Spirit Could she and Christ be one Spirit Could she have the Comeliness of Christ upon her and not appear in his Person How could her Name as well as his be the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 33.16 23.6 if she did not take upon her the Person and Condition of Christ Or how else could she be called Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 O that we did more taste the Sweetness and Comfort of this Relation and Condition every day then instead of calling it uncooth and novel we should give Glory to God for his Infinite Rich Grace to marry us to his Son Jesus and be ravished with his amazing Love to make such vile Creatures as we are in our selves in whose Flesh as the Apostle saith in Rom. 7. dwells no good thing that we should be Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones which is to take his Person and Condition with a witness What new coyned business is it to say Christ and Believers are one that they take his Person and he theirs when the Scripture so frequently speaks of I in them and they in me I the Surety they the Discharged I standing in their stead taking their Sins on me and so sustaining their Persons Thus they taking his Person and Condition are made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 O that we could well conceive and receive this that we could feed and feast on this Marrow and Fatness of the Gospel every day and drink deep draughts of this Unsearchable Rich Grace of God then we should adore his Goodness and not call it a Monster or a wild monstrous Sense this Change of Persons §. LXVII For the Conclusion the Rebuker is pleased to leave the dreadful Tail of his wild Monster in his Comment on the Doctor 's Scripture Assertion in these words And now you have it that Change of Persons which the Doctor affirms and Mr. Williams denies which had he not he had denied his Redeemer and betrayed the Gospel Here 's a deadly Sting in this Tail a very malignant one for it is neither better nor worse than to say the Doctor by his wild monstrous Sense of the Change of Persons has denyed his Redeemer and betrayed the Gospel Bona verba easily and dangerously enough said but not at all proved I am sure he that denies Christ being made of God Sin for us very Sin not the shadow or shell of Sin and that denies our being made the Righteousness of God the very Righteousness of God-Man Jesus Christ in him he by having our very Sins laid on him he therein sustaining our Persons and we by having his very Righteousness imputed to us and being upon us whereby we stand in his Person and appear Righteous in the sight of God as he is Righteous as being cloathed with his Righteousness he is the denyer of Christ and betrayer of the Gospel nay he wholly evacuates and exinanitiates the Gospel For what Benefit can we have by Christ's Death if our Sins were not made his and laid on him and he made Sin for us Or by his Righteousness if it be not made ours given to us and we appear in it in and through Jesus Christ before God How could the Apostle say of any Man 1 John 3.7 He is Righteous as God is Righteous but by his believing in Christ where his Faith is accounted to him for Righteousness As Abraham's Faith justified him not his Act of Faith barely but the Act taking in the Object of it viz. Christ's Righteousness and so he truly doth Righteousness that believes in the Lord Jesus his Righteousness and Strength and thus doing Righteousness he becomes Righteous as he is Righteous and to deny this is to betray the Gospel in order to bring in our own Righteousness to joyn it with Christs as it were by the Works of the Law Rom. 9.32 Or how are we accepted in the Beloved if we do not appear in his Person before God and so sustain his Person Is this a denying Christ and betraying the Gospel O that God would anoint Mens Eyes with the Collirium the Eye-Salve of the Spirit then they would be able to bear the light of the Glory of God as it shines on and in poor Creatures in the Face of Christ to make Righteous as he is Righteous and not dazzle them to make them call this betraying the Gospel §. LXVIII It may do well for all Calumniators to consider the Judgment that God inflicted on the Children at Bethel that mock'd Elisha saying Come up thou bald Head Come up thou bald Head which is a thousand times less detracting than to say thou denyer of Christ and betrayer of the Gospel whereupon there came out of the Forest two She-Bears and tare in pieces 42 of them Which was a far less Judgment than what God has inflicted on some to leave them to write against the Truth and thereby to harden themselves and grieve the Godly So far as the Rebuker has dipt his Pen in Gall in this kind I only say The Lord rebuke thee Is not this a Brand pluck'd out of the Fire What! call a faithful fervent Servant of our Lord Jesus the Air of whose Sermons carries such a favour of Love and Honour to our Lord Jesus and such a Zeal for Holiness that his very Enemies even Mr. Williams could say he believed he was a Holy Man I say for my Dear Kratiste to call such an one A wild monstrous denyer of his Redeemer and betrayer of the Gospel has a dismal Aspect as if God had left such if not to the hardening their Heart against the Truth yet to such an high towering Opinion of themselves in order to the greater humbling them that for their falling into such contemptuous Language they may be made contemptible by some sharp Pen. We read that Michael when contending with the Devil about the Body of Moses he durst not bring a railing Accusation against him but said The Lord rebuke thee And so I beseech the Lord in Mercy to do to all that call the Advancers of Free Grace in Christ by such virulent Names as we have seen §. LXIX In Page 41 our Dear Kratiste seems mighty angry with the Reporter Mr. L. for saying It 's impossible to establish the Doctrine of Justification on its true and proper Basis any otherwise than by clearing the Point of Commutation of Persons And yet the Rebuker himself owns this to be Articulus stantis vel cadentis Ecclesiae Then sure it ought to be cleared And how can that be That the Holy Innocent Jesus should be made Sin and the Unholy the Nocent Sinners should be made the Righteousness of God but by a Commutation of Persons He standing in our stead being our Surety sustaining our Persons on the Cross suffering for us as Calvin Luther Twiss Pemble Harris with a multitude more do affirm whom the Rebuker will own to be of the First Form of Learned Holy Divines not Apocryphal Tobiases and we
standing in Christ's Person being found in him having put on Christ and his Righteousness as the Apostle Paul hath it in Phil. 3.9 who according to some Mens way of dogmatizing and making Antinomians is the King-leader of them all by saying as we frequently must quote That God made him Sin for us and us the Righteousness of God in him I must beg Pardon for casting this Salt so oft into the bitter Waters to make them sweet these two Passages into their Broth of Antinomianism and until you race them out of the Bible they will be a good defence of the Change of Persons between Christ and Sinners §. LXX These Two Pillars are the Jakin and Boaz Establishment and Strength in him that King Solomon our Lord Jesus hath erected before the Temple the Basis of the Commutation of Persons Christ made Sin for us and Righteousness to us and I am sure The Gates of Hell will never prevail against them let the Socinians or Deists or Quietists and let their Friends the Arminians be never so rampant One Athanasius one Hylary one Mr. Cole could withstand Ten Thousand Batteries and be no more shaken than a pair of Three penny Fellows can shake down the Monument and so extinguish the Memory of the Papists burning of London in 1666 witness Mr. Cole's sealing his Doctrine with Triumph at his departure dying in the Joy of what he had preach'd though by Mr. Williams called Mysterious Nonsense he saying a little before his Death in opposition to our Modern 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the resisters of the Truth Now I can spit in the Face of the Devil and so dyed in the Joy of having preach'd the Doctrine of Justification by Free Grace through Christ without any Works of ours concurring thereunto §. LXXI In Page 43 he asks Where has this Doctrine of Justification been settled all this while since the Reformation This is just copying after the Papists Where was your Religion before Luther We answer It was in the Scripture and in abundance of faithful Witnesses and so was this Doctrine in particular Read but the Apostle Paul and he 'll tell you where it was settled viz. In our being chosen in Christ before the World was and in Grace given us then in him and in Christ's being made Sin for us and the Righteousness of God to us Besides if you will read Calvin Twiss and Luther with multitudes more in your Study you will find how they settled it Antisozzo hath it in part also and why may not Dr. Tho. Goodwin come in for an Author O no now I remember a great Reason for said Kratiste he speaks in his Treatise on the Ephesians of the Spirit himself dwelling in Believers but I utterly deny it said he And I affirm said he he dwells in Believers only by his gracious Operations To which was opposed The Spirit himself witnesses with our Spirits that we are the Children of God And besides the Rebuker 't is like will say he is as dreadful an Antinomian as wild a Monster as the Dregs of it Dr. Crisp therefore I will not allow him to be an Author in this great Point of Justification for he is all for Free Grace §. LXXII He proceeds It is strange to me That Councils General and Provincial Synods Assemblies of Holy Learned Men should so oft so strenuously assert and confirm by the Word of God this great Truth and yet never once dream