Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself, Part 3 (7 of 7)

Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself · Part 3 (7 of 7)

p. 5592. Christ was devoted and set apart, in the eternall counsell of God for suffering the punishment of sinne; when God first purposed (if there be order of first and second in the eternall decrees of God) the Lord devoted and set apart this Lamb, before the foundation of the world was laid, to bee a bloudy sacrifice for sinne; He was separated from the flock to be killed, and for our sakes he devoted vowed and sanctified himself for that work; Christ was of all mankinde separated to be an atonement and an expiation for sinne; he was dieted for the race to runne, through death and hell, hee was fitted; to suffer,The 70. rendereth the word foreign in … foreign to di…hono… to count of no price, to …i…eg…rd. no man so furnished to undergoe the wrath of God, as hee.

3. As to be accursed comes under the third notion, to wit, to be dishonou…ed, so was Christ under a curse, Psal. 22.7. no man, Esa. 53.3. the last of men; the contempt and the refuse of men, Act. 4.11. the stone rejected by you builders (saith Peter) foreign that Nothinged stone, not so much p. 560esteemed as an errand murtherer Barrabas; and this death of the Crosse, now especially in the Christian world, is become most base; as the buriall of an Asse, Ier. 22. was a sign of Gods displeasure, so is hanging, N…tions having not without Gods providence, casten their consent together, that it should be the death of the poore and basest of men; so Peter, as if it had been only of mens chusing, Act. 5.30. The God of our Fathers raised up Iesus whom yee slew, and hanged on a tree; And Act. 2.23. whom by wicked hands ye have crucified and slain; hanging on a …ee is more then slaying; to kill a man is all yee can doe, but to put him to a base death▪ that is cursed both of God and man, is farre worse, its more then the wo…st; and that a King lineally discended of Kings and of the blood Royall, the Kingly Tribe of Iudah, the man on earth that only by birth, and law, had Title to the Crown of Iudea, should be put to so base a death, is the worst that wicked men and devils could doe.

I may adde yet a fourth consideration, Gen. 3.17. Al… the creatu…es are put under the curse of mans sinnes: Christ dyed such a death as took the creatures off the cu…se, and Col. 1.20. Christ having made peace through the blood of his crosse reconciled all things to himself, whither they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 2. Now how Christ could be a curse is harder; there is a thing intrinsecally and fundamentally cursed; and there is a thing extrinsecally and effectively cursed; none, but he that sinneth, is intrinsecally and fundamentally cursed; for in this regard its a personall ev…ll. Christ was not intrinsecally abhominable, hatefull and an execrable thing to God.

Obj…ct. But if Christ suffered all that we was to suffer for our sinnes, then as God must in …ustice abhorre and hate with a hatred of abhomination the sinner, and the sinner is such an one as God must let out his displeasure against him, so must God hate and abhorre his person, therefore Gods displeasure not only persued Christ by way of punishment, that extrinsecally he was cursed, but also the Lord in justice behoved to hate and abho…re the person of the Son of God with the hatred of abhomination, that he intrinsecally should be a curse, as well as the sinner, in whose person he stands.Christ extrins…cally a curse, …ut never hate… or abhorred of G…d.

Ans. Christ the surety behoved to suffer all and every punishment due to the Elect, either in the same kinde and p. 561coyne, as death, or in the equivalency and in as good; for there were some punishments that may be well changed the one in the other: as death naturall, or by violence was changed in the death of the crosse; we have no ground to think, if Christ had never come to die for us, that the death of all mankinde must have been the death of the crosse; so Gods hating and abominating the sinner must bee and was changed in Gods forsaking of Christ, when he complained, My God, my God, &c. in regard this was all as penall and sad to Christ, as the other, to wit, to be abominated and hated in our persons as cursed of God,, not to say that it was not congruous to the condition of him who is the Son of the eternall God by nature, and by an unspeakable generation, to be in his person abominated and abhorred of God, as a man intrinsecally cursed, as the sinner who sinneth in person is, and not to adde also (which may be said▪ the kinde of punishment; this, not this is arbitrary to the Law-giver, now the Apostle saith not Christ was cursed, but Gal. 3.10. foreign, he was made a curse for us, extrinsecally a curse, as 2 Cor. 5.21. God made him sinne for us, that is, what was penall in the curse and sinne, and whatever was congruous and sutable to his holy person, that the Lord Iesus came under; sure as Christ took on him our nature, so he changed persons and names with us legally; he was made the sinner, and the sinner made the Sonne; there was reciprocation of imputation here. Christ was you legally and by law, and yee are Sonnes in him. The Law was a bloudy bond and our names and soules were inked with the blood of the eternall curse;Christ changed persons and places with sinners. but blot out (saith Christ) my brethrens names out of the bloody bond, and writ in my name, for blood and the curse of God, and there was a white Gospel-bond drawn up and the Elects names therein. Then the two writs runne this in the new Covenant; Christ was made a curse and lyable to pay all our debts and law-penalties to the blood and death, and the poore sinner eternally blessed in Iesus Christ even to perfect imputed righteousnesse and everlasting life. Christ changed your bleeding even to the second death, and made it blessings for evermore to new and everlasting life.

Vse 1. If Christ dyed such a violent and painfull death; then death violent or naturall is not much up or down.

p. 562(1) Sweet Iesus had it to his choice, hee would choose the sowerest of deaths,Death naturall or viol…nt, the indifferent accidents of death; but to die in Christ is all and …o…e & the right qualification of well dying. to go to the grave in blood; Christs winding-sheet was blooded; a good prince, a reformer of the house of God Iosiah dyed in blood: Many of the worthiest that dyed in faith, dyed not in their beds, were (Heb. 11.35.36.37.) tortured, had tryall of bonds and imprisonment, they were stoned, they were sawne asunder, were tempted, were slaine with the sword. The first witnesse in the Christian Church after the Lords ascension, Steven a man full of the holy Ghost and of faith, was stoned to death: Psal. 79.2 The bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the foules of the heaven, the flesh of thy Saints to the beasts of the earth: Many thousand Martyrs have been burnt quick, extreamly tormented with new devised most exquisite torments, as to be rosted on a brander, to be devoured with Lyons and wilde beasts.

2. Violence more or lesse is an accident of death, as it is the same hand folded in, or the fingers stretched out; violent death is but death on horse-back, and with wings, or a stroak with the fist, as the other death is a blow with the palmes of the hand; Naturall death is death going on foot, and creeping with a slower pace; violent death unites all its forces at once, and takes the Citty by storme, and comes with sowrer and blacker visage; Death naturall divides it selfe in many severall bits of deaths; old age being a long spun out death, and nature seemes to render the Citty more willingly, and death comes with a whiter and a milder visage; the one has a salter bite, and teeth of steele and yron; the other has softer fingers, and takes asunder the boards of the clay-tabernacle more leasurely, softly, tenderly and with lesse din, as not willing that death should appeare death, but a sleep; the violent death is as when apples greene and raw are plucked off the tree, or when flowres in the budde, and young, are plucked up by the rootes; the other way of dying is, as when apples are ripened and are filled with well boyld summer-sap, and fall off the tree of their own accord in the eaters mouth: or when flowers wither on the stalk:Hee that is in Christ, lives, speaks, walks, prayes, sickens and dies in Christ, Some dying full of days have like banquetters, a surfet of time, others are suddenly plucked away when they are greene; but which of …he wayes you die, not to d…e in the Lord is terrible; yee may know yee shall dye by the fields yee grow on, while ye live; a beleever on Christ, breaths in Christ, p. 563speaks, walks, prayes, beleeves, eateth, drinketh, sickens, dies in Christ; Christ is the soyl he is planted in, hee groweth on the banks of the paradise of God; when hee falleth, hee cannot fall wrong; some are trees growing on the banks of the river of fire and brimstone; when God h…ws downe the tree, and death fells them, the tree can fall no otherwise then in hell; O how sweet to be in Christ, and to grow as a tree planted on the banks of the river of life, when such dye they fall in Christs lap and in his bosome; be the death violent or naturall! its all one whether a strong gale and a rough stormie shoar the childe of God on the new Ierusalems dry land, or if a small calme blast even with rowing of oars bring the passenger to heaven, if once he be in that goodly land.

2. To dye in faith, (the righteous has hope in his death) is the essentiall qualification to be most regarded, that is the all and sum of well dying; make sure work of heaven, and let the way or manner, violent or naturall, be as God will, its amongst the indifferents of death; Saints have dy…d either way; to dye in Christ, in the hope of the resurection is the fair and good death: to die in sinne, Ioh. 8.21. that is the ill death, and the black death.

3. To dye ripened for eternity is all and some, its said of some, they dyed full of dayes.

Object. How is a man full and ripe for death?

Answ. In these respects, 1. When the man is mortified to time, and is satisfied with dayes, he desires no more life, he lies at the water side, near by death, waiting for winde and tide, like a passenger who would fain be over the water; so dying Iacob in the midst of his testament, Gen. 49.18. Lord I have waited for thy salvation, Lord, when shall I have fair passage? Iob saith, chap. 14.14. All the time I am on the sentinell, or the time of my warfare, I will wait till my las… change come. So Paul saith, Phil. 1.2…. having a desire to be dissolved, and to bee with Christ, which is farre better, the man desires not to stay here any longer.

2. He would goe to Sea, when all his land-busines is ended, the Courts are closed, and if the Sunne bee low and near his setting, loe the way ends with the day, see the lodging hard at hand, 2 Tim. 4.7. I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, 8. henceforth is laid up for mee a crowne of righteousnesse: p. 564Sweet Iesus ere he dyed, said It is finished, all is done, hee is on the skaffold▪ and nods on his executioner Death, friend, come doe your office, I pray you see your task be ended.

3. The man seeth the crowne, hee is come to the stone wall or the hedge of Paradise, and seeth the apples of life hanging on the tree, and hears the musick of heaven: Steven Acts 7.50. I saw heaven opened.

4. He goes not away pulled by the hair, but willingly, gladly, Heb. 11.8.15. They desire a better country, Iob 5.26. Like a shock of corne in his season; it would bee the losse of the corne to bee longer out of the barne; death shall not come while it be welcome, Iob. 7.3. As the hired servant panteth for the shaddow, so hee for death. All these four were in Iesus Christ.

Had Christ so much pain in his death, that his death and the crosse were all one,Vse 2. so as hee had five deaths on him at once, foure on his body, death on every hand, death on every foot, and a death on his soule, ten thousand millions of pounds weightier and sadder? then let us correct all our errours, and mis-judgings touching the crosse.

