that it stands faster than the Pillars of Heaven and Earth and must be so as long as God is God and Man Man The Reason of Man must be bound in duty to point to God as the Primum Verum and the Will of Man to resign to him as the Primum Amabile these are Foundations never to be shaken The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Law amounts to so much more than the inherent Righteousness of all Saints put together that it is no were to be found but in the perfect spotless obedience of Christ neither can that be made ours but by imputation Hence Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mr. Sher-Jock the end of the Law the perfection and accomplishment of it for Righteousness to them that believe Rom. 10.4 That is the Gospel of Christ requires that Rightcousness of us which the Law did only typifie and represent that holiness and purity of mind which is the perfection of all legal Righteousness For that Christ should be the end of the Law by imputation of his Righteousness to us hath no foundation in the Text. The Apostle explains what he means by this in the following verses where he gives us a description of the righteousness of the Law and the righteousness of Faith The righteousness of the Law is an external conformity to the letter of the Law the man that doth them shall live in them that is shall enjoy all the Temporal Blessings of Canaan which were promised to the observance of the Law But the Righteousness of Faith is a firm and stedfast belief of the Divine Authority of Christ that he is the Lord and more particularly a belief of his Resurrection from the dead as the last and great confirmation which God gave to the divinity of Christ's Person and Doctrine This is that Faith that overcometh the world and purifies the heart and transforms us into the likeness of God which is the perfection of all the ritual righteousness of the Law Vpon this account Christ is said to be made to us Righteousness 1 Cor. 1.20 He of God is made to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption He is our Wisdom as he is our great Prophet who instructs us in true Wisdom our Righteousness as we are justified by Faith in him by a sincere belief of his Gospel which is the only Righteousness acceptable to God our Sanctification because the law of the spirit of life in him makes us free from the law of sin and death our Redemption as by these means he bath delivered us from the bondage of the Jewish Law from the idolatrous Customs of the Heathens and the tyranny of wicked Spirits and the wrath of God which is the merit of sin Christ is the end of the Law Answer even of the Moral Law and what did that call for Not external Conformisty only but all Holiness and Righteousness and that in pure sinless perfection this our Faith or inherent Graces because imperfect can never amount to The Law therefore hath its end only in the perfect spotless Righteousness of Christ and that being made over to Believers by Imputation Christ is truly said to be the end of the Law for righteousness to the believer The man that doth them shall live in them Rom. 10.5 that is saith the Author shall enjoy the temporal blessings of Canaan Indeed the Racovian Catechist will go no further Nusquam in Lege Mosis reperies vitam aeternam promissam saith he But we find the Saints in the Old Testament fixing their Faith upon eternal Life My Redeemer liveth and I shall see him saith Job Job 19.25 and 27. Abraham desireth a better country that is an heavenly Heb. 11.16 The just shall live by his faith Hab. 2.4 which is interpreted of eternal Life Rom. 1.17 Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Joel 2.32 that is with eternal Life as it is applied Rom. 10.13 Paul said no other things than the Prophets and Moses did Act. 26.22 and yet surely he spake of eternal Life Moses and the Prophets are frequent in promising the Messiah and in him all the Promises are contained Do this and live is meant of eternal Life a Curse that is eternal Death is threatned to the violaters of the Law Gal. 3.10 therefore Life and that eternal is promised to the keepers of it When the Lawyer asked What shall I do to inherit eternal life our Saviour answered him that he must keep the Law Luk. 10.25 28. If the Law did not promise eternal Life then it did not threaten eternal Death and by consequence Christ who redeemed us from the Curse of the Law redeemed us only from a temporal one But to pass on Christ of God is made unto us righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 that is saith the Author we are justified by Faith in him by a sincere belief of his Gospel That we are justified by Faith in Christ I acknowledge but not in the Authors sence he makes Faith properly and as an Act to justifie he makes the nature of Faith to consist only in a firm assent But I have before proved that Faith justifies as it receives Christ and his Righteousness and that justifying Faith over and above assent includes in it a fiducial Recumbency Christ is made to us righteousness one of these two ways either by the Graces of his holy Spirit imparted to us or else by his perfect Obedience imputed to us He is not made Righteousness to us by the Graces of his Spirit imparted to us for with respect to these he is made Sanctification to us and Sanctification and Justification must not be confounded As we have holy Graces from him to sanctifie us so we have Righteousness from him to justifie us He is therefore our Righteousness because his perfect Righteousness by Imputation becomes ours Bellarmine speaking of this place at sâ—â—â—interprets it of the inherent Righteousness in us which comes from Christ but afterwards as convicted of the truth De Jusiâ—â— 11.2 cip 10. he saith Nobis imputari Christi justitiam merita cùm nobis donentur applicentur ac si nosipsi Deo satisfecissemus That the Righteousness and Morits of Christ are imputed to us when they are given and applied to us as if we our selves had satisfied God Further our Author upon this Text saith That Christ is our wisdom as he is cur Prophet our Righteousness as we are justified by believing the Gospel our Sanctification as we have the Law of the Spirit of life and our Redemption as by these means he hath delivered us I see not what room is left here for the redeeming Blood of Christ nevertheless I suppose the Author meant to include the same This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mr. Sherlock the foundation of all other mistakes that by the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of Works most men understand an internal Holiness and then conclude That if this Righteousness will
a very comfortable Notion for bad men and such as I would not part with for all the world did I resolve to live wickedly and yet intend to go to heaven but it is good to be sure in a matter of importance Christs Righteousness was not an imaginary imputed Righteousness Answer but inherent and personal thus the Author It was not imaginary but inherent very true but was it not imputed to him Then Christ would never have appealed to God as he doth Surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work with my God Isai 49.4 God would never have accounted him as righteous or promised him a Seed Isa 53.10 he would never have said This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 3.17 neither would he ever have exalted him and given him a name above every name Phil. 2.9 In a word if his Active and Passive Righteousness were not reckoned or accounted of by God then he could not be our Saviour or pay a Ransom or Satisfaction to divine Justice for us What follows in the Author That this Righteousness may be a comfort to wilful incorrigible sinners is as I have before manifested a meer Popish Calumny But before I proceed any further with the Author I shall crave lieve of the Reader a little to state and prove this point That we are justified before God by the Imputed Righteousness of Christ and then I shall proceed with the Author Justification may be considered in a double Notion there is Constitutive Justification whereby we are made righteous before God and Sentential whereby we are pronounced such at Judgment I chiefly aim at the first upon which the second follows as a consequent Christ's Righteousness is either Active such as fulfilled the Command of the Law or Passive such as bore the Curse of it I take in both The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is either that Fundamental Imputation whereby it is so far reckoned or accounted unto men in general as to make them capable of Justification upon Gospel-terms or that after particular Imputation whereby it is so far reckoned or accounted to Believers in particular as to constitute them righteous before God The first Imputation severs men from lapsed Angels the second severs Men from Men Believers from Unbelievers The first we have in such Scripture-expressions as tell us that Christ died for us for unless his Death were in some sence accounted to us it was no more for us than for Devils The second we have in such Scripture-expressions as tell us that we are justified by his blood for his Blood justifies us not unless it be actually particularly made ours and made ours it cannot be without an Imputation We have both together Col. 1.20 21. He hath reconciled all things and a little after yet now hath he reconciled you all things in the first sence and you O believing Colossians in the second Reconciliation was actually particularly imputed unto them which was before applicable to all I intend the second particular Imputation in this discourse That which I assert is this That Believers are justified or constituted righteous before God by the Active and Passive Righteousness of Christ actually particularly applied unto them And first as is meet let us open our eyes upon Scripture which is the only infallible Rule there often occurrs that memorable phrase the righteousness of God which cannot but be of considerable moment in this matter And what doth it import our own inherent Graces or Christ's Righteousness Not our inherent Graces for these though they come down from Heaven are never called the Righteousness of God nay on the contrary they are called our own Hence the Fath of the Romans is called your Faith Rom. 1.8 the Love of the Corinthians your Love 2 Cor. 8.8 the Patience of Christ's Disciples your Patience Luk. 21.19 the Hope of the scattered Christians your Hope 1 pet 1.21 That which is called in Scripture the Righteousness of God is not the same with that which is called our own there but it imports the Righteousness of Christ which by Imputation is made ours This is called the Righteousness of God because it is the Righteousness of Christ who is God for so his Blood is called the blood of God and his Life laid down the life of God and not a Righteousness inherent in us And withal it is a perfect Righteousness which can consist before the Tribunal of God himself and in which the pure Eyes of the holy One can find no spot or blemish at all and not an imperfect one such as our inherent Graces are But that the Righteousness of God imports Christ's Righteousness will further appear by the places wherein that phrase is used Thus Rom. 1.17 For therein is the Righteousness of God reveiled from faith to saith In the precedent Verse he saith That the Gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth and how so Why because it reveils the Righteousness of God which saves the Believer and delivers him from the wrath which in the subsequent Verse is declared to be reveiled from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men And can our inherent Graces expiate sin and avert wrath Oh no these such are their spots and imperfections must pass with God cum Venia with a pardon of their defects and under the Wings of Christ's Righteousness that that alone expiates sin and averts wrath no other but that can be the Righteousness of God within that Text. Thus Rom. 3.22 The Righteousness of God is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe Inherent Graces are not upon us but in us but Christ's Righteousness as that in the Text is not in us but upon us Inhererent Graces are not the matter of our Justification of which the Apostle there treats but of Sanctification Christ's Righteousness is not the matter of our Sanctification but of our Justification which is the very thing there treated of Hence it appears that the Righteousness of God in this place is that of Christ Thus Rom. 10.3 They submitted not themselves to the Righteousness of God and what was that The next Verse tells us For Christ is the and of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth and which way was Christ the End of the Law by imparting inherent Graces to the believer or by his own perfect Righteousness imputed to him Not by the inherent Graces alas these are so far from reaching the perfection of the Law that they are full of defects and every defect is no less than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a falling short of the Law Profectò illud quod minus est quà m debet ex vitio est saith St. Austin That which is less than it ought to be is so far sinful as it is less than it ought to be Nothing less than the pure Righteousness of Christ which answers the Law in every point can be the Righteousness
Commandements shall be the Least in the Kingdom of Heaven if taken in rigore juris were enough to shut all men out of heaven it imports therefore that sincere Obedience is necessary to those who will go thither Again the Evangelicall Light brake out as it pleased the Father of Lights gradually and successively In Math. 16. Peter makes that famous Confession Thou art Christ and was by Christ called Blessed for it and a little after Peter as ignorant of Christ's Passion would have diverted him from it and for that was called Satan Christ's Passion was sure a most necessary thing vet he knew it not Further our Saviour tells the Apostles that It was expedient for them that he should go away why so Then the spirit should come which should guide them into all truth which should glorifie Christ which should take of Christs and should shew it unto them Joh. 16.7 13 14 15. Observe the Spirit was to open and display the things of Christ amongst others his blood and righteousness in their glory and true use to be made ours and now it is no wonder at all if imputed Righteousness be more fully laid down in the Epistles than in the Sermons of our Saviour Christ himself the wisdom of heaven reserved that fuller light till the descent of the holy Ghost Moreover we must distinguish between the necessity of Christs imputed righteousness in it self and the necessity of the knowledge of it Imputed Righteousness since the fall hath ever been necessary in it self no man was ever justisied without Christ's blood applyed to him and that application is made upon believing by way of imputation but the knowledge of it hath been more or less necessary as the Evangelical light hath more or less reveiled it St. Peter at that time of his confession was no doubt justified by Christ's blood and yet he then had not the knowledge of his passion Lastly it appears plainly that our Saviour warned his hearers not to trust in their own Righteousness Thus the Pharisee and the Publican are in the Parable set forth to those that trusted in themselves that they were righteous Luk. 18.19 The Pharisee boasts of his Justice Purity Sanctity The Publican cries out of his sins and begs for mercy and as our Saviour tells us went away jestified rather than the other So true is that of Prosper Melior est in malis factis humilis confessio quà m in bonis superbagloriatio To conclude I hope by these things it appears that neither our Saviour was unfaithful in his prophetical Office nor the Evangelists in giving us an account of our Saviours Doctrine It is worth the observing Mr. Sherlock that in all the New Testament there is no such expression as the Righteousness of Christ or the imputation of Christ's Righteousness we there only find 〈◊〉 righteousness of God and the righteousness of Faith and the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ which is 〈◊〉 strange Did the whole Mystery of the Gospel consist in the imputation of Christ's Righteousness that neither Christ nor his Apostles should once tell us so in express terms This is Bellarmine's own Argument Answer Hactenùs nullum omninò locum invenire potuerunt De just l. 2. cap. 7. ubi legeretur Christi justitiam nobis imputari ad justitiam But I hope our Author will not follow the sound and tinkling of words what if it be not in Scripture syllabically and literally May it not suffice to be there in Sence just Consequence Ratio divina non in superficie est sed in medullà The Author saith That there is no such Expression as the Righteousness of Christ but St. Peter tells us of the righteousness of God our Saviour Jesus Christ 2. Pet. 11 1 Again he saith That there is no such Expression as the Imputation of Christs Righteousness But St. Paul tells us That we are made righteous by Christs obedience Rom. 5.19 But I will say no more to this Objection because I have before proved Imputed Righteousness by Scripture That phrase Mr. Sherlock the Righteousness of God sometimes signifies his Justice Veracity or Goodness Rom. 3.5 but most commonly in the new Testament it signifies that Righteousness which God approves commands and which he will accept for the Justification of a sinner which is contained in the Terms of the Gospel Rom 1.17 For therein is the Righteousness of God reveiled Thus it is called the Righteousness of God Math. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness which is the same with the righteousness of his Kingdome Now the Kingdom of God signifies the State of the Gospel and the Righteousness of God or of his Kingdom that Righteousness which the Gospel prescribes which is conteined in the Sermons and Parables of Christ and consists in a sincere and universal Obedience to the Commands of God Answer The Righteousness of God is indeed that which he approves and accepts of in Justification but not that which he commands us to do no then we should not be justified by Christs blood Rom. 5.9 nor made righteous by his obedience Rom. 5.19 then the Apostle would not tell us of a righteousness imputed without works Rom. 4.6 Neither would he as he doth in that place exclude the Works of converted Abraham from Justification I say of converted Abraham for those words Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness Rom. 4.3 were spoken of Abraham divers years after his Conversion as Dr. Ward hath observed Our Obedience is an Evidence of our Justification 〈◊〉 22. but till it can expiate sin and reach the top and apex of the pure Law it cannot be the Matter of our Righteousness before God Our Church places good Works after Justification and most exellently states Justification in three things Vpon Gods part his great mercy and grace 〈◊〉 of Salvation upon Christs part Justice that is the satisfaction of Gods Justice or the price of our Redemption by the offering of his Body shedding of his Blood with fulfilling of the Law perfectly thoroughly and upon our part true and lively Faith in the Merits of Jesus Christ which is not ours but by God's working in us Thus our Church leaving no room at all for Obedience In the point of Justification The Righteousness of God that which he commands and rewards is the Righteousness of Faith Mr. Sherlock or Righteousness by the Faith of Christ Now Faith in Christ is often ujed objectively for the Gospel of Christ which is the Object of our Faith and so the Righteousness of Faith or by the Faith of Christ is that Righteousness which the Gospel commands Thus Acts. 24. Felix sent for Paul and heard him concerning the Faith of Christ that is concerning righteousness temperance and the judgment to come vers 25. which are the principal Matters of the Gospel Thus obedience to the Faith is obedience to
