had said it is such a justification as justification dependeth on or such a salvation as salvation dependeth on The Apostle there speaks of a dead and barren Faith of a profession not a being of Faith and by an interrogation bearing the force of a strong Negation by saying Can Faith or the saying that he hath Faith save him he means and saith it cannot save him and that is the same with him as if he had said it cannot justifie him Here wee have indeed an idle dreame of Faith that cannot save But a Iustification that cannot justifie or cannot save or can justifie and not save is as far from James as neare to Mr. Baxter B. 2. It is such as followeth only a saving faith But the world may as well justifie us when we have no Faith at all That the justification of the New Covenant in which God evidenceth by faith to us that we are justified in Christ or the justification which consisteth in the evidencing by works to men the truth both of our Faith and Gospel Justification so far that in charity they are to regard us as truly beleeving and truly justified do both follow either saving faith or that which in charity to them that profess it men are to account a saving faith none denieth But it will not hence follow that works justifie us at Gods Judgement seat because they follow faith that declareth and evidenceth us to our selves to be so justified He comes with a new supply pa. 296. B. Once more 1. Was Abrahaem justified before men for a secret Action 2. Or such an Action as the killing of his only Son would have been 1. Had the Action been kept secret from men it could not have justified him before God or men Not before God for no actions as actions are the ground of his justifying us as hath bin already abundantly proved Nor before men for this action could not have declared the truth of his faith to them that never heard of the man or his Action But God having ordeyned him to bee a Father of the Faithfull and pattern of all beleevers to the worlds end and to confer Blessedness with Abraham upon all that walk in the steps of the Faith of our Father Abraham Ro. 4. 9. 12. hath recorded this Action of his to justifie and magnifie the truth of his Faith to all that in all ages shall beleeve and to incite them by his patterne by the like eminent obedience to justifie their Faith also to others 2. We are not to enquire what the evil world will judge of such an Action but whether Abraham or rather the spirit of God working in and by Abraham did not give in this Action a sufficient demonstration to convince the evill world much more the saints chosen out of the world of the truth of his Faith Which conviction if the evill world will carnally neglect or cursedly oppose it shall leave them the more inexcusable in the day of Judgement B. Was not he the Justifier beer which was the imputer of Righteousness but God was the imputer of Righteousness ver 23. Therefore God was the Justifier So I leave that Interpretation to sleep This is one of his extravagancies He hath all this while disputed of Justification by works what he cannot prove of works now he proves of Faith James saith Abraham beleeved God and it was imputed to him for righteousness Was it imputed to him of God for a partiall or for a perfect righteousness If but unto righteousness in part let him prove it or stand guilty before God for perverting his word If in the whole then is there no place left for works to challenge a part Or let him produce from James the like sentence of works imputed to Abraham to Righteousness else he puts the handle of his Argument into our hands to retort it upon him Abrahams Faith was imputed to him by the testimony of Iames to righteousness Ergo by the testimony of Iames works were not so imputed to him So his Epiphonem I leave that interpretation to sleep is the only sound thing that he hath spoken to this question For he hath said nothing that hath any power to awaken much less to rowze it So that it may sleep and that securely and in safety because they are but false Alarms that he soundeth against it The second interpretation as Mr. Br. terms it or as it is indeed the second homonymy or different sense of words wherin our Divines affirm Iames and Paul to speak in sound one but in meaning disagreeing eyther from other is in the word Faith as hath been sayd Paul when he attributes justification to Faith without works means a living faith fruitfull in good works Iames where he denies Faith without works to justifie means a dead faith a meer profession of faith that hath neither life nor being much less fruitfulness in good works That Iames takes the word Faith in this sense appears by these Reasons from the Text it selfe 1. From the scope of his dispute which we shall find to be as I sayd to beat down the presumption of carnall professors who reposed the hope of salvation wholly upon a bare profession of faith though the faith wherof they boasted had no vertue to sanctification obedience and to prove that alone to be a justifying Faith which is alive to good works This even Cajetan himself one of the pillars Cajetan in Jacob. of the Romish Church giveth as the scope of the Text as I have shewed he further expresseth himself thus Adverte hic prudens Lector quod Iacobus non sentit Fidem sine operibus mortuum esse c. Quoniam constat nos per fidem justificari etiam sine operibus sed sentit fidem sine operibus i. e. renuentem operâri vel non paratam operari esse mortuum esse vanam non justificare That is Let the prudent Reader heer note that Iames means not that faith is dead without works to accompany and help it in justifying us for it is evident that faith justifieth even without works but his meaning is that faith without works that is that refuseth or is not in a readiness to good works is dead vain and justifieth not Thus he makes the scope of James heer to prove that an idle and fruitless faith is not a saving or justifying faith So that we find it easier in this argument to find the truth from the very Papists than from Mr. Br. 2. From the 14. ver where James putting the question of faith without works saith not indefinitely can faith but annexeth the article to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can this faith save Is there power in such a faith to save which hath no power to sanctifie In like maner as heere ver 20. What in our Translation is rendred faith absolutely is there also in the Originall put with the restriction of the same article that faith which is without works is dead 3.
