elswhere pronounceth of men that when they lay in their blood in their nakedness then hee made it the time of love sayd to them live spread his skirt over them and covered them entred into Covenant with them and made them his Ezek. 16. 6 8. God of his great love wherewith hee hath loved us even when we were dead in sins and trespasses hath quickned us c. Ephes 2. 4 5. God commendeth his love to us that when we were yet sinners when enemies we were justified by Christs blood and reconciled to God by his death Rom. 5 8 9 10. Here it is evident to all men that the love of God justifying and reconciling us to himself goeth before our Faith and Workes was then in its power and operation when wee were yet sinners in all our pollution enemies dead in sinne therefore without any spirituall motion or operation to our own cleansing or happiness I demand now when this love of God so justifying us beganne Not when we beleeved and first obeyed the Gospel for it went before it was then acted toward us when wee were enemies dead c. Or when wee beganne to be sinners Then it seems our sinne begat this love in God and then let the Atheists Aphorism stand as an impregnable Principle let our sinne abound that the grace and love of God may abound Or was there ever an hatred of us as a contrary affection in God before which is now expelled that love might succeed in its place And hath God now changed his hating of us to condemne us into a love to justifie and save us This were to accuse God of mutableness and change For God is Love 1 Iohn 4. 8. and the Love of God is God himselfe loving and to affirme where wee finde the Love of God at present that there was a time when this Love was not in God and a time when God beganne to love is no other but to affirme that there was a time when God yet was not and a time when he beganne to bee God the will of God being God himselfe And the volitions or willings of God being God himself willing And the acts of Gods Love and Hatred being acts of Gods Will yea of God himselfe and no more subject to change because immanent in God then God himselfe So that these Scriptures which affirme Gods love to us when sinners doe affirm also consequentially his love to us before we were either in being or just or sinners even from eternity Thirdly when the Lord saith to his people I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jerem. 13. 3. Doth hee not mean a love which is from everlasting to everlasting Or is there a Love of God to everlasting which was not from everlasting Or was it not the Love of accepting and approbation of them unto Righteousnesse and Salvation whereof hee there speaketh And when the Apostle Iohn tels us that the glory of Gods love doth herein shine forth Not that we loved him but that he loved us 1 John 4. 10. making not our love or any fruits thereof the foundation of Gods love to us but the love of God to us to goe before and prevent our love is not this a doctrin universally true of all the Saints that are or have been that Gods love to them prevented and was antecedaneous to their love toward him if so then consequently before mans being as well as before his loving and if before mans being then from eternity was this grace given us that we were loved of God in Christ to justification and salvation It is that which the Lord Christ speaketh and that not obscurely in his prayer before his passion where having interceded and craved sundry blessings for his Elect he adds this reason why he craved those blessings in their behalfe viz. That the world may know that thou hast sent me and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me Jo. 17. 23. How is that in the next verse he explaineth himself thus Thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world what doth follow hence but that as Christ so they that are Christs were loved of God unto life before the foundation of the world why will not Master Baxter acknowledge what Christ hath prayed that all the world may know Object 1. Or will it be objected that God loving the Elect in Christ before the foundation of the world is to be understood onely in this sense that before the foundation of the world God decreed in himselfe to love them in Christ afterward in time Then must we so conclude of Christ also that God loved Christ before that is decreed before the foundation of the world to love Christ in after time not that he loved him from eternity for as hee loved Christ so he loved them in Christ But he actually loved Christ as the head of the Church before the foundation of the World therefore also he loved the Elect in Christ as the body and members of Christ before the foundation of the world Yea to decree from eternity to love them afterward in time and untill the time came to hate them or not to love them in Christ was to decree mutablenesse and change in his own will i. e. in himselfe which is wholly repugnant to his nature that cannot change by receiving augmentation unto or diminution of the acts of his Will which were in him from eternity Object 2. But perhaps Master Baxter may object with his friends of the Netherlands the Arminians whose ghosts have much infested us within this Nation these many years that this love of God from Eternity that which he shed abroad upon the Elect when they were yet sinners enemies and dead in sin is to be understood onely of Gods universal common love his love to all the creatures which he hath made or at the uttermost his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his love unto mankind which he extends to all alike Making the raine to descend and his Sun to shine upon the just and unjust and fills the hearts of all with food and gladness Sol. But how then was Jaakob loved and Esau hated when Esau partaked more of this common love than Jaakob or was it a Common love by which God doth justifie and reconcile sinners to himselfe then all shall be reconciled justified and saved Or when the Apostle termes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the much or great love of God out of which when he quickned us yet dead in sinnes and trespasses Eph. 2. 