e. Justification is God's asserting and maintaining act by his Law of Grace of our right to Pardon and Life for the sake of Christ upon our believing 1. It is an act and that ad extra an act which makes a relative change and the subject upon whom this relative change is made is Man a guilty and condemned Sinner one upon whom the sentence of condemnation is passed by the Law and he under obligation thereby to suffer eternal punishment this is Man's condition antecedent to God's act of justifying Rom. 3. 19. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God Galat. 3. 22. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe John 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God Ephes 2. 3. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the Children of wrath even as others 2. In this act of justifying there is the term from which or the state from which Man a Sinner is brought upon his Justification and that is from an obligation to punishment and the omission or loss of right to Life and Happiness Every poor Soul before Faith is under an obligation to Eternal Punishment and must lose Heaven and Eternal Happiness if he leave the World in this condition How much then should it be our concern to see that we have true Faith that we have thankfully accepted of and are sincerely subject unto Christ that so we may have through him a right to Pardon and Life John 5. 24. Verily verily I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after Spirit 3. In justifying there is the term to which or the state a poor Sinner is brought into and that is a right to this Pardon and Life spoken of before No sooner is a Sinner justified but Pardon and Life are his they are by Gospel or Covenant right his John 3. 16. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and Verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him 4. There is the agent or he that justifies and that is God we are before Repentance and Faith guilty and condemned and until God do justifie us we remain in that guilty and condemned state therefore if ever we have a right to Pardon and Life God gives it Rom. 3. 26. To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Rom 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Rom. 8. 30. 33. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth 1. Hence learn first how much we should adore and admire the riches of mercy in Christ that after we had greatly offended him and exposed our selves to his wrath and displeasure everlastingly having involved our selves in a state of guilt and condemnation having forfeited all right to Life I say that after this all this yet he should be willing to become our justifier the forgiver of our Sins and the Donor of a right to Happiness and this upon honourable terms with relation to himself and reasonable with respect to us How much doth this call for our Admiration and Adoration certainly it will be the work of Heaven 2. How great folly are poor impenitent Sinners guilty of for though God be willing to justifie ready to pardon and receive into his favour and make over unto them a sure title to Erernal Life if they will but now humbly come in upon his call and thankfully accept his Son to be their Propitiation Head and Teacher and be subject to him in Christ yet they refuse they hold fast deceit and will not return they set no value upon this great good offered they prefer their Soul damning Lusts and the Profits and Pleasures of a vain transitory World they content themselves to live unforgiven at enmity to God Heirs of Hell destitute of right to Life and Salvation O what folly How much is the condition of such to be lamented who chuse death before Life guilt before Pardon execution in Hell before the fruition of a glorious rest in Heaven God calls them to incline their ear and come unto him hear and their Souls shall live and he will make an everlasting Covenant with them even the sure mercies of David Isa 55. 3. he assures them by his promise that if they will forsake their wicked ways and sinful thoughts he will have mercy and abundantly pardon Verse 7 but alas all this moves them not they are still as unconcerned as before 3. That Justification is not from Eternity For any to affirm this is to affirm a contradiction i. e. that we were both guilty condemned and justified from Eternity for who now are justified but such as before were guilty and condemned so that first God condemns us from Eternity as guilty and then justifies us from Eternity according to these Men touching what they alledge i. e. God's purpose and decree they may as groundedly gather from it that Persons are effectually called from Eternity conformed to the Image of Christ and glorified from Eternity 5. In the description I say it is God's act by his Law of Grace it is not by an immediate but a mediate act that God justifies seeing it is God's act by this his Law and that it is will appear further if we consider that we can neither be justified by the Law of innocent Nature nor by the Law of Moses And if not then by some other Law for as condemnation is by Law so Justification As disobedience then to the Law of Grace brings upon us condemnation so obedience to the same Law gives right to Pardon and Life which is Justification If so be that Sinners remain impenitent unbelieving Rebels against Christ by this Law they are condemned but on the contrary if they through Grace become Penitent Obedient Believers then this Law intitles