the power of sin and that by the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Thus the Author to which I answer God sent his Son indeed into the world that we might be sanctified by his Spirit but that was not all he sent him that we might be justified by his Blood and Righteousness to which purpose it will be worth while to consider that place Rom. 8. The Apostle in the first verse sets forth believers men in Christ by two excellent things first by Justification There is no condemnation to them no though there be reliques of corruption in them as is imported in the seventh Chapter there is none and then by Sanctification which is in conjunction with the other they walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And in the other verses he confirms both but inverso ordine first he confirms their Sanctification from the great Origen of it the holy Spirit The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death vers 2. The power of the holy Spirit hath subdued the power of sin and then he confirms their Justification from the sufferings of Christ with which his active obedience is to be taken in conjunction What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh vers 3. Their sins were condemned in the flesh of Christ there was an atonement made for them which certainly must relate to Justification from these sufferings of Christ with which his active obedience must be taken in conjunction the Apostle inferrs That the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us vers 4. The Law was not able to justifie us for want of a perfect obedience in us but God translated the impletion of the Law upon Christ Christ fulfilled all Righteousness for us Christ bore the wrath of God for us and these things being imputed unto us the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us But then the Apostle returns again to Sanctification and subjoyns Who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit assuring us that those who are justified by the imputed Righteousness of Christ are also Sanctified and led by his holy Spirit This I take to be the meaning of the place But let us hear our Church treating upon this place in conjunction with other Scriptures r. Hom. of Salvation St. Paul saith Rom. 3. We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ And Rom. 10. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth And Rom. 8. That which was impossible by the Law in as much as it was weak by the flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh by sin damned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us which walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit In these places the Apostle toucheth three things which must go together in our Justification upon Gods part his great mercy and grace upon Christ's parts justice that is the satisfaction of God's justice or the price of our redemption by the offering of his body and shedding of his Blood with fulfilling of the Law perfectly and throughly and upon our part true and lively Faith in the merits of Jesus Christ which yet is not ours but by Gods working in us So that in our Justification is not only Gods Mercy and Grace but also his Justice which the Apostle calleth the Justice of God and it consisteth in paying our ransom and fulfilling of the Law And so the Grace of God doth not shut out the Justice of God in our Justification but only shutteth out the justice of man that is to say the justice of our works as to be merits of deserving our justification And therefore St. Paul declareth here nothing upon the behalf of man concerning his justification but only a true lively Faith which nevertheless is the gift of God and not man's only work without God and yet that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the fear of God to be joyned with Faith in every man that is justified but it shutteth them out from the office of justifying so that although they be all present in him that is justified yet they justifie not all together These are the excellent words of our Church worthy without flattery be it spoken to be written in Letters of Gold but much more in the hearts of all true Christians We see here that there is in justification nothing on the behalf of man but Faith only no internal Holiness Repentance Hope Love Fear of God are in the justified but shut out from the office of justifying God's Grace and Christ's Righteousness are the great causes of justification But saith the Author Is there here any mention of Christ's Righteousness or the imputation thereof I answer Our Church surely thought so and we have his passive Righteousness expressed vers 3. and where that is expressed the active is implied This is clear when the Scripture saith That we are made righteous by Christ's obedience Rom. 5.19 It doth include his blood also and when he saith That we are justified by his blood Rom. 5.9 It doth include his active obedience also so that the Scripture because it expresses justification by both and because it must be consistent with it self in expressing the one includes the other When therefore Rom. 8.3 his sufferings are expressed his active obedience is also included both therefore are intended and withall an imputation without which they cannot be profitable to us But saith the Author The Law could not do it that is the Law could not deliver from the power of sin I answer The Law could not do it of it self and without the Spirit of Christ but if that divine Spirit take the Law into its hand and write it in the heart I suppose there will be a New Creature But the Author saith That the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit vers 4. How can imputation come in here What pretty sence will this make of the Apostles argument I answer The sence is very clear the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us by Christ's Righteousness imputed to us and withall we to whom that is imputed walk after the Spirit the one is our Justification the other our Sanctification Both the Apostle proves to be in Believers and both consist very well together as appears from the first verse There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The No condemnation appertains to Justification and the walking after the Spirit to Sanctification and both stand very well together As to what the Author saith afterwards That there was no reason to abrogate Moses ' s
on the one side that he according to their Principles but a meer creature should be the object of faith on the other that so many pregnant places of Scripture should be eluded but had they found out a way to interpret such Phrases as believing and trusting in him in a sence abstractive from his Person they might all have concluded that he was not the object of faith The Authour as to a faith of recumbency on him and his merits seems to conclude the same for though he speak of trusting in Christ and his blood he interprets himself thus expecting to be saved according to the terms of the Gospel Covenant that is by believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ pag. 24. The whole is placed in believing and obeying the Gospel Obedience as I take it is no part of Faith Works shew forth Faith James 2. and so are distinct from it Faith produces Obedience Hebrews 11. and surely it doth not produce it self We are married to Christ that is by Faith that we might bring forth fruit unto God Rom. 7.1 And me thinks Faith which is the espousal should not be the Progeny Abraham's faith only is admitted in Justification Romans 4. And his works though done after conversion are excluded as being no part of it When Socinus said that Christo credere idem significat atque illi obedire The Learned Calovius tells him That it is but a meer Fiction to prevent the Article of Justification and transform Faith into Works And withall adds that Credere in nullo idiomate idem est quod obedire Obedience being no part of Faith that which remains is only believing the Gospel which is a Dogmatical Faith such as believes the Gospel to be true and inter alia Jesus Christ to be the Messiah and Saviour But alas This is so far beneath a faith of recumbency such as in the Apostle is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 that the very Devils are capable of it who yet never shall have the least drop of that atoneing blood sprinkled on them In our Authour the whole terms of the Gospel are believing and obeying it Obeying it is not so much as a part of faith Believing it is a part of faith but far short of recumbency and how the Authour leaves any room at all for recumbency I see not if Faith which uses to rest in the wounds of Christ may be only totally lodged in the Evangelical Axiom's I fear that Christ will be at odds with the Gospel which contrary to its Native Genius which is to elevate faith unto him our Great Redeemer reserves all of it to it self But to go on the Authour saith That they are for a recumbency on Christ in contradistinction to obedience to his Laws which sets up a Religion of the Person of Christ in opposition to the Religion of his Gospel I answer They make true faith contradistinct from obedience not that faith is alone in existence as if it had no holy fruits of obedience hanging on it but that it is alone in the matter of Justification And this I think is the Doctrine of Protestants and Fathers Which made Erasmus as I have him quoted by the Reverend Morton say Haec Vox sola fides tot clamoribus lapidata hoc seculo in Luthero reverentèr legitur auditur in Patribus if faith though alone in justification do yet spread forth it self into holy obedience I hope the Gospel is not in the least opposed by such a recumbency as gives Christ the glory of his blood and righteousness But now we must hear the significations of the word Christ First Mr. Sherlock Christ is originally the Name of an Office which the Jews call the Messias or Anointed Jesus Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost and Power which was his consecration to the Mediatory Function and virtually contained all those Offices of Prophet Priest and King which are not properly distinct Offices in Christ but the several parts and different administrations of his Mediatory Kingdom after which the Authour describes those Offices to us The Socinians Answer who deny the Satisfaction of Christ have some reason according to their corrupt Principles to jumble all the Offices of Christ together that the oriency of his Priestly Sacrifice might not appear yet are they castigated for it by Calovius and others and Arnoldus calls the Racovian Catechist Hostis crucis Christi upon that account But why our Authour who owns the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ should confound them I know not I conceive the Offices of Christ are distinct though he who had them all performed them in such a just Decorum as became him who had all of them in himself Though he triumphed upon the Cross and what he preached was a Law yet Teaching is not Reigning nor is either Sacrificing In his Prophetical Office Salvation was explicated in his Priestly purchased in his Kingly applied The first removes Ignorance the second expiates Guilt and the Third subdues Corruption In the Authours description of these Offices the Reader may make some Observations In that of the Prophetical Office he mentions his outward preaching but passes over in silence that internal illumination of the Spirit which to me is the life of the other without which no man can spiritually discern the things of God Hence Reverend Bishop Reynolds speaking of the Opinion of Episcopius that an unregenerate man may understand such things sine lumine supernaturali is bold to censure the same as wicked words In that of the Priestly he tells us That Intercession is the Power of a Regal Priest to expiate and forgive sins I take it Christ on Earth had power to forgive sins and did expiate them by his once offered Sacrifice on the Cross But may we call it Intercession Or is Intercession here below I ever took it to be above and to be Christ's Appearance in Heaven for us and his presenting his meritorious Sacrifice to his Father in our behalf When the Racovian Catechism describes his Intercession by his Power to avert Wrath Arnoldus censures it thus Quis unquà m tam inepta stolida insulsa super claros Scripturae textus glossemata vel somniare posset Interpellare Christi in coelis nihil aliud esse quam potestatem Quae rei vel verborum saltem cognatio In that of the Kingly he saith That he conquers the minds of men by the Power of his Word and Spirit and reduces them into Subjection by Minds I hope he takes in Wills too and all is excellent well may it but stand so but afterwards the Authour denies irresistible Grace and then the Conquest is but ad nutum creaturae at the pleasure of the conquered the conquered if he please may be Conqueror and the Conqueror must drop his Crown into his Hand and shall we call this a Conquest Or if we may is it such as becomes the Throne of the Son of God or the design
liberum esse ut agant quaecunque velint seriò abhorremus à Basilidis blasphemiâ qui finxit ita nos fide salvari ut universa libido indifferenter usurpari possit But why one Protestant should draw up such a charge against another I cannot but wonder however the Author triumphantly concludes These are those fundamental doctrines with which these men have blessed the world from a pretended acquaintance with Christs person which ought to be called the Religion of Christs person in opposition to the Religion of his Gospel To which I shall only say that I leave others to judge whether any such thing as that opposition hath been made good hitherto Christ having satisfied and fulfilled the Law we have nothing to do Mr. Sherlock but to get an interest in his satisfaction and righteousness he is very ignorant of Christ who hopes that any thing else will avail him to salvation All which the Author speaks as the sence of his Opposites Is there nothing to do after getting into Christ Who ever said Answer or meant so Is there no walking in Christ Are there no fruits of Holiness and Righteousness to be brought forth Or are those meer unprofitable things and of no avail None of the Opposites ever owned any such thing however I confess none of our good works must take Christs Prerogative or sit down in the room of his merits and righteousness Now that we may come to Christ Mr. Sherlock saith the Author pointing at his Opposites It is absolutely necessary that we be sensible of our lost condition we must work our fancy into great terrors and agonies and a dismal fear of the wrath of God and his natural justice the spirit of bondage must go before the spirit of adoption without this we shall never value Christ the promise of ease is made to the weary those only shall be satisfied who hunger and thirst after imputed righteousness now being stung with sin it is time to look up to Christ to see his fulness and perfection All this in a Drollery Answer and are we come to that pass that we can sport our selves at such things as these Need we prove that there are such things as broken hearts or repentant tears or sorrow for sin Are these the workings of fancy or imagination When Genesius was mocking on the Stage at the Christian mysteries Spond Ann. Domini 303. he was on a sudden so wrought on by the Grace of God that he did seriò agere quod jocis actitabat May the Author speed no worse while he makes himself merry with this and other Divine things Let us seriously consider doth sin hang so loose on us that we can shake it off easily without so much sence or sorrow Are we so propense to Christ that we will go to him without a feeling of our wants Why or wherefore should we do so Will we go to him for righteousness who can work out one at our fingers ends or for regenerating grace who can dispatch the matter our selves or for a supply of our wants who feel no such matter Our Saviour spake indeed of the weary and heavy laden Such as Grotius saith Peccati onere suspirant ad libertatem aspirant But according to our Author it seems to signifie little the Apostle speaks of a spirit of bondage but some it seems never felt any such thing Afterwards the Author speaking of their comforting Souls afraid to come to Christ thus Doth not God justifie the ungodly Did Christ take our flesh and not our sins upon him Compare your distress and Christs compassion your wants and Christs fulness your unworthiness and Christs freeness c. He adds And now if Christ do not prevail above thy fears thou art not worthy to be acquainted with him But now let Mr. Shepherd that excellent practical Divine come upon the Stage If thou objectest saith Mr. Shepherd what have I to do with Christ Mr. Sherlock who have such an unholy vile hard blind and most wicked heart O dishonour not the Grace of Christ thou canst not come to Christ till laden and separated from sin but no more sorrow for sin no more separation from sin is necessary to this closing with Christ than so much as makes thee willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away know if thou seekest for a greater measure of humiliation thou shewest the more pride who will rather go into thy self to make thy self holy and humble than go out of thy self unto the Lord Jesus to take away thy sin thou thinkest Christ cannot love thee until thou makest thy self fair upon which serious words the Author after his merry way tells us The reason of all this is very plain from our acquaitance with Christ he is our Physician and we must go to him with all our diseases and sores about us he a fountain and we must go to him with all our filthiness to be cleansed he is all fulness it is not fit to carry any thing to him he is our righteousness and we must leave our own behind us he is all beauty we must not carry any to him all we have to do is to go to Christ weary and sick and filthy and naked stript of every thing but our sins and impurities to receive ease and health and fulness and beauty from him The Author hints as if according to Mr. Shepherd Answer a man must go to Christ indulging his Lusts and wallowing in them with all his sores running and filthiness allowed but how untrue is this Mr. Shepherd saith expresly Thou canst not come to Christ till thou art loaden and separated from thy sins thou canst not be ingraffed into this Olive unless thou beest cut off from thy old root thou must be made willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take away thy sin To come weary and sick and naked to Christ is not to come indulging our sins but groaning under them if there be no wants or sence of them how or why should we come to Christ Should we come to him to shew him the garments which nature made the innate or acquisite vertue and excellency which is in us Should we open our treasures and tell him that we are rich and increased in Goods and have need of nothing this is the way to be spued out of his mouth The Philosopher being asked what God was a doing could say that he was busie in elevatione humilium superborum dejectione We must go to Christ weary and heavy laden under our sins but surely not strip'd of them altogether could we strip off the guilt and power of these without Christ we might be our own Saviours and Sanctisiers Christ would have little or nothing to do for us But saith the Author We must receive Christ by Faith and then what a blessed change is there in us For though we continue as we were we have all in Christ What!
