Christ Exalted AND Dr. CRISP Vindicated IN Several Points called Antinomian being Cleared From Neonomian Suggestions Alledged By some Remarks on Mr. A his Rebuke to Mr. Lob. Shewing from Scripture and most Orthodox Authors the Invalidity of his Rebuke in taxing the Doctor to be Apocryphal and his Doctrine Antinomian WITH Some Observations on the Bishop of Worcester's Letter concerning the great Point of the Change of Persons between Christ and Believers wherein he differs from the Doctor but yet mildly and genteely treats him though he comes short of the Truth as contained in the Doctrine of the Church of England With a Table to find the Heads insisted on Done by a Happy tho' Vnworthy Branch of the said Doctor It was needful for me to write to you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. And once profest by the Church of England His Neighbour cometh after him and searcheth him Prov. 18.17 LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be had at Mr. John Marshall's at the Bible in Grace-church-street 1698. ERRATA PAge 11 Line 22 for thereof read there of 25. l. 6. r. Arminian 34. l. 22. r. Arminian 36. l. 1. r. as Believers 45. l. last r. She. 46. l. 1. of r. our 47. l. 22. r. by the Power 48. l. 20. r. laid 65. l. 5. 6. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 68. l. 37. r. Racovia 81. l. 24. make the stop at allowed 83. l. 9. r. he bare 27. r. and act 96. l. 27. r. Reporter 97. l. 5. the stop at for 98. l. last r. zanachta 100. l. 5. r. reprobavit 10. r. kareu 103. l. 15. r. perfection 109. l. 5. for them r. him 111. l. 15. r. chattathi 115. l. 27. r. with a Passage 31. make the stop at doing 116. l. 10. for as to say r. by saying To his several Particular Friends of the late House of Commons Assembled in Parliament Gentlemen and Right Honourable Patriots MANY Daughters have done Vertuously and thou excellest them all was a Motto on the Memorial of Q. Elizabeth hung up in most Churches for the good Laws she made against Popery What high Encomiums of Praise and great Retributions of Thanks then are due to you right Christian Senators for your warm Addressing His Majesty to suppress the Blasphemy and Debauchery which the Nation abounds with And upon His wise referring back so great a Work to your selves to effect it by an Act of Parliament for your thereupon forming the late good Act wherein it is to your great Honour Enacted That if any Person ........ shall by Writing Printing Teaching or advised Speaking deny any One of the Persons in the Holy Trinity to be God or shall assert or maintain there are more Gods than One or shall deny the Christian Religion to be True or the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be of Divine Authority shall suffer so and so Although there be no Reward to the Prosecutor it is hoped you have thereby in a good measure put a stop to the carriere of the Prophane Tongues and Pens of a debauched Crew of this Age that Impiously deny the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead that mock at all Revealed Religion as contained in the Scriptures that call the Scriptures an Inken Divinity and the Blood of our Lord Jesus as the Blood of another good Man and make his dreadful Agony and Sufferings but Facile Representations of what Christ doth in us and that could Print That when God hath glutted himself c. as in the Book For your Zeal to God's Glory in which may you have an Eternal Reward above and many good days of God's Blessing here is my Supplication to the Throne of Grace But besides these Dragons against the Christian Religion which you have been quelling we have the Foxes running about that spoil the Vines those that under the fair Species of Man's Holiness would undermine God's Righteousness in our Justification For going about to establish their own Righteousness they have not submitted to the Righteousness of God Rom. 10.3 That is they are against being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus against having his Righteousness imputed to them to be unto and upon all that believe though the Scripture is clear herein But besides the pure Word of God which is the Sheet-Anchor of our Religion it is a great Mercy that in Disputes with Men of corrupt Minds that we have the Fundamentals of Christianity contained in the Doctrines established by Law in the Book of the Homilies wherewith to incounter such Foxes as would spoil our tender Grapes by denying our very Sins to be born by Christ and bringing in some degrees of our Obedience though imperfect to joyn as it were with Christ's Righteousness for our Justification and to make such our Obedience pass currant by bringing in God making a Law that in effect allows of Sin which are excepted against in the ensuing Treatise which I put forth to vindicate according to my poor Talent not so much Dr. Crisp but the Doctrine of God our Saviour delivered by the Doctor consonantly to the Sacred Scriptures and to the said Homilies as you may perceive upon perusal of these my Collections from Scripture and sound Authors Which I humbly recommend to your leisurely serious Considerations hoping you will think it necessary in this degenerate Age to contend for the Faith delivered to the Saints and that your selves so many of you as shall be chosen for the next Parliament which I suppose will not be a few that you will think it worthy your Pains and Labour to indeavour to suppress all Socinian and Arminian Tenets that to uphold Man's Free Will to do good strike at our being saved freely by God's Grace contrary to God's Word We are saved by Grace through Faith and that not of our selves it is the Gift of God Not of Works lest any boast Our Holy Fore-Fathers in the Nations shaking off the Popish Yoke spake plainly We in Christ paid the Debt We in him are fulfillers of the Law He on his Cross made a perfect cleansing of thy Sins But this will not go down with Arminianizers of this day that bring in our Gospel-Holiness to concur with Christ's Righteousness in our Justification This I address to your Pious Thoughts and I suppose not improperly to you as expected Members of the House of Commons hoping the next Parliament may begin where the last left off in taking Care of the True Christian Religion And that you may be the better fortified I quote a Vote of a former House of Commons March 2. 1628. Whosoever shall bring in Innovation of Religion or by Favour or Countenance seem to extend Popery or Arminianism or other Opinion disagreeing from the Truth and Orthodox Church shall be reputed a Capital Enemy to the Kingdom and Common-Wealth VVhich Spirit against Popery
