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
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
in name but as void of the truth and power of Christianity as are the very Pagans that never heard of Christ I come now to speak of the fatall if I may so term it and almost totall ruine of the Church and Gospel Towards the end of that which is called the Primitive Church and of them which are dignified with the name of the ancient Fathers of the Church As the Saracens invaded the Eastern Churches so a most stupendous and barbarous people not onely unchristian but also inhumane the Goths and Vandals made incursions upon these Western Churches with one swelling tide carrying all at once before them and made impression into Italy it self and seizing on Rome made it their imperiall City and reigning over or at least molesting all those nations which in this western part of the world were then termed Christians made it their work for more then a hundred years not only to raze out the very being of christianity from the earth but also all polite learning filling all things and places with their barbarism which also in length of time they accomplished almost to the utmost Now when at length by the valour of Carolus Magnus they were discomfited and wholly driven out of these christian Lands after their subversion there sprung out of the Barbarism which they left behind them a Barabarian sect of Divines more pernicious to Religion then the Goths Vandals had been In a general term they are usually called Schoolmen or School-Doctors These like the Babel-builders erected upon other foundations and of other materials a Babel-Church with such barbarous slime in stead of cement and morter as was never before used since the first building of the old Babel who exauctorating Christ and his Gospel from having any soveraignty in matters of Religion and permitting them but now and then to peep for their advantage canoniz'd Aristotle the most subtle but untill then the least regarded of all the sects of Heathen Philosophers to be their ipse dixit chose Peter Lombards sentences to be their Text themselves to be the Commentators The matter of their Commentary a Miscellane partly of the excrements of their own brains partly of moralities legalities formalities and partly of superstitions idolatries and heresies borrowed some from the Jewes some from the Heathen and the rest from Hell it self The Language in which all is set forth no Language but being cought out in syllabical barbarous and bombastical sounds of their own coining would better fit the bellowing of a beast than the utterance of men or if the utterance of men more beseeming Conjurers and Charmers than Divines The God whom they serve and sacrifice unto in all is not Christ but Antichrist whose commands and decrees assoon as they have received they must and will with all their Hyperborean conjurations of ghastly words defininitions argumentations and a cell or hell full of distinctions maintain them to be from heaven though they smell of nothing but hell it self Nimble work-men leaving a glory upon their disputes when they meet with sublunary matter with a subject not above the comprehension of natural reason but such whereof all men have an idea or image within their Synterisis or natural conscience but when they meet with Gospel-doctrine that makes men wise to salvation blinder than Balaam that saw less than his Asse which hee rode upon These have erected and held up many hundred years a religion which can save none but damneth all that cleave strictly to it and they have this peculiar vertue that they have still waxed wors and wors the second generation more impure than the first and the third than the second and so lineally every generation almost until now save that in these last times they have attained so much of the subtlety falshood and impiety of Satan that there is scarce a possibility of receiving a further addition If then any man will read how far the humane Learning of which I am speaking may be helpful to propagate maintain the truth of the Gospel let him but look back to the fruit of these sophistical Doctors Labours these many hundred years last past and by that which hee seeth he shal be able to answer himself viz. that it hath been and is powerful to deface and subvert utterly the whole truth and salvation of the Gospel in relation to their Disciples that rest upon their Learning and Precepts for look what of Religion worship and ordinances there is in the Popish Church the praise of it redounds to philosophy and sophistry the main instruments of laying its ground-work and the sole instruments unless ye will annex to it the fire and fagot and tyrannical inquisition for the maintenance thereof Having seen how great a corruption and how long a desolation of the truth of Religion there hath been while Sophistry was made its perfidious Advocate We are now in the next place to consider how the same truth of Christian Religion thrived when delivered out of the captivity of and communion with this secular Learning After the long holding of the purity of the Gospel in unrighteousnes by these Theologasters it pleased God to raise up to himself for the reformation of his Church men of his own choise and gifted with a measure of the Spirit answering so great a work to which they were deputed as Luther Zuinglius and many other learned and godly men some their contemporaries some their followers These restored the Scriptures to light again which had been many hundred years buried in darknes and preached again the true and clear Gospel which had been long also clouded with mens inventions traditions and superstitions What success