for we must bring nothing to Christ with us the marriage is consummated without it and then we have less need of it than before for then we are adorned with Christs Beauty holy with his holiness delivered by his expiation righteous with his righteousness which gives us an actual right to Glory we need no righteousness of our own to save us which were to suppose a defect in the righteousness of Christ unto which I answer Though a man with his arms of rebellion in his hands cannot possibly whilest in that posture close with Christ yet I take it Faith which espouses Christ doth precede true Obedience Without faith saith the Apostle it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 Without saith saith our Church in the Homily of good works All that is done of us is but dead before God although the work seem never so gay and glorious before man even as the picture graven or painted is but a dead representation of the thing it self so be the works of all unfaithful persons before God they do appear to be lively works and indeed they be but dead not availing to the everlasting life they be but shadows and shews of lively and good things and not good and lively things indeed thus our Church excellently which tells us what manner of Obedience we can bring to Christ After our espousals to Christ by faith Obedience follows as a fruit and effect of Faith though the Author fasten this opinion expresly on those whom he opposes calling them in sport intimate acquaintances of Christ yet our Church tells us in the twelfth Article That good works do spring necessarily out of a true and lively Faith Christs righteousness makes us righteous in Justification but doth it thence follow that Obedience is needless No sure It is a thing noted in the Papists that they confound Justification and Sanctification together but we must not do so if it be necessary to do Gods will or promote his Glory or to give evidences of our Faith in and gratitude to Christ or to walk in the way to Heaven and Salvation then such is Obedience but the Author cannot understand this gratitude unless our Righteousness and Obedience be due to Christ in thankfulness to him for saving us without Obedience and Righteousness which is just as broad as long and we get nothing by the bargain To which I answer our Obedience is a due gratitude to Christ who saves us by his Blood and Righteousness and and that without a perfect personal sinless Obedience in our selves and withal it is necessary as a proof of our faith and as the way to Heaven which our Saviour hath chalked out to us The Soul saith Dr. Owen consents to take Christ on his own terms Mr. Sherlock to save him in his own way and saith Lord I would have had thee and salvation in my way that it might have been partly of mine endeavours and as it were by the works of the Law but I am now willing to receive thee and to be saved in thy way meerly by Grace that is Without doing any thing without obeying of thee as the Author doth interpret him Without doing any thing Answer without obeying of thee Is this the Doctors meaning Do his words import so Nothing more remote from him he shews how the Soul closes with Christ and takes him on his own terms it will not now be justified by its own works or legal righteousness but by Christ and his righteousness it will not now endeavour in its own strength but under the duct of Grace this is his plain meaning For before the words quoted he speaks of accepting Christ as Lord and Saviour and after them of giving up our selves to be ruled by the Spirit which cannot be without Obedience It s true the Author calls this a pretty complement but the Doctor speaks it as his serious judgment In the eighth Chapter of the book quoted he tells us Obedience is indispensibly necessary if Gods Sovereignty is to be owned if his Love to be regarded if the whole work of the ever blessed Trinity for us in us be of any moment our Obedience is necessary Thus fully the Doctor who yet is here construed by the Author to exclude Obedience what measure this is let others judge The Soul gives up it self to be ruled by the Spirit of Christ to be passively Mr. Sherlock not actively good to submit as needs it must to the irresistible working of the Divine Spirit and to obey when it can rebel no longer Thus the Author sports with his Opposites Touching irresistible Grace Answer I have spoken before the Soul in the first act of Conversion is meerly passive but after the Divine Principles infused acta agit it moves under the sweet influences of the Spirit without whose inspiration as our Church tells us in the thirteenth Article Works done are not pleasant to God yet that inspiration doth not as the Author hints force the will of man but sweetly lead it in a way congruous to its liberty And now the Author shuts up this Section thus I have given thee Reader an entire scheme of a new Religion resulting from an acquaintance with Christs person in all its principles and practices I think there needs no more to expose it to the scorn of every considering man who cannot but discover how inconsistent the religion of Christs Person and of his Gospel are To which I shall only say the Author hath done his endeavour to expose his Opposites to scorn but how new their Religion is how inconsistent with the Gospel and how just the scorn I leave to considering men to determine SECT III. THese men pretend to learn a Religion from Christs Person Mr. Sherlock but this is at best to build Religion upon uncertain conjectures or ambiguous reasons suppose them to be cautions yet what assurance can they have that their inferences are true and as a reason of this the Author afterwards adds There is not a natural and necessary connexion between the person of Christ and what he did and suffered and the salvation of Mankind the Incarnation Life Death Resurrection of Christ were available to those ends for which God designed them but the vertue and efficacy of them doth depend upon God's Institution and Appointment and therefore can be known only by Revelation We cannot draw a Conclusion from the Person of Christ which his Gospel hath not expresly taught because we can know no more of the design of it than what is there revealed They learn from Christ's Person Answer but what without the Gospel No by no means without this they cannot pretend not to know whether there be such a Person as Christ or no or what are the Ends of his Incarnation Life Death and Resurrection These depend upon God's appointment and that is set forth in the Gospel But having the Gospel as an outward Medium they see Christ and many Mysteries in him
Answer who is acquainted with himself may learn his own impotency to good from the inward pressure of corruption which is in him However the Apostle in that 2 to the Ephesians doth notably decypher it out to us there he speaks not so much of a spiritual Death in actual customary sins as of such a Death in Original corruption for he opposes it to quickning Grace which by divine Principles infused heals the same and a little after tells us that we are by nature the children of wrath Hoc uno verbo quasi fulmine totus homo quantus quantus est prosternitur saith Beza on the place this shews him dead indeed It 's true the Pelagians Contra Julian l. 6. c. 4. as St. Austin tells us would have omitted the word Nature and in stead thereof have read Prorsùs altogether children of wrath but the Church would not suffer it This spiritual Death in Sin is a total one it runs over all the Soul there are saith the Apostle lusts or desires of the Flesh the sensitive Faculties and of the Mind the rational Powers nothing is left in Man but what is dead in sin not a drop or a spark of Spiritual Life or true Grace For then a man should be naturally regenerate and under a Promise of that Evangelical Mercy which is indulged to the least measure of Grace though it be but as a smoking flax or bruised reed Man is wholly void of spiritual Life by Nature and hence it evidently appears that he is not able to reach so high as any spiritual Act such as Conversion is unless he be elevated above his own Line by supernatural Grace This is fully the Doctrine of our Church who tells us Man of his own nature is fleshly 1. Hom. for Whitsunday carnal corrupt naught sinful disobedient without any spark of goodness in him And in another place The condition of Man Article the 10th 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 We are said to be created to good works Mr. Sherlock and to become new Creatures and therefore we can contribute no more to it than to our first Creation and we are born again which signifies that we are wholly passive in it Which were true indeed if our being created unto good works did signifie the Manner and Method of our Conversion and not the Nature of the new Creature which is the true meaning of it That as in the first Creation we are created after the Image of God so we are renewed after the Image of God in the second which is therefore expresly called in other places the renewing of our minds The new Creature is indeed after God and his Image Answer but it is also from him and his glorious Power in a way of Creation He takes it upon himself A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you Ezek. 36.26 His great Power is put forth in it Eph. 1.17 and it is brought forth in a way of Creation even as God commanded the light to shine out of darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 May there be a new Creature without a Creator Or may poor dead impotent Man without any spark of Goodness in himself be such Or if he cannot do it alone may he be a Co-creator with his Maker and put in for a share in so great a work No surely all must be ascribed to the Grace of God alone Non est devotionis dedisse prope totum sed fraudis retinuisse vel minimum saith Prosper We must not rob God of the least Atom in Nature For my own part were I as I am not under a necessity to do one I should rather think it tolerable to steal away the old World as the Manichees did than with the Pelagians to take away the new from him But suppose a man could indeeed as some have presumed new-make his own Heart after God's Image might it be called a Creation Is not that Title too high for any Creature and where doth the Scripture give such an one to Man 'T is God's Royal Prerogative to new-make the Heart Of his own will begat he us saith the Apostle Jam. 1.18 To this our Church agrees It is the holy Ghost 1. Hom. for Whitsunday and no other thing that doth quiken the Minds of Men and a little after He is the only worker of Sanctification and maketh us new men in Christ Jesus When this fails they take another course with Metaphors to make them serve their purpose that is by considering all the properties of those things Christ is compared to and applying all that will serve their turn to Christ without regarding the end to which they are used thus the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a Pearl of great price Mat. 13. This Pearl signifies Christ who as Mr. Watson saith makes us worthy with his worthiness Though all the Parable means is that we should part with all for the Gospel Thus Christ was prefigured by the Manna this was circular and so a figure of Christs perfection it was meat dressed in Heaven and Christ was prepared of his Father it suited every ones palate and Christ suits every Christians condition he is full of quickning strengthning comforting virtue that is He is what every man fancies him to be relishes to their gusto what precious discoveries are here of Christ What irrefragable proofs for them Thus Christ is a Rock 1 Cor. 10. A rock for defence and for offence and for comfort to screen us from Gods wrath and contein the honey of the promises Christ is resembled by the brazen Serpent Brass as inferiour metal signifies his humanity and as solid metal the power of his Godhead it shines but doth not dazle the eyes and so signifies the Godhead veiled with Manhood thus the brazen Serpent was like a Serpent but no reall one so Christ was in the likeness of sinful flesh but no sinner the Serpent was lifted up to be looked on and so was Christ to be looked fiducially upon Never man so happy in expounding types never Serpent so subtil Thus Christ is a Vine a Vine is weak Christs humane nature was fain to be supported by the Divine the Vine grows in the Garden Christ in the Church not known amon the Heathen It had been more grand to have said that Christ made the Garden where he grows The Vine communicates to the Branches Christ to Believers the Vine hath rare fruit and the promises grow upon Christ the Blood of Christ is the wine which chears mans heart What fine work might a prophane wit make at this rate but further they jumble all together and prove
one thing from another in a wonderful manner as thus Christ is lovely that is as Mr. Watson hath it he is lovely in his Titles being the desire of all nations the Prince of Peace the holy one lovely in his Types typified by Moses David Solomon who were lovely persons and typified by lovely things as the Pillar of Cloud the Manna the Mercy-seat brazen Serpent and Noah's Ark Who can forbear being smitten with so lovely a Person Besides all these Christ is resembled to the Rose of Sharon the Queen of Flowers to a Vine the noblest of Plants to a Corner-stone a Rock a rich Treasure a beautiful Robe and all these are lovely and so should any thing have been that had come in his way at that time thus Christ is altogether lovely The Author tells us Answer pag. 75. That he had done enough to expose these men to scorn Yet we have here a very long Harangue serving to very little use unless that ill one which I presume the Author never intended to gratifie that ugly scoffing humour at Religion which runs about the prophane world God himself by using similitudes hath sanctified them to us the Song of Solomon is an entire Allegory full of sacred mysteries the writings of the ancient Fathers are in a great measure like pieces of Arras or Tapestry beautified with Allegorical Flowers and Images of Divine things to give a little tast S. Cyril of Alexandria saith Comment in Aron That Christ is inserted into us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if he were the Diamond of the heart S. Hilary tells us That Christ is Margarita quia nihil illo pretiosius invenitur Thesaurus ut in ipso omnes divitiae regnorum coelestium reconditae agnoscantur De Patris Filiunitate all riches and pretionsness being in him S. Austin touching Manna saith Panem Angelorum manducavit homo Tract 13. in Johan quis est panis Angelorum In principio erat verbum quomodo manducavit homo Verbum caro factum est habitavit in nobis And in another place De Coelo Manna veniebat that is in Mr. Watson's phrase De â—tilit Poenitent It was meat dressed in Heaven attende quem figurabat ego sum inquit panis vivus qui de Coelo descendi For the Rock let S. Ambrose come in Christus petra dicitur De fide centra Ar. cap. 6. quia credentibus fortitudinem incredulis duritiem praestat that is in Mr. Watson's language A Rock for defence and a Rock for offence and for the Honey in the Rock our Church thinks it no disparagement to say 1. Hom. of the Sacrament That from this Rock we may suck the sweetness of everlasting Salvation As for the brazen Serpent let us hear Theophylact Vide figuram confer cum veritate illic Serpentis similitudo Comment in Joh. 3. formam habet bestiae venenum non habet that is in Mr. Watson's words It was like a Serpent but no real one Ita ex hoc loco homo Dominus sed à peccati veneno liber in similitudine carnis peccati venit that is in Mr. Watson's words Christ was in the likeness of sinful flesh but no sinner Tunc videntesevadebant mortem corporis nunc autem qui vident mortem animae that is in Mr. Watson's words The Serpent was lifted up to be looked on and so was Christ to be fiducially looked on Touching the Vine I must make bold to vouch in St. Bernard who not seeing all things never dream'd such things should be ridiculous he brings in Christ speaking thus De Coena Dom. Ser. 10. Ego sum vitis dans botrum dulcissimum cunctis palmitibus that is in Mr. Watson I give the sap of Grace to all believers Generans vinum quod laetificat cor hominis that is in Mr. Watson My Blood is the Wine which chears Man's heart And a little after Christus est vitis in quo est totus humor id est omnis plenitudo Spiritùs sancti The divine Spirit fills or as Mr. Watson saith supports his Humane nature And now I might bring the same Author for the Rose of Sharon and other things but this may suffice to shew that Mr. Watson's words may carry a fair Sence before a candid Interpreter The Author might have made no less pretty sport with those ancient Fathers those excellent devout Souls who spiritualize every thing and reduce every thing to the great Center of Scripture Jesus Christ I shall only add on Mr. Watson's behalf that he never thought that Christ the Manna should be accommodated to Mens Fancy nor imagined the Church unplanted by Christ neither did he dream that his Discourses of Christ's Loveliness should be traduced into carnal Expressions such as that Who would not be smitten with such an one To what the Author adds as his own imitation of these Men being no other than the playing of his Fancy with it self I shall return just nothing as seeing nothing considerable therein When this will not do Mr Sherlock they argue from their own preconceived Notions and pretend to prove their own Scheme from Scripture but in truth prove the sence of Scripture by its agreement with their Opinions which is just such a trick as the Papists have got to prove the Church from Scripture and the Scripture from the Church Thus after all their talk of being justified by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness the Scripture tells us that we are justified by Faith have remission by Faith have peace with God by Faith are sanctified by Faith are the sons of God by Faith are saved by Faith Now how is this reconcilable with being justified by imputed Righteousness Why thus Faith doth not justifie absolutely as Faith but relatively as it brings us to Christ and apprehends his Righteousness This is their own preconceived opinion or else no man could have stumbled on this Distinction But their Reason is plain Should Faith justifie as Faith as our own Act it would be as bad as good Works and irreconcilable with the Grace of God though modest men dream not of meriting though Faith had justified as our Act since the Reward doth so infinitely exceed the Work that there can be no suspicion of Merit and where there is no Merit the Reward is of Grace I shall at present wave Answer who symbolizes most with the Papists and how Justification Sanctification Adoption and Salvation are here jumbled together as if they were one thing The General Charge having had so many I say nothing to but I come to the Instance The Scripture saith that we are justified by Faith very well but what by Faith exclusively of its Object Christ's Blood and Righteousness No surely then the Scripture which tells us That we are justified by Faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 and made righteous by his obedience Rom. 5.19 must contradict it self or what exclusively to the imputation of these No
neither without the imputation of these we cannot be entitled to them to our Justification Now that Faith justifies not absolutely and as our Act may appear In Justification there is a judicial proceeding and we must answer to something to the Gospel only or to the Law also if to the Gospel only then Evangelical Justification is in a way frustrative and not perfective of the Law there needeth only Faith to answer the Gospel and not perfect Righteousness to answer the Law But what saith the Apostle to this Having concluded Justification to be by Faith Rom. 3.30 he immediatly adds Do we then make void the Law through faith God forbid yea we establish the Law ver 31. And how is this That Faith which answers to the Gospel receives that perfect Righteousness of Christ which answers the Law in every point Christ being the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth as we have it Rom. 10. Without this it is not at all imaginable how Faith or Justification by it should establish or complete the Law our sincere Obedience which flows from Faith can no more do it than imperfection can reach perfection Again if to the Gospel only then all the Pagans must needs be justified for they have nothing to answer unto not to the Gospel that is not reveiled to them not to the Law of Nature that is but the relicts and broken pieces of the Moral Law And if Christians who have the Moral Law in its entire perfection are not to answer to it then surely Pagans who have only some little Fragments of it need not answer thereunto and by consequence they must be recti in Curia before God But if as of necessity we must we must answer to the Law also then Faith as it is in it self and our Act cannot possibly justifie it being but a piece of the Law and that imperfect God who judgeth according to truth will not esteem those perfectly righteous who are not so indeed nor accept of a partial Righteousness for a total one If reply be made This is true when God judgeth Judicio Justitiae but not when he judges Judicio Misericordiae he in his condescending Mercy accepts of Faith in the room of total perfect Righteousness I answer this cannot possibly stand God's Mercy and Truth are never at variance his Truth will not esteem us righteous upon account of a partial imperfect righteousness and his Mercy will not condescend so far as to interfere with his Truth But when he esteems us righteous upon account of a perfect Righteousness which is not our own but Christ's then Truth and Mercy both shine forth Truth in that there is a perfect Righteousness to answer the Law and Mercy in that it is not our own but our Sureties But further If Faith be taken for a perfect Righteousness then it is lifted up into the room of Christ and his Righteousness If you say no Christ's Righteousness is the foundation of this acceptance of Faith I answer Then will it follow that Christ died not so much for Persons to justifie them as for Graces to elevate Faith above it self into the estimation of a perfect Righteousness and withal that Faith is our proper Righteousness in an immediate formal way and Christ but a remote Cause only much after the same rate as the Papists say Bona opera tincta sanguine Christi justificant Works are made the immediate Cause of Justification and Christ the remote Moreover it is to be remembred that nothing can be Instrumentum instrumentatum the Artificers Tools are not the House he makes the Hysops sprinkling of Blood in the Jewish Sacrifices was not the Blood of Christ Faith is not our Righteousness but the Medium to it Hence Phil. 3.9 we read of righteousness by faith it is not it self our Righteousness but a means to it Thus it appears that Faith in it self and as our Act justifies not therefore it justifies as it is that Evangelical Medium which receives Christ and his perfect Righteousness Thus the Reverend Hooker Faith is the only hand which putteth on Christ to Justification and Christ the only Garment which being so put on covereth the shame of our defiled Natures hideth the imperfection of our Works preserveth us blameless in the sight of God before whom otherwise the weakness of our Faith were cause sufficient to make us culpable yea to shut us from the Kingdom of Heaven where nothing that is not absolute can enter Thus our Church 2. Hom. of salvation The true understanding of this Doctrine That we are justified by Faith in Christ is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ which is within us doth justifie us and deserve our Justification for that were to count our selves justified by some Act or Vertue that is in our selves And in another place This Righteousness 1. Hom. of salvation which we receive of Gods Mercy and Christs Merits embraced by Faith is accepted by God for our perfect Justification But this is past all doubt Mr. Sherlock when it is confirmed by a Metaphor or two A Ring which hath a precious Stone in it which will stanch blood may be said to stanch it but the Virtue lies in the Stone Faith is the Ring Christ the precious stone all that Faith doth is to bring home Christs Merits to the Soul and so it justifies an invention I never met with before And again In the Body are Veins that suck nourishment from the Stomach Faith is a sucking Vein that draws Virtue from Christ Is not this plain that we are saved by Christ as the Body is nourished by the Stomach That of the Ring is no new or absurd invention Answer it was many years since used by Dr. Pomeran Melch. Ad. in Vita Georg. Anhalt in these words Vt Annulus magnò estimatur amatur propter gemmam non propter aurum sic dicitur fide justificari homines propter gemmam Filium Dei hanc autem gemmam fide amplectimur With this Similitude George Prince of Anhalt was much delighted Neither need the Author have found fault with that other Similitude of a sucking Vein all spiritual nourishment is drawn from Christ and that by Faith Now to make all clear Mr. Sherlock we may give a Philosophical Account why God chose Faith to be the Instrument of our Justification Because it is an humble Grace and gives the Glory of all to Free Grace If Repentance should fetch Justification from Christ a man would be ready to say This was for my Tears strange deserving Creatures these who can dream of meriting Heaven with a few tears But Faith is humble it is an empty Hand and what merit can there be in that Doth the poor man's reaching out his hand merit an Alms yes just as much as a few tears merit Heaven Faith is only a golden Bucket that draws water out of the Well of Salvation But why may not
