they continue in the same so continues he in the discharge of this his Neonomian Office as by them assigned unto him Whence it genuinly follows 3. That their exploding of Dr. Crisp for an Antinomian and expâ—sing him as One that is an Enemy to and Rejecter of Graces Duties and good Works an Espouser of Sin as disowning of any Evil to be therein arises from his not acknowledging of some causally-conditional thâ—ugh not meritorious with all our Adversaries blinding Arts Prerequisites to our Justification which had he done he must have openly defied Rom. 4. 5 and many more Texts that I could name to the absolute overthrow of the whole Oeconomy of the Covenant of Grace but that in an acquitted and Righteous sense must be not only through but as being chosen in Christ and thereby in time made actual Members of that Mystical Head and that from and by vertue of this our Fountain Union with him in Election vertually by Redemption and manifestatively by Effectual Calling both the Change of our Natures is wrought and consequently the performance of our Duties become expâ—rimentally unto us acceptable with God From a neglect of a due Consideration of the foregoing Heads I must tell thee and that from my own Experience and Knowledge That of all the Persons in the World that I have been acquainted with especial Professors either in their Polemical Writings Epâ—stâ—lary Argumentations or all Conferencâ—s I never met with I speak not of any of the former perswasions whereby they are distinguished as such as being satisfied that there are many truly worthy of each of them a more prevaricating inconsistent false dealing and vain glorious people than such as are settled and fixed upon this Neononomian bottom and that as a Judgment of God resting upon them for their abuse of his Righteousness so as to make it truckle thereunto in the bare Merits of the same and become thereby a meer Drudge to our own Righteousness or the Righteousness of the Spirit wrought within us which doth not only cast us the Foundation but brings also a disorder into the proper peculiar Acts of the Trinity it self in their positively distinct personal Operations wherein and whereby the Scripture evidently declares Maugre all the Socinian and Arminian Quodammodo's the perfect Exaltation Glory and Renown of one Eternal Deity in the subservient regular and conjâ—ynt management of that Covenant which these persons would overthrow as carried on by these threee blâ—ssed Subsistenciâ—s though essentially One for the Father properly serves not the Son herein nor the Son the Spirit though each unanimâ—usly carry on the same design yet it is by a distinct Demonstration and Application of both the form and matter of the same as Graciously engaged in and by their own voluntary and everlasting Counsels Hence it is that the Pharisees of old fell short of their Justification notwithstanding their owning of the Grace of God and their great Expectations from the same in order unto it Luk. 18. 81. c. and which is remarkable in reference unto Peter himself who when he began to warp in this point Gal. 2. He is treated with as no less than a Dissembler and all those sâ—ding with him to be under the Power and Prevalency of Dissimulation for a time The reason of God's Jealousie herein and consequently his Judgment upon them is very plain in that it is the same Righteousness in God that he will have exalted both in the Salvation and Damnation of a Sinner and that as exerted by and held forth in the the Law though towards the latter immediately but to the former in and mediately through Christ and that not as to the meer Effects thereof though they follow thereupon but the solid substantial Appearance and Application of the same as the stabilitating Ground and Juridical Foundation of both their Bliss and Misery together with the just Proceedings of God therein Mark Rom. 3. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. For it is the self-same Righteousness under the just prosecuting Sentence and Charge whereof the Damned lie in which it is that the Elect stand justify'd before God Thus the same Doctrin preached by the same Apostles became the Savour of Life unto some and the Savour of Death unto Death unto others 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. comp Rom. 10. 3 4. Therefore of Grace for why should any one be made Partaker of that unto his Salvation which pronounces a just Sentence of Condemnation upon another but that it is meerly of Grace The one standing justified in that which passes a Sentence of Condemnation upon the other He that hath Ears to hear let him hear A SHORT REVIEW OF SOME REFLECTIONS c. IN all Buildings the Foundation is to be first secured for where that is laid essentially and entirely in an Error it is absolutely impossible to be true unto it in an erected Fabrick upon the same without a continued Superstructure of Errors Mendacium mendaciis tegit nè perfluat for as Truth cannot be retained and defended but by Truth there being an inseparable connexion between that of the lowest and highest Degree and Station thereof in the Church of God as there was of every Nail and Thred of a Fringe in the Tabernacle to the Priest Altar and Sacrifice so neither can Error be justly maintained and genuinely pleaded for but by a constant Enumeration of Errors those being a decorum and order even in Romances and Play Books as well as other things Hence it is that these two things do infallibly fall out especially in days of more than ordinary Tryals when the Lord Jesus comes with his Fan in his Hand by this or the other Providence thorowly to purge his Floor 1. That the more the Heretick properly such which I take to be one that either removes or perverts the Foundation that God hath laid is put upon the defensative part of his Error he still adhering unto the same though never so latent at first or for a while and consequently undiscerned the more speedily and clearly both he and it will appear unto others This is evident beyond all manner of Dispute in our Neonomian Contestors this day as will fully appear anon 2. That many who may seem to differ much even to a direct opposition as to appearance at least in several Circumstantials and more Minute Appendixes unto Truth as arising either from their Darkness and consequently invincible mistakes in apprehending one another their peculiar mode of expressing themselves or their timing of each particular Truth in assigning unto it its proper and more individual station order use and dependance yet these as truly holding the Head especially in reference to the Doctrin of Justification the Controverted point this day whatever their present Dissonancy and thereupon Exasperations may be as between Luther and Calvin will sooner or later coalesce and fall into One as being truly Members of the same Mystical Body because the Foundation is the same on which they are both laid
