christ with the black brand of Antinonianism reserving onely the Papists and Arminians whom he followeth free of it How much he hath prevailed in sowring with the leaven of Scribes and Pharisees which is hypocrisie the vulgar sort not onely of the people but of the Ministers also with this gross imposture would be incredible if experience did not manifest it Therefore finding this Feat so soveraign to the attainment of his ends assoon as he heard of exceptions in the Press against his Aphorisms his first indeavours have been to fill with prejudice the minds of men against the both work and Author thereof dispersing thorow this Citty by his Printer that it is the Hant-shire Antinomian that excepteth so against him How irrational and malicious this his inditement against me is may appear hence that I dwell in one of the obscurest nooks of this English little world so unknown as he is famous that he could not so much as hear of my name saving by some one of his Circumforaneous Legates which having their Provinces assigned either of one or more Counties are still Circling and Compassing them first to disperse this his Mystery of iniquity with such accurateness that there may be no one that hath the repute of a pious Gentleman or Minister a stranger to it and then by their frequent visitations to examine how the Baxterian Faith thrives in each person and to hold them fixed to it These returning once in six or seven Moneths out of their Circuits to their Grand Master may possibly speak in things which they know not what they think may be plausible to him It hath not been unknown I acknowledge to some of these that I disrelished his doctrine and did hinder the embracing of it But might not this my dissenting be as properly termed Treason as Antinonianism Yet because I understand that these sparkes of false fire have no sooner faln than taken in some I am forced to Apologize somewhat and that with the more Confidence because to you that have the eyes of your understanding most clear rightly to Censure or judge that prejudice may be no hinderance to the truth What I shall speak herein must relate partly to my self partly to Mr. Br. and partly to the doctrine it self which he hath drawn into Controversie Condemning it of Antinomism 1 What I shall speak of my self shall not be with an heart and a heart the one open to let out what it listeth the other reserved to retein in secrecy what is not for advantage to the ends sought after but in plainness and simplicity I shall deliver the whole and naked truth of my judgement as before the Lord my Judge and Justifier Neither is there need of hiding and Tergiversation for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ It is the power of God to salvation c. And as sweet to me as the salvation which it bringeth I therefore profess my self clear from all that is rightly Called and hath been judged by the reformed Churches and their Champions Antinonianism i. e. oppositeness to the Law These things I acknowledg my self to hold and teach 1 That Beleevers are not under the Curse of the Law as the Curse 2 Nor are the Afflictions which befall them so the Curse of the Law or revenging punishments for sinn but the fruits of the tender Love of a good and provident Father working for good to them 3 That they are not under the Law as a Covenant of works If these things be Antinonism I acknowledg my self an Antinomian yet such as onely the blindness madness and malice of men possibly may account so but that I have the Apostles and all the Protestant Churches and Writers without any exception under the same aspersion with me having all stoutly maintained all these as Gospel-truths against the false Apostles Papists and Arminians in their severall generations without the Contradiction of any except Papists and Arminians to whom Mr. Br. not without some fellowes hath lately Apostatized 4 Yet I still grant the preaching of the Law and that in its full perfection and all its terrors usefull to shake in pieces all the carnall Confidences and self righteousness of man that despairing of safety in himself he may be forced to seek it out of himself from meer Mercy in another which is Christ the Saviour 5. That the Law is still a perfect rule and directive of all morall righteousness and obedience both to beleevers and unbeleevers so that in both all variation from it is sinn but Conformity to it is regularity and obedience In respect of my judgement therefore about the Law I question not my discharge from the imputation of Antinomism among the truly wise and orthodox except to be a Christian be Antinonianism 2 As to Mr. Br it is evident that he asperseth the innocent with the Fault whereof himself is guilty He denies Christ to require under the Gospel the perfect holiness and righteousness which the Law commandeth and Consequently that it is not either our duty to perform it or our sinn to fail in it or that the Law is an adequate and Competent rule of morall obedience Because it Commands more than it is our duty to perform He saith not Christ requires it not in order to this end but simply and absolutely he requires it not If this be not Antinomianism Part. 1. p. 213. c. then Islebius himself hath been unjustly Charged with it 3 As to the matter yet remaining Charged by Mr. Br. and others with Antinomianism it may be reduced principally to four heads 1 Justification as an Immanent Act in God As actually Completed in the redemption which is by Christ in Christ both these before we beleeve 3 The absoluteness and irrespectiveness of it freely without Conditions 4 Christs satisfying for mans
Gospel let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. saith the Holy Ghost but whether Mr Baxter doth in this Treatise bring us another Gospel his Doctrine in the Examination thereof will manifest 4 I would that this his Treatise did speak him out to be so strictly and tenderly conscientious as his friends proclaim him I should then either in person have made recourse to him to communicate my thoughts to him or written in another tone in the spirit of meeknesse to him to have received fuller satisfaction from him if my impotency could not have ministred some information to him But we shall find in what he writes many things that may work in us a jealousie of the sincerity of a sanctified Conscience in him I shall here mention some generals leaving the rest untill we come to except against the particulars One thing that occasioneth this jealousie is the want of ingenuity truth and simplicity in his Assertions For one instance hereof we need not step further then to the title of the work where he affirms it to be published especially for the use of the Church of Kederminster in Worcestershire Can any man that hath but glanced an eye on the surface of humane literature think him to mean as he speaketh Either we must conclude that he hath the very spirit of all Philosophicall and Metaphysicall learning which he breaths forth as effectually upon his Disciples as Knipperdoling did the Holy Ghost upon his Anabaptists or else his Church for the greatest number of its members is not in a capacity of understanding him That his Church by his presidency in it is on a sudden become a Najoth in Ramah every Saul that comes neer it doth philosophari if not prophetare so that ex ejus Ludo tanquam ex equo Trojano innumeri principes exiêre Pauls Princes I mean Princes in secular wisedome and learning 1 Cor. 2. 6. 