those who are so apt to be conceited of Merit grow as proud of a golden Bucket as if the Well were their own They are civil to Faith to make it a golden Bucket but at other times they tell us That Faith may be a sore and blear-eyed Leah a shaking and a palsie hand weak and bending Legs and have all the infirmities that may be and be never the worse neither as to the purpose of Justification so that Faith had need be a very humble Grace else it would take such language very ill from them What need all this sport with Faiths Humility or Infirmity Answer An humble Grace Faith is it empties the Soul of it self gives all Glory to God hangs upon Christ and free Grace and hath all in a way of receiving and dependence and seeing its Nature and aptitude to Evangelical purposes is such it is no wonder at all that God set his stamp upon it and marked it out for an Evangelical Medium to receive Christ and his Righteousness unto Justification Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace saith the Apostle Rom. 4.16 Fides Gratia commeant mutuò se ponunt tollunt Fides sola Gratiâ nititur Gratia tantùm credenti promittitur saith the Learned Paraeus on the place Let us hear our Church in this matter 2. Hom. of salvation This saying that we be justified by Faith only freely and without Works is spoken to take away clearly all merit of our Works as being unable to deserve Justification at Gods hands and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of Man and goodness of God the great infirmity of our selves and the might and power of God the imperfectness of our own works and the most abundant Grace of our Saviour Christ. But to go on infirm Faith is because of the adherent Corruption which is apt to blear its eyes and give it a palsie hand and trembling legs however if it be true it entitles to Christ and his Righteousness Invoco te Domine languidâ imbecillâ fide sed fide tamen said Cruciger the German Divine Those men whom the Author opposes hold no such thing as meriting by Tears or any thing else of our own but caution against it Indeed the Author thinks there is no danger in repentant Tears but Humane pride such is its venomous Nature is ready to swell at any small matter which hath but any shadow of excellency in it The heart of good Hezekiah was lifted up over his Silver and Gold and Treasures and precious things which yet were of a much lower value than his devotional Tears which shews the proneness of our Nature to that sin Those Scriptures Without holiness no man shall see God Mr. Sherlock The wrath of God is reveiled against all unrighteousness In every Nation he that worketh righteousness is accepted of God Except your righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into Heaven He that breaketh the least of these Commandements and teacheth men so shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven and he that doth and teacheth them shall be called great there assert the absolute necessity of an holy life to entitle us to Gods Love and the Rewards of the next Life and perfectly overthrow their fundamental Notion of Justification by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us Doth the necessity of an holy Life overthrow the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness Answer No surely it 's a very gross mistake a holy Life is so far from overthrowing Imputed Righteousness that it presupposes it We are married to Christ that we might bring forth fruit unto God Rom. 7.4 And our Church in the 12. Article tells us That good Works follow after Justification Those who are true Believers and have Christ's Righteousness imputed to them do above all other men obey God's Commands glorifie his Name and walk in holy Obedience towards the Crown of Glory above Obedience is necessary but not in that sence as if the least breach of a Command should finally exclude from Heaven for then it were Wo wo to us Nor yet so absolutely as that a Believer dying in the first instant of Faith and before actual Obedience should be shut out of Heaven Our Church hath taught us better 1. Hom. of good works quoting St. Chrysost sor it I can shew a man that by Faith without Works lived and came to heaven but without Faith never man had life the Thief that was hanged when Christ suffered did believe only and the merciful God justified him If any say that he lacked time truth it is and I will not contend therein but this I will surely affirm That Faith only saved him But these men defie you Mr. Sherlock if you charge them with destroying the necessity of an holy life for they tell us Tat this universal Obedience and good Works a suspicious word are indispensibly necessary from the sovereign appointment and Will of God this is the Will of God even our Sanctification It is the Will of the Father Son and holy Ghost it is the end of their Dispensation in the business of Salvation it is the end of the Father's electing Love Eph. 1.2 of the Son 's redeeming Love Tit. 2. and of the Spirit 's sanctifying Love it is necessary to the glory of them all And are not these men mightily injured Is it not great pity they should be so abused But the truth is all this is not one syllable to the purpose for the Question was about its necessity to salvation and if we be justified and saved without it all this cannot prove any necessary obligation on us to the practice of it God hath commanded Obedience but where is the Sanction of this Law Will he damn those who do not obey for their disobedience and save those who do for their obedience Not a word of this for this destroys our Justification by Christ's Righteousness only if after all those commands God hath left it indifferent whether we obey or not Obedience is not necessary And will the Father elect and the Son redeem none but those who are holy and reprobate all others If we be elected and redeemed without any regard to our being holy our Election and Redemption is secure whether we be holy or not and so this cannot make holiness necessary on our part though it may be necessary on God's to make us holy but that is not our care and how is Obedience for the glory of the Father Son and holy Spirit when the necessity of holiness is destructive to free Grace which is the only glory God designs by Christ I suppose them injured and abused to some tune Answer after they have in terminis asserted the Necessity of Obedience from strong invincible Scriptural Arguments they are yet charged with destroying the Necessity of an holy Life But saith the Author All this is not one syllable to the purpose
not please God nothing but an imputed Righteousness can though I should rather have concluded that nothing can But the truth is the Righteousness of the Law and of Works in the New Testament signifies only an external Righteousness which cannot please God and that internal Holiness which they call the Righteousness of the Law is that very Righteousness of Faith which the Gospel commands and which God approves and rewards and this imputed Righteousness is no where to be found that I know of but in their own Fancies The Righteousness of the Law and of Works in the New Testament signifies only an external Righteousness Answer Thus the Author And yet before the Author quoting that Text Rom. 8. That the righteousness of the Law might he fulfilled in us interprets it of internal holiness in us I confess it is not meant of our internal Holiness but neither doth it signifie external Righteousness only The righteousness of the Law Phil. 3.6 doth by the circumstances of the Text intend only an external Righteousness but the righteousness of the Law ver 9. reaches to an internal one for as I before noted the Apostles speech there is progressive and expresses more than it did before The Works of converted Abraham are excluded from Justification Rom. 4.2 and yet surely they were more than external shadows By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified Gal. 2.16 not only the Pharisee with his external Righteousness but no flesh not the holiest man on earth shall be justified by the works of the Law The Law in the New Testament plainly calls for internal Holiness it is a holy just good spiritual Law forbidding Concupiscence the very first risings and imperfect births of Corruption Rom. 7. commanding the love of God with all the Heart Soul and Mind Matth. 22.37 And therefore it would be very strange if the Righteousness or the Works of this Law which is represented in the New Testament as a divine spiritual Law should in the same New Testament signifie no more than external Righteousness no more than the meer shell or outward superficies of true Sanctity and that too in Epistles written not to Jews or Pharisees who hung about the Letter of the Law but to the Romans Galatians Philippians who I suppose understood it better They could not but see some hints of inward Purity in the Books of Pagan Philosophers and it is inimaginable that they should look for less in the Law of God Though the Pharisees who had only an external Righteousness themselves construed that Law according to their Model yet why the believing Romans Galatians Philippians who had internal Graces in themselves should do so I see no reason Neither is it to me credible that the Romans who in the Epistle to them had the pure Spirituality of the Law set before them should ever construe the Righteousness or Works of the Law mentioned in that Epistle to be only external As for internal Holiness God indeed approves of it but not as that which is the matter of our Righteousness in Justification Let us now consider in what sence the Apostle opposes his own Righteousness to the Righteousness of God Mr. Sherlock and there is no great difficulty in this for the Apostle tells us that by his own Righteousness he means the Righteousness of the Law and by the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Faith and what that is you have already heard Thus in Rom. 10.3 For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God Where their own Righteousness which the Jews so obstinately adhered to was the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of God which they were ignorant of and would not submit to was the Righteousness of Faith For this was the great Controversie between the Jews and Apostles which is the Subject of this Epistle Whether men were to be justified by the Law of Moses or by the Gospel of Christ by a Legal or Evangelical Righteousness as appears from Rom. 9.3 Israel who followed after righteousness hath not attained to the Law of righteousness wherefore Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law that is The Israelites who pursued so earnestly after Righteousness are excluded from Righteousness or forgiveness of sins and are under a Curse because they did not look for Righteousness and Justification in the way which God prescribed which is by Faith in Christ or by Christianity but by the observance of the Law of Moses Now the most obvious reason why the Righteousness of the Law is called their own Righteousness and the Righteousness of Faith Gods Righteousness is because this Legal Righteousness was a way of Justification not of Gods appointment but their own chusing God never designed that any man should be justified to eternal Life by observing the Law of Moses but yet they confidently expected Justification by that Law and for that reason rejected the Gospel of Christ But the Righteousness of Faith is a Righteousness of God's chusing this he approves and accepts of for the Justification of a sinner By this the Elders obtained a good report by this Enoch and Noah and Abraham were justified before God And therefore this may well be called the Righteousness of God because this he appointed and this he will own and reward Our own Righteousness is I confess Answer the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of God is a Righteousness by Faith or through Faith because Faith receives it but it is not Faith it self The righteousness of God is reveiled from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 Were Faith it self the Righteousness of God the words must amount to no more than this Faith is reveiled from Faith to Faith We are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 and who ever construed those words thus We are made Faith in him Faith is inherent in our selves but the Righteousness of God is in Christ who is Jehovah our Righteousness The Jews went about to establish their own righteousness Rom. 10.3 but it doth not appear that that was a meer external one we find that they had a zeal of God Ver. 2. which surely was internal Zeal is a mixture of Love and Anger They had at least in pretence a love to God and his Glory and an anger at the Christian Faith as supposing it an enemy to God and his Law All the Jews were not Pharisees nor did they stick meerly in the Letter or husk of external Righteousness the Scribe could say That the love of God with all the heart was more than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices Mark 12.33 and some Jewish Rabbins say That the heart of man answers to the holy place there a place must be made for the Shecinah the divine Majesty to dwell in and it must be the holy of Holies No question the Jews at least some of them
on the one side that he according to their Principles but a meer creature should be the object of faith on the other that so many pregnant places of Scripture should be eluded but had they found out a way to interpret such Phrases as believing and trusting in him in a sence abstractive from his Person they might all have concluded that he was not the object of faith The Authour as to a faith of recumbency on him and his merits seems to conclude the same for though he speak of trusting in Christ and his blood he interprets himself thus expecting to be saved according to the terms of the Gospel Covenant that is by believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ pag. 24. The whole is placed in believing and obeying the Gospel Obedience as I take it is no part of Faith Works shew forth Faith James 2. and so are distinct from it Faith produces Obedience Hebrews 11. and surely it doth not produce it self We are married to Christ that is by Faith that we might bring forth fruit unto God Rom. 7.1 And me thinks Faith which is the espousal should not be the Progeny Abraham's faith only is admitted in Justification Romans 4. And his works though done after conversion are excluded as being no part of it When Socinus said that Christo credere idem significat atque illi obedire The Learned Calovius tells him That it is but a meer Fiction to prevent the Article of Justification and transform Faith into Works And withall adds that Credere in nullo idiomate idem est quod obedire Obedience being no part of Faith that which remains is only believing the Gospel which is a Dogmatical Faith such as believes the Gospel to be true and inter alia Jesus Christ to be the Messiah and Saviour But alas This is so far beneath a faith of recumbency such as in the Apostle is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 that the very Devils are capable of it who yet never shall have the least drop of that atoneing blood sprinkled on them In our Authour the whole terms of the Gospel are believing and obeying it Obeying it is not so much as a part of faith Believing it is a part of faith but far short of recumbency and how the Authour leaves any room at all for recumbency I see not if Faith which uses to rest in the wounds of Christ may be only totally lodged in the Evangelical Axiom's I fear that Christ will be at odds with the Gospel which contrary to its Native Genius which is to elevate faith unto him our Great Redeemer reserves all of it to it self But to go on the Authour saith That they are for a recumbency on Christ in contradistinction to obedience to his Laws which sets up a Religion of the Person of Christ in opposition to the Religion of his Gospel I answer They make true faith contradistinct from obedience not that faith is alone in existence as if it had no holy fruits of obedience hanging on it but that it is alone in the matter of Justification And this I think is the Doctrine of Protestants and Fathers Which made Erasmus as I have him quoted by the Reverend Morton say Haec Vox sola fides tot clamoribus lapidata hoc seculo in Luthero reverentèr legitur auditur in Patribus if faith though alone in justification do yet spread forth it self into holy obedience I hope the Gospel is not in the least opposed by such a recumbency as gives Christ the glory of his blood and righteousness But now we must hear the significations of the word Christ First Mr. Sherlock Christ is originally the Name of an Office which the Jews call the Messias or Anointed Jesus Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost and Power which was his consecration to the Mediatory Function and virtually contained all those Offices of Prophet Priest and King which are not properly distinct Offices in Christ but the several parts and different administrations of his Mediatory Kingdom after which the Authour describes those Offices to us The Socinians Answer who deny the Satisfaction of Christ have some reason according to their corrupt Principles to jumble all the Offices of Christ together that the oriency of his Priestly Sacrifice might not appear yet are they castigated for it by Calovius and others and Arnoldus calls the Racovian Catechist Hostis crucis Christi upon that account But why our Authour who owns the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ should confound them I know not I conceive the Offices of Christ are distinct though he who had them all performed them in such a just Decorum as became him who had all of them in himself Though he triumphed upon the Cross and what he preached was a Law yet Teaching is not Reigning nor is either Sacrificing In his Prophetical Office Salvation was explicated in his Priestly purchased in his Kingly applied The first removes Ignorance the second expiates Guilt and the Third subdues Corruption In the Authours description of these Offices the Reader may make some Observations In that of the Prophetical Office he mentions his outward preaching but passes over in silence that internal illumination of the Spirit which to me is the life of the other without which no man can spiritually discern the things of God Hence Reverend Bishop Reynolds speaking of the Opinion of Episcopius that an unregenerate man may understand such things sine lumine supernaturali is bold to censure the same as wicked words In that of the Priestly he tells us That Intercession is the Power of a Regal Priest to expiate and forgive sins I take it Christ on Earth had power to forgive sins and did expiate them by his once offered Sacrifice on the Cross But may we call it Intercession Or is Intercession here below I ever took it to be above and to be Christ's Appearance in Heaven for us and his presenting his meritorious Sacrifice to his Father in our behalf When the Racovian Catechism describes his Intercession by his Power to avert Wrath Arnoldus censures it thus Quis unquà m tam inepta stolida insulsa super claros Scripturae textus glossemata vel somniare posset Interpellare Christi in coelis nihil aliud esse quam potestatem Quae rei vel verborum saltem cognatio In that of the Kingly he saith That he conquers the minds of men by the Power of his Word and Spirit and reduces them into Subjection by Minds I hope he takes in Wills too and all is excellent well may it but stand so but afterwards the Authour denies irresistible Grace and then the Conquest is but ad nutum creaturae at the pleasure of the conquered the conquered if he please may be Conqueror and the Conqueror must drop his Crown into his Hand and shall we call this a Conquest Or if we may is it such as becomes the Throne of the Son of God or the design