Happiness upon condition of personal perfect and perpetual obedience and threatned Man with everlasting death upon his disobedience Now this Law first did not only bind us to obey God our Creator and Rector but Christ also as Man for Christ considered as God Creator and Rector he cannot be under a law given to his Creatures but then as Man partaking of the same Nature with us he must be under this law as binding him to obedience I mean as to the preceptive part But then Secondly This Law transgressed by us doth only bind us to suffer punishment not Christ and the reason is because the Law doth not bind any to suffer the penalty it threatens before it by them be violated and broken now we have violated and broken the Law and it binds us over immediately to suffer the punishment threatned but not Christ and that because Christ considered as Man was ever Innocent and never in the least violated or broke the Law of Works and therefore could not be bound by this Law to suffer the penalty not for himself it may be said but yet for us as our Surety I Answer No he was not bound for us by the Law of Works to suffer as our Surety and that because the Law of Works reveals nothing of nor makes any provision for a Surety 2. There is a Covenant or Law of Grace and by this Christ was neither bound to Obedience nor suffering for the Covenant or Law of Grace it commands Faith and Repentance and threatens damnation to the unbelieving and impenitent But Christ is not by this Law or Covenant to believe or repent indeed he hath bound himself in the promissory part of this Covenant to give the saving blessings thereof to all believing and penitent Sinners but he is not bound by the preceptive part to repent and believe or by the threatning part to suffer in case he do not 3. There is the Law of Mediation that which Divines call the Covenant of Redemption in which he freely engaged to purchase our Redemption and this is the Law by which Christ was bound to suffer for us to satisfie and make atonement and this both by his Father's appointment and his own free consent John 10. 17 18. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I may take it again No Man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again This commandment have I received of my Father It is plain from this Scripture that Christ was obliged by no Law but his Father's command and his own consent and in what Law shall we find the Father's command to Christ to lay down his Life and Christ's free consent thereunto but in the Law of Mediation As thus such a Man hath committed a capital Crime i. e. a Crime that deserves Death another freely consents and engageth to suffer in his stead now this Man that thus freely consents and engageth himself no Law previous to his own consent and engagement doth bind him thus to suffer for the other seeing he is Innocent as to the Crime and so cannot be charged with the Crime the other is guilty of and this was the case in Christ's suffering for us so that from what hath been said it is granted that Christ as our Surety hath suffered in our place and stead but that this was according to the intention or direction of the Covenant of Works this I deny I will grant that if the Covenant of Works had not been broken Christ had not been our Surety nor suffered to satisfie Justice and make our atonement but then that eventually Christ actually became our Surety was from the purpose of an all-wise just holy and merciful God above and besides either the intention or direction of the Law of Works Him hath God set forth to be a Propitiation for Sin Rom. 3. 25. As it is said before he became actually Surety by his own free offer to make satisfaction to the justice of God by his Death for Man's breach of the Law of Works and God he accepted the offer and this not according to any thing intended of this nature in the Law of Works but of his meer grace and good pleasure towards us and yet with a design both to secure the glory of his own justice and holiness and to declare the glory of his own Wisdom and Mercy and to keep up the repute of his Law which Man had willfully violated These things are clear from Scripture 1. That God accepted of the offer of Christ's Mediatourship or Suretiship of his meer good pleasure Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will 2. That God accepted of this offer with a design to advance the glory of his Justice Rom. 3. 26. To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus 3. That he might advance the glory of his Wisdom and Mercy Ephes 1. 6 7 8. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence 4. That he might keep up in the World the repute of his Holy Law in that he would not dispense with the breach thereof without satisfaction Isa 42. 21. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake he will magnifie the Law and make it honourable 2. It is through Christ in the second place by his meritorious and satisfactory righteousness procuring the grant of a remedying Covenant or Law of Grace a Covenant or Law of Grace suited to Man in his lapsed or fallen state for whereas it was become naturally impossible for fallen Man to have Justification or right to Life by the Law of Innocent Nature Christ he purchaseth a new Law that should be a remedy to fallen Man notwithstanding his violation of the first Law So that now if Man do perform the conditions of the Covenant of Grace his Sin shall be pardoned and he shall have right to Life so that it is Christ who hath purchased the new Covenant and it is upon the account of Christ's Merits that God will mercifully accept the obedience which this Covenant requires instead of that Innocency which the Law of perfect Works called for I mean works without any Sin attending them or works performed by an Innocent Creature and justifie and give right to Pardon and Life thereupon When I say that God upon the account of Christ's Merits will mercifully accept the obedience which the Covenant of Grace injoins instead of that Innocency the Law of sinless perfect Works called for the meaning is not as some are prone to imagine that our Evangelical or Gospel Obedience
Sin of Man if it was not accounted his own and so laid upon him I Answer can we think that Men can be ignorant this might very well be in this case and was so when many of the Servants of God were greatly afflicted for the Sins and Miseries of others as David and Jeremiah and those that were mourners in Jerusalem though they were not as Christ to suffer in their stead for them If they say they do not think that God accounted his Son in himself to be a Sinner but as he was our Surety I Answer If God did account Christ as our Surety a Sinner and so guilty pray what did he account him guilty of as our Surety there are these things in Sin the Act the Pollution and the Punshment If then God the Father did account Christ as our Surety guilty of the Act then he must account him the actual Sinner If of the Pollution then one that was morally impure in his Nature If of the Punishment so far as it includes his suffering to satisfie for our Sins and make our attonement from his own free and voluntary obligation this I grant For if this were so that God the Father did account our Lord Jesus Christ considered in relation to us as Mediatour to have been guilty of the Sins of all the Elect then as such as I have said he must have been odious to God and if so how could those acts respecting our Redemption and Reconciliation performed by him as our Surety or Mediatour have been of a sweet smelling savour to God It would be as much as to say God the Father loved superlatively his Son in himself but abhorred him considered as Man's surety and Mediatour and if so those acts which were of the greatest moment performed by him in this relation to us such as giving himself to be a Sacrifice must have been odious to God and if so where must we state our hopes of Salvation It is certainly a vain and ungrounded distinction to say that God accepted of the act of Obedience as they were acts of the Person without Sin but condemned him as standing in the relation of our Mediatour as a Sinner â—eeing that whatever acts are relative acts those also are the acts of the Person standing in that relation for actiones sunt suppositorum And besides the very typical Sacrifices which the Adversaries allow are a clear evidence of this i. e. that Christ the great Sacrifice and our Sacrifice to be offered for expâ—ation and making attonement must not be so much under that notion as reputed a Sinner much less the greatest Sinner for these were to be without blemish and without spot as hath been said and as such offered up unto God Surely they will not say here they were to be so considered in a Physical but not in a Legal sense for God did repute them so in a Legal sense seeing they were appointed by the Law for the Peoples typical expiation we find Levit. 6. 25. the Sin-offering by God is called most Holy or as the words in the Original are Holiness of Holiness â—â—NRâ—â— and the LXX â—â—NRâ—â— now how dare any Man contradict the word and say these were by God accounted legally unclean what reputed by God Holiness of Holiness legally most holy and yet also uncleanness of uncleanness legally most unclean Let them reconcile this that can And if so be those typical Sacrifices were accounted by the Lord legally most Holy then undoubtedly the Antitype the great Sacrifice for expiation i. e. our blessed Lord Jesus must be so accounted in the offering up of himself As Christ's Righteousness say some is imputed to us so our Sins are imputed to Christ They that affirm this some of them say that it is not only passive but the habitual and active Righteousness of Christ which is imputed Pol. Syntagma p. 457. If therefore our Sins be imputed to Christ as Christ's Righteousness in his sense is imputed to us then from this Doctrine it must follow that our habitual and actual Sins must be imputed to Christ i. e. both the corruption of our nature and all our actual transgressions seeing then that to impute signifies to judge account or reckon the sense of these Persons must be that God did account and reckon the Lord Jesus Christ as our Surety or Mediatour to be both an habitual and actual Sinner and was Christ so in God's account Christ is said to be made a Curse for us as Mr. B. saith by suffering as a Sacrifice for us a cursed death not that he was under either in himself or as our Mediatour a Spiritual or Eternal Curse or as some may mean cursed by the Law as a Sinner which is all one for the Law of Innocency justified him 11. I believe saith he that Christ by his obedience active and passive in his holy life and bitter death of the Cross hath compleatly fulfilled the Law and perfectly satisfied the offended justice of God for all the Elect. I Answer Christ did both obey and suffer he yielded conformity to the Law and suffered and satisfied the offended justice of God for Sinners and this in their place and stead The sufferings of Christ were a full satisfaction to an offended God and the principal way and means for the securing the Glory of his Justice and Holiness and for the manifestation of the Glory of his Wisdom and Mercy in the Salvation of Sinners But then that Christ did properly fulfil by his sufferings the threat of the Law of Innocency which we had violaâ—ed this I deny for if so then he should have suffered the same Spiritual and Eternal as well as Corporal punishment in kind which was due unto transgressions and if so where had our Redemption been our Divines generally have said Christ did not suffer the Idem or the same that we should have suffered but the Tantundem what did avail yea infinitely avail to make satisfaction for our offences for any Man to say the Laws threat was properly and perfectly fulfilled in Christ's suffering it includes a contradiction for eternal sufferings were included in the Laws threat but seeing Christ's sufferings were long since finished they cannot be said to be eternal Now for any Man to affirm that Christ properly and perfectly fulfilled the Laws threat without suffering such a death as the Law threatned if it be not a contradiction it looks as like one as ever Man saw But of this I shall say no more having spoken of it above Only there is this which seems intimated further in this Article of his Faith i. e. that what Christ did and suffered was only for the Elect and that others have no benefit thereby which if intended by him I must make bold to tell him it is a great mistake as I have also shewn above for I do not think that any in the World enjoy any Mercy but upon the account of Christ's undertaking upon which he is said to be the Saviour of
How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God to purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God And for this cause he is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Heb. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the utmost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them But it may further be said for I shall deal fairly and let him have what advantage upon the point he can He speaks only of the righteousness of both natures united in Christ and intends this is not imputed I Answer there cannot be the imputation of the active and passive obedience of Christ in his sense without the Imputation of this for consider we his obedience in Life and Death as the obedience of one who is not God Man united and so essentially infinitely righteous as God and perfectly in his nature righteous as Man that obedience could not be the obedience of Christ but if we consider his obedience in Life and Death as the obedience of one who is God Man united in one Person and so essentially infinitely righteous as God and perfectly in his nature righteous as Man then if it be imputed in this Man's sense it must be imputed as the obedience of such an one and how can the righteousness which constituted him a â—it Mediatour not be imputed when the acts as they are the acts of such a Person a Person so and so qualified are imputed And were Christ's acts any further satisfactory and meritorious than they were the acts of such a Person as he was If not then take away that which qualified and made him meet to be a Mediatour and see then if his acts in obeying and suffering can be satisfactory and meritorious and if the Persons have satisfactory and meritorious acts imputed unto them in this Man s sense then that which makes them such they must also have imputed And if they say they have not the righteousness of Christ as satisfactory and meritorious imputed then they must not have it imputed at all and consequently deny all imputation of Christ's Righteousness in any sense which I do not for as I have said above if we could take away from Christ's Righteousness which we cannot it 's satisfaction and Merit that which remains with respect to our Justification and Salvation will be none of his But further saith he it is the acts works doings and obedience of this blessed Mediatour that are imputed and counted to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness Mark if God do impute or count the very acts works doings and obedience of the Mediatour to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness or as he saith in this his Article to be the material and formal cause of their Justification then God must account them to have that Righteousness which in its own nature is a Mediatory Righteousness for such were Christ's acts as Mediatour to be their personal justifying Righteousness Now if any Man be accounted formally righteous in his own Person with that Righteousness which in its own nature is Mediatory then he must be counted to be righteous personally with such a Righteousness as is satisfactory and meritorious after an infinite sort and if he be one that is personally righteous with a satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness and this of an infinite value for such was