in name but as void of the truth and power of Christianity as are the very Pagans that never heard of Christ I come now to speak of the fatall if I may so term it and almost totall ruine of the Church and Gospel Towards the end of that which is called the Primitive Church and of them which are dignified with the name of the ancient Fathers of the Church As the Saracens invaded the Eastern Churches so a most stupendous and barbarous people not onely unchristian but also inhumane the Goths and Vandals made incursions upon these Western Churches with one swelling tide carrying all at once before them and made impression into Italy it self and seizing on Rome made it their imperiall City and reigning over or at least molesting all those nations which in this western part of the world were then termed Christians made it their work for more then a hundred years not only to raze out the very being of christianity from the earth but also all polite learning filling all things and places with their barbarism which also in length of time they accomplished almost to the utmost Now when at length by the valour of Carolus Magnus they were discomfited and wholly driven out of these christian Lands after their subversion there sprung out of the Barbarism which they left behind them a Barabarian sect of Divines more pernicious to Religion then the Goths Vandals had been In a general term they are usually called Schoolmen or School-Doctors These like the Babel-builders erected upon other foundations and of other materials a Babel-Church with such barbarous slime in stead of cement and morter as was never before used since the first building of the old Babel who exauctorating Christ and his Gospel from having any soveraignty in matters of Religion and permitting them but now and then to peep for their advantage canoniz'd Aristotle the most subtle but untill then the least regarded of all the sects of Heathen Philosophers to be their ipse dixit chose Peter Lombards sentences to be their Text themselves to be the Commentators The matter of their Commentary a Miscellane partly of the excrements of their own brains partly of moralities legalities formalities and partly of superstitions idolatries and heresies borrowed some from the Jewes some from the Heathen and the rest from Hell it self The Language in which all is set forth no Language but being cought out in syllabical barbarous and bombastical sounds of their own coining would better fit the bellowing of a beast than the utterance of men or if the utterance of men more beseeming Conjurers and Charmers than Divines The God whom they serve and sacrifice unto in all is not Christ but Antichrist whose commands and decrees assoon as they have received they must and will with all their Hyperborean conjurations of ghastly words defininitions argumentations and a cell or hell full of distinctions maintain them to be from heaven though they smell of nothing but hell it self Nimble work-men leaving a glory upon their disputes when they meet with sublunary matter with a subject not above the comprehension of natural reason but such whereof all men have an idea or image within their Synterisis or natural conscience but when they meet with Gospel-doctrine that makes men wise to salvation blinder than Balaam that saw less than his Asse which hee rode upon These have erected and held up many hundred years a religion which can save none but damneth all that cleave strictly to it and they have this peculiar vertue that they have still waxed wors and wors the second generation more impure than the first and the third than the second and so lineally every generation almost until now save that in these last times they have attained so much of the subtlety falshood and impiety of Satan that there is scarce a possibility of receiving a further addition If then any man will read how far the humane Learning of which I am speaking may be helpful to propagate maintain the truth of the Gospel let him but look back to the fruit of these sophistical Doctors Labours these many hundred years last past and by that which hee seeth he shal be able to answer himself viz. that it hath been and is powerful to deface and subvert utterly the whole truth and salvation of the Gospel in relation to their Disciples that rest upon their Learning and Precepts for look what of Religion worship and ordinances there is in the Popish Church the praise of it redounds to philosophy and sophistry the main instruments of laying its ground-work and the sole instruments unless ye will annex to it the fire and fagot and tyrannical inquisition for the maintenance thereof Having seen how great a corruption and how long a desolation of the truth of Religion there hath been while Sophistry was made its perfidious Advocate We are now in the next place to consider how the same truth of Christian Religion thrived when delivered out of the captivity of and communion with this secular Learning After the long holding of the purity of the Gospel in unrighteousnes by these Theologasters it pleased God to raise up to himself for the reformation of his Church men of his own choise and gifted with a measure of the Spirit answering so great a work to which they were deputed as Luther Zuinglius and many other learned and godly men some their contemporaries some their followers These restored the Scriptures to light again which had been many hundred years buried in darknes and preached again the true and clear Gospel which had been long also clouded with mens inventions traditions and superstitions What success this their Ministry had cannot be unknown to them that know any thing of the history of those times Disciples came in by thousands and ten thousands unto Christ being totally revolted from Antichrist Whole Kingdoms Nations Dukedoms that ere while worshipped the Beast now fell flat at the feet of Christ to submit to his Scepter And this not as constrained by the command of their Magistrates or Laws but even while Magistrates and Laws slept yea when Magistrates and Laws persecuted with Fire and Sword all that went this way even then the Kingdom of heaven suffered violence and the violent tooke it by force i. e. by an unresistible conviction of the word and wonderful operation of this Spirit upon their souls they were carryed out in contempt of all dangers and persecutions to receive the Lord Jesus Christ purely revealed in his righteousnes beawty and salvation to them So that in few years maugre all the malice of the Pope Emperour Kings Princes World and Hell Christ might be even seen reigning in the midst of his Enemies and whole Lands at least great multitudes of many Lands which were darknes became light in the Lord even so farr as we see the Protestant Religion at this day propagated If it be demanded here how it came to pass that the word and truth of
Christs undertaking c. The satisfaction was so virtually and effectually made by Christ and accepted by the Father as when it was actually accomplished First it seems there was such a Covenant For the Apostle tells us Rom. 5. 14. that Adam was a figure of him that was to come which is Christ And how a figure Doubtles not onely in this that as by him the one and first man sin and death by sin immediately came upon all men so by Christ righteousnes and by it life came upon all the elect But also in the manner of the agreement of the Type and Antitype together That as Adam representing all mankinde by his unfaithfullnes in breaking the Covenant brought sin and death upon all that he represented so Christ representing all the elect by his faithfullnes in performing the Covenant c. brought righteousnes and justification of life upon all the elect represented in him Yea the Holy Ghost in expresse words testifieth to such a Covenant In the volume of thy book it is written of me that I should do thy will O God saith he when he comes into the world i. e. it is testified in the word what Covenant hath passed betwixt thee and me c. Heb. 10. 5-10 yea and testifieth to the tenor of the Covenant his coming with a body to be offered in sacrifice this will of God he came to do And moreover he giveth witnes also to the faithfullnes of Christ in offering it Lo I come and to the efficacy of it upon all immediately for whom it was offered By the which will we are sanctified i. e. no more taken for sinners but Consecrated as holy to the Lord through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all ibid. The same is implyed in that phrase which here termeth the offering of Christs body the doing of the Fathers will And elswhere obedience unto death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2. 8. Obedience and will presuppose Command and Covenant And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one righteousnes or one act of righteousnes of Christ opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that one offence of Adam for so the phrase seems to me to hold out more grammatically than the offence of one and the righteousnes of one doth not obscurely argue that one righteousnes of Christ in fullfilling opposite to that one offence of Adam in once breaking the Covenant Rom. 5. 18. And that all this was covenanted to be done and accepted for and in the behalf of the elect and to them and none but them to be effectuallized is also evident from the Scriptures For he did the will of his Father in offering himself as was before shewed i. e. did according as it was agreed and covenanted between him and the Father dyed for them onely for whom he made prayers and intercessions But when his time was come to suffer he prayed intercedâ—d not for the world but for them onely whom the Father had given him out of the world Joh. 17. 6 9. Therefore for them onely he undertook to satisfie Therefore is it that he is said to lay down his life onely for his sheep not for the goats Joh. 10. 11. 15. For them whose names were written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13. 8. The rest things conteined in this position are granted by Mr. Br himselfe therefore need no proof here I have couched together many things in this to avoyd multiplicity of positions 2 That by force of this satisfaction so given and accepted for the sinns of the Elect according to the Tenor of this Covenant between the Father and the Son all the Elect of God were Justified in Christ from the very time of Christs undertaking to be their Justifier Therefore in the last alleaged Scripture their names are said to be written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Here though the book of life which is elswhere mentioned to be Gods book will be taken by Mr. Br to be the book of Election yet this book of life of the lamb is to be understood for the book of Justification implying indeed the election of all that are written therein but primarily and in its direct sense comprehending the names of them that are justified by the bloud of the sacrificed Lamb of God And these are said to be written in Christs book that is registred in Christ and upon Christs account from the foundation of the world immediately upon Christs undertaking to satisfie for them Of him ye are in Christ saith the Apostle who of God is made unto us Wisdome Righteousnes Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. When was he so made unto us Mr. Br answereth not onely upon the payment but upon his undertaking to pay our debt Therefore is he said to be Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. And that not onely in reference to them that lived in all ages of the world but in respect of us also that in all ages of the world he hath been and will be what now he is our Jesus our Christ But this position hath been before proved in the former Chapter in answer to Mr. Baxters 13 Thesis and its explication where I spake to his sixth Argument 3 The Ministeriall way of offering and convaying the benefits of Christs satisfaction into the souls and apprehensions of men now used under the Gospel according to the command of Christ is or at least sounds like an inferior Covenant subordinate and sub-servient to this between the Father and the Son whereof we have spoken Christ having now made full satisfaction to the Father invites all and brings in his elect to taste and enjoy by faith all the perfections which he hath merited and received into his hands for them It is confessed by Mr. B. Thes 8. That God is so fully pleased with the Sons undertaking of this busines of Mediation that he hath delivered all things into his hands and given him all power in heaven and in earth and made him Lord both of the dead and living And the Lord Jesus himself affirmeth that the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son i. e. the dispensation and ordering of all things in heaven and in earth And it is the opinion of great Divines that the Lord Christ in the old world before the Law and in all ages under the Law being that person of the Trinity which had undertaken to assume our nature unto him and in it to dye for the reconciling of us to God and entring from the beginning upon his power to set in order all things to this glorious end was he that conversed with the Patriarks and Prophets sometimes in an assumed body like a man sometimes invisibly making known the mystery of Redemption by himself to them and prescribing under what administrations he would have his Church