this their Ministry had cannot be unknown to them that know any thing of the history of those times Disciples came in by thousands and ten thousands unto Christ being totally revolted from Antichrist Whole Kingdoms Nations Dukedoms that ere while worshipped the Beast now fell flat at the feet of Christ to submit to his Scepter And this not as constrained by the command of their Magistrates or Laws but even while Magistrates and Laws slept yea when Magistrates and Laws persecuted with Fire and Sword all that went this way even then the Kingdom of heaven suffered violence and the violent tooke it by force i. e. by an unresistible conviction of the word and wonderful operation of this Spirit upon their souls they were carryed out in contempt of all dangers and persecutions to receive the Lord Jesus Christ purely revealed in his righteousnes beawty and salvation to them So that in few years maugre all the malice of the Pope Emperour Kings Princes World and Hell Christ might be even seen reigning in the midst of his Enemies and whole Lands at least great multitudes of many Lands which were darknes became light in the Lord even so farr as we see the Protestant Religion at this day propagated If it be demanded here how it came to pass that the word and truth of
Religion in so short a time so mightily grew and prevailed that so great a part of the world from so small and even despicable a beginning became so fully and so quickly seasoned with it It were a full answer I acknowledg to say It was the Lords time and he would so have it But because the Lords operations are all done in wisdom truth and righteousness an inferiour subordinate cause visible to our eies may be also alledged when the Lord had purposed to do this great work he ordained and fitted instruments for it The Ministers which he employed the first threescore years and upward about the work of Reformation were such as clave only and wholly to the word both in preaching and defending the sacred truth of the Gospel minding only Christ Jesus not seeking their own things their own greatness glory and praise but the things of Christ Denyed all other authority save Christs knew no other admitted no other Master to define and determine any thing in matters of Religion but Christ alone Therefore whether they provoked the Adversaries or were provoked by them to disputation their challenge or receiving the challenge was stil upon this condition that the Word alone must be umpire in all things Thus they had Disputes before the Emperour Charls the 5. so they offered themselves to be disputers in the Councel of Trent But still refused the authority of Aristotle and his genuine sons Thom Aquinas John Duns Scotus and the whole rabble of their followers and all the testimonies and learning of such as incompetent Judges of heavenly things Thus these holy men ploughed the Lords field with his own Heyfers and sowed it with his own seed therefore he gave so large an encrease They preached as they had commandment and commission from him only his Gospel and all and only whatsoever he had commanded them therefore according to his promise he was with them giving a blessing But if it be further demanded how it came to pass at last that there was a stop to the glorious proceedings of the success of the Ministry of the Gospel these last sixty years that we see not any further propagation of the truth but Antichrist rather regaining strength than losing and the kingdom of Christ rather declining than increasing I answer that as about that time the new sect of Loyalla the Jesuits came to some maturity who being spes ultima Romae ruentis the last subsidiary help of the Romish nodding and falling power perceived that they might seek but not find any fulture from the Scriptures to their fainting cause therefore applied themselves to the study of Aristotle the Pagan and the Schoolmen the Semi-pagans drinking into themselves their sophistry and refining it into som-what a purer Language though most of them retain a scholastical style still And being thus furnished they provoke our Divines to a dispute objecting against them that through their ignorance and illiterate sottishness they dared not to dispute scholastically therefore still cryed Scripture Scripture to hide their want of Schollarship from the eyes of men As about that time I say there were in such an operation a new kind of Antagonists against the power of the Gospel So on our part in many Churches there succeeded the former Worthies about the same time Pastors in their own eyes possibly of a more noble but in spiritual eyes of a baser mettall who to evade that scandal laid upon us by the Adversaries that we destroyed good works by our Doctrine of free Grace through Christ preached some mens inventions superstitions and traditions others meer moralities legalities or duties after the tenor of the Law scarce touching upon the strings of the Gospel to tune up the Justification Life Liberty Peace Joy and other priviledges which are by Christ And to gain to themselves an applause and opinion among men of their universal Learning assented to the forenamed Challengers to discend to them in their own Field and to traverse their Disputes about heavenly things after the rules of worldly wisedom thus basely prostituting the cause and doctrine of the Lord Christ to the censure and arbitration of Heathen Philosophers and of John Duns and other enemies to the purity of the Gospel For in trying all by their learning by the light of Reason which they have dazled and sophisticated with their rules and precepts is to make them judges of Christ and his Gospel how farr they shall stand or fall Who can deny but in stead of the former Eagles which the Church had that stil beheld the Sun of righteousnes to fetch their light from his beams we had now Owls that looked downward and pitched upon the elements and rudiments of the world and worldly learning as the Apostle terms them Col. 2. 