reason surmounting the reason and capacity of the people to comprehend And these questions which they spin and spit out by dozens yea hundreds thousands as they are mostly superfluous vain useless and many of them presumptuously and arrogantly proposed about things which the Lord hath kept secret in his own bosom not revealing them by his word so are they oft no less peremptorily and audaciously by these men answered and determined out of their Philosophicall and Metaphysicall fancies without one particle of the word to ground their determinations upon Thus by their questionary sophistry they have both obscured if not totally quenched all true Divinity i. e. the Doctrine of the Gospel and have foysted in a confused Chaos of titular Divinity that hath nothing of light or life in it such as the Scripture owns not from their own reason Compare we now Mr. Baxter with these to see whether as the Apostle calleth Timothy his own or his naturall son in the faith 1 Tim. 1. 2. because he walked directly after him in the steps of his faith So Mr. Baxter doth not also declare himself the own and naturall sonn of these sophisters by walking directly after them in the steps of their cunning and subtlety to destroy the Faith The Poets feigned that Minerva was begotten and born of Jupiters brain because she was all wisedom it self And I think Mr. Baxter would be offended if it should be denyed that all the quintissence of sophisticall learning that hath been in all the brains of all the Schoolmen and Jesuits were not so extracted from them as to have its residency now in his He was as far as I can understand born and brought up in the Protestant Church within this nation as Costor Pollux c. were in the house of Leda but by a new and strange generation or adoption of eggs layd by these Serpents he discovers himself now in a manner to be wholly theirs so fully doth he resemble yea parallel them that unum nôris omnes nôris you may read in him alone the Genius and the Craft of them all Attend we els to his own words in his explication of his 7th Thesis pag. 25 c. All that he hath written before I passe by without exception against it pag. 19. he layeth down his 7. Aphorism in these words Bax. Jesus Christ at the will of his Father and upon his own will being perfectly furnished for this work with a Divine power and personall Rigteousness first undertook and afterward discharged this debt viz. mans debt to God by suffering what the Law did threaten and the offender himself was unable to bear To this as to the rest he addeth that which he calleth an Explication i. e. an Exposition explainning or making plain of the Aphorism or point so laid Let us trace him how now he makes it plain beginning at the 25. p. before mentioned I should be too large to write all his words yet shall not wrong him by writing any save his own words or the very substance of them Bax. Here we are cast upon many and weighty and very difficult questions 1 Whether Christ did discharge this debt by way of solution or by way of satisfaction 2 Whether in his suffering and our escape the threatning of the Law was executed or dispensed with 3 And if dispensed with how it can stand with the truth and justice of God 4 And whether sinners may thence be encouraged to conceive some hope of a relaxation of the threatnings in the Gospell 5 And whether the faithfull may not fear lest God may relax a promise as well as a threatning 6 And whether if the Law be relaxable God might not have released his Sonn from the suffering rather then to have put him to so great torment and to have freely pardoned the offenders And p. 27. The resolving of the first question depends upon the resolving of two other questions both great and difficult 1 What it was which the Law did threaten 2 What it was that Christ did suffer Various are the judgments of * He means the Popish Doctors specially for they with him are the Divines Divines about the former c. 1 Whether Adams soule and body should have been annihilated and destroyed so as to become in sensible 2 Or whether his soule should have been immediately separated from his body as ours are by death and so be the only sufferer of the pain 3 Or if so whether there should have been any resurrection of the body after any space of time that so it might suffer as well as the soul 4 Or whether soul and body without separation should have gone down quick into hell ar into any place or state of torment short of hell 5 Or whether both should have lived a cursed life on earth through everlasting in exclusion from Paradise separation from Gods favâ—ur and gracious presence loss of his image c. 6 Or whether he should have lived such a miserable life for a season and then be annihilated or destroyed 7 And if so whether his misery on earth should have been more than men do now endure And the more importance are these questions of because of some others that depend upon them As 1. What death it was that Christ redeemed us from 2 And what death it is that perishing Infants dye or that our guilt in the first transgression doth procure For it being a sinn against the first covenant only will be punished with no other death than that which is threatned in that Covenant And pag. 31. Besides it is needfull to know what life was the reward of that Covenant that we might know what death was the penalty and this also comes into question about the reward whether if he had not fallen he should after a season have been translated into heaven without death as Enoch and Elijah or whether he should have lived for ever in this terrestriall Paradise without addition of further bliss to that which he had at his first Creation And as touching the death which Christ suffered whether it were the same that was threatned to Adam Pa. 33. If we take the threatning at its full extent as it expresseth not only the penalty but also its proper subject and its circumstances then it is undenyable that Christ did not suffer the same that was threatned For the Law threatned the death of the offender but Christ was not the offender Adam should have suffered for ever but so did not Christ Adam did dye spiritually by being forsaken of God in regard of holiness as well as in regard of comfort and so was deprived at least of the chief part of his image so was not Chrst Yet neither is this certain that Christs death was not the same c. for It is disputable whether these two last were directly contained in threatning or not whether the threatning were not fully executed in Adams death and the eternity of it were not accidentall even a
them worse than himself Matt. 23. 15. And what should that be but that God takes satisfaction to his justice by his judgments upon them here that they may not have or may have the less to satisfie for in hell or in Purgatory In this therefore as in the two former points I take him expressing himself an adopted sonne of the ghostly Fathers of Trent 4. The Papists hold that there is a Purgatory which they describe to be a prison as hot and full of the same materiall fire and flames as hell it self into which the souls of Christians after this life are cast to satisfie Gods justice for all their veniall sins that they have not made satisfaction for in this life by suffering or doing and being once cast into this prison they cannot come forth out of the torment untill they have paid the utmost farthing of their debt i. e. untill they have suffered so much as may counterpoise to a very grain the sinns whereof they dye unpardoned This they prove by many undeniable Arguments specially by the testimony of many good souls that have obteined a dispensation to come thence with their bosoms so full of fire as of flesh and bones to tell them so Doth Mr. Baxter joyn with them in this opinion also Soft and fair There is skill in daubing first he will try how this Tractate will take if according to his minde probably we shall have a second part and therein he may tell us plainly his judgment in this and many other of his mysteries that here he leaves obscure and ambiguous In the interim it pleaseth him not to deliver his minde herein in words at length but in dark and uncertain figures Yet joyn we together what he saith here and there in parcells and somwhat may be made or at least conjectured of it First then he telleth us that some part of the Curse must be executed upon beleevers i. e. upon the whole man the soul as well as the body Thes 9. 2 That untill the day of Resurrection and of Judgement all the effects of sin and law and wrath will not be removed from them pag. 74. Pag. 71 Arg. 8. Therefore thirdly what he will not doth not at least say of any of their former sufferings he saith of death That there is no unpardoned sin in it which shall procure further judgment and so no hatred in it though there be anger A glorious privilege no doubt such as according to our usuall proverb a man may find at Billingsgate for a box on the ear from the worst of men that he meets with When a man hath in revengefull fury persecuted his hated nighbour with all the strokes and stormes of wrath and mischief and after many years persecution hath at last slaughtered him and trampled his dead Corps into the mire and dust now at last he ceaseth from hatred is but angry with his poor reliques forgives him all the rest when he can do no more to him and forgivenes can do him no good Such tender mercies of Cruelty as the wise man terms them Pro. 12. 10. doth Mr. Baxter here ascribe unto God in his gracious dealings with beleevers for Christs sake viz. to persecute them with all the strokes of his wrath and all the Curses of the law all their life time sparing neither their body nor soul and at last with great indignation to destroy them and trample their bodies into the earth dust and rottennes yea and their souls whither he list and under what torment he list and after this so remarkeable is his love he will hate them no more but be angry with them still When they are dead and can offend no more and God hath inflicted upon them all his judgments that he can inflict no more now their sins shall be so pardoned that they shall suffer no more no more than all which they already suffer Who denies this to be the very quintessence of mercy and spirits of love when Mr. Baxter hath so defined it and held it forth to us as the most Celestiall comfort that we shall finde in death There is saith he no unpardoned sin in the death of beleevers that shall procure further judgement Where note 1 that he saith not simply and absolutely that there is no unpardoned sin upon the Saints now dead and buryed but no sin so unpardoned that it should bring further judgement than that which is already upon them And 2 That when he denyeth that their sin shall bring any further judgement upon them he doth not deny but rather imply their sins to be yet still unpardoned as to the holding those judgements upon them that are already inflicted A comfort that the Devills and reprobates in hell shall not want after the very day of judgment in the midst of their flames That there is none of their sinns so unpardoned as that it should bring any further judgment upon them But put we all together 1 That the beleever must bear the Curse even the whole man in body and soule also 2 That he shall not be delivered from this curse in soul and body untill the resurrection 3 That although death puts him into a freedom from further judgments yet it doth not at all deliver him from those that at death are inflicted upon soul and body How shall we now make up the matter If the whole man both soul and body must suffer and not be wholly freed untill the resurrection this is not fulfilled in the suffering of the body alone If the soul also untill then must suffer then is it not forthwith upon its seperation from the body exalted to Heaven for there is no suffering no affliction Neither doth it suffer in hell for Mr. Baxter exempteth thence all that persevere in the Faith according to his definition of faith untill death Where and whence then shall it suffer but in and from the fire of Purgatory And so there is no unpardoned sin upon beleevers after death that can procure to them any further judgment beyond this If Mr. Baxter meaneth not so it is his fault to write with so much ambiguity and so little plainnes and perspicuity as to toll us on to a strong Conjecture that he meaneth so and is in this as in the rest apostatized to the Papists 5 I might add also here that he seemes to joyn with the Papists in holding beleevers in an uncertainty of their salvation all their life long It is considerable that neither in his Aphorism nor in the whole explication therof nor in all his arguments by which he goeth about to prove beleevers under the Curse doth he once name any pardon of sin or freedom from further judgment which they attain untill after death and then when they have persevered to the end and dyed in Christ now he mentions and affirms it What doth Arg. 8 p. 71. this argue but that he would with the Papists have men to hope well but to be still
Covenant and that pretious Gospell promise He that beleeveth in the Son shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life so I affirm faith to be both Gods and Mans instrument Gods effective and mans receptive instrument in relation to justification as shall be beneath more fully explained First it is Gods instrument This justification is but Gods pronouncing and declaring a man to his own conscience to be just and discharged from sin and condemnation through Christ so that he perceives and apprehends himself absolved and doth acquiesce in this absolution One chief instrument by which God doth thus justifie or declare and manifest man to himself just and pardoned is faith This is Gods instrument in the same sense in which Mr. Baxter maketh the promise and grant of the new Covenant to be Gods instrument and that more fully as I in part shewed before For that grant doth but declare a possibility to a man as it is considered by it self to be justifyed promising forgivenesse and life to all that shall beleeve By this act alone no singular person is actually justifyed But now this grant premised when God is pleased to infuse faith into the soul of any singular person by it as by his instrument he declareth that person to himself just and acquitted from condemnation so that he can thenceforth plead out his own justification God hath pronounced them all just and pardoned which beleeve in his Son I so beleeve therefore I am pronounced and declared of God just and pardoned So this faith is the instrument of God for so Lawyers term Deeds and Grants in writing instruments yea instruments of him that makes the Deed or Grant And the promise of the new Covenant or the new Testament is called novum Instrumentum as it is his evidence written not without the man as that Gospell grant but by the finger of Gods Spirit in the hearts of the Elect so that they may read this instrument of Gods writing within their hearts evidencing and manifesting to themselves their justification from God And this is one principall instrument and evidence of God promised under the new Covenant Jer. 31. 31-35 recited as now fulfilled by the Apostle Heb. 8. 8-12 10. 