Faith in him or else we must feign that a Believer hath a Spiritual Life in him that is not from Christ if he have Faith before he is united to Christ as some pretend and so there would be two Spiritual Lives in a Believer one before Union to Christ which works Faith and the other from Christ upon acting our Faith But this Ass of our own Spiritual Life and the Oxe of Christ's Life in us will not draw well together So that I think I may safely conclude this is no Heresie to say that Union to Christ is before Faith much less is that which follows an Heresie to say that we partake of the Spirit by vertue of that Vnion This is brought in as part of the fifth Heresie Whence do the Branches partake of the Sap of the Vine but from the Root by Vertue of Union to the Vine 'T is strange to admiration that this should be question'd by those who like Peter seem to be Pillars in the Church to call it an Antinomian Heresie to say We partake of the Spirit by vertue of Vnion to Christ If the Spirit be not in us before Faith how can he convince of Sin in not believing and thereby work Faith Doth not the Scripture say plainly 1 Cor. 12.8 9. To one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another Faith by the same Spirit Doth the Spirit give Faith and is he not then in the Soul to work Faith before it is wrought Is not the Former before the Thing formed If so then sure my Dear Kratiste was in a great Mistake and has sadly imposed on those that profess Faith in our Lord Jesus to rank this for a Heresie That we partake of the Spirit by vertue of our Vnion to Christ which in Naturâ is before Faith The sixth as being much akin to the former I pass only with the naming of it 'T is Heresie he saith to say Justification in regard of Application must be before Believing Whose Saying this is or whence it is taken I know not If the meaning be that God applies it to us or reckons it to us before our Believing that we are Justified This is so far from Heresie that I think the contrary is a Contradiction Or 't is Nonsense for me to believe a Thing is mine before it is given me or applyed to me and so made mine And in that Sense the Application of Justification by God's Spirit to my Conscience that God hath loved me and given his Son for me this must first be applyed to me before I can believe it or else my Believing is but Presumption But if by Application of Justification before Believing he means that the Soul doth apply it to himself before his Believing I think he is to seek for any that hold that Tenet §. XXVII His seventh Heresie is this That the first Application ordine Naturae saltem is to an Vngodly Man eo nomine that he may believe That this is a blessed Gospel-Truth and no Heresie appears by what our Blessed Lord Jesus saith That he came not to call the Righteous but Sinners And his immediate Call made them follow him as Levi from being a Publican to be a believing Disciple Nay saith our Lord Publicans and Harlots enter into the Kingdom of God before you Ye believed not but the Publicans and Harlots believed Matth. 21.31 32. Here was Application to ungodly Wretches eo nomine that they might believe and when Publicans and Harlots they did believe and so came off from their Ungodliness Yea the Dog Syrophenaecian as Christ called her she had Faith given her while she was a Dog even to the Admiration of Christ himself who said O Woman great is thy Faith And saith the Apostle for a full Proof that the Application is to an ungodly Man eo nomine While we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Nay as God will have it the very word ungodly which they oppose as Heresie is asserted in the Scripture that the first Application of Christ is to an ungodly Man in Rom. 4.5 To him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness If the Blessed Apostle saith God justifieth the ungodly I trow this is no Heresie in him but if Heterodox Dr. Crisp say the same words then 't is an Antinomian Heterodoxy Now there 's a great out-cry what do you make God to be Is God such a Friend to Sin as to justifie the Vngodly Doth it become the Holiness of God to justifie an ungodly Man This is the way to vindicate all licentious Antinomianism That God justifies the Vngodly and that while he is an Enemy he is reconciled to God O out upon such profane Antinomians We can allow the Apostle Paul to use such Language because we can distinguish this into he doth not justifie the Vngodly that the Apostle means so whatever he saith but we cannot bear it that Apochryphal Tobias should say so nor that Mysterious Nonsense say so as Mr. Williams called Mr. Cole we cannot bear it in him for this is to open a gap to Profaneness to say God justifieth the Vngodly §. XXVIII The eighth Heresie is to assert That we believe that we may be justified declaratively The Case I take to be thus The Apostle saith in Gal. 2.16 We believe that we may be justified by the Faith of Jesus from whence the Neonomians conclude that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere our Act of Faith is that very Thing which justifies us or that we are justified by our Work of Faith if not by Works of Faith and Holiness which sometimes they joyn yet at least by a Work by our Act of Believing Whereas the Orthodox according to the Homilies and Doctrine of the Church of England from plain Scripture put Faith it self from us as that Act that justifies and say Faith justifies only declaratively as it manifests to the Conscience our being justified by Christ's Blood Rom. 5.9 and freely by his Grace not our Grace of Faith through the Redemption that is in Jesus Rom. 3.24 Titus 3.7 It is still ascribed to his Grace not any Grace in us our Grace of Faith being only the Instrument or Hand given us of God to receive Christ and all in him If Justification be as they would have it from any Act of ours as the Ground or Cause of it then we are not freely justified by his Grace but by our Work of Believing which if not a Popish is an Arminian Tenet to blemish the Free Grace of God in Jesus Christ So that it may be safely concluded that it is no Heresie to say our Justification by Faith is declarative in as much as the Essence of Justification is by the Blood of Jesus and the Grace of God imputing it to us is the form of our Justification which being received by Faith is thereby manifested or declared to the Conscience by the Illumination of the Holy
