of these his subtilty layes down not as positions here first asseâ—ted and consequently here to be proved But as assertions before proved and granted upon which he is now ready to build his other geere and tâ—ash which he hath in readiness to jâ—yne to these as a superstructure Whereas our sincere subjection and obedience to Christ saith he is part of the condition of the New Covenant And where again When the New Covenant saith Thou shalt obey sincerely putting there this voice of the New Covenant in opposition to the voice of the Old Covenant which as he tells us saith Thou shalt obey perfectly Here is a pretty slight to broach errors a creeping into men to perswade them in despight of their teeth that he and they are of one mind That he proved and they granted it yesternight when they were all fast a sleep and none of them spake or heard any thing Which shall we think this man to have more studied Machiavil or Mâ—ldonate If Bellarmine were alive hee would even shake off his red Cap with laughter to see a son of his so much more witty and crafty then his Father But to the matter it self First concerning obedience to the Morall Law that it is part of the condition of the New Covenant 1. I demand where it was before proved yea where in direct words asserted that it is here taken up as a point granted Hee gave cause enough indeed to bee suspected of it throughout the foregoing part of this Tractate but not evidence enough to be impleaded for it This is Magisterially to command Faith as one that speaketh by the authority of an infallible spirit and not Ministerially to teach as one that subjecteth himself and his Doctrine to the tryal of Gods Word 2. I demand whether he means not by the condition of the New Covenant the condition upon which and for which God will justifie the performer Yea that condition which he had before termed a righteousnesse perfect and meritorious in its own worthyness to Justification If this be not his meaning then Master Baxter eats up again to day what he spit out yesterday But this can in no wise befall the animosity of his spirit If it be his meaning then doth he pronounce even our legal righteousnes which consists in the fulfilling of the Morall duties of the Moral Law as well as our Evangelicall righteousnesse as he termes the personall righteousnesse which is conformed to the rule of the Gospel to bee meritorious to Justification And not any one of the Popes themselves have spoken higher language then this to deifie man in his own righteousnesse 3. I would be informed if the performance of the duties of the Morall Law in obedience to Christ doth justifie why the same performance in obedience to God doth not justifie also Is not obedience due as well to the Father as to the Son or is not Justification as much from the Father as from the Sonne The same honour is due to both and the same work of grace effected by both Neither can I see any more worth in Morall Righteousnesse Morally performed for I finde not Mr. Baxter as yet speaking further of it in obedience to the Son then in the same done to the Father by way of obedience to him But of this point we shall have a more proper place and occasion to speak more fully afterward 2. Concerning the second that the Gospel doth require but sincere not perfect obedience I might also enquire 1. Why Mr. Baxter doth here take it up pro concesso for granted He had indeed put it in the question to which he is answering but had said nothing for the solution of it except peradventure by the art of Ventriloquie he spake something under the Table that he might not bee heard when hee said in his first answer to it That the Morall Law is continued by Christ in the sense before expressed meaning by those words the expressions used in the said question that under the New Covenant the Morall Law commandeth not perfect obedience but onely sincere or at least the Gospel having the Morall Law for its preceptive part doth so If I knew that to be his meaning I have somewhat to say to it In mean while be it or be it not his meaning is every thing that Mr. Baxter hath once imagined in his brain or spoken under a bushel by and by to be taken up for a granted principle in Religion upon which he may make a superstructure of what he pleaseth 2. Why doth he not alledge those Testimonies of the New Testament which assert onely a sincere and not a perfect obedience Why doth hee suffer us poor soules to continue in darknesse for lack of his light communicated to us Is it in the outside or the inside of his Testament that this mystical doctrine is contained I acknowledge the promises of Gods free grace are made â—ut in the riches thereof to them that are in Christ that God for Christs sake will accept their sincere volitions and performances according to the ability which they have and not reject them for want of the ability which they have not That not onely the infirmities of their obedience but their very sins and disobedience is blotted out and shall be no more imputed to them c. But this in no wise denyeth perfect obedience to be their duty still Yea much more their duty under the Gospel then under the Law because there is a greater obligation of greater and more benefits upon them under thâ— Gospel then under the Law binding them to yeeld back perfect love and obedience to their Benefactor 3. What shall we think of those Texts in the New Testament which require of us to be perfect 2 Cor. 13. 11. Jam. 1. 4. Yea perfect as God is perfect Mat. 5. 48. reproving weakness and infirmity and commanding a going on to perfection Heb. 6. 1. as compared with the precedent Chapter in the latter part thereof Yea if perfection were not the duty of a Christian and unperfectness and infirmity his sin why doth the Apostle so much groan and grieve under the remainder of his naturall infirmities and presse on to perfection Rom. 7. 14 to the 24. Phi. 3. 12-14 Or is such unperfectness a sinne onely in reference to the rule of the Law and not the rule of the Gospel for that the Law doth but the Gospel doth not call for perfection This is both contrary to the Scriptures alleaged and doth withall make the Gospel to allow imperfections And to use Mr. Baxters own expressions which calleth the Gospel a Law what the Law forbids not we take the same to be approved by that Law If any should say that the Gospel doth not require perfect but sincere obedience ad aliquid in relation to this or that particular end it might in some case be a truth But Mr. Baxter layes it down positively in it self that the Gospel requires not perfection And this can
Readers with Affection and prejudice the two worst Clouds which oft bemist the judgement of them that are both pious and prudent that in seeing they do not because they would not perceive the truth for a season The Affections of many he attracted to himself by professing himself a zealous Presbyterian This pretext made not a few to look over and beyond his Contagious doctrine to behold and regard the person of the man for his unanimity with them in discipline This vizzard is at length so faln from his Face that the most do and all may see him under this profession to have been but as the Anabaptized Jesuit taking his station there from whence he thought to have most advantage to promote his Popish doctrines Concluding that under that name his Fraud would not be so easily espyed And is there now any which seeth not he would be Episcopal Presbyterian Independent for any Government for no Government helping him to drive home to the head his soul-subverting doctrines into the hearts of men Prejudice against the sacred Truth which he oppugneth he fomented by aspersing the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and the reformed Churches of Christ with the black brand of Antinonianism reserving onely the Papists and Arminians whom he followeth free of it How much he hath prevailed in sowring with the leaven of Scribes and Pharisees which is hypocrisie the vulgar sort not onely of the people but of the Ministers also with this gross imposture would be incredible if experience did not manifest it Therefore finding this Feat so soveraign to the attainment of his ends assoon as he heard of exceptions in the Press against his Aphorisms his first indeavours have been to fill with prejudice the minds of men against the both work and Author thereof dispersing thorow this Citty by his Printer that it is the Hant-shire Antinomian that excepteth so against him How irrational and malicious this his inditement against me is may appear hence that I dwell in one of the obscurest nooks of this English little world so unknown as he is famous that he could not so much as hear of my name saving by some one of his Circumforaneous Legates which having their Provinces assigned either of one or more Counties are still Circling and Compassing them first to disperse this his Mystery of iniquity with such accurateness that there may be no one that hath the repute of a pious Gentleman or Minister a stranger to it and then by their frequent visitations to examine how the Baxterian Faith