16 17. I will write my Lawes in their hearts c. what Law but the rule doctrine and evidence of life and salvaâ—ion But what benefit by having it written within them more then if it were in writing without them Yes this They shall not need externall teaching to know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest What knowledg of God was this whereupon they should not need teachers They shall know him to be their God their Justifyer their Saviour for so much intimate the next words For I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more This was one chief part of the Law or will of God written in their hearts justification or everlasting remission of sins This they should not need to be taught from without the instrument of writing or evidence thereof should be within their own hearts apparent not to others but their own reading And what more principall evidence or instrument of writing within our hearts thus to assure us then our faith engraven by Gods own hand in us I appeal to Mr. Baxter himself whether I wrest this Scripture from its proper sense or if any shall except against me I doubt not but I shall make it good to be the minde of the holy Ghost which I have here given To the same purpose is it that Faith is called the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. Whose evidence Gods evidence given us by which he declareth to us and manifesteth to our consciences the invisible things of our justification and salvation and when given then our evidence also by which we not only apprehend but also plead against all the accusations of the Law yea of sin and Satan our actuall justification And that it is called the witnesse of God in us or within us because God by this witnesse as his instrument declares and evidenceth us to our own consciences justifyed 1 Joh. 5. 10. Secondly It is mans instrument by which he applyeth to himself and without which he cannot applie to himself this justification and remission of the new Covenant to know and be sensible of it that he may rest and rejoyce in it being justifyed in himself i. e. in his own knowledge and conscience God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing to them their trespasses 2 Cor. 5. 19. Reconciliation and Justification as hath been shâ—wed are one and the same thing That we may receive it therefore from him in Christ he gives us as many as are his Elect this living faith as an instrument by which he may apply it and bring it home into our bosomes Therefore is the operation of the soul by faith set forth in the Scripture by a comparison of a mans working by the severall members of the body as by his instruments Calling Faith sometimes the eâ—e of man by which he looketh to Christ crucifyed as the Israelites to the brazen Serpent thence to obtain cure to the wounded and poysoned soul Joh. 3. 14 15. Sometimes the fooâ— of the soul by which it runs and comes to Christ for life and justification Joh. 5. 40. Sometimes the hand of the soul by which it apprehendeth Christ and the justification that is in and by him To as many as received him to them he gave power to become the sons of God even to as many as beleeve in his Name Joh. 1. 12. Sometimes the mouth of the soul by which it eateth and drinketh in Christ with the life that is in him both to justifie and sanctifie He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternall life Joh. 6. 54. If ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2. 3. Sometimes the armes of the soul by which it embraceth and holdeth in possession Christ with his life and righteousnesse He that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Sâ—n hath not life 1 Joh. 5. 12. What doth all this imply lesse then that faith is instrumentall to our justification Yea given to us to be the sole instrument on our part by which to apply to our selves the justification offered by God in Christ Or what else is meant by the generall voice of the Gospell pronouncing us to be justifyed by faith but by faith Gods instrument and evidence to declare and manifest it to our souls and our instrument to apprehend and hold it fast and firm to our selves It remaineth now to examin Mr. Baxters reasons by which he assayeth to prove that it is neither mans nor Gods instrument First that it is not mans instrument he thus argueth B. Not mans instrument for he is not the principall efficient he doth not justifie himself Both this and all that which followeth in this his dispute
the integrity and purity of its celestiall endowments Without spot if this be but half Christ which is the other half 2 Or because he understands by whole Christ Christ in the fruits of all his offices as is most probable whether he will deny them to receive whole Christ which apply not all the severall Acts and Fruits of his severall offices to one and the same end but to severall ends to which his wisedom hath appropriated them Suppose a son of some Luke that is a Physician a Minister of the Gospel and a Father in his Family If the sayd son shall make use of the Acts and Fruits of all these Offices of his Father not at all to one end but to the severall ends to which they are proper of his Art and Physick to cure his diseased body of his Gospel-doctrine to illuminate his understanding and heal his wounded soul and of his provision of victuals to preserve his life and nourish his body and not of physick word and bread together for one and the same the nutriment of his body shall this man therefore be said not to own and receive his whole Father but half of him Even so the Offices of Christ are various and his actings in them tend to various ends some to our quickning som to our enlightning some to our justification some to our sanctification c. Do I take but half Christ because I apply not all the Actings and Fruits of all his Offices to my Justification only and none of them to the other honourable ends to which he hath appointed them who can bear the absurdity 3 Whether it be possible for any man according to the rule and tenor of the Gospel by a lively faith to apply to himself the satisfaction of Christs death and yet to remain unpardoned and unjustified or for such a one to abide unspiritualliz'd and unsanctfied If not then the reason why the multitude which profes they trust Christ for the saving of their souls as Mr B. is pleasd to phrase it do remain unjustified is because they profess but have not a lively faith in his death and not as Mr. Br. saith for want of I know not what Moral Theological decompounded phantastical sincerity consisting in laying hold on the half of Christ i. e. either his wounded and not his whole parts or Christ the Mediator not the Mediator Christ I can no better distinguish his meaning sith himself hath refused to do it Of the same nature is that which he hath pag. 328. B. Though some thinke nothing is preaching Christ but preaching him as a pardoning justifying Saviour Indeed among the Turks and Indians that entertain not the Gospell it is necessary to preach his pardoning office yea and the verity of his Natures and Commission Therefore when the Apostles preached to Jews and Pagans they did first and chiefly teach them the person and offices of Christ and the great benefits which they might receive by him But when they preach as James to be professors of the Christian Faith they chiefly urge them to strive to enter to fight that they may conquer to run that they may obtain to lay violent hands upon the Kingdom c. Either all this relates to Justification or it is meer babble in the Ayr sound without sense or substance as much to his purpose as was his that trudged about all the Town from shop to shop to buy two penny-worth of Circumstance for the cure of his tooth-ach For his quere is whether our Doctrine which teacheth Justification by faith without works do not confirm men in their soul-cozening Faith If all doth relate to justification then let him that can find help me without help I cannot find as much as a grain of reason in all or any part of it such reason at least as befits Mr. Br. who grounds all his Religion upon reason To the first Clause I stand stupified not knowing how to preach Christ to justification but as Christ the Justifier to pardon but as Christ the pardoner or to salvation but as Christ the Saviour Should I preach him as a condemner to justification as an unpardoning Judg to salvation As to his justifying me as he is a Law-giver either there hath been wanting something in Mr. B. dexteriry of teaching or in my docility to apprehend I am yet to be taught this lesson All that he hath said hitherto hath made it but odious and absurd and here hee saith no more to perfect it To that which follows the absurdity of it doth enough confute it self Who can endure to hear that the Apostles when they preached to Jewes and Pagans did and we if we should be sent to preach to the Turks and Indians must first preach Christ alone to justification and so generate in them a soul-ct zening faith But when once they become professors of the Christian Faith then the Apostles did and we must teach them better urging them no longer to cozen their souls with faith in Christ the Saviour but by their own works to justifie and save themselves He that delights in such a Gospel let him be Mr. B. disciple It seems he is angry with James for not helping him erewhile in his great exigency that he singles out him from all the Apostles to father him with this intolerable doctrine But whether James give him herein any relief hath been before examined As for the rest of the Apostles let Paul give the Testimony for himself and them There is one Lord and Mediator Christ Jesus one Faith one Baptisme one Lord and Father of all Ephe. 4. 5. 1 Tim 2. 5. Not two Christs and two Faiths one to cozen at first and the other to save the soul afterward If Paul or an Angell from heaven should preach any other Gospell then what you have heard from me at first while Pagans let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. Therefore many years after the Romans and Galathians had been professors of the Christian faith he seeks to root them fast by faith alone in Christ and not to start from their first principles reducing such as went a whoring after works to help faith in justifying them pronouncing them accursed and Apostates from Christ that should so fall off from their first liberty in Christ That all obedience yea faith in Christ to all obedience vertue and good works is to be preached and urged upon them that profess the Christian faith is so true that he is but a maimed preacher of Christ that doth it not but all to sanctification not to justification This is the true Preacher of Christ that preacheth Christ to good works not works to win Christ that seeks to bring us into Marriage-union with Christ that we may bring forth fruit to God Rom. 7. 4. Not that we should bring forth bastard-fruit from another that we may be married to Christ But this is not Mr. Brs. business he speaks of fruit to justification To conclude what I have to say to this
Pilate I finde no fault in him and forthwith to whip and hang him for no fault Such divine mercy and Justice do these white sonnes of the Pope ascribe to the Father of Mercies and to his dear Son the purchaser and sluce of all Mercies Touching the doctrine it self I have answered Mr. Baxters Arguments But as to these arguments of the Papists I pass them by not having undertaken to answer them here any farther than Mr. Baxter is their mouth to dispute for them 2 The Papists teach according to the forementioned rule that Christ hath in part also satisfied for the punishment of sin as well as wholly for the fault And as far as Christ hath born and satisfied so far we are freed from the punishment But Christ hath satisfied onely for the infinite eternall punishment leaving us to bear the finite and temporary punishments and curse of the Law or to satisfie for it our selves So that by their doctrine Christ hath not at all by his merits freed us from the substance of the Curse penalty and vengeance of the Law but onely from the boundles measure and endles duration thereof What saith Mr. Baxter to this Christ saith he in reference to the punishment of sin hath suffered so much of what the Law did threaten as we our selves were unable to bear Thes 7. leaving to us to bear the greatest Curses of the Law but not in their full rigor and in their rigorous execution thereof p. 69. Arg. 3. p. 71. Arg. 8. What is this rigor and rigorous execution of the punishment and curse of the Law but the execution of the same in its infinite measure and endles duration which could not be as he confesseth born without the offenders everlasting undooing Thes 6. And thus he with the Papists makes the satisfaction which Christ hath given to his Fathers Justice effectuall to deliver us not from the substance of the Curse and vengeance but onely from the extent of its measure and duration So that if I understand my mother language and the equipollency of terms and words therein there is but the name and a Cardinals hat that puts a difference between a Bellarmine and a Baxter in this point both speak not onely the Tantundem but the Idem the very self same thing in matter substance to the diminution yea degrading of the merits of Christ to make way to set up mans satisfactions parallell with if not supereminent and above Christs With whom if I should enter into a Contest upon this Argument and dared as they to make the Scripture a meer Kickshose without substance and authority under the Charm of distinctions to be formed conformed deformed unto and into any sense at pleasure I could upon more probable grounds and with more plausible reasons argue that Christ hath satisfied for and we by his satisfaction are delivered from the finite and temporary part of the Curse and vengeance onely but are left to bear for ever the infinite and eternall torment thereof in hell than they bring for our deliverance onely from the temporary and not from the eternall Because according to Mr. Baxter Christ suffered the temporary and finite pains onely for us not the eternall but left these as it more probably seems to be suffered by our selves for our selves But as Mr. Baxter will not learn from Christ himself to oppose the Majesty power of the Word against Sophistry so neither dare I learn to oppose his Sophistry against Christ and his Word 3 The Papists teach that those punishments which come upon Christians unavoydably by the threat of the Law for the transgression of the Law viz. the temporall evills that are incident to their souls and bodies in this life as sicknes sorrow loss of friends credit or estates poverty tribulations persecutions trouble of Conscience c. if they be suffered willingly and with patience are satisfactions to God for sin but if unpatiently and unwillingly they are Gods revenge upon us So much the holy Councell of Trent doth even in express words affirm and determine What doth Mr. Baxter say in conformity or contradiction to this assertion He tells us that all temporall evills do necessarily invade beleevers and that by the force and Curse of the Law that when God sanctifieth the same to them he doth not thereby take away their naturall evill or their Curse but onely produceth by it as by an occasion a greater good What reason can be given why God should not do us all that good viz. which the Orthodox Divines attribute to his sanctified Chastisements without our sufferings which now he doth by them were there not sin and wrath and law in them Sure he could better us by easier means They are managed by Christ to our advantage and good These are Mr. Baxters words Pag. 69 70 72. Arg. 2 3 4 7 10. Let us a little examine them When we affirm that these sufferings as they befall beleevers are not from the Law as a Curse but sweet Chastisements of Gods love by which he mortifieth the flesh increaseth their self-denyall Conformeth them to Christ as well in his sufferings as in his graces and doings exerciseth and quickeneth all the gifts of his grace in them Crucifieth the world to them and them to the world and being in dispute with Papists mention many other precious ends and effects of his Chastisements Mr. Baxter Comes in with his Tush at all this Arg. 7. Cannot God do us all this good saith he without our sufferings and better us by an easier means What then Doubtles there is sin and wrath and law in these sufferings What can he mean by this but that first there is our sin as the merit of all these sufferings and secondly that God in executing them takes satisfaction from them and upon them for his law violated and his justice offended Let any man that hath not divorced his reason from him through prejudice pick out any other meaning of his words or deny his words in this meaning to be heterodox and Popish And when he saith that God doth by these sufferings produce a greater good to beleevers than their sufferings bring evill upon them Arg. 4. And that they are managed to our advantage and good what means he by this advantage and good Not our purifying and bettering c. as we hold For this as we have seen he shakes off as a singlesoled supposition with a kinde of Apage Nor any other good that his front hath yet taken boldnes to express for speaking thereof so oft in generall he would not have been so shie to speciallize it for our edification and comfort if there were any in it It must be therefore such a good and advantage that though he would have us know yet he will not speak it out plainly least his tongue and teeth should bewray him to be a professed Papist before such time as he hath Phariseelike c. depraved others that are unwary and made
