good men as Mr. Fowler and Mr. Cole by telling the World how unstudied and yet how confident they have been in some points But he did worse in citing Dr Manton that incurr'd their Censure for defending me in that very Pulpit where he saith I Preach'd against such accusers as he and was wholly of my judgment And reciting Arch-Bishop Usher who perused my Confession written against the Antinomians and altered not a word in it before I published it I got him and Mr. Gataker to read it and it was the last Work that Mr. Gataker did in the World as his Epistle and his Sons shew Had the Prefacer read but that one Book my Confession written in 1655. and there the explications of the Coâ—troversies and the many score plain Texts and Arguments and the hundred Testimonies of Synod and Protestant Divines for the Doctrine which I defend and specially if he have read my Explication of all these Controversies in my Catohlick Theology and Methodus and Dispute of Justification and of Justifying Righteousness and yet hâ—d call'd for an answer to Mr. Cole or Mr. Fowler I should have told him that he and such as he are too hard or deaf for me to answer But he impertinently citeth other men that say we are justified by Free Grace and the Righteousness of Christ and not by Works as if he would falsly intimate that I deny it when I neither trust to nor know any Righteousness that is not meerly subordinate to the Rigâ—teousness of Christ and take his Righteousness Habunâ—l Active and Passive to be the only and perfect Meritorious Cause of our Justification and Salvation of Grace and Glory And I wonder not that Paul counted his own Righteousâ—ess by the â—aw to be dung in compaâ—ison of being found in Christ having his Righteoâ—sness But I abhor the opinion that Câ—rist's Righteousness given us is all without us and none within us when Christ dwelleth in us as if 600 Texts of Scripture were all false that speak of the necessity of an inherent and actâ—ve Righteousness I abhor the opinion of any works necessary to Justification or Salvation or to any common Blessings in the sense of Paul such as make the reward to be of Debt and not of Grace I think few men living are less tempted to magnify or trust to any worth of thâ—ir own than I am I look not for a bit of Bread or an hâ—urs Ease or Life or the Pardon or Acceptance of one Duty or of my Holiest Affections so faulty are they by their great Imperfection but meerly from the Free Grace of God and the Merits and Intercession of Christ But should I take all for Errour that this Preface reciteth as such and all for truth that Dr. Crispe and such men write I should look for wiser men than him or Mr. Cole to Anathematize me rather as an Anti-Gospeller than a meer Antinomian And I am the sorryer for the prefixing of tâ—e Twelve Reverend Names when I find by their Epistles that they had read this Preface so full of false Citations and gross Errour and say not a word against it nor against such a Book Mr. Cockain in his Epistle directing it to them that live Godly in Christ Jesus tâ—lls them that the Kingdom of God within them shall never be shaken and the Divine Nature that hath swallowed them up shall for ever satisfy them with variety of Contentments And is not that ours which is within us And is this Kingdom and Divine Nature nothing but that which Christ did without us imputed to be done by us And if this be no subordinate Righteousness what doth the word signify so many hundred times used in the Scripture Let them but grant Justification by Faith and let them assign Faith what Office therein they can reasonably imagine without flat denying all Pauls Doctrine and they will confute Dr. Crispe Say but that Faith is imputed to us for Righteousness and give not the lye to Paul and sure we shall be reconciled But if they will tell us that by Faith Paul meaneth not Faith but Christ's Righteousness they must prove that they have more than a Papal Power to make God's Word by making the Sense when God maketh but the Letter before we can renounce the Scripture and believe them And yet if they will expound Imputation soberly we shall grant them the matter that Christ's Righteousness is accounted to us of God as the only Meritorious Cause of our Justification and Salvation tho' we believe that by Faith Paul meaneth Faith But if they still say that by Faith is meant only the Object of Faith and not the Act could we but get them to forbear Anathematizing Men for being so Learned as to understand English we might yet hope at least to keep the flame of their Zeal out of the thatch within the Chimney by telling them the difference between the Object of Faith as such and the person that is the Object otherwise considered In real Existence Christ tho' not yet believed in is the sole meritorious Cause But it is only in esse cognito that Christ is the Object of Faith And School-Boyes that have no damnable Learning may teach these confident men that the