4. was this the common love extended to all the Sonns and Daughters of Adam without difference Then also for God loved us as he loved Christ the love of God to Christ was a common love in nothing supereminent to the love wherewith he loved Cain and Judas Lastly when God saith I have not beheld iniquity in Jaakob nor seen perversnesse in Israel Num. 23. 21. it will I doubt not be granted that the meaning was that God did
differunt have a vast difference from those which fall upon the ungodly Chastisements tend to the amending spirituallizing and perfecting of those that are exercised therewith as appeareth by the 11 verse of this Chapter But the judgments which proceed from the Law and revenging justice of God work to the tormenting and totall destruction of them upon whom they are inflicted 2 He affirmes them to have their rise from that new relation unto God whereunto by faith they are advanced viz. to be the Children of God They that are not Children undergo in their afflictions the vengeance of God But the Children are under the sweet discipline and loving Chastisements of a Father a most wise and most provident Father that seeks and in all his discipline worketh for the bettering not for the destroying of his Children judgeth i. e. Correcteth them and by correction holds them in from evill and apostacy that they may not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11. 32. 3 He pronounceth their troubles to the effects of Gods love whom he loveth he chasteneth c. but the Curse and revenging judgments of the Law proceed from his hatred The Law brandisheth its Curse against enemies whom God hateth 1 Tim. 1. 9. not against the Children of his bosom of his love Against these there is no law i. e. no power in the law to Curse and Condemn Gal. 5. 18 23. Or when the Holy Ghost Calleth the afflictions of beleevers Tryalls fiery tryalls such as is the tryall of the gold 1 Pet. 1. 7. 4. 12. doth he not denote a Contra-distinct difference between the afflictions of the beleevers and the unbeleevers Men cast wood and stubble into the fire to Consume them but the gold and silver into the fornace to try refine and purifie them that they may be of precious and honourable use to them The one they cast from themselves the other they fit for their use and service that they may never be lost Such difference is there betwixt the fire of the curse into which God casteth the wicked from himself to be devoured and the fiery tryall or fire of tryall into which he casteth his Saints for the further purifying and perfecting of their faith and sanctification that they may become vessels of honour in his house for ever And when the Scripture speaketh so oft of Rejoycing in afflictions pronouncing it the duty of Christians so to do as Mat. 5. 11 12. Col. 1. 24. 1 Pet. 4. 13. is it not implyed that their sufferings are altogether flowing from and dispensed by the grace and love of God For who can or ever was directed by the holy Ghost to rejoyce in the wrath of God or in the effects of Gods wrath against him such as are the curse and vengeance Or when the Lord Christ affirmes the eternall Father to be the Husbandman of his Vineyard the Church using his hook to cut off and cast away the fruitles branches i. e. the false Christians but his pruning knife to better perfect the fruitfull branches i. e. the true beleevers Joh. 15. 1 2. Doth not this declare his administrations to be in hatred and defiance to the one but in love and blessings to the other even when he pruneth and woundeth them And when the promise of God is gone forth in relation to the beleevers not to exempt them from but to support them in and bless unto them all their sufferings when they pass thorow the waters to be with them and thorow the Rivers that they shall not overflow them when they walk thorow the fire they shall not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon them Isa 43. 2. Surely these waters and fires are not the curse as the cause in which God wâ—â—l so accompany and perfect them but as his preserving them in it so his leading them into it is from his love and not from his hatred From all which we may boldly conclude that the sufferings which befall beleevers in this life are not the penalty or Curse of the Law or any part of it nor yet proceed from Gods revenging justice but fatherly Chastisements proceeding from the love and Grace of their heavenly Father CHAP. VI. Mr. Baxters ten Arguments for the contrary assertions examined and answered TO the ten Arguments of Mr. Baxter by which he goeth about to fortifie his two contrary assertions I answer in their order To the first drawn from Gods dealing with our first parents I have answered before He must first prove these two things first that they were beleevers which a meer and dark promulgation of a Saviour Gen. 3. 