8. else if his people have no such inspiration above other Churches surely the most of them stagger at the first word in the title of the Book understand not the tenth part of his sacred subtle distinctions but in most things that he saith he is to them a Barbarian and they to him Nay Mr Baxter is not a novice he knowes where and for what mouths to chew his morsels and to whom to give them to be chewed It was especially for the nimble wits and logicall Teachers of the Churches that this broth was boyled as I shall shew more fully afterward that having misled the leaders he might by them mislead their flocks also 2 And as little ingenuity and truth is there in him where he quoteth some whom he against his stomach cals Orthodox Divines and from some locutions and fragments of their sentences concludes them to be of his Judgement when he knowes their Doctrine about Justification to be so diametrically opposite to his as hell to heaven and Antichrist to Christ so that if they be Orthodox himselfe must needs be Hetorodox This he well knowes but his ingenuity and single-heartednes hides it and pretends the contrary 3 Is not his face Ferry-man-like one way and his motion another when the whole tenor of what he writes is not to set up any new opinion but to erect again and put life into that cursed Heresie of the Papists Justification by Works yet to hide his purpose from them that see not or will not see he sometimes solemnly professeth before God that it is no affectation of singularity that drew him to this Judgement at other times falls foul with the Papists telling us that no advantage is to be given to the Papists in this Doctrine of Justification when himselfe all the while is ploughing their field and strengthening their hands to the offence of all the truly wise and godly what hypocrisie sembling and dissembling is this Why doth he acquit himselfe of that which no man chargeth upon him What understanding Reader of him can harbour one thought of his bending to singularity It is plain to every eye that is open that he walks not solitary but hath thronged himselfe into the communion of the Holy Mother Church and fellowship of all her Saint Popish Schoolmen Monks Fryers and Jesuites That his study is to lay an odium implicitely and in the dark upon us I mean not onely all the Orthodox Divines but also all the Reformed Churches that have been or now are that they are all guilty of singularity seperation and Apostacy in departing from the Romish Synagogue in the Doctrine of Justification therefore hath he spread his nets to catch as many as he can to carry them back into Babylon againe Let Mr Baxter have as he hath a confident and swelling opinion of his owne abilities but let him not so abuse all others as if star-like their light must be totally dazled at the approach of his supposed sun-beams Wretched England if all her Seers are become blind and none can discern Christ from Antichrist even in his mystery Nay let him know that there are many which see and detest what he hath written no lesse then if it had been sent by the Popes own Legate to beguile Ingenuity truth and sincerity would have acted another way Mr Baxter if he had been seasoned therewith would have plainly acknowledged that he had examined the Controversie between us and the Papists about Justification that as far as his comprehension can reach he finds them in the truth and us erroneous and then should have alledged the Scriptures and other Arguments which they produce for the establishing of their Tenents and the Exceptions which in the Reformed Churches have been made against such Arguments and shewed the invalidity of those Exceptions in no wise answering or weakning the Popish Reasons by means whereof his judgement and conscience force him to side with them and not with us Thus candour and conscience would have wrought upon him for he cannot deny but that both he closeth with them in the same conclusions and that all the Scriptures Arguments and distinctions scarce any excepted which he brings for the promoting of such Conclusions are taken from the Papists and have been answered over and over a hundred times by our Divines Therefore to set forth his Assertions as new and to annex his Reasons for the confirmation thereof as now first heard of argues intolerable impudency in his daubing and dissembling To have dealt thus candidly and conscientiously would have excited many learned and holy men to a lovely conference with him which now contemn him as a seducer and seduced but if this had been done where should the crooked Serpent and working of Satan and Deceivablenasse of unrighteousnesse which still accompany that Man of sin and those that beare his marke have appeared 2 Thess 2. 9 10. 4 And his doublenesse and liegerdemain is no lesse exercised in that thorow-out his Treatise he is ever and anon sparkling his fire-brands against the Antinomians thereby secretly instilling into his unwary Readers that it
is against them this his work mainly levelleth when contrariwise under this name and mask his War is against all the Orthodox Churches and Divines that are or have been since the Reformation These all with him are Antinomians as himselfe sometimes when they stand in his way and stirr his passion doth somewhat inconsiderately speak out telling us that he meanes that Antinomianism whereof Dr. Twiss and Mr. Pemble bear up the pillars pag. 73. and consequently whereof Luther Calvin and the rest Divines and Martyrs employ'd in the Reformation have re-edified the walls yea Paul and Christ himself have laid the foundation But this craft he learn'd as the rest from his Masters the Monks and Jesuits who when they set themselves to batter the truth of Christ cry out in their Pulpits and Writings against the Huguenots Lutherans Hereticks laying such slanders on the truth and them which teach or hold it that they may stirr an Odium in the people among whom there are some so ignorant that dwelling at a distance from the Protestants and having never seen any of them they think them not to be men having heard so much evill of them but some Monsters and Devils flown lately out of the bottomles pit to trouble and deceive the world Therefore are filled with such prejudice against their Doctrine that if they were told these Hereticks say Christ is the Son of God and Saviour of the world they would in hatred of the supposed Hereticks be ready to reject both Christ and salvation lest they should seem to hold with them Mr. Baxter needs not the incitation of any spurr to follow having such Leaders and the opportunity also served to his ends He hath taken full notice that in these last yeares among the greatest i. e. the vulgar part of our Ministers the name of Antinomianism hath been the worst abhomination and that they have so inveigled their credulous congregations with the feare and hatred of it that any Pharisaicall Monkish or Jesuiticall spirits that would but cry aloud and lift up their voyce against Antinomians found welcome not only to their persons but to the whole galley-maufry of formalities moralities wood hay and stubble that they scattered among the people When contrariwise if any should but often name Christ and Grace in his Sermon all were shie of him turned their heels in stead of their faces towards him and his Doctrine though never so pretious and wholsome fearing some tincture therein of Antinomianism This advantage therefore hath hee taken to batter the Doctrine of the Gospel under the name of Antinomism knowing that if Christ himself should again descend from heaven to preach it in his own person he should under this vizard finde contempt of himself and his Doctrine among the vulgar I acknowledg every divine truth to be so sacred and pretious that we ought to defend and redeem it from oppression with our very blood Whatsoever therefore of errours against the truth the Antinomians truly so called have broached wee ought with all our strength to resist and reject And hereof I shall have occasion to speak more fully afterward In the interim I may lay down safely and truly these two assertions 1. That Mr. Baxters principall aime is by this odious term to fright weak and inconsiderate persons from the truth of Christ 2. That all that catalogue of errors which Sleidan in his Commentaries ascribeth to the Antinomians of Germany about 100. years sithence and aâ—l the tenents of those that among us are or have bin Antinomians indeed as farr as in my acquaintance with them I could ever gather from them contein not a mole-hill in comparison of that mountain of evill and mischief that by this Treatise Mr. Baxter would hurl upon us A second thing which ministers occasion to us to doubt of this mans spirituall conscientiousnesse is his prophaning and vilifying of holy things We find him oft in this prostâ—ating religion conscience and the word of God it selfe to the censure and sentence of reason yea of naturall and carnall reason and that those very things which reason cannot comprehend even things which eye hath not seene nor eare heard neither hath it entred into the heart but are revealed onely by the word and spirit 1 Cor. 2. 