thrives in each person and to hold them fixed to it These returning once in six or seven Moneths out of their Circuits to their Grand Master may possibly speak in things which they know not what they think may be plausible to him It hath not been unknown I acknowledge to some of these that I disrelished his doctrine and did hinder the embracing of it But might not this my dissenting be as properly termed Treason as Antinonianism Yet because I understand that these sparkes of false fire have no sooner faln than taken in some I am forced to Apologize somewhat and that with the more Confidence because to you that have the eyes of your understanding most clear rightly to Censure or judge that prejudice may be no hinderance to the truth What I shall speak herein must relate partly to my self partly to Mr. Br. and partly to the doctrine it self which he hath drawn into Controversie Condemning it of Antinomism 1 What I shall speak of my self shall not be with an heart and a heart the one open to let out what it listeth the other reserved to retein in secrecy what is not for advantage to the ends sought after but in plainness and simplicity I shall deliver the whole and naked truth of my judgement as before the Lord my Judge and Justifier Neither is there need of hiding and Tergiversation for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ It is the power of God to salvation c. And as sweet to me as the salvation which it bringeth I therefore profess my self clear from all that is rightly Called and hath been judged by the reformed Churches and their Champions Antinonianism i. e. oppositeness to the Law These things I acknowledg my self to hold and teach 1 That Beleevers are not under the Curse of the Law as the Curse 2 Nor are the Afflictions which befall them so the Curse of the Law or revenging punishments for sinn but the fruits of the tender Love of a good and provident Father working for good to them 3 That they are not under the Law as a Covenant of works If these things be Antinonism I acknowledg my self an Antinomian yet such as onely the blindness madness and malice of men possibly may account so but that I have the Apostles and all the Protestant Churches and Writers without any exception under the same aspersion with me having all stoutly maintained all these as Gospel-truths against the false Apostles Papists and Arminians in their severall generations without the Contradiction of any except Papists and Arminians to whom Mr. Br. not without some fellowes hath lately Apostatized 4 Yet I still grant the preaching of the Law and that in its full perfection and all its terrors usefull to shake in pieces all the carnall Confidences and self righteousness of man that despairing of safety in himself he may be forced to seek it out of himself from meer Mercy in another which is Christ the Saviour 5. That the Law is still a perfect rule and directive of all morall righteousness and obedience both to beleevers and unbeleevers so that in both all variation from it is sinn but Conformity to it is regularity and obedience In respect of my judgement therefore about the Law I question not my discharge from the imputation of Antinomism among the truly wise and orthodox except to be a Christian be Antinonianism 2 As to Mr. Br it is evident that he asperseth the innocent with the Fault whereof himself is guilty He denies Christ to require under the Gospel the perfect holiness and righteousness which the Law commandeth and Consequently that it is not either our duty to perform it or our sinn to fail in it or that the Law is an adequate and Competent rule of morall obedience Because it Commands more than it is our duty to perform He saith not Christ requires it not in order to this end but simply and absolutely he requires it not If this be not Antinomianism Part. 1. p. 213. c. then Islebius himself hath been unjustly Charged with it 3 As to the matter yet remaining Charged by Mr. Br. and others with Antinomianism it may be reduced principally to four heads 1 Justification as an Immanent Act in God As actually Completed in the redemption which is by Christ in Christ both these before we beleeve 3 The absoluteness and irrespectiveness of it freely without Conditions 4 Christs satisfying for mans
Law they understand sometimes the Decalogue or Law of the ten Commandments Sometimes the Law of Nature or naturall Righteousness imprinted in mans heart at his first creation Here taking it for granted that Mr. Baxter meaneth by the Morall Law the doctrine of the Law considered as a rule of Righteousness not as a Covenant of Works If 1. he mean by the Morall Law all Commandements both of naturall and positive right I deny the Morall Law so taken to be in the whole and in every part now in force If 2. he mean by it the Decalogue or Law of the tenne Commandements as it was given upon Mount Sinai in time so himself knoweth it to bee the judgement of many Divines that it bound the Nation of Israel alone was not at all given to the Gentiles doth not at all bind us that are not of the Naâ—ion of Israel otheâ—wise then it clears up to us the Law of Nature written in our hearts which dâ—th bind us or as the duties thereof are required of us in the New Testament by the Lord Christ whom we acknowledge to be our King See Zanchius Tom. 4. lib. 1. cap. 11. Thes 1. Where he fully handles and confirms this assertion adding moreover Sic etiam insignes Theologi omnes sentiunt i. e. All Divines of note aâ—e of this judgement Withall that there are some things contained in some of the ten Commandements not pertaining to the jus naturae save in their genus and that somewhat remote I know Mr. Baxter will not deny and if I thought any else would question it it were easie to be demonstrated But if he mean by the Morall Law the Law of Nature as aforesaid as it is written in the heart yea as it is further illustrated either by the book of the Creatures or by the Decalogue as it is epitomized in Tables of stone and explained and amplified in both Testaments so I grant the Moral Law to be still in force viz. as a directive of Moral obedience still What Mr. Baxter addeth viz. to what ends and in what sense the Gospel continueth that law and commandeth perfect obedience thereto is a question not very easie is to me a strange speech in many respects For 1. I cannot see how the question can be difficult to him that will not Nodum in scirpo quaerere make the plaine wayes of God rugged by filling them up with bryars and thorns To the same most honourable ends and in the same sense is it continued for and in which it was first given I mean to the same ends in general though not in every far remote particular First to make his glory elucent in this Microcosm this choice peece of his Workmanship Man is the glory of God saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 7. How but as he bears the image of God not onely in rule and dominion but also in wisdome holyness and righteousness to manage that authority and rule wherewith the grace of God hath invested him And this glory of God upon man is by so much the more conspicuous by how much the more perfectly he resembles God in wisdom righteousness and holyness Besides it was both given and continued to direct and enable man in some measure to render to God his Pepper-corn as Mr. Baxter terms it in testification of his homage and thankfulnesse both for the favours received and for the favours promised without the guidance of the Morall Law written without us yea within us also we should though our affections were never so sweetly sanctifyed for lack of sound illumination present God with wild grapes in stead of grapes with an abomination instead of due obedience and devotion And are not these ends as requisite in the state of mans Renovation as they were in the state of his innocency Yea further unpossible was it that Christ should not continue the Morall Law no lesse unpossible then it is for God to be unrighteous or not God He came to fulfill all righteousnesse not to destroy any one branch of naturall and essential righteousness The Morall Law is the image of God in which we may read the nature of God The rule and platform is in God himselfe originally this is but an extract from it and abstract of it Christ came to restore it not to quench it to set it up in man to perfection not to deface it by any diminution For so should he have abased the glory of his Father shining in his living image And lastly not to have commanded perfect but a maimed obedience thereto had been against the rule of righteousness which bids us to render to every one his due his whole due To God the things that pertain to God yea the whole that pertains to him All is but a Pepper-corn to a whole kingdome of Grace held and of glory expected from him and should not Christ require the payment of a Pepper-corn whole and entire without diminishing or dividing it But the truth is that the question is difficult to bee answered without crushing Mr. Baxters Gospel Justification by Works not in reference to Christs Gospel Justification by free Grace with