in every Sacrifice or else which is hard to believe they knew not the meaning of that Service or did it not in Faith The Gentiles as I conceive had some Glimmerings of pardoning Mercy in his Patience towards them sparing Mercy being an hint of pardoning but this Patience was founded on the Sacrifice of Christ though unknown to them God upon the Fall of Angels made a short work and immediately cast them down into Chains and that he did not so with Men is only owing to the Sacrifice of Christ As for the Dr. I suppose as to the Jews he will fully concurr with me and as to the Gentiles I must concurr with him for he saith pag. 91. That pardoning Mercy which is reveiled in the Gospel shines not with one Ray out of Christ the Mercy in the Gospel expresly relates to the Satisfaction of Christ and as such they knew it not though that Patience which gave some glimpse of it was founded on that Satisfaction The Doctor tells us Mr. Sherlock That in Christ God hath manifested the Naturalness of his Justice in punishing Sin in that it was impossible that it should be diverted from sinners without the interposing of a Propitiation that is God is so just that he cannot pardon without Satisfaction Now this is such a Notion of Justice as is perfectly new which neither Scripture nor Nature acquaints us with Perfectly new Answer how so How many grave Divines and worthy Champions against the Socinians have affirmed That God such is his infinite Sanctity and Righteousness cannot pardon sin without a Recompence or Satisfaction And how strongly have they urged it out of Scripture and Reason In Scripture God is set forth as a Righteous God a Judge of the World who will do right one who cannot look upon iniquity who will by no means clear the guily his punishing sin is attributed not meerly to his Will or Decree but to his just Nature Thus the terrible Tempest comes down upon the wicked because the righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psal 11.6 7. Thus the vials of wrath are poured out because God is righteousness Revel 16.5 In God an hatred of Sin is as essential as a love of Holiness and in this hatred is tacitly included a velle punire as some Divines speak and upon that account sin cannot go unpunished The Subjection of a Rational Creature to its Creator is indispensable and this Dependence so far as it is broken off by sin must be salved up by punishment Should God punish meerly from his Will then it seems Sin or no Sin is all one to him God is in his own Nature no more moved with Impieties and hellish Blasphemies than if there were none the punishing them or absolving them is but an indifferent thing Socinus upon that Text absolvendo non absolvet saith That God as propense as he is to mercy and forgiveness absolves no rebels and impenitent persons remaining in that estate Yet if he might pardon without a Satisfaction might he not do it without Repentance also The very Pagans knew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the just judgment of God or that he would punish sin and this not from the reveiled Will of God but from the natural Principles and Sculptures graven in their hearts which shews that the punishment is not meerly from God's Will If Sin could have been pardoned without Satisfaction why was the only beloved Son of God made a Curse Why did he fear and tremble and bow and sweat and pray and die upon a Cross as the Dr. pathetically expresses his Passion It seems all this might have been spared But saith the Author All Mankind hath accounted it an act of goodness to remit injuries without exacting punishment and he is so far from being just that he is cruel and savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his revenge That part of Justice which consists in punishing offenders was always look'd on as an instrument of Government and therefore the exacting or remitting punishment was referred to the wisdom of Governours who might spare or punish as they saw reason for it Unto which I answer The Comparison between God and Man holds not in all things A Man may renounce his Dominion over his Servant but God cannot renounce his Dominion over his Creature that whilest a Creature must be subject unto him A man saith the Author is cruel who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his revenge But I hope God is not so who never did hath or will remit any the least offence without satisfaction a man may remit a private offence without it but may a Magistrate remit a publick one in all cases No surely sometimes Justice and the Common Good calls for punishment Deus non vult ut Princeps scelerato Legum publicarum violatori poenam commeritam remittat saith the Learned Camero God is here considered as a Magistrate as the great Judge of the World and that he cannot remit without satisfaction is not out of Impotence or Cruelty but because of the supreme Perfection of his Justice and Sanctity After the terrible discovery of the Naturalness of God's Justice Mr. Sherlock the Doctor makes some amends for it for now in Christ the Nature of God is discovered to be love and kindness a happy change this from all Justice to all Love But how comes this to pass why the account is very plain because the Justice of God hath glutted it self with revenge on sin in the Death of Christ And a little after God is Love and Patience when he hath taken his fill of revenge as others use to say that the Devil is very good when he is pleased What! Answer doth God glut himself with Revenge or is he as the Devil good when he is pleased I tremble at the Expressions and verily believe that the Dr. would have laid down his neck upon the Block before he would have uttered them Revenge or Vengeance in God is nothing but pure immaculate Justice Glutting with Revenge is an Expression fit for malicious Men or for Devils rather but not at all for God God out of Christ is a consuming Fire but in Christ a gracious Father reconconciling the World unto himself Not that there is a change in the unchangeable One but according to his wise and gracious Decree his Justice was satisfied in Christ and through that Satisfaction his Love and Kindness sweetly stream out to Men He that dares deny this must forfeit his Christianity But if the Dr. did not utter these horrid words may any such thing be drawn from him by consequence This the Author would hint for saith he The Dr. speaks very honourably of God Whatever saith the Dr. discoveries were made of the Patience and Lenity of God unto us yet if it were not withal reveiled that the other Properties of God as his Justice and Revenge for sin had their actings assigned them to the full there could be little Consilation
gathered from the former That is saith the Author he would not believe God himself though he should make never so many Promises of Grace to sinners unless he were sure that he had first satisfied his revenge To which I answer Doth the Dr. by Discoveries intend Promises of Graces No certainly In his very entrance into the Discourse of Patience he tells us his Design viz. to prove That the Glimpses of Patience shining out in works of Providence are exceedingly beneath the discovery of it which we have in Christ and both before and after the words quoted he gives Instances of Gods Goodness in the Rain fruitful seasons he shews what kind of Patience he intends that is A not immediate punishing upon the offence not a word or tittle of Promises Neither is it at all imaginable that he could mean them for he who holds a necessity of Satisfaction as the Dr. doth could not so much as think one single thought of a Promise to be the object of his Faith or indeed at all to be without a crucified Christ in whom God's Justice was satisfied And for the Glimpses of Patience shining out in Works of Providence which are common even to the poor Pagans I may well say that they are little very little consolations in comparison of those which Christians have Pagans may see God forbearing but Christians see him fully satisfied in the Blood of Christ Pagans see God forbearing but they cannot tell how long he may do so or how soon his wrath may come dashing down upon them but Christians know that they are delivered from the wrath to come and so God's Patience is very sweet to them But the Author goes on in his charge The Doctor saith that the nature and end of God's Patience and Forbearance is God's taking a course in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness that we should not be destroyed notwithstanding our sins the Justice of God being satisfied the greatest sins can do us no hurt we shall escape notwithstanding our sins But the Gospel instructs us That without holiness no man shall see God Thus the Author To which I answer Surely we shall escape notwithstanding our sins or else we cannot escape without pure sinless perfection and notwithstanding our greatest sins or else they exceed Gods Mercy and Christ's Merit But what without Repentance and Holiness No by no means the Doctor means no such matter but saith expresly That the end of Gods patience is that his Will concerning our Repentance and Salvation may be accomplished and quotes that of St. Peter 2 Pet. 3.9 God is long-suffering to us ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and surely where true Repentance is holiness of Life will follow As for the Wisdom of God Mr. Sherlock no doubt but the Gospel of Christ makes glorious discoveries of it but if Justice be so natural to God that nothing could satisfie him but the death of his Son the Redemption by Christ may discover his Justice or Goodness but not his Wisdom It requires no great Wisdom to chuse when there is but one possible way No doubt Answer untraceable is the Wisdom hid in Redemption great the Mystery God manifest in the Flesh And what if there were but one possible Way of Redemption or Salvation and that only in and by the satisfactory Death of Christ Is this an Eclipse of the divine Wisdom No that one possible Way lay so deep that no wisdom of Men or Angels could have started a thought of it nothing less than the infinite Wisdom of God could have found it out or brought it forth to the World Upon the Doctors words Mr. Sherlock We learn our disability to answer the Mind and Will of God in all or any of the obedience he requireth the Author adds that is It is impossible for us to do any thing that is good but we must be acted as Machins by an external force by the irresistible power of the Grace and Spirit of God this is a new discovery we learn no such thing from the Gospel And pag. 109. the Author saith After all the noise they make about coming to Christ they mean being carried thither by an omnipotent and irresistible power and to the same purpose in other places That there is such a thing as irresistible Grace Answer such as surely arrives at the Effect is a great Truth the Gospel shews forth the Glory of it there it is set forth thus It takes away the stony Heart that is the very resisting Principle It writes the Law in the Heart that is it gives such an inward Principle as answers to the outward Command It draws opens quickens regenerates new-creates and conquers the Heart carrying it away by a translation into the Kingdom of Christ It gives the very Willing the very Believing the very Acting causing us to walk in his Statutes and all this in a way of Power greatness and exceeding greatness of Power such as raised up Christ from the dead Fph. 1.19 And if this be not irresistible Grace I know not what is St. Austin clearly owns such a Grace De Praed Sanct. c. 8. Haec Gratia saith he quae occultè humanis cordibus divinâ largitate tribuitur à nullo duro corde respuitur Ideò quippe tribuitur ut cordis duritia primitùs auferatur The Fathers in the Arausican Council tell us That believing willing desiring endeavouring labouring watching praying seeking knocking and all is from Grace Can. 6. And that we may know how the Work of Grace is wrought they call it Mutatio dextrae excelsi A Change wrought by the right hand of the most High Can. 15. Our Church in the Homily concerning the Coming down of the holy Ghost speaking of the Conception of the Lord Christ as a marvellous matter adds But where the holy Ghost worketh there nothing is impossible as may farther appear by the inward Regeneration and Sanctification of Mankind and withal calls Regeneration or the new Birth The Great Power of the holy Ghost The incomparable Bishop Vsher asserts Myst of Incarn pag. 43. That no less power is requisite to the effecting of the new Creature than was at first to the producing of all things out of nothing and what can this be less than an irresistible Grace Should there be only resistible Grace those Prayers in Scripture Turn thou me and I shall be turned Jer. 31.18 and Turn us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned Lam. 5.21 must have but a sick Consequence And those two great Petitions in the Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come and Thy Will be done seem as Mr. Rous observes to run after this rate Lord let thy Kingdom be at my pleasure and thy Will at the will of my Free-will whether that shall come or this be done In very deed the great Design of a Church to be purchased by Christ's Blood gathered by his holy Spirit and crowned with
Glory in Heaven though it cannot but be more estimable than all the Providences in Nature must be a meer Pendant on the fickle Will of Man But the Author urges upon the Doctor That it is impossible for us according to his Principles to do any thing that is good that is I suppose without Faith in Christ without which our Church in her Homily of good Works declares that no good work can be done I take it for a very Truth That from the first good Thought to the last Act of an holy Life all that is truly good must come from Grace But saith the Author This turns us into meer Machins and pag. 379. he glosses upon one of his Opposites as if Christ were to make us willing against our will Unto which I answer The very same was cast into St. Austin's dish by the Pelagians Sub nomine inquiunt Ad Bonisacdib 2. cap. 5. Gratiae it a satum asserunt ut dicant quia nisi Deus invito reluct anti homini inspir averit boni ipsius imperfecti cupiditatem nec à malo declinare nec bonum posset arripere To which as a meer Calumny St. Austin returns That a man may as well call St. Paul fati assertorem for saying It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Indeed it is a very strange charge doth Grace destroy Nature or may we be willing against our Will It is impossible That of the Schoolman may reconcile the matter Voluntas humana induci potest ab agente creato mutari ab agente increato Bonaâ—â—â—â— in 〈◊〉 2.25 cogi à nullo The Will without ceasing to be it self cannot be compelled but Grace changes it without Coaction breaks off its Chains without destroying its Liberty and per suavissimam omnipotentiam makes the unwilling Will willing But still there is a more glorious Discovery behind that is Mr. Sherlock The glorious end whereunto Sin is appointed and ordained I suppose the Dr. means by God is discovered in Christ viz. for the demonstration of God's Vindictive Justice in measuring out to it a just recompense of reward and for the praise of Gods glorious Grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it that is It could not be known how just and severe God is but by punishing sin nor how good and gracious God is but by pardoning it And therefore lest his Justice and Mercy should never be known to the World he appoints and ordains Sin to this edd that is Decrees that men shall sin that he may make some vessels of wrath and others vessels of mercy This is a Discovery which Nature and Revelation could not make for Nature would teach us that so infinitely a glorious Being as God is needs not sin and misery to recommend his Glory and Perfections and that so holy a God who so perfectly hates every thing that is wicked would not truckle with Sin and the Devil for his glory and that so good a God had much rather be glorious in the happiness and perfection and obedience of his Creatures than in their sin and misery And Revelation tells us the same thing That God delights not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should return and live that is He had rather there were no occasion for punishing than be made glorious by such acts of vengeance Vindictive Justice and pardoning Mercy are but secondary Attributes of the Divine Nature and therefore God cannot primarily design the glorifying of them for that cannot be without designing the sin and misery of his Creatures which would be inconsistent with the goodness and holiness of his Nature And afterwards pag. 57. He appointed sin for the glory of his Justice and Grace and since nothing can withstand the Decrees of God it pleased God that Man should sin but when he hath sinned he is extremely displeased with it and now his Justice must be satisfied This falls hard on those miserable Wretches whose ill fortune it was without any fault of theirs to be left out of the Roll of Election and who have no way to satisfie divine Justice but by their eternal torments It is I suppose agreed by all that God did willingly permit the entry of sin upon the World of Angels and Men he could have kept all the Angels up in their primitive Station and then there would have been no Tempter to Man or had their been one he could have sent the holy Angels to warn him from the late downcast of their fellows against his own and to tell him that the poyson would come from the Serpent or if not that he could have sent him such strong auxiliaries of Grace as should have out wrestled the temptation he could no doubt as easily as he confirms the Saints and Angels in Heaven he could for ever have barred out sin but he would not he freely suffered it to come in only the question is How he did it Whether there be only a nude Permission such as leaves the event pendulous and uncertain till Man's Will hath determined or whether there be a Preordination of the Event so that it falls out infallibly Deo permittente and Creatura liberè agente Two things constrain me to believe the latter The one is this That without a Preordination the Event of sinful Actions must be casual and what then shall become of Providence The Moments which hang upon those Events are great and weighty Multitudes of Angels Courtiers of Heaven turn Apostates out of their Fall comes a Tempter who at one blow draws Man and all his Posterity into sin that entring into the world makes way for a glorious Redemption by Christ The Four first Monarchies rowl about upon the Lusts and Ambitions of Men The poor Church like the Ark floats upon the waters and now and then a storm of persecution comes dashing down upon it Errors and Heresies successively break forth as so many Torrents ready to carry away every Article of our Creed and what mighty Concerns are these Admirable are the Methods and Mysteries of Providence in and about such Events Joseph's Brethren sell him into Egypt and the Church is provided for in the famine Absolon goes in to his Fathers Concubines and David is visited for his Adultery Judah and Tamar commit Incest and this way came the holy One into the flesh The wicked Jews crucifie the Son of God and out comes the great Work of Redemption Persecutors scatter the Church and God by this means scatters the Gospel Act. 8. In such Actions as these the Light shines out of Darkness God's Mercy Justice Wisdom Holiness Power break forth out of Man's Cruelty Injustice Folly Filthiness and Weakness In every Ataxy God hath a secret Order either an Order of Penalty Sin punishing Sin or an Order of Conducibility Good coming out of Evil. Nullum est malum in mundo saith profound Bradwardine quod non est propter aliquod magnum
