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A34979 Christ alone exalted in Dr. Crisp's sermons partly confirmed in answering Mr. Daniel Williams's preface to his Gospel truth stated, by alledging testimonies from Scripture and the doctrine of the Church of England, in the Book of homilies establish'd by law and other orthodox authorities : shewing how he hath wronged as well the truth as the said doctor in the great point of justification by the Neonomian doctrine / humbly offer'd by S.C., an unworthy son of the said doctor, author of a book entituled, Christ made sin, reflected on by Mr. Williams. Crisp, Samuel, 17th cent. 1693 (1693) Wing C6916; ESTC R8981 77,379 52

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conformity to the Gospel Promise even as perfect obedience had in conformity to the Precept or Covenant of works I shall shew farther by the opinion of sound Orthodox Writers and begin with that famous Martyr in Scotland burned Anno 1532. for adhering to salvation by Jesus Christ without works in his Treatise set forth by Mr. John Frith an English Martyr in the same Cause Burned in 1533. he hath these Expressions viz. No manner of works make us right wise and no works make us unright wise if any evil works make us unrighteous then the contrary works should make us righteous the proof is we believe that a man shall be justifyed without works Rom. 3. and we believe in Jesus Christ that we may be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the deeds of the Law good works make not a good man nor evil works an evil Man but a good man bringeth forth good works and an evil man evil works good Fruit makes not the Tree good nor evil Fruit the Tree evil but a good Tree beareth good Fruit and an evil Tree evil fruit If works make us neither righteous nor unrighteous then thou wilt say it maketh no matter what we do I answer if thou do evil it is a sure Argument thou art evil and wantest Faith if thou do good it is a sure Argument thou art good and hast Faith Here is no sophistication of Faith Holiness Obedience c. answering the Rule of the Gospel promise as perfect Obedience answered the Law and moreover he gives the reason why we are so saved by Christ Because saith he Thou madest the fault and he suffered the pain and that for the love he had for thee before thou wast born now sith he was punished for thee thou shalt not be punished Finally he hath delivered thee from Condemnation all evil and desireth nought of thee mark that but that thou wilt acknowledge what he hath done for thee and bear it in mind and help others for his sake as he hath helped thee for nought Thou wilt say Shall we then do no good deeds I say not so but I say we should do no good works for the intent to get the Inheritance of Heaven or the remission of sin Thus this blessed Martyr asserted the Gospel in these truths worth laying down ones life for but I hope none will be put to lay down their life for asserting our imperfect Obedience answers the Gospel as Adams perfect Obedience If he had had it would have answered the Law for any to die upon such a point would be to be a Martyr for his own Righteousness not for asserting Christs now comes Mr. Frith and gives his Observations as full of Antinomianism as his Author Mr. Hamilton or as Dr. Crisp and just such an Antinomian as the A. Paul was and saith Therefore wheresoever any question or doubt ariseth of Salvation or our justifying before God there the Law and All good Works must be utterly excluded and stand apart that grace may appear free the Promise simple and that Faith may stand alone which faith alone without Law or Works worketh to every Man particularly his Salvation through meer promise and the free grace of God this word particularly I add for the particular certifying of every Mans heart privately and particularly that believeth in Christ so Faith is the instrumental Cause by which every Man applyeth the Body of Christ particularly to his own Salvation so that in the action and office of Justification both Law and Works all good Works above be here utterly secluded and exempted as things having nothing to do in this behalf The reason is this for seeing that all our Redemption universally springeth only from the body of the Son of God Crucified then is there nothing that can stand us in stead but that only wherewith this body of Christ is apprehended now for so much as neither the Law nor Works but Faith only is the thing that apprehendeth the Body and death of Christ therefore Faith only is that matter which Justifieth every Soul before God through the strength of that Object which it doth apprehend for the Object only of our Faith is the body of Christ like as the brazen Serpent was the other only of the Israelites looking by the strength of which Object through the promise of God immediately proceeded health to the Beholders so the Body of Christ being the Object of our Faith striketh righteousness to our Souls Thus far Mr. Frith Here 's good sound strong home-spun Divinity that came from the heart of an early English Martyr in the days of Hen. VIII It came not from Rome or