it the Commandement of perfect obedience to the Morall Law sweetly cohereth The command of perfect obedience to the Morall Law as a condition of Justification leaves all men hopelesse of Justification sure to condemnation for ever Because none can perform the condition in this life But when we are justified freely by the blood of Christ and then by way of answering the grace of our Justifier with our reall thankfulness we are bidden to render our obedience more and more perfectly not slacking our endeavours untill we come to full perfection Though we attain it not in this present life yet our not attainment doth but encrease our self-abasement and make us feele that Christ is our all and we are nothing but doth in no wise destroy our Justification or lessen the joy of the Holy Ghost and peace of conscience which are bottomed only and wholly upon Christ and not upon our selves at all Now let us see how he will make the question difficult to us as it must be to him First saith he it is a question Whether Christ did first repeale that Law and then re-establish it to other ends So some think A meer windy question of such as delight to play with God in contempt as the Froggs with Jupiters Log. Where are those some thinkers No lesse rationally might they feign that the Lord Jesus pluckt down his Father Josephs house re-edified it to this other end that men might goe in and out no more at the doors but at the windows Mr. Baxter washeth his hands clean from having a finger in this pye Nay saith he I have proved already that it is not repealed at all even concerning the Covenant of Works it self i. e. That Christ is so farre from taking from us the perfect rule of righteousnesse that he however hee be called a Saviour yet hath left all
men without saving any to be damned for their unrighteousness But what he hath proved before I suppose we have disapproved and that sufficiently before Yet saith he that Christ useth it i. e. the Morall Law without the separable adjunct of the Covenant of Works thereunto annexed to other ends I grant He grants that which none demands of him But what title he hath to make such a grant he shews not And I think it will cost him so much labour as will make him sweat under the saddle before he be able to shew to what other substantial and not meerly circumstantiall ends it now serveth besides those to which it served at the first creation thereof in mans innocency at least after his principles that holdeth the workes thereof now under the Gospel to tend to Justification But from this he passeth to a second question which he makes hence to arise B. Quest 2. Or whether he hath at all made the Morall Law to be the preceptive part of the New Covenant and so whether the New Covenant doth at all command us perfect obedience or only sincere To this he answereth B. 1. That the Morall Law as it is the preceptive part of the Covenant of Works is but delivered over into the hands of Christ and so continued in the sense before expressed seemes plain to me 2. That the Morall Law doth therefore so continue to command even beleivers and that the perfect obeying of it is therefore their duty and their not obeying their sinne deserving the death threatened in that Covenant 3. That Jesus Christ hath further mâ—de use of the same moral Law for a direction to his subjects whereby they may know his will That whereas our sincere subjection and obedience to Christ is part of the condition of the New Covenant that we may know what his will is which we must endeavour to obey what rule our actions must be sincerely fitted to guided by he hath therefore left us this moral Law as part of this direction having added a more particular enumeration of some duties in his Gospel That as when the Old Covenant said thou shalt perfectly obey the moral Law did partly tell them wherein they should obey So when the New Covenant saith thou shalt obey sincerely the moral Law doth perfectly tell us wherein or what we must endeavour to doe Before he pretended a purpose to speak of the Moral Law in it selfe and as considered without the Covenants but finding quickly that his Babel will not tower up out of simples he is forced either to let all fall or else himselfe must returne to his compoundings and confoundings again now mixing the moral law with the olde and by and by with the New Covenant as a part sometimes of the one and sometimes of the other as if it were a Noun Adjective which cannot stand by it selfe When contrariwise the moral Law is the rule of righteousnesse complete in it selfe the very image of Gods Nature and Will to which every reasonable creature is bound to conform that it may be like to God himselfe and so illustrate either to other the splendor of Gods glory invisible in himselfe but shining forth in their persons and performances But the Covenants are separable Adjuncts of the moral law when annexed to the moral law being free and voluntary Acts and Statutes of God which hee might pro imperio by the Soveraign authority which hee hath over his creatures either have or not have added to the moral law at his pleasure The Old Covenant making out to men the way of Salvation in strict yet equal and uncorrupt Justice The New Covenant his way of saving sinners and justifying the ungodly by free grace when in justice they were lost and unrecoverable The one of these is by the perfect fulfilling of the moral law the other without reference to the moral law at all freely by the redemption which is by Jesus Christ Here now if both Covenants were silenced and annihilated yet the moral law would abide firm still it would as well without Covenant as by Covenant speak out mans duty and obligation both unjustified and justified in his state either of integrity or infirmity to be wise holy and righteous as God made him and to act perfectly according to the perfect principles of acting first created in him even without life and heaven before him to allure him or death and hell behind him to enforce him And so the moral law is no part of either Covenant essentially that it cannot be separated from it without its nullifying Nay it was in God from all eternity and shall be in him still when all Covenants conditionall shall have their expiration Yet let us follow Master Baxter to see what businesse hee will make in the dark having thus obscured the clear light of this doctrine by his mixtures and confoundings Hee gives many answers to this 2 question 1. That the moral law as it is the preceptive part of the Covenant of workes is but delivered over into the hands of Christ and so continued in the sense before expressed seems plain to me How clear are this mans eyes I can see no plainness in the answer or any part thereof It is all intricate and almost incomprehensible to our dull understanding For 1. I see not how the moral Law is the preceptive part of the Covenant of works It contains in it I confesse the precepts of all good just and holy operations as it is the rule of all these But how it is the preceptive part of the Covenant being a distinct thing from it the Covenant being added to it and not it to the Covenant I see not 2. How it is delivered over into the hands of Christ and in what sense is hard for me to apprehend Is it taken out of God in whom it was originally and essentially so put into Christs hands that it is no more to be found in God or is that unperfect remainder of it which abode still in the Synteresis or minde and conscience of lapsed man taken thence and put into the hands of Christ that it is no more to be found in man but that after Satan had felled down the stemm and branches thereof Christ at last hath forced thence the very root thereof also that there may be no more sprouting even of an unperfect righteousnesse in any man saving by some light and mover from without him Or is it so put into Christs hand to dispose of its being and office that if he say the word that which was shall bee no more natural or moral righteousnesse much lesse the perfect rule thereof or that which was mans duty and his conformity with the nature of God if Christ will shall be so no more All these are such absurdities as cannot possibly drop from Master Baxters learned pen. Or is it delivered into the hands of Christ to bee the dispenser and disposer of it in relation to iâ—s end whether