9 c. These are the mysteries of the Gospel Justification Adoption c. when Mr. Baxter at some times cannot possibly evade such Scriptures as discover his errours with what vehemency doth he forth-with lay hold on them to sacrifice them to sense and reason yea to that which is worse then sense and reason Flectere si nequeat superos Acheronta movebit when heaven is against him he appeals to hell to speak for him summoning together not only the Jesuites but the very Ghosts of the most cursed Hereticks by their authority to settle his conscience and subject the word to it Iâ— not here wanting that trembling at Gods word which is required and found in the Saints He doth rarely indeed mention the Authors whom he followeth as his Masters but that is of craft that he might not cast an Odium upon his Doctrine he thinks it more fit to offer it as some sacred thing spun out of his own brain that there might be the lesse suspicion of it But that it is drawn out of those channels which I have mentioned I shall be ready to shew in particulars if any doubting shall demand it of me Neither let it offend that in gross and course terms I speak the truth of the Author It is wholly against the bent of my disposition so to do were it not that it is the very foundation of all our hopes that is by him battered and that the profuse commendation which some have given of the man to draw Disciples to him did not force me to speak unsparingly while truly to undeceive some of my friends that through credulity either are or might be seduced Thus far of the man as he hath been represented by others I shal say something of him also as he renders himself to us by this Treatise I cannot I will not think him one that is wilfully apostatiz'd But finding him a man of excellent both naturall and acquired parts of a very rationall brain delighted more in depths than in shallows in the logicall deep and serious than in the lighter and superficiary parts of learning I conceive him to have been carryed out by his own Genius to the reading of the deepest Scholastick writers with the purpose that Virgil once applyed himself to the reading of Ennius though not with the same successe The purpose of both probably was to fetch out ê stercore gemmam a jewel out of the dunghill But this man meeting with learning perfectly agreeing with his naturall Genius became impotent to obtaine his purpose for being delighted with the dunghil he hath made it his sphere and element the depth of rationality which he found in his Authors hath drawn and captivated him to their most
reference to the times past the other to the time present and to come Palam est saith Amesius Patres ex Philosophia introduxisse in Ecclesiam Ames Bellar Enero Tom. 4. Lib. 6. Cap. 1. p. 136. varios modos loquendi precipuè de meritis humanis de Justitia Evangelij qui in scripturis non comparent inde occasionem datam arreptam Scholasticis fuisse perniciosos errores fabricandi i. e. It is apparent that the Fathers have out of Philosophy brought into the Church various ways of speaking especially of mans merits and of Gospel-righteousness which do not appear in Scriptures And that occasion hath been thereby given to and caught or raught by the School-Doctors to frame many Errors And Bullinger seeing this way of disputation beginning to peep and shew it self in its time within the reformed Churches having before described them that give their minds over-much to the study of Philosophy and Logick that they became such as are unuseful for the edification of the Church and in stead thereof Disputatores rixosi fiunt censores superbissimi nihil aliud quà m disputationes rixas spirantes omnia aliorum c. arrogantissimè consentes arrodentes maligne cavillantes Scholarum Ecclesiarum pestes ex quibus venenum altercationum simultatum c. effunditur in Ecclesiam i. e. become brawling disputers proud censurers breathing nothing but disputes and janglings most arrogantly censuring snarling and malignly cavilling at other mens labours nisi quod eorum capitibus gravidis admodulatum sit prescriptisque regulis congruant if they be not tuned to their heads great with Child and congruent with their rules and precepts of Art The very plagues of Schools and Churches out of which the poyson of brawlings divisions and distractions is powred out into the Church Having thus described them hee thus concludes in reference to the times past Equidem feliciter nunquam cessit Ecclesiae quando homines docti studiosi deserta simplicitate puritati verbi dei aliò converterunt oculos neque hos unicè in solum verbum Dei collimârunt i. e. Verily it hath never thrived well in the Church when learned Bulling Ser. Decad. 5. Serm. 10. and studious men forsaking the simplicity and purity of Gods word have glanced their eyes on some other thing and not fixed them only upon Gods word And thus in reference to the times to come and present Si hodiè quoque pergamus scripturis sanctis maâ—è copulare philosophiam illas superstitiosè ad disputationes revocare ac sub regulas cogere humanas vel Artium corrumpemus ipsi in scholis grandi cum Ecclesiae detrimento sinceritatem doctrinem Apostolicae i. e. If in our times also we proceed evilly to couple together the Scriptures and Philosophy and to call the Scriptures but outsidely or in a shew to our disputations reducing them to the rules of men and of the Arts we also shall to the great disadvantage of the Church corrupt the sincerity of Apostolical doctrine in the Schools So much said Bullinger a Classical Divine of his time neither without eminent learning nor an enemie to it for more than a 100 years sithence in the last of those decads of Sermons which he set forth in print Anno 1549. how long before the Edition thereof it was preached is uncertain Yeâ— gives after all this to humane literature its due praise Interim certum est saith he bonas Artes vel literas plurimum facere ad per spicuitatem evidentiam sed moderate cum judicio religiose adhibitas ut imperium relinquatur sacris literis serviant autem omnes Artes exoticae i. e. Mean while it must be granted that good Arts and Learning contribute much to the cleering and evidencing of things so that they be moderately judiciously and religiously made use of and the Scripture be still left as Empress and all extraneous Arts as handmaids not to justle it aside or sit in Chair with it but to do service to it In some things in many things I grant the rules of these Arts when agreeing with Scripture to be usefull to make out the absurdity or rationality of a mans reasoning about divine things But except they could be proved universally and in all parts perfect and indeficient it is neither safe nor warrantable to yeeld up our faith and judgment in Gospel-matters to their determination This ingenuity therefore is to be attributed to M. Baxter that he doth though not professedly yet actually to this end come armed a Cap ad Pe with this kind of learning to destroy not to maintain that sacred and fundamentall point of the Gospel Justification of meer grace Yet to shew how much more confidence he hath in his Sophistry than in his Divinity and to tell out aloud that he hath deserved to have the title of Subtilissimus Doctor which Scotus hitherto hath worn hee hath affixed to the end of his Aporisms a Table of Distinctions to speâ—k out himself to all that will not otherwise see it that he is whatsoever he is Sophistry it self that distinctions flow from him as thick as Bees from the Hive Only this one thing seems wanting in him that he sets not so much as an Asterisk upon any of these distinctions to tell us that either it