thus and thus Holily and do these and these Works they shall come under Wrath at least God will be angry with them what do we in this but abuse the Scriptures These are his very words saith our Author from p. 559. so they are indeed but not wholly his words nor sense which are as follows If they should terrifie them and make them to believe being Believers for of those I speak if they commit these and these Sins they shall be damned and so come under the wrath of God Then comes our Author in with his Charge before-cited leaving out also what follows as that we undo all that Christ hath done we injure and wrong the Believers themselves we tell that God he lies to his Face for if we tell Believers that except they do these and these good Works they shall come under the Wrath of God what is this but to tell God he lies and to bring the Faithful under a Covenant of Works Look into the 54th of Isaiah ver the 9th and you shall see how it is a belying of God to say that Believers may come under Wrath and Damnation except they do thus and thus Further he quotes the Doctor p. 363 364. very partially omitting what introduces the same namely that some conclude that Elect Persons are in a damnable estate in the time they walk in excess of Riot before they are called Where the Doctor speaking of the nature of Election he wholly omits his purpose therein and therefore also he leaves out what immediately follows which he knew would have overthrown his design viz. It is true such an Elect Person not called is never able to know individually of himself that he is such an one that God hath nothing to charge upon him because till calling God gives not unto Persons to believe and it is only believing that is evidence to Dr. Crisp ' s Works Vol. II. Serm. 9. Pag. 364. Men of things not seen Things that are not seen are hidden and secret and shall not be known I mean the things of God's Love to Men shall not be known to particular Men till they do believe but considering their real condition the Lord hath not one sin to charge upon an elect Person from the first moment of conception till the last minute of his Life there is not so much as Original Sin to be laid on him and the Ground is The Lord hath laid it on Christ already He did lay Sins on him When did he lay them on him When did he pay the first price of them Now suppose this Person uncall'd commits Iniquity and that this Iniquity is charged upon him seeing that his Iniquities are laid upon Christ already how comes it to pass that they are charged upon this elect Person again How come they to be translated from Christ again and laid upon this Person Once they were laid upon Christ it must be confessed For the Blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sins 1 Joh. 1. 7. saith the Apostle and by one Sacrifice he hath perfected for ever them that are Sanctified Heb. 10. 14. Was there by one Act of Christ the expiâ—tion of Sin and all at once that are commited from the beginning of the World to the end thereof how comes it to pass that this and that Sin should be charged upon the Elect Persons when they were laid upon Christ long before He did by that one Act of his expiate all our Sins or did not If he did not expiate them fully then he did not save to the utmost all them that come to God by him But if he did then all Iniquity is vanished and gone he did extract it out â—s some Plaister of excellent Virtue doth extract out the Venom of a plague-sore So Christ by once offering up himself did take away and evaporate all the Sins of the Elect at once Again our Author to level his secret Armisian stroke against Election here as formerly against the Doctrin of Justification in the materiâ—â— Righteousness thereof he defiles and pollutes if possible even Scripture it self and 〈◊〉 liâ—e a bold Impostor for it to speak for him and against its Divine Author and in order 〈…〉 he cites Eph. 2. 13. chap. 1. 1. chap. â— 2 12 13 14 15 16. 〈◊〉 2 3. John 3. 36. and from hence concludes Observe it â—efore they were converted they were Strangers and Aliens Crispi unmask'd Pag. 36. they were with at Christ without God without Hope they were at Enmity with the Father and the Son and there was no more to be laid to their charge at that time than to the glorified Saints above When they were without Christ in the time of their Unregeneracy and living in all Excess of Riot were they not only in God's Favour but as much as the Saints in Glory How then was Christ their Peace How is it said they were reconciled v. 16. Reconciliation supposes falling out it implies being at enmity Those who are now reconciled and made Friends were once Strangers and Enemies and were they at that very time Favourites of God yea as great Favourites as the blessed glorified Spirits Who hath the Confidence to say this but Dr. Crisp And who hath a Heart to believe it but one that dis-believes the plain Testimony of Holy Scripture Hence observe Reader the Doctor having spoken of Election apart and therein inâ—lusively notes That as such it is a Doctrinal Truth wherein the irrefragable safety and unerring security of all such comprehended therein doth radically lie and this arising from a distinguishing love in God whence a further free act of his Grace towards them did spring and that in sending his only begotten Son into the World as their representative Head charged with their Sin to remove the same upon the performance of which inferred from the word upon the Cross It is finished a door passage or entrance was made or laid open without the least impeachment of any of the Attributes of God for the actual conveying in a way of Application by faith that Reconciliation Life and Peace that God had in store for them from all Eternity therefore said to be in Christ reconciling them unto himself even before they become by faith reconciled unto him for it is not Faith that gives a being unto this Reconciliation in God no nor yet the Blood of Christ himself though it make way to the uttermost for the communication of the same without which it would have been for ever hid even from the Elect but receives it which the Apostle expresly declares to be the very Ministry given unto him and others and adds hereunto the reason thereof the so much despised fundamental truth this day by way of encouragement to bring poor sinners in Dr. Crisp's own method for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 18 19 20 21. Now doth it follow that because the Elect