9. 15. So that it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy verse 16. Many other Arguments have our Divines against the Papists about this question which I intreat the Reader to fetch from them for his fuller satisfaction Now let us see what Mr. Baxter brings to prove that obedience and good workes are the condition of our salvation Yet by the way let us note that the Argument it selfe which here Bell. de ju 〈…〉 4. 〈◊〉 he seeks to confirme is the Papists and great is Belarmines striving to maintaine it as his great prop of justification and salvation by works Si promissio vitae aeternae est conditionata faith he ut C 〈…〉 probavimus certè necessarium est implere conditionem si quis salvus fieri velit â—â—e if the promise of eternall life be conditionall 〈◊〉 I have proved in the first Chapter certainly he must nec 〈…〉 fill the condition that willâ—eâ— saved This Condition of which hee speakes is the same with Mr. Baxters viz. the Condition of works Neither shall it be impertinent heer to take into consideration some rules of our Divines for the right understanding of the minde of the holy Ghost in promising eternall life unto persons of such and such qualifications or that perform such and such duties before wee descend to examine the particular promises and testimonies which Mr. Br. alleadgeth These are principally such as follow 1. That they belong so farre as to bee effectuallized to none else but such as are vitally within the covenant of Grace under the protection of the bloud of the Lamb in spirituall union with Christ Jesus the mediator of the new Covenant according to that of the Apostle All the promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen never effectuallized to them that are not in him 2 Co. 1. 20. To Abraham and his seed were the promises made he saith not his seeds as of many but of one and to thy seed which was Christ viz. in him alone and to them alone to be confirmed which are in Christ Gal 3. 16. Therfore the blessedness which Matthew in sound of words seems to hold forth more generally Ma. 5 3. c. Luke as the Expositor of him or rather of the mind of Christ in those promises contracts to the right objects or persons to whom they were to bee made good thus Jesus lifted his eyes upon his disciples and said Blessed be YEE poor for yours is the Kingdome of God Blessed are YEE that hunger YEE that weep c. implying that the blessedness was to come upon them not by the vertue of these Acts and qualifications mentioned but upon this ground alone that they were his Disciples by him Gospellized and received into Covenant this is that which Augustine so much presseth in such promises to looke to the Root which is Christ and that the reward is not from their works because they are holy but because they are holy or Saints which wrought them and that they are thence saints from whence righteous not from the works but from the Faith of the workers 2. That in such promises the qualifications or works of the persons to whom they are directed are mentioned not as the ground or foundation of the blessednesse promised but to shew the method and order which God observes in bringing them to the possession therof Because he is holy pure spirituall therfore he powrs into them his purifying sanctifying and adopting spirit to conform them to his own will and nature before hee brings them into the full and reall fruition of himself So hee promiseth all the heaven of felicities to the meek the righteous the saints to them that love him that fear him that obey him not therby insinuating that hee found them but that he hath made or will make them such as many as he will crown at last with glory Heerin the power of that father of Spirits excelleth and exceedeth the power of the fathers of our bodies He new creates their hearts new forms their wills puts into them a new spirit therby making them as Peter saith partakers of the Divine Nature and to enjoy the kingdome of God within them heer before they be translated to it above 3. Nevertheless the foundation of all these promises is not such acts and qualifications in us but the relation of sons in which wee stand before God Such God beheld us in Christ before wee were born such hee hath made us that truly beleeve by the grace of the new Covenant having begotten us to himself of incorruptible seed 1. Pet. 1. 23. we are born of God and have received the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father So that our salvation dependeth not upon the vertues and good works which are mentioned in the promises but upon this our relation of sons if sons then heirs c. Ro. 8. 15. as a speciall friend of Mr. Br. who walks by the same rule and the same spirit with him hath acknowledged heerin consenting with our Divines and stoutly maintayning their Assertion at least because it seemed to give some fulture to his cause And I suppose Mr. Br. will not heer leave him whom in all the rest he followeth 4. Yet what the Lord giveth to and hath prepared of endlesse glory for his children as his children he doth oft-times hold forth and promise to them as a reward of such gifts of grace in them and of works which they have done or sufferings that they have undergone for his sake Not but that it was provided for them and promised to them before all such works and sufferings as they were children but for some other honourable ends which I shall in part mention having first instanced some promises of this kind Before the birth of Isaac long had the Lord of free grace promised to Abraham all blessedness corporall and spirituall present and future that his seed should be as the dust of the earth as the stars of heaven numberless that he should bee blessed and in him all nations of the earth be blessed that the land of Canaan the type and the eternall land of Promise the Antitype should be his and his seeds for ever Ge. 12 2. 3. and 13. 15. 16. and 15. 1-6 and 17. 1-8 Yet afterward cha 22. when Abraham had shewed that notable fruit of his faith fear and love to God in offering his son Isaac in obedience to Gods command God called from heaven to him by an Angel and sayd By my self have I sworn because thou hast done this thing and hast not with held thy son thy only son That in blessing I will blesse thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars in heaven and as the sand c. and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice Ge. 22. 15-18 We see heer that promised as a reward of this act of
Br. with so much impetuousnâ—sse and impotency to use his Mounts and Mines against them Neither can I see any ground of objecting that either of these two doctrines can in any respect dull the affections to good works sith it is confessed that they have no co-officiating with Faith to Justification 4 To Christs satisfying for sins against the Gospel as wel as against the Law I doubt not but ye see both the nicity and falsity of Mr. Brs Negation thereof The chief Doctrines of the Gospel are Grace and Gratitude Justification and Sanctification If Christ hath not satisfied for our long unbelief and contempt of the word of Faith before we beleeve and of the infirmities of our Sanctification and Thankfulness when we have beleeved or that there are sins against the New which are not sins against the Old Testament also or that the Lord Jesus is not the Mediator of the New Testament but of the Old onely or that in any of these it should be Antinomianism to dissent from Mr. Br These all are so grosse Paradoxes that your gravity and wisedom cannot without Nauseousness smell them plainly enough declaring indeed that whatsoever standeth in his way of Babel building he will curse it though never so sacred and fright them that are as feeble as fearfull with his scar crow of Antinomianism though he make himself never so ridiculous thereby to the intelligent and prudent I have no more to say upon this subject and what I have said hath been before him that being omniscient knoweth that I have spoken singly the whole truth and nothing but the Truth Neither can all the strength of my jealousy suspect any least or greatest thing besides these wherewith either Mr. Br. or any of his Disciples câ—n charge me as with Antinomianism so that I do with some confident boldnesse appeal to your judgment whether I deserve from them this imputation Inded such soul-reviving comforts have flown in upon me from the Grace of God in Christ that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak and I can scarce Preach any other thing then Christ and him Crucified yet in holding forth a wounded I hold not forth a maimed Christ to the people but Christ with all his benefits in particular to Sanctification no lesse then to Justification If it be Antinomianism so to reduce all to Christ and derive all from him I must undergo the worlds condemnation for Christs sake that hath justified and will at length receive me One thing more I have to add and I shall be no further tedious It may be a Charge against me that I am too plain broad and unsparing in my words against Mr. Br. throughout this Tractate That which I have to say for my self is 1 That it ariseth not so much from my own temper as from the occasion thereof given by Mr. Br. I am ready for Christs sake to become the footstool of the meek but where I find a self exalting I cannot cry Abreoh When I see Mr. Br. usurping the Chair to passe sentence and censure upon all the Divines that have written these are learned those unstudied Divines to exalt and degrade better men than himself as they are more either concurrent with or abhorrent from his Bellarmin and Arminius I cannot I dare not use words that might strengthen but rather vilifie the self confidence and arrogance of the man So when the Wolf comes in sheeps clothing to devour when under the profession of a Protestant and Presbyterian Divine he vends his Popish and Arminian under the name of Protestant Tenets dissembling his confederacy with the enemies thereof Si natura negat facit indignatio versum The view of such hypocrisy is enough to make a sheep a Satyrist Had I been to deal with a Papist or Arminian that had discovered themselves unmasked I should have spoken in another Dialect 2 It sprang from other mens yea Ministers too much admiration and almost adoration of him when from all parts there was such Concurse in a way of Pilgrimage to him to blesse him or be blessed by him and the admirers returned to the deceiving of others with no lesse applaus and triumph than the Turks from visiting the shrine of their Mahomet at Mecha It was requisite to discover whether he were a God or an Idol to whom such honour was presented 3 I have herein Christ and his Apostles my leaders from whom though we seldome heare a course word against any other sort of men yea of sinners yet when they speak against Impostors and Heretikes specially such as bring their own works and righteousnesse to Justification they so speak as if they were made up of bitternesse and invectives Ye hypocrites sowred with the leaven and whose doctrine is the doctrine of hypocrisy Mat. 16. 3. 6. 12. Ye Serpents a Generation of Vipers how can ye escape the judgment of Hell Mat. 23. 33. Wo unto you wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of God against men ye neither go in your selves nor suffer them that would to enter c. Mat. 23. 14 15 c. Children of hell blind guides fools and blind whited Sepulchres ver 15 16 17 27. The Publicans are justified rather then you enter into the Kingdome before you Lu. 18. 14. Ma. 21. 31. More joy is in Heaven for one sinner repenting than 99 such c. Lu. 15. 7. False brethren Gal. 2. 4. Subverters of souls Acts 15. 24. Grievous Wolves not sparing the flocke Acts 20. 29. False Apostles deceitfull workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ Satans Ministers transformed into Ministers of Righteousness as Satan transformed himself into an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11. 13 14 15. Doggs evil workers the Concision Phil. 3. 2. Let them be accursed Gal. 1. 8. I would they were cut off Gal. 5. 12. with many other the like passages It savours not of the spirit and zeal of Christ and his Apostles not to speak home to this kind of men above the rest But if I have not fully proved Mr Brs principles and doctrines to be the same in substance with these false Apostles as elswhere in this Treatise so specially Part 2. Chap 19. I acknowledge my self not to understand either Saint Paul or Mr. Br. My Request now shall be such as hath equity in it that as far as ye find this Tractate Orthodox and Consonant to sound Doctrine ye will be pleased to grant it and the Author of it your Patronage and prayers for a blessing upon it and where ye see it otherwise to vouchsafe to its Author your Admonition not suffering him to stray whom charity binds you to reduce into the way This is desired as from all so from every of you by From my Lodging in Aldersgate street Decemb. 24. 1653. YOVR Humbly devoted Servant in the Lord Jesus JOHN CRANDON To the truly Vertuous and Religious Lady Margaret Hildesley of Hinton in the County of South-Hampton