Errour 1. We love to go to Paradise through a Paradise of roses, and a land-way to heaven, and a dry fair white death; wee would have Christ and the crosse changed,How many diverse false sences we fancy in our mis-giving humour under the crosse. which saith who ever would follow Christ let him take up his crosse foreign dayly and follow him, Luke 9.23.

2. We forget that heaven is fenced with a huge great wood of thornes, we must croud through, though our skinne be scratched even to blood and death; life eternall is like a faire pleasant, rich and glorious Citie in the midst of a waste wildernesse, and there lies round about this City, at all the corners of it, a Wood of Briats and Thorns, Scorpions and Serpents and Lyons abounding in it,Heaven is fenced with a wood of thorns there is no way to it, but through many afflictions. and the Wood is ten thousand miles of bounds on all hands, of a journey of threescore years at some parts, there no high road-way in the Wood, no back entry about; wise Professors seek away about the crosse; God has given wings to none to flie over the wood; or its like a fair Kings Pallace in an Iland of the Sea; its a most pleasant Isle for all kinde of delights, but there is no way to it by dry land. Would yee have valley ground, Summer medows, fields and gardens of flowers and roses all your way? p. 565and how is it that the Lord will not give peace to his Church? nay, but there is not a way to heaven on this side of the crosse, or on that side of the crosse, but directly, straight through we must goe; when the Apostles went through the Churches confirming the brethren, Act. 14.22. they preached that the crosse was Gospel; and foreign, through the midst of affliction, or under flailing and threshing we must goe, there is not a way about to shift the crosse, but we must enter into the Kingdome of God, this very way and no other.

3. The blood was not dryed off Christs hands and feet, and his winding sheet,The blood not dryed off Christ while he was in heav…n. till he was in the flower of the higher Pallace of his Fathers Kingdome and within the walls, and so his Church must not think hard of it, if she goe not a dry death to heaven.

Error 2. We tacitely condemn the wisdome of God in our murmuring under the crosse; cannot Christ lead his people to heaven a better way, then through the swords, speares and teeth of malignants, and must new Armies of Irish murtherers land on us againe? these would bee considered: 1. Paul encouraging the Thessalonians, saith, 2 Thess. 3.3. no man should be moved by these afflictions; why, for your selves know we are appointed thereunto from eternity, the wise Lord did brew a cup of bloody sufferings for his Church, and did mould and shape every Saints crosse in length and breadth for him; our afflictions are not of yesterdayes date and standing; before the Lord set up the world, as it now is, he had all the wheels, pinnes, wedges, works and every materiall by him, in his eternall minde; all your teares, your blood, all the ounces and pounds of gall and worm-wood yee now drink, they were an eternall design and plot of Gods wise decree before the world was, they were the lot God did appoint for your back, they are no sourer, no heavier this day, then they were in the Lords purpose before time; your grave, O Saints, is no deeper then of old the Lord digged it, your wound no nearer the bone then mercy made it; your death is no blacker, no more thorny and devouring then Christs soft hands framed it; ere God gave you flesh and skinne and heat in your blood, Christs doome and the Churches doome of the black crosse was written p. 566in Heaven: So Christ smiles and drinks with this word, Ioh. 18.11. shall I not drink the cup that my Father hath given me? 2. Rom. 8. Predestination is the first act of free-grace, and ver. 29. in that act a communion with Christ in his crosse is passed, this we consider not: will ye not think good to set your shoulders and bones under the same burthen that was on Christs back? we fear the crosse lesse at our heels and behind our back, then when its in our bosome; the Lord Iesus speaks of his suffering often afore-hand▪ and its wisdome to make it lesse, by antidated patience & submission, before we s…ffer; it were good, would we give our thoughts and lende some words to death, as Christ here doth ere it come: Opinion which is the pencill that drawes the face, armes and legges of death and sufferings, might honey our gall; if a Martyr judge a Prison a Pallace, and his Iron chaines golden bracelets, sure his bonds are as good as liberty; if a Saint count death Christs master-usher to make way to him for heaven, then death cannot be a Mill to grind the mans life to powder; faith can oyl and sugar our worm-wood; and if Christ come with the crosse, it has no strength; the believer has two skinnes on his face against the s…ittings of storme and haile-stones; Christ can make a Saint sing in hell, as impatient unbeliefe could cause a man sigh and weep in heaven. 3. We forget that the Church is the Vine-yard of the Lord of hoasts, and that the owner of the Farm must hire Satan and wicked men to be his Vine-dressers and his Reapers; but the crop is the Lords, not theirs, they are plowers; but they neither know the soyl, nor the husband-man, Psal. 129.2.

Error 3. When we see we must suffer, we tacitely are offended that Christ will not give us the first vote in our own jury, and that he would not seek our own advise in this kinde of crosse, not this; except to one man, David, God never referred the choise of a crosse, but then grace made the choyse; sure Scotland would have chosen famine or the Pestilence, rather then the sword of a barbarous▪ unnaturall enemy; but it must not bee referred to the wisdome of the sick, what should be his physick; we often say any crosse but this; especially if there be any letter of reproach on the crosse, a shamefull death, or distraction of mind; but the Lord seeth nothing out of heaven, or hell so good for you as that; that, and no other. 2. We would p. 567have the pound weights of affliction weighted in our ballance: oh this is too heavie, hence Davids, and Iobs over-complaining, Oh my calamity is heavier then the sand of the Sea, Iob 6.3, and am I a Sea or a Whale, that thou setest a watch over me? chap. 7.12. Should God deale with a man as with a fish, or a beast?How farre we may chu…e our own Crosse. 3. Wee desire to be creators of such and such circumstances of our own griefe: So wee storme often at the circumstances, as at the very poyson of the crosse, as if God had through forgetfulnesse, and a slip of wisdom, left that circumstance out of his decree,The cir…umstance that is sal…est in our …rosse, is d…e… sed by an in…i…i…el… wise decree. as the Painter that draws the whole body exactly, but forgetteth to draw one of the five fingers, and in the mean while, that circumstance which we wrestle most against in our thoughts, was specially intended of God: how often doth this fire our thoughts and burn them up with fretting? Had I done this, I might have eschewed this heaviest and saddest calamity: Had I gone to Sea when the winde and Sailers called me, but the fourth part of an houre sooner, I had not been in dry land, where I am now butchered to death; so had I but spoken a word, I might have saved all this losse and labour; had not this man come in with an ill counsell and one unhappy word, many hundreth thousands had not been killed in battell; and Martha, Ioh. 11.21. is upon this distemper, for she saith to Iesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not dyed: She would say, it was an ill hap, Christ was unluckily in another place when my brother dyed; but the wise decree of God had carved these circumstances so; that Christs absence was especially decreed in that affli…tion, ver. 15. Iesus said plainly, Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes, that I was not there, (to the intent that yee may believe,) &c. Look up in the affliction to the sadest and blackest circum…ance in the crosse, infinite wisdome was not sleeping, but from eternity with understanding and counsell; the Lo…d decreed and fr…med that sadest circumstance, even that Shemei a subject should curse David his Prince; and that he should harge him with blood again…t Saul of which he was m…st free, and at that time, and no other time, when he was flying, for his life from his Son Absolom; but all these sad circumstances, were moulded and framed on the wheels of the decree of him who deviseth all, shapes our woes, according to the counsell of his will. We would have our Lord to p. 568remove the gall, the worm-wood, and the fire-edge out of our crosse, and we lust for some more honey and sugar of consolation to be mixed with it; it were good if we could by grace, desire three ills to be removed from our crosse:Three ills in the Crosse, we are to deprecate. 1. That of its nature, it be not sinfull; such as hardnesse of heart; we may in our election and choyce, pray that it be not both a sinfull plague of God on the soule and a judgement to us: 1. We may pray that the affliction may be circumstanced, and honeyed with the consolations of Christ, and with faith and patience, and a spirituall use of the affliction: 3. We may pray, it may not be a burthen above our back, and such as we are not able to bear; and this we may as lawfully chuse and pray, as say, Lord lead us not into temptation.

The worl…s Hosanna a poor thing, and the glory short, base, low.Vse 3. Was there shame and reproach on Christs crosse? fie on all the glory of the world; let us not think 1. too much of this peece, airy, windy, vaine opinion of mens esteem and the applause; its but a short living, hungry Hosanna, when your name is carried through a spot or bit of this clay-stage, for a day or two, they'll wonder at you but nine nights. Christs fame spread abroad through all the countrey, and now hee is shamed and a reproached man; now the whole people cry out away with him, away with him, crucifie him; the ground of mans glory is his goodlinesse or graciousnesse, his foreign, all his endowments and brave parts, and all this glory, Esai. 40.6. is as the flower of the field, his glory has a monethmonth, and lives the poore twelfth part of a year, and Herod is gone to the worms, and his silks rotten and gone, and Shebna is tossed like a ball in a large place, and must hear this, Esai. 22.18. Thou shall die (in a strange land) and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy Lords house: its an earthly thing, Phil. 3.19. Whose glory is their shame, who minde earthly things, Hos. 4.7. I'le change their glory into shame; and when Epharim glories in children, God sews wings to that glory, and it flies away, Hos. 9.11. As for Ephraim, their glory shall flie away as a bird. The tenne Tribes boasted of their strength and multitude; but the Lord saith, Esai. 17.4. The glory of Iacob shall be made thin: 2. God in a speciall manner sets himself in person against this glory; Esa. 23.9. The Lord of Hoasts has purposed to staine the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth, Esai. 10.12. I'le punish the glory p. 569of the high looks of the King of Assyria; Habac. 2.16. The Lord layes a right curse on Chaldees glory; the cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned into thee, and shamefull sp…ing shall be on thy glory: 3. Its the sweet fruit of Christs death and abasement that we learn to lay down our credit under the Lords feet, Phil. 2. Let the same minde be in you, that was in Christ Iesus: O that must be a high and an aspiring mind, for he was the high and lofty one; n…, he teaches all his to be abased, ver. 6. who being in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equall with God, ver. 7. but he emptied himselfe; he was full of majesty and glory, but he made himselfe of no reputation, & an empty thing, and took upon him the form of servant, and was made in the likenesse of men— and humbled himself: ah let never man go with high sailes, nor count much of worlds glory, after Iesus Christ: ah our reputation & name is as tender to us as paiper, as our skin; a scratch in it, or a rub is a provocation cannot be expiated; as if we minded, in the airy cloud of mens fame, to fly up to heaven, and frothy fame were as good to lay hold on Christ as fervent faith; breach of our priviledges of State is more now then blasphemy against God.