their fancies with their private opinions and then read the Scripture with no other design than to find something there to stamp Divinity on their own conceits they dote upon words and Metaphors and Allusions they found their Religion on obscure Texts or mystical interpretations of plain Texts and by the help of distinctions and glosses curtailing of Texts transplacing of words and Comma's or separating a single sentence from the body of the discourse make the Scripture speak their sence as plainly as the Bells ring what every boy will have them which is to deal with Scripture as Irenaeus observes as if a man should take a picture of a King which consisted of an artificial composition of precious stones and transplace all those stones into another form as suppose of an Ape and then should perswade silly people that that was the Kings picture At this rate we may find the Alcoran in the Bible as well as make so many Books different and contrary to each other from the various composition of twenty four letters These acquaintances of Christ And who may better make bold with him than they pervert the Gospel to serve their opinion there are two wayes of expounding Scripture in great vogue among them First By the sound and clink of words which is all some men understand by a form of sound words Secondly When this will not do they reason about the sence of Scripture from their own preconceived notions and prove that this must be the meaning of Scripture because otherwise it is not reconcileable to their dreams which is called expounding Scripture by the Analogy of Faith It is the observation of that excellent man Answer Jerome of Prague in his defence before the Council of Constance That many worthy men have been unjustly condemned such as Socrates among Pagans Isaiah and other Prophets nay Christ and his Apostles The Author hath put in a long grievous charge against these good men but the Reader will observe that it is a general one and I suppose he will hang by his belief till proof be made by the after-instances As for the Valentinians these men have nothing to do with them or their Aeones they were very high flyers in their knowledge and perfections And as I find in the Magdeburgenses they held That men Cant. 2. cap. 5. especially those of their own Sect naturâ salvos fieri were saved by nature Which whether it may have any affinity with the natural faith allowed by the Author I know not But now let us hear out Authors instances and first for their expounding Scripture by the sound of words If they find any words saith the Author which chime to the tune of their private conceits they clap their own sence on them Thus when Christ is said to be made wisdom to us this is a plain proof Mr. Sherlock that we must learn all our spiritual wisdom from an acquaintance with his Person though some duller men can understand no more by it than the wisdom of those Revelations Christ hath made to us of Gods will External Revelation was never excluded by those whom the Author opposes Christ is made wisdom to us Answer as I have answered before because all true Wisdom that is external Revelation and internal Illumination are derived from him who is the Mirrour of divine Perfections Thus when men have learn'd Mr. Sherlock from an Acquaintance with Christ to place all their hopes of salvation in a personal Vnion with Christ from whom they receive Pardon Grace Righteousness and Salvation what more plain proof can any man who is resolved to believe this desire of it than 1 Joh. 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life What can having the Son signifie but having an interest in him being made one with him though some will be so perverse as to understand it of believing and obeying his Gospel Personal Union with Christ Answer who owns it that is of different Natures in the same Person such as is not between Christ and us Mystical the Author should have said that I own and from thence are derived all spiritual good things to us And so much is proved by that of St. John Having the Son imports Union with him or else we may have all at a distance from him Hear the Learned Bishop Reynolds on that Text Life of Christ fol. 461. One thing cannot be the Principle of Life to another except there be some Vnion which may be the ground of that conveyance and this is that the Text calls the having of Christ And what this Union is he afterwards explains It is that whereby we and he are spiritually united to the making up of one mystical body Fol. 468. the formal Reason or Bond of it is the Spirit of Christ from it doth immediatly arise a Communion with him in all good things Hear the Glory of our Church Archbishop Vsher Serm. before the Commons An. 1620 No man participates of the benefits arising from Christ to his spiritual relief except he first have Communion with him we must have the Son before we have life eat him we must that is as truly be partakers of him as we are of our ordinary food and a little after This is that great Mystery of our Vnion with Christ whereby we are made members of his body of his flesh and of his bone Hear the Learned Hooker Eecles Pol. Lib. 5. By vertue of this mystical Conjunction we are of him and in him even as though our flesh and bones should be continuate with his No man is actually in him but they in whom he actually is for he which hath not the Son hath not life And may we say or think that such Pillars and Luminaries of the Church should follow the sound and clink of words and phrases chiming to the tune of their own Conceits One might rather take the Author to be out he understands that place of obeying and believing the Gospel Believing the Gospel is but a dogmatical Faith which entitles not to Christ Obedience follows after Union with him and may be rather called walking in him than having of him Before we can be united to Christ we must go to him Mr. Sherlock and therefore Faith which is the Instrument of this Vnion is very luckily called Coming to Christ But this is not enough we must receive Christ Joh. 1.12 that Faith which serves us for Legs to go to Christ must be an Hand to receive him when we have received him we must embrace him in our Arms as old Simeon did when he found him in the Temple which is a little nearer Vnion as plainly appears from the example of the Patriarchs who embraced the Promises And now we have Christ we must trust and lean upon him as we are often commanded and if leaning be not enough we may make a little more bold and rowl on him as appears from the Original Gal. Psal 37. We may
discharge our load and cast it upon Christ and having brought our Souls to Christ we must commit them to his charge if they perish it will be his fault Thus St. Paul did 2 Tim. 1.12 And now we must hide our selves in Christ as the Dove in the rock Cant. 2.14 Christ's Wounds are the clefts of the rock where the believing Soul hides it self But this is not enough yet we must put on Christ Rom. 13.14 that is his Righteousness which is a most beautiful Robe to cover our nakedness if we would get the blessing we must go to God as Jacob did in the Robes of our elder Brother though this resemblance doth not very well please me For though Jacob was a good man yet this looks like a cunning trick to rob his elder Brother and cheat his blind Father and men must not think that God is thus to be imposed upon when we are united to Christ and made one with him all is ours as the Apostle tells us And now what better proof can you desire for all this if you will be contented with express words No man would have dream'd of such Interpretations of Scripture who had not been prepossest with the mysterious Notion of a fanciful Vnion to Christ and Application of Christ to us for here is no other proof of this but words and phrases separated from the body of the Text and the design of the Discourse and like straglers picked up and listed into the service of their Hypothesis The whole mystery of this and a great deal more stuff of this nature consists in wresting Metaphorical expressions to a proper sence When the Scripture describes the Profession of Christianity a sincere Belief and Obedience to the Gospel by having of Christ being in him coming to him and receiving of him these men expound these phrases to a proper natural sence to signifie I know not what unintelligible Vnion and closure of the Soul with him I never yet took any pleasure in Drollery Answer and least of all when it sports it self with Scripture which is sacred all over to the lowest Hem and Fringe of Metaphors Methinks no man can play with these but he will meet with some stops or Remora's in Conscience the tragical Stories of Theopompus and Theodectes mentioned by Josephus might serve for retractives or the Reverence of Scripture might fly in the face as the Fringe did in that Jew 's who was addressing himself to his forbidden pleasure I conceive Faith which is the Instrument of Union with Christ is not luckily but purposely and in wisdom called Coming It being as our Church tells us 1. Hom. of Faith the first coming unto God whereby we be justified And in another place 2. Hom. of the Passion The only mean and instrument of Salvation required of our parts The divine Spirit did not plant those Metaphors in Scripture as so many Flowers in a Garden in vain or to no purpose but to set and shadow forth in lively colours that excellent Grace of Faith which doth in so admirable a way unite to Christ as if it had all Motions postures and Sensations spiritually in it self to take in Christ with his incomparable Benefits into the Soul Christ is the Center of Rest rich Treasure infinite Beauty sure Foundation Rock of Salvation heavenly Covering and the very Food and Life of Souls and Faith is coming receiving embracing leaning hiding putting on and feeding on him denoting thus much to us That Faith is as I may say the commune Sensorium or common Capacity which takes in Christ and his excellent Benefits in an appropriative way into the Soul The Author indeed thinks this Union and Application of Christ to be but a Fancy but it is such an one as without which his Blood and Merits are like to avail us little or nothing as I before noted St. Austin upon that Text of receiving Christ Joh. 1.12 saith Tract in Joh. Et nos illum possideamus ipse nos possideat ille nos possideat sicut Dominus nos illum possideamus sicut salutem Gregory Nyssen as I find him quoted by Gerard saith Nos fide Christum recipere ut intra conclave nostrum quod cor nostrum est perveniat St. Chrysostome on that Text Rom. 13.14 would have us put on nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be compassed round about with Christ he would have Christ to dwell in us and to be a garment about us that he may be all to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within and without and a little after he tells us That he is the Root Food Life the Foundation Corner-stone and what not to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way conjoyning and conglutinating us to himself That of going to God in the Robes of our elder Brother which pleases not the Author not every way suiting as indeed no Resemblance doth was hinted by no less man than St. Ambrose who saith Et odoratus est odorem vestimentorum fortasse istud est quia non operibus justificamur sed fide And for the necessity of this Application our Church hath laid it down in terminis As it profiteth a man nothing to have Salve 2. Hom. of the Passion unless it be applied to the part infected so the Death of Christ shall stand us in no force unless we apply it to our selves in such sort as God hath appointed Almighty God worketh by means and in this thing he hath ordained a certain mean what mean is that forsooth it is Faith And in another place 1. Hom. of the Sacrament our Church would have us come to the Lord's Supper not as specially regarding the terrene and earthly Creatures but always holding fast and cleaving by Faith to the Rock whence we may suck the sweetness of everlasting Salvation However the Author to whom all these are Fancies understands by such Metaphors believing and obeying the Gospel Believing the Gospel is but a dogmatical Faith not entitling us to Christ or Salvation if that be all which is meant the Glory and divine Emphasis of those Metaphors is lost and the Texts themselves must wither in a very cold and jejune Sence And for Obedience that follows after Union and as our Church tells us in the 12. Article is a fruit of Faith Thus when they talk of our spiritual impotency and inability to do any good thing Mr. Sherlock they prove it wonderfully from our being dead in trespasses and sins therefore as a dead man can contribute nothing to his own Resurrection no more can we towards our Conversion Which is true of Natural death but will be hard to prove of a Moral death which consists in the prevalency of vicious habits contracted by long custom which was the case of the Heathen whom the Apostle there speaks of which do enslave the Will that it is very difficult though not impossible for such persons to return to the love and practice of Virtue Every man
one thing from another in a wonderful manner as thus Christ is lovely that is as Mr. Watson hath it he is lovely in his Titles being the desire of all nations the Prince of Peace the holy one lovely in his Types typified by Moses David Solomon who were lovely persons and typified by lovely things as the Pillar of Cloud the Manna the Mercy-seat brazen Serpent and Noah's Ark Who can forbear being smitten with so lovely a Person Besides all these Christ is resembled to the Rose of Sharon the Queen of Flowers to a Vine the noblest of Plants to a Corner-stone a Rock a rich Treasure a beautiful Robe and all these are lovely and so should any thing have been that had come in his way at that time thus Christ is altogether lovely The Author tells us Answer pag. 75. That he had done enough to expose these men to scorn Yet we have here a very long Harangue serving to very little use unless that ill one which I presume the Author never intended to gratifie that ugly scoffing humour at Religion which runs about the prophane world God himself by using similitudes hath sanctified them to us the Song of Solomon is an entire Allegory full of sacred mysteries the writings of the ancient Fathers are in a great measure like pieces of Arras or Tapestry beautified with Allegorical Flowers and Images of Divine things to give a little tast S. Cyril of Alexandria saith Comment in Aron That Christ is inserted into us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if he were the Diamond of the heart S. Hilary tells us That Christ is Margarita quia nihil illo pretiosius invenitur Thesaurus ut in ipso omnes divitiae regnorum coelestium reconditae agnoscantur De Patris Filiunitate all riches and pretionsness being in him S. Austin touching Manna saith Panem Angelorum manducavit homo Tract 13. in Johan quis est panis Angelorum In principio erat verbum quomodo manducavit homo Verbum caro factum est habitavit in nobis And in another place De Coelo Manna veniebat that is in Mr. Watson's phrase De â—tilit Poenitent It was meat dressed in Heaven attende quem figurabat ego sum inquit panis vivus qui de Coelo descendi For the Rock let S. Ambrose come in Christus petra dicitur De fide centra Ar. cap. 6. quia credentibus fortitudinem incredulis duritiem praestat that is in Mr. Watson's language A Rock for defence and a Rock for offence and for the Honey in the Rock our Church thinks it no disparagement to say 1. Hom. of the Sacrament That from this Rock we may suck the sweetness of everlasting Salvation As for the brazen Serpent let us hear Theophylact Vide figuram confer cum veritate illic Serpentis similitudo Comment in Joh. 3. formam habet bestiae venenum non habet that is in Mr. Watson's words It was like a Serpent but no real one Ita ex hoc loco homo Dominus sed à peccati veneno liber in similitudine carnis peccati venit that is in Mr. Watson's words Christ was in the likeness of sinful flesh but no sinner Tunc videntesevadebant mortem corporis nunc autem qui vident mortem animae that is in Mr. Watson's words The Serpent was lifted up to be looked on and so was Christ to be fiducially looked on Touching the Vine I must make bold to vouch in St. Bernard who not seeing all things never dream'd such things should be ridiculous he brings in Christ speaking thus De Coena Dom. Ser. 10. Ego sum vitis dans botrum dulcissimum cunctis palmitibus that is in Mr. Watson I give the sap of Grace to all believers Generans vinum quod laetificat cor hominis that is in Mr. Watson My Blood is the Wine which chears Man's heart And a little after Christus est vitis in quo est totus humor id est omnis plenitudo Spiritùs sancti The divine Spirit fills or as Mr. Watson saith supports his Humane nature And now I might bring the same Author for the Rose of Sharon and other things but this may suffice to shew that Mr. Watson's words may carry a fair Sence before a candid Interpreter The Author might have made no less pretty sport with those ancient Fathers those excellent devout Souls who spiritualize every thing and reduce every thing to the great Center of Scripture Jesus Christ I shall only add on Mr. Watson's behalf that he never thought that Christ the Manna should be accommodated to Mens Fancy nor imagined the Church unplanted by Christ neither did he dream that his Discourses of Christ's Loveliness should be traduced into carnal Expressions such as that Who would not be smitten with such an one To what the Author adds as his own imitation of these Men being no other than the playing of his Fancy with it self I shall return just nothing as seeing nothing considerable therein When this will not do Mr Sherlock they argue from their own preconceived Notions and pretend to prove their own Scheme from Scripture but in truth prove the sence of Scripture by its agreement with their Opinions which is just such a trick as the Papists have got to prove the Church from Scripture and the Scripture from the Church Thus after all their talk of being justified by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness the Scripture tells us that we are justified by Faith have remission by Faith have peace with God by Faith are sanctified by Faith are the sons of God by Faith are saved by Faith Now how is this reconcilable with being justified by imputed Righteousness Why thus Faith doth not justifie absolutely as Faith but relatively as it brings us to Christ and apprehends his Righteousness This is their own preconceived opinion or else no man could have stumbled on this Distinction But their Reason is plain Should Faith justifie as Faith as our own Act it would be as bad as good Works and irreconcilable with the Grace of God though modest men dream not of meriting though Faith had justified as our Act since the Reward doth so infinitely exceed the Work that there can be no suspicion of Merit and where there is no Merit the Reward is of Grace I shall at present wave Answer who symbolizes most with the Papists and how Justification Sanctification Adoption and Salvation are here jumbled together as if they were one thing The General Charge having had so many I say nothing to but I come to the Instance The Scripture saith that we are justified by Faith very well but what by Faith exclusively of its Object Christ's Blood and Righteousness No surely then the Scripture which tells us That we are justified by Faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 and made righteous by his obedience Rom. 5.19 must contradict it self or what exclusively to the imputation of these No