is grounded upon the Scripture or that it distinguisheth him from a sworn enemy to the Doctrine of Grace I do not expect to be free from censure for so much length in my discourse upon this last subject to shew the impotency and impropriety of secular learning to bear any authority in spiritual things But I have to answer against such censures 1. That I have written therein nothing but words of soberness and truth and I had rather with tediousness make cleer a truth than to drop errors with concisenesâ— 2. That it was not against my purpose to be so large nor yet beside the mark aimed at For should I here put a period Mr. Baxters falsities are more than half answered because that more than half of his Book consisteth of meerly sophistical questions definitions arguments evasions equivocations distinctions and fallacies In all which if there be no force to prove or refute in Gospel-matters and that God is so farr from commanding or allowing such slights in handling Gospel-truths as that he explodes hates curseth the same as hath been manifested then the greater part of his work is hereby manifested to be vain As for the residue of the Book wherein he seems to confine himself to plain Scripture he seldom and little meddles this way but in confidence of his Sophistry that he hath at hand in ambush to succenturiate and help him at a dead lift else all the fat will quickly be in the fire his Scripturall reasons for the most part cutting the throat of his own causâ— and stoutly defending the truth which he oppugneth as we shall find when I come to examine them One
the whole Law Christ is become of none effect to you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from Grace From these words must needs be deduced these Conclusions 1 That to be under the Law and to be under Grace are contraries and do exclude either the other so that it is impossible for the same person at the same time to be under both together If but circumcised if at all under the Law ye have saith the Apostle made Christ of none effect to you ye are fallen from grace and consequently if at all in Christ yee are not in the least part under the Law but free from the domination and Curse thereof 2 That whosoever yieldeth himself to be under the Law as a Covenant of Works in the least part hath his justification or damnation depending upon his perfect or unperfect keeping of the whole Law so saith th'Apostle if but circumcised c. ye are debtors to keep the whole Law How debtors viz. If ever ye will be justified and saved to keep it perfectly if ye fail but once to be damned for ever 3 That whosoever affirmeth whether he be a Bellarmine or a Baxter believers to be under the Law as a Covenant of Works the same by necessary consequence denyeth all actuall efficacy of Christs death that ever any soul was or shal be saved by his mediation and affirmeth all the Saints that have been are or shal be to be damned for ever For if at all under the Law then not at all under grace or in Christ but they must stand or fall according as they do or not do the whole Law which none doth ergo all must perish The same also may be gathered from Gal. 3. 10. but I have touched upon it before A noble Aphorist ye will acknowledg declaring a greater desire to bring the Saints under the Curse and damnation then there is force in his Disputes to prove them to be under it These Scriptures might suffice to satisfie every judgment that believers are not under the Law Yet I shall mention some few more to shew the copiousnes of the word in this point that there might be no doubting in this point Rom 7. 1-6 the Holy Ghost doth make out this truth as clear as the light The Law saith he hath dominion over a man onely during life as the husband hath power over his wife Let either the husband or wife dye the law or power which the husband had over the wife dyeth also If the wife dye he hath no power over the soul or ashes of his dead wife to exact under any penalty obedience from them If the wife be survivor she is no more bound to the dead ashes of her husband to fear either command or wrath thence but is wholly at liberty So also stands the relation between the Law and believers The Law in the height of its authority had power to inflict death but once upon man this death have believers suffered in Christ therefore are dead to the Law by the body of Christ have done their Law and suffered all that the Law had to inflict upon sinners in the body or humane nature of Christ suffering for them so that they are dead to the Law so far without the lists of further punishment or terrour of the Law as the Felon or Murtherer that is condemned hanged dead and buried is free from further punishment by the Law of the Land Yea the Law also is dead to them having spent it's sting and strength and life also on the naturall body of Christ and is thereby disabled for ever to re-assume the same against the mysticall body or any member thereof So that they are fully delivered from the Law All this doth th'Apostle speak out at the full in that place and no lesse in Gal. 3. 24 25. The Law was our School-master unto or untill Christ c. But after that faith is come we are no longer under a Schoolmaster This also he illustrateth Gal. 4. 1 c. by a similitude likening the Church before Christs coming to an Heir in his Minority by his fathers will put under Tutors and Governors so that though he be Lord of all yet differs nothing from a servant but is under his Tutors ferule and rod also to be constrained with fear when love becomes ineffectuall to move him to his duty such was the condition of the Church while in its minority and feeblenes of spiritual knowledge the Sun of righteousnes not being yet risen fully to enlighten them with the understanding of their liberty and glorious prerogatives During this time though they were Lords of all yet because of the weaknes of their knowledg they were kept Servant-like under hard Masters under the Commands and threats of the Law but resembling the Church under the Gospel to the same heir in his maturity of age now entred into the possession of his heritage and become rather Lord of his Tutors and Governours then any way subject or servile to their authority gently and generously accepting their wholsom Counsels but disdaining so to subject to their authority as to be brought under the rod of their power any more So also Gal. 5. 13 18 23. speaking of them that had been called to the liberty of the Gospel believing in Christ walking in the Spirit and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit concludeth of them that they are not under the Law that against such there is no Law And 2 Cor. 3. 11. cals the Law as a Covenant of works that which was done away as he doth the Gospel as a Covenant of Grace that which remaineth Yea that the case might be so plain that no Jesuiticall distinctions might pervert it the Holy Ghost at once concludeth both negatively that believers are not under the terrours of the Law at all and affirmatively that they are wholly and onely under the sweet dispensation of grace Heb. 12. 18-24 Ye are not come to the Mount c. burning with fire nor unto blacknes and darknesse and tempest nor to the words and Covenants which could not be heard and born and to the terrible voyce which made Moses himself exceedingly to fear and quake These are the things done away in reference to believers But ye are come to Mount Sion to the City of the living God the heavenly Hierusalem c. to all the prerogatives and privileges of the Kingdome of Grace So also in the Epistle to the Galathians There are two Covenants saith the Holy Ghost the one from Mount Sinai where the Law was given which gendereth to Bondage the other from Hierusalem which is above and is free the mother of us all and concludes at last of all believers negatively that they are not the children of the Bond-woman i. e. under the Covenant of works and affiâ—matively But of the free i. e. under the Covenant of Grace Gal. 4. 24 26 31. Hence is that bold triumphant challenge of the Apostle Rom. 8. 33 34.