28.16 Is not that our Lord Jesus of whom the Apostle saith Other Foundation can no Man lay And Christ saith On this Rock I will build my Church And shall we now have this Egg laid That our good Works are the Foundation to the building us up unto Glory Sure this rotten Egg can never be endured in the Nostrils of any good Christian The first is like it as one Egg can be to another That our good Works have the same respect to Glory that the Seed hath to the Harvest Now every one knows that the Harvest grows immediately from the Seed and if we had no Harvest of Glory but what grows out of the Seed of our Works it would be a very dark dunghil Glory for our best Righteousness as to getting us Glory is but as menstruous Rags But for our Comfort the Scripture saith One sows and another reaps Christ hath in Infinite Grace sowed his Body as a grain of Wheat in the Earth John 12.24 out of which all our Glory must grow O how contrary is his Assertion to the whole Gospel which saith We are saved by Grace and not of Works lest any Man should boast Our Glory is so far from being the Harvest of our Works that the Apostle saith He hath saved us not according to our Works of Righteousness which we have done 2. Tim. 1.9 Neither for our Works nor according to them O how sad is it that my Dear Kratiste should by his Hand together with Forty Eight more midwife this rotten Egg into the World The third is of the same brood That Glory is the Wages of our Works which is diametrically opposite to the Apostle who wholly excludes Works saying in Rom. 11.6 If it be by Grace it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace But if it be of Works it is no more of Grace And the Apostle concludes to the shame of self-justiciaries Rom. 3.27 Where is boasting then it is excluded By what Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith So that Mr. Williams must not lay this Egg at the Apostle's Gate it being as rotten an one as any in the whole Council of Trent But one dash of the Rebuker's Pen That he hath accounted for what he hath written by subscribing the Assemblies Confession shall cleanse him from all whereas his subscribing that without his recanting this is but like some of the Clergy in Antisozzo that snatch up the Pen to subscribe the Articles of the Church of England and to their shame immediately preach against some of them in advancing Man's Free-will in opposition to God's Free Irresistible Grace and denying particular Election and the like For which we may mourn and say Proh Dolor §. XCIX It is not to be unminded how the Rebuker slides off the three first Conditions on which Mr. Williams his acceptance was to be grounded which are these If he concur in the Doctrine of Justification and the Change of Persons between Christ and Believers and Christ's undergoing the Father's displeasure for our Sins These he saith in 58 I will not mention to save Time and Paper A great Husband of Time and Paper But would not Time and Paper have been better imployed by far in setting these three Points in a true Light than to talk of whaffling Whelps and rotten Eggs I fear there are greater Reasons than to save Time and Paper that he waves them It being judged by many from his Writings that he is not extraordinary tight in the Point of Justification and therefore being conscious thereof he might not be free to expose himself by declaring his Judgment therein as to the Conditionality of Faith and New Obedience and how far our Works have any concern in our Justification notwithstanding the Scripture saith We are justified freely by his Grace And it may justly be suspected that he who could say We did not sin Adam 's Sin so denying the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might as well say That that Sin of his was not ours and so we not concerned in it so as to be condemned for it And thence might as well say that Christ's Righteousness which he performed in obeying and suffering the Law is not ours it was only wrought for our Good and so we not justified by God's imputing it to us but that we have only the Effects of it or this is the main viz. Pardon of our Sins if we repent and believe and walk in holy Obedience and so continue to the end of our Lives thereby denying assurance till the last breath and then for the sake of Christ's Righteousness on our sincere performance of our Duty we shall have Heaven and Happiness as his Gospel-Truth stated and before him Mr. R. B. But if this be current how can the Scripture be true that we are justified freely by his Grace and that we are justified by his Blood that he was raised for our Justification without one word of our Gospel-Obedience concurring thereto it being not according to Works of Righteousness which we have done And whereas the Word saith we are justified by Faith all sound Protestants the Assemblies Confession and the Doctrine of the Church of England do uno ore with one mouth agree that it is not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere it is not our Act of Faith justifies us but the Object of Faith that Righteousness of Christ which he wrought out for us which we lay hold on and receive by Faith It is that Righteousness made ours given to us by God and reckoned by God to us which alone doth justifie us on which account it is said It is God that justifies Rom. 8. But this my Kratiste waves lest he should bewray it is feared some halting in this as the Reporter saith he has done in the Point of Christ's Satisfaction Or else if he be right in it himself and if he had declared it he must have left his Friend Mr. D. W. in the Ditch who is sadly tardy in this case §. C. As to his second Point that he waves The Change of Persons between Christ and Believers this he might be allowed for he had said enough and too much of that in ridiculing it before with Christ's wearing a Mask a Vizor c. when he bare the Persons of the Elect in himself For which I beseech the Lord to give him Repentance and Pardon §. CI. But as to the third of Christ's bearing the Father's displeasure for our Sins he having said little or nothing of that before it might have been expected he should have said somewhat of it now if it had been only to confirm his Friend Mr. Williams who had abused the Doctor when he took the Doctor to task about it But this is so fully handled by Dr. Chancy and such full Evidence brought in by him of our Lord Jesus his undergoing the displeasure of God and sustaining the Wrath of God for our Sins when by God himself they were laid upon him
