the Sin of many by the Bishop's saying This makes us apt to lessen the Divine Perfections and our just sense of the difference of Good and Evil and our Obligations to all sorts of Duties Cujus contrarium Nothing more contrary For what can honour more the Glory of God's Holiness and the Infiniteness of his Grace and Goodness than his sending his own Eternal Son to undergo that horrid Task by his own consent of bearing our Sins that we might be free And what greater Argument of the difference of Good and Evil than Christ's suffering so great an Evil as the bearing our Sins that we might have so great a Good as Reconciliation to God Pardon and Eternal Salvation thereby And what greater spur to all the Duties of Holiness than our being delivered from all our Enemies Sin Death and Hell by the precious Blood of his Dear Son O! what an ingagement is this to serve him without fear all the days of our Lives And this Love of God in Christ being shed abroad in our Hearts will constrain us so to do much more than all the thundring Terrors of the Law which only work Condemnation But this Grace of God bringing Salvation this teaches effectually to deny ungodliness and to live righteously c. Therefore I humbly conceive the Bishop is out in saying It makes us apt to lessen the Divine Perfections whereas all the Torments in Hell of all final Unbelievers to all Eternity cannot so heighten and glorifie the Justice and Holiness of God as our Lord Jesus shedding his precious Blood which is called the Blood of God doth heighten and glorifie both his Holiness and his Grace to all that believe in this Lord Jesus and accept of him and this way of Salvation by him and him alone §. CLIV. But the frightful Charge against Dr. Crisp is That this Change of Persons makes Christ the Sinner then Christ is the Murderer and the Adulterer not David I answer Could not Christ bear the Sin and be the reputed Criminal without his being really and personally the Sinner What more common among Men than for a Surety to bear the burden of that Debt which he never contracted a penny of yet lyes in Goal for the whole and before he comes out pays the whole So our Lord Jesus standing in our place paid the whole as the voluntary Surety in our stead and yet was no more the Murderer than David was the Christ But he took David's Person on him and put himself on David to be his Righteousness as David sweetly sings O God my Righteousness Psal 4.1 But the great Jealousie is That Men think if Christ did really bear the Sins of the Elect the very Murder and Adultery of David c. that this did defile and taint the Holy Nature of Jesus Christ and so they would infer that the Free Grace Teachers would be saved by a defiled polluted Saviour Whereas there is nothing more inconsistent for there is none that believes the infinite incomprehensible Holiness and Purity of our Lord Jesus Holy with all the perfection of Holiness as God his Eternal Father is Holy but must conclude it is impossible that his Holy Nature should be tainted or polluted by the Sins of the Elect charged upon him and lying upon him for if instead of bearing the Sins only of all that the Father had given to him he being God-Man he had born the Sins of Ten Thousand Worlds full of Sinners they could not have defiled his Holy Nature there being an infinite disproportion between his infinite Holiness and Man's finite Sins so that they could no more defile him than a Viper's or a Toad's spitting Poyson against the Sun can defile the Sun Therefore I say with boldness If we believe our Lord Jesus to be true God and consider the infinite Purity of this Holy God our Lord Jesus Christ in our Humane Nature we cannot conceive that this Humane Nature could possibly be tainted or contaminated by his being made Sin for us and by bearing our Sin for the same Scripture that saith God made him to be Sin for us saith also He knew no Sin that is so as to be in his Holy Person guilty of any Sin of his own or to allow of any Sin to go unpunished §. CLV It would do well for all that stumble at our Sins our very Sins being by God laid on Christ and he as our Surety made Sin for us and that think that this will lessen the Divine Perfections and our Sense of the difference of Good and Evil to consider that our Lord Jesus is called by the same Name as the Sacrifices of old were called that had the Sins of the People laid on them they were called Sin so is our Lord Jesus Nay he compares himself to the Serpent Was the Serpent cursed beyond all the Beasts of the Field Christ is said to be made a Curse for us Did the Brazen Serpent lifted up heal all that look'd to it of their Stings of the Fiery Serpents So saith our Lord Jesus As the Serpent was lifted up shall the Son of Man be That whosoever believeth in him that being taken for looking to him and being Saved he shall not perish but have everlasting Life Can any sober Christian think that God himself would lessen the Divine Perfections of his Nature or of his Son Jesus who is one with himself Whom he charges all Men to Honour as they Honour the Father by his giving up his Son to Death for us all and by putting our Sins on him and giving the Name of Sin and comparing him to the Serpent for being a Curse We should rather from hence learn the Infinite Love of the Father and the Son and his Infinite Hatred of Sin insomuch as nothing could expiate it or take out the Stain of it from us but the Blood of him that was God §. CLVI And because our whole Concern to all Eternity depends on God's making Christ to be Sin for us and thereby glorifying the Divine Perfections of his Wisdom Holiness and Goodness not lessening them as is intimated I think it may to some be useful to give an Instance or two of the Sacrifices that had the Sins of the People laid on them how they as Types of Christ were called Sin they are in near 100 places called Sin and Guilt and yet at the same time they were called Most Holy as in Lev. 6.17 it is said of the Meat-offering It is most Holy as the Sin-offering and the Trespass-offering and more plainly in v. 25. This is the Law of the sin-offering it shall be killed before the Lord It is most Holy Nay so Holy it was that in Verse 27. it is said Whosoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy Now though these were so Holy yet it is to be observed that in both these places the 17th and 25th Verses that the word which we translate Sin-offering is in the Original only Sin the word being Chattath
