Mr. Baxters APHORISMS EXORIZED AND ANTHORIZED OR An Examination of and Answer to a Book written by Mr. Ri Baxter Teacher of the Church at Kederminster in Worcester-shire entituled Aphorisms of Justification TOGETHER WITH A vindication of Justification by meer Grace from all the Popish and Arminian Sophisms by which that Author labours to ground it upon Mans Works and Righteousness By JOHN CRANDON an unworthy Minister of the Gospel of CHRIST at Fawley in Hant-shire Ipse fecit nos non ipsi nos Ipsi nos justos salvos fecit non ipsi nos August de verbis Apostoli Serm. 11. God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 6. 14. Imprimatur Joseph Caryl Jan 3. 1654. LONDON Printed by M. S. and are to be sold by T Brewster at the three Bibles in Pauls Church-yard And L Chapman at the Crowne in Popes-head Alley 1654. ALthough it be matter of a very sorrowfull resentment to see Theologicall warres renewed among Brethren yet it is a duty to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints And although I heartily wish that in these contentions all personal reflections were layd aside and opinions onely dealt with which latter consideration How-ever this Author I doubt not hath satisfied his owne Conscience and labours much to satisfie his Readers about it hath a little checkt my thoughts in giving an explicite testimony to the worke yet the doctrinal poynts therein maintained and vindicated The present freedome of beleevers from the Curse of the Law and their free justification by Faith without workes yea without Faith as it is a work through the alone satisfaction of Jesus Christ are of such moment and so fundamental in religion for the comfort of poore soules that I cannot but judge any essay tending to the clearing of them much more this large and elaborate discourse profitable for the Church of God and worthy of the publick View The 3d of the 11th month 1653. Joseph Caryl The Printer to the Reader Courteous Reader BY Reason of sickness and many infirmities of Body disâ—bling the Author oft from Revising the Sheets as they came from the Press during the whole time that the Book was in printing The work comes not to thy view without many mistakes in Printing The most considerable of them I have here collected to be amended with thy Pen before thou beginnest to read The rest confisting mostly in mis-pointing and mis-spelling I leave to thy judgement candor to Rectifie in Reading the Tractate M. S. Errata Preface PAge 4. line 1. it is not distinguished by the Italick Character which are Mr. Brs and which the Authors words the quoted place of Mr. Br. will shew it Pag. 10. line 26. for Catalogus read Catalogus p. 14. l. 7. for Tenet r. Tenets p. 17. l. 19. r. intrinseâ—al p. 20. l. 8. r. Communing p. 33. l. 38. to the word Logick add and the Metaphysicks p. 35. l. 2. r. puritate and l. 11 r. Doctrinae p. 36. l. 39. r. for Part 1. Arg. of Cha. 1. for doctrine r. doctrines p. 4. l. 5. r. imagin p. 12. l. 38. r. person p. 19. l. 11. r. stuttering p. 26. l. 35. for nor r. not p. 29. l. 9. for sinns r. sinn p. 39. l. 7. for and r. in p. 45. l. 35. add us p. 64. l. 40. for Covenants r. commandements p. 76. l. 3. for piece r. pierce p. 101. l. 13. r. controvertible p. 140. l. 23. dele in p. 227. l. 40. for for r. to p. 235. l. 13. for united r. merited p. 256. l. 1. for the r. their p. 257. for fruition r. futurition p. 264. l. 3. for innocent r. nocent p. 314. l. 33. for me r. us p. 330. l. 1. for first r. fifth p. 331. l. 30. for vindicateâ—h r. vendicateth Part 2. P. 7. l. 19. for make r. made p. 8. l. 2. for the r. this l. 24. for spitted r. spittled l. 34. for him r. the Reader p. 5. l. ult for latter r. letter p. 11. l. 26. dele not p. 18. l. 26. add them p. 39. l. 32. r. scripture p. 49. l. 26. for as r. or l. 30. dele to p. 51. r. operation p. 54. l. 37. dele the. p. 76. l. 27. for so to r. to so p. 81. l. 9. for heare r. here l. 36. for affection r. affectation p. 87. for in r. upon p. 97. for Mortuum r. mortuam p. 139. l. 2. for is r. is not p. 140. l. 33. for controvertibly r. convertibly p. 203. l. ult to Protestants add that use the word Condition in Justification salvation p. 206. l. 8. for given r. giveth p. 313. for and r. the. p. 240. l. 9. dele there l. 32. for if r. of p. 241. l. 22. for their r. them p. 244. l. 17. for have r. have made p. 212. l. 10. dele end p. 313. l. 12. for and r. he p. 361. l. 6. r. Restriction p. 381. l. 28. for O r. so p. 395. l. 35. for Gratia r. Gratiae ibid for paraeum r. parum p. 382. l. 32. dele and. TO THE REVEREND THE FAITHFULL AND Pious MINISTERS of the Lord Christ within this Nation Much honoured and highly Beloved IT might be Construed self-arrogance that so despicable a person in parts newly broken out of the black Cloud of Obscurity should not onely publish to the world but withall tender so rough-hewen a work to the speciall view scrutiny of them whom Christ hath made and named the Lights of the world But this imputation will appear undeserved to as many as shall consider that what is here presented to so great a fulgor of judgement and learning comes with a request not of Patronage alone but of Correction also Of Patronage where it defends the Truth in the Truth of Correction where it halteth into the defence of error in steed of the Truth or of the Truth but not in the Truth The work it self will sufficiently speak me out not fit to be registred inter Doctos yet hath it been still my study not to commit any thing by which I should deserve to be pronounced indocilis untractable to learn where the Lord holds forth a faithfull Teacher It is the height of my ambition and patheticall heartiness of my humble request not so much to all of you Collectively which is unattainable as to every of you divisively who in these slippery times Honored Worthies stand fast in the truth of Christ to be recalled by you into the way from which you shall finde me any where straying but so that by the Authority of the Word you lead me into it that I may gladly be a follower of such a leader As to the Book to which this answereth whatsoever Fate this shall have in mens judgements surely that must have a stinch with all the judicious and orthodox Neither could it so long have stood unshaken had he not cunningly prepossessed the minds of his
every such person That these Antinomians of the former age were filthy dreamers loose livers such as turned the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into lasciviousness is very probable if not certain from that which Calvin and others have written against Antinomians and Libertines And from such we have no less abhorrence then Mr. Baxter But while Mr. Baxter declaimeth against the innocent hee proclaimes himselfe a rank Antinomian in teaching and maintaining that the perfect obedience and righteousnesse of the Law are not required and consequentially not due under the Gospel Islebius himself never spake so derogatorily to the righteousness of the Law CHAP. XXIII Arg. Mr. Baxters distinction of Justification in Title of Law and in Sentence of Judgement examined together with other distinctions equipollent to this Whether besides the present there be also a future Justification and whether it be begun and perfected together at once I should wholly have passed over the 37 38 39 and 40 Theses with their Explications as meerly shady imaginations voyd of all reality and substance without stopping to give them one word of answer For why should wee talke of Pictures that have no life in them were it not that it is Master Baxters drift to carry us through these wayes of his own chalking wholly from Christ under a pretext of leading us to Christ the Justifier To frustrate therefore his deceit I shall speak somewhat to these passages of his Tractate also Thes 37. pag. 183. B. Iustification is either in title and the sense of Law or in sentence of judgement The first may be called Constitutive the second Declarative the first Virtual the second Actual Lawyers have layd it down for a Maxim Non est distinguendum ubi Lex non distinguit i. e. We are not to distinguish of any point in the Law where the Law it self hath not made a distinction If the Laws of men are not much lesse are the Laws and Word of God to be violated with mens bold distinctions For this is no lesse then to bring Gods sacred Oracles into a subjection to mans vain fancies Let Mr. Baxter shew any Scripture that gives footing for the distinguishing of Justification into that which is in title of Law and that which is in sentence of judgement into constitutive and declarative or virtuall and actuall Justification These are the inventions of wanton wits in these latter times whose endeavour it hath been to tear in peeces and thereby wholly nullifie Gods Justification and to put many Justifications of their own in stead thereof We deny not a constitutive and declarative Justification in some sense but in Mr. Baxters sense we deny it It is granted that the Satisfaction which the Son by promise gave and the Father accepted for the sins of the Elect according to the Covenant between the Father and the Son before more then once mentioned did constitute the Elect justified in Christ before they were born who notwithstanding were not declared just to their own consciences before they actually beleeved nor to others until they manifested their Faith by their Works But Mr. Baxter explodes this constitutive and declarative Justification as an unsufferable abhomination and will not have his virtuality and actuality to these applyed And let him alleage any one Scripture that calls the sentence of life unto those that shall bee saved by grace that is to be pronounced in the last day Justification Or if he cannot but that the justification of the New Covenant wherever it be mentioned in the Word be that which is in this present life who sees not that his distinguishing here tends to the subverting of Scriptures and of the both virtual and actual Justification which the Scriptures speak of B. The Scripture speaks of it many times as a future thing and not yet done Rom. 3. 30. Mat. 12. 37. Rom. 2. 13. Explic pag. 185. This is all that he bringeth or can bring for Justification in the day of Judgement and this all is nothing It followeth not because these Scriptures speak of Justification as of a thing to come saying they shall be not they are justified that this Future tense doth point out the day of Judgement If I should say Mr. Baxter shall dye I should not be accused for speaking an untruth but if any will needs confine that shall to the day of Judgement that Mr. Baxter shall then dye who would not laugh at the absurdity of the consequence That of Mat. 12. 37. By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned and that of Rom. 2. 13. Not the hearers but the doers of the Law shall be justified speak of Justification after the tenor and covenant of the Law not of Grace therefore pertain nothing to the present purpose Hee shall but Dare verba damnably deceive with words that teacheth men to seek for Justification by the righteousness of the Law consisting in deeds and words Whosoever indeed shall neither in word or deed be found a transgressor of the Law actually or originally shall be justified by his words and deeds But this man must be sought for out of a happier generation then those of the race of Adam else if we except Christ alone we must return our Non est inventus That of Rom. 3. 30. speaks indeed in the Future tense but may be as properly rendred by the word will as shall though the difference be not very considerable thus It is one God which will or shall justifie the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through Faith The Apostle here meaneth no otherwise speaking here in the Future then what he had said before in the Present Tense of Justification And it is as if he had said God hath decreed and declared his method of justifying both Jews Gentiles to be one and the same As long as there remain or succeed any upon earth of either part to be justified the purpose of God abides firm to justifie as wel the one as the other by faith and no one of either sort by Works neither circumcision nor uncircumcision shall avail or hinder any thing but Christ faith in Christ shall bee all unto all in this businesse as long as the world endureth And what is there then in this Text to pâ—ove Mr. Baxters declarative Justification in the day of Judgement Not that wee deny the adjudging of life in the day of Judgement to all that in this life were justified but the Scriptures terming this last sentence by the name of Justification whatsoever is said of Justification by Faith or Grace is still to be understood in this life And the whole reason that Mr. Baxter hath here to coyn a Justification in the day of judgement is to lay a foundation of Popish Justification by Works as by the sequele of this his Treatise will more fully appear Else would we not contend with him about meer words did they not tend to a destructive end and that we are taught
and order he can call his but the substance of all is theirs as to Justification by works and from them in common with the Socinians and Arminians as to Justification by Faith as an Act or Worke. This I could easily make evident by affixing but marginall quotations of those Popish and Arminian Authours to this Worke whom in every particle hee followeth as having spoken the same things before him if I had now that which once I had that which might be called a Library By how much the more I admire some that make their concourse confluence to him from all parts as to an Oracle to learne from him that which at home by their owne fire Eckins Hosius Vega c. or the more ancient Schoolemen before them or Beâ—â—arminâ— with the Jesuits and Arminians since them would have taught them more at large or which besides other hundreds of our Divines one Chamier in his 3 Tome of his Panstratia would have given them to understand at large together with a large and full confutation of all as to the Papists Yet see with what confidence Mr. Baxter speaketh It is most clear and beyond all dispute c. What is so cleare that our proper compleat and actuall justification c. This is cleare by Scripture Yet neither hath he alleadged or can alleadge any one Scripture that tels us of or teacheth any such justification The Papists tell us indeed of a two-fold Justification but both in this life They say Christs judgement or sentence or our account and reckoning not our justification shall thus pass in the last day The Arminians indeed say as Mr. Baxter and hee hath learned to speake as confidently as they proving as little as they Now what boldness is it to call that from a pretended cleare testimony of Scripture our Actuall most Proper compleat Justification which the Scripture doth in no place call or bid us to call Justification in any sense or con-consideration we would grant to Mr. Baxter the use of his owne Phrase and use it with him if he would understand by the Justification in the day of Judgement onely either the publication and open declaration of the justification before given and received or the conferring on Believers the Glorious and eternall fruits above of their justification here or their exemption from the sentence of vengeance which shal be then pronounced against from condemnation which shal be then executed upon the unbelieving world in which sense it is sometimes indeed in Scripture called our Redemption and the day of Redemption to the Saints which to the world will be an evill day a day of judgement But this will not satisfie him and the Scripture grants no more so that we cannot please him without displeasing God Againe when he saith our most Proper Justification will be at the great Judgement according to our workes and according to what wee have done in the flesh whether it be good or evill Doth he meane first that the measure of our justification wil be according to the measure of our works great works and a great and full justification a little Treasury of workes and a little corner of justification This agrees not with his owne phrase in tearming it a compleat justificacation Nor will it cohere with the definition that he gives to this justification Thes 39. making it to consist in Gods acquitting from the Accusation and condemnation of the Law This Act of God or of Christ doth not recipere magis minus hee that hath more works cannot be said to bee more or he that hath less to be less acquitted but iâ— at all acquitted then compleatly acquitted acquitting and not acquitting being contradictories that admit of no medium but the one or other must stand in all its force Or 2. doth he mean that the being or not being of justification doth follow the being or not being of our Works no works and no justification but if works then justification will it not hence necessarily follow both that many which have died in Christ shall be condemned viz. all that after their union to Christ by the Spirit departed out of this life before they had time and oportunity to doe such works as Mr. Baxter after instanceth and many that never believed in Christ never were in Christ shall bee justified by Christ in the last day viz. such as have lived and died such as the Apostle Paul was before his conversion touching the Righteousnesse which is by the Law blamelesse Phil. 3. 6. and that of sincerity in opposition to hypocrisie and vaine glory walking in all good Conscience before God As for faith in Christ hee doth not heere touch upon and Acts 23. 1 whether any of his reasons which hee brings to confirme his Thesis will infer it we shall see in examining them 3. When he saith that Christ at that great Assize will not give his bare will of Purpose as the reason of his proceedings c. Let him say whether his intent in this passage were not to cast an Odium upon the Protestants as if they so taught And except hee can produce any one man that hath so taught and hath not still asserted that the damnation of the damned shall be for their sinnes and the glorification of the glorified a free gift of God for the satisfaction which Christ hath made for them with reference to their being in Christ Let him confess that he hath slandered them 4. In the rest that is contained in this Thesis we finde nothing but contradictions his unsaying and gainsaying of what he had before said A little before pag 294 295. to destroy that interpretation of James which our Divines bring that when he speakes of justification by workes hee meanes the declaring to men by works the truth of their Faith and Justification the man is angry and cries out An usurped Judgement and Justification I affirme The World is no lawfull Judge of our Righteousnesse before God neither are they competent or capable Judges of our Righteousnesse or unrighteousnesse neither are works a certaine Medium or evidence whereby the world can know us to be righteous for the outward part an hypocrite may performe and the inward part Principles and ends of the worke they cannot discern Why was it that hee was so hot there against the possibility of manifesting to men the truth of our Righteousness It was against his Cause there to owne it Here contrariwise Justification in the last day must passe by workes to declare to the World not only the righteousnes obedience of the justified but also the equity of the Justifier and to stop every month from speaking against either And now the world is no longer an usurping but a lawfull Judge not an insufficient but a competent and capable Judge not onely of mans righteousness but of Christs equity in judgement and works are become a certaine Medium and evidence to manifest both to the world How comes this sudden change
