Reprover should know it is in regard of such that this difference is to be holden It is true then the Penitent Jew had the Promise to trust to as well as we but yet he was still under the Law and not we and the Law it self did engender to bondage as in the Scripture before quoted He had the Promise as well as we but he could not look unto it as well as we he had a vail over him as we have not that he could not stedfastly look unto the end of that which was abolished This is most apparent that the Jews were in the dark as to their understanding of the covenant and Christ that End after another manner than we are and the more they were in the dark the more must they be in doubts and fears and upon this foundation is this difference built ordinarily I suppose by the Understanding Nevertheless there is yet this one thing or two farther that under the Law there was recourse to be had still unto their Sacrifices which were remembrances of sin I said before and consequently of terrour and bondage seeing if they failed they had reason of fear in regard of temporal punishments as much more then we as they had to expect temporal blessings more then we upon their obedience upon the account they were under a peculiar temral covenant Adde hereunto These temporal things under that covenant were resemblances patterns and in some sence portendments of future To what end then served the Law says the Apostle as you may likewise adjoyn from this supposition It was added because of Transgressions The Law entred that the offence might abound Again By the Law comes the knowledg of sin and though sin was in the world before men were not apt to impute it to themselves without a Law The Law then was for the brideling the Jews from sin and through the conviction of sin upon the Conscience and that temporal death they saw due to them in the Beasts that were slain in their behalfs they might be driven in the sence of their spiritual estates to the remedying Law of Mercy upon Repentance which is the substance of the Promise which God had given to their Fore-Fathers and has established in the Gospel For Christ was the end of the Law for Righteousness and the Law was a Schoolmaster says the Apostle to drive us to Christ Of the Law and Gospel FOR this Theam I shall have need to speak the less in regard of what hath been said already That which I have to offer I shall serve in by way of striking light at a passage or two in a Book which hath been intended in the Chapter before but not named I am sensible how many there are who being taken with the Preaching of free grace are too apt to disrellish other Preachers who press more unto Duty and I think that Writer does not therefore spend his pains without good cause about the consistency of good works with the Gospel and Justification It is objected against such Divines that they are but Legal Preachers and that they impeach the grace of God by putting men so much on Doing To the one his Answer is They Preach not the Works of Moses Law but the Works Christ enjoyns To the other he tells us The Law and Gospel both put us upon doing but not the same thing nor with the same disposition which he explains The Gospel gives better rules of life and power to do according to them with a more willing and chearful mind than the Law did I will here under favour of this ingenious person use a few words For the first I look not on this Answer so jejunely as if the meaning of the Authour was only that they preach not the Ceremonial Law for who need be inform'd of that or that the ceremonial Law does no longer oblige But supposing the Moral Law it self coming under a double consideration to wit as delivered by Moses and as it is in the hand of Christ it is this indeed which is worth his enquiry how the dutyes of the ten Commandements or those good works which we as well as the Jews are bound to perform are obligatory in the one respect and not in the other Now should he have used these words as some of our Divines do and by the distinction intend only we are not obliged to good works in the point of Justification but out of gratitude to our Redeemer or to that purpose he must run streight into that premunire which he strives to avoid to wit of Justification by Faith only If he stick upon this that the Law as it was in the hand of Moses was given for a temporal covenant and not so as it is in the hand of Christ I do not see what that does signify to the objection This is that therefore which is to be said and to be conceived therefore what he intends By the works of the Law understand we that exact obedience which is required unto living by the Law Do this and live By the works Christ enjoyns let us understand that sincerity only in our obedience which God requires unto our living by Faith or accepts though imperfect through Christ Good works are not exacted now of any in the first sence but good works are required of all in the second That Preacher that should Preach obedience to the decalogue as necessary to life in the former sence were a legal Preacher indeed but that Preacher that preaches obedience and good works in the second sence is but a Preacher of the Gospel and may not preach otherwise as he tenders his Hearers Salvation And