into which his Posterity should be sub-divided If it was not I conceive the Fault was theirs not God's as if it would have been a Fault in God if he did not give means for all to be Saved when they had Damned themselves Thus Antisozzo has in a manner laid Salvation open in common to Elect and Non-elect to Vessels before of old ordained to Condemnation Jude 4. as well as to Vessels of Mercy for whom the Kingdom was prepared from the Foundation of the World Matt. 25 directly contrary to the Confession of the Assembly which they both have Subscribed though I find not that they ever recanted this Expression The Assembly say on the Point of God's Decree directly that none but the Elect can be Saved thus These Angels and Men their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be increased or diminished neither are any other redeemed by Christ effectually Called Justified Adopted Sanctified and Saved but the Elect only For the proof of which they quote 2 Tim. 2.19 John 13.18 17.9 6.64 65. 10.26 Rom. 8.28 I lay down my Life for the sheep and ye Pharisees ye believe not because ye are not my sheep Thus these great Men have asserted and this our Neonomians subscribe to in order to deceive the Simple to believe they are Orthodox when here 't is visible how Heterodox these two great Contenders for the New Law are plainly deviating from the Assembly in allowing a Possibility for the Non elect to be Saved But I beg for them the Mercy of God to give them the Eye-salve of his Spirit to shew them their Mistake §. XXXIV The Ninth and Tenth Heresies are scarce worth mentioning they being only some curtailed Expressions that the Antagonists to the Free Grace of God in his eternal Love to poor Sinners in Christ do take from the Writings of some of the Asserters of our Sins being fully done away by the Death of our Lord Jesus and from thence this Pharisaical Spirit quarrels at them and charges them for laying a ninth Heresie It is denied that God requires Faith as an indispensible Qualification in them whom he will Justifie by Christ's Merits How this is worded by his Antinomians he mentions not whether they deny Faith indispensibly in Infants or Lunaticks or no So that this Quarrel needs little answer seeing they know that we are as much for Faith as themselves if not more as it excludes Works in the Point of Justification but not for Faith to take the Crown off from the Head of Jesus and it self to wear the Honour of Saving us in whole or in part §. XXXV Such another is his Tenth Heresie All that a Believer can pray for is the farther Manifestation of Pardon for he knows that all his Sins are pardoned This is a manifest Breach of Charity for he knows they pray for more and though they may at some Seasons have full Assurance of being accepted in the Beloved Jesus wherein they see all their Sins were done away in his Blood when he to Sanctifie the People Suffered without the Gate Whereupon they upon Believing cry Glory to him who hath loved them and washed them from their Sins with his Blood Yet they daily pray for fresh Discoveries of the same which as to their Consciences is a Fresh Pardon or renewing of Pardon I hope my Dear Kratiste will not deny That by one Offering he hath for ever perfected those that are Sanctified and that he Sanctified the People with his own Blood when he Suffered without the Gate If so then all successive Pardons upon fresh Acts of Faith are only the Clearing up of Pardon to the Conscience that there should be no more Conscience of Sin Whereas the Grand Pardon in the Court of Heaven was as Mr. Pemble says when Christ was delivered for our Offences and raised for our Justification which is not manifest to the Conscience till Faith comes And thus this Heresie vanishes having only left us a Testimony that the Neonomians do Boggle in the point of Pardon and would hook in our Faith to be a Joynt-Saviour with Christ by being a procurer of Pardon rather than a Manifestation of it §. XXXVI It is an Amazement his 11th Heresie which is this A Believer is to work from Life and not for Life For answer If a Man be a Believer he is a Living Member of Christ and so he Works from Life in Christ Sure then this cannot be the Heresie intended here to say he works from Life Then this is his Heresie That a Believer works not for Life But how can that be Heresie to say A Believer doth not work for Life when the word saith The Gift of God is Eternal Life Rom. 6.23 If it be Gift then it is not Work'd for by us do Men call that a Gift that is wrought for that is Wages Death indeed is wrought for by Sin for the Wages of Sin which is in our best Works is Death but Life is the Free Gift of God How then can it be called Heresie to say A Believer works not for Life Antisozzo was once of another Mind I find but the Rebuker does well to conceal his Name for to call this Heresie must needs cast a sad Reflection