run very clear Streams from the Fountain of Israel and they as I quoted before out of the first part of the Sermon of Salvation are wonderful clear for such a Change as the Doctor affirms and Mr. Williams denies saying So that Christ is now the Righteousness of all them that truly do believe in him He for them paid their Ransom by his Death he for them fulfilled the Law in his Life so that now IN HIM and BY HIM every true Christian Man may be called a fulfiller of the Law This Golden Sentence which might be for an Ornament in Gold Letters in every House in England doth fully vindicate to a Tittle Dr. Crisp's Change of Persons Christ himself is their Righteousness he paid Ransom for them they were fulfillers of the Law in him and by him What can be more full to the Point I hope the Bishop will not charge these great Men the Composers of this Sermon as he has done the Doctor with an imaginary unproved Change §. CLI One word more to the Bishop's Argument to prove that it is but an imaginary Notion to think that we are compleatly Righteous by the Righteousness of Christ without any act of ours which Argument of his is in these words I could easily prove that in all the Transactions between God and Mankind some Conditions were required on our side in order to his favour So it was in the State of Innocency so it continued after Man's Fall as it appears by those words of God to Cain If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted if thou dost not well Sin lyeth at the door Gen. 4.7 'T is strange so great a Man should offer so weak an Argument to argue from a state of Innocency or from the state of Reprobate Cain or from the Covenant of Works what belongs to the Elect under the Covenant of Grace and under the Gospel where Works and Grace are made opposite Terms If of Works then no more of Grace saith the Apostle Was not Abel first accepted and then his Offering Is not the first Promise all of Grace He Christ shall bruise thine the Devil's Head And is not the last Promise the like Whoever will let him take of the Water of Life freely But by the Bishop's Doctrine a clever way is made to overthrow the whole Gospel To you is born a Saviour and to subvert the Orthodox Doctrine of the Church of England at once by bringing from the Dead the Covenant of Works to be saved by our doing well and not by Christ's doing and dying for us Whereas Abel's Sacrifice was accepted he himself being first accepted and his Sacrifice being offered in Faith but Cain and his Sacrifice rejected being not offered in Faith not looking to Jesus alone for Salvation by him The Bishop seems to run counter diametrically against the Apostle who argues strenuously Not of Works of no sort kind or degree lest any boast and by the Deeds of the Law shall no Flesh he justified He sums it up in Eph. 2. By Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Not of Works lest any boast And Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Thus the Scripture is plain against this Argument of the Bishop That our performing of Conditions must be in order to gain God's Favour §. CLII. Then for the Doctrine of the Church see what that saith of Conditions or of any Works of ours to gain God's Favour In the second Sermon of Salvation the good Christians of those days that were singed by the Popish Fires in Queen Maries days they tell us So that the true understanding this Doctrine That we be justified by Faith freely without Works or that we be justified by Faith in Christ only is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is within us doth justifie us A Sentence fit to be ingraven in every Church in England in order to take Men from trusting to their Repentance or good Works The like again is in the same Sermon as followeth We must renounce the Merit of Faith Hope Charity and all other Vertues and good Deeds And we must trust only in God's Mercy and that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus once offered As great and as goodly a Vertue as lively Faith is yet it putteth us from it self and remitteth and appointeth us unto Christ for to have only by him Remission of our Sins Observe these Eminent Stars of the first Magnitude in the Heaven of that Church of Old they are so far from bringing in our Repentance Charity and good Deeds or any act of ours to obtain Favour with God which the Bishop pleads for that they exclude Faith it self as having any hand in justifying us any farther than as it remitteth us to Christ But alas how is our Gold become Dross How are our great Men fallen from the Pure Primitive Doctrines of the Church of England And though they live splendidly by subscribing to these Doctrines yet in their Preaching and Writing they miserably warp as here in part from them Witness the setting up some Acts of ours to be done in order to obtain God's Favour And because God treated with Adam on account of Do and live therefore 't is supposed monstrously that Men when dead in Sins must work for Life or as the Bishop The Ministry of Reconciliation in St. Paul is wholly founded on Conditions on our side which he calls Acts of ours and may as well be called our good Works And all this because the Apostle pray'd them to be reconciled to God which cannot well be construed to be more than to pray them to accept the Reconciliation which God had made of Sinners to himself by Christ at his Death For if as the Apostle saith God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself then the Work was done when Christ cryed out on the Cross It is finished And if the word of Reconciliation was committed to the Apostles to publish to the World the Reconciliation that God had made of Sinners to himself by Christ what could his Embassadors mean in praying Sinners to be reconciled to God but to accept of what he had mentioned before of the act done long before viz. That God had reconciled Sinners to himself by Christ and to let them know that they were some of the reconciled ones if they would accept thereof and take these Waters of Life freely and so accept the Exhortation as Titus did 2 Cor. 8.17 §. CLIII O! how sad is it to eclipse the glorious Gospel Truth That our Sins were laid by God on Christ as the Doctor insists on it while the Bishop is pleased to load it with such very bad Consequences as might deter the weak and unconsidering from believing the plainest Positions in the Scripture viz. That the Lord laid on him the Iniquity of us all and he bare
