rather doth he not assign to it its proper place according unto Act. 13. 48. Gal. 1. 15 16. This Orthodoxy though nauseous to our Authors Arminian Palate and which puts him upon so many miserable shifts may be proved and cleared from several exemplary Instances in Scripture as well as positively Doctrinal points in the same for it is not the most Gracious Internal Actings of the Soul tho' wrought and maintained of God himself that works a Change in our personal Covenant-State consider it well Reader and weigh it in the ballances of the Sanctuary and that without respect of Persons or Parties for as God's Act in Justification is purely Forensick and therein respects our Persons and depends not in the least upon his Physical Operation which is entirely regenerative whose subject therein properly is our Natures so also neither doth our part in him in the act of Conversion it self depend upon our actual closing with him any further than our passive recipiency of him makes way for the same both in its productive cause and continued irresistible and yet Gracious complying Designs This is clear from Joh. 1. 12. wherein a passive Reception of Christ is that which precedes an active one See also 1 Joh. 4. 10 19 Isa 65. 1. Joh. 15. 16. comp v. 5. ch 1. 48 49. 50. Phil. 1. 6. Ezek. 16. 60 61 62 63. Thus it was with Aâ—am the Proto-Applicatory Subject of this Grace after his fall How did the Lord deal with him in order to his Recovery Did he wait for an actual Exhibition of his Faith to justifie him for the same Nay did he not rather pursue him when Rebelliously under the obstinate Fruits and reigning Effects of his and ours in him Federal Act of Apostacy But with what even a promise But what was this promise the Seed of the Woman And what was this Seed in the root or primary Acceptation of it I suppose Christ which is evident in Eve's mistake Gen. 4. 1. besides many other undeniable Scriptural positive Proofs therefore reckoned upon as the first Born first Fruits yea first Gift and to have the Preheminence in all things before even Faith or any other work of the Spirit which is fully expressive of not only the nature as to the matter but executive form it self of the Covenant of Grace which Covenant consists of Promises or as Dr. Goodwin says That the Covenant of Grace is Election-purposes and decrees wrapt up in promises But what are these promises Mr. Strong in his Treatise of the Covenants tells us That they consist not only of two kinds viz. personal and real but that the former takes place in the administration of the same from the latter If so then our Doctor is right that Christ is not only the first Gift but that until we receive him in a passive Sense how can he be unto us the Finisher much less the Author of our Faith And 't is true that God convinces our first Parents of their sin and therein begins with Adam which is somewhat remarkable though Eve was first in the Transgression yet chose rather to deal with the former as that in and by him as a Representative Head he dealt with all his posterity But what is the Fruit of all his convincing though just Proceedings against him Nothing but a continued act of Rebellion and that notwithstanding all the mild Proceedings of the Lord with him even in the cool of the Evening not so much as a bare acknowledgment of a matter of Fact in a Transgressive Sense but rather an aggravating of the same by their or our first Parents ultimate tho' tacit casting the cause thereof upon God rather than themselves Which way doth the Lord take to restore them or to bring them to himself It is evident by the application of a promise and that under a personal Consideration before any of that which betokens a real one Gen. 3. 15. comp v. 21. The Person included in the promise they first receive and thereupon their Cloathing or Justifying Garment typified in the Coats of Skins which were made or wrought out and also truly applied by the Lord himself Rom. 3. 23 24 25 26 Thus it was with Paul himself who had a passive part in Christ I speak it not of that which is barely decretive or redemptive even before his actual closing with him Act. 9. 3 4 5. comp v. 6. And is not this Dr. Crisp's Doctrin in his distinguishing between a passive and active recipiency of Christ namely That God out of his Bowels of Pity and Mercy will reach out his Christ to those that have no Hands to receive him no Faith to believe in him but are rather as froward Patients shutting their Teeth against their Remedy And is not this evident without the least reserve in the case of Paul as well as that of Adam as that the part the Elect have in him in a convertive Sense proceeds primarily from a passive Application of them unto their Souls as precedaneous unto their actual knowing and voluntary closing with him Act. 22. 