Amsterdam or Poland and because the Book of our blessed Martyrs is in few hands I 'll transcribe some more of Mr. Frith's contrariety to our new way of stating Gospel Truth hoping it may tend to the establishing Souls whom the Sophistry of some Men may amuse with their Connexions of c. to Faith and Holiness in the business of pardon of sin to which Mr. Frith saith as follows In a Christian mans life there 's the Law there 's Repentance there is Hope Charity all which in mans Life and Doctrine are joyned and yet in the action of justifying there is nothing else in man that hath any Part or Place but only Faith apprehending the Object which is the body of Christ Jesus for us Crucified in whom consisteth all the worthiness of our Salvation by Faith that is by our apprehending and receiving of him according as it is written John 1. Whosoever received him he gave them Power to be made the Sons of God even all such as believed in his Name For so much therefore as the Truth of the Scripture in express words hath included our Salvation in Faith only we are enforced necessarily to Exclude all other causes and Means in our Justification and to make this difference between the Law and Gospel between Faith and Works affirming with the Scripture and Word of God that the Law condemneth us our Works of all sorts do not avail us and that Faith in Christ doth only justifie us and this ought diligently to be learned of all Christians especially in all conflicts of Conscience between the Law and the Gospel Faith and Works Grace and Merits Promise and Condition Gods Free Election and Mans free Will so that the light of the Free grace of God in our Salvation may appear to all Consciences to the Immortal glory of Gods holy Name Amen Thus said this blessed Servant of the Lord Jesus and this he sealed with his Blood and this was good Doctrine in those days among the Reformed this was thought worthy to be inserted in our famous Book of Martyrs and approved by the whole Body of Christians in the Nation and not scandalized as the same expressions are in Dr. Crisp's Sermons I would fain know what more stabbing words can be said against Mr. Williams Thesis or Position than both Mr. Hamilton and
and Son and Spirit delighted in during all eternity past and will in all Eternity to come is this vanisht into nothing in present being I may say God's Decree is so far from putting nothing into present Being that it puts all things into past present and future being for if God be one Eternal act and all things past present and to come are ever in being in his Eye or knowledge so he puts every thing into present being with himself to be manifest in their proper Seasons according to his eternal purpose which he purposed in himself Ephes 1.11 And accordingly the Election of Sons to glory is in present being when there are such Sons in being This putting nothing into being by God's Election is the way these Men take to evaporate God's Election into Man's Election 't is not God doth absolutely Elect any Man to salvation except the man Christ I hope they grant that but man Elects himself to Salvation and then Election hath put somewhat into present being But though Mr. Williams say of Election it puts nothing into present being I hope all Orthodox Protestants will say that Election hath put the Elect into an happy state for Election hath obtained though the rest are blinded and nothing can be laid to the charge of God's Elect and they are loved with an everlasting love and is God's love nothing in present being So it bars not God as a Governour to fix a connexion between Benefits and Duties No but it bars man from framing a Model for God and from making God's Righteousness to be Mans Gospel Holiness and it ba●s man from putting in any leven into the lump of being Justifyed freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus it bars man from ploughing with an Ox an Ass and from wearing a Linsey Wolsey Garment and from putting new Wine into old Bottles and from thinking a Branch can bring sorth any good Grapes except it be first in the Vine the Lord Jesus there being no gathering Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles or any good work from any Soul till he is in Christ and though there is a blessed Connexion of Benefits and Duties yet no good Duty is done till the Benefit of being united to Christ be first bestowed by God God fixes a Connexion 't is true he makes the Tree good first and then the Fruit good and this was eternally in the Decree but man must not fix the connexion by making Duties Procurers of Benefits or making Gospel threats and promises to have in their own Nature a tendency to Convert Souls without the Operation of the Holy Spirit Mr. Williams saith If the Doctor had animadverted that Christs sufferings were the foundation of our Pardon but not formally our Pardon This intimates that the Dr. saith Christs sufferings were formally our Pardon I can shew how far our great Reformers went beyond Mr. Williams in asserting the vertue of the sufferings of Christ in the Pardon of sin which if Mr. Williams had consulted he would not have reflected as he