and is Christ's then how should he chuse but be Godded with God and Christed with Christ and be accounted to have that whereby he may be a Redeemer Saviour anâ— Mediatour both for himself and others yea to have Christ's Office wholly put into his hand now I have so much charity for this Man though he be my professed Adversary and for others that have the like notions with him as to believe that they do neither hold nor intend these consequences which are so gross but they themselves lead me by their hot opposition to shew that these are the unavoidable consequences of such a Doctrine if peradventure they may be convinced It is out of doubt with me that many good and gracious Persons have imbibed and stuck to this notion of the strict Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in it self who yet have abhorred the consequences that have been natural therefrom But then their practice hath ever contradicted this notion and hereby they were kept in the way of safety But then I think it somewhat dangerous when God hath set up before Persons more clear light and yet they are so hot in their opposition as that they will not take time to consider whether it be light from the word or no but almost upon the first hearing or upon a very slight trial cry out Popery Quakerism Arminianism Socinianism and what not Suppose we now that such as pass under any of these names do hold this or the truth what must it be a sufficient Argument for me to relinquish that truth because they hold it for my part I do profess to the World let Men think and say what they please that I am for Catholick truth that is truth where-ever or in whomsoever shall be owned by me so far as I can have evidence for the Devil himself believes that there is a great dreadful and terrible God and I believe the same and am certain in that I do well James 2. 19. And I must not therefore because the Devil believes this turn Atheist But after these Men have done what they can they can never make that they oppose into what they fain I am afraid would 13. I believe â—aith he that by this obediential Righteousness of Christ all the Elect of God are or shall be freely justified from all things Acts 1â— 39. for it is by the obedience of one and not by the Faith and Obedience of many that many are justified and made righteous Râ—m 5. 19. Observe the Scripture Acts 13. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that believe are justified and he saith all the Elâ—ct 〈◊〉 seems he likes not this Scripture expression his Wisdom thinks another better and therefore for all that believe he puts in all the Elect perhaps he is for Justification before Faith and so thinks Elect a term more agreeing to his purpose than believe and he thinks not far amiss if that be his notion but then it might be asked from whence he had his dispensation for such a change I believe according to that Scripture Acts 13. 39. that by Christ and his satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness all that truly believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses i. e. according to the Covenant of Grace have a right to Christ Pardon and Life purchased by him and also I believe the truth of that Text Rom. 5. 19. that
by the obedience of one i. e. the Obedience of Christ many shall be made righteous but this not by accounting the satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of Christ to be the formal Righteousness of their Persons for this is proper to him as Mediatour and cannot be appropriated to them But by this i. e. for the sake of this Righteousness of Christ all those that by Faith accept him shall by the Covenant of Grace be accounted Righteous or their Faith shall be accepted for Righteousness Rom. 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness And whereas he adds in this Article for it is by the Obedience of one and not by the Faith and Obedience of many that many are justified that is a meer jumble for who saith that it is by the Faith and Obedience of many that others are justified And who saith that any are justified without the Obedience of that one i. e. Christ giving that its proper place and office which is to be a meritorious Righteousness And whereas they themselves make Christ's Righteousness to be the meritorious cause of our Justification and yet after that make it the material cause or that with which we are personally righteous they themselves affirm hereby that justified Persons are righteous in the sense of the Law and in God's account with the meritorious Righteousness of Christ and how Persons can in God's account have a meritorious Righteousness with which they themselves are in Law-sense righteous and yet be wholly stripped of that in their own Persons that will merit is a great Paradox for Christ's Righteousness is denominated meritorious from its inseperable property merit as he is our Mediatour 14. I believe saith he that this Obedience and Righteousness of Christ imputed is as able powerful and certain for the Justification of the Elect as the Disobedience and Sin of Adam was for the condemnation of him and his posterity It may be doubted whether this Man do believe that those he calls the Elect were of Adam's posterity seeing that he opposeth them in this Article and touching Adam's Disobedience and Sin which he calls his ability and power implicit for the