behold one came to Christ and said what shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life And he said to him if thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandements The Commandements then I say may be considered as the matter of the covenant of works or our Legal Righteousness or as the matter of the covenant of grace or our Evangelical Righteousness In the former sence if any man could perform them he should merit Eternal Life and be sure to have it but there is no man can keep them as they are so required In the latter sence there is no man but must keep them as to the prevalent interest of his will which constitutes integrity and does that ever was and is finally justified and saved For the second we have two or three things to be touched In the first place I do not believe craving that Gentlemans pardon that the Gospel gives any better or any other rules of life than what are contained in the Law It is true that Christ hath instituted other Sacraments but it is the Moral Law we call the rule of life and that Christ came not to bring us the Systeme of any new Law but to explain aad establish the Law Moral which the Jews I count and Gentiles both ever had the one by the light of Nature the other by Revelation also
pleased to keep up among them Nevertheless that does not hinder but God Almighty might make use thereof farther for types and representations of other things that is to say Spiritual and so the Law be a Paedagogy under a temporal dispensation leading many to Heaven This is certain that the Covenants of Nature Grace being made with Man-kind are not matters of concernment only to the Jews but to the whole world as well as to them for everlasting life and death and it is not to be conceived therefore that either of them should receive any detriment by the Covenant made with that particular Nation This I say that the Covenant confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disannul that it should make the Promise of no effect The Covenant of God in Christ is the covenant of grace and that we see a-foot in the world before the Law and before Abraham for when it was confirmed to Abraham it must be in being before on necessity and ever was since the Fall or else none after could be saved And if this be not disannul'd then cannot that whatsoever it be which is given by this covenant come to the Jews by the Law For as the Apostle argues If there had been a Law given that could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law If the Law of Nature could be kept by man there would be no need of a covenant of Grace by Christ So do I argue if Righteousness unto justification of life was to come by the Law the Promise or Covenant of Grace as soon as that was given might be spared But for-as-much as eternal life and justification does come only by the covenant of grace it follows that the covenant made with the Jews must needs be a covenant which concern'd their outward state or political welfare as I have said and that neither Salvation nor Condemnation as to the life to come was the primary intention or the direct and proper effect of it If Salvation or Condemnation was the proper issue of the Law then could neither any of those holy men as the Patriarchs nor any of the wicked world who were before the Law as the men of Sodom and Gomorah be condemned at the day of Judgment For where no Law is there is no Transgression and so no Condemnation And indeed if this covenant was conceived any other than some such thing as I make it how could it be that the most substantial part or body of the Jews Nation should be Sadduces in Christ's time The Covenant of Nature is that which lays all the world guilty before God so that He who believes not is Condemned already he is condemned by the Law of his Creation writ in his heart he needs no outward Law to condemne him Whatsoever things the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law If there were no Curse nor Death but that which the Jews Law doth speak then were there none but the Jew should suffer Condemnation If a man on the contrary side does believe and repent he needs no other Law than that of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus to set him free from this Law of Sin and Death So long as he does not believe he abides under that Wrath and it is not for want of Faith as the cause of his Condemnation to justify God in not giving all men that alike but for want of it N B as that which should be the remedy that he perishes Salvation then and Condemnation which is Eternall does proceed from the covenants of grace and works and it is not to be imagined that God should deal otherwise with the Jews than with the rest of the world as to the terms of a future life I have set before you Life and Death says Moses And Cursed be he that continueth not in all the Law to do it But what this Life and Death these Blessings and Curses are we see express in Deuteronomy and in the fifth Commandement The Laws which God did give the Jews were about Religion and about Civil matters Religion concern'd their Eternal civil things their Temporal good Yet whether they are commanded the observation of the one or the other the sanction of both does lye in the threats