doth on the Dr. they say in the Doctrine of the Church of England that which is tantamount to a formal pardon in Christs Sufferings they do not amuse the World with Mr. Williams his Rectoral distribution that he allows to God in pardoning sinners upon account of their being found in their Gospel Holiness joyning Faith and Holiness together as they entitle to Gospel Benefits which Benefits he saith are not from the conformity of Faith and Holiness c. to the Precept but from their Conformity to the rule of the Promise and so plunging poor Souls in his deeps and amazing them with his rules and Connexions But these Homilists give a certain sound of the Gospel and say upon the Sermon of the Passion of Good Fryday fol. 177 Such favour did he purchase by his Death of his heavenly Father for us that for the merit thereof we are now fully in Gods grace again and clearly discharged from our sin These are plain wholsome intelligible Gospel Truths such as suit with the Doctors Testimony they are not Bombasted with If we continue to repent and believe to our Death then our Evangelical Righteousness shall justifie us at the great day from Satans Charge of unbelief But they speak home against all Arminianism and say that by the merit of his death we are in Gods grace again nay we are now in God's grace and that fully not we shall be and we are discharged from sin nay we are clearly discharged from sin and in the next words they put it home and say to the confounding all the mincers of the vertue of the death of Christ as to the pardon of sin thus No tongue surely is able to express the worthiness of this so precious a death For in this standeth the continual pardon of our daily Offences Had such a passage as this been found in the Notes taken from Doctor Crisp that there is a continual pardon standing firm in the death of Christ of our present daily Offences this would be accounted dethroning Christ by giving more honour to him than some distinguishers can allow or if Reverend Mr. Cole had said that in Christs death stands the Pardon of our daily offences nay there stands a continual Pardon and this mentioned without naming Faith and Repentance but be our Offences what they may be there stands a continual pardon if we be Christians indeed say these holy Reformers this had been Dangerous Doctrine as an eminent Divine said of as harmless expressions of his as these in Pinners Hall I wish those worthy Gentlemen who are so exceptious against the freeness of God's Grace in and through Christ and must eke it out by our Gospel Holiness would seriously consider in the simplicity of the Gospel Spirit of these Homilists such expressions as these of theirs before they pass their hard Censures of crying dethroning Christ enervating his Laws because some who may be clearer than themselves Preach we are justified freely by his Grace through the redemption that is in Jesus without any thing of Mans works cooperating therein or thereto nothing can be plainer than these Reformers newly come out of the School Terms of Popish justification for renouncing every thing in man to have any concurrence into our Pardon But now the simplicity of the Gospel must be lost by some Mens Distinction of our Pardon by Christs death his sufferings were not our formal Pardon but the foundation of it I believe none of his Publishers of Free-Grace too freely ever said Christs sufferings were the formal Pardon of a sinner it being perfect Nonsense but I hope they may say his sufferings were a real Expiation of the sins of all the Elect without offending most of the Subscribers to Mr. Williams his Book else how could the Apostle say by one offering he for ever perfected those that are sanctified and he loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood having made
of Grace as I do ye I doubt not but I should be highly recompensed for this labour of love and should find refreshment under many rufflings from the Lord on my Person and Family Thus beseeching the Lord to pour out abundance of his Spirit on you all and the unhappily engaged Mr. Williams whom I truly love and respest That the people may be prepared for the Lords glorious appearance now hastning To him I recommend you and subscribe Your Servant and an unworthy Son of Dr. Crisp S. C. Clapham January 21st 1692 3. Christ alone Exalted IN Dr Crisp's Sermons Partly Confirmed in Answer to Mr. Williams Preface to his Gospel Truth stated and Vindicated by Comparing some of his unfair Accusations of the said Doctor with the Scripture and the Doctrine of the Gospel Established by Law in the Homilies c. WHEN Peter who seemed to be a Pillar was come to Antioch I withstood him to the Face because he was to be blamed saith the Apostle Gal. 2.9 10. And if an Apostle who seemed a Pillar might Err in Ceremonies and be blamed so may our seeming Pillars some of them Err in Substance conjoyning our Gospel Holiness with Christs Righteousness and be blamed Now I perceiving what I suppose will appear a great Error in the Preface of Mr. Williams to his Arraignment of Gospel Truths in Dr. Crisp's Sermons and supposing none will mind the Preface that