works have nothing to do in Man's Salvation or move God to save Not of Works Dr. Crisp's Works Vol. II. Ser. 6. p. 321. saith he but of Grace yet saith the Apostle You are created and ordained to good Works these stand well together The Apostle Paul tells Titus that Men should study good Works for these are profitable unto Men A Man serves his Generation while he walketh in good Works and he doth good too to them among whom he lives A Man serves not himself in all the good Works he doth for the Lord Christ hath fully served his turn already either we must make our Performance Christ's or else we must disclaim them What a Pride and Arrogance is this either Men will rule the Roast or else they will not abide in the House As every Man hath his Office in a Family so every thing in Man hath its Office Good Works have very necessary Offices in the Family but they were never ordained to be Christ's much less to be God's When Christ was tempted by the Pharisees about Tribute he makes this reply Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's Let not the Righteousness of â—â—en encroach upon God to take God's Work upon its self I tell you Beloved we know not the evil of these vain Imaginations Should the Lord deal with you according to your own Hearts that as your Performances could lay sins upon Christ and discharge you so you should be discharged when would you ever lay them upon him when alass instead of laying old Sins upon Christ by new performance you do but add new sins to old all our Righteousness is but renovation of new transgression to the old For all ouâ— Righteousness saith the Lord by the Prophet Esay even all our Righteousnesses he he speaks of every particular they are as filthy Rags and a menstruous Cloth Is this the way to ease a Man of his Sin to throw dirt anew in the Face of God Is this a way for a Traytor to get the King's Pardon to come into the Kings Presence and throw Poison in the King's Face There is not one Righteous Action a Man doth perform but he doth therein anew throw Dirt in the Face of God by that Action of his because Sin as the Wise-man saith is abomination to the Lord. Who knows the Errors of his Life and the Multitude of his failings in the best Righteousness he doth Man's Righteousness may serve the turn of Men but it will never serve God's Turn Tho' there be failing in our Righteousness yet it may be profitable to Men but as there are failings in it the Eyes of God cannot away with it Now let me add this unto what the Dr. says That were our inward righteousness unspottedly perfect even in this life yet I will be bound to clear and maintain and that from the full distinct tenure and scope of the Covenant of Grace That for the same neither would our persons be accepted with as justified before God no nor any of our duties either in whole or in part be regarded by him for take but that righteousness away for which this worthy Dr. so well pleads both as to its matter and use and this our Author together with the rest of his dissembling Tribe would wholly subvert unless it be from a meritorious station which they are pleased to assign unto it for fear of the worst and there is not the most glorified Saint in Heaven but would soon turn Apostate for this is their clothing it is herein as well as hereon their eternal Station lies This is the Robe in which God beholds them they become â—â—pted with him and he well-pleased with them without which even their holiness whereby they are qualified to take in the Glory of God and also to rejoice in him would soon be blasted dwindled away and come to nothing nay eternal wrath would seize upon them Phil. 3. 9. Malachi 4. 2. Zach. 3. 2 3 4. Gen. 3. 7 21. Rev. 3. 18. ch 4. 4. ch 7. 9 13. chap. 15. 6. ch 19. 8 14. This was the constant joy of him that was counted a Man after God's own Heart Psal 71. 16 Herein his Spirit was perpetually exercised Nay it is the very property or distinguishing character of the new Creature especially the leading Member thereof to eye this to bring this night to see that the Soul be clothed clad with and wrapt in the same unto this the Winding-stairs of the Temple even the Promises as they are in Christ do lead us and the more we ascend by Faith the more shall we see the Glory of God experimentally know interest in him and be dispirited of proud self That God in Christ may be All in All Rom. 1. 17. 1 Cor. 1. 29 30 31. Again our Author quotes the Doctor The Apostle Paul complains That eâ—en he when he would do Good Evil was present with him thro' the Law in his Members rebelling against the Law of his Mind which makes Dr. Crisp 's Works Vol. II. Serm. 1. Pag. 232 234. him cry out of himself bitterly against all he did O wretchrd Man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death Rom. 7. 21 23 24. By this Body of Death he must needs mean altogether because he doth not fly to good Works as a refuge against the evil but to Christ alone as a Refuge against all I thank God saith he then through Jesus Christ our Lord ver 25. so then in respect of the inseparable Communicative poysonfulness of the Ingredients of our Corruptions mingling themselves with the best Righteousness of the best Men both they and their Righteousness are but loss and dung and are filthy Rags and must be so counted Some then may object If it be so we ought to refrain from doing Righteousness we must refrain from Dung. I answer that it follows not but therefore we must refrain from glorying in or stroaking our selves for our Righteous Doings and rather take shame to our selves when we have done and so glory in the Lord. Though good works done by us are but dung in themselves and in God's Eye yet must we be careful to maintain good Works for they are profitable to Men Tit. 3. 8. though but Loss and Dung David Psal 16. 2 3. confesseth that his Goodness extendeth not to God yet for all this he refrains noâ— because it could extend to the Saints that are upon Earth and to the excellent in whom was his delight It is no good Plea That because a Man cannot be wholly clean therefore he will be more filthy than needs You will not like it that because your Children cannot come from School without some dirt in the eleanest way that therefore they shall wallow like Swine over Head and Ears in Dirt. Others will say God often shews his Approbation of good Works which he could not do if they were all Dung I answer that whatsoever is not