the natural righteousnesse which it prescribeth shall be effectual and of necessary use to mans justification This indeed were an intolerable absurdity for one of us that have our stations here below under Christ to bee regulated by his doctrine to utter But for Mâ—ster Baxter that hath soared upward in his Aenigmatical and Metaphysical learning unto the sphere of Saturn high above the Sunne of righteousnesse and his light it is no absurdity to deliver it It is but the language of Rome that the righteousnesse of the moral law must under the Gospel still justifie us as when we were perfect in Adam though then in him we could but now we cannot perform it And why so not because Christ hath declared by his word that he will so have it but because the holy Mother Church that hath the power to make the word of Christ to dance into all formes and senses after her interpretations hath so decreed If this be Mr. Baxters meaning that it appears to him to be a plain truth why doth he not make it plain to us that we may see it with him but onely saith it as a cathedral doctor without adding illustration or confirmation to it 3. What he meaneth by that which he next saith viz. and it is so continued in the sense before expressed is not plain to me where this sense is expressed whetheâ— in the former part of this answer then it must be continued by Christ to be the preceptive part of the Covenant of works still or in the question and so it is continued by Christ to be the preceptive paâ—t of the New Covenant or in some one or more passages of the foregoing part of this his treatise so we shall be still uncertain of the sense because we câ—nnot tell and he doth not tell us where it is expressed And for us to seek after a man in his sense who wilfully hides himselfe and his sense in the darke that wee may not finde them were but a senseless peece oâ— wâ—rke especially when wee know it will nothing better our senses in case we should bee so luckie as to finde his I should ghess that hee means the sense expressed in the former part of this answer and so it will be examined in that which hee addeth in his second Answer viz. 2. That the moral Law doth therefore so continue c. as before What else should he mean in saying it doth continue but that as he had said in the former clause of the first answer viz. to be the preceptive part of the Covenant of workes or why doth he say it doth therefore so continue but that his therefore bids us to fetch the cause from the same answer because Christ into whose hands it is delivered hath so continued it And if so to what purpose is all this reasoning Tends it to affirm that it was possible for Christ considered either as God or as our mediator to rescind and destroy the eternal and immutable Law of naturall and eternall righteousnesse or that it would have falne to the ground with its own weight if it had not been delivered into Christs hand to sustaine it Or that it would not bee in it self the rule of Righteousnesse for ever except Christ had assumed our nature in it to give it a second birth and stablishment Or that the Morall Law had lost its power and righteousnesse when we had lost ours and so it needed no lesse then we a reparation Nay whether man had sinnâ—d or not sinned been redeemed or not redeemed the Morall Law was and is stil the same What the Psalmist saith of God Before the mountains were brought forth or ever the earth and world were formed from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Psal 90. 2 So may I say of the moral Law wheresoever it is and as farre as it is truly held forth and fully too whether by Christ or by Moses by the Old or by the New Testament by the creature by the conscience by the Philosophers Ethicks or by any other way or means whatsoever before the mountains and world were formed from everlasting to everlasting it hath been and is the perfect rule of Moral righteousness stil Neither shall it cease so to be when world and mountains are dissolved but then we shal see perfectly in the face of God himselfe what we now see in his either more or lesse perfect images be perfectly configured thereunto In the mean time evenbeleivers have this as one of their great priviledges to be free fâ—om sin and servant of Righteousnesse Ro. 6. 18. and so the Law of Righteousnesse continueth to command both beleevers and unbeleevers and the perfect obeying thereof is the duty of both and the not obeying their sinne deserving the death threatened in the Old Covenant But so that beleevers having fully done their Law in Christ and being freed from the Old Covenant though still in a sweet conjunction with the Moral Law Rom. 7. 22. have no more their hated irregularities imputed to them but fully forgiven for Christs sake Thus the Word of God and Doctrine of Christ runne smoothly and clearly why doth Mr. Baxter not finde but make whirlpooles and stoppages therein to offend and drown poor soules that cannot yet swim in the deep Good ends have streight wayes leading to them Mr. Baxters crooked windings argue him not to have a streight and upright meaning His unusefull therefore and therefore put out of joynt that which God hath so compacted as that it ought not to bee dis-joynted And if wee would know what hee aimes at in his circumlocutions to circumvent the simple in these his two first answers let us but follow him to the next and we shall in part finde it B. 3. That Jesus Christ hath further made use of the same moral Law for a direction to his subjects c. ut suprà What he saith in this his third answer to the second question of the usefulnesse of the moral Law for direction to Beleivers is granted And this is one great prerogative which Beleivers have that the moral Law which in relation to unbeleivers hath the curse of the Old Covenant as a scourge and sword annexed to it to take vengeance of them for their transgressions is to them that are in Christ a peaceable sweet and unarmed counseller But in the opening hereof Master Baxter shews himselfe to bee himself in foisting in two of his unauthentick paradoxes or falsities call them which ye will the same so finely with slight of hand interwoven in his discourse that his craft might not be easily espyed but being espyed every one that knoweth Master Baxter may know them to be from his Artifice so inserted viz. 1. That obedience to Christ in the performance of all the duties which the moral Law prescribeth is part of the condition of the New Covenant 2. That the Gospel or New Covenant doth not require of men perfect but sincere obedience onely Both
life of Christ sacrificed for us to be the Ransom Mat. 20. 28. 1 Tim. 2. 6. The Price by which we are purchased and redeemed from thraldome 1 Cor. 6. 20. 7. 23. The propitiation for our sins through faith in his bloud Rom. 3. 25. 1 Joh. 4. 10. i. e. that one and only act of Christ by which our sinnes are expiated the justice of God satisfyed and his wrath appeased so that we finde him now a God propitious and gratious to us But if we will hear the Scriptures speaking at large and articulately confirming this position that the satisfaction made by Christ is begun continued and perfected meerly and wholly in and by Christs sufferings in steed of many Testimonies which the Scripture affordeth I shall pitch upon two disputes only of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews The former in cap 9. beginning at the 11 and 12 verses That Christ being become an high Priest c. by his own bloud entred once into the Holy place having obtained for us eternall Redemption I need not explain the words for the edification of any that hath but read the Scriptures and taken but overly into his consideration how that which was yearly under the Law figured in the act of the high Priest the type was at length effectually accomplished by Christ the Antitype Again ver 13 14. If the bloud of Buls c. sanctifyed to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the bloud of Christ which by the eternall Spirit offered himselfe to God without spot purge your conscience from dead works c. An undeniable vertue and efficacy in the bloud of Christ alone without any further acts of Christ himself to purge the conscience e. i. to absolve and justifie is here affirmed And further ver 15. He is the Mâ—diatour of the new Covenant that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first Testament they which are called may receive the promise of the eternall inheritance i. e. the eternall inheritance promised by means of Christs death and not by his Legislative righteousnesse And ver 26 Christ now once at the end of the world hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself What sin All sin according to that of John The bloud of Christ purgeth from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. And if from all sin what sin is there left for Christs giving of Lawes to put away or what of justification left out for it to perfect or of full satisfaction not made for it to compleat Lastly ver 28. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many How did he bear them but as the Apostle saith He hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. and in bearing them on our behalfe he satisfyed justice on our behalf And this is affirmed to be by offering himself for us not by giving Laws to us or injoyning duties upon us His second dispute is chap. 10. where the Apostle having mentioned the feeblenesse of the sacrifices offered by the Law to take away sin brings in Christ offering himself to accomplish what these could not and declaring his ready obedience to fulfill that will of God written in the volume of Gods book to offer himself a sacrifice for sin with a Lo I come by this will of God saith he we are sanctifyed by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all ver 5 10. He saith not we have our consecration to be holy by the commands of Christ c. but by the offering of his body And that by sanctification is to be here understood purification and justification I think it will not be denyed However ver 12. it is added that he having once offered sacrifice for sins for ever sat down at the right hand of God his sitting down and resting argues his work the work of our redemption and justification perfected in every degree and number His rest is as Gods rest was from the beginning then the work of Creation now of Redemption being made absolutely perfect the rest followed and where had this work its beginning progresse and perfection In his once offering of sacrifice for sins for ever Nothing here of Christs Law-giving and rule from the bottom to the top of the work of Redemption or Justification The sacrifice alone satisfyed so far all things of man are here excluded as that nothing else of Christ is required As it is more fully yet expressed ver 14. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctifyed His perfecting Mr. Baxter will not deny to be his making of perfect satisfaction for them and this is done by one offering of Christ Will Mr. Baxter be so audacious as to oppose the holy Ghost with his Nay telling that there must be somewhat else besides this offering viz. Christs Law-giving as part of the satisfaction made for us Lastly to put all out of doubt and besides the bounds of cavilling what the Apostle should mean here by sanctifying and perfecting this also is unfolded in plain words ver 17 18. viz. The taking away of their sinnes and iniquities And where the remission of these is there is no more offering c. satisfaction is made to the full and no need of any addition for the perfecting thereof I acknowledg there are many things required to condition Christ that he might be an effectuall offerer and offering else could not the redemption and justification which are by him have been completed or the satisfaction made for us been perfect Yea that after the work of satisfaction as formerly of Creation finished and a totall resting from any further addition to it yet the Father worketh and the Son worketh hitherto in the businesse of governing and preserving of what is so created and repayred yet this doth not at all hinder but that full satisfaction is made by the alone offering of Christ And here once more I call upon Mr. Baxter and all his adherents to bring forth any one testimony of Scripture to prove that either Christs Law-giving or any other act of Christ besides this one of offering himself a sacrifice for sin is by the Scripture in whole or in part affirmed satisfactory to God for our justification Let them not as Mr. Baxter before doth from pa. 54. to pa. 61. bring their peradventures and may bees and possibles and verisimilies for are the conjectures and results of a working and self-conceited brain to be laid as a foundation whereon to build an Article of our faith But let them bring the oracle of the Word testifying either that Christ hath done or God hath required of him or accepted from him such and such works in part of satisfaction Else our ears will be deaf to hear mans prattle being attentive in such matters only to the voice of the holy Ghost This shall suffice for the opening and confirming of ouâ— Tenet untill it shall
necessary consequent of Adams disability to overcome deaâ—h and deliver himself which God was not bound to do And whether the loss of Gods image were part of the death threatned or rather the effect of our sin only executed by our selves and not by God whether God did take away his image or man did thrust it away Admirable profoundness and learning but after all this stirr and such egregiously deep speculations as preparatories to the determining of the first question whether Christ did discharge our debt by way of solution or by way of satisfaction how doth he at length determine it Bax. P. 29 30. Much may be said this seemeth that is unlikely one thing probable another possible But for a finall conclusion p. 31. It is hard to conclude peremptorily any thing in so obscure a case And so he leaves us so wise as if he had slept and said nothing But afterwards recalling himself though he can conclude nothing as to the forementioned particular preparatories to the determination of the question yet p. 35. to the substance of it in generall he thus answereth Bax. I canclude then that in regard of the proper penalty Christ did suffer a pain and penalty of the same sort and of equall weight with that threatned but yet because it was not in all respects the same it was rather satisfaction than the payment of the proper debt being such a payment as God might have chosen to accept I list not to quarrel with him about the conclusion it being not a point mainly controverted between us and the Papists Only who sees not that he might as easily have thus concluded without medling with so many frivolous and arrogant questions leaving them where he found them as not giving the least fulture to such a conclusion And when he hath thus determined the question they that lock up to themselves his Conclusion as a treasure shall gaine so much by it as he that rejoyceth of a chip in his pottage Possibly it may do no hurt but certainly it will do no good to salvation But the answer to the second question comes without the help or push of a leaver to heave it after viz. whether the threatning was executed or relaxed and dispensed with B. The answer to this is plain in the Answer to the former p. 35. Both alike for were it worth the scanning we should find both either answered or unanswered and the things searched after no less plain to be seen and taken up than a needle in a bottle of hay And so much M. Baxter seeth for he comes after 1 with his distinction B. In regard of the meer weight of punishment considered as abstracted from person and duration it was executed and to avoid the mistake of the Printer I conceive it should be not relaxed Yet taking the threatning entirely as it was given out and we must say viz. if we say after Mr. Baxter it was dispensed with for mankind doth not suffer all that was threatned When I attain the meaning of the words I shall be able to judg of the strength of the reason therein contained And 2ly he brings in a doubt viz. B. If the death threatned did consist in our present miseries and temporall death only then the answer must be recanted c. And a little further Conference with these Diviners rather than Divines it seemeth would make him of their minds And so the answer to the question depends upon ifs if Mr. Baxter change his mind his answer must fall after him In the mean while the third question must depend upon the uncertain answer to the second B. If the threat be dispensed with how it can stand with the truth and justice of God so to dispense with it Lo the answer to the former question is stuck so deep in the mire that the best Team in Worcestershire cannot draw it out Nevertheless such an artizan is Mr. Baxter that with the spell of a few distinctions he doth it while a man would wipe his mouth thus B. Concerning the justice of God the question is not difficult and I shall say nothing to that See he is half out of the labyrinth already and never moves a finger for it O rare dexterity It costs a little more labour to get free from the other half and thus de doth it B. The question is how to reconcile this dispensation with Gods truth Here you must distinguish 1. Betwixt the letter of the Law and the sense 2. Betwixt the Law and the end of the Law 3. Between a threat with exception either expressed or reserved and that which hath no exception 4. Between a threatning which only expresseth the desert of the sinn and what punishment is due and so falleth under the will of precept and that which also intendeth the certain prediction of event and so falleth under the will of purpose also And now I Answer 1. The end of the Law is the Law and that being the manifestation of Gods justice and hatred of sin c. was fulfilled and therefore the Law was fulfilled a Let the Judg of assizes then chide and lay by the feet a murtherer for an hour declaring therby his justice and hatred of the offeÌ„ce M. Baxter must conclude him to be a just Judg to have fulfilled the Law if hereupon he forth-with discharge him 2. Most think that the threatning had this reserved exception Thou shalt dye i. e. by thy self or thy surety and though it be sinfull for man to speak with mentall reservations when he pretends to reveal his mind yet not in God because as he is subject to no law so he is not bound to reveal to us all his mind nor doth he indeed pretend any such thing 3. So that the sense of the same is fulfilled 4. But the special answer that I give is this when threatnings are meerly parts of the Law and not also predictions of the event and discoveries of Gods purpose thereabouts then they may be dispensed with without any breach of truth For as when God saith Thou shalt not eat of the tree c. the meaning is only It is thy duty not to eat and not eventually that he should not eat So when he saith Thou shalt dye the death the meaning is Death shall be the due reward of thy sin and so may be inflicted for it at my pleasure and not that he should certainly suffer it in the event b This Doctrine wipes off all feare from scandalous sinners having this plea put into their mouth by Mr. Baxter God hath said thou shalt not so offend but his meaning is not that I should eventually abstain and hath said Thou shalt be condemned not meaning eventually to execute it Ergo I may go on in sin without fear Read the rest he that loves it I have enough even to nauseousness What Jesuite reading this will not cry out O delicatum animulum a babe of the same mould with the Scholastick