make holiness needless Under pardon this is neither better nor worse than an old Popish calumny such as hath been cast into the face of Protestants over and over Chemnitius asserting justification by imputed Righteousness tells us Exam. Conc. Trid. de Justif Inde verò Pontificii texunt calumniam omnia decreta Tridentina ita condita sunt de justificatione ut obliquè nos insimulent quasi doceamus credentes non renovari quasi charitatem obedientiam ita excludamus ut nec adsit nec sequatur in reconciliatis And what return doth that learned man make thereunto Sed tantùm Syeophanticae impudentes calumniae sunt quibus strepitum excitant The learned Chamier brings in Sapeins Cham. de Sanctif cap. 2. charging the Protestants thus Non esse nos justos nist solû imputatione justitiae Christi non autem ullâ inhaerente qualitate And Costerus thus Christus est nostra justitia nulla est ergo alia justitia in nobis And Bozius thus Vt salutem consequaris sis sanctus aiunt omnes Protestantes nihil est necesse boni aliquid velis moliaris aut facias Christo fidas impunè quidvis audeas ad exitum perducas and then expresses himself thus Immanem ita me Deus amet calumniam The excellent Davenant De Hâ—tuali cap. â— ushering in Bellarmine and Campian and Becanus as casting the same dirt into the face of Protestants saith plainly to the two first quot verba tot serè mendacia and to the third calumnia est apertè falsa The Papists you see have cast out these calumnies but should a Protestant do so No surely the Author I confess hath done a great honour to these few Nonconformists in casting upon them that reproach of Christ for so as a Protestant I must call it which many a son of the Church of England would willingly bear hoping to have the spirit of Glory rest upon him but I suppose he hath done no great right to the Protestant cause therein How vain this calumny is doth assoon appear as we can open our eyes upon the common distinction between Justification and Sanctification Justification is an Action of God without us Sanctification an Action of the Spirit within us the one is by the perfect Righteousness of Christ imputed the other by the holy Graces of the Spirit infused and inherent in us In the one we are freed from the Guilt of Sin in the other from the Corruption and Pollution of it By the one we have a Title to God's Kingdom by the other a Meetness for it it being such as no unclean thing can enter into the same And what colour of Repugnancy is there between these two and how doth the one make the other useless Both are useful to the Believer and both in Harmony between themselves Obedience is so far from being needless that it is a necessary consequent upon Justification by Christ's Righteousness St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans first treats of Justification and then of Sanctification as a consequent thereupon Good works as our Church tells us in the 12th Article are the Fruits of Faith and follow after Justification To me it is unimaginable that the holy Spirit which is procured by Christ's Righteousness and before whose inspiration as our Church tells us in the 13th Article works done are not pleasant unto God should inspire unjustified persons to Obedience nay had it not been for Christ's Righteousness the holy Spirit I verily believe would no more have touched in the least holy motion upon Men than upon Devils I shall close this Point with the Authors own words Christ's Satisfaction was for sins of Omission and Commission and by it we are reputed by God as having done nothing amiss and as perfectly righteous to have done all to have kept the whole Law pag. 60. and yet I hope the Author doth not esteem Holiness needless though I cannot tell how Christ's imputed Righteousness whereof his Satisfaction is a part should make any man more than perfectly righteous However Holiness is necessary with respect to Sanctification Mr. Sherlock We have in us a New Creature which is fed cherish'd nourish'd kept alive by the fruits of Holiness God hath not given us new Hearts to kill them in the womb or to give them to the Old Man to be devoured as Dr. Owen hath it The phrase of this is admirable and the reasoning unanswerable if men be new Creatures they will certainly live new Lives And this makes Holiness necessary by the same reason that every thing necessarily is what it is when it is The new Creature is fed with fruits of of Holiness Answer so Dr. Owen Upon which the Author tells us in sport that the phrase is admirable I suppose it is so Hear our Church As Men that be very Men indeed 1. Hom. of good works quoting St. Chrysost for it first have life and after be nourished so must our Faith in Christ go before and after be nourished with good works But for the reason I think it cannot be answered Exercise is necessary for the Body and is it not necessary for the Body and is it not necessary for the Soul It is necessary for the Soul in meer Moral Virtues and is it not necessary for it in spiriritual Graces too Reason though a natural Talent only necessarily obliges us to walk sutably to it and how much more do Divine Graces which are altogether supernatural bind us to live in a Decorum thereunto These things to me are very cogent Well! Mr. Sherlock but holiness is necessary as the means to the end but how Though it neither be the Cause Matter nor Condition of our Justification yet it is the Way appointed by God for us to walk in for the obtaining Salvation he that hopeth purifieth himself none shall come to the End who walk not in the Way without Holiness it is impossible to see God This is all pertinent and home to the purpose but it hath two little faults in it that it contradicts it self and overthrows their darling Opinions which I can pardon if he can What the necessary way to eternal Life and yet neither Cause Matter nor Condition At least it might be the Causa sine qua non and that will make it a Condition But not to dispute about words I am content it should be only a way to life but what becomes of Christ then who is the only way Cannot Christ's Righteousness save us without our own Doth Christ's Righteousness free us from guilt and entitle us to Glory and yet can we not be saved without Holiness What becomes of free Grace then Is not this to eek out the Righteousness of Christ with our own To make Christ our Justifier and our Works our Saviour This is all pertinent Answer It seems the former Arguments drawn from the sovereign Will of God from the End of the Love of the blessed Trinity from the
visible Church is external and our union to Christ internal and spititual our excision from the Church is one thing and our separation from Christ another a man may be united to the visible Church and yet not really united to Christ for so is the hypocrite a man may be cut off from the visible Church and yet not cut off from Christ for so is the unjustly excommunicate Mr. Sherlock The union between Christ and the Church is not a natural but a political union Christ is a King and all Christians his Subjects and our union to Christ consists in our belief of his Revelations Obedience to his Laws and subjection to his Authority If you continue in my words then are ye my Disciples indeed John 8.31 Which is the same thing with being in Christ And by keeping his Commandments we abide in his love John 15.10 and 14.21 And to have his word abide in us Is a description of the closest and fir mest union to him John 15.7 Thus Christ is a Shepherd and Christians his Sheep To signifie the Authority he hath over his Church Shepherd is used as a name of power thus Christ is a head and the Church his body a Husband and the Church his Spouse which are names of power Eph. 5.23 Christ is called an Head an Husband because he hath the Rule and Government of us Head is a name for Princes and Governours Deut. 28.13 The Apostles alwayes expound the Metaphor of Christs being a head by power Eph. 1.20.21 Col. 1.18 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place signifies one that hath Authority Christ is the head of all principalities Col. 10. He is an head and husband because he is invested with authority to govern the Church is the body and Spouse because it must obey also these Metaphors signifie the mildness and gentleness of his Government as a good Shepherd he lays down his life for his Sheep John 10. He loves his Church with the natural kindness of an head and husband his Government is only for the good of his Church and therefore his yoke is easie he gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie it Eph. 5.25 26. Upon which account we may be called members of his body of his flesh and bone verse 30. The Church being taken out of his crucified body as woman out of man Christ hath reconciled the Gentiles that is taken them into his Church in the body of his flesh through death because the Covenant which was the foundation of the Church was sealed with his blood Christ owns himself our friend John 15. Ye are my friends if ye do what I command you which shews the tenderness of his Government He exercises his authority in methods of Love hence he is called a Father Our union to Christ Answer consists in a belief of his Revelations Obedience to his Laws and Subjection to his Authority Thus the Author To whom I answer A belief of Revelations is only a dogmatical faith which is found in many not united to Christ Obedience is not our mystical union to Christ but a fruit of it Christ and the Soul being once espoused out-comes a blessed progeny of good works as so many reall proofs of that Divine conjunction which is made by the Spirit and Faith and shews forth it self in such effects as the dead womb of nature could never have produced Subjection to Christ's Authority is either a formal actual one standing in doing his commands and that is the same with Obedience a fruit of our union to Christ or a virtual one consisting in accepting Christ as our Lord and this is part of that Faith which is a bond of that Union Those words If ye continue in my words then are ye my Disciples indeed John 8.31 Were spoken to Believers to men in union with Christ to exhort them to perseverance as a reall proof of their Discipleship and Union to Christ If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my Love John 15.10 They were in his love before Verse 9. But Obedience will shew it forth Thus St. Austin on the place Ostendit non unde dilectio generetur sed unde monstretur hinc apparebit quod in dilectione meâ manebitis si precepta mea servaveritis Christs promise to the Obedieut is That he will love him and manifest himself to him Joh. 14.21 Christ loved him before but now he will manifest it Thus St. Austin on the place Quid est diligam tanquam dilecturus sit nunc non diligat Absit diligam manifestabo id est ad hoc diligam ut manifestem Our abiding in Christ and Christ's words abiding in us are very well joyned together Joh. 15.7 To shew us that where the Soul and Christ are in union there the holy words will have a mansion in the heart Christ is a King a Shepherd an Head an Husband and all in a superlative transcendency above all others in those relations He is a King who hath his Laws without us and an inward Scepter in our hearts making the unwilling will to become a willing one in the day of his power A Shepherd who speaks to his Sheep nay and brings them into the Fold John 10.16 who before were not in it A Head who stands above all in eminency and influences spiritual life and motion into the lowest meanest Believer on the earth An Husband who espouses us unto himself and invests us with a rich Dowry out of his incomparable Graces and Perfections The Church was taken out of the crucified body of Christ But that place We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 plainly declares the mystical union as man and wife are one flesh so Christ and Christians are one spirit One thing more may be observed Christ saith the Author hath reconciled the Gentiles that is taken them into his Church in the body of his flesh through death Col. 1.21.22 This is a little strange reconciled that is taken them into his Church Socinus on this place De Servat pars 1. cap. 8. saith That the reconciliation here is Omnium rerum non cum Deo sed secum ipsis per Christum parta concordia And a little after Vniversi tà m Gentes quà m Judaei unus Dei populus sunt facti But I hope our Author doth not exclude reconciliation to God Christ doth not govern us immediately by himself Mr. Sherlock for he is ascended up into Heaven where he powerfully intercedes for his Church and by a vigilant providence superintends all the affairs of it but hath left the visible and external conduct and Government of his Church to Bishops and Pastors who preside in his name and by his authority He governs his Church by men who are invested with his authority which is a plain demonstration that the union of particular Christians to Christ is by their union with the Christian Church which consists in their regular subjection to
of God in this place Thus 2 Cor. 5.21 He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him The Apostle doth not speak of a Righteousness in our selves but in him not of a Righteousness inherent but imputed Christ's Righteousness is made ours as our sins were made his and that is only by Imputation St. Austin pithily expresses it Ipse ergo peccatum Enchirid cap. 41. ut nos justitia nec nostra sed Dei simus nec in nobis sed in ipso sicut ipse peccatum non suum sed nostrum nec in se sed in nobis constitutum similitudine carnis peccati in qua crucifixus est demonstravit Thus Phil. 3.9 That I may be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith By the Righteousness which is of God cannot here be meant inherent Graces those words that I may be found in him have a tacit relation to the Judgment of God and before that Tribunal no Saint on earth can can stand in his own Righteousness Job could not If I justifie my self my own mouth shall condemn me Job 9.20 David could not Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal 143.2 Danicl could not O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of faces The Righteousness which is of God is not the same with inherent Graces which because inherent are our own and so stiled in Scripture neither is it the same with Faith it self The Apostle saith not that it is Faith but that it is a Righteousness through the Faith of Christ a righteousness of God by faith It is therefore no other than Christ's Righteousness which Faith receives and God imputes But there is one place behind which in terminis calls the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Christ 2 Pet. 1.1 To them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Observe it is not through the Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God and of our Saviour Christ as noting two Persons but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God and our Saviour as betokening one as Reverend Bishop Downham hath observed like that Tit. 2.13 The glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour where one Person is intended Hence it appears that the Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of Christ who is God Neither can inherent Graces be here meant for Faith the first Radical Grace of all is said to to be obtained through this Righteousness Thus far it appears that the Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of Christ Now it is evident that this Righteousness is imputed to us or else it could never arrive at those glorious Effects which are ascribed to it how should it profit us unless it were applied and become ours Or how should it become ours but by Imputation Being the Righteousness of another it cannot be ours subjectively and inherently and if it at all become ours it must be so by Imputation Without the first fundamental Imputation it could not render us justisiable or savable any more than it doth render Devils so without the after particular Imputation it cannot justifie or save us Unless this Righteousness be imputed it cannot save or avert God's wrath Rom. 1. It cannot be upon the Believer to justifie him Rom. 3. It cannot be the end of the Law for Righteousness to him Rom. 10. We cannot be made the Righteousness of God in Christ 2 Cor. 5. We cannot have the Righteousness of God to make us stand before God's Tribunal Phil. 3. The virtue of all depends upon Imputation Thus much touching that excellent Phrase The Righteousness of God so often mentioned in Scripture I now proceed to other Scriptures To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Rom. 4.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is reckoned or imputed for Righteousness Now is Faith taken here properly absolutely in it self or is it taken relatively with respect to its Object the Righteousness of Christ Properly absolutely in it self it is a Work the Apostle opposes believing to working ver 5. and speaks of a Righteousness without Works ver 6. Faith therefore is not here taken absolutely for so Faith is a Work and believing working Faith absolutely taken is our own hence we meet with those Phrases Thy faith and My faith Jam. 2.18 But that which justifies us is not our own but the Righteousness of God the Righteousness which justifies is through Faith Phil. 3.9 and not Faith it self Faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 but the justifying Righteousness is not the hypostasis but the very thing hoped for We by faith wait for the hope of righteousness Gal. 5.5 That Righteousness which justifies us is the Righteousness which is imputed to us but we are justified by Christ's blood Rom. 5.9 we are made righteous by his obedience Rom. 5.19 these therefore are imputed to us for Righteousness It is not Faith in it self is our Righteousness but its Object the Blood and Obedience of Christ Another famous place we have Rom. 5. there Adam and Christ are set forth as two Roots Adam conveying to the Branches naturally in him Sin and Death and Christ conveying to the Branches spiritually in him Righteousness and Life As by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous ver 18 19. Here the Apostle speaks of Justification Justification of Life is opposed to condemnation Christ's Righteousness is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it hath a virtue in it to justifie others and is opposed to Adam's Transgression which had a power to involve others in condemnation By the obedience of Christ we are made or as the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies constituted righteous And how can Christ's Obedience being not inherent in us make us righteous This I confess is above Philosophy but the Apostle clears it Adam's Transgression was not inherently ours yet was it imputed to us to Condemnation in the same manner Christ's Obedience is not inherently ours yet was it imputed to us to Justification of Life Hence St. Bernard expostulates thus Cur non aliunde justitia Epist 190. cùm aliunde reatus Alius qui peccatorem constituit alius qui justificat à peccato An peccatum in semine peccatoris non justitia in Christi sanguine And indeed it would be very strange that Adam's Sin should be imputed to us as the Church hath ever acknowledged against Pelagians and yet Christs
the Gospel Rom. 1.5 In this sence Faith and Works are opposed in St. Paul's Epistles the Dispute in the Epistle to the Romans is Whether we must be justified by the Law of Moses or by the faith of Christ that is whether the observation of all the external Rites and Ceremonies and an external Conformity of our Actions to the moral Precepts of it will justify a man before God or that sincere universal Obedience which the Gospel of Christ requires which transformes our Minds into the likeness of God and makes us new creatures And that this Righteousness of Faith and this alone can recommend us to God the Apostle proves from the Example of Abraham in the 4. Chapter who was accounted righteous for the sake of his sincere and stedfast belief of Gods Promises vers 3. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness And this while he was uncircumcised which is a convincing argument against the Jews that Circumciston and the observation of the Law of Moses is not necessary to justification because Abraham the Father of the faithful and pattern for our justification was justified without it The Righteousness of God Answer is the Righteousness of Christ And this is called the Righteousness of God because he accepts it and imputes it to us And a Righteousness through the Faith of Christ because Faith receives it The Righteousness of God is not Faith it self but a righteousness through the faith of Christ Phil. 3.9 Faith I confess is sometimes put for the Gospel but the question is not what it is in other places but what in those which speak of the Righteousness of God Mark that place Rom. 1.17 therein that is in the Gospel is the righteousness of God reveiled from faith to faith Here Faith is not put for the Gospel for then the Righteousness of God should be reveiled from Gospel to Gospel Nay here we have the Gospel the Righteousness of God and Faith all set down as distinct things And in other Scriptures we have the Grace of Faith mentioned with the Righteousness of God because Faith receives that Righteousness The Moral Law of Moses required not only external conformity but internal Sanctity and that in all perfection the Apostle in the fourth Chapter to the Romans excludes not only external observations but the works of converted Abraham from justification Faith is accounted for Righteousness not properly absolutely in it self but relatively with respect to its object Jesus Christ as I have before proved Abrahams faith was not a faith in Christ Mr. Sherlock but Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for Righeousness Christ indeed was the material Object of Abrahams Faith that is he believed that promise which God made of sending Christ into the world upon which account our Saviour tells the Jews Your father Abraham rejoyed to see my day and he saw it and was glad Joh. 8.56 But no man could believe in Christ till he came that is could not believe any thing upon his Authority which is the true Notion of believing in him Some men make work with Abraham 's Faith as if it were a fiducial reliance or recumbency on Christ for Salvation upon which the Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith was imputed to him But how should Abraham learn this great Mystery from that general and obscure promise In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed which is all that was ever reveiled to Abraham concerning Christ this is such a train of thoughts from In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness as Mr. Hobs himself could never have hit on Is there no possible way for God to bless the world but by imputation of Christ's Righteousness Or is there a natural connexion between this blessing and imputed Righteousness that we cannot understand the one without the other before Abraham could come to the knowledge of imputed Righteousness he must distinctly know first that the blessings here meant are spiritual pardon and eternal life The whole Jewish Nation for many ages who had more promises concering Christ than this was expected only a temporal Prince and therefore they were prejudiced at the mean appearance of Christ. Secondly That Christ was to dye for the sins of the World And this the Apostles themselves did not understand till after Christ's Resurrection Thirdly That he fulfilled all Righteousness for us Fourthly That great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God without which it is impossible to understand the vertue of his Sacrifice and Righteousness Fifthly That intimate oneness and conjunction between Christ and his Church which is a riddle not understood to this day Sixthly The Nature of Faith rolling the soul on Christ for Salvation and then possibly he might understand this great mystery of imputed Righteousness and all this must be learned from that general promise In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed Abraham believed the promise of the Messiah Answer but his Faith was not a Faith in Christ Why so no man could believe in Christ till he came that is he could not believe upon his Authority But surely Christ was a Prophet under the Old Testament his Spirit and surely then his Authority too was in the Prophets 1 Pet. 1.11 And so it was in the Promise to Abraham Besides true Faith in Scripture imports a reliance or fiducial recumbency so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Old Testament signifies and to these as Dr. Ward proves by many parailels answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the new where also we often find that phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a phrase totally the holy Spirits found in no humane Author I mean not for the Object but the form of speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not any where but in Scripture as Dr. Ward observes which surely must import a reliance or fiducial recumbency According to this notion of Faith I conceive Abraham rested on or trusted in the Messiah for Salvation he being the Messiah he could not but expect some great thing from him and what was it Temporals or Spirituals Surely not Temporals his Faith was gone beyond the Line of this World even as far as the City which hath foundations in another Heb. 11.10 And how did he think to come thither but by the Messiah He did not speak to God Gen. 18. trusting in his own righteousness But in the lowest posture of humility much less did he think to enter Heaven upon the account of his own worthiness he was a man of great Faith and the Father of the faithful The Promises of the Messiah were Spiritual Ones The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head Gen. 3.15 that is Christ should dissolve the works of the Devil and erect his own Kingdom of Grace and Glory In thy seed shall all nations be blessed