how different a sense from Mr. B. the Protestants take the word Condition hath been before expressed 2 But in that sense in which they that use it take it it is one thing to be the condition of the New Covenant another to be the condition of Justification which is but one of many benefits of the Covenant of Grace Had Alsteed in the Explication of himself affirmed holiness of life a condition of justification we should have had it at the full from Mr. B. About the second thing wherein he alledgeth this mans testimony I know no man questioning Mr. B. Neither is his next Testimony alledged from Sadeel any thing of all the things wherein Mr. B. joyneth with the papists against the Protestants therefore I spare the labour to transeribe it B. 4 Rivet in disputat de satisfactione God was not bound to accept the satisfaction performed by another though sufficient c. Therefore there was a necessity that a Covenant should intercede and God himself propound a Mediator That there must an agreement intercede on his part who was satisfied without which the satisfaction had been in vain Idem ibid. Thes 4 5 6. The act which in satisfaction God performeth is of a supreme judge relaxing his own Law and transferring â—he penalty of it upon another so that in this relaxation Gods supreme dominion may be observed c. And by the transferring the penalâ—y from the sinner and exacting it of the surety the relation of a party offended as such is remâ—ved from God c. Jâ— 4 12. God did relax his Law as being positive and so relaxable it is abrogate c. The rest is off from the Quâ—stion To what purpose he here produceth the Testimony of this famous Doctor except it be to declare his consent with himself and Grotius that the Law is not abrogated but relaxed onely by means of Christs mediation I know not If so Rivet hath nothing for him but much directly against him 1 He affirms what no rationall man ever denied that the Grace of God is free and not bound How else should it be Grace 2 Yea it is free not onely from Co-action but from absolute necessity also Onely the purpose of God being presupposed that he would so save by grace as that no one title of his justice should fall it was necessary there should be the interceding of a Covenant and a Mediator But is this to any other purpose then what he concludes with viz. to fill up the vacant pages p. 188. 3 That there must also an agreement or Covenant to this end pass between the Father and â—he Son is ours not his doctrine 4 The relaxation of the Law in passing this Covenant between the Father and the Son is the common doctrine of all protestants as also that this is an act of Supream dominion of God that is under no Law But when this Covenant is ratified so that Christ becomes the undertaker and God the accepter of satisfaction in relation to them for whom the satisfaction is made so that the penalty of the Law as to their sins is transferred upon Christ whether the Law be not so abrogate to them that they are no longer under the Curse of it is the thing in question And here Dr. Rivet gives his verdit for us against Mr. B. That to these the Law is abrogate and God no more stands in the relation of a party offended against them What more proper sword-man could he have brought forth to have hewn in pieces his own Cause B. 5 Dr. Twiss vindic grat and against Cotton consid of Til. Syn. Dort c. What doth he mean by citing the Testimony of this Doctor so frequently and catching fragments from him whom he knows in the whole bulk of his works to destroy what himself would set up yea though he complains against him for erecting the main pillar of Antinomianism will he at length become his Disciple and build pillars with him Dr. Twisse doth enough wash his hands from Mr. Br doctrine even in these passages here cited from him as I could fully manifest But because I see the task would be tedious to examine particularly every particular testimony which he citeth The same persons speaking in severall of the quoted places the same thing and many speaking no more then one at once hath said before I shall therefore abridge my self in shewing in generall the dissenting judgment of those writers from him however he would deceive his Reader with a credulous opinion that they consent with him This will be done with an easie labour when contrariwise to speak singularly to every singular testimony would not yeeld forth fruit worthy the labour First then all the Testimonies of Dr. Twisse Append. p. 172 173. That of Junius p. 173. of Pareus Piscator Aretius p. 174. Dr. Willet p. 179 180. Mr. Burges of Justification p. 187. are here compiled to tell them that are no friends to the doctrine of grace though it alone must befriend them if they will be saved that all these Divines consent with him in his doctrine fiâ—st of a universall conditionall redemption or justification purchased by Christ without any more effectuall satisfaction made to the justice of God for them that shall be saved then for them that shall be damned and secondly that morall obedience and good works are Concauses or Collaterall conditions with faith to justification To manifest how faithfull he is in these his allegations I shall briefly express what the judgment of all Protestants is about these points that the advised Reader may judge whether these dissent from the rest and prepared the way for Mr. Br to prosecute his Assertions 1 They grant that the promulgation of righteousnes life is to be made universally conditionally to all God knoweth who are his but the Heralds of his grace know not Therefore by the command of Christ they are to testifie this word of life to all without exception promising upon condition of beleeving in the name and by the word of Christ righteousness and salvation In mean time they meintein Christ hath satisfied onely for those that the Father hath given him so effectually as that by vertue of Christs purchase they shall receive power from above to beleeve unto salvation 2 They are wont oft to use the word salvation as the Scripture also doth for glorification hereafter and so take it as a distinct thing from justification and involve into the condition of salvation more then into the condition of Justification 3 By the word Condition they understand oft all the necessary antecedents and sometimes also the necessary consequents either of justification or salvation But so as they term such Antecedents the conditions without which going before those ends cannot be attained and those Consequents the conditions without which following we cannot attain the certain knowledge that we are justified and inrighted to glory 4 That as oft as they speak of conditions of justification they
Gospel let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. saith the Holy Ghost but whether Mr Baxter doth in this Treatise bring us another Gospel his Doctrine in the Examination thereof will manifest 4 I would that this his Treatise did speak him out to be so strictly and tenderly conscientious as his friends proclaim him I should then either in person have made recourse to him to communicate my thoughts to him or written in another tone in the spirit of meeknesse to him to have received fuller satisfaction from him if my impotency could not have ministred some information to him But we shall find in what he writes many things that may work in us a jealousie of the sincerity of a sanctified Conscience in him I shall here mention some generals leaving the rest untill we come to except against the particulars One thing that occasioneth this jealousie is the want of ingenuity truth and simplicity in his Assertions For one instance hereof we need not step further then to the title of the work where he affirms it to be published especially for the use of the Church of Kederminster in Worcestershire Can any man that hath but glanced an eye on the surface of humane literature think him to mean as he speaketh Either we must conclude that he hath the very spirit of all Philosophicall and Metaphysicall learning which he breaths forth as effectually upon his Disciples as Knipperdoling did the Holy Ghost upon his Anabaptists or else his Church for the greatest number of its members is not in a capacity of understanding him That his Church by his presidency in it is on a sudden become a Najoth in Ramah every Saul that comes neer it doth philosophari if not prophetare so that ex ejus Ludo tanquam ex equo Trojano innumeri principes exiêre Pauls Princes I mean Princes in secular wisedome and learning 1 Cor. 2. 6. 8. else if his people have no such inspiration above other Churches surely the most of them stagger at the first word in the title of the Book understand not the tenth part of his sacred subtle distinctions but in most things that he saith he is to them a Barbarian and they to him Nay Mr Baxter is not a novice he knowes where and for what mouths to chew his morsels and to whom to give them to be chewed It was especially for the nimble wits and logicall Teachers of the Churches that this broth was boyled as I shall shew more fully afterward that having misled the leaders he might by them mislead their flocks also 2 And as little ingenuity and truth is there in him where he quoteth some whom he against his stomach cals Orthodox Divines and from some locutions and fragments of their sentences concludes them to be of his Judgement when he knowes their Doctrine about Justification to be so diametrically opposite to his as hell to heaven and Antichrist to Christ so that if they be Orthodox himselfe must needs be Hetorodox This he well knowes but his ingenuity and single-heartednes hides it and pretends the contrary 3 Is not his face Ferry-man-like one way and his motion another when the whole tenor of what he writes is not to set up any new opinion but to erect again and put life into that cursed Heresie of the Papists Justification by Works yet to hide his purpose from them that see not or will not see he sometimes solemnly professeth before God that it is no affectation of singularity that drew him to this Judgement at other times falls foul with the Papists telling us that no advantage is to be given to the Papists in this Doctrine of Justification when himselfe all the while is ploughing their field and strengthening their hands to the offence of all the truly wise and godly what hypocrisie sembling and dissembling is this Why doth he acquit himselfe of that which no man chargeth upon him What understanding Reader of him can harbour one thought of his bending to singularity It is plain to every eye that is open that he walks not solitary but hath thronged himselfe into the communion of the Holy Mother Church and fellowship of all her Saint Popish Schoolmen Monks Fryers and Jesuites That his study is to lay an odium implicitely and in the dark upon us I mean not onely all the Orthodox Divines but also all the Reformed Churches that have been or now are that they are all guilty of singularity seperation and Apostacy in departing from the Romish Synagogue in the Doctrine of Justification therefore hath he spread his nets to catch as many as he can to carry them back into Babylon againe Let Mr Baxter have as he hath a confident and swelling opinion of his owne abilities but let him not so abuse all others as if star-like their light must be totally dazled at the approach of his supposed sun-beams Wretched England if all her Seers are become blind and none can discern Christ from Antichrist even in his mystery Nay let him know that there are many which see and detest what he hath written no lesse then if it had been sent by the Popes own Legate to beguile Ingenuity truth and sincerity would have acted another way Mr Baxter if he had been seasoned therewith would have plainly acknowledged that he had examined the Controversie between us and the Papists about Justification that as far as his comprehension can reach he finds them in the truth and us erroneous and then should have alledged the Scriptures and other Arguments which they produce for the establishing of their Tenents and the Exceptions which in the Reformed Churches have been made against such Arguments and shewed the invalidity of those Exceptions in no wise answering or weakning the Popish Reasons by means whereof his judgement and conscience force him to side with them and not with us Thus candour and conscience would have wrought upon him for he cannot deny but that both he closeth with them in the same conclusions and that all the Scriptures Arguments and distinctions scarce any excepted which he brings for the promoting of such Conclusions are taken from the Papists and have been answered over and over a hundred times by our Divines Therefore to set forth his Assertions as new and to annex his Reasons for the confirmation thereof as now first heard of argues intolerable impudency in his daubing and dissembling To have dealt thus candidly and conscientiously would have excited many learned and holy men to a lovely conference with him which now contemn him as a seducer and seduced but if this had been done where should the crooked Serpent and working of Satan and Deceivablenasse of unrighteousnesse which still accompany that Man of sin and those that beare his marke have appeared 2 Thess 2. 9 10. 4 And his doublenesse and liegerdemain is no lesse exercised in that thorow-out his Treatise he is ever and anon sparkling his fire-brands against the Antinomians thereby secretly instilling into his unwary Readers that it
argument with Mr. Baxters set forth by Osorius not as this man under the name of a Protestant but ingenuously professing himself a Papist Among other I may as fitly apply these passages of Mr. Fox to Mr. Baxters work as he did it to the popish Bishop Si quisquam alius preter Osorium c. If any other man save Osorius had published this Book saith he but I say were it not that some unexceptively learned and godly Divines did thorow I know not what mistake favour and even patronize this Tractate Diceremei aperté atque in os Pestem publicae Christianorum saluti labem Religioni graviorem majorem D. Paulo Scripturis Prophetis injuriam inferre neminem unquam potuisse quam his libris ostenditur i. e. I would tell openly and to his teeth that no man ever could bring in a more grievous plague to the common safety of Christians or blemish to Religion or greater injury to St. Paul the Scriptures and Prophets then is held forth in this Book And p. 4. Ita sentio c. Philosophum tâ— quidem satis Platonicum Rhetorem non male Ciceronianum video at Theologum vero parum mihi Crede Evangelicum neque ad Causam ipsam justitiae Christianae perorandam satis exercitatum i. e. This is my opinion c. in the frame of this work I see thee a Philosopher enough Platonicall and a Rhetorician not much beneath Cicero but a Divine little seasoned with the Gospel and unfurnished to treat of that Christian Righteousnesse that tends to justification And pag. 11. while he disputeth and teacheth us many things of righteousnesse and justification there is nothing for us to learne that comes home to the matter not a mite that may further but very much that may hinder salvation And pag. 6. he likens him to Celsus Antipho mentioned by Origen who when they wrote most eagerly against the eruth callâ—d their Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word or treatise of truth so this man entitles his Book A discourse of Justifying Righteousness I had almost said Aphorisms of Justification at ita ut nihil contra Veram Justitiam vel justificationem dici possit hostilius i. e. But so that nothing can be spoken more hostilely or hatefully against true righteousnesse and justification All this is no lesse true of and pat unto Mr. Baxters than B. Osorius his work But much more pernicious in Mr. Baxters because he hideth his poyson under the name and pretence of an Orthodox and Cathedrall Divine and a great Antagonist to Popery But of the matter of the work I have delivered my judgment before and shall have occasion to examine it when I come to the bulk of his Treatise Only at present I transmit the Reader that would in a breviary find what the substance of his Doctrine is to the second part of this Answer Chap. 16 17 and neer the end of Chap. 22. where he may read in how many particulars he holds the same Tenet with the worst and transcends in many things the more moderate of the Papists yea of the very Jesuits Here I shall speak only of the form and artifice of the work upon what foundation he hath laid by what pillars he supports his own assertions and with what Engins and Machinations hee oppugneth the sacred truth and judgment of all Orthodox Divines whom he makes his adversaries In all this he followeth his Masters the Schoolmen and Jesuites baulking the Scriptures and laying maximes of Philosophy and carnall or at least humane Reason as the foundation of his whole building walls and pillars it up with sophisticall Arguments Distinctions quodlibâ—tary subtleties raising every where dust and vapours to cloud and darken the Sun of truth that he may have the opportunity with his ignis fatuus to toll men out of the safe and sure way into the boggs and most excrementitioâ—s parts of Popery Indeed sometimes he quotes Scriptures in heaps as they were prepar'd to his hands by Fryars and Jesuits and lets them out without measure or tale telling us that he will stand to and be tryed by the Scriptures but scarce at any time vouchsafing to make known what hee would diduce thence and how and many times not affording the labour to name the words and then hyeth back to his Sanctuary St. Sophistry again declaring both at how cheap a rate he valueth the sacred word not deigning either to cite the words or at best to tell us what he thinks he hath found in them when contrariwise if he cite any thing out of the heathen Philosophers or their followers the Popish Doctors unnamed he is very busie to presse and improve it to his advantage and withall that his meaning is to be tryed by the boon sonns of the unholy Catholick Church therefore turns us over to them for our in formation what may be gathered from the Scriptures produced himselfe passing by it as a thing already done to his hands by them Now because the main strength of Mr Baxter and his leaders in fighting against the verity of the Gospel consisteth in this subtle and unscripturall way of disputation it shall not be impertinent to digresse a while in discussing what force there is in sophisticall or to use milder words Logicall Philosophicall and Metaphisicall argumentations to confirm or infirm Evangelical Doctrines In Natural Moral Civil and Oeconomical questions they may be I acknowledg very usefull Yea Logick in its sober and moderate use applyed as an instrument to assist in the contexture and retexture of Scriptures to finde out the sense and meaning thereof and further as by discreet joyning of Gospel positions together it helpeth to elicite sure and sound conclusions not at all drawing the question out of its own sphere the Scriptures to be judged and concluded by the nicities and quiddities of other besides Scripture-learning may be profitably used in Evangelicall questions But neither Logick it selfe beyond this nor Philosophy or the Metaphysicks at all have any force to prove any thing in Gospel-matters I know what to expect for such a discourse upon this subject I shall be jeered at to be the Fox in the Fable that being without a tayl to lessen his shame in a generall counsell of Foxes made an Oration declayming much against the discommodities which Foxes had by their tails and labouring to perswade them all to rid themselves of such a discommodity that he might make the shame common and then not the whole but a share of it only would be his Gal. 6. 14. 1 Cor. 2. 2. Be it so I neither arrogate nor usurp to my self the praise of humane learning In reference to salvation and justification God forbid that I should glory in any thing but in the Crosse of Christ or should determine to know any thing save Christ and him crucified To plead my righteousness before God and against Satan the simplicity of the Gospel plenarily furnisheth and contenteth me leaving it to Mr.
