A SHORT REVIEW OF SOME REFLECTIONS, Made by a Nameless Author, UPON Dr. Crisp's Sermons, In a piece, Entituled, Crispianism Vnmask'd.

With some Remarks upon the Union in the late Agreement in Doctrin among the Dissenting Ministers in London; Subscribed the 16th of December, 1692. and that, as referring unto the present Debates.

Exek. 8. 7. Behold a hole in the Wall, v. 11. Every Man his Censer, (i. e. At­tonement, or Inherent Righteousness) in his Hand; (but not the Obe­die [...]ce of one, Rom. 5. 19.) v. 12. Son of Man, hast thou seen what the H [...]use of Israel do in the dark, every Man in the Chambers of his Imagery?

Prov. 17. 24. Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the Eyes of a Fool are in the end of the Earth,—as roving in his implicit Universals.

Matth. 13. 25. While Men slept, his Enemy came, and sowed Tares among the Wheat, and went his way, (i. e. would not be known, or openly Subscribe to his Work.)

Isa. 28. 17. Judgment also will I lay to the Line, and Righteousness to the Plum­met, and the Hail, (i. e. sharp and impartial dealings, drawn from a deep and weighty Consideration of the Divine Perfections) shall sweep away the Refuge of Lies, and the Waters, (i. e. an over-powering and con­tinued Testimony unto the Truth by the Spirit) shall overflow the hiding-place.

Latet anguis in herba.

By THOMAS EDWARDS, Esq;

London, Printed for Will. Marshall, at the Bible in Newgate-steeet: Where you may be sup­plied with Mr. Edwards's Inquiry into the Gospel-Truth. You may likewise be supplied with most of Dr. Owen's, and Mr. Beverley's Works, and likewise those other lately Pub­lished in Vindication of Dr. Crisp's Works. 1693.

THE Introduction.

Reader,

THere appeared lately, and that openly upon the Stage (in a Religious Sense, or rather pretence) an Italian Quack-Salver; who fail­ing to pass off his Drugs with that Expedition and Success, that his high Conceptions of them might possibly suggest him with, is withdrawn behind the Curtain, and yet we may justly suspect his return upon us in this his Anonymous Proxy, from the Matter and Process of this his Treatise; as Mountebanks, in their unsuccessful Attempts, leave the Remainders of their dying, and yet restorative Hopes, on the Cryptical Efforts, and renewed En­deavours of their Jesters, or Jack-Puddings, in their managing, even the same Design, though but in Disguise, as they themselves had done before. Therefore thou wilt find that all that this our Author produces against Dr. Crisp, is no more as to the Matter and Manner, Ends or Design thereof, than what thou hast formerly seen fully opened, and undeniably invalidated by others, especially in a Treatise, called, NEONOMIANISM UNMASK'D, and A REJOYN­DER by its Author, in Defence of the same; unto which I expect not any sober, or tolerable Reply. The which, our present Latent Author, (though I am apt to think conscious of his fault by his flattering Preamble to his bit­ter, and false Charge against the Doctor) takes no more notice of, than the Journeyman-Taylor did of his Master's Reproof for sewing awry or amiss, but desired he might stitch out altogether. This our Author, as we shall find, doth in the Close of his Treatise. Vain Glory, Itching Fancies, Carnal Appearances, and Prevaricatory Practises, are the infallible Sprouts of a self-Justiciary. Therefore, considering how fully the Truth, and that under a Fundamental Con­sideration thereof, hath been from Dr. Crisp's Works, defended and maintain­ed, I shall be the more concise in my just Remarks upon this our Masquerading Stage-Player, as not being willing actum agere: Only I would desire thee to consider these few Heads:

1. That the present Controversie lies not between Protestant and Protestant, in the general as such, i. e. Church of England-Man, Presbyterian, Con­gregational, or Baptist, either as to Forms of Worship, or Modes of Discipline and their different perswasions therein; neither doth it primarily or positively, [Page] consist in the order of God's Dispensation in the Covenant of Grace, for herein many upright Souls may unexitially be mistaken, (though this be the sub­terfuge our Adversaries most miserably betake themselves unto, to amuse both their Readers and Hearers with) but whether indeed there be such a Covenant of Grace, as is mainly constitutive of a Representative Headship, in a pr [...]per, and not barely and s [...]lely a Political Sense, together with an actual, real Com­mutation, in an external Juridical Acceptation of Sin and Righteousness between Christ and the Fl [...]ct, not by Infusion but Imputation. This is that they would under their g [...]ngling Pretences of the Merits of Christ, Holiness, Duties and Works, rem [...]ve out of the way; which when done, Farewel Reformation, and the Covenant it self to Beet; for by this they absolutely condemn our Separati­on from the Church of Rome, and exp [...]se us justly to the Charge of Shifm and Schismaticks, and stabilitate the Council of Trent: Nay, I dare confidently assert and can make it evidently appear, that there is never a Jesuit in the World but might unequivocally, and that safely, as well as gladly, and round­ly would, if requested thereunto, subscribe unto their Treatises: Wherefore,

2. Note, That when-ever these our self-Justificaries speak mostly of the Do­ctrin of Justification, and therein would express themselves by the Preposition [in] but [for] or [by] as knowing that the two latter are more capable in the Letter, tho' not in the least, as to the Analogy of Faith, of a remoter Con­struction, as to a Causality in the same, and consequently becomes a more adap­ted, suitable, and undiscerned retirement to lodge their rotten Hypothesis in; hence it is also that their revived Cerberus's Head, dogmatically asserts, with­out any manner of proof, or so much as once offering at the same. Mr. D. Wil­liams's Defence of Gospel-Truth, p. 3. ‘That Merit and Matter in Judicial Acts or the same; which is a positive Falshood, either as to their identick or essential Coincidence, or their more proper and d [...]inct uses, and Applications, tho' here [...]n their wicked retiring holes do lye.’ Thus [...]ing them into a convertibility of terms, they think to secure themselves as much as may be from othe Observations of others; whereas in their Teaching [...] and Wri­tings they absolutely contradict their own Assertion, by separating between Me­rit and Matter in our Justification, as that they take Merit of Christ's Righte­ousness, from the Matter of the same, which as they say abides in him, and ap­ply it to the matter of our own Righteousness, the former being in Christ, the latter in us; which indeed is but our Justifaction, not Justification, by ver­tue of the same; therefore thou wilt find, by a diligent attendance upon their Treatises in the whole scope and design of them, that they allow unto Christ but a meer Adjunctive station unto the Covenant of Grace, or to be but a by­stander, and Looker on upon poor Sinners: That as they come in by Faith and Repen [...]ance (notwithstanding their acknowledging that it is by his Merits and Spirit) then it is that he steps in to apply a promise; and that as they continue in the same, so continues he in the discharge of this his Neonomian Office, as by them assigned unto him. Whence it genuinly follows:

[Page] 3. That their exploding of Dr. Crisp for an Antinomian, and exp [...]sing him as One that is an Enemy to, and Rejecter of Graces, Duties, and good Works, an Espouser of Sin, as disowning of any Evil to be therein, arises from his not acknowledging of some causally-conditional (th [...]ugh not meritori­ous, with all our Adversaries blinding Arts) Prerequisites to our Justification; which had he done, he must have openly defied, Rom. 4. 5.and many more Texts that I could name, to the absolute overthrow of the whole Oeconomy of the Covenant of Grace; but that in an acquitted and Righteous sense, must be not only through, but as being chosen in Christ, and thereby in time made actual Members of that Mystical Head, and that from, and by vertue of this our Fountain Union with him in Election, vertually by Redemption, and ma­nifestatively by Effectual Calling, both the Change of our Natures is wrought, and consequently the performance of our Duties, become exp [...]rimentally unto us, acceptable with God. From a neglect of a due Consideration of the foregoing Heads. I must tell thee, and that from my own Experience and Knowledge;

That of all the Persons in the World, that I have been acquainted with, especial Professors, either in their Polemical Writings, Ep [...]st [...]lary Argumenta­tions, or all Conferenc [...]s; I never met with (I speak not of any of the for­mer perswasions, whereby they are distinguished as such, as being satisfied, that there are many truly worthy of each of them) a more prevaricating, incon­sistent, false dealing, and vain glorious people, than such as are settled and fix­ed upon this Neononomian bottom, and that as a Judgment of God, resting upon them for their abuse of his Righteousness, so as to make it truckle thereunto in the bare Merits of the same, and become thereby a meer Drudge to our own Righteousness, or the Righteousness of the Spirit wrought within us which doth not only cast us the Foundation, but brings also a disorder into the proper, pecu­liar Acts of the Trinity it self, in their positively distinct personal Operations, wherein and whereby the Scripture evidently declares (Maugre all the So­cinian and Arminian Quodammodo's) the perfect Exaltation, Glory and Renown of one Eternal Deity, in the subservient, regular, and conj [...]ynt ma­nagement of that Covenant, which these persons would overthrow) as carried on by these threee bl [...]ssed Subsistenci [...]s, though essentially One; for the Father properly serves not the Son herein, nor the Son the Spirit, though each unani­m [...]usly carry on the same design, yet it is by a distinct Demonstration and Ap­plication of both the form and matter of the same, as Graciously engaged in and by their own voluntary and everlasting Counsels. Hence it is that the Pha­risees of old fell short of their Justification, notwithstanding their owning of the Grace of God, and their great Expectations from the same, in order unto it, Luk. 18. 81. &c. and which is remarkable in reference unto Peter himself; who when he began to warp in this point, Gal. 2. He is treated with, as no less than a Dissembler, and all those s [...]ding with him to be un­der the Power and Prevalency of Dissimulation for a time▪ The reason of [Page] God's Jealousie herein, and consequently his Judgment upon them is very plain, in that it is the same Righteousness in God, that he will have exalted both in the Salvation and Damnation of a Sinner, and that as exerted by, and held forth in the the Law, though towards the latter immediately, but to the for­mer in, and [mediately] through Christ, and that not as to the meer Ef­fects thereof, though they follow thereupon, but the solid substantial Appear­ance and Application of the same, as the stabilitating Ground and Juridical Foundation of both their Bliss and Misery, together with the just Proceedings of God therein. Mark Rom. 3. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. For it is the self-same Righ­teousness, under the just prosecuting Sentence and Charge whereof the Damned lie, in which it is that the Elect stand justify'd before God. Thus the same Doctrin preached by the same Apostles, became the Savour of Life, unto some, and the Savour of Death unto Death, unto others, 2 Cor. 2. 15, 16. comp. Rom. 10. 3, 4. Therefore of Grace; for why should any one be made Parta­ker of that unto his Salvation, which pronounces a just Sentence of Condemna­tion upon another, but that it is meerly of Grace? The one standing justified in that which passes a Sentence of Condemnation upon the other. He that hath Ears to hear, let him hear.

A SHORT REVIEW OF SOME REFLECTIONS, &c.

IN all Buildings, the Foundation is to be first secured; for where that is laid essen­tially and entirely in an Error, it is absolutely impossible to be true unto it in an erected Fabrick upon the same, without a continued Superstructure of Errors, Men­dacium mendaciis tegit, nè perfluat; for as Truth cannot be retained, and defended but by Truth, there being an inseparable connexion between that of the lowest, and highest Degree and Station thereof in the Church of God, as there was of every Nail and Thred of a Fringe in the Tabernacle, to the Priest, Altar, and Sacrifice; so neither can Error be justly maintained, and genuinely pleaded for, but by a constant Enumeration of Errors, (those being a decorum and order, even in Romances, and Play Books, as well as other things.) Hence it is that these two things do infallibly fall out, especially in days of more than ordinary Tryals; when the Lord Jesus comes with his Fan in his Hand, by this or the other Providence, thorowly to purge his Floor.

1. That the more the Heretick, properly such (which I take to be one that either removes or perverts the Foundation that God hath laid) is put upon the defensative part of his Error, he still adhering unto the same, though never so latent at first, or for a while, and consequently undiscerned, the more speedily and clearly, both he, and it will appear unto others. This is evident beyond all manner of Dispute in our Neo­nomian Contestors this day, as will fully appear anon.

2. That many who may seem to differ much, even to a direct opposition, as to ap­pearance at least in several Circumstantials, and more Minute Appendixes unto Truth, as arising either from their Darkness, and consequently invincible mistakes, in apprehend­ing one another, their peculiar mode of expressing themselves, or their timing of each par­ticular Truth, in assigning unto it its proper and more individual station, order, use, and dependance; yet these as truly holding the Head, especially in reference to the Doctrin of Justification (the Controverted point this day) whatever their present Dissonancy, and thereupon Exasperations may be, as between Luther and Calvin, will sooner or later coalesce, and fall into One, as being truly Members of the same Mystical Body, because the Foundation is the same, on which they are both laid and built. This will evidently appear from its contrary; and that, as relating unto the apparent Apostacies that have discovered themselves in the Treatises of some later, as well as former Writers; who notwithstanding their Vigour against the Papacy, even to a Preparation for its Burial by a winding-sheet, yet upon trial of them in the Fundamental Points (which we must stick unto, or we not only lose all, but east a most wretched Aspersion upon the Providences of God, and vindicate the Proceeding of our Enemies in the Death of the Martyrs) of Re­formation, [Page 2] have been driven to shelter themselves under its argumentative Umbrage, and to draw forth the Arrows of their Defence out of it Quiver; yea, and as it is too noto­riously known to assign in a manner unto it from Protestanism, in the general the very right Hand of Fellowship in Christoanity; and all because the bottom is the same, on which they are fixed both in their Hopes and Trust, it being natural for every thing to incline to its designed, and as such proper and uniting Center. Jo. 5. 40. comp. ch. 6. 64, 65, 68, 69. Hinc illae lachrymae!

The matter and truth in Controversie, having been by others so justly and fully stated and defended, we may be the more brief with this our blank Author, especially, considering how weak, as well as false, his Attempts are against the same.

His confident and grave Trumpeter tells us in the Preface, That the wrath of Man works not the Righteousness of God; much less I am sure doth our Author's lurking, and yet open Po­liticks, with their false Reserves, contribute in the least to the Manifestation of the same, wherewith his Pamphlet is sufficiently stuffed; for as Wrath is the resultive Operation of Anger, which Anger is a Passion, created in the Soul by God himself, and drawn forth into its proper exercise by him into that which the Scripture calls Zeal for his Glory; so also is Politicism in Man, a meer exurgency from that reasoning faculty within him, by which he is distin­guished as well as by others of his Qualifications from the Beasts that perish; but all thes­ [...]re discriminatively adjudged as to their sinful or gracious position, frame, or operation, ae they co-work with, or for, or against the Righteousness of God, and that as to their principles and ends, the very Text our Prefacer produces, sufficiently Demonstrates the same. 1 Sams 2. 13. &c. 1 Kin. 18. 27. 2 Kin. 3. 13, 14. ch. 1. 10. Luk. 9. 54, 55. Judg. 5. 23. Eph. 4. 26. Ab equis, ad asinos.

Our Author in his first, and part of the second page, highly commends (after a little vent of his Gall) Dr. Crisp's Sermons, and that for some certain uses and ends that he is pleased to assign unto them: That he exalts Free-Grace, Christ's Righteousness, his Paths, in expres­sing the astonishing love of Jesus, and that in the Redemption of Mankind, how Mercy and Truth, Righteousness and Peace met, and kissed each other in him, that Justice and Goodness had their equal discovery in his satisfaction, and how that he depresses good Works and holy Duties, (but observe how he takes him, p. 2▪ as to satisfying God's Justice, or meriting any thing for us. Here the hooks lies) from being ingredieats of Justification, and so on. I doubt this word irgredients will prove but a very nasty one, by then we have compared it with his ten charges against the Doctor; but for all this we must endeavour as inoffensively and ho­nestly as we can to rescue him out of his Hands, for I never iiked ovem lupo committere, or Agninis lactibus canem alligare, since we see our Author hath no sooner got him into his clut­ches, by his fawning reserved acknowledgments, but like the Lyon in the Fable, tears him to pieces.

Some few things to be remarked out of our Author, p. 2, 3, 4. before we enter precisely upon his Decemvir'd Charge against the Doctor.

1. His inconsistency, even whilst he endeavours falsly to charge the Doctor wirh the same (besides, as we shall see in the Close of his Treatise how he overthrows the whole of his Forgery, and that even with his own Pen unto our Hands) from comparing what he says, p. 2, 3, and 4. and several other places, with what his Armour-bearer in the Preface expres­ses: ‘Far be it from me to censure or arraign the State and Spirit (note those words State and Spirit) of the Reverend Dr. Crisp, whose Soul I take to be in Heaven, and whose Inten­tions and Designs might be sincere and good, though not so distinctly see the nature, order, and mutual Rela [...]ions and Dependencies, to and upon each other. Pref. l. 17, 22. Author, p. [...]. His Zeal for Christ's imputed Righteousness, makes him vilifie, and almost, (mark that word) exclude an inherent Righteousness of our own; comp. p. 3. Though the Author of these Sermons often attempts to perswade you thas he is no Antinomian, i. e. that he is not against the Law of Righteousness and Holiness; that he is no discourager of of Faith and good Works, and the several Duties of Religion; yet nothing is more evident than this, that he is a professed Enemy to these, and useth all the Art he can to make others so.’ Suit but these together, and thou wilt find a Preliminary Transcript of [Page 3] both his Treachery and I [...]consistency, wherewith we shall be sufficiently glutted anon; besides p. 58. He makes him a Derider of the new Birth, with many other false, as well as bitter Sar­casms, which should they be but in the Hundredth part of them true, would absolutely bespeak the Doctor a Reprobate, Gal. 4. 29, 30. Scarce one, or but very few of his Stigmatizing marks, if Faith in its Analogy be attended unto, that can be reckoned of the spots of God's Children.

2. HIS Displeasure against him for separating between Justification and Sanctification, which the Holy Scriptures (as he says) always joyn together, p. 3. but not as to the ends for which our Author and his Jesuitical Fraternity would have them promiscuously jumbled together; does the Scripture joyn them, and in no other a Sense doth the Doctor separate them.

3. HIS solemn Appeal unto the Searcher of Hearts, before he enters upon this his allowed, deliberate, and studied false Dealings with the Doctor, of his Innocence in the same, I could tell him of the like Attempt of another, with whom God hath met in the very Language of his Imprecation. Let him and such remember Ananias and Sapphira.