I know that the observance of the Law of Ceremonies and the seeking of Life by the works of the Law are both commonly called Legall Righteousnes and that Christs legall righteousness imputed to us is commonly called Evangelicall Righteousness he must needs mean primarily that these are so Called Commonly in holy Scriptures and but secondarily that they are so called by Ecclesiasticall Writers as they derive from the Scriptures a Chaste Scripture phrase wherein to expresse spirituall doctrines For so the Scripture mentioneth onely two kinds of Righteousness that ever Came or shall Come into Competition about our Justification the one a legall righteousnes or righteousness of the Law the other the Evangelicall righteousnes or righteousnes of the Gospel The legall Righteousness it affirms to be a righteousness of works which we have done i. e. of good qualifications within us and good operations flowing from us the Evangelicall righteousness to be of meer grace and mercy Tit. 3. 5. The latter it terms Gods Righteousness i. e. that which God giveth and imputeth the former our own righteousness i. e. which is wrought within our selves and acted by our selves Rom. 10. 3. Phil. 3. 9. That of the Law a Righteousnes of works this of the Gospel a Righteousness without works Rom. 4. 6. That a Righteousness in our selves inherent This a Righteousness in Christ imputed Eph. 2. 8. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Or let Mr. Br shew any one Scripture that terms the Righteousness which is in and by Christ a legall or that which is inherent in our selves an Evangelicall Righteousness or that terms any gift or qualification in man or work and deed of man his righteousness any peece of his righteousness unto Justification So that his quarrell here is against the Holy Ghost for speaking so improperly and incongruously in Scriptures and Calling the Righteousness which is by Christ Evangelicall and the righteousness which is in our selves Legall Righteousness But how will he Confute the Holy Ghost and prove an absurdity and impropriety in the language of the Holy Ghost Forsooth by opposing himself his own authority and learning to the Holy Ghost and his wisdome and authority Himself he affirms to speak logically and by Consequence strictly and properly But the Holy Ghost is no scholar never read Aristotle therefore speaks rudely rustically like one of the Rural Animals not as an Artist out of the schools Himself gives scholar-like a denomination to these two Righteousnesses from that Covenant which is their Rule from the Formall Reason of the thing But the Holy Ghost for lack of school-learning gives names thereunto from more Alien Extrinsecall respects This is the summe of his reasoning And is it not possible to request from Mr. Br that he would take the Holy Ghost a while as a pupill into his Tuition to read unto him some Logicall Lectures by which he may be instructed to mould a new the Scriptures into another a Logical insteed of that spirituall and Celestiall phrase in which we now finde them Or if the Spirit of truth and wisdom should be the Teacher not the Schollar of Mr. Br then may we break out into Mr. Brs words against Mr. Br Moâ—strous Doctrine pride reasoning and that which every Christian should abhorr as unsufferable But if Mr. Br be not in more haste than good speed a word or two we shall request from him to be resolved in some few questions before we part upon that which he hath here written First Whether it hath not been the Common slight of all subtle heretikes to make new and unused phrases their harbingers to promote and make way for the vending of their new opinions and monstrous doctrines yea whether he himself had not first laid down a purpose within himself of broaching his doctrine of Justification by works and inherent righteousness and then after devised this new distinction of our legall righteousnes in Christ and Evangelicall righteousness in our selves both necessary to our justification or to what other end hath he coined this novelty of words and phrase in opposition to the language of the Gospel but to make it subservient to the novelty of his pernicious doctrine Contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel 2 Whether by this novelty of phrase he doth not attribute more excellency and efficacy as to justification to mans inherent than to Christs imputed righteousness For pag. 98. himself affiâ—meth that The primary most excellent and most proper righteousness lyeth in the conformity of our actions to the precept the secondary less excellent Righteousness yet fitly enough so called is when though we have broke the precepts yet we have satisfied for our breach either by our own sufferings or some other way Compare we with that which he there spake that which here he speaketh and we shall finde him attributing that which he calleth the primary most excellent and most proper righteousness to our selves viz. our Conformity to the precepts of the Gospel and that which he calleth the secondary less excellent righteousness to Christ in and by whom we have satisfied for the breach of the precepts of the Law If this be not the nullifying surely it is the abasing of Christ And he that would thus veil will be ready also to quench as much as in him lyeth the glory of Christs Righteousness 3 What shew of truth is there in that which he assigneth as the Cause of his departing from the usuall phrase of Scripture to a new expression of words Calling Christ our Legall and our own qualifications and works our Evangelicall Righteousness which no man since the very foundation of the world was laid I think ever so termed before him They so take name saith he from the Covenant which is their Rule c. and their Denomination from the formall Reason of the thing To the unveiling of this Mystery Davuâ— sum non Oedipus It must be some of Pythagoras his mysticall and not of Aristotles Dialectick learning that must so bring this about that we may finde and fathom it For first how is the Law of Nature or Covenant of works the rule of Christs Mediation or satisfaction made for us Whether we Consider it as it was fullfilled by Christ or as it is apprehended by us to righteousness is the Law or old Covenant made with mankinde a rule or direction to him or us Did this law at all either binde or direct the eternall Sonn of the eternall God to assume our Nature and in it to offer himself a sacrifice for our sinn and so make satisfaction to divine Justice Indeed as in Christs sufferings we see him onely a patient drawn and dragg'd to judgement and death for our iniquiâ—ies laid on him so was his passion the effect of the Law But if there were no more to be seen in his sufferings he should not have been our righteousnes either Legall or Evangelicall For what merit could there be in a suffering of Constraint and Compulsion But when in his sufferings he
said we may easily perceive without any further and new summing up the particulars what the assertions are which may be truly and properly charged with Antinomism and gave first the Term of Antinomism to the Assertors Now let us see also what the Tenents of Master Baxters Antinomists are and what opinions he curseth to Hell unde the name of Antinomianism Their Heresies according to Master Baxter are these which follow 1. That Justification is or there is a Justification from Eternity pag. 93. 2. That it is an immanent act in God pa. 173. 3. That our Evangelicall righteousnesse by which we are justified is without us in Christ pa. 109. or performed by Christ and not by our selves pa. 111. 4. That Justification is a free act of God without any condition on our part pa. 169 170. 5. That God seeth not sin in his justified ones pa. 207. 6. That we must not work or perform duties for life and salvation but from life and salvation or that we must not make the attaining of justification or salvation an end of our endeavours but obey in thankfullnesse onely because we are saved and justified pa. 324 325. 330. 7. That they acknowledge no condition of life but bare beliefe in the narrowest sense that is either belief of pardon and justification and Reconciliation or affiance in Christ for it so also they acknowledg no proper damning sin but unbelief in that strict sense as is opposite to this faith i. e. the not believing in Christ as our Saviour Append pa. 20 21. 