standing in Christ's Person being found in him having put on Christ and his Righteousness as the Apostle Paul hath it in Phil. 3.9 who according to some Mens way of dogmatizing and making Antinomians is the King-leader of them all by saying as we frequently must quote That God made him Sin for us and us the Righteousness of God in him I must beg Pardon for casting this Salt so oft into the bitter Waters to make them sweet these two Passages into their Broth of Antinomianism and until you race them out of the Bible they will be a good defence of the Change of Persons between Christ and Sinners §. LXX These Two Pillars are the Jakin and Boaz Establishment and Strength in him that King Solomon our Lord Jesus hath erected before the Temple the Basis of the Commutation of Persons Christ made Sin for us and Righteousness to us and I am sure The Gates of Hell will never prevail against them let the Socinians or Deists or Quietists and let their Friends the Arminians be never so rampant One Athanasius one Hylary one Mr. Cole could withstand Ten Thousand Batteries and be no more shaken than a pair of Three penny Fellows can shake down the Monument and so extinguish the Memory of the Papists burning of London in 1666 witness Mr. Cole's sealing his Doctrine with Triumph at his departure dying in the Joy of what he had preach'd though by Mr. Williams called Mysterious Nonsense he saying a little before his Death in opposition to our Modern 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the resisters of the Truth Now I can spit in the Face of the Devil and so dyed in the Joy of having preach'd the Doctrine of Justification by Free Grace through Christ without any Works of ours concurring thereunto §. LXXI In Page 43 he asks Where has this Doctrine of Justification been settled all this while since the Reformation This is just copying after the Papists Where was your Religion before Luther We answer It was in the Scripture and in abundance of faithful Witnesses and so was this Doctrine in particular Read but the Apostle Paul and he 'll tell you where it was settled viz. In our being chosen in Christ before the World was and in Grace given us then in him and in Christ's being made Sin for us and the Righteousness of God to us Besides if you will read Calvin Twiss and Luther with multitudes more in your Study you will find how they settled it Antisozzo hath it in part also and why may not Dr. Tho. Goodwin come in for an Author O no now I remember a great Reason for said Kratiste he speaks in his Treatise on the Ephesians of the Spirit himself dwelling in Believers but I utterly deny it said he And I affirm said he he dwells in Believers only by his gracious Operations To which was opposed The Spirit himself witnesses with our Spirits that we are the Children of God And besides the Rebuker 't is like will say he is as dreadful an Antinomian as wild a Monster as the Dregs of it Dr. Crisp therefore I will not allow him to be an Author in this great Point of Justification for he is all for Free Grace §. LXXII He proceeds It is strange to me That Councils General and Provincial Synods Assemblies of Holy Learned Men should so oft so strenuously assert and confirm by the Word of God this great Truth and yet never once dream of Dr. Crisp ' s Commutation of Persons upon which to superstruct the Doctrine of Justification But it will appear more strange by and by I am perswaded that my Dear Kratiste with his Eagle-eyed Talent should so far over-shoot himself as to talk as if he had read all Councils and Synods c. when it will appear he has not well read our English Homilies setting forth clear Gospel-Truth in the Doctrine of the Church of England He is got into a large Field with a mighty Challenge like a Goliah defying all Councils c. to shew the Commutation of Persons He wages War under the Banner of all Councils c. as he thinks whereas one little David with a Stone out of the Brook of Life the River that makes glad the City of God one Text of Scripture will answer all his Rodomantado Challenge What if Councils c. that contract principal Articles of Faith into short Terms have not used the Doctor 's very words yet if they are consonant to Scripture one would think they may pass without such a strangeness Are there no Sentences in Antisozzo and Melius that are not in Synods and Councils and yet pass for Authentick I am confident the Doctor could not think it worth his while to tumble over the Records of all Councils c. to authorise him to speak to the Rebuker's approbation if the Scripture do but warrant him in his Change of Persons 't is enough and that is very abundant in Terms that may bear him out As where it speaks of Christ in us the hope of Glory do not we sustain his Person there or rather he being in us our hope he sustains our Persons in hope It speaks of our putting off our Sins in the circumcision of Christ Col. 3.11 which cannot be otherwise than by Christ's sustaining our Persons when he was circumcised and so our putting off our Sins is by our being in him representatively when the Fore-Skin of Christ's Flesh was cut off in order to the putting off our Sins in our Faith in a circumcised Christ It speaks of our being buried with him of our being raised in him of our being found in him What is this but a Change or Commutation of Persons I live saith the Apostle yet not I but Christ lives in me Is not this a Change of Person that answers Dr. Crisp's Commutation And yet still we are not Christ Personal but Christ Mystical and Christ was not Paul Personal but Paul and all Believers Mystical as sustaining their Persons as many Eminent Divines besides the Doctor speak without being accounted strange Monsters §. LXXIII For further Satisfaction in this great Point I refer the Rebuker to the great Pains of Dr. Chancy who hath gathered the Sentiments of very great Men among whom take this of Luther on Gal. 3.14 who saith It behoveth him to bear the Punishment and Wrath of God not for his own Person but for our Persons and so making A HAPPY CHANGE with us he took upon him our Sinful Person and gave unto us his Innocent and Victorious Person Is not this as monstrous a wild Sense as Dr. Crisp's But my Dear Kratiste hath more Sense than to call this new uncooth unintelligible Non-sense because of the great Name of Martin Luther Another of Dr. Chancy's Quotations is out of Mr. Stone of New England no Antinomian unless made so by the Rebuker he adds in the same Page 102 of Dr. Chancy There must be an Exchange between the Mediator and us 1 Tim. 2.6 There must be an