sinns against the Gospel as well as against the Law Though I have spoken of all these enough of each in its proper place within this Tractate yet somewhat for the fuller Clearing of my meaning may be said here also The first and second I shall for brevity join in one as of no small Cognation As farr as I hold and have declared my self to hold them 1 I have also manifested in due place how they are or seem at least to be grounded upon the Scriptures 2 They are expresly and boldly asserted by many of the most Conspicuous Divines in piety and Learning that any of the Protestant Churches have enjoyed ever since the Reformation 3. And that without the Contradiction or exception of any Church or Orthodox Writer for well nigh a hundred yeares made against it A great and probable Argument that it was the Common Judgement of all the Churches 4. Mr. Rhaeterfordt in his Exercit. Apolog holds it forth not as the private opinion of some particular men but as the Common Judgement of all the Churches And the Remonstrants take it as such For so I remember they oft argue in their Apol. and elswhere Justificatio est purus putus Actus in Deo immanens c. not that they express what Arminius his judgment and theirs after him is in this point but that from this as a conclusion which they knew common to and would not be denyed by any Protestant their Argument would stand firm against them Neither know I any one of the Protestants that hath written against them excepting against it 5 I never read any to make me dissent in judgement from these Worthies that hath given his reasons against it save Mr. Br. alone and he handles the question like a man spoyled with Philosophy and vain deceit as the Apostle termeth the use of exotick learning in purely Gospel matters after the traditions of men and Rudiments of the world not after Christ Col. 2. 8. And his nakedness in such his arguing is enough discovered by a learned Writer whose worth I shall still honour but have not so much as an Ambition ever to match * Mr. Kendal He tells us indeed that Dr Downham hath written against it as delivered by Mr. Pemble But I could not get the book to see his reasons nor know I any thing which he hath written but as I have heard from others Besides I have been told that some of the late Reverend Synod disrelished the doctrine but cannot finde that any one of them hath published his reasons for such a disrelish And Charity will not permit me to harbour the lightest imagination that any of those grave Divines culld and selected out of the whole Nation for their eminency in godliness and learning should without any means used for information and conviction exercise a Tyranny over the Consciences of their lesser brethren to force them into an implicit Faith to beleeve as themselves beleeve specially when doing it they shall put out that which they think at least to be the light of the word in their conscience and in consenting with them without hearing a reason they shall dissent from others whom their Modesty will confess to be of no less deservings in the Church who have given their reasons Yet still I hold 1 that those Scriptures which treat of Justification by Faith do all relate to the transient justification which no man partakes of till he beleeveth 2 That no man is personally justified but onely in Christ the publike person till he be by Faith united to Christ That righteousness and life so discend to us from the second Adam as sinn and condemnation from the first As by the offence of one judgement came upon all to condemnation so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all to Justification of life Rom. 5. 18 19. In Adam the publike person we were all represented he was all and we all considered in him God saw us in all our individuall persâ—ns in him though we through Adam saw it not so that Aâ—am sinning we all sinned in him and became dead in law and guilty of condemnation before God as if we had been then being and actually sinning Nevertheless as to our selves we were not personally sinners and guilty untill we had a personall being in and from Adam So in Christ satisfying Gods justce for sinn the Elect were all represented as in a publike person satisfying in him by him and so all in him and by him justified and absolved in all their individualls from sinn and condemnation before God Nevertheless we are not personally so justified untill we have a personall being and new being in Christ and from Christ 3. That this Transient Justification is a justifying or being justified before God passed at Gods Tribunall set up in mans Conscience from which he pronounceth absolution to a poore sinner denying himself and resting upon Christ alone for Mercy So that now and never untill now he hath boldness to pierce by Faith into the Holiest and plead his righteousness before him that sitteth on the Mercy-seat Thus our justification which was before in God and in Christ is not at all derogatory to the justification which is by Faith but onely prevents that this latter may not be derogatory to the praise of Gods Grace and Christs merits which have completed all without our subserviency for us and thus God is all seen to be all and our boasting excluded This hitherto is my judgement untill I shall be better instructed Tu si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus imperti And at length if it shall be granted to be an error yet it cannot be Antinomism being a deviation not from the doctrine of the Law but of the Gospel It was not the judgement but malice of Mr. Br that gave it this brand of ignominy 3 To the free absolute and unconditionall Justification I need not to Apologize for my self at all It is to the truly pious of the Ministery to whom my words are directed who among other have given this evidence of your godlinesse that ye have not forsaken your first Faith by declining to Popery or Arminianism what others judge of me is to me a small thing saith the Apostle of such I weigh it not But ye no doubt teach that the very promulgation of Justification runs upon no other condition but Faith alone and upon Faith not as a quality or vertue but instrumentall to apply the righteousnesse of Christ to Justification that works and the universall conditionall Justification which Mr. Br. hath learned of his Masters are to be excluded In this your doctrine is one and the same in sense and substance with theirs that affirm Justification to be unconditionall And it is indifferent to me to deliver the same truth in their words or yours Onely I find that they make use of both the former and this Conclusion as strong Fortresses against Popery and Arminianism which causeth Mr.
