Psalmist determine Psalm 45. 13 14. The King's daughter is all glorious within her cloathing is of wrought gold She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of Needle-work the Virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee And so the Apostle Paul Ephes 5. 25 26 27. Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing 5. A Fifth Text is in Rom. 3. 22. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference This Righteousness of God say they is the Righteousness of Christ imputed and accounted to be a Believer's formal personal Righteousness but that by the Righteousness of God in this Scripture and others cannot be meant the Righteousness of Christ is manifest 1. Because this righteousness which is called the righteousness of God is opposed unto the righteousness of the Law and is said ver 21. to be without the Law But the righteousness of Christ is not opposed to the righteousness of the Law he being conformed unto the Law both in habit and act 2. By the righteousness of God cannot be meant God's righteousness it self I hope they will grant and if not then from it they cannot gather that the righteousness of Christ in it self is imputed seeing it is a divine as well as an humane righteousness unless they will say it is the humane righteousness of Christ only which is imputed in it self and if so it could nothing avail them for though it be true the humane righteousness of Christ would have availed himself as the Law of Innocency justified him thereupon as a righteous Man Yet it would have availed us nothing at all without the conjunction of his divine righteousness seeing without this it would not have been for others satisfactory and meritorious therefore I conclude that Faith in Jesus Christ is the righteousness which is here called the righteousness of God and that because God by the Gospel hath constituted and appointed this to be that which he will accept instead of legal perfect righteousness and for the sake of Christ's satisfactory and meritorious righteousness will justifie us by his Law of Grace and thereby give right to Pardon and Life What hath been said to this Text may be sufficient to give light to understand the meaning of that Text so much urged Phil. 3. 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith And so Rom. 1. 17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written The just shall live by faith Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God 2 Cor. 5. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 6. The sixth Text is Rom. 4. 6. Even as David also describeth the blessâ—dness of the Man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works This righteousness say they which God in this Text is said to impute can be no other but the righteousness of Christ There hath been enough said to shew it cannot be righteousness of Christ in it self which is imputed I would gladly have Men to consider what the Apostle in this his dispute undertakes to prove can any thing be more clear than that it is Justification by Faith in opposition unto the works of the Law both of Innocency and Moses But here is the grand mistake of these Men when the Apostle is only excluding works with relation to the Law of Innocency or the Law of Moses from Justification they understand him universally as excluding also Gospel works such as Faith c. which yet nothing can be more express and plain the Apostle is pleading for Justification by Verse 9. For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness And this Apostle at the fifth ver of this Chapter affirms that faith is accounted for righteousness And if so which is express then faith must be the righteousness of which the fifth Verse speaks Well but say they it is not faith that is this righteousness but the object Christ's righteousness if they mean it is not faith abstracted or seperate from its object that is this righteousness I say the same for it is no true faith which hath not Christ for its object But if they mean that it is the object it self that justifies and not faith with relation unto the object here I must leave them and that because I must believe the Apostle before them and there is nothing in all the Scripture more manifest than that though there be neither conformity to the Law of Innocency nor the Law of Moses though a Man neither can nor shall be accounted by God righteous in the sense of these Laws yet where there is a consormity to the Gospel Law we have David's testimony saith the Apostle that Man shall be blessed and this his conformity shall be by God accounted for righteousness And what wonderful grace is it that God will accept for the sake of Christ the sincere obedience of faith instead of a sinless perfect obedience But say these Men if you are justified by faith you are justified by works and so exclude the grace of God The Apostle saith the contrary Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace Verse 16. But this I suppose they cannot or will not understand but think that if it be by faith it must be by a work exclusive of grace They consider not that faith is the free gift of God through Christ and that it is by grace that God saves through faith Ephes 2. 8. For by grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God A Soul being by the Holy Spirit convinced of its own sinful and lost condition and its own inability and insufficiency to save it self out of this condition by the light of the Gospel it hath a discovery there is a sufficiency of Satisfaction Merit Power and Spirit in Christ for its Pardon and Life beside a free offer herein of this grace unto it immediately as it is really burdened with Sin and under the fears of eternal perishing and so truly willing of Christ and his Grace above all the World upon which the Soul penitentially renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil gives its actual consent to accept of Christ for its Propitiation Head and Teacher and so to be subject to God in him by the Holy Spirit Here now is the
be saved and thine House Therefore the Reason given is of no force for the strict Imputation of Christ's righteousness 7. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because it is that which God accepts on our behalf I Answer If they mean that God accepts the righteousness of Christ on the behalf of Believers so as to account it a sufficient satisfaction for them and the merit of all good which they partake of and that for which he accepts all their sincere duties I grant them the whole But if they mean God so accepts it on their behalf as to account it to be the very righteousness of their Persons by which their Persons are righteous according to the Law of Innocency this I deny and they can never shew any solid proof for what they affirm 8. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because Christ was a publick Person standing in the place and stead of all those that should believe in him so that all that he did and suffered are to be looked upon and are reputed by God as done and suffered by them and consequently are imputed to them I Answer That Christ did sustain the Person of a Mediatour for the making atonement and purchasing reconciliation I grant but that he sustained the Person of all those as a sinner that should after believe in him this I deny seeing then he should have been accounted the offending party and so as such had been incapable of purchasing and making peace betwixt the offending and offended For he that is accounted guilty and so an offender should have needed a Mediatour and reconciler for himself but this Christ did not therefore to tell of Christ's being a publick Person in this Sense is false and not only so but destructive of his Office as Mediatour and so also of his Satisfaction and Merit as is manifest And whereas it may be said How could he have suffered if by the Law he was not accounted guilty and an offender I Answer The Law did not account Christ as guilty or an offender nor did it ever condemn him but on the contrary it accounted him a righteous Person not considering him at all as a Mediatour or Surety and justified him as a fulfiller of it both in Nature and Life and therefore he was under no obligation at all by the Law of Innocency to Suffer but the obligation was from the Law of Redemption or Mediation by his own free and voluntary susception according to the paction betwixt him and the Father The just suffered for the unjust that he might bring us to God If just then by what Law was he just He that is just in Law by that Law that accounts him just as such he cannot be accounted guilty or an offender but Christ was just in the account of the Law of Innocency Hence therefore that which they would gather from Christ's being a publick Person must fall with its foundation for neither the Law nor God by the Law did account that Christ did so personate Sinners as to reckon what he did and suffered they did and suffered What Christ did and suffered it was accounted to be done and suffered for us but not accounted to be done and suffered by us for if so then God should accept satisfaction immediately from us and not from Christ and God must account us immediately to have merited and not Christ i. e. Christ should only be accounted by God as the means whereby we satisfied his Justice and merited Life for our selves for if all that Christ did and suffered be by God reputed as done and suffered by us then I ask for what end for that which was done and suffered by Christ was satisfactory and meritorious now if Christ obeyed and suffered for this end that God might account what he did and suffered to be done and suffered by us then Christ must have obeyed and suffered for this end that God might have satisfaction from us and that we by his means might merit a right to Life Can they prove this thinkest thou Reader 9. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because we cannot be justified by it any other way than by God's imputing it to us as such I Answer If this be so there must be no Justification of a Sinner at all for no Sinner is nor can be formally personally righteous with Christ's righteousness and therefore God doth not account him to be so as hath been proved above 10. If we may truly be said to be dead and crucified with Christ to be quickned with Christ to have risen again with Christ to sit in heavenly places in or with Christ c. then may we be said to have fulfilled the Law with Christ also and consequently the fulfilling of the Law by Christ is imputed to us and accounted ours I Answer The Scripture it is granted saith concerning true Believers that they are dead and crucified with Christ c. But what are they said to be so properly and personally Did they lay down their natural lives with Christ and aâ—ise in his rising again unto a corporal and glorified Life Or did God account them so to have done in Christ when he knows they did not If not as is plain then the meaning is by way of efficacy and likeness Christ indeed hath merited the Holy Spirit and this Spirit is given for the sake of his Merits unto his People by the power and efficacy of which Spirit sin is mortified the Heart crucified to the World and the Soul made alive to God raised from a Death in Sin to a Life of Grace and Holiness and the affections are set upon things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God from whence results a Christian assimulation or likeness to Christ in his Death Crucifixion Resurrection Ascention and Exaltation But what ground from hence to draw such an inference i. e. that we have fulfilled the Law in Christ's fulfilling of it Plain it is no ground at all but the consequence leans to that false supposition that what Christ did and suffered God accounted us to have done and suffered which beside what hath been said already if true then God must account us if Believers to have been born of a Virgin in a Stable to have been circumcised to have disputed with the Doctors in the Temple at Twelve years of Age and to have been subject to Joseph and Mary as our Parents to have been baptized by John the Baptist to have wrought Miracles c. in Christ But who will say this if none then all must hold the thing supposed formerly by many must be false and if they will let the notion go the consequences are none of theirs 11. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only justifying righteousness because all are and continue Sinners while they live and therefore cannot be personally righteous but by God's accounting Christ's righteousness
that which the Apostle opposeth to that Law he speaks of in Philip. 3. 9. the righteousness or observation of which â—e disclaims in point of Justification or as that which gives any right to Christ Pardon and Life And therefore the righteousness of this Law i. e. the Law of Faith is called by the Apostle in this Verse the righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ and the righteousness of God by Faith this this is the righteousness which hath Christ for its Object and is appointed by God in his Covenant of Grace to be our personal justifying righteousness This was the righteousness the Apostle would have that he might be found in him i. e. united unto him Very few of our Divines but they hold we are united to Christ by Faith and this was that the Apostle valued above all union with him seeing then the Apostle opposeth that which gives interest in Christ and union with him unto his own righteousness in this Verse that which gives interest then and unites must be Faith and so he must be far from disclaiming it as dung Now if so Persons will have the righteousness of Christ meant by this righteousness through Faith and by Faith then it must be the righteousness of Christ which unites to Christ and so the same thingmust unite unto and give interest in it self But whoever said this But to proceed no further in this let us hear what they have to say for the vindication of this strict Imputation of Christ's righteousness 1. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because there will be no standing in judgment before God unless we be cloathed with a perfect righteousness and there is no such righteousness but that of Christ's I Answer if the process in judgment should be according to the terms of the Law of Innocency i. e. that Sentence must pass upon Persons according to conformity or non-conformity to this Law then the reason would be cogent But seeing it shall not there is no force in it at all That it shall not See Rom. 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Christ Jesus according to my Gospel 2 Thes 1. 7 8. And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which Scriptures with others make it manifest the Gospel shall be the rule of judgment Hence therefore as Persons in judgment shall be found such as have been obedient or disobedient to the Gospel so shall the Sentence pass to Life or Condemnation John 3. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting LIfe and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Though know it shall be for the sake of Christ's perfect righteousness that such as are found true penitent Believers shall be adjudged to eternal Life at that day seeing had it not been for this his meritorious righteousness there had been no Covenant of Grace and so no accepting of any to Life upon such terms as the Gospel requires so that the whole glory of Believers Salvation must redound to him I speak here of the Adult unless Persons have an interest in and a right unto a perfect righteousness and so unto the righteousness of Christ they shall not be cleared and adjudged to Life in judgment But the Question is Whether all have an interest in and a right unto his righteousness If not Who are they that have Will you say any speaking of the Adult that live under the sound of the Gospel but such as are found obedient thereunto And are not true penitent Believers the Persons which are obedient if so then they are the Persons who shall be cleared and adjudged to eternal Life in judgment But it may be said not for their Repentance and Faith I Answer still not for these as the purchasing meriting causes but upon these as the qualifying matter of right which qualifying matter of right though it be not as is acknowledged a righteousness answerable to the Law of Innocency and so can be no justifying righteousness in the account of that Law yet is a righteousness agreeable to the Gospel and so is a justifying righteousness in the judgment of that Law 2. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because all that are justified are justified by the righteousness of another and this other by whose righteousness they must be justified can be none but Christs I Answer I do not deny but affirm that those that are justified are justified by the righteousness of another and that by Christs and his only as the purchase and merit of Justification But then that this is the qualifying righteousness of mine or another's Person which gives interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life according to the Gospel this I deny For though it be for Christ we are justified yet it is by Faith in him as imputed by God we are formally justified and made righteous which Faith though it be our own and so our own righteousness by free gift and possession yet is none of our own but Christ's in point of Merit and thus we are justified by a righteousness Christ hath merited and God's in point of Efficiency as he by his Spirit is the Author of it And there is this I would ask by the way i. e. Whether Justification be not a Gospel priviledge if it be as I hope it will not be denied Then are not all Gospel priviledges purchased and merited by Christ if so then certainly Justification among the rest And if Justification give me leave further to ask Did Christ purchase and merit his own righteousness you grant he purchased and merited the priviledge of Justification and you say that Christ's righteousness is the only formal justifying righteousness of our Persons must you not then also say that he purchased and merited his own righteousness certainly yes Now pray When or how or by what did Christ this if you say that Christ did not purchase and merit his own righteousness then I ask How did he purchase and merit Justification And how is Justification then in your Sense a Gospel priviledge purchased and merited by Christ It may be you will say that Christ purchased and merited that his righteousness might be imputed by God unto us for our Justification grant this still you must say that he purchased and merited not that which you call the matter of your Justification and so what you say must come to this that Christ did not merit and purchase that which justifies you and if so then that which justifies you must not be that which is purchased and merited by Christ See then however in this if the charge of Socinianism do not fall foul upon your selves
Lord Jesus Christ and it threatens the Impenitent Unbelievers with God's eternal wrath Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Luke 13. 3. I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Now to say that Christ having satisfied Justice and fulfilled the Law neither the Law nor Justice hath any thing against us what is it but to say the Law accounts us righteous and so indeed the Justice of God can find no fault in us and if so then we must have no Sin and if no Sin then no need of forgiveness and if no Sin and so no need of forgiveness then no place for Repentance and Faith I have granted and do grant that Christ hath satisfied the Justice of God and fulfilled the Law for us that we for and through this his righteousness might have Pardon and Life upon our Conformity to the commands of the Gospel but then if he have satisfied and fulfilled the Law for this end that neither the Law nor God's infinite strict Justice may have any thing against us how comes David to pray Psalm 143. 2. Enter not into judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified And how come the best of God's People many times to be under desertion and temporal Afflictions If it be said it is not for Sin I Answer let the Scripture determine Psalm 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit Psalm 89. 