cursed opinions so that we find him in stead of a Gemm bringing forth a Cockatrice-egg which if it be not destroyed in the shell will ruine himself and many others It is an infirmity that hath made impression in points lesse momentous upon some persons of great note in the Church I shall mention one Hierom in stead of the rest In his works as they are set forth by Erasmus Tom. 1. there is a Book intituled Catalogos Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum in which Hierom mentioning Tertullian and not being able to deny his falling into Montanism he thus at least minceth his fault Invidia contumeliis Clericorum Romanae Ecclesiae ad Montani dogma delapsus est saith he i e. through the envy and reproaches which he suffered from the Clergy of Rome he declined to the opinion of Montanus Erasmus in his Scholia upon these words thus writeth Vt favit Hieronimus ingenio Tertulliani c. i. e. See how Hierom favoured Tertullians wit almost excusing him for falling into the faction of the Montanists laying the fault upon the envy and reproaches of the Roman Priests So farr Erasmus He might have further added so farr he delighted in Tertullians wit that he did not only excuse him but also was carried by the pleasing stream of his wit and learning into the very dregs of Montanism as deep as Tertullian himself So shall wee finde him discovering himself at the full in his first Book against Jovinian as Erasmus himself in his Antidote prefixed thereunto doth hint but the work it self makes it notoriously plain It contents not that good Monk Father there to produce as his own all Tertullians arguments except he also delivers them for the most part in Tertullians very words so that there were not wanting such as excepted against him as a very Montanist I speak not to lessen the worth of those two ancient Writers but to manifest in these two great and sublimated Wits when the Genius of one man so conspireth with anothers as to delight abundantly it is as the Loadstone and iron to draw to follow into falshood as well as truth except there be interposed much of the spirit of grace and meeknes and so high an esteem of the Word that the mind explodes all other learning as base in comparison of it No marvail then if Mr. Baxter having immixt himself into whole troops of Schoolmen Jesuits and others of the same Scholastick train with himself hath been carried away in the crowd captive to their basest errors Some would marvail rather how there should be found in England any Divines professing antipathy to Rome applauding the very worst piece of Romes Herisies as soon as Mr. Baxter hath breathed upon and blessed it But the case is the same Mr. Baxter well knew in what water to angle that he might catch he perceived that the Doctrine of Justification for these fifty years hath been too little preached in England That since the heat of controversie betwixt us and the Papists about it abated this Doctrine sounded in few Pulpits which before sounded in all that the Pia fraus as they termed it prevailed every where a godly deceit to with-hold from the people the knowledg of the libertie which they have by Christ lest they should turn it into licentiousnesse That as this pions fraud passed from hand to hand among the Ministers many of them while they were deceiving were themselves deceived and verily thought it the right art of profitable preaching to hold out the Law and keep in the Gospel to wash the utter part of the cup and platter leaving that which is within full of guilt and corruption Hence it came to pass that the Law by many was turned to a two-fold use like the sword of Achilles to Tilephus to wound first and then to heale to cast down and to erect again to kill and make alive to damn and then to save also First it was so brandished for conviction that all men by the light and curse thereof might be compelled to see themselves under sin and condemnation and then held forth as a soveraign remedy against damnation and means of salvation such repentances for sin such degrees of contrition and reformation prescribed out of the Law which being practiced pardon of sin and eternall life must needs follow Thus man was made not only his own condemner but his own Saviour also his evill works in transgressing the Law pursuing him with vengeance and his returning by repentance to good works in strict obedience to the law restoring him to life salvation In mean while Christ was left in a corner to look upon all but without interposition of his operation or Passion Sometimes indeed much might be heard of the riches of Gods Grace of the efficacy of Christs merits to save the chief of sinners so that the people might even see the door of heaven open to them but in conclusion the Preacher as if he had been deputed to the office of the Cherubims Gen. 2. ult to keep the way of the tree of life with his flaming sword turning every way affrighted the poor soules from all hope of entring crying procul hinc procul ite prophani no prophane or unclean person hath right to meddle with this Grace No first they must have such heart-preparations purifications and prejacent qualifications before they draw neer to partake of mercy must first cleanse and cure themselves and then come to Christ afterwards must be cloathed with an inherent Righteousnesse first and then expect to be cloathed upon with a Righteousnesse imputed Such hath been and still is the Doctrine delivered in many Congregations within this Nation I neither fain nor aggravate It is that whereof my self not without griefe have been oft an ear-witnesse and that from the mouths of very zealous Ministers And I fear the Lord hath a controversie against the Ministry and will more yet obscure and vilifie many of them for their obscuring of his grace and his Christ Now when so many of them were by the tide of their own judgments moving before not a little in Mr. Baxters way no marvail if they have admitted him among themselves to hoyse the sailes and carry them hastier and further than they before had purposed specially when all the way along and thorowout his whole Treatise he deals with them as Elisha did with the Syrians telling them that he is leading them to Dothan to Hierusalem holding their eyes and wits suspended until he hath brought them into the streets of Samaria of Rome it self 2 King 6. 8 c. This I thought fit to premise of the Author the next thing promised was touching the work it self Whether we consider the matter or the artifice of it I cannot in generall otherwise give a livelier character or description thereof than in the words of Mr. Fox in his Tractate De Gratiâ gratis Justificante against Osorius and others where he gives his censure upon a book of the same
Baxter if he think it safe with sophisticall subtleties to dispute himself into heaven Neverthelesse the position stands firm even in the fall of the credit of the assertor That such humane learning is of no force to decide judg and conclude any thing in questions meerly Evangelicall such as is Justification and all other Gospel-graces and priviledges This may be with much facility evidenced to as many as have not their eyes blinded by the God of this world as yet and that by these following reasons 1. All the Doctrines of the Gospel are transcendent high and above the reach of the most sublimated reason Eye hath not seen nor eare heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to know them 1 Cor. 2. 9. The natural man receiveth not cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned ibid. Vers 14. They are mysteries hid in God from the beginning of the world from ages and generations but at last made known by the Spirit in the preaching of the Gospel not only to the Saints on earth but also to the Principalities and powers in heavenly places i. e. to the Ministring Angels and Spirits before God in heaven Ephes 13. 9 10. Col. 3. 26 27. So that at the revelation thereof by Christ and his Apostles the very Angels desired to looke into them as learners of that sacred Doctrine which before they had not attained 1 Pet. 1. 12. But all this humane learning whereof we speak is naturall flowing originally from naturall and heathen men who in their either most profound or most sublime speculations could not see a span above Nature no nor to the top of Nature by many fathoms Therefore is there a totall invalidity in it to discern one ray of Evangelical and spiritual things To produce any thing therefore out of this humane literature to discern and judg of Gospel-doctrines is no lesse folly than to make a blind man judg of colours or a deaf man of sounds or to set a dead man to running of a race Yea to hold forth any thing hence to cleer up and evidence spiritual things is but to hold a candle nay a dark Lanthorn to the Sun for the cleering of its beams that we may see it If any object that Spiritual and Evangelical Doctrines are by none brought as Spiritual and Evangelical under the Tryall of this humane learning but as they fall under some Topicks of this or that Art or Science as Eâ—s Substantia Accidens Actio Relatio c. and so farr only they are disputed of by and according to the Maximes and Canons of those places I answer that even this is to subject supernatural Doctrines to the judgment and censure of Natural Reason It will not be denyed that the first Founders of these Arts and the precepts thereof were meerely Naturall and Morall men and neither did nor could accommodate their precepts and rules to any other but natural and Moral things were so farr unable to reach them to things supenatural that they left them in many things unperfect as to things natural so that after all the amendments of all their followers not a few of their Canons remain disputable and controverted as to Natural and Moral things still Therefore to prostrate spiritual things to the judgment of this Natural learning is to subject the Authority of Christ to the Authority of men the wisdome of the Spirit to the wisdome of the Flesh and that which is infallible to that which is both fallible and fallacious Nay all the doctrines and precepts of Philosophers are to be tryed by the word but in no wise are the dictates of the Spirit and doctrines of the word of grace to be tryed by the precepts of Men. I forbeare to speak here that otherwise not Christ but Aristotle must in matters of salvation be made our Ipse Dixit or that none but Schollars can have any stable setlednesse of faith the unlearned in humane literature remaining uncapable thereof because they cannot prove the truth of what they believe as well by the rules of Art as by the Testimony of the word of Christ I only say when Christ by his word hath said and determined here not to subject and rest satisfied but to consult with flesh and blood with the rules of humane Art for my fuller resolution is no lesse indignity to Christ than to set mans wisedom in the Chair and to prostrate Christ to be his Footstool 2. If it have any power and efficacy to this end it must be either from some naturall and intrinsicall vertue of its own or else by Gods ordination and infusion Not by any naturall vertue of its own as appeareth by what was last said and by this that none ever by such secular learning attained one least spark of Gospel-knowledg nor yet by Gods ordination and inspiring strength into it to operate for such an end For let it be declared in what Scripture God instituted or owned it as an in-strument usefull and effectualized for such a work And if neither of these ways it be powerful or in a capacity either to declare or confirm Gospel-matters then hath it no power at all to such a purpose If any thing be excepted against in this Argument it must be the latter disjunctive particle thereof in the Assumption which denieth the humane learning before mentioned to be ordained of God or qualified by him as instrumental and effectual to determine any thing in Evangelical and Spiritual Doctrines But this may be cleered and confirmed by the Reasons following 1. Because neither the Lord Christ nor any of his Apostles or Prophets have made use of it to this end Not his Prophets under the Old Testament For when they spâ—ke any thing of the Mystery of Christ and his Gospel that were afterward more fully to be revealed they did it by inspiration from God 2 Tim. 3. 16. and the revelation of the spirit of Christ which was in them 1 Pet. 1. 11. not as having dipped the same from the broken Cisterns of humane inventions and learning And when they will add a confirmation to such Doctrines the only authority which they produce is divine Thus saith the Lord The Lord of Hosts hath said it the holy the lofty the mighty one of Isroel hath spoken it without any Philosophical or Metaphysical Arguments to prove it No lesse is to be said of Christ himself our own and only Mr. when he descended from Heaven to reveal his Gospel in its fulness and glory affirming his doctrine to be onely and wholly that which his Father taught him Joh. 8. 28. which he had seene with his father Joh. 8. 38. as he had commandement from his father Joh. 10. 18. even as the father said unto him Joh. 12. 50. as he heard from his father Joh. 15. 15. Lo all from heaven from the Father nothing from earth from men in revealing the Gospel No nor to the confirmation of it being