What more substantial Truth is there than that a Believer works from Life and not to gain Life by his Works Whither shall we run if we do not maintain this for Truth That a Believer works not that he by his good Works might procure to himself Eternal Life No but he works from a Divine Principle of Life in him that he may glorifie God for the Gift of Eternal Life through his Son Jesus Christ O! how true is that of Luther Every Man hath a Pope in his Belly and how ready are we to run into the Dregs of Popery to Work for Life §. XXXVII The Twelfth is 'T is Heresie to say It 's a great Truth that God sees no Sin in a Believer I hope it is a great Truth and no Heresie that God saith I have blotted out as a thick Cloud thy Transgressions and as a Cloud thy Sins Isa 44.22 And if blotted out it is to shew that God doth not see them And if God saith He has cast them into the Depth of the Sea and he has cast them behind his Back and he will remember them no more Is it not the same thing as not to see them And doth he not say He hath not beheld Iniquity in Jacob not but that they had Iniquity enough but when their Sins are covered with the Robe the fine white Linnen of Christ's Righteousness then it may be said without Imputation of Heresie 't is a great Truth and a Blessed one that God sees no Sin in a Believer Sure my Dear Kratiste had strangely forgot himself to call this glorious Truth a Heresie §. XXXVIII The Thirteenth Sin can do no real hurt to a Believer Answer If as Sin abounds Grace much more abounds which
absolutely free If some poor Souls have not power to put forth clear direct Acts of Faith on the Lord Jesus for Righteousness and Life by him if they have strong desires after him and hunger and thirst after his Righteousness to be fed with it as their alone true Food shall they not be filled Though their fears make them cry out of their Unbelief I hope my Dear Kratiste doth not intend that his Thorny Hedge as he called it about God's Justice that this shall keep such out No if you will put your Thorny Briars before him in the way of his Free Salvation to poor miserable lost Sinners that come to him in the Name of the Lord Jesus he will pass through and burn them up Isa 27.4 §. LXXXII But methinks our Hedger has left a wide gap open which I overlook'd in page 46 where he makes light of a Surety of our Lord Jesus his paying our Debts as our Surety and bids us have a care of that notion at least not to insist so strictly upon it For which instead of Scripture he quotes one that he calls a Learned Author probably Mr. Baxter saying thus None need think themselves obliged to maintain that Opinion That Christ paid a rigid and proper Satisfaction for the Sins of Men under the Notion of a Debt And why forsooth because the Socinians Arguments are level'd against it This Learned Man might say the like concerning the Notion of Christ being God Essential because the Socinians Arguments are alike level'd against that Notion But what saith Kratiste of this Arminian Caution against the rigid and proper Satisfaction of Christ for the Sins of Men under the Notion of a Debt He saith thus I wish I were worthy to advise this confident Man Mr. Lob not to insist so strictly on that Notion of a Debt and Debtor And on that occasion he brings in his Learned nameless Author O how would some Men triumph over an Antagonist to have him under Correction as the Rebuker seems here to be But I lament over him Some Persons question his owning Christ's making a full proper Satisfaction I wish that he had not given too much occasion by such passages as these not to insist so strictly on it that Christ paid a rigid proper Satisfaction for Sins What he means by so strictly I know not but I am sure we cannot be too strict in insisting on Christ's proper Satisfaction This so strictly seems at first only to loosen the stake in the Hedge and by and by it must be pulled up and Satisfaction must be evacuated For if Christ did not make a full proper and that which they may call a rigid Satisfaction then he made not a compleat Satisfaction and if not a compleat one then how is it called Satisfaction O! why should we not insist strictly on that which is one of the most comfortable Notions in all the Book of God in all the Revelation of Grace by Jesus Christ That our Lord Jesus paid our Debts Why doth our Lord Jesus bid us pray to the Father to forgive us our Debts if he had not made Satisfaction to the Father and paid them Would you have God forgive our Debts without receiving Satisfaction That 's Socinian Language indeed and you pretend to be much against them But it must not be a Pecuniary Debt you say Who ever said our Debts to God were Pecuniary that is That we owe God so much in Mill'd Money or in Guineas Yet we may and do owe God that which is a better Coyn than any ever made in the Tower and that is perfectly Pure Holy Spiritual Heavenly Obedience to his Holy Law and we owe God Satisfaction for our Disobedience to the same And tho' Leather Farthings or Copper may go in some poor Kingdoms as Shells in Guyny go for Money and in richer Kingdoms the chief Payments are in Gold and Silver yet in the Kingdom of Heaven no Payment passes there but perfect spotless Obedience and is not that as much a Debt to God as any Pecuniary Debt between Man and Man And who ever paid that but our Lord Jesus in his doing and dying for us But why not insist on that Notion of a Debt and Debtor May we not without a Rebuke insist on that which Christ insists upon in Matth. 