BUT to the charges themselves: Or, ab equis ad asinos, from bad to worse: But, before we proceed, note, Reader,

THAT there is not one Charge of the whole ten that our Author produces against the Do­ctor, wherein he may be said to have done him the least piece of Justice, or to deal equi­tably with him according to the matter he hath in Hand, and that in the very literal De­pendant Construction of the same which, if otherwise thou findest upon an unequivocal, plain, and candid comparing of the Doctor, with his Traducer, and that according to the pure simplicity of the Gospel, I will lay my Head under thy Feet, to be trampled into Pow­der. And this, without any manner of reserves, (God assisting) I shall nakedly clear up unto thee; therefore look to it that thou be not deceived herein, either by the Author; or any other, Act. 20. 29. 1 Thess. 5. 21. Act. 17. 11. for herein I must declare my Judgment, leaving thee to thine own, and am ready to make it good at any time, that the whole of what I have yet seen in Print against Dr. Crisp, take it in the full matter, and compacted design thereof, will no more avail, in order unto thy Salvation, than the Turkish Alcoran it self would: Nay further, should any one be saved upon the Principles urged, tho' hut tacitly, and somewhat obscurely for the present, by these (to say, the best of them) Semi-justicia­ries, Rom. 9. 31, 32. his Hallelujahs in Heaven, as genuinly springing from such a root, would be but meer Hypocrisie, sufficiently seasoned with a Proud, Pharisaical, and vain-glo­rious Spirit, Luk. 18. 11. &c. This I tell thee again and again, I will be bound to main­tain. And as I would beg no Man's Vote or Subscription to the work that lies before me, as one that designed to catch or ensnare Souls from an appearance of Numbers and Names, one of Bellarmine's 15 marks of a true Church; so neither would I conceal my self as one con­scious of a vile undertaking: But that which is most lamentable, and calls for pity in our Author, as not far distant from the unpardonable Sin it self, if I understand any thing of the Word of God, is, His deliberate, contrived, and consequently approv­ed Actings against his own Light, (as with rhe Jews of old; who, Three things concur to the making up of the Sin against the Holy Ghost: 1. Light in the Mind. 2. Ma­lice in the Heart. 3: The Insensibleness of the Sin. Mr. Dod's first Sheet, and 27th. Say­ing. though the Matter of Fact, in the Miracles our Saviour wrought was plain, naked, and so convincingly open before them, that they them­selves could not gainsay, yet such was their Malice against the truth, that they would rather ascribe the power which they were wrought unto Beelzebub, than the Finger of God) for there is scarce any one of his Charges against the Doctor, but evidently demonstrates, if the place be view'd, that his confutation lay before his Eyes, even then when he was picking the Matter thereof out of his Works: Therefore thou wilt find, that when-ever he is forced to own or Subscribe unto some things, as being Truths in the Doctor's Treatise, he endeavours thereby to blast his Reputation, without any manner of Proof, as confidently assigning unto the whole of his Labours, but a more crafty fetch, ridiculing of the Gospel, and all to deceive the People, with several such dogmatical Assertions, without any just demonstration, mix'd with some Theatrical Flourishes, so far from having in them any Savour of Grace, or ap­pearance [Page 4] of truth; that indeed there is not so much as the least Tincture o [...] common-Morality in the whole Scope of this his pitiful Pamphlet, wherein h [...] barking or canine keenness, Psal. 59. 6, 7. is far more acceptable than all his fawning Treacheries, by which he would usher in his pestilent, both Antinomian, as well as Neonomian Heresies. I must confess that the shaking of my Dog's Tail is more pleasing, as having more of Sincerity in it, than the whole of his introductory Sycophancy to this his Treatise.

For the Proof of which, we shall consider our Author's first Charge, to begin withal.

1. He tells us, Page 4. That, the Doctor will not ascribe unto Faith that which the Apostle [...]aul so often doth, in our Justification before God: and withal, that under a pretence of exalting Christ, (to omit the rest of his pitiful, wyre-drawn, and forced Sophisms) he denies that we are justified by Faith in Christ—Take a View (Reader) of his false Treachery herein, and therein judge, who it is (though our Author would impudently fix it upon the Doctor) that truly stumbles at the Threshold, whether the Traduced, or his Accuser. The Doctor, p. 98. (whence our Author curtails his partial Quotation against him) distinguishes between a pas­sive and active recipiency of Christ, (which indeed, if truly weighed, is the very plague, as well as Test, of an Arminian. This Discrimination, and the Doctors, manifest literal and ex­pressed design therein, had our Author but honestly attended unto, and justly represented to his Reader, he knew would have absolutely overthrown the whole of his undertaking, subverted him in the very Grounds of his Proceedings against him, and unvail'd him of all his forged seemingly colourable pretences, whereon, and wherein he constantly fixes and shades himself in the vileness of his Charge against him, and thereupon miserably concludes, that a Man may have a part in Christ, either without, or destitute of Faith, (i. e.) living and dying in unbelief. But Sir Ignoto Author, or Knight of the Post rather, know this, that we must not be run down with bantering Impudence, empty Flourishes, much less forged Accusation, but expect both our Information and Establishment, from clear and undeniable Demonstrations, back'd and fortified with solid and well-quadrated Scripture-proofs. And this the Dr. doth immediately in the following Page, 99. from Jer. 31. 18, 19. which our Author takes no notice of, though it at the very time of this his Forgery, look'd, yea, stared him fully in the Face. The summ and substance whereof is this, That Ephraim must be turned, before she can turn unto the Lord; That she never reflected upon her self, till after her conversion. And doth not this bespeak a passive part she had in the Lord, or a pre-pos­sessing Act of God in her Soul, before she could in the least put forth an active recipiency of him? And doth not the latter absolutely depend upon the former? Is not this also the Judgment of the Assemblies? Cha. 10: Art. 2. ‘This effectual Call is of God's free and special Grace alone, not from any thing at all foreseen in Man, who is altogether Passive therein, until being quickned, and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby ena­bled to answer this call, and to embrace the Grace offered and conveyed in it.’ This the Doctor furthet proves, Ibid. from Psal. 110. 3. where he tells us, ‘Hence it is that the entrance of Christ into a Person, is attributed unto the Power of Christ, the Power of the Lord must come over a Person before Christ can have a possession of that Person, (and then gives this reason) in regard of the crosness of the Spirit of Man, to the plea­sure of Christ; when Christ hath once revealed himself, and made the Soul behold his Beauty, and acquainted the Soul with his Excellency, then the Soul begins to embrace him, (mark that, Reader) and to hold him fast, and will not let him go.’Doth the Do­ctor now exclude Faith in the Apostle's Sense? Or rather doth he not assign to it, its pro­per place, according unto, Act. 13. 48. Gal. 1. 15, 16. This Orthodoxy, (though nause­ous to our Authors Arminian Palate, and which puts him upon so many miserable shifts, may be proved and cleared from several exemplary Instances in Scripture, as well as positively Do­ctrinal points in the same; for it is not the most Gracious Internal Actings of the Soul, tho' wrought and maintained of God himself, that works a Change in our personal Covenant-State; consider it well, (Reader) and weigh it in the ballances of the Sanctuary, and that without respect of Persons or Parties; for as God's Act in Justification is purely Forensick, and therein respects our Persons, and depends not in the least upon his Physical Operation, which [Page 5] is entirely regenerative, whose subject therein properly is our Natures; so also neither doth our part in him in the act of Conversion it self, depend upon our actual closing with him, any further than our passive recipiency of him makes way for the same, both in its productive cause, and continued, irresistible, and yet Gracious complying Designs. This is clear from Joh. 1. 12. wherein a passive Reception of Christ, is that which precedes an active one. See also 1 Joh. 4. 10, 19 Isa. 65. 1. Joh. 15. 16. comp. v. 5. ch. 1. 48, 49. 50. Phil. 1. 6. Ezek. 16. 60, 61, 62, 63. Thus it was with A [...]am, the Proto-Applicatory Subject of this Grace, after his fall. How did the Lord deal with him, in order to his Re­covery? Did he wait for an actual Exhibition of his Faith to justifie him for the same? Nay, did he not rather pursue him, when Rebelliously, under the obstinate Fruits, and reigning Effects of his (and ours in him) Federal Act of Apostacy? But with what? even a promise. But what was this promise? the Seed of the Woman. And what was this Seed in the root, or primary Acceptation of it? I suppose, Christ, (which is evident in Eve's mistake, Gen. 4. 1. besides many other undeniable Scriptural positive Proofs) therefore reckoned upon as the first Born, first Fruits, yea, first Gift, and to have the Preheminence in all things, before even Faith, or any other work of the Spirit, which is fully expressive of not only the nature as to the matter, but executive form it self of the Covenant of Grace, which Covenant consists of Promises, or, as Dr. Goodwin says, That the Covenant of Grace, is, Ele­ction-purposes and decrees wrapt up in promises: But what are these promises? Mr. Strong, in his Treatise of the Covenants, tells us, That they consist not only of two kinds, viz. personal and real, but that the former takes place in the administration of the same from the latter. If so, then our Doctor is right; that Christ is not only the first Gift, but that until we receive him in a passive Sense, how can he be unto us the Finisher, much less the Author of our Faith? And 'tis true, that God convinces our first Parents of their sin, and therein begins with Adam, which is somewhat remarkable, though Eve was first in the Transgression, yet chose rather to deal with the former, as that in and by him, as a Representative Head, he dealt with all his posterity. But what is the Fruit of all his convincing, though just Proceedings against him? Nothing but a continued act of Rebellion, and that notwith­standing all the mild Proceedings of the Lord with him, even in the cool of the Evening, not so much as a bare acknowledgment of a matter of Fact in a Transgressive Sense, but ra­ther an aggravating of the same, by their (or our first Parents) ultimate, tho' tacit, cast­ing the cause thereof upon God, rather than themselves. Which way doth the Lord take to restore them, or to bring them to himself? It is evident, by the application of a promise, and that under a personal Consideration, before any of that which betokens a real one, Gen. 3. 15. comp. v. 21. The Person included in the promise, they first receive, and thereup­on their Cloathing or Justifying Garment, typified in the Coats of Skins, which were made, or wrought out, and also truly applied by the Lord himself, Rom. 3. 23, 24, 25, 26: Thus it was with Paul himself, who had a passive part in Christ, (I speak it not of that which is barely decretive, or redemptive) even before his actual closing with him, Act. 9. 3, 4, 5. comp. v. 6. And is not this Dr. Crisp's Doctrin, in his distinguishing between a passive, and active recipiency of Christ, namely, That God, out of his Bowels of Pity and Mercy, will reach out his Christ to those that have no Hands to receive him, no Faith to believe in him, but are rather as froward Patients, shutting their Teeth against their Remedy: And is not this evident, without the least reserve in the case of Paul, as well as that of Adam? as that the part the Elect have in him, in a convertive Sense, proceeds primarily from a passive Application of them unto their Souls, as precedaneous unto their actual knowing, and voluntary closing with him, Act. 22. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Nay, take it in the most gentle of God's Proceedings with his Adult Elect in the Act of Conversion, or his bringing them over by Faith unto himself, they are primarily passive herein. Consult for an instance but the case of Lydia, and the Lord's dealing with her Soul, Act. 16. wherein it was evident that her Faith was the Fruit of Union, or that she had a passive part in the Lord (besides that of a decretive, and so a Fountain one; and that of a redeemed, purchased, and so a truly virtual one) before she actually closed with [Page 6] him in the recipiency of Faith, properly so; for it is well known, though Faith be the instrumental cause, yet that it is the Spirit that is personally, and so peculiarly the effici­ent cause of our Justification, and that not by an infusion of qualities, but positive, sub­stantial Application of that Righteousness (as being his voluntary, gracious undertaken Office) whereof, and wherein he makes it not only to appear, that Christ is the Meri­torious, but material cause of the same, and that not by the Mediums of Graces, as Mediator only, but the solid actual Obedience of him, who on that very account be­came their Representative Head, Joh. 16. 13, 14. comp. Rom. 5. 19. And though none of these stand asunder in the compleat uniting, as well as operative, and consequently Testi­monial Act of our Justification, but to say or suppose that the two former are not subse­quent unto, and do not wholly depend upon the latter, and that as to the very essence of our justified State, as well as Order, is at one blow to build and establish the Covenant of Grace upon that of Works, and thereby to assign such a CAƲSA SINE QƲA NON, unto our believing (as our Author very closely infers p. 4. l. 30, 31, 32, &c. that Faith is not so much a Manifestation as an entitling Grace, and what that means, we know very well) that the whole Mysteries of the Gospel, in Election, Redemption; yea, and Vocation also in the effectual Application of them both, as to imputation on the one Hand, and Inhaesi­on on the other unto a Sinner, must attend upon our Faith, and that as the antecedent Faederal (but not meritorious by any means, though perhaps, STILO NEONOMIANENSI, acquisititious) condition of all the benefits, both designed by, and received from them. This is evident, I say, in the Example of Lydia. That the Lord opened her Heart, is too notorious to be denied, and that this opening of her Heart is express'd and clear'd up from the Fruit thereof, even her Attendance upon what Paul spake, which was no more than the hearing of Faith; it was Faith upon this opening that caused her to listen: Now, is it not as evident a Demonstration of Irrationality in Logick, as it is of Heresie in Divinity, if we do but attend unto the Analogy of the Covenant of Grace, ut priùs, in all the parts thereof, and that, both of personal as well as real promises, the latter depending upon the former: That she should either have her Heart opened by the Lord, and that there­by she should attend unto what the Lord by Paul spake unto her, and yet not to be pre-possessed of, or by the Lord, unto both this opening and attendance.

TO deny this, is not only blockish Nonsense, but a [...], or, Man's self-ability engaging against God. The Divinity, and therein Re [...]gion and Practice of some in this our day, may in a more especial manner, by way of allusion, be observed from the proceeding of that wicked King Ahaz, 2 Kin. 16. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Who, tho' after the sight of the Altar at Damascus, and his thereupon bringing it in the exactly, made formative frame, and material fixing of it in the House of the Lord; yet removed not the Altar of the Lord wholly out of the House, but displaced it, and that not as to render it entirely useless, or of no advantage unto him, but that under a colour of enquiring by it, he might the more pretextually, or covertly go on in the establishing himself in his own ways of Works and Holiness, as knowing that the Merits, or Worth of all his performances, did typically lye there; therefore a Brazen Altar, as acknowledged by himself. Thus ac­cording to our Neonomian Heresie, some allow unto Christ but an adjunctive station (remote enough from the fixed design of God) unto the Covenant of Grace, as to the acceptance, both of our Persons and Performances with the Lord, i. e. That as we perform this or the other duty, though therein we Sacrifice but to our own Nets, yet it is but running to this Altar, or the Merits thereof, by which we must enquire into, and come to know that our Works, and consequently our own persons become in a justifying Sense approved by, or acceptable with him.

From hence our Author, p. 5. lets fly his barking, or concisionary Arrows against the Doctor, through the sides of Beza, whose treatment is at best but tragi-comoedial, or ra­ther comoedially-tragical: Alass, poor Beza, who it seems in his Sense is but a Pretender to mend Texts, nay, an Alterer of them, by Daring and Presumptious Practices, instead of a just Explainer of them, as our Author acknowledges, though with a, perhaps, (as Hobs upon [Page 7] his Atheistical Entrance into Eternity) it was the only considerable fault (more canino & dogmatico,) in that worthy (by all means to Sugar the Pill) Man's Annotations. But however it seems, Beza must down, for in the judgment of our Scrutinous blind-Mans-buff he hath opened a Text of Scripture, that gives too great a Countenance to the Antinomian Er­ror, which our Author is pleased very Learnedly to define by the Character of Crispianism, and to [...]ntitle himself amongst the number of the Criticks, as having unmask'd the same. The Text it seems is this, Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified, &c. Therefore! Where­fore? I suppose the Word is an Illative, and as it makes way for an Inference and Conclusion, so it absolutely bespeaks some undeniable Maxim or Tru [...]h formerly fixed upon, without a reten­tion of which, it would prove but superfluous and trifling, and indeed it is, that no less than which our Author, together with the rest of his Tribe under a pretence of exalting Faith, would totally overthrow. The Apostle, having in the immediately foregoing verse, chap. 4. 25. positively as well as inclusively declared, that in what Christ, as the Repre­sentative Head of the Elect did, lay their Justification before God, though the meer Act of God, in justifying is purely of Grace, Rom. 3. 24. yet considering that Christ, and that by the appointment of the Father, pursuant to the Eternal Counsels of his Will, and that according to their mutual engagements in the Everlasting Covenant, became Incarnate, obey'd, suffer'd, yea, rose again, and that not for himself, nor barely on the Behalf, and for the good of those given unto him, but more immediately in their room and stead. Heb. 2. 14. It became just with God; and it is a juridical, as well as External Act in him, to reckon upon such as justifi'd thereby and therein, Rom. 3. 25, 26. which Grace of Justification in the prefixed matter and form thereof, they enter upon through Christ by Faith, and all the Fruits of the same, such as Peace with God, &c. otherwise this Text, ch. 5. ver. 2. must be read thus,—By whom also we have access b [...] Faith into this FAITH, instead of this Grace, which purely refers to Justification, as an Act, in, of, and by God himself) wherein we stand. Dr. Owen brings in Cyrillus Alexandri [...]us, in Joan. Lib. 11. Cap. 25. speaking thus:

Quaemadmodum praevaricatione primi hominis ut in primitiis generis nostri, morti addicti fuimus; eodem modo Dr. Owen's Treat. of Justification, p 482. per obedientiam & justitiam Christi, in quantum seipsum legi subjecit, quamvis legis author esset, benedictio & vivificatio quae per Spiritum est, ad totam nostram penetravit naturam. And Leo. Epist. 12. ad Juvenalem. ut autem repararet omnium vitam, recepit omnium causam; ut sicut per unius reatum omnes facti fuerunt peccatores, ità per unius innocentiam omnes fuerunt innocentes; inde in homines manaret justitia, ubi est humana suscepta natura.

Again, This is the clearest Testimony, that what the Lord Christ did and sustered was for us, and not for himself. For without the Dr. Owen's Treat. of Justification, p. 287. consideration hereof, all the Obedience which he yielded unto the Law, might be lookt on as due only on his Account, and himself to have been such a Saviour as the Socinians imagine, who should do all with us from God, and nothing with God for us.