condemnation of him and his posterity alas it was his moral impotency if he had said it was that which merited procured the condemnation of him and his posterity as they derived a guilty and corrupt nature from him it had been more like and near the truth And thus I grant that Christ's Righteousness had infinitely more merit in it to procure Justification for Sinners upon their believing than Adam's Sin had merit to procure his own or his posterities condemnation 15. I believe saith he that Jesus Christ by his Death Blood Merits Righteousness and obedience hath purchased bought and redeemed his Elect Church and People but that he obeyed and died to procure and purchase a new Law or Covenant with terms and conditions to be performed by them to give them a right and title to Justification I see no ground as yet to believe Indeed I believe him such a stranger belike is he to the blessed Covenant of Grace and yet for sure he looks upon himself to be a Gospel Preacher if there be one in the World In this Article further he wants my proof that there is a Law or Covenant of Grace with terms and Conditions to be performed by Souls to give them a right and title to Justification and this purchased by Christ That I have already done as he may find above and if it would do him any good I should be glad of it 16. I believe saith he that the satisfaction made by Christ to the Law and Justice of God gives the Elect a right to Justification and Life in way of title and that the Adult by Faith receive and enjoy that right That Christ gave full-satisfaction to an offended God I grant but then that that satisfaction consisted in Christ's suffering the same in kind which was due to us transgressors by the Laws threat which I suppose is that which he aims at this I deny and have shewed above it cannot be I believe that Christ hath undoubtedly purchased a right to Pardon and Life which is Justification by his satisfaction and merit for all those the Father hath given him But then that any of these I speak of the Adult have an actual interest in him or right and title to Pardon and Life so long as impenitent unbelievers this I deny seeing so long as they remain such they are in a perishing condemned state Luke 13. 3. I tell you Nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish John 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God And is it like Persons should have an actual interest in Christ and an actual right and title to Pardon and Life by the Gospel so long as they are in a perishing condemned state in the account of the Gospel And then further saith he the Adult by Faith receive and enjoy this right I say the Adult receive Christ which receiving is not Physical but Moral which consists in a sincere consent to take Christ to be their Propitiation Head and Teacher and by this consent which is Faith they are united to Christ and have an actual right hereupon to the great priviledge of Adoption which includes Pardon and Life John 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power or the right of priviledge or the priviledge of right to become the Sons of God and this right is continued by our yielding that subjection through Grace to Christ which we promised in our first consent or when we first did consent to be his Servants Revel 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City 17. I believe saith he that all those thus elected and chosen and by the Father given to Christ redeemed c. are in God's appointed time the day of his power effectually called from a state of nature sin and death to a state of Faith Grace Justification and life and that all those who live and die in infidelity being Adult shall as certainly be damned as though they were in Hell already Mark Reader how he hath confirmed by thus much what I have said above But then saith he that any of the Elect being Adult shall live and die Infidels such an one speaking of me quoth he hath not yet proved That many of the Elect do live many years in Infidelity is out of doubt with me But that any of them shall die Infidels this I never said nor thought for saith Christ John 6. 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will no wise
effects of Christ's passion as I suppose he doth I utterly disclaim any condition on Man's part of this sort and so cannot be one with him 2. They that will enjoy the effects of Christ's passion must fulfill the condition If he meant they must fulfill it by the assistance of God's grace as a condition of connection and order it is true but if he meant they must fulfill it so as that they may merit or deserve it from the very nature of the thing which I think he did according to the Popish Doctrine that Christ hath merited that we might merit then it is false 3. The fulfilling of the condition requireth first knowledge of the condition which knowledge we have by faith Perhaps he meant by faith a blind implicit faith that which is so much in vogue and cried up at this day even among such as account themselves the greatest Anti-papists 4. Faith cometh of God and this faith is a good gift it is good and profitable to me it is profitable to me to do well and exercise this faith So it is I must confess if he spoke of that faith which according to the Scripture is true and saving for and through the merits of Christ and not such a faith that doth deserve of