Object as an Object believed is the very form in specie of the Act of Faith It is an Act without it but not this Act viz. the Christian Faith As sin in esse reall is damning but in esse cognito objectivo it is the form of the Grace of Repentance so is it here But if they will grant that by Faith is meant Faith and not say that Paul condemneth Justification by Faith as being but Justification by Works let them but tell us how it justifieth I say not efficiently at all but only as a meer receptive qualification If they say as an Efficient Instrument they give it much more than I do and lay it on the Act or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credere as they speak For what else is the Instrument I hope they mean not that Christ and his Righteousness is but the Instrument But of this more after I thought it meet to have recited many hundred Texts of Scripture which they directly contradict which good Men should rather believe than them But if the Reader will peruse my Confession he will find it there done already And I thought it necessary to commend the good Lives of many of them excepting the Schism and Vnrighteousness that Faction doth involve them in lest the Grosness of their Verbal Errours which come from unskilfulness in Words and Methods should tempt many to judge of the Men by their Words and Opinions and should harden the malignant to justifie all their hard Censures and Vsage of the Non-Conformists for their sakes And yet Mr. Crispe is one of my sharp Censurers for charitably excusing Men from lesser Errours than his own while he falsifyeth my Words about our difference with the Papists I have said oft and long agoe that
explaining in what sense Christs Righteousness is imputed to us and how not 3. And do they tell us with any agreement what Righteousness of Christ they call Imputed Some say only the Passive some also the Active Some also the habitual and some also the Divine Much less agree they to what Effects it is imputed and how far 4. Also the name of Faith is used without a due and true explication of their meaning One by Faith meaneth not Faith but Christs Righteousness Another calls it an Instrument and yet denieth it to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere that is the Act of Faith indeed as if any thing else was that instrument Another saith it is but one Physical act and not like contracting a Moral complication of many Physical Acts One saith it is but one Act and all other Acts of Faith he that looketh to be Justified by denieth the Doctrine of Grace or true Justification and so leave men to despair because they can never tell which that single is and how to escape the damning Doctrine of Justification by works One saith it is the Understandings assent Another that it is the Wills recumbency or trust One saith it is only Faith in Christ that Justifieth and not in God the Father or the Holy Ghost One saith it is only Faith in Christs Priestly Office and not in Christ as Prophet or King some say it is not Faith in his whole Priestly Office either his Intercession or Heavenly Priesthood but only in his Sacrifice and Obedience Another that it is only the trusting on his Imputed Righteousness Another that it is none of all these but only the belief that we are already Justified by Christ One saith we are Justified only at once by the first numerical Act of Faith and never by any after Act Another that an Act of the same Species continueth our Justification And this confusion is from the vain fantasy of men that will divide and mince and yet will not sufficiently distinguish and know not that by Faith is meant our becoming Christians and continuing such 5. So they talk loud against Works in the Case of Justification and know not what either Paul or James or Christ meaneth by works But they dream that Works and Acts are of the same signification As if every humane Act were that which Paul meaneth by works contrary to his express explication And so to be Justified by Faith must be to be Justified by Works One saith we will grant Justification by Faith if you take it aright to be a going wholly out of our selves and denying all our own righteousness and going to Christ and his Righteousness alone But is their chosen Metaphor of Going out and Going to an Act or no Act If an Act than it is works if they may be believed If no Act then their meaning is we confess that you are Justified by Believing if you do not believe You are Justified by Faith if Faith be nothing and by coming to Christ if you come not to him or it be nothing Such is the sence of these Confounders and Corrupters But these and many such mistakes are to be opened in their proper place That which I here intend is not a confutation of this or that writer but to give them a breviate of my own Judgment who will not read what I have largely written in many books long ago pretending that the length of the books is their reason and yet have not so much