and built This will evidently appear from its contrary and that as relating unto the apparent Apostacies that have discovered themselves in the Treatises of some later as well as former Writers who notwithstanding their Vigour against the Papacy even to a Preparation for its Burial by a winding-sheet yet upon trial of them in the Fundamental Points which we must stick unto or we not only lose all but east a most wretched Aspersion upon the Providences of God and vindicate the Proceeding of our Enemies in the Death of the Martyrs of Reformation have been driven to shelter themselves under its argumentative Umbrage and to draw forth the Arrows of their Defence out of it Quiver yea and as it is too notoriously known to assign in a manner unto it from Protestanism in the general the very right Hand of Fellowship in Christoanity and all because the bottom is the same on which they are fixed both in their Hopes and Trust it being natural for every thing to incline to it s designed and as such proper and uniting Center Jo. 5. 40. comp ch 6. 64 65 68 69. Hinc illae lachrymae The matter and truth in Controversie having been by others so justly and fully stated and defended we may be the more brief with this our blank Author especially considering how weak as well as false his Attempts are against the same His confident and grave Trumpeter tells us in the Preface That the wrath of Man works not the Righteousness of God much less I am sure doth our Author's lurking and yet open Politicks with their false Reserves contribute in the least to the Manifestation of the same wherewith his Pamphlet is sufficiently stuffed for as Wrath is the resultive Operation of Anger which Anger is a Passion created in the Soul by God himself and drawn forth into its proper exercise by him into that which the Scripture calls Zeal for his Glory so also is Politicism in Man a meer exurgency from that reasoning faculty within him by which he is distinguished as well as by others of his Qualifications from the Beasts that perish but all thesâ—re discriminatively adjudged as to their sinful or gracious position frame or operation ae they co-work with or for or against the Righteousness of God and that as to their principles and ends the very Text our Prefacer produces sufficiently Demonstrates the same 1 Sams 2. 13. c. 1 Kin. 18. 27. 2 Kin. 3. 13 14. ch 1. 10. Luk. 9. 54 55. Judg. 5. 23. Eph. 4. 26. Ab equis ad asinos Our Author in his first and part of the second page highly commends after a little vent of his Gall Dr. Crisp's Sermons and that for some certain uses and ends that he is pleased to assign unto them That he exalts Free-Grace Christ's Righteousness his Paths in expressing the astonishing love of Jesus and that in the Redemption of Mankind how Mercy and Truth Righteousness and Peace met and kissed each other in him that Justice and Goodness had their equal discovery in his satisfaction and how that he depresses good Works and holy Duties but observe how he takes him p. 2 as to satisfying God's Justice or meriting any thing for us Here the hooks lies from being ingredieats of Justification and so on I doubt this word irgredients will prove but a very nasty one by then we have compared it with his ten charges against the Doctor but for all this we must endeavour as inoffensively and honestly as we can to rescue him out of his Hands for I never iiked ovem lupo committere or Agninis lactibus canem alligare since we see our Author hath no sooner got him into his clutches by his fawning reserved acknowledgments but like the Lyon in the Fable tears him to pieces Some few things to be remarked out of our Author p. 2 3 4. before we enter precisely upon his Decemvir'd Charge against the Doctor 1. His inconsistency even whilst he endeavours falsly to charge the Doctor wirh the same besides as we shall see in the Close of his Treatise how he overthrows the whole of his Forgery and that even with his own Pen unto our Hands from comparing what he says p. 2 3 and 4. and several other places with what his Armour-bearer in the Preface expresses Far be it from me to censure or arraign the State and Spirit note those words State and Spirit of the Reverend Dr. Crisp whose Soul I take to be in Heaven and whose Intentions and Designs might be sincere and good though not so distinctly see the nature order and mutual Relaâ—ions and Dependencies to and upon each other Pref. l. 17 22. Author p. â— His Zeal for Christ's imputed Righteousness makes him vilifie and almost mark that word exclude an inherent Righteousness of our own comp p. 3. Though the Author of these Sermons often attempts to perswade you thas he is no Antinomian i. e. that he is not against the Law of Righteousness and Holiness that he is no discourager of of Faith and good Works and the several Duties of Religion yet nothing is more evident than this that he is a professed Enemy to these and useth all the Art he can to make others so Suit but these together and thou wilt find a Preliminary Transcript of both his Treachery and Iâ—consistency wherewith we shall be sufficiently glutted anon besides p. 58. He makes him a Derider of the new Birth with many other false as well as bitter Sarcasms which should they be but in the Hundredth part of them true would absolutely bespeak the Doctor a Reprobate Gal. 4. 29 30. Scarce one or but very few of his Stigmatizing marks if Faith in its Analogy be attended unto that can be reckoned of the spots of God's Children 2. HIS Displeasure against him for separating between Justification and Sanctification which the Holy Scriptures as he says always joyn together p. 3. but not as to the ends for which our Author and his Jesuitical Fraternity would have them promiscuously jumbled together does the Scripture joyn them and in no other a Sense doth the Doctor separate them 3. HIS solemn Appeal unto the Searcher of Hearts before he enters upon this his allowed deliberate and studied false Dealings with the Doctor of his Innocence in the same I could tell him of the like Attempt of another with whom God hath met in the very Language of his Imprecation Let him and such remember Ananias and Sapphira BUT to the charges themselves Or ab equis ad asinos from bad to worse But before we proceed note Reader THAT there is not one Charge of the whole ten that our Author produces against the Doctor wherein he may be said to have done him the least piece of Justice or to deal equitably with him according to the matter he hath in Hand and that in the very literal Dependant Construction of the same which if otherwise thou findest upon an unequivocal plain and candid comparing of the