5. 24. 6. 35 40. 47. 7 38. 11. 25 26. 12. 46. Act. 10. 43. Rom. 3. 26. 4. 5. 5. 1 10. 4 10. 1 Jo. 5. 15. Mar. 1. 15. 6. 12. Luk. 13. 3. 5. 24. 47. Act. 5. 31. 11. 18. 20. 21. 2. 38. 3. 19. 8. 22. 26. 20. Rev. 2. 5 16. Heb. 6. 1. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Mr. Br having as he thinks laid prostrate the whole generation of Christ and antipapisticall beleevers under the Curse under the wrath of God sticks as close to them as the vulture to the carkas or the beetle to the doung or the flesh-fly to the sore For here again he concludes that the very Tenor of the New Covenant is that notwithstanding Christs sufficient satisfaction made to the law they must remain unjustified unpardoned under sin under vengeance to the end and then possibly after many hundreds and it may be thousands of yeers wherein their bodies have laid under rottennes and their souls under all hell-torments which the law can inflict they shall be justified And this very probably shall be about that time when Origens reprobates and devills shall arise from hell and fly away thence all at once and together to heaven For whosoever is not justified and pardoned here in this life shall surely not attain it untill that St Nevers day of Origen But to this it hath been answered already He seems now to bring some new thing and that which every beleeving soul gaspeth to hear made out in its fullnes viz. What the Tenor of the New Covenant is viz. That whosoeve will repent and beleeve to the end shall be justified after the end When the Serpent hath got his head into the hole the body also by little and little followes Erewhile it was he that beleeveth to the end now it is he that repenteth to the end and beleeveth to the end that shall be after all ends and worlds justified Yet this is but the head and neck of the Serpent The bulk and belly are behinde and the same full of all the qualifications and good works that Mr. Br can devise or all the herds of Monks and Jesuits have devised to his hands These all must be according to Mr. Baxters Gospel as effectuall as faith or Christ himself to Justification I should but preoccupate a dispute here to examine whether repentance be one of the many thousand conditions of Justification which Mr. Br in the sequele of this Treatise holds necessary to Justification I shall therefore leave the handling thereof to its due place Onely by the way if by repentance Mr. Br here meaneth any thing heterogeneous or specifically distinct from faith I affirm and shall in its place make good that this his assertion is totally Popish against the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles As for the Scriptures which he doth here roll out in a Crowd without rank or file to prove it partly because he neither alleageth the words nor shews how he would argue from them partly because his shuffling them together in Clusters tends onely to make the labour of his answerer almost intolerable to shew particularly how little each Scripture makes for him and how much many of them against him partly because he doth still reserve to himself whatsoever be said in answer an advantage to evade by telling us that the force of that Scripture doth in another way and not in that to which we have answered prove for him but principally because he quotes the same Scriptures over and over again in another place more proper where it shall be more pertinent to answer them I shall therefore here forbear to speak to them lest I should there be forced to omit it or to say over again what had been here said before Nay himself will not have them to be answered here for he speaks so ambiguously that he will not have his meaning understood telling us onely that upon these Conditions forsooth performed we shall be justified in another world but doth not let us know from him whether upon performance of them we may be justified in the present world But he passeth to the explication Explication Bax. Christs satisfaction to the Law goes before the New Covenant though not in regard of its payment which was in the fullnes of time yet in regard of the undertaking acceptance and efficacy There could be no treating on new terms till the old obligation was satisfied and suspended I account them not worth the confuting who tell us that Christ is the onely party conditioned with and that the New Covenant as to us hath no conditions so Saltmarsh c. The place that they alleage for this assertion is that Jer. 31. 31 32 33. cited in Heb. 8. 8 9 10. Which place conteineth not the full tenor of the whole New Covenant but either it is called the New Covenant because it expresseth the nature of the benefits of the New Covenant as they are offered on Gods part without mentioning mans conditions that being not pertinent to the busines the Prophet had in hand Or els it speaketh onely what the Lord will do with his elect in giving them the first Grace and enabling them to perform the Conditions of the New Covenant and in that sense may be called a New Covenant also as I have shewed before p. 7 8. though properly it be a prediction and belong onely to Gods will of purpose and not to his legislative will But those men erroneously think that nothing is a condition but what is to be performed by our awn strength But if they will beleeve Scripture the places before alleaged will prove that the New Covenant hath Conditions on our part as well as the old Some benefit from Christ did the condemned here receive as the delay of their condemnation and many mere mercies though they turned them all into greater judgements but of this more when we treat of generall redemption I shall here propound some questions to Mr. Baxter about his own words to be answered by some of his Chaplains or Disciples For I am not so ambitious as to expect his stooping in person to so low an office 1 Whether Christs satisfaction to the law were undertaken and so virtually made without an agreement between the Father and the Son that the Son should give and the Father accept such satisfaction Mr. Br so great a Master of reason who hath sacrificed all his religion to reason can judge whether this could rationally if possibly be done 2 If by agreement whether this agreement was not by way of Covenant between the Father and the Son and so whether the whole busines of mans justification were not transacted and concluded upon first between the Father and the Son 3 Whether Christ undertook to give satisfaction or the Father to accept it for any other besides those that in time have or shall have the full benefit thereof I mean besides the elect whom
soaring still higher towards the very top of it and sinking lower from the Orb of Christian verity So by that something of man that must enright him to Justification he must mean something more then Repentance and Faith which he had before concluded necessary to Justification Thes 14. Els were he upon a retreating not a marching posture Nevertheles how subtlely doth he dâ—wb and paint to gull the simple and catch them that are made to be taken by putting fine words upon his course purposes telling them that we are justified by Faith and that there is required on our part but receiving and applying of Christs merits as if he were as innocent as a Dove and had none of the Serpent in him when contrariwise the sequele of his Tractate proclaimes him by that which he calls here somewhat of man to mean at the full with the worst Papists mans works to the totall exclusion of Gods grace In mean while his words leave it doubtfull here what this somewhat of man is and whether it be the hand or the heel that must receive and apply Christ to Justification His Disciples are not yet enough moulded he thinks to receive the Dragons voice in his own tone they must be accustomed to bear the Calf daily untill he become an Oxe that he may be born then too and at length we shall finde the instruments which Mr. B. appoints to receive Christ to be instrumentall onely to push him from us However he concludes thus because he will have it so That no man by the meer satisfaction made is freed from the Law and Curse c. absolutely but conditionally onely i. e. not at all And this he hath said over and over already and there needs no further Answer then that which hath been before given So that where he repeats this Assertion again in the Explication That Christ doth not justifie by the shedding of his blood immediately without somwhat of man intervening c. adding that All the Scriptures alleaged p. 79. do prove it I grant what he saith for I finde no Scripture there alleaged But if he mean p. 89 90. what I said there I say here again he shall not misse of an answer to them when he comes to alleage them again in their proper place and declares how he will argue from them Yet because the man is delighted to deliver first in generall what he will after deliver again in particulars I shall say something also in generall to his generall assertion That Christs satisfaction justifieth not without something of man intervening to give him right to it Let us see what the Scripture saith for or against it The Apostle speaking of mans redemption and justification and shewing the cause why some have and some have not their part in it affirmeth and proveth that it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9. 16. By the willing is to be understood all the good qualifications and operations of the soul by running all the good works of a mans life and practice as all confess When the Holy Ghost excludeth every somewhat of man within the man and every somewhat of man without man from conferring any thing to Justification what other somewhat remaineth of man to intervene c Let it be judged whether Mr. B. doth not purposely fight against Scripture Again Rom. 5. 6 8 9 10. When we were yet without strength viz. to any spirituall operation Christ dyed for the ungodly while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us and we were justified by his bloud while enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Here the Result of the Apostles reasoning discovers to us two things to our purpose 1 That according to the minde and language of the Holy Ghost Christ dying and by his death satisfying for any mans sinns and that mans justification and reconciliation to God by that satisfaction are equipollent terms holding forth one and the same thing For so the Apostle here useth justification and reconciliation as words of the same sense and weight And Amesius manifesteth Ames Med. Lib. 1. c. 27. Sect. 22. in what respects they must needs be taken for the same thing and makes both the same with Christs dying for him So that every person for whom Christ hath by his death made satisfaction is effectually justified and reconciled to God I mean in Christ though possibly not yet in his own apprehension 2 That we are thus justified and reconciled to God while ungodly while sinners while enemies while without strength to that which is good What somewhat of man can there be in such to enright them to justification unless any will say their impotency ungodlines sin and enmity shall do it Such contrariety is there between Mr. Br and the Spirit or word of truth There needs not much deliberation to determine which to follow But he proceeds Bax. p. 93. Let all the Antinomians shew but one Scripture which speaks of Justification from Eternity And what if it be but one of all or one that is not an Antinomian that shews it will Mr. Br harken and submit his judgement to that Scripture so alleaged I say in like manner Let all the Antichristian Jesuits or Mr. Br. or his Mr Grotius shew one Scripture which asserteth onely a conditionall and not an absolute Justification purchased to us by Christ I will hear and submit though I see not then how to be saved As to his Challenge I shall speak in a more proper place Bax. I know God hath decreed to justifie his people from eternity and so he hath to sanctifie them too but both of them are done in time Justification being no more an immanent act in God than sanctification as I shall shew afterward I shall therefore wait on him untill he hath the leisure and pleasure to shew it In the mean while why doth he Conclude so hotly and peremptorily before-hand that which he brings nothing save his own bare affirmation to prove He said not unwisely which said Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast as he that putteth it off 1 King 20. 11. Bax. The bloud of Christ then is sufficient in suo genere but not in omni genere sufficient for its own work but not for every work There are severall other necessaries to Justifie and save quibus positis which being supposed the bloud of Christ will be effectuall Qui non vult intelligi debet negligi He that will so speak that he may not be understood is worthy to pass without an Answer If he mean that the bloud of Christ is sufficient to compleat our justification before God and that this is its own work But that there are other necessaries to justifie us in our selves and our own apprehensions which being supposed the work is ended I will abstein from all contradiction If he mean otherwise and will not express himself Hony soit Qui male