8. to fetch light authority thence in pretence to maintain the truth but in deed and successe to betray it No marvell if in this case Christ hath with-drawn himself and his blessing from such Apologists for his Cause which plead for him with such a kind of argumentation as is worse then totall silence For what of Christ is there in such disputes when the first syllogism or its prossyllogism or a distinction diverts the question from all the lists of Divinity into Philosophy or Metaphysicks c. and not the least parcell or particle of Scripture is any more heard of through the whole disputation It is but as it falls ouâ— sometimes between two Apes that having a heap of shels cast before them which they take for nuts inconsiderately break out into a skirmish rending in pieces either the others jackets and then with tooth and nail wound either the others hides untill the weaker yeeld the victory to the stronger and the Conquerour by his victory gets nothing but shels to break his teeth not a kernell to stay his hunger So when a question in Divinity once translated and removed into Logick in this element to be tryed there is notable jangling untill one of the Antagonists that hath the stronger front and more subtle brain and clamorous voyce hath put the other to silence and then one is as wise and as great a gainer as the other For the question is adhuc sub judice where it was it was above all logicall and metaphysical notions to decâ—de it I acknowledg that in such disputes it hath much delighted me sometimes to find the sophistical fallacies of an adversary detected and shamed in a logicall way by some of our Divines Yet this in no wise either doth or should satisfie me as touching the question untill I find the true assertion confirmed â—y Scripture it self One testimony from above in this case is of more worth and weight than a thousand volumes of Arguments drawn out of worldly wisedom which is from beneath And lest I should be taken as singular in this peece of prattle as Mr. Baxter will term it I shall mention in stead of many two famous modern Writers the one speaking with
cannot deny but this opinion was first broached by Socinus and afterward promoted by Arminius But because Mr. Baxter hath taken it up from them end speaks it out in this his Tractate more in the full of the mouth than Mr. Goodwin had done as wee may see afterward Therefore to prevent the like imputation of Socinian and Arminian heresie to himself by his chafe against Mr Walker he affrights all from charging him therewith And yet howsoever he seemeth to decline such an imputation who seeth not that he will yea doth more readily take up a cursed Heresie from any of these learned Sophisters then a blessed truth from such ignorant and unstudied Ministers that glory in nothing but the foolishnes of Christs Cross and dare not to be wise unto salvation beyond the rule of the Gospel Hence he passeth to his third opinion which is wholly one with Page 54. the first in substance and a little dâ—fference onely made in the sound of words for the Question was thus propounded Whether we are justified by Christs passive Righteousnesse onely or also by his active The Assertors both of the first and of the third opinion answer both with one consent we are justified by both Onely Mr Baxter that he may shew his wit and force of his Sophistry that he can at his pleasure exauctorate any Tenet in Divinity laying it all defiled and dead in the dust to be trampled under foot and then give it a resurrection with a new body to shew it self as an eminent and orient Pearl to adorne Christian Religion doth annihilate and vilifie it in one sound of words and after Cannonize it in another And what is the difference betwixt the opinion which he spewes out as filth and garbage and that which he sucks and swallowes as the bread of life and food from heaven Forsooth this only that the one opinion makes the active righteousnes of Christ together with his passive to be imputed to us for righteousnes the other makes the active together with the passive righteousnes of Christ satisfactory to Gods justice to put us into the participation of Righteousnes or Justification A vast difference in sense no less then that was between Doctor Martin and Doctor Luther or that which one put betwixt the operation and working of Pepper that it was hot in the one but cold in the other Mr Baxter knowes that the most judicious Assertors of the first opinion urge no further then to have it granted that the active as well as the passive obedience of Christ is meritorious to our redemption and justification That they are but the more inconsiderate sort that will have it so imputed that we should be accounted before God as those that have fulfilled all the righteousnes and duties of the Law in and by Christ fulfilliing the same Therefore his taking up this opinion as a third opinion under the name of truth is but a taking up again as holy and savory that which before he had rejected as the embryon of ignorant and unstudied brains full of the greatest absurdities But he tels us pag. 55. that for ten years together he held the passive righteousnes onely effectual to justification but since that he hath been converted Should I demand how it came to passe that so Eagle-eyed a man so long doted upon a cloud in stead of Juno and by what means his eyes were at last opened that he saw the delusion and shunned it