Vse. 4. Now if Christ was made a curse for us, that we might be delivered from the curse, we are comforted in Christs being made a curse for us in regard of,

1. Extream love.

2. Perfection of blessednesse.

For this act of love; we are assured he that will be made the curse of God for us, will be any thing; four great steps of love were here, every one of them greater then another:Foure steps of love in Christs being made a curse for us.

1. To be a man.

2. To be a dying man.

3. To be as a sinning man.

4. To be a cursed man.

Consider these foure as they grow out of the root of love;For a Spirit to be a man is a great condiscension. A Spirit sinlesse, and holy is a happy thing; the Sonne of God being God, is a Spirit, and so in another condition then man, he was above bones and clay, and the motion of hot ayr going in and out at the nostrils; its a sort of cumber to carry about a piece of dust of more then a hundreth and fifty bits of clay organs, five senses, two hands, two legges, head, tongue, lips, throat, shoulders, breast, back, so many fingers, toes, lithes, p. 570joynts. veines, muscles, then belly, stomack, heart, liver, bowels, and a number of cumbersome vessels, let them be a hundreth and fifty fragments of warm, red and bloody clay, they require more then a hundreth and fifty servants of clay, of meat, rayment, medicine, to serve them, and the more needy a creature is, the more miserable; a Spirit is above all these, and needs not senses, nor servants to serve the senses and life; O but Christ was happy from eternity, and consider what a low lowp of love was this, the Word made flesh? God manifested in the flesh, is the greatest mystery of love in the world: here God an infinite Spirit made man, has need of two eyes of clay, two eares, two legs, two hands, he must come under the necessities of all these hundreth and fifty organs; can ye tell what secrets of love are here? God looks out at two clay windows, the two eyes of a Man; God walks with the two clay legges of a man, Hee dwelt amongst us (saith Ioh. 1.14) hee pitched his clay-tent with us, foreign.full of grace and glory; grace and glory dwelling in clay is one of the deep wonders of the World.

But 2. We would accept to be men; but if it were referred to our choise, we must die in paine and be tumbled in a cold hole of clay in the earth and see the Sunne no more it may be,That a sinlesse Spirit, take on him to be a dying man is more. we would take it to our advisement, ere we chused life: Christ knew on such terms, if he should be made a creature of clay, and if the high and lofty God should be cloathed with such ragges, a coat of clay, so farre below his beauty, he must die; yet he would bee a man a dying man; and we know what sad and soure accidents were in his death.

But 3. Yee will kill an honest hearted and ingenuous innocent man, ere yee move him to take with a fault, when he has done no fault:That a Spirit take on him to be as a sinning man is yet more. Iob was called an hypocrite by his friends, but he would never take with it, hee would maintaine his own righteousnesse, till hee dyed; the Martyrs, ere they would take sinne on them by acting it, and deny Iesus Christ, they would rather chuse the gallous, torture, the teeth of Lions, burning quick or any thing: but Christ Iesus takes it patiently to stand as the thiefe, the bloudy man, the false man, and as all the wicked men of the world; he could not act sin; but he said, Father, make me the sinner; I never stole, but let my face be blacked with theft, I never shed innocent blood, but p. 571let the staine, and blot off the murtherer be upon me; I never lied, but let me be as a lyar and stand so before justice; and God made him sin; 2 Cor. 5.21. when a man willingly goeth to prison for a broken man, its a reall acknowledgement that he takes on him the broken mans debts: Its as good as if he had said, crave me for him; a morall blot to be put on an honest, holy, harmlesse man, is a high measure of selfe-denyall and love; Christ said, here am I, crave me Lord.

But this is nothing, Christ was a ma…: 2. A dying man: 3. Made as a sinner, and as a wicked and unhonest man;That a happy Spirit take on him to bee a sinner accursed of God, is farre more. but God blessed him, he was made a blessing of God, and that is comfort enough; No, it was not so, God made him a curse, an execrable thing, all the broad curses written in the book of the Law, came on him; see Christ made clay, dying clay, as sinning clay, cursed clay; what would yee have more; Christ is as if his Father abhorred him, and would not once give him on cast of his eye.

2. All perfection of blessednesse comes to us by this that Christ was made a curse for us, Gal. 3.14. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, through Iesus Christ: that we might receive the promise ef the Spirit, through faith: This is the true freedome from the Law, to be freed from the curse thereof, in believing Christ was made a curse for you, according to that Rom. 6.14. For sinne shall not have dominion over you, for yee are not under the Law, but under grace, which doctrine is cleare, Rom. 7. where expresly we are said to bee freed from the dominion of the Law, as the wife is freed from the Law of subjection to her husband, if the husband be dead, which is a comparison, and holdeth not in all, but only in so farre as the two husbands, the Law and Christ, stand in opposition the one to the other; now the opposition is that the Law has dominion to justifie the legall observers of it, and guide the wife to life eternall; but the conditions are hard, and now because of the flesh unpossible; Christ againe, the better husband, leadeth his Bride to heaven in sweeter termes, by believing in him that justifieth the ungodly, who has satisfied for our breach of the Law.

2. The Law hath dominion over the wife that is in subjection to it, to condem her, if she break to this spirituall husband, in thought, word, or deed; but the two husbands both agree p. 572in this, that both command holy walking; as the Apostle excellently sheweth, 1 Cor. 9.20. to them that are under the Law, I am as under the Law, that I might gaine them that are urder Law, ver. 21. to them that are without Law, as without Law (being not without Law to God, but under the Law to Christ) that I might gaine them that are without Law: Hence we teach that the believer married to the second and better husband Christ, is not freed from the rule and directing power of the Law to lead us in the wayes of sanctification and holinesse, but we are freed from the dominion of the Law that it cannot justifie us, nor condem us, because in Christ we are justified by his imputed righteousnesse laid hold on by faith, and saved freely in him by his blood, hence give me leave to vindicate our doctrine in this, from the wicked aspersions cast on it, by Antinomians especially by Mr Town.

Mr Towne's assertion of grace against Doctor Taylor, Pag. 3.

When its said, we are not under the Law, but under grace, Rom. 6. by the word (Law) I understand the morall Law or decalogue, with all its authority, dominion, offices and effects; and by grace is understood the Gospel of Christ; if yee were (saith he) under the power and teaching of the Law, We are not freed from the Law as a rule of righteousnesse.its true, sin would, then lord it over you, in that the Law is the strength of sinne, 1 Cor. 15. But yee are translated unto another Kingdome, where the enemy yee so feare, is spoyled of all its armor, and power whereon it dependeth; and your King you now live under, doth freely communicate abundant and effectuall grace of justification and sanctification, so to fortifie you, that yee shall be more then Conquerours; therefore feare not, only be strong in the faith thereof.

Answ. 1. Not to minde Mr Town that else-where he meaneth by the Law, that we are not under, not the Morall Law only, but the Ceremoniall also; if we be freed from all authority of the Law,We are under the teaching and directing office of the Law. then hath the sixth command no authority from God to teach that murthering of our brother … sinne, that Idolatry is contrary to the second command … acts of holinesse and worship performed by … wil-service and wil-worship; for if … and direct us, what is holy walking … p. 573by the Antinomian way, doth not teach any such thing in the letter; then its all unwritten wil-walking, that a believer doth; this is licence, not holinesse wee are called unto.

2. Then is it not the Lawes office to reveale sinne to us? Paul saith contrary, Rom. 3.20. for by the Law is the knowledge of sinne, Rom. 7.7. I had not known lust, except the Law had said, thou shalt not covet; free a believer from all the offices of the Law; Then the believer when he lies and whores, and murthers, is not obliged, to know or open his eyes, and see from the light of the Law that these be sins; for Mr Town looseth him from all the offices of the Law: Paul mis-judged himself, when in his believing condition, he saith; Rom. 7.14.15. for we know that the Law is spirituall…, but I am carnall sold under sinne.

3. From the Lawes teaching of believers, to inferre that the Law lordeth it over a beliver, is a great fallacy

4. If the enemy sinne be spoyled of all power, even of indwelling and lusting against the Spirit, then the believer cannot faile against a Law; then he may say, he has no sin, which Iohn saith is a lie.

5. If Christ communicate abundant effectuall grace of sanctification, then is sanctification perfect; but the Scripture saith the contrary, in many things we offend all; and we are not perfect in this life, nor are we more then Conquerours in every act of sanct…fication, nor is that Pauls meaning, Rom. 8. that we are never foiled, and that lusts in some particular acts have not the better of us too often, but that finally in the strength of Christ, the Saints are so farre forth more then Conquerors, that nothing can work the Apostacy and separation of the Saints from the love God in Christ.

Mr Towne's assertion of Grace, Pag. 4.5.

Mark three grounds of mistakes: 1. That justification and sanctification are separable, if not in the person, yet in regard of time and word of Ministration, as if the Gospel revealed justification; the Law were now become an effectuall instrument of sanctification: 2. That to ease men of the Laws yoak, is to suffer them to range after the course of the world, and … lu…s not considering that the righteousn…sse of … to Christ their Lord, head and Governour, p. 574that they may be led by his free Spirit, and swayd by the Scepter of his Kingdome: 3. That all zealous and strict conformity to the Law of works, though but in the letter, is right sanctification.

Answ. 1. Not any of these are owned by Protestant Divines; they are Mr. Townes forged calumnies; to the first, I cannot see that sanctification is any thing at all by Antinomian grounds but meere justification, and that he is an Antinomian saint that believeth Christ satisfied,Neither Law nor Gospel obligeth a believ…r to sanctification by the Antinomian way. and performed the Law for him, but no letter of Law or Gospel layeth any obligation on him to walk in holinesse. But the Gospel only revealeth engraffting of the branch, in Christ the Vine-tree and stock of life, and the bringing forth fruits, by the faith of Christ to be the only true sanctification; but if the apples be not of the right seed, & conforme to the derecting rule of all righteousnesse the Law of God, they are but wilde grapes, we never made the Law the effectuall instrument of sanctification; a help it is, being preached with the Gospel; but neither is the Gospel of it selfe the effectuall instrument of sanctification, except the spirit of grace accompany it, nor the law of it selfe.