And in his answer to Mr. Baxter upon the same Charge of Antinomianism, and the Grounds thereof, that flies about our Ears this day; He says, ‘My second is, that which is pro­cured for any one, thereunto he hath a right: The thing that is obtained, is granted by him, of whom it is obtained, and that to them, for whom it is ob­tained. To this is answered, 1. In the Margent, that I should make Appendix to Dr. Owen's Answer to Biddle, p. 35. great Changes in England, if I could make all the Lawyers believe this strange Doctrine; but of what the Lawyers believe, or do not believe, Mr. B. is no Competent Judge, be it spoken without Disparage­ment, for the Law is not his study: I, who (perhaps) have much less skill than him self; will be bound at any time to give him Twenty Cases, out of the Civil and Can­non Law, to make good this Assertion; which if he knows not, that it may be done, he ought not to speak with such Confidence of these things. Nay, amongst our own Law­yers, (whom perhaps he intends) I am sure I may be informed, that, if a M [...]n in­tercede with another, to settle his Land by conveyance to a third Person, giving him [Page 8] that Conveyance to keep in trust until the time come, that he should by the Intention of the Conveyer enjoy the Land, though he, for whom it is granted, have not the least knowledge of it, yet he hath such a Right unto the Land thereby created, as cannot be disanull'd.’ This is the very thing for which it is that Dr. Crisp brings in this Text, and Beza's Annotation thereupon, and that in the very Page, whence the Charge is fetcht. Namely, that, ‘Justification is truly and properly the work of God himself, and can­not be the work of Faith. Nay, he goes farther, Suppose (says he) Dr. Crisp's Works. Vol. 2. Pag. 325. you should have the words to run as they are commonly render'd.I answer, Then are we to distinguish in Faith of two things; there is the Act it self of believing, and the Object on which we do believe; and so the words may be understood thus: Being justified by the Righteousness of Faith, or by the Righteousness of Christ, which we do believe, We have Peace with God, and so ascribe our Justification to the Object of our believing the Righteousness of Christ, and not to the Act of Believing. The truth is, Beloved, the Act of Believing is a Work, and as much our Work as our Fear and Prayer, and love is; and the Apostle should contradict himself, when he saith, We are saved by Grace, through Faith, not of Works, if he mean the Act of Faith: And he might as well have said, We are not justified by Works, but we are justified by Works.’ This he further distinguishes in the same Page, unto which I refer thee (which our Au­thor with various huffing Reflections, and rotten Inferences, most partially and falsly quotes in his 6th and 7th Pages) That, to be short, there is not only a distinction between the Act and Object of Faith, and that as properly relating unto our Justification and Righteous­ness therein, but also to God's Act of our Justification in Heaven, as fully Precedaneous to the termination thereof in Conscience. Dr. Owen upon the 1 Cor. 1. 30. in his refutation of Socinus and Bellarmine, tells us, That ‘Christ is made of God, Righteousness unto us in such a way and manner, as the nature of the thing doth require. Say some, it is, because by him we are justified. However the Text says not, That by him we are justified, but he is of God made Righteousness unto us, which is not our Dr. Owen of Ju­stification, p. 502. Justification, but the Ground, Cause and Reason, whereon we are justified. Righteousness is one thing, and Justification is another.’ Now either this Righteousness is in an eternal, decretive, and material sense, truly and irrevocably theirs, before they believe, or upon what Grounds is it that God can be reckoned just, in his justifying of them, even when they believe? But there is a secret grub lies at the bottom of all this our Author's Indignation, which we must endeavour to find out. See Dr. Owen against Mr. Baxter, in the fore-mentioned Appendix. ‘Now I say, that in the sense, wherein I affirm, that Justification is terminated in Conscience, I may yet also affirm, and that suitably to the utmost In­tention Dr. Owen's Appen­dix against Mr. Baxter, in his An­swer to Biddle. pag. 19. of mine in that expression, that Justification by Faith is not a knowledge or feeling of Justification before given, nor a Justifica­tion in or by our own Consciences, but somewhat that goes before all such Justification as this is, and is a Justification before God.’ And is not this true? How many scores of our ancient solid Reformers might be brought in to attest this truth, wherein and whereby they distinguish'd them­selves in a Fundamental sense, as Protestants from Papists? But it seems (as our Author thinks) Dr. Crisp did not pitch upon a right Text in this of Rom. 5. 1. though it and its Context undeniably prove he did, to fix this his Discrimination upon, and therefore alters the Scene of the Charge against him, i, e. from a distinguishing to a confounding Explicati­on, p. 7. where he, to his own Admiration, no doubt, Learnedly explains Gal. 3. 24. for if the Apostle's Sense or Meaning be the same in one place of his Epistles, as well as in ano­ther, when he speaks more especially of being justified by Faith, (which our Author firmly asserts) why then should he make a distinction between the Act and Object of Faith, from Gal. 3. 24. which he denies unto the same Apostle, from Rom. 5. 1. in Beza's Interpreta­tion, and the Doctor's Quotation of him for that end? A strong Memory I see is exceeding requisite for a Lying and Prevaricating Spirit: This is not far unlike the Devil's Proceed­ings [Page 9] with Job; who when he saw that his Accusation of him before God for an Hypocrite, did not prove true, or hold Water, then does he slily seek by his Wife in an Instrumental Sense to cause him to part with his Integrity. Just thus it is that our Author most shame­fully spews out his own Treachery. Dr. Goodwin, upon Eph. 2. 6. saith, that—‘Our Sal­vation is in God's Gifts, and in Christ's personating of us, (mark this piece of Crispianism) and apprehending of us; it is perfect and compleat, though in our Per­sons, as in us, it is wrought by degrees. Further. pag. 218, 219. He Doct. Goodwin upon the Epistle to the Eph. ch. 2. 6. p. 217, 218. 219. tells us, You see the distinction between in Christ, and with Christ; we are said to be quickned with Christ; why? because that Work, as it is wrought in Christ once for us, hath now some Accomplishment in us; but speaking of the Resurrection to come, he does not say we are raised up in Christ, but raised up with Christ; do but learn to distinguish, for the want of this makes many Men to mistake. A Man before he is called, he is justified in Christ, but not with Christ, that is, it is not actually applyed to the Man's Person; his Person is not put in foro verbi, in the State of Justification. Learn, I say, to distinguish between receiving a thing in Christ, and receiving it with Christ; you receive it with Christ when it is actual­ly applyed to your Person; we now sit together in Christ in Heaven, would you desire no other sitting in Heaven with Christ, than now you have? Certainly you would: As you sit in Christ, so likewise you would sit with Christ; so take a Man before such time as he be­lieveth, and is converted to God, would he have no other Sanctification? Would you have for your Child, suppose you believe him to be elect, or had an immediate infallible War­rant, so to think, no other Sanctification or Justification than he hath then? No, you would have him Sanctified with Christ, and justified with Christ, which is to have that which he had in Christ, applyed to him; and he put actually in his own Person, in the state of it. The want of the consideration of these things, causeth a great mistake in this Age; you shall find that still the Scripture useth that Phrase of these things, which we not only have in Christ, as in a common person, but it must be applied unto our own Persons also; for would any Man desire to be no more glorified than he is now? Yet as we are perfectly glorified in Christ now, so we were perfectly justified in Christ when he arose, and perfectly justified from all Eternity. Who shall condemn the Elect of God? Saith the Apo­stle, Yet these must be applied to our own Persons, and our Persons must actually be put into this condition: When we come to Heaven, then he saith, we shall sit with Christ in his Throne, Rev. 3. but while we are here on Earth, then it is sitting in Christ. The Consideration of this distinction, would in a word clear the great Controversie that is now between the Antinomians (as they call them) and others about being justified before conversion; whether a Man be justified before conversion, or no, or whether he be not so afterward, as in some Sense he was not before: I say, we are justified in Christ from all Eternity, and we are justified with Christ when we believe.’

NOW, if thy Doctor be not a thorow pac'd Crispian, I know not who is; and let me tell this Author by the way, that if he dare appear openly in this Controversie, and in which I offer him a full unreserved meeting, whereunto let him bring what numbers and degrees of Persons he possibly can, either by hook, or by crook, according to the constant practise of those of his perswasion, to back him in the same, I question not but by the wisdom, power, and Grace of God, sufficiently to manifest, that Dr. Crisp fully accords with all those more antient and modern REFORMERS, truly and undeniably reckoned upon as such (though per­haps differing in other things,) as to the Doctrines ef Justification, Sanctification, Graces, and Duties thereupon, both in their spring, nature, order, form, matter and uses, and that in the full scope, and agreeing with the compleat tenure of the Covenant of Grace it self. But our Author tells us, p. 8. from the text he had cited. p. 5. ‘That the Apo­stle by way of Antithesis, constantly opposeth Faith to Works in Justi­fication, Crispianism Ʋn­mask'd, pag. 8. that is, an act of ours to some others of our own, not an Act of ours to one of God, as this Author would have us think. The oppo­sition, which you may observe in St. Paul's Writings of Faith to Works, is sufficient to per­swade [Page 10] that it is but a Dream of the Doctor, that to be justified by Faith, is to have in our Spirits the Manifestation of God's Justification. This hath no relation at all to what the Apostle so often saith, &c, so far he.’ Now this Antithesis, according to our Author's ma­nifest Design therein, one Mr. Antisozzo has notably anatomized in his Explication of Phil. 3. 8. &c. unto which I refer the Reader for his being undeceived, and shall let Dr. Good-win answer this from the fore-mentioned Treatise,—

Whether it be the Act of Faith that justifies, or that is accounted a Mans Righteousness, when Dr. Goodwin on the Ephes. Part 2d. p. 301. we are said to be saved through Faith? Surely, no, for God might have took work as well, if he would have taken it as an Act, he might have taken any Act, Love it self.

THERE is this reason lies in the bottom of my Spirit against it, besides all that else the Scripture saith against it; That if when I go to God to be justified, I must present to him my believing, as the matter of my righteousness, and only Christ's death as the merit of it (which is the very controversie on foot this day, for all our Author's seeming ac­knowledgment of the righteousness of Christ, and the bare instrumentality of Faith in the reception thereof in order to our Justification) What will follow? Two things are clear to me: First, That the heart is taken off from looking upon the righteousness of Christ wholly, and diverteth it to it's own righteousness in the very act of believing, for righte­ousness, and presenteth that to God which the Scripture is clear against; I say, it doth take the heart off from the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, or the eying of that, and caus­eth it to divert into it self, and present its own Faith to God. Secondly, Every man that will believe to be justified, and go to God, and say, Lord justifie me, he must have an evidence that he hath Faith, for how else can he present that as the matter of his righteousness? Now Millions of Souls cannot do this, they were in a poor case if they should be put to it.

THE Apostle saith, it was of Faith that it might be sure. If Justification had been foun­ded on the act of Faith, it had been as sure on works as faith; for that faith that draws out an act of love is as apt to fail as that act of love. But here is no uncertainty, while I believe to be justified by the righteousness of Christ; but my faith is swallowed up there; though I may doubt of my faith relying on him, yet I have a sure object; I have a sure matter to represent to God for me, whereas if believing was that I had to represent to God to be justified by, suppose my faith fail me, I have not a sure matter of righteousness to represent to God.

THE very object Faith believes on is a contradiction to this, that the act of Faith should be the matter of my Justification.

Yet further—Q. Is not faith an act? I [...]'s true, it is in a Gramma­tical signification an act, but in the sense in the true real import of it, it Dr. Goodwin on the Eph. part 2d. p. 287, 288. is meerly passive: Faith doth not give any thing to God as Charity and Love doth, but it only suffers God to be good to it; it takes in that Salvation which grace would bestow upon it; my Brethren, the hands of all other graces are working hands, but the hands of faith are meerly receiving hands; now saith the Apostle. Not to him that worketh, but believeth: So that this faith, as it be­lieveth to Salvation, it is not reckoned a worker, nor doth it look upon it self as such, but a meer receiver, a meer emptiness, a meer first matter and chaos, the form whereof is grace, if I may so allude; no grace could have been chosen in the heart of man, suita­ble thus to the grace that giveth, and to the gift it self, as this grace of Faith is.

AND there is nothing in Man that answers the promise; for this grace hath put it self out into promises; as the original lies in the heart of God, so he hath made out a Co­py out of himself in the promises, and nothing answers this but faith.

See but the very places that our Author quotes out of Dr. Crisp, and thou wilt find that this is his plain, yea, literal as well as inclusive Sense of the whole of that of Faith, as pag, 85, 440. 596. compare with our Author, p. 8, 9. and be thine own Judge there­in, as to the Wretchedness of his Forged Charge against him. Further says Dr. Goodwin, [Page 11] Mark it well Reader, That—

In Christ as a common person, and as a pattern of us, we may be said to have done what Jesus Christ did or Dr. Goodwin on the Eph. part 2d. p. 216. & —p. 145. doth, or what befalleth him; and we are reckoned by God to have done it: My Brethren, this is one of the greatest hinges of the Gospel—That way of the Arminians doth exceedingly detract from the love of God, (viz.) to make him a lover of Mankind; and that that is a thing out of the consideration whereof he gave his Son, and that he loves them in common, and loves them indefinitely, and if they believe so, God will then shew love to them. Again, But you will answer me, how can this be, that we should be children of Wrath, and yet that God should love us, and out of that Love call us, and yet the Love be the same? If they will answer me another question, I will an­swer p. 295, 296, 297. that; and that is this, How was Jesus Christ beloved, and a curse at the same time? Do but answer me, how were they in Rom. 11. enemies and beloved at the same time? Whether did not God actually and really lay the sins of us all upon Christ, who yet at the same time was without sin? And again, Was not Christ, when on the Cross really made sin? and yet now he is in Heaven, he is without sin, even in that very respect wherein before, when on Earth, he was Sin. Was not Jesus Christ once made sin in a true real sense? Certainly he was; And is not now Jesus Christ without sin in the same sense? So the Apostle saith: Now then answerably, we may be enemies, and yet loved of God: We may be children of Wrath, and condemned already, in respect of that we stand in, and afterwards saved as truly, as once Jesus Christ was made Sin: He will appear the second time without sin, saith the Apostle, Heb. 9. 28. Is there such an alteration made in Christ's condition, and a real one? Certainly there may be the like in ours, in 2 Cor. 5. ult. the parallel is exact, Him did God make to be sin for us, that knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. As on Christ's part there was a time when God laid all our sins upon Christ, and then another time, in which he took all our sins off from him, when he had satisfied for them; so on ours, there is a time when God doth lay the righteousness of Jesus Christ upon us, and takes off that state of wrath that we were in in our own persons; And as it were absurd to say, (as some) that our sins are translated upon Christ then, when we believe; so that then we were made the righteousness of God in him, before we are called and believe, in that sense, that the Apostle there speaks: The parallel then lies in this, That as there was a time when God laid our sins on Christ, made him sin, which was on the Cross, when also at the same time he was personally without sin; so there is a time, when God accounts personally to us Christ's righteousness. And again, as there succeeded a time, when Christ that was made sin, and remained under it for a while, is without sin (as now for ever he is) so there was a time, when we, who are now justified, were not justified, but were sinners and children of wrath, and that truly before God, as truly as that now we are saved before God. And that is certainly to me the meaning of that in, Rom. 8. 4. The righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us. Do we fulfil the righteousness of the Law? No, but as it was fulfilled in and by Jesus Christ before; so the same being applied unto us, when we be­lieve, is said to be fu [...]filled in us, that is, is made good in us, as we may so express it; in that discharge of his, we, as considered in him, are made the righteousness of God.

But you will sa [...], how are we saved in Christ, and justified in Christ, upon believing when we were justified from our sins in Christ when he rose, &c. and had sin taken off from him, did not he represent us then?

ADAM's instance will clear all; were not all Mankind condemned in Adam? Yet no man is condemned in his own person till he is born, yet representatively in Adam all died: so it is here, so far as we take Christ as a common person representing us, what was done in him, was done for us in him; and so from eternity, before Christ died, we were saved in him in that sense, according to the grace which was given in Christ before the World began, saith he, in 2 Tim. 1. 9. Christ himself purchas'd it, with a reserve till we believe and re­pent, or else we are not to have the benefit of his death. The Bond lay in God the Father's [Page 12] hand till we should come in to him for it. I do not know that the Scripture useth the word saved from everlasting, but only that the grace was given us in Christ, and that Christ died representatively, but when we come to exist in our own persons, then it is applied to us, and we are saved in our own persons by that grace, which once made Jesus Christ a common person for us.

NOW our Author drawing towards a conclusion of this his charge, p. 10. brings in his clinching Argumentative Inference, which questionless he takes to be a very doughty one: Namely, ‘That if a Man be justified before he believes, then he is not justified by faith; that is a plain case, says he.’ It is so indeed; however, I exceedingly doubt whether in this our Author, it be not an amphibious, prevaricating and Delphian Oracle Case. And to put the matter beyond dispute, consider Reader, That to be justified doth not only import, but irresistibly presuppose an actual, as distinguished from a personally possessed interest in such a righteousness as that wherein God may, salva justitia, and that not in a remote me­ritorious, but immediate and substantial sense, without the least interfering with the infi­nite, unlimited, spotless Justice and Holiness of his Divine Nature, whence this Righteous­ness is reckoned the Righteousness of God, received by Faith; or the compleat and perfect demands of the Law; whence it is also, that Christ, as being made under the same, is accounted in an immediate sense, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS; (the latter being a full revealed Transcript of the former) or can groundedly and positively in his very act of justification, without any manner of reserves, pronounce us just (and that not in a bare meritorious, and as such subservient sense of the same, the Diverting Kettledrum of these our Spiritual D [...]agooners, to stave us off from our diligent attendance upon the Carb [...]nado'd and traduced Martyrs and Witnesses of our blessed Jesus, in their distinct, as well as materially faithful Testimonies concerning him) from and in such a Righteousness, as actually, ade­quately, and materially corresponds with the forementioned Perfections of God, both in his Nature and Law; for as possession, properly such, gives no man a juridical Title unto that whereinto he enters by possession, so neither does Faith, which is in this case, at most a meer possessing grace, entitle even an elect Vessel unto any one of the least of the promi­ses in the whole of Scripture; but it is his juridical forensick (though founded in grace) relation unto, and interest in this Righteousness that gives him an undoubted Title and Right unto his Justification, and all that is consequential of the same; hence it is that Faith fol­lows, and that in two respects:

1. AS a manifestating or evidencing Instrument, with all it's Adjuncts, Concomitants and Subsequents, whence it is, that Christ as the Author and Finisher of the same, becomes the Wisdom of God unto such a Soul.

2. AS an uniting, applying, clothing, grace-conveying, heart-renewing and fruit-bear­ing instrument, and that in all the vigorous exercitious actings thereof, both objectively and subjectively; whence it is also, that Christ as the Author and Finisher of the said Faith, be­comes the Power of God unto such a Soul: but all this is meerly the fruit of a previous Ti­tle, otherwise God could not be just in justifying, neither could his elect ones be justly reckoned upon as Sons, but rather Bastards or Impostors. But all this blunder in our Au­thor, as in the close of this Charge, p. 10, 11. is no more but to bring in the Vertues and Graces of the Spirit, as the matter of our Justifying Righteousness, provided that Faith as an Instrument, will but eye and betake it self unto the Righteousness of Christ, and engagge the Soul to rest wholly upon the same, in the bare merits thereof, for it's Justification be­fore, and Acceptation with the Lord.

‘Projicit ampullas, & sesquipedalia verba. Hor.’

AS to the Second Charge.

II. HIS Second Charge, p. 11. is, That the Doctor ‘Asserts and Defends that Do­ctrin which is the bane of all godly Fear and Dread, of all suspicion of our selves, of Spiritual Watchfulness, and a wary and cautious behavi­our, Crispianis. unmask'd. p. 11 which yet are Graces and Duties much commended in Holy Scripture, and greatly practised by the Servants of God.’ This false imputation of his, is managed with the same scurrilous and lying Spirit, and to the same ends that his former and subsequent ones, are produced for, against the Dr. As

1. THAT he never gives thee an account, upon what grounds it is, that the Dr. urges this or the other discerpted sentence, that he, for his own vile ends, does continually through­out his Pamphlet quote.