5. 24. 6. 35 40. 47. 7 38. 11. 25 26. 12. 46. Act. 10. 43. Rom. 3. 26. 4. 5. 5. 1 10. 4 10. 1 Jo. 5. 15. Mar. 1. 15. 6. 12. Luk. 13. 3. 5. 24. 47. Act. 5. 31. 11. 18. 20. 21. 2. 38. 3. 19. 8. 22. 26. 20. Rev. 2. 5 16. Heb. 6. 1. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Mr. Br having as he thinks laid prostrate the whole generation of Christ and antipapisticall beleevers under the Curse under the wrath of God sticks as close to them as the vulture to the carkas or the beetle to the doung or the flesh-fly to the sore For here again he concludes that the very Tenor of the New Covenant is that notwithstanding Christs sufficient satisfaction made to the law they must remain unjustified unpardoned under sin under vengeance to the end and then possibly after many hundreds and it may be thousands of yeers wherein their bodies have laid under rottennes and their souls under all hell-torments which the law can inflict they shall be justified And this very probably shall be about that time when Origens reprobates and devills shall arise from hell and fly away thence all at once and together to heaven For whosoever is not justified and pardoned here in this life shall surely not attain it untill that St Nevers day of Origen But to this it hath been answered already He seems now to bring some new thing and that which every beleeving soul gaspeth to hear made out in its fullnes viz. What the Tenor of the New Covenant is viz. That whosoeve will repent and beleeve to the end shall be justified after the end When the Serpent hath got his head into the hole the body also by little and little followes Erewhile it was he that beleeveth to the end now it is he that repenteth to the end and beleeveth to the end that shall be after all ends and worlds justified Yet this is but the head and neck of the Serpent The bulk and belly are behinde and the same full of all the qualifications and good works that Mr. Br can devise or all the herds of Monks and Jesuits have devised to his hands These all must be according to Mr. Baxters Gospel as effectuall as faith or Christ himself to Justification I should but preoccupate a dispute here to examine whether repentance be one of the many thousand conditions of Justification which Mr. Br in the sequele of this Treatise holds necessary to Justification I shall therefore leave the handling thereof to its due place Onely by the way if by repentance Mr. Br here meaneth any thing heterogeneous or specifically distinct from faith I affirm and shall in its place make good that this his assertion is totally Popish against the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles As for the Scriptures which he doth here roll out in a Crowd without rank or file to prove it partly because he neither alleageth the words nor shews how he would argue from them partly because his shuffling them together in Clusters tends onely to make the labour of his answerer almost intolerable to shew particularly how little each Scripture makes for him and how much many of them against him partly because he doth still reserve to himself whatsoever be said in answer an advantage to evade by telling us that the force of that Scripture doth in another way and not in that to which we have answered prove for him but principally because he quotes the same Scriptures over and over again in another place more proper where it shall be more pertinent to answer them I shall therefore here forbear to speak to them lest I should there be forced to omit it or to say over again what had been here said before Nay himself will not have them to be answered here for he speaks so ambiguously that he will not have his meaning understood telling us onely that upon these Conditions forsooth performed we shall be justified in another world but doth not let us know from him whether upon performance of them we may be justified in the present world But he passeth to the explication Explication Bax. Christs satisfaction to the Law goes before the New Covenant though not in regard of its payment which was in the fullnes of time yet in regard of the undertaking acceptance and efficacy There could be no treating on new terms till the old obligation was satisfied and suspended I account them not worth the confuting who tell us that Christ is the onely party conditioned with and that the New Covenant as to us hath no conditions so Saltmarsh c. The place that they alleage for this assertion is that Jer. 31. 31 32 33. cited in Heb. 8. 8 9 10. Which place conteineth not the full tenor of the whole New Covenant but either it is called the New Covenant because it expresseth the nature of the benefits of the New Covenant as they are offered on Gods part without mentioning mans conditions that being not pertinent to the busines the Prophet had in hand Or els it speaketh onely what the Lord will do with his elect in giving them the first Grace and enabling them to perform the Conditions of the New Covenant and in that sense may be called a New Covenant also as I have shewed before p. 7 8. though properly it be a prediction and belong onely to Gods will of purpose and not to his legislative will But those men erroneously think that nothing is a condition but what is to be performed by our awn strength But if they will beleeve Scripture the places before alleaged will prove that the New Covenant hath Conditions on our part as well as the old Some benefit from Christ did the condemned here receive as the delay of their condemnation and many mere mercies though they turned them all into greater judgements but of this more when we treat of generall redemption I shall here propound some questions to Mr. Baxter about his own words to be answered by some of his Chaplains or Disciples For I am not so ambitious as to expect his stooping in person to so low an office 1 Whether Christs satisfaction to the law were undertaken and so virtually made without an agreement between the Father and the Son that the Son should give and the Father accept such satisfaction Mr. Br so great a Master of reason who hath sacrificed all his religion to reason can judge whether this could rationally if possibly be done 2 If by agreement whether this agreement was not by way of Covenant between the Father and the Son and so whether the whole busines of mans justification were not transacted and concluded upon first between the Father and the Son 3 Whether Christ undertook to give satisfaction or the Father to accept it for any other besides those that in time have or shall have the full benefit thereof I mean besides the elect whom
requires sincere obedience but affirmed that it calls for both sincere and perfect obedience I much doubt I should slander Mr. Baxter if I should say that hee means by sincere obedience sincerely Evangelical obedience For hee will not bee known to know what that is It is besides the Orb of Philosophers Scholasticks and Sophisters in which he moveth But if beyond our beleef he meane so then I shall consent and speak with him When the New Covenant saith Thou shalt obey sincerely i. e. purely according to the Gospel rule which teacheth us to fetch all our guidance in every work of obedience to make it Evangelical from the Word of Christ all our strength to doe it from the Spirit of Christ all our acceptance from our union to Christ presenting all and our selves withall to God through the mediation of Christ doing all not to attain Justification by all done but to glorifie God with the fruits of our thankfulness for the prizelesse gift of Justification conferred upon us in and through Christ When the New Covenant I say hath taught us to obey in a sincerely Evangelicall manner here now the Moral Law steps in and tels us as Mr. Baxter saith wherein and what we must endeavour to doe i. e. What be those duties of Moral holyness and righteousnes which being in this Gospel way performed doe receive a higher title then Moral and become Evangelical Christian and spiritual obeying If Mr. Baxter mean or will mean thus we will go hand in hand wiâ—h him or what shall be more proper give him his due precedency and follow him The next answer put in numb 4. whether it be also an answer to this second Question or intended as an answer to the third Question which else passeth without answer or else to both questions runs in these words B. But that the Moral Law without respect to either Covenant should command us perfect obedience or that Christ as the Mediator of the New Covenant should command us not onely sincere but also perfect obedience to the Morall Law and so hath made it a proper part of his Gospel not onely as a directory and instruction but also as a command I am not yet convinced though I will not contend with any that think otherwise My reason is because I know not to what end Christ should command us that obedience which hee never doth enable any man in this life to performe If it were to convince us of our disability and sinne That is the worke of the Law and the continuing of it upon the old terms as is before explained is sufficient to that But I judge this question to be of greater difficulty than moment The multiplication of nice and unnecessary questions hath been one special means to bring a darkness upon the doctrine of the Word in those parts thereof that in themselves are clear and full of light It sufficeth me to know what hath been a little before proved that the Moral Law both with respect and as considered in it self without respect to either Covenant hath been ever is and shall be ever the perfect rule and directory of Moral obedience And that Christ as the Mediator of the New Covenant hath not dissolved or made voyd any part of the Morall Law or of the Righteousness and duty which the Moral Law requireth in reference to either the sincerity or perfection in performing the same but contrariwise hath avouched the contrary and denounced that whosoever shall break one of the least of these commandements and teach men so i. e. as I conceive shall take liberty by the abuse and misunderstanding of the New Covenant to neglect or be remiss in any part or degree of that righteousness which the Law requireth and teach others the same remisnesse also The same shall be least in the kingdom of heaven i. e. A useless and unprofitable Teacher in the Gospel Church This sufficeth me to know and this the Scripture plainly affirmeth and fully confirmeth Mat. 5. 17. 19. But whether the Moral Law to them that are under the New Covenant and truly in Christ be onely a rule and directory or else a commander also Or whether Christ hath made the Moral Law a proper part of his Gospel these are things Heterogeneous from the former and first devised by those distinctionary Sophisters that to strengthen their doctrine of merits and workes of superogation have distinguished between the precepts and counsels of Christ Sure I am that the Gospel in its strict and proper sense consists not at all in bringing precepts but life grace righteousness peace joy holiness liberty and salvation from heaven and whatsoever else tendeth to the perfect and never ending welbeing of poor souls together with an alsufficient light and direction how to attain all these and manage them being attained to the advancing of the glory of the grace of the giver This is properly the summe of the Gospel and the precepts intermixed with the doctrine hereof no otherwise proper to the Gospel than as they are furtherances to the attainment of them and lights and helps to direct us how to stand fixed in the enjoyment of them and walk holily honourably and worthily in the strength and comfort of them Yet it cannot bee denyed but that still the Law Moral is a perfect rule of all perfect Moral righteousnesse and that Christ hath expunged no part of it but commands all yea writes the righteousnesse of all in the hearts of beleevers that they might will all and delight to doe all not onely after the Moral but after the Evangelical rule through Christ for whose sake their unperfect services are accepted with God as though they were full and compleat This hath been cleared before in our examination of Master Baxters second Answer to the seeond Question and express Scriptures alleadged for confirmation thereof Neither can wee think that the many infinite benefits freely conferred in the way of the Gospel upon us do exempt us from but are obligations upon us unto the fulfilling of all righteousness or that it is our bondage but our liberty to be free from sinne and the servants of righteousnesse The nature of the commands being now altered under the Covenant of Grace from what they were under the Covenant of workes Then they proceeded from meer soveraignty and power now from tender Grace and Love Then had they a sting in the tayle the curse and hell to inflict in case there were not full performance This sting and curse is now carried away in the body of Christ no threat of it to them that are in Christ but the thing commanded for the compleating of our perfection which consists in our conformity with the will and nature of God with this dammage annexed that the lesse perfectly we perform the father off we are yet from our desired perfection There the Lord commanded his servants here the father his dear Children There man was commanded to work in his own strength here the treasury