and promises of Temporal blessings and judgments Even as in the Laws of our Realm Rellgion and the Service of God is required under a civil forfeiture when it is the Gospel it self must threaten farther Vengeance to the Transgressor In short herein will lye the mistery and sum of all The Law as it was in the hand of Moses and given to the peculiar Nation of the Jews must be no other than a temporal covenant yet did this temporal covenant contain in it patterns of things as the Apostle speaks in the Heavens And as the ten Commandements particularly written in stone are a transcript of the Moral Law written by Nature in our hearts I do take the Law to represent the covenant of works and by vertue of that representation alone or of that it represents does it operate to future judgment and is the ministration of condemnation The Law indeed taken at large for all that is contained in the whole books of the Old Testament may be supposed to hold forth whatsoever is in the covenant of works and grace but the Law taken separately from both as a third covenant cannot hold forth any other than the external government of God with propriety over the Jews and that consisting in these two things to wit a hard task of burdensome dutyes under the danger of temporal judgments and a redress from them by Sacrifices the one typifying our estate according to the Law of works and the other the grace which comes to us by Christ Jesus What use may be made of this I leave to minds which are searching I am never out of my way I count so long as I meet with any such Only there is one in a late Book who seems to fall a little too hard on a grave Preacher for making the dispensation of the Old Testament in some Sermons of his to be more terrible than ours under the New For doing which he hath thus much the more reason indeed if as I say that life and death which is Eternal comes not from the Law but from the Covenants of Works and Grace which were before it and cannot be made voyd by it There is therefore the Believing Penitent Sinner and the Vnbelieving and Impenitent For the man that sins and repents not it is true that he hath no less reason to fear under the Gospel than under the Law but rather the more in regard that the threatnings of the Law were directly I take it only of temporal punishments but the Gospel does manifestly threaten Eternal Of how much sorer punnishment says the Scripture worthy he is But for the Penitent and Believing the case is otherwise and the
I will confess though in my judgment I am perswaded that what I have writ is the truth and it is nothing but truth that made me write it yet does my heart a little misgive me that it were better to let pious men alone to such apprehensions as they have imbibed though mingled with much darkness and some errour in such a point as this where so much of their peace and life is bound up then to offer them any unsettlement by cleerer light though I were able indeed to bring it to them I may be allowed to be sorry if I offend any body but I ought to have a care I stumble none who are good men and live godly Neither would I streighten my own soul If there be any thing more therefore in the imputation of Christs righteousness then I have expressed in that paper which I know not I doe not part with my portion in it I protest thus much but will rather renounce all upon the conviction to cleave to it That Christs righteousness does justify us from the Law and so from sin and from condemnation I do hold no less then others but that Christs righteousness does justify us by the Law is an overgrown conception It is certain that no works of man be we never so holy are able to stand before God in his disstrict judgment that is if he should deal with us according to the exact justice of the Law without shewing us any mercy which will be acknowledged by Protestants and Papists who are ready to pray both with David Enter not into judgment with thy servants O Lord for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified If any Papist then shall think that mans righteousness is made so perfect by Christs merits or any Protestant that Christs righteousness it self is so made ours as that we are justified by the Law upon that account they are both mistaken This is the only true extreamity on both sides for it is not by the Law but by Faith by the Evangelical covenant or by Grace that we are justified We are not under the Law sayes the the Apostle but under grace It is enough for a poor sinner to have a righteousness imputed to him without works and that he is pardoned but to have a righteonsness imputed to him with works is more then we can sind to be allowed him Christs righteousness is such and to have that made ours in it self or so as that in Gods reckoning we must be as righteous as he I must needs say it is not harder perhaps to believe that the bread is turned into Christs body where we have a text for it in the Sacrament then to believe such a conceit for which we have no Scripture at all in the matter of Justification What then Do I deny Imputation No but I explain it It is by the righteousness of Christ not inherent in us our Divines will say Ordinarily but imputed to us that we are justified And what if I thus