2. The second is a calumny also; But we would desire to know how Antinomians can free themselves of it, for the righteousnesse of faith doth not so unite believers to Christ as to their Governour, so as Christ governeth them by the Spirit and the Word, for the letter of the whole Word both Law and Gospel (say (a)(a)Rise, raign error, 9.they) holdeth forth nothing but a covenant of works, to search the Scripture (b)(b)Error, 39.either Law or Gospel, is not a sure way of searching and finding of Christ; and Mr Towne passeth in silence all guidance of the Saints,By the Antinomian way, we are no more under the Gospel, then under the Law. by commandements of either Law or Gospel, and tells us of a leading by a free Spirit only. So that by Antinomians, we are no more under the Gospel as a directing and commanding rule, then we are under the Law; what hindereth then but Antinomian justification bids us live as we list; we think the Gospel commandeth every duty, and forbiddeth every sin as the Law doth, under damnation; what is sinne to the one, is to the other. But the Gospel forbiddeth nothing to a justified believer under the paine of damnation, more then to Iesus Christ. 2. A dead l…r…er forbiddeth no sinne, commandeth no duty; but the Gospel of it selfe without the Spirit, is a dead letter, as well p. 575as the Law; the major is the Antinomian doctrine, the assumption is undeniable.

3. Pharisaicall conformity to the Law we disclaime, but if any could be strictly and perfectly conforme to the Law of works, as Christ was, we should think such a man perfectly sanctified; but, through the weaknesse of the flesh, that is unpossible; I know not what Mr Towne meanes by a conformity to the Law though but in the Letter; if he meanes that the literall meaning and sense of the Law requireth no spirituall, inward…, and compleatly perfect obedience; he is no good Doctor of the Law; and if it be not such an obedience,Antinomians blame close walking with God as Pharisaicall Puritanisme, as Prelates did of old. it is not zealous and strict obedience; but its ordinary to Antinomians now to tearm these whom the Prelaticall party of late called Puritans and strict Precisians, because they strove to walk closely with God, Pharisies, and out-side Professors, who think to be justified and saved by their own righteousnesse, so farre are they at odds with sanctification; if by conformity to the Law in the Letter. Mr Towne meanes externall obedience without faith in Iesus Christ, or union with him; he knows Protestant Divines acknowledge no …ound sanctification, but that which is the naturall issue and fruit of justification,The law alone worketh not sanctification, nor did we ever teach it. and flowes from faith which purifieth the heart; and such strict conformity to the Law as floweth from saving faith, we hold to be true sanctification, though all enemies to holy walking cry out against it, such as mockers of all religion, the Prelaticall and Antinomian party who mock strict walking, and long prayer, and humble confession of sinnes, and smiting of conscience for sinne.

Towne, Page 5.

Blinde and sinister suspition, and causeless fear inclined Doctor Taylor to this exposition, to say our Apostle looseth no Christian from obedience and rule of the Law, but he dares not trust a believer to walk without his keeper, as if he judged no otherwise of him then of a Malector of New-gate, who would runne away, rob, kill, and play his former Pranks, if the jaylor, or his man be not with him, when he is abroad.

Answ. 1. There is a twofold keeping in of sinners, one meerely legall, such as that of wicked men, Psal. 32.9. Who are like the horse or mule and have no understanding, How the law restraines men from sin.whose mouth must be held in with bite and bridle, least they come neare unto p. 576you; The Law hath not power over wicked men ever with terrors of hell and the curse of God, because often they bee given up to a hard heart, and what cared Pharoah, who was under the Law, for this keeper? and to a reprobate minde, and to any that commit sin with greedinesse, having the conscience burnt with a hot Iron, and being passed feeling, Rom. 1.28.29. E…hes. 4.17, 18, 19. 1 Tim. 4.2. The Law is no keeper; they care no more for Mr Towns goale, that a Lyon doth for the crying of a shepheard, he will not abase himselfe for it: all the restraint that Law layes on a naturall man, is when the conscience is wakened or some great plague is on Pharaoh, then he dare not keep the people captive; but Antinomians have a good opinion of slaves of Satan, who judge them to be civill and externally honest Devils, and make lims of hell of a good sweet calme nature, who stand naturally in awe of Gods Law, but Rom. 3.9, 10, 11. among the whole Tribe and race of mankinde, Iewes and Gentiles see what they care for the Antinomian Goaler, the law, they believe not one word of the Law saith, ver. 11. there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh God, Men naturally are not awed by the Law.ver. 12. They are all gone out of the way (where is the keeper, now and his sword, and speare?) they are altogether become unprofitable, there is none that doth good, no not one, ver. 13. their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they have used deceit, the poyson of Asps is under their lips, &c. The law layeth not naturally a bridle on the outer man; but observe that the conscience be restrained and awed by the Law, and under any naturall remorse for sinne committed or to bee committed, is a sinfull bondage that Christ must deliver us us from. 1. Then stupefaction and deadnesse of conscience not to care for the law of God, more then a prisoner who has broken goale, and now is in hedges and high-wayes robbing and murthering, cares for his old keeper, is to Antinomians mortification, and a crucifying of old Adam. 2. So Iobs not daring to lift his arme against the fatherlesse, chap. 31. must be the power of old Adam in him; Davids bones broken for his adultery and murther, must be the power of old lusts in him. 3. Then the lesse tendernesse of conscience and feare for sinne as sinne, the more mortification of lust. 4. Grace as grace stupifieth and deadeth conscience, so Antinomians must teach.

2. Men naturally doe more good for the prayse of men, and p. 577are more affraid to doe ill, for the Axe and the Gibbet of the Magistrate, then for any feare of Hell or Iudgement of the Law of God. Towne cannot speak of this keeper, there is a second restraint that the Law mixt with the love of Christ layeth on the godly and believer; and he has need of this keeper; so Ioseph saith. Gen. 42 18. this doe and live for I feare God: There was a keeper over Iob, that he durst not lift up his hand against the Fatherlesse, cap. 31. why, ver. 27. For destruction from God was a terrour to me, and by reason of his highnesse I could not endure: and this keeper in the conscience, smites Davids heart, when he renteth but the lap of Sauls garment, and keeps him that hee dare not kill him; this was not legall bondage; for Christ commandeth (Math. 10.28, 29. Luk. 12 5.) us to feare him that can cast both soule and body in Hell, rather ere we deny him before men who can but kill the body, & 1 Pet. 2.17. Col. 3.22. Act. 9.31. Act. 13.16. it is commanded to us: I grant the object of this feare is not so much Hell, as the offending of God, but it is commanded in the Law of God; but Mr Town will have the believer so free, so perfect, as the Law needeth not to teach and direct him in one step, he doth all without a keeper or one letter of a command, by the free impulsion of a Spirit separated from Scripture; that is right down, a believer is neither under Law nor Gospel; but a Spirit separated from the Gospel and all letter of it, and from the Law, guides him.

Towne, Pag. 5.6.

But I muse why you omit to show what it is to be under gra…e, which is the member opposite to being under the Law. Paul treat…th of sanctification, and yet maketh this contrariety of being under the Law, and under grace, the Law must be …aken comprehensively, with all his offices and authority, and that the reason is firme that sinne shall not have dominion over him who liveth under the grace of the Gospel, because it hath a sanctifying v…rtue and power in it to subdue sinne.

Answ. Dr Taylor did not omit to expound what it is to be under grace, if you had not omitted to read his words, he is cleare to any unpartiall Reader; but let your exposion stand; sin shall have no dominion over you, for yee are not under the Law, as teaching, directing regulating believers in the way of righteousnesse, but under grace, that is, under the Gospel which giveth p. 578power to subdue sinne, without any ruling, teaching or directing power of the Law: but what is the power of subduing sinne to Antinomions, I pray you? not sanctification, as in words they say, but justification, that is a power to believe Christ by doing and suffering has fulfilled and obeyed the Law for you, but yee are under no command to walk according to the rule of righteousnesse in the Law;We are not obliged to personall sanct…fication, and to walk holy, by the Antinomi…n Doctrine. so that to be under the Law is just contrary to personall and reall sanctification and walking in love and in Evangelick duties, even as to be under the Law, and to be under grace, are opposed by the Apostle; then as we are obliged, not to be under the Law, but under grace, so are we obliged to no personall sanctification or holy walking, but to objective and imputative sanctification only, that is, only to believe in Christ as made our righteousnesse and sanctification; now as we are not obliged to bee inherently righteous, so are we not obliged to be inherently and personally sanctified and holy, for that is to be under the Law, as the rule of righteousnesse; now we are freed from the Law as our rule of righteousnesse and from the Law with all its offices and authority, saith Mr Towne; and to remaine under the Law as a rule of rightenesse and to walk holily as being obliged from the conscience of any command either of Law or Gospel, is legall bondage from which Christ has set us free; as to be circumcised is a part of the Law-yoke so they teach; then to be inherently holy is unlawfull to Antinomians.

Mr Town, Pag. 6.

Yet I wish that I be not mis-taken, for I never deny the Law to be an eternall and inviolable rule of righteousnesse: But yet affirm that its the grace of the Gospel which effectually and truly conformeth us therunto.

Answ. 1. I wish Mr Towne doe mistake, for hee that teacheth that believers are freed from the Law, Mr Towne granteth the Law to bee an eternall and inviolable rule of righteousnesse to all, and yet denyeth the believer to be under …as a rule teaching, directing, and from the Law with all its offices and authority; he denyeth the Law to believers to be an eternall and inviolable rule of righteousnesse, or then he must speak contradictions, to wit, that the believer is not under the Law as a rule of righteousnesse, for so (saith Towne) he should not be under grace, which is contrary to the Apostle, Rom. 6.14. and yet he is under the Law as an eternall and inviolable rule of righteousnesse; for I ask to whom is the Law an eternall and inviolable p. 579rule of justice? to the believer, or no? If to the believer, then he must be under it; but Antinomians say, that is Pharisaicall and Popish; that is to put Christs free-man (saith Twone) under his old keeper the Law, as if he were a malefactor; if the Law be no eternall and inviolable rule of righteousnesse, why doth Mr Towne say so?

2. That rule to the which the grace of the Gospel doth conforme us, that rule we must be under; but Mr Towne saith The grace of the Gospel truly conformeth us to the eternall and inviolable rule of righteousnesse, Ergo, &c.