of rich glasses set in artificiall order and able to dazle the eye of the beholder what pity is it that any one of them should meet with a knock and be broken and so the beautifull order in which they were placed be on a suddain marred yet if such a thing should fall out it were no great wonder Pretinesse and strength are rarely twins and we speak of prety things but rarely long in the present tense before their perishing by weaknesse forceth us to take up another tone and to tell that there was such a delicate toy but if we seek it the place thereof is not to be found It is possible such a stroke may befall the image that Mr. Baxter hath here set up in imitation of that of Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 2. 31 32 33 c. it hath clay in the feet cannot goe without halting if it meet with a stone to crush its toes it may possibly fall all to shivers Himself seems to doubt of it therefore prepares himself to defend it as seeing it cannot defend him or it self So saith he in the Explication B. Here it will be expected that I answer to these Questions 1. Why I call the Gospell the Instrumentall cause 2. Why I call Christs satisfaction the Meritorious cause and the Causa sine qua non 3. Why I make not Christs righteousnesse the Materiall cause 4. Why I make not the imputation of it the formall cause 5. Why I make not faith the Instrumentall cause 6. Why I make it only the Causa sine qua non To these Quaeries it will be expected saith he that he answer But what if other besides these exceptions be made though it be in his power to deny his answer yet it is not in his choice or authority to restrain any from excepting 1 Perhaps some may except why he in asserting God to be the principall efficient cause of Justification lets it passe so nakedly without an adjection of any of his attributes so leaving it doubtfull whether it be the grace or the justice the love or the hatred the mercy or the wrath of God that is the efficient of Justification We may easily answer our selves as to this question It is not Gods but Mr. Baxters justification whereof the causes are here assigned such as the Scriptures are unacquainted with a justification of his own devising defining and distinguishing himself and none before himself that I know was in every point acquainted with it No marvell then if he speak differingly in setting forth the causes of his from our Divines in laying down the causes of Gods justification And indeed it is a difficult question to determine whether his justification if it were at all granted to be of God might challenge more properly the love or the hatred the grace or the justice of God for its womb It being a justification that leaves all men under the curse under the wrath of God both in life and in death untill the very day of Judgment as we have found him disputing most profoundly in and under his 9. Thesis A justification that gives only a titular title without actuall and absolute possession of any greatest or least benefit to the justifyed which according to Mr. Baxter is the same thing as if we should say to the unjustifyed A justification more unpossible to be apprehended and held then was the first justification by works that was held forth upon possible tearms exacting from a living man only continuance in the works of life this upon unpossible as respecting our present state of infirmity offering to a dead soul righteousnesse and life upon condition the dead soul will quicken and arise from the dead to fetch it thence whither if it come it must still abide empty as it came untill the day of Judgment and then Mr. Baxter will come again to tell us more of his minde whether it be at all attainable I do not at all injury the man in saying he offers justification to a dead soul c. upon condition the soul will quicken it self For let there be found but one clause in his whole book that implyeth a concurrence and effusion of grace from God more to the quickning and justifying of Peter and Paul then of Cain and Judas of the damned then of the saved Or what doth he lesse that brings in works to justification then destroy grace to set up justification after the order and rule of strict justice Or when Mr. Baxter is so exact in enumerating the Procatarcticall or outwardly moving causes to what purpose doth he jumpe over the Proegumene or inward moving cause viz. the grace love and mercy which is within God himself but to imprison it in darknesse and eclipse its glory that mans righteousnesse might have the praise which pertains to God alone 2 It may be also questioned why amongst all the causes of justification here assigned there is no mention made of union and communion with Christ when as our Divines following the rule of the Word makes our union with him the very chief cause and ground of our being justifyed or declared to be justifyed according to the Gospell justification 1 Joh. 5 12. Phil. 3. 9. 1 Cor. 5. 19. and a multitude of other Scriptures which they alleadge and if there were the least need I might here quote a score What else but an evill eye maligning the praise of God and of his Christ suppresseth in silence and suffers not to appear in the chain of the causes of justification this link of union with Christ Is it not that he will make our faith and works yet out of Christ the cause of our union with Christ and not this the ground of the other 3 To come to those questions which Mr. Baxter answereth because he conceives it will be expected 1. About the instrumentall cause we question not what he goes about to answer why he cals the promise or grant of the new Covenant or the Gospell the instrumentall cause of justification actively considered but 1. Why he makes it the only instrumental cause of justification howsoever considered For this grant and promise doth by it self no more justifie the beleevers then the infidels the justifyed then the unjustifyed Doth not God also make the spirit his instrument of justifying by declaring and unfolding the doctrine of the Gospell and evidencing and witnessing to the soul remission and justification together with the love and grace of God from which this justification floweth Why doth he stifle the working of the Spirit from having to do in this great work except either with the Sadduces he denies the being or with the Socinians the divinity and divine operation of the Spirit or else to leave open a door to let in justification by the flesh not by the Spirit by the strength of mans free will without the preventing helps of the Spirit of grace Or as justification is taken passively for our being justifyed in our selves why is not faith put as an
further to take his pastime in his Logicall and Metaphysicall learning which may possibly please him but never justifie or save him and partly by shewing the weaknesse of the objection to gull his unwary reader with an opinion of the weaknesse of their cause who are forced with such Egyptian reeds for lack of better pillars to sustain it It is one of the Jesuits principles to fetch armes indifferently either from heaven or hell to storm the Church and truth of Christ and to promote the holy mother harlot of Rome But I am weary following him while he brings nothing but the Socinians right reason to be judge of the Mysterious doctrines of Christ and fear whether it be answerable before God to spend time in answering his babble with babble again for the truth of Christ doth neither stand nor fall by what can be said for it or against it out of the principles or learning of abused Aristotle Let Mr. Baxter call to minde what he hath read as elsewhere so in his adored Schibler in the second book of his Metaph. Cap. 3. in his interserted oration a little before the end of that book pa. 211. of the book printed at Oxford concerning the sophister convinced by an unlearned Confessour after his almost victorious disputes against all the Doctors of the Nicene councell many dayes together If he take it for a truth it may help to convince him that God is more effectually present in disputations about Evangelicall matters when they are totally confined to the Word then when they are handled after the rule and in the Predicament of carnall reason It argues that he undertakes a businesse not for God but against him else would he not cast away spirituall and take up fleshly arms to maintain it But fith Mr. Baxter is Mr. Baxter we shall crave leave to speak the lesse to him henceforth where we find him to have little of the word and reserve our selves to speak more largely where the man for his recreation vouchsafeth to abase himself so low as to meddle with Scriptures B. Quest But though faith be not the instrument of justification may it not be called the instrument of receiving Christ who justifyeth us Ans I do not so much stick at this speech as at the former yet is it no proper or fit exprâ—ssion neither For 1. The act of faith which is it that justifyeth is our actuall receiving of Christ and therefore cannot be the instrument of receiving To say our receiving is the instrument of our receiving is a hard saying 2. And the seed or habit of faith cannot fitly be called an instrument For 1. The sanctifyed faculty it self cannot be the souls instrument it being the soul it self and not any thing really distinct from the soul nor really distinct from each other as Scotus Dr. Orbellus Scaliger c. Dr. Jackson Mr. Pemble think and Mr. Ball questions 2. The holinesse of the faculties is not their instrument For 1. It is nothing but themselves rectifyed and not a being so distinct as may be called their instrument 2. Who ever calleth habits or dispositions the souls instruments The aptitude of a cause to produce its effect cannot be called the instrument of it You may as well call a mans life his instrument of acting or the sharpnesse of a knife the knives instrument as to call our holinesse or habituall faith the instrument of receiving Christ I have before expressed in what sense we make or at least hold faith to be mans instrument in applying Justification to himself And 2. have manifested the testimonies and authority of the Scripture herein so that Mr. Baxter if he list as it listeth him to cavill cavils not so much against all godly Protestant writers whom he opposeth as against the holy Ghost speaking by the mouth of Christ himself and his Apostles whom thorow the loins of those he smites at It is not the first time that he hath accused Christ and the holy Ghost in this manner of impropriety and unfitnesse of expressions in Scriptures And why because they speak not enough logically and in all probability never read thorow Aristotles Metaphysicks But let us hear what he can say here to prove the unpropernesse of that language which calleth faith an instrument of receiving Christ and justification in and by him His reasons are above in his own words rendered To the first I answer Mr. Baxter makes and layes his own principles of Religion and from them as from an impregnable mount he battereth Christ and his doctrine Should we grant him that faith is the receiving of Christ yet 1. How shall it appear otherwise then by Mr. Baxters own Magisteriall dictates that justifying faith is nothing else but the receiving of Christ 2. Why else doth he make it simply and only a quality or act of the soul without the adjection of its originall from above but to ingenerate into the minds of men an opinion that it hath its emanancy and rise from nature from freewill that every man may have and act it if and when he will and that it is not infused of God to be instrumentall by his appointment for the producing of any spirituall effect 3. How doth he prove that onely the act of faith justifyeth Yet 4. If all these dubious things were granted to him his own words therein tend to the confirmation rather then the infirming of the main conclusion which he opposeth that faith is the instrument of justification For if the act of faith be the receiving then must faith it self so acting be the receptrix or that by which we receive Christ but that by which man receiveth Christ is instrumentall to his receiving of justification for Christ is made of God to us righteousnesse he that hath Christ hath life specially this will follow upon Mr. Baxters principle of Christ and justification given to all universally to none in particular he must be made ours therefore by receiving him and if faith doth receive how doth it receive but as an instrument or whereas the well is deep and we have nothing of our own to draw with what shall be the instrument of drawing and receiving if faith be not it 5. And in this lyeth Mr. Baxters Sophism that he puts the act of faith for faith actuated Though the act of faith were the receiving of Christ yet faith actuated and acting is that by which we receive Christ and to say that by which we receive is the instrument of our receiving is not a hard but a proper saying The act of Mr. Baxters hand was the writing of these lines To say that his writing was the instrument of his writing is a hard saying but to say his hand acted in writing was his instrument of writing it is not a hard saying To the second It is wholly Sophisticall For when he saith 1. The sanctifyed faculty it self cannot be the souls instrument because it is the soul it self what is this to the purpose
Wherefore puts he the soul for the man but to cheat in stead of informing his reader If any say faith is the instrument of the soul he speaks by a Synecdoche putting the part the chief essentiall part of man for the whole man after the common use of the Scriptures and why may not the severall faculties of the soul be as well mans instruments as the severall members of the body It is not unproper to call the eye the instrument by which man seeth or his ear the instrument of hearing or the the tongue of speaking or the hand of working c. and why should it be then unproper to call the faculties of the soul the instruments of man to act those offices by each faculty to which each faculty is appropriated Or when faith is infused into the soul doth it disinstrument the faculties thereof that they become no more instrumentall to man in their places Nay it makes them instrumentall to work henceforth upon spirituall as before upon naturall and morall objects And this also answereth his second reason why the habit of faith cannot fitly be called our instrument because saith he the holinesse of the faculties is not their instrument I grant it but this is not the question That which he was to disprove is that faith makes not the faculties of the soul into which it is infused instrumentall to the applying of Christ to justification The Compasse is the Mariners instrument by which to steer his ship yet would it be nothing instrumentall to this purpose were it not touched with the Loadstone that points it to the North-pole so are the will and understanding instrumentall to the receiving of Christ and justification in and by him not by any innate power in themselves but as they are touched and pointed directly by faith to the bloud of Christ for justification as to the doctrine of Christ for illumination and to the Spirit of Christ for sanctification And for this cause we call not so much the faculty of the soul the instrument as faith because faith makes it instrumentall to justification The power and disposition which it hath to this act being not naturall from it self but supernaturall from faith infused into it and working on it In stead of answering in order to every particle of what he addeth it shall suffice to discover his Sophistry by which he seeketh to elude a sacred truth of the Gospell in all that he saith upon this Argument and this will be enough in answer to all that he saith yea manifest him unworthy of an answer As before he first maketh all the instrumentality or causality whether proper or improper of faith to consist in the act of faith or faith actuated as if the Chirurgeons instruments were not his instruments while they lie by him but then only while he actually useth them in the severall offices to which they are appointed and faith were no longer an instrument if an instrument of justification then while it is actually receiving Christ and so the same man should be justifyed and unjustifyed oft in the same day in the same hour being no longer justifyed then while faith is in the act of applying Christ And 2. In contracting the whole man yea Christian into a soul as if we did make such a faculty of the soul the souls and not the mans instrument to receive Christ which himself knoweth to be the meaning of no one of them against whom he fighteth but a slanderous and subtle trick of his own devising to make their doctrine seem absurd in an alien sense which in their own sense he can in no wise confute So 3. Here he further sophisticateth and perverteth their doctrine in contracting the whole man not only into a soul which he had done before but into some one or two faculties of the soul into which faith is infused and inherent as in its subject as if they taught that faith is the instrument of a faculty and not mans instrument The holinesse of the faculties is not their i. e. the faculties instrument saith he but themselves rectifyed The absurdities therefore which he infers as consequents of such an assertion are the consequents of his slander not of their doctrine None ever taught faith to be the instrument of a faculty