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
Wherefore puts he the soul for the man but to cheat in stead of informing his reader If any say faith is the instrument of the soul he speaks by a Synecdoche putting the part the chief essentiall part of man for the whole man after the common use of the Scriptures and why may not the severall faculties of the soul be as well mans instruments as the severall members of the body It is not unproper to call the eye the instrument by which man seeth or his ear the instrument of hearing or the the tongue of speaking or the hand of working c. and why should it be then unproper to call the faculties of the soul the instruments of man to act those offices by each faculty to which each faculty is appropriated Or when faith is infused into the soul doth it disinstrument the faculties thereof that they become no more instrumentall to man in their places Nay it makes them instrumentall to work henceforth upon spirituall as before upon naturall and morall objects And this also answereth his second reason why the habit of faith cannot fitly be called our instrument because saith he the holinesse of the faculties is not their instrument I grant it but this is not the question That which he was to disprove is that faith makes not the faculties of the soul into which it is infused instrumentall to the applying of Christ to justification The Compasse is the Mariners instrument by which to steer his ship yet would it be nothing instrumentall to this purpose were it not touched with the Loadstone that points it to the North-pole so are the will and understanding instrumentall to the receiving of Christ and justification in and by him not by any innate power in themselves but as they are touched and pointed directly by faith to the bloud of Christ for justification as to the doctrine of Christ for illumination and to the Spirit of Christ for sanctification And for this cause we call not so much the faculty of the soul the instrument as faith because faith makes it instrumentall to justification The power and disposition which it hath to this act being not naturall from it self but supernaturall from faith infused into it and working on it In stead of answering in order to every particle of what he addeth it shall suffice to discover his Sophistry by which he seeketh to elude a sacred truth of the Gospell in all that he saith upon this Argument and this will be enough in answer to all that he saith yea manifest him unworthy of an answer As before he first maketh all the instrumentality or causality whether proper or improper of faith to consist in the act of faith or faith actuated as if the Chirurgeons instruments were not his instruments while they lie by him but then only while he actually useth them in the severall offices to which they are appointed and faith were no longer an instrument if an instrument of justification then while it is actually receiving Christ and so the same man should be justifyed and unjustifyed oft in the same day in the same hour being no longer justifyed then while faith is in the act of applying Christ And 2. In contracting the whole man yea Christian into a soul as if we did make such a faculty of the soul the souls and not the mans instrument to receive Christ which himself knoweth to be the meaning of no one of them against whom he fighteth but a slanderous and subtle trick of his own devising to make their doctrine seem absurd in an alien sense which in their own sense he can in no wise confute So 3. Here he further sophisticateth and perverteth their doctrine in contracting the whole man not only into a soul which he had done before but into some one or two faculties of the soul into which faith is infused and inherent as in its subject as if they taught that faith is the instrument of a faculty and not mans instrument The holinesse of the faculties is not their i. e. the faculties instrument saith he but themselves rectifyed The absurdities therefore which he infers as consequents of such an assertion are the consequents of his slander not of their doctrine None ever taught faith to be the instrument of a faculty or instrumentall to justifie a facultie but mans instrument and nstrumentall to justifie man 4. In supposing it as a thing granted that faith in the soul or faculties of the soul is nothing but the holinesse of such faculties or their being rectifyed and not a being distinct so distinct as may be called their instrument a doctrine well agreeing with his principles who makes sanctification the condition of justification and no further attributes any thing to faith but as it is a part of our sanctification Pag. 195. n. 5 6. and thorowout this whole Treatise but altogether denied by the Protestant Churches which ascribe not to faith any instrrumentality to justification as it is a part of our holinesse and rectitude but as by a supernaturall virtue which it infuseth into the soul to carry it out to Christ to God in Christ for remission and reconciliation Otherwise godlinesse hope love meeknesse and all other the fruits of the Spirit should justifie us equally with faith because the holinesse and rectitude of the soul consisteth no lesse in these then in faith And this is the thing in question if we grant it all is granted which the worst of Jesuites seeks or Mr. Baxter in this whole book contends for so that to make the whole thing in question a known and granted conclusion from which he will prove a particle in question is too grosse and un Baxterlike a Sophism he is wont to spin finer webs what make such course threads