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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	act_n	faith_n	justify_v	11,290	5	9.0946	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38139	A short review of some reflections made by a nameless author upon Dr. Crisp's sermons, in a piece entituled Crispianism unmask'd with some remarks upon the union in the late agreement in doctrin among the dissenting ministers in London : subscribed the 16th of December, 1692, and that as referring unto the present debates ... / by Thomas Edwards, esq.	Edwards, Thomas, fl. 1693-1699.; Crisp, Tobias, 1600-1643.	1693 (1693)	Wing E236; ESTC R31409	64,054	46

this day He says My second is that which is procured for any one thereunto he hath a right The thing that is obtained is granted by him of whom it is obtained and that to them for whom it is obtained To this is answered 1. In the Margent that I should make Appendix to Dr. Owen 's Answer to Biddle p. 35. great Changes in England if I could make all the Lawyers believe this strange Doctrine but of what the Lawyers believe or do not believe Mr. B. is no Competent Judge be it spoken without Disparagement for the Law is not his study I who perhaps have much less skill than him self will be bound at any time to give him Twenty Cases out of the Civil and Cannon Law to make good this Assertion which if he knows not that it may be done he ought not to speak with such Confidence of these things Nay amongst our own Lawyers whom perhaps he intends I am sure I may be informed that if a M●n intercede with another to settle his Land by conveyance to a third Person giving him that Conveyance to keep in trust until the time come that he should by the Intention of the Conveyer enjoy the Land though he for whom it is granted have not the least knowledge of it yet he hath such a Right unto the Land thereby created as cannot be disanull'd This is the very thing for which it is that Dr. Crisp brings in this Text and Beza's Annotation thereupon and that in the very Page whence the Charge is fetcht Namely that Justification is truly and properly the work of God himself and cannot be the work of Faith Nay he goes farther Suppose says he Dr. Crisp's Works Vol. 2. Pag. 325. you should have the words to run as they are commonly render'd I answer Then are we to distinguish in Faith of two things there is the Act it self of believing and the Object on which we do believe and so the words may be understood thus Being justified by the Righteousness of Faith or by the Righteousness of Christ which we do believe We have Peace with God and so ascribe our Justification to the Object of our believing the Righteousness of Christ and not to the Act of Believing The truth is Beloved the Act of Believing is a Work and as much our Work as our Fear and Prayer and love is and the Apostle should contradict himself when he saith We are saved by Grace through Faith not of Works if he mean the Act of Faith And he might as well have said We are not justified by Works but we are justified by Works This he further distinguishes in the same Page unto which I refer thee which our Author with various huffing Reflections and rotten Inferences most partially and falsly quotes in his 6th and 7th Pages That to be short there is not only a distinction between the Act and Object of Faith and that as properly relating unto our Justification and Righteousness therein but also to God's Act of our Justification in Heaven as fully Precedaneous to the termination thereof in Conscience Dr. Owen upon the 1 Cor. 1. 30. in his refutation of Socinus and Bellarmine tells us That Christ is made of God Righteousness unto us in such a way and manner as the nature of the thing doth require Say some it is because by him we are justified However the Text says not That by him we are justified but he is of God made Righteousness unto us which is not our Dr. Owen of Justification p. 502. Justification but the Ground Cause and Reason whereon we are justified Righteousness is one thing and Justification is another Now either this Righteousness is in an eternal decretive and material sense truly and irrevocably theirs before they believe or upon what Grounds is it that God can be reckoned just in his justifying of them even when they believe But there is a secret grub lies at the bottom of all this our Author's Indignation which we must endeavour to find out See Dr. Owen against Mr. Baxter in the fore-mentioned Appendix Now I say that in the sense wherein I affirm that Justification is terminated in Conscience I may yet also affirm and that suitably to the utmost Intention Dr. Owen 's Appendix against Mr. Baxter in his Answer to Biddle pag. 19. of mine in that expression that Justification by Faith is not a knowledge or feeling of Justification before given nor a Justification in or by our own Consciences but somewhat that goes before all such Justification as this is and is a Justification before God And is not this true How many scores of our ancient solid Reformers might be brought in to attest this truth wherein and whereby they distinguish'd themselves in a Fundamental sense as Protestants from Papists But it seems as our Author thinks Dr. Crisp did not pitch upon a right Text in this of Rom. 5. 