for the Question was about its necessity to salvation if we be justified and saved without it it is not necessary I answer Here we have Justification and Salvation confounded Obedience follows after Justification as we heard but now from our Church but precedes Salvation But to pass that Is nothing necessary to Salvation but what justifies Is not Sanctification necessary to Salvation and yet distinct from Justification and how then are we saved without Obedience But saith the Author Where is the Sanction of this Law Will he damn those that obey not and save those that do obey If after all those Commands God hath left it indifferent Obedience is not necessary But what a strange Supposition is this Commanded and yet left indifferent It is utterly impossible no man will say so so much as of an Humane Command No doubt at all but God will damn the rebellious and save the obedient yet our Obedience no way clashes with Christ's Righteousness neither is Eternal Life given us for Obedience as if it merited the same What follows in the Author Will the Father elect and the Son redeem none but those who are holy is a very strange Question Will they as if the Book of Life were yet unwritten and the Blood of Atonement yet unshed The Father hath elected us that we should be holy Eph. 1.4 and how can he elect us being such The Son gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 and how could we be holy before However no disregard is cast upon Holiness which though it do not antecede Election and Redemption yet it sweetly streams and issues from thence and Believers are obliged to follow after it as they will answer the End of Election and Redemption And whilest they are passing on in that pure way I dare be their Bondsman that they shall not be met with any such monstrous Conceit as if Holiness which is exaltative of free Grace were destructive of it Yet Holiness is necessary to our honour Mr. Sherlock for it makes us like to God Prophane men that they are as if the perfect Righteousness of Christ were not much more for our honour and did not make us more like to God than the rags and patches of our own Righteousness A very hard case Answer they must be profane for proving the Necessity of Holiness and likeness to God but the reason is this disparages the Righteousness of Christ A sad story but it will be proved much about the time when Christ's justifying Righteousness and sanctifying Spirit shall fall at odds and variance among themselves So horrid a thing cannot be neither let any Christian Mind start a thought of it But it is for Peace what Mr. Sherlock Peace of Conscience Must we fetch our peace from Duties and Graces Is not this to renounce Christ Miserable men must we set about correcting our Lives amending our Ways performing Duties following after Righteousness according to the prescript of the Law Why this is the course wherein many continue long with much perplexity hoping fearing tiring themselves in their way Afterwards they come to the Apostle's Conclusion By the works of the Law no man is justified and is this the way to Peace Is this the way to Communion with God by our own Righteousness Doth not all our wisdom of walking with God consist in our acquaintance with Christ God is Light we darkness he Life we dead he Holiness we defiled he Love we hatred surely this is no foundation of Agreement or Communion the foundation then of this Peace is laid and hid in Christ who is our peace and the Medium of all Communications between God and us So that if this Gentleman's that is Dr. Owen's memory had not failed him he would never have told us that Holiness is necessary to our peace and Communion with God All this is but a mistake Answ for want of distinguishing between the Foundation of our peace with God and the Sense of it The Foundation of our peace is not laid in our Works or Legal Righteousness but in the atoning and satisfying blood of Jesus Christ which speaks peace to all believers Melch. Adam in vit Jureconsult A notable instance whereof we have in that German John à Berg Father of Joachim who in all his life was a zealous Papist standing on his works and legal righteousness but upon his death-bed cast away those fig-leaves and poor coverings and reposed himself in the merit and expiation of Christ as the only foundation of peace But the sence of this peace is found in a way of holiness whilest the believer is there the love of God coming down in the witness of the spirit and ecchoing in conscience makes such a pure serenity in the heart as outrelishes all things in nature Now whether there be any inconsistency between the foundation of our peace and the sence of it I leave to the Reader these may as well stand together as Christs attonement and our Obedience However Holiness serves for the conviction of enemies Mr. Sherlock how so when it is not essentially necessary to his Friends and it is for the conversion of others why so when men may be converted without it It keeps off the Judgments of God from men But why cannot Christs Righteousness do this more effectually than the holiness of men Holiness casts forth a convictive Ray and Glory into the dark world Answ yet it is not essential to Believers to justifie but to sanctifie them It hath a Divine tendency to convert others yet the first act of conversion precedes in habitual Grace and actual Holiness or Obedience follows after Christs righteousness without which there would be nothing but wrath and judgments is the great fundamental reason of keeping them off but Holiness ministers under it to the same end But it is necessary in respect of the state and condition of justified persons Mr. Sherlock for they are accepted and received into friendship with an holy God therefore they must cleanse and purify themselves what need of this when they are cloathed with the Robes of Christs Righteousness which is the only foundation of our Commuuion with God And pag. 267. They fulfill the Righteousness of the Law not by doing any thing themselves but by having all done for them by having this perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to them And pag. 423. The Doctor places Christs righteousness in the room of ours to be not only the foundation but condition of the Covenant And then makes it an expression of our chast affections to Christ quite to thrust out our own righteousness and to allow it no place in our Religion And pag. 427. The foundation of their love to Christ Is a fond imagination that he will save them by his righteousness without any righteousness of their own What! Answer Doth imputed righteousness
the Church Catholick and a little after of the visible Church which the Church Catholick is not but that I doth not here signifie the Church is apparent The same I runs throughout the whole Chapter I have loved you vers 9. I have kept my Fathers Commandments vers 10. I have spoken to you vers 11. I have heard of my Father vers 15. I have chosen you vers 16. I came vers 22. I did the works vers 24. I will send the comforter vers 26. In none of these I's is the Church meant no more is it meant in that first I when he saith I am the true Vine however the Author offers some reasons for it The first is this The Church in the old Testament is compared to a Vine Esay 5. Jer. 2. Hosea 10. and so John 15. The Church is the Vine Christ applies the parable of the Vineyard to the state of the Gospel Matth. 21.33 And the Christian Church is called an Olive and the members of it branches Rom. 11. But I fancy not this arguing In some places the Vine is the Church therefore it is so in all this is the very same with that which the Author would charge upon his adversaries pag. 4. Christ sometimes signifies the person of Christ therefore it must do so alwayes after the same rate the Author In some places the Vine is the Church therefore it is so in all But in the 15. of John the context will not bear it one and the same I runs through the whole Chapter and in many passages no way sutes to the Church The Vine in this Chapter differs from those quoted out of the Old Testament in those the Ghurch is the Vine no mention at all is made of branches but in this the branches are set distinct from the Vine as appears verse 5. I am the Vine ye are the branches The Branches and the Vine are distinguished by I and ye the Church is included in the branches as the branches taken asunder signifie particular Christians so put together they import the Church The second reason is God is called the Husbandman but he dresses not Christ but the Church which is Gods Husbandry To which the Answer is easie God is the Husbandman with reference to both planting the Vine Christ and dressing the Branches Christians The third reason is Christ speaks of branches in him which bear no fruit and there can be no such branches in the person of Christ But as the Learned Whitaker hath observed against Stapleton that place Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away Joh. 15.2 May be read thus Every branch which beareth not fruit in me he taketh away The words in me being referred not to the Branch but to the Fruit But being read as is usual the answer is obvious our Saviour in this Verse speaks not of true real Branches which are always fruitful but of seeming ones which are barren they seem to be in Christ but are not When Christ speaks in the first Person Mr. Sherlock I and in me he cannot mean this of his Person but of his Church and Doctrine according as the circumstances require Thus Ver. 5. I am the true vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing I would willingly learn what sence can be made of this if we understand it of the Person of Christ for it is not very intelligible how we can be in the Person of Christ and it is more unintelligible how we can be in the Person of Christ and the Person of Christ in us at the same time which is a new piece of Philosophy called Penetration of Dimensions and that our fruitfulness should depend upon such an Vnion is as hard as all the rest How various is the Author on this Vine First I Answer is Christ together with the Church then the Church only and now the Doctrine is usher'd in to eek out the Interpretation and after this rate we may come to the seventy Faces which the Jews talk of in Scripture But that 5. Verse in the 15. of John cannot be meant of Christ's Person why not The Milevitan Council Can. 5. and afterwards the Arausican Council Can. 24. did so interpret it the words of the last are remarkable Vitis sic est in palmitibus ut vitale subministret eis non sumat ab eis ae per hoc manentem in se habere Christum manere in Christo discipulis prodest non Christo 1. Hom. of good works Our Church interprets it of no other but Christ but it is not intelligible How we can be in the Person of Christ and the Person of Christ in us Luther in his Conference at Marpurg with Zuinglius about the Eucharist told him Mel. Ad. in vita Brentii that he must not Mathematica huic negotio admiscere nec carnem Christi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so will I say to the Author Physicks and Mathematicks must here lie by here is no room for Penetrations or Dimensions all is spi itual and divine The Union between Christ and Believers though a new piece of Philosophy or rather no part of it at all is old Divinity and though a very great Mystery not altogether unintelligible Our Divines express it plainly according to Scripture to be made by the Spirit and Faith The most Reverend Vsher tells us Scrm. before the Commons 1620. That it is altogether spiritual and supernatural no Physical nor Mathematical Continuity or Contiguity is any way requisite thereunto it is sufficient for the making of this Vnion that Christ and we be knit together by those spiritual Ligatures the quickning Spirit and a lively Faith If by he that abideth in me Mr. Sherlock we understand the Christian Church he who makes a profelsion of Faith in me and continues in society with those who do so and by I in him the Christian Doctrine the Sence and Reason of it is very ovident Why in me Answer should signisie one thing and I another why in me should be construed in the Church and I the Christian Doctrine there is no reason in the Text however the Author had some reason to interpret it so For if in those words I in him I should fignifie the Church as those words in me are made to do then every particular Believer should have a Church in him which would be as unintelligible as that of Christ's being in us Mr. Sherlock To abide in Christ is to make a publick and visible Profession of Faith in Christ to be Members of his visible Church but because many are so who do not credit their Profession hence to distinguish true Christians from hypocritical Professors he adds And I in you that is my words abide in you Ver. 7. Thus you see that the Vnion of particular Christians to Christ consists in their Vnion to the
