Righteousness It was given out by God himself for that end it contains the whole Obedience that God requires of the Sons of Men It has the promise of Eternal Life annext to it Do this and Live But there are two things that discover the Vanity of seeking Righteousness in this Path 1. That they have already sinned and come short of the Glory of God Rom. 3. 23. So that though they should for the time to come fulfil the whole Law yet there is a Score upon them already they know not how to answer for 2. That if former Debts were blotted out yet they are no way able to fulfil the Law for the future many other Devices men have found out but in the Issue the matter comes to this They look upon themselves 1. As sinners obnoxious to the Law of God and the Curse thereof so that unless that be satisfied it 's in vain from thence to seek after an appearance before God 2. As Creatures made to a Super-natural end and therefore bound to answer the whole Mind and Will of God Now both these being beyond the Compass of their own endeavours it 's their wisdom to find out a Righteousness that may answer both these to the utmost now both these are to be had only in the Lord Christ who is our Righteousness Who 1. Expiates former Iniquities 2. Fulfils the whole Law by his active Obedience Rom. 5. 10. We are saved by his Life And now the Doctor has told you the short of his Story But our Author confutes him much shorter and without Cicumlocution replies This is a mighty comfortable Discovery how we may be Righteous without doing any thing that is good or Righteous I 'le warrant you a whole Cart-load of Books hath been Written of this Subject all which with Laconick Brevity our Author has blown away with one Puff And is not this a Compendious way of Dispatching Controversies out of the World It is a Truth that none is Righteous but he that doth righteousness and as great a Truth that None is righteous before God because he doth righteousness Without Holiness no man shall see God and without something more than his own holiness no man shall see God or it were better he had never seen him But more distinctly 1. It 's seasonable to enquire what is the Mind of the Church of England in this Matter and She speaks freely Art 11. We are accounted righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works Pray ask her then Whether we may be Righteous without doing any thing that is Righteous for which we are so accounted in the sight of God And whereas he says with a Scoff This is a mighty comfortable Doctrine The Church in that very Article determines in earnest Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a most whole some Doctrine and full of Comfort Either then that Article Confutes his Assertion or his Assertion confutes the Article Again Art 13. Works done before the Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of the Spirit are not pleasant to God for as much as they spring not of Faith in Christ. And for that they are not done as God hath Commanded them to be done no doubt but they have the Nature of sin Hence it were easie to argue against our Author Those works which are not pleasant to God which have the Nature of sin cannot justifie the doer of them But all works done before the Grace of Christ the Inspiration of his Spirit which spring not from Faith are such therefore they cannot justifie the doer of them before God Either then we must never be justified or else we must be justified without good Works as that for which we are justified at least though the Article would conclude something more It 's very uncomely to see ill taught Children to spit in their Mothers face and we account that an evil Bird that defiles its own Nest. 2 It will be no less seasonable to enquire into the mind of the Spirit also And the Apostle Paul seems to speak high Rom. 4. 5. To him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness And more modesty would become him than to quip the Apostle and tell him This is a comfortable discovery how a man may be righteous without doing any thing that is righteous Again In the business of Election the Apostle argues thus Rom. 11. 6. If it be by Grace then it is not of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace but if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Work is no more Work 3. It 's seasonable to enquire whether our Author had not better have understood the Doctor better before he had undertaken to answer him For when he asserts that we are justified by Christ he excludes not the way and means that God hath appointed to make the righteousness of Christ to become ours He that saith we are justified by Christ doth not deny we are justified by Faith and therefore not without doing something that is good Nay he excludes not Inherent righteousness from the Soul nor Gospel obedience from the Life only he excludes them as too defective and imperfect to make us stand before God in the judgment And herein he seems a more dutiful Son of the Church of England than our Author let the 12th Art judge Albeit Works which are the fruits of Faith and follow after Iustification cannot put away our sins and endures the severity of Gods judgment yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the fruit Whence it is obvious That if our good Works which are the fruits of Faith which follow Iustification cannot endure the severity of Gods judgment What shall become of those that are only the fruits of Nature and go before Iustification Again If those Works which are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ yet cannot endure the severity of Gods Iudgment Where then shall those appear that being done before Iustification have the Nature of sin and are not pleasant to God As the 13th Art determines To whomsoever then this is comfortable Doctrine I am sure it was once so to our Author who by Subscribing these very Doctrines got a Living of very comfortable Importance and might have had the Civility with them of Ephesus to have owned By this Craft we get our Living But if our Author like not the Doctors way let him prescribe his own only let him be sure it be a better and safer way That he will The Scripture tells us expresly he is righteous that doth righteousness and without Holiness no man shall see God that the only way to obtain the pardon of our sins is to repent of them and forsake
into the world it deserveth Gods wrath and damnation I promise you here are a great many terrible words that would not be dofft of with a Flim-flam of Mens growing corrupt in after-Ages for this Article is positive that All that are naturally engendred of Adam have a corrupt and faulty Nature Abel as well as Cain Iacob as well as Esau and Isaac as well as Ishmael Such however then was their State Now what Means did God afford the Men of this Generation that he might not be wanting to his own Glory and their Happiness Why you must know in the first place that some of the Men of this Age were good Men others were corrupt declined to Idolatry and degenerate Very good but then one would long to know how the Good became so for how the evil became evil we are satisfied every one engendred of Adam brought with him a corrupt and faulty Nature but for the other sort these good men our Author leaves us as much in the dark how they became good as he did before how those other became evil Let us consult that excellent Author last Named Art 10. The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot Turn and prepare himself by his own Natural Strength and good Works to Faith and Calling upon God wherefore we have no power to do good Works pleasant and Acceptable to God without the Grace of God preventing us that we may have a good Will and working with us when we have that Good Will But let us goe on God afforded Good Men the frequent Apparitions of Angels who were the great Ministers of his Providence Carry this one thing in your heads as you goe Along with my Author and me viz. That he is demonstrating That God in all ages was not wanting to his Creatures happiness but by one means or other made himself and his will known to them Now then what did these Angels appear to these good Men for to acquaint them with his Will why it 's supposed they knew that before else how became they good for such they could not be without the Knowledge of Gods Will antecedent to their Obedience though perhaps they might have stumbled upon some Act materially the Command of God as a Blind Man by Chance may catch a Hare what then to protect them Protection required not Apparition what then to carry some occasional Errand from God wherein they were concern'd to be instructed upon the emergency of some extraordinary Providence Very true but not at all to his purpose but I shall have no more Concern herein than to move a few Quaeries 1. It may be enquired what Angel it was that Ordinarily appeared to the Patriarchs of old the rather because he is peremptorily called Iehovah the Essential Name of the True God And I find some have pleaded that the Second Person of the Trinity by way of Praeludium to his future Incarnation to shew that his delights were with the Sons of men and how ready he was to do the Will of his Father in the Redemption of the World when in the fulness of time a Body should be offer'd him and their Pleas have not been removed and they are somewhat confident cannot be And as I remember amongst many other they insist upon Hosea 12. 3 4 5. He took his Brother by the heel and by his strength he had power with God he had power over the Angel and prevailed he wept and made supplication to him The Lord God of Hosts the Lord is his Memorial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If this was not the True God blessed for ever that wrestled with Iacob an Atheist will bid you prove there 's a Better than the Lord God of Hosts whose Memorial is Iehovah if it be then he was also the Angel that appeared and who could that be but the Second Person 2. It may be asked I hope without offence supposing that Created Angels did as sometimes they did appear to good Men and that their Message was the Mind of God concerning their Happiness and Blessedness in the Enjoyment of God whether they preach'd any other Gospel than they preach'd to the Shepherds at Bethlehem because it would seem that these inferiour Angels could not employ their Tongues upon a more welcome Theme than Him who was their Head and under whose Obedience they were Ranged by Creation and to whom he was also a Mediator of Confirmation 3. It might deserve Consideration How far Angels are the Ministers of Gods Providence That they are Ministring Spirits sent out to minister unto them who shall be Heirs of Salvation Hebr. 1. last we thankfully believe and own yet God has not left his Inspection into or oversight of this lower World This looks like some New Divinity new vamped up from the old Epicurean Philosophy which represents God as living at ease and enjoyingly in Heaven and not concerning Himself for that would they think disturbs his Peace with the Brangles and Contrastoes of Men but Rules all by the Court of Delegates For the Good men we shall not need to be too sollicitous how they did doubtless they would shift well enough in the world All the difficulty is about the Degenerate how God carryed it towards them that he might not be wanting to their Happiness Now here indeed our Author helps at a dead lift Two Expedients he used First The Preaching of some eminent Persons such as Enoch Noah and Abraham And herein we cannot but admire the wisdom of God in the Old World that he sent none but Righteous Men to preach Righteousness to an unrighteous generation To vapour against sin and then to wallow in it to forbid our Patients that Food which is often found upon our own Trenchers will not gain much credit to our Doctrine and therefore Christ Acts 1. 1. is said first to Doe and then to Teach Otherwise Ministers words are look'd on as things of Course to while out one Glass that they may be readier for another Such Preachers being like him in the Comoedian Qui alterâ manu fert lapidem panem ostentat alterâ that is he feeds his Auditors like Apes with a Bitt and a Knock but here are a few things upon this head that we cannot pass by for our Author is as full of Excellencies as an Egge is full of Meat 1 Here has been good Provision made for Good men and pretty good too for the more degenerate part of Mankind but there 's a midling size of Men all this while that have no care taken of them sink or swim Men that your Papists will tell you are too good for Hell and too bad for Heaven but of a just Gage for Purgatory Now these men did not need such extraordinary Helps as Noahs and Abrahams Sermons nor could deserve the apparitions of Angels and therefore they must be content to drudge through the work in their own strength whereof having a sufficiency enough is as good as a feast