judgment nor to admit any thing what another hath introduced of his will and judgment Apostolos Domini habemus auctores qui nec ipse quicquam ex suo Tertul. l. de prescript advers Haereticos Arbitrio quod inducerunt elegerunt sed acceptam a Christo disciplinam fideliter nationibus adsignaverunt i. e. We have the Apostles of the Lord herein our authors or patterns who neither made choise of any thing from their owne invention to impose upon Christians but faithfully delivered to the Nations the discipline which they had received from Christ So that if an Angel from heaven shall preach any other doctrine let him be accursed And having mentioned some doctrines not of Christs prescribing pronounceth of all such Hae sunt doctrinae hominum Daemoniorum prurientibus auribus natae de ingenio sapientiae saeculi c. i. e. These are Doctrines of men and Devills sprung forth from itching ears of the nature of the wisdome of the world which the Lord calling foolishnesse hath chosen the foolish things of the world even to the confusion of Philosophy it self Ea est n. Materia sapientiae saecularis c. For this Philosophy is the matter of worldly wisdome a rash interpreter of the nature and dispensations of God from it Heresies are suborned And having particularizâ—d what severall heresies have been foysted into the Church from the severall sects of Philosophers and what from all conjoyned and inveighed against Aristotles Logick as an enemie to Christian Religion he thus breaks forth Quid ergo Athenis Hierosolymis Quid Academiae Ecclesiae Quid haereticis Christianis Nostra institutio de particu Solomonis est c. Viderint qui Stoicum platonicum Dialecticum Christianismum protulerunt c. i. e. what then hath Athens to do with Jerusalem the Academy with the Church Hereticks with Christians Our Institution in Religion is out of the porch of Solomon c. Let them look to it that have hatched out a Stoicall Platonicall and Logicall Christianity to us We have no need of curiosity after Christ nor of inquisitivenesse after the Gospel When we believe viz. Christ and his Gospel wee desire nothing beyond believing For this we believe first that there is not viz. in Philosophy or other Arts any thing that we ought to believe unto salvation beyond the Gospel of Christ And a little after he that is not satiâ—fied with the Scripture but seekes further authority from reason and Philosophy his curious inquisitivenesse argues him either not to believe or else to be vain-glorious in seeking after the praise of worldly wisdom therefore annexeth this counsell Cedat curiositas fidei cedat gloria saluti i. e. let curiosity give place to faith and vain-glory stoop to salvation So much and much more not unworthy the reading hath Tertullian in this Book And none will easily affirm that Tertullian condemns that learning which himselfe wanted to hide his own nakedness All his polemicall works or controversall writings declare the contrary specially his book against Hermogenes where having to deale with one that little regarded the Scriptures sets upon him in his own fortresse and assails him with his own weapons and philosophically convinceth the Philosophaster and dialectically the Sophister in his own arts and element confuting and confounding him But some may object that seeing he holds the use of these arts unnecessary and hurtfull to Christian Religion why doth himself make use of them Himself both moves and answers the question else-where and thus puts the question Whether ohere be not some Tertul. de Anima lib. truths to be found in philosophy and 2ly whether a Christian may not in some case make use of it in his disputations His answer is somewhat large the summ and brief of it runs in this tenor That it is not to be denyed but there are some truths delivered by Philosophers in the more common and open things of Divinity i. e. as I granted before in naturall and morall things and those we are to take up not for the authority of the Phylosophers who by the groping light of Nature have by a kind of blind happinesse found out and delivered the same but for the authority of God who by his undeceiving word hath manefested it to us and further that in our disputes with such to whom the prescripts of philosophy are more authoritative and authentick than the oracles of the word when it may be done without prejudice to the word we may retort upon the adversarie his own arguments and stop his mouth with testimonies of Philosophers which to him are most authentick Nevertheless it is the safest and most pious way when wee treat with Hereticks that professe Christians to hold them close to the Scriptures Aufer Haereticis quae cum Ethnicis Tertul. lib. de Resur carnis sapiunt saith he ut de solis scripturis questiones suas sistant stare non potuerint i. e. Take from the Heretieks those arguments which they draw from heathen learning that they may state their questions from the Scriptures alone and they will not be able to stand With Tertullian consented the judgment of the sound and orthodox Fathers which lived after him during the first six hundred years in the Christian Church and my purpose was to demonstrate it from the very words of such of them as I have read but finding the Preface swelling above its measure already and the little or no use which they make of these pieces of learning in their works enough declaring their judgments that they held the same useless and superflouâ— at least in all their writings holding thewselves fast to the word not medling with prophane arts to help or back the Gospel of Christ saving when they were necessitated to disabuse the people in discovering the fallacies of the Manichees Arrians and other sophistical Hereticks I think it more pertinent to ease my self of this burthen By the way only noting that as Julian when he gave his mind once inordinately to the study of philosophy and coveted to be a learned and philosophical Christian did quickly declare himself to be an Apostat and no Christian So the like apostacy no doubt by the like means befell many others though not openly declared And this must needs follow in part upon all such as make not the word to be the whole foundation of their faith but so farr only as it hath reason and philosophy consenting with it But the word of the Gospel is transcendâ—nt above the reach of Philosophy and natural reason they cannot comprehend it to give testimony to it so that to make reason the touch-stone of Gospel-doctrines and truths is the ready way to apostatize from Christ and his Gospel although the self-deceivers declare not their apostacy but profess Christianity still To be a Christian only so far as the very extracts and spirits of natural reason suggest cause so to be is to be a Christian only
was not executed on him This is a clear but an intolerable consequence 6 Scripture plainly teacheth that all men even the Elect are under the Law till they believe and enter into the Covenant of the Gospel Therefore it is said Jo. 3. 18. He that beleeveth not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him ver 36. And we are said to believe for remission of sins Acts 2. 38. Mark 1. 4. Luke 24. 47. Acts 10. 43. 3. 19. which shew that sin is not before remitted and consequently the Law not repealed but suspended and left to the dispose of the redeemer Els how could the redeemed be the children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. The circumcised are debtors to the whole Law Gal. 5. 3 4. And Christ is become of no effect to them but they that are led by the Spirit are not under the Law and against such there is no Law Gal. 5. 18 23. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin and so far under the Law no doubt that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that beleeve Gal. 3. 22. We are under the Law when Christ doth redeem us Gal. 4. 5. See also Ja. 2. 9 10. 1 Tim. 18. 1 Cor. 15. 56. Gal. 3. 19 20 21. Therefore our deliverance is conditionally from the curse of the Law viz. if we we will obey the Gospel And this deliverance together with the abrogation of the Ceremoniall Law is it which is so oft mentioned as a privilege of believers and an effect of the blood of Christ Which deliverance from the curse is yet more full when we perform the conditions of our freedom And then we are said to be dead to the Law Rom. 7. 4. and the obligation to punishment dead as to us ver 6. but not the Law void or dead of it self 7 Lastly all the Scriptures and Arguments p. 60 61. which prove that afflictions are punishments do prove also that the Law is not repealed For no man can suffer for breaking a repealed Law nor by the threats of a repealed Law yet I know that this Covenant of works continueth not to the same ends and uses as before nor is it so to be preached or used We must neither take that Covenant as a way to life as if now we must get our salvation by fulfilling its conditions nor must we look on its Curse as lying on us remediless Alas for the conscience of this man I know saith he that this Covenant of works continueth not c. yet against knowledg and against conscience will he not only teach the contrary but with all Jesuiticall arts labour to screw it into the judgments of men that are more Logicall then Theologicall How hath he suspended our expectation with promises that in and under the 13 Thesis he would bring his Reasonâ— to prove 1 That the Law as a Covenant of works is not become null and void to believers p. 79. that they are not discharged in this life from the curse of the Law p. 82. But that 2 They are under the Law as a Covenant of works still after that they are in Christ and partakers of of his Redemption Why had he not by and by proved it but that he might Bellarmine-like first busie his Reader with Sophisticall distinctions and disputes untill he had forgotten the state of the Question and then prove what he would not what he should to his forgetfull Reader For so there is not the least gry or jota in all his Arguments here that doth so much as glance upon the things that he was to prove but a labouring to confirm things which no one of those whom he makes his adversaries doth or did ever Question much less deny So that all these his Arguments are meer impostures not as he tearms them Reasons to confirm the Doctrines which he pretends to prove For first his five first Arguments or rather those three in his Thesis which in the Explication he sub-divides into five and the seventh also in the Explication tends only to prove that God hath not did not revoke repeal and extinguish the Law that it should have no more a being or remain a Law to the sons of men assoon as Adam had sinned and a promise of redemption by Christ was made Gen. 3. 15. who ever taught or thought so or what is this to prove that the Saints after they have suffered and satisfied in and by Christ the whole penalty of the Law for all their transgressions of the Law are not delivered from it as a Covenant of works Secondly the other Argument which he puts in the sixth place goes about to prove that unbelievers are under the Law And this is as potent a reason to prove believers to be under the Law as if I should thus argue Mr. Baxter is a Jesuite because Bellarmine and Maldonat were Jesuiteâ— oâ— that Mr Baxter is not the Teacher of the Church at Kederminster because Robin Hood and little John are not Teachers there This might suffice as a full Answer to his seven Arguments and to manifest his sin and shame in using them But I shall add something by way of Explication to make that which I have said plain to the weakest Not imitating Mr. Baxter who under a pretence of Explication doth in most places totally darken what was before cleer and plain First then I grant to Mr. Baxter that if Christ had from the beginning of sins entrance into the world repealed and in the proper and full sense of the word abrogated the Law those five consequences which he mentioneth in his 5 first Arguments would follow 1 That no sin but that of Adam and finall unbelief is so much as threatened with death the one being forbidden by the Law while it was in force the other by the Gospel that is still unquestionably in force Nay not any thing else in reference to the old Covenant but that of Adam should be a sin because sin is the transgression of the Law and where there is no Law there can be no transgression 2 That Christ by his satisfaction for us prevented not the wrath deserved viz. otherwise then by Adams sin but the desert of wrath 3 Neither doth he properly pardon any such sin for where no Law is there is no sin where no sin there is nothing to be pardoned 4 And then might we plead innocency or our non deserving of death except before excepted for our discharge at judgement 5 And Christ in suffering did not bear the punishment of any other sins of mankinde besides the fore-mentioned Thus we grant Mr. B. five of his Arguments without any detriment to our Caus or advantage to his Believers are as fully freed from the Law as if he had slept while he thus disputed For all these his Arguments lean upon a false supposition If the Law be so repealed and abrogated as is before supposed then and not els will these cursed Consequences take place But
the law is not so repealed c. therefore none of these will follow For we hold that Believers are therefore delivered from the law as a Covenant of works not because the law was almost from the very beginning repealed or abrogated from being any longer a Covenant of works but because the law as a Covenant of works hath executed upon them in Christ all its penalty for all their sins and hath therefore now no more power to question them as hath been more copiously declared before The same I say also to the seventh Argument as it pointeth to the not repealing of the law whatsoever els is in it hath been in answer to the place cited sufficiently spoken to His sixth Argument about which he laboureth more then about all the rest though as I said a little before it makes nothing to his present and explicit purpose proving onely unbelievers to be under the law for this is nothing to believers yet it makes way to an implicit or secret end which he hath and determineth to prosecute with much ardency in the following parts of this Treatise There are two sorts of unbelievers the one under a temporary the other under a finall unbelief the elect and the reprobate Mr. Baxter here driveth with all his force to prove both under the law because he conceiveth that if he prove the elect before they beleeve in Christ are under the law and so granted to be it may be proved much the more easily and plainly that they are so also after they become believers For many of the strongest Arguments which are for the one are for the other and which are against the one are against the other also So that it is hard to bring reasons for the affirming or denying of either without giving advantage for the like affirming or denying of both I purpose not here to anticipate but to suspend the dispute upon this Question untill Mr. B. shall shew his face openly as a Challenger here he doth but as it were peep behind the Curtain in comparison of what he saith afterwards with full expressions of himself Yet that I may not be forced then to retreat hither again to what he doth here deliver but answer every thing in its owne place I shall at present examine those Scriptures which he here produceth whether and how far they prove elect unbelievers to be under the law as a Covenant of works And to clear up a way to the beâ—ter understanding of these and the like testimonies of Scripture I shall prefix two Positions visibly and apparently springing from the pure fountain of Gods word First that all which are elected from eternity shall in their appointed times come unto Christ and persevere in him by a living Faith I mean not onely all but onely these and none besides them As many as were ordained to eternall life beleeved when Christ was and Acts 13. 48 so still do or shall believe when Christ is or shall be preached to them If the Gospel be hid from any viz. so that they believe not in Christ manifested by the Gospel to them it is to them that perish c. 2 Cor. 4. 3. i. e. to them that are not elect but reprobates All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to I will in no wise cast out or suffer to be lost John 6. 37. To come to Christ is to believe truly in him such shall never be lost never fall away or make shipwrack of their Faith But who are they whom God giveth to Christ that they may beleeve in him Thine they were and thou gavest them me saith our Saviour Mr. B. will say they were in a peculiar manner to be Gods people at least by election and therefore given to Christ that by faith in him they might be saved Jo 17. 6. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but unto them that are without all these things are done in Parables that seeing they may see and not perceive c. Mark 4. 11 12. Why was it given to the one part to know the mystery life and spirit of the Gospel to the other onely the outside and letter thereof They were within these without the lines of Gods election They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would without doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us 1 Joh 2. 19. Not of us he means not of the number of them that are called according to Gods purpose of Election Rom. 8. 28. for then they could not have faln away All should have wrought for good to them So that hence it followeth that every elect unbeliever shall come to and continue in the Faith and whosoever doth not so is manifested not to have been elected of God 2 That justification or remission of sins may be considered in a threefold respect 1 As it is in God 2 As it is delivered over by God into the hands of Christ our Mediator 3 As it is by Christ brought home unto and given into the bosom and possession of any man As it is in God I shall pretermit to speak much of it any where but any thing at all untill Mr B. directly and exprâ—sly calls me to it least the man should be tormented before his time For he hates the very naming and thought thereof as an Act Immanent in God cane pejus angui and is ready Jew like to rend his cloaths and fling dust in the aire at any mention thereof as an article that stands in enmity to his justification by works 2 Then as it is delivered into the hands of Christ we may speak of it without such terrible offence to his patience or setting him into so direfull a commotion conditionally that we will undertake for Christ that he shall be ruled by Mr. B. to do what he appoints with it that is to keep it in his pocket and deliver it to no man but hold all under the Curse of the Law untill the day of judgement we cannot adventure upon such an undertaking nevertheles shall hold forth the truth of God in this case This is that Christ by offering himself a Sacrifice for sin and presenting the Sacrifice of himself unto God in the most Holy place i. e. in heaven at his Mercy-seat hath thereby effectually purchased everlasting redemption and remission of sins and hath received a full absolution and acquittance from the father for all his elect by name So that in Christ they are justified from all sin and freed from the Law as a Covenant of works even while they are unbelievers have this freedom I mean in the hand of Christ though not in their own apprehension and possession Though as to themselves and their own judgments and as to the apprehension of men they are under the Law under wrath yet in Christ they