it is not actually applyed to the Man's Person his Person is not put in foro verbi in the State of Justification Learn I say to distinguish between receiving a thing in Christ and receiving it with Christ you receive it with Christ when it is actually applyed to your Person we now sit together in Christ in Heaven would you desire no other sitting in Heaven with Christ than now you have Certainly you would As you sit in Christ so likewise you would sit with Christ so take a Man before such time as he believeth and is converted to God would he have no other Sanctification Would you have for your Child suppose you believe him to be elect or had an immediate infallible Warrant so to think no other Sanctification or Justification than he hath then No you would have him Sanctified with Christ and justified with Christ which is to have that which he had in Christ applyed to him and he put actually in his own Person in the state of it The want of the consideration of these things causeth a great mistake in this Age you shall find that still the Scripture useth that Phrase of these things which we not only have in Christ as in a common person but it must be applied unto our own Persons also for would any Man desire to be no more glorified than he is now Yet as we are perfectly glorified in Christ now so we were perfectly justified in Christ when he arose and perfectly justified from all Eternity Who shall condemn the Elect of God Saith the Apostle Yet these must be applied to our own Persons and our Persons must actually be put into this condition When we come to Heaven then he saith we shall sit with Christ in his Throne Rev. 3. but while we are here on Earth then it is sitting in Christ The Consideration of this distinction would in a word clear the great Controversie that is now between the Antinomians as they call them and others about being justified before conversion whether a Man be justified before conversion or no or whether he be not so afterward as in some Sense he was not before I say we are justified in Christ from all Eternity and we are justified with Christ when we believe NOW if thy Doctor be not a thorow pac'd Crispian I know not who is and let me tell this Author by the way that if he dare appear openly in this Controversie and in which I offer him a full unreserved meeting whereunto let him bring what numbers and degrees of Persons he possibly can either by hook or by crook according to the constant practise of those of his perswasion to back him in the same I question not but by the wisdom power and Grace of God sufficiently to manifest that Dr. Crisp fully accords with all those more antient and modern REFORMERS truly and undeniably reckoned upon as such though perhaps differing in other things as to the Doctrines ef Justification Sanctification Graces and Duties thereupon both in their spring nature order form matter and uses and that in the full scope and agreeing with the compleat tenure of the Covenant of Grace it self But our Author tells us p. 8. from the text he had cited p. 5. That the Apostle by way of Antithesis constantly opposeth Faith to Works in Justification Crispianism Vnmask'd pag. 8. that is an act of ours to some others of our own not an Act of ours to one of God as this Author would have us think The opposition which you may observe in St. Paul's Writings of Faith to Works is sufficient to perswade that it is but a Dream of the Doctor that to be justified by Faith is to have in our Spirits the Manifestation of God's Justification This hath no relation at all to what the Apostle so often saith c so far he Now this Antithesis according to our Author 's manifest Design therein one Mr. Antisozzo has notably anatomized in his Explication of Phil. 3. 8. c. unto which I refer the Reader for his being undeceived and shall let Dr. Good-win answer this from the fore-mentioned Treatise Whether it be the Act of Faith that justifies or that is accounted a Mans Righteousness when Dr. Goodwin on the Ephes Part 2d p. 301. we are said to be saved through Faith Surely no for God might have took work as well if he would have taken it as an Act he might have taken any Act Love it self THERE is this reason lies in the bottom of my Spirit against it besides all that else the Scripture saith against it That if when I go to God to be justified I must present to him my believing as the matter of my righteousness and only Christ's death as the merit of it which is the very controversie on foot this day for all our Author's seeming acknowledgment of the righteousness of Christ and the bare instrumentality of Faith in the reception thereof in order to our Justification What will follow Two things are clear to me First That the heart is taken off from looking upon the righteousness of Christ wholly and diverteth it to it 's own righteousness in the very act of believing for righteousness and presenteth that to God which the Scripture is clear against I say it doth take the heart off from the righteousness of the Lord Jesus or the eying of that and causeth it to divert into it self and present its own Faith to God Secondly Every man that will believe to be justified and go to God and say Lord justifie me he must have an evidence that he hath Faith for how else can he present that as the matter of his righteousness Now Millions of Souls cannot do this they were in a poor case if they should be put to it THE Apostle saith it was of Faith that it might be sure If Justification had been founded on the act of Faith it had been as sure on works as faith for that faith that draws out an act of love is as apt to fail as that act of love But here is no uncertainty while I believe to be justified by the righteousness of Christ but my faith is swallowed up there though I may doubt of my faith relying on him yet I have a sure object I have a sure matter to represent to God for me whereas if believing was that I had to represent to God to be justified by suppose my faith fail me I have not a sure matter of righteousness to represent to God THE very object Faith believes on is a contradiction to this that the act of Faith should be the matter of my Justification Yet further Q. Is not faith an act Iâ—'s true it is in a Grammatical signification an act but in the sense in the true real import of it it Dr. Goodwin on the Eph. part 2d p. 287 288. is meerly passive Faith doth not give any thing to God as Charity and Love doth but it only suffers God