the power of sin and that by the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Thus the Author to which I answer God sent his Son indeed into the world that we might be sanctified by his Spirit but that was not all he sent him that we might be justified by his Blood and Righteousness to which purpose it will be worth while to consider that place Rom. 8. The Apostle in the first verse sets forth believers men in Christ by two excellent things first by Justification There is no condemnation to them no though there be reliques of corruption in them as is imported in the seventh Chapter there is none and then by Sanctification which is in conjunction with the other they walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And in the other verses he confirms both but inverso ordine first he confirms their Sanctification from the great Origen of it the holy Spirit The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death vers 2. The power of the holy Spirit hath subdued the power of sin and then he confirms their Justification from the sufferings of Christ with which his active obedience is to be taken in conjunction What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh vers 3. Their sins were condemned in the flesh of Christ there was an atonement made for them which certainly must relate to Justification from these sufferings of Christ with which his active obedience must be taken in conjunction the Apostle inferrs That the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us vers 4. The Law was not able to justifie us for want of a perfect obedience in us but God translated the impletion of the Law upon Christ Christ fulfilled all Righteousness for us Christ bore the wrath of God for us and these things being imputed unto us the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us But then the Apostle returns again to Sanctification and subjoyns Who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit assuring us that those who are justified by the imputed Righteousness of Christ are also Sanctified and led by his holy Spirit This I take to be the meaning of the place But let us hear our Church treating upon this place in conjunction with other Scriptures r. Hom. of Salvation St. Paul saith Rom. 3. We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ And Rom. 10. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth And Rom. 8. That which was impossible by the Law in as much as it was weak by the flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh by sin damned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us which walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit In these places the Apostle toucheth three things which must go together in our Justification upon Gods part his great mercy and grace upon Christ's parts justice that is the satisfaction of God's justice or the price of our redemption by the offering of his body and shedding of his Blood with fulfilling of the Law perfectly and throughly and upon our part true and lively Faith in the merits of Jesus Christ which yet is not ours but by Gods working in us So that in our Justification is not only Gods Mercy and Grace but also his Justice which the Apostle calleth the Justice of God and it consisteth in paying our ransom and fulfilling of the Law And so the Grace of God doth not shut out the Justice of God in our Justification but only shutteth out the justice of man that is to say the justice of our works as to be merits of deserving our justification And therefore St. Paul declareth here nothing upon the behalf of man concerning his justification but only a true lively Faith which nevertheless is the gift of God and not man's only work without God and yet that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the fear of God to be joyned with Faith in every man that is justified but it shutteth them out from the office of justifying so that although they be all present in him that is justified yet they justifie not all together These are the excellent words of our Church worthy without flattery be it spoken to be written in Letters of Gold but much more in the hearts of all true Christians We see here that there is in justification nothing on the behalf of man but Faith only no internal Holiness Repentance Hope Love Fear of God are in the justified but shut out from the office of justifying God's Grace and Christ's Righteousness are the great causes of justification But saith the Author Is there here any mention of Christ's Righteousness or the imputation thereof I answer Our Church surely thought so and we have his passive Righteousness expressed vers 3. and where that is expressed the active is implied This is clear when the Scripture saith That we are made righteous by Christ's obedience Rom. 5.19 It doth include his blood also and when he saith That we are justified by his blood Rom. 5.9 It doth include his active obedience also so that the Scripture because it expresses justification by both and because it must be consistent with it self in expressing the one includes the other When therefore Rom. 8.3 his sufferings are expressed his active obedience is also included both therefore are intended and withall an imputation without which they cannot be profitable to us But saith the Author The Law could not do it that is the Law could not deliver from the power of sin I answer The Law could not do it of it self and without the Spirit of Christ but if that divine Spirit take the Law into its hand and write it in the heart I suppose there will be a New Creature But the Author saith That the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit vers 4. How can imputation come in here What pretty sence will this make of the Apostles argument I answer The sence is very clear the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us by Christ's Righteousness imputed to us and withall we to whom that is imputed walk after the Spirit the one is our Justification the other our Sanctification Both the Apostle proves to be in Believers and both consist very well together as appears from the first verse There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The No condemnation appertains to Justification and the walking after the Spirit to Sanctification and both stand very well together As to what the Author saith afterwards That there was no reason to abrogate Moses ' s
Law it might have availed to Salvation as well as the Gospel with the supplemental righteousness of Christ there might have been an imputed righteousness as well under the Law as under the Gospel I answer That I conceive that the Moral Law delivered by Moses obliges us Christians as I have before proved and I suppose our Church is of that mind too for I cannot imagine that she should in her Catechism instruct Children in an abrogated Law How there should be an imputed Righteousness without a Gospel I know not it pleased God to found the Gospel upon a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a satisfaction and that cannot be or be profitable to us without an imputation The impotency of the Law was as I noted before that it could not justifie us for want of perfect obedience But God translated the impletion of the Law upon Christ and his Righteousness being made ours by imputation the Law is said to be fulfilled in us To the same purpose the Apostle discourses Mr. Sherlock Rom. 7.4 5 6. Wherefore my Brethren you also are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ who put an end to that imperfect dispensation by his death that you should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God for when we were in the flesh under that carnal and fleshly dispensation of the Law of Moses the motions of sins which were by the Law which grew more boisterous and unruly by the prohibitions of the Law vers 8. did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death That is did betray us to those wicked actions which end in death But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead in which we were held that we should serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter So that the reason why the Law of Moses was abrogated was because it could not make men good it nursed them up in a ritual external Religion taught them to serve God in the Letter by Circumcision Sacrifices or external conformity to the Letter of the Law but the Gospel of Christ alone teacheth us to worship God in the Spirit to offer a reasonable Sacrifice to him to fulfill the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the internal Righteousness of which those legal Ceremonies were the Signs and Sacraments This is the plain meaning of the Apostles which can never be reconciled with imputed Righteousness which would make his argument foolish and absurd Therefore he tells us in other places what little reason we have to be so zealous for the Law of Moses since we have the perfection of it in the Gospel what need is there of the circumcision of the flesh which the Law required When in the Gospel we have the circumcision made without hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that fleshly circumcision What need of legal washing and purgations When they are all fulfilled in the washing of regeneration in the Gospel baptism Thus we are compleat in Christ who bath perfectly instructed us in the will of God and instiluted such a Religion as is the perfection of all Ceremonies Col. 2. We must now offer another Sacrifice than the Law of Moses commanded not the Sacrifices of dead beasts but of a living and active soul Rom. 12. The Apostle Answer Rom. 7. vers 4. Shews that we are dead to the Law by the body of Christ that is by Christ crucified we have remission and the holy Spirit and so are dead to the cursing and irritating power of the Law that we might bring forth fruits of holy works to God Before when we were in the flesh in our corrupt unregenerate estate the motions of sin which were accidentally irritated by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death that is to bring forth sinful actions which tend to death vers 5. But now saith the Apostle we are delivered from the Law from the curse and irritating power of it That being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter vers 6. That is in those new Divine Prinples which our spirits have from Gods not in the old nature which by the outward Letter of the Law is irritated unto sin This I think is the scope of the Apostle he discourses of the regenerate and unregenerate the one dead to the Law the other irritated by it he discourses not of the difference between those under the Old Testament and those under the New for the regenerate under the Old Testament were dead to the cursing and irritating Law they had internal Righteousness which the Author calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had the circumcision of the heart Deut. 30.6 which in the Author is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the fleshly circumcision they had the law in the heart Psal 37.31 And by consequence they had true regeneration in which saith our Author all the legal washings and purifications are fulfilled they were not irritated by the Law but delighted in it as in their joy choice treasure hony-comb of sweetness and what not as appears in the Psalms They served in the newness of the Spirit in new Divine Principles which they had from the holy Spirit in the easiness of the New Creature to which the Will of God is natural Even in their Rituals and Sacrifices they knew all must be done in newness of Spirit in the exercises of internal Graces The very Heathens themselves thought that they were to Sacrifice Mente candidâ expurgatâ conscientiâ How much more did the servants of God under the Old Testament do so they knew that there were better Sacrifices than the outward ones Sacrifices of righteousness Psal 4.5 And sacrifices of a broken spirit Psal 50.17 They understood that the heart the truth in the inward parts was more than all the rest On the other hand the unregenerate under the New Testament they are in the flesh the motions of sin carry all before them they have nothing of internal Righteousness they are uncircumcised in heart as well as in flesh they are baptized yet want the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of regeneration they are irritated by the Law their inward malignity swells and rises against the holy commands which stand in Scripture as so many damms and bars to their impetuous lusts Whatever they do in Evangelical Ordinances they do all in the oldness of the Letter the Letter the outward Rule presses them to Duty but there is no inward acting of Faith no suavity of Love or holy Affections all is done in a dead dull flat manner nothing is minded but the opus operatum the meer external work By this we see clearly where the difference lies It s true the Ceremonials of Moses were abrogated by Christ but I suppose the Moral Law was not it s own intrinsecal Rectitude and Righteousness immortalizes it so
did know that there must be some inward Sanctity but still they stuck in their own Righteousness they would not submit to be justified by the Righteousness of another Our inherent Graces as before I noted are called our own in Scripture but never the Righteousness of God that is not our own but anothers that is Christ's and made ours only by Imputation Israel followed after righteousness but attained not to the Law of righteousness wherefore Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9.31 they attained not to the Law of Righteousness Had the Righteousness of the Law been only an external one they might have reached it but the Law called for all Righteousness and that in pure sinless perfection and that they attained not because they sought it not in Christ in whom perfect Righteousness is but in themselves where it could not be found But to go on God never designed that any man should be justified to eternal life by observing the Law of Moses So the Author It s true God never intended to justifie us fallen Creatures by our own Righteousness or by the Righteousness of the Law performed by us But if as the Author told us before Abel and Enoch were justified by a belief of the Principles of natural Religion If Noah was justified by believing the Deluge if Abraham was justified by believing the particular Revelations made to him why might not the Jews be justified by believing the Law of Moses Abraham and all the good men in those days were justified by such a firm belief of the Being and Providence of God and the partcular Revelations made to them as made them careful in all things to please God Thus the Author pag. 255. Why might not Jews before the Incarnation of Christ be justified by such a firm belief of the Law of Moses as made them careful to please God The Law of Moses was a Revelation too in its Morals pointing out a perfect Sanctity and Righteousness and in its Typicals aiming at Christ the body and substance of them all There is one Metaphorical expression still behind Mr. Sherlock The unsearchable riches of Christ Eph. 3.8 Where by the unsearchable riches of Christ is meant the Gospel The Apostle calls it unsearchable riches because the grace of the Gospel is not a narrow stinted thing not confined to a particular Nation as the Law was but is offered to all mankind The Gospel contains those glorious discoveries of Gods goodness to all mankind as may well be called the riches of his Grace And is it not a great violation of the Majesty of Scripture to sport and toy with words and metaphors as some men with this riches of Grace That he is rich because he hath a rich dowry Brooks riches of Christ having all the world given him that he keeps open house and maintains all the Creation that he doth enrich all the Saints and all of the Saints their Understandings with glorious light their Consciences with quickness c. that he after all this vast expence is never the poorer that he is rich in Houses Lands though he had not a place whereon to lay his head Gold Silver Temporals Spirituals that he is the great Lord and owner of all These are sine things to perswade young women to accept of Christ for their Husband By the unsearchable riches of Christ Answer I suppose are meant the infinite merits of Christ the Gospel is the Charter of them but no more his riches than the Deeds and Evidences are the Lands and Mannors which they convey The merits of Christ are an infinite inexhaustable Treasure and that because the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him But I hope no man will say that the fulness of the Godhead dwells in the Gospel I see nothing of sport or toying in the words of Mr. Brook but very sober and excellent truth Though our Saviour had not Houses or Lands here yet he promises an hundred-fold to those which forsake them for his names sake That of the young women I pass by as a toy which possibly may gratifie some fancies more than they do mine SECT III. THe union of persons between Christ and Believers Mr. Sherlock which gives them a propriety in all the personal graces of Christ is commonly explained by a conjugal relation and legal union that mutual relation which is betwixt Husband and Wife and that union which is betwixt the surety and debtor Now these men say That the Wife hath an interest in her Husbands Estate and is secured from all arrests of the Law And therefore Christ being our Husband all his personal Excellencies Righteousness c. are ours and the Law cannot take hold of us but our Husband must be responsable for our faults A very hard Law truly and I think a Husband is in a very ill case when he has a bad Wife Now suppose this were the case in some earthly Marriages it were worth while to consider whether this be essential to Marriage Or whether it depends upon private contracts or publick Laws which are arbitrary and mutable for if this be essential to Marriage how can we be secure that this is the Law of our Spiritual Marriage unless our Spiritual Husband had told us so especially considering that this Spiritual Marriage betwixt Christ and his Church is of a different nature from earthly Marriages and if they differ in any thing we cannot be sure but that they differ in this unless we have some better proof of it than this Analogy between earthly and Spiritual Marriages Nay and better proof too than Dr. Owen giver us of it Cant. 1. Behold thou art fair thou hast Doves eyes Cant. 3.14 O my Dove thou art in the clefts of the rock Or Cant. 4.8 Come with me from Lebanon look from the top of Amana from the top of Shenir and Hermon from the lyons dens and the mountains of the leopards Or Isai 4.2 The branch of the Lord is beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth is excellent and comely to them that are escaped of Israel Which are all the proofs he can sind for Christ's giving himself to the soul with all his excellencies Now how any such consequence as this can be drawn from Doves eyes or the clefts of the rock or from Lebanon Amana Shenir Hermon or from the lyons dens or mountains of leopards is past my understanding to make out But let the Laws of Kingdoms and Nations be as they will there can be no Law made to alter the nature of things there never was any Law that the personal virtues and qualities and perfections of the Husband should be settled on his Wife for a joynture though the Husband be never so fair wise virtuous his Wife may be ugly a fool or an harlot for personal excellencies pass not out of the person nor can be made ever to any other as Money and Lands