15. doth not evince for many thousands have had the Gospel more fully and cleerly preached to them yet have continued in unbeleef Secondly that the sufferings to which his quotations direct were inflicted upon them as a Curse by Gods revenging justice and untill he hath proved both these his Argument is besides the question It being not denyed by that which he calls the Common judgement either that unbeleevers are under the Curse or that beleevers are subject to sufferings though not to the Curse but a full answer to this Argument was given before out of Austin and Sadeel To the second I answer that it laboreth of the same fallacy with the former That the wicked feel all those sorrowes that he mentioneth and bear the curse and hatred of God in them is not denied But the godly have their part in the same sorrowes yet they bear not the curse and hatred of God therein This he was to have proved and untill he hath proved it he saith nothing but slides from the question which if he will but look an inch backward to his own words he thus stateth That the Common judgment is that Christ hath taken away the vâ—â—ole Curse being made a Curse for us yet exerciseth his own people with sufferings which unto them are onely afflictions of love c. Against this opinion he opposeth himself undertaking to prove that these also have not onely their sufferings but also the Curse of God in their sufferings Now the second argument which he brings to prove this is that the godly suffer the same things which are inflicted upon the wicked as a curse What is this to the purpose he doth herein but beat the ayr and fight against the winde and bark at the Moon comes not neer them whom he makes his adversaries in this question For they confess the sufferings but deny the curse He must therefore prove that the curse as the curse is inflicted upon the Saints els he comes no neerer the question than Ararim Parthus bibit aut Germania Tigrim For all that is here said denyeth not all the sufferings of the Saints to be chastisements and afflictions of love What the Apostle saith of one of them is true of the rest also viz. womens bringing forth of their children in sorrow Shee shall be saved by childbearing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim.
wrath his life and righteousnesse were hid with Christ in God He could claim nothing from God by any evidential title but wrath and condemnation though he had right in Christ yet had he no right unto Christ though in Christ all was his because Christ had united purchased and received all into his hands for him yet had he no right to Christ by which to claim a partnership and interest in the kingdome and priviledge of grace was without all true peace of conscience all joy and consolation in the promises of grace under fears and terrors in expectation of wrath and damnation could be sensible of nothing but anger hatred and displeasure against him for sinne knew not himselfe to be one of the children of promise Gal. 4. 28. to be entitled to Christ in whom alone the promises of God are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. Therefore as if there had been no Christ no Mediator and reconciler no Covenant of Grace yea no Grace or acts of Grace eternal or temporary in God thorow Christ so he remained under a Spirit either of delusion or of bondage still But now when the father hath drawn him to Christ and Christ hath received him when Christ hath apprehended him to himselfe by his Spirit and he by faith hath apprehended Christ to himselfe for redemption reconciliation remission righteousnesse and whatsoever else is laid up in Christ for him and so hath union and communion with Christ hath Christ in him and is himselfe in Christ Now his justification which was sure before in God and in Christ is also made sure to his conscience He is now justified in his own conscience after the tenor and by the vertue of the Gospel and Covenant and promises of Grace findes and knowes himselfe through Christ absolved at Gods tribunal hath all the evidences for it that possibly he can desire the Word and the Oath of God that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to ly he may have a strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. The Word evidenceth and his faith evidenceth the Covenant is now sealed mutually and reciprocally between God and him by beleeving he hath put to his seal that God is true and God sealeth to his conscience by certifying it by his Spirit that his wrath is pacified that all accusations are silenced there is no condemnation to him being now in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. Himselfe may now rest satisfied banishing henceforth all fears and doubts and glorying in the Lord that the fear of death is past it is enough my soul is now alive Christ is made sinne for me that I might become the Righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. Now Lord lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen thy Salvation and in the interim while he