3 4 5 6 7 8. Nay take it in the most gentle of God's Proceedings with his Adult Elect in the Act of Conversion or his bringing them over by Faith unto himself they are primarily passive herein Consult for an instance but the case of Lydia and the Lord 's dealing with her Soul Act. 16. wherein it was evident that her Faith was the Fruit of Union or that she had a passive part in the Lord besides that of a decretive and so a Fountain one and that of a redeemed purchased and so a truly virtual one before she actually closed with him in the recipiency of Faith properly so for it is well known though Faith be the instrumental cause yet that it is the Spirit that is personally and so peculiarly the efficient cause of our Justification and that not by an infusion of qualities but positive substantial Application of that Righteousness as being his voluntary gracious undertaken Office whereof and wherein he makes it not only to appear that Christ is the Meritorious but material cause of the same and that not by the Mediums of Graces as Mediator only but the solid actual Obedience of him who on that very account became their Representative Head Joh. 16. 13 14. comp Rom. 5. 19. And though none of these stand asunder in the compleat uniting as well as operative and consequently Testimonial Act of our Justification but to say or suppose that the two former are not subsequent unto and do not wholly depend upon the latter and that as to the very essence of our justified State as well as Order is at one blow to build and establish the Covenant of Grace upon that of Works and thereby to assign such a CAVSA SINE QVA NON unto our believing as our Author very closely infers p. 4. l. 30 31 32 c. that Faith is not so much a Manifestation as an entitling Grace and what that
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 Iâ—'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
cannot be displeased with the person of a believing Sinner in a proper vindicative or legally penal sense because that his sins were laid upon Christ and that he also bore actually in the room of such even God's displeasure against the same Therefore says our Author ut supra That because Christ bore our iniquities he also bore the displeasure of God for them which he takes to be a mistaken ground for the Dr. to fix his Assertion upon Note 1. THAT in our Author's sense the displeasure of God against the very person of a Believer and that for sin even in a penal sense abides with God whilst the said Believer is in this mortal state not the best of Believers being without the same during their abode in the flesh whence it shrewdly follows That when they are compleatly sanctified and freed from all the indwellings of sin then and not till then are they got from under God's vindicative and punitive displeasure against their persons for the same This with our Author 's good leave I take not only to be his Cryptical reserve but downright Arminianism as growing in the Soil of a Self-justiciary Therefore he tells us page 37. How we are to understand God's charging of sin upon a justified person That it shall not be his endless peril his utter destruction but it feems it carries and procures that displeasure from God against even the person of a Believer that is the same in kind with an endless peril and utter destruction from which displeasure in the everlasting continuance of the same though not nature thereof during this Life the person of a Believer may be fully secured in a state of perfect Holiness But 2. Most absconded Sir Methink you swell and that most rankly too of the Cask of Socinianism like your Foxes Fitchets and such sort of Vermin though very reclusely lodged from the Eye yet their nasty scent usually betrays them for is it possible That Christ can be look'd upon as a proper Sacrifice for sin and not as undergoing the full displeasure of God against as well as punishment from God for the same And if so where would this punishment be or what would it signific This is to make but a meer sham Metaphorous appearance or gulling Cheat of the infinite Sufferings of the blessed Jesus and thereby to despoil him of his Glory even of that Baptism that he was in a strait till he was Baptized with the same nay let me tell this Author by the way That take away the displeasure of God against sin or such as are in their Persons juridically charged with the same from which he would acquit Christ in his Representative undertaking and yet load a Believer withal and I will readily undergo the punishment thereof By the way observe this as a true Mark and Token of both an Arminian and Socinian that if they can but be secured from punishment they do not much value either the Good Will or Displeasure of God This seems to be the secret