conscience as to suspend their censures no nor their back-biting false accusations of that which they have not leisure to understand or read They judge hard cases which they never digested by any answerable Study and Scruple not Judging and Slandering perâ—ons unheard Corrupting the Gospel and so excellent a Subject as the Doctrine of Grace and of the Office and Merits and Judgment of Christ and so of Christianity it self is a matter that conscience should more tenderly fear than wearing a Surplice or kneeling at the Sacrament or communicating with a Church that useth the Common-Prayers To think those unworthy of their Communion that use such Ceremonies or forms of prayer and at the same time to prophane so high a part of the name of God as is his Grace in Christ and his Justifying Governing and Saving works and this quoad verba by corrupting it even in Essentials and then to defame as erroneous those that are not as Ignorant and Erroneous as themselves and to foment malice and errour and Sects by such lying defamations This is a Nonconformity which I earnestly desire that no man that loveth Christ or Free grace or the Church or his own Soul may ever take for his duty or his honour or rashly as a sequacious admirer of any mistaken leader be ever guilty of What is straining at a Gnat and swallowing a Camel if this be not And of how ill a constitution is such a blind and partial conscience I shall here study brevity and first explain the Doctrine of Grace and Righteousness and Justification in some self-evident Propositions And next briefly resolve about fifty doubts or Controversies hereabout THE CONTENTS 1. THe nature of Justification explained Controv. I. Whether it be an Immanent Act in God and from Eternity Cont. II. Whether the Covenant of Grace be made only with Christ or with us also Cont. III Whether the Covenant of Grace have any condition required of us Cont. IV Whether our performance of the Condition efficiently justify us Cont. V. Whether we are justified by Christs righteousness imputed to us And whether the Scripture say we are Cont. VI. In what sense is Christs Righteousness imputed to us Cont. VII What Righteousness of Christ is it that is ours and imputed to us the Passive the Active the Habitual or the Divine or all Cont. VIII Whether Christs Righteousness be the Efficient Material or Formal cause of our Righteousness or Justification Cont. IX Whether the Vnion between Christ and believers be not so near as maketh them the same Subject and so the Accident of Christs righteousness to be ours in itself Cont. 10. Are we not so righteous by an Vnion with Christ as we are sinners by our Vnion with Adam Cont. XI Is not Christs Righteousness ours as our sins were his by imputation Cont. 12. Doth Christs Righteousness cause our Sanctification in the same sort of Causality as it causeth our Justification Cont XIII Is it faith itself that is said to be imputed to us for Righteousness or only Christs or Christs Righteousness Cont. XIV Whether Grace be Grace and free if it have any condition Cont. XV. Whether Repentance be any condition of Pardon and Justification and to affirm it do not equal it with Faith Cont. XVI Whether faith justify us as a meritorious cause or as a dispositive cause of receiving Justification or as a meer condition or an Instrumental cause Cont. XVII Is Justifying faith an act of the understanding or of the Will Cont.
Sponsor 3. Yea and a party equally bound 4. Then a Saviour and Grace had been by that Law which is false 5. Then Adam had been no Sinner for it was but He or Christ and not He and Christ that were bound to keep the Law by this Doctrine 6. Then no Death had been due to Adam 7. Then that Law was not broken at all for it bound but disjunctively 8. Then the Law condemneth no man 9. Then our Death and the Curse of the Earth were injuries for we kept the Law by Christ 10. Then the Law of Innocency is it by which we are justified which is false 11. Then there is no place for pardon 12. Nor for a new Law to give us pardon upon terms or new Conditions This is to subvert the Gospel Yet this is commonly said by the adversaries that Adam after his fall was justified by that same Law as saying Do this and Live because he kept it by Christ or Christ in his Name and stead so that it justifieâ—h Adam which Mr. Wotton de Recoâ—â— hath at large confuted If they say that the same Law or Covenant commanded Adam to obey perfectly and his surety also in his stead conjunctly and condemned both Adam for Sin and his Surety for the same then both must suffer as both must obey and each beareth his own part It is a fundamental fiction leading on many other errours to say that the Law of Innocency as it commanded Adam Obediâ—nce or as it threatned Death to him was fulfilled by Christ for him That Law commanded Adam only Personal perfect perpetual Obedience It mentioned or meant no â—â—carius obedâ—â—â—â—ae aut poenae Dum altus solvit aliud