5.25 26. He insists strictly on a proper rigid Satisfaction there and saith Agree with thine Adversary quickly lest he at any time deliver thee to the Judge c. Thou shalt not come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost Farthing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last Farthing plainly shewing that God will never abate a Sinner one Farthing that has not agreed by the way that has not fled to Christ his Surety who hath paid to the last Farthing And this we may be sure of God never made a Composition with Christ to take Ten Shillings in the Pound for our Debts no nor Nineteen Shillings and Eleven Pence Three Farthings for it is said plainly in Rom. 8. God spared not his Son no not one Farthing Therefore 't is Socinian Language I conceive to prohibit Mens looking to Christ as satisfying for us under the Notion of a Debt and Debtor This puts me in mind of Christ's Speech and sweet Rebuke to Peter which I hope may have a sweet influence on our Rebuker for his Caution Simon I have somewhat to say to thee Luke 7.40 There was a certain Creditor had two Debtors the one ought five hundred Pence the other fifty Will any one say now that our Debt to God must not come under the Notion of a Pecuniary Debt when in these two Instances from the Lips of our Lord Jesus nothing is more plain than that God makes use of this Notion Why then should we be cautioned against it I must confess my self much ashamed that my Dear Kratiste should be found thus in the Camp of the Enemies of our Lord Jesus who would not have us insist strictly on a rigid proper Satisfaction O whether shall we drive if we let loose this sheet Anchor of the Gospel The Ship will split in a thousand pieces and the Arminians and Socinians will run away with all the broken pieces but not have one plank to carry them safe ashore O! let us never let go this Notion of Christ our Suâ—ety paying our Debt Doth not our Lord Jesus set it off with wonderful Consolation to all that truly believe in him by saying He came not to be ministred to but to minister and to give his Life a Ransom for many What is a Ransom but the paying a Debt that is agreed upon for the redeeming a Slave Now this Debt our Lord Jesus paid or else it could not be said to be a Ransom So that 't is no hazardous Thing but a strong Duty for us to insist on Christ's Satisfaction under the Notion of a Debt §. LXXXIII And O that my Dear Kratiste and the Neonomian Brethren would or could return to the simplicity
of the Gospel and pray as our Lord Jesus teaches That God would forgive their DEBTS for the sake of Christ our Surety who hath bought us with the Price not of corruptible Things as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of the Lamb without Spot the Lord Jesus Christ that Blood being the only Current Coyn in Heaven for poor Sinners Debts Shall God say ye are bought with a Price and shall vain Man dehort us from the Notion of a Pecuniary Debt Take away this and you will take away all the Gospel in a little time It will soon be lost if the Rebuker's Learned Man's Doctrine must pass for currant That we must not insist on Christ's paying a rigid proper Satisfaction If by rigid he means a full compleat perfect Satisfaction to the last Farthing then I say to deny or wave this and the Apostle warrants it let him be accursed for by it he overthrows the whole Gospel which lyes in this That Christ hath ransomed bought and redeemed us by his Blood which cleanses us from all Sin And this gave a full compleat Satisfaction to God upon which account he said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and on the same account the Apostle saith If any bring any other Gospel let him be accursed §. LXXXIV I cannot but continue an admiration that my Dear Kratiste once famous for strenuous arguings for the Truth should quote and confirm such a Passage as is fitter to come from Raconia and Rome than the Pen of a Gospel Divine What not insist on Christ's proper yea rigid Satisfaction If not a proper one and a full one that 's a rigid one then 't is none at all But they would abate the Poyson of it by saying not insist on it under the Notion of a Debt and Debtor so the Rebuker But I pray why may not God's Terms and Notions be insisted on rather than the Socinians God bids us pray forgive our Debts and saith We are bought with a Price And what is that Price but Christ's paying our Debts For the sake of which Price only God in his infinite Mercy forgives the Debts of all that believe in the Lord Jesus But to insist on this Notion looks like our Rebuker's Antinomianism he charges Dr. Crisp withal If we say that Christ paid our Debts by the Price of his Blood and Life then this looks as if we were discharged in God's sight from all our Sins at Christ's Death or rather at his Resurrection and then that of the Apostle would be rigidly insisted on for our Justification at Christ's Resurrection He was delivered for our Offences and raised for our Justification Rom. 8. But of this the Neonomians must have a care lest they by it come over to the Antinomians Therefore 't is necessary for them to wish with the Rebuker they were worthy to advise not to insist so strictly on that Notion of Debt and Debtor §. LXXXV To answer his Wish with another Wish I heartily wish I were worthy to advise all Neonomians all New Law Men to be so humbâ—e and good to themselves as to peruse and learn the Sentiments of our Reformers from Popery that made the Book of the Homilies in which are many excellent Passages to uphold this Notion of Christ's paying a Price for us In the first part of the Sermon of Salvation they have these Heavenly Expressions God provided a Ransom for us that was the most precious Body and Blood of his own most dear and best beloved Son Jesus Christ who beside the Ransom fulfilled the Law for us