3. An inviolable rule of justice cannot be violated and contravened by these to whom it is a rule without sinne, else its not an unviolable rule; then if believers cannot violate the Law, and murther, and commit adultery, but they must sinne, by violating the rule, then as believers are obliged not to murther, not to commit adultery, so must they be under the inviolable rule of righteousnesse, contrary to which Antinomians teach. All that Mr Towne can say against us in this argument is a calumny, that we make the Law, not the Gospel to give power to subdue sinne; but the truth is neither Law nor Gospel giveth grace, but the God of grace hath promised in the Gospel grace and a new heart and a new spirit to the Elect, and grace goeth not along with the Gospel,The Law leaveth not of to be a rule of righteousnesse, because it giveth not▪ grace to obey, for then the Gospel should be no rule of faith▪ because it giveth no grace t… believe to all that hateth it. as a favour of equall extension with the preached Gospel, but millions heare the Gospel who remaine voide of grace, and have no right to any promise or grace; the Law leaveth not off to be the rule of tighreousnesse, though it cannot effectually make its disciples holy and conforme to the rule, no more then the Gospel should not be the Law and rule of faith, because without the influence of the Spirit of grace it can make no Disciples conforme to Iesus Christ and his image; for many Elect for a long time, heare the Gospel and have no grace to obey, while the time of conversion come, and many are more blinded and hardned that the Gospel is preached to them, and it were better they had never heard nor known the way of truth.

Towne pag. 6.7.

Rom. 7.6. The meaning is, through faith is bred assured confidence, lively hope, pure love toward God, invocation of his name, without all wavering or doubting or questioning his good-will, audience and acceptance, which could never be attained by all the p. 580zeal and conscience towards God according to the Law of workes. — and the knowledge of the glory of God, is given according to a covenant of meere grace, without addition or mixture of works — and the opposition is plaine to be not so much b…tweene the grosse hypocrite (who is only brought to outward subjection, and correspondency to the Law) as betweene him that in good earnest and in downe uprightnesse of heart, giveth over himself wholly to the Law of God, Rom. 10.2. (as the wife to the husband and guid of her youth) to be ordered in all things inwardly and outwardly after the minde of God therein, according to his legal conscience, which is never pacified with works, and the man who knoweth and worshippeth God alone according to the Gospel of Grace.

Answ. This is a close perverting of the word of truth. 1. The Antinomian faith may here be smelled, that by faith is bred assured confidence, without all wavering, feare or doubting, &c. Then whoever once doubt or waver, are yet under the Law of works; a doctrine of dispaire to broken reeds, who are not und…r the …aw, but married to a new husband Christ, and yet cry, Lord, I beleeve, help my unbelief: Why feare yee, O yee of little faith, is there not doubting here and a broken faith which Christ softly bindeth up?

2. The Covenant of Grace and Gospel commandeth faith, and also good works as witnesses of our faith; but Towne will have good works in any notion of an evangelick command to stand at defiance with a covenant of meere grace: when Grace is the fountaine and cause of our walking in Christ, 2 Cor. 1.10. by the grace of God, wee had our conversation in tht world, in simplicitie and godly sincerity, 1 Cor. 15.10. I laboured more abundantly then they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, that is in mee. Its true, Holy walking by the grace of God, and Christs righteousnesse in justification, is a wicked mixture, which we detest.

3. The opposition. Rom. 7. is betweene any unconverted man under the Law, be he hypocrite, or a civill devill, or be he any other man on the one part, and a beleever married to Christ, and dead to the Law on the other; for that which is common not to grosse hypo…rites only, but to all naturall men out of Christ, is ascribed to the man that is under the Law, by the Apostle, as 1. He is under the Lawes dominion and condemnation, vers. 1. 2. The Law has power over him, as p. 581the living husband over the wife, vers. 2.3. The poor man cannot look to Iesus to another lover and husband,Every naturall man is under the Law in the Apostles sence Rom. 7.Rom 7 the Law as a hard husband leads him, and cries, obey perfectly, or be eternally damned. (3) He is a man in the flesh, in whose members concupiscence and lust rageth, as a young vigorus mother bringeth forth children, lusts of the flesh to death, as married to hell and the second death, vers. 5. (4) He serves God according to the oldnesse of the letter, that is carnally, hypocritically, like an out-side of a rotten Pharisee, and not according to the newnesse of the Spirit, that is in a Spirituall maner.

Yet Mr. Towne extolls him, as one that in good earnest and downe-rightnesse of heart yeeldeth and giveth over himselfe to the Law of God, The man under the Law, Rom. 7. cannot give himself to be ruled by the Law after the minde and will of God, as Mr. Towne saith.Rom 7(as the wife to the husband) to be instructed and ordered in all things inwardly and outwardly after the minde of God; but no unconverted man can bee said so to doe, except Antinomians be grosse Pelagians; But I think Antinomians, with Mr. Crispe think the person under the Law in all this chapter to bee the beleever personating or acting the person of a scrupulous beleever under a temptation of doubting: but cleare it is, Paul speaks of a man under the Law, in the flesh, and in opposition to him, of one under grace, of one married to the Law, and of one married to Christ; in the first part of the chapter, of one in the flesh, and so unrenewed, vers. 5. For when wee was in the flesh, &c. and of one that is dead to the Law, married to Christ, and serves the Lord spiritually; and its clear that the Apostle counteth it a part of deliverance from the Law, and a fruit of our marriage to God, that (vers. 4) we… bring forth fruits to God, and walk holily. 2. That the motions of sinnes bring forth wicked works, as children to the second death, vers. 5. (3) that wee serve the Lord (vers. 6.) in newnesse of Spirit, and walk in Christ.

Now Mr. Towne as setting himselfe to contradict Paul, saith pag. 6. This is an addition and mixture of works and faith, and cannot stand with a covenant of meere grace.

Towne pag. 8.

How can Christ red…eme us f…om the Law, being under the Law, for us▪ except beleevers be redeemed from the Law in that same very sence, and extent that Christ was under it as a mediator? But was not Christ under the Rule and obedience also as well p. 582as under the Raigne to death, seeing he came to doe the will of his father, and fulfill all righteousnesse, Mat. 3.15.

Answ. 1. Wee cannot every way be said to be redeemed from the Law, in that same sence that Christ was under it: For Christ was under the Law of Ceremonies to free the Iewes from observing that Law; I hope we Gentiles are not that way freed from the Law of Ceremonies; for that Law did never oblige the Gentiles except the Gentiles had adjoyned themselves in some profession, to the then visible Church.

2. If Christ was under the Law as the rule, to free us from the Law as the rule, then why did Christ command us to imitate him in doing his fathers will, and submitting to that same Ru…e, that hee submitted to, as is clear, Matth. 11.29. learne of mee that am meek, Ioh. 15.10. If yee keepe my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my fathers commandments, and abide in his love, Ioh. 14.15. If yee love me, keep my commandments, Ioh. 13.15. For I have given you example, that yee should doe as I have done unto you, Ephes. 5.1.2. Rev. 3.21. Heb. 12.1. 1 Pet. 2.21.22. Ioh. 15.23. but Antinomians (a)(a)Rise, raigne er. 4.5.say that these that be in Christ are not under the Law, or commands of the word, (even of the letter of the Gospel) as the rule of life, and that Christians are not bound to conforme themselves in their life to the directions of the word, contrary to Psal. 119.9. Esai. 8.20. and contrary to all the gospel-exhortations given in the New Testament by Christ and his Apostles; and they say (b)(b)er. 6.that the example of Christs life, (even in subjecting himselfe to the law as a rule of righteousnesse) is not a paterne according to which we are to act and live: In a word, they will have the Spirit separated from the word, and from the example of Christ, and all the cloud of witnesses to be no rule to us; to which I oppose that one precious word of the beloved disciple, 1 Ioh. 2.26.A mysterie of Antinomians that all means not effectually moving the wil are not means laying bonds on the conscience. He that saith he abideth in him, ought so to walke even as he hath walked. But observe, 1. All means that doe not efficaciously bow the will to obedience to God, and convert the soule, are rejected by them, as not obliging the conscience, such as are the Law, the letter of the Gospel, all the promises, exhor…tions and precepts of the Gospel, the example of the Lord, who commandeth us, 1 Pet. 1. to be holy as he is holy, the example of Christ, of all the Prophets, p. 583Apostles, Martyrs and Saints, because all these are some other thing then grace, and may prove ineffectuall: hence

1. The Gospel as contradistinguished from the Law, is not the Gospel written or preached,Rise, and raign but the grace that resideth no where but in God and in Iesus Christ, is the Gospel; so say they (c)(c)er. 26.The faith that justifieth us is in Iesus Christ, and never had any actuall beeing out of Christ. 2. There i… no habituall grace inherent in beleevers, all such must bee a created thing, Grace is an uncreated favour only in God: for all that which is called habituall grace in us is in effectuall to act graciously, and cannot produce supernaturall acts, except the holy Ghost act and move it: Hence they say (d)(d)Rise, raign er. 7. Cornwall conference of Mr. Iohn Cotton q. 2. arg. 6. p. 16.17. Antinomians acknowledge no grace but what is uncreated and so no habits of grace Ezech. 36.26. Deut. 30.6. Act. 16.14. Ier. 31.33. Ezech. 11.19. Rom. 12.2. Rom. 7.22.23. Ephes. 3.17.Ezek 36:26Deut 30:6Acts 16:14Jer 31:33Ezek 11:19Rom 12:2Rom 7:22Rom 7:23Eph 3:17that the new creature or the man, (or the new heart, or new Spirit, the circumcised, the opened heart, the Law in the inward parts, the one heart, the renewed minde, the inner man, the Law of the mind, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith) mentioned in the Gospel, is not meant of Grace, but of Christ, and therefore (e)(e)Rise, raign, er. 23. p. 5.we must not pray for gifts and graces, but only for Christ: and (f)(f)er. 25. Antinomians take away all use of teaching, exhorting, of the Gospel, or promises thereof.so a man may have all graces and poverty of Spirit, and yet want Christ.

2. We are patients in justification, Sanctification, beleeving in Christ, and we are blocks all the way to heaven; minde, will, affection, memory, love, desir…, joy, feare and all in us act nothing in supernaturall acts; there is not such a thing as grace, in any of the Saints, but Grace is nothing but Christ without us drawing us as blocks, as dead stones, in the way to heaven, having no activitie, but to sin, (g)(g)er. 36. p. 7.even after we beleeve in Christ: and (h)(h)er. 14. p. 3.Christ works in the regenerate as in deadmen.