solvitur Anothers obeying or suffering was no fulfilling of the Law as it commanded Adam The Law commandeth each subject distinctly and personally Christ fulfilled all the Law as it obliged himself and thaâ— fâ—r Adams Redemptioâ— who had broken it But the same Law aâ— it obâ—â—â—â—d Adam was broken by Adam and not kept by him or any for him It is not that Law that gave man a Saviour but the Mercy of the Offended Lawgiver To say the Hoc fac vives in that Law giveth us right to Life and justifieth us as perfect obeyers and so no Sinners is to deny the Gospel Many say indeed that Christ â—atisfied the Law for us but 1. That proveth that the Obligation of it on us was not fulfilled For satiâ—faction is solutio recusabilis tantidem loco solutionis eâ—usdem 2. But it is an improper speech to say that the Law is satisfied And it meaneth no more but that the end of Government by that Law is obtained And it is properly satisfaction only to the Lawgiver and not to the Law For the Law in it's sence admits not of satisfaction though it hath nothing against it It is only the subjects Obedience that it commandeth and his death as satisfaction for sin that it demandeth It is the Lawgiver as he is above his own Law and hath power to pardon that is satisfied Though as tropically some say that Finis Legis est Lex so we will not contend with them that tropically say Christ satisfied the Law while they mean but that he satisfied the Lawgiver in obtaining the End of the Law But Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law as it obliged himself upon his Sponsion And that Law justified him but no man else It is only the New Covenant that justifieth us II. The second Errour to the same purpose is that though Christ and Adam were two Natural Persons yet they were One â—erson in a Civil Legal or Reputative sense in Christs obeying and suffering and so that what Christ did and suffered in his own Natural Person he did and suffered in Adams and every Elect mans Civil Legal or Reputative Person This is but the consequent of the former Errour He may be called our Râ—prâ—â—â—nter in a limited sense in â—antum ad hoc for there is no hope of holding our opposers to Scriptures phrase But such a strict full personating Representation as is here described denieth the substance of the Gospel There are indeed several Cases in which one in Law or Civil sense doth personate another When the Law alloweth one to do the thing by another that thing is morally done by himself e. g. by my Servant Proxie Attorney Agent in Cases â—o allowed by the Law It is I that pay the debt which my Servant or any Vicarius allowed by Law payeth for me in my name Christ did not thus pay or suffer in our names as our Legal Person but for us and in our stead as a s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t Sponsor in the person of a Mediator so that it cannot be said thâ—t we did it Legally by him else all the forenamed absurdities would follow and specially that Legallâ— we never sinnâ—d and never deserved punishâ—ent nor need either Pardon or the Sacrifice of Christ for Pardon It 's certain that Christ never sinned but obeyed perfectly from first to last And if we did this Legaâ—ly by him we sinned not in Law sense that is not truly at all When we shew that it is a palpable contradiction to say that we were perfectly obedient in and by Christ from birth to death and yet that Christ must suffer for our sins it 's strange to see how some men satisfie themselves with wriggling or huddling out a few insignificant words unfit to satisfie any other And if Christs Habitual Perfection be also so imputed to us in a Legal sense we were habitually perfect from birth to death Whence it is that some assert an equality of such Perfection in all Christians The consequents I will not trouble you with reciting nor stay to enquire whether also his Divine â—ighteousness be ours in such a Law sense and so Man be deified Either Christ was our Legal Person before we were born or from the time of our being or from the time of our believing only 1. Before we had a Being we were no sinners nor bound to obey and therefore needed not to obey or suffer by another 2. When we were born we were not in Christ and perhaps not Believers till old Age And so the Elect should Legally be just while they are Infidels and never sin even in their state of Enmity 3. If only since believing we were so personated by Christ then his Righteousness is not imputed to us for all the time of our unregeneracy and then we never sinned in Law sense after our believing If they say that in suffering he represented us as unregenerate and in his obedience as Believers only then he suffered not for our sins after believing nor obeyed to merit pardon of our sins before If they say that so far as we are sinners we Legally suffered in him and as Believers further to merit glorâ— we obeyed by him the contradiction of this is shewed before If we obeyed so far as to merit glory by the Law of Works then we