or instrumentall to justifie a facultie but mans instrument and nstrumentall to justifie man 4. In supposing it as a thing granted that faith in the soul or faculties of the soul is nothing but the holinesse of such faculties or their being rectifyed and not a being distinct so distinct as may be called their instrument a doctrine well agreeing with his principles who makes sanctification the condition of justification and no further attributes any thing to faith but as it is a part of our sanctification Pag. 195. n. 5 6. and thorowout this whole Treatise but altogether denied by the Protestant Churches which ascribe not to faith any instrrumentality to justification as it is a part of our holinesse and rectitude but as by a supernaturall virtue which it infuseth into the soul to carry it out to Christ to God in Christ for remission and reconciliation Otherwise godlinesse hope love meeknesse and all other the fruits of the Spirit should justifie us equally with faith because the holinesse and rectitude of the soul consisteth no lesse in these then in faith And this is the thing in question if we grant it all is granted which the worst of Jesuites seeks or Mr. Baxter in this whole book contends for so that to make the whole thing in question a known and granted conclusion from which he will prove a particle in question is too grosse and un Baxterlike a Sophism he is wont to spin finer webs what make such course threads in his fingers And why saith he Not so distinct is faith a being distinct from the faculty in which it is Even this that it is a being distinct from the essence of man speaks it capable of an instrumentality to mans justification especially God having appointed and fitted it to that end much more of being an instrument in generall for mans use which is all that Mr. Baxter should have denyed when he denies it to be the faculties instrument 5. In reiterating the soul for the whole man and annexing captious words to it Who ever called habits or dispositions the souls instruments Thus he playes the Sophister to make the instrumentality of faith ridiculous as if we affirmed it instrumentall to justification quatenus as it is and only in this respect because it is a habit or disposition of the soul when contrariwise we ascribe this power and office to it as it is a virtue or gift of grace endewed with this property from the author of it to cleave to Christ and draw forth the soul with it to Christ for justification as hath been before expressed and in this office it hath no other habit power or disposition of the soul naturall or infused
imforming and giving life and vertue to it an act apprehending Christ as its object in whom all its vertue lyeth the cloud or darknesse in which Christ dwelleth as God was formerly in a cloud or darknesse upon mount Sinai and in the Temple or as all our Divines say the hand by which we receive Christ made of God righteousnesse to us and in us Gal. 3. 27. 1 Cor. 1. 30. 2 Cor. 5. 21. That the life of justification consisteth not in works at all nor in faith considered in a sense divided from Christ but in Christ our life living in us so that the life which we live is by the faith of the Son of God by the recumbency of our souls by faith upon the Son of God which is our life and that this is to live by faith Gal. 2. 20. Col. 3. 4. Gal. 3. 11. That Christ with all his righteousnesse to remission and salvation is given us freely of God not sold as by Judas to his enemies and so made ours without money without price without fine or rent In the Covenant of grace there is nothing smelling of a Simoniacall contract it is wholly of Gods giving not in the least particle of our purchasing Isa 9. 6. Joh. 3. 16. Isa 55. 1. That the life and justification which are by the second Adam descend to us in the same manner with the sin and condemnation from the first Adam But these descended by our naturall union and communion with the first Adam not by our imitation of him For death reigned from Adam over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam Therefore also righteousnesse and justification descend to us by the union and communion which we have with the second Adam Christ Jesus and not from our imitation of him and configuration to him for when we were yet enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Not but that every one to whom the sin and condemnation of Adam once descended are thenceforth imitators of and configured to Adam or that they to whomsoever the righteousnesse and justification of Christ have descended do not thenceforth become imitators of and are configured to the image of Christ but that these imitations and configurations do follow and not goe before such union and communion declaring not producing the sin and condemnation which are from Adam or the righteousnesse and justification which are from the Lord Christ Rom. 5. 11. 19. And this is a sound Argument which the Apostle bringeth to prove that works can in no respect justifie or save For we are Gods workmanship saith he created in Christ Jesus to good works which God hath ordained before that we should walk in them Ephes 2. 9 10. where we may take notice that good works are Gods end in saving or justifying us from sin But the means do alway in order of nature go before and not follow the end in execution I mean though not in intention That we are first in Christ the justifyer and in possession of the justification that is by him and then being new created in Christ to the image of God are inabled to do good works That God hath ordained before that we should walk in them being saved or justifyed not that we should be saved or justifyed by them That the righteousnesse of God by which we are justifyed is from faith to faith not begun by faith and ended in works which according to the Apostle is a beginning in the spirit and a seeking to be perfected by the flesh Rom. 1. 17. Gal. 3. 3. Should I proceed so far as the Scriptures as a leading thread would guide me for the confirmation of justification without works I should be taken as exorbitant For the rest I shall refer the reader to such writers as have handled the point of justification against the Papists or to the disputations of the Apostle himself against the false Apostles who taught the same doctrine with Mr. Baxter though not expresly in the same words They taught that we cannot be saved by Christ by faith in Christ alone except we be circumcised and keep the Law or do the works which the Law commandeth Act. 15. 1 24. Mr. Baxter teacheth in this his 60. Thesis that B. The bare act of beleeving is not the onely condition of the New Covenant but severall other duties also are parts of that condition If we take together with his words that which in the precedent Chapter we have manifested to be his meaning in these words and that by the bare act of beleeving he understands faith without and in opposition to works for himself knoweth that it is his Pontificall-Arminian-Socinian not our Protestant Evangelicall doctrine which holds out justification by beleeving as either a bare or a cloathed act or work then he teacheth the same doctrine for which the Apostle anathematized the false Apostles and arch-church-troublers in his time Gal. 1. 7 8 9. 5. 12. And what the Apostle hath against them is against Mr. Baxter their own son I will not say in the faith but in perverting the faith and Gospell For neither did they deny faith but Mr. Baxters bare faith faith without works to be effectuall to justification Against this assertion common to him and them if there were no other Scriptures contradicting but what I have alleaged no arguments brought by our Divines to subvert it and to establish the contrary doctrine but what have been here expressed and implied al which are scarce a drop of their ful bucket yet doth Mr. Baxter declare any finglenesse of heart or sincere aime to advance the glory and truth of God in suppressing all this and all the rest in silence so to beguile his more Logicall then Theologicall readers whom he knowes to be more acquainted with Sophistry then Divinity with exotick scriblings then Canonicall Scriptures with an opinion that the stream of Scriptures runne all to his Mill and that we have nothing from the Word favouring our cause Neither let any object that our Churches do only deny the merit of works not the necessity of them as a condition to justification Herein I shall have a fit place to speak afterward as to Mr. Baxter and as it is his plea to lenifie his self-arrogating assertion In the interim to manifest the simplicity of our gudgeons that are apt to swallow the most portentous errours if offered to them involved in fine terms of logicall notions among whom some that erewhile did prosecute with bel book and candle some to death some to banishment some to sequestrations whom they thought but to smell a little of the perfumes of the purple whore These very same men now having inriched themselves with the spoyles of them whom by their outcries they erewhile pursued are mad to drench themselves with the very dregs of the cup of fornication which is in the hand of the whore and kisse the lips of Mr. Baxter which hath blessed with plausible words the doctrine
laying not of such our labours but Christ Jesus abouâ— whom these our labours are to be exercised as the foundation of happinesse more and more fixedly within our sâ—ules Whatsoever Gospell duâ—ies and labours God hath ordeined for the faster setling of us upon the Rock of Righteousness the empâ—ying ouâ—selvs of our nothingnesse and making Christ 〈…〉 all those all are to be done by the saints not onely from life but also for life to be had and confirmed to them not in these duties but in Christ more and more formed and perfected in them to righteousnesse and salvation by these their religious indeavours These four Conclusions I know none of the Protestant or as Mr. Baxter terms them Antinomian Teachers denying Whatsoever therefore he bringeth not thwarting and opposing some of these Assertions he doth but Oleum operam ludere spend time and wit to prove that which none denieth and to oppose that which none teacheth and patronizeth These things therefore thus premised it is easie to answer all that he will seeme to himselfe to have laid impregnably for justification by works in his Appendix To begin with pag. 76. of that his Appendix and passing over that bold peremptory Pharisaicall and popish Assertion that Doe this and live is the language both of the Law and the Gospel together with the explication and feigned sense of Doe and live as it is the voice of the Gospel p. 77. there being nothing for but all against this doctrine throughout the whole Gospel as hath been already fully proved all that he brings for the confirmation of it in the sense in which he will be understood is ineffectuall to this end All his posiions pag. 78 79 80. may in the sense before mentioned be granted him viz. 1. That a wicked man or unbeliever may and must labour to obtaine the first life of Grace 2. That a man may act for the increase of this spirituall life when he hath it 3. That we may and must act for the life of Reconciliation Justification and Adoption 4. That we may act for the assurance of both our Justification and Sanctification 5. That wee may act for Eternall Salvation All these things are wholly besides the question and no more either powerfull or proper to prove that Do and live in the sense which he affirmeth and all Protestans deny to be the voice and Tenour or scope of the Gospel than if he had said nothing at all He might expect the beguiling of the simple but not of any knowing and considerative person with this dispute of his totally alien from the matter about which he disputeth For himselfe knoweth that they which use this Phrase We must work from life not for life do in this expression 1. Speak only of those that are already alive in Law againe i. e. justified and absolved from all their sins through faith in Christs bloud and so delivered from the Curse and death of the Law 2. That they mean principally if not only the the life of Justification reconciliation and Adoption that they which in respect of this life are already alive before God of meere Grace uniting them to Christ which is their Life ought not to seek the same life by works as if it were not already attained for this were to reject Grace and Christ as insufficient to Life and to flye to works as either alone sufficient or without which Grace and Christ are not sufficient to it 3. That if at any time by and under this expression they comprize besides the life of Justification c. here the life of glory hereafter also in excluding our acting and working for it they exclude them only as our acts and workes i. e. as acts and works either of Gods worship or of righteousness and charity towards our neighbour commanded by the Law of Nature by the righteousnesse thereof to live Not those Gospel duties of Gods ordination to be subservient to our union unto and receiving of Christ to bee our alone righteousnesse by which to live This way themselves doe and teach all both believers and unbelievers to act for life The sum of their doctrine about Justification and salvation breathing out it selfe in calling all from all iniquity to the fountain of Christs bloud for cleansing and from all confidence in the righteousness of their owne workes to put on him alone for their alone righteousnesse at Gods Tribunall Whatsoever acting and working there is in selfe-searching selfe-denyall selfe-renouncing whatsoever in the study knowing desiring seeking comming to Christ that they may receive and retaine him to bee their sole and whole life and righteousnesse All this they doe and teach to bee done and that for life This way say they the Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it yea hold it also by force Nevertheless even these Actings they disclaim also as by their righteousness interessing to Christ and life in him and will no otherwise act by these for life but as they are ordinately subservient to Faith and to living by Faith i. e. by Christ whom Faith apprehendeth Even Faith it selfe as an act or work justifying they explode leaving it to the Papists Socinians Arminians and among these to Mr. Baxter which heere pag. 80. of his Appendix as elsewhere teacheth it So the question is not when God of the freeness and riches of his Grace doth offer unto us Christ with Righteousness and life in him as a free gift whether we ought to act and work for the receiving and holding of it or not But whether wee ought to work ordinately as God prescribeth or inordinately as Mans mad God Reason fancieth We only deny that when such a gift is so offered we ought to run with fist foot sword and club to force it out of Gods hand as our due as they doe which after the doctrine of Mr. Baxter and his Masters invade God with their works to claime it as due to their righteousness But we teach men tolie prostrate in the sense of their own vileness gasping after it and receiving it as a free gift of Mercy granting man in the very first acting of his will toward Christ and Gods acting upon him to draw him to Christ the relation of more then a naturall patient not pronouncing him a stock or stone as our Adversaries object to us even of obedientiall subjection as they term it in the Schools and ever after of a free Agent to fetch life and motion from Christ by the spirit Thus far and no further doe we grant doe and live to bee the voyce of the Gospel viz. as there is a doing in receiving Christ and adhering to him and as the will in receiving Christ is as well an Agent as a Patient Mr. Baxters sense wee reject and have spoken to his reasons heer brought to confirm it And whatsoever he hath sayd elswhere hath been before examined As to the Scriptures which he quoteth to confirm his 5. Position p. 80.