2. NEITHER does he declare for what ends and from what principles (as tending thereunto, together with their uses and advantages, as assigned unto them of the Lord, in their proper places) it is that the Dr. speaks for or against, both duties and graces. As for instance, He tells us, That the Dr. ‘a bold and fearless man laughs at such silly creatures as fear and distrust their having Faith or no, and being regenerated and sanctified or no; and withal that he merrily brings in such an Crispianis. unmask'd. p. 11. one complaining thus, I have neglected the Day of my Visitation, I had once the Opportunity, the presence of the Spirit of God; Alass! My fear is, that that was the Day of God's Grace to me, and now there is no more hope left for me. And thereupon concludes, Which words (as you'll find) he speaks in way of Mockery: And in several other places you will find him deriding such whining timorous Christians as these, representing them as Persons of shallow Understandings, and of a Temper, not becoming the Gospel.’ What Ground he hath received for this frontless, and wretched Branch of this part of his Charge, let the very place from whence he cites it, determine p. 345. where speaking of God's laying Iniquity upon Christ, that it is so entirely his own Act, that none of our Duties, be they the best that we can perform, can have any Hand therein. Therefore I shall be the more large, in transcribing the Doctor, even in this Page, and that which follows, that thou mayst apparently discern into the villanous Treachery of this Author, and justly guess thereby at the base ends in the same. The Doctor speaking from those words in Isa. chap. 53. 6. that our Sins are already laid on Christ, tells us;

It should therefore serve to put the People of God upon the Admiration of the great love of God (seeing it is only the Lord that layeth Iniquity upon Christ) to give unto the Lord the Praise of the Glory of his Grace. Oh! Dr. Crisp's Works. Vol. II. Pag. 345. let nothing go away with that, seeing none but the Lord doth the thing!

And to this end, Beloved, the Lord must open your Eyes, that you may see. It it is he alone that doth it; but till you see it, what ever you may think of your selves, you will sanctifie to Nets and Drags instead of them. If Righteousness seem to be the easing of burthens in Spirit, then Righteousness shall be, and will be exalted above measure. From whence proceeds these strange Expressions, Oh the Omnipotency of Fasting and Prayer, and Repentance I What is this but to give the Glory of the Lord to our services, as if they discharge us of our Sins, when it is the Lord only that doth discharge us of them? But I must hasten.

THERE is another observable Passage in these words, more observable indeed than heeded by the most of them, and that is to be taken from the circumstance of Time, when the Lord laid Iniquity upon Christ The Text saith, The Lord hath laid on him the Iniquity of us all. Satan knows well enough of what great consequence this Circumstance of Time is, both to the Manifestation of the Glory of God's Grace, and to the establishment of the Comforts of God's People, and therefore he hath raised a foul Dust to misguide poor Wretches, that they may not lay hold upon this Circumstance, and the Comfort that will [Page 14] flow from it. The Text saith not, The Lord doth lay Iniquity on him, or the Lord will lay Iniquity on him, much less that the time is overslipt now, and the Lord will not lay Iniquity upon him.

Satan is very busie with tender ignorant Hearts, either to perswade them that the Work is now a doing, or the Work hereafter shall be done, but yet is not done, or the time is overslipped, it might have been done, if Men had not neglected the Opportunity, but now it is too late, it is never to be done.

The last of these hath troubled the Hearts of many People, whence comes these expres­sions: I have neglected the day of my Visitation, saith one, I have neglected the Opportu­nity, the Presence of the Spirit of God, my fear is, that was the day of God's Grace to me, but I have let it slip, and now there is no more Hope left for me; but Beloved, let the evi­dent Word of the Lord himself be your guide, and know, that every thing that is spoken contrary to the Mind of the Lord, revealed in his Word, is but the natural. Fruit of the Father of Lies, who is a Lyer from the beginning. The Lord hath laid Iniquity upon Christ: Hath he done it already, and is it now to be done? Nay, hath he done it alrea­dy, and doth he revoke it, and will not suffer it to be done? The point then briefly is this.

THIS Gracious Act of the Lord's laying Iniquity upon Christ, is not now, or hereafter to be done, much l [...]ss a thing he never wills, but it is a thing the Lord hath already done.

EVERY School-boy will be able to tell you that this Expression (hath laid) imports the time past, the word being in the Preter-Perfect Tense; it is not in the Present Tense, nor in the Future Tense, the Lord will lay, but in the Preter-perfect Tense, the Lord hath done it, it is an Act past.

NOW, Reader, be thy own Judge or desire no Clandestine, or surreptatious and forced Subscriptions from thee; whether Doctrins, Graces and Duties, are not owned by the Doctor, provided they be kept within their prescribed limits, out of, and from which our Author, would for a base self-justiciary end divert them, and therefore summons us ‘to listen to what the Infallible Scripture of Truth says, Crispianism Ʋn­mask'd. p. 11, 12, 13, 14. (though for vile and infallible ends, as by him produced) from Prov. 28. 14. 1 Cor. 16. 13. Heb. 3. 12. Phil. 2. 12. Heb. 4 1. R [...]m. 11. 20. 1 Cor. 10. 12. 1 Pet. 1. 17. Psal. 34. 9.—76. 11.—147. 11. Luk. 12. 5. See v. 1, 4. Heb. 12. 28, 29.’ But ask him, do any of these Texts tell us that a Fear and Dread of God, or any other Duty, or Qualification in our Souls, contribute in the least to a laying of Sin upon Christ, which ought first to have been proved, had he dealt either in a way of reverential awe towards God, or due Respect and Regard towards Man? But we shall find enough of this as we go on.

As to the Third Charge.

III. THAT, ‘He hath imbib'd the Principles and Doctrin of this Au­thor, Crispianism Ʋn­mask'd. p. 15. viz. the Doctor's, (says our Author) cannot pray.’ And for this quotes him, p. 370. thus,

When People pray for any Grace (omit­ting what Intervenes, viz. that God hath passed over to Men) all their Pra [...]er is, that God would manifest, &c. not regarding either what goes before, or after; therefore I shall transcribe the substance of the same. Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. II. p. 370.

WELL then, if you pray in Faith, that your Sins are forgiven, up­on this Ground, (i. e. our Sins being already laid on Christ) because God hath made this Grant, and you find it upon Record, then it seems your Sins were for­given you before your Prayer was made: You will say, God hath granted this before, and now you pray to God that he would make good that Grant to you which he hath granted before. Beloved, what is thi [...] more than to make that evident to your Understandings, and to give you the knowledge of that which he hath before granted, that you may have the Comfort of it?

I refer the Reader to the place it self, for our Author's Refutation, both in the matter, and design of his Treacherous Charges.

NOW, from whence he runs to his old Arminian inference, that ‘If any Man believes this, it is impossible he should give himself to Pray­er, Crispianism Ʋ [...] ­mask'd, p. 15. and be frequent and ardent in his Addresses to Heaven: For what should he pray for, when there is no obtaining any good at all by it?’ And thereupon tells us, that to pray for the Forgiveness of Sins is needless; and to en­force his malicious Charge, very wretchedly quotes several Texts of Scripture; as ‘Psal. 65.2. — 34.17. — 50.15. — 69.33. — 145.18, 19. Pag. 16, 17. Prov. 15. 29, Exod. 32. 11, 14. Josh. 10. 12, 13, 14. 1 Sam. 7. 9. 1 Kin 17. 1.—18, 28.—42. 45. 2 Chron. 20. 5, 22. Isa. 37. 15, 37. Jonas 2. 1. 10. 2 Cor. 12. 8.’ The Doctor still speaking, (which our Author never regards in any of his Charges) that our Sins are already laid on Christ, therein referring unto a Gracious Act of the Father, as well as compleat undertaking of the Son, and that it is by Prayer we come to receive the full manifestative and applicatory Testimony of the same unto our Souls, and now to put Pr [...]yer, Graces of the Spirit, or any other Duty in the room, and place thereof, is not only useless and unbeneficial, but also derogatory unto the Glory of God. Therefore he lays down hi [...] objections and answers in the following words, in the Page whence our Author cites him—

Some object and say, Christ puts us upon Prayer, and in Prayer that God would forgive us our Trespasses; How can our Iniquities [...]e laid upon Christ already, when we are to pray that God would forgive them to us? It is a vain thing for us to pray to God to forgive them, when they were long ago fo [...]given. Dr. Crisp's Work [...] Vol. II. p. 369.

I answer, They were reckoned to Christ long before we pray for the forgiveness of our sins, and yet we do well in the Pra [...]ing for the forgive­ness of them. We have a common answer known to all, There is a twofold forgiveness of sins, a forgiveness of sins in Heaven, and forgiveness of sins in the Consciences of Men. Forgiveness of sins in Heaven is that which is acted by God alone: Forgiveness of sins in the Consciences of Men is the manifestation of God's former act. So then to pray for the forgiveness of our sins, is no more but to pray that God would manifest to us that God hath forgiven our sins, and that it may be clear that God hath forgiven our sins before we do pray for the forgiveness of them: And that Prayer is grounded upon God's act before hand made.

Consider this one thing, I would ask this of you, you that pray for forgiveness of your sins, do you pray in Faith, or do you not? If you pray not in Faith, mark what the Apo­stle James saith, He that prayeth, let him pray in Faith, nothing doubting; He that wavereth, let him not think he shall obtain any thing at the hands of the Lord: Beloved, your Prayers stink and are abominable in the Nostrils of God if you do not pray in Faith. Well, you pray in Faith you will say; if you pray in Faith, if you pray for the forgiveness of sin in Faith, what is the ground of your Faith? If you do believe, you have a ground for your Faith. You will say, the Grant and Word of God is Page 370. the ground of your Faith. Well, if the Grant of God be the ground of your believing, then the Grant hath a being before your Faith, and so consequently before your prayer is made.

And do we not know that we ought to pray for the Fall of Babylon, and that from this ground, That she is fallen already in the irreversible determination of God, Rev. 14. 8. And though she be not yet actually fallen, must we not therefore pray for her fall? Unless we can bring God's Decrees and irrevocable Purposes actually to depend upon our own Duties and Prayers, This is our Author's constant practice, That he would assign more to our Duties and Graces (nay, so displa [...]e them, that they are neit [...]er Duties indeed nor Graces, for the obtaining of this or the other benefit and mercy) than unto God himself, as the express and fixedly donor of them, even before we ask them, upon which it is indeed, that both our re­questing d [...]sposition, receptive and improving ability wholly depends. Hence it is, (under which he betakes himself as unto a forlorn refuge, p. 16.) That, if so, how can we pray for the hallowing of God's Name, or that his Kingdom should come; whereas, if both of the same had not been absolutely determined of God, the matter of Prayer as enjoyned of Christ up­on his Disciples, would have been wholly in vain, so the same as to the forgiveness of sins or [Page 16] trespasses, he quotes, p. 369. out of the Dr's Treatise, (which I cannot find, though the sub­stance of the place has been cited already—) And further proceeds in his quotation from p. 561. That the Dr. is an enemy to Prayer, whose citation, and the Dr's end therein I shall lay before thee. Thus much he quotes out of him, and annexes it barely unto an act of duty, not regarding wherefore or for what ends the same was spoken; which take as fol­lows—‘Beloved Christ became our Surety. God accepted of him for our Debt, he cl [...]'d Christ in Goal, as I may so say, for the debt; God Dr. Crisp's Works. Vol. 3. p. 560. took every Farthing that he could demand of us; he is now reconciled unto us, he hath acknowledged satisfaction, it is upon Record; And now shall he come upon them again with fresh wrath, for whom Christ hath done all this? Shall he charge the debt upon them again? He hath forgotten the Death of Christ it seems, if this be true. Therefore know thus much, that it is against the Death of Christ; it is the making of it of none effect; it makes the coming of Christ to be in vain, to say that the wrath of God will break out upon Believers (mark the word) if they commit such and such sins. And for this that I have said, (Now our Proctoring Author comes in) if any man can produce one Scripture against it; if any man can shew in all the Book of God, that it is any otherwise than I have delivered, for my part, I shall be of another mind, and willingly recant my opinion. But leaves out what follows.) But I see the Scrip­ture runs wholly in this strain, and is so full in no [...]hing as in this, that God hath gene­rally discharged the sins of Believers. Oh then take heed of falling into that error of the Papists, that say, that God hath taken away the p. 561. sin, but not the wrath of God due to sin; that he hath forgiven our sins, but not the punishment of sin. But I beseech you consider, that as our sins were then upon Christ, he was so bruised for our iniquity, that by his stripes we are healed, and the chastisement of our peace was so upon him, that he being chastised for our sins, there is nothing else but peace belongs to us: And the chastisement of our sins was so upon him, that he beheld the travel of his Soul, and was satisfied.’

NOW, Reader, thou mayst see who this Author is, and what also his design is, and his false representation of the Doctor, meerly because he abhors Duties and Graces in a Popish and meritorious sense: This is the plain Grammar, as latently radical, of all his virulency against him.

As to the Fourth Charge.

IV. HE tells us, that—‘The Doctrin contained in these Sermons, strikes at all Godly Sorrow, Contrition, Humiliation, Confession, and Lamenting of sin, and Repenting of it, and renders them useless and insignificant in the Life of a Christian.’ Now what Warrant he hath had for this his bold asser­tion, Crispi. unmask'd. p. 18. a plain, unminced and uncurtailed quotation of the Dr. will fully satisfie, and also discover unto thee, and therein, not only our Author's false and disingeni­ous proceedings with the Dr. but the ends for which he doth so, as also the Principles by which he is acted in the same. I must confess unto thee, Reader, before we go any further, That unless this Author, according to the complex account that this his Treatise gives of him, be a ROGERƲS L'ESTRANGE REDIVIVƲS, or as genuine a Spawn dropt from him in one sense or another, as possibly can be imagined, I am wholly at a loss to find him out: And for this observe, p. 19. where he cites the Dr. p. 317, 319, 320. where he never re­gards in any one of them the distinct, yea verbally expressed ends of the Dr. therein. ‘Sup­pose there be a sin committed, it may be more scandalous than ordinary; which sin perad­venture to sense wounds the Spirit; the Question now is, What it is that must or doth aid the Spirit of such an one? of the sting Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. II. Serm. 6. Page 317, 318. and of the guilt of this or such like transgressio [...]s committed? What doth discharge the soul of such a sin? (Now our Author [...]mes in,) Usually it is taught amongst us, by those which would be accounted the great­est [Page 17] Protestants, and the greatest haters [...] that the proportion of Repentance, and Tears, and Sorrow, and of Fasting [...]; [...] p [...]oportion of these answerable to the latitude and height of such transgressio [...], [...] ease, this takes away the bur­then, this lays the Soul at rest and quiet it. (B [...]t he [...]olly di [...]regards what follows, namely,) Therefore when a Soul hath Transgr [...]ssed, if i [...] be [...] most or almost all the pantings of it are after extraordinary enlargeme [...]ts in bitterness and he [...]viness, and mourning, and melting, and tears, these are accounte [...] they that wash away Iniquity. But beloved, let me tell you, it is impossible that all the righteousness of men, though it were more perfect than it can be, should lay one iniquity, or any of the least circumstance of one iniquity upon Christ. If a Man could weep his heart out, if his heart could melt like Wax, and dissolve into Water, and gush out River [...] of Te [...]rs for sin, all this could not carry away the least dram of the filthiness of [...] from [...] [...]oul unto Christ; nor unload the Soul of any sin to load Christ with it.’ And is not all this true? can any of our Duties cause God to lay sins upon Christ? Doth not herein [...]e the secret, yea radical difference (as to what our Author would basely insinuate both in the matter and manner, and that very di­stortively from what it i [...] th [...]t the Dr. assert [...] the same) between the Protestant and Popish Doctrin. See Hos. 8. 13 compard with the Marginal R [...]ading, Where the Lord's charge, even against a professing People is not th [...]ir rejecti [...]g of his Sacrifice, but a postponi [...]g of it unto their own, and thereby assigning the merit [...] of all their acceptance both in pardoning and justifying Grace unto the Sacrifice of the Lord, provided that their own believing, re­penting, &c. have but a precedent, or at least a mixed interest therein; but what the consequence thereof was is evident, even a toral disappointment of them, not only in their hopes and expectations, but also that, That which they seemed to have, or thought they had, would prove but an emptiness or a Lie unto them, in that they should find themselve [...] but in Egypt, still, i. e. neither changed in their state or nature. He further cites him, leav­ing out a part of the Objection, and Answer also, whence he picks his Charge, wherein thou mayst yet further see into the Orthodoxy of the Doctor, together with the Jesuitical de­sign of our Author. As—‘Obj But some will say, Though our performances do not lay our iniquities upon Christ, [...]et they do prevail with God, and Dr. Crisp's Work. Vol. II. Serm. 6. p. 319. move God with pity towards us and stir up God to take our iniquites off from us, and lay them upon Christ. (Now our Author comes in) God cannot but melt, will some say, to see the tears of his People, and the bitterness of their Spirits, and their crying, and their earnestness, and their sorrows, These cannot but prevail with him [...]o have compassion on them.’

To which he replies in these words, ‘I know this is the general conceit of too many in the World; But beloved, let me tell you, there is nothing in all the Creatures in the World, that hath the least prevalency with the Lord let them do what they can; all our Prayers, all our Tears, all our Fastings, all our Mournings, all our Reluctancy, and fighting against our Corruptions, they move God, not a jot to lay our sins upon Christ’

But he leaves out what immediately follows, wherein the Doctor explains himself thus: ‘God is moved only from himself. If they move God, what must they move him to? If God be moved at any thing, he is moved according to the nature of the thing that is done; If the nature of the thing produce evil effects, God must be moved to do evil to Men; if good effects, if there be good in the things, they move him to Good: Now I ask, is there good or evil in any thing Men do? When they have sinned, they pray, and they confess, and they mourn, and they fast, is there evil or good in these look­ed upon in their own nature? No Man can deny, but that there is abundance of Iniquity in the best Performances a Man doth, and God is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity. That which must move God to do good, must have a goodness in it self; all the motive therefore in the Lord is simply himself.’ Now doth the Doctor contradict himself at all in any of this? Let him that runs both read and judge. These proceedings in the manner of them, may allusively be applied unto what old Jacob charges upon his Sons, Simeon and Levi, viz. That they made him even to stink in the Land, (i. e.) under a pretence of esta­stablishing [Page 18] an Ordinance of God, which was Circumcision; they had deceitfully and villainous­ly, but gratified their own Lusts by the same: Thus it is in reference to Reformation, when Persons so cry up Holiness (which is an indispensible Qualification, as well as mark of a Child of God) yet so as to dethrone what is of a higher nature, both in kind and degree, they are (as experience all along informs us) enforced to betake themselves to such visibly-pitiful subterfuges, and wretched Prevarications in the Prosecution of their designs therein, that even Holiness and Reformation themselves, have become nauseous to them about us; yea, such has been their methods and measures in their seeming endeavours, after a promoting of them, as that they are so far from being truly expressive of the same, both in their na­ture and kind, as that indeed if practically attended unto, would prove destructive unto the very receive [...] dicta [...]es of the Light of Nature it self, and that in the common moral operati­on of the same: Whe [...]ce it is, that true Holiness in the universal nature thereof, is not only so little regarded by▪ and appearing in most of their followers, but also become a meer fancy, and but a by-word unto those who expresly prefer Morality u [...]to Grace, by deny­ing unto them any essential difference in the same. These things indeed, both in their Principles and Practices, are the very Achan of our Israel, and though they have put a stop in some measure unto the Camp of real Reformation in its more apparent progressive­ness therein; yet I am satisfied that God is in this very day of Controversie, a leading all such Abbetors of them so into the Valley of Decision, as will manifest that his grand contest with them, is not so mu [...]h their espousing, but appropriating even of his own truths, his Silver, Gold, and pleasant things, definitive of the Graces wrought by, and Du [...]ies enabled unto by his own Spirit, unto their own Temples; all which, however black they may seem for the present, yet are abso [...]ute Tokens of God's being nigh at ha [...]d and th [...]t with a pur­posed design to decide the matter in dispute; for his sum [...]oning of [...] her [...]u [...]to, is, (as is evident) but in order to his speedy appearance, J [...]el, 3. 5. [...], [...]2 [...] v. 1, 14. for God will remember Amalek, for standing in the way of Is [...]ael, and th [...] [...] a dreadful obliterating remembrance, 1 Sa [...] ▪ 15. 2, 3. yea, b [...] how much t [...]e mo [...] he [...]uf­fers these his pretended Prophets, and that with a seeming t [...]mpor [...]ry Succes [...], to b [...] acted by a lying Spirit, the speedier, and more total will be both their Disapp [...]int [...]ent and Ruin, 1 Kin. 22. 19. &c. It is no small [...]igitating mark of the Hand of [...]rovidence in i [...]s per­missive operation or Wheel, that the Man of Sin should be suffered to assu [...]e u [...]to himself (notwithstanding all his so long-continued lying, impudent and bloody Villanies) the Title of, His Holiness, and not the Lo [...]d his Righteousness, in the former of which it is, that not only his professed, but also practical Adherents (who would by no means own him in the bulk or gross) as in the former, so in these our days hope in a material Sen [...]e to be justi­fied before God, though by a Salvo, for fear of the worst, meritoriously for Christ's Righte­ousness (as the Quakers assigning unto the Spirit, what indeed is not his undertaken Office) in which it is that, not only his professed, but also practical Adherents, as in our day hope in a material sense, to be justified before God, though meritoriously by the Righteousness of Christ, according to the stated fu [...]d [...]mental and more established Decrees and Canons of their Counsels, especially th [...]t of Trent, an exact Copy whereof we have flying about our Ears in various Pamphlets against Dr. Crisp, or rather his Doctrin, which is the Scripture-Doctrin of Justification.