Nursery of all their irregular Proceedings both in frothines of Spirit loosness of Life and prevarication in Doctâ—in together with their treacherous management of Authors for so long as they think that Christ hath taken away the sin only in the punishment thereof they little set by self being secured thro' the same what becomes either of the Favour or Displicency of God towards them unless they can procure the former in their own way unto which Christ shall give them a remote assistance they are very regardless until the appearance of a Death's-head drive them to their Tutissimum est c. Verbum sat sapienti Take this that follows in a familiar comparison as a short yet full Scheme of the Neonomian Heresie touching the Doctrin of Justification yea the whole Body of that Divinity included in the definition given therein of the Covenant of Grace That as a Surety on the behalf of another Compounds for his Debt by cancelling the Bond as to its immediate Relation between the Creditor and Debtor in translating over the Charge unto himself by his undertaking for the payment thereof after the way of a Bristol-Bargain unto which the said Surety enables him by a provision of all Implemental materials together with his derective advice continued Presence and recruitive Assistances upon failures till the poor Debtor by vertue of the same at the end of his Seventh Year of Jubilee receives his compleat discharge which he as absolutely disowning all abilities in himself to compass the same fully ascribes and that justly as well as thankfully in the whole of it unto the meritorious responsibleness of undiscerned kindness and constant actual supplies from his merciful Spouser and Undertaker Thus in their sense Christ becomes our Surety Now our Author Ibid. comes to his Journey-man-Taylor's unstitching concessions tho' not half so honestly yet as boobishly as possibly can be Here we most readily grant that those who are justified Crispi Vnmask'd Pag. 37. clear from the Imputation of all sin according to some Scriptures he quotes 1 Joh. 1. 7. 1 Pet. â— 24. Rom. 8. 1 33. But hereupon arises two Questions notwithstanding this his Armini-Sâ—cinian Grant as to the ends and circumstances attending the same As Quest 1. Whether or no any one yet was or ever shall bâ— truly justified without a praevious juridical Title unto and interest in such a Righteousness and that without a present Work of Grace within him as may constitute him compleatly just as to the matter thereof and also render and make it appear that God is infinitely just in the Justification of such a one Quest 2. Whether this Concession of our Author as to the Imputation of all Sin unto Christ and yet reserving even that thereof which is Hell it self unto a true Believer That in his Sufferings and Afflictions he undergoes the very Displeasure of God and Christ only the punishment be in the least consistent with Truth common Sense or solid Peace and Comfort Our Author laying a greater Burthen upon the Believer in this his Concession than upon Christ himself But further he tells us in the Eighth Charge VIII That this reminds him of another assertion of the Doctor 's viz. p. 38. as a natural consequent of his former position And so it is as natural indeed as our Author's Proceedings against him the former defending Truth with Truth the latter seeking to undermine the same by a continued Multiplication of one treachery on the back of the other Before we come to a precise consideration of his quotations note these three things 1. That when he cites the Doctor for saying That no Believer is punished or afflicted for sin he hides from thee his not only inferential but also literal explanation of the same p. 38 39. 2. That when he is forced to speak even the Doctor 's words as not being able to avoid the same no more than Balâ—am could avoid his Prophesie wherein his consciousness appears like
they continue in the same so continues he in the discharge of this his Neonomian Office as by them assigned unto him Whence it genuinly follows 3. That their exploding of Dr. Crisp for an Antinomian and expâ—sing him as One that is an Enemy to and Rejecter of Graces Duties and good Works an Espouser of Sin as disowning of any Evil to be therein arises from his not acknowledging of some causally-conditional thâ—ugh not meritorious with all our Adversaries blinding Arts Prerequisites to our Justification which had he done he must have openly defied Rom. 4. 