30 31 32. If his Children forsake my Law and walk not in my judgments If they break my statutes and keep not my commandments Then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes If it be said to this it is not in pure Justice God Afflicts grant this yet I hope they will not deny but that Afflictions are from God and he is just in what he doth They are castigatory yet none of them are satisfactory nor are they exercised with them for that end But there is this I would take notice of whereas they say the Gospel reveals what Christ hath done and suffered they destroy this by another assertion and so confound Law and Gospel in making the very threatning of the Law of Iâ—nocency to reveal Christ and Salvation by him In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die i. e. say they either thou or thy surety so that here they make the very penal sanction of the Law to be their Gospel And as a learned Person observes If this was the meaning of the penal sanction or threat then it must follow that a Mediatour was promised before the fall for this Covenant i. e. of Works was struck with Man in Innocency And that either Adam understood not his Covenant that was made with him or else knew of a Surety and Redeemer before his fall at least being in a readiness for him in case he should fall And I add if this be the meaning of the threatning that either thou or thy surety shall die then upon the sureties undertaking and suffering Sinners must be immediately cleared seeing the penal sanction or threat had all that which it required and so there can be no punishment due unto them at all in the Sense of that Law neither must they be under the curse of it nor in danger at all of condemnation by it and so however the Elect cannot be Children of wrath by nature though the Scripture saith they are Ephes 2. 3. Among whom also we all had our conversation in time past in the lusts of our flâ—sh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the Children of wrath even as others 15. Christ's righteousness say they must be accounted a Believer's personal justifying righteousness because it cannot be consistent with the Justice of God to justifie without such a righteousness I grant according to the Revelation of God's pleasure it cannot be consistent with the Justice of God to justifie without such a righteousness as Christs but it doth not follow that therefore he must account it a Believer's personal formal righteousness indeed if there had not been satisfaction given to the justice of God for the securing the honour hereof there had been no such thing as the Justification of a Sinner but now God having received satisfaction from Christ it is very consistent with his Justice and Honour thereof to justifie a penitent Believer for the sake of his satisfactory righteousness by virtue of his Gospel constiâ—ution Rom. 3. 25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus The Reason above alledged for the strict Imputation of Christ's righteousness supposeth that Christ's righteousness is not satisfactory for any Sinner until it be made over by God to be the Sinner's personal formal righteousness but so soon as it is the Sinner's personal righteousness then it hath the actual virtue or is actually Efficacious to be satisfactory for that Sinner but not before and thus it is further evident from this their Doctrine that a justified Soul hath a righteousness to be its formal righteousness which is satisfactory to God's infinite strict Justice and so as hath been said before God must immediately receive satisfaction from the Soul accounted by him to be personally righteous with the very righteousness of Christ and thus God must not look upon the Soul in and through Christ and accept it immediately for him but through the righteousness of Christ as it is upon it self and as according to them the Soul is cloathed with it But here I shall take notice of an Exception made Although say they we affirm Christ's righteousness and obedience unto the Law is made ours and so in him as our Surety we fulfill the Law yet doth it not follow that we are justified by the Law and that because it is not the righteousness which we in Person have wrought I Answer This Reason will not invalidate the consequence for if so be that Christ's righteousness and obedience unto the Law be so made ours as that we are counted by God to have fulfilled the Law in him as our Surety then God must account us to have obeyed the Law in his obeying of it for how can he otherwise account us to have fulfilled it in him and â—â— God do account us to have performed in Christ that obedience the Law requires then certainly he must account us to be righteous in the Sense of that Law and if so How then can that Law chuse but justifie us Can any Man account me in truth to have obeyed such a Law in anothers obeying of it and yet at the same time
will answer that law or be accepted by that law or that that law will justifie us upon that Obedience No no for it is only the obedience of Christ that answers that law removes the Curse of it and merits Pardon for our breach of it but the meaning is that whereas God might in justice after Man's wilful fall have insisted upon the very terms of that law which was violated he was pleased in his abundant free grace and rich mercy for the sake of Christ to declare by the new Covenant that now he would accept of the sincere Obedience of poor Sinners and account them Subjects united to Christ and as such having right through him to Pardon and Life which is his justifying of them Now because not only such as profess themselves Socinians but also those that pretend to be Enemies unto them do deny the Covenant of Grace to be purchased by Christ exclaiming against me at a great rate and saying O he is wrong in the very foundation he holds Christ hath merited the Covenant of Grace when it is only the free gift of the Father I judge it a fit place under this head a little more fully to correct the Socinian Spirit in these Men who yet know not it is any such thing that they are in the least possest with and this by clear proof from Scripture that Christ hath purchased this Covenant That then which constitutes the Covenant of Grace betwixt God and Man is God's gracious promise on his part of the gift of saving benefits to Man and Man's engagement on his part through the grace of God to perform all that which may give him right unto and interest in the promised benefits Now if I prove from Scripture that there is no saving benefit which God promiseth to give unto Man nor yet any grace which is required of Man to give him right unto and interest in these benefits but Christ hath purchased them I hope I shall sufficiently have discharged my province in proving the Covenant of Grace to be purchased by Christ 1. In the first place let us consider the benefits that by God are promised or offered in the Promise to Man and as we go along prove that they are purchased by Christ 1. God promiseth Justification Isa 45. 25. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Christ hath purchased Justification Rom. 5. 8. 9. But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him 2. God promiseth reconciliation and peace Isa 27. 5. Or let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me Christ hath purchased this Rom. 5. 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by life Colos 1. 21 22. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight 3. God promiseth remission of Sin Isa 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins And this is purchased by Christ Matth. 26. 28. For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood according to the riches of his grace 4. God promiseth Redemption Psalm 34. 22. The Lord redeemeth the Soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate Christ hath purchased this Redemption from Sin Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good works From Hell and wrath 1 Thes 1. 10. And to wait for his Son from Heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come From the Curse and Condemnation of the violated Law Galat. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree From the power of the Devil Heb. 2. 14. Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil 5. God promiseth Adoption 2 Corinth 6. 17 18. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you And will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty And this is by Christ merited Galat. 4. 5. To redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons 6. God promiseth Eternal Life John 3. 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Christ hath purchased this Ephes 1. 14. Which is the earnest of our Inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory Rom. 5. 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. This I have proved that the rich benefits promised by God which are his part of the Covenant are purchased by Christ I will proceed to prove also that what Grace is required of Man to give him right to and interest in these benefits of the Covenant is purchased by Christ 1. We cannot have right to nor interest in any of the above mentioned benefits without Repentance for without Repentance we must perish Luke 13. 3. I tell you Nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Christ hath purchased this Acts 5. 31. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins And for certain Christ gives nothing but what he hath purchased or the Spirit for this end to work it 2. We cannot have right to nor interest in any of the above mentioned benefits without Faith he that believes not the wrath of God abideth on him Now Christ hath purchased this Philip. 1. 29. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake 3. We cannot have right to nor interest in any of the above mentioned benefits without sincere Obedience which is virtually included in our first consent to be the Lord's Heb. 5. 9. And being made perfect he became the Author of eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him And this