righteousness of one vers 18. and the obedience of one vers 19. The Apostle is so far from speaking of our own inherent righteousness that the great scope of the Chapter is not of Sanctification but Justification and that not by a righteousness of our own but of another that is of Christ But now let us hear the Authors conclusion Christs righteousness and our own are both necessary to our salvation the first as the foundation of the Covenant the other as the condition of it Very well Faith in Christ is indeed the condition of the Covenant and in us inherent but I had thought the Author had been treating of that righteousness which is the matter of our justification and not only of the condition of the Covenant To understand what that righteousness is which is the matter of our justification we must consider what it is which we are to answer unto in the point of justification if we are only to answer unto the terms of the Gospel Covenant then indeed Faith answers thereunto but what will be the consequences of this If we are only to answer unto the terms of the Gospel Covenant then our Saviour contrary to his words came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dissolve the Law to untye all the Bonds of it to loosen the very Foundation of it then Justification is not in such a way as establishes the Law as the Apostle tells us Rom. 3.31 But in such a way as voides and abrogates it then all true Believers must be in a state of perfection the defect of their Graces must be no sins for they have that true Faith which answers the terms of the Gospel and to more then these they are not to answer then the Gospel the great Charter of Grace hath no pardon in it for no more is required of us but the truth of Faith and other Graces and the want of true Faith and other Graces the Gospel doth not pardon Then Christ dyed not to obtain the pardon of those sins which are consistent with Gospel-sincerity but dyed to prevent them from being sins which otherwise would have been sins and to prevent them from being pardoned by his Blood and to name but one thing more Then all the Pagans must be in a justified state for the Gospel Covenant being founded for them also they are only to answer to the terms of the Gospel and to these they have a very easie full answer that they knew them not By these things it appears that in the point of Justification we must answer not to the terms of the Gospel only but to the pure perfect Law also and to that nothing of our own imperfect Graces can respond nothing less can answer but the perfect Righteousness and Obedience of Christ which is made ours by imputation Hence the Apostle tells us That by the righteousness of one we have justification of life and by the obedience of one we are made or constituted righteous SECT IV. According to the notion of these Men Mr. Sherlock men may nay must be united to Christ while they continue in their sins Mr. Shephard tells us expresly That Obedience doth not make us Gods People or God our God but he is first our God which is only by the Covenant of Grace and hence it is that he being ours and we his we of all others are most bound to obey him We are Gods People and that by vertue of the Covenant before we obey him The same Author tells us That we are united to Christ our life not by Obedience as Adam was to God by it but by Faith that is by such a Faith of which Obedience is no part and therefore as all actions in living things come from union so all our acts of Obedience are to come by Faith from the Spirit on Christs part and Faith on ours which make the union The meaning is this We must first be united to Christ by Faith before we can do any thing that is good before this union the best actions we can do are sins which is a plain demonstration of the truth of this charge because according to this principle we can do nothing but sin before we be united to Christ hence these Men constantly place our Justification before our Sanctification that we are first accounted holy by God before we are made so now our Justification follows our union to Christ and our Sanctification follows our Justification and therefore we must first be united to Christ before we are sanctified that is before we are made holy Hence we are told that holyness is a remote end of vocation but the next end is to come to Christ And the same Author makes a speech for Christ to a Sinner more gracious than all the Gospel invitations though thou hast resisted my Spirit refused my grace wearied me with thy iniquities yet come to me this will make me amends I require nothing of thee else but to come We cannot indeed be united to Christ whilest we continue in our sins Answer in the wilful Indulgence of them neither can we be holy whilest we are separated from Christ and the influence of his Holy Spirit Mr. Shephard sets Faith in the first place and then Obedience after it as a fruit thereof and well he may do so Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.26 Faith makes us Gods People Obedience which comes after proves us such Without Faith it is impossible to please to God Heb. 11.6 and therefore without Faith it must be impossible to obey him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith is the beginning of life saith Ignatius Fides principium Christiani est Faith is the first principle Epist ad Eph. or mover in the new Creature saith St. Ambrose Laudo fructum boni operis In Psal 118. Ser. 20. sed in Fide agnosco radicem I praise the fruit of a good work but I acknowledge the root of it to be in Faith So St. Austin And a little after he saith In Psal 31 That works before Faith are but inania cursus ceberrimus praeter viam Vain things and a swift running beside the way Hence our Church in the 1. Homily of good works assures us That Faith giveth life to the Soul and that they be as much dead to God that lack Faith as they be to the World whose Bodies lack Souls that without Faith all that is done of us is but dead before God all good works are but shadows and shews of good things that out of Faith come good works that be good works indeed and without Faith no work is good before God I suppose Mr. Shephard cannot speak more fully it may seem harsh to some that before Faith in Christ there should be nothing good in us that our best actions should be sins but if we look on a wicked Man that is a Man without Faith in the Scripture-glass nothing can be plainer take him at an honest calling
The plowing of the wicked is sin Prov. 21.4 Take him in sacred or Devotional affairs His Sacrifice is an abomination Prov. 15.8 And so is his Prayer too Prov. 28.9 Whatever his outward work or posture be To the unbelieving there is nothing pure Tit. 1.15 The very mind and conscience is defiled and will be so till it be purified by Faith Mr. Shephard places Justification before Sanctification and what doth the Church of England do It tells us in the 12. Article That good works are the fruits of Faith and follow after Justification that they spring necessarily of a true and lively Faith And in the 13. Article That works done before the Grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ Nay in the close of that Article our Church saith of such works We doubt not but they have the nature of sin As for Mr. Shephards speech for Christ come in a sense that they have in some measure resisted his Spirit refused his Grace and wearied him with their iniquities the inviting of such is no more than that of our Saviour which calls the weary and heavy laden to come to him for rest in which all are concerned except such as can without Christ earn a sanctity or holyness at the fingers ends of Nature and take a nap at home in a presumption of their own worthiness and self made righteousness But let us consider Mr. Sherlock the whole progress of the Soul to a closure with Christ the several steps to this are Conviction Compunction Humiliation and Faith which is the uniting Grace Now if there be nothing of forjaking of sin included in all this then Men must be united to Christ before they forsake their sins Now Conviction is a great sense of the evil of sin and the evil after it of its abominable accursed Nature and the Judgments which follow it and this is as it ought to be Men must be awakened to see these evils before they will reform their lives Reform nay you are out this is not the end of Conviction to reform sin that is a legal way but Compunction is the end of it well then what is this Compunction Why Compunction is first a great fear of being damned he sees death wrath eternity near to him next to this succeeds a great sorrow and mourning for sin and that which perfects this Compunction is a separation from sin this is something like but by a separation from sin you must not understand a leaving sin but such a separation as consists with living in it For it is nothing but a being willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away the Lord doth not wound the heart that the Soul should first heal it self but that it may desire the Physician the Lord Jesus to come and heal it So that all he means by separation from sin is to be content that Christ by an irresistible power should take away our sins By this Separation the Soul is cut off from the will to sin not from all no nor from any sin in the will for that must be mortified by a Spirit of holyness after the Soul is implanted into Christ Now this is down right non-sense for he must be a subtil Man who can distinguish between a will to sin and sin in the will and all that can be made of it is this that this separation is a willingness or rather not unwillingness that Christ should take away our sins against our wills and therefore he tells us That this Separation is no part of our Sanctification The whole design of this Compunction is to work humiliation in us which is the work of the Spirit whereby the Soul broken off from self-conceit and confidence submitteth and lieth under God to be disposed as he pleaseth this self-confidence is any hope of pleasing God by Reformation or Repentance or any thing he can do When Men feel this Compunction the great danger is lest they should seck ease by Repentance and Reformation if they can repent and reform they have some hopes as well they may if they do so that this will heal their wounds and pacify the Lord towards them when they see no peace in a sinful course they will try a good one But this is a dangerous mistake for while it is thus with the Soul he is uncapable of Christ For he that trusts to other things to save him or makes himself his own Saviour or rests in his duties without a Saviour that is according to this Author all those who repent and reform he can never have Christ to save him So that true Humiliation is this when the Soul feels its own inability and unworthiness that it may lye under God to be disposed of that is contented to be saved or damned as shall please God and when the Soul is at this pass it is vas capax a vessel capable of Grace And now they are made thus hollow and empty by Humiliation they are capable of receiving Christ as an hollow vessel is of receiving any thing This is a new notion of our union to Christ that it is a receiving Christ into us as an hollow vessel receives any liquor poured into it This is a Philosophical account of the nature of Humiliation that a man must have such a sense of his inability to please God that he shall never dare to be so prophane as to attempt it but must leave repentance and reformation to carnal christless men and that he may be so sensible of his unworthiness that he shall contentedly submit to God to be damned or saved as he pleases And now the Soul being thus hollow is fit to receive Christ and being grown careless of its Salvation and indifferent whether it be saved or damned for it is impossible thus to submit without being indifferent in some measure which God shall chuse it is a fit object for mercy certainly it is a very hard thing to bring any man in his wits to this and I find by this Author that God is very hard put to it to humhle the Soul thus For he is forced to irritate and stir up original corruption to stir the dunghil a very unfit office for an Holy Being that so men finding themselves sensibly grow worse and worse may despair of growing better and leave off such vain attempts and sit down humble under God Nay the Lord loads and tires and wearies the Soul by its own endeavours till it can stir no more That is when the Soul labours to repent and reform the Spirit of God which should assist such pious endeavours withdraws it self because it knows the Soul would rest therein without Christ Now I know not who suffers most by this The sinner who is thus humbled or God who thus humbles him for it must needs be as contrary to the holy merciful nature of God to use such
methods of Humiliation as it is to the proud heart of man to be thus humbled Thus you see that Humiliation hath nothing to do with repentance and reformation of our lives The steps of the Soul towards Christ Answer are conviction compunction Humiliation Faith Now if there be nothing of forsaking of sin in all this then men must be united to Christ before they forsake their sins So the Author But doth Mr. Shepherd allow of no kind of forsaking of sin before union to Christ Yes surely There is saith he a separation from sin so much separation as makes the Soul willing that sin should be taken away So much separation as is necessary to the Souls closing with Christ He never thought that a man indulging his lusts should immediately come and be united to Christ No every step or degree which he sets in the Souls progress to a closure with Christ proves the contrary what need conviction compunction humiliation If the Soul wallowing in its lusts might be united to Christ But Mr. Shephard makes the end of conviction to be not reformation of sin but compunction But how doth he so What that there is no tendency at all in conviction towards reformation No he saith expresly that the next end of it is compunction Sorrow for sin is so called for in Scripture that no man may deny it to be one of God's methods by which he uses to bring men home to himself Neither is it imaginable that sin our old joy unless in some measure it become our sorrow should ever be reformed as it ought without compunction saith Mr. Shephard a sinner will never part with his sin A bare conviction doth but light the Candle to see sin but compunction burns his fingers and that makes him dread the fire But Mr. Shephard who places this compunction in a fear of wrath sorrow for sin and separation from sin means by separation not a leaving of sin but a being willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away and that by an irresistable power and that against our wills To which I answer touching irresistable Grace and that objection as if we were made willing against our will I have before discoursed In compunction there is a leaving of sin in some measure the fear of wrath will make a man start from it sorrow for sin will make it cease to be joy separation from sin so as to be willing to have it taken away is a kind of withdrawing and departure of heart from it But indeed in this compunction there is not such a leaving of sin as if we could be our own Physicians and heal our corrupt natures as if we could our selves reach that victory over the world and its lusts which is the triumph of Faith as if we could mortifie the deeds of the body without that holy Spirit which is given to Believers for that end This were to render Christ Faith the holy Spirit unnecessary to our Sanctification and to render our selves like those Pagans of whom St. Austin speaks who would not be made Christians Quia quasi sibi sufficiunt de bonâ vitâ suâ Mr. Shephard saith Enarr in Psal 31. That this separation from sin cuts off the Soul from the will to sin not from all sin in the will which is mortified by the Spirit of Holiness Now this saith the Author is down right non-sence for he must be a subtil man who can distinguish between a will to sin and sin in the will But I suppose no great subtilty is required to solve this by a will to sin is meant that act of the will whereby it is carried out to sin as its beloved Object and by sin in the will is meant that habitual corruption which is there In compunction there is such a separation from sin that the will is not in its acts carried out as before to sin as its pleasure joy and pursuit but not such a separation from sin as if the habitual corruption in the will were mortified as after Faith it is by the holy Spirit But saith Mr. Shephard Huniiliation breaks off the Soul from self-considence after compunction men are apt to seek ease by repentance and reformation to try a good course but if they trust in themselves or rest in their duties without a Saviour they are uncapable of Christ that is saith the Author all those who repent and reform are uncapable of Christ And must the world believe that Mr. Shephard is against repentance and reformation Surely there is no reason at all for it the thing is very plain if a man will stand like the proud Pharisee upon his bottom if with the Jews he will go about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make to stand his own weak cadaverous righteousness if he will repent and reform in his own strength and without coming to Christ the Fountain of Grace Surely he is not whilst in this proud posture capable of Christ Repentance and Reformation are good things but they must be done in a good manner they must not be made our Christ's or Saviours they must not keep us off from Jesus Christ or make us say as the Pagan mentioned by St. Austin did Jam benè vivo quid mihi necessarius est Christus I can live well already what need have I of Christ All that reformation which is without Faith in Christ is as our Church saith of works without Faith But dead before God Nemo computet bona opera sua ante fidem saith St. Austin If we would reform indeed we must go to Christ by Faith But saith the Author in this Humiliation of Mr. Shephards a man must have such a sense of his inability to please God that he must not dare be so prophane as to attempt it and such a sense of his unworthiness as to submit to God whether he will save or damn him he must in some measure be indifferent whether he be saved or damned but it is an hard thing to bring a man in his wits to this To which I answer for the first a sense of our inability to please God is a thing so necessary that our Saviour tells Laodicea that she was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and must have her gold and raiment and eye-salve and all from him If we think we can please God in our selves not in the beloved Jesus Christ or that we can please God by walking in our own strength and not in the power of Grace we do but deceive our selves and our labour will be but in vain it will fare with us as it did with the man storied of in one of the Jewish Rabbins who in the night lighted his Candle and it went out again and lighted it again and again and still it went out Our Lamps of a self-made Sanctity and Righteousness though trimmed over and over with our endeavours will certainly go out and at last we must resolve as he did
sin we lye and do not the truth but if we walk in the light as God is in the light then have we fellowship one with another 1 Joh. 1.5 6 7. This doctrine doth not only take away the necessity of Holiness in order to our Vnion to Christ but destroys the necessary obligations to Holiness and Obedience for the suture and so thrusts Holiness quite out of the Christian Religion Our Vnion to Christ is perfected while we are unholy and when we are united to Christ there is less need of Holiness than before For now the merit of Christs death is imputed to us to remove the guilt and punishment of sin and his actual obedience is imputed to us to make us righteous and to give us an actual right to glory So that if men will obey Christ out of a principle of good nature and thank fulness they may but according to this notion there is no necessity of it because they are delivered from wrath and have a right to eternal life without it Still the Author goes on with this charge Answer That wicked men who live in sin may be united to Christ Mr. Shephard holds that we are united to Christ by Faith And are Believers wicked men they receive Christ whole Christ as their Prophet to teach them their Priest to satisfie for them their King to rule them and upon account of this receiving they are the sons of God Joh. 1.12 And are they wicked men for all this they have the promise of pardon and justification Act. 13.39 The promise of the Spirit Joh. 7.38.39 The promise of eternal life Joh. 3.16 And may we call them wicked men If wicked men may be intitled to such promises there is no need at all of Holiness or Obedience But saith the Author an holy life must not only follow our Vnion to Christ But at least in order of nature go before it because by this we are united to Christ To which I answer Without doubt that Faith which in Scripture phrase doth come to Christ receive Christ put on Christ and feed upon Christ must needs unite to him and of this Faith Obedience or an holy Life is not a part but a fruit all those worthies Heb. 11. First believed and then by that Faith produced all those acts of Obedience there recorded First We are married to Christ by Faith and then we bring forth fruit unto God Rom. 7.4 And in that fifth Chapter of John quoted by the Author First there are branches in Christ by Faith and then there is holy Fruit brought forth An holy Life must needs presuppose Faith it flows out of a pure heart and the heart cannot be such without Faith It is a conformity to the Divine Rule and that Rule cannot be assured to be such but by Faith It is levelled at the Glory of God and the single eye which looks at that great end is Faith without which the whole Body of our Works is full of darkness Now if Faith unite to Christ and precede Obedience or an holy Life then it is evident that Obedience or an holy Life do not go before our Union to Christ but follow after it But saith the Author our Vnion to Christ is not perfected without Obedience Hence our Saviour saith Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much Fruit so shall ye be my Disciples Joh. 15.8 To which I answer Our Union to Christ is not indeed perfect before Obedience as to its Fruit and Consequences but it is as to its essentials for the Believer in the very instant of believing hath a true title to the promises of pardon of the Spirit and of eternal Life So that should he immediately and before any one act of Obedience depart this Life he should undoubtedly and without any scruple enter that blessed Region where are the spirits of just men made perfect as for that place Joh. 15.8 where our Saviour tells them That bearing of fruit they should be his Disciples it is parallel to that place If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples Joh. 8.31 In both they were Disciples before In that Joh. 8.31 they were Disciples before that period of life unto which their continuance in the word extends it self or else their discipleship must have been adjourned to the other World And in that Joh. 15.8 they were Disciples before their bearing of fruit for they could not bear fruit without being branches in Christ and Branches they could not be without being Disciples when there fore our Saviour saith so shall ye be my Disciples the meaning only is that by their fruitfulness they should give a real proof and demonstration that they are indeed true Disciples and Branches of Christ But saith the Author This Doctrine destroys the obligations to holyness and thrusts holyness out of the Christian Religion our union to Christ is perfected while we are unholy and when we are united to Christ there is less need of holyness than before for now the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us To which I answer As to that that our union to Christ is perfected while we are unholy If by unholy be meant only before a holy life Believers before that are so perfectly united to Christ as to have a true title to the promises of Pardon the Spirit and Salvation If by unholy is meant a wicked Man no wicked Man is united unto Christ this would be a dishonour to our Saviour a contradiction to the Gospel such a one walks in darkness and cannot have fellowship with God who is Light as St. John speaks But a Believer who before an holy life is united to Christ is not must not be called a wicked Man As to the other That when we are united to Christ there is no need of holyness because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us I answer That before I have proved that this assertion that imputed righteousness makes holyness needless is but a Popish calumny and without any ground at all SECT V ACcording to these principles Mr. Sherlock there is no certain way to get into Christ the method prescribed is Conviction Compunction Humiliation and Faith which is the uniting Grace Now I observe first that a Man is passive in all this and can contribute nothing to it himself any otherwise than as he is acted by an irresistible power and it is a vain thing to give such rules and directions as no man can follow this only tells us by what methods God unites us to Christ not what we must do but what we must suffer in order to this union A Sinner may stir up in himself some natural Conviction of sin some natural fear sorrow c. And in a sense of this may set upon the work of Reformation of leaving his sins and performing duties But all this they tell us is to no purpose for unless this Conviction Compunction Humiliation be wrought in us by the irresistible power of the