the Moral Law For Adam received it while he was yet innocent and without sinne and in that state of his the Law could not convince him was not appointed to convince him of sinne having not all sinned 3. That it makes the Law upon its old terms i. e. according to Master Baxter as a Covenant of workes sufficient by it selfe to conviction without any need of Gospel convictions to bee used When contrariwise all the convictions of the Law so considered can worke but desperation and death in the convinced They are the convictions of the Gospel and Spirit of Grace working by the Gospel that are effectual to conversion and life For conclusion he saith B. But I judge the question to be of more difficulty than moment And I answer that the difficulty of the question is not from the Word of God but from him and his fellowes which fill with knots hard to be loosed the leading thread which Christ hath given us all displayed As for the Moment of the question let him crack at his pleasure among fooles yet the wise must needs see and acknowledge it such as if he lose it he loseth one of his chiefe pillars though it be but a paper pillar to bear up mans personal righteousnesse to justification For if it be proved that Christ requireth perfect obedience under the Gospel down falls all the perfection meritoriousnesse and efficacy of mans righteteousnesse to Justification And so he must begin all again and fit himselfe with better pillars next if any where from Rome or Jury they are to be had this proving rotten and unusefull That obedience which in relation to both Covenants to Law and Gospel too is sinfully unperfect cannot bee of any power to Justifie CHAP. XIX Arg. Whether Christ hath satisfied for sinnes against the Old Covenant and not for sinnes against the New also Thes 32 33 34 35. UNto this I may ad the quodlibetarie quidlibetarie doctrines of Mr Baxter his Niceties quiddities and nimble nothings whereof he disputes profoundly in the four next Theses viz. the 32 c. and in his Appendix in answer to the third question pag. 12. of the appendix and thence to pag. 27. in which many notable and rare speculations are unfolded viz. 1. Whether the rope wherewith Judas hanged himselfe were made of hair or hemp 2. Whether it were Simon alias called Peter or Peter alias called Simon that denyed Christ and whether it were Pontius or else Pilate that condemned him 3. Whether it were Christs Crosse or else the Crosse of Christ that Simon of Cyrene was compelled to bear Item whether hee carried it on his right or his left shoulder and which end of the Crosse was before and whether the contrary end were behind in carriage 4. Whether when Joab was put to death for killing two men Abner and Amasa for which of these two murthers he suffered for the former or the latter or for neither The same or like to these are the disputes of Master Baxter in these Theses and their explications and in the forementioned part of the Appendix viz. 1. Whether when himselfe hath laid it down for a position no lesse firm and unrepealable than the Lawes of the Medes and Persians which alter not that there is no sinne prohibited in the Gospel which is not a breach of some precept of the Decalogue and a sinne against the Old Covenant c. Yet neverthelesse there be any sinnes against the New Covenant which are not also against the Old Item whether there be any sinnes considerable in any of their respects against the Gospel onely and not against the Moral Law and then consequently whether Christ hath satisfied by his death for such sinnes as himself affirmes never have been never shall be or can be committed Thes 30. pag. 148. that is for imaginary sins which never were sins nor shall be Thes 32. 2. When he hath asserted and peremptorily concluded Thes 32. That Christ was not to satisfie for any sin committed against the New Covenant which was not is not also a sin against the Old Yet whether it be not very needfull to be questioned in the 33. Thes Whether Christ hath done what he was not to doe whether he hath satisfied for sins that violated the New Covenant as well as for those that violate the Old Covenant And consequently if he should have so done whether this were to have been reckoned as a work of supererogation above and beyond his duty to have merited superexcedently for us or an act of sin against his duty putting him into an incapacity to merit at all for us yea whereas Mr. Baxter concludeth absolutely as an undeniable truth Thes 32. Therefore Christ dyed not for any sin against the Gospel or Covenant of Grace whether that be not a sufficient argument to prove in Thes 33. that Christ hath not by his passive obedience satisfied for the sinnes that violate the Covenant of Grace who can evade the force of such an argument Christ hath not satisfied ergo he hath not satisfied specially when it hath been before proved in words at length that there is no sin against the New Covenant but is a sin against the Old also and it is satisfied for as to the Old Covenant what reason is there then that it should bee satisfied as to the New Covenant too When the Creditor is payd his full debt in the hall and hath yeelded up the bond will he expect to have the same debt payd to him in the parlor also 3. Whether when both Law and Gospel Old and New Covenant command the same thing that Christ then satisfyeth for the breach of that duty as to the Law but not as to the Gospel The Gospel then damneth men for that fault that in reference to the Law is satisfied for and consequently many poor wretches are damned by the Gospel and New Covenant which by the Law and Old Covenant should be saved Or if it be not so whether then it be not the Law that damneth even finall unbelief it self taking advantage from the violating of the grace of the New Covenant to aggravate their condemnation that under the means of Grace have lived and dyed contemners thereof 4. Whether all other sinnes which the Gospel precepts do prohibit be against Christ and his Gospel as the object of those sins onely the breaking of the conditions of the Gospel be not a sin against Christ and his Gospel as the object of that sin for so Mr. Baxter pag. 159. distinguisheth between those sinnes that have Christ and the Gospel for their object and those breaches of the conditions of the New Covenant as if these had not Christ and his Gospel for their object What then is the object of these sins or have they no object or how many thousand conditions of the New Covenant are there the breach whereof is by no sacrifice to be purged Hee tells us indeed Thes 32. pag. 159. that the Gospel threatneth death to no
but those of Mr. Baxter as far as they relate to it do follow justification 4 The scope of these Scriptures is to urge upon all that draw near to God in prayer to purge out all hatred and purposes of revenge against their brethren from their hearts and the argument by which this duty is pressed is that else it as also any other reigning sin allowed within the heart will make both their persons and prayers an abomination to the Lord. God will not hear will not forgive such as bring while they bring such a devill in their hearts before him they shall depart without any more answer of peace to their souls then they are disposed to give to their brethren against whom they are provoked From these Scriptures therefore we may gather how they are qualifyed which are forgiven and justifyed not by what qualifications and works they have obtained justification That whosoever hath tasted of the pardoning grace of God the same by beholding in Christ the glory of Gods grace as in a glasse is transformed into the same image of grace love mercy goodnesse pity c. towards his brethren as himself hath found in God and sees shining forth upon him from the face of God through Christ 2 Cor. 3. 