itself or in its own nature the reward for I know no such faith therefore faith Gardiner further By the gift of God I may do well before I be justified In the following Article he further explains himself 5. Therefore I may do well by the gift of God before I am justified towards the attainment of my Jâ—â—ification If he meant by way of merit to procure Jâ—stification ex opere operato from the very work done it is false and I disown it 6. There is ever as much charity towards God as faith and as faith increaseth so doth charity increase If this be taken absolutely every one may judge of it as they have light 7 Towards the attainment of Justification is required Faith and Charity If he meant still as meriting procuring causes in their own nature I disown it 8. Every thing is to be called freely done whereof the righteousness is free and at liberty without any cause of provocation This is a jumble like some other things I have met with of late and therefore I shall leave it to such as this Man who account themselves much wiser than I to find out the true intent and meaning and shall not trouble the Reader with conjectures 9. Faith must be to me the assurance of the promises of God made in Christ if I fulfill the condition and love must accomplish the condition whereupon followeth the attainment of the promises according to God's truth This doth not much differ from the Doctrine of such as place the very Essence of Faith in assurance I speak as to the first branch of it and for the rest I leave it as confused 10. A Man being in deadly Sin may have grace to do the work of penance whereby he may attain to his Justification If he meant that though a Man may be bound over to eternal death by Sin and live in a state of impenitency yet God may give him the grace of repentance who can fairly deny this but then that such an one by his repentance doth merit by it in its own nature that God should justifie him this is false and I disown it It was not my province to say any thing upon these Articles but only barely to transcribe them that the Reader might compare them and mine and see whether they be all of a piece as this Man insinuates Hence mine follow Touching Christ's Righâ—ousness and the Imputation thereof I affirm 1. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it was for â—ur Redemption and Salvation 2. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it to be the sole or only merit and purchase of the new Covenant and the benefits thereof 3. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it to be the merit of the blessed Spirit to work grace 4. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it is for this that all the duties and graces of his People are accepted 5. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it for this he pardons us and receives us into favour and justifies by his Covenant of Grace upon believing and so accepts our Faith for Righteousness It is not without Christ but for him 6. I do believe that what Christ did and suffered he did and suffered for us in the Person of a Mediatour and God doth account what he did and suffered as Mediatour doth and shall avail as much for the obtaining of Pardon and Life for us upon Faith as though we had been able to have done and suffered the same in our own Persons Now Reader compare and be judge whether Winchester's Articles and mine in this point of Imputation do so agree as this Man hath the modesty to affirm and if thou be such an one as Calumniations have weight with thou mayst have enough in him But further saith he the Martyrs before named sealed the contrary Doctrine with their dearest Blood i. e. the Doctrine contrary to mine as well as that of Winchester's for this he must chiefly intend in affirming Winchester's and mine i. e. my six things before mentioned do so agree that I in them do not exceed nor ascribe more to the grace of God and the merits of Christ than Winchester doth in his Be it known then unto all Men That if this Man or any other for him can find me any one either in the Scripture or in that which hath been accounted the Church of Christ by the Reformed since the Apostles times that was reckoned a faithful Servant of God and yet sealed as such a Doctrine contradictory to what is contained in the six particulars with his 〈◊〉 her dearest Blood and I profess I will retract them if so then such an one should have holden and this agreeable to the Scriptures and the common suffrage of the Church of Christ That Christ's satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness was not nor is not accounted by God to have been for our Redemption and Salvation nor to have been the sole purchase and merit of the new Covenant and the benefits of it together with the Holy Spirit nor to be that for which God accepts of the graces and duties of his People nor to be that for which God pardons and receives penitent believing Souls into favour c. Let him prove now if he can that Barnes Hierome and Garret sealed such a Doctrine thus contradictory to mine with their dearest Blood Hierome and Garret agreed with Barnes in the Doctrine of Faith and we find Barnes affirming that good works are to be done and they that do them not shall not come into the Kingdom of God and we find him only excluding them from Justification and Salvation in point of merit making Christ and the death of