Himself gives us a hint what to answer and I hope he will not be too angry if we guess so far that our conjecture hath his own conscience if awaked giving consent 1 Then to speak nothing of Mr. Bradshaw whom either by face or writings I never had acquaintance with that great wit Grotius with his deep and sublimated speculationâ— over-poised him in his late reading of him And how hard a thing is it for Mr. Baxter so great an admirer and adorer of humane wit and learning to meet with a brave Sophister indeed and not to close in judgement with him though a Papist an Apostate and more then a Semi-Atheist so far do acute and fine-spun distinctions prevail with him more then the honourable Authority of the plain word of God 2 It is most probable that during these ten years Mr. Baxter held Justification by Faith onely according to the Scriptures and judgement of the Orthodox Churches therefore stuck so long to the Doctrine of Justification by Christs sole passive obedience as cohering very harmoniously therewith But since he hath cast himself into the Channels of Popish Writers and thence derived Justification by works it concern'd him to cast off his former Opinion for the sole passive righteousnes as being much repugnant to Justification by works and to take up this as authentick and somewhat conducing and helpfull to his Cause For if Christs active obedience should not be held meritorious and satisfactory to God with what face could Mr. Baxter attribute a prevalency and power herein to our best works and actions I purpose not to trifle away time and labour to refel this Doctrine or to shew the weaknesse of his fine and plausible Exceptions which he maketh against the Objections that he thinks will be made against it himself knoweth that some of his fore-mentioned Questions being granted and cited Opinions which he neither denyeth nor opposeth would turn his Grotian distinction of idem and tantundem into winde and smoake As for the rest which he speaketh we may grant there is some plausibility but if it were searched to the bottome there would be little of solidity found therein But my purpose is as I have said onely or chiefly to except against his apparently Popish Doctrines and with these he so much aboundeth that I shall not want matter to take up more time and labour then my other Employments can well afford CHAP. IV. What the immediate effects of Christs sufferings are which redound to the Redeemed Whether Believers are under the Curse And whether their Afflictions in this life be a part of the Curs and have the wrath of God in them With Mr. Baxter's Arguments to prove them such IN this ninth Thesis and its Explication Mr. Baxter hewes out crooked timber enough for many of the discreetest Divines to employ their time and labour therein until they are tired and yet they shall not be able at last to straighten it It is like Pandera's box which being opened let out all miseries and mischiefs into the world as the Poets feign Whatsoever the Papists teach of the deficiency and maimednes of Christs and of the necessary supplies of mans satisfaction to be made unto God of Purgatory of the uncertainty of Salvation and many other errors depending upon these are all couched and compassed here within a very narrow circuit some expressed and some implyed But so that while he hasteth to bind together suddenly that he may not be seen so much dreggish Popery in one fardle in his greatest
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
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
Even Mr. Pemble himselfe whose words hee can almost if not altogether rehearse without book gives it as the common interpretation of Protestant Writers so that he cannot be ignorant of it Yet he saith nothing to it and saith all to what none denieth Is this sincerity in handling the chiefe point of mans salvation Such as hee begged from God upon his knees or the use of that which he injoyns upon us tenderness in the interpretation of Scriptures But we must leave him in his own way because hee is resolute therein Sith hee will not answer us let us answer him in these things which in stead of an answer to us he would fish from the Text for himself Br. pag. 299. 1. When it is sayd we are justified by works the word by implieth more than an idle concomitancy if they only stood by while Faith doth all it could not be sayd wee are justified by works We grant it doth much yea almost all in the justification wherof James there speaks viz. before men And this is that which he speaketh ver 21. 22. 23. of Abrahams justification by works fulfilling that Scripture which sayth Abraham beleeved God and it was imputed to him for righteousness How did his justification by works fulfill the Scripture which affirmed him to be justified by faith but as this great work and fruit of his faith declared and manifested to men the truth of that Scripture and the truth of his faith by which he was so many yeers before justified B. p. 300. 