of the Gospel and pray as our Lord Jesus teaches That God would forgive their DEBTS for the sake of Christ our Surety who hath bought us with the Price not of corruptible Things as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of the Lamb without Spot the Lord Jesus Christ that Blood being the only Current Coyn in Heaven for poor Sinners Debts Shall God say ye are bought with a Price and shall vain Man dehort us from the Notion of a Pecuniary Debt Take away this and you will take away all the Gospel in a little time It will soon be lost if the Rebuker's Learned Man's Doctrine must pass for currant That we must not insist on Christ's paying a rigid proper Satisfaction If by rigid he means a full compleat perfect Satisfaction to the last Farthing then I say to deny or wave this and the Apostle warrants it let him be accursed for by it he overthrows the whole Gospel which lyes in this That Christ hath ransomed bought and redeemed us by his Blood which cleanses us from all Sin And this gave a full compleat Satisfaction to God upon which account he said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and on the same account the Apostle saith If any bring any other Gospel let him be accursed §. LXXXIV I cannot but continue an admiration that my Dear Kratiste once famous for strenuous arguings for the Truth should quote and confirm such a Passage as is fitter to come from Raconia and Rome than the Pen of a Gospel Divine What not insist on Christ's proper yea rigid Satisfaction If not a proper one and a full one that 's a rigid one then 't is none at all But they would abate the Poyson of it by saying not insist on it under the Notion of a Debt and Debtor so the Rebuker But I pray why may not God's Terms and Notions be insisted on rather than the Socinians God bids us pray forgive our Debts and saith We are bought with a Price And what is that Price but Christ's paying our Debts For the sake of which Price only God in his infinite Mercy forgives the Debts of all that believe in the Lord Jesus But to insist on this Notion looks like our Rebuker's Antinomianism he charges Dr. Crisp withal If we say that Christ paid our Debts by the Price of his Blood and Life then this looks as if we were discharged in God's sight from all our Sins at Christ's Death or rather at his Resurrection and then that of the Apostle would be rigidly insisted on for our Justification at Christ's Resurrection He was delivered for our Offences and raised for our Justification Rom. 8. But of this the Neonomians must have a care lest they by it come over to the Antinomians Therefore 't is necessary for them to wish with the Rebuker they were worthy to advise not to insist so strictly on that Notion of Debt and Debtor §. LXXXV To answer his Wish with another Wish I heartily wish I were worthy to advise all Neonomians all New Law Men to be so humbâ—e and good to themselves as to peruse and learn the Sentiments of our Reformers from Popery that made the Book of the Homilies in which are many excellent Passages to uphold this Notion of Christ's paying a Price for us In the first part of the Sermon of Salvation they have these Heavenly Expressions God provided a Ransom for us that was the most precious Body and Blood of his own most dear and best beloved Son Jesus Christ who beside the Ransom fulfilled the Law for us perfectly And a little further they are more clear saying He for them paid the Ransom by his Death he for them fulfilled the Law in his Life so that now in him and by him every true Christian Man may be called a fulfiller of the Law O what can be more positive and plain Is not here a rigid-proper Satisfaction and that in the Notion of a Debt calling it a Ransom Nay he paid their Ransom And what can be a more rigid Satisfaction than fulfilling the Law every tittle for them in his Life and paying a Ransom in his Death O! that my Dear Kratiste would by himself a little blush at this and what the Church of Scotland in Knox his Reformation in Fol. 8 he calls the Gospel Christ's being a Debtor for our Sins and Christ paid our Debt The Law saith Pay thy Debt the Gospel saith Christ hath paid it for thee §. LXXXVI I pray what Titles may we expect in the next Rebuke to be given to these Holy Men these Fathers in our Church of Christ in England and Scotland upon the emerging out of Popery Sure they must also be called a parcel of Antinomians Sure Dr. Crisp got his Dregs of Antinomianism from you a company of Apocryphal Tobias's What did we fulfil the Law in Christ Sure you wont dare to say so Then all our Neonomian Scheme is spoiled of our being accepted in part on account of our Evangelical Righteousness in Obedience to a Law wherein God doth not require Sinless Obedience Then if we fulfilled the Law in Christ all our thundring Anathemaes against Antinomianism will fall on our selves If this be true that you Reformers have said then how shall we be able to flourish our Colours with a bravado that this is unintelligible uncooth novel Doctrine such as never any Council Synod or Nation ever brought into their Creed But my Dear Kratiste knows that what is said in the Homilies is said by the whole English Nation that these Sermons have many Acts of Parliament to confirm them for True Sound and Orthodox Doctrine and particularly this that we in him fulfilled the Law And I wish that all our Divines as well Conformists as Nonconformists would seriously lay this to Heart and be humbled so far as they swerve from this blessed Truth That he paid the Debt for us and we in him fulfilled the Law Where is the Neonomian Vaunt now O how good is it to be humble and not challenge all the World against the Notion of Debt and Debtor or the like For here the Great Assembly of the Nation King Lords and Commons in Parliament for the utter Confusion of Neonomianism have confirmed this almost One Hundred and Fifty Years ago and many times since which hath stood for Sound Doctrine in the Church of our Lord Jesus in England many Years before Dr. Crisp was born and Fifty Five since he went to Rest viz. That in him and by him every true Christian Man may be called a fulfiller of the Law If they fulfilled the Law in him and by him did not Christ sustain their Persons in himself when he fulfilled the Law for them How else can they be said to fulfil the Law in him if they were not in him and sustained by him This we are taught here for the utter silencing and shame of those that call it Antinomianism §. LXXXVII This great Expression of