Spirit of God which no Man can possibly tell whether it be or not it is not of the right stamp and will avail us nothing so that the Sinner hath nothing to do but to sit still and patiently expect till God will do all for him The method is Conviction Compunction Answer Humiliation and Faith but a Man is passive in all this How passive what is he to sit still and do nothing at all No surely he may abstain from outward Acts of sin he may do Acts of Sobriety Justice Charity he may hear pray but internal Grace is Gods work Some have taken those words Let us make Man as if God hath spoke to the four Elements and said Vos date Corpus ego dabo Animam Do you give the Body I 'll give the Soul If I may allude to this Gloss thus it is Man may frame a Body of outward Piety but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inward life of Grace is from God only it is he Who quickneth the dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 Believers are not born of the will of Man but of God Joh. 1.13 But saith the Author It is a vain thing to give such rules and directions as no Man can follow To which I answer Rules are not therefore vain because Man cannot follow them by his own power God gave not the Moral Law in vain yet the spotless sanctity of it was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer impossible thing to any fallen Man in the World God bid them not in vain to make a new heart Ezek. 18.31 and yet claims it as his prerogative and as an act of special Grace to make such an heart Ezek. 36.26 Christ did not in vain call Men to come to him and yet withal tells them That no Man could come to him except the Father drew him Joh. 6.44 Moses was but to lift up the Rod but it was God only who could divide the Sea we are to use the means but it is God only who can work the great work of Grace These Rules though we cannot follow them of our selves may yet shew us our duty and if we reflect upon our selves they may point out our impotency to us and withal they minister under that Spirit which in the use of means infuses the life of Grace into Men. Polychronius in the 6. Council of Constantinople offered by a Paper containing in it the Doctrine of the Monothelites to raise a dead Man to life again Mr. Shephard never thought that his rules though containing excellent truths in them could raise the Spiritually dead but this they do they minister under that Divine Spirit which breathes regenerating Graces into the Soul St. Paul would have Timothy instruct the Opposers not as if they had a power of themselves to repent but if God peradventure would give them repentance 2 Tim. 2.25 All Rules and Instructions do but minister under the Holy Spirit who gives Faith and Repentance as it pleaseth But saith the Author These tell us not what we must do but what we must suffer in order to our union to Christ To which I answer we are to use the means and thus far we must be doers but I suppose we must suffer the Holy Spirit to have the glory of our Regeneration we must not presume to be such doers as if we could work Regeneration our selves or by our works procure it Pelagius would have been a doer in this kind alledging that Gratiam darisecundum merita that is in the Phrase of the Ancients in those dayes secundum opera that Grace was given according to works But unless he had recanted he had in the Palestine Council been by the Church turned into a Sufferer by a just Excommunication neither is our Church for any such doers for it tells us in the 13. Article That works done before Grace do not make Men meet to receive Grace or deserve Grace of congruity yea rather they have the nature of sin The Inspiration of the Spirit which that Article mentions must work the great work of Grace in us which when we see in our selves we must needs acknowledge the insuperable power that was in it Suppose a Man have this Conviction Mr Sherlock Compunction Humiliation is this a sufficient reason to lay hold upon Christ by Faith by no means The end of Conviction is Compunction the end of Compunction Humiliation and all this carries us no nearer to Christ than quietly to lye down before God that he may do what he will with us he may save or damn us So that all this contributes nothing to our union to Christ but brings us to such a temper of mind as to be content to have Christ or go without him as God shall please this is all Men get by Humiliation that if the Lord intend to do them good this is the way in which he will do it but though they be humbled they cannot be sure whether God intend to do them good or not therefore we are told we are as much bound to submit to God whether he will save or damn us as we are to submit to the disposal of God as to any common mercy though you must pray for mercy it must be with submission to Gods good will saying the Lords will is good whether it be to save or damn but mine is evil though it be to be saved and have Jesus Christ Nay we are much more bound to submit to God whether he will save or damn us than we are to submit in the lesser concernments of this life if it be pride to murmur in case the Lord deny you smaller matters the off-alls of this life is it not greater pride to quarrel with him if he deny the greater the things of another life Is he bound to give thee greater who doth not owe thee the least The Lord gives you life but you ask for treasures of Grace and Mercy now God hath given you life you would live for ever an unpardonable fault this thousands of pounds Christ and all he is worth and the Lord seems to deny you and now you sink and grow sullen may not the Lord say Was there ever such pride insolence as to be unwilling to be damned for ever though I dare say this is not the pride which cast the Angels out of Heaven so that though Humiliation be the way to Christ yet it brings us never the nearer him when all is done we are where we were Before Humiliation it was at Gods pleasure whether we should have Christ or not and so it is still The humbled Soul may Answer without doubt lay hold upon Christ but we must remember that we cannot do it by the power of Nature but must do it by the Grace of God Faith is a great receiver it receives Christ and all blessings in and with him but this Faith this very receiving must be received from Grace Nothing is plainer in Scripture than that Faith is the
gift of God hence it is called the fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 and Faith of the operation of God Col. 2.12 It is not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 And such a gift it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is freely gratuitously given Phil. 1.29 Seing then it is thus should we not submit to God for every crumb of bread drop of drink and moments patience because they are his gifts and must we not submit to him for Faith because it is such Had not God given a Jesus a Saviour to Men they could not have made a just complaint against him and now there being one that he is not known all the World over the Pagans may not open their lips against God and in the Church where Christ is known that all Men have no Faith no Man may question God about it Gifts are free and must be submitted for The Apostle asserts Gods Soveraignty clearly He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Rom. 9.18 And if any dare repy or find fault the Apostle takes him up Nay but O Man who art thou that repliest against God If thou hadst but any sentiments of thy own nothingness or rayes of the Divine Majesty thou wouldest never dare to question or to implead thy Maker before whom thou art but a Worm a piece of Clay to be disposed of at his pleasures It is certain that God owes us nothing Though we are in the use of means earnestly to seek Christ Faith and not in a careless indifferent manner as without cause the Author would hint Mr. Shephards mind to be yet we must still adore Gods Soveraignty and lye at his feet for all his Gifts and particularly for Faith It was horrible insolence and presumption in him who prayed Redde mihi vitam aeternam quam debes And it would be no less for any one to pray Redde mihi fidem vivam quam debes Verbum debet venenum habet as Peter Lumbard hath it These things considered Mr. Shephards words need no more but only a candid Interpretation What then is to be done Mr Sherlock in order to our closing with Christ by Faith for hitherto there is no foundation for our Faith Why you must not catch at Christ but stay till God give him to you till God take you into his Arms that you may lean upon your Beloved you must stay till God give you a particular call to come to Christ and whether that will be ever or never no Man can tell Many a wounded Sinner will be scrambling from some general reports of him such as his Gospel makes before the day and hour of Gods glorious call Now for any Man to receive Christ before he is called is presumption I unpardonable presumption too to attempt impossibilities for no Body can come till he is called no man should come unless first called and therefore no crime to stay away as it is in calling to an Office so it is in our calling to special Grace No Man takes this honour but he that is called of God Heb. 5.4 It is a great presumption to usurp the Office of a Priest Prophet or King without a designation and so it is to be a good Man or Christian without a particular call For what hath any Man to do with Christ to make himself a Son of God and Heir of glory to take care to please God and to make himself happy but he that is called of God Well Sinner wait with patience till thou art called and so thy work is at an end for this time The Author laughs at Mr. Shephards particular call Answer let us therefore consider it there is a double call a general external call reaching to all in the Church and a particular internal call vouchsafed to some The first is a command a sufficient warrant to come to Christ The second is a special Act of Grace which infallibly produces Farth in those to whom it is given This distinction is clearly founded in Scripture all in the Church are called but all are not drawn of the Father all do not hear and learn of the Father Joh. 6.44 45. For these taught and drawn ones do all of them come to Christ which all Men in the Church do not all in the Church are called but all are not called according to purpose Rom. 8.28 for then all would love God as those called ones do and by consequence all would have that Faith which works by love We preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.23 24. All of them had an external general call those to whom Christ was a stumbling block and foolishness had such a call for an unknown an unreveiled Christ could not be a stumbling block or foolishness But besides this call there is another an internal effectual call such as makes Christ the power and wisdom of God to Men such as works Faith and other Graces in Men Hence the Apostle saith That they are the called called with a more internal and efficacious call than other Men are These things laid down all things in Mr. Shephard are very easie all Men in the Church have an external call and so a sufficient warrant to believe in Christ it will be no presumption at all in them to do so The Object Jesus Christ is evidently set forth before their eyes but that they may believe in him indeed they must wait for a particular internal call for that Grace which works Faith in the heart if not the work of Faith must be their own they must believe of themselves And this I fear though the Object Christ be free for them would be presumption because the Scripture assures us that Faith is the gift of God All Men in the Church should come to Christ for the Evangelical command makes it their duty yet if we believe our Saviour there must be internal teachings and tractions from the Father to make us truly come to him All in the Church are by the Gospel called to be Believers so to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Royal dignity to be Sons of God Joh. 1.12 to the Divine Offices to be Kings and Priests unto God Rev. 1.6 But this believing is produced by that internal efficacious call which calleth things that are not as though they were I mean which calleth Faith into being where it was not before But then saith Mr. Sherlock The Sinner must only wait till he is called and so his work is at an end for this time To which I answer His work is not at an end because he is still to wait if the Scripture which makes Faith the free-gift of God be true there is no nearer passage to Heaven then by waiting upon God for Faith in the use of means The Saints
to say that which he cannot know and that against his own Soul and eternal Salvation Is there any such reprobation in Scripture as barrs out of Heaven such as by Faith venture upon Christ No surely Christ hath so far dyed for all men as to found for them that general promise whosoever believeth shall be saved This is a plain sure foundation for men to venture upon none that by Faith venture upon Christ shall be barred out of Heaven by any Decree of God because his Decree cannot clash with his Promise It is very irregular arguing to say I know not Gods Decree therefore I 'll neglect my duty St. Paul exhorts the Philippians to work out their Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. Might the Philippians have said how do we know what Gods pleasure is or what he will work in us Why should we work at such a venture or at the pleasure of another No the fear and trembling in the Text was enough to keep them back from arguing at that rate Suppose now that there were no such thing as Election will there not be a paucity and an hard venture still Our Saviour tells us that few find the way to life Matth. 7.14 And God whose prescience is immutable eternally foresaw that it would be so and what must we do now May we deny the truth of Christs words or of Gods prescience Surely we ought not or may we argue thus Few enter into life why should I venture It s an hard venture and great odds against me May I now cry out Good God what Merchant adventurers are poor sinners Surely it doth not at all become me I must look upon the Rule in the Word and endeavour to do my duty Duties belong to us and issues to God But to pass on according to Mr. Shephard it seems assurance it self cannot secure us to which the bare recital of Mr. Shephards words will be answer enough they are these The Call of Christ is the ground by which we first believe It is a constant ground of Faith For if you come to Christ because you have assurance or because you feel such and such Graces and heavenly Impressions of Gods Spirit in you you may then many a day and year keep at a distance from Christ and lye without Christ for the feeling of Graces and assurance of favour are not constant His meaning is very plain the Call of Christ is the ground of our first believing and it is a constant ground if by after renewed acts of Faith we come to Christ because we have assurance we may many a day live without Christ for assurance is no constant thing as the Call is The Author I suppose took out a little out of Mr. Shephard not to interpret him but to sport with him Afterwards we have the Author concluding from Mr. Shephards particular Call That the general Call signifies nothing that there is no foundation for our Faith in Christ but this particular Call To which I answer The general promises of the Gospel signifie Gods will to save Believers and therefore are a sufficient foundation for a man to believe in Christ for Salvation a greater warrant we cannot have for it then Gods own Charter sealed with the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ But that which works this Faith in us is a special Call or internal Grace which shines into the heart and calls forth Faith into being But though we know not how to get into Christ Mr. Sherlock it would be some comfort to know that we are in him But this is as impossible as the other As the only foundation of our Faith in coming to Christ aocording to these mens notions is a special call of the Spirit So the only infallible assurance that we are in Christ is the testimony of the Spirit The spirit of adoption which teaches us to cry Abba Father And yet God doth not afford this Testimony to all but suffers many good Christians to walk in darkness and hides his face from them for no other reason but because they are desirous of it and would be quiet if they should know it this is somewhat hard measure But suppose you have or think you have this testimony of the Spirit how can you be sure that it is not a cheat and delusion the imposture of the Devil or of your own self-flattering imagination to satisfie this we are directed to marks Thus this infallible assurance from the testimony of the Spirit must in its last resolve be founded upon some Moral evidence As it is with the Church of Rome who after a great noise and cry of infallibility are at last forc'd to resolve their Faith into some Motives of credibility or to dance round in an endless circle Well what are the marks of our being in Christ You must enquire whether you have the Spirit of Christ And it is just as easie to know this as whether you be in Christ But are you true Believers Is your Faith of the right stamp is it wrought by the Almighty Power of God Or is it such an easie common presumptuous false faith as that which is in the generality of men This is as easie to know as any of the former For if there be such a false presumptuous faith as takes Christ when he does not belong to us and rests and relies on Christ only for pardon and salvation and yet shall never have Christ How shall we know whether our Faith be true and genuine such as will make Christ ours and the answer to this brings us to that great mark of Sanctification You must consider the effects of Faith Dr. Jacomb pag. 65. doth it purifie the Heart overcome the World work by Love are you new Creatures Is the state of your person changed from a Child of wrath to an Heir of Grace which is the thing to be proved Or is your nature changed Do you walk in newness of life Have you crucified the flesh with its lusts Do you bring forth fruit That is you must prove your justification by your sanctification your Faith by your Works I am glad it is no worse that good works and an holy life may at least put in for marks and evidences of a justified state though the truth is this is a meer complement to Holiness and as they order the matter an holy life can no more be a sign of a justified state than it can justifie us It would be some comfort to know Answer that we are in Christ But this is impossible Thus the Author Impossible Nothing plainer in Scripture we read of the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.12 The sealing of the holy Spirit of promise Eph. 1.13 The witness of the Spirit with our spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 But God doth not afford this testimony of the Spirit to all