what becomes of them all so that this one may come to maturity and prosper because his fancy hath made it his own as it were though as it is much to be feared to the perverting if not totall loss of himself and others He having ascribed perfection and merit to it already as fully as any of the most professed Papists See how he flaunts and glories in this imaginary peece of Huperephaneous learning in the 20 21 22. pages of his Appendix as if he had not received it from men but Mahomet-like from a celestial Dove or by the Angel Gabriâ—l from heaven insulting not over the Antinomians but over their adversaries also as he terms them i. e. all the Orthodox Divines of all the Reformed Churches scarce abstaining from cursing their ignorance in this phantasticall mystery so revealed to him when contrariwise himself hath received the substance of it if indeed there were a new substance in it from the Papists and himself hath but licked it Bear-like into a form of words best pleasing his own imagination The vanity of it will in its due place be discovered CHAP. XX. Arg. Besides other lesser things first the chief thing about which this Chapter is occupant is to discover the judgement of Protestant VVriters about Justification as an eternal and immanent Act in God and how far it is grounded upon Scripture Thes 36. pag. 166. B. The pardoning of sinne is a gracious Act of God discharging the offender by the Gospel promise or grant from the obligation to punishment upon consideration of the satisfaction made by Christ accepted by the sinner and pleaded with God I mean not here to fall upon a dispute with Mr. Baxter whether according to Mr. Baxter himself the pardoning of sinne through Christ and Justification through Christ be not one and the same thing And whether he himself doth not pag. 208. acknowledge so much Indeed pag. 186 he saith that Pardon of sin and justification in law are not punctually and precisely all one Yet addeth that the difference is very small lying chiefly in this that the terminus à quo of Remission is the obligation to punishment but the terminus of Justification or the evill that it formaâ—ly and directly frees us from is the Laws accusation and condemnation Here saith he though the difference be very narrow yet a plain difference there is How plain Can the blind man see it Yea as well as he that hath both his eyes for it is respective rather then reall But how doth the difference lye in the different termini à quibus Remission of sins and Justification free us because Mr. Baxter a more curious cummin-cutter in Logical disputes then he that Aristotle in his Ethicks speaks of was in dividing of secular goods hath thus cloven the hair into two even rafters and so hath himself layd the difference giving the one rafter for remission of sins and the other to Justification and bidden each to rest satisfied with his own and neither to intrench upon the others part I confess my self to have been so gross witted untill Mr. Baxter doth here teach us so finely to distinguish that I was apt to have argued in this case somewhat like to Mr. Baxter pag. 208. when it seems his spectacles were off and his considering cap not on and so could not see and conclude punctually where to beaâ— the wedges into the hair to cleave it exactly As there he cannot close with Mr. Burgess That Justification besides the pardon of sin doth connote a State that the subject is put into viz. a state of favour being reconciled with God Because remission it self doth connote the state of favour For if the losse of Gods favour be a part of the punishment and all the punishment be remitted then the favour which was lost must needs be thereby restored So neither should I have easily closed with another putting Mr. Baxters plain difference pag. 186 between Remission and Justification in their said terminis that the one delivers from obligation to punishment the other from the Laws accusation and condemnation Because freedom from obligation to punishment doth connote freedome from the Laws accusation and condemnation and freedome from the Laws accusation and condemnation connotes freedome from obligation to punishment and so doth Remission of sinnes and Justification i. e. Justification in Romane and Justification in Secretary hand have the same terminus à quo viz. The Laws accusation and condemnation and obligation to punishment and consequently that they are one and the same thing But let Mr. Baxter pass in this particle without further interruption It is not for that he sees a difference but that hee thinkes it will somewhat advantage him in attaining the ends to which he driveth to make an imaginary difference between pardoning of sinne and Justification in terminis Therefore doth he so acutely distinguish And I shall leave him to solace himself in his distinction without saying any more to it 2. Neither doe I account it worthy of any deep examination what in the Explication of the first words of the Definition that it is an Act of God hee doth pag. 168. trifle about the difference which he maketh between Christs Acceptance Pardon and Kingdome and Gods Acceptance Pardon and Kingdome We grant unto him that as of the two Temples that Marcellus built at Rome one dedicated to Virtue the other to Honour that to Honour had no door to it but out of the Temple of Virtue So neither is there any other entrance into the Kingdome of Glory but thorough the Kingdome of Grace But to put a difference between Christs and Gods Acceptance Pardon and Kingdom as if the one were upon Earth the other not untill we are translated hence into Heaven and so we must be in Heaven first and bee forgiven afterwards or as if Christs acceptance c. were not Gods or the Fathers Acceptance Pardon and Kingdom is a meerly imaginary dreame of one that listeth to dream waking pat indeed to Mr. Baxters purpose of setting up his two-fold or rather manifold Justifications but wholly thwarting and crossing the Scriptures which affirme Not that Christ as Mediator reconciled the world to himself but that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them 2. Cor. 5. 19. And that where Christ forgiveth there God not will hereafter forgive but already hath forgiven all our trespasses for Christs sake Eph. 4. 32. Col. 2. 13. And more often call the Kingdom of Grace here the Kingdome of God then the Kingdome of Christ And that the great Absolution at last in the day of Judgement shall be given by Christ and not by the Father in person and the same not in Heaven but before the Ascension of the Saints into Heaven as is evident by all the Scriptures of the New Testament which describe the Judgement day Neither doth the Scripture tell us of any ultimate perfecting pardon beyond or after this if ever
is the whole difference which he putteth as may be seen by comparing the 38 and 39 Theses together To the first I demand whether the Justification in this life be not an acquitting by sentence of judgement at the bar Whether it be not a sentence of absolution pronounced to the soul and conscience of a sinner drawn to Gods bar and there impleaded and confessing it self guilty of sin and of condemnation Who was there ever of them whom Mr. Baxter vouchsafeth to call our Divines that held otherwise Where then is the difference Yes saith Mr. Baxter this latter is at the publique bar I answer so is the former even that bar of God at which all that ever have been are or shall be justified have and shall have the sentence of Justification pronounced to them Object But this latter shall be at the great and grand generall Assizes before all the host of heaven earth and hell whereas the former was but between God and the soul Sol. This is nothing else but a publick declaration to the world what God had before granted to the soul which indeed in judicatures of men which are mutable and deny oft in publick what they had before acted in secret may be of some consequence to him that is so publickly acquitted but in respect of Gods judgement who cannot be inconsistent with himself and whose acts in secret are as unreversible as those in publick here is nothing added to the bulk of justification nor any thing but the solemnity of the manifestation of it after the man is before compleatly justified to the circumstances thereof To the second I have spoken before that Satans managing of the accusation and condemnation of the Law is more properly if not onely in this life and let Mr. Baxter prove if he can any such accusation that hee shall manage against us in the day of judgement If he can prove it the thing proved proves no addition or encrease which shall be then made to our present justification because here also we are acquitted against all accusations pleaded by Satan If he prove it not then there is in this respect a magis in the circumstance of justification here beyond that imaginary justification in the day of judgement 4. When he addeth that we must understand our Divines affirming our Justification to be perfect at first and to admit of no degrees that they mean our Righteousnesse is perfect and admits not of degrees I demand which righteousness himself meaneth that which he calls our Legal or that which he calls our Evangelical righteousnesse or both If the first Christ made Righteousnes to us this is indeed the righteousness the whole and sole righteousness the Gospel righteousness which we have given to us unto Justification a righteousness without us which admits not of degrees And this righteousness is fully given us in this life and not reserved to be given us in the day of Judgement This must we are content Mr. Baxter should put upon our understandings that in this sense we must understand our Divines But this hews in peeces what Master Baxter addeth in this Thesis making the Justification here unperfect and to have but degrees toward our ful and perfect Justification at the last judgement for if so the imperfection here and the perfection there must be either in the righteousnesse given as I conceive or in the act of giving the righteousnesse Not the former for Christ whole Christ according to Mr. Baxter is the righteousness given in this life Neither will he I suppose affirme that we shall have a doubled Christ or two Christs given us for righteousness at the last judgement Nor the latter For I will not entertain so slanderous a thought of Mr. Baxter to thinke he will say that God gives Christ but unperfectly and seemingly here but there perfectly and really Nay hee gives Christ perfectly and really here There he will but own and manifest his former gift and grant Object But the former acts of Justification do not forthwith and fully bring a total freedom and glorification after them as doth this last at the last judgement Sol. This is not ad idem Mr. Baxter here flirts from the question which is of Justification it selfe to the consequents and effects of justification which are total freedome from inherent sinne and from all sorrow glorification and in truth also the sentence of life at the last judgement which is not another justification but the fruit and effect of our present justification The supreme power of the Nation grants to Mr. Baxter great immunities and a large demeans to be entred upon at the next general Assizes for the County and withall appoints the Iudge of the Assizes openly to proclaim it The Iudge doth according to his commission and Mr. Baxter taketh possession by the vertue of the aforesaid grant will he say the former grant was unperfect in comparison of the Iudges proclamation at the Assizes because it put him not into the present possession are not as well the Iudges proclamation as his entry the effects of the former grant But how far and in what respects the possession of the effects of justification is suspended hath been before examined Iâ— he meaâ—s that which he calls our Evangelical righteousness consisting in Faith and Gospel obedience Thes 20. that we must understand this righteousness to be perfected at once and not to admit of degrees this were totally to confute and confound himself in whaâ— hee hath written and all the Papists his darlings in what they have written about the point of justification and would put the lye upon most passages that remain to be examined in these his Aphorisms This therefore I cannot conjecture to be his meaning I would he could as wel discharge himself of doubleness as of silliness and simplicity In the 42 Thesis hee seemes to have had a purpose to have brought somewhat against that which they whom he calls our Divines do assert of the perfecting of Justification at once in the due and proper sense of their own meaning and to yeeld forth some shew of reason that contrary to their assertion Justification begun admits of many steps and degrees one after another tending to the perfecting thereof To this end he brings in a whole legend of stairs mounting up from the bottom to the top of Justification A sack full of Heterogeneous bugbears like that army of Solomon whereof Mahomet speaks in his Alcoran consisting of men beasts angels devils creeping flying swiming crawling and hopping creatures all marching together in so comely and harmonious order as confusion and ataxie can devise with such an army comes Master Baxter here against our Divines with a catalogue of God and Christ justifying Men justifying Angels justifying self justifying acts justifying passions justifying relations justifying qualities justifying One taking it from anothers hand and each amending what the other had left defective so that at last the sinner so shifted from hand to hand