5 and many more Texts that I could name to the absolute overthrow of the whole Oeconomy of the Covenant of Grace but that in an acquitted and Righteous sense must be not only through but as being chosen in Christ and thereby in time made actual Members of that Mystical Head and that from and by vertue of this our Fountain Union with him in Election vertually by Redemption and manifestatively by Effectual Calling both the Change of our Natures is wrought and consequently the performance of our Duties become expâ—rimentally unto us acceptable with God From a neglect of a due Consideration of the foregoing Heads I must tell thee and that from my own Experience and Knowledge That of all the Persons in the World that I have been acquainted with especial Professors either in their Polemical Writings Epâ—stâ—lary Argumentations or all Conferencâ—s I never met with I speak not of any of the former perswasions whereby they are distinguished as such as being satisfied that there are many truly worthy of each of them a more prevaricating inconsistent false dealing and vain glorious people than such as are settled and fixed upon this Neononomian bottom and that as a Judgment of God resting upon them for their abuse of his Righteousness so as to make it truckle thereunto in the bare Merits of the same and become thereby a meer Drudge to our own Righteousness or the Righteousness of the Spirit wrought within us which doth not only cast us the Foundation but brings also a disorder into the proper peculiar Acts of the Trinity it self in their positively distinct personal Operations wherein and whereby the Scripture evidently declares Maugre all the Socinian and Arminian Quodammodo's the perfect Exaltation Glory and Renown of one Eternal Deity in the subservient regular and conjâ—ynt management of that Covenant which these persons would overthrow as carried on by these threee blâ—ssed Subsistenciâ—s though essentially One for the Father properly serves not the Son herein nor the Son the Spirit though each unanimâ—usly carry on the same design yet it is by a distinct Demonstration and Application of both the form and matter of the same as Graciously engaged in and by their own voluntary and everlasting Counsels Hence it is that the Pharisees of old fell short of their Justification notwithstanding their owning of the Grace of God and their great Expectations from the same in order unto it Luk. 18. 81. c. and which is remarkable in reference unto Peter himself who when he began to warp in this point Gal. 2. He is treated with as no less than a Dissembler and all those sâ—ding with him to be under the Power and Prevalency of Dissimulation for a time The reason of God's Jealousie herein and consequently his Judgment upon them is very plain in that it is the same Righteousness in God that he will have exalted both in the Salvation and Damnation of a Sinner and that as exerted by and held forth in the the Law though towards the latter immediately but to the former in and mediately through Christ and that not as to the meer Effects thereof though they follow thereupon but the solid substantial Appearance and Application of the same as the stabilitating Ground and Juridical Foundation of both their Bliss and Misery together with the just Proceedings of God therein Mark Rom. 3. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. For it is the self-same Righteousness under the just prosecuting Sentence and Charge whereof the Damned lie in which it is that the Elect stand justify'd before God Thus the same Doctrin preached by the same Apostles became the Savour of Life unto some and the Savour of Death unto Death unto others 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. comp Rom. 10. 3 4. Therefore of Grace for why should any one be made Partaker of that unto his Salvation which pronounces a just Sentence of Condemnation upon another but that it is meerly of Grace The one standing justified in that which passes a Sentence of Condemnation upon the other He that hath Ears to hear let him hear A SHORT REVIEW OF SOME REFLECTIONS c. IN all Buildings the Foundation is to be first secured for where that is laid essentially and entirely in an Error it is absolutely impossible to be true unto it in an erected Fabrick upon the same without a continued Superstructure of Errors Mendacium mendaciis tegit nè perfluat for as Truth cannot be retained and defended but by Truth there being an inseparable connexion between that of the lowest and highest Degree and Station thereof in the Church of God as there was of every Nail and Thred of a Fringe in the Tabernacle to the Priest Altar and Sacrifice so neither can Error be justly maintained and genuinely pleaded for but by a constant Enumeration of Errors those being a decorum and order even in Romances and Play Books as well as other things Hence it is that these two things do infallibly fall out especially in days of more than ordinary Tryals when the Lord Jesus comes with his Fan in his Hand by this or the other Providence thorowly to purge his Floor 1. That the more the Heretick properly