3. Omissions of duties commanded in the Gospel are no sins, for none are, (i)(i)er. 22. p. 5.to be exhorted to beleeve, but such whom we know to be the elect of God, or to have his Spirit in them effectually, and (k)(k)er: 59. p. 1…,a man may not bee exhorted to any dutie, because he hath no power to do it; then Law, Gospel, exhortations, commands, promises, threatning…, are to no purpose: these that want grace to obey, are not lyable to obey, nor guilty, nor under wrath, because they beleeve not in the Son of God, and these that are under grace are under obligation to no commands at all, and farewell all Scripture from henceforth; Yea, Mr. Town is frequent in this, we are not under the Law, as p. 584our rule; Why? because, (saith he) it cannot effectually work obedience in us; but so all the word of God, the Gospel without the Spirit must be no rule of obedience at all, because the Scripture, the Gospel and all the promises without the Spirit are just alike and uneffectuall to work us to obedience.No scripture freeth us from the Law as a rule of righteousnes, but all that speak of our freedome from the law, speak of our freedom from the rigor and curse thereof.

But not one word of old or new Testament frees us f…om the Law as our rule of righteousnesse, and all the scriptures that speake of our freedome from the Law, doe directly speak of our freedome from the curse and condemnation of it, because we cannot be justified thereby, as Gal. 3.10. For as many as are of the work of the Law, are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to doe them: this must be to doe them in a legall way, 1. Hee must doe them all in thought, inclinations, motions of the heart, and all the strength of the soule, in all his actions, in all his words, and in a spirituall manner as the law charges, otherwise hee is cursed; then all mankinde, both such as are in Christ, or out of Christ are cursed; now if the simple doing of the things of the law, as its a rule of our life, did involve us in a curse, then to honour Father and mother which Paul certainly commandeth as a Gospel-dutie, Ephes. 6.1.2. and the loving of our brother to which Iohn. 1. Epist. c. 2. c. 3. c. 4. c. 5. exhorteth us unto, should involve us in a curse;Faith looseth us not from the Law and holy walking simply, but only in the matter of justification. which is absurd.

2. He must continue to the end in doing all the Law; if ever he fail, he is under a curse: Now thus it is clea… Paul saith wee are freed in Christ, from a necessitie of justification by the works of the law: For Paul addeth in the next words, vers. 11. But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God, is evident, for the just shall live by faith; if the living by faith did exclude work…, and keeping of the law in an… respect at all, as the keeping of the law is a witnesse of the life of faith: then to doe the things of the law, as its an eternall rule of righteousnesse,We cannot be (as Mr. Town imagineth) the same way freed from the Morall Law, as we are freed from the Ceremoniall Law should also involve us in the curse, and argue that we seeke to be justified by the law, and so that we are fallen from Christ, even as to be circumcised doth involve a man to bee a debtor to the whole law, and argueth a falling from Christ and the grace of the Gospel; for Antinomians contend that we are the same way freed from the morall law, as it is a rule of Righteousnesse, that we are freed from the Ceremoniall law; p. 585But wee are freed, under the paine of a curse, and of falling from Chri…t, and the gr…ce of the Gospel, from the literall observing of circumcision, Act. 15. & Gal. ….1, 2, …, 4. as the Ceremoniall Law is a rule of righteousnesse; and if any should pretend the impulsion and leading of the Spirit, not any letter of the Law, and thereupon be circumcised, and should renounce the law of …eremonies as a rule of righteous walking as Antinomians professe they obey father and mother and love their brother, and abstaine from Idolatry, not because the Law is their rule, or the letter of the Law swayeth their conscience, but because the Spirit of Christ leadeth them; if (I say) any upon this Spirit would be circumcised, and eat the passeover, and sacrifice Lambs and blood to God now, this Spirit is no Gospel S…irit, but the spirit of Sathan leading such from Christ: If then we are not to obey the Morall Law, as a rule of life and righteousnesse; but are f…ed from it the same way, that we are freed from the Ceremoniall Law; then to love God and our brethren in any notion should bee sinne, as to be c…rcumcised in any notion is to fall from Christ, Act. 15. Gal. 5.

Mr Towne has a strange evasion for this, Page 138.

The Spirit is free, why will yee controule and rule it by the Law, whereas the nature of the Spirit is freely to conforme the heart and life to the outward rule of the Law without the help of the Law, as a crooked thing is made straight according to the line and square, and not by th…m; and thus while a believer serveth in newnesse of the Spirit, the Spirit freely and cheerefully moving him and inclining him to keep the Law which is meerely passive, herein they doe wickedly who hence take liberty to sinne.

Answ. 1. To doe the will of God meerely as commanded from the power of an outward commandement or precept in the word is but legall, and brings forth but mixt obedience or finer hypoc…isie (saith (a)(a)Saltmarsh flowings of free-grace, last part, c 4. p. 178.Saltmarsh) and Mr Town saith that it is to controule the free Spirit, and to rule it by a Law; and Familists of new England (as the old Libertines) say all (b)(b)R…se, raign, 7….verball Covenants or covenants expressed in words are covenants of works and such as strike men off from Christ; and (c)(c)Error 9.the whole letter of the Scripture holdeth forth a covenant of works; and (d)(d)Error 62.its dangerous to close with Christ in a promise of the Gospel; p. 586because the promise is an externall created letter,Obeying of God because of th… direction of Law or Gospel, is to Antinomians a controuling of the fr…e Spirit of God. and the Spirit is all; this is to make a battell and contrariety between the Word of God and the Gospel as written or preached, and the Spirit, whereas 1. that which the Scripture saith, the Spirit of God saith; the command and Gospel promise is the sense and minde of the holy Spirit; for that the Scripture is q…ickned by the Spirit, 2 Tim. 3.16. and the Word is the seed of God, and of the new birth, 1 Pet. 1.23. and mighty in operation, and powerfull and sharper then a two-edged sword, Hebr. 8.12. nor is it possible that any can believe the report of the Gospel, because it is the Gospel-report, but the arme of the Lord and the power of God in the Gospel must be revealed to them; Esai. 53.1. Ioh. 12.37.38.39. For Iohn saith, the not receiving the report of the Gospel is judiciall blindnesse and unbeliefe; when Ioseph dare not oppresse his brethren, and Iob dare not lift his arme against the Fatherlesse, because the sixth command saith, thou shalt not murther; this is but finer hypocrisie in Ioseph and Iob, and a controuling of the free Spirit; better believe David, Psal. 119.6. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have a respect to all thy Commandements; no doubt the Lord concurred freely with Adam in the act of obeying God in abstaining from the fruit of the forbidden tree, if therefore Adam should obey God out of conscience to Gods command (eat not) he should either controule the free Lord in his working, which none in conscience can say, or then Adam must have been loosed from obedience to that command, if yee eat, yee shall die, as we are now loosed from the Law and the second death, though we break the Law, according to the Antinomian way; yea, its unconceivable how these that are under grace, doe obey the Gospel enjoyning faith, because the Lord …esus commandeth them, but they must sin in so doing because they controule the free Spirit of God, in not obeying for the free impulsion of the Spirit, ▪but for the literall command ▪of God; for sure to controule the free Spirit is sin, and to obey for the letter of the command, to Antinomians, is to controule the free Spirit; but its blasphemy to say that there is a contraiety between the letter of the Lords command either in Law or Gospel, and the free impulsion of the Spirit working …in us by grace to will, doe, and obey the command: …or to obey the voyce of the Lord in his Prophets and Apostles, and to obey p. 587the Lord himselfe are all one, in the word; but this is the error of old Anabaptists and Enthysiasts, to reject the word, and all teaching by men and the word, and to leane to the only immediate inspirations and free motions of the Holy Ghost; and to doe or obey, for any other teaching is the way of legall and law-men led by the letter, not by the Spirit. If any obey or doe Gods will out of by respects, or for feare of punishment or hope of reward, they doe not Gods will, nor obey they from the power of an outward command, nor doe they controule the free Spirit, because the very letter and outward commandement enjoyneth inward, spiri…uall sincere obedience farre from hypocrisie, and forbiddeth in the sense of the letter of it, all servile respects and service of God for hire. Antinomians believe that the Law as the law doth ommand men to obey for fear of hell, as a servant for beating obeyeth his Master, or that it commandeth perfect obedience for hire of life eternall. I do…bt not to say this is not far from blasphemy; for the Law is spirituall and holy, and good, and most just, its a cleane and undefiled Law, Psal. 119. & Rom. 7. is the expresse and image of th… good, acceptable, and perfect will of God, Rom. 12.2. then the Law as the Law can command no finer hypocrisie, no servile, no mercenary obedience for hire, for the Law cannot command sin; its true Luther saith, that the Law compelleth men to obey God, but he speaketh of the accidental operation & fruit of the Law, because of our sinfull disposition, and of the condemning Law as it works on our corruption, the holy Law commandeth no man to obey God wickedly.

2. The letter of the Gospel carrieth to us and holdeth forth free grace, openeth the bowels and heart of Christ, calleth on the weary and loaden, to come to Christ, speaketh heaven, glory, and the promise in the wombe of it; though it be but the foolishnesse of preaching of men, yet its the power o… God to salvation, and there is such a Majesty, so much of heaven, in the womb and bowels of the word, that as I never read or heard the like of it, so I shall hate that Religion that joyns with popery, to call it Ink-divinity, and a letter, and a legall servile thing; so did the Libertines, in Calvines time.

3. All tendeth to this, that we despise prophecying, neglect the word, commands, promises, covenant of grace and all these inferiour meanes, and so praying, experience, conference, p. 588hearing, reading, Sacraments, because without the Spirit these are livelesse and dead; for (saith Towne) the meanes are passive, shall be also many restraints laid on the free Spirit of God. But so we should not saile nor traffi…k, we should not plew, nor eare, we should not watch the City, nor build houses, because all these are fruitlesse without the influence of a blessing from heaven; if their meaning be that we are not to trust or rest on the meanes, the word, promises, covenant of grace, but to seek Christ hims…lfe in all these, its good, but then to seek Christ in his own way, is not to controule his spirit, as Mr Town phancieth.