and if they be whether can any one I speak of the Adult have Salvation by Christ who denies these and refuse to give their assent unto them If they cannot how can they be justified without such an assent Being thus it may be said you will have many assenting acts of Faith unto Justification or in that Faith which justifies I Answer implicit I will grant explicit I deny As thus Suppose I propound the above-mentioned Articles to any in order to his assent as I read these Articles if he give credence he implicitely gives his assent to each Article as I go along But then after that I have read them I ask him whether he doth assent to the truth of the whole if he say yea 't is manifest his explicit assent is but one or one explicit act which we call assent But besides assent our consent is requisite to the constituting of true Faith and this consists best in a cordial accepting this one only God to be our God giving him the preheminence in our affections Exod. 20. 2 3. An accepting of him to be our chief or best good that God who is essentially good the fountain of all goodness Hence he is the principal object of our love desire and delight Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth I desire besides thee And besides it implies a free consent to be disposed of by him according to his good pleasure and a being freely willing to be ruled and governed by him according to his Law and holy Commands 2. A consent to take Christ Jesus to be our only Propitiation all prevailing Intercessour and also as our head and Teacher i. e. Christ in all his Offices 3. An accepting of the Holy Spirit to be our Sanctifier to mortifie Sin to bring our hearts in love with holiness to assist us in duty and excite grace in the performance to alienate our Hearts from this World and fix them upon Heaven and heavenly things 4. A sincere consent to perform our Baptismal Vow or Covenant renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil resolving through God's grace for the future to be his obedient Children and faithful Servants fighting against all his and our spiritual Enemies Those who are our Opposites I would gladly know of them or rather I desire them to know of themselves whether any less than such a sincere consent as this above spoken of can bring or put them into a saving justified state or give them which is all one a saving interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life through him If they say less will let it be made appear from Scripture if not then why do they make any opposition upon this consent sincerely given follows practical trust i. e. a well grounded confidence upon God in and through the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit that God for the sake of Christ will be faithful to his promises and make them good unto such who reduce their former consent into persevering practice such who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Rom. 2. 7. Though many times under dark and afflicting providences and dispensations Thus Abraham against hope believed in hope he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform upon our first assent and consent we have an initial right to Christ and Life upon our practical trust we have this right continued which practical trust doth include sincere Obedience and when a Believer is incapacitated for the act and exercise the principle or habit is accepted The heart of Asa was perfect all his days 2 Chron. 15. 17. This practical trust is our adherence to God in Christ by the blessed Spirit in the ways of holiness notwithstanding opposition Acts 11. 23. Who when he came and had seen the grace of God was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Having shewed what a Faith it is which is requisite both to our initial and continued Justification or what Faith it is which is requisite both to our initial and and continued right to Christ and to Pardon and Life purchased by him Let us now consider what this Faith includes as it gives the initial right and so I consider it especially as consisting in consent assent being previous 1. Repentance is included for in our sincere consent to take God to be our God Christ to be our Redeemer which includes an accepting him in all his Offices and the Holy Spirit to be our Sanctifier there is implied a cordial confessing and forsaking of all Sin and this with self loathing self judging enmity and opposition in the Heart against it 2. Love to God and the ways of holiness is included for it cannot be that ever any should sincerely consent to be the Lord's and make choice of the ways of holiness to walk in unless there be such a sight of their excellency and amiableness as draws their Love from Sin and the World and fixeth it principally hereupon 3. This consent includes Obedience radically for there can be no real consent to be Christ's unless there be a full resolution to do and suffer whatsoever he calls us unto this consent we speak of brings Christ and Souls into the Relation of Master and Servants and there cannot be a real consent to be Christ's Servants unless there be a willingness to do the work which he commands us and a resolution through Grace to continue in it so that it is manifest that Faith which justifies or gives right to Pardon and Life it includes Repentance Love to God and radically new Obedience and though it is like upon the matter I may procure to my self the name of a Papist I must not for that be affrighted from owning a truth that bears its own evidence before it But by the way I would have such Persons who are so ready to fix such names upon others as they judge may render them odious to consider what our Divines mean when they say that where there is one Grace there is every Grace and tell me where there is the act and exercise of that Faith which unites to Christ whether there can be this without the exercise of Repentance and Love inclusive what hath been said may give sufficient light to know how to answer the Question to such as desire to learn and think not themselves wise enough already Though seeing I am upon this I shall take leave further to offer this to consideration and let it be under correction that where there is the exercise in truth of Grace the exercise of that one Grace I speak of the sensible exercise doth include the exercise of the most if not the exercise of all Grace As thus Suppose we the exercise of true Repentance there must be
if Grace be defiled so soon as we are the subjects of it or so soon as it is given unto us or wrought in us then how comes it by this defilement it must either be from some change or it remains what it was if it be from some change that it is defiled seeing that this defilement must be moral then it must partake of the nature of Sin and if so it must cease to be Grace and if it do and become Sin as it must if it partake of moral pollution then in whom will mortifying and sanctifying Grace be found If Grace remain what it was and it was pure and good as granted as it had the Spirit as its Author then how comes it to be defiled I do not deny but there is Sin and much Sin where Grace is but then that this Sin pollutes Grace so soon as it is given and so it becomes morally defiled and partakes of the nature of Sin this I cannot reach for I think that what is morally evil must be sin and what is morally polluted must either be sin or sinful and to say sinful Grace and Holiness sounds harsh But it may be said doth not a true Christian exalt and set up his grace above Christ in a time of temptation to spiritual pride because of his grace if the temptation prevail I Answer in a time of temptation to pride if the temptation prevail a Person that is a Christian doth exalt and set up himself but he cannot be said to set up and exalt his grace above Christ hereby nor indeed doth he exalt grace at all because this exalting and high esteem of himself is a depressing of his grace and a putting a stop unto its exercise whereby he should exalt Christ so that grace cannot be the cause of this his pride for it is against its nature but the suppressing of grace or a putting a stop to its exercise by the prevalency of the contrary corruption So then you I say a Man cannot be proud of his grace I answer he cannot be proud of his grace that hath his grace in exercise because a Person is never more humble nor is God in Christ ever more exalted by him than when grace in him is most exercised for it is of the very nature of true grace to depress self lay low the Creature and exalt God and Christ so that the more of grace and the exercise of grace and the more of this But may not a Christian be proud of the exercise of grace I Answer he may be lift up in himself and proud of himself after the exercise of grace not that this exercise is the cause hereof it may be an accidental occasion but then it is the abuse both of grace and the exercise of it The truth is Christians if you would be secured from spiritual pride be kept humble labour to be much in the exercise of grace fear not that the exercise of grace should lead you to rest either in it or in your self for it is against the very nature of it the more of the exercise of grace the more doth the Soul take up its rest in God through Christ It is very strange in some Men O say they you must cast away all your graces and sincere duties and account them as dung and rest wholly upon Christ and his Righteousness just as though there was such an inconsistency and opposition betwixt Christ and the graces of his Spirit and Holy Obedience as that Christ and his Righteousness could not be relied upon and trusted to for acceptation except we laid by grace and sincere duty as useless here when for my part it is a matter quite beyond my reach to know how or with what or in what to rely upon Christ and his Righteousness for my acceptation without grace and the exercise of it in holy duties for think I if I rely upon Christ and his Righteousness I must have some way in which and something by which I must thus rely or how can I But it is like somâ— Men will have neither if both grace and sincere duty must be accounted and cast away as dung here O but say they you must beware of resting upon your grace and sincere duties for your acceptation and so of making a Christ of them I Answer for my part I do not fear this if I have but the truth and exercise of grace for God hath given grace and draws forth grace into exercise for this very end that Persons should rest upon and trust unto Christ's M diation for their acceptation and sure I am grace where it is in act will act according to its nature and this is to lead the Soul that hath it towards God in Christ as