in his fingers And why saith he Not so distinct is faith a being distinct from the faculty in which it is Even this that it is a being distinct from the essence of man speaks it capable of an instrumentality to mans justification especially God having appointed and fitted it to that end much more of being an instrument in generall for mans use which is all that Mr. Baxter should have denyed when he denies it to be the faculties instrument 5. In reiterating the soul for the whole man and annexing captious words to it Who ever called habits or dispositions the souls instruments Thus he playes the Sophister to make the instrumentality of faith ridiculous as if we affirmed it instrumentall to justification quatenus as it is and only in this respect because it is a habit or disposition of the soul when contrariwise we ascribe this power and office to it as it is a virtue or gift of grace endewed with this property from the author of it to cleave to Christ and draw forth the soul with it to Christ for justification as hath been before expressed and in this office it hath no other habit power or disposition of the soul naturall or infused
is more adoe then come in and sit down and take what we have a minde to God hath put all his Sons offices into the condition to be received and submitted to Either all or none must be accepted And if all be in the condition then the receiving of all must needs justifie upon the grounds that I have laid down before It is not a new thing to see heresie usurping the chaire to condemne truth of errour The reasoning here is wholly carnall and naturall besides the rule of the Gospell When he calls faith a naturall way of receiving the mercy offered by Christ and our own worth and works implyedly the spirituall way how doth he put light for darknesse and darknesse for light giving to the truely spirituall cause of renewing that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 14. The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God c. Can Heaven and Hell be more opposite either to other then the Apostles doctrine to Mr. Baxters The Apostle cals the way of faith alone the Spirit and the way of works superadded to faith for justification the flesh Gal. 3. 3. Is it Flesh or Spirit in Mr. Baxter that makes him a contradictor of the holy Ghost speaking by the Apostle The way of faith is the way of grace supernaturall Flesh and bloud cannot reveal it unto us but our Father which is in heaven But the way of works is beneath grace dictated by nature it self therefore naturall but so that all the force of nature cannot effectuallize it to justification It is a slander that he puts upon the Orthodox whom he hateth therefore represents them as Noddies and Simpletons pretending that they teach faith to be nothing but an accepting of pardon and accepting of holinesse c. Nay we make neither pardon nor holinesse nor the c. but Christ Jesus the object of our faith adhere and cleave to him for all yet not confounding his benefits or the means by which he applyeth them but wait by faith at the severall sluces by which he conferreth his severall benefits to receive the washing away of our guilt by the effusion of his bloud and holinesse or sanctification by the effusion of his Spirit and not contrariwise holinesse by his bloud and pardon by the effusion of his Spirit So we repair by faith to Christ for all because in him as in the spring is all yet so as that in coming to him alone that hath all we come to the Sun of righteousnesse for light to the fountain for life and to the Spirit of sanctification which flowes from him for holynesse He cryes against separation and makes it as I have shewed for union and makes confusions Where doth he mention any office or operation of faith to sanctification or use of sanctification but to justification or what is faith with him but a compound of all endowments works and duties And thus he confounds faith and works Christs righteousnesse and mans righteousnesse morall honesty and Gospell sanctification of all together making up one linsy-woolsy justification or righteousness to justification which the Spirit of God never revealed but the spirit of Mr. Baxter hath hatched What he speaketh of Christ stablishing his office either is above my understanding or else is not at all to his purpose And what of accepting as under the notion of accepting or as under the notion of a condition hath been enough spoken to in what was before said about the instrumentality of faith All that followeth is wholly averse from and adverse to the doctrine of the Gospell Jewish and Popish For what meanes he by our title in Law and the wedding garment but the whole furniture of works and duties done in obedience to a supposed legislative authority of Christ Without these and before these to take possession i. e. to dare to adhere to Christ for justification is usurpation and an incurring of Gods vengeance for usurping Thus beating off from Christ sinners chief sinners for whom Christ hath dyed How doth the spirit of the rejected Jewes work upon this man when they heard of righteousnesse and Act. 22. 