is here enjoying a heaven upon earth a kingdome of Righteousnesse joy and peace in the Holy Ghost untill he was incorporated by faith into Christ Christ might indeed plead for him but he had no evidence no shew of title not an article under Gods hand or from his lips to plead at Gods barre for life or pardon 6. That neverthelesse when a man truly beleeveth then may he apprehend justification and remission of sinnes not onely as now first declared and evidenced to his own soul But also as past and compleat before the foundation of the world was laid Because from eternity Christ satisfied in that he undertook to satisfie for the sinnes of the Elect and God from eternity rested in this satisfaction undertaken by Christ and so laid aside all displeasure which without this Covenant between him and his onely Son he might have taken up as wel against them that should afterward beleeve as against them which dye in unbeleef For their justification in time doth à posteriore argue their justification before all times and where faith findes the least rivulet of the great stream sent forth it can it ought by it to ascend up to the very fountain to be filled and satisfied with the deliciousnesse thereof Thus shall we finde the Apostle almost in all his Epistles from the sense of their present enjoyments in Christ to carry upward the Saints to whom he writeth unto the very bosom of Gods eternal grace counsell and good pleasure where all was laid up and treasured for them from all eternity that thence it might in due time be shed forth upon them Faith runs not away rashly and hastily with the gift but delights to enter and pierce through the vail to contemplate and embrace the as well eternal as infinite love of the giver 7. That although no man receiveth the sensible comfort of his justification before he actually beleeveth yet every elect vessell hath besides and without his knowledge the true benefit thereof as to freedome from vengeance throughout the whole time of his infidelity was in Christ beloved accepted and owned of God as righteous in that his sinne was not imputed as fully before as after he beleeved the price of his redemption was paid all his sinnes borne and punished upon the shoulders yea the soul and body of Christ so that himselfe was no lesse exempted from the revenging wrath of God from all obligation to make any part of satisfaction in his own person for his sinnes as hee that was already in Christ by faith So that whatsoever afflictions befell him in the time of his unbelief were not the infliction of the curse as the curse for sinne but sanctified chastisements of a loving father flowing from his grace and favour not from his indignation and hatred against his person though against his sins tending all to his good not to his ruine Else if he should have born the least stroke of Gods revenging justice and in the least pittance have made but one least peece of satisfaction by his sufferings for his offences then either Christ hath made satisfaction for him but in part and is not his whole Saviour and redeemer for that himselfe hath satisfied divine justice in part or otherwise the father hath taken satisfaction twice for the same sins once from the Lord Christ and after that from the offender also But this were to slander either the perfection of Christs mediation or the incorruptnesse of Gods justice both which are unsufferable 8. That the justification which is by faith consisteth not onely in a bare apprehension of our justification and pardon from God for this is onely mans act and no express act of God but first in Gods actual declaration evidencing and certisfying the conscience of man drawn to the barre of judgement set up as it were in the conscience that God hath taken satisfaction to his offended justice from the Lord Christ for all the offenders sinnes and hath for ever quit-claimed and discharged him from all sin and wrath and admitted him into favour and family to be under the dispensations of his grace for ever And then indeed God having by this
From the attributes that he gives to the faith to which he denieth justification viz. a dead faith ver 17. 20. 26. A faith of Devils ver 19. But a dead and Devillish faith are not a true Gospel faith but at the best a figment and counterfeit thereof 4. From the similitude by which he illustrateth his disputation If a man in a pretence of charity speaks comfortable words to his hungry and naked brother Alas poor soul be cloathed be filled but ministreth nothing to him for his refreshing will any call that flourish of words true charity Is it any more then a paint therof So also of him that saith hee hath faith but evidenceth it not by its fruits c. The verball faith doth no more profit to justification than the verball charity to sanctification If one of these in the mind of the Author be true charity then according to the minde of the Author also the other is true Faith 5. From the object of that Faith which James excludeth from Iustification Mr. Baxter acknowledgeth that the object of justifying Faith is Christ Thes 66 -68 and their explication But let him shew that James doth here expresly or impliedly in any one passage of his dispute make Christ the object of that Faith which he excludes from justification or any other object than the Faith of a meer Heathen