perfectly And a little further they are more clear saying He for them paid the Ransom by his Death he for them fulfilled the Law in his Life so that now in him and by him every true Christian Man may be called a fulfiller of the Law O what can be more positive and plain Is not here a rigid-proper Satisfaction and that in the Notion of a Debt calling it a Ransom Nay he paid their Ransom And what can be a more rigid Satisfaction than fulfilling the Law every tittle for them in his Life and paying a Ransom in his Death O! that my Dear Kratiste would by himself a little blush at this and what the Church of Scotland in Knox his Reformation in Fol. 8 he calls the Gospel Christ's being a Debtor for our Sins and Christ paid our Debt The Law saith Pay thy Debt the Gospel saith Christ hath paid it for thee §. LXXXVI I pray what Titles may we expect in the next Rebuke to be given to these Holy Men these Fathers in our Church of Christ in England and Scotland upon the emerging out of Popery Sure they must also be called a parcel of Antinomians Sure Dr. Crisp got his Dregs of Antinomianism from you a company of Apocryphal Tobias's What did we fulfil the Law in Christ Sure you wont dare to say so Then all our Neonomian Scheme is spoiled of our being accepted in part on account of our Evangelical Righteousness in Obedience to a Law wherein God doth not require Sinless Obedience Then if we fulfilled the Law in Christ all our thundring Anathemaes against Antinomianism will fall on our selves If this be true that you Reformers have said then how shall we be able to flourish our Colours with a bravado that this is unintelligible uncooth novel Doctrine such as never any Council Synod or Nation ever brought into their Creed But my Dear Kratiste knows that what is said in the Homilies is said by the whole English Nation that these Sermons have many Acts of Parliament to confirm them for True Sound and Orthodox Doctrine and particularly this that we in him fulfilled the Law And I wish that all our Divines as well Conformists as Nonconformists would seriously lay this to Heart and be humbled so far as they swerve from this blessed Truth That he paid the Debt for us and we in him fulfilled the Law Where is the Neonomian Vaunt now O how good is it to be humble and not challenge all the World against the Notion of Debt and Debtor or the like For here the Great Assembly of the Nation King Lords and Commons in Parliament for the utter Confusion of Neonomianism have confirmed this almost One Hundred and Fifty Years ago and many times since which hath stood for Sound Doctrine in the Church of our Lord Jesus in England many Years before Dr. Crisp was born and Fifty Five since he went to Rest viz. That in him and by him every true Christian Man may be called a fulfiller of the Law If they fulfilled the Law in him and by him did not Christ sustain their Persons in himself when he fulfilled the Law for them How else can they be said to fulfil the Law in him if they were not in him and sustained by him This we are taught here for the utter silencing and shame of those that call it Antinomianism §. LXXXVII This great Expression of
in Sins and Trespasses and there must be an Almighty Power put forth to quicken them besides the bare Call Turn ye turn ye It is God that must work both the Will and the Deed for without me saith Christ you can do nothing If so what is the Call to turn without the Spirit of God effecting the turn but a manifestation of God's Right to command which you may call the triumph of the Law You will not say that God hath lost his Right to command us to turn to him though we are dead and are not able to turn till there goes forth from God with his Call an Almighty saving Power of turning us to him and on this account the Church prays Turn thou me and I shall be turned Jer. 31.18 And till then the Call is but God's triumphing in his Sovereignty in the Law over poor dead Sinners §. XLIII The eighteenth is a very weak Heresie though a long one and in truth no more a Heresie than 't is Heresie to say Christ took not the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham but however this comes in the Bed-roll to fill up the number and 't is thus The Eternal Life in which the Angels were created and confirmed by Christ differs from that Eternal Life which Believers have in Christ The one is a Creature Life or a created Life the other is the Eternal Life of God communicated in time This though not of the Essence of Christianity or a Fundamental may be a little explained and so it will appear that it is no Heresie But some Persons are glad of a small Occasion to quarrel The only Ground for quarrelling at this Expression is That the Life of a Believer is the Eternal Life of God by which I suppose is meant of God-Man the Lord Jesus Christ Now take it in that Sense then Christ being the Life of every Believer they have the Eternal Life of God-Man in them so as the Angels have not Christ took not their Nature they are not Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones and Believers are Eph. 5.30 He is not their Resurrection and Life as he is the Believers Is it not a great Truth that by Vertue of their Union to Christ by Faith in his Flesh and Blood the Flesh and Blood of him who is the Eternal Son of God they have that Eternal Life in them from him which the Angels have not As to the Eternal Life which the Angels have and shall enjoy what is it but a created Life Whereas the Life of Christ in his Saints and with them to all Eternity is their participation of his Life as he is more than a meer Creature as he is God-Man and they one with him partaking of the Divine Nature as the Branches