As to the Fifth Charge.

V. THOUGH thou wilt find (Reader) that as this our Author, throughout the whole of his Treatise, doth not only (notwithstanding all his fair pretences) and that under this Head of his Charge, in a more particular manner reject the Righteousness of Christ, as to its proper and individual matter (wherein it is absolutely distinct from a bare meritorious [...]nd subservient Acceptation of the same, p. 27. wherein view our Auth [...]r) and Preceden­cy therein in God's Act of Justifying the elect by the Imputation thereof unto their Act of believing, but also that there is no essential difference between Morality & Grace, as the spring of [Page 19] this or the other duty, both in the objective and subjective operation of the same, toge­ther with the different advantages, arising from them; for because that God, as the God of nature, having s [...]nt by Jonah Tenders of Mercy unto the Ninevites, upon their Repentance, which they closing with in the moral discharge of the same, he thereupon spares them. Our Author, p. 26. Therefore it is (I say in his Judgment) that all true Believers in their Addres­ses unto God for this or the other Mercy in this or the other duty, if they dethrone them, either as proceeding from, or tending to an exaltation of a self-Righteousness to self-end, and therein would cause them to neglect the main end, for which they are design'd of God, viz. the Glory of his great Name, and that in his own way, and by an entire leading them unto a naked Resting and Dependance upon Christ and his Righteousness, for the Accepta­tion both of their Persons and Performances with God, and also their Reception from him, of this or the other Mercy, as their needs require; why then they must be termed Antino­mians; and when he and his fraternity have thus cloathed them with the Skins of their own created Beasts, They fall a baiting them with as much virulency, as possibly can spring from a compleatly grown malice, intermingled with as equal a proportion of Deceitfulness and Impudence. This is the very case before us, for the clearing of which, let the Doctor speak for himself, and that from the very places our Author fetches against him, p. 20. He quotes the Doctor, p. 140. to say, that—‘A Man gets nothing by all the Righteousness he performs. And he tells us, that he enlarges upon this in his usual scoffing Language, and that with a design to cast away all D [...]ties.’ Whereas indeed it is but part of an Objection, which the Do­ctor lays down and answers; that is to say, where self is brought into the room of, or exal­ted above the Righteousness of Christ, all such Actions or Doings will be of no value. As thus,

Obj But some may say peradventure, T [...]is is a Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol, I. Ser. 9. Pag. 140. way to [...]verthrow all Righteousness at one clap. What! all that ever a Man doth, though he doth it never so spiritually, though never so ex [...]ctly, to no purp [...]se, and in vain! D [...]th a Man get nothing by all the Righteousness he performs? (Here our Author comes in, and leaves out what follows) Then we had as good sit still, and do nothing at all, will some say.

Answ. This is carnal reasoning indeed; look but into the ground of this Argument and it will discover nothing but the selfishness of the person that makes it. I dare be bold to say, that that person that will do no righteousness, but simply for his own sake; who if [...]e should know beforehand, that this Righteousness will get him nothing, will therefore fit still and do nothing; I dare be bold to say, he had as good sit still indeed, and do nothing: He serves himself, not God; and though he doth perform righteous­ness [...]ever so exactly, if he serves himself, God will never reckon that he serves him. When Self is eyed, we can never serve God; when, if our Commodity and Advan [...]age be not in the thing, we will sit still. And is not this a truth? But yet further our Author p. 21. he quotes the Dr. p. 136. To fast sin out, to pray it out, to mourn it out, this is that which must bring you tidings; but leaves out, This is that which must bring you a discharge of your sins And so go [...]s on in his Charge Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. 1. Serm. 9. p. 136. without regarding what fol [...]ows, viz. Beloved, let me deal plainly and freely with you, They that do put deliverance from Sin and Wrath upon the spiritual performances of that Righteousness which the Law doth command of them, they do put that Righteousness in the room and place of the Righteousness of God, they do make it as great an Idol as can be, for they do make that Righteousness to be that, which God's Righteousness only is. I speak not against the doing of any Righteousness according to the will of God revealed: Let that Mouth be for ever stopped, that shall be opened to blame the Law that is holy, just and good, or shall be a means to discourage People from walking in the Commandments of God blame­less.

Now who is the greater Scoffer at Religion, or the things of God? he that prefers the righteousness of Christ unto his own righteousness, may safely determine between this our Author and the Doctor. But he tells us, ibid. from the Dr. p. 235. ‘That if a Soul [...]et [Page 20] under a full Sail, fill'd with a stiff Gale of the Spirit, &c,’ That the Dr. therein speaks rudely and prophanely, as deriding the assistance of the Holy Spirit. But he leaves out his end therein as follows, viz.

But under favour, the attribut­ing Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. II. Serm. 1. p. 235, 236. of such efficacy to this Righteousness, though thus assisted by Christ's Spirit, is more than is meet, though Christ be explicitely owned as the Author of such assistance; the righteousness so assisted hath no efficacy at all to obtainany thing of the Lord, but rather an efficacy to hasten and multiply wrath, in that it multiplies sin.

THE righteousness with which we come to God, though we bring with it the Water of the Spirit of Christ, to wash away our old dung, p. 236. yet there is such filth in the Vessel of our present righteous actions, that the action doth but add dung to dung, instead of washing dung away. Again, our Author, p. 22. quotes the Dr p. 150. The sum of which (he tells us) is, That neither Prayer, nor Hamiliation, nor Repentance, nor any other Duties whatsoever, though they be done most sincerely, servently and zealously, though the persons that do them be helped by the Holy Spi [...]it therein, are means of procuring Crispian unmask'd p. 22. any Blessing from God. They never prevent any Evil or Danger, they cannot divert God's Wrath and Displeasure, they conduce not one jot to our peace and joy of Mind, to our comfortable Walking; they afford us no hopes of the Forgiveness of Sin, and the Favour and Love of God, and (as you shall he [...]r after­wards) they cannot be made use of as Signs and Tokens of the goodness of our condition. Now hear what the Dr. says—The Scripture is marvelous plentiful in this, that no Believer for whom Christ died, should have the least Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. I. Serm. 10. p. 150. thought in his heart of promoting or advancing himself, or any end of his own, by doing what he doth. And though as People may think, here is a marvellous discouragement to Persons, to do what God calls them to do, when they shall have nothing for it: I answer, when there is a spirit of ingenu­ity (as you know there is even in the World) they shall be as industrious to glorifie God▪ and do good to Men, as if they did it for themselves. They shall do as much for good already bestowed, as if they were to procure it by their own doing.

Secondly, I answer, there can be no discouragement at all unto the performance of any thing God calls for at your hands, though you get nothing in the World by what you d [...], I say, there is no discouragement, because you cannot propound or intend to your selves any possible gain by Duty; But that, whatever it is, that is a Spur and Encouragement unto Duty, is already freely and graciously provided for you to your hand; that all your indu­stry could not compass and bring in, either so certainly, or so plentifully as the very grace of God, before the performance of any Duty hath provided and established that good for you.

In the close of this Charge, p. 28, 29. Our Author unravels (like the old Journey-Man-Taylor) the whole of his twisted and forced Sarcasm [...] against the Dr.) though under this pretence, as if he contradicted himself, whereas indeed it is no more than his assigning unto Graces and Daties their proper places, both as to the spring, exercise, uses and ends of the same, which our Author hath as great a regard unto as the Turk himself, whence it evidently appears, That our Author's zeal in this cause, is but the very self-same, both as to the matter and end thereof, as that of the Jews mentioned by the Apostle Paul, Rom. 9. 31, 32. chap. 10. 2, 3, 4.

From hence he flies to his Sixth Charge.

VI. That the Author should deny, That we ought to make any use of our Graces as Marks, Tokens, or Evidences of our State of Salvation. Author. p. 29. This falshood will soon be detected from the very places whence he partially cites the seeming matter of his miserable invective a­gainst him; for with our Author, unless the Graces of the Spirit be allowed as the very mat­ter of our Righteousness, and that in, though not for which (that being transferred over [Page 21] to the merits of the Righteousness of Christ, as abstracted from the real, actual or substan­tial Matter of the same) we must be justified before God, Antinomianism is presently set on foot, as will appear from the way of his procedure, in his quoting the Doctor, pag. 106, 432, 446, 462. Vol. 3. Serm. 3. 447, 453, 465, 469.

The Doctor, in the whole of what our Author quotes of him, declares, that what-ever Marks or Signs we may have of Grace, yet if they proceed not from our actual Interest in Christ and his Righteousness, they will prove but deceitful, there being that in Morality (which as the common Herb in the Field, hath a very nigh resemblance unto that in the Garden) that be [...]rs a close comparate likeness with that of Grace. Unto which places, ut priùs, that he quotes of the Doctor, I refer the Reader for his solution. Only to avoid a further Tediousness, I shall recite one passage of the Doct [...]rs in reference to this Charge, whereunto many scores might be added. And that from p. 457. speaking from Rom. 10. 2, 3, 4: says he, ‘Observe it well, here is a Zeal, that is, an earnestness of Spirit, and this Zeal was after God, so then it was a Zeal, wherein they sought God and his Glory, not in an indirect way neither, nor in a corrupt way Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. II. Ser. 13. Pag. 457. of their own devising; but it was a Zeal exercised in the Righteousness according to the Law of God himself, for so much i [...] intimated when it is said, that Christ is the end of the Law: And yet for all this, saith the Apostle, though they had this Zeal of God according to the Will of God in his Law; yet notwithstanding, they submitted not themselves to the Righteousness of God. So then there may be a singleness of Heart to the Lord, and for the Glory of God, and a walking in Obedience to the Will of God revealed in his Law; yet notwithstanding there may be no portion in Christ, but a withstanding of Christ, and not a submitting to his Righteous­ness.’ Thus he deals with the Doctor all along; that when and where-ever he finds him de­grading or depressing of Graces and Duties from an Usurpation or unsciptural Assent, he s [...]atches out, to present before us the bare Expressions themselves, without a candid Discove­ry unto us of the Doctors Design therein, as to the reference they have to the genuine Mat­ter of his Discourse thereupon.

As to the Seventh Charge.

VII. He tells us, that ‘Another position of this our Author, (i. e. the Doctor) is, That God is not angry with any elect Person, before or after he is converted. If we tell Believers, saith he, That except they perform such and such Duties, Crispi. Unmask'd, Pag. 35. except they walk thus and thus Holily, and do these and these Works, they shall come under Wrath, at least God will be angry with them, what do we in this but abuse the Scriptures?’ These are his very words, saith our Author, from p. 559. so they are indeed; but not wholly his words, nor sense, which are as follows: ‘If they should ter­rifie them, and make them to believe, being Believers; for of those I speak, if they commit these and these Sins, they shall be damned, and so come under the wrath of God.’ Then comes our Author in with his Charge before-cited, leaving out also what follows, as that we undo all that Christ hath done; we injure and wrong the Believers themselves, we tell that God he lies to his Face; for if we tell Believers, that except they do these and these good Works, they shall come under the Wrath of God, what is this but to tell God he lies, and to bring the Faithful under a Covenant of Works? Look into the 54th of Isaiah, ver. the 9th, and you shall see how it is a belying of God, to say, that Believers may come under Wrath and Damnation, except they do thus and thus. Further he quotes the Doctor, p. 363, 364. very partially, omitting what introduces the same; namely, that some conclude, that ‘Elect Persons are in a damnable estate, in the time they walk in excess of Riot, before they are cal­led.’ Where the Doctor, speaking of the nature of Election, he wholly omits his purpose there­in, and therefore also he leaves out what immediately follows, which he knew would have overthrown his design, viz. ‘It is true, such an Elect Person, not called, is never able [Page 22] to know individually of himself, that he is such an one that God hath nothing to charge upon him, because, till calling, God gives not unto Persons to believe; and it is only believing that is evidence to Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. II. Serm. 9. Pag. 364. Men of things not seen. Things that are not seen, are hidden and secret, and shall not be known: I mean, the things of God's Love to Men shall not be known to particular Men, till they do believe; but considering their real condition, the Lord hath not one sin to charge upon an elect Person; from the first mo­ment of conception, till the last minute of his Life, there is not so much as Original Sin to be laid on him; and the Ground is, The Lord hath laid it on Christ already: He did lay Sins on him. When did he lay them on him? When did he pay the first price of them? Now, suppose this Person uncall'd commits Iniquity, and that this Iniquity is charged upon him; seeing that his Iniquities are laid upon Christ already, how comes it to pass that they are charged upon this elect Person again? How come they to be transla­ted from Christ again, and laid upon this Person? Once they were laid upon Christ, it must be confessed. For the Blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sins, 1 Joh. 1. 7. saith the Apostle; and by one Sacrifice he hath perfected for ever them that are Sanctified, Heb. 10. 14. Was there by one Act of Christ the expi [...]tion of Sin, and all at once, that are commited from the beginning of the World to the end thereof, how comes it to pass, that this and that Sin should be charged upon the Elect Persons, when they were laid upon Christ long be­fore? He did by that one Act of his expiate all our Sins, or did not: If he did not expi­ate them fully, then he did not save to the utmost all them that come to God by him. But if he did, then all Iniquity is vanished and gone, he did extract it out, [...]s some Plaister of excellent Virtue, doth extract out the Venom of a plague-sore: So Christ, by once of­fering up himself, did take away and evaporate all the Sins of the Elect at once.’ Again our Author, to level his secret Armisian stroke against Election here, as formerly against the Doctrin of Justification in the materi [...] Righteousness thereof, he defiles and pollutes (if possible) even Scripture it self, and [...] li [...]e a bold Impostor, for it to speak for him, and against its Divine Author; and in order [...] he cites Eph. 2. 13. chap. 1. 1. chap. [...]. 2, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. [...]. 2 3. John 3. 36. and from hence concludes,‘Ob­serve it, [...]efore they were converted they were Strangers and Aliens, Crispi. unmask'd, Pag. 36. they were with at Christ, without God, without Hope, they were at En­mity with the Father and the Son, and there was no more to be laid to their charge at that time, than to the glorified Saints above? When they were without Christ, in the time of their Unregeneracy, and living in all Excess of Riot, were they not only in God's Favour, but as much as the Saints in Glory? How then was Christ their Peace? How is it said they were reconciled? v. 16. Reconciliation supposes falling out, it implies being at enmity. Those who are now reconciled, and made Friends, were once Stran­gers and Enemies; and were they at that very time Favourites of God, yea, as great Fa­vourites as the blessed glorified Spirits? Who hath the Confidence to say this but Dr. Crisp? And who hath a Heart to believe it but one that dis-believes the plain Testimo­ny of Holy Scripture?’ Hence observe, Reader, the Doctor, having spoken of Election a­part, and therein in [...]lusively notes, That as such, it is a Doctrinal Truth, wherein the irre­fragable safety, and unerring security of all such comprehended therein, doth radically lie, and this arising from a distinguishing love in God, whence a further free act of his Grace towards them did spring and that in sending his only begotten Son into the World as their representa­tive Head, charged with their Sin to remove the same, upon the performance of which (infer­red from the word upon the Cross, It is finished) a door, passage or entrance was made or laid open (without the least impeachment of any of the Attributes of God) for the actual conveying, in a way of Application by faith, that Reconciliation, Life and Peace, that God had in store for them from all Eternity, therefore said to be in Christ, reconciling them unto himself, even before they become by faith reconciled unto him, for it is not Faith that gives a being unto this Reconciliation in God, no nor yet the Blood of Christ himself, though it make way to the uttermost for the communication of the same, without which [Page 23] it would have been for ever hid even from the Elect, but receives it, which the Apostle ex­presly declares to be the very Ministry given unto him and others, and adds hereunto the reason thereof (the so much despised fundamental truth this day) by way of encourage­ment to bring poor sinners in (Dr. Crisp's own method) 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, 2 Cor. 5. 18, 19, 20, 21. Now doth it follow, that because the Elect, during their state of total unbelief, are Aliens and Strangers unto these great Mysteries, that therefore God should not know them as being in Christ, as a publick Person, and as such, through him be reconciled unto them? 2 Tim. 2. 19. Or have any of the Elect any more by Faith in their actual possession, than what they had through Grace an irreversible Title unto from all Eter [...]ity? Tit. 1. 1, 2. But our Author tells us (of which he seems to be very fond by his bandying of it backwards and forwards against the Dr.) That, Because, whilst even the Elect are in a state of Nature, they are the Children of Wrath, and also, that they that believe not, the wrath of God abideth on them, there­fore they cannot be as much the Favourites of Heaven, as the Saints now in Glory are. I beseech thee, Reader, mark it well, and a very ordinary capacity will introduce thee not only into the fallacy of his proceedings, but the Arminian rottenness of his Hypothesis lu [...]king under the same. From whence is it that they come to be translated out of a state of Nature into that of Grace? or to be actually removed from an obnoxiousness unto, and an eternal abid­ing under the Wrath spoken of? (which indeed is the portion of Reprobates, amongst which Hypocrites and Double-Dealers, especially if Professors, and those of them with a wit­ness indeed, who would, under a pretence of Holiness, carry on their sinister ends by those ways and means which are absolutely inconsistent with the same) I say, is it from them­selves, or from God? If the former, then we are not deceived in these our Adversaries, but know where they are; if they say the latter, then it is evident that their own Concessions must give their Assertions the Lie; for it is either in the ability of the Elect to discern into, and also change both the state of their Persons, and frame of their Natures; or, it wholly lies in God, and that both as to his Will and Power therein: But in our Author's sense, there is nothing but wrath in God against them all whilst in unbelief; what then in God must be the motive to remove this unbelief, for a justly provoked wrath, in my apprehen­sion, would scarcely be moved to step one step to work that in man which must remove and annihilate it self, and indeed it were unreasonable to expect it. Therefore certainly it ap­pears to me, That this Ʋnbelief, which in it self exposes to the wrath of God, must be re­moved by its contrary, which is Faith▪ and this is wrought by the mighty operation of God. Now whether this proceeds from Love, even the very same the Saints in Glory are undistur­bedly filled with, and consequently Reconciliation in all the fruits of the same, the former be­ing the root-cause of the latter, let the Learned Athenian Club determine, in the next of their most admirably unintelligible Debates.