of Dr. Crisp ' s Commutation of Persons upon which to superstruct the Doctrine of Justification But it will appear more strange by and by I am perswaded that my Dear Kratiste with his Eagle-eyed Talent should so far over-shoot himself as to talk as if he had read all Councils and Synods c. when it will appear he has not well read our English Homilies setting forth clear Gospel-Truth in the Doctrine of the Church of England He is got into a large Field with a mighty Challenge like a Goliah defying all Councils c. to shew the Commutation of Persons He wages War under the Banner of all Councils c. as he thinks whereas one little David with a Stone out of the Brook of Life the River that makes glad the City of God one Text of Scripture will answer all his Rodomantado Challenge What if Councils c. that contract principal Articles of Faith into short Terms have not used the Doctor 's very words yet if they are consonant to Scripture one would think they may pass without such a strangeness Are there no Sentences in Antisozzo and Melius that are not in Synods and Councils and yet pass for Authentick I am confident the Doctor could not think it worth his while to tumble over the Records of all Councils c. to authorise him to speak to the Rebuker's approbation if the Scripture do but warrant him in his Change of Persons 't is enough and that is very abundant in Terms that may bear him out As where it speaks of Christ in us the hope of Glory do not we sustain his Person there or rather he being in us our hope he sustains our Persons in hope It speaks of our putting off our Sins in the circumcision of Christ Col. 3.11 which cannot be otherwise than by Christ's sustaining our Persons when he was circumcised and so our putting off our Sins is by our being in him representatively when the Fore-Skin of Christ's Flesh was cut off in order to the putting off our Sins in our Faith in a circumcised Christ It speaks of our being buried with him of our being raised in him of our being found in him What is this but a Change or Commutation of Persons I live saith the Apostle yet not I but Christ lives in me Is not this a Change of Person that answers Dr. Crisp's Commutation And yet still we are not Christ Personal but Christ Mystical and Christ was not Paul Personal but Paul and all Believers Mystical as sustaining their Persons as many Eminent Divines besides the Doctor speak without being accounted strange Monsters §. LXXIII For further Satisfaction in this great Point I refer the Rebuker to the great Pains of Dr. Chancy who hath gathered the Sentiments of very great Men among whom take this of Luther on Gal. 3.14 who saith It behoveth him to bear the Punishment and Wrath of God not for his own Person but for our Persons and so making A HAPPY CHANGE with us he took upon him our Sinful Person and gave unto us his Innocent and Victorious Person Is not this as monstrous a wild Sense as Dr. Crisp's But my Dear Kratiste hath more Sense than to call this new uncooth unintelligible Non-sense because of the great Name of Martin Luther Another of Dr. Chancy's Quotations is out of Mr. Stone of New England no Antinomian unless made so by the Rebuker he adds in the same Page 102 of Dr. Chancy There must be an Exchange between the Mediator and us 1 Tim. 2.6 There must be an
our Reformers from Antichristian Dotages That in Christ and by Christ we are fulfillers of the Law may help our Rebuker to rectifie his saying in Pa. 47 If Christ's putting on the Person of Sinners be left out it 's better out than put in till it be known what it signifies 'T is strange that our sharp sighted Rebuker cannot tell what it signifies when the first emergers out of Popery the Reformers are so positive that we fulfilled the Law in Christ which cannot possibly be without his sustaining our Persons Could all those Worthies of the last Age Luther Calvin c. know what it signifies and we that stand on their Shoulders cannot we see as far as they But they cannot see that will shut their Eyes Doubtless many of our New Law Men would say but for the out-cry of every sound Protestant that this Expression That we fulfilled the Law in Christ had been better left out of the Doctrine of the Gospel than put in for it hath strengthened a many of those he calls Antinomians So that now we cannot without great difficulty run down the Doctrine of Christ's sustaining our Persons but these Antinomians as we call them will be too hard for us so long as the Epistles of Paul and the Doctrines Establish'd by Law are so armed against us §. LXXXVIII But some may say Why should these old musty Homilies be trump'd up now against the Great Baxter and his Successor the Gospel-stater of Truth Those Good Men are gone to Rest and with them let their Homilies sleep No say I they being dead yet speak and their plain honest simplicity will go farther with every good Christian that we in him fulfilled the Law than the Sceptical Notions of Mr. D. Williams such as this That God provided for his own Glory while he promiseth Life by forgiveness and yet insists on some degree of Obedience Here instead of our fulfilling the Law in Christ this Gospel-Truth stater brings in our Obedience in our selves insisted on by God in his forgiving Sins Such a medly of God's forgiveness upon our Obedience the Reformers rejected as spurious Popish Doctrine They are so far from attributing our Obedience to be insisted on by God in forgiving our Sins that they will not allow Faith it self to come in for any share in farthering our forgiveness but say plainly of Faith thus Our Faith in Christ much more our degrees of Obedience saith unto us thus It is not I that take away your Sins but Christ only and to him ONLY I send you for that purpose forsaking therein all your good Vertues What 's that but your degrees of Obedience Thus through the good hand of God we are helped by our great Reformers to quell this New Law Doctrine of the Neonomians setting up some Gospel-Holiness of ours in co-partnership with the everlasting Gospel of being saved only by Grace through Faith and that Faith not of our selves it is the Gift of God to whom be Glory for that he hath freely given Christ and all with him §. LXXXIX My next Notice I take is with Grief and Sorrow at the dismal contemptuous treatment the Rebuker gives of Christ's sustaining the Person of Sinners This great tremendous Point which is sustained by many Reverend Persons my Dear Kratiste makes a Banter of in Pa. 53 saying What then can these Expressions signifie but that Christ wore the mask the vizor the disguise of Sinners that he was personatus histrio like a Stage player that puts on the Person of a King when indeed he is but some sorry fellow Do such Terms of our Blessed Lord become the Pen of an adorer of the Blessed Jesus to impose such a Sense and such horrid Consequences from a Doctrine professed by all sound Protestants when God himself saith he made him Sin for us And Thousands of Adorers of him adore him for this Thing that he was made Sin for them though he knew no Sin and on that account say he sustained their Persons that is that they were in him and fulfilled the Law in him and by him as the whole Nation of England have declared for Good Sound Orthodox Doctrine almost 150 Years And now shall such an Inference be fetch'd from it as scoffs thus at our Lord Jesus As if the Parliament of England in establishing that Expression by Law for good Doctrine as if they had thereby declared that our Lord was a sorry Fellow a Stage-player acting the part of a King that he wore a Mask a Vizor in so doing If such Language had been used in any Interlude Show May-game Stage-play or Pageant then the Act of Parliament would have forced the Rebuker to pay Ten Pounds For it saith If any Person in any of those five places shall Jestingly or Prophanely use the Name of God or of Jesus Christ or of the Holy Ghost or of the Trinity which ought not to be used but with great Reverence they shall forfeit Ten Pounds 3 James 1.21 And if a Stage-player or Buffoon shall forfeit Ten Pounds what shall a Divine who should both know and teach better Things what should he forfeit if he print such prophane Jesting with our Dear and Blessed Lord whose Name is dreadful O! that Men were wise to Sobriety and not suffer themselves to launch into such exorbitant Expressions concerning our Blessed Lord. To tax his opposers with such an Inference from Scripture Premises it puts me in mind of what Antisozzo saith in Fol. 191 Sed male dum recitas incipit esse tuus He that recites such Passages without necessity and abhorrence they begin to be his own Passages But I hope my Kratiste will never fall into such Language again §. XC There is a very great word to the Point of Christ's sustaining our Person in Ephes 3.6 which is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body but may be rendred fellow-heirs and fellow-body or co-body As Believers are heirs fellow-heirs co-heirs with Christ and of Christ so they are of the same body fellow-body co-body with Christ and in Christ And as before the Apostle forgave in the Person of Christ so here the believing Gentiles are fellow-body with Christ And what is this but his sustaining their Persons and they his Person But this is to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness To our learned topping Gentlemen it is uncooth unintelligible and better left out than put in till it be known what it signifies Just so the Socinians concerning the words Trinity in Vnity 't is to them Nonsense and Contradiction as all the Gospel is to Flesh and Blood as that a Wicked Man should be saved by the Righteousness of one that he never saw in his Life by a crucified Jesus but to them that are caâ—ied he is as sustaining our Persons as we are in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 co-body he is Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God And