18. That in whomsoever this mercy and goodnesse of God appears not whatsoever he boasteth of faith and devoutnesse in prayer yet it is certain that he is empty of justifying faith and of the justification which is by faith and so we have here some description of the justifyed and unjustifyed not a precept of duties by which the unjustifyed may attain to be justifyed 5 The three last quotations of Mr. Baxter do subvert utterly all that he built by the former quotations For these Scriptures affirming it to be not indefinitely prayer but the prayer of faith which saveth and obtaineth forgivenesse that not the asking simply but the asking of the faithfull in Christs Name is prevalent that not every one but we know that whatsoever we aske we have our petitions granted do manifest that whatsoever vertue is in prayer it floweth from faith prayer it self is a dead work unlesse faith enliven it and all our works of mercy and forgiving dead works untill faith becomes the living root from which they derive life or rather hath breathed out the life which it hath suckt from Christ our life into them That it is Christs name and mediation that makes all accepted with God and that not to all but to those peculiar ones of Christ that are in union and conjunction with Christ it being a priviledge peculiar to true beleevers that is here mentioned under the word we we have it saith the Apostle the world hath no part in it Esaus forgiving Sauls confession of sin and Simon Magus his prayer for forgivenesse may as in Mr. Baxters last quotation Act. 8. 22. perhaps be so far heard and forgivenesse obtained from the Lord as to the exempting of them from some temporall vengeance but not to interest them in the justification of the Gospell If the cryes and workes of any of these dogs bring them in to partake of the childrens bread it is but in mans judgement alone before God it was their faith and cleaving to Christ yea being in Christ by faith that of dogs made them children and partakers of the Gospell priviledges So these Scriptures in no wise prescribe as I said the duties by or for which we are but delineate the Acts and qualifications of those that are justifyed by Christ So much in generall to the summe of these Scriptures as for the meaning of the severall Scriptures and how Mr. Baxter argues from them as the Papists how the Sophisters for so our men fitly tearm the Papists endeavour from them to prove justification by works and the Protestants answer and confute them I leave to the Reader to fetch from the Commentators themselves whom they shall finde to speake fully as Mr. Baxter knoweth but concealeth not daring to enter the Lists with them The third duty which he brings as coofficiating with Pag. 236. faith to justification is a complexion of duties the whole swarm the vast mountain of duties all that men and Angels can devise to be duty yet that he might declare how he can measure and contain so huge an Ocean in his fist he crusheth them so together as that they may be held in the concave of two Eg-shels love and sincere obedience and their works Fain would he have followed Bellarmine as his shâ—ddow at every turne but he finds his genius somewhat differing from Bellarmines The Cardinall was for prolixity Mr. Baxter is for brevity Bellarmine puts love in the fourth place as operating to justification with faith and thence proceeds to more But Mr. Baxter follows him here to love and weary to go after him any further in particulars shakes hands in love with him and parts from him with good leave in respect of his method but in his matter to hold with him throughout the work The first Scripture which he quotes is the first which Bellarmine alleadgeth thus B. Luk. 7. 47. though I knew in Pinks interpretation of that It seems Pink hath given the right interpretation of that Text which all the Protestants give But Bellarmine interprets it otherwise and must not Christ mean as Bellarmine will have him The words of the Text are these Wherefore I say unto thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much But to whom little is forgiven the same loveth litle What doth Mr. Baxter hence conclude the same with Bellarmine her much love was the ground of the forgivenesse of her many sins and so her love went before her justification and forgivenesse which followed as the fruit or consequent thereof Bellarmine and his fellowrs put authority and holinesse upon this interpretation else would not Mr. Baxter who makes right reason the foundation and rule of his Religion forswear his wit and reason to follow it For it is evident from the Text to all that are not sworn enemies to the truth that the Lord Jesus reasoneth here from the effect to the cause and not from the cause to the effect from the womans great love that many sins were forgiven her causing this love not from the greatnesse of her love as from the cause why so many sins were forgiven her So runs the Text Which will love most he to whom the creditor hath forgiven 500. pence or he Ve. 41 c. to whom he forgave 50 The answer was I suppose he to whom most was forgiven Thou hast well said saith the Lord so it is with this woman she loves much because much was forgiven her Who sees not here the forgivenesse to be the cause of the love not the love of the forgivenesse Or will Bellarmine which affirmes this woman to be Mary Magdalen or Mr. Baxter after him say that while she was yet a Harlot and had seven Devils in her that
he fights against natural reason perswading men never more to eat because their meat is not appointed to Clothe them or to walk naked because he saith their garments are not usefull to nourish them No more Cause hath Mr. Br. or the Papists to accuse us that we banish good works from the life of a Christian by teaching that they are not usefull or appropriated to justifie but to sanctifie very usefull in all the particulars before-mentioned How unacquainted with the frame of a Christian spirit are these objectors Either they do not experimentally know or else do stifle within themselves this knowledge that a Christ-enjoying and Gospellized soul gaspeth no less for deliverance from the bondage than from the Condemnation of sinn delights so much in performing duty to Christ as in receiving pardon from him groanes so pathetically under the body as ever he did under the guilt of sinn Cryeth with equall vehemency of affâ—ctionâ— for holiness unto God as for happiness with him for Conformity to him in righteousness as in glory makes no other use of his redemption than to run at liberty the race of obedience set before him embraceth and delighteth in sanctifying as well as in saving grace in the infusion as in the imputation of righteousness labours to dispense all for the Lord and his service whatsoever he hath received from the Lord and his free grace Therefore whatsoever the Lord powrs upon him to sanctification is received with so great joy in the Holy Ghost as that which is communicated to him to justification and he labours to be and express himself wholly Christs as well as to obtein Christ wholly his As for Mr. Brs meerly Morall Men that will receive Christ neither to Justification nor to sanctification but upon their own terms purchasing him by Fine and rent that the glory might be partly theirs and not wholly Christs It is enough that Mr. Br. hardens and subverts them in this their Moral madness wholly contradictive to the spirituallness and wisdome of the Gospel We shall not be insnared by all the nicities of his Arts and Chimicall extracts of the spirits of his spoyling Philosophy to involve our selves with him in the guilt of poysoning so many souls and turning their best righteousness and devotion into sinn by encouraging them to appropriate the same to such an end as is destructive to the glory of Gods grace and contrary to the minde and rule of the Gospel We have one Master which is Christ his dictates expressed by him and his Apostles in the plainness and foolishness of their preaching are so sacred and authoritative with us that neither the most labyrinthical mazes of sophistry shall unwinde us nor the extravagancies of the most luxuriating witts nor the most Curious plausibilities of humane reason shall by Gods Grace unreason us so from our selves as to undisciple us from him Yea though we could not in some things give a satisfactory answer to the sophisticated reasonings of these disputers against Christ and his Gospel yet should we fit down as fools with Christ and his Apostles adoring the manifold wisdome of God revealed in a mystery rather than be wise with these men to the world knowing that the foolishness of God is wiser and the weakness of God is stronger than men And we seek wisdome and happiness from the mines of Christs Gospel not from the dry quarrie of mans literature and inventions 2 Though we reject it as an arrogant and presumptuous doctrine which Mr. Br. in Common with the Papists teacheth That we are justified and saved by our good qualifications and works for our works for the merit and worthinesse of our good works yet we teach and believe that they are in respect of all that have age ability and time to perform them necessary Consequents of our Justification and Antecedents of our glorification Let a man pretend what he will of Faith in Christ yet if by Faith hee do not cleave firmly to him to derive from him power to mortifie every sinn to perform all duty if he can allow within himselfe any known evill or continue in the neglect of any known duty without striving to get the victory in the strength of Christs Spirit over every such infirmity wee take such a man so farr from Christ as Christ is from Belial A branch in Christ not bearing