that I will accuse you to the Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom you trust Jo. 5. 45. But whether the inference of making Paul a Legall Preacher is to be ascribed to Mr Baxter or to the Author of the Marrow of Modern Divinity is easily discernible That Author had onely sayd that one sentence of Paul in a whole Epistle was the voice of the Law Mr. Baxter inferreth that so to say is to make Paul a Legall Preacher consequentially that to preach any thing of the Law makes a Legall Preacher Let now Mr. Baxter name one Minister within this Nation that hath taught such ranke Antinomisme as himselfe here that professeth himselfe an Antaegonist to destroy it But wee may perceive by this he will be all things as well Antinomian as Arminian and Papist to smother the truth of the Gospell B. And as shamefully doth he abuse 1 Co. 6. 9. 10. as if the Apostle when he biddeth them not to be deceived were deceiving them himselfe in telling them that no unrighteous person fornicators adulterers c. shall inherit the Kingdome of God Is this Law Then let me be a Preacher of the Law If Paul be a Legallist then will I be a Legallist too But these men know not that the Apostle speaketh of those that die such and that these sins exclude men the Kingdome as they are rebellious against Christ their Lord and so a violation of the new Covenant How extreamly is this man in love Narcissus like with his own beauty or rather fancy Every other Visage not begotten of his seed and fashioned to his image is an Owle with him The words of the Authour are these The Law saith knowest thou not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Be not deceived c. 1 Cor. 6. 9. And therefore thou being a sinner and not righteous shalt not inherit the Kingdome of God This is all that he hath against which Mr. Baxter raiseth his hubub a shamefull abuse of the Scripture Let him deny if hee can this to bee though lesse principally and secondarily the voice of the Gospel yet primarily and more principally the voice of the Law If not then surely as he hath a Gospel so also hath hee a Law of his owne making Or what other ground is there why such shall not inherit the Kingdome but because they are not in Christ Fer whosoever is baptized with the bloud of Christ to justification is baptized also with his spirit to sanctification And if not in Christ then under the Law If under the Law then under the curse and condemnation of the Law and consequentially under the threat of the Law here denounced Or what should hinder the Apostle from denouncing the curse of the Law against them that are and wil be under the Law Let Mr. Baxter have his will that the Gospel condemnes them for their finall unbeliefe and rebellion against Christ yet doth not the Law condemne them too for all their unrighteousness fornications Adulteries c. If he deny it wee shall finde him the Author of a sweet peece of Gospel Doctrine That they which are in Christ are under the Curse of the Law so hath hee before stoutly asserted but they which are enemies of Christ are exempted from it If he confess it then the shame returns upon himselfe which he layes on this Author B. So in part 1. pag. 189. hee mentioneth a Preacher that sayd hee durst not exhort nor pâ—rswade sinners to beleeve their sinnes were pardoned untill hee saw their lives reformed for feare they should take more liberty to sinne And hee censureth that Preacher to bee ignorant in the Mystery of Faith And putting a false construction upon his words he descanteth over him and insulteth against him for delivering an absurdity in saying that which he said not Let him but add what followeth it wil appear there is no footing for him in these his words for al the abusive carpings wherwith he seeks to disgrace him I thinke â—sayth the Author that Preachâ—r was ignorant of the Mystery of Fayth for it is of the Nature of sovereigne Waters which so wash off the corruption of the Vlâ—er that they coole the heat and stay the spreading of the insection and so by degrees heal the same Neither did he know that it is the Nature of Cordialls so to comfort the heart and â—ase it as to expell the noxâ—ous humours and strengthen Nature against them Is it not heere evident that the fayling which hee censureth in that Minister is his mistake of the power and Nature of Spirituall and Gospel comforts that hee dared not to speake a word oâ— consolation to a wounded soule before hee saw and had had pâ—oofe of his reformation though never so much burthened with the consideration of his sinne past and gasping after Christ and forgiveness by him for fear such spirituall comfort would carry him backe into carnall liberty againe Nay sayth this Author The Mystery of Faith or consolation which is by faith in Christ Jesus is like sovereigne Waters and Cordialls doth not onely comfort the wounded soule against the guilt but also subdue the power and stay the spreading of sinn strengthening the soule against the future prevalency of corruption so that the due application and reception of it is the best furtherance and not at all a hinderance to the reformation of the Life This doctrine may possibly offend Mr. Baxters palate but I am sure it squares with the Gospel All that Mr. Baxter hath therefore pag. 104. 105. against the Authors words wrested into a wrong sense expresseth Mr. Baxter what hee is but in no wise weakeneth the estimation of the Author with them that are wise â—or he doth neyther explicitely nor implicitely affirme that justifiing Faith is a beleeving that our sinnes are pardoned as Mr. Baxter untruly suggesteth â—nd thence draws matter of sugillation He names the Mystery or â—aith which is one and the same as if he had sayd the Mystery of Christ or the Mystery of the Gospel all which in holy Writ are 〈…〉 lent â—â—rme And what he affirms of this Mystery of Faith or 〈…〉 the deeper it sincks into the heart the more it purifies 〈…〉 strengtheneth in the power of godliness Mr. Baxter◠〈…〉 affixed to this Doctrine shall not hinder my Amen 〈…〉 B. Many other intolerable errourâ— I could shew you in this booke as his making the New Covenant to threaten nothing but present afflictions and losse of our present communion with God pag. 208. And that we pray for no other kinde of Pardon pag. 206. 210 Contrary to Mar. 16. 16. Heb. 10. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. Heb. 2. 3. Jo. 15. 2. 6. and many other places He might more properly have sayd Many other intolerable slanders his candor and conscience could have iâ—ured upon this booke For so his next words would have verified what hee had sayd as his mâ—king the New Covenant to threaten
dead from further labouring and moving to this end For what righteousness what works can bee sufficient to such an atchievement So obedience to the Faith is nipt in the very budde where there is a sense and conviction of a mans naughtiness and nothingness 3. By taking off the spirits of a Christians love joy and alacrity in beleeving and serving when a humble and selfe-denying soul is once choaked with Mr. Baxters Doctrine that all the benefit which he hath or can have by Christ is to be only a probationer for justification and life even to his dying day that till then hee is but conditionally pardoned and conditionally adopted that Gods love to him may be anon turned into hatred his sinnes againe imputed and himselfe hurried into hell That his safety still depends upon his own works righteousnes no peny no Pater noster that the grace of God is let to farme for fine and rent no one promise of the word in all this his Booke being alledged by Mr. Baxter which I can remember of any support which the beleever shall receive from God in the state of Grace but all Selfe doe and selfe have This Doctrine eyther benummeth and freezeth up all a poore Christians love and delight in serving God emasculating his spirits to obedience or reduceth him under a yoke of bondage making him to worke possibly but in feare not of love as under the rod or rather in the fire fearing death and hell all his life time And whether this bee saving in Mr. Baxters accompt obedience or disobedience let them that are spirituall judge 4. By turning the very obedience of his Disciples into disobedience and rebellion The best works done to be justified by them and for them are the greatest abhomination in Gods accompt his Grace and Salvation are either denied or refused when wee bring works to appropriate it to us Rom. 4. 4 5. what is righteousnesse in its matter is sin in its end Therefore shall wee finde still that whosoever are admitted to those that seek to ingratiate themselvs by their good works though done in Christs name are hurled off from Christ I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance I know you not depart from mee yee workers of iniquity More joy for one sinner that repenteth than for ninety nine just persons that need no repentance For a more full and satisfactory answer to the Argument contained in this Quere I leave the Reader to the perusing of the Protestant Divines that have written upon this Subject and abundantly refuted this calumny of the Papists what I have here said is rather an addition to them then a full answer to the Quere which I leave to be fetcht from them What he speakes in the Amplification of this Quere needeth no large examination First he grants That love and thankfulness should be enough to hold us to obedience and duty and will bee so when all our ends are attained in our ultimate end then wee shall act for these ends no more c. How untowardly doth this passage and and another passage of the former Quere hang together what he pronounceth here that love and thankfulnesse should be enough to hold us to duty without doing for justification and salvation and that which here should be and hereafter shall be our perfection the same he affirmes there if practiced will undoubtedly damne the Practicer So according to Mr. Baxter if a Christian endeavour sincerely to do what he should and to come as neere in this life as it is possible to the perfection which he shall enjoy in the future hee shall undoubtedly bee damned for it Who then goes about to drive obedience out of the world he or they whom he opposeth What use is to be made of the affections of feare desire hope and care to the attainment of our great ends hath been enough discussed in the examination of the former Quere and would be a meere Tautology here to do it againe Let it be proved once that God hath left Justification by workes to be a motive to obedience it shall be granted to bee a help to the destroying of Obedience to take downe this one Motive But if contrariwise Justification of sinners by Works and Morall Obedience bee erected not by God but by the Devill Mr. Baxters neither Sophistry nor Oratory shall induce us to leane upon the Devils crutch both to the forfeiting of our Justification and turning our Obedience into sin CHAP. XII Whether the doctrine of justification by Faith without workes be a soul-cozening doctrine or harden the people in a soul-cozening Faith what the doctrine of Faith which the Protestant Churches holde is and how farr from deserving this Calumny with something about the facility or difficulty to perswade the multitude to such a Faith HIs fourth Quere by which as by another Argument he goeth about to make odious and to destroy justification by Faith without works runs thus B. pag. 326. Doth it not much confirme the world in their soul cozening Faith surely that Faith which is by many thought to justifie is it that our people doe all most easily embrace that is the receiving of Christ for their Saviour and expecting pardon and salvation by him but not withall receiving him for their Lord and King nor delivering up themselves to be ruled by him I meet not with one but is resolved in such a Faith till it be overthrowne by teaching them better They would all trust Christ for the saving of their soules and that without dissembling for ought any man can discerne Are all these men justified c. A Chip of the same blocke with the former in the use of it Mr. Baxter as he hath learned of them from whom he hath received it levels against the very heart of Christ and his Gospell Had hee said with Iames that to say we have Faith and not to have workes is to cozen our souls I should have said with him But in that he speaketh not of a soul-cozening profession of Faith but layeth so horrid an imputation upon Faith it selfe this gives us cause to examine what Faith he meaneth that we may be able to discern whether that Faith or else Mr. Baxter by defaming it goe about to cozen our souls and so embrace the true friend and reject the Cheater This cozening Faith according to Mr. Baxter must needs bee that which squareth not in its nature and manner of justification with the justifying Faith viz. that Gospell Faith which neither as a deed and worke as a worke of Morall duty and worke of our owne righteousnesse of our perfect and meritorious righteousnesse doth begin and but begin to inright us to Christ and justification by him leaving to eyther vertues and works to perfect it but as an instrument ordeyned and given us of God by which we receive Christ alone offering up himselfe a sacrifice for us to bee cur whole righteousness to justification and that without