his little Glosses Why they offend against his great standing Rule Interpreting things by the sound of words For says he what better proof can you desire for all this than Express words Really the Laws upon which we must be permitted to discourse with our Author are very severe for p. 78. he laid it down as a Law of the Medes and Persians that none must dare to Draw one Conclusion from the Person of Christ which his Gospel hath not expressely taught Well we accepted the Tearms and have brought him expresse and expressely express words and do speak as Volkelius commands us dilectis luculentissimisque verbis and yet we are never the nearer for now we offend in trusting to the sound of words Just thus did Procrustes entertain his Guests wracking out them that were too short and lopping off their feet that were too long for his Bed All men I perceive are awake to their Concerns in this Rule as well as our Vigilant Author When it is urged that Christ is called expressely God the True God He that was in the beginning by whom were all things made who upholds all things by the Word of his Power the Socinians have now a compendious Answer Ay this is to interpret Scripture by the sound of words And the Atheist has an inckling of it too he can subscribe all the Scriptures as True but when you urge him that God created all things out of Nothing that he is the Owner Governour Iudge of the whole World they are provided with a short Answer Yes this is interpreting Scripture by the sound of words And whether every Drunkard Swearer Adulterer all the Rakehells and Rakeshames upon Earth may not in time make their advantage of it I cannot tell That Ministers do but fright them with a sound of words Thus have some dealt with the Sacerdotal Office of Christ He is a Priest they confess he offer'd a Sacrifice was a Propitiation made an Atonement did expiate sin but have a care you do not interpret these things as the words sound he did indeed something like a Priest offer'd something like a Sacrifice but truely and properly he was nothing did nothing of All this It had been therefore more plain-heartedly and ingenuously done had our Author written a Confutation of the Scripture proving that the Spirit did not speak intelligibly but All in good time he has Materials ready for the work P. 100. The wildest and most extravagant Opinions that were ever yet vented under the Name of Religion have pretended the Authority of Scripture for their Patronage And yet he knew how first to break its head and then make it a Playster This famous Rule of our Authors may be applyed to all things under the Sun but there are two Principles onely that he will examine by it at present 1. The spiritual Impotency of all men without grace to perform that which is Acceptable to God This says he they prove wonderfully from our being dead in trespasses and sins and therefore as a Dead man can contribute nothing to his own Resurrection no more can we towards our Conversion I wonder when the Scripture will be able to speak so plain that deaf men will understand it One would have thought the Spirit of God should never have chosen that Expression of being Dead in trespasses and sins to signifie what mighty power and abilities the Creature has to Obey But we are instructed better from this usefull Caveat not to interpret Him by the sound of his words for now we must understand by Being dead Being Alive and proportionably by Sins and Trespasses we must understand Duty and Obedience and then to keep close to our Instructions and far enough from the sound of words To be Dead in Sins and Trespasses is to be Alive to all Duty and Obedience And thus that other vexing place Rom. 5. When we were without strength in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly must be Paraphrased When we were strong and Active and had no need of Christ he dyed for the godly And this I think if that be good for ought is very remote from grating our Ears with the unpleasant sound of words Ay but says our Author This is true of Natural Death but will be hard to prove of a Moral Death Hard to prove Methinks we want his wonted out-facing Confidence But why so hard to prove Has not the Spirit of God selected those words borrowed from the Condition of one Naturally dead to instruct us in the true Condition of one Morally dead It 's true of a Natural and therefore not of a Moral Death Nay it 's therefore true of a Moral Death because it is so of a Natural Death What wild Similitudes would he impose upon the Holy Scriptures Even as one that 's Naturally dead can contribute Nothing to his Resurrection just so one that 's Morally dead can contribute something to his Conversion This is the great Illustrator of dark Metaphors But wherein doth this Morall Death consist Oh says he In the prevalency of vicious habits contracted by long Custom which was the Case of the Heathens whom the Apostle there speaks of which do so enslave the Will that it 's very difficult though not impossible for such Persons to return to the love and practice of Vertue But who can tell whether by enslaving the Will which is a Luscious Metaphor our Author would not have us understand enfranchising the Will lest we should border too near upon a sound of words But I am not illuminated with our Authors Reasonings For 1 Moral Death doth not consist in the prevalency of vicious Habits it is the general Condition of all men born into the world who are privatively Dead in respect of that Life we all once had in the first Adam and Negatively Dead in respect of that Life which is attainable by the second Adam And in those dayes when men studyed not Aequivocations to subscribe every thing and believe Nothing it was not question'd in the Church of England Art 10. The Condition of Man since the Fall is such that he cannot Turn and prepare himself by his Own Natural Strength and good Works to Faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to doe good works pleasant and acceptable to God without his Grace preventing us that we may have a good Will and working with us when we have that Will. But 2 Supposing that this Moral Death did consist in the Prevalency of vicious Habits contracted by long Custom yet such may be the prevalency of them into such a slavery may the Will be brought that it may be not onely diâ—…ficult but impossible without the effectual assistance of the Spirit for the Sinner to return to God Ier. 13. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also doe good that are accustomed to doe evil Whence the Prophet shews that such is the prevalency of a vicious Habit contracted by long Custom
brought forth Fruit in patience Our Author should have considered this a little better Why so he has Without me ye can do nothing that is Without such a sincere and hearty belief of my Gospel Well but we were told that by Me was meant the Church And we took it for granted that if we met with it in the Ablative case it ought to signifie the Church And must it now signifie the Doctrine How often has the Wind turned in half an hour Oh! but you are to understand that then it was in the 4th ver Abide in me But this is in the 5th verse Without me And so the Rule will be this That whensoever you find it in the Ablative case in the 4th verse of any Chapter then it signifies the Church but if it fall out to be the Ablative case and the 5th verse then believe it you shall do well to Interpret it by Gospel or Doctrine But still here 's an odd Scruple behind For what will become of ver 4 Abide in Me and and I in you As the Branch cannot bear Fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in Me. Now our Authors Gloss is this abide in Me continue in the Church and I in you let my Doctrine continue in you And then the following words must be thus Paraphrased As the Branch cannot bear Fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in the Church Which spoken of a particular Church is utterly false and there 's no help left but only this standing Rule That Me in the beginning of a verse signifies a Church but in the latter end of a verse it always signifies a Doctrine And then the 5th verse too will be as plain as a Pike-staff He that abideth in me that is in the Church and I in him that is the Doctrine in him the same bringeth forth much Fruit for without me that is without a sincere and hearty belief of my Doctrine or to disguise it a little say Gospel it 's impossible you should do any thing that is good And surely never was a small piece of Armour better placed nor to better purpose by the Wit of Man I have done with his Interpretation but that I cannot forbear to give the Reader the Summe of what he has said That Church which owns my Doctrine is the true Vine and all you who make a publick profession of Faitâ—…o in me i. e. of a belief of my Gospel and live in Communion with one another are the Branches of this Vine and whoever of you continue stedfast in this Profession and Communion and do not only make a visible profession of Faith in me but suffer my Doctrine and Precepts to dwell and abide in you too to Govern your Wills and Affections and direct your Conversations in the World all such of you will be very Fruitful in good Works And it 's very likely to be true for it would be a great wonder if they whose Wills and Affections and Conversations are Govern'd by the Word of Christ should do nothing that 's good because most things in the World are what they are excepting only Christs Person which shall signifie Many Divers Contrary Things and in short any Thing besides Himself 2. His Interpretation being so Arbitrary Precarious Self-Inconsistent and Ridiculously false I need not much trouble my self with his Reasons nor should I but that they also discover its â—…ness Reason 1. The Iewish Church is frequently in the Old Testament called a Vine Isa. 5. 1. I will sing to my Beloved a Song concerning his Vineyard My Beloved had a Vineyard Iudge between me and my Vineyard And now he must be very blind that does not see the Church is compared to a Vine though some will be so Peevish as to fancy some small difference between a Vine and a Vineyard But yet it is called a Vine Jer. 2. 21. Very true Ergo What Why therefore Christ is not compared to a Vine in the New Testament And therefore it must signifie Doctrine Gospel Religion and Twenty things more But 1. Tell me seriously Did God or any of the Prophets ever say I am the Vine and then teach the Iews to discant thus upon it That is The Church which is founded on the belief of Moses his Doctrine is the only true Church When the Prophet will describe the Church by a Vine he tells you expresly what he intends and there 's an end of all Controversie And so would our Saviour if ever he intended to be understood till a happy Head should after Sixteen Hundred Years light upon the Mystery Ay but the Christian Church is expresly called an Olive Tree and the Members of it called Branches Rom. 11. 17 18. Expresly And must we then split against that Rock and Interpret the place by the express the sound of words Two things let him consider at his Leisure 1. Whether it be the Christian Church that is there compared to the Olive-Tree 2. Whether it be said that Christ is the Olive-Tree Which expression if he can produce and then make it out that I am the Olive-Tree signifies the Church is so we will then freely confess he has bidden fair towards a probability for the truth of his Interpretation 2. Because God is called the Husbandman who takes care to Dress this Vine which cannot be understood of Christ but of the Church This Reason seems to carry some civility towards Jesus Christ and therefore deserves a fairer Treatment than the strength of it can challenge Let this suffice The Father is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Husbandmand in respect of the Branches of the Vine ver 2. Every branch that beareth Fruit he purgeth that it may bring forth more Fruit and every branch that beareth not Fruit he taketh away 3. Christ speaks of such branches in him as bear no fruit Now there can be no such branches in the Person of Christ for our very Union to Him will make us Fruitful Ans. Many things are said to be which only seem to be There 's nothing more ordinary than for appearances to wear the Livery of Realityes Hypocrites are said to be in Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 8. 15 16. Simon Magus is said to believe who yet was in the Gall of Bitterness and in the bond of Iniquity Rotten Dead Branches may have a visible station in the Vine and yet derive no nourishment from the Vine and visible Professors may be said to be in Christ in a judgment of Charity which thinks no evil where none appears and hopeth all things where there is ground of hope Our Saviour prescribes a Rule how we must judge who have no direct Cognizance of the heart when he himself takes other Measures of Men and needeth not that any should testifie of Man for he knows what is in Man 4. To confirm all this and