governed untill his coming That it was he who first preached to Adam salvation by the seed of the Woman and afterward more cleerly to Abraham That it was he also which delivered the Law upon Mount Sinai and added there a second Covenant in shew and sound a meer Covenant of works Do and be Blessed Sin and be Cursed which Covenant alone is expresly called the Old Covenant and is indeed now repealed and abolished from being any more a Covenant saving to them that put themselves under it This was but a temporary Covenant an Appendix to the Covenant before made with Abraham and both this and that with Abraham were but subordinate Covenants to that before mentioned between God and Christ Here now all that were justified before Christs coming in the flesh were justified in Christ by force of the first Covenant made between the Father and the Son The promise to Adam and the Covenants made with Abraham and with the Israelites together with all the Sacraments and signes annexed to all these tended onely to bring them that were justified before in Christ to a reall and sensible participation of it and the comforts thereof by Faith within their own consciences So is it now under the Gospel administration That first Covenant is that by which our justification is compleatly finished in Christ the preaching of Faith in a Covenant way tends onely to this that as many as were before justified in Christ may by Faith have their Justification declared and evidenced to their consciences to fill them with joy unspeakable and full of glory and with that peace which passeth all understanding Not but that Christ could without any such Sub-Covenanting have filled up his elect with all the marrow and mystery of Justification by immediate Revelation from himself as he dealt with Paul the Apostle but that this way made most for his and his Fathers glory both in them that are saved and in them that perish 4 Faith it self much less any other qualification gift or act is not a condition of Justification in foro Dei there Christ hath pleaded our discharge by his blood still maketh intercession for us but a means or instrument by which we receive Christ Jesus and the righteousnes or justification that is in him to our selves for consolation and salvation in foro conscientiae so stood the case in respect of the fore-mentioned under Covenant that of the Law When the Lord Christ had published his Law upon Mount Sinai and given to Israel by Moses all his Judgments and Statutes there now passeth a solemn Covenant betwixt Christ and them the people also every one in person assenting gladly to fulfill all that they might be blessed or if in the least point they should fail to yeeld themselves cursed This Covenant was made more visibly and in every part more strictly after the nature and rule of Covenants then this under the Gospel Yet will any say that this perfect obedience so Covenanted was a condition of their justification and salvation without which none could be justified or saved Then were all damned for no one either did or could perfectly obey Nay it was added because of transgressions saith the Apostle Gal. 3. 19. i. e. as a means so to operate about sin in the discovery of it and the damnation that is by it so also to convince men that they might be driven from all supposition of their own righteousnes and seek righteousnes by Christ alone in whom alone the elect were justified before this Covenant was made In the same manner the holding forth of justification now under the Gospel in the form and likenes of a Covenant Beleeve and be saved beleeve not and perish for ever proveth not Faith to be the condition of the New Covenant as hath been said even the whole preaching of salvation by Christ and injoyning of Faith upon all to receive it is an effect of that First great Covenant of Grace between the Father and the Son and a part of Christs Propheticall Office which he undertook in that Covenant to accomplish in undertaking the Mediatorship between God and Men. An effect of that first Covenant I say For so it was agreed that All which the Father had given to Christ by him to be justified and saved should come to him i. e. beleeve in him Jo 6. 37. To this purpose it was Covenanted on the Sons part to seek and to save that which was lost Luke 19. 10. to call unto him all to participate by Faith of the life light righteousness and salvation that he had received for them Isa 55. 1. Io 7. 37. Ma. 11. 28. This was a part of his Propheticall Office to discover the treasures of Grace in his heart and to envite all to the participation thereof And then on the Fathers part it was Covenanted that he would draw to Christ all the Elect all that he had given to Christ that while the Gospel sounded in their ears he would divinely by his Spirit teach and move their hearts that they shall not but come to Christ Jo 6. 43 44. And lastly it is agreed on the Sons part again that of all that the Father thus bringeth to him he must cast out none lose none but raise them all at the last day to glorification and the reason of all is annexed It is the Fathers will i. e. that which was Covenanted between the Father and him in Heaven and he came down from Heaven not to do his own will i. e. any thing of his private will without the consent of his Father but the will of him that sent him i. e. what was Covenanted between the Father and him and concurrent with the will of both Jo 6. 37 38 39. Thus all that which Mr B. calleth the Covenant of Grace is but an effect or an Article and branch of the Covenant made of old between God and Christ And Faith not so properly termed a condition of justification as an instrument to apprehend the present comfort of it being before ours in Christ 5 That this Covenant of Grace is absolute shall be the work of the next Chapter to evince CHAP. XII That Text of Jer 31. 31 32 33 c. opened and Mr. Baxters elusions by which he would evince that it proveth not a free and unconditionall Covenant answered with some other Argumentations with Mr. Baxter about the same Question I Now come to that Testimony of Jer. 31. 31 32 33. cited in Heb. 8. 8-10 against which Mr. B. so much excepteth That New Covenant there mentioned is called the New Covenant not in opposition to the Old Covenant made in the beginning with Adam but in opposition to that Covenant made two thousand and six hundred years after at least with Israel upon Mount Sinai And that Covenant upon Mount Sinai is called the Old Covenant not in opposition to the Cov of Grace made if not from eternity according to Mr. B. yet by Mr B. acknowledgment almost 3000 years
which is in our selves could be more excellent than that which Christ is made to us untill this new Doctor took the Chair to teach Mysteries and by inverting and misnaming Scripture-phrase hath so taught Nevertheles it behoved Mr. Br having resolved to keep on the triple Crown upon the Popes head by stablishing justification upon works though it were to the uncrowning of Christ to reject uprightnes and to seek after inventions Eccles 7. 29. First he must hold beleevers to be under both Covenants els while he builds up one peece of Babylon he should pluck down another and give his judgment against his holines in one point while he acts the Champion for him in another and adventure with all the loss of his Cause if he keep not as strong hold-fast in the Covenant of works with the one hand as in the Covenant of grace with the other 2 He must call the Condition or means of applying Christ to us or obteining interest in his satisfaction our Righteousnes els he will not be able to evade those Scriptures which assert our Justification by faith But by this feat he thinks himself in a fit posture both to answer this and to bring in all qualifications and works that he pleaseth in a partnership with faith to justifie True will he say we are justified by Faith as a part of our righteousnes and by all other good qualifications and works as other parts of our righteousnes 3 He must call faith and works our Evangelicall righteousnes having seen in what a stinking trance some of his dirty deer brethren in their disputes have been left when they would prove that good works as works of the Law do justifie and how little better they have fared who would have them to justifie onely as works of grace having not had enough subtlety to prove them Gospel or Grace works Need had he therefore to put himself upon strong and strange inventions that himself may not stick in the same mire after them But enough in generall let us hear him deliver his own minde in particulars B. Thes 17. p. 102. As there are two Covenants with their distinct Conditions So is there a twofold Righteousnes and both of them absolutely necessary to salvation The latter member of this proposition is grounded upon the former the Thesis upon the Hypothesis As true is the latter as the former But how true is the former that there are two Covenants and that they have their distinct Conditions First when he saith there are two Covenants he meaneth two Covenants in force to the very Saints in Christ that while they are under grace to salvation they are also under the Law to the Curse and Condemnation This hath been his busines to Confirm in the former part of this Treatise and he owns it in the explication of this Thesis But this is false as in disapproving of his arguments before hath been proved They are no more under the Law who are once under grace Rom. 6. 14. 2ly Neither have the two Covenants their distinct Conditions according to Mr. Br. For Thes 4. he makes the Condition of the first Covenant Perfect Obedience or Righteousnes The same he makes here the Condition of the New Covenant viz. Faith and Obedience but both as integrant parts of our own inherent righteousnes as we have partly seen and shall be forced to see more fully in that which is to come after So that we grant him that as true as there are two Covenants with their distinct Conditions in force to the same persons so true is it that there is a twofold Righteousness and both absolutely necessary to salvation if by salvation he means Justification At falsum prius ergo posterius When he brings proofs to Confirm his assertions he may meet with a larger answer In mean while a simple Negation stands fittest in opposition to his bare affirmation That which he brings in the explication to Confirm it hath been answered over and over before Onely he tells us in the upshot that He will take it as granted To which I answer that there hath been such a generation of men still upon earth so fingerative that will needs take that which was never granted and delivered to them such is the main bulk of Mr. Brs doctrine in this book taken but never delivered to him from God or his Christ Bax. The usuall confounding of these Righteousnesses saith he doth much darken the Controversies about Justification And Mr. Br doth no less cleer the Controversie than an Ecclipse the Sun-beams He proceeds to explain what this twofold Righteousnes is so absolutely necessary to salvation Bax. The legall Righteousness saith he is not in us or consisteth not in any qualifications of our own persons or actions performed by us But it is wholly without us in Christ Thes 18. p. 103. The righteousnes of the New Covenant is the onely Condition of our interest in and enjoyment of the Righteousnes of the old c. Thes 19. p. 107. Our Evangelicall Righteousnes is not without us in Christ as our Legall Righteousnes is but consisteth in our own actions of Faith and Gospel Obedience c. Thes 20. p. 108. What there is more in any of these three positions is transcribed at large before To the 18 Thesis he annexeth in the explication a dispute against the Papists not to Confute them as adversaries to the truth for joyning mans righteousnes with Christs righteousness unto justification for herein he professeth entire Communion with them but to admonish them as his loving brethren to defend this their Conclusion of Justification by their own righteousness not under the terms of their legall but of their Evangelicall righteousness Because the legall righteousnes is unpossible but the Evangelicall righteousnes according to his carving and forming of it is easie to be fullfilled and almost unpossible to be violated Not that the Papists were wholly ignorant of this mystery untill Mr. Br here teacheth them Nay many of them had and pleaded it very artificially before he was born And himself hath learned it of them But he as the most proficient of all their disciples hath more fully improved it so that now he becomes a teacher to his very Masters and exhorts them to learn of him the pious feat and fraud of making use of this distinction yet further than ever they had the wit or grace to devise even to all matters and purposes that tend to the eluding of the word of Christ and the advantaging of the holy mother Church in her doctrine of Justification that is altogether Contradictory to the doctrine of the Scriptures upon the same Argument To the 19th 20th positions he annexeth an explication of both of these and of all that was said in the two former positions also In it we shall finde whatsoever deserveth a fuller Answer than hath been yet given to all and every of these four positions or any thing in all or any of them conteined not
Divines to have sought an evasion Opera quidem legis saith he quatenus sine fide gratia Campian geruntur nihil habere quod ad justitiam conferant Caeterùm opera sanctorum Hominum cùm ejusmodi non sint sed fide gratia referta ideo justificari dicuntur verè coram Deo ex operibus suis non tamen tanquam suis i. e. The workes of the Law as they are done without Faith and Grace have nothing to contribute to Justification nevertheless the workes of godly men are not of that kind but replenished with Grace and Faith therefore are they sayd to bee justified by their workes yet not by workes as theirs but as wrought by the grace of God in them So also Vega the Monk Duplex est Justificatio altera ex gratia operandi infusa Andr. Vega de Just vag 751. altera ex debito Legis seclusa Gratia Excluditur ergo Justificatio illa quae fit seclusa gratia non Justificatio illa quae fit ex operibus gratia adjutis c. i. e. There is a two-fold Justification one of the Grace to work infused into us the other of the debt of the Law without Grace to enable That Justification is excluded which is sought after without Grace not that Justification which is of good works holpen by Grace And Hosius to Hosius elude that of the Apostle We are not justified by works Verum inquit ex operibus iis quae legis sunt aut quae liberi Arbitrii nostri propria existunt quae cum laborant imperfectione nihil ad justificationem conferunt i. e. It is true saith he of those works which are of the Law or done in the strength of Free-will only which in regard they have their imperfection cannot avail to Justification But as for such works as flow from our Free-will as it is set in operation by the over-powering of Gods Grace He concludeth otherwise Not to trouble our selves with what these Sophistical pratlers speak every and each of them severally let us take them collectively in one bunch and body as Mr. Pemble in his Treatise of Justification brings them in both head and tayle great and small thus disputing against Justification by the righteousness which is in Christ without any righteousness of our own intermixed Against this Doctrine they have two exceptions saith Mr. Pemble Pemb. Treat of Just if page 37. 1. That we are not justified by any work of our own viz. that we our selves do by our own strength without the help of Grace But yet we may be justified by some work which we doe viz. by the ayd of Grace such is the work of Faith 2. That wee are not justified by any workes of our own i. e. by any works of the Law but by a work of the Gospel such as Faith is we may be justified By this time it is enough evident that Mr. Baxter fights the Popes battel with the Popes weapons that as he maintaines the Popes cause so he rankes and files himself with the souldiers of the Popes Army who then can give any reason why hee should not be thought as sure a friend either to Christ or at least to Antichrist as are the Priests and Jesuits Onely if for no other yet for this cause Mr. Pemble deserves the brand of an Antinomian which in the following part of his Tractate Mr. Baxter gives him pag. 173. for disgracing this sophisticall shift which is common to other Papists with Mr. Baxter telling us in the fore-quoted place that this distinction of works done without Grace and works done by Grace was devised by one and consequently followed by others that had or have neither Wit nor Grace being a trick to elude the force of such Scriptures as exclude indefinitely all works from Justification c. A spightful speech thus at once to cast dirt in the faces both of Mr. Baxter and all his fratres or Fryars of the holy Mother Church of Rome No marvel if Mr. Baxter though he smooth him somtimes for his own ends yet doth carry him in mind to fit him a penny-worth for it when he thinks he hath caught an advantage against him Neverthelesse though Mr. Baxters ingenuity and plaine dealing seldom keep him company in this dispute and controvâ—rfie yet his subtilty and sophistry fail him never In his former positions before examined he affirms that besides the imputed righteousness we must have a personal righteousness inherent in our selves as absolutely necessary to salvation and justification Here now to make that his assertion sufferable he minceth it in its termes and in this Thesis calls it a performance of conditions and in the Explication an Acting of Duties what before he had called justifying righteousnesse Yea further tels us that some think it a self-ascribing and derogating from Christ to affirm our selves to be but the Actors of those Duties though we professe our selves to do it only by the strength of Grace When contrariwise the question is not about either the requisitenesse of Gospel duties nor about the strength by which they are to be performed herein if Mr. Baxter meaneth as he speaketh wee are agreed but about their office and end to which they are to be performed whether these duties are conditions of our Justification and that the end of our performing them ought to be that we may be justified by the righteousness which consisteth in their performance Doth hee meane to tune up a Palinodiam to recant and eat up his former assertions that he doth here so lenifie the roughness and correct the extravagancy both of his words and matter before delivered Nothing less but hee throws sugar after his poyson both that it may goe down the more quietly what he hath given already to his unwary Readers to drink and that they may be ready without suspition to drink deeper and more deadly draughts of the same poyson which thorow the whole sequele of this his Treatise he makes his business to temper for them I shall there answer more fully where he speakes more fully In the mean time all may see his dealing here to be not faire and logicall but fallacious and sophistical He tels us in the conclusion of his Explication that He will not digress from his intended subject so far as to enter here into a disquisition of the nature and workings of that Grace which doth enable us to perform these conditions but refers us to Parkers Theses de traductione peccatoris ad vitam What that Mr. Parker or his work is I know not But that Mr. Baxter will not here deliver his own judgement I think he doth well For if his judgement in the doctrine of Gods Grace working unto mans conversion and sanctification be not more sound then about the operation of the same Grace to mans Justification his silence will be farre more acceptable then his best argumentations to chaste ears and spiritual minds And little cause have we to expect any