good men Very true he doth not a Saint of God may walk in darkness The face of God may be hid from him And that saith Mr. Shephard because there is in many an one an heart desirous of his Love and this would quiet them if they were sure of it The Author thinks this hard measure But Mr. Shephard goes on they never came to be quieted with Gods will in case they think they shall never partake of Gods love but are above that opposite resist quarrel with that the Lord therefore intending his favour for humbled sinners hides his face till they lye low And now I suppose the measure is fair it is very fit we should know our selves to be but receivers and withall unworthy of the Mercies we receive But how do we know that it is the testimony of the Spirit indeed and not a cheat or imposture To satisfie this we are directed to marks Thus this infallible testimony of the Spirit must in its lastiresolve be founded upon moral evidence So the Author To which I answer When the Spirit witnesseth with our spirit when Gods Spirit and Mans concurr and so heaven and earth agree in it one would think it might pass without further examination The Testimony of the Spirit is such that he to whom it made certainly knows that it is the Spirit of Truth it self which bears the Testimony otherwise the Spirit it self testifies and would not be believed by him to whom the Testimony is made that is he testifies and doth not testifie if he do not make a man sure who it is that testifies The Testimony is to make us sure that we are the children of God it is to make us with confidence cry out Abba Father It is to be an earnest and seal of our Salvation and how can this be if we know not who testifies Hence St. Chrystom upon the place saith The Spirit beareth witness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What doubt can remain Hence reverend Dr. Ward saith Parum abest à blasphemiâ dicere De certitud Grat. 221. non esse certum illum cui testimonium perhibet Spiritus Sanctus utrum testimonium illud a Spiritu Sancto sit an à diabolo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this it appears that the Testimony of the Spirit is not such as gives only a conjectural certainty but an infallible one But to proceed What are the marks of our being in Christ Have you the Spirit of Christ This saith the Author is just as easie to know as whether you be in Christ Yet this is a mark in the Apostle If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 Is your faith of the right stamp wrought by the Almighty Power of God This saith the Author is as easie to know as the former Yet the Apostle would have us examine our selves whether we be in the Faith that is whether we have a true genuine Faith 2 Cor. 13.5 True Faith where ever it is makes Christ to belong to him that hath it Doth Faith purifie the heart overcome the world work by love bring forth holy fruit These are as the Author confesses true marks but these men do but complement Holiness And now we must hear his reasons for it For first Holiness is not necessary to our Vnion to Christ Mr Sherlock and therefore can be no necâ—ssary sign of it We are united to Christ 〈◊〉 we are holy an unholy man may be united to Christ and how can Holiness be the only sure mark of our Vnion to Christ They tell us That Holiness doth necessarily follow Union But no man knows how long it may be before it follows yet all this while such a person is united to Christ at least this gives evidence but to one part of the question an holy life is an evidence of a man in Christ but the want of it is no evidence that a man is not in him This mark may be rejected by any one who hath no mind to it Nay secondly according to these mens principles we cannot tell whether we be holy or not till we know whether we be in Christ or not our Vnion to Christ must be an evidence of our Holiness not our Holiness an evidence of our Vnion till we are united to Christ we can do nothing to please God The best actions of christless men are but Splendida peccata glittering impieties appearing fair but odious to God because the person who does them is out of Christ Our persons must be first accepted in Christ and then our services we cannot judge of Holiness by the external performance of any duties nor by the inward sense of our minds but must first know whether we be in Christ whether our persons be accepted in him before we can tell whether any thing we do be good And this is a plain demonstration that Holiness cannot be an evidence of our Vnion to Christ because we must first know our Vnion before we can know that we are holy So much Holiness Mr. Sherlock as is included in true Faith is necessary to our Union to Christ an unholy man that is a wicked man cannot be united to Christ believers are not such but an unholy man that is one who yet hath not lead an holy life may be united to Christ and his after holy life is a sure mark of that Union because a necessary essect thereof But when doth the holy life follow that Vnion I answer immediately Thus our Church tells us in the twelfth Article That good works do spring necessarily out 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 The want of an holy life in the very instant of believing is not an evidence that a man is not is Christ but soon after the want of it will tell him that his Faith was but a fancy and his being in Christ but a dream The best actions of christless men are I confess as our Church tells us in the thirteenth Article not pleasant to God nay they have the nature of sin without Faith it is impossible to please God in our persons or actions our persons must first be accepted in Christ and then our services the best actions of a man not in Christ are not acceptable to God Those actions cannot be acceptable to him whose defects are unpardoned and the defects of those actions are unpardoned whilst their Agent is so But the Author from hence concludes That Holiness cannot be an evidence of our Vnion to Christ because we must first know our Vnion before we can know that we are holy To which I answer Our Union to Christ cannot be known to be so without a knowledge of Faith nor an holy life cannot be known to be so without a knowledge of Faith because without Faith neither can be in reality when we see our Faith flowing out in an holy life we see
the truth of our Union to Christ and the truth of our holy life both at once An holy life taken not meerly in its outward acts but in its efflux from Faith is an infallible mark of our Union to Christ At other times these Men make the work of Sanctification so imperfect Mr. Sherlock and so like an unsanctified state that it is impossible to distinguish a sanctified and unsanctified Man upon this account holyness must be a very sorry evidence of our union to Christ when it is so imperfect that it cannot be known An unregenerate Man is under the Law of sin under the reigning power of it and a regenerate Man as they describe him is in a state as like this as one Egg is another For a regenerate Man may be carnal sold under sin that is a Slave and Captive to it he may do those things he allows not nay those things which he hates that is he may sin against the clearest convictions of conscience and sense of duty he may neglect to do those things which he knows he ought to do and do those things which he knows he ought not to do he may find a Law in his Members that when he would do good evil is present with him a Law in his Members warring against the Law of his mind which brings him into captivity to the Law of sin that is in his Members For so they tell us that St. Paul complains of all this in the person of a regenerate Man Rom. 7. Now an unregenerate man does the very same and indeed cannot do much worse he sins against conscience is brought into captivity to sin is overpowered by indwelling sin he finds natural fears and terrors when he is tempted to sin which gives some check to him and makes him sin against his own will with some unwillingness and reluctancy he approves the Law of God as just and equal his conscience assents to it but there is a strong byass upon his will which runs counter to all those holy Commands and makes him a Slave and Captive to his lusts Now not to dispute which of these two the Apostle means in Rom. 7. I think it is hard to assign any difference between them the regenerate Man according to this description is full as bad as the ungenerate or if there be any difference the regenerate Man is the worst of the two because in the regenerate Man the spirit is led into captivity but in the ungenerate only natural conscience which is a much weaker principle and so is capable of a better excuse is led into captivity But which of these two it is no Man can tell and therefore a regenerate Man hath great reason to fear that he may be unregenerate and an ungenerate Man hath as much reason to hope that he may be regenerate and what becomes then of this evidence of Sanctification to prove our union to Christ when Sanctification it self cannot be distinguished from an unsanctified state According to these Men Answer we cannot distinguish a sanctified and an unsanctified man an unregenerate man is under the reign of sin and a regenerate man as they describe him is so too Why so He may be Carnal Rom. 7.14 but not as the ungenerate totally altogether Carnal without any spark of Spiritual life in him but partially only in respect of the Reliques of corruption abiding in him He is Spiritual so far as he is regenerate yet Carnal because he hath some corrupt flesh in him This appears because though regenerate he is still to go on mortifying the flesh and the flesh is yet lusting in him against the Spirit The Babes in Christ are called Carnal 1 Cor. 3.1 yet they were not unregenerate but their regenerate Man is sold under sin Rom. 7.14 He is so but what as Ahab who sold himself to work evil What as the unregenerate are who are willing Captives ready to obey the desires of the flesh no but he is a captive against his will he cannot wholly rid himself of those lusts which lye as so many heavy chains upon him so far as regenerate he is a free-man but because Regeneration is imperfect he is yet a Captive But their regenerate man may do those things he allows not nay those things he hates Rom. 7.15 Not that as the profane he does outward gross acts of sin and wallows in them but that the inevitabile malum that unavoidable concupiscence though he disallow hate it all its progeny will be stirring in his thoughts and desires nay and sometimes prevailing too That the Apostle speaks of such unavoidable defects is clear from the following words It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me vers 17. which words can be only understood of unavoidable defects But their unregenerate Man neglects duty the good he would do he does not vers 19. not that he doth not do duties to God but that the clog of corruption impedes him from doing them in that pure and uninterrupted manner as he desires He finds a Law in his Members warring against the Law of his mind and bringing him into captivity to the Law of sin which is in his Members vers 23. He hath a Divine Spiritual life in him but because Regeneration is imperfect the indwelling sin is still in him strugling though not reigning by these things it appears that there is a vast difference between a regenerate Man and an ungenerate But if we understand Rom. 7. of an unregenerate Man see if we do not saint him and make him a regenerate Man A regenerate man hates sin Ps 119.128 and so does the unregenerate Rom. 7.15 which yet never any unregenerate Man did reach unto A regenerate Man hath a will to that which is good and so hath the unregenerate Rom. 7.18 which is a lift beyond A regenerate Man delights in the Law of God Psal 1.2 and so does the unregenerate Rom. 7.22 which is a Divine strain much beyond him A regenerate Man groans under the burthen of the indwelling corruption and so does the unregenerate Rom. 7.24 who yet hath little or no sense of it A regenerate Man blesses God for the great deliverance by Jesus Christ and in gratitude serves him and so does the unregenerate Rom. 7.25 who yet never made it his business so to do And thus the unregenerate Man is made as good as the regenerate to conclude the holyness of the regenerate though imperfect and labouring under the indwelling sin is yet a good evidence of their Union with Christ Dr. Jacomb Mr. Sherlock in his Discourse of the Law of sin attempts to assign the difference between the Law of sin in the regenerate and it in the unregenerate and hath given such a Description of an unregenerate state that there is scarce such an unregenerate Man in the World and yet if we must judge what a regenerate Man is by inverting the Character of the unregenerate he is by
and miss of Heaven And yet when he was in a more gentle humour he told the poor doubting soul that desire nay that a desire only to desire at two or three removes was enough But I am zealous so was Jehu and Paul while a Pharisee in persecuting the Church and therefore an universal religious well-governed zeal for God can be no sign of Grace But I am constant and persevere in godly courses so did the young man all these have I kept from my youth only he left Christ for the sake of his riches and so did not persevere But I do all with a good heart for God so thou mayst think of thy self and be deceived And if this be an objection let a man have what marks he will the objection will still be good and so all evidences signifie nothing for after all a man may be deceived in it and think he hath those marks when he hath them not There is a way that seemeth right to man but the end thereof is death thou mayst live so as to deceive thy self and others and yet prove an hypocrite as if because some men may think themselves good who are in a bad estate no man could ever be sure that he is in the right And thus farewel all evidences There is reason to administer comfort to wounded Souls from the lowest measures of Grace Answer and no less to pluck down the proud Plumes of Hypocrites from the inward and pure spirituality of Religion Our Saviour doth both he gave out gracious Promises to mourners and to the poor in spirit and he poured out woes upon the Pharisees and upon all the pomp of their external righteousness But saith the Author they do so magnifie the attainments of Hypocrites that a sanctified man can do no more than an Hypocrite and so all the evidences of Sanctification are spoiled But how so do they paint the Hypocrite fairer than he is Do they attribute to him a jot or tittle more than what is true No surely an Hypocrite may be no Drunkkard or Swearer he may escape the pollutions of the World that is gross sins and though he be not entangled therein again and so a Swine in his outward converses yet he may be such inwardly his inward parts may be wickedness and uncleanness He may live a blameless innocent honest smooth life and yet be foul within He may fast pray hear read the Scriptures and yet his heart not right in the sight of God He may have some kind of sorrow or repentance some kind of love to good men and yet like the foolish Virgins have no Oyl in his Lamp no true Grace with his profession He may have a notional knowledge and yet not be Sanctified by the Truth He may keep a Sabbath in the outward decorum of it and yet want the Spirit and Life of it a delight in the Almighty He may have some kind of zeal and some desires after Heaven and yet not of the right stamp He may presume that he hath a good heart and a godly course and be deceived in both all this is true Now one Truth cannot oppose another The truth which concerns the attainments of Hypocrites cannot oppose that which concerns the evidences of Sanctification The outward reformation is an evidence not meerly as it is outward but as it flows from Faith and a pure heart Fasting prayer hearing reading are evidences not meerly in opere operato in the work done but in the doing of them in a Spiritual manner Faith and Hope and holy Love being actuated therein Keeping the Sabbath is an evidence not meerly in the outward observation of it But when it is filled up with Duties spiritually performed Knowledge Zeal Repentance Love to good Men are Graces when of the right stamp but meer notion which swims in the brain is not that sanctifying Knowledge which influences Holiness into the Heart and Life Every heat upon a Religious account is not true Zeal but that celestial Fire which rightly inflames the heart for the glory of God Every sorrow or pressure from the Law is not true repentance but that which melts the heart into tears for the sinfulness of sin Every respect to good men is not the right love but that which flows out of love to God and points to the Divine Image in them Desires after Heaven may be a mark of a good Estate but then they must be such as are vertually Grace and issue out of poverty of spirit A man may think he hath a good heart and a godly course and be deceived therein yet it follows not that we must bid farewel to evidences an holy life issuing out of a pure heart will still be an evidence to him who hath it But after all this Mr. Sherlock it would be worth while to know how to distingush a regenerate from an unregenerate man and that he tells us may be done thus An unregenerate man let him go never so far do never so much yet he lives in some one sin or other This now is very strange What go never so far and do never so much and yet live in some one sin or other what live a blameless innocent honest smooth life and yet live in some one sin or other Yet suppose he did a regenerate man may be in captivity to the Law of sin And pray what 's the difference But then an ungenerate man cannot be poor in spirit and so carried out of all Duties to Christ That is if an unregenerate man do good he is conscious to himself that he doth it If he have a good heart he feels a good heart in himself and in all he doth and therefore feels not a want of all good which is true poverty of spirit So that according to this discourse the surest mark of a regenerate man is either to have no good in himself or if he have any to be mistaken and think he hath none either of which I think is a very odd sign of Grace But then an unregenerate man comes to Christ but he never gets into Christ never takes up his eternal rest and lodging in Jesus Christ only I thought coming had been believing and that believing would have done the business And if so God forbid that any man should be damned for want of that other Metaphor of taking up his eternal rest and lodging in Christ Men in distress of conscience that 〈◊〉 unregenerate men under such distress If they have comfort from Christ they are contented If Salvation from Hell by Christ they are contented and I think they have some reason then to be contented But Christ himself that is without Comfort and without Salvation contents them not Now to be contented with Christ without comfort and salvation is so far from being the mark of an unregenerate man that I am not yet satisfied that it is the mark of an unreasonable man An unregenerate man Answer let him go never so far do
Commandements shall be the Least in the Kingdom of Heaven if taken in rigore juris were enough to shut all men out of heaven it imports therefore that sincere Obedience is necessary to those who will go thither Again the Evangelicall Light brake out as it pleased the Father of Lights gradually and successively In Math. 16. Peter makes that famous Confession Thou art Christ and was by Christ called Blessed for it and a little after Peter as ignorant of Christ's Passion would have diverted him from it and for that was called Satan Christ's Passion was sure a most necessary thing vet he knew it not Further our Saviour tells the Apostles that It was expedient for them that he should go away why so Then the spirit should come which should guide them into all truth which should glorifie Christ which should take of Christs and should shew it unto them Joh. 16.7 13 14 15. Observe the Spirit was to open and display the things of Christ amongst others his blood and righteousness in their glory and true use to be made ours and now it is no wonder at all if imputed Righteousness be more fully laid down in the Epistles than in the Sermons of our Saviour Christ himself the wisdom of heaven reserved that fuller light till the descent of the holy Ghost Moreover we must distinguish between the necessity of Christs imputed righteousness in it self and the necessity of the knowledge of it Imputed Righteousness since the fall hath ever been necessary in it self no man was ever justisied without Christ's blood applyed to him and that application is made upon believing by way of imputation but the knowledge of it hath been more or less necessary as the Evangelical light hath more or less reveiled it St. Peter at that time of his confession was no doubt justified by Christ's blood and yet he then had not the knowledge of his passion Lastly it appears plainly that our Saviour warned his hearers not to trust in their own Righteousness Thus the Pharisee and the Publican are in the Parable set forth to those that trusted in themselves that they were righteous Luk. 18.19 The Pharisee boasts of his Justice Purity Sanctity The Publican cries out of his sins and begs for mercy and as our Saviour tells us went away jestified rather than the other So true is that of Prosper Melior est in malis factis humilis confessio quà m in bonis superbagloriatio To conclude I hope by these things it appears that neither our Saviour was unfaithful in his prophetical Office nor the Evangelists in giving us an account of our Saviours Doctrine It is worth the observing Mr. Sherlock that in all the New Testament there is no such expression as the Righteousness of Christ or the imputation of Christ's Righteousness we there only find 〈◊〉 righteousness of God and the righteousness of Faith and the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ which is 〈◊〉 strange Did the whole Mystery of the Gospel consist in the imputation of Christ's Righteousness that neither Christ nor his Apostles should once tell us so in express terms This is Bellarmine's own Argument Answer Hactenùs nullum omninò locum invenire potuerunt De just l. 2. cap. 7. ubi legeretur Christi justitiam nobis imputari ad justitiam But I hope our Author will not follow the sound and tinkling of words what if it be not in Scripture syllabically and literally May it not suffice to be there in Sence just Consequence Ratio divina non in superficie est sed in medullà The Author saith That there is no such Expression as the Righteousness of Christ but St. Peter tells us of the righteousness of God our Saviour Jesus Christ 2. Pet. 11 1 Again he saith That there is no such Expression as the Imputation of Christs Righteousness But St. Paul tells us That we are made righteous by Christs obedience Rom. 5.19 But I will say no more to this Objection because I have before proved Imputed Righteousness by Scripture That phrase Mr. Sherlock the Righteousness of God sometimes signifies his Justice Veracity or Goodness Rom. 3.5 but most commonly in the new Testament it signifies that Righteousness which God approves commands and which he will accept for the Justification of a sinner which is contained in the Terms of the Gospel Rom 1.17 For therein is the Righteousness of God reveiled Thus it is called the Righteousness of God Math. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness which is the same with the righteousness of his Kingdome Now the Kingdom of God signifies the State of the Gospel and the Righteousness of God or of his Kingdom that Righteousness which the Gospel prescribes which is conteined in the Sermons and Parables of Christ and consists in a sincere and universal Obedience to the Commands of God Answer The Righteousness of God is indeed that which he approves and accepts of in Justification but not that which he commands us to do no then we should not be justified by Christs blood Rom. 5.9 nor made righteous by his obedience Rom. 5.19 then the Apostle would not tell us of a righteousness imputed without works Rom. 4.6 Neither would he as he doth in that place exclude the Works of converted Abraham from Justification I say of converted Abraham for those words Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness Rom. 4.3 were spoken of Abraham divers years after his Conversion as Dr. Ward hath observed Our Obedience is an Evidence of our Justification 〈◊〉 22. but till it can expiate sin and reach the top and apex of the pure Law it cannot be the Matter of our Righteousness before God Our Church places good Works after Justification and most exellently states Justification in three things Vpon Gods part his great mercy and grace 〈◊〉 of Salvation upon Christs part Justice that is the satisfaction of Gods Justice or the price of our Redemption by the offering of his Body shedding of his Blood with fulfilling of the Law perfectly thoroughly and upon our part true and lively Faith in the Merits of Jesus Christ which is not ours but by God's working in us Thus our Church leaving no room at all for Obedience In the point of Justification The Righteousness of God that which he commands and rewards is the Righteousness of Faith Mr. Sherlock or Righteousness by the Faith of Christ Now Faith in Christ is often ujed objectively for the Gospel of Christ which is the Object of our Faith and so the Righteousness of Faith or by the Faith of Christ is that Righteousness which the Gospel commands Thus Acts. 24. Felix sent for Paul and heard him concerning the Faith of Christ that is concerning righteousness temperance and the judgment to come vers 25. which are the principal Matters of the Gospel Thus obedience to the Faith is obedience to