Nay believing and obeying the Gospel are so far from being inconsistent with fetching Life from Christ that they cannot be without it Without Life from Christ how or which way should a man believe or obey the Gospel May Nature lapsed Nature do it No surely that which of it self is not sufficient so much as to raise up an holy thought or to say Jesus is the Lord cannot of it self believe or obey the Gospel Or may Nature and Doctrine do it To place all Grace in outward Doctrine is meer Pelagianism It is a saying of St. Austin Solet dicere humana superbia De Grat. Liber Arb. c. 2. si seissem fecissem ideò non feci quia nescivi Humane pride is wont to say had I known I had done it asking only a Rule and presuming upon its own power for performance But the Scripture tells us of an internal Work of inward Teachings Drawings Quickenings and New-creatings in the Heart where these things are there the Gospel is a Principle of Divine Life in us There the Gospel comes not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as the Apostle hath it 1 Thess 1.5 Believing and obeying the Gospel suppose internal operations of Grace and these must come from Christ the fountain of life In him we are created unto good works and without him we can do nothing Thus to proceed Mr Sherlock Christ is the Power of God and the wisdom of God and the Gospel is the wisdom and power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God that is the Doctrine of a crucified Christ as appears by the verses before The Jews require a Sign and the Greeks seek after Wisdom but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God The Jews were all for Signs and Miracles the Greeks for curious Philosophical Speculations neither of them could relish the plain simple Doctrine of a crucified Christ But the Apostle tells us that this Doctrine is the power and wisdom of God the most powerful method which was ever used by God for the reforming of the world and the contrivance of excellent wisdom thus the Gospel is called the power of God to them that believe Rom. 1.16 And by this foolishness of preaching that is by preaching this foolish Doctrine as it was accounted by the world of a crucified Christ it pleased God to save them that believe Christ being exalted to the right hand of Majesty may in a proper sence be called the power of God because all power is given to him in Heaven and earth and he hath the supreme Government of all the affairs of this spiritual Kingdom and this is a personal power inherent in him but the exercise of it is confined to the Rules of the Gospel he hath power to save those that believe and obey and to destrey his enemies this power cannot save any man whom the Gospel condemns we have no reason to trust to his personal power unless we first obey his Gospel however omnipotent he be his Gospel is the measure of his actings if that condemn us his omnipotent power will not save us Christ is the power and wisdom of God and so is the Gospel Answer but are they both in equal degree such No surely the Gospel is such organically and in a way of subordination to Christ and he is such principally and in a way of excellency above the Gospel The Gospel is the wisdom of God a Glass of it and a Divine Medium to illuminate and make us wise but all this under Christ the brightness of his Fathers Glory and great illuminator from whom the unction or teaching anointing of the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation descends down upon us to open our eyes hearts upon the glorious things in the Gospel The Gospel is the power of God a Divine Scepter to subdue and overcome the wills and hearts of men but this is under Christ the eternal word and power of God who by that Scepter produces that great and supernatural effect The Apostles though earthen Vessels carried about the Evangelical treasure with them but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the excellency of the power was of God and not of them 2 Cor. 4.7 The believing Corinthians were the Apostles Epistle and Christ's too 2 Cor. 3.2 3. but not in equal degree They were saith the Text Christ's Epistle ministred by the Apostles the Apostles were but as the pen which the Almighty Fingers of the Spirit used to make the Impression or Divine Inscription upon their hearts Hence the Text saith That the same was written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God The Text quoted by the Author The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.22 23 and 24. is a very remarkable one they all had the Gospel the external call yet to shew that all was in the Royal hand of Christ the dispensation is very different Those to whom Christ preached was a Stumbling block or Foolishness had not so much as any internal illumination For it is not at all imaginable that Christ the power of God if truly understood could be a stumbling-block to the Jews who looked after signs or that Christ the wisdom of God if truly understood could be Foolishness to the Greeks who sought after wisdom but those called ones among them to whom Christ was the power of God and wisdom of God had internal illuminations and operations of Grace The Gospel then is the power and wisdom of God but organically and in subserviency to Christ who hath all the power in Heaven and earth and illuminates and subdues hearts by the Gospel as he pleases he hath power to save such as believe and obey but that is not all he hath power to make them believing and obedient and to save them not contrary to the Gospel-rules but according to them But the chief personal Grace is still bebind Mr. Sherlock viz. the Righteousness of Christ Now no Christian will deny that Christ was very righteous a great example of universal holiness and purity and it must be confessed that his Righteousness was not an imaginary imputed Righteousness but inherent and personal but what comfort is this to us if we continue wilful incorrigible sinners Yes saith the Doctor Hast thou the sence of guilt upon thee Christ is complete Righteousness the Lord our Righteousness this makes Christ sutable to the wants of a sinner indeed that he hath a Righteousness for him which God infinitely prefers before any home-spun Righteousness of his own This is
covering for their own Defects should ever be able to stand before God and justifie us at his Bar Who were is the Saint in Scripture that ever durst stand before God in his own inherent Righteousness Job though perfect would not know his own soul Job 9 21. David though a man after Gods own heart would not have him mark iniquities Psal 130.3 Daniel though a man of desires prayes not for his own Righteousness but for Gods great Mercies Dan. 9.28 Look over the posture of all Saints in Scripture you find them not standing upon their own bottom but in a sense of their wants breathing after Holyness pressing on towards perfection flying to a Mercy-seat and as it is expressed Hebr. 12.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking off from themselves unto Jesus the author and finisher of their faith in whom alone perfect Righteousness is to be found Now if as appears Justification be not by inherent Righteousness then it must be by imputed according to that of St. Bernard touching fallen Man Assignata est ei justitia aliena qui caruit suâ Unto what hath been said I shall add a few Testimonies out of the Fathers Ad Diag 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What other thing could cover our sins but Christ's Righteousness In whom could we lawless and ungodly be justified but in the only Son of God! Oh sweet exchange Thus Justin Martyr The fulfilling of the Law by Christ the First-fruits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was to be imputed to the whole lump so Athanasius Christ having translated the filthiness of my sins to himself hath made me partaker of his purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 communicating unto me his own beauty so Greg. Nyssen Non habeo unde me jactem De Jacob. â—it Beat lib. 1. cap. 6. gloriabor in Christo non gloriabor quia justus sum sed quia redemptus sum non quia vacuus peccati sed quia remissa peccata thus St. Ambrose God sent his Son that assuming our flesh and obeying his Father in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might justifie the Nature of Man in himself so St. Cyril of Alexandria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou believest on Christ thou hast fulfilled the Law and more than it commanded thou hast now received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a greater Righteousness Hom. in â—om 10 that is in Christ the end of the Law So St. Chrysostome Domine memorabor justitiae tuae solius ipsa enim et mea nempe factus es mihi tu justitia à Deo Sup Cant Ser. 61. numquid mihi verendum nè non una ambobus sufficiat Non est pallium breve quod non possit operire duos Justitia tua in eternum me te pariter operiet quia largiter larga eterna Justitia thus St. Bernard Many other Passages might be quoted out of the Fathers but this Tast may suffice This divine Truth touching imputed Righteousness such is its Heavenly Oriency hath extorted a confession even from its enemies The very Schoolmen themselves as Bishop Andrewes hath observed whatever they are in their Quodlibets and Comments on the Sentences yet in their Soliloquies and devotional Meditations acknowledge Jehovah justitiae nostra Cardinall Contarenus saith Ego prorsùs existimo piè Christianè dici quòd debeamus niti tanquam re stabili justitia Christi nobis donatà non autem sanctitate gratià nobis inherente And Bellarmine himselfe confesses Propter incerâ—itudinem propriae justitiae periculum inanis gloriae â—â—â—just 〈◊〉 cap. 7. tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericardia benignitate reponere And now having in short asserted this great Truth I shall attend the Author To begin with that famous place Mr. Sherlock Jer. 23.6 where Christ is called expresly the Lord our righteousness In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely And this is the name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness a very express place to prove that Christ is our righteousness as these men expound it that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us But is there no other possible sence to be made of this phrase Righteousness in Scripture is a word of a very large use sometimes it signifies no more than mercy kindness and beneficence and so the Lord our righteousness is the Lord who doth good to us who is our Saviour and Deliverer which is very agreeable to the reason of this name that in his days Judah shall be saved and Israel dwell safely and righteousness signifies that part of justice which consists in relieving the injured and oppressed Thus David speaks Hear me O Lord of my righteousness Psal 4. Thus Isai 54 17. Their righteousness is of me saith the Lord which is a parallel expression to the Lord our righteousness and signifies no more than that God will avenge their cause and deliver them from their enemies the like we have Isai 45.24 In the Lord have I righteousness and strength that is the Lord the righteous judge will deliver them from their enemies which agrees with that promise vers 14. Thou shalt be far from oppression and Isai 61.10 He hath clothed me with the garments of Salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness This sounds like imputed righteousness but it signifies the great deliverances God promised to Israel in the former verses which should make them as glorious as a splendid garment would The Lord our righteousness is a very illustrious Name of Christ Answer Bishop Andrews observes the word Jehovah Fl saith he is communicated to Angels their names end in it as Michael Gabriel Jah is communicated to Saints their names end in it Isaiah Jeremiah But here is Jehovah to certifie us that it is not the righteousness of Saints nor of Angels that will serve the turn but the righteousness of God very God And in his after discourse upon that name he fairly builds on it the imputation of Christ's active and passive righteousness but our Author hath no mind to it The Socinians who play in Homonymies familiarly enervate the force of a word in one Text by the different signification of it in another Tell them that Christ is called God they will say so are creatures too tell them of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they will reply Moses was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 7.35 I will not say that our Author imitates them but he turns himself about and is much concerned for another interpretation of Christ's name Is there no other possible sence to be made of this phrase Righteousness sometimes signifies mercy and so the Lord our righteousness is the Lord that doth good to us Thus the Author righteousness in some places signifies mercy Very well but where do we meet with Jehovah our mercy Or because it signifies so in some Texts must it do so in all The question is what it signifies in this
Gen. 22.18 That is with all spiritual and eternal blessings in Christ It is not imaginable that God should suffer the Faith of so great a Believer as Abraham to hang in the thickets of carnal things when he had such spiritual Promises before his eyes our Saviour saith Abraham saw his day and rejoyced Joh. 8.56 He saw the day of his Incarnation and as some the day of his Passion How far God carried the eyes of his Faith I know not however he saw so much as put him into those joys and triumphs of Faith which pointed beyond this World to that Salvation which is the end and center of Faith To me it suffices to say that Abraham rested upon Christ for Salvation and then Christ's Righteousness though unknown to Abraham was imputed to him The Author saith That from in thy seed shall all nations be blessed to imputed righteousness is a train of thoughts beyond Mr. Hobs and yet Abraham discerning the Messiah in that Promise it may be absolved in two short words that the Messiah shall merit Spiritual Blessings for us and that that merit shall be applyed to us there being no other way of applying of what is anothers but by Faith on our part and Imputation on Gods The Author ask's the question Is there no possible way for God to bless the world but by imputed Righteousness I answer had not Christ dyed for us which involves an imputation nothing of blessing could have been expected the wrath of God would no more have spared us than it did lapsed Angels The Jews about Christ's coming thought only of a temporal Messiah the very Apostles for a time thought not of Christ's death but this was because they then lived in the dregs and darkness of the Jewish Church I suppose in former ages the Jews had another manner of Prospect of Christ and above others Abraham whose Faith stands in Scripture with a more than ordinary crown on it probably had so Now if you would know what the Faith of Abraham and if all good men in ancient times was Mr. Sherlock the Apostle to the Hebrews gives us a full account of it Heb. 11. that he discourses there of a justifying Faith that is such a Faith as renders men approved of God and which he will count for Highteousness appears from the tenour of this Chapter in the second verse he tells us That by this the elders obtained a good report that is the Fathers were approved and rewarded by God for the sake of this Faith as he shews particularly That Abel obtained witness that he was righteous ver 4. That Enoch had the testimony that he pleased God ver 5. That Noah became heir of righteousness which is by Faith ver 7. Now this justifying Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A firm and confident expectation of those things hoped for and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an argument of the being of those things which we do not see Faith is such a firm and stedfast perswasion of the truth of those things which are not evident to sense as makes us confidently hope for them the object of Faith must be unseen things and the nature of it consists in such a firm assent to those unseen things as produces some answerable effects in our lives This is the general notion of Faith by which the elders obtained a good report Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Answer Heb. 11. This saith Erasmus is encomium fidei rather than definitio Dialectica However be it that justifying Faith is here meant Christ the marrow and center of the Covenant must be included in it Faith is the substance of things hoped for that is hoped for by vertue of the Promises and in a special signal way by vertue of the prime fundamental promise touching the Messiah which as we see Gen. 3.15 was delivered to Adam as an heavenly treasure more worth than a world and by him was no doubt handed down to his posterity not meerly in the bare words and letters of it for that protevangelium or first Promise of the Gospel was ministerium spiritûs but with such Divine Commentaries upon it as the illuminating spirit was pleased to give in to the heart of believing Adam Faith such is its excellent nature presentiates and makes to subsist the good things hoped for in such a lively manner as if they were actually at hand and before our eyes Nay as learned Pareus observes on the place it makes them subsist not only speculatively and assentively in the mind but fiducially in the heart Now by Faith in the Messiah the Elders had their divine Testimony Abel was righteous before God Enoch pleased God Noah was an heir of Righteousness all of them were Justified and accepted in their persons and holy walking The Author makes Faith to consist in a firm assent only without any thing more in the nature of it Thus the Romanists Thus Bellarmine proves it to be only assensum firmum 〈◊〉 certum ad ea omnia quae Deus credendae proponit And to that purpose among others quotes this Text Heb. 11. But I cannot find that this will down with Protestants Faith is set forth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a firm perswasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fiducial liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a perswasion with full sails 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fiducial subsistence of things hoped for which expressions speak more than a naked assent Faith receives Christ puts on Christ feeds upon Christ such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was to the Fathers in the days of Moses that they did eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God even before his Incarnation 1 Cor. 10.3 4. Meer assent cannot do this Through faith we are justified and have peace with God Rom. 5.1 We have our hearts purified Act. 15.9 We have the Spirit of all grace Joh. 7.38 We quench the fiery darts of the Devil Eph. 6.16 We have a victory over the world 1 Joh. 5.4 We rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 Nay not only in the hope of it but with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 as if we had a piece of heaven here below meer assent cannot reach such admirable effects Nay it may be in wicked men who have not the least mite of those Graces or Comforts Our Saviour hath excellently expressed the nature of true Faith Every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him hath eternal life Joh. 6.40 Here are two acts the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see the Son to assent that he is the Redeemer of the World the other is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe on him by fiducial recumbency by which saith Bishop Davenant Dav. Det. 165. Vitam à vitae fonte haurimus in