Observe Reader, that Scripture, Exod. 34. 6, 7. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children, and upon the Childrens Children, unto the third and to the [...]ourth Generation. Where the Lord proclaim­ing his Name to be, The Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering &c. yet declares, That he will by [...]o means clear the guilty: Now one would think according to our Neonomian Scheme, That this is highly incongruous; for who can be more properly the object of this grace than the guilty? And yet the Lord will not pardon these, though he pronounces himself to be a God forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; who then will he pardon? Why the Text infers, those that are clear from guilt; but where shall he find them? since the most holy that ever was or shall be on Earth, never yet was without sin; nay, he charges even his Angels with folly. It is only his Elect and Redeemed ones that he will pardon, and that because he hath provided for them such a righteousness and price to cover their naked­ness, and pay off their scores, That though they be guilty in themselves, and that as consi­dered in their natural state, and Covenant-relation unto Adam, together with the corrupt de­filements of their Natures thereupon, and so lies obnoxious unto Divine Wrath and Venge­ance, yet he, freely of his grace, justifies, pardons and acquits them, as being in Christ, [Page 24] though ungodly in themselves, and thereupon effectually renews and sanctifies them, Rom. 3. 24, 25, 26. chap. 4. 5. John 17. 6. compar'd with v. 17. Ezek. 16. 8, 9. Mal. 4. 2. And hence it is, that he sees no spot in his Spouse, nor iniquity in Jacob. Hence it is also, that the Lord before he makes thus known himself unto Moses in this his gracious, and yet my­sterious Proclamation, doth not only change his covenant station, by putting him upon a rock, but also covers him with a compleat, unspotted, and yet external Righteousness, by his putting of him into a Clift of the said Rock, as not willing that Christ, who indeed was figured out by that Rock, should become a pedestal for Moses, to stand upon before God in his own inherent righteousness of Faith, Repentance and Sincerity, but he must be clothed with, or put on Christ, in his own Righteousness, even his actual obedience unto the precep­tive and sanction-part of the Law, and that in the solid matter, and not meritorious or con­sequential effects of the same, Phil. 3. 9.

Let me further tell thee, Reader, and by then thou hast thoroughly search'd into the con­sonancy of Scripture, thou wilt certainly find it so, That as on the one hand no one's holiness, though of the right kind, can or ever did produce the least dram or particle of the Love of God, so neither will i [...] in the perfection of it's degree, in Glory it self, when without all spot or blemish, prove or appear to be the matter wherein their justified estate doth consist. Nay, take the very merits of Christ themselves, properly and distinctly as such, and they will not subserve so unscriptur [...]l an end, for though the King's Daughter be all glorious within, in the real and true renovation of her Nature here, whilst upon Earth, and unspotted perfe­ction thereof in Glory, yet that which gives her admittance into, and an eternal standing before God, is her clothing or covering, nor the former, which is indeed but a result of the latter, and that not in a remote meritorious sense, but material and substantial interesting of her in, and investing of her with that Gold of Ophir, or Garment wrought of Gold, which is the Righte­ousness of the Saints, Psa. 45. 9, 13. Rev. 19. 8.

THIS appears from the nature and manner of Christ's proceedings on his juridical Throne at the day of Judgment, Matth. 25. 31, &c. (A Text out Adversaries so imperti­nently urge to prove that inhe [...]ent righteousness is the matter in which, though for the merits of the Righteousness of Christ, all that shall be saved, are justified, or prono [...]nced juridically just before God) wherein it is evident, That the whole of the eternal Counsels of God, concerning Mankind in the Judgment committed by the Father unto the Son are demonstratively set forth in the very form of Christ's proceedings on that day, and that to the stopping of the Mouths of Angels, Men and Devils, together with the Manifestations of the faithfulness of Christ in the discharge of his Mediatory Office, by bringing about the full and undeniable accomplishment of the aforesaid Counsels, not only in the very matter, but order, and regular course, and manner of the same. In short, the whole of the trans­actions of that day will appear to be (as sententially declar'd by Christ) a perfect Epito­mized Transcript of the secret of God's Covenant, As

1. The Doctrin of Election, wherein God's eternal purpose of Love towards a certain number of the Lump or Mass of Mankind, without any regard unto, by way of motive or foresight of their believing or justified state, fully appears, therefore called Sheep (separate the Sheep from the Goats) even before they were so much as actually changed in their state, v. 32. comp. John 10. 16.

2. THE Doctrine of Justification, is made manifest in Christ's setting them on his right hand, or changing their station, which precedes his owning any of their works, v. 33. comp. Rom. 8. 5.

3. THE Doctrin of Regeneration, attested unto in the fruits of the same, even good works from a gracious principle to a right end, and their self denial thereupon, v. 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40. Rev. 14. 13. Their works follow, but go not before them, compare Matth. 7. 22. Luke 13. 26.

4. ALL this is apparently founded upon their being blessed of the Father; but when was that? Even then when he had prepared a Kingdom for them, and that from the Foundation of the World, v. [...]4. comp. 2 Tim. 1. 9. whereupon it is, that the blessed Son resigns up his Mediatory Office and Kingdom unto the Father, together with the trust com­mitted unto him, 1 Cor. 15. 24. Heb. 2. 13. whereby God becomes All in All. Where [Page 25] now is room for boasting, ye pitiful Hucksters in Divinity? Where are you causa sine qua nons, your Conditions, Causes and Prerequisites?

BUT we must attend our Author, who quotes the Dr. p 15. ‘Though a Believer, af­ter he be a Believer, doth sin often, yet God no longer stands offend­ed and displeased with him, when he hath once received Christ.’ And Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. I. Serm. 2. pag. 15.—Quoted by Crispia. unmask'd. page 37. hench he gives what he thinks to be the Dr's reason, on which our Mo­deller fixes his mistake, but perfectly leaves out the bottom-ground there­of, by which our Author gives us some Socinian glimmerings, more of which both as to the matter and clearness, we may see in his next Charge, for ibid. here he tells us,‘His reason is, because if Christ bore our Ini­quities, he also bore the displeasure of God for them; and though God be displeased at sin in Believers, and hates and abhors it, yet he is not offended with the Persons of Believers, who commit that sin, because they are justified.’ Now compare this with what he leaves out in the same Page, unquoted from the Dr. as follows, whence thou mayst have a little view of Socinus's Face, though pictut'd or shadow'd forth in what our Author says, but some­what side-ways—‘And (saith the Dr.) unto them, God saith, Anger is not in me, Isa. 27. 4. And Isa. 53. amongst many other notable expressions of God's being well pleased towards poor Sinners through Christ: He saith, he Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. I. Serm. 2. p. 15 was wounded for their transgressions; you have this admirable expressi­on of the effect of his wounding, He shall see the Travel of his Soul, that is, towards the latter end of the Chapter, And he shall be satisfied; satisfied here, is as much as pacified, they are all one; The Travel of the Soul of Christ makes God such amends for the sinfulness of all Believers, that he can no longer stand offended and dis­pleased with them. If God doth remain offended with them, there is yet some of their sinfulness remaining to be taken away, that this offence also may be taken away. All their sins must be taken away from them, and all offences will be removed from them. But except God will be offended, where there is no cause to be offended, (which is Bla [...] ­phemy to speak) he will not be offended with Believers. For I say he hath no cause to be offended with a Believer, because he doth not find the sin of the Believer to be the Believer's own sin, but he finds it the sin of Christ: He was made sin for us, God laid the Iniquity of us all upon him: The Blood of Christ cleanseth us from all Sin: He bore our sins in his body on the Tree. And if he bear our sins, he must bear the displeasure for them; nay, if he did bear the displeasure, the indignation of the Lord; and if he did bear the indignati­on of the Lord, either he did bear all, or but part; if he did not bear all the indignation of the Lord, then he doth not save to the uttermost those that come to God by him, as in the seventh Chapter to the Hebrews, he is said to do; I say, not to the uttermost because hee is some offence, some indignation left behind, and for lack of taking of this indignation upon himself, it lights and falls upon Believers. So that, either you must say, Christ is an imperfect Saviour, and hath left some scattering of wrath behind, that will light upon the head of the Believer; or else you will say, he is a perfect Saviour, and takes away all displeasure of God; then there remains none of it upon the Person of the Believer. Beloved, for my part, I understand not what clouds are in the Mind and Judgment of other men: To me it seems, there is no truth more abundantly cleared in all the Scripture, than this one truth of the transacting of our sins, and consequently the offence or God for this Sin, that it is wholly laid upon the back of Christ, Dr. Crisp's Works Vol I. Ser. 2. p. 16 and so a poor soul hath rest from the indignation of God, as Christ doth take the burthen off from his shoulders. There is a two-fold burthen; first in sin it self, and the second burthen is the indignation of God for it. Who can bear this indignation of his? Christ alone, and he hath born it.’

NOW from hence thou mayst observe no small little of our Author's Treachery, and what Arminianism, as well as Socinianism lodges in the same, notwithstanding his seemingly fair acknowledgments of commutative imputation of Sin and Righte [...]usness between Christ and a Believer. The Dr. as we have heard, positively as well as w [...]rrantably declares, That God cannot be displeased with the person of a believing Sinner in a proper, vindicative or legally penal sense, because that his sins were laid upon Christ, and that he also bore actually, in the [Page 26] room of such, even God's displeasure against the same. Therefore, says our Author, ut supra That because Christ bore our iniquities, he also bore the displeasure of God for them, which he takes to be a mistaken ground for the Dr. to fix his Assertion upon, Note

1. THAT in our Author's sense the displeasure of God against the very person of a Be­liever, and that for sin even in a penal sense, abides with God whilst the said Believer is in this mortal state, not the best of Believers being without the same, during their abode in the flesh; whence it shrewdly follows, That when they are compleatly sanctified and freed from all the indwellings of sin, then and not till then are they got from under God's vindi­cative and punitive displeasure against their persons for the same. This with our Author's good leave, I take not only to be his Cryptical reserve, but downright Arminianism, as growing in the Soil of a Self-justiciary. Therefore he tells us, page 37. How we are to understand God's charging of sin upon a justified person, That it shall not be his endless peril, his utter destructi­on; but it feems it carries and procures that displeasure from God against even the person of a Believer, that is the same in kind with an endless peril, and utter destruction; from which displeasure in the everlasting continuance of the same (though not nature thereof du­ring this Life) the person of a Believer may be fully secured in a state of perfect Holiness; But

2. Most absconded Sir! Methink you swell, and that most rankly too of the Cask of So­cinianism, like your Foxes, Fitchets, and such sort of Vermin, though very reclusely lodged from the Eye, yet their nasty scent usually betrays them; for is it possible, That Christ can be look'd upon as a proper Sacrifice for sin, and not as undergoing the full displeasure of God against, as well as punishment from God for the same? And if so, where would this punish­ment be, or what would it signific? This is to make but a meer sham, Metaphorous appear­ance, or gulling Cheat of the infinite Sufferings of the blessed Jesus, and thereby to despoil him of his Glory, even of that Baptism that he was in a strait, till he was Baptized with the same; nay, let me tell this Author by the way, That take away the displeasure of God against sin, or such as are in their Persons juridically charged with the same (from which he would acquit Christ in his Representative undertaking, and yet load a Believer withal) and I will rea­dily undergo the punishment thereof.

By the way, observe this as a true Mark and Token of both an Arminian and Socinian; that if they can but be secured from punishment, they do not much value either the Good Will or Displeasure of God. This seems to be the secret Nursery of all their irregular Proceedings, both in frothines of Spirit, loosness of Life, and prevarication in Doct [...]in, together with their treacherous management of Authors; for so long as they think that Christ hath taken away the sin only in the punishment thereof, they little set by (self being secured thro' the same) what becomes either of the Favour or Displicency of God towards them, unless they can pro­cure the former in their own way, unto which Christ shall give them a remote assistance, they are very regardless, until the appearance of a Death's-head drive them to their Tutissi­mum est, &c.—Verbum sat sapienti.

Take this that follows in a familiar comparison, as a short, yet full Scheme of the Neono­mian Heresie, touching the Doctrin of Justification, yea, the whole Body of that Divinity included in the definition given therein of the Covenant of Grace: That as a Surety on the behalf of ano­ther, Compounds for his Debt, by cancelling the Bond, as to its immediate Relation between the Creditor and Debtor, in translating over the Charge unto himself by his undertaking for the payment thereof, after the way of a Bristol-Bargain, unto which the said Surety enables him by a provision of all Implemental materials, together with his derective advice, continued Presence, and recruitive Assistances upon failures, till the poor Debtor, by vertue of the same at the end of his Seventh Year of Jubilee, receives his compleat discharge, which he (as ab­solutely disowning all abilities in himself to compass the same) fully ascribes, and that justly as well as thankfully, in the whole of it, unto the meritorious responsibleness of undiscern­ed kindness, and constant actual supplies from his merciful Spouser and Undertaker. Thus in their sense Christ becomes our Surety. Now our Author, Ibid. comes to his Journey-man-Taylor's unstitching concessions, tho' not half so honestly, yet as boobishly as possibly can be,—‘Here we most readily grant, that those who are justi­fied Crispi. Ʋnmask'd, Pag. 37. clear from the Imputation of all sin, according to some Scriptures he quotes, 1 Joh. 1. 7. 1 Pet. [...]. 24. Rom. 8. 1, 33. But hereupon arises [Page 27] two Questions, notwithstanding this his Armini-S [...]cinian Grant, as to the ends and circum­stances attending the same.’ As,

Quest. 1. Whether or no any one yet was, or ever shall b [...] truly justified without a praevious juri­dical Title unto, and interest in such a Righteousness (and that without a present Work of Grace within him) as may constitute him compleatly just as to the matter thereof, and also render and make it appear, that God is infinitely just in the Justification of such a one?

Quest. 2. Whether this Concession of our Author, as to the Imputation of all Sin unto Christ, and yet reserving even that thereof, which is Hell it self, unto a true Believer; That in his Suf­ferings, and Afflictions, he undergoes the very Displeasure of God, and Christ only the punish­ment, be in the least consistent with Truth, common Sense, or solid Peace and Comfort? Our Author laying a greater Burthen upon the Believer in this his Concession, than upon Christ himself.

But further he tells us in the Eighth Charge.

VIII. That this reminds him of another assertion of the Doctor's, viz. p. 38. as a natural con­sequent of his former position. And so it is as natural indeed as our Author's Proceed­ings against him, the former defending Truth with Truth, the latter seeking to undermine the same by a continued Multiplication of one treachery on the back of the other. Before we come to a precise consideration of his quotations, note these three things:

1. That when he cites the Doctor for saying, That no Believer is punished or afflicted for sin, he hides from thee his not only inferential, but also literal explanation of the same, p. 38, 39.

2. That when he is forced to speak, even the Doctor's words, (as not being able to avoid the same (no more than Bal [...]am could avoid his Prophesie) wherein his consciousness appears like the Devils of old, in their owning of Christ,) which are fully expressive of his meaning against what our Author discerpts out of him as the matter of his accusation against him; he would cast the imputation of Weakness and Fallacy upon him, meerly to make way for the recepti­on of his invidious and ungrounded stroke against him, and thereupon gives us such a disquisi­tive explication of the matter in hand, as roundly bespeaks himself to be both a Fool & Cheat. p. 40.

3. That in his Concessions, even from his quo [...]ation of Scriptures themselv [...]s, he unravels the whole, and thereby subscribes unto the Doctor, yea, confirms him against all his false Im­peachments. This Charge being much of the same nature with the former (which our Au­thor himself conf [...]s [...]es) I shall contr [...]ct my self as briefly as I can in my remarks upon the same.

THE first the Doctor himself confirms, a [...]d that in the very place, from whence our Author quotes him. p. 17, 8. 170. 258, In all which plac [...]s the Doctor asserts two things.

1. That all the Afflictions and Troubles that b [...]fall a B [...]liever, cannot expi [...]te or satisfie for the least Sin.

2. That God in his punishing of a Believer doth it not in a proper vindicative sense, as juridicall [...] charged with Sin, to drive him from Sin: All which our Author doth as much MASK from thy Sight as possibly he can, as knowing, that had he done otherwise, he must with his own Pen, have overthrown, and dasht out the whole of this his invidious enterprize; for proof of which, take the following Quotations.

Christ is a way to take away the effect of God's displeasure; Christ is the only way to take it away. Shall I give the Fruit of my Body? saith the Prophet, Micah 6. 7. for the sin of my Soul; a Thousand Rams, or Ten Thousand Rivers of Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. I. Serm. 2. Pag. 17, 18. Oyl? No, alass, this will not buy out the penance of one Sin, when he hath sinned; it is all too mean a price; there must be a better to take away that Wrath; that is, the heavy punishment of God fro [...] a Be­liever. I say, a better price than this, not a dearer price to us poor Men, but yet a more dear and acceptable price unto God, a price in its nature Infinite and Invaluable, but of this price, not a Farthing goes out of our purse; there is the greatness. Christ is a way to take away all Wrath, in respect of the heavy hand of God, which is the Fruit of Man's sin.

IN brief, Beloved, the sum plainly is this, Christ is so the Way from Wrath (Now our Author's Charge comes in, as it lies in this Parenthesis. That God doth never punish any Be­liever after he is a Believer; for sin,) I say, God doth not punish him for sin. This seems to be a hard Proposition to many; but give me leave to clear what I say, and so according to the clear evidence of truth, reject or receive what I deliver to you. In Isa. 53. 5. a Chapter of most admirable Excellency, to set forth the wonderful incomprehensible benefit of [Page 28] Christ: Observe it, He was wounded for our Transgressions, mark the punishment, He was bruised for our Iniquities; the Chastisement of our Peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed. Now beloved, I will ask but this Question; Are the Wounds of Christ, part only of our punishment? Or are they the whole of our punishment? The Bruisings of Christ, were they to be part of the punishment our sins deserved? If they were but part we must bear the rest our selves; but then we must be Co-Saviours with Christ, Co-bearers of In­dignation and Wrath, Isa. 63. 3. He hath troden the Wi [...]e-press alone, saith the Text; he looked for some that might help, and wondred, and there was none, v. 5. No Creature in the World was able to be a helper with him

I speak of Believers only, they do not bear one lash of that deserved Wrath that is poured out for sin, not one lash nor stroke; Christ trod it alone himself. Yea, but you will say unto me, Doth not God afflict his Children and Believers? All the World seeth and knoweth he doth; therefore why speak you against this? Beloved, give me leave to ask you, Is there not a great deal of difference between God's afflicting of Believers, and God's pu­nishing of Believers for sin? (Here our Author comes in)

Quest.Are not the afflictions of Believers for their sins?