21 22 23. salvation offered to the Gentiles a common and profane people that were not holy how did they stretch their throats and rend their clothes in a zeal against this indignity So this man hearing of the justificition of Publicans and sinners hath his eye evill because God is good tears himself with anger crying usurpation vengeance hell-fire why because they had not put on the filthy rags of mans righteousnesse which he cals the wedding garment and thereby gotten title to Christ before they were so bold as to beleeve in him and girded on their own gaol-clothes first and then have put on Christ upon them that their own righteousnesse might have been neerest the heart and Christs righteousnesse at a further distance as having no efficacy but from our own righteousnesse effectuallizing it Unto all this I shall use only that oracle of the Lord Christ The Publicans and harlots enter into the Kingdome of God before these Pharisaicall justiciaries and whited sepulchers Let Christ alone be my wedding garment I leave all that unrighteous righteousnesse which Mr. Baxter would wrest out from the Kingly office entire to Mr. Baxter to compleat his righteousnesse to justification I know no other title to the justification of the new Covenant which the chief sinners must look after before they possesse it but the grant of grace in the new Covenant and their closure by faith with Christ in whom God presents himself to justifie and reconcile them to himself One voice of my Bride-groom crying Whosoever thirsteth i. e. is dry and empty of all good in himself let him come to me and whosoever will let him drink of the well of the water of life freely Rev. 22. 17. is of more force with me then ten thousand contradicting voices such as this of Mr. Baxter There is more adoe then come in and sit down and take what we have a mind to If this man had the imaginary place of Peter to be Porter of heaven how quickly would he forfeit his place by repelling those whom alone Christ will have admitted and admitting those that Christ will have repelled Christ admits beleevers not doers this man rejects all beleevers that are not doers before they are beleevers The rest that he saith here is sacrificed to his Goddesse the Lady Condition A deity that the Scriptures never knew nor yet all the whole University of Athens They erected an Altar indeed to the unknown God Act. 17. 23. see the depth of Mr. Baxter he hath found the Antipodas which the old Mathematicians wrote of but could never find the deity which the learned Athenians worshiped but worshiped they knew not what This Goddesse Condition by some help of the Socinians and Arminians hath M. Baxter brought to light and invested her with more glittering ornaments then they had wit to do only he hath not yet
himselfe our Divines give an interpretation to this one passage that may declare it though it hath a seeming yet not to have a reality of dissent from the rest Because if this be Canonicall and from the H. G the H. G. cannot contradict himselfe In expounding this dispute of James therefore the Protestants take notice of a two fold homonymy of words one in the word Faith the other in the word Justifying both which Paul and James use but use them the one in one and the other in another sence so that though they seeme somwhat to differ in words yet in sense they speake the same thing 1. They say as when Paul speakes of Faith to justification by Faith he meanes a true and lively Faith which fetcheth power from the merits of Christ to Iustifie and from the spirit of Christ to Sanctifie so Iames here battereth under the name of Faith a bare profession and boasting of Faith which some Hypocrites leaned on to Iustifie them being wholly destitute of Faith indeed that is alive and effectuall to draw from Christ matter both to Iustification and Sanctification 2. They say that as Paul takes the word Iustifying for remission and absolution before God so James takes it as oft as he requires here works to Iustifie for the declaration of the truth of our Faith and Iustification before men Yet let not this their distinction if it may fitly be so termed and exposition bee taken up unlesse it hath sufficient grounds from the Text to beare it up I shall begin first with the latter because Mr. Baxter there begins That Justification by works is by James understood the declaring us to man to have true Faith and to be Iustified by it they bring these reasons to prove 1 James himselfe even in expresse words affirming it ver 18 Shew me thy Faith without thy workes and I will shew thee my Faith by my works where he tels us that by Iustifying he means the shewing or declaring our Faith and Justification not to God but one to another And thus he denieth Faith which is not Shewed by works to Iustifie i. e. to Shew or declare us to men Iustified 2. ver 21 where he saith was not Abraham our Father justified by works when he had offered Isaack his Son upon the Altar doth he speake of Gods Iustifying Gen. 15. 6. him or declaring him to be justified unto men Not the former for God had justified him by Faith many yeares before and there was no diâ—uption according to Mr Baxters doctrine in the intervall by any apostacy made by Abraham that of justified he became unjustified and needed here to be justified anâ—w How then was hee justified by offering his Sonn Can there be any other way not repugnant to reason devised but this that God here by proving and bearing him up in so searching a proof and Temptation to shew so matchless an act of obedience did declare to the world that his Faith was in sincerity his feare and love unfained so that all must be restrayned from charging him with selfe respects and Hypocrisy in all the professions that he made towards God Or what less is to be drawn from those wordâ— from Heaven Gen 22 12. upon this act of Abrahams obedience Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not witheld thy Son thy onely Son from me Did not God know what was what himselfe had wrought in Abrahams hart before this tryall of him doth he need outward actions to