8. To these he addeth many more or rather mostly the same in other Termes out of the Marrow of Modern Divinity I mean the book so entitled which in due place we may as far as shall be thought needfull examine Appen pa. 100. to pa. 106. Lastly he seems to accuse them of all the prodigious Doctrines which Colyer Spriggs Hobson and the rest of that Anabaptistical Enthusiasticall and phanatick strain of men have if indeed they be of them that have at any time said and unsaid whether such as they have derived from Nicolas Stock David George Thomas Muncer John of Leyden Cniperdolins c. and others of the same stamp in these latter times or such as either of them hath by a kind of Necromancy raised up from the ashes of Manes Samosatenus Arrius and other cursed Hereticks of antient times All these he would willingly inure upon the Antinomians i. e. upon them that will not say the same things with him who speaks the same things with the Jesuits in the point of Justification This he doth subtlely and underhand to beguile his unwary reader Append. pa. 99. Of all these onely the fift hath been as far as ever I could finde by any considerate and judicious person nicknamed with Antinonism untill Master Baxter and some other of his fellowes in these late years have taken upon them a Soveraignty as Lords and judges from Peters Chair which they have Canonized again to baptise with new names all the Doctrines of the Gospell that crosse the pride of their selfe-righteousnesse And even the sift it self in Scripture sense as I have before shewed is a Soul-comforting truth which we must no more suffer to be wrested from us than our Christ and all our happinesse by him vizt that God seeth not sin in his justified ones to impute iâ— to hate and condemn them for it Hee seeth not the guilt of any sin upon them having laid it and the condemnation to which it obliged upon Christ Jesus But that God doth not simply see sin in them either Originall or Actuall to act about it in a way of grace and truth according to his promises in Christ This I take to be a foppery the fruit of mens willfullnesse and pertinacity to have their own words and phrases stand as impregnable as Christs truth lapt up in them Let it be called Antinomism or Antigospellism or what else Master Baxter will stile it I shall not herein withstand him To me the truth and spirit of the Doctrines conteined in the word sufficeth the letter I shall no further propugn or oppugn than as through it the spirit and truth is levelled at To the first and second I have before spoken and let any man upon earth be produced that ever charged them with Antinomianism saving Master Baxter himselfe or one of his Disciples And if they be Antinomian Tenents then is Master Baxter one of those Antinomians being forced after his long and impotent cavill against as last to grant both as wee have before seen To the third I have also before answered Neither hath Master Baxter named nor can he I am confident name one man but either a Papist or at best an Arminian that before him hath either called Faith and Gospel obedience the Evangelicall Righteousnesse by which we are justified Or that hath denyed our gospell righteousnesse by which we are justified to be without us in Christ So that he pronounceth here all the orthodox of all Churches yea all professed Christians saving Papists Arminians and perhaps Socinians to be Antinomians So much of Antichristian pride and impudence possesseth him To the fourth and seventh I answer 1. That they are contradictory either to other For how can both be true that they affirm Justification to be a free Act of God without any condition on our part and yet teach also Faith or affiance in Christ to be a necessary condition of our Justification who shall take upon him to defend him that arraigneth and proveth himself to be a slanderer 2. Yet may it without contradiction be both affirmed that Justification as an act immanent and Eternall in God is absolute and without condition but as it is transient and Terminate upon the conscience of a believer not to be without condition 3. Because the Scripture never nameth Faith much lesse works the condition of Justification in time to question whether Faith itself may not more properly be termed by some other denominâ—tion in reference to justification than a Condition is no peece of Antinomism but a point of Christian prudence to consider and examine specially at such a time when Master Baxter and other of the Popes Factors under the word condition bestirre themselves to re-erect Justification by works 4. That Justification by that which Master Baxter abasingly calleth bare belief or affiance in Christ the Saviour i. e. by Faith without works is no Antinomian Doctrine but the Doctrine which Christ and Paul and the rest of the Apostles have preached and sealed with their blood that which all the reformed Churches have unanimâ—usly maintained and do maintain unto this day and that which Antichrist with his vassalls and others apostatized from the reformed Churches to them do pursue with fire and fury unto ruine With whom though Mr. Bax. come up in the rear driving Jehu like furiously in his Charriot to destroy it yet shall it stand impregnable as the prime Article of their Creed who either
in his disobedience we all sinned and were condemned in him So also Christ the second Adam in making satisfaction to Gods justice upon the cross sustained the office of a publick person stood in the room of all the Elect bare their sins as imputed to him so that they all in him did their law were in him crucified dead and buried and suffered the paines of hell it self And as he was a publick person in his suffering so also was he in his resurrection having paid the utmost farthing of our debt he rose to receive a full acquittance or justification in his own and our names for all the sinnes for which and all the vengeance which he had suffered for us and we in him The justification and acquittance then given him and to us in his name by the Father is that which out of doubt Mr. Baxter calls Christs own justification yet was not his own so but that it was every elect persons in him Having the meaning of the phrase let us now enquire into the truth or falshood of the Position The Justification saith hee which we have in Christs own Justification is but conditional as to the particular offenders and none can lay claim to it till hee have performed the conditions nor shall any be personally justified till then Even the Elect c. Hee saith much and audaciously as all may see but how strongly doth hee prove it For confirmation saith hee in the Explic. there is enough said under the 15 18 19 20 Positions before And I answer how valid and pertinent to his purpose that Enough which hee there said is I there examined And because he brings here no new reasons I may justly passe it by without giving any further answer Onely it shall not bee impertinent to take notice how ambiguously hee layes downe every clause of this Position to corrupt with an evill sense whom hee can and to evade with the pretext of a good meaning where he cannot deceive if espied and questioned 1. When he saith this Justification is conditional as to the particular offenders none can lay claim c. Though by the whole frame of this his Treatise it is enough evident that he means what he speaks in the worst sense yet his words leave it here doubtful whether he means that our Justification which we have in Christs justification be conditional as Christ hath received it in his or our names or as he having received it for us doth offer it to particular offendors upon conditions upon the performance whereof they shall have it with the fruit and comfort thereof declared and evidenced to their own soules Though the former bee his sense yet knowing with what arguments hee may be encountred That there was an absolute and not a conditional payment made to which not a conditional but an absolute discharge is due That Christ as a publick person standing in our stead received the same justification for himselfe and us from all the sinnes that had been imputed both to him and us but that he received for himself not a conditional but an absolute Justification therefore for us also That if particular offendors be but conditionally justified in Christ then are they not at all actually and really justified in Christ and so the fruit of Christs death being suspended upon conditions may be none at all in case none performe the conditions That it is against the stream of the Gospel which affirms that even upon the cross he hath cancelled or blotted out the hand-writing spoiled the principalities and powers Col. 2. 