I Answer. No; Afflictions are unto Believers from sin, but not for sin: What is the meaning of that will you say? This, God in afflicting of Believers, doth not intend to punish them, as now laying on them the desert of their sin; for that is laid upon Christ; but he doth afflict them in part to be a help to preserve them from sin, &c.

It may be in affliction, and when the Rod of God is fallen upon thee, thy heart will be ready to raise such thoughts as these in thee: Now God Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. I Ser. 2. p. 170. will be even with me: now shall I smart for my transgressions. (Thus far our Author.) But know this, that at that instant, when God brings Afflictions upon thee, he doth not remember any sin of thine; they are not in his thoughts towards thee; for the Text saith, not only of the present instant, that God doth not re­member them; but of the future also, nay, of the everlasting future: Your sins, and your iniquities, I will remember no more.

I beseech you, consider this one thing, you that think that God doth plague and punish you, being Believers, for such and suc [...] sins of yours, and say, Doth not God now remem­ber these sins of mine? Doth God punish such and such sins in others, and take venge­ance for them, and doth he not remember them? Doth God use to do things hand over head? Doth God lay his Rod and his Scourge upon them, and never think of the cause of it? And if these Afflictions be the Judgment of God for these sins, certainly God must remember these sins, and so know them as Mo [...]ives and Provocations, to inflict such Vengeance upon them, and if God doth punish them for them, certainly God doth now remember them: And what of all this? Is it a Truth that God hath spoken, Your iniquities, and your sins will I remember no more? Then surely, whatsoever things befall the Children of God, are not punishments for sin, they are not remembrances of sin, the Lord must be true and faithful in his Covenant; and therefore, if Men shall cavil against this Free-Grace of God, yet let me request this of you, Let the evidence of the Holy Ghost so pre­vail with your Spirits, that if any Creature in Heaven or Earth, Men or Angels, shall en­deavour to contradict this, let them be accounted as they deserve. Let all give way to this Truth; if any thing in the World can make it appear to the contrary, then let it go away with it: But if the Spirit of God doth speak it so clearly, that nothing can be ob­jected against it; let not any thing cause thee to live in so much darkness and uncomfort­ableness, as thou must do, till thou receive this Grace of the Lord.

Now, Reader, Be thine own Judge, and thou wilt find that this Author, even in this his particular dealing with the Dr. would overthrow two main Pillars of our Religion, as

  • 1. The compleat satisfaction of Christ, as it respects sin in the full demerits of the same.
  • 2. The Grace of God himself in the free and full sovereign application thereof unto Elect Sinners.

See Dr. Owen on Heb. 12. 6. Vol. IV.

1. That love is antecedent unto chastening; he chastens whom he loves; so it is with any Father, he hath first the love of a Father before he chasten his Son; ‘whatever therefore [Page 29] is the same materially with the chastisement of children, if it be where the Love of Adoption, doth not precede, is punishment (mark here Reader) The love therefore here in [...]ended, is the love of Adoption, that is, the love of Benevolence, whereby he makes men his children, and his love of complacency in them when they are so.’

2. Ch [...]stising is an effect of his love. It is not only consequential unto it, but springs from it, ‘wherefore there is nothing properly poenal in the chastisements of Believers: pu­nishment proceeds from love unto Justice, not from love unto the person punished. Cha­stisement is from love to the person chastised, though mixed with displeasure against his sin.’ Note here, Reader, with an especial Note, That the person of a Believer is not displeased with, though under the chastisement, not punishment, of the Lord for sin. There­fore the said Dr further tells us, on v. 9, 10. ‘That the especial end of God in Divine Chastisements is, that he may make us partakers of his holiness.’ And on v. the 11th. he fur [...]her sheweth the benefit of chasti [...]ements; And is not all this Dr. Crisp's own Asser­tion, that it is [...]o [...] for [...] in a poe [...]al sense, but from sin, that God afflicts his People, or that he is displeased with their person [...], whilst he doth afflict them.

The second thing no [...]ed in this Charge, is in Page 40. where our Author gives us the Dr's reason why God [...]oth not afflict or punish any Believer for fin; namely, ‘because Christ bor [...] [...]ll the p [...]nishment due to sin; and if he bore all, we can bear none: God w [...]ld not punish Christ and B [...]lievers too.’ (And he endeavours to in­validate Crisp. unmask'd. page 40. it [...] as notable a Socinian distinction, saving the blockishness of it, as most I have m [...]t with. ‘Thi [...] seems ( [...]a [...]s he) to be a plausible reason, but it hath no solid Foundation. It is in [...]ed a meer F [...]llacy, which I prove thus; To argue after this manner, Chri [...] bore all Punishment due to Sin, therefore Believers have none to bear, is sophi­stical, b [...]c [...]u [...]e the [...]n [...]ecedent Proposition speaks not of the same bearing of punishment that the co [...]sequent Prop [...]sition speaks of. The one speaks of bearing punishment, as that pu­nishment was a full satisfaction to God for sin, but the other speaks of bearing punishment as 'tis the desert of sin.’ Now thinking he hath come off with Flying Colours, he tells us, Here is a vast difference between these two. And indeed there is, but not in our Author's sense, as I humbly conceive. ‘It seems therefore, (says he) that there is a bearing of punishment, as a full satisfaction to God for sin, this Christ bore; but there is also (says he) another bearing of punishment, and that as it is the desert of sin; this the sinner bears.’ He further tells us, that it is no good consequence to say, That if Christ bore all the sufferings due to sin, then we must bear none. This might pass for a pretty Quibble, were there not so much as thou wilt find of hellish Blasphemy lodged in it; for what of punishment for sin did Christ un­dergo, if the full, compleat desert thereof was not laid upon him? And if this was not inflicted upon him to the very uttermost, that an infinitely Divine Hand of offended Justice could exact, how was God or Justice satisfied? But Sir, we ken your meaning very well, That Sin was not the meritorious, but impulsive cause of the Death of Christ; which in plain terms, is to assign no more unto his Death, but what is incident unto Nature, upon Its disso­lution; and therefore be pleased to take home your sottish, as well as wicked distinction to your self: It is reckoned upon you as being reprobate Silver, and what will by no means pass amongst the Shekels of the Sanctuary. And notwithstanding his subsequent paring of this his Assertion, so as to take off its more apparent rough-hewedness, which in the substance thereof doth more than once drop from him; it is for no other end than that it may with the more undiscernedness pass off like poison in a Glass of Wine.

The third thing in this Charge is, The Scriptures he produces against the Doctor, which evidently make for him, as ‘Lev. 26. 18, 24, 28. Ez. Crisp. Ʋnmask'd, p, 41, 42, 43, 44. 9. 13. Lam. 3. 39. A [...]os 3. 2. 1 Cor. 11. 30, 31, 32. Isa 27. 9.’ Not one of these Texts bespeaks God's displeasure against the Persons of Believers, or his bringing Afflictions upon them in a penally-vindicative sense, some expressing warnings, some duties actually closed with, as stirred up thereunto by them, some duties to be engaged in and under them, some gracious effects from and thorow them. And that of the Corinthi­ans is but the same with that of Ʋzzah, and King Josiah: now will any one say, that this pro­ceeds from God's looking upon those of them that were true Believers, as not having their Sins in the full desert as well as punishment of them upon Christ; for which it is that the [Page 30] Doctor expresses himself in those curtail'd Quotations that our Author brings against him. See Dr. Owen on Heb. 12. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 11. And now our Author, after all his pitiful sttuff, tells us, p. 45. ‘That he will not here nicely dispute about the Nature of punishment, &c.’

AS to the Ninth Charge.

IX. He tells us, that—‘It is not only asserted by him, (i. e. the Crisp. Ʋnmask'd, Pag. 47. Doctor) that God is not offended or displeased with Believers, much less pu­nisheth them for their Sins; but he holds likewise, that God is not pleased with any of their Graces and Duties, or whatever good thing they do, although these pro­ceed from the Holy Spirit, the Author of all Goodness.’ Now, should our Author have but his mind, by a just rule of consequence, the Spirit of God must take place of the Medi­ator, and the Graces and Duties of Believers stand in the very room, and stead of the Righ­teousness of Christ. This will appear evidently from the places whence he fetches the mat­ter of his Poyson against the Doctor, or rather the Truths that the Doctor asserts. As,—‘A Man would think that the Apostle contradicted himself; works have nothing to do in Man's Salvation, or move God to save;’ Not of Works, Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. II. Ser. 6. p. 321. saith he, but of Grace; yet saith the Apostle, You are created and ordain­ed to good Works; these stand well together. The Apostle Paul tells ‘Titus, that Men should study good Works, for these are profitable unto Men: A Man serves his Generation, while he walketh in good Works, and he doth good too to them, among whom he lives. A Man serves not himself in all the good Works he doth; for the Lord Christ hath fully served his turn already; either we must make our Performance Christ's, or else we must disclaim them. What a Pride and Arrogance is this, either Men will rule the Roast, or else they will not abide in the House! As every Man hath his Office in a Family, so every thing in Man hath its Office: Good Works have very necessary Of­fices in the Family, but they were never ordained to be Christ's, much less to be God's. When Christ was tempted by the Pharisees about Tribute, he makes this reply; Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. Let not the Righ­teousness of [...]en encroach upon God, to take God's Work upon its self; I tell you, Be­loved, we know not the evil of these vain Imaginations. Should the Lord deal with you according to your own Hearts, that as your Performances could lay sins upon Christ, and discharge you, so you should be discharged, when would you ever lay them upon him, when (alass) instead of laying old Sins upon Christ, by new performance, you do but add new sins to old; all our Righteousness is but renovation of new transgression to the old. For all ou [...] Righteousness, saith the Lord by the Prophet Esay, even all our Righteousnesses, he he speaks of every particular, they are as filthy Rags, and a menstruous Cloth. Is this the way to ease a Man of his Sin, to throw dirt anew in the Face of God? Is this a way for a Tray­tor to get the King's Pardon, to come into the Kings Presence, and throw Poison in the King's Face? There is not one Righteous Action a Man doth perform, but he doth therein anew throw Dirt in the Face of God by that Action of his, because Sin, (as the Wise-man saith) is abomination to the Lord. Who knows the Errors of his Life, and the Multitude of his failings in the best Righteousness he doth? Man's Righteousness may serve the turn of Men, but it will never serve God's Turn. Tho' there be failing in our Righteousness, yet it may be profitable to Men, but as there are failings in it, the Eyes of God cannot away with it.’

Now let me add this unto what the Dr. says, That were our inward righteousness unspot­tedly perfect, even in this life, yet I will be bound to clear and maintain, and that from the full distinct tenure and scope of the Covenant of Grace, That for the same, neither would our persons be accepted with, as justified before God, no nor any of our duties, either in whole or in part be regarded by him; for take but that righteousness away for which this worthy Dr. so well pleads, both as to its matter and use, and this our Author together, with the rest of his dissembling Tribe▪ would wholly subvert (unless it be from a meritorious station which they are pleased to assign unto it for fear of the worst) and there is not the most glorified Saint in Heaven, but would soon turn Apostate; for this is their clothing; it is herein, as well as hereon their eternal Station lies: This is the Robe in which God beholds them, they become [...]pted with him, and he well-pleased with them, without which, even their holiness (where­by [Page 31] they are qualified to take in the Glory of God, and also to rejoice in him) would soon be blasted, dwindled away, and come to nothing, nay, eternal wrath would seize upon them. Phil. 3. 9. Malachi 4. 2. Zach. 3. 2, 3, 4. Gen. 3. 7, 21. Rev. 3. 18. ch. 4. 4. ch. 7. 9, 13. chap. 15. 6. ch. 19. 8, 14. This was the constant joy of him, that was counted a Man af­ter God's own Heart, Psal. 71. 16: Herein his Spirit was perpetually exercised. Nay, it is the very property or distinguishing character of the new Creature, especially the leading Member thereof, to eye this, to bring this night, to see that the Soul be clothed clad with, and wrapt in the same, unto this the Winding-stairs of the Temple, even the Promises, as they are in Christ, do lead us, and the more we ascend by Faith, the more shall we see the Glory of God, experimentally know interest in him, and be dispirited of proud self, That God in Christ may be All in All, Rom. 1. 17. 1 Cor. 1. 29, 30, 31.

Again, our Author quotes the Doctor.—

The Apostle Paul complains, That e [...]en he when he would do Good, Evil was present with him, thro' the Law in his Members, rebelling against the Law of his Mind, which makes Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. II. Serm. 1. Pag. 232, 234. him cry out of himself bitterly against all he did: O wretchrd Man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of Death? (Rom. 7. 21, 23, 24.) By this Body of Death, he must needs mean altogether, because he doth not fly to good Works as a refuge against the evil, but to Christ alone, as a Refuge against all. I thank God (saith he then) through Jesus Christ our Lord, ver, 25. so then in respect of the inseparable Communicative, poysonfulness of the Ingredients of our Cor­ruptions, mingling themselves with the best Righteousness of the best Men, both they and their Righteousness are but loss and dung, and are filthy Rags, and must be so counted.

Some then may object, If it be so, we ought to refrain from doing Righteousness, we must refrain from Dung.

I answer, that it follows not; but therefore we must refrain from glorying in, or stroaking our selves for our Righteous Doings, and rather take shame to our selves when we have done, and so glory in the Lord. Though good works done by us are but dung in themselves, and in God's Eye, yet must we be careful to maintain good Works, for they are profitable to Men, Tit. 3. 8. though but Loss and Dung. David, Psal. 16. 2, 3. confesseth that his Goodness extendeth not to God, yet for all this he refrains no [...], because it could extend to the Saints that are upon Earth, and to the excellent in whom was his delight. It is no good Plea; That because a Man cannot be wholly clean, therefore he will be more filthy than needs. You will not like it, that because your Children cannot come from School without some dirt, in the eleanest way; that therefore they shall wal­low like Swine over Head and Ears in Dirt.

Others will say, God often shews his Approbation of good Works, which he could not do, if they were all Dung.

I answer, that whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin; but as to the Believer, all things are clean. (Here comes our Author) So through our Faith in Christ, the whole Filth and Dung, of our Works is extracted by Christ; and he presenting the same, purged by himself alone they became accepted with God, Rev. 3. 4.—But simply the works themselves, as done, tho' never so well, are abhorred of God, and Christ never takes them to purge till we our selves wholly renounce them by counting them Loss and Dung; and that acceptance procured by Christ, imports only a liking God takes to them, no Efficacy at all they have with him.

Again, But you will say again, Christ makes our Righteousness to be Dr. Crisp's Works, Vol. II. Serm. 6. Pag. 322, 323. accep [...]ed, h [...] makes it pleasing and acceptable, by purging away all the Filth that is in it, and then it may pr [...]vail with God to lay our Iniquities upon Christ.

I answer (Her [...] our Author comes in with his Charge) It is true, Christ doth purge away all the filthiness, both of Righ [...]eousness and Unrighteousness in Believers; but he doth not purge away the filthiness of their Righteousness, (that this Righteousness may prevail with God to lay Iniquity upon Christ) but then, that Righteousness may be accepted in the Beloved, as Services, Himself was without spot of the least Sin, yet he takes not away the Iniquity, by laying it upon the himself; and if our Righteousness be made compleat, by his taking away the Filth of it, and putting his own perfection on it, [Page 32] it is not to that end that Iniquities may be laid upon Christ by it, but that it may be ac­cepted in way of service.

I should go yet one step higher, and let you know, that as it is the Lord alone that lay iniquity upon Christ, so not only all our performances are unable to lay iniquity upon Christ; but even our Faith and Believing it self doth not lay iniquity upon Christ: Ye may easily perceive, Beloved, what I drive at in all this Discourse, namely; to strip the Creature stark naked, to leave it shiftless, and unable any way to help it self, that all the help that the Creature doth receive, may appear to be of the Free-Grace of God meerly, without the Creature's concurrence in it. I say therefore, it is not the Faith of Belie­vers that doth lay their iniquities upon Christ. Suppose thou hast committed many sins, and thy sins are apparent and plain; thou wouldst be rid of these transgressions, and hear of them no more; what is the way? Works are not of power to do it, you will say, But Faith is able to discharge the soul, and quit it from all transgressions, and lay them upon Christ. But I must tell you, albeit God hath given many glorious fruits and effects to Faith, and made it instrumental of much excellent and abundant consolation to his People, yet hath he not honoured Faith with this, that it should lay iniquity on Christ, or move God to do it.

Now thou mayst see, Reader, wherein the fallacy of our Doeg, or malicious Author does ly; for that which he lays as the foundation of this his Ninth Charge against the Dr. he quotes from p. 322. where the Dr. speaking of the best of Man's Righteousness, that it will not serve God's turn, as the matter of our Justification before him, he presently diverts the same from the Dr's li [...]eral, express sense and meaning therein, That God is not therefore pleased with any of the Graces or Duties of his People: A most ungrounded, impudent false­hood! But this is the manner of the Man throughout the whole of his Treatise, and now that the Dr. declares, which way they become of use unto us, and acceptable with God; namely, by Christ's purging and extracting out of them the filth that does attend them, and so presenting them to the Father, and that, when this is done, yet none of this is that for which God is prevailed with to lay sin upon Christ; He tells us, that Truth had at last got such a forcible prevalency upon the Dr. That he recants what he before had said, and withal, that the latter is a vain surmise in the Dr. against some that would be accounted the great­est Protestants, viz. That Christ doth not purge away the filthiness of their Righteousness, that this Righteousness may prevail with God to lay iniquity upon Christ. But their not only pitiful causa sine qua non, as previous unto God's imputation of Righteousness in order unto Justification fully demonstrates that there were just grounds for this gracious Dr's surmises, even in his day, as well as now; but also that Faith, Repentance, and Sincerity is the very matter of the same, though the merit thereof lies in Christ.

It is no wonder therefore, that our Author is so much concerned that the Dr's Book is got into so many hands, wherein and whereby both his, together with the vile Treache­rie, as well as Doctrins and Practices of others, are so evidently brought to light. And I am fully satisfied, that the more they engage in this work, the more they will not only labour in the fire; but vomit out their own shame, if there were any amongst them.

Now we come to his Tenth and Last Charge, wherein he telleth us, That

X. ‘And Lastly, another wild Position which these Sermons maintain is this, That All is done from Eternity, and so nothing is to be done now. He often tells his Auditors, Your Business is done to your hand already: Therefore there is no need of begging for Faith, or any other Grace, or for Forgiveness of Sin, or Crispi. unmask'd. p. 50, 51. any other spiritual Priviledge. These are all granted already, and not to be done now. He frequently inculcates this, and in one whole Ser­mon together insists upon it, viz. That God's pardoning sinners, and justifying the ungodly, are not now, or hereafter to be done; they are not present or future, but were dispatched long ago, even from Eternity. Whence he infers, that we must not look for Remission of Sins, or Ju­stification in this Life; we are not to be concerned in any such thing now, we need not be solicitous about it, for it is past and over: All is done from Eternity.’