partake of the very Nature of the Vine not that they are Godded with Christ God-Man but in an ineffable manner they partake of his Divine Nature being made one Body incorporated into him and so one with him which must comprehend an Eternal Life being in them which is more than meerly created they being filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3.19 That is as they have Christ in them the hope of Glory in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead Bodily but in Believers he dwells only Spiritually §. XLIV The nineteenth they make a great one viz. That Believers are as Righteous as Christ I mean not in a way of Similitude but in a way of Equality Here is high Disingenuity to quote part of a Sentence For Mr. Mather from whom this is taken though he said somewhat to this purpose at Pinners-Hall yet he put in several Qualifications of the Expression whereof one was That they were as Righteous as Christ as they did partake of his Mediatorial Righteousness and of that part only of that Righteousness which was wrought out for them To this there may be more said when I answer the Rebuker's saying That Mr. Williams had denyed his Redeemer if he had not denyed Dr. Crisp's Assertion of a change of Persons In the mean time I leave this Scripture to be pondered That we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Christ 1 Cor. 5.21 §. XLV The twentieth is That Christ's Incarnation was no part of his Humiliation This is brought in I suppose to insult over the Grave of Mr. Mather who could doubtless have so explained his meaning as it needed not have put Mr. Williams on shewing his great Parts and Learning to go to confute it for an Antinomian Heresie in interpreting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a new English word well enough agreeing with the Neonomian Doctrine calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exaninition which he might as well call exany-thing or to make it chime his next Interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exinanition instead of his calling it exany-nition it may be exany-wigeon or any thing else as his mighty Learning may coyn for it If Mr. Mather in that Expression meant it of meer Incarnation without respect to Mediation for Sinners how was his Incarnation any Humiliation more than God the Father his dwelling in the Heart of the Humble and Contrite is his Humiliation May not God the Father or God the Son assume what shape they please as well as the Holy Spirit assumed the shape of a Dove and yet that no Degradation or Humiliation It is true God is said to humble himself to behold things in Heaven but that is spoken Figuratively as his Eyes behold his Eye-lids try the Children of Men but to say God is humbled by it is harsh and so to say that Christ's meer Incarnation was his Humiliation is to deny him the liberty to assume what form he pleases or to make it a diminution of his Glory is what I suppose cannot well be maintained I am sure his Incarnation was a Glorious Exaltation of our Humane Nature and would it not be harsh to say he could not exalt our Nature without depressing his own God is able of Stones to raise up Children to Abraham much more is Christ able to take our Nature when made Sinless and not thereby degrade his own But let Mr. Williams run away with his Triumphs over Mr. Mather calling him Blow-flame and make an exaninition or an exany-thing of him when all is done this Expression among wise Christians will hardly pass for an Heresie to say Christ's meer Incarnation was not a part of his Humiliation though his Incarnation as Mediator was §. XLVI The last the one and twentieth is We coalesce upon believing into one Mystical Person with Christ which is distinguish'd from Legal Vnion which is before Faith Whose Expression this is I am to seek but methinks 't is very harmonious with the Gospel and if this deserves the Name of Heresie we must seek a New Gospel What can be more coalescing than that of Christ You in me and I in you Or that of the Apostle We are Members of his Body c.
28.16 Is not that our Lord Jesus of whom the Apostle saith Other Foundation can no Man lay And Christ saith On this Rock I will build my Church And shall we now have this Egg laid That our good Works are the Foundation to the building us up unto Glory Sure this rotten Egg can never be endured in the Nostrils of any good Christian The first is like it as one Egg can be to another That our good Works have the same respect to Glory that the Seed hath to the Harvest Now every one knows that the Harvest grows immediately from the Seed and if we had no Harvest of Glory but what grows out of the Seed of our Works it would be a very dark dunghil Glory for our best Righteousness as to getting us Glory is but as menstruous Rags But for our Comfort the Scripture saith One sows and another reaps Christ hath in Infinite Grace sowed his Body as a grain of Wheat in the Earth John 12.24 out of which all our Glory must grow O how contrary is his Assertion to the whole Gospel which saith We are saved by Grace and not of Works lest any Man should boast Our Glory is so far from being the Harvest of our Works that the Apostle saith He hath saved us not according to our Works of Righteousness which we have done 2. Tim. 1.9 Neither for our Works nor according to them O how sad is it that my Dear Kratiste should by his Hand together with Forty Eight more midwife this rotten Egg into the World The third is of the same brood That Glory is the Wages of our Works which is diametrically opposite to the Apostle who wholly excludes Works saying in Rom. 11.6 If it be by Grace it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace But if it be of Works it is no more of Grace And the Apostle concludes to the shame of self-justiciaries Rom. 3.27 Where is boasting then it is excluded By what Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith So that Mr. Williams must not lay this Egg at the Apostle's Gate it being as rotten an one as any in the whole Council of Trent But one dash of the Rebuker's Pen That he hath accounted for what he hath written by subscribing the Assemblies Confession shall cleanse him from all whereas his subscribing that without his recanting this is but like some of the Clergy in Antisozzo that snatch up the Pen to subscribe the Articles of the Church of England and to their shame immediately preach against some of them in advancing Man's Free-will in opposition to God's Free Irresistible Grace and denying particular Election and the like For which we may mourn and say Proh Dolor §. XCIX It is not to be unminded how the Rebuker slides off the three first Conditions on which Mr. Williams his acceptance was to be grounded which are these If he concur in the Doctrine of Justification and the Change of Persons between Christ and Believers and Christ's undergoing the Father's displeasure for our Sins These he saith in 58 I will not mention to save Time and Paper A great Husband of Time and Paper But would not Time and Paper have been better imployed by far in setting these three Points in a true Light than to talk of whaffling Whelps and rotten Eggs I fear there are greater Reasons than to save Time and Paper that he waves them It being judged by many from his Writings that he is not extraordinary tight in the Point of Justification and therefore being conscious thereof he might not be free to expose himself by declaring his Judgment therein as to the Conditionality of Faith and New Obedience and how far our Works have any concern in our Justification notwithstanding the Scripture saith We are justified freely by his Grace And it may justly be suspected that he who could say We did not sin Adam 's Sin so denying the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might as well say That that Sin of his was not ours and so we not concerned in it so as to be condemned for it And thence might as well say that Christ's Righteousness which he performed in obeying and suffering the Law is not ours it was only wrought for our Good and so we not justified by God's imputing it to us but that we have only the Effects of it or this is the main viz. Pardon of our Sins if we repent and believe and walk in holy Obedience and so continue to the end of our Lives thereby denying assurance till the last breath and then for the sake of Christ's Righteousness on our sincere performance of our Duty we shall have Heaven and Happiness as his Gospel-Truth stated and before him Mr. R. B. But if this be current how can the Scripture be true that we are justified freely by his Grace and that we are justified by his Blood that he was raised for our Justification without one word of our Gospel-Obedience concurring thereto it being not according to Works of Righteousness which we have done And whereas the Word saith we are justified by Faith all sound Protestants the Assemblies Confession and the Doctrine of the Church of England do uno ore with one mouth agree that it is not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere it is not our Act of Faith justifies us but the Object of Faith that Righteousness of Christ which he wrought out for us which we lay hold on and receive by Faith It is that Righteousness made ours given to us by God and reckoned by God to us which alone doth justifie us on which account it is said It is God that justifies Rom. 8. But this my Kratiste waves lest he should bewray it is feared some halting in this as the Reporter saith he has done in the Point of Christ's Satisfaction Or else if he be right in it himself and if he had declared it he must have left his Friend Mr. D. W. in the Ditch who is sadly tardy in this case §. C. As to his second Point that he waves The Change of Persons between Christ and Believers this he might be allowed for he had said enough and too much of that in ridiculing it before with Christ's wearing a Mask a Vizor c. when he bare the Persons of the Elect in himself For which I beseech the Lord to give him Repentance and Pardon §. CI. But as to the third of Christ's bearing the Father's displeasure for our Sins he having said little or nothing of that before it might have been expected he should have said somewhat of it now if it had been only to confirm his Friend Mr. Williams who had abused the Doctor when he took the Doctor to task about it But this is so fully handled by Dr. Chancy and such full Evidence brought in by him of our Lord Jesus his undergoing the displeasure of God and sustaining the Wrath of God for our Sins when by God himself they were laid upon him