all the justified by Faith are sanctified if it be sanctification indeede it may be made an evidence of justification 6 Yet neither all seeming peace and quietnesse of conscience or joy in expectation of salvation or hope that is made the ground of this joy and such other like seeming effects of Justification are alway sure evidences to a man that he is justified because not alway fruits or parts of sanctification they may proceed from another and baser principle viz. from the deceitfulnesse of their heart or self-love and self-advancing or from the spirit of slumber upon the conscience or from ignorance of Gods way and method of bringing many Children to glory Nor are all seeming holiness honesty meeknesse temperance patience and other like vertues either in their habite as they really affect the heart or in their act as they are with an ardent zeale for God brought forth into practice sure evidences of sanctification by Christ because these also may proceed from other and baser principles and not from the Spirit of Christ as from the abiding prints of the Law of Nature written in the heart or from the power and suggestions of a convinced and awaked conscience or from strong impressions made into the soule by a morall and vertuous education or other like sub-celestiall and unspirituall principles So that our certaine and known union to Christ and our justification and sanctification sensibly thence flowing may be properly and unfailingly made our sound evidence of the spirituall life and acceptablenesse of our vertues and works But these in themselves in no wise certaine evidences and demonstrations to us of our justification and sanctification by Christ Sanctification is one thing and a zealous endeavour to be in all things conformed to the will of God is or may be another The former is only from the Spirit of Christ and wrought only in them which are in Christ The later may proceed from morall principles and is incident even to them also that are aliens from Christ 7 Neverthelesse even these vertues and good works do so farr evidence that from the Negation of these a man is certainely denyed to be in Christ or to be justified or sanctified by the faith of Christ I mean that whosoever can allow himself in the habituall practice of any known sin or rejection of any known duty that man may know himself and be known of others to be an Alien from Christ Because whosoever is in Christ is a new Creature all things are become new not only in respect of his relation but of his manners and conversation also and in whomsoever the Spirit of Sanctification dwelleth it dwels in a state of reign not of bondage Withall these vertues and good works when they are found to flow from our union to Christ and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts through Christ and upon examination a man can truly say that he hath ceased to hew from any other Qâ—arrie or to dip from any other Fountain than from Christ that from his Spirit alone hee daily sucketh life as the branch from the root to bring forth fruit and from the sacrifice of Christs death a sweet odour to make himself and his fruit acceptable then they serve as good seconds to prove to his soul that he is justified and sanctified But so that his being in Christ must first prove his fruit to be good before his fruit can have any power to evidence him to be in Christ and the evidence of both his justification and sanctification consisteth not so much in the qualifications which he hath attained or works which he doth and hath done as in his continuall waiting upon Chrih from him alone to receive what hee ought to be and to do in all wel-pleasing before God and the love of God in Christ enabling to obedience 8 That although Sanctification and the fruits thereof do each in its own degree as aforesaid more or lesse evidence our Justification yet have they no concausality with Faith to the producing of it All that are in Christ are Saints in Christ yet their sanctity goes not before their being in Christ but is an immediate fruit thereof The forgiveness of sin and Adoption doth in order go before their doing of acceptable service to God and unacceptable service cannot justifie 9 The grace of God which bringeth salvation and justification teacheth men to deny ungodlinesse c. and to live soberly c. Cals upon all to stretch forth their Faith to apprehend to themselves in Christ both the imputed and the inherent righteousness so far is it from breathing a soul-cozening or a soul-corrupting faith Therefore is the justifying Faith called by the Holy Ghost a most holy Faith Jude 20. A soule purifying Faith Act. 15. 9. A sanctifying Faith Act. 26. 18. Implying its efficacy as well to sanctifie as to justifie and that there is no true sanctification but that which is instrumentally obtained or at least received by Faith Lastly that one chief end of our Justification is that we bring forth acceptable fruit to God here inchoate hereafter in perfect obedience to God and conformity with him And the Justifier doth and will attain his end in justifying therefore brings none to glory but such as have all vertues and good works at least in their root and seed while they are here and if after their effectuall calling they live to have time and opportunity do not unfeigâ—edly endeavour universally to declare the same in their practice So that to dream of any glorified man in heaven that was not actually a Saint upon earth is a dream from hell not from heaven All these things might have been largely proved both from the Scriptures and our Protestant Writers but that I esteem them all to be so known to be the consenting asserteons of all our Churches and by them so fully confirmed by the word that I should but abuse time to take it up in particularizing what is in this Case so generally written and read I have been the more large in expressing the doctrine of the Protestant Churches upon this Argument to wipe off the stain which Mr. Br. hath learned of the Papists to lay upon it in this and the former quere which are wholly framed to beguile the weaker sort having nothing in them to stagger the Judicious And now I leave it both to the strong and weak to judge whether the Accuser of the Brethren himself can possibly expresse more impudence and falshood in slandering the Churches of Christ than this man hath done or if he had not bound himself to speak after the Jesuits and Monks whatsoever they traducingly say whether there be any colour of reason for him to have layd upon us these two accusations To hold my self to that which I am now examining what is there in this Faith and Doctrine thereof which I have described deserving to be called a soul-cozening Faith And when he addeth That Faith which is by many
praises of the man yet this act of his meriteth it not no not from Mr. B. For as far as he transcribes him p. 182. Mr. Ball no further foâ—lowes Grotius then to Gods relaxing of the Law to take satisfaction from Christ in our steed But if he had also asserted that after satisfaction actually taken they which in Christ have satisfied are yet all their life-time under the Curse of the Law to bear it in their own persons would Mr. B. have hidden it Yet this is the thing in question between Mr. B. and the Protestants whether after the giving and receiving of satisfaction for our breaches of the Law the Curs of the Law be either nulled or els onely in part relaxed as to our bearing it Yea if he â—e as Mâ— B. stiles him then have we the testimony of so great learned and holy a Divine as almost England ever bred against Mr. B. himself not being able to deny any one almost that England ever bred which hath written more directly and contrarily to Mr. B. then this man in his Tractate of Faith about Justification If elswhere he contradicts himself I shall oppose Ball against Ball yea Ball in afflictions when he lived by Faith and had nothing else but Christ apprehended by Faith to support his troubled soul to Ball nâ—w raised to a prosperous state in the world and whâ— seeing the Court infected with Popery Socinianism and Arminianism and no other bridge to prefermâ—nt so effectuall as some shew of bending at least to these wayes might possibly as far as Conscience would permit him make use of the language there held most authentick I say of the language for I cannot condemn his doctrine alledged in his three following Testimonies it taken in a good sense But his ambiguities of words seem to speak him out to have had a levell to somewhat els besides the supporting of the truth and yet his Conscience seems to hold him bound from saying any thing manifestly against the truth Mr. B. may possibly tickle himself with his words but his matter duly pondered gives him a sting sufficient to perswade him to forbear laughter Let the unbiassed judicious Reader add consideration to his reading and then judge The rest of the testimonies which he hath here cited and quoted I let passe as altogether besides the questions which Mr. B. hath set in agitation between himself and all the Protestant-Churches And thus at length have his Arguments been examined which he brings to confirm his Justification by works He hath many things tending to the confirmation of some other Paradoxes scattered in his Aphorisms beginning at p. 123. of his Appendix and ending at p. 164. but because those things are handled by way of disputation against others and Mr. B. as a challenger doth call out there by name Mr. Owen and Maccovius to a Duell with himself each after other exposing them to the world as base and silly Animals in what they have said except they come forth into open field to make it good It shall be both impertinent and uncivil in me to meddle in a business to which others and the same far more worthy and able are called as to their peculiar task I should not be excused by any herein from being one that loveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be busie in another mans office specially seeing I know not what these challenged have done or are doing in the defence of themselves and the doctrine which they have asserted Were it that their reputation alone and not a truth of Christ which they had undertaken to defend were here clouded by Mr. B. I should think it no fault in them to pass it by in contemptuous silence but seeing Mr. B. endeavours upon their ruines to erect his mounts against the City of the living God to destroy it or at least spoyle it of its principall immunities denying the full justification of the Lords redeemed ones in this world holding them under the curs and wrath of God both in their life and death I perceive not how they can be silent without betraying the truth of God which they once undertook to defend Since this was written I understand Mr. Owen hath fully vindicated himself and learnedly defended all that Mr. B. had laid on his score Thus far to his Arguments that he hath brought to prove Justification by works I find no more nor in these have I hidden any thing but set them forth in their fullest strength CHAP. XV. Mr. Baxters Plea to prove his Doctrine free from Popery examined and refuted I Come now to the most accurate finest and chiefest part of Mr. Brs. Art his Alcumistry by which hee turneth the basest metals into gold darkness into light death into life deformity into beauty and hell into heaven it self All this he with strong endeavours labours to accomplish while with strong confidence hee goes about to vindicate his doctrine from all error all infection of Popery Socinianism Pharisaism and to render it the same with the doctrine of Paul and of Christ guiltless of all derogation to the praise of Gods grace Christs merits or the Saints comfort Yea to set it forth in such a splendor that although hee hath hitherto described such a grace of God as by his donation was no more appropriated and peculiarized to Peter then to Judas to the cursed in hell than to the Saints in heaven and such a Christ as reigneth Tyrant-like in the Kingdom of grace chaining up his own all his own subjects and friends under the curse of the Law to bear the horrors and torments of it in soul and body all their life yea after death as long as the world shall continue though he hath taken away from the Saints after their self-denyall repentance building themselves by their most holy Faith upon Christ the Rock after their renovation and sanctification by the Spirit all hope and possibility of attaining any assurance of Gods unchangeable love to them or of their sinns irrevocably pardoned or of their perseverance in the state of Grace or of their indefeazable right to glory or of their exemption from the curse and wrath of God while they live or of the rest and freedom of their souls after death either from the flames of Hell or of Purgatory as long as the world standeth After hee hath taught that no man shall have any part in Christ and his benefits which procureth it not by his own righteousness his own perfect righteousness in suo genere yea by the merits of his righteousness After that he hath proclaimed that his Gospel brings no better tidings of joy than these Yet at length hee comes to varnish over such a Grace such a Christ such a Gospel such a state of believers who are all of his own faigning with such paints and fine colours as by them to enamour all men to embrace these as the only true and appetible Grace Christ Gospel and state of beleevers That this Doctrine
pious and not unlearned men that have taken some infection of the Epidemicall disease of our times too easily to drink down errors differing herein only from the vulgar that error is more appetible to them from a learned and sophisticall than truth from a plainer though faithfull hand Let a man once have the name of a learnnd Scholar and strict-walking Pharisee all his Doctrines by such men are concluded to be of rare use and excellency before they be seen whether they be white or black from Heaven or from Hell Not a few of these men having in my hearing stood firm and up moved in the defence of the doctrines of this book of Mr. Brs. not being able to speak any thing to refell the objections made against it but this that the Author thereof is an eminently learned and pious man As if Satan had not the wit to make choyse of his instruments that have the most compleat aptitude and power to deceive or that the Jews had not so much to say for their Pharisees the Papists for their Bellarmine and the Remoâ—strants for their Arminius or the Devill had forgotten his ancient subtlety when he will seduce from the verity of Christs Gospel to change himself into an Angell of Light or that no damning errour could proceed from a self-saving or rather self-deceiving Pharisee To cleer up the truth to such at lest to give their occasion to search the Scriptures by which they may cleer it to themselves I shall lay and compare together Paul and Mr. Br. in that which Mr. Br. saith was the question about which Paul disputed that it may be made evident whether they agree or contradict either the other To this purpose by the way there is to be taken out of the way a fallacy that lurketh in Mr. Brs. words where he saith The dispute of St. Paul is upon this Question It is not enough to say this was A Question excâ—pt he say also it was the Question yea the Onely Question upon which the Apostle disputed in those places where he excludeth works and inferreth Faith alone to be ordeined as effectuall to justification He disputed in some of his Epistles upon many questions To reduce what hee disputed severally to the severall questions all to one were to make non-sense of the whole The same may be said of all mens yea of the most Scholastick disputes of Mr. Br. himself who is a greater Philosopher and more studied in Logick and Metaphysicks than ever the Apostle was But I deny it to be the onely or the chief question about which St. Paâ—l so disputeth what is the Righteousnesse which wee must plead against the Accusation of the Law or by which wee are justified as the proper Righteousness of the Law I grant it to be one but a less principall question upon which he disputes But the more principall question is in generall by what means we may be interessed into Christ or obtain the righteousness of Christ to become ours and so still retâ—in it to justification More particularly whether the Native Faederall holiness of the Jewes and the priviledges of the Covenant in part mentioned Rom. 9. 4 5. Phil. 3. 5. Gal. 2. 15. Or their actuall and personall righteousnesse and sincere obedience to the Law mentioned Phil. 3. 6. Mat. 20. 12. and the 19 20. together with all the Typicall purgings mentioned in the 9. 10. Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews On the other side whether all the Naturall and Morall righteousness of the Gentiles which they performed by the instinct of the Law of Nature written in their Consciences without the help or knowledg of Gods written law or their exemption from the Covenant of God made with the Jews For some of the believing Gentiles reading the promises made of calling unto the grace of Christ them that were not Gods people or beloved before weakly concluded that their former uncircumcision and uncovenant-ship was a speciall furtherance to their admission unto Christ as may be probably gathered from Rom. 11. 19. Gal. 5. 6. whether any of these kinds of holinesse and works of righteousness either with Faith or without Faith or whether Faith alone without all or any of these be required as instrumentall subservient and effectuall to inright us to the Justification which is by Christ This was the more principall question upon which Paul disputeth in the places before mentioned Somewhat he saith to the former but lesse principally and seldom but in subserviency to this So the question upon which Paul disputes in his Epistles and Mr. Br. in his Aphorisms is one and the same but their Conclusions absolutely contradictory either to other The one concludeth that Faith alone without mans works and righteousness The other that not faith alone but Faith as a work together with all other works of righteousnesse do justifie and all morall duties collaterally with Faith are required to make the Righteousness of Christ ours to justification No greater or more palpable Contradiction can be devised Whosoever shall preach another Gospell of Justification otherwise than by Faith in Christ without works let him be accursed saith Paul Whosoever shall be practically a solifidian trust to a bare Faith and not work for Justification shall be Damned saith Mr. Br. If one of these be granted to be an Apostle of Christ the other must needs be proclaimed to be the Apostle of Antichrist But whether this which I have expressed be indeed the principal question on which the Apostle so disputeth adhuc sub judice lis est We are left uncertain on both hands may some say True and if I onely say and not shew it I shall be guilty of the fault which I blame in Mr. Br. And so we may deserve both to be laught at as Triflers This therefore is the next thing to be added First then if we do but consider to whom and against whom the Apostle handleth these disputes for Mr. Br. reduceth them all to his Epistles it will be more than probable to every rationall man that his most principall question is By what means we possesse and continue in the possession of the righteousnesse which is by Christ to Justification And but secondarily less principally and in subserviency to this question What the righteousnesse is by which we are to be justified The persons to whom he writeth were all Christians the purest and most eminent Churches of Christ that had received the pure doctrine of Christ by the preaching of the Apostles viz. that whereas sinn and death and the Curse by sinn reigned over all men in all the world so that all wete Children of wrath and every soul guilty before God Christ was given of the Father to be the Author of Righteousness and life by the Mediation of his death that in him and in no other name under heaven was salvation attainable that whosoever would beleeve in him should have everlasting life should be Justified freely by Grace