such which I take to be one that either removes or perverts the Foundation that God hath laid is put upon the defensative part of his Error he still adhering unto the same though never so latent at first or for a while and consequently undiscerned the more speedily and clearly both he and it will appear unto others This is evident beyond all manner of Dispute in our Neonomian Contestors this day as will fully appear anon 2. That many who may seem to differ much even to a direct opposition as to appearance at least in several Circumstantials and more Minute Appendixes unto Truth as arising either from their Darkness and consequently invincible mistakes in apprehending one another their peculiar mode of expressing themselves or their timing of each particular Truth in assigning unto it its proper and more individual station order use and dependance yet these as truly holding the Head especially in reference to the Doctrin of Justification the Controverted point this day whatever their present Dissonancy and thereupon Exasperations may be as between Luther and Calvin will sooner or later coalesce and fall into One as being truly Members of the same Mystical Body because the Foundation is the same on which they are both laid
and built This will evidently appear from its contrary and that as relating unto the apparent Apostacies that have discovered themselves in the Treatises of some later as well as former Writers who notwithstanding their Vigour against the Papacy even to a Preparation for its Burial by a winding-sheet yet upon trial of them in the Fundamental Points which we must stick unto or we not only lose all but east a most wretched Aspersion upon the Providences of God and vindicate the Proceeding of our Enemies in the Death of the Martyrs of Reformation have been driven to shelter themselves under its argumentative Umbrage and to draw forth the Arrows of their Defence out of it Quiver yea and as it is too notoriously known to assign in a manner unto it from Protestanism in the general the very right Hand of Fellowship in Christoanity and all because the bottom is the same on which they are fixed both in their Hopes and Trust it being natural for every thing to incline to it s designed and as such proper and uniting Center Jo. 5. 40. comp ch 6. 64 65 68 69. Hinc illae lachrymae The matter and truth in Controversie having been by others so justly and fully stated and defended we may be the more brief with this our blank Author especially considering how weak as well as false his Attempts are against the same His confident and grave Trumpeter tells us in the Preface That the wrath of Man works not the Righteousness of God much less I am sure doth our Author's lurking and yet open Politicks with their false Reserves contribute in the least to the Manifestation of the same wherewith his Pamphlet is sufficiently stuffed for as Wrath is the resultive Operation of Anger which Anger is a Passion created in the Soul by God himself and drawn forth into its proper exercise by him into that which the Scripture calls Zeal for his Glory so also is Politicism in Man a meer exurgency from that reasoning faculty within him by which he is distinguished as well as by others of his Qualifications from the Beasts that perish but all thesâ—re discriminatively adjudged as to their sinful or gracious position frame or operation ae they co-work with or for or against the Righteousness of God and that as to their principles and ends the very Text our Prefacer produces sufficiently Demonstrates the same 1 Sams 2. 13. c. 1 Kin. 18. 27. 2 Kin. 3. 13 14. ch 1. 10. Luk. 9. 54 55. Judg. 5. 23. Eph. 4. 26. Ab equis ad asinos Our Author in his first and part of the second page highly commends after a little vent of his Gall Dr. Crisp's Sermons and that for some certain uses and ends that he is pleased to assign unto them That he exalts Free-Grace Christ's Righteousness his Paths in expressing the astonishing love of Jesus and that in the Redemption of Mankind how Mercy and Truth Righteousness and Peace met and kissed each other in him that Justice and Goodness had their equal discovery in his satisfaction and how that he depresses good Works and holy Duties but observe how he takes him p. 2 as to satisfying God's Justice or meriting any thing for us Here the hooks lies from being ingredieats of Justification and so on I doubt this word irgredients will prove but a very nasty one by then we have compared it with his ten charges against the Doctor but for all this we must endeavour as inoffensively and honestly as we can to rescue him out of his Hands for I never iiked ovem lupo committere or Agninis lactibus canem alligare since we see our Author hath no sooner got him into his clutches by his fawning reserved acknowledgments