or Hypocrite may pitch upon viz. generall truths that there is a God c. else let him grant from his owne principles that it is not true Faith but an unprofitable Historicall Faith as some terme it which is here excluded Thus have our writers in answer to the Papists Cavills expressed the minde of James in this place or rather from him selfe declared what himselfe expresseth to be his minde and this they expresse not as Mr. Baxter perverts them by some one but by both of these interpretations viz. of the word justifying and the word Faith manifesting out of James himselfe that as oft as in this dispute he attributes justification to works he speaks of justification i e. the declaration or manifestation thereof to men As when vers 21 Abraham and ver 25. Rahab and ver 24. A man indefinitely are said to be justified by works he meanes they are so manifested and declared by their works to us This is a usuall phrase not only in Scripture but in our common expressions and our common talk I will justifie what I have spoken or done i. e. I will declare it make it appear to be all good true and just I will justifie him from all that is layd to his charge i. e. I will declare and prove him just and free from all that he is charged with Again where hee denieth justification to that dead faith that worketh not by love that by faith he means a false profession and counterfeit of and not the true justifying faith and who among us ever said that to say I have faith never expressing the power and fruits of it can justifie a man So there is nothing to be found in James crossing the Protestant yea Evangelicall and Apostolicall conclusion that we are justified in our consciences before God by faith alone without works i. e. by a living and working not a dead faith yet without works can we not be declared and manifested just unto men That which Mr. Br. hath spoken against the former part of this interpretation viz. justification before men we have found to be either less or worse than nothing To the other viz. the denying of justification to faith that is a counterfeit a false profession of faith hee saith nothing and why because hee hath not what to say Therfore he stifles it in darknes will not have his Reader hear of it for then actum est he must run to S. Francis or some other Saint S. James leaves him in the mire It is no lesse ludicrous than fallacious that he turns the state of the question another way and danceth round about it never comming to that which our Divines answer 1. Having devised pag. 294. that we say James speaks of works as justifying our faith not our persons he doth pa. 296. goe about to prove that works justifie the person not the faith only And who ever denied this position Doe not wee all say that the holy life declares the truth of faith and therin justifieth as to men the professor of it from all hypocrisie in making such a profession 2. pag. 297. he falls foul with the Ghost of sweet Mr. Pemble for saying that by Faith and works Iames understands a working Faith And after a sharp chiding without examining his Reasons the matter whereof I have before examined at length p. 298. fetching breath he offers him peace and friendship upon condition that he will arise from the grave say what Mr. Baxter saith But despairing of that and concluding if he should rise again from the dead he would still say with the Protestant Churches and Writers that Fides solùm justificat non autem fides sola Faith alone justifieth but not that Faith which is alone without works because that alone faith is not a true Faith he 3. Makes a transition to fall out with all Protestant Churches for attributing too much to Faith in making it instrumentall to Iustification that when Believers are said to receive Christ Io. 1. 12. and to receive abundance of Grace and of the gift of Righteousnesse Rom. 5. 17. wee will not say they receive this Christ this gift of his Righteousnesse to Iustification without any receiving instrument but make Faith the instrument by which we receive the same p. 299. A most pernicious Doctrine to Mr. Baxters Cause If it stand Mr. Baxters Iustification by workes in the same relation with Faith as its Concause must needs fall and tumble downe to hell for works will not be bowed into any instrumentality to co-operate with Faith in receiving Christ and his righteousness When contrariwise if we would say as he doth and which we must take his word without any further demonstration to bee true then in despite of Paul and the Holy Ghost our justification should be parted between faith and works and Mr. Brs. new Gospel stand the Gospel of Grace being wholly taken out of the way as unprofitable But in all that he saith hee diligently keeps off from speaking a word to what our Divines say in proving from James himselfe that he means not true faith when hee denies to the counterfeit or profession of it any efficacy to justifie and let the conscientious Reader judge whether he doth this in zeal for Christ or against him Let none except that possibly hee never read any of them that have thus expounded James What one of them hath he then read Nay I rather question what one of them hath he not read or with what one thing is he unacquainted that any of them hath written He is a stranger to Mr. Br. that will accuse him of little reading