with the constant use of the Scripture And so the Text is thus to be read Repent c. that your sins may be blotted out and that the times of refreshing may come c. upon you In this sense is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken Mat. 6. 5. Lu. 2. 35. Act. 15. 17. Rom. 34. In which soever of all these senses the words be taken this Scripture favours not at all Mr. Bax. neither hath his second justification or pardon in the day of judgement any patronage from it Yea the vanity of this distinction of pardon justification into that which is in Title of Law an◠that which is in sentence of judgement this declarative that constitutive is evident to as many as understand evidences For the whole tenor of scriptures which speakes of the last judgement tendeth to manifest it to be a pronouncing of eternall glory to the Saints because they were justified and before pardoned perfectly righteous in that sin was not imputed to them in this life not a pronouncing of pardon to them that they may be thereby received into glory Let there be any Scripture produced to evince the contrary Or why will Master Baxter have the sentence of the judge and Saviour in the last day called a declarative justification and pardon To whom shall this his sentence declare it to God He knoweth who are his and whom he hath justified and pardoned in himself and thorow Christ before the World was made therefore needs no such declaration To themselves They had in this life the word of the Gospel declaring the truth of Faith evidencing and the spirit of grace witnessing it to them and whether at the very instant they shall be affirmed to have come in spirit from the flames of Purgatory or from under the Altar in Heaven to reassume their bodies for Master Baxter keeps himself reserved in this treatise what he thinkes thereof yet their separation from the reprobates hath enough declared them to be justified so that they need no◠any further declaration to be made therein to themselves Or lastly to the World This might be somewhat usefull to the World and to themselves while they were in the World but is now utterly uselesse when they shall no more return to the World Neither is there need of a voice to declare it to the World where their instantaneous rapture up to Christ in the air to sit with Christ in judging the World shall fully enough demonstrate it And no more doth this Scripture uphold this Justification as in other termes he proposed it calling it Actuall as distinct from that which he terms virtuall All these are but windy notions to fill up the dictionary of his distinctions which have no footing in the word And when all these are fardled together they will quickly be consumed with the fire of Gods jealousie and little steed Master Baxter to dispute out his justification by works in the day of judgement No less vaporous is that which he hath Thes 40. and in its Explication where he distinguisheth most learnedly between a barre and the bar between a Wooden and an Iron Bar between a Bar and a Bar of judgement a primary and secondary bar a direct and a Consequential Bar and all with such sagacity and profoundnesse as passeth all the wisedom of the Holy Ghost in the scriptures to make out unto us pa. 190 191 192 193. B. Thes 40. When Scripture speaketh of Justification by Faith it is to be understood primarily and directly of justification in Law title and at the bar of Gods publick judgement and but secondarily and consequentially of Justification at the bar of Gods secret judgement or at the bar of Conscience or at the bar of the World And in the explication he disputeth about B. The Forum Dei and the Forum Conscientiae the Bar of God and the Bar of Conscience the Bar of God and the Bar of the World the Bar of Gods secret judgement and the Bar of his publick judgement the Bar in heaven before the Angels contradistinct I suppose to the Bar in hell before the Devills At last he gallantly gathers together all these dispersed bars justifying and unjustifying pardoning and condemning us in some sense at all the barrs and in severall senses at severall barrs according as his wit and Sophistry doth give him utterance And to what purpose is all this but to tickle witty wanton and sophistically phantasticall brains flattering them off from the simplicity plainnesse and soundnesse of the Gopsell into a disputative fangled and wordy formality of religion having the spirit and power of Conscience and the word that should regulate it enervate and evapored in to meer froth and bubbles by this questionary distinctionary and colorative shew of learning In the mean while all these barrs are by the subtlety of this Artificer made use of to bar out the poor and simple for whom Christ hath dyed from the due comfort of their justification obscuring to them the Doctrine of grace sending them from Bar to Bar for pardon and peace and leaving them unsetled and hovering to their very dying day yea till they come to the bar of Christ at the judgement day where if they be followers of this mans Doctrine they shall appear no lesse uncertainly and tremblingly before the great judge than the reprobate men and Devills For untill then all the former barrs according to Master Baxter minister no absolute pardon or acquittance to any soul so free from the Curse but that we are left under the curse acquit conditionally that is leave us fast bound to hell as it found us loose the finger to day that it may bind us up hand and foot to morrow Such and so pretiou◠Gospel doth this learned Scribe draw out of his Treasury among his Keder minsterians as by that we have already seen hath been in part manifested and by that which followes in this Treatise will more fully appear When contrary to all this Sophisticall winding circling and labyrinthicall Mazes the Scripture speaking of Justification and condemnation after the tenor of the Covenants makes onely two Barrs of judgment the Bar of justice according to the Law and the Bar of grace or Mercy-seat according to the Tenor of the Gospel or New Covenant affirming all that are judged at the one condemned and all at the other justified That as soon as we are convicted of death and vengeance onely due to us at the former we are carried out in the Spirit of Christ thorow the consecrated way of his purifying blood to seek remission of sinnes at the latter the Throne of grace the all gracious Father from the bar of grace pronounceth to our consciences peace and pardon and joy which shall never be taken from us This is the sole and all-sufficient Justification which the Scripture speakes of speaking properly of justification The subject hath heaped up Treasons against his Prince For this cause the Law apprehends and arraigns him The
but those of Mr. Baxter as far as they relate to it do follow justification 4 The scope of these Scriptures is to urge upon all that draw near to God in prayer to purge out all hatred and purposes of revenge against their brethren from their hearts and the argument by which this duty is pressed is that else it as also any other reigning sin allowed within the heart will make both their persons and prayers an abomination to the Lord. God will not hear will not forgive such as bring while they bring such a devill in their hearts before him they shall depart without any more answer of peace to their souls then they are disposed to give to their brethren against whom they are provoked From these Scriptures therefore we may gather how they are qualifyed which are forgiven and justifyed not by what qualifications and works they have obtained justification That whosoever hath tasted of the pardoning grace of God the same by beholding in Christ the glory of Gods grace as in a glasse is transformed into the same image of grace love mercy goodnesse pity c. towards his brethren as himself hath found in God and sees shining forth upon him from the face of God through Christ 2 Cor. 3. 18. That in whomsoever this mercy and goodnesse of God appears not whatsoever he boasteth of faith and devoutnesse in prayer yet it is certain that he is empty of justifying faith and of the justification which is by faith and so we have here some description of the justifyed and unjustifyed not a precept of duties by which the unjustifyed may attain to be justifyed 5 The three last quotations of Mr. Baxter do subvert utterly all that he built by the former quotations For these Scriptures affirming it to be not indefinitely prayer but the prayer of faith which saveth and obtaineth forgivenesse that not the asking simply but the asking of the faithfull in Christs Name is prevalent that not every one but we know that whatsoever we aske we have our petitions granted do manifest that whatsoever vertue is in prayer it floweth from faith prayer it self is a dead work unlesse faith enliven it and all our works of mercy and forgiving dead works untill faith becomes the living root from which they derive life or rather hath breathed out the life which it hath suckt from Christ our life into them That it is Christs name and mediation that makes all accepted with God and that not to all but to those peculiar ones of Christ that are in union and conjunction with Christ it being a priviledge peculiar to true beleevers that is here mentioned under the word we we have it saith the Apostle the world hath no part in it Esaus forgiving Sauls confession of sin and Simon Magus his prayer for forgivenesse may as in Mr. Baxters last quotation Act. 8. 22. perhaps be so far heard and forgivenesse obtained from the Lord as to the exempting of them from some temporall vengeance but not to interest them in the justification of the Gospell If the cryes and workes of any of these dogs bring them in to partake of the childrens bread it is but in mans judgement alone before God it was their faith and cleaving to Christ yea being in Christ by faith that of dogs made them children and partakers of the Gospell priviledges So these Scriptures in no wise prescribe as I said the duties by or for which we are but delineate the Acts and qualifications of those that are justifyed by Christ So much in generall to the summe of these Scriptures as for the meaning of the severall Scriptures and how Mr. Baxter argues from them as the Papists how the Sophisters for so our men fitly tearm the Papists endeavour from them to prove justification by works and the Protestants answer and confute them I leave to the Reader to fetch from the Commentators themselves whom they shall finde to speake fully as Mr. Baxter knoweth but concealeth not daring to enter the Lists with them The third duty which he brings as coofficiating with Pag. 236. faith to justification is a complexion of duties the whole swarm the vast mountain of duties all that men and Angels can devise to be duty yet that he might declare how he can measure and contain so huge an Ocean in his fist he crusheth them so together as that they may be held in the concave of two Eg-shels love and sincere obedience and their works Fain would he have followed Bellarmine as his shâ—ddow at every turne but he finds his genius somewhat differing from Bellarmines The Cardinall was for prolixity Mr. Baxter is for brevity Bellarmine puts love in the fourth place as operating to justification with faith and thence proceeds to more But Mr. Baxter follows him here to love and weary to go after him any further in particulars shakes hands in love with him and parts from him with good leave in respect of his method but in his matter to hold with him throughout the work The first Scripture which he quotes is the first which Bellarmine alleadgeth thus B. Luk. 7. 47. though I knew in Pinks interpretation of that It seems Pink hath given the right interpretation of that Text which all the Protestants give But Bellarmine interprets it otherwise and must not Christ mean as Bellarmine will have him The words of the Text are these Wherefore I say unto thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much But to whom little is forgiven the same loveth litle What doth Mr. Baxter hence conclude the same with Bellarmine her much love was the ground of the forgivenesse of her many sins and so her love went before her justification and forgivenesse which followed as the fruit or consequent thereof Bellarmine and his fellowrs put authority and holinesse upon this interpretation else would not Mr. Baxter who makes right reason the foundation and rule of his Religion forswear his wit and reason to follow it For it is evident from the Text to all that are not sworn enemies to the truth that the Lord Jesus reasoneth here from the effect to the cause and not from the cause to the effect from the womans great love that many sins were forgiven her causing this love not from the greatnesse of her love as from the cause why so many sins were forgiven her So runs the Text Which will love most he to whom the creditor hath forgiven 500. pence or he Ve. 41 c. to whom he forgave 50 The answer was I suppose he to whom most was forgiven Thou hast well said saith the Lord so it is with this woman she loves much because much was forgiven her Who sees not here the forgivenesse to be the cause of the love not the love of the forgivenesse Or will Bellarmine which affirmes this woman to be Mary Magdalen or Mr. Baxter after him say that while she was yet a Harlot and had seven Devils in her that
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
Even Mr. Pemble himselfe whose words hee can almost if not altogether rehearse without book gives it as the common interpretation of Protestant Writers so that he cannot be ignorant of it Yet he saith nothing to it and saith all to what none denieth Is this sincerity in handling the chiefe point of mans salvation Such as hee begged from God upon his knees or the use of that which he injoyns upon us tenderness in the interpretation of Scriptures But we must leave him in his own way because hee is resolute therein Sith hee will not answer us let us answer him in these things which in stead of an answer to us he would fish from the Text for himself Br. pag. 299. 1. When it is sayd we are justified by works the word by implieth more than an idle concomitancy if they only stood by while Faith doth all it could not be sayd wee are justified by works We grant it doth much yea almost all in the justification wherof James there speaks viz. before men And this is that which he speaketh ver 21. 22. 23. of Abrahams justification by works fulfilling that Scripture which sayth Abraham beleeved God and it was imputed to him for righteousness How did his justification by works fulfill the Scripture which affirmed him to be justified by faith but as this great work and fruit of his faith declared and manifested to men the truth of that Scripture and the truth of his faith by which he was so many yeers before justified B. p. 300. 2. When the Apostle saith by workes and not by faith onely hee plainly makes them concomitant in the procurement or in that kinde of causality which they have especially seeing he saith not as he is commonly interpreted Not by Faith which is alone but By Faith onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All is granted as before of the justification before men The profession of Faith or to say we have Faith is not sufficient without declaring it by works so to justifie us Therefore saith the Apostle Shew me if thou canst thy Faith without thy works and I will shew thee my Faith by my works vers 18. B. 3. Therefore he saith that Faith is dead being alone because it is dead to the use and purpose of justifying for in it selfe it hath a life according to its quality still This appears from his comparison in the former verse 16 that this is the death he speaks of And so works make Faith alive as to the attainment of its end of Justification We grant that the hypocriticall profession of Faith which James reproveth is as all other sinne alive to condemne the unbelievers and unjustified but dead to the use of justifying us in our consciences before God or outwardly before men But that the addition of workes to such a dead Faith can make it alive to justifie a man before God we deny neither doth James affirm though there may be some force that way to his justification before men who are subject to failings in their judgement In the fourth place he findes something to say for and something against the Analysis of Piscator and Mr. Pemble When he would depresse it at the utmost he can onely say that they seeme to faile in the Explication of the 22. verse about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faiths working with Abrahams workes and perfecting by workes In this I leave the Reader to peruse Mr. Baxter and them whom hee opposeth from thence to judge which party layes the surer ground of their interpretation As to the question in hand the working of both together to justifie and declare his faith perfect or sincere to men doth nothing strengthen his assertion or weaken ours The rest that hee hath in this Section are meere words without proofs as also his Answer given to some Objections made on our part and the same so curt that the best examination of them is to leave them unexamined untill he bring somthing to prove them Yet what of all that hee saith heere hath or seemes to have force to some other end I may possibly in its proper place call it into Examination CHAP. VII Argument Mr. Baxters sixth Argument to prove justification by works drawne from the Identity of the Conditions of justification and salvation examined To which are added the Rules which Protestant Writers give for the Right understanding of such Scriptures as promise eternall life to men of such works and qualifications an enquiry into the force of those Scriptures out of which Mr Baxter seeks to evince that eternall life runs upon condition of works A Sixth Argument he draweth from the Identity of Justification and Salvation in relation to the Condition of their procurement and attainment He layes it thus p. 310 B. Thes 78. Our full Justification and our everlasting Salvation have the same conditions on our part But sincere obedience is without all Doubt a condition of our sâ—lvation Therefore also of our Justification We except here against the Terms or Phrases used in the proposition and that 1. against that which by way of distinction hee names our FULL Justification implying thereby that there is an empty or at least partiall maimed and not full Iustification before God as by what he hath oft said before by his own expressing himselfe and his meaning in the Explication of his Thesis he makes evident The Protestants utterly deny this 1. and 2. partiall and full unperfect and perfect Iustification acknowledging one onely Iustification of the New Covenant which as an act of God is simul semel perfect admits of no degrees or increases though as to a mans owne apprehension and comfort it hath its increases and decreases And whatever Mr. Baxter hath hitherto brought to proove on his part wee have found no lesse vaine than is that which hee seekes to prove The Scripâ—ure is altogether ignorant of such a two fold Iustification so that we leave it as Mr. Baxters not Gods Iustification 2. Against that which by the like way of distinction hee calls our everlasting salvation implying thereby a temporary salvation which is by Christ in respect whereof the saved may be unsaved againe and so the salvation which they have by Christ become transitory not everlasting Both these wee deny and detest as Popish Socinian and Arminian doctrines what audaciousnesse is it in Mr. Baxter to name them and not to prove them to beguile his credulous Reader not acquainted at all with Controversies with an opinion that these things are knowne and granted by Protestants who detest the hearing of them and with unresistable arguments of Scripture oppugne the Authours of them Wee shake off as prodigies in the Gospel Doctrine of Iustification and Salvation the Attributes which hee giveth in that sence in which hee gives them It is a bad Cause that seekes the support of Sophistry and fallaciousness to support it Truth loves to bee attended with simplicity and plainnesse Let Mr. Baxter say why he puts