the First must be justified if ever they be justified by the Second Adam v. 22. The Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe for there 's no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God As all men that ever were are or shall be are sinners under Condemnation so all that ever were are or shall be righteous in the sight of God are so by that righteousness which is by Faith of Iesus So that every pardoned accepted justified sinner must own that he is justified freely by the Grace of God through the Redemption that is in Christ. From these and such-like Scriptures it is that Christians ascribe their Iustification before God not to their own good Works but to the Free Grace of God through Iesus Christ but our Author has a way of proving his Sentiments worth a thousand of these Could men says he be reconciled to plain sence it would need no other Confirmation but the Natural evidence of naked and simple Truth It has been observed of the great Bellarmine from whom our Author has borrowed some things that he never comes in with a Procui dubio but the next words are a Rapper the same I observe in our Author that when he has done just nothing he always makes the loudest cackle It was a handsom Come-of if you did but mind it that when he had pester'd us with his prejudices surfeited us with Arbitrary distinctions filled our heads with empty Notions and when we looked to have been attack'd with one of his old plain kill-cow demonstrations he faces about and pops us off with this It needs no other proof than the Natural evidence of simple and naked Truth But now let the Reader take something warm next his heart let him use his phial of Essences for our Author is just now a-coming to examine those Texts of Scripture which are abused by these men to set up the personal Righteousness of Christ as the only formal Cause of our justification And must not those Texts of Scripture be miserably abused indeed that are thus prest in for such a service What the personal Righteousness of Christ the formal Cause of our justification I have heard some say it was the Meritorious Cause some the Impulsive Cause others the Material Cause and some that it is no Cause but our Author is the first that ever I heard this expression from There was once a good Orthodox Bishop as Orthodoxy past in that Age his Name Downham he has Written many a long page upon this Subject and he acquaints us with the sence of Protestants Lib. 1. Cap. 3. Sect. 1. That the matter of our justification is Christ's Righteousness and the form is God's Imputing it and this way go most of your Systematical Divines but from hence I learn it 's the Mode now-a-days for these Gentlemen to Confute that is to Rail at those long-winded Authors they never had the patience to read nor the Brains to understand but let this pass amongst our Authors Negligences or Ignorances till I understand better where to marshal it In examining the Texts which they abuse he will begin and end with Phil. 3. 8 9. Yea doubtless and I account all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledg of Iesus Christ my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith The main Question here will be What was that Righteousness which the Apostle renounces from having any place in his Justification before God Upon this one hinge turns all the Controversie betwixt our Author and his Antagonists They say it was what-ever inherent Righteousness he had attained or could attain what-ever Obedience he had performed or could perform to the Commands of God Ay but says our Author what proof have they for this he can learn none but that they take it for granted that My Righteousness signifies Inherent Righteousness And really they are to be pittied if not pardoned that by His own Righteousness understand his own Righteousness for if Inherent Righteousness be not His own Righteousness it 's plain he could have none at all for an External Conformity of Actions to the Law alone is not Righteousness at all but Hypocrisie and Vnrighteousness but I shall inform him of some other proofs why they take His own Righteousness for Inherent Righteousness 1. That which he calls his own Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he tells you in the next words is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is from Law from a Law from any Law indefinitely now a Righteousness which is from a Law is such a one as the Law urges presses upon and prescribes to the Conscience but that without question is an Internal Conformity of soul to the holiness of the Law but this the Apostle rejects therefore he rejects Internal and Inherent Righteousness 2. The true Notion of My Righteousness is not to be fetcht from some sorry Conjectures from precarious Hypotheses which men when they are in streights invent to avoid present ruine but from the stable fixed constant use thereof in Scripture but so is this expression My own Righteousness and My own or your own Works used in Scripture viz. for real sineere Conformity of heart and life to a Law therefore so ought we to take it here till we see cogent Reason to the contrary That this is the fixed use of the expression in Scripture we shall see Gen. 30. 33. My Righteousness shall answer for me in time to come which our Author would paraphrase thus My Righteousness that is My Roguery Iob 27. 6. My Righteousness I hold fast my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live My Righteousness that is would he say My Hypocrisie Matth. 5. 16. That men may see your good works that is in the New Glossary Your Complement Dan. 9. 18. we present not our supplications before thee not for our Righteousnesses but for thy great Mercies The Prophet in the Name of the Church must be supposed here not to renounce real Righteousness but the Sceleton of Obedience Now had the Apostle designed only to reject his own Hypocrisie he was not so barren in expressions but he could have fitted it with its Proper Name 3. The Apostle expresly renounces both what-ever he had attained before or after his Conversion v. 7. These things that were gain to me whilst I was a Pharisee those I accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss for Christ But is that all No! Yea doubtless v. 8. and I do now account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things but loss I have accounted all things attained in my Iudaism loss when I was first convinced and I do now account all things even my own Righteousness loss and dung for Christ
to work in us that Internal Holiness and Purity which is the Perfection and Accomplishment of the Figurative and Typical Righteousness of the Law which he gives us in other words p. 267. What the Law could not do i. e. govern our Minds and Passions this God effected by sending Christ into the World to publish the Gospel to us and to confirm all those great Promises and Threatnings contained in it with his own Blood This is indeed a parcel of excellent Divinity but that it 's wholly destitute of truth For 1. he supposes That that Law whose weakness the Apostle assigns as the Reason of Gods sending his Son was only the Ceremonial Law the Falshood whereof I shall demonstrate if that be not too great a word for any mans Mouth besides his own by and by 2. He insinuates that the whole of Christs being a Sacrifice for our Sins lay in confirming the New-Covenant the Falshood whereof the next Section will give us direct occasion to evince 3. He makes the whole business of the Ceremonial Law to represent inward purity and perhaps to effect it whereas though some of the Ceremonies did represent inward purity yet the main of their design was to lead to Jesus Christ and particularly Sacrifices which represented that Atonement and Reconciliation which Christ in due time should make with God on the behalf of Sinners Col. 2. 17. The Law had a shadow of good things to come but the Body is of Christ. 4. He scandalously charges it upon God that he appointed a means to an end which was found too weak to reach his End As if God must try conclusions and make experiments before he could be certain whether his design would take and his appointments reach their End 5. He renders Christ's Coming into the World unnecessary for what though the Ceremonial Law could not effect that inward Purity yet I hope God had means to effect it unless he will say all the World till Christ's Coming were whited-Walls and painted-Sepulchres For what was become of the Moral Law all this while had it no power to effect that End 6. He tells us p. 269. That the Reason why the Law of Moses was abrogated was because it could not make men good But then the Moral Law was either able to make men good or it was not If it was not why was not that abrogated also If it was able and had its effect then what need of Christ to come into the World to effect that which the Moral Law was able to effect without him But the true Reason why the Ceremonial Law is expired is because the Lord Jesus Christ has answered and fulfilled all that is represented When the Sun is risen the Shadows fly away there was no formal abrogation either made or necessary to be made it expired of course when Christ had made good what-ever the Ceremonies had exhibited to their Faith 7. He tells that Christ came to work in us that inward Purity represented by the Ceremonial Law but for all his good-morrows when he is throughly catechifed Christ's working is no more than those sufficient arguments and motives to excite their own wits whereby they might work it themselves and I cannot tell whether he will deny that the Jews had sufficient motives and arguments for that end under their Law 8. He contradicts himself which is no news for whereas he had said p. 265. That the Law was designed to work in them inward purity He says p. 269. That the Law nursed them up in a ritual and external Religion and taught them to serve God in the Letter by Circumcision and Sacrifices or an external Conformity to the Letter of the Law And then I hope God could not justly blame them much less damn them for being Hypocrites if they did as well as and no better than his own Law taught them Nay he adds That the Gospel of Christ alone teaches us to worship God with the Spirit and to offer a reasonable Sacrifice to him This is strange Doctrine but it 's less matter for that if it be but true But was not God always a Spirit and did he not always teach his People to worship him with their Spirits How osten does God complain that they drew nigh him with their Lips when their Hearts were far from him which he could not well do if he taught them no better It 's a Riddle to me that these Ceremonies should represent inward purity and yet not teach it when they had no way to teach that Purity but by representing it 'T is true the Gospel teaches us to worship God in the Spirit in opposition to Ceremonies but God always taught his People to worship him with their Spirits in opposition to Hypocrisie Psal. 51. 6. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts Did God institute a Law a Law so chargeable and burdensome and all to teach his People to worship like Parrots to mumble over their Mattens and like Puppets to make an outward noise without a rational Principle to guide it If they had no reasonable Service why were they reasonable Creatures But a little more reverence of the Divine Majesty would confute a great deal of such blasphemy Let us now seriously consider the Text and 1. It will be necessary to enquire what that Law is whose weakness the Apostle assigns as the reason of God's sending his own Son And for all the Authors presumptions I am well satisfied it was not the Ceremonial Law for what if the Ceremonial had proved weak what if it had been resolved into its first nothing the Moral stood still where it always did and what need of Christ's Coming into the World upon that account There was a time when the Ceremonial Law was not created and what if it had been again repealed and annihilated things had been but in statu quo But that the Law here mentioned is the Moral Law the Connexion of the Apostle's Words his Premises out of which he draws his Conclusion will abundantly manifest In Chap. 7. v. 7 He tells us he had not known sin except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet But sin taking occasion from that Law wrought in him all manner of Concupiscence v. 8. Nevertheless he clears the Law v. 12. The Commandment was holy and just and good had an intrinsick goodness righteousness in it and this he calls v. 25. The Law of God Now the Apostle having said v. 10. That this Commandment of the Moral Law which was unto life in God's Original Institution he found to be unto death Nevertheless Chap. 8. v. 1. he assures us That there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus and he shews how Sinners are brought from under that Condemnation v. 3. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That impossible thing of the Law where the Apostle adding the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Salvation in the House of his Servant David as he spake by the mouth of his Holy Prophets which have been since the world began ver 72. To perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham where the firm Oath and Covenant of God to Redeem his People is assigned as the Reason of his giving Christ to be a Redeemer The places are too many to be insisted on that confirm this Truth Iohn 3. 16. 1 Iohn 4. 9 10. 2. Sect. Free grace is given as the true Reason of the Covenant of Grace Heb. 8. 8. For finding fault with them he saith behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel c. They were a faulty an undeserving an ill-deserving People yet Free grace will make a Covenant with them Nor is there any opposition between Free-grace and Christs Merits in this Case if we consider that Free-grace is the Original Reason of Gods designation and purpose to bestow the good things of the Covenant and the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death the way of recovering these Mercies which by sin had been forfeited and lost 3. Sect. The Scriptures give us no intimation that Christ is the Foundation of Gods making this Covenant or the Original Reason of Gods design to bestow the Mercies of the Covenant though it abounds with Testimonies that Christ is the way of procuring for us and conveying to us these intended mercies and in those things which depend upon mere good pleasure Revelation must be our onely guide In this case we may conclude Negatively Non credimus quia non legimus And we may shrewdly conjecture that there is no pretence from Scripture for this Figment of our Authors because it 's the Foundation of all his mistakes and yet he has not so much as attempted the perverting of one Scripture to give colour to it which may be reckoned amongst the Admiranda Nili 2. His other Assertion is this Our own Righteousness is the condition of the Covenant which with his former Assertion is obtruded upon us without proof and therefore I suppose he intends they must both be maintained at the Charges of the Parish Now 1 It is agreed for ought I know that an inherent righteousness is a necessary condition of eternal Salvation Heb. 12. 