what to be certain of It were more tolerable and excusable for me to leave the grounds of one single man giving his private interpretation of this Scripture despised unexamined and unanswered than for him so to deale with all the Churches of Christ But I will not be a follower of him that followes not Christ in lowliness and his Precept in selfe-deniall His dispute here is two fold 1 to prove that Iames speaks not of the declaration of our justification before men 2. To prove that he speaks of our justification before God when he mentioneth justification by works To the former all that he saith is Sophisticall and Fallacious For if wee grant that by the World hee meanes the whole generation of men both good and evill which yet can hardly bee drawne from his dispute which to make our assertion odious would make it out as relating only to the wicked of the world that these must be the alone Judges Notwithstanding his whole Argumentation is a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a waving the question with a false assumption that by Justification before men we meant a raising of a Tribunall upon earth in opposition to Gods in heaven there to set up men to be judges and to passe sentence of justification and remission of sinnes one upon another according to the evidence of every ones works The falshood wherof hee proves by the illegality of such a judicature and incompetency of the judges and evidence for it And what is this but a Devill of his own raysing and laying again For what one rationall man in any of the Reformed Churches ever dreamed of such a justification All that wee understand heerby is but a declaration and discovery of the tree by its fruits of the state of a man before God that he hath justified or not justified him according as we see the fruits of justification i. e. the works of sanctification following or not following the profession of faith And all this not by a judiciall sentence given for or against any nor by the judgement of infallible faith or knowledge but in the judgement of charity alone which hopeth all things beleeveth all things thinketh no evill except by strong evidence it bee drawn to it 1. Co. 13. 5. 7. In fighting against this doctrine Mr. Baxter fighteth against Christ against the Holy Ghost the Author of it not onely heer but elsewhere also By their fruits ye shall know them saith our Saviour Mat. 7. 16. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if yee love one another Io 13. 35. that the World may know that thou hast loved them Io 17. 28. He that is of God heareth us he that is not of God heareth us not hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error 1. Io 4. 6. Let your light so shine forth before others that they seeing your good workes may glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Ma 5. 16. I magnifie my office if by any meanes I may provoke my bretheren c. and save some of them Ro. 11. 14. By your orderly carriage c. the unbeleever shall be convinced fall downe worship God and report that God is in you of a truth 1. Cor. 14. 24. 25. That he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having nothing evill to say of you Tit. 2. 8. Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speake evill of you they may by your good works which they see glorifie God 1 Pet. 2. 12. Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme 2. Sam. 12. 14. God hath begun and will perfect in you the good worke as it is meet for me to judge of you because c. Phil. 1. 6 7. I am perswaded of you things that accompany salvation because of your works and labours of love c. Heb. 6. 9 10. Wee give thanks to God for you c. since we heard of your Faith in Christ Jesus and love to all the Saints for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven Col. 1. 3 4 5 To the Saints which are at Rome Corinth c. and hundreds of the like Scriptures which testifie the declaration such a declaration of the Faith Saintship Justification and salvation of others by the evidence of their works that we ought that it is a sinne in men by the judgement of Charity not to acquiesce therein And on the contrary part testifying the want of such an evidence to be an occasion given to all men to reject our Faith and justification in the profession thereof as spurious and vaine Against all these Mr. Baxter excepreth pronouncing that mans judgement herein is illegall incompetent and the evidence insufficient therefore to make use of any judgement or discerning in this kind is usurpative Doth he herein fight against men or against God Suppose that the event in any thing prove contrary to our judgement yet is there not sin in such judgement while we follow Christs Rule and to be deceived by Charity rightly ordered if it may be called a deceivednesse yet is it no sinfull deceivednesse What hee produceth from the Apostle Vnto me it is a small thing to be judged of you or of mans judgement c. 1 Cor. 4. 3. is nothing subservient to his turne For the Apostle there speaketh of their unjust Censures of him besides and against Christs Rule the Rule of Charity from which while they erred their judgement was not to be regarded and in relation to the future judgement which followes not mans but Christs owne knowledge of us Thus have we found one part of his arguing vaine and wide from the scope in going about to prove that James his Justification by works is not to be taken for the declaring of us to men to be truly justified His second dispute is to prove that this Justification by Works is to be understood of our justifying by works at Gods Tribunall His Reasons to prove it are partly in his words before transcribed partly in a new supply thereunto added The first Reason in the former is B. 1. It is such as Salvation dependeth on ver 14. Brevis esse laboro Obscurus fio No mans immoderate prolixity and tediousness hath ever so much troubled mee as this mans pretended affectation of conciseness and brevity By it when hee speakes nothing he gets the advantage to bee thought of fooles that he speaketh great and mysticall things Were it not that I regard such as are too apt to run after his whistle though they know not his tune I should rather kick at such Delphicke mystericall passages of his than take them up to looke on them If James here take not justifying and saving for the same thing then to use Mr. Baxters words I am not certaine what to be certaine off So that when he saith it is such a justification as salvation dependeth on it is one as if hee
apt still to decline from his righteousnes and to close with our own if there bee not continuall working and warring against its fleshly working in this kind If wee look to that which follows all confidence in our own strength is prohibited and all dependance and relying upon Gods grace and power is commanded that wee stand alway in a trembling feare of falling and sinking through our miserable weaknesse and proneness to Apostacy and therefore keep firme and continuall hold-fast in the grace and power of God extended to us in Christ for our supportation because it is God alone that worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure and not of any worth or workes of ours moving him ver 13. Such a working out of our salvation that consisteth in working away all our owne works righteousnes as insufficient yea as destructive to it and in working up our selves by the power of God into Christ into the shelter of Gods grace for salvation wee grant to Mr. Baxter But this will not please him Yet because the Apostle as by the context is evident teacheth this and no other working for salvation here we must leave him so displeased as they are wont to be that by their owne plea destroy theire owne cause and minister matter out of their owne mouth to be judged B. Ro. 2. 7. 10. hath been before answered B. 1. Co. 9. 24. so run that ye may obtaine 2. Tim. 2. 5. If a man strive for mastâ—ries he is not crowned except he strive lawfully What this running striving or fighting is the same Apostle teacheth us by his example 2. Tim. 4. 7. 8. I have fought the good fight saith he I have finished my course what meanes he by these the next words declare I have kept the Faith henceforth c. B. 2. Tim. 2. 12. If we suffer we shall also reign with him If we deny him he also will deny us This is if in despite of all sufferings or persecutions wee stand fast in the Faith and adhere firme to Christ we shall reign with him But if for feare of persecution we deny him and fall from the Faith he also will deny us that ever wee had any true union and communion with him by faith B. 1. Tim. 6. 18. 19. Charge them that are rich c. not to trust in uncertain riches c. that they do good bee rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternall life The Apostle heer forbids the rich to trust in or to make their uncertain riches a foundation of happines to themselves and contrariwise admonisheth them that this trashy felicity should not hinder them from laying a good foundation of their everlasting blisse in heaven He saith not as Mr. Br. abusively wresteth his words in his Append. p. 95. that they should lay their good works as a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternall life For so should he have contradicted himself 1. Co. 3. 1â— 11. According to the grace of God given me I have laid the foundation c. For other foundation can no man lay than that is layd Jesus Christ So this exhortation is the same in substance with that of our Saviour Lay not up for your selvs treasure upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt c. but lay up for your selves treasure in heaven where neither moth c. B. Lu. 11. 28. Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it Amen For the word of God makes Christ our All and in us all Col. 3. 11. Search the Scriptures or the word of God sayth the same our Saviour for in them ye think to have eternall life and they are they which testifie of me not of works to have wrought out eternall life for you yet yee will not come to mee but to works and your own righteousness that ye may have life Io. 5. 39. 40. B. Mat. 25. 41. 42. Goe yee cursed into hell fire prepared for the Divell and his Angels for I was hungry and yee fed me not thirsty c. Righteous judgement For what other cause should the cursed be sentenced to the curse but for their unbeleefe and evill deeds which brought and deserved the curse Would he have them to be damned for their faith and good works The rest Scriptures have been urged and examined before Now of all these Scriptures let Mr. Br. name but two that were not prepared to his hand eyther by Bellarmine or some other Papists in their disputes against the Protestants or shew any reason why he mentions most of them having no shew of subserviency to his purpose unless he thinks them hallowed by their fingering If there bee expected a larger and fuller Answer to the Arguments which the Papists draw from any of these Scriptures I transmit to some of the many hundreds of our Divines that have answered them CHAP. VIII Arg. Mr. Baxters 7. Argument for Justification by Works examined drawne from the Tenour of the last dayes Judgement which he saith shall pass according to works And these questions discussed whether upon whom and in what respects the last sentence shall so passe according to Works A Seventh Argument which he brings to prove Justification by works is drawne from the issues upon which our future Judgement shall passe in the last day That saith he shall be according to works Therefore is this also But let him bee heard speaking his owne words B. Thesis 80. pag. 317. It is most clear in the Scripture and bâ—yond all dispute that our Actuall most proper compleat Justification at the great Judgement will be according to our works and according to what we have done in the Flesh whether good or evill which can bee no therwise than as it was the Condition of that Justification And so Christ at that great Assize will not give his bare will of Purpose as the Reason of his proceedings but as he governed by a Law so he will judge by a Law and will then give the reason of his publicke sentence from mens keeping or breaking of the conditions of his Covenant that so the mouths of all may be stopped and the equity of his Judgement may be made manifest to all and that he may there set forth his hatred to the sins and not only to the persons of the condemned and his love to the obedience and not only to the persons of the justified This also he hath from Bellarmine the other Jesuits Papists Neither is there any one besides his fourth Argument which he hath not transcribed from them and even that also is by them somewhat hammered to his use Nay from the very beginning to the end of this his Tractate all is theirs as to the matter thereof onely the translating of it into English and reducing it to his owne method