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
heâ—r it tends to the promoting of his cause to affirme it And this alters the Case quoth Ploydon How rightly did Mr. Baxter describe his owne acting in this businesse p. 291. I resisted saith he the Light of this Conclusion as long as I was able It is the light of the Conclusion not of the Premises that swayeth him First hee pitcheth upon this Conclusion Works justifie there was light in this Conclusion it fell out of the Lant-horne of the Jesuits sophistry into his bosome and by that light he is swayed and having taken up the conclusion in such light of its owne from them now he digs downward for day and takes up that which erewhile he shook off as darkness for light to illustrate and prove it So his light conclusion is first formed and afterward he seeks for Crutches and reasons what come first to hand to support it sacrificing here more to hast than to reason lest his idol should fall before he returnes with his props to sustaine it And what if upon new thoughts we shall finde all that is here said all so unsaid again Let us passe to his explication peradventure we may stumble at such a stone before we come off from it B. Explication Heere I have these things to prove 1 that the Justifying sentence shall passe according to works as well as Faith 2. That the Reason is because they are parts of the condition For the first see Mat 25. 21. 23. well done good aâ—d faithfull servant thou hast been faithfull over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the ioy of thy Lord. And most plaine is that from the mouth of the judge himselfe describing the order of the processe of that day Mat. 25. 34 35. Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdome c for I was hungry c. So 1 Pet 1. 17. who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans worke So 2. Co 5. 10. we must all appeare before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body acording to that he haâ—h done whether good or bad So Rev. 20. 12. 13. They were judged every man according to his works Heb. 13. 17. Phil 4 17. Mat. 12. 36 c. but this is evident already The Scriptures that he brings to prove that the justifying sentence shall passe according to workes as well as Faith are first here put and therefore first to be examined And against his reasoning from them I except 1. as well as Faith is here foysted in being wanting in the position And why heere supplyed but to beguile the simple with a good opinion of his assertion as if he attributed something to Faith also in Christs and Pauls sense When contrariwise he teacheth that Faith hath nothing to doe in this businesse but in the notion of our Act our righteousnesse or worke so that with him to be justified by Faith is to be justified by our owne worke 2. That there is no one of these Scriptures but is alledged by Bellarmin and his fellows against the Protestants and by them fully answered manifested to make nothing for justification or salvation by works scripture after scripture no one of them pretermitted When Mr. Baxter now stands up in Bellarmins place against us is it sufficient for him to tel us what Bellarmin hath said against the truth as if we could not without him know it and to leave unanswered yea unmentioned the hundreds of our side that have retorted upon him his owne arguments to the subverting of his owne cause that by these Scriptures he would have maintained If he would have another answer ought he not to have excepted against the validety of those that have beene already given Is he worthy to heare more from vs that hath stopped his eares against all that so many worthies have said already scorning to take notice thereof Nay when he will onely alledge the Scriptures and not take the labour to tel us what or how he will conclude from them he leaves us not in a capacity to declare so much as our consent with him or dissent from him Yet for the use of the weaker sort of readers that have not ability to make recourse to those learned workes where these controversies are handled or to understand them in that language in which most of them are written I shal speak something in generall to all these Scriptures First of that of Mat. 25. 21. 23. or rather taking the whole parable together beginning at ver 14. and ending at v. 30. granting it on both sides to be the same Parable which Luke recordeth chap. 19. beginning at the 12. and ending at the 27. verse which very few have questioned no one hath had cause to deny then it suits not at all with Mr. Baxters purpose or his Judgement dayes justification For the Kingdome of Heaven and the Lords comming and reckoning with his Servants and retribution of their service is to be taken for Christs comming to preach first in his owne person and then to set up and stablish the Gospel by the Ministry of his Apostles The servants to be reckoned with are principally the Teachers of the Iewes the Talents used or abused are the mysteries of the Gospel revealed though veyled under the Law The matter of the Account is what each by his serious studies and labours had cleared up to himselfe and others of this Gospel and saving knowledge of Christ before his comming for the advancement and advantage of Christ at his comming They which had spent their labours this way received at Christs comming a double measure of the spirit of illumination in the knowledge of Christ and salvation by him and were intrusted with a fuâ—ler measure of this sacred Treasure to bee the dispencers thereof to the world But hee which â—ad wrapt his Talent in a Nâ—pkin and hid it in the earth left the Doctrine of Christ scattered throughout the old Testament under a veile as he found it without searching into it and clearing it up to others was lâ—ft in the state of infidelity rejected and bound over hand and foot by his unbeliefe to perdition And his Citizens which sent word after him wee will not have this man to rule over us we will have a Christ such a one as wee have framed to our selves in our owne immaginations but not this Christ have their doom not only denounced but executed also upon them bring them hither and slâ—y them before me Who are these but the great Body and Nation of the Iewes that professed themselves Citizens and the onely Saints of God but for their refusall of Christ were slaine and destroyed by the sword of the Romans And so the parable comprehends in it a Prophecy of the successe of the Kingdome of Grace now in the way of erecting in its power as to the Iews So saith Luke in that 19. Chapter verse 11. Hee added and spake a parable because
he was nigh to Jerusalem and because they thought that the Kingdom of God should immediatly appeare by this Parable foretelling them that the Citizens the Children of the Kingdom the Iews for their rejection of Christ should bee cast out into utter darknesse where is weeping and gnashing of teeth i. e. into blindnesse of minde and stubbornnesse of heart accompanied with all calamity and misery as we see them undergoing untill this day This I acknowledge to be but my owne private opinion yet such as I could easily manifest from the Text it selfe if occasion were to be very probable if not certainely the minde of Christ Yet let it stand or fall sub calculo melioris Indicii But if we are to understand all of Christs last Comming to judgement it ministers nothing to advantage Mr. Baxters Cause but enough to ruinate it For first the faithfull Servants that shall bee so richly rewarded are such as wrought with a free spirit and the reward which they received was a free gift they challenged it not in St. Conditions name and Christ confers it freely as their munificent Lord. That hee mentions their service argues not either dignity or desert in their service but the riches of his grace that having justified their persons hee had in regard their service also The unprofitable servant cast into utter darknesse is Mr. Baxters legall man serving with a mercenary and slavish spirit expects nothing from Christ but in the way of justice lookes upon him as upon an Austere man a strait Law-giver and a rigorous exactor of the fulfilling of his Lawes I knew thee that thou art an hard man reaping where thou hast not sowne and gathering where thou hast not strawed and I was afraid saith he and so did nothing because of his feare of so strict a Lord at least nothing to purpose nothing to the advancing of the Kingdome of Christ in righteousnesse peace and joy in the Holy Ghost within himselfe or others The second Scripture Mat. 25. 34. 35. is most plain sayth Mr. Baxter in which the mouth of the Judge himselfe describeth the order of the processe of that day Come ye blessed inherit c. For I was hungry c. The Judges mouth describes but why doth Mr. Baxters mouth refuse to speak out the description which the Judge maketh of the processe of that day If hee began at ver 31. when Christ is set in his throne to call all Nations before him to judgement he declares the maner of the processe 1. by separating the sheep from the goats 2. by setting the sheep at his right hand What the sheep were himself declares Jo. 10. such as hear his voice his Gospel voice and are Gospellized and spirituallized by it What hee means by his right hand the Apostle declares 1. Thess 4 16 17. The dead in Christ shall rise first and shall bee caught up in the clouds to meet with the Lord in the ayre What to do not only to be with the Lord but also as the same Apostle sayth to sit with him in judgement and to judge the world 1. Co. 6. 2. This is the right hand of Christ to which the saints perhaps shall bee advanced even before the dead out of Christ shall be raysed To this at last is annexed what Mr. Br. alleadgeth Come yee blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world Who seeth not heer the grounds of their glorification to bee that they were Christs sheep the heirs of God and his elect vessels That they are to be convened before Christ not as prisoners to bee judged but to bee owned as his justified ones and to receive the glorious fruits of their justification and adoption a Kingdome by inheritance yea to sit as partners and Commissioners with Christ in judging the world what the Lord Iesus addeth for I was hungry c and yee thus and thus ministred unto me will Mr. Baxter because of the word for conclude these offices to be the cause of their justification then let him also conclude that the cause of Gods shewing mercy to Paul was his ignorance and unbeliefe This will as well follow from those words of Paul 1 Tim. 1. 13. I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbeliefe To his condition the proper place is to speak afterward So the 1 Pet. 1. 17. who without respect of Persons judgeth according to every mans work holds forth thus much to us that God cannot be deluded or corrupted as oft times earthly Iudges are either to pervert justice for favour or carnall ends or to take appearances for substance but jugeth all both persons and actions according to what they are not what they seem In like mnner 2 Cor. 5. 10. the Apostle appeales as may appeare by the 11. and 12. verses compared with this from the standers and censures of the false Apostles to the judgment Seat of God They had it seems questioned among the Corinthians the sincerity of both the Apostle and his Ministry Hee refers all to Christ the Iudge Before him wee must all appeare saith he and hee will reveale who are the sincere and which the hypocriticall Professors and Preachers of Christ they or I to take vengeance of the one and to owne the other He maimeth that testimony of Rev. 20. 12 13. that the force therof may not be understood by his Reader Let him supply what he hath cut off the Book of life by which they which are in Christ are to be judged which is there mentioned aswel as the other books by which the world is to be judged and then the judgments which the Saints are to pass through wil appear to be a judgment of Grace not of strict justice to consist in their admission to the Kingdom after the tenour of Grace not of Workes The other three Scriptures he seeth to have so little even of shew in them for his use that he deigns not the labour to alleage the words and let him not expect that I should stil do it for him Thus far we grant that the sentence of Iudgement though not the justifying sentence shall passe in the last day according to works 1. The whole world that hath not heard of Christ much less beleeved on him shall be judged according to their works to life or death according as their works have been perfect or unperfect yea to a measure of vengeance answering to the measure of their sinnes some to many some to fewer stripes 2. The whole bulk of professed Christians also shall in this respect be judged according to their works viz. that as their professions of and actings in Christ were eyther in truth or in hypocrisie meerly formall or else Vitall and reall so shall they be either exempted from or adjudged unto vengeance And so the secrets of all hearts shall bee then disclosed the Sheep and Goats Saints and Hypocrites shall then bee fully seperated one from the other which untill
that time shall never be wholly done nor bee known to all whose works were vitall and whose dead works 3. That the very Saints as compared one with another shall be judged according to their works i. e. shall be adjudged to glory in severall measures above according to the severall measures of their services and sufferings heere is the opinion of many eminent for learning and godliness neither doe their Reasons yet wholly sway me who dissent from them and will have neither right hand nor left hand nor sun nor stars nor great nor small but all equall in one degree of glory It is no proper place heer to dispute it but I see no reason to conclude that hee which distributeth his gifts of grace heer in different measures may not so also there distribute the degrees of glory Seeing both are by the purchase of his death and whether by the former he puts us in a greater or lesser capableness of the later is in question But in any other sense how as he sayth the sentence of justification shall passe according to works and that as hee infers from 2. Co. 5. 10. according to works whether good or evill I cannot conjecture 1. Not according to works as they are a condition which is the next thing hee undertakes to prove for evill works cannot be the condition of our justification either negatively that if we have done evill we neyther are nor shal be justified then all must bee damned nor positively that whosoever hath done evill shall be justified then all shall be saved Nor 2. shall it passe so as that according to our good works we shall be justified and according to our evill works we shall be condemned then every man at least every true Christian should be both saved and damned 3 Nor that we shal be much justified if we have all good works little justified if we have done some evil works also for that is the last judgment where every man shall have a full discharge or no discharge I must leave this as one of Mr. Baxters Mysteries it must die with him as to my understanding unless hee vouchsafe his interpretation As for the thing it selfe I utterly deny that they which are in Christ shall be so judged or justified according to their works as other men that they shall stand as prisoners with the world at the bar of Christ to bee judged for life and death as the other according to their works What that the Lord Christ should then discover the nakedness and lay open in the sight of men and divels all the sin and shame of his beloved members That he should cast in their faces all the filth of all their originall and actuall pollution even when they are upon the threshold of heaven Let it be Mr. Baxters doctrine my eares are abhorrent from the sound thereof It is against the stream of Gospel doctrine which tells us that Christ hath born their sin and curs and done their law therfore they are not to be called to such a reckoning That their iniquities are forgiven and sins covered Ro. 4. 7. That the Lord will no more remember them Heb. 10. 17. That they are not under the Law but under Grace Ro. 6. 14. Therfore exempted from the accusations of the Law at the Bar of Justice where the world is to be tried and to receive no other judgement but what flowes from the throne of grace That there is no condemnation to them that the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed them from the law of â—in and death Ro. 8. 1. 2. So that the Law hath no mâ—re power of judgmeÌ„t over theÌ„ than the lawes of our Land to try an Angel of Heaven for life and death That none can lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect because God justifieth them and who is hee that is the judge and condemner even Christ which is their Saviour Ro. 8. 33. 34. That they are the sheep that shal be first separated and set at the right hand of Christ before he enters upon the judging of the world and so freed from judgement by the mercy of God in separating them as Augustine well observeth Aug. de Consens Evang. lib. 2. cap. 30. That they shall not come into condemnation but are passed from death to life Jo. 5. 24. That what to the world is the day of judgement to these is the day of Redemption Lu. 21. 28. They shall not come into judgement to answer for any one of their sins as is well observed by Reverend Mr. Fox the author of that which we call the De Christo gratis Justif p. 336. Book of Martyrs for saith he Sublatâ offensâ tollitur simul Judicii obligatio i. e. The sin being taken away viz. by the Lamb of God as appears Io. 1. 29. all obligation of judgement is taken away with it As for the works and righteousness which these Scriptures declare shal be mentioned to beleevers in that their Jubilizing day this speaks out the infinit freeness and riches of Gods grace in covering their nakedness and setting forth only the beauty and ornaments which he hath put upon them but in no wise any sufficient ground or reason upon which they might expect so great a salvation Suppose a noble and indulgent Father hath a prodigall and rebellious son that for many yeers hath grieved the spirit of his Father with his impure cariage and exorbitant outrages to whom notwithstanding his Fathers heart is no less indeared than was Davids to Absolom therfore never hath a thought of disinheriting him but reserves his whole heritage together with a boundles treasâ—re entire for him in the mean while wooing and even melting him with loving kindness into love and duty â— at length the son repenteth becomes ashamed of his base carriage toward so good a Father returns to him waits on him ministreth to him in his weakness and sickness and his Father by his last Will and Testament gives him all naming him therin his good and beloved son that hath done him great service ministred to him much comfort in the time of his necessity Will any hence gather that the attendance of such a son on such a Father at last is a sufficient ground and reason for the Fathers setling on him so vast an estate Could not the Father have hired a stranger for a few Crowns to have done him as much service Doth not the mentioning of the sons good deeds which he would seem to reward with so rich munificence speak out only the remarkable goodness of the Father that hath buried in oblivion all the disobedience and mischiefs which his son hath committed and will have his good parts alone to be mentioned or if another that was not his son had done a thousand times more in his service should he have been entitled for it to the inheritance So also in this case to attribute to the works of beleevers the