its center and rest and therefore if some Persons will amuse themselves and others unnecessarily I cannot help them but I shall pray the Lord to measure my Faith and quicken Grace and grant me the free exercise of it in every duty and then I know I shall be humble advance Christ and rest upon him as my only Mediator to obtain for me the grant of all saving good both Grace and Glory For in whose Hearts soever the Lord is pleased to suppress Pride Hypocrisie and Formality and keep them humble sincere and lively in the practice of Piety it is not possible but such should depend upon Christ both for pardon for the iniquities which attend their best duties and also for their acceptation for whose Hearts so ever are kept humble sincere and lively in grace and so in obedience such Persons cannot chuse but see and know their own sinfulness nothingness spiritual emptiness as considered morally in themselves and so on the contrary admire and adore the grace of God in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit for any thing of distinguishing grace and love towards their Souls and is this some resting in themselves and in their own graces and duties The grace and love of God in Christ Jesus certainly is the most highly advanced in Heaven and what is the reaâ—on but because their grace is perfected in the Spirits of just Men hence therefore the nearer any Soul upon Earth comes towards this Heavenly perfection by the growth and exercise of grace the more humble that Soul will be and the more God in Christ will be adored and glorified in and by that Soul John 15. 8 Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my disciples So that while some Persons caution others against resting in their grace I say beware of Pride Hypocrisie and formality and endeavour after the growth and exercise of grace and then no danger while grace is in its growth and exercise I wish it be not the case of many Professors that while they are pretending highly to advance the Lord Jesus and to rest in him and trust solely unto him they do not content themselves much with formality and take little care to see they have that
intercession of Christ Luke 22. 31 32. And the Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sist you as wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren And that Christ is the Head of his Church which is called his Body I deny not But then that Christ was a publick Person in such a sense as that the Law of Innocency accounted what Christ did the Elect did and what he suffered they suffered I deny and have shewed the vanity of this above And though this Man speak not out plainly yet this seems to be at the bottom and the comparison betwixt Christ and Adam will afford him no such thing I grant that as all mankind were seminally in Adam as the common root so in that respect they fell in him as the prime progagator of a guilty and corrupt nature to his posterity to all that were to proceed from him by natural Generation yet that if Adam had stood and had propagated an Holy Seed that this Seed thus propagated had been secured in their standing by their Parent standing and had not any of them fallen this I want a word from God for its warrant I dare not make it an Article of my Creed Let him find me a promise in the Bible that runs thus or to this purpose either expresly or implicitely Adam if thou keep thy standing then an Holy Seed proceeding from thee by virtue of thy standing shall most certainly stand too and then I will be of the same Faith with him but until then he must excuse my dissent for this is certain to me that though Adam had stood and propagated an Holy Seed yet that Seed would have been under the same Law with their Parent and must have performed in their own Persons the same obedience that Law required of their Parent or else the Law would have condemned them notwithstanding the obedience of their Parent see then if his obedience would have secured their standing without their own personal obedience and that all mankind should have performed a personal constant obedience to the Law of Innocency suppose Adam in his own person had never fallen this we want proof for And so that Christ hath secured by what he hath done and suffered the state and standing of all the Elect without obedience to the Law of Grace I speak of the Adult i. e. though they live and die impenitent disobedient Infidels I deny for all such shall most certainly be brought to Heaven in the way of Repentance Faith and sincere Obedience and the reason is because the Lord Jesus Christ hath merited this for them but let it be proved by them that can that Adam besides his own Justification had he continued Obedient would over and above have merited assuredly grace and strength for the infallible standing of all his posterity which this Man's notion and the notion of others with him upon this point implies Men talk against and decry works of Superarogation holden by the Papists and see not how near they come to this themselves in attributing so much to a meer Man and to his Righteousness 8. I believe saith be that the Lord Jesus Christ the second Person in the blessed Trinity did when the fulness of time was come according to God's purpose and promise for the fulfilling of the conditions and bringing forth of the Grace and Life of this Covenant take upon himself the Nature Flesh and Humanity of the Elect and become God-man having both Natures in the unity of his Person the Godhead and Manhood I grant that Christ the Son of God did in time take upon him Man's Nature and united that Nature into one and the same Person with his Divine Nature but he would have done well if he had shewn first the difference betwixt Christ's Nature Flesh and Humanity considered as Man and secondly how the Nature Flesh and Humanity of the Elect differ from these in other Men. 9. I believe saith he according to the Scriptures that as Christ the Covenant head of the Elect was made under the Law so he was thus made and constituted in the room and stead of his Elect. There is nothing in this Article of his Creed but what I have spoken to before 10. I believe saith he according to Scripture he should have said so far as I understand it that the Father by way of Imputation laid all the iniquity and sin of the Elect upon Christ the Son of his love that he was made sin in a Curse for them and that he bore their sin in his own Body upon the Tree My reply is that Christ who suffered for us was an Holy Innocent Person Holy Harmless Undefiled seperate from Sinners He knew no Sin neither was guile found in his mouth The Sacrifices under the Law they were to be without blemish and without spot and as such were types of the sinless purity of Christ the great Sacrifice He by the eternal Spirit offered up himself without spot to God The Apostle Peter saith the just suffered for the unjust and we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot Therefore Christ as our Mediatour did not take our Sin upon him so as to be accounted by his Father as some say guilty of our faults and offences nor did God the Father account and reckon him as such indeed by his free and voluntary undertaking to satisfie offended justice for us he obliged himself to suffer for our Sins but he never so took our Sins upon him as to be accounted and esteemed by God one that was wicked or a Sinner for if God his Father had thus accounted him as such he must have hated him but did God hate Christ either in his own Person or as our Surety Surely no. The contrary is plain this is my beloved Son and we are said to be accepted in the beloved He was the Holy and Just one in his sufferings yea as our Mediatour for he suffered as such Whereas then it is said Isaiah 53. that God laid upon him the iniquities of us all and by the Apostle Peter that he bore our Sins in his own body upon the tree we are to understand by sin and iniquity punishment for Christ's satisfactory sufferings were a punishment tho' not inflicted upon him considered as a Sinner or transgressor of any Law but voluntarily undertaken and suffered by him in our place and stead for the making our attonement A punishment Christ's sufferings were but yet not with relation to any Sin in or upon himself as our Mediatour but with relation to our Sins which were the remote occasion and procuring cause of his suffering though not as God did account them to be his but as he voluntarily suffered for them which would not have been had we never sinned Christ was not immediately obliged by or upon our sinning to suffer whether he
would or no as a surety in the same bond is immediately obliged in Law to discharge the debt whether he be willing or no in case of the failure of the principal Debtor No for it so his undertaking to suffer would not have been in its nature voluntary and free which undoubtedly it was By this little Readers you may understand in what sense Christ's sufferings were a punishment when therefore you read of our Iniquities and Sins being laid upon Christ you are to understand that punishment which he suffered for us in the sense above It is like some Men at this day do esteem Christ to have been stricken smitten of God and afflicted as he was reputed by God to be the greatest Sinner but God tells such that he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed Isaiah 53. 3 4 5. Now whereas it is said according to our Translation in Isa 53. 6. The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all we shall find the like in very many places of Scripture translated punishment To instance in some Levit. 26. 41. If then their uncircumcised Hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity â—â—NRâ—â— the very same word with that in Isaiah translated iniquity is translated punishment only the affix is added In 1 Sam. 28. 10. Saul speaking to the Witch of Endor assures her that no punishment should happen unto her for that thing useth the very same word â—â—NRâ—â— which we have in Isaiah translated iniquity But it may be said what will you say to that Isa 53. 