blameless ver 5 6. But then after all he casts away all this Jewish and Pharisaical glory What things were gain to me those I have counted loss for Christ ver 7. he would not be justified by any of those things but doth he go no further Doth he only exclude his external Pharisaical Righteousness No surely his discourse goes on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ vers 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Particles of amplification as if the Apostle had said Nay more than that even now do I count all things loss In the 7. Verse he casts off his Jewish and Pharisaical gains but in the 8. he puts by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things his inherent Graces not being admitted to be the Matter of our Justification In the 7. Vers we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in tempore praeterito I have counted but in the 8. we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in praesenti now I do count all things loss Hence the excellent Beza saith Notandum praesens tempus sic enim crescit oratio ut jam Apostolus quod ad justificationem coram Deo attinet omnia opera excludat tum praecedentia tum etiam consequentia fidem Exam. ' de Justif pag. 135. And Learned Chemnicius saith Paulum non tantùm uti praeterito tempore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de operibus praecedentibus conversionem sed praesenti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut ostendai quòd operibus suis etiam post renovationem fact is non tribuat Justificationem coram Deo Even our inherent Graces how precious soever they be in Sanctification must not assume the Royal seat of Christ and his Righteousness they must not be our very Righteousness in Justification Bellarmine indeed here cries out Quanta quaeso blasphemia est How great is this blasphemy to call good works done out of the Faith and Grace of Christ no better than dung But Paraeus answers him very well That they are not so called absolutely in themselves but comparatively to the Righteousness of Christ nefas enim ducit in ullis operibus fiduciam Justificationis ponere coram Deo In the Matter of Justification the whole Church calls her Righteousness a filthy Rag St. Paul will not there own his own inherent Graces no more than holy Job would know his own Soul But this is yet more clear ver 9. The Apostle would be found in Christ not having his own Righteousness which is of the Law he excludes his own Righteousness that is his inherent Graces in the point of Justification I say his inherent Graces for he had before shut out his external Pharisaical Righteousness ver 7. and his after-speech being not a Battology or vain repetition but progressive or expressive of more than went before he doth in the 9. Verse put by his inherent Graces under the name of his own Righteousness and which further confirms this Sence inherent Graces are in Scripture said to be our own Hence we find my faith and thy faith Jam. 2.18 and our Saviour saith Except your righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of heaven Matth. 5.20 See here a Righteousness and that exceeding a Pharisaical one called theirs The Apostle excludes the righteousness which is of the Law In the 7. Verse he had shut out the Righteousness of the Law taken in the Pharisaical sence but in the 9. Verse he goes on and puts by the Righteousness of the Law taken in its own spiritual Nature the Righteousness which the Law in its holy Commands prescribes and surely the Law calls for internal Holiness as well as external Conformity In another place the Apostle tells us That by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified Gal. 2.16 No flesh not the holiest Saint on earth whose Righteousness is as much above the Pharisees as Life is above pictures and shadows shall be justified by his own Righteousness or conformity to the Law But if the Apostle would not have his own Righteousness which is of the Law in Justification what would he have He would have the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith He doth not say a Righteousness which is Faith or other Graces but a righteousness which is through the faith of Christ a righteousness which is of God by faith Now inherent Graces are never in Scripture called the Righteousness of God The righteousness of God is upon those that believe Rom. 3.22 not in them as inherent Graces are The righteousness of God is in Christ 2 Cor. 5.21 not in our selves as our Graces are The righteousness of God is one and the same with the righteousness of Christ 2 Pet. 1.1 not the same with our Graces The Apostle therefore would have the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith that is the perfect Righteousness of Christ which Faith receives and God accepts on our behalf By these things it appears that the Apostle in this place doth not only exclude external Pharisaical Righteousness but even inherent Graces in the matter of Justification There is a double Antithesis in the words Mr. Sherlock the righteousness of the Law is opposed to the righteousness which is by the faith of Christ and my own righteousness to the righteousness of God Now the surest way to understand the meaning of this is to consider how these phrases are used in Scripture The righteousness of the Law as you have already heard is an external Righteousness which consists in washings and purifications and sacrifices or an external conformity to the Moral Law The righteousness which is by the faith of Christ is an internal Righteousness which consists in the renovation of our Minds and Spirits in the government of our thoughts and passions which is therefore called being born again becoming new creatures rising with Christ putting off the old man and putting on the new which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness That Righteousness which God requires of us under the Gospel must be an inward Principle of Love and Obedience which transforms us into the image of God as if we were born again or made new creatures The reason why Godsent Christ into the world to die as a Sacrifice for our sins and to confirm and seal the new Covenant with his Blood was that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom 8.3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostome expounds it that which the Law was designed to work in them but was found too weak to effect it by reason of the greater power of sin that is the inward holiness and purity of mind which was represented and signified by
not please God nothing but an imputed Righteousness can though I should rather have concluded that nothing can But the truth is the Righteousness of the Law and of Works in the New Testament signifies only an external Righteousness which cannot please God and that internal Holiness which they call the Righteousness of the Law is that very Righteousness of Faith which the Gospel commands and which God approves and rewards and this imputed Righteousness is no where to be found that I know of but in their own Fancies The Righteousness of the Law and of Works in the New Testament signifies only an external Righteousness Answer Thus the Author And yet before the Author quoting that Text Rom. 8. That the righteousness of the Law might he fulfilled in us interprets it of internal holiness in us I confess it is not meant of our internal Holiness but neither doth it signifie external Righteousness only The righteousness of the Law Phil. 3.6 doth by the circumstances of the Text intend only an external Righteousness but the righteousness of the Law ver 9. reaches to an internal one for as I before noted the Apostles speech there is progressive and expresses more than it did before The Works of converted Abraham are excluded from Justification Rom. 4.2 and yet surely they were more than external shadows By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified Gal. 2.16 not only the Pharisee with his external Righteousness but no flesh not the holiest man on earth shall be justified by the works of the Law The Law in the New Testament plainly calls for internal Holiness it is a holy just good spiritual Law forbidding Concupiscence the very first risings and imperfect births of Corruption Rom. 7. commanding the love of God with all the Heart Soul and Mind Matth. 22.37 And therefore it would be very strange if the Righteousness or the Works of this Law which is represented in the New Testament as a divine spiritual Law should in the same New Testament signifie no more than external Righteousness no more than the meer shell or outward superficies of true Sanctity and that too in Epistles written not to Jews or Pharisees who hung about the Letter of the Law but to the Romans Galatians Philippians who I suppose understood it better They could not but see some hints of inward Purity in the Books of Pagan Philosophers and it is inimaginable that they should look for less in the Law of God Though the Pharisees who had only an external Righteousness themselves construed that Law according to their Model yet why the believing Romans Galatians Philippians who had internal Graces in themselves should do so I see no reason Neither is it to me credible that the Romans who in the Epistle to them had the pure Spirituality of the Law set before them should ever construe the Righteousness or Works of the Law mentioned in that Epistle to be only external As for internal Holiness God indeed approves of it but not as that which is the matter of our Righteousness in Justification Let us now consider in what sence the Apostle opposes his own Righteousness to the Righteousness of God Mr. Sherlock and there is no great difficulty in this for the Apostle tells us that by his own Righteousness he means the Righteousness of the Law and by the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Faith and what that is you have already heard Thus in Rom. 10.3 For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God Where their own Righteousness which the Jews so obstinately adhered to was the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of God which they were ignorant of and would not submit to was the Righteousness of Faith For this was the great Controversie between the Jews and Apostles which is the Subject of this Epistle Whether men were to be justified by the Law of Moses or by the Gospel of Christ by a Legal or Evangelical Righteousness as appears from Rom. 9.3 Israel who followed after righteousness hath not attained to the Law of righteousness wherefore Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law that is The Israelites who pursued so earnestly after Righteousness are excluded from Righteousness or forgiveness of sins and are under a Curse because they did not look for Righteousness and Justification in the way which God prescribed which is by Faith in Christ or by Christianity but by the observance of the Law of Moses Now the most obvious reason why the Righteousness of the Law is called their own Righteousness and the Righteousness of Faith Gods Righteousness is because this Legal Righteousness was a way of Justification not of Gods appointment but their own chusing God never designed that any man should be justified to eternal Life by observing the Law of Moses but yet they confidently expected Justification by that Law and for that reason rejected the Gospel of Christ But the Righteousness of Faith is a Righteousness of God's chusing this he approves and accepts of for the Justification of a sinner By this the Elders obtained a good report by this Enoch and Noah and Abraham were justified before God And therefore this may well be called the Righteousness of God because this he appointed and this he will own and reward Our own Righteousness is I confess Answer the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of God is a Righteousness by Faith or through Faith because Faith receives it but it is not Faith it self The righteousness of God is reveiled from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 Were Faith it self the Righteousness of God the words must amount to no more than this Faith is reveiled from Faith to Faith We are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 and who ever construed those words thus We are made Faith in him Faith is inherent in our selves but the Righteousness of God is in Christ who is Jehovah our Righteousness The Jews went about to establish their own righteousness Rom. 10.3 but it doth not appear that that was a meer external one we find that they had a zeal of God Ver. 2. which surely was internal Zeal is a mixture of Love and Anger They had at least in pretence a love to God and his Glory and an anger at the Christian Faith as supposing it an enemy to God and his Law All the Jews were not Pharisees nor did they stick meerly in the Letter or husk of external Righteousness the Scribe could say That the love of God with all the heart was more than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices Mark 12.33 and some Jewish Rabbins say That the heart of man answers to the holy place there a place must be made for the Shecinah the divine Majesty to dwell in and it must be the holy of Holies No question the Jews at least some of them
his death and sufferings because this was the subject of his discourse but yet these expressions His righteousness and obedience seem to take in the whole compass of his obedience in doing and suffering the Will of God and the meaning of the words is this That as God was so highly displeased with Adam's sin that he entailed a great many evils and miseries and death it self upon his posterity for his sake So God was so well pleased with the obedience of Christ's life and death that he bestows the rewards of Righteousness on those who according to the rigor of the Law are not righteous that for Christ's sake he hath made a new Covenant of Grace which pardons our past sins and rewards a sincere though imperfect obedience For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be made righteous is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be justified That is treated like righteous persons So that Christ's Righteousness is not the formal cause of our justification that very Righteousness whereby we are righteous But it is the meritorious cause of that Covenant whereby we are declared Righteous and rewarded as Righteous for the Apostle tells us in vers 17. who those are who are thus justified by Christ and shall reign with him in life not those who are Righteous by the imputation of Christ's Righteousness But those who have received abundance of Grace and the gift of Righteousness that is who by the Gospel which is the abundant grace of God are made holy and righteous as God is which Righteousness is called a gift because it is not owing solely to humane endeavours but is wrought in us by supernatural means We are made righteous by the Righteousness of Christ not that his actual obedience is reckoned as done by us which is impossible But because we are made righteous both in a proper and forensick sence by the Gospel-Covenant which is wholly owing to Gods Grace and Christ's Merits and Righteousness So that the Righteousness of Christ is our Righteousness when we speak of the foundation of the Covenant by which we are accepted but if we speak of the terms of the Covenant then we must have a righteousness of our own for the Righteousness of Christ will not serve the turn Christ's Righteousness and our own are both necessary to our Salvation the first as the foundation of the Covenant the other as the condition of it We are now arrived at that famous place Answer as by the offence of one judgement came upon all to condemnation so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all to justification of life as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Rom. 5.18 19. The Apostle here uses two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Righteousness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Obedience both these signifie the doing of God's Will which doing for its rectitude is called Righteousness and for its subjection Obedience neither of them do properly signifie suffering Meer suffering which is not spirited with a right and subjective mind is not Righteousness or Obedience The Apostle here speaks of Righteousness in general and Obedience in general and who may pare off ought and say it is not all Christ's Righteousness or Obedience but some especially when that some the passive I mean is less properly such than the active and what necessity or cogent reason is there for doing so The Antithesis in the Text evinces the contrary Act is here set in opposition against Act Christ's Obedience against Adam's Disobedience Now for what the Author alledges I say it is true that of Christ's being obedient Phil. 2.8 reaches down to his death but it takes in all the Obedience of his life and that of Christs doing Gods will Hebr. 10.7 extends to the Sacrifice of himself but it comprises all the righteousness of his life too It is true that the Apostle in this 5. Chapter to the Romans doth first speak of Christ's Death and Sufferings but his active and passive Obedience are so near in conjunction that the Apostle may in his discourse easily pass from the one to the other Nay as I before noted when the one is expressed in Scripture the other is implied so that the Apostle doth not indeed pass from one thing to another but only vary his Phrase The Author himself confesses That those expressions his righteousness and Obedience seem to take in the whole compass of his Obedience in doing and suffering the will of God And how doth the active and passive righteousness of Christ justify us or make us righteous Why these procured that Gospel Covenant whereby we are declared righteous and rewarded as righteous Now this Interpretation may stand good when justifying and procuring the Covenant shall be what they can never be one and the same thing Christs active and passive Obedience according to the Author procured the Covenant for all Men But surely they do not justify all Men. The whole Obedience of Christ may be confidered two wayes either as it is procurative of the Covenant and so it renders us justifiable or as is it received by Faith and so it actually justifies us But neither of these can be without a Divine imputation without that first fundamental imputation which is implied in such Scripture expressions as tell us that Christ died for us the Obedience of Christ could not have rendred us justifiable any more than it doth Devils and without that second particular imputation which is implied in such Scripture expressions as tell us That we are justified by Christs Blood that we are made righteous by Christ's Obedience the Obedience of Christ could not justify us for it justifies us not as it procures the Covenant that is done according to the Author for all Men and all Men are not justified but it justifies us as it is particularly made ours and made ours it cannot be without an Imputation According to the Author the Apostle must be interpreted thus By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all unto Justification of life that is by the righteousness of one the Covenant was procured and so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous that is by the obedience of one the Covenant was procured But this Interpretation is so harsh and strange that I suppose few will be able to receive and own it But the Author tells us That the Apostle in ver 17. acquaints us who the justified are not those who are righteous by imputed righteousness but those who by the Gospel which is the grace of God are made righteous as God is But by the grace of God vers 17. is not meant the Gospel but the rich mercy of God and by the gift of righteousness there is not meant inherent graces but the righteousness of Christ which is made over to us by a gracious imputation the very same righteousness which is called the