for had we done all this our selves that is kept the Law perfectly from first to last we had never sinned 3. We had never deserved punishment 4. Nor needed a Sacrifice 5. Or a Pardon 6. Nor should we during the time of our unregeneracy have been left under spiritual death or at least after believing be left under remaining sin and a body of death 7. Nor have been penally deprived of any help of the Spirit 8. Nor of any Communion with God 9. Nor so long be kept out of Heaven or the Reward 10. Nor ever have been corrected 11. Nor ever had need of Word Prayer or Sacraments for the helping us to renewed Pardon 12. Nor ever have died and rotted in a grave 13. Nor would the Magistrates Execution of Justice on us for our crimes be owned as Gods Justice 14. All men wouâ—d have the same degree of Innocency and Holiness 15. It would have been a wrong to us when we had perfectly kept the Law of Innocency to suspend our right to Pardon and Salvation upon new Conditions in a new Covenant 16. We having perfectly kept the Law of Innocency as to the death as soon as we believe cannot be under another Law of the Redeemer that hath the true uses of a Law 17. Our own actions besides Christs are not capable of Reward or Punishment 18. All the Texts of Scripture that mention inherent or practical personal Righteousness would contradict our imputed Righteousness or make us supererogate and be more than perfectly righteous 19. We need not fear that any new crime should diminish our Righteousness which is perfect and can neither increase or decrease 20. Whether we should not be as righteous on Earth even under Davids or Peters sin as in Heaven and whether we should be Deified by being divinely righteous and justified by Gods Essential Righteousness as Andr. Osiandâ—r taught I leave to be considered as you further explain your self So much to your Epitome which if I wrong you by judging it all your own it is long of your self that own it as aforesaid in the gross If the Dr. be wronged it is by you and not by me § 21. In the conclusion you do no more peaceably than provedly pronounce us in a manner agreed enumerating the particulars in which we consent But I have told you wherein we are not agreed in words nor in sense if those words be not mis-used whatever we are in latent sense I still grant that Christ suffered yea and obeyed in some sort in our stead though not in our person Civil or Legal so as that we are Legally reputed the doers of it by or in him And that his assuming our Nature and being the second Adam a voluntary Sponsor and Mediator was a necessary reason of the application of the fruits to us and that we are as certainly and happily justified and glorified as if we had been the doers and satisfiers our selves so many as are saved But not on the same reasons nor in the same method or manner of conveyance Nor when in judgment we are accused as having sinned and deserved death can we deny it plead that we were innocent by another or by imputation as we should have been had we been innocent our selves But we must plead pardon and a free gift of life through the merits satisfaction and intercession of a Saviour § 21. And to all before said I may add That they who account all the Laws obligations on each person to be fulfilled by Christ and not only satisfaction given for our not fulfilling them 1. Must suppose that one person of Christ to have been Legally as many persons as he died for or justifieth For the Law laid as many distinct obligations on them as they were persons and laid them only on their persons It said Thou Adam Thou Eve shalt personally obey perfectly or die And the Law of Nature and of Moses said in sense Thou Solomon Thou Manasses and so of all others shalt do all things commanded and not sin Now that in all Christs Obedience he was Legally and imputatively so many several persons Adam Eve Solomon Manasseh and so that none of these broke Gods Law I find not in the Scripture If you say Adam was Legally as many persons as are born of him in sin I deny it He was the Root of all his Posterity and they were in him seminally and virtually but not personally actually or imputatively But by one mans disobedience as their Root and Cause many are made sinners And by one mans obedience as the Root and Cause all Believers are made righteous It is enough that one Saviour and Mediator in a third person of his own did and suffered that which by its merits and value as attaining the Ends of the Law and Government procured our deliverance from a necessity of perfect obeying as the Condition of Life and from guilt and misery and is become the Root Head and Donor of Grace and Glory 2. And if as you say it be the very thing that is imputed to us as ours to all intents as if we had done it why have you not told us whether it be all that Christ did or but some and what and how from Scripture you prove the distribution and whether