but like the Lyon in the Fable tears him to pieces Some few things to be remarked out of our Author p. 2 3 4. before we enter precisely upon his Decemvir'd Charge against the Doctor 1. His inconsistency even whilst he endeavours falsly to charge the Doctor wirh the same besides as we shall see in the Close of his Treatise how he overthrows the whole of his Forgery and that even with his own Pen unto our Hands from comparing what he says p. 2 3 and 4. and several other places with what his Armour-bearer in the Preface expresses Far be it from me to censure or arraign the State and Spirit note those words State and Spirit of the Reverend Dr. Crisp whose Soul I take to be in Heaven and whose Intentions and Designs might be sincere and good though not so distinctly see the nature order and mutual Relaâ—ions and Dependencies to and upon each other Pref. l. 17 22. Author p. â— His Zeal for Christ's imputed Righteousness makes him vilifie and almost mark that word exclude an inherent Righteousness of our own comp p. 3. Though the Author of these Sermons often attempts to perswade you thas he is no Antinomian i. e. that he is not against the Law of Righteousness and Holiness that he is no discourager of of Faith and good Works and the several Duties of Religion yet nothing is more evident than this that he is a professed Enemy to these and useth all the Art he can to make others so Suit but these together and thou wilt find a Preliminary Transcript of both his Treachery and Iâ—consistency wherewith we shall be sufficiently glutted anon besides p. 58. He makes him a Derider of the new Birth with many other false as well as bitter Sarcasms which should they be but in the Hundredth part of them true would absolutely bespeak the Doctor a Reprobate Gal. 4. 29 30. Scarce one or but very few of his Stigmatizing marks if Faith in its Analogy be attended unto that can be reckoned of the spots of God's Children 2. HIS Displeasure against him for separating between Justification and Sanctification which the Holy Scriptures as he says always joyn together p. 3. but not as to the ends for which our Author and his Jesuitical Fraternity would have them promiscuously jumbled together does the Scripture joyn them and in no other a Sense doth the Doctor separate them 3. HIS solemn Appeal unto the Searcher of Hearts before he enters upon this his allowed deliberate and studied false Dealings with the Doctor of his Innocence in the same I could tell him of the like Attempt of another with whom God hath met in the very Language of his Imprecation Let him and such remember Ananias and Sapphira BUT to the charges themselves Or ab equis ad asinos from bad to worse But before we proceed note Reader THAT there is not one Charge of the whole ten that our Author produces against the Doctor wherein he may be said to have done him the least piece of Justice or to deal equitably with him according to the matter he hath in Hand and that in the very literal Dependant Construction of the same which if otherwise thou findest upon an unequivocal plain and candid comparing of the
thus and thus Holily and do these and these Works they shall come under Wrath at least God will be angry with them what do we in this but abuse the Scriptures These are his very words saith our Author from p. 559. so they are indeed but not wholly his words nor sense which are as follows If they should terrifie them and make them to believe being Believers for of those I speak if they commit these and these Sins they shall be damned and so come under the wrath of God Then comes our Author in with his Charge before-cited leaving out also what follows as that we undo all that Christ hath done we injure and wrong the Believers themselves we tell that God he lies to his Face for if we tell Believers that except they do these and these good Works they shall come under the Wrath of God what is this but to tell God he lies and to bring the Faithful under a Covenant of Works Look into the 54th of Isaiah ver the 9th and you shall see how it is a belying of God to say that Believers may come under Wrath and Damnation except they do thus and thus Further he quotes the Doctor p. 363 364. very partially omitting what introduces the same namely that some conclude that Elect Persons are in a damnable estate in the time they walk in excess of Riot before they are called Where the Doctor speaking of the nature of Election he wholly omits his purpose therein and therefore also he leaves out what immediately follows which he knew would have overthrown his design viz. It is true such an Elect Person not called is never able to know individually of himself that he is such an one that God hath nothing to charge upon him because till calling God gives not unto Persons to believe