I have loved thee with an Everlasting Love Which Everlasting Love all agree is as well from Eternity past as to Eternity to come and if loved from Eternity what is that short of being then justified For God loved them as he saw them in Christ undertaken for to be justified by his Righteousness But that which goes higher they were the Delight of Christ from all Eternity Prov. 8.26 30 31. While as yet he had not made the Earth I was by him as one brought up with him I was dayly his Delights and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. Here was the high Effect of Eternal Love Jesus Christ the Wisdom of the Father he from all Eternity and in all Eternity he was the Delights of the Father and during the same Eternity the Son's Delights were with or in the Elect given him of the Father Thine they were and thou gavest them me So that there was an Eternal Complacency in the Lord Jesus in and to all that he was to redeem by laying down his Life and if so did not he delight in them as having Grace given to them in Christ before the World was And so he looks on them as Redeemed as Justified and as Sanctified by him though it was not actually accomplished in their Persons yet it was actually concluded between the Father and Son in the Council of Peace Zach. 6.13 and God thereupon took Christ's Word or Covenant for it as if it were actually done upon which account Abraham and all the Old Testament Believers were justified and saved before Christ had actually paid the Ransome for many Thus being undertaken for by Christ from Eternity they were lookt on by God as having a representative being in Christ from all Eternity when chosen in him and Grace given them in him from all Eternity in 2 Tim. 1.9 And this our Representative being from all Eternity in Christ even Mr. Clark himself in his Notes on the Bible was forc d to allow Therefore to renounce absolutely that the Elect are justified in the sight of God before their effectual calling is to bear hard on those Scriptures that declare God's Everlasting Love to them and Christ's Delight in them from all Eternity and Grace given them in Christ before they are effectually called of which see Mr. Pemble and Dr. Twiss by and by §. XIX I cannot pass without a Remark on the different Epithets the Rebuker gives to Socinianism and his Crispian Antinomianism How softly doth he tread on the Graves of Horrid Socinians and how ruffly he deals with the Independants for that which he calls in them Antinomianism It is in fol. 25 where Socinianism he calls but an Error but Antinomianism is Heresie thus The Vnited Brethren had given demonstration against all Socinian Errors They did try these Dissenting Brethren Mr. Griffith Cole Mathers whether they were sound in the Faith in opposition to the Antinomian Heresies of which he gives a Catalogue of 21. So that with them it is but an Error or a small Peccadillo a little Trip to deny the Deity and Satisfaction of our Lord Jesus with the Socinians but it is an Heresie a damning Heresie to say That an Elect Person is in the sight of God justified before effectually called or to say A Believer works from Life and not for Life with those he counts Antinomians O Kratiste Theophile so I call the Rebuker now where is your Zeal for our Lord Jesus to be so favourable to the Socinians as to call it only an Error in them to deny our Lord Christ's Deity §. XX. I cannot but stand in admiration and can scarce believe my Eyes when I look on this Catalogue or Bed-roll of 21 Antinomian Heresies my Dear Kratiste hath loaded his Brethren with for dissenting from Mr. Williams his Gospel-Truth stated a-mis I hope it may not be unprofitable to my self and some others to spend a few Thoughts by searching what the Scriptures of Truth say about them for which I implore the Holy Spirit 's assistance that he would bring to remembrance the blessed Truths therein relating hereunto §. XXI The first is That a Gospel Threat if not a Katachresis is a Bull. This methinks is ridiculously called a Heresie to say a Gospel Threat is a Bull. What of Heresie can you make this But let us see what the Spirit saith concerning the Gospel what it is He saith by the Angel Behold I bring you glad Tidings a Saviour is born or I Gospelize this to you that Christ is born And what is it but a Bull or a Calf like a Bull to put a Threatning to Glad Tidings and call that Gospel One may as well say that Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law is Gospel as any other Threat But if Curses because written in the New Testament are the Gospel then our Neonomians have done their Business effectually and we have a new Thing a Curse for what they call Gospel besides the Lord Christ's Gospel which is that he Jesus is come to save his People from their Sins not but that the Threat is made use of in the hand of Christ in publishing the Gospel of Salvation by him but to say that the Threat is the Gospel is the same as to say that Condemnation is a Pardon which whether Bull or Calf matters not but to be sure it is very near to a Contradiction and my Dear Kratiste must strain hard to make the saying so to be an Antinomian Heresie But here he marshals it as the Captain-General of the 21 how formidable then must the following 20 be if this Man of Straw must lead the Van that 't is an Heresie to say a Gospel-Threat is a Bull. But leaving this Moon calf §. XXII His second Heresie is That Pardon is rather the Condition of Faith than Faith is of Pardon That is to say That Faith rather flows from Pardon than Pardon from Faith and for any to say so is with him an Antinomian Heresie which is a strange Strain for the Scripture saith We are justified freely by his Grace which Justification includes Pardon then we are Pardoned freely by his Grace not of Works lest any boast if so then we are not pardoned upon account of Faith as a Condition of it but upon account of Christ's Blood washing away our Sins which is called the Righteousness of God and this is received by Faith but Christ with this Righteousness of his first receives or apprehends us and then being apprehended by him we by his Spirit are enabled to apprehend him by Faith and so the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith The Apostle doth not say the Righteousness of God wherein our Pardon is included that this is made ours by Faith or that Faith is the Condition of our having it but Faith is that whereto it is revealed to us It was given to us before when Christ first apprehended us but it is Revealed made manifest to
Spirit concurring with our Spirits therein See the Assemblies Catechism §. XXIX The like sort of Heresie to this last we find well spoken to by Famous Pemble in his Treatise of Grace and Faith in fol. 22 to prove God's being reconciled to the Elect before they believe and so to take off the Clamour from Dr. Crisp as if it were Antinomian Heresie to say we believe that we may be justified declaratively Mr. Pemble argues solidly thus Now that God doth actually love the Elect before they are regenerate or can actually believe may appear thus 1. Where God is actually reconciled he actually loves but with the Elect before they actually believe God is actually reconciled therefore he loves them before their Faith The Minor is evident because before they are born a full Satisfaction and Atonement is made by Christ and accepted on God's part whereon actual Reconciliation must needs follow He was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World 2. If God did actually love the Elect before Christ's time when an actual Reconciliation was not made then much more may he actually love the Elect after the Atonement is really made by Christ's Death even before they do believe it The former is true by the Salvation of the Patriarchs therefore the latter may not well be denyed 3. Election Vocation and Faith are Fruits of God's Love to the Elect which Graces he bestows on them because he loves them Now I argue If God loved his Elect from Eternity and this Love neither increaseth nor diminisheth as in God as Mr. Pemble saith anon then it is plain that in the Righteous Judgment of God foro Dei there was never any Guilt on them after they were delighted in by Christ For God doth not take a Sinner by the Hand that is the same as he may be said not to love guilty Souls but he doth take the Elect by the Hand from Eternity As they are chosen in Christ from Eternity so they were delighted in by Christ from Eternity therefore the Elect as Elect are not guilty in the sight of God For if they were how should they be delighted in from Eternity as having Grace given them in Christ by the Father from Eternity 2 Tim. 1.9 and Prov. 8. §. XXX And now my hand is in with Mr. Pemble and because the Rebuker and others may if the Lord please see their Mistake in their hard Censure on Dr. Crisp and others to say 't is Heretical for them to say That Justification is before Faith I shall a little inlarge on this eighth Heresie 'T is well known Mr. Pemble was no Antinomian yet he saith in concurrence with Dr. Twiss and Dr. Crisp thus In foro Divino in God's sight Justification goeth before our Sanctification for even whilst the Elect are unconverted they are then actually justified and freed from all Sin by the Death of Christ and God having accepted of that Satisfaction is actually reconciled to them 2. There is Justification in foro Conscientiae in our sense which is but the revelation and certain declaration of God's former secret Act of accepting Christ's Righteousness to our Justification And why is not the out-cry of Heresie against this Good Man who asserts so plainly the actual Justification in God's sight before the Conversion