from helping to wash away the Guilt or Fault that they need to be wash'd in the Blood of Christ to take away their own Guilt and Fault and the making one Debt for our Lord Jesus to satisfie even that of the Fault in our best Works is a strange way for our clearing our selves from a former Debt or Fault §. CXLV I would humbly recommend to all that stagger in this Point but especially to the Dignified Persons of the Church of England to look again and again into the Sound Fundamental Doctrines of the Church as they are exemplified in the Homilies appointed by several Acts of Parliament to be read in the Churches when there is no Sermon which Acts have never been yet repealed and I may say are as necessary in this Degenerate Age of the evacuating the great Truths of our Religion as when first made These Homilies speak home to the Point that the Bishop is upon of Christ's bearing our Sins Those Holy Servants of the Lord that composed them soon after the Nations coming out of the Blind Popish Religion they say in the second Sermon of Man's Misery thus He Christ paid our Ransom to God with his own Blood and with that he CLEANSED us from our Sin They don't say he bare the Punishment only but he by his Blood shed on the Cross then at that time he cleansed us from our Sins How could that be if our Sins our very Sins were not then translated to Christ as Dr Crisp from the Scripture and these Homilies saith So that for Mr. Williams or the Bishop or any Man to say it is near Blasphemy to say our very Sins were laid on Christ is to run a Dagger to the Heart of the Doctrine of the Church of England and to evade plain Scripture as well as to make Dr Crisp an Antinomian for it for the Doctor herein runs parallel to the Sound Orthodox Doctrine of the Church for which besides the main Bulwark of the Scripture he hath many Acts of Parliament to back him from the Slanders of the Despisers of the Free Grace of God §. CXLVI I being now perusing these Homilies and considering how the Reverend Bishop in his Letter insists so much on Conditions required by God of Man in order to God's Favour I make bold to make a little Remark how much the Bishop differs from those Antient Doctors of the Church and from himself if he be true to his Subscription to the Doctrines of the Church First let us see what the Bishop saith then what the Homilies say In Page 67 the Bishop saith I could easily prove that in all the Transactions between God and Mankind some Conditions on our side were required in order to his Favour So it was in the State of Innocency a tydy Argument so it continued after Man's Fall But I pass over these and come to the Terms of Salvation as declared by Christ himself The main Business of his Preaching was to put Men upon performing such Conditions as were necessary to their Salvation Promising Blessedness to the Humble Merciful Pure in heart Matt. 5.3 4 c. What do these things mean if they be not Conditions on our parts necessary in order to Happiness But God he still insists on our own endeavours by striving to enter c Do not these note the necessity of the Performance of Conditions on our side And therefore all Imaginary Notions of such a Change of Persons as hath no regard to any Act of ours is wholly repugnant to the main Scope and Design of the Gospel Thus the Bishop What is become here of the whole Tenor of the Gospel we are Saved by Grace being Justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus not of Works lest any boast this is thrust quite out of doors for what are these Conditions and these Acts of ours but Works which though called for and necessary to glorifie God by way of Service and Thanks yet not any way to Justifie us or Save us For we are Saved by Grace and not of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace 'T is for another end that all our Holiness is called for to Repent be Humble Pure of Heart and Merciful 'T is to magnifie God that hath saved us by Christ Saints shall be Holy Humble Pure of Heart in Heaven Is that in order to get God's Favour No but to serve and glorifie God for his Favour and we are to do the Will of God as near as we can on Earth as it is done in Heaven not to get Heaven which Christ alone hath bought for us but to magnifie God for giving himself Son and Spirit to us and for giving Heaven and all Spiritual Blessings with him begun in this Life and perfected above to make our Works Conditions on our parts to get Heaven is to Rob our Lord Jesus of his Crown and Glory and to set it on the Head of our sorry imperfect Works But besides the whole Current of the Gospel that we are saved by Grace let us see what the Bishop hath signed to and is dignified by even the Doctrines of the Church of England and they are clear for our Interest in Christ and Salvation to be all of Grace they drive us from all Works of our own and say in that second Sermon of Man's Misery No part of our Justification is of our selves no part not the least dram of our Works is to come in for any share in our Justification And in the next line they say Our Justification cometh only by Jesus Christ Here is not the least tittle of our Acts of Obedience insisted on or Gospel-Conditions to get Salvation 't is only by Christ all they insist on is to render Thanks to God for Free Salvation by Christ as it follows What Thanks worthy and sufficient can we render to him Let us burst forth with joyful Voice praising this Lord of Mercy Then they reiterate our not being able to do any thing of our selves wholly to renounce our selves and say very unlike the Bishop's Letter In our selves we may not glory which of our selves are NOTHING but Sinful neither may we rejoyce in any Works we do How nothing but Sinful and no rejoycing in any Works we do May we not Joy in performing the Conditions and doing Acts to obtain God's Favour No no there is no rejoycing in any thing for we are nothing but Sinful As for Conditions to get God's Favour they knew none but Jesus Christ he was the great Condition he being the great only compleat Saviour the Alpha and Omega first and last in our Salvation This Doctrine would be accounted Rank Antinomianâ—sm in Dr. Crisp a dangerous Error to take Men off from good Works to tell them we are nothing but Sinful and we may not rejoyce in any Works we do But this is honest good sound Orthodox yea glorious Doctrine in the Hearts of those that have tasted of Salvation by Free Grace and is establish'd as