14. Without Holiness no man shall see God It is a Condition in the Covenant though not of the Covenant such a Condition as is due to every Person in a Covenant-state it doth necessarily attend that state though it be not allowed as antecedent to a Covenant-state 2. As to the Constitution of the Covenant in Gods purpose and Counsel I know no condition at all They that talk of the right use of free-will future Faith or good works fore-seen as the Reason of that purpose talk without book and onely intimate what a rare Covenant they would have made for us had they had the modelling and Contrivance of it like him that boasted that if he had stood by God when he formed Man he could have told him how to have made him more commodiously Rom. 9. 11. The Children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil Where those words neither having done any good or evil must necessarily exclude all respect to the future good or evil they should do as the Reason of the purpose of God according to Election because it 's evident by the form of speech That they deny something more concerning the Children than the former words being not yet born and yet even they exclude Having done good or evil Actually 3. The Question then is whether An inherent Righteousness be the Condition required of us and in us antecedent to our first Covenant-state And I durst leave this Matter to be determined by the Church of England if our Author would do so too Art 17. Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the Foundation of the World was laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen out of Mankind in Christ and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation whence we are taught 1. That Election is not of all Mankind but of some out of Mankind 2. That this purpose of God was from everlasting 3. That it is a fixed constant decree 4. That the Design of it is to deliver those chosen out of Mankind from the curse under which Mankind was fallen and to bring them to everlasting Salvation 5. That the Reason of this eternal Election was his own counsel 6. That the Execution of this Decree is in and by Iesus Christ and the manner of it follows Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit be called according to the purpose of God working in due season by his Spirit They through Grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made the Sons of God by Adoption they be made like the Image of his onely begotten Son they walk Religiously in good works and at length by Gods mercy they attain everlasting felicity Whence we are Instructed 1. That the calling of the Elect to a Covenant-state is from Grace as the reason and by Grace as it's efficient 2. Their obeying that call of God is by Grace 3. Good works necessarily follow effectual calling See also Art 10. 12 13. 4. Religious walking with God in good works is a necessary condition of eternal Felicity 5. That there is such a firm connexion in this golden chain of Salvation that no one linck can possibly be broken They are Elected freely called effectually justified freely Adopted graciously Sanctified gradually walk Religiously and at length by the mercy of God are saved eternally which the Apostle gives us more concisely Rom. 8. 30. Moreover whom he did Predestinate them he a so called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also Glorified I conclude then that our own righteousness is not the condition of the Covenant of Grace neither of the designment of the Father nor the procurement of the Son nor of the effectual Operation of the Holy Spirit nor of our Covenant-state nor of our Covenant-right nor of the first Covenant-mercy but of many after-mercies and of Eternal Salvation it is the condition 1. Sect. That is not the Condition of the Covenant required of us on our part which God promises to work in us on His part but God has promised to work in us Inherent-righteousness both Root and Fruit Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new Heart also will I give you and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Iudgments and do them 2. Sect. That which God in Covenant bestows cannot be the Condition of a Covenant-state but God in Covenant bestows the new Heart for
draw with him towards a Conclusion Our Author is beginning to make an end but he must first discharge his stomach of a little froth and gall and spit up some venome that lies in his chest in the face of his Adversaries without which he could not possibly conclude his Chapter He tells you summarily what great feats he has done and what greater Atchievements he will adventure on What he has done amounts to this he has discovered great Mistakes in other mens Divinity but cannot espy any in his own he can spy a Mote in his Neighbours eye but considers not his own Beam He has also discover'd the rise of these Mistakes to be from the various usage of the Name Christ in the Writingâ—… of the Apostles The more excusable it seems they are if they had occasion from thence to erre which they might the more easily doe because as he observes well the Writings of Paul are obscure He has also discover'd to us the temper and humour of those Mistaken men They are zealous to advance Christs Person to the prejudice and reproach of his Religion which yet our Author himself when a Qualm of sweet Nature comes over his Heart thinks to be Impossible p. 17. The greater Opinion we have of his Wisdom and Reverence for his Person the more sacred Regard we have for his Lawes He has also discovered a horrid Plot to introduce a fancifull Application of Christ to our selves instead of the substantial Duties of the love of God and Men and an universal Holiness of Life But this is but a plot of his own making unless he had some supernatural Assistances from Beneath He has also for ever discharged the world upon his Blessing from closing with Christ getting into Christ and above all from overloving Christ and admiring his Excellencies and Perfections his Fulness Beauty Loveliness and Riches Wherein if he prevail to his mind he has for ever Obliged the Prince of Darkness to him and done more service to his black Kingdom than he with his Legions hath been able to effect these Sixteen hundred years What he intends further to doe he has reduced to four heads to which I referre the Reader and upon the whole Matter doe onely make this one Observation That through this whole Chapter he has cheated and tormented us with a sorry old Threadbare fallacy A benè compositis ad malè divisa The Persons whom he reviles dare not put asunder those things which God hath joyned together They love the Person of Christ and not therefore break but keep his Commandements They think that Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ and Repentance from dead works are very consistent may and must sweetly meet together and Kiss each other They would be glad to see those who revile them to love and admire Christs Person and shall be content to be reproved so far as they neglect and undervalue his Precepts but they are not to be frighted out of their Love to Him who loved them and gave himself for them They do freely confess that they admire at the Love of the Father in sending his onely begotten Son into the World upon such a design as to save Sinners and they do equally admire the Love of the Lord Jesus Christ that he was so willing to come into the world to be tempted persecuted reproached and at last to dye and give his Life a Ransome for many And though they have heard many Reproaches and Blasphemies uttered against their Saviour yet they have not met with one solid concluding Argument why they should not love him And therefore if they must be vile upon these Accounts they resolve in the strength of Christ to be vile more vile still and shall bind all the Ignominy that is cast upon them for Christs sake unto their Temples as a Crown and Diadem For indeed they do persist in that perswasion with some Obstinacy that it was the Person of Christ who dyed for them it was He upon whom the Chastisement of their Peace did lye it was He whose Soul was made an Offering for sin and upon whom God laid the Iniquities of us All. And therefore our Author must bear with them if they love him as much as they can because they have reason to fear they shall not love him as much as He has deserved They remember a Dreadfull word If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha and would not for all the world fall under the weight of it Their love to his person makes them studious to please him fearfull to offend him zealous to glorifie him and if the will of God be so humbly content to suffer for him They have not met with any Author that has till of late endeavoured a Confutation of Christs personal Excellencies perfections fulness beauty loveliness and riches and they that have made the Attempt have exposed themselves to the universal censure of all that wear the Name of Christian and therefore they do ingenuously acknowledge that they doe admire and honour them and do humbly hope Christ at his coming will not rebuke them for it And when they are invidiously traduced as setting the Person of Christ at oddes with his Gospel they are satisfied that they have not done it in Principle and lament that they have in any the least degree done it in Practice And as they know that the Charge as apply'd to them is a pure impure slander so they conceive it 's vey difficult if not impossible in it self nor can they apprehend how any can really and truely maintain a due esteem of Christ in their hearts but they must have a proportionable value and regard for all his Commandments and Injunctions That these things are become Riddles to any professing the Name of Christ they tremble at as a sad symptome that the Gospel is hid to them and from them They do also in the general approve of any Labours managed with a due regard to the Majesty of God and the Lord Jesus Christ in order to the discovery of any Expressions in their Writings or Discourses which might in the least be misinterpreted to degrade and thrust down Holiness from its Throne but withall they are unwilling to be railed out of a good Opinion of Christs Person seeing that however they may have sinned in breaking his Laws it will not mend the matter to lessen the honour they justly have for Himself and had rather be severely chidden for their sin than scoffed out of their Duty But of these Matters thus far CHAP. II. Of what use the Consideration of Christs Person is in the Christian Religion IN the Entrance of this Chapter I observe our Author is feelingly concern'd to amove from himself the sinister suspition of a Design to render Christ useless And he makes a solemn Protestation not onely of his own Innocency but is ready to become Surety and Compurgator for all his Accomplices A design sayes he which I confess I
Gospel and Salvation by Christ when time should serve 3. It would be cleared what he means by as well as since aequè but not aequaliter sure not so much as since but as truely and really as since But because his Reason is to be the Measure of his Assertion let us attend to it with diligence This Respect is founded on that Natural Relation God owns to Mankind To which I answer Whatever respect God had to the Gentiles so as to afford them at any time the Means of Salvation it was not founded on Natural Relation as their Creator but on a Relation Voluntary and of pure and mere Grace and we will joyn issue with him upon this point when he pleases But I shall endeavour to set the Apostles Argument upon its own Legs What he drove at he shews you v. 28. That a Man is justifi'd by Faith without the deeds of the Law he had proved this in the foregoing Verse thus The way that God takes in the Iustifying of a Person is such a one as shuts out of dores Boasting But Justification by Faith onely excludes Boasting and the way of Justifying by works would not exclude it and therefore God takes that way to justifie the Sons of Men In this 29th verse he proceeds to another Argument to evince the same Thing If Justification come by the works of the Law then never any Gentile could be justifi'd but some Gentiles have been justifi'd Therefore Justification comes not by the works of the Law That some Gentiles had been justified he proves in the Instance of Abraham who was justifi'd not in Circumcision but in Uncircumcision as he sayes ch 4. v. 10. Now it 's evident that Circumcision and Uncircumcision are Terms of equal wideness with Iew and Gentile For that which he calls v. 29. of the third Chapter Iew and Gentile Verse the 30th he expresses by Circumcision and Uncircumcision It is one God that shall justifie the Circumcision the Jews by Faith and the Uncircumcision the Gentiles â—…hrough Faith and this he brings as a proof of his foregoing Assertion Seeing it is one God c. And therefore Abraham though he were an Hebrew by Birth whether so denominated as coming from the Race of Heber or from his passing over Euphrates as some will have it it makes no matter yet being uncircumcised he fills the room in Gods account of a Gentile or one of the Nations Now for the proof of the sequel of the first Proposition That if Iustification comes by the works of the Law then never any Gentile could be justified he takes special care to put that out of Question v. 30. Seeing it is one God that justifies There is but one God that justifies and therefore but one way of Justification as he is alwayes the same so is his Method alwayes the same One God one Christ one Faith and therefore if ever any Gentile were justifi'd without the works of the Law never any Jew could be justifi'd by it for that would be to suppose two wayes of justifying sinners and such were Jews and Gentiles both under sin both guilty before God and then that would prove that God were not the same one God which the Apostle throws out of dores Let our Author now cast up his Accounts and see what he has gain'd by this place God is the God of the Gentiles Such a God as has justified Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for instance Abraham and that as his God in a Covenant of Grace I will be thy God and therefore it follows that Jews are not were not could not be justified by the works of the Law and then no such thing will be inferred that God as a Creator had such a respect to every Individual Person in the World being fallen sinners 〈◊〉 to give them the Means of Salvation But to proceed This plainly evinces saith he that all those particular favours which God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that People Methinks I hear our Author speak like the Great Pompey when he had got Caesar into Lobs-pound Non recusare se quin nullius usûs Imperator existimaretur si sine maximo detrimento Legiones Caesaris sese recepissent inde quo temerè essent progressae De Bell. Civ lib. 3. Let our Author never be reputed a Man at Arms more if he has not got us into such a Cramp and Purse-nett that we shall never escape without loss of Bag and Baggage For thus he assaults us Had God a Partial Fondness and respect for Israel Answer Yea or No. I see we are quite undone If we say No he has us on the Hip and comes over us with a Why not what no respect for Israel no favour for his Beloved People Why Psal. 147. 