of the Elect and that the Justification in our Consciences is but the revelation and declaration of the former secret Justification before God §. XXXI To the like purpose is the Confession of the Assembly at Westminster on the Article of Justification which saith Christ by his Obedience and Death did fully discharge the Debt of all those that are justified Here our Sins are called a Debt which our Rebuker makes a dangerous word and here this Debt is fully discharged when even at Christ's Death And if so then I argue with the Apostle if the Debt was discharged then Who can lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect either of Sin or Guilt It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again Sure this was no Antinomian Assembly yet they make the Debt discharged at Christ's Death §. XXXII But Mr. Pemble goes farther in this Point and saith That Faith doth not precede Participation with Christ appears 1 Our Sanctification wrought by the Spirit conveys Life and Grace into our Souls when we are void of Faith and before 't is ask'd 2. Our Justification in God's sight which was long before we were born is purchas'd for us by Christ 'T is vain to think with the Armenian That Christ's Merits only made God PLACABILEM not Placatum no the Ransom is paid and accepted all the Sins are actually pardoned this grand Transaction between God and the Mediator Jesus Christ was dispatch'd in Heaven before we had a Being yet the Benefit of it was ours and belonged to us at that time though we never knew so much till after that by Faith we apprehended it As Lands may be settled on an Infant though he knew nothing of it till he come of Age. O! what clear Testimony is here to convince the Neonomians that besides express Scripture those that the Rebuker calls Antinomians have very good Company going with them §. XXXIII Here I cannot omit from the word Placabilem to reflect on what one of the Deserters of Pinners-hall Lecture well known to the Rebuker said there about April 1693 not without great Trouble to some of the Auditory That Christ's Death was to make God PLACABLE As rank Arminianism as can be which was well answered there the sixth of June 1693 by Worthy Mr. Lawrence though the same Person was never answered there as I heard to a worse piece of Arminianism that he uttered there to the Scandal of Pinners-Hall viz. That Adam ' s first Sin was not ours or We did not Sin that first Sin that Sin only corrupted our Nature Which is clean contrary to the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whom all Sinned Rom. 5.12 Now we may no longer wonder to see such Persons Symbolize with and be Champions for unsound Mr. Williams who holds That more than the Elect may be Saved Witness these words of his by way of Scorn to his Opposers in his Appendix to Gospel Truth stated It is not enough saith Mr. Williams that we own that Christ absolutely redeemed the Elect so as to purchase saving Graces as well as Benefits to be infallibly theirs unless we add that all others are in state of Devils as having no real offers of Life on Gospel terms Nor is their Salvation possible if they will Repent and Believe Here he holds it possible that others besides the Elect may Repent and Believe and so their Salvation is possible Nay herein Antisozzo whom my Dear Kratiste hath a great value for doth partly coalesce in Page 103 saying When God gave the Promise to the common Parent of Mankind there was a possibility in the thing that that means of Salvation might have been derived to all those Rivulets
for he deserves it more than the Doctor you are so displeased with Luther saying We may apply to Christs that whole 27. Deut. For as Christ is Innocent in this General Law touching his own Person so he is also in all the rest and as he is guilty in this General Law in that he is made a Curse for us and hanged on the Cross as a Wicked Man a Blasphemer a Murderer a Traytor so he is guilty in all others For all the Curses of the Law are heaped together and laid upon him He was therefore not only accursed but made a Curse for us And a little above he said That he putting off his Innocency and Holiness and taking thy sinful Person on him might bear thy Sin thy Death thy Curse Why is not this criminated for the Dregs of Antinomianism Being read with Arminian Spectacles it may pass for such but if read by the Light of the Holy Spirit in the Glass of the Word it will be found pure clear Water of Life flowing from the Fountain of Israel the Rock that followed them our Lord Jesus Christ Whom for our Everlasting Comfort God made Sin for us though he knew no Sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him I must confess I am amazed at the Uncharitableness of some Men in charging the Doctor with making Christ a Murderer c. as if he meant any otherwise than all sound Orthodox Christians do that is that he was only a Sinner by Imputation And let my Dear Kratiste but examine his Conscience on consulting the Doctor 's Sermons when his fierce Anger is allayed and he will say there is as Great and as Adorable a Sense of the Glorious Excellency of our Lord Jesus in his own Person in those Discourses as he can find in any writings he most applauds and that notwithstanding it must be still asserted or we must all be damned That for the sake of poor Sinners he was made Sin and a Curse for us And it is well known that the Doctor meant and so exprest himself that he was so only by Imputation §. LV. The next is a very unbeseeming and dreadful Charge against the Doctor in Page 38 where the Rebuker saith The Doctor had affirmed a wild monstrous Sense of Change of Person between Christ and the Elect for which he quotes Mr. Williams citing Dr. Crisp in these words pa. 31 of Gospel-Truth Mark it well saith the Doctor Christ himself is not so compleatly Righteous but we are as Righteous as he nor we so compleatly Sinful but Christ became being made Sin as compleatly Sinful as we Nay more we are the same Righteousness for we are made the Righteousness of God that very Sinfulness that we were Christ is made the very Sinfulness So that here is a direct Change Christ takes our Person and Condition and stands in our stead we take Christ's Person and Condition and stand in his stead So that if you reckon well you must always reckon your selves in anothers Person and that other in your Person This is the monstrous Sense of the Doctor upon which the Rebuker makes this dreadful following Comment And now you have it that Change of Persons which the Doctor affirms and Mr. Williams denies which had he not he had denyed his Redeemer and betrayed the Gospel So then the Doctor hath in these words in his Judgment denyed his Redeemer and betrayed the Gospel Cujus contrarium For upon search of Scripture and keeping to it it will be found that the Doctor hath said nothing but plain Scripture or clear Scripture consequence And if so it will appear that the casting this Dirt on the Doctor is not on him but on the Scripture and the Spirit of God in the Scripture Wherefore it is good to consider that word Acts 5.39 If it be of God ye cannot overcome it lest haply ye be found even to fight against God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Rebuker and Mr. Williams think to blast the Doctor but if his Assertions be clear deductions from the Word of God then their calling this a wild Monster may prove them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 §. LVI It matters not much how the Doctor is traduced but his plain Scripture Assertions to be called Antinomian Heresies will prove dangerous and to call them a wild Monster may make such fall under the character of fighters against God therefore to the Law and to the Testimony I pass by Luther who in the Doctor 's Sense saith Christ was the greatest Sinner in the World that is by imputation of Sins to him I say no more of Famous Dr. Harris Christ sustained the Person of Sinners how else could God punish him But the Word of God must be our Shield and I will oppose those two Scriptures The Lord laid on him the Iniquity of us all and God made him to be Sin for us with those other two He shall be called the Lord our Righteousness as well as He shall be called the Lord of Righteousness the 33. 23. Jer. with We are made the Righteousness of God in him These I oppose against all the Assaults of the Enemies of the Truth or Mis-staters of this Gospel-Truth of the Change of Persons §. LVII Did Dr. Crisp say Christ himself is not so compleatly Righteous but we are as Righteous as he And did he not say in the same Breath We are made the Righteousness of God which is plain Scripture Now I pray what difference is there between our being as Righteous as Christ and our being the Righteousness of God God goes higher in his Expression of our being Righteous in saying We are the Righteousness of God than if he had said We are as Righteous as Christ And God may well be allowed to speak after the manner of Men to declare his own Mind in higher Terms than it is meet for Man to do Then let us turn the Tables and say If God had said in Scripture by the Apostle Paul that Christ himself is not so compleatly Righteous but we are as Righteous as he and if the Doctor had inferred from thence that we are made the Righteousness of God we that are poor Sinful Creatures in our selves we are made the very Righteousness of God in the abstract of it that is by imputation then there might have been some Ground for Dirt to be cast on the Doctor but when he goes a degree lower than the very words of Scripture and instead of saying We are made the Righteousness of God saith We are as Righteous as Christ The opposing this must be accounted fighting against the Truth not the Doctor Pray what will Men make of this Righteousness of God which is the Righteousness of God-Man Jesus Christ the Mediator his Righteousness made ours imputed to us he being made of God to us Righteousness Do they make to be made this Righteousness is less than to be compleatly Righteous as Christ Sure they will not so