Now what Town doth meane in saying that the Spirit freely conformeth the heart and life to the outward rule of the law, without the help of the Law, is heard to conjecture; for …f the meaning be that the Spirit needeth the he…p of the Law to make us know our sinnes, to humble us and chase us to him who is the end of the Law: then surely the Spirit by the help of the Law worketh these in us, as God maketh cornes to grow by husbandry, raine, good soile and by nature his handmaide, no man can say God works here without the help of the Law; if the meaning be that the law of it selfe cannot convert a man to God, Antinomians father most falsely such a dream on us, nay, the Gospel of it selfe cannot effectuate this without the Spirit: But if the Spirit conforme us to the outward rule of the law; then must the law be yet a rule of our obedience: how are we then freed from the law as a rule of our obedience, if the Spirit led us back to this rule?

And Rom. 3. Rom. 7. Gal. 3. & 2 Cor. 3. where the Apostle speaketh of our freedome from the law, he ever speaketh of our freedome from the law as it condemneth, as it worketh wrath, as it involveth us in a curse, as it can justifie us, or give life; never as it doth regulate, direct, teach, and lead us in the way of righteousnesse.

Mr Towne, Pag. 9.

What freeth a believer from the curse, but because he is a new creature in Christ and is made personally, perfectly and everlastingly righteous? and the principall debt is obedience, the failing wherein bindeth …ver to the curse and death.The new crea…ure, 2 Cor. 5.17. is sanctifi…a…ion.2 Cor 5:17

Answ. That new creature is sanctification not justificatification, 2 Cor. 5.17. If any man be in Christ, that is, if he p. 589be justified, h… is a new creature, that is, he is sanctified; else by the Antinomian glosse the meaning must be (if any man be justified in Christ, he is justified in Christ) Paul speaketh not so non sense.

2. It is true, we owe active obedience to the law as a debt, but that is the d…bt of absolute…y perfect ob…dience; how shall it follow that Christ has loosed us from all debt of active obedience,The Law requir…th p…rf…ct obedience as the Law; but the La… a… … vangeli…ed req…iret… not p…rfect ob…dience that we may be Eva… ge…ic…lly justified. because he has loosed us from a necessity of perfect active obedience under the paine of damnation; but the Law as in the hand of Iesus the Mediator, or the law … spiritualized and lustered with Gospel law and free-grace, and drawn downe to a Covenant of free-grace, req…ireth not exact perfect obedience under paine of losing salvation; yea, it requireth obedience as the poore man is able to give it, by the grace of God that the man enter in the possession of life eternall; but that he may have ransome-right by merit and conquest to heaven, or to free justification in Christ, the law cannot crave either legall or Evangelick obedience: This then is no more a good consequence, then to say Christ has by his death freed us from death and suffering as they are caused by the Law, and satisfactory to justice, therefore Christ hath freed us from death and sufferings in any respect.

Yea, Paul showeth what Law it is that we are freed from Rom. 8.2. it is the Law condemning and killing called the law of sinne and death, and he saith expressely Christ dyed for this end,Divers …easons Rom. 8. Gal 5. &c. pr…i…g tha… we are y…t un…er th… …sword… a …ule of ri…hte…usnesse.Rom 8Gal 5 ver. 4. that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Hen…e I argue, these that ought to fulfill the righteousnesse of the Law, by walking after the Spirit, and mortifying the deeds of the flesh, are not freed from the Law as a rule of right…ousnesse, but are obliged by vertue of command, to this rule; for Paul proveth that there is a commanding power enjoyning rightous walking, above us, even when we are led by the Spirit. 1. Because wee are obliged to minde the things of the Spirit, not of the flesh, ver. 5. 2. To be spiritually minded is life ▪ as to be carnally minded is death eternall, ver. 6. 3. We are to be subject to the Law; then we must be spiritually, not carnally minded; for the carnall minde cannot come under such subjection, ver. 7. 4. We are to please God in our walking; then wee cannot walk in the flesh, ver. 8. p. 5905. Because we are dead to sinne, v. 9.10. We are not debters, nor owe we to the flesh any service, v. 10. But sure by a commandement, we owe service to Christ; againe the Apostle, Gal. 5. treating of that common place of Christian liberty, especially moveth the Antinomian doubt, and saith ver. 13. Christian liberty is not licentiousnesse, nor an occasion to the flesh; and commandeth, that we serve on another in love, ver. 13. Now here was a fit place, if Paul had been an Antinomian to say, but ye are freed from the Law as a rule of righteousnesse, and if I command you to love one another, I bring you back to bondage againe, I clap you up in goale againe and deliver you to your old keeper; no saith he, But 1. this is Liberty to serve one anot…er in love; and its an Evangel…ck fulfilling of the law; for all the Law (saith he ver. 14.) is fulfilled in this one word, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe, and ver. 16. There is an expresse command walk in the Spirit: and ver. 18. It might be said then we may live as we list, we are free from all Lords; its true (saith the Apostle, ver. 18. yee are not under the Law to condemne you, but yet yee are not lawlesse, yee must be led by the Spirit, and ver. 19. flie the wo…ks of the flesh, ver. 19. such as adultery, fornication, &c. now the law expresly forbiddeth the works of the flesh.he Anti…omian Doctrine is propounded by the carnall Libertine, Rom. 7.Rom 7 And Rom. 7. the very Antinomian doctrine is obviated for ver. 6. But now we are delivered from the Law; O then might some say, then we are free men; he answers not so; we are delivered from the Law that wee should serve God in a Spirituall manner: But againe, ver. 7. Paul proponeth the speciall objection of the Carnall Libertine, if we be freed from the Law, what shall we say then? is the Law sinne? this doubt ariseth both from ver 5. & ver. 6. ver. 5. he said the motions of sinne that were by the Law, did work in our members sinfull motions; he inferres then it may appeare to some that the Law is a factor and ag…nt for sinne; is the Law sinne? b… way of sollici…ation, ver. 6. Wee are not under the Law: then it would appeare that the rem…ved Law is not a dispens…tion to sinne, and so the law is sinne; if we be freed from it, we may sinne; Paul saith the Law is not so removed and dead, but t…ere is a good and holy …se of the law; it remaineth as a rule of righteousnesse touching what we should flie, and what we should follow, thus the law is p. 591neither a factor for sinne nor a dispensation to sinne; because it discovereth and forbiddeth sinne; for (saith he) I had not known lust to be sinne, but by the Law: and this the Antinomi…n now moveth; we are freed from the law being once justified; what ever we doe, it is not against a law nor a rule, for we are under no law as a rule; and what we doe, though to our sense and feeling it be adultery and a debt ag…inst the seventh command, yet truly in the sight of God, it is no more sinne, then any thing Christ doth, is sinne, we are as cleane of it, ere we commit, it as Christ or the glorified Spirits in heaven, and therefore the law gives us a dispensation to doe these things being justified, which the unjustified cannot doe, but they must in doing it, sinne, because the unjustified man is under the law as a rule of justice, which we are not under; and so we have a dispensation and an an…idated one to sinne, before hand, but because we are under no rule of righteousnesse it is to us no sinne. Take two servants, the master commandeth one of them, eat all fruit of the garden; but I forbid you, the fellow servant, under a paine, eat not of this tree in the east end of the garden; to the other he giveth no such charge or command; the former servant eating of the tree in the east transgresseth not his masters command, because he is under no law forbidding, the other cating of that same tree is a transgressor, because he is under a forbidding command; so here, if the justified be not under the tenne Commandements as a rule of life, though they swerve from all the tenne, yet they sinne not; for Saltmarsh saith, where there is no law, there is no sinne.

Mr Towne saith, Although the Spirit bring forth in the Saints the fruits of holinesse according to the law, Gal. 5.22. Ephes. 5.9. Yet without Christ we can doe nothing, Lex jubet, non juvat. Quod lex imperat, Evangel…um impetrat.unlesse as the imp or branch we suck, and derive life and sap from him which is the Spirit of faith; what if it be affirmed even in true sanctification the law of works is a meere passive thing, as the Kings high way, which a Christian freely walketh in, you have not a face to deny it, Psal. 119.31.The Law hath an active power to teach, …nd is not meerly passive; as Mr Town saith.

Answ. If the Spirit of Grace bring forth in the Saints fruits of holinesse according to the law, then is the law to the Saints a rule of their walking, which the Antinomians deny: Its true, It may be the law to the holy Spirit in his person p. 592acting immediately in the Saints, is passive, for the law cannot work on the holy Spirit; but that the …aints are meere patients, and blocks in all their holy walking, is grosse Lib…rtinis…e, and maketh God the Author of sin, as before is said, and this way also the Saints are freed from the Gospel, and the command of faith and all the promises no lesse then from the law; because neither law nor Gospel can be a rule to the person of the holy Ghost, in his immediate actions; the Spirit is free in his operations, and subjecteth both law and Gospel to his gracious breathings, but is subject to none.

2. Mr. Towne and Antinomians would lay upon Protestant Divines, that they teach the Saints may walk in holines without the grace of Christ, because they will have the Saints under the law ruling and directing, and this law-ruling of it selfe giveth no grace to obey; bu… this is a calumnious consequence; the promises of the Gospel in the letter giveth no grace to obey; the Spirit bloweth when and whe…e …e listeth, and giveth grace freely to the gospel preached: yet we reach not that any can beleeve and obey the gospel without the grace of Christ.

3. The law so is passive of it selfe to Christ, to Adam in the s…ate of innocency, in this sence, that the law, as the law, commandeth obedience to both, but containeth not any legall promise of giving grace to obey to either Adam or Christ, As the Gospel containeth a promise of bestowing grace to beleeve in all the elect. Now if this be the cause why the justified are freed from the law as a rule of Righteousnesse, because there is no legall promise made to them by which they a…e inabled to keep the law: then was Christ Ie…us and Adam in his innocency freed from the law as a rule of R…ghteousn…sse, which is most absurd; for the law as the law, commanded Christ to fu…fill all righteousnesse, Matth. 3.15. but so did it Adam; …u… show a legall promise made to Christ, by the law, that he should have grace to obey the law; indeed the Lord prom…sed hi… the Spirit above measure, but this was no law-promise: So God created Adam according to his own image, with perfect conc…eated strength and power to keep the law; but the law, as the law, made no promise to Adam, that h…e should be k…pt in obedience, But if this be called action, or activitie in the law, to rule, guide, direct and command obedience p. 593as a rule, then the law is no wise passive; its more then the Kings high-way; No way cryeth to the conscience of the traveler, this is the way, no Kings way showeth the traveller his errour, as the law, in its directing, ruling and teaching power, breaketh in upon the conscience, and declareth to the justified man the way he should walk in, and convinceth him of his unrighteousnesse, and dayly faults.