10. When thou shalt make his Soul an offering for Sin The word translated an offering for Sin is â—â—NRâ—â— guilt and so some read the words when thou shalt make his Soul guilt or guilty and doth not this clearly hold forth that Christ had our Sins translated upon him and was really reputed the Sinner the guilty Person instead of the Elect I Answer no for it is manifest the trespass offering was denominated or called â—â—NRâ—â— guilt not because it was guilty or reputed so to be by God but because by its Blood as a typical Sacrifice it was to expiate and make attonement for the Sin and guilt of the Person for whom it was to be a Sacrifice as many things both in our common acceptation and in the Holy Scriptures receive their denomination from their end and use And further the Learned tells us when this word â—â—NRâ—â— is applied to Christ and to the offerings for trespass as types of him it signifies an expiatory Sacrifice a Piaculum a Sacrifice to attone for heinous crimes These words in Isaiah when thou shalt make his Soul an offering for Sin Musculus reads thus Si posuerit vel posita fuerit anima ejus â—â—NRâ—â— sacrificium pro peccato i. e. if he shall lay down his Soul or if his Soul be laid down a Sacrifice for Sin And in his application of the Text he further saith Utitur Propheta voce legali â—â—NRâ—â— quae in Levitico cap. 5. pro oblatione sumitur quae offerenda erat pro delicto The Prophet useth this Law term â—â—NRâ—â— which in Levit. 5. is taken for an oblation which was to be offered for a fault or trespass And he goes on cum ergoâ—hic dicit ubi posuerit se anima ejus â—â—NRâ—â— nihil aliud intelligit quam sacrificium pro peccato fecit hoc Christus in cruce in quâ semet ipsum Deo Patri pro peccatis nostris sacrificicium expiatorium obtulit When therefore he saith in this place when his Soul shall make her self â—â—NRâ—â— he intends no other but a Sacrifice for Sin and this Christ performed on the Cross upon which he offered up himself an expiatory Sacrifice to God the Father for our Sins Another thus upon the words cum subjecerit seipsum paenis when he shall subject himself to punishments or sufferings And Buxtorf himself a Person familiarly acquainted both with the Rites and Dialect of the Jews reads this word â—â—NRâ—â— oblatio pro reatu an offering for guilt or for the guilty But it is said Verse 12th he bore the sins of many and the word in the Original translated Sin is â—â—NRâ—â— and where do you find that this is translated punishment I Answer In Zechar. 14. 19. This shall be the punishment of Aegypt the word in the Hebrew for punishment is â—â—NRâ—â— And let it be observed this very word translated punishment here is the very same in form with that which is translated Sin-offering denoting that it was so called because it suffered and was offered up for and instead of the Sinner to attone for him And thus and upon this account did Christ the great Sacrifice suffer and was offered up of whom all the Legal Sacrifices were types But it may further be said was not Aaron the High Priest a type of Christ our great High Priest I Answer Yes If so then it is said that Aaron as a type of Christ was to bear the iniquity of the holy things of the Children of Israel which imports that Christ was to have the Sins of all the Elect charged upon him and be accounted by God the Sinner I Answer It is a manifest mistake in this sc that the Persons of Believers are accounted by God clean and their services clean and holy by their having the Sins of those services and duties laid and charged by God upon Christ and reputed his But it is manifest that the Persons of Believers and their duties are accepted by God and the Sins that attend them and their duties pardoned upon the account of Christ's Sacrifice his holy Merits and spotless Mediation and Intercession If Christ take away the filthy garments of his People so as I have shewn when they approach the presence of God and rebuke Satan for them I dare not say let them that will that either God or he puts them upon himself And it is to be observed the word â—â—NRâ—â— translated to bear Exod. 28. 38. hath various acceptations in Scripture and among the rest it signifies deportavit he hath born away or exiled and not only so but condonavit he hath pardoned Numb 14. 19. Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this People according unto the greatness of thy Mercy and as thou hast forgiven this People from Aegypt even until now The word in the Hebrew translated thou hast forgiven is â—â—NRâ—â— the same as to the root we have in the Text before quoted so that the intent of the Holy Spirit therein comes to this that the Lord Jesus Christ our great High Priest and so our Intercessor by the sweet Incense of his Mediation obtains Pardon for all the Sins and iniquities which attended the Holy things of his People so that all their iniquities are hereby born away and as it were exiled and their spiritual performances made acceptable to God But say
in Christ Jesus That we are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus and also that we are not justified by the Law of Innocency and yet in such a way wherein God keeps up the honour of his Law in receiving full satisfaction for our violation of that Law unto his governing justice from our Mediatour I firmly hold but what his meaning is I shall leave and not trouble the Reader with conjectures about it 27. I believe saith he this Righteousness whereby God graciouly justifies his Elect and which they receive by Faith without wavering or violating his Holy Law resides subjectively in the person of Christ and yet may be ours by way of gift and Imputation without being subjectively in us else how is God our God Christ our Saviour Redeemer Prophet Priest and King are these subjectively in us I suppose by being subjectively in us he intends that we are the Subjects And proved I have above that we must be the Subjects of Christ's Righteousness if God account it to be the very formal Righteousness of our Persons And whereas he puts the Question how is God our God and Christ our Saviour Redeemer Prophet Priest and King what are these subjectively ours I Answer If he will say as he seems to intimate that God and Christ as Saviour and Redeemer in all his Offices are ours after the same manner that he faith Christ's Righteousness is made ours i. e. by God's Imputation or his accounting it in its self to be the formal Righteousness of our Persons he implicitly saith this If he will say that God's infinite perfections which are his Essence and so God himself are made by his Imputation or are in his account the perfections of every Believers Person and that Christ's Offices as Prophet Priest and King are made by God's Imputation or are in God's account the Offices of every Believer's Person then he must also say that their Persons in God's account are the subjects of Divine perfections and of Christ's Offices as Mediatour which would be Blasphemy to affirm That God then is so in any Believer as to communicate unto or make his Person a partaker of his Divine perfections or give unto him his Divine perfections in themselves so as that it may be affirmed of his Person it hath Divine properties such as Omniscience Omnipotency c. to say this would be horrid Blasphemy And so that Christ as Saviour and Redeemer is so in any Believer as to communicate unto or make his Person the subject of those Offices which he himself executes as Mediatour so as it may be affirmed of the Believer he executes those Offices in his own Person is a like horrid Blasphemy But now I will tell this Man for all this that it is affirmed in Scripture that God Christ and the Holy Spirit do dwell in the Hearts of Believers 2 Corinth 6. 16. And what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols for ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my People Ephes 3. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith 1 Corinth 3. 16. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you Yea and is their God hereupon as it may be found in the abovesaid 2 Corinth 6. 16. But then it is not by giving unto them after any sort what is proper to God and Christ or that whereby God is God and Christ is Christ and so incommunicable But by giving them that which may be communicated i. e. the effects of God's gracious and merciful Power and the fruits of Christ's Mediation such as the quickening healing inlarging teaching sanctifying Sin mortifying Grace of his Holy Spirit which Grace is from the Father as the fountain through Christ as the Mediatour and by the Spirit as the proximate Author and worker and as this Grace is wrought in them and they after a spiritual sort are quickened healed inlarged taught sanctified and have their Sin mortified hereby they are the subjects of it Now for any to talk of Christ's Righteousness being given to them in it self to be their personal Righteousness or that Righteousness wherewith their Persons are made formally righteous for their Justification and yet say he is the only subject of it and that it is proper to him as Mediatour and cannot be communicated to any Creature is a contradiction for if it be given to any in it self to be the formal Righteousness of their Persons it must be communicated to them in it self for how should any Man's Person be formally righteous with that Righteousness which after no soâ—t in it self can be communicated to his Person In its blessed fruits and effects I grant Christ's Righteousness is communicated to every true penitent Believer but in it self not I wish it may be considered Thus I have done with his Creed consisting of 27 Articles respecting Justification PART II. BUT he hath 25 things yet behind which he calls Questions which I question not he judgeth unanswerable But I shall however since I am doing make an Essay and try what may be done by me through God's assistance in answer however to some of them though the most of them are odd and not worth a Man's while to take up time about them Quest 1. If the Covenant of Grace was made with Christ as the second Adam and with all the Elect in him as his Seed as the Assemblies Catechism saith Then how is Christ the purchaser doth he purchase a Covenant that was made with himself as the undertaker and stands fast in him I Answer Nothing will serve this Man but he will be a downright and barefaced Sociniaâ—â— he will by no means hear that Christ hath purchased the Covenant of Grace But I have already shewed that it was no Covenant of Grace which was made with Christ though it was of Grace to us as it had respect to our Redemption and Salvation And that the Assembly could intend no such thing though he alledge their Authority as I have also cleared unless he will shew us that they contradicted themselves therefore this Question is ungroundedly stated Quest 2. If Christ himself be the Covenant given by the Father as it is written Isa 42. 6 7. and 49. 8 9. How then doth he purchase the Covenant doth he purchase that which he is the subject matter of then he purchased himself Answ Reader What thinkest thou by such Questions as these Well he saith thou feest the Covenant of Grace was made with Christ Now if Christ himself personally considered as he intimates in his Question be the Covenant it self how then say Iâ— could this Covenant be made with him I must answer according to the nature of the matter before me Can a Covenant be made with it self or is the Covenant of Grace a Person consisting of two