2. When the Apostle saith by workes and not by faith onely hee plainly makes them concomitant in the procurement or in that kinde of causality which they have especially seeing he saith not as he is commonly interpreted Not by Faith which is alone but By Faith onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All is granted as before of the justification before men The profession of Faith or to say we have Faith is not sufficient without declaring it by works so to justifie us Therefore saith the Apostle Shew me if thou canst thy Faith without thy works and I will shew thee my Faith by my works vers 18. B. 3. Therefore he saith that Faith is dead being alone because it is dead to the use and purpose of justifying for in it selfe it hath a life according to its quality still This appears from his comparison in the former verse 16 that this is the death he speaks of And so works make Faith alive as to the attainment of its end of Justification We grant that the hypocriticall profession of Faith which James reproveth is as all other sinne alive to condemne the unbelievers and unjustified but dead to the use of justifying us in our consciences before God or outwardly before men But that the addition of workes to such a dead Faith can make it alive to justifie a man before God we deny neither doth James affirm though there may be some force that way to his justification before men who are subject to failings in their judgement In the fourth place he findes something to say for and something against the Analysis of Piscator and Mr. Pemble When he would depresse it at the utmost he can onely say that they seeme to faile in the Explication of the 22. verse about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faiths working with Abrahams workes and perfecting by workes In this I leave the Reader to peruse Mr. Baxter and them whom hee opposeth from thence to judge which party layes the surer ground of their interpretation As to the question in hand the working of both together to justifie and declare his faith perfect or sincere to men doth nothing strengthen his assertion or weaken ours The rest that hee hath in this Section are meere words without proofs as also his Answer given to some Objections made on our part and the same so curt that the best examination of them is to leave them unexamined untill he bring somthing to prove them Yet what of all that hee saith heere hath or seemes to have force to some other end I may possibly in its proper place call it into Examination CHAP. VII Argument Mr. Baxters sixth Argument to prove justification by works drawne from the Identity of the Conditions of justification and salvation examined To which are added the Rules which Protestant Writers give for the Right understanding of such Scriptures as promise eternall life to men of such works and qualifications an enquiry into the force of those Scriptures out of which Mr Baxter seeks to evince that eternall life runs upon condition of works A Sixth Argument he draweth from the Identity of Justification and Salvation in relation to the Condition of their procurement and attainment He layes it thus p. 310 B. Thes 78. Our full Justification and our everlasting Salvation have the same conditions on our part But sincere obedience is without all Doubt a condition of our sâ—lvation Therefore also of our Justification We except here against the Terms or Phrases used in the proposition and that 1. against that which by way of distinction hee names our FULL Justification implying thereby that there is an empty or at least partiall maimed and not full Iustification before God as by what he hath oft said before by his own expressing himselfe and his meaning in the Explication of his Thesis he makes evident The Protestants utterly deny this 1. and 2. partiall and full unperfect and perfect Iustification acknowledging one onely Iustification of the New Covenant which as an act of God is simul semel perfect admits of no degrees or increases though as to a mans owne apprehension and comfort it hath its increases and decreases And whatever Mr. Baxter hath hitherto brought to proove on his part wee have found no lesse vaine than is that which hee seekes to prove The Scripâ—ure is altogether ignorant of such a two fold Iustification so that we leave it as Mr. Baxters not Gods Iustification 2. Against that which by the like way of distinction hee calls our everlasting salvation implying thereby a temporary salvation which is by Christ in respect whereof the saved may be unsaved againe and so the salvation which they have by Christ become transitory not everlasting Both these wee deny and detest as Popish Socinian and Arminian doctrines what audaciousnesse is it in Mr. Baxter to name them and not to prove them to beguile his credulous Reader not acquainted at all with Controversies with an opinion that these things are knowne and granted by Protestants who detest the hearing of them and with unresistable arguments of Scripture oppugne the Authours of them Wee shake off as prodigies in the Gospel Doctrine of Iustification and Salvation the Attributes which hee giveth in that sence in which hee gives them It is a bad Cause that seekes the support of Sophistry and fallaciousness to support it Truth loves to bee attended with simplicity and plainnesse Let Mr. Baxter say why he puts
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
learned men turn'd to Popery This shall suffice to have said to the matter of Mr. Brs. Quere But memorable and worthy to be written upon the purest chrystal waters where he that can may read them are the reasons which Mr. Br. annexeth for which this Doctrine hath had a great hand in turning many learned men to Popery viz. B. pa. 329. When they see the language of the Scripture in the fore-cited places so plain that no mortall eye can discern it to the contrary When Illyricus Gallus Amsdorfius c. shall account it a heresie in George Major to say that good works are necessary to salvation And when if Melchior Adamus say true eò dementiae impietatis ventum erat ut non dubitarent quidam haec axiom ata propugnare Bona opera non sunt necessaria ad salutem Bona opera officiunt saluti Nova obedientia non est necessaria When even Melanctons credit is blasted for being too great a friend to good works though he ascribe not to them the least part of the work or office of Christ And when