thirst if they do not arise work and fulfill their task We require first that the Rock be cloven with the Rod of God that the water of life may gush out in full Rivers and that the fainting souls be brought to drink thereof and then called upon in the life and strength which they have hence received to work and be doing Yea to come to this stream often to drink that their strength and spirits may be daily more revived that they may bâ—come daily more enabled for and more abundant in the work of the Lord. We have not with Mr. Br. yet learned the skill of preaching good works to make Christ ours but follow the rule of the Scriptures to preach Christ into the hearts of men to make them fruitfull in good works Neither doe wee count all formall obedience and righteousnesse of men though conscientiously and by the guidance of Naturall Conscience performed to be either sanctification or the fruit thereof That onely is sanctification which flowes from the heart of Christ and is infused by the Spirit of Christ For the attaiâ—ment thereof we call all men into union and fellowship with Christ so far are we from holding that Nothing is preaching Christ but the preaching him as Justifier and Saviour that we hold it an empty Preachment that preacheth any good thing without Christ or out of Christ of which men are not taught to make Christ the Alpha and the Omega We leave it to Mr. Br. and his brethren to urge works duties obedience c. and once in a Moon upon an auspicious Tropick thereof to remember Christ and grace and tell us that all must be done by the help of grace and without Christ we can do nothing Yet leaving us uncertain still whether it be the Grace and Christ of Pelagius or else of God reconciled to us that he speaketh I should be too long in expressing fully how we hold forth Christ whole Christ and only Christ to Adoption protection perseverance strengthening comforting perfecting c. In a word to all that is either good to be received or good to be done In him wee teach that God will have all his frâ—sh springs to reside that without him we are nothing can do nothing that in him and by him we have all and can do all things That therefore we preach nothing but Christ yet preach all that is to be preached in preaching him because in him it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell Col. 1. 19. even all fulness for us so that in him we are full out of him meer emptiness We would not have one beam of this Sun of Righteousness clouded but labour to discover to our people his full glory and Soveraignty to all those sacred ends to which God hath consecrated him that if any would have nothing of Christ to be preached but his pardoning and saving the sin may be wholly theirs not ours that they will receive the skirt of Christ and consequently refuse Christ when we preach to them whole Christ and all the benefits that are by him Nor 2 do we deny an ordinate and subordinate love to our selves as Mâ— Br. slanders us no lesse bitingly than secretly App. pa. 81 82. in teaching that it is the most Gospel-â—rame of Spirit to perform duty out of meer love to God without seeking by such duties wrought quasi opere operato remission of sins redemption from Hell and right to glory by the Merit thereof as he teacheth us to do thinking no doubt his glory shall be great if he can there perswade where all the suâ—tlest sons of Satan the Jesuits have not been able Nay we maintayn that none can regularly love himself who loveth not God above himself and seeks not Gods glory more than his own good That whosoever in a pretext of love to himself brings his fardle of trashie works at the feet of Christ by them to purchase to himself the benefits of his death is of all men the worst enemie to himself incurs rejection and expulsion from Christ and all the benefits of his death and resurrection For hee was sent to seeke oâ—ely that which was lost came not to call the righteous but sinners to repenâ—â—nce He loves himself indeed and spiritually that for his love to God denies himself The self-dejected Publican is acceâ—ted with God when the prating Pharisee is hurled with his mouth full of works out at the door Or is there any great difference between this and the Devils doctrine preached to our first Parents Ye shall be as Gods said the Devill Ye shall be all Christs Saviours Justifiers saith Mr. Br. Your righteousness and Christs righteousness shall jump together into the same kind of Causality to justifie and save you Our first Parents hearkned and seeking to become Gods became Devils or what is worse slaves to the Devill We have all felt the smart yet many and that of them which are termed Angels listen earnestly to the like hissing of the Serpent now again We can but mourn for them that in madd love to themselves will hasten up to heaven by climbing high Steeples that look fairly thither-ward but can never heave them up to it nay contrariwise can give them no such sustentation but that they fall thence and dash themselves into shivers Yet in our doctrine is contained a wise and ordinate love to our selves Though we use not works as waxen wings to soar aloft to kisse the Sun and settle our selves in the same Sphere with him yet wee make use of our qualifications and duties to the continuall encrease of our sanctification and to what greater good for himself can mans strongest love to himself aspire than to his full and real perfection consisting in his restitution to Gods image and conformity to his will and nature This shall be the Consummate blessedness which we shall enjoy above and it is a blessedness inchoate and increasing while we passe from strength to strength in it here Who are the self-haters and self-destroyers the Papists or we the success will at length evidence and such professed Divines and Christians among us as have not their eyes soyled with Kederminster dust and smoak can discern already Nor thirdly doth our doctrine tend to drive obedience out of the world So that we may answer Mr. Brs question Aphor. p. 325. If men once beleeve that works are not so much as a part of the Condition of our Justification will it not much tend to relax their diligâ—nce with the authority of the Apostle who having taught his Ephesians that we are saved by grace through faith not of works lest any man should boast Eph. 2. 8 9. Yet concludeth that as many as have learned Christ truly and heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus These all have learned to put off concerning the former conversation the old Man which is corrupt c. and to be renewed in the spirit of the mind and to put on
a corrivall with it 6. He at last deals no lesse sophistically in his comparisons You may as well call saith he a mans life his instrument of acting or the sharpnesse of a knife the knives instrument as to call our holinesse or habituall faith the instrument of receiving Christ The aptitude of a cause to produce its effect cannot be called the instrument There is no parity in the Comparison Life to acting and faith to receiving of Christ are not Mr. Baxter will not say they are in one and the same kinde and order of causes and effects Besides one of the effects is put with the other subtlely left without an object as if the receiving of Christ were no more then and altogether as naturall to man as receiving indefinitely any naturall object so that albeit this Comparison may stand in some parity with a naturall and civill faith without the object Christ annexed to it yet the divine faith whereof we hear speak is of an another an upper and higher region and agrees not in motion with the naturall life or with the naturall or civill faith The one moves its course and operation in a way that God by nature hath prescribed and the other in the way which God by grace hath prefixed Their orbs are severed and not confounded either with other As for the other Comparison the sharpnesse of the knife Nothing else undoubtedly but the sharpnesse of M. Baxters wit could have devised it Is then faith in man no more then sharpnesse in a knife What good then might a ship-load of whet-stones and grinding-stones do among the Turks to make them Christians The sharpnesse of the knife is not any thing really distinct from the knife it is otherwise with the faith of a man The knife is mans instrument the sharpnesse thereof is but the aptitude of the instrument by which man as the efficient produceth the effect How shall this square in the Comparatum Man must be the principall efficient cause what will he assigne to be the instrument whereof faith is the aptitude to produce the effect But I fear of transgressing by following him that Parvis compâ—nere magna solebat That dares with audacious arrogance to measure the bottomlesse ocean in his fist and to try Celestiall and Spirituall things in the scales of Nature and to compare not with the Apostle spirituall things with spirituall 1 Cor. 2. 13. but with carnall profanely making the Mysteries of Christ to be rather the whetstone of his wit then the object of his reverence and ballast of his conscience I shall forbear here to add my judgment concerning what faculty or faculties of the soul are the subject of faith Whether faith may be more properly said to receive Christ by the faculty or the faculty by faith How far faith in the habit and how far in the act may be said to justifie These and other things may come more properly to be handled afterward then in this place It shall suffice that here notwithstanding Mr. Baxters winnowings yet faith faileth not from being our instrument of applying or receiving Christ Eightly The latter which he maketh his sixth Question Why he maketh faith the Câ—usa sine qua non he thus endeavours to maintain as it followeth in the nâ—xt Chapter CHAP. XXVI Arg. Mr. Baxters further dispute upon the same Subject examined and answered B. Pag. 223. TO the 6. and last Qâ—estion I answer Faith is plainly and undeniably the condition of our justification The whole tenour of the Gospell shewes that And a condition is but a Causa sine qua non or a medium or a necessary antecedent Short and in compasse of words little is it which he here speaketh yet if we look to the matter thereof in it two things are principally to be examined 1. That he makes faith the condition of justification and what he means by that term 2. That he cals it the Causa sine qua non He means questionlesse the same thing by both but the words differ and he useth both as by both together so by either part to get advantage to his cause Therefore I shall examine them severally To the former I have spoke somewhat largely before in the examination of his 13 14 15 17 18 19 20 43 44 45. Theses as he gave me occasion in these severall positions to answer what he there asserted of conditionall justification I have therefore here the lesse to speak referring the reader to what hath been spoken before Yea in this point I should be totally silent because Mr. Baxter in words speaks no more here then what some of our most sound and godly Divines have spoken before him that faith is the condition of justification were it that Mr. Baxter meaneth as they mean For though in the best meaning of the best men the propriety of the terms or phrase may be much questioned and give occasion of much dispute yet traversing controversies about words when there is agreement in the substance to which both parties drive is in my apprehension a businesse so far tending to distractions and breach of union among the Saints that it is the last and least Trade I am confident that ever will befall me to drive But in this point though Mr. Baxter here speaks in words what some of ours have said and do say still and that without any detriment that I can see to the Gospell Yet his meaning and theirs are in no lesse antipathie then a Hawk and a Heron and that as in other lesser so principally in these particulars of moment 1. By faith they mena our application or faith as it is our instrument of applying Christ and the grace of God in Christ to our justification he by faith means not only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere as a part of our inherent righteousnesse but as a generall and common word that compriseth within it self all good qualifications and good works whatsoever as elsewhere and specially in and under his 70 71. Theses he declareth himselfe so that he makes and under the word Faith understandeth all these as equall conditions with faith of our justification 2. By condition they mean that which being once attained and once fixed upon Christ speaks us absolutely justifyed for ever So that in calling faith the condition of justification they mean we cannot be justifyed without it but having once by faith apprehended Christ we are by it united and joyned to Christ and by force of our union with him are thenceforth absolutely and irrevocably pardoned and accepted as righteous in Gods fight He cals it so a condition as that it continues still a condition justifying us only conditionally and not absolutely so that it leaves our estate still one and the same no more justifyed and pardoned when beleevers then when unbeleevers For by the satisfaction of Christ we are before faith cometh conditionally justifyed if we beleeve and when faith is come we remain still but conditionally