I said and need say again over and over by Parliament and subscribed to by all the Bishops and Ministers of the Church of England and that which I conceive they are bound still to read in their Parishes when there is no Sermon which is much neglected And hence it is that Men warp from their own avowed Doctrines which they get their Living by Which Neglect the Governours of the Church would do well to see rectified or rather His Majesty in Parliament for the Defection from the true Doctrine of the Gospel is great For which plain dealing need I beg the Bishops Pardon §. CXLVII They proceed to evacuate our doing good Works in order to get Salvation by them and say farther When we were perished he saved us And all these heavenly Treasures are given us not for our Deserts or good Deeds which of our selves we have none mark that we have none but of his meer Mercy freely Where do they leave room for Conditions to make us meet for an Interest in Christ Not a tittle of that 't is they say of meer Mercy freely They proceed and say If all this be freely for whose sake is it and answer roundly Truly for Christ's sake for whose sake God is 't is already done God is fully satisfied pacified and set at one with Man He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World They aver that God is now already pacified with Man nay and set at one with Man They also scruple not to say That Christ took away our very Sins and inforce it from that excellent Scripture With that one Oblation he hath made perfect for evermore them that are Sanctified And this excellent Sermon they conclude a passage which is for the great abasing of Man to take him off from trusting to his complying with the Terms of the Gospel or expecting to get God's Favour as the Bishop doth by any thing that we can do Thus they conclude which I recommend to all that set up for doing so as to expect acceptance with God for it Let us learn to know our selves say they without any cracking and confess that as of our selves cometh all Evil and Damnation so likewise of him cometh all Goodness and Salvation This must sound harsh in our new Neonomian Divinity nay with some that pretend to go much nearer the Gospel strain That nothing but Evil nothing but Damnation comes of our selves What is our Prayers Tears Alms Fasting nothing but Evil nothing but Damnation Sure you great and good Reformers you mistake No we are sure we are in the right We don't say you must not do good Works no not for a World But we say all our best Righteousness in point of Justification or acceptance with God as it is of our selves as it is defiled and tainted by our corrupt Natures so it is nothing but Evil and so it is nothing but Damning Now we see may our Modern Opposers of free Justification by Christ alone without any Works or Conditions of ours say how you have tainted Dr. Crisp we see 't is you have help'd him to be such an Antinomian by putting such a slur on good Works on our best Deeds as to say from us comes all Evil and Damnation and nothing but Sinful No say they if any have taught him 't is the same that taught us and that is the Word of God which saith all our Righteousness is as filthy Rags Nay we learnt it from the Apostle who said after his Conversion his Righteoâ—sness was Dung. This we learnt also from the Church of God of old when she was in a sad pickle to gain God's Favour for an Interest in Christ in Ezek. 16. When thou wast in thy blood I said to thee Live That was the time of Love Thus we see God sees not as Man sees that which to Man would have been a time of Loathing to God was a time of Love The like case we have in the Apostle Paul what good Deeds did God insist on with him as the Bishop pleads that he might gain God's Favour when he was breathing out Blood and Slaughter against Christ in his Members then it was our Blessed Lord Jesus made it a time of his Love For which to him be Honour and Glory in the Churches for ever and ever §. CXLVIII But the Bishop insists on it that it is but an Imaginary Change because saith he it is not proved that Christ is that Sinfulness that we were by his being made Sin and we are the same Righteousness as he is we being made the Righteousness of God in him the Bishop saith Here is a Change supposed but I do not find it proved What not proved when it is backed with plain Scripture That he was made Sin for us and we made the Righteousness of God Doth not this of necessity prove a Change Could Christ possibly be made Sin for us without taking on him our Persons Would you have it That Christ was made Sin for himself That would be horrid Blasphemy But to be made Sin for us must infer That he did truly beare or sustain our Persons which is the Change argued for Or if not then he did not bear our Sins And if so What 's become of the Gospel and our eternal Salvation For if Christ did not bear our sins as our Surety and Representative as our Head and sustaining our Persons then we are yet in our Sins and there remains no more Sacrifice for sins so we must dye in our sins and Christ died in vain but Absit So on the other hand We are made the Righteousness of God that is of God-Man Jesus Christ Is not here a Change of Persons we Righteous in the Person of Christ or in Christ having his Righteousness put upon us imputed to us by God which is not an Imaginary but a real Imputation and putting it upon our Persons the Righteousness of God being unto and upon all that believe Rom. 3.22 And so we the blessed Ones to whom the Lord imputes Righteousness without Works or any Acts of ours to get into God's Favour Psal 32.1 though this is strenuously argued against by the Bishop §. CXLIX The Bishop saith This is no ground to build our Faith on viz. This Change of Persons that Christ was made Sin for us and we the Righteousness of God in him I say God help us if this be not good firm rocky Ground to build our Faith on I am sure other Foundation can no Man nor Church lay than Jesus Christ the Lord our Righteousness to build on That he was made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him and that we might receive thereby the Blessings of Abraham from him that in his Seed which is Christ all the Families of the Earth might be blessed with Believing Abraham §. CL. I might refer the Bishop again to the Doctrines of the Church whereof he is an Honourable Presider which in this Case