manifest to him what is in the heart within M. B. so much cleavs to theÌ„ that make all things which God doth to flow from his prescience that he will not ungod God so much as to deny that he knew as perfectly before as after tryall Why saith he then now I know but to intimate that now he had given a strong evidence both to the present and future generations to know that God knew and therby to convince men of all ages that they also must know the truth of Abrahams Faith feare and justification 3. The same might bee said of Rahabs justification by workes in receiving the Messengers and letting them forth another way ver 25. Did such a work as this justifie her before God or obtain to her remission of sins and deliver her from everlasting vengeance when there cannot be the least probable conjecture that shee had then any Faith in Christ or had ever heard of a Christ to come Then let us disclaime that Fabulam de Christo as one of the Popes termed the Gospell Righteousness is by workes without Faith without Christ and Stapletons glosse â—apleton Anrid p. 82 83. upon Pauls Iustificamur fide i. e. non absque side we are justified by Faith i. e. not without Faith because Faith is necessary to justification though not without works sufficient to it must be rejected as too Evangelicall And then also how shal Mr Baxters Thesis not fal which makes workes collateralls with Faith in Christ to justification workes can do it without Christ But if all this intrench upon Blasphemy then was shee justified by workes to men to the Israelites who by this Act toward them had so farr evidenced her fidelity to them and their cause that thereupon shee was taken into Covenant with them delivered from the ruine which befell Iericho and after as it were adopted or naturallized into the Common-wealth of Israell Ye have one part of the exposition and the grounds of it which Mr Baxter concealed that the unwary reader might despise it as groundlesse Mr Baxter opposeth it tellâ— us it is false and it may appeare thus B. p. 294. The Worlds Iustification frees us but from the worlds Accusation to which it is opposed And therefore it is but either a Iustification from Mans Laws or else a particular Iustification of us in respect of some particular Facts or else an usurped Iudgement and sustification for they are not constituted our Iudges by God and therefore wee may say with Paul it is a small thing with me to be judged of you or of mans judgement And so a small thing to be justified by men from the accusations of the Law of God But the justification in James is of greater moment as appears in the Text. For 1. It is such as salvation dependeth on ver 14. 2. It is such as followeth only a saving Faith But the world may as well justifie us when we have no faith at all I therfore affirm 1. That the world is no lawfull judge of our righteousness before God c. 2. Nor a competent capable judge and cannot passe any certain true sentence c. 3. If they could yet works are no certain Medium or evidence wherby the world can know us to bee righteous For there is no outward work which an hypocrite may not perform and inward works they cannot discern c. So that if it bee not certain that the Text speaketh of justification before God I scarce know
reason or ground of their glorification because the Grace of Christ mentioneth them is to lay the honour of Christs Grace in the dust They that shall be glorified even when Christ of his infinite Grace extolleth their service done to him shall depresse themselves that the entire prayse may bee his Lord when did wee thus and thus minister to thee what ever did we of any worth that thou shouldest owne it as a service to thee what thou imputest is no otherwise our observance but in thy acceptance It is therefore denyed that the justifying sentence as Mr Baxter termes it shall passe in the last day either for or according to works otherwise than hath beene before granted And if wee shall not at last be glorified according to and for our workes but that Mr. Brs. proofes in this particular faile Then is his labour lost in going about to prove the second particular that the reason hereof is because they are parts of the condition It must first appear that it is before wee trouble our selves to know in what respect it is so So that we will not contend about the second particular with him to deny what he concludeth that workes concurre in the same concausality with Faith to our glorification 1. Not to evidence the truth of our Faith nor secondly as the righteousnesss which the Law requireth not thirdly as a meer signe by which God doth discern our Faith nor fourthly as a mere sign to satisfie the justified person himselfe nor fiftly to satisfie the condemned world of the sincerity of our Faith All this we grant and further adde in the sixt place nor as a condition in Mr Baxters sense of our glorification And because none of these or other wayes therefore not at all The Scriptures which he brings pa. 322. n. 5. that seeme to hold forth the promise of glorification for our workes are of the same nature with those examined in the former Chapter alleaged by him and all as those gathered by the Papists to his hand and either do conclude no more than what a little before we have in this Chapter granted or pertaine to some of those ends of such promises of life which God maketh to our obedience specified in the former chap. I shall therefore here pretermit to speak to them because Mr Baxter alleageth them to another end here viz to prove that the mention of these works to judgement is more than to signifie their sincerity to the condemned world as in the end of that Section he expresseth himselfe And this we deny not So that it were impertinent to examine the premises where the conclusion is granted CHAP. IX Whether according to Mr. Baxter Doe and live be the voice of the Gospel as well as of the Law The question stated and resolved whether and in what respects Believers must act or work from life not for life IN the eighth place as naturall motions are strongest when they come neerest to their period and center so at the conclusion of his Aphorismes pag. 3. 