Now thou mayst observe herein, the Method our Author takes in his dealings with the Dr. and that in every one of his Ten Charges against him, not one of them excepted; As

[Page 33] 1. When he lays down any one of them all against the Dr. he fixes upon some discerpt­ed, dragg'd Sentence or Position of his, and thereon lays his load of Invectives, by most false and violent inferences, endeavouring to suit it (by forcing it to speak what it never was designed for) to the nature of that Charge he is more immediately upon. But then

2. Finding by the Dr's Explanation of the said Position or Sentence, That his, viz. our Author's Treachery would more openly appear, he reserves the said explanation or expli­cation of the same unto the latter end of every one of his Chages, that thereby he might the more undiscernedly represent him as an Impostor, Recanter, and one inconsistent with him­self: Having put before a quite contrary construction upon it (meerly to blind the eyes of his Reader) to what the Dr. produces it for. Thus having clapt his own sense to what he has partially pickt out of the Dr's work, he runs and setches what the Dr. urges to clear and prove the same both by Scripture and Argument to render him the vilest cheat, and most vainglorious Person imaginable. This I will be bound to make good even to our Author's Face, if he dares openly appear in this Cause. As for instance, he quotes the Dr. ut suprà, Vol. II. Serm. 8. viz. That God's pardoning sinners, and justifying the ungodly are not now or hereafter to be done, &c. And thereupon our Author fixed his virulent sense, ut priùs ‘that we must not look for Remission of Sins, or Justification in this Life, &c.’ but retains the Dr's own explanation of them for another Charge against him, even that of Fallacy and Recantation, thus dividing betwixt the Dr's Positions and Explications he would make way for the fixing of Heresie upon him on the one hand, and of Double-dealing and Deceitfulness on the other.

Therefore I shall quote what our Author himself scat [...]eringly cites out of the Dr. for the fore-mentioned ends, and then let the Reader determine; as Auth.—‘That God's pardon­ing Sinners and justifying the ungo [...]ly, are not now or hereafter to be done, they are not present or future, but were dispatched long ago, Quoted in Crispiams. Ʋnmask'd. p. 51, 52. even from Eternity. God had all this at once in his eye, and hav­ing this Platform before him, as if all were then in being, he sets down his own Act of his Royal Assent, that for every such Person as he had chosen, and for every such Transgression that should be committed at such and such a time, by such and such Persons, he would accept of such a Christ, whom he would fit to bear their Transgressions—As the Elect were in the Eye of the Lord, before they had a real Exi­stence and Being, so all their iniquities were laid on Christ from Eternity: But it must needs be granted, that the particular Application of this Grace to Persons, that the Lord hath laid mine iniquities, and thine iniquities upon Christ individually, must needs be in time.’

Now what grounds had our Author to deal so wretchedly false with the Doctor, as he doth? as to [...]ay, That there is no need of begging for Faith, or any other Grace, or Forgiveness of Sin, or any other spiritual Priviledge, &c. this being prefixed to one part of his curtailed bra [...]ch against the D [...]ctor, and to usher in another part of the same, which is the Doctor's Expla­nation of the former part, he tells us,—‘That it fell from the Doctor's own Lips and Pen by chance, and that here you see he expresses it as a future thing, that God would accept of Christ.’ ‘And then for the third part of his qu [...]tation, he tells us, That He (i. e. the Doctor) at length submits to this, which is the real Truth, but which he had boggled at so long, and that indeed this is his way very often; he takes a great deal of pains to rear up a Notion, and then of a sudden pulls it down again.’ Thus our Author, like a cunning So­phister, to divert his Reader from attending upon him in his vileness, and manner of his Pro­ceedings as conscious to himself of what he had done, (like a Thief on the pursuit of an Hue and Cry, leaves his theft with another) would charge them upon the Doctor. This is not only the Jesuits Method to divide and rule, but also the practical dexterity of the Atheist to undermine the Scripture, endeavouring to make of it a meer self-contradiction: What Peace such Courses are like to be productive of one day, I think it were well our Author did in time consider. Thus he deals with the Doctor in the remainder of his Charge, p. 56. 57, 58, &c. wherein, by endeavouring to unmask others, who fully, plainly, soundly and ho­nestly, as in their proper colours appear in their Writings, he drops down the Vizard of [Page 34] his own Face, verifying the old Maxim, That there never yet was cheat, but sooner or latter proved an open exposed Fool. Unto the Reader's farther Satisfaction, as to our Author's Trea­chery herein. I shall refer him to an impartial disquisition, and comparing of both Books together; which by then he has done, he will soon be able to determine, on whose side the Scales turn; for there is not one of those Authors he brings against the Doctor, whose Treatises I am acquainted with, but fully speak of him, both as to Election, Justification, Graces and Duties, which I could with ease make to appear, were it my present work so to do; only this let me add, That amongst the many scores of black characters that he gives the Doctor, I know not one of them (as far as I have been informed either) by Teacher [...] or Authors, Men, both of sound Matter and excellent Spirits, to be in a State of Repro [...]a­tion, as deriding the new Birth, (and the like, &c.) a special Mark of the Son of the Bond-Woman, Gen 21. 9. compare Gal. 4. 29, 30. And yet, that the Doctor in our Author's Judgment, together with his Prefaces, should be a good Man, and in Heaven, is to me a per­fect Riddle, unless the measures they take here be from their owned allowed deceit [...]ul pra­ctises here, and yet can retain confident hopes of Glory hereafter.

Lye not, but let thy Heart be true to God,
Thy M [...]uth to it, thy Actions to them both,
Cowards tell Lies, and those that fear the Rod,
The stormy working Soul spits Lies and Froth.
Dare to be true, n [...]thing can need a Lye,
A fault, which needs it most, grows two thereby.
Herbert's Poems, pag. 3.
Roma, vale, vidi, satis est vidisse; revertar,
Cum Caeno, meretrix, [...], cinoedus ero.
GREAT Carbanado'd Crisp! What's now thy Crown,
And was thy Glory, here is [...]ampled down.
Here is no Synagouge, (alass!) fo [...] thee,
Since Christ alone gave Eyes, and made thee see.
Had'st thou but own'd some sub-caelestial Cause,
Heaven mix'd with Earth by some Creation-Laws;
A Ground-Work, out of Nature for Free-Grace,
As of her kind, Her Mysteries to place,
And in a Logical Phlehotomy
Let out thy Notions by Phylosophy,
Thou hadst been crown'd for thy Divinity.
But 'tis too late, since thou hast scap't the Fire,
And yet dost live unsing'd in thy Attire.
Free from Chaldean Scent, and rather more
Enlarg'd than cramp'd from what thou wast before.
Pass on Jehovah's Test, let England know
Who are her Worthies, Shibboleth, and who
Pronounce Sibboleth.— Want of this lisp,
With some impairs thy Credit, Gracious Crisp!
Whilst others hunger, thirst, and pant for more
Of that, whereof thou hast an Ocean store.
T. Edwards.

AN APPENDIX.

THERE is lately come into my Hands a small Pamphlet, entituled, The Agreement in Doctrin among the Dissenting Ministers in London, Subscribed Decemb. 16. 1692. And that as refer­ring unto the present Debates against the Dissenting Ministers, justly, and very wretchedly occasioned by one Mr. Daniel Williams, in a most corrupt piece of his, called, Gospel Truth Stated and Vindicated, wherein some of Dr. Crisp's Opinions are consider'd, and the Opposite Truths are plainly Stated and Confirmed. By the said Author.

On the which Pamphlet, together with the Circumstances attending it, I crave my Christi­an Liberty to fix my Remarks, the cause in Hand being every Man's concern, whilst he has ei­ther a regard to the Glory of God, the welfare of his own Soul, or the faithful and undaunted Service that he owes unto his Generation. Non soli mihi natus eram and so leave shall every one to determine for himself, though in my Judgment, I must confess (all things considered) I never met with a more useless, un-intelligible, and yet ins [...]aring Engine in all my days. But before we proceed, I shall offer thee Dr. Owen's Opinion in things of this nature:—‘It is an Agreement in words, and the outward found Dr. Owen on Hebr. Vol. II. Exercit. p. 127. of them, but the Belief and Profession of the same, Truths or Things, that is alone to be valued, all that is beyond such an Agreement, being left at Peace in the Province of Mutual Forbearance. An Agreement in words only Parrots may learn; and it will be better amongst them, than that which is only so amongst Men, because they have no mind to act, dissenting and contradicting Principles, but as for Men to declare their assent unto a certain form of words, and in the mean time in their Minds and Understandings, expresly to judge and condemn the Faith and Appre­hensions of one another about these very things, is a matter that no way tends to the U­nion, Peace, or Edification of the Church: For instance, suppose a form of words, ex­pressing in general, that Christ was an High▪Priest: that the Acts of the Priesthood being Oblation and Intercession, Christ in like manner offered himself to God, and maketh In­tercession for us, that hereby he purgeth, expiateth, and doth away all our sins, with ma­ny more expressions to the same purpose, should be drawn up, and subscribed by the So­cinians and their Adversaries, as they can safely do on all Hands, will this in the least further any Agreement or Unity between us, whilst we not only disagree about the sense of all these Terms and Expressions, but believe that things absolutely distant and inconsi­stent with one another, yea, destructive of one another, are intended in them?’

Again the same Author saith,—

Considering the Agreement in all Fundamental Articles of Faith between these Churches, thus at difference, and of what great use their Union might be unto the Protestant Religion, Dr. Owen's Enquiry into the Original, Nature, Justifica­tion, Power, Order, and Communion of Evangelical Churches, p. 300. both as unto its Spiritual and Political Interest in this World, the effecting of such an Union among them, hath been attemp­ted by many. Private Persons, Princes, Coll [...]quies, or Synods of some of the Parties at variance, have sedulously engaged herein. [Page] I wish they had never missed it in stating the Nature of that Union, which in this is a­lone desirable, and alone attainable; nor in the Causes of that disadvantageous difference that was between them. For hence it is come to pass, that although some Verbal Composi­tions have sometimes by some been consented unto, yet all things continue practically a­monst them, as they were from the beginning. And there are yet Persons who are ma­naging Proposals for such an Union with great Projection in point of Method for the com­passing of it, and stating of the Principles of Agreement. some whereof I have by me. But the present State of things in Europe, with the Minds of Potentates, not concerned in these things, leave little encouragement for such Attempt, for any expectation of any success.

After the Trial and Experience of an Hundred and Fifty Years, it is altogether in vain, to be expected that any farther Reconciliation or Union, should be effected between these Protestant Churches, by either Parties, Relinquishment of the Doctrins they have so long taught, professed, and contended for, or of their Practise in Divine Worship, which they have so long been accustomed unto. We may as well expect a River should run, back­wards, as expect any such things.

Pag. 302, That all these differing Churches, and whilst these Differences do continue, be taught to prefer their general I [...]terest, in opposition unto the Kingdom of Satan, and An­tichrist in the World, before the lesser things wherin they differ, and those occasion [...]l Animosities that will ensue upon them. It hath been observed in many places, that the nearer some Men or Churches come together in their Pag. 302, 303. Profession, the more distant they are in their Affections; as the Lutheraus in many places do more hate the Calvinists than the Papists, I hope it is not so by us. This makes it evident, that the want of necessary Peace and Ʋnion amongst Churches, doth not proceed from the things themselves wherein they differ, but from the Corrupt Lusts and I [...] ­terests of the Persons that differ. This Evil can no otherwise be cured but by such a Refor­mation, as shall in some measure reduce Primitive Simplicity, Integrity and Love, such as were among the Churches of the converted Jews and Gentiles, when they walked accord­ing unto the same Rule, in what they had attained, forbearing one another in Love, as unto the things wherein they differed. Until this also be effected, all endeavours for further Union, whilst these differences continue (as they are like to do, unless the whole frame of things in Europe should be changed by some great Revolution) will be fruitless and useless.

Were this conscientiously insisted on, out of a pure Love unto Jesus Christ, with Zeal, for his Glory, it would not only be of more use than innumerable wrangling Disputes about the points in difference, but more than the exactest Methods, in contriving Formularies, of Consent, or Colloquies, or Synodical Conferences of the Parties at variance, with all their Solemnities, Orders, Limitations, Precautions, Concessions and Orations. Let Men say what they will, it must be the Revival, Flourishing, and Exercise of Evangelical Light, Faith and Love, that shall heal the Differences and Breaches that are among the Churches of Christ; nor shall any thing else be honoured with any great influence in that work.

From the whole of what our truly worthy Eleazer, Dr. Owen has, laid before us, I would gather thus much, (who so stood in the 2 Sam. 23. 10. comp Dr. Owen's Discourse of the Glory of Christ, Part 1. Pref. latter end. cause of his Lord and Master, till his Hand was weary, and yet quitted it not, but clave unto the Sword, yea, though dead, yet still speak­eth, in the great Victory the Lord wrought by him, even such as that the People have little more to do, save to return after him only to the spoil.)

That whatever attempts may be made after an Agreement between Dissenting Parties by a Subscrition of Articles, true in the real form and verbal the matter thereof; yet if the scopal design, genuin energy, and unsophystieated truths contained thereof be not attended unto, and that as arising from a divine, clear, irresistible, and yet Heart-bowing and bending Conviction upon the Conscience, will be so far from terminating in their satisfaction, as that indeed thereby (all such Hypocritical measure being abhorred of God) sooner or la­ter a wider gap of Difference will be opened, and also deeper, and more lasting Exasper­ations issue from the same. Nay, such is the watchful and careful Eye of God over and [Page] towards, even his cajoled and deceived ones, that if they will still suffer themselves to be decoyed and gulled by the fair, and yet empty pretences of a certain sort of professors, he will by one Providence or another (as he did by Lot) even Fire them out from amongst such Associates, which he has truly begun, and that with the Fire of his own Sanctuary, kindled already; for tho' the Embers thereof may seem to be covered for the present, by the nasty Ashes of a pretended empty Agreement cast upon them, yet in due time he will break through the same by such a flame, as shall openly proclaim his Zeal; and his being cloathed therewith as a Cloak for his own G [...]ory, establish and confirm his upright ones, and bring a dreadful Terror upon the Hypocrites in Zion. I come not to bring Peace, but the Sword.

Now the Question to the point in hand will naturally follow, namely—What it is from or in this Paper of Agreement, that should provoke any Man's Pen to drop so much Dislatisfaction against the same and especially considering that so many and so much differ­ing Ministers in their Persuasions, have been thereby brought into a seeming open, and ex­ternal coalescency one with another? Unto which I shall give thee my thoughts and attend thy better Information, as

1. The first Ground of my Dissatisfaction herein is, that the Difference in hand as to the Matter is not at all decided, or attempted to be decided by this Paper of Agreement, but a difference be [...]ween Persons, wherein it appears that the interest of Man is absolutely (and that by way of just consequence) preferred to the Interest of Christ, whose glory in his abstracted and unmixed Truths, must it seems be thereby postponed to the carnal welfare, and glaring Peace or Prosperity of Man; as

On Decem [...]. 19. 1692. This Expedient was brought to a Meeting of the Ʋnited Ministers, who unanimously expressed their Approba­tion in the following Words, viz.

That these Brethren, who at the Desire of the Ʋnited Ministers, con­sidered Paper of Agree­ment. Page 16. some Objections against Mr. Williams his Book, having brought in the above mentioned Expedient for the Accommodation of the Matters in Controversie. The Ʋnited Ministers have weighed it, and approve of the same. Be­sides, it was further declared by them, That whereas the Ʋnited Ministers Collectively consi­dered, and as such, have not been desired to Approve of Mr. Williams his Book: In like manner, they do not by any thing in this Agreement imply an Approbation of Mr Chauncy his Writings in this Controversie: But yet they do rejoice that both Mr. Williams and Mr. Chauncy have accepted this offered Expedient.

And would not such Measures as these be reckoned as highly ridiculous, as well as treacherous and false, for my Servant instead of adjusting my Concerns, whereon and whereunto I send him, as entrusted with the s [...]me, to take up with a bare sociable Act of Fellowship and Friendship even amongst those, with and against whom my present Debate and Controversie lies?

Now is not all this perfect Sophistry? Whence should a necessity proceed of an Agreement? Is it from the Matter in Controversie, as stated in Polemical Writings and Argumentations between them, and that about Truths of the first Magnitude? Or is it for the decision of a personal scuffle, that this Expedient was formed? For we find no Agreement in Doctrin (save what is barely subscriptive to the Articles of others) mentioned in the least, but that of P [...]ns, whilst all this while their Treatises are at War with, and Battling one another, an [...] from the allowed Precautions of both Authors (as expressed in this Paper of Agree­me [...] [...]gether with their distinct Testimonies in the same; each resolving to keep his [...] But,

2 [...] s [...]cond Ground of my Dissatisfaction herein is, That so sound Articles and Fun­dam [...] Doctrins therein of Faith, should be made a Pretextual Covering of such Agree­m [...] [...] sin against such Truth or Light, and to make a Pander of the latter to serve the [...] the former. Wherefore, lest any one might suppose me over-censorious in this, I [...]

3 [...] Ground of my Dissatisfaction herein is. That the Matter it self mainly in [...] which is not at all touched upon in the Paper of Agreement, but perfectly avoid­ed [...] therein still adhering to their own Judgment in what they had written) is [...] Fundamental, not either Gradual or Circumstantial, which appears from these [Page] words,—‘It is hereby respectively declared that neither they, who subscribed that Ap­probation prefixed to Mr: Williams his Book, did therein more than signifie (as their own words express) That they judged he had in all that was material, fully and rightly stated the Truths and Errors (this wants proof in a high Paper of Agreem. p. 2. degree) therein mentioned as such, without delivering their sense about the Preface, Explications or Proofs thereunto belonging; which Declaration is not to be esteemed as a Disapproval of the said Preface, Explications or Proofs: Nor they, who with Mr. Chancy, subscribed the above-said Paper, did therein offer any particular Excep­tions (which is a bold falshood) against the said state of Truths and Errors, which yet is not to be understood as an Approval of that state of Truth and Errors.’

Now Reader consider, here are Articles subscribed unto by Persons of several and very distinct Judgments, which plainly appears from their stedfast adherence unto what they had written, notwithstanding this form of an Agreement; for that which they have subscribed unto must either be of an indifferent nature, and consequently a Medium of Reconciliation between them, or else must be obsolutely decisive of the Controversie on the one hand or the other, and so long as things are thus agitated in the Dark, my best Advice unto thee is, to compare the Subscribed Articles with the Treatises writ by each Party, and by the help of the Spirit of the Lord, thou wilt quickly come to know, not only where Truth does ly, but also the various interwoven Cheats, by which some Persons would carry on their wretch­ed and unconscionable designs this day. The Lord give thee understanding in all things.

FINIS.

The Reader is desired to Correct these following Errata's, or any other, with his Pen.

INtroduct: Page 2. Line 18. read won't, for would. p. 3. l. 26. r. cast down, for cast us. p. 2. l. 2. r. its, for it. l. 19. r. as, for ae, p. 7. l. 15. r. into the state, for in the state. ibid. l. 39. r. this Doctor, for thy Doctor. p. 13. l. 38. r. Sacrifice, for Sanctifie. p. 14. l. 23. r. Surrep­titious, for Surreptatious. ibid. l. 37. r. He that hath, for He hath. p. 22. l. 27. r. make it, for for it. p. 25. l. 6. r. hence. l. 45. r. of God, for for God. p. 27. l. 36. r. but to drive.

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