1. though it and it s Context undeniably prove he did to fix this his Discrimination upon and therefore alters the Scene of the Charge against him i e. from a distinguishing to a confounding Explication p. 7. where he to his own Admiration no doubt Learnedly explains Gal. 3. 24. for if the Apostle's Sense or Meaning be the same in one place of his Epistles as well as in another when he speaks more especially of being justified by Faith which our Author firmly asserts why then should he make a distinction between the Act and Object of Faith from Gal. 3. 24. which he denies unto the same Apostle from Rom. 5. 1. in Beza's Interpretation and the Doctor 's Quotation of him for that end A strong Memory I see is exceeding requisite for a Lying and Prevaricating Spirit This is not far unlike the Devil's Proceedings with Job who when he saw that his Accusation of him before God for an Hypocrite did not prove true or hold Water then does he slily seek by his Wife in an Instrumental Sense to cause him to part with his Integrity Just thus it is that our Author most shamefully spews out his own Treachery Dr. Goodwin upon Eph. 2. 6. saith that Our Salvation is in God's Gifts and in Christ's personating of us mark this piece of Crispianism and apprehending of us it is perfect and compleat though in our Persons as in us it is wrought by degrees Further. pag. 218 219. He Doct. Goodwin upon the Epistle to the Eph. ch 2. 6. p. 217 218. 219. tells us You see the distinction between in Christ and with Christ we are said to be quickned with Christ why because that Work as it is wrought in Christ once for us hath now some Accomplishment in us but speaking of the Resurrection to come he does not say we are raised up in Christ but raised up with Christ do but learn to distinguish for the want of this makes many Men to mistake A Man before he is called he is justified in Christ but not with Christ that is

it is not actually applyed to the Man's Person his Person is not put in foro verbi in the State of Justification Learn I say to distinguish between receiving a thing in Christ and receiving it with Christ you receive it with Christ when it is actually applyed to your Person we now sit together in Christ in Heaven would you desire no other sitting in Heaven with Christ than now you have Certainly you would As you sit in Christ so likewise you would sit with Christ so take a Man before such time as he believeth and is converted to God would he have no other Sanctification Would you have for your Child suppose you believe him to be elect or had an immediate infallible Warrant so to think no other Sanctification or Justification than he hath then No you would have him Sanctified with Christ and justified with Christ which is to have that which he had in Christ applyed to him and he put actually in his own Person in the state of it The want of the consideration of these things causeth a great mistake in this Age you shall find that still the Scripture useth that Phrase of these things which we not only have in Christ as in a common person but it must be applied unto our own Persons also for would any Man desire to be no more glorified than he is now Yet as we are perfectly glorified in Christ now so we were perfectly justified in Christ when he arose and perfectly justified from all Eternity Who shall condemn the Elect of God Saith the Apostle Yet these must be applied to our own Persons and our Persons must actually be put into this condition When we come to Heaven then he saith we shall sit with Christ in his Throne Rev. 3. but while we are here on Earth then it is sitting in Christ The Consideration of this distinction would in a word clear the great Controversie that is now between the Antinomians as they call them and others about being justified before conversion whether a Man be justified before conversion or no or whether he be not so afterward as in some Sense he was not before I say we are justified in Christ from all Eternity and we are justified with Christ when we believe NOW if thy Doctor be not a thorow pac'd Crispian I know not who is and let me tell this Author by the way that if he dare appear openly in this Controversie and in which I offer him a full unreserved meeting whereunto let him bring what numbers and degrees of Persons he possibly can either by hook or by crook according to the constant practise of those of his perswasion to back him in the same I question not but by the wisdom power and Grace of God sufficiently to manifest that Dr. Crisp fully accords with all those more antient and modern REFORMERS truly and undeniably reckoned upon as such though perhaps differing in other things as to the Doctrines ef Justification Sanctification Graces and Duties thereupon both