we have not thus a Righteousness which is both too much and too little I. Too much For we were not obliged by the Law to be born of a Virgin by the Holy Ghost to fast forty days to turn Water into Wine to cast out Devils to heal all diseases and raise the dead to inaite the Gospel and send out Apostles c. If you say that so much only of Christs Obedience is in it self our own as we must else have done our selves I ask the proof of the limitation And II. Is it not then too little if it must be the Idem and not the Aequivalens For some of us are bound to the Offices of Parents and some of Husbands and Wives some of Servants some of Magistrates some of Souldiers some to actions proper to the sick to the old and other conditions which Christ was never in We are bound to mortifie our sinful lusts to pray for pardon and grace to receive a pardon offered to yield to the mortifying motions of the Spirit c. which Christ was not capable of It was enough that he undertook all that was fit for him and necessary by equivalency to satisfie and merit a free gift of grace and glory for us and that he performed the undertaken conditions and duties of all that Law which was laid on him without doing all the same things which were laid on us § 22. And one thing more I desire you to note which Grotius de satisf hath minded us of viz. The great difference that there is between the case of a Rector and a Creditor and between a Subject and a Debtor or a Debt of Obedience or Punishment and a Debt of Money For the name of
Debt occasioneth some men to run the similitude of a Creditor and Debtor beyond the bounds The Law requireth not a Debitor pecuniae 1. To pay the very same individual money which he borrowed but the same sum 2. Nor to pay it by his own hands But the Law of God obligeth every Subject to every individual act which it commandeth 2. And obligeth every man to do it all in his own person and not disjunctively by himself or a Vicar That Christ is limitedly and only to certain ends and uses a Vicarius poenae in the person of a Mediator is not because the Law as made to Adam required or accepted it but the Lawgiver as above his Law The Law that bound Christ is fulfilled but the Law that bound Adam and every man is not fulfilled unless that same man do himself all the same things which it commanded him § 23. I conclude all with these professions of my opinion of all these Controversies I. I believe that the Libertines commonly called Antinomians whose Doctrines I have in many Books opposed do use those ill Notions and Methods which on pretence of magnifying Christ and free grace do by plain consequence wrong Christ and Grace and Subvert the Gospel and should rather be thence denominated than from their denying the Law The Law of Innocency as a Covenant and of Moses as Jewish being truly ceased II. I believe that yet most of those that thus err in notions are not so bad in their Judgment of the matter it self as their words import but that want of Skill in Terms and Method hath seduced men of dull wits slight popular studies and undigested thoughts to speak worse than they think and had they more exact distinguishing and expressive Skill they would shew that they mean mostly as others do III. I believe that unskilful contending with the Papists hath occasioned all this while in the heats of Controversy men bend all their wits to disgrace the Doctrine of their adversaries not fearing enough unsafe expressions and contrary extreams while they seem to serve their present turn And then departing from Scripture terms as necessary to set their hearers far enough from their adversaries are next carried into a multitude of new made articles or notions contrary also to Scripture sense when they have once thus left the words IV. I believe that most honest plain less learned Christians and the throughly studied and learned Teachers agree in the true sence of the Doctrine of Justification which the half studied contenders make to seem more difficult than it is and muddy it by their unlearned questions and words That is all plain Christians hold that Christ God and Man is our only Saviour who obeyed suffered and interceedeth for us as a Mediator and is become as redeemer the Lord of all even of Nature Grace and Glory and hath merited purchased and made a Covenant and Law of Grace that whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life offering his Grace to all and effectually giving it to some And that as our King and Lord Redeemer he governeth us by this Law and requireth Faith and Repentance of all that will be pardoned and sincere obedience to the end of all that will be glorified and as he pardoneth all past sin at our Conversion so to those that believe and sincerely obey him he pardoneth all their following sins and as he maketh them righteous by giving them his Spirit to perform the conditions of pardon adoption and Salvation and by forgiving all their sins and freely