then to pray for the forgiveness of our sins is no more but to pray that God would manifest to us that God hath forgiven our sins and that it may be clear that God hath forgiven our sins before we do pray for the forgiveness of them And that Prayer is grounded upon God's act before hand made Consider this one thing I would ask this of you you that pray for forgiveness of your sins do you pray in Faith or do you not If you pray not in Faith mark what the Apostle James saith He that prayeth let him pray in Faith nothing doubting He that wavereth let him not think he shall obtain any thing at the hands of the Lord Beloved your Prayers stink and are abominable in the Nostrils of God if you do not pray in Faith Well you pray in Faith you will say if you pray in Faith if you pray for the forgiveness of sin in Faith what is the ground of your Faith If you do believe you have a ground for your Faith You will say the Grant and Word of God is Page 370. the ground of your Faith Well if the Grant of God be the ground of your believing then the Grant hath a being before your Faith and so consequently before your prayer is made And do we not know that we ought to pray for the Fall of Babylon and that from this ground That she is fallen already in the irreversible determination of God Rev. 14. 8. And though she be not yet actually fallen must we not therefore pray for her fall Unless we can bring God's Decrees and irrevocable Purposes actually to depend upon our own Duties and Prayers This is our Author 's constant practice That he would assign more to our Duties and Graces nay so displaâ—e them that they are neitâ—er Duties indeed nor Graces for the obtaining of this or the other benefit and mercy than unto God himself as the express and fixedly donor of them even before we ask them upon which it is indeed that both our requesting dâ—sposition receptive and improving ability wholly depends Hence it is under which he betakes himself as unto a forlorn refuge p. 16. That if so how can we pray for the hallowing of God's Name or that his Kingdom should come whereas if both of the same had not been absolutely determined of God the matter of Prayer as enjoyned of Christ upon his Disciples would have been wholly in vain so the same as to the forgiveness of sins or trespasses he quotes p. 369. out of the Dr's Treatise which I cannot find though the substance of the place has been cited already And further proceeds in his quotation from p. 561. That the Dr. is an enemy to Prayer whose citation and the Dr's end therein I shall lay before thee Thus much he quotes out of him and annexes it barely unto an act of duty not regarding wherefore or for what ends the same was spoken which take as follows Beloved Christ became our Surety God accepted of him for our Debt he clâ—â—'d Christ in Goal as I may so say for the debt God Dr. Crisp's Works Vol. 3. p. 560. took every Farthing that he could demand of us he is now reconciled unto us he hath acknowledged satisfaction it is upon Record And now shall he come upon them again with fresh wrath for whom Christ hath done all this Shall he charge the debt upon them again He hath forgotten the Death of Christ it seems if this be true Therefore know thus much that it is against the Death of Christ it is the making of it of none effect it makes the coming of Christ to be in vain to say that the wrath of God will break out upon Believers mark the word if they commit such and such sins And for this that I have said Now our Proctoring Author comes in if any man can produce one Scripture against it if any man can shew in all the Book of God that it is any otherwise than I have delivered for my part I shall be of another mind and willingly recant my opinion But leaves out what follows But I see the Scripture runs wholly in this strain and is so full in noâ—hing as in this that God hath generally discharged the sins of Believers Oh then take heed of falling into that error of the Papists that say that God hath taken away the p. 561. sin but not the wrath of God due to sin that he hath forgiven our sins but not the punishment of sin But I beseech you consider that as our sins were then upon Christ he was so bruised for our iniquity that by his stripes we are healed and the chastisement of our peace was so upon him that he being chastised for our sins there is nothing else but peace belongs to us And the chastisement of our sins was so upon him that he beheld the travel of his Soul and was satisfied NOW Reader thou mayst see who this Author is and what also his design is and his false representation of the Doctor meerly because he abhors Duties and Graces in a Popish and meritorious sense This is the plain Grammar as latently radical of all his virulency against him As to the Fourth Charge IV. HE tells us that The Doctrin contained in these Sermons strikes at all Godly Sorrow Contrition Humiliation Confession and Lamenting of sin and Repenting of it and renders them useless and insignificant in the Life of a Christian Now what Warrant he hath had for this his bold assertion Crispi unmask'd p. 18. a plain unminced and uncurtailed quotation of the Dr. will fully satisfie and also discover unto thee and therein not only our Author 's false and disingenious proceedings with the Dr. but the ends for which he doth so as also the Principles by which he is acted in the same I must confess unto thee Reader before we go any further That unless this Author according to the complex account that this his Treatise gives of him be a ROGERVS L'ESTRANGE REDIVIVVS or as genuine a Spawn dropt from him in one sense or another as possibly can be imagined I am wholly at a loss to find him out And for this observe p. 19. where he cites the Dr. p. 317 319 320. where he never regards in any one of them the distinct yea verbally expressed ends of the Dr. therein Suppose there be a sin committed it may be more scandalous than ordinary which sin peradventure to sense wounds the Spirit the Question now is What it is that must or doth aid the Spirit of such an one of the sting Dr. Crisp 's Works Vol. II. Serm. 6. Page 317 318. and of the guilt of this or such like transgressioâ—s committed What doth discharge the soul of such a sin Now our Author â—â—mes in Usually it is taught amongst us by those which would be accounted the greatest Protestants and the greatest haters 〈…〉 that the proportion of Repentance and Tears and Sorrow