reason or ground of their glorification because the Grace of Christ mentioneth them is to lay the honour of Christs Grace in the dust They that shall be glorified even when Christ of his infinite Grace extolleth their service done to him shall depresse themselves that the entire prayse may bee his Lord when did wee thus and thus minister to thee what ever did we of any worth that thou shouldest owne it as a service to thee what thou imputest is no otherwise our observance but in thy acceptance It is therefore denyed that the justifying sentence as Mr Baxter termes it shall passe in the last day either for or according to works otherwise than hath beene before granted And if wee shall not at last be glorified according to and for our workes but that Mr. Brs. proofes in this particular faile Then is his labour lost in going about to prove the second particular that the reason hereof is because they are parts of the condition It must first appear that it is before wee trouble our selves to know in what respect it is so So that we will not contend about the second particular with him to deny what he concludeth that workes concurre in the same concausality with Faith to our glorification 1. Not to evidence the truth of our Faith nor secondly as the righteousnesss which the Law requireth not thirdly as a meer signe by which God doth discern our Faith nor fourthly as a mere sign to satisfie the justified person himselfe nor fiftly to satisfie the condemned world of the sincerity of our Faith All this we grant and further adde in the sixt place nor as a condition in Mr Baxters sense of our glorification And because none of these or other wayes therefore not at all The Scriptures which he brings pa. 322. n. 5. that seeme to hold forth the promise of glorification for our workes are of the same nature with those examined in the former Chapter alleaged by him and all as those gathered by the Papists to his hand and either do conclude no more than what a little before we have in this Chapter granted or pertaine to some of those ends of such promises of life which God maketh to our obedience specified in the former chap. I shall therefore here pretermit to speak to them because Mr Baxter alleageth them to another end here viz to prove that the mention of these works to judgement is more than to signifie their sincerity to the condemned world as in the end of that Section he expresseth himselfe And this we deny not So that it were impertinent to examine the premises where the conclusion is granted CHAP. IX Whether according to Mr. Baxter Doe and live be the voice of the Gospel as well as of the Law The question stated and resolved whether and in what respects Believers must act or work from life not for life IN the eighth place as naturall motions are strongest when they come neerest to their period and center so at the conclusion of his Aphorismes pag. 3. 4. and so onward to the end he multiplies Argument upon Argument or rather twisteth many arguments together in one under the notion of Queries The substance of all may bee gathered together into this one Syllogisme That Doctrine which by necessary consequence draweth after it many intolerable absurdities mischiefs and soul-damning evills must needs be a falsâ— doctrine But so doth the Doctrine of justification by Faith or by Christ instrumentally received by Faith without the addition of works in a concausality with Fâ—â—â—h or Christ Ergo It is a false doctrine The Proposition is granted him The Assumption hee goeth about to cleer and make good by enumerating the particular absurdities and mischiefs that are consequentiall to this Doctrine And this he doeth by way of interrogations bearing the force of strong Affirmations I shal examine them in order The first query he puts in these words B. Doth it not needlesly constraine men to wrest most plaine and frequent expressions of Scripture A simple negation would here best suit with so untoward and audatious a question Neither shall I say any more to it but admonish the Reader to take notice that hee doth in these words frame an enditement against Christ his Apostles and all that beare the name of Protestants for sacriledge in wresting the holy Scriptures And that 1. Though he doth not and why but because he cannot bring any one Scripture which they have so wrested 2. And thereby affirmeth plaine enough to the capacity of every understanding reader that the Papists and Arminians alone have purely and truely interpreted the Scriptures as to the point of justification whom himselfe therefore followeth as their obedient disciple And 3. shewes us no reason therof but leaves us to conjecture what his meaning is viz that the Scripture is no farther Canonicall than after the interpretation and sense which the holy Mother Church alloweth it Nay we retort the argument upon him Iustification by works constraines the assertors thereof not onely to wrest many Scriptures but also to destroy and nullifie the whole Gospell and Salvation of Christ Therefore it is false doctrine This first query was but a warning peece but who can stand to beare the force of the second The man as if hee had newly come forth of Vulcans shop is all fiery spits out nothing but lightening and thunderbolts blowing into the bottome of Hell all that stand in his way How formidably he layes about him they that dare to come so neer may finde partly in this second querie it selfe but principally in his Appendix pag. 76. c. and in the highest strength of his wrath pag. 83. and onward to the end of pag. 98. First his querie here runs in these words B. pa. 324 and 325. 2 Qu Doth it not uphold that dangerous pillar of the Antinomian doctrine that we must not work or perform our duties for life and salvation but only from life and Salvation That we must not make the attaining of Justification or salvation an end of our endeavours but obey in thankefulnesse onely because we are saved and Justified A aâ—ctrine which I have else where confuted And if it were reduced to practise by all that hold it as I hope it is not would undoubtedly damn them for he that seeks not and strives not to enter shall never enter Now if good workes or sincere obedience to Christ our Lord be no part of the condition of our full justification and salvation who will use them to that end For how it can procure justification as a meanes and not by way of condition I cannot conceive In what part of the world Mr. Baxters elsewhere lyeth in which his confutation of this doctrine is to be found I know not I am not inquisitive to know I have enough in this and desire not to fish in any more of his foule waters But in pronouncing this doctrine of working and performing duties not for life buâ— from
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
Quere It is his doctrine that teacheth a soul-cozening Faith a Faith made up of a fardle of works and rags of our own righteousness as in his larger definition of justifying Faith he hath described it CHAP. XIII Mr. Baxters calumnie that this doctrine doth harden the Papists in their Popery and give occasion to many learned Protestants to turn Papists answered HIS fifth Quere hath no shew of weight in it deserving an examination savouring more of the Spleen than of the judgment of the Author Nevertheless though it declares only the stomach and indignation of the man against the truth rather then any strength in his hand to hurt it yet because it is formed for the deceiving of the simple and unwary upon whom sounds oft times take no less impression than actuall strokes to prevent damage to such I shall examine whatsoever may seem materiall in it as I have the rest B. pa. 329. 5. Lastly Is not this excluding of sincere Obedience from Justification the great stumbling-block of Papists and that which hath had a great hand in turning many learned men from the true Protestant Religion to Popery That by obedience he meaneth all morall qualifications and works as they are vertues and works we have before learned from his own words so his meaning is that the Doctrine of Paul and the Churches which follow him viz. Justification by Faith and not by works is guilty of the damnable and pernicious evills which he here chargeth upon it These evills are two 1 It is the great stumbling-block of the Papists 2 It hath carried back many learned men from the Protestant Religion to Popery To both these I shall speak in order 1 Of its hardning the Papists in Popery Is it not the great stumbling-block to Papists saith Mr. Br. I answer 1 Was not Christ and that in this very point of justifying the ungodly by an imputed righteousness without any inherent righteousness of their own a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to the Jewes as which they were so offended that to their eternall ruine they reject the Gospel and salvation of Christ unto this day Rom. 9. 32 33. 1 Cor. 1. 23. 1 Pet. 2. 8. What then must Christ be anathematized Nay but let the truth of Christ stand and man be the lyar the transgressor It is scandalum acceptum non datum an offence taken not given And blessed is he who soever shall not be offended in or at Christ Mat. 11. 6. Lu. 7. 23. But if any will be offended and dash the Lord Christ admonisheth him of the danger Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder Mat. 21. 44. 2 And as sound a reason is it that our doctrine of Justification hinders the Papists from turning Protestants as was that of some Statists that complained against the Church of Geneva that they hindered the conversion of Papists in those parts by forbidding dancing and the like grave consideration by some great Politicians in England that the forbearing of Bull and Bear-baiting and other sports on the Lords day hardned the Papists of Lancashire in their Popery When Religion is made a meer piece of policy and to have in it at the best no more than a dress of dreggish formality or morality no marvail if such dirty and unspirituall means are made use of to spread it 3 But how deep doth this effect lurk in its cause so that only this one mans sagacity can smell it out That the Papists in the least things will not turn Protestants except we in the worst turn Papists For this Article of Justification is the greatest of all the questions controverted between us and the Papists All the rest not ingredients of or meerly relating to this may the Papists continue in if not of malice or wilfulnesse with a possibility of salvation They are but wood hay and stubble built upon the foundation the very builders whereof may be saved but so as by fire saith the Apostle But a Trentified Papist by the coherent judgment of the best Divines cannot be saved because hee holdeth not the foundation sure and pure but mixeth mans works with the grace of God in Christ to Justification And their judgment is grounded upon the authority of the Apostle Yee are faln from grace Christ is become void or forfeyted to you whosoever are justified by works An ardent love to Romes shavelings out of doubt possesseth Mr. Br. that he doth not only wish himself as did the Apostle but would make himself and all us accursed that they might be not saved but damned with us For if they reject all other their errors and practically retain but this one by it they forfeyt all the salvation of the Gospel 4 Nay contrariwise as long as this Article of the Gospel was diligently preached and stoutly maintained in the Protestant Churches and that not with quiâ—ks and quidities of humane Art but by the nervous arguments of Scripture alone so long the Kingdom of Antichrist more and more decayed and they which were before marked up as slaves to that rivall of Christ brake the fetters and came in by thousands and ten thousands taking the Kingdom by a holy and violent force But since the time this Doctrine hath been less preached and patronized the Reformed Churches have been still in a languishing and the Antichristian Kingdom in a growing condition as Mr. Br. himself so great a Reader and so fully acquainted with the Ecclesiasticall Histories must necessarily grant And why hath this stop to the promoting of the Gospel befaln the Churches but that the Lord Christ doth herein declare his offence taken against us for not making him our all that hee also ceaseth so victoriously as in former times to vouchsafe his presence among us 5 But since Mr. Br. is leapt home to them and many foot beyond many of the more moderate sort of them in the point of justification by works and so hath removed the slumbling-block let him speak by experience how many of them are come in to him to be his Proselytes rejecting the Papacy and other their Popish errors Or whereas his Friends the Arminians have in this and many other of their Tenents so many decads of yeers closed fully with them where is the confluence of Papists to them seen that shaking off their former opinions and practices profess themselves Converts A Cardinals Hat perhaps hath been sent or a fat Bishopprick promised to some of the most deserving men among them in relation to the Romish Cause to allure them to further and higher deservings of this kind But the holy Mother Church I warrant you sticks where she was If shee should permit but one stone of her Fabrick to be loosed it might cause a crack in the whole This part of the Quere I shall therefore upon these Considerations leave as reasonless and examine the next whether there be any more reason in it
times aboundeth envied because they could not match and sought to defame because they envied the excellent parts of these two Worthies was either of them so wise and learned as to run headlong from Christ to Rome upon it Nay this is a piece of learning which Mr. B. his Grotius have of very late yeers learned and taught The true servants of Christ in former times were so little scholasticall that they were ignorant in this Art Yet whether Melancton after the death of Luther gave not some occasion to the Protestant Churches to mourn till this day for the yet remaining fruits of his timorousness or as Mr. Br. will have us call it moderation I leave to the wise who are acquainted with the passage of those times to judg But I never understood any such thing imputed to Bucer or that he hath left any other but a sweet savour behind him Nor any thing that can so dim the worth of Melancton that his name should not be in continuall veneration among the Saints For who can say he is without his infirmities But in the point of Justification by Faith only he was sound till death 4 But what hee saith of the Antimonian Teachers what they preach at present and yet are magnified for the only preachers of Free Grace is that which startles Mr. Br. and makes him run many furlongs beyond Grotius If his hast had not put him out of breath he might have told us what places of England are haunted with these Spirits that we might have shunned them Why should a man of such animosity that scorns to look upon Colier Hobson Spriggs and such like fellows be so troubled about these unconsiderate animals which he here mentioneth what the former three are I do not know yet by what I have heard of them I should think them not so inconsiderate as these to affirm justifying faith to consist in a mans believing that he is justified or in a perswasion that God loveth him But that there are either more than one fountaine opened for the purging away of sinne or any other propitiation for our sins set forth by God Besides Christ alone or any other means to effectuallize it to the chief sinners besidâ—s faith in his blood or that the justification which is by Faith iâ— according to the tenor of the Gospel revocable I am so far an Antinomian of Mr. B. defining to deny and cannot find him so learned a Papist or Pharisee to prove it There is nothing else which I see in this Quere which he hath not in substance said and so hath been examined before or else will more properly offer it self to examination in that which remaineth to be examined And this shall suffice to have said to that one and yet five-fold Argument comprehended in his five Quere's CHAP. XIV Mr. Baxters last Argument drawn from the Testimony of many approved Authors Examined and Answered HIs last Argument is drawn from the testimony and authority of many eminent Divines in the Protestant Churches which he saith have taught and published this doctrine before him This Argument is principally urged not in the Aphorisms but the Appendix And although Mr. Br. tell us App. p. 111. that he alleageth them not to confirm his doctrine but to shew that he is not singular but hath the concurrent judgments of others therein And App. p. 167. 188. that he doth it to satisfie them which charge him with singularity not as an appeal to man Yet it is too evident that his purpose herein is to abuse the less knowing and considering part of his Readers with this more then with the most of his other Arguments Great names he knowes doe make deep impressions upon the fancies of men that have much of affection but little of judgment And that these look not so much to the matter as to the men Could they think Mr. Br. hath here said no more then these and these confessedly pious and learned Worthies have said before him they will take him for a blasphemer that shall say against him Therefore he musters together so many choyce vessels and pretious servants of Christ trusting to the either imbecility or credulity of his vulgar Readers that either they cannot or will not examin and compare these and Mr. B. together and then Mr. Br shall be taken to be of the same spirit with Dr. Preston Dr. Twisse Calvin Pareus Perkins and the other renowned Divines whom he alleageth and then also it must be all truth that he hath said after such men and whosoever shall oppose him must be brought forth to be stoned But where is the mans sincerity that will be justified by the morall sincerity of his obedience and works Was it not wholly banished from him when he cited these men as concurring in judgment with him when he knowes them all to detest his assertions against which we except more then death it self and that many of them have jeoparded and some of them laid down their lives and blood to give testimony to the contrary Assertions Or will Mr. B. name any one of these at whose judgment his doctrine shall stand or fall as true or erroneous Why doth he thus abuse the simple thereby discovering his impudent fallaciousness to the intelligent with whom elswhere he seeks chiefly to ingratiat himself But come we to the Testimonies which he alleageth Bax. 1 Mr. Wallis Faith is an accepting of Christ offered rather then a beleeving of a Proposition affirmed App. p. 111. Who hath denied this Or what is this to Justification by works It may possibly be something to the Question not considerately there proposed but nothing at all listing with that conclusion to which all the rest which he delivers are but preparatives Next to Mr. Wallis he alledgeth Dr. Preston at the end of the same page The six first Positions wherein he affirms him to speak the same thing with himself I see no sound reason why any should except against But if Mr. B. or Dr. Preston or Paul or an Angel from heaven shall deduce erratick and erroneous Conclusions from those Premisses they are not to be heard but resisted at the face None of the worst Hereticks but agree in some principles with the most Orthodox yet this nothing hinders but that the assertions in which they dissent may be altogether pernicious How far and how unanimously all the Protestant Churches maintain the seventh point wherein Mr. B. affirms this pious and learned Doctor to agree with him hath been before fully expressed in the examination of the fourth Argument So that it is useless here to run over so many passages of the Author from p. 112. to p. 117. of the Appendix to declare that this one man saith what all the rest say and hold with him viz. That justifying Faith is an accepting of Christ as Lord and Saviour But what is this to the substance of the question to which Mr. B. answereth Where it is objected to Mr. Br