20. He has not dealt so with any Nation he shew'd his Word unto Iacob his Statutes and his Iudgements unto Israel and where are we now If we say Yes Then he fetches us over the Coles What partial fondness in God! one Law for Titius another for Sempronius Fish of one and Flesh of another I see we must fall upon one of the horns of this Dilemma and both are equally mortal And never was there more need of the Curat 's Collect to be deliver'd from the great Pain and Peril of Cowgoring We have got a Wolf by the Ears and dare neither keep nor slip our hold for our own When I read this and some other like passages in his Book surely thought I this man takes us all for Widgeons and Woodcocks and that to Scrible with him is 〈◊〉 thing but the Recreation of catching Dottrels hâ—… could never else hope to Impose upon us with so Childish and obvious a Sophism In short 't is nothing but Fallacia plurium interrogationum As 〈◊〉 you should ask our Author Whether he were 〈◊〉 London with a Feather in 's Cap He would not scruple to answer He is indeed at London in the Parish of St. George but he has no Feather in'â—… Cap Well Good for one good for another God had a respect for Israel but no partial Fondness Two things then would be a little cleared that God had and upon wh at account he had a particular respect to Israel 1. God had a special respect to Israel above all the People in the World Rom. 3. 1. What advantage then hath the Iew and what profit is there of Circumcision Much every way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon all accounts they carried it But chiefly that unto them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 9. 4. To whom pertaineth the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the Services of God and the Promises whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came As whereas God chose Abrahams Posterity and committed His Laws to them from whence as our Author thinks all the rest of the World might when they please fetch the Rules of
them and the only thing that gives a right to the promises of Future glory is to obey the Laws and imitate the Example of our Saviour and to be transformed into the Nature and Likeness of God We must crave his leave to take his words in pieces that we may the better deal with them 1. The Gospel says he makes a different Representation of it tells us expresly that he is righteous that doth righteousness But say I This is no representation of our justification different from what the Doctor has assigned And let the words be Interpreted how he will they make nothing against the Doctors assertions 1. Let these words He is Righteous signifie He is Inherently righteous or holy and then the plain Sence is that he that doth righteousness that practises an Uniform and Universal conformity in his Life to the Gospel may charitably be judged by others and certainly known by his own Conscience to be such a one as a Tree is known by its fruits For so are we warranted by our Saviour to make a Judgment Mat. 7. 16. And the same warrant we have from the Church of England Art 12. Insomuch that by them good Works that necessarily spring of a true and lively faith a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the Fruit. 2. Let the words be interpreted of that Righteousness by which in which and for which we stand accepted as Righteous before God yet it meets in the same point he that from an honest and good heart brings forth holy Fruit most certainly justified in the sight of God and is accepted of him we may argue â—… hope without Offence from the Effect to the Cause and yet the Cause and the Effect are two things He that is sanctified is justified and yet Sanctification is not Justification we may safely conclude an imputed Righteousness from an imparted Righteousness and yet that Righteousness which we have in Christ may be another thing from that Righteousness which we have by influence from Christ as our Head 2. Sayes he The Gospel tells us that without Holiness no man shall see God It does so indeed but does it tell us that Holiness is inconsistent with our Iustification by the Righteousness of Christ Or does it tell us that upon the account of our own Holiness we shall be justified before God 3. The onely way to obtain the Pardon of Sins is to repent of them and forsake them That without Repentance there 's no possibility of obtaining Pardon of Sin we freely grant they must be Sinners that need a Pardon and they must be penitent Sinners that are qualified to receive one The Gospel has annex'd by express Promise the Pardon of Sin to Repentance 1 Ioh. 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness But what an absurd way of procedure is this to jumble and confound things together which ought to have their several Apartments and distinct Interests allotted to them in one and the same Effect The Grace of God as the great Spring and Fountain of all Mercy must have a place in the Pardon of a Sinner and the blood of Iesus Christ as the Meritorious Cause justly challenges a great room therein Eph. 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood even the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ will come in for a share too as it gives us an Interest in what he has suffered by way of Atonement to God and Expiation of our sins and godly sorrow for hatred of and turning from sin in Purpose and Resolution at least must have its proper Concern therein too But to assert that Repentance is the onely way of procuring Pardon excluding Faith and the Propitiation made in the Blood of Christ needs more grains of Allowance than he will afford to any he deals with to make it justifiable But the vanity of this Fallacy lyes in this That he opposes the Righteousness of Christ and the Means whereby it 's applyed to our Persons As if one would stiffly contend that we are justified by Faith alone and therefore not by the Righteousness of Christ whereas we are therefore justified by Faith because we are justified by Christ we are justified by the Righteousness of Christ alone as that which God onely considers in the Justification of a Sinner to answer his Law his Justice and we are justified by Faith alone as that which makes Christ ours Say the same here Repentance is a Means to qualifie us for the receiving the pardon of Sin God will never give forth a Pardon to that Sinner that is not brought upon his knees throughly humbled for his Transgressions yet still that which God respects in the pardon of a Sinner is the Blood of his Son without shedding of which there is not there cannot be any Remission Hebr. 9. 22. But no man shall perswade our Author to distinguish betwixt Christs procurement of so great a Mercy and the Way of the Gospel appointment for the Applying it to our selves 4. The onely thing that gives us a right to the Promises of future Glory is to obey the Laws and imitate the Example of our Saviour and to be transformed into the Nature and Likeness of God For my part I conceive far otherwise That though our Holiness give us a Meetness and Fitness to partake of the Inheritance of the Saints in light yet it was the Lord Jesus Christ that procured our right and title to it and the Promise of it The Church of England was of the same Opinion when it decreed Art 13. That works done before the Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of the Spirit are not pleasant to God neither do they make men meet to receive Grace c. And then we may presume will not make us meet to receive Glory much less give us a right and title to the Promises of it And Art 12. That the works which follow after Iustistification are those that are pleasing and acceptable to God and I think we may equally take it for granted that upon our justification with God we have a right to the Promises of future Glory But if this be true that the onely thing that gives us this right be Obedience to Imitation of Christ and Conformity to the Nature of God we may have a Right to when we have actual Possession of Glory for till then it will hardly be true that we have obeyed all Christs Laws But our Author had Wit in his Anger and was aware of an Objection that was coming against him and wisely layes in for it as well as he could It might be returned to all that he had said How can so imperfect an Obedience as ours is so every wayes lame and defective and short of the exact Law of God ever give us a right to the Promises of future Glory Yes
6. The Holy One of Israel Isa. 41. 14. Elect and precious 1 Pet. 2. 6. That he was also typified by most excellent and glorious Persons and Things By Moses David Solomon by the Pillar of Cloud by the Rose of Sharon In the pursuit of which Metaphors and Types perhaps he has a little overshot himself and alas how easie a matter is that It 's very hard to stop at a point when we are upon the full speed St. George himself straining for a blow at the Dragon had like to have come over These are Human Errours and I wish our Authors were of no worse Consequence But 1. Our Author forgets himself to say that Mr. W. uses these Metaphors to prove when all the Service they doe him is to illustrate his Doctrine sufficiently otherwise confirmed from innumerable Scriptures If our Author will not allow the Pearl to signifie Christs Preciousness yet it 's very clear that Christ is precious If he boggle that the circular Figure of Manna should denote Christs Perfection yet that he is Perfect is undenyable 2. Whatever was a Type of Christ represented some of his Personal Excellencies Actions or Sufferings c. If then we single out the most eminent of their Natural Excellencies and then consider which of Christs spiritual Excellencies syncretize with them all the hurt that 's in it is that those Types are more beholden to Christ than he to them And 3. We ought to consider that there 's a greater latitude of Expression allowed in Open handed Discourses ad Populum than in your Double-fisted Disputations in the Schools Our blessed Saviour does accommodate his Discourses to his Disciples and preach as they were able to hear him and Mr. Watson does not alwayes preach or write to such long-ear'd People as our Author is And thus after all Mr. Watson may be very Innocent but whosoever is in the the Right our Author will be sure to be in the Wrong for when all that Discourse had spent it self to perswade us that Christ is excellent that he deserves our Love our Service and Obedience our Author could make no better use on 't than to throw a Flout upon the very Person of our Redeemer Who says he can forbear being smitten with so lovely a Person Really he may do well to consider whether his License will justifie him to Scoffe at Christs Person toties quoties he meets with any that shall dare to give him a good word I have known some so prodigal of their Friends that they would sell the best they had for a sorry frothy Iest but should our Author forfeit the Favour of Christ when he shall most need it for a poor half-witted Conceit it would be more than he would ever get by it But hence we learn how difficult it is for any to have a little more Wit than his Neighbours and not to discover it though it had been more comely to have been facetious any where than against A Saviour and may he in time come to himself least he be smitten with Christ in a fence not to his good liking 2 The Second Way whereby these men Pervert the Scripture is that they argue from their own preconceived Notions and Opinions about the sence of Scripture And to have sav'd charges both these might have been mustered for one but then it would not have born such a Port nor carryed so much state and Majesty in its looks The first way was When they find any words in Scripture which chime to the Tune of their private Conceits they interpret them by the sound of words And this second way is the first way in other words when they Argue from their own pre-conceived Notions But perhaps there may be some subtle Essential difference between their own Conceits and their own preconceived Notions which though he can every one cannot discover Now of this first or second or same or New or no Way call it which he pleases he will give us some few Instances 1. There are says he a great many places which expressely tell us we are justified by Faith have Remission of sins by Faith c. Now the difficulty will be how we shall Reconcile these Scriptures to their Notion of being justified by Christs Righteousness For as he acutely observes Faith certainly is not the Righteousness of Christ in their Notion of it No nor in his neither if he rightly understands himself Now those other men have a way to Reconcile our being Iustified by the Righteousness of Christ onely and our being justified by Faith onely and it is this When Faith is said to justifie they understand not this Absolutely as if Faith did justifie either as it is a Work wrought iin us or an Act performed by us but relatively as t makes us one with Christ by whom we are justified And they assign this Reason for it Because had Iustification been promised to any thing wrought in us or done by us it had been by Works And this Conciliation of the true Interest of Faith and Christ in the business of Justification is justified by the Doctrine of the Church of England Art 11. We are accounted Righteous before God onely for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works or Deservings wherefore that we are justified by Faith onely is a most wholsom Doctrine Now our Author might with great Applause have placed out his Reconciling skill upon this Article How we can be Justified for the Merit of Christ onely and yet by Faith onely And again How we can be Justified by Faith onely or indeed at all and yet not for our own Works we find in Scripture that the same Effects are attributed to Faith which are attributed to Christ Iustified by Christ Isa. 53. 