Towne pag. 10.

The Law wrappeth every man in sinne, for the least transgression; so that while a man remaineth a sinner, hee necessarily abideth under this fearfull curse.

Answ. Still Antinomians bewray their engine; If wee say, even being justified we have no sinne, we lye; and who can say I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from sinne? and There is not a just man on earth, that sinneth not: 1 Ioh. 1.10. Prov. 20.9. Eccles. 7.20. Then there cannot bee a man on earth, but he is under the curse of God, but Antinomians say, and that truly, that the justified persons are freed from the curse, then they have no sinne, nay they cannot sinne, by their arguing, for they will have the curse essentially and unseparably to follow sinne, which is most false, sinne dwelleth in all the justified so long as they are here, but they are here delivered from the curse.

Our deliverance from misery and the bondage of the law is two fold, as our misery is twofold. 1. There is a guilt of sin,How faith and New obedience are the means of our deliverie from the misery of sinne; the former from the guilt, and that perfectly and at once, in justification; and the other from the blot and indwelling and that by degrees, in sanctification. or our obligation to eternall wrath, and all the punishments of sinne according to the order of justice by the law of God; The other misery is the blot of internall guilt of sin, by which sin dwelleth in us by nature, as a King and lord, Tyrant, awing us by the law of sinne.

In regard of the former Christ is our Saviour, meritò by the merrit of his death; in regard of the latter Christ is our Saviour, efficacia, by giving us the holy Ghost, and faith to lay hold on Righteousnesse in Christ, and grace to walk holily before him.

In regard of the former, wee are freely and perfectly justified and pardoned at once, from all sinnes, in our person and state, through the sence of this, and in regard of deliverance from temporall judgements and doubtings, and fears of p. 594eternall wrath, eve…y day while we seeke dayly bread, we des…e …hat our sinnes may be forgiven; nor is this prayer a tempor…rie pattern that perished with Christ, as some perve…sly …; for Peter a…ter the Lords ascention saith to Simo… Magus, Act. 8.22. pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may …e forgiven th….

In regard … are sa…ctified by d…g…ees n…ver … sin is removed in … th…reof, in justification; only sin …welle…h in us, while we a… here.

In regard of the …ormer miserie, faith in Christ is the only …, and way to g…t out of our bondage and misery; in …ega…d of the …ter, R…pentance and the whole trace of our new obedience, are the the means to escape out of this miserie; nor do we make acts of sanctification compartners and joynt causes or conditions in the work of justification; for this is from Christ alone, solely, immediately; as by looking on the brazen serpent onelyonly, the stung Israelites were cured: Nor doth weeping or acts of mens obedience move the Lord to wash, justifie and pardon our sinnes, but repentance and new obedience are means tending to our escaping out of the latter bondage; as the rising of the sunne is a way to the full noone-light day; though we can attaine to no Meridian nor full noone day of sanctifications, while the body of sin keepeth lodging in us, in this life; but the Law of works is not so enwrapt and entwined together (as Mr. Towne dreameth) that if a man lay hands on any, …. of Grace. p. 1….even the least linke, he inevitably pulleth the whole chaine on himselfe, as hee that is circumcised, Gal. 5. made himselfe debter to the whole Law; For circumcision, not only in the matter of justification, but also of sanctification is now unlawfull; So to repent and love the brethren, to obey our parents, as looking thereby for remission of sinnes, should be unlawfull and a falling from Christ, but in the matter of Sanctification, and of testifying our thankfullnesse to Christ for the work of our redemption, and as the way to the possession of the kingdome, they are no… unlawfull, but commanded as necessary duties, by which an entrance is ministered to us into the heavenly kingdome.

How we are saved without works.Yea our holy walking, since it is no merit, but a fruit of grace, and a condition required in such as are saved, and have opportunitie p. 595to honour Christ that w…y, taketh not away the freedome of Grace, for where the Scripture saith, wee are s… ved by Grace, without works, as Tit. 3 Ephes. 2. salvation is spoken of there in regard of the title, right, jus, or claim the Saints have to heaven excluding all merits of works; our obedience is not full, compleat and perfect; only they are counted so, and accepted in Christ, Phil. 4.18. Heb. 13.15, 16. Col. 3.17.

Mr Towne answereth with other Antinomians; The just and wise God who accepteth every thing by due weight and measure▪ as it is found to bee, hee doth not, Asser. … pag. 22.nay cannot account that which is but inchoat and partiall for full and compleat obedience; nor can it stand with justice to accept any thing which is not first perfect, seeing that perfection and absolutenesse is the ground of acceptance, both of our persons and performances; yee must make both the tree and the fruit perfectly good before God.

2. What God (saith he) hath manifested to be detestable and accursed, that he cannot accept: but hee hath manifested by scripture, that what ever is not absolutely perfect, Asser. p…g. 7….is detestable and accursed, Gal. 3.10. Hab. 1.13. Rom. 1.18. The proposition is grounded on the immutablenesse of Gods nature, who cannot deny himselfe, Iam. 1.18 and his exact justice, who will not suffer the losse of the least title of his righteousnesse, Mat. 5.18. God is no respecter of persons, his Law inviolable, and can suffer no abatement.H…w God accou…ts t…e g…od wor…s of the justif…e… perfect.

Answ. God in justification accounts us righteous in Christ, and positively guiltlesse, as freed from obligation to eternall wrath, and cloathed with Christs righteousnesse; but hee accounts not us non-sinnets and free from indwelling s…nne, that should be an unjust account, for wee are not so; but God accounteth our works perfect only negatively, that is, such they are before God, as he will not enter in judgement with us for them▪ but graciously pardoneth the sinnes of th…se works, but God doth not account these works positively worthy of life eternall, even in Christ, as he accounteth our persons, far lesse doth he judge them meritorious: hence there is a twofold acc…eptation; one of Good will to our persons in Christ; that is that Good will of free election, by which he render…h us accepted in his beloved: there is another acceptance of complacencie, p. 596according to which God is said to love and reward our good works, even to a cup of cold water, Ioh. 14.21.23. Matth. 10.42. 2. Thess. 1.7. Heb. 6.10. and that of free-grace, they are called perfect as perfection is opposed to hypocriticall; but not perfect simply, Phil. 3.12. but the acceptance of our works in Christ is an acceptance inferior to the acceptance of our persons in justification; hence God takes pleasure in th…se that feare him, because they feare him, not as though his love quoad affectum, in it selfe had a cause in the creature, or can wax or encrease, or can admit of a change, but because he bestoweth the fruits of his love out of free-grace and a gratious promise, to our sincere walking, and this is rather the fruit of his love, amor quoad effectum, then Gods love it selfe; all this proceedeth from a grosse mistake of the nature of justification.

I answer, 2. to that: That which is inchoat sinfully defective, and imcompleat, that the righteous and unchangeable God cannot account perfect and compleat, or that which is sinfully defective, or that which is sinfull, God cannot account not sinfull; It is true, it were an erroneous and unjust account; now the proposition is true; but the assumption most false; the good works of the regenerate and justified are sinfull. But Gods accounting of them perfect▪ putteth no contradiction on them to account them not sinfull: God accounts not Davids adultery to bee an act of chastity; This is the Papists argument against the imputed righteousnesse of Christ, which Antinomians being▪ utterly ignorant of the nature of justification, bring against us; the other part of the distinction is, That which is sinfull and defective in it selfe, and inherently, or really and physically, that God cannot account perfect, that is, God cannot account it and the doer, legally free from obligation to eternall wrath, for the satisfaction of another, the surety of sinners, who has payd and suffered for it; that is most false, and should destroy the Protestant justification, when we say God accounteth the good works of believers good and perfect, so as the imperfection and sinne of them is removed; we meane not by removing of the sinne of these works, the totall annihilation of sinne, in its essence p. 597root and branch, it dwelleth in us in its compleat essence while we are here, Rom. 7.17.23. Prov. 20.9. 1 Ioh. 1.8.10. only the dominion, by sanctification, is abated, and the guilt or obligation to eternall wrath is removed in justification; and this Argument may well be retorted: Who ever is a sinner, the righteous and immutable God whose judg…ment is ac…ording to verity, and cannot suffer the losse of the least titl… of his righteousnesse, Matth. 5.18. cannot esteeme him just, and perfectly righteous: But all men even the regenerate, are sinners: No answer, no distinction can be accommodated to this Argument, which may not be applyed to their argument; for God is no lesse, just, righteous, immutable, true, no respecter of persons, and his Law inviolable in his accounting of persons righteous and perfect, then in accounting of works righteous and perfect. Now that the fruits and the tree are both good, and simply perfect and all the works of the justified perfect in Christ, is a point of new divinity very contrary, first to Scripture which saith Iam. 3.2. in many things we offend all, 1 Ioh. 1.8. If we say wee have no sinne, we deceive our selves, ver. 10. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a lyar, and his word is not in us▪ Antinomians say, Iohn speaking of a mixt multitude, is to bee meant to speak of the unregenerate mixed with the justified.

Answ. 1. Iohn takes in himselfe. 2. He speaketh of such as confesse their sinnes and are pardoned, ver. 9. (2) of such as have an Advocate in heaven, if they sinne, chap. 2.1. and these are the justified, and regenerate, and Prov. 20.9. Who can say I have made my heart cleane, I am pure from my sinne? hee speaks not there of a mixed multitude, but sendeth a Law-defiance to all mankinde, justified, or not justified; yea, Eccles. 7.20. There is not a just man on earth, that doth good and sinneth, no; these words are so wisely framed, that they exclude not the justified in Christ, who undoubtly do good, but they do not so good (saith Salomon) but they sinne; so Paul complaineth, of sinne dwelling in him, Rom. 7. (2) Sinne originall after justification, to Antinomians must be no sinne, as to Papists its no sinne, after baptisme; (3) If our works bee perfect in the sight of God, p. 598then wee may be justified by our works; for Antinomians say if Christ esteeme our works perfect, he may account us righteous for them and we may bee said to be justified both by works and by grace, because its free grace that the Lord accounts our works Righteous: (4) Wee constantly deny that Christ by his death, hath given to our good works a power of meriting heaven, but if God in Christ, count then simply perfect, there is no reason to deny this, because our works are simply perfect by Antinomians way; this is more Pharisaicall then Popish justification.

FINIS.

End of the text · Samuel Rutherford, Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself (1647)