supposition i. e. that I hold Faith justifies as an act whereas I deny it and therefore it is a wonder how Men daâ—e appear in writing to the world charging a Man with that which he disowns and which they cannot prove against him and whereas this Man insinuates that I hold Justification by the simple act of Faith without relation to its object He saith as much as that I hold Justification by that which is not Faith for Faith without relation â—o its object is no Faith How Faith justifies I have shewn and also how we are justified by Christ and his righteousness Q. 9. What is that wedding garment that best robe that change of raiment that garment of Salvation and robe of righteousness that fine linnen that 's white and clean Are these our acts of Faith and Obedience or Christ's Righteousness imputed He â—till sings over the old Song and if he would have an Answer if he will take pains to look back thither where I treat of these matters he may find one Q. 10. If Justification be an act of God's free grace wherein he pardoneth all our Sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight only for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by Faith alone as saith the Assemblies How then is Faith itself our justifying Righteousness seeing it doth but only receive Christ's Righteousness which God imputes This he hath puâ—me to answer before in speaking unto the 23d Article of his Faith Q. 11. Whether was it not as possible and easie nay whether was it not more easie for Adam to have obeyed the Law of Innocency being free from sin in his nature as it is for fallen Man dead in Sin to believe and keep the conditions of the new purchased Covenant If so then saith he how doth the exceeding riches of God's grace appear thereby according to such an one that â—â— me whom he names What a Man is this to bring such a thing into question Have I any where or at any time affirmed that it is as easie for a Man dead in Sin to believe and keep the conditions of the Covenant of Grace as it was for innocent Adam to have obeyed the Law of Innocency Thus it is in the practice of such Men as this in the first place falsly to charge such as they know oppose them and thus beget a prejudice in others against them and so bring them over to their own party and keep them fast to them He supposes nay takes it for granted that I hold that which yet I deny i. e. I deny that Sinners have any moral power to repent or believe without the renewing and quickening power of the Spirit of God and seeing his supposition is false his Question is ungrounded and therefore is vain and frivilons for whether he will know it or no I affirm that by grace they are saved who are saved through faith but yet not of themselves it is the gift of God Qâ— 12. Hath Christ purchased a Covenant which accepts of that which is imperfect as such an one still naming me grants Faith to be and so morally evil Is this to honour the Law of God or the death and obedience of the Son of God or to set up the golden calf the fruit of our own brains drawn out of the forge of our imagination and dance about it saying this is thy God O Israel that justifies and saves thee Though I have already said enough for the solution of this yet there is in this which he calls a Question I would have taken notice of i. e. He supposeth seeing that the sincere grace and duties of God's People do not answer the Law of Innocency nor are not a conformity in full to that Law therefore they are morally evil i. e. in plain terms they are no other but Sin for he supposeth Faith to be so and if Faith then all other graces and duties Now I grant that although Persons have true Faith and performs sincere Obedience yet the Law of Innocency in it self or as such a Law condemns them for all this though through and for Christ they are delivered from a condemned state so as that the Laws sentence shall not everlastingly be executed upon them Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And that because Faith in a Redeemer and sincere Obedience is not that conformity to this Law it calls for But then that true Faith in a Redeemer and sincere in Obedience as such are morally evil in themselves and so Sin this I deny for they are both commanded where then or in whomsoever they are found they are a conformity to the will of that God who commands them And can that which is a conformity to God's command be morally evil in it self or in its own nature and so Sin If this were so then it would be all one for Persons to continue disobedient Infidels as to be obedient Believers and this is uncouth Doctrine Indeed neither Faith in a Redeemer or Mediatour nor yet sincere Obedience under that formality only are commanded by the Law of Innocency seeing it is sinless perfect Obedience or obedience in a Subject where is no Sin that it requires seeing then that both the Faith and Obedience above spoken of are commanded they must be commanded by some Law and what Law can this be but a Law of Mercy and Grace which for Christ accepts of the sincere obedience of Faith when God might have insisted upon perfect obedience in a sinless subject Manifest it is that Man as he gathers from others confounds Law and Gospel which sets him and keeps him sadly wrong and dark in the Doctrine of Salvation by Grace through Christ And yet notwithstanding I have ground enough to think that he judgeth himself to be exceeding clear in the matter and looks upon me to be a silly deceived Creature and that there is no Salvation for me if I die an opposer of his confused notions seeing that by what he saith in this which he calls his Question he accounts me no other than a gross Idolater that forms and frames a God intending hereby the Doctrine I own out of the forge of my own brain and imagination calling it a golden calf which I dance about and call upon others to worship By such disdain as this this poor Mâ—n discovers what his Spirit is And though I could retaliate yet I do not think it my way and therefore all I shall say to this which is downright calumny for he cannot prove what he hath said is I wish there may be the like convictions and hopeful work upon his Soul which sometime since were manifest And that the Lord of his abundant Mercy in Jesus Christ if there be the truth of grace in his heart would take away all that which obstructs the exercise of spiriâ—â—al light life and love with relation to
the truths of the Gospel and if there be not that God would work it God in some measure I hope helps me to discharge that commanded duty of praying for and wishing well to the Souls of mine Enemies Q. 13. Whether a Covenant with terms and conditions for fallen Man to perform to give him right to Justification and Life be properly a Covenant of Grace yea or nay I have shewn there is a conditional Covenant or a Covenant that insists upon such or such conditions to be performed by Man through assisting grace purchased and given before Man have any interest in Christ or right to Pardon and Life after an actual sort Texts of Scripture might be multiplied for the proof which are very express both in the Old Testament and New In the Old Testament such as Isa 1. 16 17 18. and 55. 7. Ezech. 18. 21 22 In the New Testament Luke 13. 3. John 3. 16. Acts 3. 19. 10. 43. and 13. 38 39. God in these Scriptures through Christ offers and promiseth Pardon and Life to all penitent believing obedient Sinners upon which then I put the Question whether Sinners I speak of the Adult have actual pardon and right to Life after a special sort while yet they remain in a state of impenitency and unbelief and so in actual rebellion against God or the grant of pardon and right to life is suspended until such time as they by grace become sincere penitent Believers If any should say the former then they must hold that an impenitent unbelieving Soul one that is and continues an actual Rebel against God may yet have special pardon and an actual right to Salvation which is plainly repugnant to Scripture If it be said that these benefits as to the actual donation are suspended until Repentance and Faith must they not then be the terms of conditions upon which these blessings are made over to Sinners If they were not then I ask why the actual donation or gift of them is suspended until Repentance and Faith If it be said first They are no such terms or conditions which Sinners as Efficient causes do work in themselves or perform without the special concurrence and assistance of the Holy Spirit I grant it If it be said 2dly They are no such terms or conditions which though they be wrought by the Holy Spirit and performed by the concurring assistance thereof as are meritorious of or do purchase a grant and donation of the forementioned blessings this I also grant If it be said 3dly That they are no such terms or conditions which in their own nature procure our acceptation with God this I as the former grant for they themselves are accepted of God only for the meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness of Christ But now if Persons will grant that God hath so knit and joined the blessings of Pardon and Life with Repentance and Faith as that none I speak of the Adult shall have through Christ any