design to Answer the Book but pass it over as a Cursory Discourse I think it not ungrateful to studious Christians to animadvert on the brief Systems of Religion which Mr. Williams hath there given the World in opposition not so much to Dr. Crisp as to the plain express Scripture and the sound sense thereof held out by the great Orthodox Divines that were Staunch against A●minianism upon our first coming out of Popery when Zeal for Christ alone in Salvation was warm Wherein I beseech the Lord so to guide my Thoughts and Pen that I may mind only his Glory in and through our Lord Jesus The Meek he will guide in Judgment which meekness I beg of the Lord though a Golden Calf of Mans Gospel Holiness to be set up in the place of Christs Righteousness would provoke a Moses Yet I hope to retain as well Meekness as Integrity till I die It is beyond all doubt Man since the Devil deceived him that upon eating he should be as God doth think with himself he can tho' dead do something which is proper only to God that is he can quicken his own dead Soul he can Convert himself he can be a God to himself hereupon there is a great Outcry against any that assert That our Lord Jesus Christ is all in all in the Salvation of poor Sinners and Dr. Crisps Sermons because fuller than ordinary of the free Grace of God in Jesus Christ are singled out to be battered and with them the Gospel of our Salvation is run down into terms utterly Forreign to the Scripture and because the Doctor adheres and sticks close to the Scripture terms of our being dead dead dead in sins and our sins our very sins Christ bare in his Body on the Tree as the Apostles Peter and Paul expresly say he is exclaimed against And that this great Champion might appear compleatly armed in opposing Dr. Crisp he puts on the great shield of being solicited to this Work by several worthy Ministers and that this may appear true he hath emblazoned his honour in this great Atchievement by the Hands of several indeed worthy Ministers who are most of them in my Experience eminent Servants of our Lord Jesus however their Zeal for Gospel Holiness may have been imposed upon to countenance Mr. Williams making Christ's Righteousness to be our Gospel Holiness Though I have a great honour for all those of them whom I know yet I suppose they will not think themselves dishonoured to say I think most of them were imposed upon in getting their subscribing to what they never throughly examined I am sure one of them tho' next the first yet nulli secundus for a sweet Christian Spirit among them said a few Weeks before Dr Crisps Sermons were reprinted to an Eminent Mininister in a great Company If Dr. Crisp be an Antinomian so am I and I am sure he said in a Sermon December 12. 1669. We are first made active by Christ in order to his bringing us to God and September 24. 7. 1672. Christ hath brought the Law to its end it hath no more to require be is the abolishing end the Law is quite out of doors as to justify plant a Crab-Tree in the best Soil it brings forth crabs till planted in Christ so that there must be Vnion to Christ by Gods planting us in Christ before any good Fruit. So this Gentleman and so Doctor Crisp in his Faith the Fruit of Union contrary to Mr. Williams and yet this excellent person is by Mr. Williams Art taught to say with the rest We judge our Reverend Brother hath in all that is material fully and rightly stated the Truths and Errors mentioned as such and do account he hath in this work done considerable Service to the Church of Christ and so will I say when by it he hath ingaged Able Pens to vindicate the truth from Sophistical Glosses that he hath done considerable service against his will I reckon this Preface is the marrow of his Book and I shall begin with as great a point as any I know of in the Bible next to the Deity of the Lord Jesus and yet 't is that which is the chief Fruit of his Deity which is his Righteousness as God-Man made ours by Faith by Mr. Williams his treating this he discovers his whole Soul concerning Justification that great Article stantis vel cadentis Ecclesi●● of the standing and falling of that Church that holds it as Luther said in that a little Leven here leveneth the whole lump Here Mr. Williams hath made very bold with the expression of the Apostle Paul in Phil. 3.9 That I may be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith here Mr. Williams instead of extolling this righteousness of Christ and the rich Grace of God to impute this to us he runs Counter to the stream of the Gospel and dashes to pieces all the comfort that thousands have found in this Scripture as signifying Christs Righteousness our cloathing before God and gives his Romish gloss upon it in these words I exclude not this Righteousness Christs imputed when I affirm that the Righteousness of God Phil. 3.9 Principally intends the Gospel Holiness of a Person Justifyed by Christs Righteousness which in plain Words is this When I Daniel Williams say in the preceding words his Righteousness imputed is the cause for which we are justifyed and saved when we do answer the Gospel Rule now I explain