4. and so onward to the end he multiplies Argument upon Argument or rather twisteth many arguments together in one under the notion of Queries The substance of all may bee gathered together into this one Syllogisme That Doctrine which by necessary consequence draweth after it many intolerable absurdities mischiefs and soul-damning evills must needs be a falsâ— doctrine But so doth the Doctrine of justification by Faith or by Christ instrumentally received by Faith without the addition of works in a concausality with Fâ—â—â—h or Christ Ergo It is a false doctrine The Proposition is granted him The Assumption hee goeth about to cleer and make good by enumerating the particular absurdities and mischiefs that are consequentiall to this Doctrine And this he doeth by way of interrogations bearing the force of strong Affirmations I shal examine them in order The first query he puts in these words B. Doth it not needlesly constraine men to wrest most plaine and frequent expressions of Scripture A simple negation would here best suit with so untoward and audatious a question Neither shall I say any more to it but admonish the Reader to take notice that hee doth in these words frame an enditement against Christ his Apostles and all that beare the name of Protestants for sacriledge in wresting the holy Scriptures And that 1. Though he doth not and why but because he cannot bring any one Scripture which they have so wrested 2. And thereby affirmeth plaine enough to the capacity of every understanding reader that the Papists and Arminians alone have purely and truely interpreted the Scriptures as to the point of justification whom himselfe therefore followeth as their obedient disciple And 3. shewes us no reason therof but leaves us to conjecture what his meaning is viz that the Scripture is no farther Canonicall than after the interpretation and sense which the holy Mother Church alloweth it Nay we retort the argument upon him Iustification by works constraines the assertors thereof not onely to wrest many Scriptures but also to destroy and nullifie the whole Gospell and Salvation of Christ Therefore it is false doctrine This first query was but a warning peece but who can stand to beare the force of the second The man as if hee had newly come forth of Vulcans shop is all fiery spits out nothing but lightening and thunderbolts blowing into the bottome of Hell all that stand in his way How formidably he layes about him they that dare to come so neer may finde partly in this second querie it selfe but principally in his Appendix pag. 76. c. and in the highest strength of his wrath pag. 83. and onward to the end of pag. 98. First his querie here runs in these words B. pa. 324 and 325. 2 Qu Doth it not uphold that dangerous pillar of the Antinomian doctrine that we must not work or perform our duties for life and salvation but only from life and Salvation That we must not make the attaining of Justification or salvation an end of our endeavours but obey in thankefulnesse onely because we are saved and Justified A aâ—ctrine which I have else where confuted And if it were reduced to practise by all that hold it as I hope it is not would undoubtedly damn them for he that seeks not and strives not to enter shall never enter Now if good workes or sincere obedience to Christ our Lord be no part of the condition of our full justification and salvation who will use them to that end For how it can procure justification as a meanes and not by way of condition I cannot conceive In what part of the world Mr. Baxters elsewhere lyeth in which his confutation of this doctrine is to be found I know not I am not inquisitive to know I have enough in this and desire not to fish in any more of his foule waters But in pronouncing this doctrine of working and performing duties not for life buâ— from
and touching the righteousness thereof were blameless When contrarwise the Gentiles had walked inordinately lawlesly after the instinct of their own nature and lusts of their own hearts servants to idols and devills not to God For this Cause they Contended that they by this their righteousness had that the Gentiles by means of their unrighteousness had not right to the redemption and Justification which are by Christ That the Gentiles in stead of the naturall holiness before mentioned must become Proselytes and so the ascititious or adopted Children of Abraham becoming Jewes must receive the seale of the Covenant Circumcision in their flesh receive and be brought under the Law and become personally righteous in keeping it Else they could not be saved by Christ Act. 15. 