interest in or actual right unto these benefits but such as are qualified by the Holy Spirit with this grace whereby they may turn from Sin and give their consent sincerely to be the Lord's Servants and own this to be the order or method in which God through Christ dispenseth us saving grace they say the same I intend for I intend no more when I speak of conditions and terms in the Covenant of grace And this same Man after he hath made a great pother and stir in stating most of his remaining Questions with respect to the denial of the condionality of the Covenant yet under his 24th Question he grants if he will stick to what he hath writ that Faith is a condition of Connection and Order so that if he grant thus much which I affirm with relation to the conditionality of the Covenant which he must do or he understands not himself when he saith that faith is a condition of connection and order he owns as much the conditionality of the Covenant as I. And if so be he own condition of the Covenant of this sort then he must hold that Pardon and life as connected to Faith do immediately according to God's appointed order in the Gospel devolve upon him that hath this Faith or else he must eat his words and deny a connection And if so be that these benefits according to God's appointed order in the Gospel immediately devolve upon him that hath this Faith then they must be promised unto him as such an one and so they are as the Scriptures I have mentioned above are express and if they be promised unto him as such an one then he must have that right to these blessings promised which another that wants this condition of connection and order hath not Now then to our purpose I ask is it Christ that this condition of connection and order respects or is it a Sinner if Christ then we must suppose him antecedent to this Faith which he calls a condition of connection and order to have been an unbeliever if the sinner then this condition of connection and order must be on his part and not on Christs and when he hath it he must be a confederate and not Christ according to this Man 's own grant and if the believing Sinner be one of the confederates hereupon then God promising the blessings that are connected with this Faith must be the other and that with relation to the believing Sinner seeing the blessings of Pardon and Life connected with his Faith respects him and not Christ for Christ himself needed pardon or a right to Life for he never was that I can find in a guilty perishing condition as a Sinnerâ— So that now if there be no Covenant of grace as this Man hath affirmed made betwixt God and Sinners but only betwixt God and Christ And yet Christ can be no paâ—ty in this Covenant but believing Sinners go we upon his own concession how must these things be reconciled or this Man be consistent with himself I shall leave it he may see what he can make of it for he hath granted a condition of the Covenant on our part and this there cannot be without a Covenant respecting us which hath no relation to Christ as a party i. e. in his sense There have been many and great contests about this matter i. e. some affirming the Covenant of grace to be absolute others conditional Now in my thoughts there might be a very fair accommodation for under a different consideration the Covenant may be said to be both absolute and conditional Absolute as the whole of the grace and saving benefits of it are free of meer favour through Christ without respect to any merit or procuring desert in us Conditional as God in his infinite wisdom hath stated in his order of dispensation by Christ that there shall be such a connection or conjunction betwixt true Faith Pardon and Life as that none I speak of the Adult shall have any actual interest in or
right to this Pardon and Life without Faith previous thereunto in order of nature and whoever they are that will deny this they must deny the plainest part of Scripture But it may be said do not you affirm that the performance of the condition is required of us I Answer true and the Scripture is express we are injoined to repent believe and obey and not Christ for us doth not this suppose us then it may be said to have a moral power in our selves to repent believe and obey antecedent to the disposing and assisting grace of the Spirit I Answer no God indeed by his command makes it our duty to repent believe and obey his infinite wisdom having ordered this as the best way or means to our having Pardon and Life through Christ and therefore for this purpose will have the commands of the Gospel pressed upon Sinners But then his promise of the gift of this grace through and for Christ to enable us hereunto supposeth our want of moral power and so our insufficiency and inability in our selves to perform which the Spirit convinceth of so that God's commanding us that which we have not in or from our selves to perform without the renewing and assisting grace of his Spirit doth not suppose us to have the moral power of our selves but it only speaks God's order of acting in his dispensations towards Man whom he works upon as a rational Creature who after he is convinced of his Sin and Misery must be acquainted with what is his duty in this case and for this God gives his command as in the case of those at Peter's Sermon and the Jaylor c. But then after acquaintance with his duty and conviction of his own inability to perform God by his promise conveys the grace of his Holy Spirit to give him that ability so that now Man repenting and giving his sincere consent to be obedient to God in Christ the blessings of Pardon and Life according to the tenor of the Covenant of grace devolve upon him for Christ as the subject of the right i. e. as a penitent Believer So that in what I have said it is manifest the terms and conditions of the Covenant performed by Man through assisting grace are no other but terms and conditions of connection and order as hath been explained And here observe this is so far from destroying as that it doth establish the Doctrine of Justification by Faith or that Doctrine which teacheth Faith to be our formal personal Righteousness or that upon which God doth account us by the Covenant of grace subjects that have right through Christ to Pardon and Life seeing that God hath so connected true Faith and these saving benefits as that it is his fixed order by this his Covenant to dispense the latter to such and such only I speak of the Adult as are qualified with the former And if so then such must have a legal right i. e. a right in Law and what is a right in Law but a Righteousness in the sense of that Law and seeing we cannot have a right in the account of the Law of Innocency we cannot have a Righteousness in the account of that Law And if not then we must have another Law and this can be no other if a Remedy as we are fallen Creatures be but a Law of Grace and Mercy and if this must not be then we must have no legal right at all and if no legal right then no Justification there must be no such thing and if there be no such thing then let Persons contend no more about it And though it be true these conditions which are conditions of connection and order have not the Causality of the Efficient or meritorious cause yet they have the place of the matter disposing and qualifying together with the form which is God's accounting them as qualifying matter they constitute the Sinner a Subject that hath right according to the tenor of the Gospel to Pardon and Life through and for Christ and this is the nature of Justification But though this Man in his 24th Question hath granted Faith to be a condition of connection and order which is all that I intend as I have explained my self when I speak of the condition of the Covenant and so granted hereby a Covenant of grace made betwixt God and believers as I have shewn yet his 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th and 19th Questions they all respect the same thing i. e. his denial of the conditionality of the Covenant so consistent is this Man with himself but if he had not granted what he hath yet what I have said upon the former Question i. e. his 13th may be a sufficient solution to these I have mentioned and therefore I shall not take up time nor fill up Paper nor trouble the Reader with them only seeing I have answered him so many Questions I will request the same favour from him that he will answer me these few upon the matter 1. Whether he do Baptize as he calls it Persons Adult considered as so and so qualified or hath he no regard to any qualification but administers the Oâ—dinance to any that offer themselves suppose they be Turks 2. Whether there be any such a thing as any Persons being in Covenant with God If there be thenâ— 3. Whether are they taken into Covenant as Infidels or as Believers If there be not then 4. What is that which Baptism is a sign and Seal of And 5. Who have right to this Seal and that whereof it is a Seal It is only these few I shall propound I desire weight let him glory in number Q. 20. I pass on to his 29th Question If there be no right to Justification and life but by Faith how then or by what are dying Infants saved or by virtue of what Covenant have Infants right to Baptism I Answer By the Covenant of Grace upon the Faith of their Parents He needed not but it is like he would have had the number to have sought the solution of such a Question as this seeing I have at large before answered it in a Manuscript sent to one of his fellow Labourers which it is strange if he have not seen but however to this I remit him and pass on to his Q. 21. Doth not such an one naming me herein render the Doctrine of the most of those accounted Orthodox both Ancient and Modern to be false the prayers of the most sincere impertinent made in Sin and Ignorance and the sufferings of the Martyrs to be foolishness The greatest part of this I have answered already in what I have said to the 22d Article of his Faith only as to that wherein he chargeth me as one that renders the Prayers of the most sincere impertinent made in Sin and Ignorance My Answer is I do most firmly hold that a sincere Prayer though much Sin and Ignorance do and will remain in the Person who put up such a Prayer so long