Exchange of Person for Person which is the surest Exchange in War or Captivity when nothing but one Person will be taken in the room of another §. LXXIV One would wonder how it should happen that my Dear Kratiste and his Friends should be ignorant of such Passages as these so as he should speak as if this Term was never dream'd of before when the Great Luther is so precise in the Term and other Excellent Men. Therefore I beseech you be not too confident of your grasping all Things in all Councils Synods and Assemblies lest you lose all O how much better is it to say with the Apostle He that thinketh he knoweth any thing knoweth nothing as he ought to know it and with Agur I have not the Vnderstanding of a Man than to Challenge all the World with what is said in all Councils General and Provincial The humble he will teach and the mock he will gâ—â—â—â— in Judgment Which the Lord grant to us all and that we may be ever learning of our Blessed Lord and Master to be meek and lowly §. LXXV My Dear Kratiste goes farther in Bontering the Phrases of Christ's taking our Person and we his Person and spares not to call them Apocryphal Phrases though they are such as many Holy Men have made use of to clear up the great and comfortable Doctrine of Christ's being our Surety and making Satisfaction for us Well may he call Tobias Apocryphal if he calls his great Teacher under Christ the Apostle Paul Apocryphal as I shall shew by and by He is pleased to come forth in great State in Page 49 as my Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer with his Quo Warranto against the Commutation of Persons and thus Harangues the World Quo Warranto Why must all the World be Hereticated that dare not subscribe to these Apocryphal Phrases which neither Scripture nor Antient Fathers nor General nor Particular Councils nor Synods nor Assemblies nor single Churches ever brought into their Creeds c. What a scampering flourish is here over all Councils Fathers c. circuating the Universe as if our Author were the Magazine of all Learning and had fortified himself on every side against this Change of Persons and Christ's sustaining our Person as if the Phrase were intollerably uncooth I shall only attack one Fort which is the first Out-Fort the Scripture and if that be taken he must yield all the rest The Scripture is the Pillar and Ground of Truth We will see if that doth not bring into our Creed this Term of Christ's bearing our Person and we his Person or that which is plainly tantamount doth not the Apostle say Col. 2.6 7. As ye have received the Lord Jesus Christ so walk in him Rooted and built up in him What is this but to be in his Person by Faith joined to the Lord and so he coming one Spirit as the Apostle saith which is the same as to be one Person But as if God would at once by one stroke quell all the Quarrels and Exceptions against the Truth and calling it unintelligible Nonsense as in Truth it is to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophers he condescends to the very Term of our being in the person of Christ and saith in 2 Cor. 2.10 by the Apostle Paul If I forgave any thing for your sakes forgave I it in the Person of Christ What thinks my Dear Kratiste now Is this Term so novel as never to be brought into our Creed by Scripture Councils or Fathers O how good is it to be humble and not to tower to the top of all Learning denying this phrase to be in Scripture Fathers or Councils when at the very threshold we see one may fall For here the very express Scripture uses the phrase of the Apostles being in the Person of Christ and forgiving an offending Brother in the Person of Christ And so I hope we shall all learn to forgive one another and not to rebuke with immoderate strains as our Rebuker hath very unwarrantably done in charging the Doctor with wild monstrous Sense and Apocryphal Phrases when he speaks the Apostle Paul's Language §. LXXVI I hope you will allow the Apostle to bring this Term of our sustaining Christ's person into our Credenda or Things to be believed though the Doctor whom for it you charge with Antinomian Heresie may not use the word without a severe Lash Is this to learn of our Lord Jesus who would excuse his Disciples under failings and not presently bring them to the block much less would he tax them with a wild monstrous Sense of Things when they spake only the Sense of the Scriptures But why this Expression should be Heresie in the Doctor though Orthodox in the Apostle I can quickly tell It being I reckon from his having some Mens persons in admiration Our Kratiste having some time since prest hard on the Conscience of Mr. Williams he is now raising up his Reputation which he might suppose this a proper way for by loading the Doctor with the Title of a Dreggy Apocryphal Heretick because Mr. Williams had written so much against him in his Gospel-Truth stated and so the Rebuker here seconding Mr. Williams in aspersing the Doctor would redintegrate the said Mr. Williams into the good esteem of those who had occasion given them for low Thoughts of him upon account of what the Rebuker had reflected on Now to make him amends if Mr. Williams hath criminated the Doctor the Rebuker must do so also or how can Mr. Williams stand Rectus in Curia or in statu quo with those who had taken some Offence at those Things he was charged with So that Things being thus Mr. Williams being to be redintegrated into publick applause now if Mr. Williams say I deny a Change Kratiste can do no less than say The term of a Change is novel and unintelligible If Mr. Williams say This is Dr. Crisp ' s Error or Mistake Kratiste will exemplifie enlarge and perfect the Crimination and call it Heresie Which how Christian like it is or the contrary I hope the Lord will one day convince him §. LXXVII In Page 51 he offers us a moot Point worthy to be taken notice of thus I would propound a moot Point whether the Socinians who have blasphemously degraded the Person of Christ into a God by Office though a meer Man by Nature or the Antinomians who own him to be a God by Nature yet affirm him to have been a Sinner the greatest of Sinners nay Sinfulness it self do more derogate from the Honour of our Redeemer For Answer This is so far from being a moot Point that it is no point at all unless you can find any of your Antinomians that assert what you here say they affirm You cannot but know your Antinomians own and assert strenuously That the Lord Jesus was ever holy harmless separate from Sin a Lamb without spot in his own person being perfect God and perfect Man nay they
his Subscription extends yet far higher and is got near the Third Heavens for to their Commendations of a Reverend Brother and their celebrations of doing Service they add their Supplications with expectations saying Adding our Prayers that these Labours of his may as we hope they will be a means for the reclaiming of those that have been mislead Is not here a plain demonstration of a great abuse put upon his Reader and an open untruth in matter of fact to say that the Subscription was no more than this They judged that he had in all that was material fully and rightly stated the Truths and Errors therein mentioned Was his doing considerable Service to the Church nothing Were their Prayers for the Success of the Book nothing Is this a Faithful Rebuke to a False Report Is it not rather a very False Report of his own Fact What then may be expected of his Report concerning others O how could he say it is NO MORE when 't is visibly three times more Proh Dolor §. CXVII It calls to my mind that dear Equivocation of Saphira to Peter Acts 5. when he ask'd her whether she sold the Field for so much she answered Yea for so much This was not downright for no more Upon this Peter charges her to have tempted the Spirit of the Lord and saith Behold the feet of them that have buried thy Husband Then she fell down strait-way-at his feet and yielded up the ghost There might have been some plea by a Sophister in her behalf he might with an Arminian Wit have said what Saphira said was true she answered Yea for so much so it was but she did not say it was for no more and yet she tempted the Holy Spirit which cost her at least her Natural Life But he must be a Gigantick Sophister that can remove the Block our Rebuker has laid in the way of a true Relater I don't see what Invention can save his Expression from being a solemn Untruth for him to say it was no more when it was much more a great deal and so much more had they subscribed in commendation of Mr. Williams's Book as might well make his Head giddy and turn round to be carried I will not say by what Spirit to so high a Mount yea to the Pinacle of the Temple as to have so many Ministers avouch to the World That he had fully and rightly stated Truths and Errors so as to do considerable Service to the Church of Christ §. CXVIII My Heart is troubled for exposing the Rebuker thus in this particular but how should I be faithful to him in his Remarks or better invalidate his supporting Mr. Williams's Errors if I should not shew what shifts some are driven to that will justifie him or themselves for being his upholder And though this failure be discovered in one accounted a great Master in our Israel yet the Apostle advises that when some Men sin they should be rebuked before all that others may fear 1 Tim. 5.20 When the whole World must be told in Print so great an Untruth 't is necessary they should be undeceived that the Author may retract it and own himself to have erred The Lord