The plowing of the wicked is sin Prov. 21.4 Take him in sacred or Devotional affairs His Sacrifice is an abomination Prov. 15.8 And so is his Prayer too Prov. 28.9 Whatever his outward work or posture be To the unbelieving there is nothing pure Tit. 1.15 The very mind and conscience is defiled and will be so till it be purified by Faith Mr. Shephard places Justification before Sanctification and what doth the Church of England do It tells us in the 12. Article That good works are the fruits of Faith and follow after Justification that they spring necessarily of a true and lively Faith And in the 13. Article That works done before the Grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ Nay in the close of that Article our Church saith of such works We doubt not but they have the nature of sin As for Mr. Shephards speech for Christ come in a sense that they have in some measure resisted his Spirit refused his Grace and wearied him with their iniquities the inviting of such is no more than that of our Saviour which calls the weary and heavy laden to come to him for rest in which all are concerned except such as can without Christ earn a sanctity or holyness at the fingers ends of Nature and take a nap at home in a presumption of their own worthiness and self made righteousness But let us consider Mr. Sherlock the whole progress of the Soul to a closure with Christ the several steps to this are Conviction Compunction Humiliation and Faith which is the uniting Grace Now if there be nothing of forjaking of sin included in all this then Men must be united to Christ before they forsake their sins Now Conviction is a great sense of the evil of sin and the evil after it of its abominable accursed Nature and the Judgments which follow it and this is as it ought to be Men must be awakened to see these evils before they will reform their lives Reform nay you are out this is not the end of Conviction to reform sin that is a legal way but Compunction is the end of it well then what is this Compunction Why Compunction is first a great fear of being damned he sees death wrath eternity near to him next to this succeeds a great sorrow and mourning for sin and that which perfects this Compunction is a separation from sin this is something like but by a separation from sin you must not understand a leaving sin but such a separation as consists with living in it For it is nothing but a being willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away the Lord doth not wound the heart that the Soul should first heal it self but that it may desire the Physician the Lord Jesus to come and heal it So that all he means by separation from sin is to be content that Christ by an irresistible power should take away our sins By this Separation the Soul is cut off from the will to sin not from all no nor from any sin in the will for that must be mortified by a Spirit of holyness after the Soul is implanted into Christ Now this is down right non-sense for he must be a subtil Man who can distinguish between a will to sin and sin in the will and all that can be made of it is this that this separation is a willingness or rather not unwillingness that Christ should take away our sins against our wills and therefore he tells us That this Separation is no part of our Sanctification The whole design of this Compunction is to work humiliation in us which is the work of the Spirit whereby the Soul broken off from self-conceit and confidence submitteth and lieth under God to be disposed as he pleaseth this self-confidence is any hope of pleasing God by Reformation or Repentance or any thing he can do When Men feel this Compunction the great danger is lest they should seck ease by Repentance and Reformation if they can repent and reform they have some hopes as well they may if they do so that this will heal their wounds and pacify the Lord towards them when they see no peace in a sinful course they will try a good one But this is a dangerous mistake for while it is thus with the Soul he is uncapable of Christ For he that trusts to other things to save him or makes himself his own Saviour or rests in his duties without a Saviour that is according to this Author all those who repent and reform he can never have Christ to save him So that true Humiliation is this when the Soul feels its own inability and unworthiness that it may lye under God to be disposed of that is contented to be saved or damned as shall please God and when the Soul is at this pass it is vas capax a vessel capable of Grace And now they are made thus hollow and empty by Humiliation they are capable of receiving Christ as an hollow vessel is of receiving any thing This is a new notion of our union to Christ that it is a receiving Christ into us as an hollow vessel receives any liquor poured into it This is a Philosophical account of the nature of Humiliation that a man must have such a sense of his inability to please God that he shall never dare to be so prophane as to attempt it but must leave repentance and reformation to carnal christless men and that he may be so sensible of his unworthiness that he shall contentedly submit to God to be damned or saved as he pleases And now the Soul being thus hollow is fit to receive Christ and being grown careless of its Salvation and indifferent whether it be saved or damned for it is impossible thus to submit without being indifferent in some measure which God shall chuse it is a fit object for mercy certainly it is a very hard thing to bring any man in his wits to this and I find by this Author that God is very hard put to it to humhle the Soul thus For he is forced to irritate and stir up original corruption to stir the dunghil a very unfit office for an Holy Being that so men finding themselves sensibly grow worse and worse may despair of growing better and leave off such vain attempts and sit down humble under God Nay the Lord loads and tires and wearies the Soul by its own endeavours till it can stir no more That is when the Soul labours to repent and reform the Spirit of God which should assist such pious endeavours withdraws it self because it knows the Soul would rest therein without Christ Now I know not who suffers most by this The sinner who is thus humbled or God who thus humbles him for it must needs be as contrary to the holy merciful nature of God to use such
methods of Humiliation as it is to the proud heart of man to be thus humbled Thus you see that Humiliation hath nothing to do with repentance and reformation of our lives The steps of the Soul towards Christ Answer are conviction compunction Humiliation Faith Now if there be nothing of forsaking of sin in all this then men must be united to Christ before they forsake their sins So the Author But doth Mr. Shepherd allow of no kind of forsaking of sin before union to Christ Yes surely There is saith he a separation from sin so much separation as makes the Soul willing that sin should be taken away So much separation as is necessary to the Souls closing with Christ He never thought that a man indulging his lusts should immediately come and be united to Christ No every step or degree which he sets in the Souls progress to a closure with Christ proves the contrary what need conviction compunction humiliation If the Soul wallowing in its lusts might be united to Christ But Mr. Shephard makes the end of conviction to be not reformation of sin but compunction But how doth he so What that there is no tendency at all in conviction towards reformation No he saith expresly that the next end of it is compunction Sorrow for sin is so called for in Scripture that no man may deny it to be one of God's methods by which he uses to bring men home to himself Neither is it imaginable that sin our old joy unless in some measure it become our sorrow should ever be reformed as it ought without compunction saith Mr. Shephard a sinner will never part with his sin A bare conviction doth but light the Candle to see sin but compunction burns his fingers and that makes him dread the fire But Mr. Shephard who places this compunction in a fear of wrath sorrow for sin and separation from sin means by separation not a leaving of sin but a being willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away and that by an irresistable power and that against our wills To which I answer touching irresistable Grace and that objection as if we were made willing against our will I have before discoursed In compunction there is a leaving of sin in some measure the fear of wrath will make a man start from it sorrow for sin will make it cease to be joy separation from sin so as to be willing to have it taken away is a kind of withdrawing and departure of heart from it But indeed in this compunction there is not such a leaving of sin as if we could be our own Physicians and heal our corrupt natures as if we could our selves reach that victory over the world and its lusts which is the triumph of Faith as if we could mortifie the deeds of the body without that holy Spirit which is given to Believers for that end This were to render Christ Faith the holy Spirit unnecessary to our Sanctification and to render our selves like those Pagans of whom St. Austin speaks who would not be made Christians Quia quasi sibi sufficiunt de bonâ vitâ suâ Mr. Shephard saith Enarr in Psal 31. That this separation from sin cuts off the Soul from the will to sin not from all sin in the will which is mortified by the Spirit of Holiness Now this saith the Author is down right non-sence for he must be a subtil man who can distinguish between a will to sin and sin in the will But I suppose no great subtilty is required to solve this by a will to sin is meant that act of the will whereby it is carried out to sin as its beloved Object and by sin in the will is meant that habitual corruption which is there In compunction there is such a separation from sin that the will is not in its acts carried out as before to sin as its pleasure joy and pursuit but not such a separation from sin as if the habitual corruption in the will were mortified as after Faith it is by the holy Spirit But saith Mr. Shephard Huniiliation breaks off the Soul from self-considence after compunction men are apt to seek ease by repentance and reformation to try a good course but if they trust in themselves or rest in their duties without a Saviour they are uncapable of Christ that is saith the Author all those who repent and reform are uncapable of Christ And must the world believe that Mr. Shephard is against repentance and reformation Surely there is no reason at all for it the thing is very plain if a man will stand like the proud Pharisee upon his bottom if with the Jews he will go about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make to stand his own weak cadaverous righteousness if he will repent and reform in his own strength and without coming to Christ the Fountain of Grace Surely he is not whilst in this proud posture capable of Christ Repentance and Reformation are good things but they must be done in a good manner they must not be made our Christ's or Saviours they must not keep us off from Jesus Christ or make us say as the Pagan mentioned by St. Austin did Jam benè vivo quid mihi necessarius est Christus I can live well already what need have I of Christ All that reformation which is without Faith in Christ is as our Church saith of works without Faith But dead before God Nemo computet bona opera sua ante fidem saith St. Austin If we would reform indeed we must go to Christ by Faith But saith the Author in this Humiliation of Mr. Shephards a man must have such a sense of his inability to please God that he must not dare be so prophane as to attempt it and such a sense of his unworthiness as to submit to God whether he will save or damn him he must in some measure be indifferent whether he be saved or damned but it is an hard thing to bring a man in his wits to this To which I answer for the first a sense of our inability to please God is a thing so necessary that our Saviour tells Laodicea that she was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and must have her gold and raiment and eye-salve and all from him If we think we can please God in our selves not in the beloved Jesus Christ or that we can please God by walking in our own strength and not in the power of Grace we do but deceive our selves and our labour will be but in vain it will fare with us as it did with the man storied of in one of the Jewish Rabbins who in the night lighted his Candle and it went out again and lighted it again and again and still it went out Our Lamps of a self-made Sanctity and Righteousness though trimmed over and over with our endeavours will certainly go out and at last we must resolve as he did