run very clear Streams from the Fountain of Israel and they as I quoted before out of the first part of the Sermon of Salvation are wonderful clear for such a Change as the Doctor affirms and Mr. Williams denies saying So that Christ is now the Righteousness of all them that truly do believe in him He for them paid their Ransom by his Death he for them fulfilled the Law in his Life so that now IN HIM and BY HIM every true Christian Man may be called a fulfiller of the Law This Golden Sentence which might be for an Ornament in Gold Letters in every House in England doth fully vindicate to a Tittle Dr. Crisp's Change of Persons Christ himself is their Righteousness he paid Ransom for them they were fulfillers of the Law in him and by him What can be more full to the Point I hope the Bishop will not charge these great Men the Composers of this Sermon as he has done the Doctor with an imaginary unproved Change §. CLI One word more to the Bishop's Argument to prove that it is but an imaginary Notion to think that we are compleatly Righteous by the Righteousness of Christ without any act of ours which Argument of his is in these words I could easily prove that in all the Transactions between God and Mankind some Conditions were required on our side in order to his favour So it was in the State of Innocency so it continued after Man's Fall as it appears by those words of God to Cain If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted if thou dost not well Sin lyeth at the door Gen. 4.7 'T is strange so great a Man should offer so weak an Argument to argue from a state of Innocency or from the state of Reprobate Cain or from the Covenant of Works what belongs to the Elect under the Covenant of Grace and under the Gospel where Works and Grace are made opposite Terms If of Works then no more of Grace saith the Apostle Was not Abel first accepted and then his Offering Is not the first Promise all of Grace He Christ shall bruise thine the Devil's Head And is not the last Promise the like Whoever will let him take of the Water of Life freely But by the Bishop's Doctrine a clever way is made to overthrow the whole Gospel To you is born a Saviour and to subvert the Orthodox Doctrine of the Church of England at once by bringing from the Dead the Covenant of Works to be saved by our doing well and not by Christ's doing and dying for us Whereas Abel's Sacrifice was accepted he himself being first accepted and his Sacrifice being offered in Faith but Cain and his Sacrifice rejected being not offered in Faith not looking to Jesus alone for Salvation by him The Bishop seems to run counter diametrically against the Apostle who argues strenuously Not of Works of no sort kind or degree lest any boast and by the Deeds of the Law shall no Flesh he justified He sums it up in Eph. 2. By Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Not of Works lest any boast And Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Thus the Scripture is plain against this Argument of the Bishop That our performing of Conditions must be in order to gain God's Favour §. CLII. Then for the Doctrine of the Church see what that saith of Conditions or of any Works of ours to gain God's Favour In the second Sermon of Salvation the good Christians of those days that were singed by the Popish Fires in Queen Maries days they tell us So that the true understanding this Doctrine That we be justified by Faith freely without Works or that we be justified by Faith in Christ only is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is within us doth justifie us A Sentence fit to be ingraven in every Church in England in order to take Men from trusting to their Repentance or good Works The like again is in the same Sermon as followeth We must renounce the Merit of Faith Hope Charity and all other Vertues and good Deeds And we must trust only in God's Mercy and that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus once offered As great and as goodly a Vertue as lively Faith is yet it putteth us from it self and remitteth and appointeth us unto Christ for to have only by him Remission of our Sins Observe these Eminent Stars of the first Magnitude in the Heaven of that Church of Old they are so far from bringing in our Repentance Charity and good Deeds or any act of ours to obtain Favour with God which the Bishop pleads for that they exclude Faith it self as having any hand in justifying us any farther than as it remitteth us to Christ But alas how is our Gold become Dross How are our great Men fallen from the Pure Primitive Doctrines of the Church of England And though they live splendidly by subscribing to these Doctrines yet in their Preaching and Writing they miserably warp as here in part from them Witness the setting up some Acts of ours to be done in order to obtain God's Favour And because God treated with Adam on account of Do and live therefore 't is supposed monstrously that Men when dead in Sins must work for Life or as the Bishop The Ministry of Reconciliation in St. Paul is wholly founded on Conditions on our side which he calls Acts of ours and may as well be called our good Works And all this because the Apostle pray'd them to be reconciled to God which cannot well be construed to be more than to pray them to accept the Reconciliation which God had made of Sinners to himself by Christ at his Death For if as the Apostle saith God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself then the Work was done when Christ cryed out on the Cross It is finished And if the word of Reconciliation was committed to the Apostles to publish to the World the Reconciliation that God had made of Sinners to himself by Christ what could his Embassadors mean in praying Sinners to be reconciled to God but to accept of what he had mentioned before of the act done long before viz. That God had reconciled Sinners to himself by Christ and to let them know that they were some of the reconciled ones if they would accept thereof and take these Waters of Life freely and so accept the Exhortation as Titus did 2 Cor. 8.17 §. CLIII O! how sad is it to eclipse the glorious Gospel Truth That our Sins were laid by God on Christ as the Doctor insists on it while the Bishop is pleased to load it with such very bad Consequences as might deter the weak and unconsidering from believing the plainest Positions in the Scripture viz. That the Lord laid on him the Iniquity of us all and he bare