interpret this for them that is not as if we had done in his person what Christ did but by his righteousness made ours in the effects only So the very Learned Bishop Forbs expresly Hoc est Quoad effectum fructum See Considerationes modestae De justificatione l. 2. c. 2. I will use the same words as they use but I am not bound to the same construction Even as I will speak of mans insufficiency I mentioned before as other Divines do and as the Scriptures do that we can do nothing but I will keep the due interpretation I will say we can and that we cannot without loss of my liberty for I must understand it with its right measures I will say I can in confession of my sin and acknowledging God just I will say I cannot in the sense of my corruption and the imploring his grace Indeed a man can hardly consider the Doctrin of St. James never so little with that of Paul which is one part of my paper but it will lead him to the other which is to see that what our Protestants say ordinarily on this matter does need a favourable exposition It is a jejune thing I count to bring the great dispute that Paul hath with the Jewes about justification to this result only whether we are justified by Faith or the proper Work or Fruits of it It is but a little more satisfactory to bring it only to this whether it be by the observation of Moses Law For though this was the occasion of the dispute and the Apostle therefore does shew them how it was by the Promise and so by Faith that Abraham and the Jewes themselves had life and not by the Law which was but a Schoolmaster to lead them thereunto or unto Christ yet it is manifest that he advances the point higher while he tells them that by Works neither Jew nor Gemile could be justified so that by works he must mean the observation of that Law of works which was common to both and not Moses Law only and the resolution of the dispute in both Apostles comes to this as I have said that it is by the performance of the covenant of Grace and not of the ovenant of works or Law of Moses that a man is to look for life everlasting I must add Nor are they to be heard in a third place who say that the dispute between Paul and the Jewes is neither of these but whether we are justified by our own righteousness or by the righteousness of Christ and so resolve that it is not by any works which we do even Faith it self as a work but by the works Christ hath done for us that is by the obedience of his life and death only For though this be taught ordinarily by our Protestants and is coincident with the first result there is one thing I must say these Divines have not considered which I have offered them in my paper that must bring them to another understanding It is this that the Apostle does indeed stand much upon the Righteousness of God in opposition to works in the business of justification but never opposes our works to the Righteousness of Christ the Righteousness of Christ in their sense being truly a very contrary thing to the Righteousness of God in the sense of the Apostle The righteousness of God according to the A ostle if I may then describe it but as well as I can and as the thing is and a little more fully then I have in my former paper is on Gods part his taking our human frailey or falne nature into that meet consideration as not to deale with us in his district judgment which we cannot beare but according to his Covenant of Mercy the righteousness sacrifice attonement or satisfaction of Christ being supposed as the foundation upon which his Justice does stand good notwithstanding this condescention And consequently on Mans part this righteousness is our imperfect duty performed in sincerity
to the Sripture but if he be a Heathen and acts herein but fully up to his light I dare not deny the same of him And indeed what is that pure love of God out of which you will say alone a man must act If you love me says Christ who knows best keep my Commandements The love of God and keeping his Commandments are the same The commands of God are to be kept that we may inherit Eternal Life Christ tells the Ruler in the Gospel express I have noted before and consequently we may love God to that end If man could do any good to God by his duties or any hurt by his sins then should I believe there was some other end of our duty than man's Salvation You may say this appears selfish or self-love only I answer that that man then who does but love himself so as to seek the Salvation of his Soul above his flesh this world and any thing therein is the man he should be in the sight of God If you stick at it consider what is Salvation A loving God a delighting in him a conformity to him I love God in keeping his Commandements in this life that I may be conformed to him and have complacency in him to all Eternity I will adde our Orthodox Divines say not and are not to be so understood that good works may not be done with respect to the reward but with respect to the reward as due to them ex condigno For to expect that God should accept of what we do in bearing with our failings and rewarding us out of Grace when we walk sincerely before him is but to act our Faith on or putting our trust in his declared goodness Christs Merits and the promises