were possible for Christ and Heaven to be separated I would rather desire Christ without Heaven than Heaven without Christ Obj. But this is a hard matter I cannot say I desire Christ on such terms as I should This saying is the best sign of Grace I have met with he is an honest Man who will not contradict the natural sense of his mind and say he can do that which is impossible to be done It is an odd proposal in order to comfort a poor Soul that he must be willing to be damned with Christ before he must take comfort in hopes of being saved by him Ans But is it the grief of thy heart that thou canst not deny thy self Desirest thou to close with Christ upon any terms Obj. Alas I cannot grieve and mourn for sin Certainly they are at cross purposes their Objections and Answers do so ill agree Ans Hast thou any will to it Art thou willing to part with thy sins But the poor Soul saith I fear I shall never do this But art thou willing that Christ should make thee willing against thy will and pitch thee upon a promise and hold thee there for shame poor Soul refuse not this then comfort thy self thou hast a right to Gods promises Thus this evidence of Sanctification is dwindled away into a desire to be willing Nay into a desire to be made willing and he is a strange Man who cannot go so far When a Minister comes to comfort poor afflicted souls Answer he doth not offer them the Altitudes the highest Statures of Holiness to measure themselves by that would be horrid cruelty but he sets before them that immense mercy which stoops down in its acceptance to the least seeds or sparks of Grace to grace latent in a desire or willing mind Nay to that poverty of the spirit which though it seem to it self to have nothing at all of Grace hath yet a blessedness entailed on it a broken heart which hath some truth of Grace may complain of the prevalency of sin in some sence The pressure of inherent corruption may make him cry out O wretched man the flesh may so lust against the spirit that he cannot do the things that he would Gal. 5.17 Yet comfort may and doth belong to him those promises of subduing iniquity of treading down Satan may without straining them beyond their scope let out their sweetness to him When he thinks that he cannot pray God may find and accept of a prayer in his sighs and groans when he fears by reason of the stirring lusts that he shall fall from God Grace is sufficient and able to make him stand he may be in Christs hands and yet not know it to his comfort He saith he cannot believe and yet his Faith though little and as the smoaking Flax may be true The deep sense which he hath of the power of sin and want of Faith argues somewhat of Faith and a Divine Life in him which struggles against sin and aspires after more Grace He saith that he cannot desire Christ as he should And this sense of his want may speak him not an honest man only but a pious such as indeed breaths after Grace He saith he cannot grieve or mourn for sin yet that very saying argues a kind of mourning and lamentation over his hardness and speaks his heart not to be totally hard or senseless He complains his will is not such as it should be and this shews that in some measure he looks up to that Grace which is able to make him willing not as if he were to be made willing against his will but that Grace can change an unwilling will into a willing one In such dealings as these with broken hearts Sanctification is not dwindled away but comfort is administred from the lowest measure of true Grace Mr. Sherlock But when they have a mind to take down the confidence of men who are apt to presume too soon that their condition is good they do so magnifie the attainments of hypocrites who shall never go to Heaven that it is impossible for any sanctified man to do more than an hypocrite may do So that notwithstanding any evidences of Sanctification he may be a hypocrite still which quite spoils the evidences of Sanctification because we cannot distinguish a sanctified man from a hypocrite Thus for example one may plead I have left my sins I once lived in I am no Drunkard Swearer Lyer I answer Shep. Sinc. convert Thou mayst be washed from the mire the pollution of the World and yet be a Swine in Gods account which he proves from 2 Pet. 2.20 Where the Apostle tells them That if they have escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of Christ and are again entangled therein and overcome if they return to their old vices then their latter end is worse than the beginning Which is point blank contrary to what he affirms that those who have escaped these pollutions and are not yet entangled again in them may notwithstanding that be Swine in Gods account For so he adds Thou mayst live a blameless innocent honest smooth life and yet be a miserable creature But I pray says such a man and that often so thou mayst and yet never be saved Isai 1.11 To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices To great purpose sure when they are offered by men of blameless innocent honest smooth lives the want of which made those sacrifices abominable to God But I fast sometimes so did the Scribes and Pharisees But it was to devour widows houses which was not the fast of an honest innocent man But I hear the word so did the stony ground who for a season believed And it had been well and a good sign of Grace if it had continued I read the Scripture so did the Pharisees who were perfect in the Bible But though knaves read the Scriptures and be never the better for it yet good men may read it to good purpose reading of Scripture is no argument that a man is an hypocrite because the Pharisees were But I am grieved and repent of my sins so did Judas but he hanged himself and that indeed is no repentance to life But I love good men and their company so did the foolish Virgins But they slept and suffered their Lamps to go out which all that love good men do not But God hath given me much knowledge that thou mayst have and never be saved Yes and twenty good things more but if a blameless honest man hath the keeping of this knowledge it is never the worse for him But I keep the Lords day so did the Jews had he been as well acquainted with the Scriptures as the Pharisees were he would not have said that the Jews kept the Lords day however this is one good thing which doth well in the company of more But I have good desires and endeavours to get to Heaven these thou mayst have
is a Good sutable to all our wants Now either all this signifies the benefits we receive by Christ or it signifies nothing and how then do these personal Excellencies differ from his benefits They teach us to use Christ much if we would love his Person Now this using must signifie his benefits and to love Christ much because we use him is to love him because we receive many benefits from him which is neither better nor worse than to love him for his benefits We love Christ for his benefits Answer and for himself too Hence these men describe Christ's Person by both they set out his Beauty and Comeliness in himself and withal his Suitableness to our wants The first rise of our Love to Christ is from his Benefits and afterwards our Love to him is for himself also the Excellency and Amiableness of his Person in himself calls for our love and must have it The Love we owe to God and Christ is no other than gratitude because God loved us first Mr. Sherlock and our Love is only a return of his Now thankfulness and gratitude includes in it a necessary respect to those blessings and benefits we have received It is peculiar to God who wants nothing and can receive nothing from his Creatures to love without any respect to benefits but the Love of indigent and dependent Creatures is a Love of thankfulness a grateful acknowledgment of those many blessings we receive from God Our Love to God and Christ is gratitude Answer It is for Benefits but is it only for Benefits No surely we are to love God and Christ for the infinite goodness and excellency which is in them if we ask what is the formal and adequate reason of Divine Worship No other answer can be given but that it is the infinite divine excellency and perfection which is in God Our love to God which is a part of Worship though possibly its first rise or motive may be from benefits yet it stays not in the benefits but in and by them ascends to God the ultimate Object and Center of Worship who is to be loved in and for himself Secondly Mr. Sherlock these men oppose our Love to the person of Christ to our love to our selves The first destroys the Reason and the Object of our Love and this destroys the principle of it It is made the character of a wicked man Shep. Sinc. Convert who wants an inward principle of love to God and Christ That though he seeks to honour God never so much yet all that he doth he doth out of love to himself self-credit self-ease self-content self-safety he makes himself a God Hence the same author exhorts sinners away out of your selves to the Lord Jesus take hold on him not with the hand of presumption and love to thy self to save thy self but with the hand of Faith and Love to honour him Here is the strongest difficulty of all to row against the stream to hate a mans self our own souls and eternal Salvation and then to follow Christ fully Now is it not an hard case that before we can love God and Christ as we ought we must root out the very principle of all love that we may learn to hate Salvation and Eternal Happiness before we can close with Christ for Salvation This is the strongest difficulty of all for indeed it is impossible Love to our selves is the foundation of our love to all other things even to God himself He that doth not love himself will love nothing else he that hates himself his own soul and despises eternal Salvation will not care for Christ or Salvation by him All the Motives and Arguments of the Gospel to perswade us to love and fear and obey God are founded on self-love for how is it possible that we should be affected with a due sense of Gods goodness to us That we should be excited and quickned by the hopes of such great rewards That we should be restrained and governed by the fears of punishment If we did not love our selves if we did not care what became of us whether we were happy or miserable for ever It is a vain thing to perswade a man not to love himself For this is as natural and necessary as it is for the Fire to burn or Sun to shine It is not matter of our choice it is not in our power to do otherwise all that such discourses as these can do is either to make men hypocrites to pretend to do what they cannot do or to make honest men who cannot thus cheat and delude themselves despair of their Salvation because they cannot find themselves contented without Salvation that Christ without Salvation cannot satisfie them It is true when men set up self in opposition to God when self-love teâ—â—â—â—s them to disobey God to dispise his Counsels to renounce their Faith and Religion This is a very vitious and mistaken self-love Such men neither love themselves nor God in a proper sence because it is our interest as well as our duty to obey God such men are Idolaters because they set up self above God and in opposition to him But when our love to our selves teaches us to love God and in all things to submit to his will and pleasure We do as we ought to do they who separate our love to God from our love to our selves from the care of our Salvation do plainly declare that they neither understand the nature of man nor the Gospel of Christ. Mr. Shephard speaks of a wicked man Answer who wants an inward principle of love to God and Christ that he doth all for himself he sleeps prayes hears speaks professes for himself alone that he commits the highest degree of Idolatry and makes himself a God And adds this reason For a man puts himself in the room of God as well by making himself his finis ultimus as if he should make himself primum principium And is there any question at all in this may not a wicked man not to say sleep which every man doth but pray hear speak profess No doubt can be made of it and if he do so it must needs be for himself he having whilst wicked no Divine Principle nothing of grace to elevate him above himself But Mr. Shephard would have men go out of themselves to Christ And this is hard to row against the stream to hate a mans self And saith the Author this is impossible this is to root up the very principle of Love Love to our selves is the foundation of our Love to all other things even to God himself To which I answer No doubt we are to love Christ for the purchased Salvation neither doth Mr. Shephard deny it but we are not to love him for Salvation only or supremely no but for himself his infinite goodness and perfection This is not to root up the principle Love but to rectifie it Indeed this is hard Nay
the Gospel Rom. 1.5 In this sence Faith and Works are opposed in St. Paul's Epistles the Dispute in the Epistle to the Romans is Whether we must be justified by the Law of Moses or by the faith of Christ that is whether the observation of all the external Rites and Ceremonies and an external Conformity of our Actions to the moral Precepts of it will justify a man before God or that sincere universal Obedience which the Gospel of Christ requires which transformes our Minds into the likeness of God and makes us new creatures And that this Righteousness of Faith and this alone can recommend us to God the Apostle proves from the Example of Abraham in the 4. Chapter who was accounted righteous for the sake of his sincere and stedfast belief of Gods Promises vers 3. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness And this while he was uncircumcised which is a convincing argument against the Jews that Circumciston and the observation of the Law of Moses is not necessary to justification because Abraham the Father of the faithful and pattern for our justification was justified without it The Righteousness of God Answer is the Righteousness of Christ And this is called the Righteousness of God because he accepts it and imputes it to us And a Righteousness through the Faith of Christ because Faith receives it The Righteousness of God is not Faith it self but a righteousness through the faith of Christ Phil. 3.9 Faith I confess is sometimes put for the Gospel but the question is not what it is in other places but what in those which speak of the Righteousness of God Mark that place Rom. 1.17 therein that is in the Gospel is the righteousness of God reveiled from faith to faith Here Faith is not put for the Gospel for then the Righteousness of God should be reveiled from Gospel to Gospel Nay here we have the Gospel the Righteousness of God and Faith all set down as distinct things And in other Scriptures we have the Grace of Faith mentioned with the Righteousness of God because Faith receives that Righteousness The Moral Law of Moses required not only external conformity but internal Sanctity and that in all perfection the Apostle in the fourth Chapter to the Romans excludes not only external observations but the works of converted Abraham from justification Faith is accounted for Righteousness not properly absolutely in it self but relatively with respect to its object Jesus Christ as I have before proved Abrahams faith was not a faith in Christ Mr. Sherlock but Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for Righeousness Christ indeed was the material Object of Abrahams Faith that is he believed that promise which God made of sending Christ into the world upon which account our Saviour tells the Jews Your father Abraham rejoyed to see my day and he saw it and was glad Joh. 8.56 But no man could believe in Christ till he came that is could not believe any thing upon his Authority which is the true Notion of believing in him Some men make work with Abraham 's Faith as if it were a fiducial reliance or recumbency on Christ for Salvation upon which the Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith was imputed to him But how should Abraham learn this great Mystery from that general and obscure promise In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed which is all that was ever reveiled to Abraham concerning Christ this is such a train of thoughts from In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness as Mr. Hobs himself could never have hit on Is there no possible way for God to bless the world but by imputation of Christ's Righteousness Or is there a natural connexion between this blessing and imputed Righteousness that we cannot understand the one without the other before Abraham could come to the knowledge of imputed Righteousness he must distinctly know first that the blessings here meant are spiritual pardon and eternal life The whole Jewish Nation for many ages who had more promises concering Christ than this was expected only a temporal Prince and therefore they were prejudiced at the mean appearance of Christ. Secondly That Christ was to dye for the sins of the World And this the Apostles themselves did not understand till after Christ's Resurrection Thirdly That he fulfilled all Righteousness for us Fourthly That great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God without which it is impossible to understand the vertue of his Sacrifice and Righteousness Fifthly That intimate oneness and conjunction between Christ and his Church which is a riddle not understood to this day Sixthly The Nature of Faith rolling the soul on Christ for Salvation and then possibly he might understand this great mystery of imputed Righteousness and all this must be learned from that general promise In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed Abraham believed the promise of the Messiah Answer but his Faith was not a Faith in Christ Why so no man could believe in Christ till he came that is he could not believe upon his Authority But surely Christ was a Prophet under the Old Testament his Spirit and surely then his Authority too was in the Prophets 1 Pet. 1.11 And so it was in the Promise to Abraham Besides true Faith in Scripture imports a reliance or fiducial recumbency so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Old Testament signifies and to these as Dr. Ward proves by many parailels answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the new where also we often find that phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a phrase totally the holy Spirits found in no humane Author I mean not for the Object but the form of speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not any where but in Scripture as Dr. Ward observes which surely must import a reliance or fiducial recumbency According to this notion of Faith I conceive Abraham rested on or trusted in the Messiah for Salvation he being the Messiah he could not but expect some great thing from him and what was it Temporals or Spirituals Surely not Temporals his Faith was gone beyond the Line of this World even as far as the City which hath foundations in another Heb. 11.10 And how did he think to come thither but by the Messiah He did not speak to God Gen. 18. trusting in his own righteousness But in the lowest posture of humility much less did he think to enter Heaven upon the account of his own worthiness he was a man of great Faith and the Father of the faithful The Promises of the Messiah were Spiritual Ones The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head Gen. 3.15 that is Christ should dissolve the works of the Devil and erect his own Kingdom of Grace and Glory In thy seed shall all nations be blessed