11. and justified by Faith Rom. 3. 28. We live by Christ Joh. 6. 57. and we live by Faith Gal. 2. 20. Are pardon'd by Christ Act. 13. 38. are pardon'd also by Faith Act. 26. 18. Have peace with God by Christ Col. 1. 20. have peace with him also by Faith Rom. 5. 2. Have Access to God by Christ Eph. 2. 18. have Access also by Faith Eph. 3. 12. Are sanctified by Christ Heb. 10. 14. and sanctified by Faith Act. 15. 9. Overcome the World by Christ Joh. 16. 33. and so also by Faith 1 Joh. 5. 4 5. The Sons of God by Christ Eph. 1. 5. and so by Faith Gal. 3. 26. These things being thus it seems to be a worthy Enquiry what Part and Share Christ may Challenge and what Faith may claim in the Justification of a Soul before God that so we may give unto Christ the things that are Christs and unto Faith the things that are Faiths And 1 It 's very evident that their Concerns are really Distinct Christ Justifies in one respect Faith ◅in another It 's possible that some ver 9. Infants may be Justified without Fāith in Christ but impossible that any should be Justified
without Gods respect to Christ for herein the Scripture is Peremptory and God is at a point with all the World Acts 4. 12. There 's no other Name under Heaven given by which we must be saved neither is there Salvation in any other 2. It 's evident from those very Places where the Concerns of Christ and of Faith are joyntly mentioned not only that they have really distinct Interests but that Christ carries the Supremacy and that Faith has only a subservient Concernment therein Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. Whence it 's plain that whatever Faith contributes to our peace with God yet even that Operates through Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Gal. 3. 16. Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Iesus Christ It 's the Redeemer as made a Curse for us ver 13. that gives Faith all it 's Vertue and Efficacy And Gal. 2. 20. The life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me Where such a Concernment is ascribed to Christ in the Soùls life that Faith is not at all Capable of He loved me and gave himself for me 3. It 's no loss evident that Christ by his Death and Sufferings has removed those insuperable Impediments which lay in the way of a sinners Justification Reconciliation with God Expiation of sin which Faith could not possibly Undertake and Atchieve 4. That what ever Parts Christ and Faith have in this Glorious work yet no more must be Ascribed to either than can consist with a Free and Gratuitous Iustification Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 5. It 's evident that the Sacrifice Sufferings c. of Christ and that Reconciliation and Atonement procured by them do not in the least Enterfere with Justification by Free-Grace for Christ himself is Free-gift and that God would admit a Mediator to Interpose on our behalf that he would accept a Propitiation for us is all due to Free-Grace and therefore Free-Grace and Jesus Christ are joyned together Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ. 6. It is also as evident that to ascribe Justification to Faith as it is our Work or Act will take off just so much from the freedom of Grace as is ascribed to it as a work in us or done by us and therefore Faith must needs Justifie us by vertue of that respect that it carries towards a Redeemer and to assign it any other Interest is to Entrench upon that free Justification which the Gospel does so abundantly Preach Now what Title to give to Faith as it Justifies whether that of an Instrument or a Condition I dispute not let the proper Concerns of Faith and Christ be secured and their distinct Actings kept Inviolable and Sacred and if any can find more apposite and significant Terms than Protestants have used I shall be very well content But now our Author will favour us with a Reason why Iustification by Faith as it is our own Act may consist with Iustification by Free-Grace Modest men says he who dream not of Meriting by every thing they do would have thought that Free-Grace and Faith might have been easily reconciled though 〈◊〉 had justified as our own Act since the Reward and Recompence does so infinitely exceed the Work that there can be no suspition of Merit and where there is no Merit the reward is of Grace and not of Debt what ever the Condition of the Promise be But 1. Gods Free-Grace will not be beholden to nor stand to the Courtesie of Mans Modesty and besides all men are not so Modest as our Author is and if they were it would be hard Trusting them Man is indeed a very Proud and Haughty Creature till Free Grace tames him loth to stoop to those Methods of Gods Wisdom for the abasing the Creature that Grace may be magnified in his Mercies And I see plainly that God has Contrived the way of shewing favour to a lost Sinner in such Wisdom that every Mouth shall be stopped that Boasting shall be excluded and that no Flesh shall glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1. 29. 2. It 's not what men will do out of their sweet Natures that comes here into Consideration but what they may do God has taken a Course they shall not cannot have cause to Glory but if the sinner be justified by his own Act as 't is his he has whereof to boast Rom. 4. 2. If Abraham were justified by Works he hath whereof to boast though it may be some Virtuoso's would be so Modest and Civil as not to lay it in the Dish of Free-Grace 3. It 's precariously supposed that Grace in the justification of a sinner is only opposed to Merit The Scripture has opposed it to Works and set them as Inconsistent in the dealings out of Mercy from God to men whether there be such a proportion between the Work and the Reward or no Rom. 11. 6. And if by Grace then it 's no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace 4. They may be very Immodest men and yet want the Confidence to dream of Merit by every thing they do and yet there are those that dream to this day of Meriting Heaven by that for which they a thousand times better merit a Halter Protestant Divines in the explicating the Concerns of Faith in our Justification that they might Accommodate their Discourses to the Capacity of them with whom they deal have found out certain Similitudes which do well express their own Intentions when they say Faith justifies us not as our own Act but by vertue of its Relation to Christ who is our Righteousness Thus we say the Ring stanches Blood and yet we intend no more than that the Haematites set in it has that Vertue That our Hand relieves us and yet perhaps it contributes no more towards it than that it receives the Charity of another That a Bucket quenches our Thirst yet all it does is to bring us the Water from the Fountain which quenches it And many others they have Invented the best they could find none so mean but is above Contempt yet none so excellent to be above Malice The use they make of them is as I said to cloath their Conceptions and give some Light into the Thing but by no means to prove the Truth when it is drawn into Controversie But from hence our Author is taking another Ramble and going to run his old Wild-Goose Chase of Prophaneness and Scurrility the easiest way of Confutation certainly that ever was Invented But let his own Folly chastise him or if not delight him and in the mean time excuse me from bearing him Company 2. Another Instance and but another he will give us How Men argue from their preconceived Notions and that is
about the Necessity of Good Works For says he when they are pressed with those Scriptures that urge the Necessity of Good Works What do they then Nay that he could not tell but carries on a suspended Sence for almost two whole Pages and in the end leaves it unintelligible Nonsence But however let us hear those Texts that are so pressing for Good works and a holy Life Why VVithout Holiness no Man shall see God The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men. Truly these Scriptures do press upon our Consciences and Practices but not upon our Principles Well then there are others that assert Our Acceptation with God depends upon a Holy and Vertuous life I promise you that presses indeed But it does not press me Our Acceptation with God depends upon a Holy life as the Qualification but it depends upon Christ for Procurement But the places are Acts 10. 35. God is no Respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him Well let us examine whom this Text does press most The Apostle Peter in that excellent Discourse ver 43. tells us To him Christ give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in Him should receive Remission of sins Whatsoever of acceptation with God then they that fear God and work Righteousness do obtain still it 's through the Name of Christ. The Text then presses not us he must call for more weight if he designs to Press us to Death But as I remember pag. 44. our Author with much Confidence would bear us down that the Iews who knew nothing at all of Christ yet undeâ—…stood God to be a Sin-pardoning God And yet the Apostle assures us 1. That all the Prophets gave witness to Christ. 2. That their Testimony was this That they were to expect Remission of sins through the Name of Christ. 3. That the Means of acquiring the Remission of sins through Christ was by believing in Him And now let him ask his own Shoulders whether this Text does not press him But there is another Scripture that will break their bones Mat. 5. 20. Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And what was their Righteousness Why he tells us They were a company of Immoral Hypocrites who placed all their Righteousness in observing the Ceremonies of the Law without the purity of their Hearts and Lives Well and we think a Man may Travel a great many Leagues beyond such Debauches and never come near the Kingdom of Heaven Let them then Groan under the weight of it who place their Religion in Ceremony and prophane Drollery it presses not them who professing Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ and Repentance from Dead works subject themselves to his Gospel Well but there is one more that will Grind them to Powder ver 19. He that breaks the least of these Commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven And this will certainly press them who Renouncing their part in the Satisfaction given to God by Christ trust to their own Imperfect repentance wherein there are so many Flaws as will amount to the breach of some Commandment and then our Author has quite shut them out of the Kingdom of Heaven To conclude this Section our Author has one round Fling at Doctor Owen and it is ex Officio no doubt I suppose he may hold some fair Estate by this Tenure That he Persecute the Doctor with Fire and Faggot as far as a pair of Shooes of a great price will carry him The Question is What necessity there is of Obedience The Doctor had said That Universal Obedience and good Works are Indispensibly necessary to Salvation by the sovereign appointment and Will of God To this our Author answers This is not one syllable to the purpose Why then It 's the end of the Fathers electing Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose It 's the end of the Sons redeeming Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose It 's the end of the Spirits sanctifying Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose Well but it 's necessary to the Glory of the Father Son and Holy Ghost That 's not one syllable to the purpose neither If neither the Sovereignty of God over us the Love of God to us nor the Glorifying of God by Us be to the purpose of Obedience let our Author speak to the purpose So he will God hath commanded Obedience but where 's the Sanction of the Law Will he Damn all that will not Obey for their Disobedience Where 's the Sanction of the Law I am sure that Question is very little to the purpose It 's the Command it self that makes a Duty that creates a necessity The Authority of the Law-giver lays the Obligation upon the Subject It 's our Interest to Obey upon the account of the Sanction but it 's our duty to Obey upon the Command it self But not to hold him in suspense God will Damn all those that will not Obey for their Disobedience Our Author has now quite run himself a Ground and is Pumpt dry of his Drollery and therefore turns Catechist and Persecutes us with Impertinent Queries I have heard some say that an Ideot may tye more Knots in an Hour than a Wise-man can untye in a day But however though we might plead it's Coram non Iudice yet for once let him suppose himself in his Desk and his poor Catechumens humbly waiting upon his Foot-stool Quest. Will God Damn those who do not Obey for their disobedience Answ. Yes and it please you Sir Qu. But will he save and reward those who do Obey for their Obedience An. He will reward their Obedience but not save them for their Obedience Qu. But will the Father Elect none but those that are Holy An. Yes and it like your good Learning he Elects them that they may be Holy but not because they are Holy Ephes. 1. 4. Ephes. 2. 10. Qu. But wil the Son Redeem none but those that are holy An. Yes indeed Sir a great many for a Redeemer supposes them to be sinners and Captives under sin Qu. But will he reject and Reprobate all that are not Holy An. God has not Reprobated all that were or are not holy for then he had Reprobated all the World but he will reject all that continue unholy to the Death Qu. But tell me Doth this Election and Redemption suppose Holiness in us or is it without any regard to it An. Neither the one nor the other It 's Fallacia plurium Interrogationum They neither presuppose Holiness in us nor are they without all regard to Holiness it is a necessary Effect but not a Cause of Election and Redemption Qu. Dost thou stand chopping Logick with thy Betters If we be Elected and Redeemed without regard