to this day many Antinomian teachers who are magnified as the only Preachers of free grace do assert and proclaim That there is no more required to the perfect irrevocable Justification of the vilest Murtherer or Whoremaster but to believe that hee is justified or to be perswaded that God loveth him And again p. 331. This Doctrine was offensive to Melancton Bucer and other moderate Divines of our own What of all this and what is the issue at last Therefore these learned men with great learning and wisedom took the advantage Cum ratione in sanire like a pampred horse with a fly in his tayl to catch the snaffle in the teeth and in great indignation to runn mad to Rome Who els but Mr. Brs. learned men could have expressed so much grace and wit And it seems they were all fellow-students in the same School els could not their good wits have jumpt together upon so pretty a slight And it seems Mr. Br. by his exagitation of the damnable doctrines of the Antinomians in our days doth tacitely invite the learned to joyn with him in prosecuting the same learned device As to the matter of these severall particulars somwhat yet not much is needfull to be said 1 To that of George Major c. Mr. Br. here discovereth fully what elswhere in this his Tractate he doth not totally hide his enmity and swelling against the first reformation of the Churches by Luther and others that hee accounts it a schismaticall defection not a due reformation Hee spares the names of Luther Zuinglius Calvin c. lest his spitting in their faces shâ—uld make his own odious to all knowing Christians But the Doctrine which he reprehendeth under the names of Illyricus Gallus Amsdorfius c. he knows to be the frme which those former Divines which all the Protestant Churches have taught and propugned Concerning Gallus either what he was or what he did I can give no account Illyricus is reported by some to have been somwhat hot and heady in prosecuting all that he undertook but that at any time he entred the lists with George Major I find not This I find that they both lived and conversed together at Jenes in the same University and were both adversaries to Strigelius a famous Divine unto whom between them they procured great persecution But Amsdorfius was one of those eminent instruments of Christ in the reformation who bare the burden and heat of the day was a Colleague with Luther in the University of Wittenberg at the first dawning forth of the Gospel his yoke-fellow in the laborâ— and in the sufferings of the Gospel both in prosperous and difficult times one and the same Holding fast the same principles which were laid in his heart while a young man even to his old age and death which God prolonged untill the 88. year of his age I know not any one professed Protestant that hath aspersed him for any thing that in all that time of so long a life he either committed or omitted as unworthy of a learned and faithful Minister of Christ until the candor of M. Br. hath now done it Truth it is that George Major in his time about a hundred years sithence when Luther was dead not daring so to do while he was living set forth some propositions and disputations of the necessity of good works to salvation and finding himself quickly encountred he after more fully explained himself or rather endeavoured to make his Doctrine the more smooth to be swallowed by allaying it thus That we are justified by faith only but not saved without works So that good works are necessary though not to justification yet to salvation At this his Doctrine as all the Churches and their Ministers were much offended so were there many that confuted it among others Strigelius Wigandus this Amsdorfius who wrote against him his Bona opera officiunt saluti Good works are hinderances of salvation A proposition I acknowledg not well sounding in words but the substance of Treatises is not to be judged alway from their Titles This work of Mr. B. hath a golden Title Aphorisms of Justification untill a man hath read the Book he would have supposed from the Title they had bin Aphorisms to maintain not to destroy Justification by free grace So on the other side the Paradoxical sound of Amsdorfius his titular position doth in no wise deny his Treatise thereon to be orthodox except Mr. Br. can produce any thing thence to prove that he affirms good works in themselves to be so and not only in the sense wherein George Major affirms them necessary to salvation Or why this Assereion stifly maintained by George Major should not be counted a heresie in him as well as in the Papists or the Pharisees before them I see no other reason but this that then Mr. Br. having more worthily deserv'd than he will be thought fit to be honoured with the Title of Doctor in the same profession 2 To that of Melchior Adamus I say no more but that the Testimony of an Adversary without proofes is unworthy or at least incompetent to bow our belief to it What wresting and curtilating there is of their sentences whom in this case such men would defame is obvious to every mans notice He should in stead of his Individuum vagum his quidam have named some singular persons at least have quoted some of their writings in which they have propugned such assertions that we might have searched and found whether it were so if he would have been believed Otherwise if these things were only for disputations-sake handled in the Schools this argues not the propugners to be of that judgment 3 What he saith of Melancton and Bucer whether it be true or false is of the like moment Be it that some crazie brains or corroding sonns of Momus with whom the world too much at all
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