the assistance of the Holy Spirit But he leaves out his end therein as follows viz. But under favour the attributing Dr. Crisp's Works Vol. II. Serm. 1. p. 235 236. of such efficacy to this Righteousness though thus assisted by Christ's Spirit is more than is meet though Christ be explicitely owned as the Author of such assistance the righteousness so assisted hath no efficacy at all to obtainany thing of the Lord but rather an efficacy to hasten and multiply wrath in that it multiplies sin THE righteousness with which we come to God though we bring with it the Water of the Spirit of Christ to wash away our old dung p. 236. yet there is such filth in the Vessel of our present righteous actions that the action doth but add dung to dung instead of washing dung away Again our Author p. 22. quotes the Dr p. 150. The sum of which he tells us is That neither Prayer nor Hamiliation nor Repentance nor any other Duties whatsoever though they be done most sincerely servently and zealously though the persons that do them be helped by the Holy Spiâ—it therein are means of procuring Crispian unmask'd p. 22. any Blessing from God They never prevent any Evil or Danger they cannot divert God's Wrath and Displeasure they conduce not one jot to our peace and joy of Mind to our comfortable Walking they afford us no hopes of the Forgiveness of Sin and the Favour and Love of God and as you shall heâ—r afterwards they cannot be made use of as Signs and Tokens of the goodness of our condition Now hear what the Dr. says The Scripture is marvelous plentiful in this that no Believer for whom Christ died should have the least Dr. Crisp ' s Works Vol. I. Serm. 10. p. 150. thought in his heart of promoting or advancing himself or any end of his own by doing what he doth And though as People may think here is a marvellous discouragement to Persons to do what God calls them to do when they shall have nothing for it I answer when there is a spirit of ingenuity as you know there is even in the World they shall be as industrious to glorifie God and do good to Men as if they did it for themselves They shall do as much for good already bestowed as if they were to procure it by their own doing Secondly I answer there can be no discouragement at all unto the performance of any thing God calls for at your hands though you get nothing in the World by what you dâ— I say there is no discouragement because you cannot propound or intend to your selves any possible gain by Duty But that whatever it is that is a Spur and Encouragement unto Duty is already freely and graciously provided for you to your hand that all your industry could not compass and bring in either so certainly or so plentifully as the very grace of God before the performance of any Duty hath provided and established that good for you In the close of this Charge p. 28 29. Our Author unravels like the old Journey-Man-Taylor the whole of his twisted and forced Sarcasmâ— against the Dr. though under this pretence as if he contradicted himself whereas indeed it is no more than his assigning unto Graces and Daties their proper places both as to the spring exercise uses and ends of the same which our Author hath as great a regard unto as the Turk himself whence it evidently appears That our Author's zeal in this cause is but the very self-same both as to the matter and end thereof as that of the Jews mentioned by the Apostle Paul Rom. 9. 31 32. chap. 10. 2 3 4. From hence he flies to his Sixth Charge VI. That the Author should deny That we ought to make any use of our Graces as Marks Tokens or Evidences of our State of Salvation Author p. 29. This falshood will soon be detected from the very places whence he partially cites the seeming matter of his miserable invective against him for with our Author unless the Graces of the Spirit be allowed as the very matter of our Righteousness and that in though not for which that being transferred over to the merits of the Righteousness of Christ as abstracted from the real actual or substantial Matter of the same we must be justified before God Antinomianism is presently set on foot as will appear from the way of his procedure in his quoting the Doctor pag. 106 432 446 462. Vol. 3. Serm. 3. 447 453 465 469. The Doctor in the whole of what our Author quotes of him declares that what-ever Marks or Signs we may have of Grace yet if they proceed not from our actual Interest in Christ and his Righteousness they will prove but deceitful there being that in Morality which as the common Herb in the Field hath a very nigh resemblance unto that in the Garden that beâ—rs a close comparate likeness with that of Grace Unto which places ut priùs that he quotes of the Doctor I refer the Reader for his solution Only to avoid a further Tediousness I shall recite one passage of the Doctâ—rs in reference to this Charge whereunto many scores might be added And that from p. 457. speaking from Rom. 10. 2 3 4 says he Observe it well here is a Zeal that is an earnestness of Spirit and this Zeal was after God so then it was a Zeal wherein they sought God and his Glory not in an indirect way neither nor in a corrupt way Dr. Crisp ' s Works Vol. II. Ser. 13. Pag. 457. of their own devising but it was a Zeal exercised in the Righteousness according to the Law of God himself for so much iâ— intimated when it is said that Christ is the end of the Law And yet for all this saith the Apostle though they had this Zeal of God according to the Will of God in his Law yet notwithstanding they submitted not themselves to the Righteousness of God So then there may be a singleness of Heart to the Lord and for the Glory of God and a walking in Obedience to the Will of God revealed in his Law yet notwithstanding there may be no portion in Christ but a withstanding of Christ and not a submitting to his Righteousness Thus he deals with the Doctor all along that when and where-ever he finds him degrading or depressing of Graces and Duties from an Usurpation or unsciptural Assent he sâ—atches out to present before us the bare Expressions themselves without a candid Discovery unto us of the Doctors Design therein as to the reference they have to the genuine Matter of his Discourse thereupon As to the Seventh Charge VII He tells us that Another position of this our Author i. e. the Doctor is That God is not angry with any elect Person before or after he is converted If we tell Believers saith he That except they perform such and such Duties Crispi Unmask'd Pag. 35. except they walk