thing that firmly susteineth namely the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us and not on the holiness and grace inherent in our selves For this is unperfect c. therefore we cannot for it be counted Righteous before God But the imputed righteousness of Christ is a perfect righteousnes in which there is nothing that can offend the eyes of God but all things that can abundantly please him Vpon this alone therefore are we to rest as upon a thing sure and stable and to beleeve that by it alone we are justified 7 This may undoubtedly be affirmed and it is the opinion of all Divines that God can justifie men and make them pleasing and amiable to him without any inherent quality or habits infused 8 To the same purpose and somewhat more fully speaketh Bellarmine The guilt or obligation to punishment saith he may be taken away without the infusion of Righteousnes For nothing hinders by how much the less God can will the not ordeining to punishment and the pardoning of the offence and the not accounting him for an enemy to whom he hath not granted the gift of habituall Righteousness 9 The Scope of James in the second Chapter of his Epistle is to shew that we are justified not by a barren but by a fruitfull Faith 10 The meaning of James is not that Faith without works is dead c. For it is evident that we are justified by Faith even without works But his meaning is that Faith without works that is which refuseth to work or is noâ— disposed to work is a dead Faith vain and justifieth not What therefore James alleageth out of Gen. 15. Abraham beleeved God to this purpose he alleageth it that he beleeved being in readiness to work Therefore he saith that in the work of offering his Son the Scripture was fulfilled speaking of his Faith prepared to work It was fulfilled I say as to the execution of that great work to which his Faith was prepared 11 If any where in Scripture thou hearest reward or wages promised know that it is no otherwise due then by Gods promise freely he hath promised freely he gives If thou wilt abide in his Grace and Favour make no mention of thy Merits 12 All Papists consentingly make the Merits of Christ the foundation of mans merits as far as he can merit Neither Faith nor works nor doing nor sufferings say they have any other vertue to merit then what they receive from the merits of Christs death then as they are dipt in his blood this makes them acceptable to the Father 13 When Christ saith of the woman Luk. 7. 47. Many sins are forgiven her for she loved much it is to be understood not that she loved much and so her much love was the cause of her great forgiveness but contrarywise that because many sins were forgiven her therefore she loved much 14 To be given freely and to be a retribution to works are as much opposit as that which is free and that which is from Justice or as not due and debt And this way of inference the Apostle useth in the beginning of this 4th Chapter viz. speaking of Justification by Grace 15 The work of Justice is wages or Reward and this way of Justice Grace excludeth whose work is meer gift or Donation 16 In this verse the Apostle concludeth that Christ hath saved us from all the evill both of fault and punishment That there is nothing of condemnation remaining to them that are in Christ because all judgment is taken away both to the fault and the punishment 17 It is certain that when originall sin is remited that the evils which it brought are not remitted and taken away as all finde by experience Notwithstanding they remain not under the consideration of punishment because the fault being taken away there can be no desert as to punishment remaining 18 I will remember their iniquities no more saith the Lord i. e. I will neither in this world injoin any Penance for them nor in that which is to come inflict any punishment for them So hath the Holy Ghost promised that our sins shall be forgiven by the New Covenant of Grace 19 In regard of the uncertainty of our own righteousness and the danger of vain glory it is most safe to repose our whole confidence in the sole mercy and benignity of God Baxter THe bare act of beleeving is not the onely condition of the New Cardinall Contarenus in Rom. 4. Covenant but severall other duties also are parts of that Condition The Common opinion that justifying faith as justifying doth consist in any one single act is a Wretched Mistake by the one act of faith he means Faith in opposition to works Aph. p. 235 248. Faith it self is our righteousnesse viz. our Evangelicall as Christ is our Legall Righteousnesse It self Toletus a Iesuite upon Rom. 3. is imputed to us for righteousnesse Aph. p. 125 126. It justifieth as it is an act of ours and as it is a morall duty App. p. 80. 102. Both Faith and workes make up one condition one righteousness one perfect righteousness of our own by Cardinall Cajetan upon Rom. 3. which we merit to be justified by God by the legall righteousness which is in Christ And consequently Faith doth not lean upon anothers and works upon their own righteousness but both make up one compounded righteousness and goodness which make us righteous and good also and by this righteousness and goodness deservers of justification salvation Aph. Thes 17 18 19 20 23 24 26. and scatteringly throughout the whole Book Faith as an act of ours and of it self with other workes procureth Righteousness And God hath used Toletus the Iesuit up on Rom. 1. works to justifie as he hath used faith even in the same kinde of causality So we have found Mr. Br. oft affirming as may be seen in our former quotations Let him deny that he holds the consequents of these two Antecedents if he will It is so far from being an error to affirm that Faith it self is our righteousness that it is a truth necessary for every Christian to know yea it both is our Righteousnesse and is imputed to us for righteousnesse The very personall performance of faith shall be imputed to us for a sufficient personall payment of righteousnes Idem in Rom. 4. as if we had paid the full duty and righteousnesse which the Law requireth This is the substance of his words though not his very words which being continued in terms of a Metaphor cannot without the citing of the whole similitude be expressed to the understanding otherwise Aphor. p. 125 126 129. There is a two-fold righteousnesse attainable by Christ at least in words the one an inherent righteousnesse in our selves consisting in the seed and acts of Faith Love Holinesse c. the other in Christ but made over to beleevers by Gods Donation if not imputation Both of these are absolutely necessary to salvation neither is
to salvation to become fools thereunto Are yee so foolish saith he having begun in the Spirit are yee now made perfect by the Flesh That by the Spirit and the Flesh is to be understood Faith and works in order to Justification cannot will not be denyed When therefore Mr. B. teacheth men to seek the beginning of Justification by faith and the perfecting thereof not by Faith onely but by works also he teacheth them to be foolish O foolish the worst fools to salvation and to be wise onely to condemnation This is to be wise according to Mr. B. wisedom in this Tractate that is wise after the Flesh not after the Spirit in seeking happiness in the way of works which the wisedom of the Flesh teacheth not in the way of Faith which the wisdom of the Spirit the wisedom of Christ his Gospel revealeth But all this together with a plain and full discovery of the vanity of this evasion hath been in its due place before held out which would be but a tyring of the Reader here again to be troubled with Onely the generall and chief thing which Mr. Br. both here and elswhere layeth as a foundation to his Justification by works it shall not be amisse briefly to examine here for the prevention of deceit to his Reader before I put a totall conclusion and period to what I have thought fit to except against this Work of his If it prove sandy and unsound his great Colossus of Justification by works falls all to shivers This is his quaint interpretation of faith in all such Scriptures as ascribe to Faith in opposition to works our justification That then by it we are to understand all Gospel duties all that Christ Commandeth not Faith in a distinct consideration from other qualifications and duties but Faith in a collective sense comprizing all morall duties and actions within it which is Faith and all its fruits yea more Faith and all that is reducible to it And thus according to Mr. Br. so oft as we are said to be justified by Faith not by works we must understand that the Holy Ghost meaneth that we are justified by Faith and works done after the tenor of the Gospel not by Faith and works done after the tenor of the Law Behold now the unfathomed depth of Mr. Brs wit and the unlimitted verge of his power His wit surpassing all the wisedom of all good and Orthodox men and Angels of whom no one had ever the reach since the world began to find with all his searching such a bugbear sense lurking in the plain Scripture Texts of the Apostle His power that with the stroking of this Mercuriall rod he makes fire and water life and death hell and heaven to lay down all their enmity each to other and sweetly to coll lodge and incorporate together Who would have thought that Paul who so seriously and sacredly professeth that he had rather in the Church to speak five words with his understanding so that he might teach and edifie others also than ten thousand in an unknown Tongue 1 Cor. 14. 17 19. And in preaching the Gospel discended to the unlearned and babes to feed them with milke to make all plain and easie to their understandings 1 Cor. 3. 2. should yet every where deliver the chief doctrine of the Gospel Justification by Christ in so dark Parables and riddles that none could find it out untill this Oedipus inspired from Socinus and Arminius rose up to unâ—iddle him For let there be named any one Protestant in any age till Mr. Br. held out his Candle to give light to the Sun that ever could dream of this Allegoricall sense after the principles of Origen lurking in Pauls words Or what hinders now but Faith may be turned into works and works into Faith Grace into strict justice and strict justice into free Grace the Law into Gospel and the Gospel into meer Law since Mr. Br. hath made a reconciliation and composure between Faith and Works in the point of Justification But whether this interpretation of Mr. B. be so firm as it is pretty and witty hath been before examined as elswhere so in the Examination of his third Argument for Justification by works drawn from his large definition of Faith which he giveth in his Thesis 70. Here onely I shall mention some phrases or names by which Justifying Faith is described in Scriptures and leave it to the judgment of every intelligent Reader to determine whether works can properly or in any tolerable sense be said to be comprized in faith as acting in the same kind of causality about such acts as those phrases or names imply 1 As Mr. Br. himself in his shorter definition defineth faith it is called our Receiving of Christ Jo. 1. 12. and that not in that wide sense which Mr. Br. fancieth but in that strict sense wherein Paul interprets it viz. the receiving of Christ to be our Righteousnes or receiving abundance of Grace and of the gift of righteousness by him Rom. 5. 16. 2 It is called the directing of the eye or looking to Christ yea to Christ lifted up upon the Cross for healing Io. 3. 14. 3 A coming to Christ for Life Jo. 6. 37. 5. 40. 4 The eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood to everlasting life Jo. 6. 53-56 5 A putting on of Christ as a Garment of Righteousness to cover our nakednesse and filthinesse Phil. 3. 9. Rev. 3. 18. I could add many the like phrases if it were needfull But these may suffice and who is there that sees not these to imply an instrumentality in faith to make Christ ours to Justification Yea and that in faith onely and not in works at all for how can Charity Chastity Mercy righteousnesse and the severall acts of these and other qualifications of which most have our Neighbour or Brother for their immediate Object about which in acting they are occupant be called the receiving intuition of and coming to Christ the eating of his flesh and drinking his blood or the putting on of him for righteousnesse It would seem strange to me that any man waking and not dreaming should conclude such works to be Antecedents and not the fruits of Justification and life by Christ Or that when faith is described by these denominating phrases works also as couched in faith should contrary to their nature be so denominated Nay Faith is thus diveâ—sly named in opposition to works yea to Gospel works For so doth our Saviour answer and determine the question put to him what to do under the Gospel that we might work the works of God i. e. what is to be done on our part that we may be justified and saved This is the work of God saith he that is this is in steed of all doings all workings that ye beleeve in him whom he hath sent Jo. 6. 28 29. which after he expresseth more fully to be a beleeving in him that came down from heaven and
or else be free and absolute and in what sense it may be granted to be Conditional pa. 1. p. 108. to 118. The numerousnesse and withall unprofitablenesse of the Conditions which Mr. Br. assigneth part 2. p. 31 32. His vain ascribing to Conditions part 2. p. 26 83 108 109 c. 272 273. His Reasons to prove it examined part 1. p. 353 to 356. The hurtfullness of the contrary doctrine which Mr. Br mainteineth part 1. p. 351-353 His dispute to prove it still after we are in Christ to remain Conditional par 1. p. 292. to 308. VVhat the judgment of the Protestant Divines in this point is part 2. p. 17 to 22. 204 205. The promulgation offer of it may be granted Conditionall but once in being and possession it is absolute part 1. p. 355 356. The rashnesse of some Ministers in closing with Mr. Br. in this his Popish Arminian doctrine pa. 2. p. 22 23 25 237. Whether the Covenant of Grace were originally made between the Father and the Son and what the Covenant was and upon what terms so made p 1. p. 99. to 107. What relation all the other Covenants made in time between God and man had to this ibid. Mr Br. after the Papists distinguisheth between the Commands and Counsels of the word part 1. p. 213 214. The doctrine of Justification by Faith alone not a soul Cozening doctrine p 2. p. 173 c. Beleevers not under the Curse as the Curse or revenging punishment for sin part 1. largely discussed from p. 24. to p. 61. The Question stated ib. p. 32. c. The Reasons brought by the Protestant Writers to prove the Negative against the Papists ib. p. 33. to 37. Mr. Brs Arguments for the Affirmative ib. p. 29-31 His Arguments answered ib. p. 38. to 49. How many wayes popish and pernicious this his doctrine is ib. p. 49. to 62. D Darkening in stead of cleering Truths common to Mr. Br. with the Papists part 1. p. 5 9 10. The Death and blood of Christ onely expiatory and satisfactory to Justification part 2. p. 64 65 67. to 70. VVhether Justification admit of Degrees or magis minus part 1. p. 286. to 291. VVhether the Devil shall manage the accusation of men in the day of Judgement part 1. p. 281. Distinctions in Divine matters not grounded upon the word viz. Arts Sophistry Doctrines not to be judged of after the personall splendour of their Authors pref p. 4 5. Doe viz. Life and Live E VVhether it be Easie to perswade men to embrace Justification by Faith but difficult by works part 2. p. 181. to 184. Sanctification a sure Evidence of Justification so convertibly pa. 2. 176. to 178. In what respects good works do so Evidence ib. F Faith without works not competent to justifie according to Mr. Br. part 2. p. 4. How farre he followeth the Papists in the doctrine of implicit Faith part 1. p 1 2 3 c. His doctrine herein directly pointed against the Protestants ib. p. 4. We must not admit doctrine of Faith upon the authority of our Teachers ib. p. 6. The evils attending the doing thereof ib. p. 7 8. Mr. Brs wild and irregular definition of Faith to prove justification by works discovered to be ridiculous pa. 2. p. 56. c. The doctrine of the Protestants about Faith and works part 2. p. 174. c. What Mr. Br. meaneth by Faith or his To credere part 2. p. 71. c. How different Mr. Brs sense is from some of the Protestant writers that with him call Faith the Condition of justification part 1. p. 349 350. Forgiving of others not a Condition of Gods justifying and forgiving us part 2. p. 31 33 c. to the 37. Mr. Brs Fraud in hiding all that the protestants have written against his popish doctrines part 2. p. 17 18. 128 129. G The Genius of men when conspiring is apt to draw each other into truth or error pref p. 10 11. By what means the Gospel was so much and so suddenly propagated at the begining of the Reformation by Luther pref p. 39 40. How the further propagation of it was stopped ib. p. 40 41. Gospel Comforts are Antidotes against sin and carnall liberty not fomenters of it par 2. p. 162 163 167 168. Mr. Brs Reasons to prove his doctrines not to be legall and against the Gospel examined part 2. p. 266. to p. 276. Whether or in what respects Christ hath or hath not satisfied for sins against the Gospel as for sins against the Law p. 1. p. 219-227 Whether works as holpen by Grace justifie part 1. p. 139. to 143. Mr. Br. the papists vainly make this their common plea to excuse their arrogance in ascribing justification to works ib. p. 175 176 H Whether beleevers ought to serve for fear of Hell part 2. p. 155-157 Hiding viz. Fraud I What the judgment of many learned protestant Divines hath been and is about justification as an Immanent and eternal act in God part 1. p. 231. to 238. What Scriptures they bring to prove the affirmative ib. p. 238. to 247. Mr. Brs dispute against them examined ib. p. 248-262 Faith the Instrument of justification p. 1. p. 330. And the some both Gods and mans Instrument and in what sense each is such ib. p. 332 334 336 to 341. Mans Instrument 334-336 342-348 Mr. Brs cavils against this doctrine answered ib. p. 358. to 361. 364. to 368. 370. Whether believers as well as the reprobates shall be judged for according to their works in the last day largely discussed against Mr. Br. p. 2. p. 124-136 Whether the Scriptures which speak in the future tense of justifying do denote the day of Judgment p. 1. p 278-280 Judgment viz. Devil 282. The State of the question between Mr. Br and the Protestants about Justification by works Part 2. p. 4 5 6. Justification by works denyed ibid. c. Scriptures produced to prove that Workes have no part with Faith in justifying ibid. p. 10. to 17. The Scriptures cited by Mr. Br to prove the contrary assertion examined ibid. Chap. 3. VVhether according to his own principles he rightly calleth Faith the more and works the less principall Condition of Justification ibid. p. 49. 51 278 279. And if so whether this proveth that when we are said to be justified by Faith onely we are said to be justified by works also and yet justified by Faith alone ibid. Or whether the Reducibleness of all works to faith in some kinde prove it ibid. p. 49 50 52 53-56 278 279. Justification considerable in 3 respects 1 in God 2 in Christ 3 in our own persons and how in every of these Part 1. p. 89 -91. Mr. Brs distinction of justification and pardon into Title of Law and sentence of Judgement Constitutive and Declarative virtuall and Actuall examined and proved unscripturall and vain and his reasons to prove a Justification in the day of Judgement answered