in their spring nature order form matter and uses and that in the full scope and agreeing with the compleat tenure of the Covenant of Grace it self But our Author tells us p. 8. from the text he had cited p. 5. That the Apostle by way of Antithesis constantly opposeth Faith to Works in Justification Crispianism Vnmask'd pag. 8. that is an act of ours to some others of our own not an Act of ours to one of God as this Author would have us think The opposition which you may observe in St. Paul's Writings of Faith to Works is sufficient to perswade that it is but a Dream of the Doctor that to be justified by Faith is to have in our Spirits the Manifestation of God's Justification This hath no relation at all to what the Apostle so often saith c so far he Now this Antithesis according to our Author 's manifest Design therein one Mr. Antisozzo has notably anatomized in his Explication of Phil. 3. 8. c. unto which I refer the Reader for his being undeceived and shall let Dr. Good-win answer this from the fore-mentioned Treatise Whether it be the Act of Faith that justifies or that is accounted a Mans Righteousness when Dr. Goodwin on the Ephes Part 2d p. 301. we are said to be saved through Faith Surely no for God might have took work as well if he would have taken it as an Act he might have taken any Act Love it self THERE is this reason lies in the bottom of my Spirit against it besides all that else the Scripture saith against it That if when I go to God to be justified I must present to him my believing as the matter of my righteousness and only Christ's death as the merit of it which is the very controversie on foot this day for all our Author's seeming acknowledgment of the righteousness of Christ and the bare instrumentality of Faith in the reception thereof in order to our Justification What will follow Two things are clear to me First That the heart is taken off from looking upon the righteousness of Christ wholly and diverteth it to it 's own righteousness in the very act of believing for righteousness and presenteth that to God which the Scripture is clear against I say it doth take the heart off from the righteousness of the Lord Jesus or the eying of that and causeth it to divert into it self and present its own Faith to God Secondly Every man that will believe to be justified and go to God and say Lord justifie me he must have an evidence that he hath Faith for how else can he present that as the matter of his righteousness Now Millions of Souls cannot do this they were in a poor case if they should be put to it THE Apostle saith it was of Faith that it might be sure If Justification had been founded on the act of Faith it had been as sure on works as faith for that faith that draws out an act of love is as apt to fail as that act of love But here is no uncertainty while I believe to be justified by the righteousness of Christ but my faith is swallowed up there though I may doubt of my faith relying on him yet I have a sure object I have a sure matter to represent to God for me whereas if believing was that I had to represent to God to be justified by suppose my faith fail me I have not a sure matter of righteousness to represent to God THE very object Faith believes on is a contradiction to this that the act of Faith should be the matter of my Justification Yet further Q. Is not faith an act I●'s true it is in a Grammatical signification an act but in the sense in the true real import of it it Dr. Goodwin on the Eph. part 2d p. 287 288. is meerly passive Faith doth not give any thing to God as Charity and Love doth but it only suffers God

then to pray for the forgiveness of our sins is no more but to pray that God would manifest to us that God hath forgiven our sins and that it may be clear that God hath forgiven our sins before we do pray for the forgiveness of them And that Prayer is grounded upon God's act before hand made Consider this one thing I would ask this of you you that pray for forgiveness of your sins do you pray in Faith or do you not If you pray not in Faith mark what the Apostle James saith He that prayeth let him pray in Faith nothing doubting He that wavereth let him not think he shall obtain any thing at the hands of the Lord Beloved your Prayers stink and are abominable in the Nostrils of God if you do not pray in Faith Well you pray in Faith you will say if you pray in Faith if you pray for the forgiveness of sin in Faith what is the ground of your Faith If you do believe you have a ground for your Faith You will say the Grant and Word of God is Page 370. the ground of your Faith Well if the Grant of God be the ground of your believing then the Grant hath a being before your Faith and so consequently before your prayer is made And do we not know that we ought to pray for the Fall of Babylon and that from this ground That she is fallen already in the irreversible determination of God Rev. 14. 