14 15. redeemed us from the curse of the Law Gal. 3. 13. purged the conscience from dead works by his blood Heb. 9. 13 14. That God was in Christ reconciling the world while the world to himself 2 Cor. 5. 19. and made us accepted in the beloved Eph. 1. 6. And all this before we had a being personally therefore before we performed any conditions Knowing I say how he might be overwhelmed with arguments from the Scriptures by our Divines as hee hath read far more copiously then I have time here to particularize in their works against the Papists and Arminians and might have been more pressed and multiplyed against himself and that Truth is not onely unconquerable but victorious To prevent the inconvenience he leaves a hole by which to escape viz. Hee meant not thus But that our Justification is conditional as to our claim of right therein we are not personally justified have not our forgiveness declared and evidenced to our own consciences till we perform the conditions Such sincerity and integrity is there in Mr. Baxters doctrines 2. When he saith None can lay claim to Justification untill he have performed the conditions nor shall be personally justified till then he leaves it ambiguous whether he mean till his faith obedience and good works which with him are the conditions be in fieri or else in factum esse be begun or else finished and perfected in doing or else fully done His phrase directly points out the latter the whole stream of his disputations in this Book concurs with it Neither is Mr. Baxter such an A B C darian that he need to bee taught to speak Grammatically and to deliver in proper termes his own dictates that we should think him to speak more or lesse then he meaneth saving when he will doe so for his own advantage Unlesse therefore he meant in the latter sense and would be so understood hee would give no advantage by his words to any so to understand him This being then his meaning he leaves us yet in doubt whether he joynes with the Papists here in implying that it is possible to attain perfection of righteousness and so to have fully performed all obedience in this life thereby meriting Justification so winning it at the hardest before he wear it as we have found him in and under his 23 24 26 27 Theses maintaining enough fully behind the curtaine or else with the Arminians in holding that no man is justified in this life and so confounding Justification and Glorification either with the other an assertion worse then Popish wholly contradicting the whole â—enor of the Gospel as Rom. 4. 10. Abraham was justified while yet uncircumcised Rom. 5. being now justified now reconciled ver 9 10. So Rom. 8. 30. Eph. 1. 7. Yea not to stay particularizing the whole sum of the Gospel but because both Papists and Arminians are his cabinet friends that he might please both and offend neither it sufficeth him to shew himself an adversary to the truth wherein he hath them both confederates with him and either with the other it being no difficulty for him to close with both that differ but in words a little but are one in substance like Sampsons Foxes hung together by the tails in a firebrand though their faces look several waies 3. I might no less discover his subtilty in that ambiguous term of Personal Justification as he
1 c. some name James the son of Alpheus the Brother of Christ and one of the 12 Apostles others James sirnamed Oblias or the Just of whom Jâ—sephus writeth the Author of it adhuc sub judice lis est Or that the matter method and if I may so speak spirit of this Epistle sounds not in one harmony with the rest parts or books of the new Testament but rather after the writings of the books under the old Covenant or after such as stuck still to the old Covenant as Philo Judaeus and others all which Mr. Baxter better knows to have been by many objected then I know how satisfactorily to answer it By these and other reasons some have expunged it from the Catalogue of Scriptures which are of divine inspiration and have reduced it into the kind and number of writings that are usually termed Ecclesiasticall in a good sense not disagreeing any where from the Canon yet not of that dignity as to be accepted as a part of the Canon it self I shall leave these things to be disputed by others and examine the testimonies which Mr. Baxter hence alleageth what and how far it makes for him as the authority of the holy Ghost himselfe Here it is remarkable that Mr. Baxter who followes the Jesuits every foot and inch in the interpreting of this and all other Scriptures from which he would with them set up justification by works like a man made all of zeal perks up to terrifie us from an interpretation contradictory to the text and from using apparent violence to it implying that all the Protestant Churches and Saints which have stood in the defence of the faith of Christ against the Papists now almost 200. years have dealt thus sacrilegiously in robbing this Text of its due sense And the Fryers and Jesuites alone good men have stood up as the fast friends of Christ to maintain this truth of Christ and the spirit and meaning of this Scripture against the violation of the sacrilegious hands of these hereticall Protestants And that himself is now at last stirred up by the Spirit that hath wrought so powerfully upon the Jesuits to vindicate and set forth the true meaning of this Text with the same fidelity and sincerity which they his Masters have used before him Therefore to excite all men to gaze on his ingenuity and sincerity and to admire him as the one alone man among Protestants raised up to undeceive all the Churches that have so long strayed from the holy mother Church he thus like wisedome it self uttereth his voice B. Pag. 297. I dare not teach the holy Ghost to speak nor force the Scripture nor raise an exposition so far from the plain importance of the words without apparent necessity but here is not the least necessity there being not the least inconvenience that I know of in affirming justification by works in the fore explained sense i. e. in the sense which Mr. Baxters sense and reason without any help of Scripture hath devised Men seldome are bold with Scripture in forcing it but they are first bold with conscience in forcing it as one M. Baxter who with onespell hath forced all the large and divine disputes of Paul about justification into a cherristone and hurld it at the feet of his St. Sense there to do homage or to be trampled into the dirt After this his protestation of his integrity zeal and tendernesse of conscience in interpreting Scriptures and the impression which he feels or feigns in his soul which the heretick Protestants have made by not expounding this Scripture in the same words which the Jesuits do Let us see with what tendernesse and fear himself in the next words speaketh of it B If it were but some one phrase dissonant from the ordinary language of Scripture I should not doubt but it must be reduced to the rest But when it is the very scope of a Chapter in plain and frequent expressions no whit dissonant from any other Scripture I think he that may so wrest it as to make it unsay what it saith may as well make him a Creed of his own let the Scriptuee say what it will to the contrary What is this but with the Papists to make the Scripture a nose of wax If St. James speak it so over and over that justification is by works and not by faith only I will see more cause before I deny it or say he means a working faith He that in all this can see one least spark of that professed sincerity which he protesteth in himself and requires in others worthier then himself let him make it out I can see nothing else but fraud doublenesse and falshood 1 When he sayeth that it is the very scope of a Chapter and not only some one phrase that here holds forth justification by works before God it is the same which he hath from Bellarmine Bel. lib. 1. de justif cap. 15. Scopus Jacobi saith he fuit demonstrare fidem veram atque Catholicam ad salutem sine operibus non sufficere c. i. e. The scope of James in