1 24. Their bare Faith in Christ without their own righteousness and works could not make them partakers of the tighteousnesse and salvation which are by Christ And who seeth not here that Mr. Brs doctrine is one and the same in generall with theirs that were the first heretical troublers and subverters of the Church of Christ But against this plea of the beleeving Jewes the Apostle layeth his Contradictory Conclusion That both the Circumcision and the uncircumcision they that had and they that had not all or any of these kinds of righteousness were made partakers of Justification through Christ onely by Faith in him That our own prejacent works and righteousness are nothing to further nor our former unrighteousness and sinn any thing to hinder our Justification but Faith in Christ is all He that beleeveth is not condemned he that beleeveth not is already condemned whether he be Jew or Gentile clean or unclean outwardly because as he had said before ver 22 23. There is no difference For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God This Conclusion that Faith alone without our prejacent or concomitant works and righteousness do make the righteousness which is by Christ ours to Justification he proveth soundly in the 4th Chapter 1 From the example of Abraham the Father of the Faithfull By what means Abraham found and obteined the Justification which is by Christ by the same means all now obteine it that are Justified But Abraham found or obteiaed it not by his own righteousness or works but by Faith Therefore so do now all that are justified The proposition he leaves as standing so firm on its own pillars that none will dare to seek the demolishing thereof The assumption he proves in both its members that it was not by his own righteousnes either Natural i. e. derived from parents and ancestors for they were Idolaters and served other Gods Josh 24. 2. Or faederall in the Jewes sense for he was justified before he was circumcised and after received Circumcision as a seal of the Righteousness of Faith ver 10 11 of this 4th Chapter to the Romans or Legal For he was so Justified 400 years before the Law was given Or personall by the works of righteousness which he had done For then first he should have had matter of boasting that he had done something towards his own Justification ver 2. And secondly then his justification should have been reckoned not of Grace but of debt and so the glory thereof should have redounded to Abraham and not to God ver 4. And if by no one of these kinds of his own then not at all by his own righteousness That it was by Faith he proves by clear Testimony of Scripture ver 3. Therefore the conclusion stands that we are justified also by faith without works That Faith and not any righteousness of our own makes Christs righteousness ours Another Argument he draws from clear and evident Scripture witnessing that the righteousness and justification which consisteth in the forgivenes not imputing and covering of sinn is made ours without works therefore by Faith alone ver 6 7 8. When in these two Arguments none can deny but that the righteousness and Justification which Abraham obteined and which Consisted not in the doing but in the imputing of righteousness and in the pardoning and not imputing of sinn is the Justification which is by Christ and when the Apostle laboureth not at all to prove this to be The proper Righteousness to Justification but takes it as granted and unquestioned all must acknowledge that his question was not What righteousness it is that Justifieth whether Christs or ours But when all his dispute is confined to this one point to prove that this righteousness by Christ is made ouâ—s not at all by works but altogether by Faith what rational man can be so swayed by a Spirit of Contradiction as to say with Mr. Br. that St Pauls question was not to make out by what means this Justification by Christ may be made ours Whosoever will see these two Arguments further and fully illustrated and amplified together with more arguments to these annexed let him peruse the residue of this 4 Chap. And if he return with his Reason sound and brings not this verdit that it is impudence not judgement in Mr. Br. to state Pauls question as he doth Then am I a stranger both to Paul and Reason Again when the Apostle still insisting upon the same subject setts forth the priviledges of them that are justified by Faith doth withall affirm that while they were yet sinners Châ—ist dyed for them and so they became Justified by his bloud and being yet enemies are reconciled to God by his death Rom. 5. 1 8 9 10. thereby implying that there is nothing of our own works and righteousness except sin and enmity against God be such that doth or can Concurr to our justification so leaving justification to Faith onely it is evident that his principall question was not whether we are Justified by Christ but whether Faith alone or works with Faith are appointed of God in order to Justification I shall forbear to cite short testimonies from other Epistles of the Apostle evincing this Truth and pass to his Epistle to the Galathians in which he wholly levelleth to this mark It cannot be denyed by Mr. Br. himselfe that the Apostle there disputeth not of a legal but Gospel Justification and that this is a Justification onely by Christ that when he saith If any man if we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel c. his meaning is not a Justification out of Christ for this should be a legal not a Gospel Justification but any other way to the Justification which is by Christ save that which we have preached let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8 9. Herein it was agreed between the Apostle and the false Apostles that Christ is the alone Justifier and that salvation is onely by him and to this all the seduced ones among the Galathians assented Else had they been Apostate from Christ to the Law and not to another Gospel as the Apostle terms it Gal. 1. 6. And from their beginning in the Spirit to seek