8. And though she be not yet actually fallen must we not therefore pray for her fall Unless we can bring God's Decrees and irrevocable Purposes actually to depend upon our own Duties and Prayers This is our Author 's constant practice That he would assign more to our Duties and Graces nay so displa●e them that they are neit●er Duties indeed nor Graces for the obtaining of this or the other benefit and mercy than unto God himself as the express and fixedly donor of them even before we ask them upon which it is indeed that both our requesting d●sposition receptive and improving ability wholly depends Hence it is under which he betakes himself as unto a forlorn refuge p. 16. That if so how can we pray for the hallowing of God's Name or that his Kingdom should come whereas if both of the same had not been absolutely determined of God the matter of Prayer as enjoyned of Christ upon his Disciples would have been wholly in vain so the same as to the forgiveness of sins or trespasses he quotes p. 369. out of the Dr's Treatise which I cannot find though the substance of the place has been cited already And further proceeds in his quotation from p. 561. That the Dr. is an enemy to Prayer whose citation and the Dr's end therein I shall lay before thee Thus much he quotes out of him and annexes it barely unto an act of duty not regarding wherefore or for what ends the same was spoken which take as follows Beloved Christ became our Surety God accepted of him for our Debt he cl●●'d Christ in Goal as I may so say for the debt God Dr. Crisp's Works Vol. 3. p. 560. took every Farthing that he could demand of us he is now reconciled unto us he hath acknowledged satisfaction it is upon Record And now shall he come upon them again with fresh wrath for whom Christ hath done all this Shall he charge the debt upon them again He hath forgotten the Death of Christ it seems if this be true Therefore know thus much that it is against the Death of Christ it is the making of it of none effect it makes the coming of Christ to be in vain to say that the wrath of God will break out upon Believers mark the word if they commit such and such sins And for this that I have said Now our Proctoring Author comes in if any man can produce one Scripture against it if any man can shew in all the Book of God that it is any otherwise than I have delivered for my part I shall be of another mind and willingly recant my opinion But leaves out what follows But I see the Scripture runs wholly in this strain and is so full in no●hing as in this that God hath generally discharged the sins of Believers Oh then take heed of falling into that error of the Papists that say that God hath taken away the p. 561. sin but not the wrath of God due to sin that he hath forgiven our sins but not the punishment of sin But I beseech you consider that as our sins were then upon Christ he was so bruised for our iniquity that by his stripes we are healed and the chastisement of our peace was so upon him that he being chastised for our sins there is nothing else but peace belongs to us And the chastisement of our sins was so upon him that he beheld the travel of his Soul and was satisfied NOW Reader thou mayst see who this Author is and what also his design is and his false representation of the Doctor meerly because he abhors Duties and Graces in a Popish and meritorious sense This is the plain Grammar as latently radical of all his virulency against him As to the Fourth Charge IV. HE tells us that The Doctrin contained in these Sermons strikes at all Godly Sorrow Contrition Humiliation Confession and Lamenting of sin and Repenting of it and renders them useless and insignificant in the Life of a Christian Now what Warrant he hath had for this his bold assertion Crispi unmask'd p. 18. a plain unminced and uncurtailed quotation of the Dr. will fully satisfie and also discover unto thee and therein not only our Author 's false and disingenious proceedings with the Dr. but the ends for which he doth so as also the Principles by which he is acted in the same I must confess unto thee Reader before we go any further That unless this Author according to the complex account that this his Treatise gives of him be a ROGERVS L'ESTRANGE REDIVIVVS or as genuine a Spawn dropt from him in one sense or another as possibly can be imagined I am wholly at a loss to find him out And for this observe p. 19. where he cites the Dr. p. 317 319 320. where he never regards in any one of them the distinct yea verbally expressed ends of the Dr. therein Suppose there be a sin committed it may be more scandalous than ordinary which sin peradventure to sense wounds the Spirit the Question now is What it is that must or doth aid the Spirit of such an one of the sting Dr. Crisp 's Works Vol. II. Serm. 6. Page 317 318. and of the guilt of this or such like transgressio●s committed What doth discharge the soul of such a sin Now our Author ●●mes in Usually it is taught amongst us by those which would be accounted the greatest Protestants and the greatest haters 〈…〉 that the proportion of Repentance and Tears and Sorrow