grant we may all learn by this fall to fear and tremble lest being left by the Spirit of God when we go to vindicate what we ought not we fall before all O that my Dear Kratiste might here see the fruit of a towring Spirit §. CXIX I would gladly contrive some Figure in speaking or writing to salve the Veracity of the Faithful Rebuke in saying the Subscription was no more when in Truth it was abundantly more I can find nothing but a far stretch'd Synecdoche of a part for the whole will do the feat and so I may say it was no more that is no more to be owned to the World when we see how many Exceptions are against the Book we subscribed to So a Man that owes him 100 l. may come to him and say Sir I have brought you 20 l. and I owe you no more How no more than 20 l. is not here your Bond for 100 l. That 's true but I owe you no more but 20 l. because I intend to pay you no more So the Subscription was no more because we intend now to own no more But if his Apocryphal Tobias had been guilty of making such Figures he would have been branded justly with a wild monstrous Sense of Change of Persons But my Kratiste may possibly be excused for haste and I wish this were the greatest Fault in his Rebuke §. CXX One word to the trite and tart Conclusion he saith If these contenders go on to exact so much and yield so little for the sake of Vnion they sell their own Innocency and the Churches Peace for nothing This is smart and quick pretty biting for a Conclusion What nothing less than selling Innocency for nothing and Peace for nothing Is the Truth nothing Half an Eye may see that 't is Truth is contended for When Hezekiah had a Sentence of Death sent him his Answer was Isa 39.8 Good is the Word of the Lord for there shall be Peace and Truth in my days He was not for a pretended Union and a formal Peace without the great Pillar of Truth to support the Building Do not the Papists argue at the same rate for Peace They are all for submitting to the dictates of their Antichristian State for the sake of Peace and Unity but the Apostle exhorts to contend for the Faith and saith We gave not place no not for an hour that the TRVTH of the Gospel might continue When the Truth is opposed oppugned undermined by bringing in Evangelical Obedience to a Law that aâ—ows some Sin and this Obedience of ours to have some share in our acceptance with God and when the vindicating the Truth shall shake the Foundations of a patch'd up Peace we are not long to question which is to be preferred the holding fast the Truth or keeping such a Peace But how can contending for the Truth be said to sell Peace for nothing Is the Change of Persons between us and Christ nothing whereby he was made Sin for us and we the Righteousness of God in him I think this is something though Mr. Williams once absolutely denyed it Is the bringing in a New Law that admits of Sin in our Obedience nothing Is denying that Christ suffered the Idem of the Law for us nothing Is Mr. Williams's denying our Redemption in a way of Justice nothing As he does Fol. 15 of his Man made Righteous I suppose those that see the Infinite Concernment of their Souls in these Points will say they are something yea Things of more value than the Peace that all the Plenipotentiaries made at Ryswick for that Peace is but finite but these Truths are of infinite duration The Wise Man bids us buy the Truth and sell it not And if not sell it at all then not for Peace
But we are to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints which Faith seems to be taking wing and leaving us under that sad word of our Lord When the Son of Man cometh shall he find Faith on the Earth There being very little of it now what with open Enemies scoffing at all Revealed Religion on one side and seeming Friends though as bad Enemies on the other side that joyn Man's Obedience with Christ's Righteousness as concurrent causes or means of our Justification and Salvation and so bringing in our Gospel-Holiness as co-partner with our Lord Jesus the Alpha and Omega the First and the Last the Author and Finisher of our Salvation To whom with the Father and Blessed Spirit even to him that sits on the Throne and to the Lamb that was slain and is alive in the midst of the Throne and to the seven Spirits before the Throne be Honour Glory and Praise for ever §. CXXI Now that these plain Remarks on some of the great Truths of the Gospel which have been struck at may be beneficial to the humble Peruser to settle him on our Lord Jesus the only Foundation in order to be built up in the most holy Faith by him who buildeth all Things who is God Heb. 3.4 is the fervent Prayer of the unworthiest I say of the unworthiest in his own Eyes of any that sincerely desires to cast in his Mite to the Treasury of the Testimony of Jesus God blessed for ever §. CXXII Having taken the freedom out of love to the Truth and zeal for the Glory of God's Grace therein manifest to be a little plain with my Dear Kratiste hoping for a Blessing of the Lord thereby on his and others Souls I find my self ingaged to make some Remarks on the Reporter the first occasioner of this thus-handled Debate And first I must and do own that I humbly judge that he hath done great and good Service to the Truth by delivering his Report with much plainness and perspicuity however it be censured by the Adversary and I take it that he deserves Thanks of Thousands besides my self who make the Truths of the Everlasting Gospel their daily Study for his ingenious Vindication of his Report from the Slander of its being called false by the Rebuker §. CXXIII But two Things wherein I take him to have exceeded I hope may be rectified that is his hard pressure on my Dear Kratiste and his tart Passages on Dr. Crisp As for the Rebuker was it not enough when the Reported had sufficiently foiled him nay and had laid him so flat on his Back as to be for ever unable to stand upright again in that Cause by clearing his Report from being false But when he had him down sure he should not have prest him to Death or worse by his Printing such a Letter as tax'd him not only with Buffoonry but with being by fits delirous and to charge him with denying Christ's Satisfaction for our Sins §. CXXIV As for the first I that have known him above Twenty Years never heard before or saw the least Tendency to those unhappy Fits Though upon inquiry of the ground of such a Charge 't is said The Writer knew well what he said But however this I take to be too severe a Reprimand for his Rebuke considering how terrible a blemish it is to so eminent a Person 's Ministry to be tax'd with being delirous O how few can be free if every Transport shall lay a Man under such a Censure Therefore this I would advise the Reporter to be humbled before the Lord for considering how in many things we offend all §. CXXV As for the Reporter's Argument That the Rebuker denies Christ's Satisfaction for Sin because he saith Christ's Death was for our good and it was impossible it should be more and that therein he Justâ—fies the Socinians I answer this Conclusion That he denies Christ s Satisfaction hereby looks like a strain upon the words beyond the meaning of the Rebuker for it seems apparent in this Rebuke especialâ—y in his other Writings That he expresly owns Christ's Satisfaction for Sin Though in that Expression of his in Fol. 37. he hath unhappily gratified the Socinians too far by saying It is impossible that Christ's dying in our place and stead should signifie any more than for our Good God forbid that my dear Kratiste should mean by that word only for our Good as the Socinians do That Christ's dying was only for our good as an Example or to confirm his good Doctrine only No He means I hope That Christ by his Death took away the Sins of all the Elect That he bare their Sins and bare them away into a Land of Forgetfulness never to be remembred more as our Scape goat That he suffered for their Sins That he wash'd them from their Sins in his Blood And so he died for our Good that we should have the Good and Benefit of his taking away our Sins and of his becoming a Propitiation for us a Sin-offering for us a Ransom to the Father for us and also himself to be ours the Lord our Righteousness for which let us ascribe Honour and Glory to him continually for that he hath loved us and washed us from our Sins in his Blood §. CXXVI Then for the Reporter's Tartness against Dr. Crisp I am Amazed so florid a Person should so far blemish his Discourses be so Dis-ingenious to the Doctor as to say He believes there is somewhat Dangerous in the Doctor 's Writings in Page 87. of his Vindication and not to give one Instance of it His words being these If there is any thing Dangerous in the Doctor 's Writings as I believe there is It would have been fair to have given one dangerous Passage at least but for want of that I turned to some of the most severe Passages of Mr. Williams's against the Doctor and to Dr Chancy's Apology for the Doctor to see what was so dangerous and I found in P. 37. of Gospel Truth Mr. Williams had loaded the Doctor thus Reader how horrid a sound must it have to a Christian Ear to say A Christ odious to God abhorred by the Father Here Mr. Williams speaks as if Dr. Crisp had said these words A Christ odious to God abhorred by the Father But Mr. Williams deals unjustly herein for as to the word A Christ odious there is not such an Expression in the Doctor and as for abhorred by the Father the Doctor s words are Christ is as it were abhorred by the Father But suppose it were as Mr. Williams brings it in How much more Horrid a Sound is it to say Christ is odious to God than to say Christ is made Sin by God himself If we had due Thoughts of the Horridness of Sin and that Christ was made Sin that is by Imputation we should think it as much a Debasing of our Lord Jesus to be made Sin by God as to be accounted Odious or Abhorred