prevent Objections It 's evident says he from the Chapter that Christ when he speaks in the First Person I and in Me cannot mean this of his own Person but of his Church Doctrine and Religion But where lies the Evidence of this great Demonstration Why Christ says I am the true Vine and ye are the Branches He that abideth in me and I in him bringeth forth much Fruit for without me you can do nothing Well what of all this Why our Author would willingly Learn what sence can be made of all this if we understand it of the Person of Christ And I will as willingly Teach him if he be not too proud to Learn I Iesus Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant am very fitly compared to a Vine and ye my Disciples are as fitly compared to the Branches of a Vine Now he that really abideth in me by a true lively faith and I in him by the Quickening Operations of my Spirit the same bringeth forth much Fruit of holy Obedience for without derivation of Grace from Me your Root you can do nothing that is truly good and acceptable to God Oh! but he has two or three formidable Objections against this Interpretation 1. It 's not very Intelligible How we can be or abide in Christs Person No more it is If we bring Capernaitical understandings along with us who Puzled their Heads with a gross Notion of Carnal eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of Christ. If by being in Christ were understood a Local Physical or Natural being in Him it were somewhat Unintelligible but when no more is meant by it but that every true Believer is by Constitution of the Covenant of Grace one Person morally with Christ so considered and dealt with by God there 's no more insuperable Difficulty than what unbelief will create in the clearest Truths of the Gospel But 2. It 's more unintelligible still How we can be in the Person of Christ and the Person of Christ at the same time be in us Which is a new piece of Philosophy called Penetration of Dimensions But there 's no great danger in that Christ may dwell in us by his Spirit and we in him by Faith and yet Faith and the Spirit never disturb each other in their Motions but what the Dimensions of the Soul in its actings of Faith or of the Spirit in it's working of Grace are this I confess is to me unintelligible And that a Christian should be in the Church and the Church at the same time be in a Christian had been equally Unintelligible and as much danger of the Penetration of Dimensions But that our Author stumbled upon a happy Expedient that I should signifie a Doctrine and Me a Church to heal the Contradiction 3. That our Fruitfulness should depend on our Union to Christ is as hard to my understanding Truly I cannot help that I have no Medicine to cure Crazed Intellectuals He that cannot understand that Believers do receive Actual assistance from Christ by his Spirit to help them in the way of their Duty and to encourage them against the Difficulties they meet withal in their Duties cannot I presume understand very many Lines in the Gospel 3. Our last Task is to Examine what improvement he has made of this Interpretation and in short it is this That the Union of particular Christians to Christ consists in their Union to the Christian Church And now I am abundantly satisfied that our Author is a very Philomel Vox praeterea nihil One whose Volubility of Tongue and Pen supplies the place of Argument and Demonstration I hope our Author will not meet with many Readers who have so far parted with their Memories as not to remember what that was he Propounded to himself to Evince viz. That the Union of particular Christians to Christ is by means of their Union with the Christian Church And yet now when he comes to cast up his Accounts we have gotten another Conclusion That the Union of particular Christians to Christ consists in their Union to the Christian Church Surely the Purblind will espie some small difference Eating is a means to Living yet none but a Swine of Epicurus his Stye will say that Living consists in Eating The High-road is a means to bring the Traveller Home yet it will be hard to perswade us that being at Home consists in Travelling Trading is a mean to Riches yet Riches do not formally consist in Trading The end may possibly be separated from the Means but nothing can be separated from that thing wherein it consists But let that pass If he has proved either the one or the other I am content he be reputed an Artist The thing he has a good will to prove is That the Union of particular Christians to Christ is either by means of their Union to the Christian Church or else that it consists in it Now for the Proof of this He has told us That the Church is the Body of Christ The Church is the Temple of Christ The Church is the Spouse of Christ The Church is the Flock of Christ. And had it been referred to a thousand Persons not one but would have thought that that Christ who is the Head of that Body is a Person He that is the Husband of that Spouse is a Person He that is the Shepheard of the Flock is a Person and He that Dwells in that Temple is a Person But things are not so far gone but our Author shall have his Opinion and choose what he will abide by for my part I am much unconcern'd let him please himself he shall not displease me at all Say then Shall it be Christs Doctrinal or Christs Ecclesiastical that is the Head of this Body The Husband of this Spouse The Shepheard of this Flock I can rest satisfied But then the Sence runs thus A Doctrine or a Church is the Head of the Church A Doctrine or a Church is the Husband of the Church A Doctrine or a Church is the Shepheard of the Church If this does not please him let him try the other way and allow it to be a Person that is all these A Person that is the Head Husband and Shepheard of the Church And now I must plainly acquaint him That he has Entangled his Affairs in such confusion that he will never be able to Extricate them For 1. If the Person of Christ be here intended then it seems at last whatever the means be of that Union yet there is an Union to the Person of Christ and whereinsoever that Union consists yet such an Uunion there is How absurd would it be to enquire whether our Union to Christ's Person consists in our Union with a particular Church If Union to Christs Person be a Non-entity Or Whether our Union with a particular Church be the means to our Union with Christ If there be no such thing And then 2. He is as much concern'd as his poor Neighbours to salve the
Gospel the same Faith the same Blessing with Christians he was justified the same way but so had our Father Abraham But what is our Author's judgment in the case I confess that 's hard to discover p. 243. he gives us The Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Faith and the Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Iesus Christ as Synonima's And again expresly p. 245. he observes it to us for a choice discovery That the Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of Faith or Righteousness by the Faith of Christ. And now p. 246. he is peremptory That this Righteousness of Faith and this alone can recommend us to God Which says he the Apostle proves from the example of Abraham and adds That Abraham who was the Father of the faithful was set forth for a patern of our Iustification Now scarce one of his Readers in a thousand but would have been trying Conclusions out of his premises Abraham's Righteousness was the Righteousness of Faith But the Righteousness of Faith is the Righteousness of Faith in Christ therefore Abraham's Righteousness was the Righteousness of Faith in Christ. Again says he the Apostle proves that this Righteousness of Faith and this alone can recommend us to God If then there be but one only Righteousness that can recommend us to God either Abraham and Christians have one and the same Righteousness or else one of them must needs want a Righteousness that can recommend them to God But now from these premises our Author concludes that Abraham's Faith was not a Faith in Christ. Then say I His Righteousness was not the Righteousness by Faith in Christ And then it was not neither the Righteousness of Faith no nor the Righteousness of God for our Author has warranted us p. 243 and 245. That the Righteousness of Faith the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness by the Faith of Christ are but all one Righteousness But here we have the Quintessence and Elixir of our Author 's rational Abilities To this purpose he argues The Father of the faithful and his believing Children are justified both one way But Abraham the Father of the faithful was justified one way and therefore Believers who are his Children are justified another Now I like our Author's Conclusions dearly when they are together by the ears with their premises Again Thus he reasons Abraham was set forth for a patern of our Iustification But nothing ought to be like its patern and therefore you may be sure if Abraham was justified one way Believers are justified another Again The Apostle proves what way Believers are justified from the example of Abraham But now the Apostle you know always argues from one sort of things to another his way of concluding is by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore if Abraham was justified by Faith you may conclude from thence then Christians are justified by Works and if Believers are justified by Faith in Christ then to be sure Abraham was justified some other way The plain truth is our Author is got into a Cramp and has so hamper'd and bangled his matters that I am very confident none of his Readers do understand him and it were well if he understood himself There are two Enquiries he will make to enlighten us in this Mystery 1. What that Faith was whereby Abraham was justified 2. What Agreement there is between the Faith of Abraham and the Faith in Christ. 1. What that Faith was whereby Abraham was justified To which he answers 1. Negatively It was not a Faith in Christ. Which Determination might have better become any mans mouth than hiâ—… whose hand has subscribed the Seventh Article of the Church of England Both in the Old-Testament and the New Everlasting Life is offered to Mankind by Iesus Christ who is the only Mediator between God and man being both God and man And I do the rather urge him with this Article because it speaks not only what respect God might have to Christ in bestowing Eternal Life but that there was an offer to Mankind of Eternal Life through Christ which speaks that respect which Believers had to a Mediator in their Faith But perhaps these Articles are but matter of course and form and therefore I shall press him with what has more weight than a sorry Subscription The Righteousness of God says he p. 245. is the Righteousness of Faith or Righteousness by the Faith of Christ But Abraham's Righteousness was the Righteousness of God and therefore it was the Righteousness of Faith or the Righteousness by the Faith of Iesus Christ Yea says our Author Christ was the material Object of Abraham ' s Faith that is he believed the promise of God's sending Christ into the World John 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Hence it 's evident that Abraham had a great and personal concern in Christ's coming into the World which made his heart leap within him The same which the Apostle expresseth Rom. 5. 11. We joy in God through our Lord Iesus Christ through whom we have received the Atonement For what cause of all this triumph all this joy that Christ should come into the World some thousands of years after he should be dead and buried and rotten in his grave to preach a Gospel in which he had no concern and for which he should not be one pin the better But our Author will prove that Abraham's Faith was not a Faith in Christ because no man could believe in Christ till he came But I prosess my self otherwise perswaded and that the actual exhibition of Christ in the flesh was not at all times absolutely necessary to a believing in him Abraham believed that testimony which God gave of his son that in him all the Nations of the earth should be blessed He believed that God would bless him for the sake of Christ. He saw Christ slain from the Foundation of the World in Sacrifices He saw a Redeemer as that way which God had chosen to bruise the head of the Serpent which St. Iohn expounds 1 Epist. 3. 8. by destroying the works of the Devil and Paul Heb. 2. 14. by destroying the Devil that is so far as he had got the power of Death into his hands by sin and in that security which he received from the promise of God and from Christ who was the Reason of its being made good Yea and Amen His Soul did rejoyce with exceeding great joy for so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do import But our Author has a Notion of Believing that is worth two of this and will do his work To believe any thing upon the Authority of Christ is the true Notion of believing in him To which I answer 1. Supposing this to be the true Notion of believing yet might Abraham receive a Doctrine upon the Authority of Christ before his Manifestation in the Flesh Christ was Mediator before his