cannot be displeased with the person of a believing Sinner in a proper vindicative or legally penal sense because that his sins were laid upon Christ and that he also bore actually in the room of such even God's displeasure against the same Therefore says our Author ut supra That because Christ bore our iniquities he also bore the displeasure of God for them which he takes to be a mistaken ground for the Dr. to fix his Assertion upon Note 1. THAT in our Author's sense the displeasure of God against the very person of a Believer and that for sin even in a penal sense abides with God whilst the said Believer is in this mortal state not the best of Believers being without the same during their abode in the flesh whence it shrewdly follows That when they are compleatly sanctified and freed from all the indwellings of sin then and not till then are they got from under God's vindicative and punitive displeasure against their persons for the same This with our Author 's good leave I take not only to be his Cryptical reserve but downright Arminianism as growing in the Soil of a Self-justiciary Therefore he tells us page 37. How we are to understand God's charging of sin upon a justified person That it shall not be his endless peril his utter destruction but it feems it carries and procures that displeasure from God against even the person of a Believer that is the same in kind with an endless peril and utter destruction from which displeasure in the everlasting continuance of the same though not nature thereof during this Life the person of a Believer may be fully secured in a state of perfect Holiness But 2. Most absconded Sir Methink you swell and that most rankly too of the Cask of Socinianism like your Foxes Fitchets and such sort of Vermin though very reclusely lodged from the Eye yet their nasty scent usually betrays them for is it possible That Christ can be look'd upon as a proper Sacrifice for sin and not as undergoing the full displeasure of God against as well as punishment from God for the same And if so where would this punishment be or what would it signific This is to make but a meer sham Metaphorous appearance or gulling Cheat of the infinite Sufferings of the blessed Jesus and thereby to despoil him of his Glory even of that Baptism that he was in a strait till he was Baptized with the same nay let me tell this Author by the way That take away the displeasure of God against sin or such as are in their Persons juridically charged with the same from which he would acquit Christ in his Representative undertaking and yet load a Believer withal and I will readily undergo the punishment thereof By the way observe this as a true Mark and Token of both an Arminian and Socinian that if they can but be secured from punishment they do not much value either the Good Will or Displeasure of God This seems to be the secret Nursery of all their irregular Proceedings both in frothines of Spirit loosness of Life and prevarication in Doctâ—in together with their treacherous management of Authors for so long as they think that Christ hath taken away the sin only in the punishment thereof they little set by self being secured thro' the same what becomes either of the Favour or Displicency of God towards them unless they can procure the former in their own way unto which Christ shall give them a remote assistance they are very regardless until the appearance of a Death's-head drive them to their Tutissimum est c. Verbum sat sapienti Take this that follows in a familiar comparison as a short yet full Scheme of the Neonomian Heresie touching the Doctrin of Justification yea the whole Body of that Divinity included in the definition given therein of the Covenant of Grace That as a Surety on the behalf of another Compounds for his Debt by cancelling the Bond as to its immediate Relation between the Creditor and Debtor in translating over the Charge unto himself by his undertaking for the payment thereof after the way of a Bristol-Bargain unto which the said Surety enables him by a provision of all Implemental materials together with his derective advice continued Presence and recruitive Assistances upon failures till the poor Debtor by vertue of the same at the end of his Seventh Year of Jubilee receives his compleat discharge which he as absolutely disowning all abilities in himself to compass the same fully ascribes and that justly as well as thankfully in the whole of it unto the meritorious responsibleness of undiscerned kindness and constant actual supplies from his merciful Spouser and Undertaker Thus in their sense Christ becomes our Surety Now our Author Ibid. comes to his Journey-man-Taylor's unstitching concessions tho' not half so honestly yet as boobishly as possibly can be Here we most readily grant that those who are justified Crispi Vnmask'd Pag. 37. clear from the Imputation of all sin according to some Scriptures he quotes 1 Joh. 1. 7. 1 Pet. â— 24. Rom. 8. 1 33. But hereupon arises two Questions notwithstanding this his Armini-Sâ—cinian Grant as to the ends and circumstances attending the same As Quest 1. Whether or no any one yet was or ever shall bâ— truly justified without a praevious juridical Title unto and interest in such a Righteousness and that without a present Work of Grace within him as may constitute him compleatly just as to the matter thereof and also render and make it appear that God is infinitely just in the Justification of such a one Quest 2. Whether this Concession of our Author as to the Imputation of all Sin unto Christ and yet reserving even that thereof which is Hell it self unto a true Believer That in his Sufferings and Afflictions he undergoes the very Displeasure of God and Christ only the punishment be in the least consistent with Truth common Sense or solid Peace and Comfort Our Author laying a greater Burthen upon the Believer in this his Concession than upon Christ himself But further he tells us in the Eighth Charge VIII That this reminds him of another assertion of the Doctor 's viz. p. 38. as a natural consequent of his former position And so it is as natural indeed as our Author's Proceedings against him the former defending Truth with Truth the latter seeking to undermine the same by a continued Multiplication of one treachery on the back of the other Before we come to a precise consideration of his quotations note these three things 1. That when he cites the Doctor for saying That no Believer is punished or afflicted for sin he hides from thee his not only inferential but also literal explanation of the same p. 38 39. 2. That when he is forced to speak even the Doctor 's words as not being able to avoid the same no more than Balâ—am could avoid his Prophesie wherein his consciousness appears like