of God O these severe great tremendous Things How should we revere them §. CXXVII This I find ingeniously and fully answered by Dr. Chancy who asks Mr. Williams What difference there is between God's wrathful Indignation as Mr. Williams owns and to be as it were abhorred of God as Dr. Crisp mentions But that I may more fully clear this from being a dangerous Notion of Dr. Crisp's I have recourse to the Scriptures of the Old Testament in the Original to see what is there said of Christ's being under the Father's Displeasure and there I find in Terminis that our Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of as abhorred of God when made a Curse for us bearing our Sins and made Sin The place is plain in Psal 89.38 there 't is said Thou hast cast off and abhorred thou hast been wrath with thine anointed And who is this anointed one whom the Lord did cast off and abhor and was wrath with but our blessed Lord Jesus So the whole Psalm shews especially the 36th Verse His Seed shall endure for ever and Verse 51 Thine enemies have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed And that these Reproaches are those that Christ bore compare Psal 69.9 with Rom. 15.3 The Reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me saith Christ Hence 't is plain that these are the words of our Lord Jesus to his Father Thou hast cast off and abhorred The words are severe in the Hebrew ve attah zanashta and thou hast eloyned or cast me far away vat-timeas and thou hast reprobated so arius montanus at tu elongasti reprobasti Here he makes the word go higher than our Translators render it he renders it Thou hast reprobated thine anointed thy Messiah whereas our Translators do rather mollifie than exasperate the word timeas and say Thou hast aborred This word timeas comes from maas in other Scriptures by the due weighing whereof we may the better understand and so be the more affected with the dreadful Sufferings of our Lord Jesus and so love him the more for his being abhorred of the Father as he was made Sin and a Curse for us while at the same time he was in his own Person the Holy Spotless Beloved â—lessed Son of God §. CXXVIII As to this word maas used in Psal 89 of Christ we find it used in Lev. 26.13 God speaking of the reason of his forsaking Israel saith it is be-misâ—pata i maasu because they despised my Judgments so we render it but Montanus renders it strictly thus In Juditiis meis reprobaverunt against my Judgments they had reprobated The same Reprobation Job makes on himself when he considered his former Passion and saith Job 42.6 Wherefore I abhor my self yal cen emeas idcirco reprobabo therefore I reprobate my self So that in strictness the Original Text with Montanus is That God did account the Lord Jesus as one that he had reprobated for a Season in Psal 89 38. For saith our Lord attah zanachta vat-timeas thou hast cast far away and thou hast reprobated And surely Christ Jesus who felt the Bruises of God the Pains of Hell that caught hold of him when our Sins were on him when he cried yea skreemed out upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Surely he could best tell how to express himself as he did in that place Thou hast cast off and abhorred or reprobated §. CXXIX So again in Lev. 26.44 God in his infinite Mercy saith of his beloved People Israel When they are in the Land of their Enemies I will not abhor them loa meastem non reprobavi I will not reprobate them O wonderful Love and Grace Though our Lord Jesus said Reprobasti concerning himself thou hast reprobated me Yet God saith of his Israel now in strange Lands non reprobavi eos I have not reprobated them As much as to say Therefore was our Dear Jesus reprobated in that Sense that we his People might not be reprobated for ever For which to him be everlasting Praise §. CXXX The same word is in Psal 78.15 imeas meod be-israel we render He greatly abhorred Israel Montanus Et reprobavis valde in Israel which is And he reprobated exceedingly against Israel And though our Translators have been very shy of rendring that word maas for reprobating yet in Jer. 6.30 there they take the word as Montanus doth for Reprobation in that place the Hebrew is ceseph nimas karen la hem which in Montanus is Argentum reprobatum vocarunt eis Silver Reprobate they shall call them and we have it translated so word for word almost Reprobate Silver shall Men call them and if nimas is Reprobate here 't is the same when our Lord Jesus uses the word of himself Psal 89.38 where he calls himself as abhorred of God Thus we have full Testimony of the high Displeasure of the Father against his beloved Son as to Manifestation when he as our Surety had our Sins laid on him §. CXXXI But Montanus his Version of maas which we translate abhorred being but one Witness for so great a word and thing and by the Mouth of two Witnesses every Truth being to be confirmed I therefore for the better ascertaining the Sense of that word which so fully proves the Father's displeasure against Christ I turned to the word maas in the Incomparably Learned and Laborious Dr Edmund Castle 's Polyglot Lexicon of the seven Oriental Languages of which my Dear Kratiste I am sure had one given him to see what Collections he hath made on that word it being of infinite Consequence to see and know what our Lord Jesus suffered for us most of which Sufferings being contained in that word maas abhorred of the Father This I thought the more worthy of diligent inquiry into that we seeing its import might the more admire and adore the Infinite Love of the Father so to treat his well beloved his only begotten Son and the equally Infinite Love of this blessed Son of God manifested in his spontaneous free willing accepting and undergoing that dreadful Punishment from the Hand of his Father for us so as thereupon to skreem out upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou â—oâ—saken me In turning to which word maas there I find these rendrings following given to it maas saith Dr. Castle upon it signifies Sprevit Respuit reprobavit abjecit aspernatus Aversatus est All dreadful words to be attributed by our Lord Jesus to himself as he doth that maas in Psal 89.38 saying to God ve-attah timeas which according to Dr. Castle is and thou hast reprobated and thou hast been averse against me or thou hast spued me out or thou hast cast me away Thus was our Blessed Lord under the Father's Wrath for our Sins when it pleased the Father to Bruise him that by his Stripes we might be healed O was ever Love like this God-like Love of our Lord to bear this for us For which to him be Honour Glory and Praise
of your Strength and Parts in writing against such as called forth your Antisozzo and not in calling it a Crispian Heresie to say A Believer is to work from Life and not for Life or a Crispian Heterodoxy to say Christ bore the Anomia of Sin whereas the Scripture saith He bare our Sins And if you can separate Anomia from Sin then it is not Sin and then according to you Christ did not bear Sin But I hope upon a sedate recollection my Dear Kratiste will give Glory to God and own his intemperate and unbecoming Heat against the Reporter and his Apocryphal Tobias or rather against the Truth being under the violent hurry of a Temptation to exalt his Wit and Fancy whereby he has grievously shewed his weakness in trusting too much to his Parts §. CXXXVIII Now that the Lord would please graciously to make some of these Remarks useful to some serious considering Servants of our blessed Lord Jesus as they have been refreshing to the Composer and that we may lay out all our Time and Strength all our Parts and Estate That Christ alone may be exalted That all may honour the Son as they honour the Father for which end all Judgment is committed to the Son and that thereby we may advance the Glory of the Free Grace of God to poor Sinners in Christ and in him only Our whole Salvation being of Grace and not of Works lest any Man should boast And that through Faith in Jesus we may daily duely humbly and yet with holy boldness wait with our Loins girt with the girdle of Truth for our Lord from Heaven in the â—lory of the Father in his own Glory and in the Glory of the Holy Angels and all his Saints with him is the Prayer of a very unworthy and yet in some sense a happy Branch of him whom my Dear Kratiste hath unmercifully traduced P. S. §. CXXXIX FInding the Controversie maintained concerning a Change of Persons between Christ and Believers and Dr. Crisp much reflected on in a Letter that Mr. Williams hath procured from the Reverend Bishop of W in order to justifie himself from the Charge of his denying a Change I cannot well avoid saying a word or two to the said Letter with great deference to the Author I commend Mr. Williams for fleeing for Refuge to Men of Name but all the Names and Men in the World cannot help him in this Case when he had absolutely denyed a Change Now to be thought to own a Change unless he first plainly owns his Error in his flat denying a Change he may not fairly shift it off that he owned it in a Sense but disowned it in the Doctor 's Sense when without any distinction he said plainly thus Whether there be a Change this the Doctor affirms and I deny Which is so manifest a denyal of a Change in any Sense as words can in general make it 'T is as if I should say I went into Paul's Church to hear the Organs and there was not a Man there I saw a Singing-Boy and he said there was a Man there The Boy affirmed there was a Man there This the Boy said and this I deny Can I help my self and say there was a Man in a Surplice but there was not a Bishop there or a Doctor there This is a sorry shift with an