Father of the faithful if Abraham's Faith and theirs differ toto Genere Those things that differ in their special Nature may yet agree in their common Nature but those things that are of divers kinds wherein shall they agree But all this is but a scandal thrown upon the Apostle who proves from Abraham's way of being justified the way of Christians being justified Rom. 4. As Abraham was justified without Works so are we Vers. 2. As Abraham had a Righteâ—…sness imputed to him even so have we Vers. 11. That Righteousness might be imputed to them also As Abraham's Righteousness was a Righteousness of Faith even so is ours Vers. 11. A Seal of the Righteousness of Faith As Abraham was justified by free Grace so are we V. 5. To him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly Thus was his Righteousness the patern of ours his Faith the patern of ours And is it not a strange Copy that differs in kind from its Idaea That 's a huge way off from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if you should propound a House for your patern and draw a Horse to sample it Once more look into Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture fore-seeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preach'd before the Gospel to Abraham Now if Abraham had not our Faith what needed he to have our Gospel The end of preaching the Gospel is to beget Faith and it was an equivocal Generation if it begat a Faith of one kind in Abraham another in Christians What needed this circumspect Caution of Providence that Abraham should have the glad tidings of the Gospel preach'd to him which made him rejoyce and be glad if a Faith of a lower size would serve his turn for Justification Again vers 13. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Iesus Christ. If we have his blessing surely he had our Faith Or could Abraham get the blessing without Christ but Christians no other way but in Christ But thus has our Author vindicated the Apostles Reasonings as if he had secretly design'd as he openly professes of the Wriings of others to expose them to contempt It may be now seasonable to examine his Definition of a Gospel-Faith viz. Such a stedfast belief of all those Revelations which Christ hath made to the World as governs our lives and actions If this be to define put but a company of Letters in a bag shuffle them well together then shake them out and they will tumble into as good a Definition as this comes to But thus did Atoms by dancing in Infinite and Eternal Spaces justle one another so long till at last they produced this beautiful Fabrick of Heaven and Earth I except against it 1. Because the whole Priestly Office of Christ is excluded by it Propitiation Atonement Expiation of sin are shut quite out of all consideration and the Death and Sufferings of Christ of no regard unless perhaps they may come in by way of Motive to believe his Doctrine as a Prophet And if this be his Faith I must profess I would not venture my Salvation in his Church for the hopes of all the good or fear of all the evil this World can either flatter or affright me with however I beg Grace from God that I may not He that has but half a Christ had as good have no Christ and he that takes him not wholly into the Definition of his Faith may as safely leave him wholly out As half a heart in God's account is no heart so half a Saviour in Faith's esteem is no Saviour 2. I except against it because it may be found in Hypocrites They may so far believe the Revelations of Christ as to govern their lives and actions and yet their hearts never be purified by that Faith 3. It pretends to define Faith and yet gives us no Genus of it Faith is such a Belief as governs our lives and actions that is Faith is Faith that governs our lives and actions But the Question is What is that Faith that will so govern our lives and actions For it describes not any direct influence of Faith upon our Iustification but our obedience And whereas he pretends to assign some differences that may distinguish it from all other Faith true or false yet in plain terms they do nothing less 1. It 's a belief of those Revelations Christ has made to the World Now unless he can prove that those Revelations which Christ has made to the World are essentially distinct from those which God before made to the World their being revealed by Christ makes no essential difference For Christ came in his Fathers name under the New-Testament and the Spirit came in Christs name under the Old-Testament All Christ's Revelations in order to the governing our lives and actions may be reduced either to Precepts or Promises Now though some have been tampering at it I cannot find that Christ revealed either a new Moral Law or added any thing to the old Self-denial Taking up the Cross Praying for our Persecutors c. were Old-Testament duties though not met with in New-Testament phrase As a Rule of obedience Christ medled not with it all he did was to vindicate it from the corrupt Glosses the Scribes and Pharisees had put upon it As to Promises Christ has revealed no other Heaven no other Glory no other Salvation only he has cleared up these given us more light into them poured out more Grace that we might live more in fellowship with God and hopes of Glory But this and much more will make no essential difference in the Revelation 2. It 's such a Belief as governs our lives and actions But such a Belief was Enoch's Abel's Noah's Abraham s their 's govern'd their lives and actions too and somewhat more their Hearts and Consciences This therefore will make no essential difference 4. I except against it that it mentions not God as the proper Object of Faith For though Christ who is God be in the Definition yet not as God there 's nothing supposes him to be so no employment that necessarily requires it should be so assigned to him only he is allowed revelation-Revelation-work which a meer man instructed with God's Commission might have done And now once again he will reassume his Argument If by the Righteousness of Faith you understand the Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith and imputed to us you utterly destroy the Apostle's Argument for our Iustification by Faith for Abraham and all the good men of old were not justified by such a Faith as this is They never heard of Christ's Righteousness imputed to us c. Now how does it follow that because Abraham was justified by such noble and generous Acts of Faith therefore we shall be justified by Christ's Righteousness imputed But whoever overthrows the Apostle's Argument I have some things that will overthrow and utterly overthrow our Author's 1. That he begs and most shamefully begs the
Question which I think we must be forced to grant him at last to be rid of him without any respect to his Argument For thus we shut our hands sometimes of those importunate Mendicants whose strongest Logick and most prevailing Oratory is Clamour and Obstinacy He has hardned himself to say that Abraham was justified without any respect to the Righteousness of Christ that he was justified by noble and generous Acts of Faith and then concludes That therefore so are we And all this to save the credit of the Apostle's Argument But I should rather go the other way Believers under the Gospel are not justified without respect to the Righteousness of Christ therefore neither was Abraham and let that save the credit of the Apostle's Argument As he cannot prove that Abraham was accepted of God without any consideration of Satisfaction made to him by a Redeemer and therefore ought not to infer that we are accepted of God without such Consideration so we can prove that Believers under the Gospel are accepted of God upon Consideration had of the Satisfaction made to him by a Redeemer and therefore may infer that Abraham was accepted upon the same Consideration 2. His Argument will recoil upon the Engineer For if by the Righteousness of Faith you understand a Righteousness of our own obedience you utterly destroy the Apostle's Argument for our Justification by Faith for how does it follow that because Abraham was justified by Faith without Works that therefore Believers under the Gospel are justified by Works Again If there be no reasoning from Faith of one kind to Faith of another and that the Apostle understood himself better than to argue at this weak rate for which we have our Author's Broad-Seal p. 257. And if the faith of Abraham and our faith in Christ be of different kinds and do constitute two distinct sorts of Faith for which also we have his Word and Warrant p. 252. then let every Reader try the issue whether our Author have not utterly destroyed the Apostle's Argument for our Iustification by faith in Christ from Abraham's being justified by Faith seeing he supposes him to argue from one kind of Faith to another For at this weak rate he makes him argue If Abraham were justified by faith without Christ then Believers under the Gospel are justified by faith in Christ. All that I can conclude from this Discourse of our Authors is That he has owned the Apostle an old grudge and has now found a convenient time to pay him home He promises us now he will bring his Discourse to a head Which I am right sorry for hoping he had been at the foot of it And yet I am glad it shall be reduced to a head for hitherto it has been like the Hydra when one head was lopt off another or two more sprung up in the room of it But I mistake him He will bring it to a head it has been hitherto like an obstinate inveterate Oedema that scorns ordinary Applications but now we shall see his Chirurgick faculty he will bring the undigested Matter to a Head and then I doubt it will issue out in purulent offensive stuff But the head of it is this The difference between the faith of Abraham and the Faith of Christians is this Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for Righteousness and we believe in Christ and that 's counted to us for Righteousness which is a difference without a distinction and so he has made neither head nor foot of it For Abraham believed God but it was by the preaching of the Gospel to him Gal. 3. 8. The Gospel Doctrine that was preach'd was this In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed That Seed was Iesus Christ ver 16. To thy Seed which is Christ. So that it 's as plain as we can desire it and more plain than the Enemies of the Christian Religion would have it That Abraham was justified through Faith in Christ and if Abraham believed in God through Christ it 's certain that Christians do so also 1 Pet. 1. 21. Who through him do believe in God Abraham ' s belief in God was not exclusive of Christ our believing in Christ is not exclusive of our believing in God The Objects mediate and ultimate are the same and then the Faith is so if we may take our Author's word for it which for his own Confutation we may venture to do and then where 's the difference And thus the Reader has all the head and foot I can make of this tedious long-winded Argument Having thus happily dispatch'd the difference between Abraham's faith and the faith of Christians he promises to give us the difference between two or three other things or between something and nothing for to acknowledg my ignorance I cannot tell what I turn'd to the Errata and there we are bid to read Nonsense I was in good hopes that had been it but the difference of the pages soon undeceived me I shall therefore give the Reader it as cheap as I had it in his own words and that 's good both for Buyer and Seller And the same difference there is between the Righteousness of Faith in a general Notion as it is applied to Noah Abraham and these Worthies of old and the Righteousness of Gâ—…d by the Faith of Iesus Christ Rom. 3. 22. and that Righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness of God by Faith Phil. 3. 9. Now I have guest and guest and almost tired my self with guessing what those things should be betwen which he pretends the difference One while it seems to be Between the Righteousness of Faith in a general Notion as it is applied to Noah Abraham and those Worthies of old on the one party and the Righteousness of God by the Faith of Iesus Christ c. on the other party Another while it seems to be Between the Righteousness of Faith in the general Notion on one side and the Righteousness of God by the Faith of Iesus Christ on the second and the Righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness of God by Faith on the third and so the difference will be tripartite Whatever the business is I shall not trouble my self about it Of two Righteousnesses I have heard the one of Faith the other of Works according to the two Covenants from thence denominated which do irreconcileably differ and are as far asunder as the two Poles which can never meet Of two Righteousnesses of Faith I have not heard till of late and a happy invention it was for them whose faith or unbelief would not stoop to Gospel-Revelations But that we may not let our time run waste I shall a little consider one of his Scriptures and wait with patience till he shall consider the other That which I fix upon is Rom. 3. 20 21 22. Therefore by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified in his sight for