his Chapter was to shew that a true and Catholick faith is not sufficient without works to salvation and with as much truth and fidelity doth this man speak it as did the other from whom he learned it This being no more the scope of this Chapter or of James in it then to deny the salvation which is by Christ and to set on men to seek it by the Law 2 That this phrase of justification by works in Mr. Baxters sense is no whit dissonant from any other Scripture whether he means difference in sound or difference in substance is as very a paradox as if he had said that contradictories are not dissonaÌ„t For if this doctrine after Mr. Baxters sense must stand as true doctrine and for the Gospell of Christ then must we cast away almost if not altogether all the other Scriptures of the new Testament as hereticall and limit our selves to this alone and to Mr. Baxters glosse in it to learn true righteousnesse and the way to life For how vain empty and audacious his annihilating of Pauls doctrine about justification with one breath is we shall see in its proper place and finde that he destroyes the genuine scope and meaning of that Apostle in many of his Epistles to sacrifice all to his imaginary scope of James in some few words here delivered 3 When he tels us of wresting and making a Creed c. he proclaims to the World that all the Protestant Churches which have constantly defended justification by faith without works i. e. by Christ Jesus apprehended by faith without concurrence of works c. have wrested and violated the Scripture set up a Creed of their own in despight of the Scriptures speaking to the contrary For what he cunningly and seemingly fastens upon one Mr. Pemble he layes to the charge of all the Protestant Churches there being not one
From the attributes that he gives to the faith to which he denieth justification viz. a dead faith ver 17. 20. 26. A faith of Devils ver 19. But a dead and Devillish faith are not a true Gospel faith but at the best a figment and counterfeit thereof 4. From the similitude by which he illustrateth his disputation If a man in a pretence of charity speaks comfortable words to his hungry and naked brother Alas poor soul be cloathed be filled but ministreth nothing to him for his refreshing will any call that flourish of words true charity Is it any more then a paint therof So also of him that saith hee hath faith but evidenceth it not by its fruits c. The verball faith doth no more profit to justification than the verball charity to sanctification If one of these in the mind of the Author be true charity then according to the minde of the Author also the other is true Faith 5. From the object of that Faith which James excludeth from Iustification Mr. Baxter acknowledgeth that the object of justifying Faith is Christ Thes 66 -68 and their explication But let him shew that James doth here expresly or impliedly in any one passage of his dispute make Christ the object of that Faith which he excludes from justification or any other object than the Faith of a meer Heathen or Hypocrite may pitch upon viz. generall truths that there is a God c. else let him grant from his owne principles that it is not true Faith but an unprofitable Historicall Faith as some terme it which is here excluded Thus have our writers in answer to the Papists Cavills expressed the minde of James in this place or rather from him selfe declared what himselfe expresseth to be his minde and this they expresse not as Mr. Baxter perverts them by some one but by both of these interpretations viz. of the word justifying and the word Faith manifesting out of James himselfe that as oft as in this dispute he attributes justification to works he speaks of justification i e. the declaration or manifestation thereof to men As when vers 21 Abraham and ver 25. Rahab and ver 24. A man indefinitely are said to be justified by works he meanes they are so manifested and declared by their works to us This is a usuall phrase not only in Scripture but in our common expressions and our common talk I will justifie what I have spoken or done i. e. I will declare it make it appear to be all good true and just I will justifie him from all that is layd to his charge i. e. I will declare and prove him just and free from all that he is charged with Again where hee denieth justification to that dead faith that worketh not by love that by faith he means a false profession and counterfeit of and not the true justifying faith and who among us ever said that to say I have faith never expressing the power and fruits of it can justifie a man So there is nothing to be found in James crossing the Protestant yea Evangelicall and Apostolicall conclusion that we are justified in our consciences before God by faith alone without works i. e. by a living and working not a dead faith yet without works can we not be declared and manifested just unto men That which Mr. Br. hath spoken against the former part of this interpretation viz. justification before men we have found to be either less or worse than nothing To the other viz. the denying of justification to faith that is a counterfeit a false profession of faith hee saith nothing and why because hee hath not what to say Therfore he stifles it in darknes will not have his Reader hear of it for then actum est he must run to S. Francis or some other Saint S. James leaves him in the mire It is no lesse ludicrous than fallacious that he turns the state of the question another way and danceth round about it never comming to that which our Divines answer 1. Having devised pag. 294. that we say James speaks of works as justifying our faith not our persons he doth pa. 296. goe about to prove that works justifie the person not the faith only And who ever denied this position Doe not wee all say that the holy life declares the truth of faith and therin justifieth as to men the professor of it from all hypocrisie in making such a profession 2. pag. 297. he falls foul with the Ghost of sweet Mr. Pemble for saying that by Faith and works Iames understands a working Faith And after a sharp chiding without examining his Reasons the matter whereof I have before examined at length p. 298. fetching breath he offers him peace and friendship upon condition that he will arise from the grave say what Mr. Baxter saith But despairing of that and concluding if he should rise again from the dead he would still say with the Protestant Churches and Writers that Fides solùm justificat non autem fides sola Faith alone justifieth but not that Faith which is alone without works because that alone faith is not a true Faith he 3. Makes a transition to fall out with all Protestant Churches for attributing too much to Faith in making it instrumentall to Iustification that when Believers are said to receive Christ Io. 1. 12. and to receive abundance of Grace and of the gift of Righteousnesse Rom. 5. 17. wee will not say they receive this Christ this gift of his Righteousnesse to Iustification without any receiving instrument but make Faith the instrument by which we receive the same p. 299. A most pernicious Doctrine to Mr. Baxters Cause If it stand Mr. Baxters Iustification by workes in the same relation with Faith as its Concause must needs fall and tumble downe to hell for works will not be bowed into any instrumentality to co-operate with Faith in receiving Christ and his righteousness When contrariwise if we would say as he doth and which we must take his word without any further demonstration to bee true then in despite of Paul and the Holy Ghost our justification should be parted between faith and works and Mr. Brs. new Gospel stand the Gospel of Grace being wholly taken out of the way as unprofitable But in all that he saith hee diligently keeps off from speaking a word to what our Divines say in proving from James himselfe that he means not true faith when hee denies to the counterfeit or profession of it any efficacy to justifie and let the conscientious Reader judge whether he doth this in zeal for Christ or against him Let none except that possibly hee never read any of them that have thus expounded James What one of them hath he then read Nay I rather question what one of them hath he not read or with what one thing is he unacquainted that any of them hath written He is a stranger to Mr. Br. that will accuse him of little reading