giving them right to life Eternal for the sake of his Sacrifice and Merits so he accordingly virtually justifieth them by his Covenant and so esteemeth them and will so use them and will so judge them finally by his Sentence hereafter and will receive them as so justified and adopted to his Glory This all agree in till wranglers trouble them and this much is enough FINIS A Defence of Christ AND Free Grace Against the SUBVERTERS Commonly Called Antinomians or Libertines WHO Ignorantly Blaspheme CHRIST on Pretence of extolling Him IN A DIALOGUE Between An Orthodox Zealot AND A Reconciling Monitor WRITTEN On the occasion of the reviving of those Errours and the Reprinting and Reception of Dr. Crispes Writings and the danger of subverting many Thousand honest Souls by the Notions of Free Grace and Justification mis-understood and abused by injudicious unstudyed prejudiced Preachers By RICHARD BAXTER London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower End of Cheapside near Mercers-Chapel 1690. TO THE READER A POSTSCRIPT to the Second Book SInce the Writing of all that followeth I have seen the New Edition of Dr. Crisp's Sermons There are prefixed to it twelve Reverend Names Mr. Griffiths Mr. Cockains Mr. Chancys Mr. Howes Mr. Alsops Mr. Nat. Mather Mr. Increafe Mather Mr. Knowles Mr. Powels Mr. Turners Mr. Bures Mr. Gammons The Preface is Mr. S. Crispes invective against me unnamed with the Citation of some Preachers Words as contrary to mine I must desire those Conformists that will write the next friendly debate and will charge Heresy on the Non-Conformists that they will lay the charge on none but the guilty and that they take not all whose Names are prefixed to be of the judgment of Dr. Crispe a Conformist For I am past doubt that Four or Five of them are against it If you ask why then did they give their Names to be hanged up like a Sign before the Door of a House of Seduction it 's like they have something more to say for it than I know of But their Words shew you that they only testifie the Sermons to be the Drs. own They are men of Peace and inclined to gratifie others in attesting a truth and I suppose intended not to promote untruth by it But I see the corrupting Design is of late grown so high that what seemed these Thirty Four Years suppressed now threatnâ—th as a torrent to overthrow the Gospel and Christian Faith and to deny the truâ— Office of Christ as Mediator and his Grace and Righteousness by seeming ignorantly to extol them And Satan designeth to make us a common scorn to Papists and Malignants by the palpable grosnesâ— of such mens undeniable Errours And therefore I dare neither give them my Name nor be silent in such a common scandal and danger while I can speak and write It offendeth me that I must but briefly name their errours instead of a large confutation of them while the whole Scripture is against them but I have done it oft largely which they will not answer And the Booksellers will Print no Books that are large and insensible of our danger think thâ—y are but few that need it One errour the Preface addeth to the hundred which were it a truth would carry the cause for them and bring me to a recantation viz. That Christ and the Elect are one and the same Person It is not a Relative
which you fear will so effectually confute themselves that they will occasion more good among sober knowing Christians than hurt to the ignorant professors that will be tost up and down with every wind of Doctrine For 1. The whole tenour of the Bible is against them And will not Christians read the Bible 2. The Divine Nature on the Soul and all Christian Experience is against them And will not Christians know that Work and Doctrine of Gods Spirit in them For Insâ—ance 1. Will they that are saved from Atheism ever believe that the most Holy God is the maker of sins yea and mâ—de his own Son the greateâ—â— sinner in the World when the Devil himself cannot make one man a sinner but only tempt him â—o be suâ—â— yea that God made himself in the second Person a sinner 2. Will Christianâ— easâ—ly believe that our Saviour came to delâ—ver us â—rom sinâ— by making himself worse 〈…〉 becoming the greatest haâ—er of God aâ—d Gâ—â—â—ness the greatest Infidel Atheist Blasphemer Murderer Adulterer Lyar Thief c. in all the World and consequently like the Devil hated of God and having a Hell in himself All Christians believe that our sins were laid upon Christ as to their penalty that he was Vicarius poenae that he suffered for us the just for the unjust to reconcile us to God and that he was made for us a Sacrifice for sin that we might be healed by his stripes and washed in his Blood But what Christian can believe Dr. Crispe and his Sectaries that Christ took not only the punishment and guilt reatum poenae but all the very sins themselves of all the Elect habitual and actual privative and positive of omission and commission and so really became the most wicked man in all the World and that lie saveth us from sin by becoming a thousand times worse himself than any of us when it cannot be proved that any one Devil had so great a hand in mans sin as to make all our sins his own And Dr. Crispe well vindicateth God from false Imputation of that sin to Christ which was not his But it is by Blasphemy making that his which was never his even the very sins of all the Elect. 