untruth into the bargain for me to say there was not a Man there and then shift it off with I owned there was a Man in a Surplice there So Mr. Williams Whether there be a Change this the Doctor affirms and I deny This a Change here must in all ordinary acceptation of the words be taken for any Change without any sort of distinction This I deny said Mr. Williams Now to help him over this stile he troubles the Bishop whom I honour as a Person of great Worth and Learning though I cannot admire that sort of Station of Lord-Bishop in the Church of the Living God which very Station might occasion the Treatise of The Mischief of Separation and produced my Dear Kratiste's Mischief of Imposition yet I make bold to say with Thanks to the Bishop How warily soever he writes as to clearness in the Point of Commutation yet he writes with wonderful Modesty and in every Tittle like a Gentleman not be-heriticking not bemonstring Dr. Crisp as the Rebuker hath unaccountably done but like a Christian Gentleman and Scholar saith mildly This I take to be Dr. Crisp 's Sense of the Change of Persons not with a ruff-hewen Pen This is Dr. Crisp's Dreggy Antinomianism This is his Heterodox Heresie This is his Wild monstrous Sense And this is his Apocryphal Story §. CXL But to the Bishop's Argument he saith This I take to be Dr. Crisp 's Sense of the Change of Persons It is such a Sense as implies an Actual Translation of the Personal Guilt of all the Sins of Believers on Christ and his Personal Righteousness on them But note the Doctor mentioned not Personal Guilt nor Actual Translation but kept himself firm on the Scripture Foundation of Christ being made Sin for us and we made the Righteousness of God in him From whence he infers If Christ was made Sin for us he was as sinful as we that is by Imputation and if we are made the Righteousness of God we are as Righteous as he that is as Christ God-Man with his Mediatorial Righteousness wrought out for us and imputed to us than which what can be a more clear Consequence if we are the Righteousness of God But to evade this or to reflect on the Doctor the Bishop saith Concerning the Translation of Guilt which results from the Act of Sin committed if this Guilt be translated Christ must become the very Person who committed the Sins and so he must be look'd on not only as an Actual Sinner but as the Person who committed all the Sins of those for whom he dyed Which comes near to horrid Blasphemy This is a strange Inference for one of the Bishop's Learning Could not Christ as our Surety sustaining the Persons of Sinners stand in their place and stead and as their Sponsor pay their Debts and answer for their Sins laid on him unless he become the very Person that committed the Sins This takes away all Suretyship Surely he may be in the place of David and bear the Sin of his Murder and Adultery and it being imputed to him he may bear it away and he may be reckoned as and reputed as the Murderer and yet not be the Murderer or else how could God in Justice punish him and take pleasure to bruise him as our old Protestant Divines argue all along from Isa 53 §. CXLI Well what doth the Bishop own then As far as I can see not one Tittle of our Sins being by God laid on Christ or of Christ's bearing our Sins which is the Life and Soul of the Gospel and of all Consolation to poor Sinners that flee for refuge to him
So that when the Peoples Sins were laid by God's appointment on the Beast then the Beast was by God called the Sin as Christ was called Sin or made by God Sin for us by our Sins being laid on him and yet notwithstanding that the Goat had the Sins of the People laid on him and therefore called Sin yet at the same time it is most Holy or Holiness of Holinesses Kodesh Kadashim In answer to which when God made Christ to be Sin he saith of him That he knew no Sin he being most Holy Holiness of Holinesses untainted undefiled with our Sins he was at the same time the Lamb of God without Spot in himself and need there was for it for if he had not been Holy to the Extremity of Holiness in his own Nature and Person he had not been fit to be made a Sin offering for us If he had had the least speck of Sin in him or could have been tainted with our Sin he had not then been a meet Sacrifice to take away our sin Though he was made sin yet it was our sin he was made sin for us Was the poor Beast made sin in it self or for it self when the sins of the People were laid typically on it No sure for if it were the Scape-goat could not have been led into the Wilderness but the sin would have sunk it down dead immediately The sin it was made was the Peoples sin as the sin Christ was made was our sin §. CLVII This may possibly be the better understood and the more readily assented to by seriously considering the Infinite Perfection of the Holy Nature of the Blessed Son of God which was and is the same in the Man Christ Jesus as in the Godhead of the Father he and the Father being one in Essence and in all the glorious Perfections of the Godhead This Consideration may by the Operation of the Holy Spirit reconcile our Thoughts to this Truth That though Christ was made Sin for us and a Curse for us by having our Sins laid on him and by his hanging on the Tree for us yet his Holy Immaculate Person was not in the least tainted or defiled thereby nay God so ordered it that his holy Flesh when dead should not see the least Corruption This appears clear because the Infinite Holiness of the Godhead in the Man Christ Jesus was of such Infinite Perfection in him that the Sins of Men falling on him they being but Finite must of necessity be evacuated exinanitiated expiated and purged away by Infinite Perfection As a little for Illustration Suppose a small drop of Water out of a Smith's Trough should fall on a glowing red-hot large piece of Iron Can this defile or hurt the Iron No 't is immediately evaporated in Smoak 'T is true the Humanity of our Lord Jesus might be and was affected with our sins so as to cry out My Soul is troubled but he was not in the least infected with them his Humanity being made perfectly Holy by Union and Oneness with the Divine Nature in an ineffable manner at his very first Conception his Humane Nature being called that holy thing Luke 1.35 so that he was untainted by our sins being laid on him which he purged away by the offering up of himself in the Fire of God's Wrath upon him for sin §. CLVIII We will suppose again That all the Gold in the World should be put into a vast Cauldron and Ten hundred thousand load of Charcoal under it and about it melting the Gold and while this vast Fire is glowing with an unconceivable heat the Refiner should cast a small drop of Poyson into the Furnace where this boyling Gold is Would not this drop of Poyson be consumed at its first falling into the Furnace without defiling the Gold So the sins of the Elect though they deserve Hell Fire to all Eternity on the guilty Sinners yet these sins when laid on the Person of God-Man Jesus Christ who hath infinitely more Holiness than our sins have of Deliquity or Malignity in them When these sins were laid on our Lord Jesus they could no more taint our Lord Jesus than the drop of Poyson could taint all the Gold in the Furnace Wherefore it is said by the Holy Spirit when he is giving an account of the glorious Perfection of the Divine Nature of Christ in Heb. 1.3 calling him the Brightness the Effulgency of the Father's Glory the express Image of his Person the Upholder of all things by the Word of his Power The very first and next effect of all this glorious Excellency in the Person of Christ is when he had by himself purged our Sins As much as to say this great Character that is here given to Jesus Christ which mortifies the Socinians is given for this very purpose to shew us how he by himself by his own glorious Perfection as the Brightness of the Father's Glory when our sins were laid on him he by himself without any assistance or Cooperation of us or any Man or Angel he by himself saith the Holy Ghost purged our sins he made a perfect Expiation of them the glowing Holiness of the Divine Nature purged them clear away so as never to be remembred more and that without any taint to himself that being impossible he being the brightness of the Father's Glory so pure and Holy is our blessed Lord God the Lord Jesus Christ God blessed for ever to whom be glory for ever §. CLIX. By this I hope we may see that the Consideration of the most adorable Holiness in our Lord Jesus may reconcile us to such Passages as we find in the Scripture of his bearing our sins and his being made Sin and a Curse for us without any ground of charging it with such bad Consequences as the Bishop intimates That this tends to lessen our Reverence of the Divine Perfections whereas nothing can heighten our Reverence more for this shews that his Divine Perfections were so Infinite that by bearing our Sins in his Body on the Tree and by offering himself with our Sins on him a Sacrifice to God for Sin he thereby expiated and purged all the Sins of all the Elect one of which by reason of the infinitely Holy Nature and Law of God would have sunk all the Angels in Heaven to Hell if by God laid on them Therefore instead of diminishing our Esteem of the Divine Perfections because Christ hath borne away our Sins for ever freely without any Conditions or Works of ours to induce him Let us by all means endeavour to magnifie them and for the Riches of the Grace of God and our Lord Jesus therein Let us fall down and adore him that sits on the Throne and the Lamb in the midst of the Throne for that he of his free Grace hath loved us and washed us from our Sins in his Blood and sing with the four Beasts and 24 Elders with the People in the four parts of the World and with