fruit which is appointed to be cut off and cast into the fire because he was never in Christ otherwise but by a formall profession never had vitall union to him or communion with him by the ligatures of Faith and the Spirit For sanctification is an individual companion of Justification And the office of Christ is to be the Author of both to all that believe Otherwise the work of his Mediator-ship should not be compleated in either one of these and so he should not be our Christ if a halfe Christ only to us And Sanctification is still begun and carried on towards perfection also where there is time and meanes in the kingdom of Grace before its perfecting and swallowing up into glory in the Kingdom of glory No righteousness and holiness of man is begun in the next life But there shall be the consummation in power of that which here was begun in truth though it laboured of and languished with much infirmity 3 Wee are guiltless of those Crimes wherewith Mr. Br. endeavours to defame us and our Doctrine For 1. Neither doe wee teach or think as M. Br. suggesteth that nothing is preaching Christ but preaching him as a pardoning justifying Saviour Aph. pa. 328. Indeed we preach Justification to consist if not only yet chiefly in the pardon of sinn through the mediation of Christs death That this benefit of Christ is perfected by the satisfaction which he hath made to Gods justice in suffering for us and appropriated to us by faith alone But wee deny this to be all the Gospel-grace exhibited to us by Christ and in and through him We hold him forth as the Light of the world also having all the treasures of wisedom and knowledg hid in him Joh. 8. 12. Col. 2. 3. from whom are all the irradiations and Revelations of all the mysteries of Grace effectuall to life and holiness Mat. 13. 11. 1 Cor. 2. 10. And to the word and spirit of Christ we send all men for illumination And the Life of the world not only to restore them to life in law by Justification but as the Lord and principle of Life to beget in us an inherent life active and moving to all obedience Therefore we endeavour to send all to Christ for life even for this life because the whole judgment and dispensation thereof is committed to him and he is our all to sanctification also Joh. 5. 21 22 25 26. Col. 3. 11. We indeed except against that Doctrine as more Legal than Evangelical that roars thunders Condemnation against poor Exiles in a dry wilderness where is no water fainting and even dead with
thirst if they do not arise work and fulfill their task We require first that the Rock be cloven with the Rod of God that the water of life may gush out in full Rivers and that the fainting souls be brought to drink thereof and then called upon in the life and strength which they have hence received to work and be doing Yea to come to this stream often to drink that their strength and spirits may be daily more revived that they may bâ—come daily more enabled for and more abundant in the work of the Lord. We have not with Mr. Br. yet learned the skill of preaching good works to make Christ ours but follow the rule of the Scriptures to preach Christ into the hearts of men to make them fruitfull in good works Neither doe wee count all formall obedience and righteousnesse of men though conscientiously and by the guidance of Naturall Conscience performed to be either sanctification or the fruit thereof That onely is sanctification which flowes from the heart of Christ and is infused by the Spirit of Christ For the attaiâ—ment thereof we call all men into union and fellowship with Christ so far are we from holding that Nothing is preaching Christ but the preaching him as Justifier and Saviour that we hold it an empty Preachment that preacheth any good thing without Christ or out of Christ of which men are not taught to make Christ the Alpha and the Omega We leave it to Mr. Br. and his brethren to urge works duties obedience c. and once in a Moon upon an auspicious Tropick thereof to remember Christ and grace and tell us that all must be done by the help of grace and without Christ we can do nothing Yet leaving us uncertain still whether it be the Grace and Christ of Pelagius or else of God reconciled to us that he speaketh I should be too long in expressing fully how we hold forth Christ whole Christ and only Christ to Adoption protection perseverance strengthening comforting perfecting c. In a word to all that is either good to be received or good to be done In him wee teach that God will have all his frâ—sh springs to reside that without him we are nothing can do nothing that in him and by him we have all and can do all things That therefore we preach nothing but Christ yet preach all that is to be preached in preaching him because in him it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell Col. 1. 19. even all fulness for us so that in him we are full out of him meer emptiness We would not have one beam of this Sun of Righteousness clouded but labour to discover to our people his full glory and Soveraignty to all those sacred ends to which God hath consecrated him that if any would have nothing of Christ to be preached but his pardoning and saving the sin may be wholly theirs not ours that they will receive the skirt of Christ and consequently refuse Christ when we preach to them whole Christ and all the benefits that are by him Nor 2 do we deny an ordinate and subordinate love to our selves as Mâ— Br. slanders us no lesse bitingly than secretly App. pa. 81 82. in teaching that it is the most Gospel-â—rame of Spirit to perform duty out of meer love to God without seeking by such duties wrought quasi opere operato remission of sins redemption from Hell and right to glory by the Merit thereof as he teacheth us to do thinking no doubt his glory shall be great if he can there perswade where all the suâ—tlest sons of Satan the Jesuits have not been able Nay we maintayn that none can regularly love himself who loveth not God above himself and seeks not Gods glory more than his own good That whosoever in a pretext of love to himself brings his fardle of trashie works at the feet of Christ by them to purchase to himself the benefits of his death is of all men the worst enemie to himself incurs rejection and expulsion from Christ and all the benefits of his death and resurrection For hee was sent to seeke oâ—ely that which was lost came not to call the righteous but sinners to repenâ—â—nce He loves himself indeed and spiritually that for his love to God denies himself The self-dejected Publican is acceâ—ted with God when the prating Pharisee is hurled with his mouth full of works out at the door Or is there any great difference between this and the Devils doctrine preached to our first Parents Ye shall be as Gods said the Devill Ye shall be all Christs Saviours Justifiers saith Mr. Br. Your righteousness and Christs righteousness shall jump together into the same kind of Causality to justifie and save you Our first Parents hearkned and seeking to become Gods became Devils or what is worse slaves to the Devill We have all felt the smart yet many and that of them which are termed Angels listen earnestly to the like hissing of the Serpent now again We can but mourn for them that in madd love to themselves will hasten up to heaven by climbing high Steeples that look fairly thither-ward but can never heave them up to it nay contrariwise can give them no such sustentation but that they fall thence and dash themselves into shivers Yet in our doctrine is contained a wise and ordinate love to our selves Though we use not works as waxen wings to soar aloft to kisse the Sun and settle our selves in the same Sphere with him yet wee make use of our qualifications and duties to the continuall encrease of our sanctification and to what greater good for himself can mans strongest love to himself aspire than to his full and real perfection consisting in his restitution to Gods image and conformity to his will and nature This shall be the Consummate blessedness which we shall enjoy above and it is a blessedness inchoate and increasing while we passe from strength to strength in it here Who are the self-haters and self-destroyers the Papists or we the success will at length evidence and such professed Divines and Christians among us as have not their eyes soyled with Kederminster dust and smoak can discern already Nor thirdly doth our doctrine tend to drive obedience out of the world So that we may answer Mr. Brs question Aphor. p. 325. If men once beleeve that works are not so much as a part of the Condition of our Justification will it not much tend to relax their diligâ—nce with the authority of the Apostle who having taught his Ephesians that we are saved by grace through faith not of works lest any man should boast Eph. 2. 8 9. Yet concludeth that as many as have learned Christ truly and heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus These all have learned to put off concerning the former conversation the old Man which is corrupt c. and to be renewed in the spirit of the mind and to put on