3. And do you think any Soul that hath the Spirit of God and readeth and believeth the Scriptures can believe this Dr. that no sin can possibly hurt the Elect because they are fully saved already by Christ And that it is against Christ and his Grace to intend our Salvation or any good to our selves by any Duty we do or to look to be ever the better for praying obeying believing but must do all only in thankfulness and for the good of others 4. Do you think that a man not to say a Christian can believe that the torments of the Stone Gout Collick Convulsion c. are no hurt or no castigatory Penalty And that it is no hurt or punishment for an Elect Person to be under decays of Holiness increase of Sin prevalency of Temptations the terrours of God and loss of his Consolations and fears of Death He that can believe all this may believe Transubstantiation against all the senses of mankind A Hundred of such Instances may be named which have so ugly a countenance that men that loved their Souls will be affrighted from Antinomianism by the reading of them And I further tell you that too sudden and eager disputing against Heresy doth but engage men to stretch their wits to find out what to say to defend it and to take those for Enemys to God and them who shame their folly And I must confess that tho' I am much for Ministers associations and consultations in order to Concord and mutual Edification I am not much for the way of deciding doctrinal Controversies by majority of Votes remembring what Councils have done that way these 1300 Years and how often either errour or unskilful decissions have the greater number so that tho' now with us they will consent against errours it may be taken for a precedent for erroneous pluralities to Tyrannize or tread down truth hereafter Ortho. But shall we therefore let Heresy spread unresisted Reconcil No But you will let it pass uncured whether you will or not You let not ignorance and pride go unresisted But if it were not uncured there would be no such Heresies If all the Ministers in England subscribe a detestation of gross ignorance and pride do you think it would cure them Doth it cure Atheism Infidelity Drunkeness Lust though all Preachers condemn them If you can prevail with these men to read and consider but one half of that which I have written on these Subjects instead of reviling that which they never read or tryed you will not need to call for more Confutations of them Ortho. But a Confutation short and newly published will be read by those that will not read Books old and large Reconcil I have staid since your first motion to see whether there be like to be any apparent necessity of any renewed opposition to this infection and I acknowledge that now some necessity appeareth to me in the new and zealous attempts of the erroneous But God in great mercy hath raised up many that are fitter to oppose them than I that in pain and languishing weakness have time little enough to meditate on my approaching change But because the erroneous have learn'd of the transformed Angel of Light and his pretended Ministers of Righteousness to call their Errours the Preaching of Christ and Free Grace and to say that all they Preach not Christ but the Righteousness of man that wrong not Christ as much as they I shall by God's help attempt briefly to try whether indeed they Preach Christ or Preach against him and whether they Exalt him or Deny him and whether they Preach up Free Grace or as Enemies Reproach it And I shall publish a brief Decision of the many Controversies of Justification which I cast by these Fourteen Years lest I should provoke any to revive the allay'd quarrels But their new and earnest Attempts do now call it out by telling us that this evil Spirit is again at work and calleth us to a renewed Defence of Truth CHAP. II. An Enumeration of the Errours which have corrupted Christianity and subverted the Gospel Reconcil BEfore I give you a Confutation of the Errours of the Anti-Gospellers I will promise these two things 1. I will here give you a Catalogue of their Errours which I am Confute 2. I think it needful to caution you what to think of the Persons that you Censure them not too hardly tho' the Errours as worded be very great I. And 1. As the general Fault of their Errours is the confounding of things which greatly differ so by this they corrupt the Doctrine of Adams Communication of sin and guilt to his posterity and thereby raise more dangerous Errours They feign that God made a Covenant with Adam and all his