and it is only believing that is evidence to Dr. Crisp ' s Works Vol. II. Serm. 9. Pag. 364. Men of things not seen Things that are not seen are hidden and secret and shall not be known I mean the things of God's Love to Men shall not be known to particular Men till they do believe but considering their real condition the Lord hath not one sin to charge upon an elect Person from the first moment of conception till the last minute of his Life there is not so much as Original Sin to be laid on him and the Ground is The Lord hath laid it on Christ already He did lay Sins on him When did he lay them on him When did he pay the first price of them Now suppose this Person uncall'd commits Iniquity and that this Iniquity is charged upon him seeing that his Iniquities are laid upon Christ already how comes it to pass that they are charged upon this elect Person again How come they to be translated from Christ again and laid upon this Person Once they were laid upon Christ it must be confessed For the Blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sins 1 Joh. 1. 7. saith the Apostle and by one Sacrifice he hath perfected for ever them that are Sanctified Heb. 10. 14. Was there by one Act of Christ the expiâ—tion of Sin and all at once that are commited from the beginning of the World to the end thereof how comes it to pass that this and that Sin should be charged upon the Elect Persons when they were laid upon Christ long before He did by that one Act of his expiate all our Sins or did not If he did not expiate them fully then he did not save to the utmost all them that come to God by him But if he did then all Iniquity is vanished and gone he did extract it out â—s some Plaister of excellent Virtue doth extract out the Venom of a plague-sore So Christ by once offering up himself did take away and evaporate all the Sins of the Elect at once Again our Author to level his secret Armisian stroke against Election here as formerly against the Doctrin of Justification in the materiâ—â— Righteousness thereof he defiles and pollutes if possible even Scripture it self and 〈◊〉 liâ—e a bold Impostor for it to speak for him and against its Divine Author and in order 〈…〉 he cites Eph. 2. 13. chap. 1. 1. chap. â— 2 12 13 14 15 16. 〈◊〉 2 3. John 3. 36. and from hence concludes Observe it â—efore they were converted they were Strangers and Aliens Crispi unmask'd Pag. 36. they were with at Christ without God without Hope they were at Enmity with the Father and the Son and there was no more to be laid to their charge at that time than to the glorified Saints above When they were without Christ in the time of their Unregeneracy and living in all Excess of Riot were they not only in God's Favour but as much as the Saints in Glory How then was Christ their Peace How is it said they were reconciled v. 16. Reconciliation supposes falling out it implies being at enmity Those who are now reconciled and made Friends were once Strangers and Enemies and were they at that very time Favourites of God yea as great Favourites as the blessed glorified Spirits Who hath the Confidence to say this but Dr. Crisp And who hath a Heart to believe it but one that dis-believes the plain Testimony of Holy Scripture Hence observe Reader the Doctor having spoken of Election apart and therein inâ—lusively notes That as such it is a Doctrinal Truth wherein the irrefragable safety and unerring security of all such comprehended therein doth radically lie and this arising from a distinguishing love in God whence a further free act of his Grace towards them did spring and that in sending his only begotten Son into the World as their representative Head charged with their Sin to remove the same upon the performance of which inferred from the word upon the Cross It is finished a door passage or entrance was made or laid open without the least impeachment of any of the Attributes of God for the actual conveying in a way of Application by faith that Reconciliation Life and Peace that God had in store for them from all Eternity therefore said to be in Christ reconciling them unto himself even before they become by faith reconciled unto him for it is not Faith that gives a being unto this Reconciliation in God no nor yet the Blood of Christ himself though it make way to the uttermost for the communication of the same without which it would have been for ever hid even from the Elect but receives it which the Apostle expresly declares to be the very Ministry given unto him and others and adds hereunto the reason thereof the so much despised fundamental truth this day by way of encouragement to bring poor sinners in Dr. Crisp's own method for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 18 19 20 21. Now doth it follow that because the Elect