our selves which he teacheth to tend only to selfe-ruining B. 3. Thankefulnesse for what we have received either in possession title or promise must be a singular spur to duty But I pray you tell me Have you received all the life and mercy you doe expect Are you in Heaven already Have you all the Grace that you need or desire in degree If not why may you not labouâ— for what you have not as well as be thankefull for what you have Or have you as full a certainty of â—â— heerafter as you desire If not why may you not labour for it Al this is also totally besides the QuestioÌ„ which is not whether we may but how we are to labour whether with that most excellent and Gospel-frame of spirit consisting in love and thankfulnesse or mercenarily by works and whether in the way of Faith which the Gospel or of naturall Righteousness which the Law teacheth Many shall seeke to enter and shall not bee able faith the Master Wee through the spirit wait for the hope of Righteousness by Faith saith the Apostle Not so but by and for our Works not at all by Faith but as it is an act or worke saith Mr. Baxter let him shew his light and Authority to be greater than Pauls before hee looke that wee should run after him I shall put one question to him arising from the last of his Interrogatories which will be harder for him to resolve than a thousand such as he hath here wil be to us When hee tels us we must labour for the full certainty of Heaven hereafter is there any such certaintainty in this world attainable according to his principle of but â— conditionall justification and salvation untill the day of Judgementâ— or how is it to be obtained Let him make it out to us If he doth it I shall conclude that he can also turne Heaven into Earth and Earth into Heaven and nothing to bee unpossible to him if not let his Reader judge whether his indeavour be to delude or else to teach In the next Chapter or Section if wee attend onely to the sound and roare of words Mr. Baxter appeares more formidable from pag. 83. to the 98. of his Appendix in which hee presents us with thirteen Considerations to shew the vanity and intolerable damnable wickednesse of this supposed doctrine which he opposeth But the whole sloud of his wit wrath and eloquence heere poured out together runs into the dead Sea by a desart and desolate way in which it meets with no mortall crearure to wet or hurt it For who is there of all mankinde that hath said wee ought not to act for life in the sense which this man suborneth or otherwise than I have before oft expressed Much lesse is there any professed Christian that hath asserted as hee insinuateth That wee must not come to Christ that we may have life nor strive to enter in at the straite gate nor lay violant hands on the Kingdome of Heaven nor lay up for our selves a Treasure in Heaven nor seeke the Kingdome of God and the Righteousnesse the reof nor presse on for the attainment of the Resurrection c. Let him be named by Mr. Baxter that he may be brought forth and stoned which thus blasphemeth I shall not hinder it That which they teach is that Workes are not to be performed to this end that as works or doing as opposed to believing by and for their owne or our owne Righteousnesse in doing them they should put us into the possession of the life of justification and blessednesse If Mr. Baxter have any thing to say against this assertion or against that which I before laid as the state of the question it wil be taken into examination till then I shall leave him to fight with his owne shaddow having no loose time to spend in gazing upon the activity of such a Combatant CHAP. X. Arg. The Authour of the Booke intituled The Marrow of Moderne Divinity vindicated from the Aspersions wherewith Mr. Baxter defameth him and his Doctrine HEere because I am to follow and my taske is not to leave Mr. Baxter untill I have examined all that hee saith to prove Justification by works I am necessitated to fall into that which will be judged a Digression After hee hath enacted by a Law that to say wee must not worke for life is a Blasphemy or at least an intolerable errour and to hold it practically a necessarily damning Doctrine that whosoever doth it must be everlastingly damned for it All which wee acknowledge to bee in some sense true after the sound of the words though after the meaning of the Authour they can never be saved which practically hold the contrary as possibly I shall afterwards shew Now he proceeds to indite and arraigne to condemnation one Authour as guilty of this damning Doctrine viz. The Authour of the Book called The Marrow of Moderne Divinity and many his Accessaries viz. all those Divines that have annexed their approbatory subscriptions to the usefullnesse of it so finde we the man expressing himselfe Aphorism pag 330. B. When such a Book as that stiled the Marrow of Modern Divinity can have so many applauding epistles of such Divines when the doctrine of it is that we must not Act for justification and Salvation but onely in thankfulnesse for it This he speaketh onely in generall we shall finde his particulars following To this therefore I answer onely in generall 1 That it were to bee desired that Mr Baxter had inured no more dishonour upon thosâ— Divines to whom he dedicates his book by such his dedication than those forementioned Divines have attracted to themselves by their applauding epistles 2 And that those Divines with Mr. Baxter himselfe could mention so many sound parts in his booke both in the matter and ends of the Author as hee hath picked out imaginary errours in the other 3 As to the doctrine of that booke which he so accuseth I shall there examine in particulars where Mr. Baxter particularly drawes it into accusation and judgement Onely by the way let me thus far excuse my selfe 1 I never knew who was the Author of that worke 2. Neither have I read it otherwise than here and there a fragment as I found it lying in my friends houses so that I could no otherwise judge of it but ex ungue Leonem what the whole was but by that which my slender judgement told me the part which I read was not onely orthodox but singularly usefull 3 That I never knew there was a second part of it much lesse saw it until Mr Baxter by his quotation therof so told me But that since I have gotten both parts yet by meanes of other imployments have not had time any further to read it but where Mr. Baxter accuseth it of error 4. That if I knew the Author to be yet living I should have wholly left the defence of himselfe to himselfe It was not so much the
all the justified by Faith are sanctified if it be sanctification indeede it may be made an evidence of justification 6 Yet neither all seeming peace and quietnesse of conscience or joy in expectation of salvation or hope that is made the ground of this joy and such other like seeming effects of Justification are alway sure evidences to a man that he is justified because not alway fruits or parts of sanctification they may proceed from another and baser principle viz. from the deceitfulnesse of their heart or self-love and self-advancing or from the spirit of slumber upon the conscience or from ignorance of Gods way and method of bringing many Children to glory Nor are all seeming holiness honesty meeknesse temperance patience and other like vertues either in their habite as they really affect the heart or in their act as they are with an ardent zeale for God brought forth into practice sure evidences of sanctification by Christ because these also may proceed from other and baser principles and not from the Spirit of Christ as from the abiding prints of the Law of Nature written in the heart or from the power and suggestions of a convinced and awaked conscience or from strong impressions made into the soule by a morall and vertuous education or other like sub-celestiall and unspirituall principles So that our certaine and known union to Christ and our justification and sanctification sensibly thence flowing may be properly and unfailingly made our sound evidence of the spirituall life and acceptablenesse of our vertues and works But these in themselves in no wise certaine evidences and demonstrations to us of our justification and sanctification by Christ Sanctification is one thing and a zealous endeavour to be in all things conformed to the will of God is or may be another The former is only from the Spirit of Christ and wrought only in them which are in Christ The later may proceed from morall principles and is incident even to them also that are aliens from Christ 7 Neverthelesse even these vertues and good works do so farr evidence that from the Negation of these a man is certainely denyed to be in Christ or to be justified or sanctified by the faith of Christ I mean that whosoever can allow himself in the habituall practice of any known sin or rejection of any known duty that man may know himself and be known of others to be an Alien from Christ Because whosoever is in Christ is a new Creature all things are become new not only in respect of his relation but of his manners and conversation also and in whomsoever the Spirit of Sanctification dwelleth it dwels in a state of reign not of bondage Withall these vertues and good works when they are found to flow from our union to Christ and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts through Christ and upon examination a man can truly say that he hath ceased to hew from any other Qâ—arrie or to dip from any other Fountain than from Christ that from his Spirit alone hee daily sucketh life as the branch from the root to bring forth fruit and from the sacrifice of Christs death a sweet odour to make himself and his fruit acceptable then they serve as good seconds to prove to his soul that he is justified and sanctified But so that his being in Christ must first prove his fruit to be good before his fruit can have any power to evidence him to be in Christ and the evidence of both his justification and sanctification consisteth not so much in the qualifications which he hath attained or works which he doth and hath done as in his continuall waiting upon Chrih from him alone to receive what hee ought to be and to do in all wel-pleasing before God and the love of God in Christ enabling to obedience 8 That although Sanctification and the fruits thereof do each in its own degree as aforesaid more or lesse evidence our Justification yet have they no concausality with Faith to the producing of it All that are in Christ are Saints in Christ yet their sanctity goes not before their being in Christ but is an immediate fruit thereof The forgiveness of sin and Adoption doth in order go before their doing of acceptable service to God and unacceptable service cannot justifie 9 The grace of God which bringeth salvation and justification teacheth men to deny ungodlinesse c. and to live soberly c. Cals upon all to stretch forth their Faith to apprehend to themselves in Christ both the imputed and the inherent righteousness so far is it from breathing a soul-cozening or a soul-corrupting faith Therefore is the justifying Faith called by the Holy Ghost a most holy Faith Jude 20. A soule purifying Faith Act. 15. 9. A sanctifying Faith Act. 26. 18. Implying its efficacy as well to sanctifie as to justifie and that there is no true sanctification but that which is instrumentally obtained or at least received by Faith Lastly that one chief end of our Justification is that we bring forth acceptable fruit to God here inchoate hereafter in perfect obedience to God and conformity with him And the Justifier doth and will attain his end in justifying therefore brings none to glory but such as have all vertues and good works at least in their root and seed while they are here and if after their effectuall calling they live to have time and opportunity do not unfeigâ—edly endeavour universally to declare the same in their practice So that to dream of any glorified man in heaven that was not actually a Saint upon earth is a dream from hell not from heaven All these things might have been largely proved both from the Scriptures and our Protestant Writers but that I esteem them all to be so known to be the consenting asserteons of all our Churches and by them so fully confirmed by the word that I should but abuse time to take it up in particularizing what is in this Case so generally written and read I have been the more large in expressing the doctrine of the Protestant Churches upon this Argument to wipe off the stain which Mr. Br. hath learned of the Papists to lay upon it in this and the former quere which are wholly framed to beguile the weaker sort having nothing in them to stagger the Judicious And now I leave it both to the strong and weak to judge whether the Accuser of the Brethren himself can possibly expresse more impudence and falshood in slandering the Churches of Christ than this man hath done or if he had not bound himself to speak after the Jesuits and Monks whatsoever they traducingly say whether there be any colour of reason for him to have layd upon us these two accusations To hold my self to that which I am now examining what is there in this Faith and Doctrine thereof which I have described deserving to be called a soul-cozening Faith And when he addeth That Faith which is by many