of the Gospel The other Apprehension is that a Christian must not live on his own Purse or Earnings A pretty sound of somthing which as I suppose does signify that which other Divines intend by Resting in Dutys There is therefore a resting in Duty I may say and a resting on God in Duty I doubt not but a Christian is to trust to God for whatsoever he seeks of him upon the performance of his duty when it were but presumption to do so without that performance It is true that no man by any thing he can do seeing when he hath done all he is but an unprofitable Servant can deserve or merit any thing from God's hand and much less his saving Grace which is most free so as it may be properly said to be earned as wages is due unto work or to make his blessings of debt yet is a Christian by his prayers and the like duty said to get or obtain from God whasoever he hath from him and as a man does live on his Estate which he gets so may a Christian be said to live his spiritual life upon the riches of God's grace which he gets by his duty The want of trusting to duty therefore in a right sense is indeed I doubt me more reprovable in our Protestants ordinarily than their resting in duty And I am seriously troubled very often at what I have observed in some of our special practical Divines about this point of resting in duties I will particularly name Mr. Shepheards sincere Convert which is enough to bring any man Religiously melancholly for the more pious his Soul is in the case the more liable it must be to such stroaks into desperation I will therefore say thus much in zeal against that danger Let a man be but careful of two things about resting in duty and trouble himself henceforth no more but about the doing of it The first is Let him take heed of making any duty a pillow to lay his head on to rest in sin Thus it is dangerous indeed to rest in duty and this may be either when a man thinks he may sin and go on in it because he Prays gives Almes or the like as if that would bear him out Or chiefly when a man shall sit down short of sincere Conversion by doing of some duty that is by taking up in leaving some sins and doing many things he did not before he shall content himself and not come up to that universal unreserved giving up himself to Christ as is required of him to that sincerity of life which is the condition of Salvation This is the most deadly dangerous resting in duty that I will admonish every Soul of And then for the second I will say only Let him be a Protestant which I count he is and I doubt not but his opinion alone against merit and that he is justified through Christ will secure him for the rest of this business Provided though he remembers still that humility and the like qualification of Soul when he hath done all he can do is also his duty And now after I have spoken of these Heads if any be otherwise minded in whatsoever I have hitherto said and are resolved to keep to that only which they count the soundest Calvinisme in them all I will be so candid as to lay down their doctrin for them to the best advantage God hath Elected some to Salvation Christ dyed only for them That which he hath Purchased by his Death is not only the benefit conditionally but Faith it self the condition Faith is the perswasion of a man that Christ hath died particularly for him and so his sins are forgiven This perswasion or apprehension of Christ makes Christ ones own and so justifies instrumentally without works either Legal or Evangelical and how also to serve this turn I have set down in my paper of Justification page 15. No man can be ever in good earnest thus perswaded but the Elect for whom alone this Faith is purchased When a Minister then declares the Gospel and requires of all in God's name to Believe to wit to believe particularly that Christ hath dyed for their sins as knowing not for his part who the Elect by name be there is no fear of hurt unto any seeing no person on earth shall be able to be perswaded hereof indeed that perswasion with Calvin and Luther being true Faith but the Elect only Besides as soon as this perswasion once is but wrought it does so possess the Soul with love and gratitude to the Redeemer that it constrains it to Christian duty so that unfained Conversion Self-denyal a Crucifixion with Christ to the world and the flesh and the life of God and that with perseverance to the end do follow as naturally to wit according to the new Nature as the Fig-tree brings forth Figgs or the Olive Olives without all possibility of separation from it This Doctrin if any will so concatenate the parts does seem to me to carry a kind of mysterious authority in it that I find some awe for it at my heart although really I am convinced both of the danger of it and also excepting only in the first proposition that it is untrue So far am I from despising of those against whom the spirit of that Authour in the book intimated seems so much over-sharpened when yet I do encline in my own sentiments to hang things together much rather after his fashion than theirs who would look upon me as more Evangelical in such a Determination Deo Gloria mihi Condonatio J. H. ERRATA PAge 16. l. 21. for desires read deserves p. 18. l. 7. for Clouds read Cloud