praises of the man yet this act of his meriteth it not no not from Mr. B. For as far as he transcribes him p. 182. Mr. Ball no further foâ—lowes Grotius then to Gods relaxing of the Law to take satisfaction from Christ in our steed But if he had also asserted that after satisfaction actually taken they which in Christ have satisfied are yet all their life-time under the Curse of the Law to bear it in their own persons would Mr. B. have hidden it Yet this is the thing in question between Mr. B. and the Protestants whether after the giving and receiving of satisfaction for our breaches of the Law the Curs of the Law be either nulled or els onely in part relaxed as to our bearing it Yea if he â—e as Mâ— B. stiles him then have we the testimony of so great learned and holy a Divine as almost England ever bred against Mr. B. himself not being able to deny any one almost that England ever bred which hath written more directly and contrarily to Mr. B. then this man in his Tractate of Faith about Justification If elswhere he contradicts himself I shall oppose Ball against Ball yea Ball in afflictions when he lived by Faith and had nothing else but Christ apprehended by Faith to support his troubled soul to Ball nâ—w raised to a prosperous state in the world and whâ— seeing the Court infected with Popery Socinianism and Arminianism and no other bridge to prefermâ—nt so effectuall as some shew of bending at least to these wayes might possibly as far as Conscience would permit him make use of the language there held most authentick I say of the language for I cannot condemn his doctrine alledged in his three following Testimonies it taken in a good sense But his ambiguities of words seem to speak him out to have had a levell to somewhat els besides the supporting of the truth and yet his Conscience seems to hold him bound from saying any thing manifestly against the truth Mr. B. may possibly tickle himself with his words but his matter duly pondered gives him a sting sufficient to perswade him to forbear laughter Let the unbiassed judicious Reader add consideration to his reading and then judge The rest of the testimonies which he hath here cited and quoted I let passe as altogether besides the questions which Mr. B. hath set in agitation between himself and all the Protestant-Churches And thus at length have his Arguments been examined which he brings to confirm his Justification by works He hath many things tending to the confirmation of some other Paradoxes scattered in his Aphorisms beginning at p. 123. of his Appendix and ending at p. 164. but because those things are handled by way of disputation against others and Mr. B. as a challenger doth call out there by name Mr. Owen and Maccovius to a Duell with himself each after other exposing them to the world as base and silly Animals in what they have said except they come forth into open field to make it good It shall be both impertinent and uncivil in me to meddle in a business to which others and the same far more worthy and able are called as to their peculiar task I should not be excused by any herein from being one that loveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be busie in another mans office specially seeing I know not what these challenged have done or are doing in the defence of themselves and the doctrine which they have asserted Were it that their reputation alone and not a truth of Christ which they had undertaken to defend were here clouded by Mr. B. I should think it no fault in them to pass it by in contemptuous silence but seeing Mr. B. endeavours upon their ruines to erect his mounts against the City of the living God to destroy it or at least spoyle it of its principall immunities denying the full justification of the Lords redeemed ones in this world holding them under the curs and wrath of God both in their life and death I perceive not how they can be silent without betraying the truth of God which they once undertook to defend Since this was written I understand Mr. Owen hath fully vindicated himself and learnedly defended all that Mr. B. had laid on his score Thus far to his Arguments that he hath brought to prove Justification by works I find no more nor in these have I hidden any thing but set them forth in their fullest strength CHAP. XV. Mr. Baxters Plea to prove his Doctrine free from Popery examined and refuted I Come now to the most accurate finest and chiefest part of Mr. Brs. Art his Alcumistry by which hee turneth the basest metals into gold darkness into light death into life deformity into beauty and hell into heaven it self All this he with strong endeavours labours to accomplish while with strong confidence hee goes about to vindicate his doctrine from all error all infection of Popery Socinianism Pharisaism and to render it the same with the doctrine of Paul and of Christ guiltless of all derogation to the praise of Gods grace Christs merits or the Saints comfort Yea to set it forth in such a splendor that although hee hath hitherto described such a grace of God as by his donation was no more appropriated and peculiarized to Peter then to Judas to the cursed in hell than to the Saints in heaven and such a Christ as reigneth Tyrant-like in the Kingdom of grace chaining up his own all his own subjects and friends under the curse of the Law to bear the horrors and torments of it in soul and body all their life yea after death as long as the world shall continue though he hath taken away from the Saints after their self-denyall repentance building themselves by their most holy Faith upon Christ the Rock after their renovation and sanctification by the Spirit all hope and possibility of attaining any assurance of Gods unchangeable love to them or of their sinns irrevocably pardoned or of their perseverance in the state of Grace or of their indefeazable right to glory or of their exemption from the curse and wrath of God while they live or of the rest and freedom of their souls after death either from the flames of Hell or of Purgatory as long as the world standeth After hee hath taught that no man shall have any part in Christ and his benefits which procureth it not by his own righteousness his own perfect righteousness in suo genere yea by the merits of his righteousness After that he hath proclaimed that his Gospel brings no better tidings of joy than these Yet at length hee comes to varnish over such a Grace such a Christ such a Gospel such a state of believers who are all of his own faigning with such paints and fine colours as by them to enamour all men to embrace these as the only true and appetible Grace Christ Gospel and state of beleevers That this Doctrine
Sophister to be guâ—le fools in stead of a Logician to satisfie the intelligent He that ascribeth saith he to works or obedience no part of that work which belongeth to Christs satisfactory Righteousness doth not derogate in that from that Righteousness No less true than the Gospel but so farr from the question as the earth is from heaven For who ever questioned whether the not ascribing to works that which belongeth to Christs satisfactory righteousness be a derogating feom that righteousness Yea it were madness in any to question it For if the not ascribing should so derogate then God Christ Spirit Word Apostles Prophets all Protestants yea all animate and inanimate Creatures without understanding should be guilty of derogating from Christs satisfactory righteousness For none of these ascribe to works any part of that work which belongeth to that righteousness of Christ How palpable is this cheat which Mr. Br. would put upon us He that doth not ascribe c. doth not derogate in that i. e. in his not ascribing to mans works what belongs to Christ from Christ By the like Argumentation might Joah clear himself from the guilt of murther Committed upon two better men than himself and Christs Tormentors themselves from having any hand in his death Thus might they learn of Mr. Br. to plead They that wound not that keep a mans head from wounding do not in that take away his life True the not wounding of the head was not prejudiciall to the life of them whom they slew But the wounding and piercing of their bodies and shedding out their bowells made them as actually murtherers as if they had also dashed out the brains of them whom they slew It was not what they did not but what they did that Constituted them guilty of murther So it is not Mr. Brs not ascribing but his ascribing to works that derogates from Christ Shall we thinke that Mr. Br. slumbered and doated into this fallacy Is he a puny that he should need to be taught how to express himself in an argument Nay all must see that he knows it to be a heterodox and desperate Conclusion which he mainteineth that no honest and holy means can pillar up therefore tramples all ingenuity under-foot running over it to fetch patronage from his Sophistry And even herein bewraies the high thoughts that he hath of himself that all his flies are Eagles and his grossâ—st Conceptions oracles and his abasing of all others that they are so blinde as not to see and so blunt as to be all taken in his rook nets Or if we take his meaning thus That his doctrine in making Works a Collaterall with Faith to Justification which he would say plainly if he meant not fraudulently and had not his own judgement and Conscience suggesting to him the weakness falshood of such an assertion because it ascribeth no part of the work of Christs satisfactory righteousness to works doth not derogate from Christ and his righteousness Then I deny both the Consequent and Consequence of the Proposition For 1 It derogates from him and it a full potency and efficacy to justifie any one untill it be animated and enlivened by our own works to do it leaving it all feeble dead to produce its effect untill our obedience as its Concause gives life to it And this is Contradictive to the doctrine of the Apostle who asserteth the efficacy and actuall efficiency of Christ and his righteousness to justifie us yet ungodly Rom. 4. 5. yet without strength to work yet sinners yet enemies and so workers against him Rom. 5. 6 8 9 10. 2 It derogates from it its glory in parting and dividing our Justification between his righteousness our righteousness so ascribing part of the praise to man which ought to be attributed full and entire to Christ This also is contrary to the doctrine of the Apostle that excludes works under every notion from having to do in the business of Justification to exclude Boasting lest any man should boast or glory in himself Rom. 3. 27. 4. 2. Eph. 2. 9. But that He that glorieth may glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. 29 30 31. Nay it doth not onely derogate from but totally destroy and nullifie the righteousness of Christ as to us and our justification For so first the Apostle testifieth Christ is become of no effect to you whosoever of you are justified by the Law Gal. 5. 4. And to be justified by the Law or by the works of the Law are with the Apostle the same thing as hath been oft shewed before Yea to seek justification in any part or degree by the works or obedience which the Law requireth as a Condition of Justification is to seek to be Justified by the Law Works being the Condition of Justification by the Law and not by Grace 2 Because it obstructeth the way of Justification which Christ hath made and sends poor souls to seek it in a way that is impervious by which there can be no access to Christ his righteousness For the righteousness of Christ is given of free Love pure grace meer mercy as a free Gift Rom. 5. 15. Freely offered and received Rev. 22. 17. Without money and without price Isa 55. 1. He is the worst Simoniak that seeks to buy this gift of the Holy Ghost for money to make it his by his own Merit and obedience Whosoever is admitted to it such a one is rejected from it For Christ came to call not the Righteous but sinners to repentance The Publicans and Harlots enter when these are excluded They shall come from the East and from the West c. From all parts of Paganism and Barbarism that shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jaakok in the kingdome of God in the possession of graâ—e and righteousness by Christ but these that think themselves in their own righteousness to be the children of the kingdome shall be cast out with the Jewes into whose doctrine manners they are naturallized And justly For he that worketh i. e. brings works to inright him to Justification Challengeth it as Debt from Gods Justice as the fruit of his own work Merit that God oweth to him not as a free gift from his grace Rom. 4. 4. Who will envie to him the fruit of his deservings This is Condemnation from the Tribunall of Justice where no flesh can be justified when they which work not but beleeve on him which Justifieth the ungodly i. e. which bring Faith alone without works as Coadjutors to put them into the actuall and sensible possession of the righteousness which is by Christ these even these alone shall be justified at the throne of grace Rom. 4. 5. Why these seek it in the way where God is present to give it The other in a way wherein God never was never will be present to bestow it Lastly I deny the Assumption also It is false that Mr. Br. making so as he doth it Obedience or Works the condition