Gospel Truth Stated and Vindicated, Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX. Of the Beauty of sincere Holiness.
TRUTH. THough the present sincere Holiness of Believers be not perfect, according to the Precepts of the Word; nor Valuable by the Sanction of the Law of Innocency; nor any Atonement for our Defects; and we still need Forgiveness, and the Merits of Christ, for Acceptance thereof; yet as far as it prevails, it's lovely in it self, and pleasing to God; and is not dung or filth.
ERROUR. The greatest Holiness in Believers, though wrought in them by the Holy Ghost, is mere Dung, Rottenness and Filthiness, as in them.
Proved that this is Doctor Crisp's Opinion.
P. 232. Know, that the motions and assistance of the Spirit be pure, holy, and without scum in the Spring, to wit, it self; yet by that time these Motions and Assistances have passed through the channels of our Hearts, and been mixed with our manifold Corruptions in doing, even the whole Work becomes polluted and filthy; our filthiness alters the property of the pure motions of Christ's Spirit, &c. As one drop of Poyson injected into the rarest Cordial, makes the whole, and every drop of the whole, Mortal; so that, except the best of our Works can pass through us, without the least touch or mixture of any Defect or Pollution, it cannot but be Dung, &c. And whereas it may seem harsh, that even what is the Spirit's, must be involved within that which is a Man's own, under the general Notion of Dung; Know, that it once being mixed with our filth, ceaseth to be the Spirit's, and becomes our own: It was the Spirit's when injected; but our Flesh being like the Viper's Stomach, turns the wholsomest Food into Poyson; or like an ulcerous Tumour, that turns the purest Spirits, and soundest Flesh, into rottenness. And some of this ulcerous Flesh remains in the best Saints on Earth, and mingles it self in the best service, and so turns the whole into its own nature. P. 414. All our Righteousness are filthy, full of menstruosity, the highest kind of filthiness.
Do not say he meaneth, that our gracious Actings are too imperfect to be the Righteousness for which we are Justified: No, he must intend more; for that would not make them Dung, or Rottenness, and cease to be the Spirit's; it would only argue they are Imperfect, &c. He hath abundance of such terms to make Holiness vile, as before he said much to render Sin innocent to the Elect.
Wherein the Difference is not.
1. It is not: Whether the Holiness, or best Acts of a Saint, be such, or so perfect, as to atone for his Sin, or procure a state of Pardon. 2. Nor, whether our Holiness can make us accepted with God, without Christ. 3. Nor, whether the holiest Action of the holiest Saint is such, as not to need forgiveness. 4. Nor, whether by the Sanction of the Law of Innocency, Sincere Holiness could be accounted Holiness. All these I deny; and the last, because nothing but perfect conformity to the Precept was Holiness; whereas the Gospel-Grace makes a great difference between True Holiness, though Imperfect, and what's formally Wickedness; between sincere Love and Enmity; sincere Faith, and utter Unbelief.
The real Difference.
1. Whether the sincere Holiness of a Believer's Heart and Actions be really Dung and Rottenness. This the Doctor affirms, and I deny; yet I own, we should so esteem it is compared with Christ, as meritorious of Justification. 2. Whether sincere Holiness, as far as it prevails in our Hearts and Actings, be truly lovely in it self, and pleasing to God, according to the Grace of the Gospel, and is not Dung. This I affirm, and the Doctor denies.
The Truth confirmed.
Consider, That whatever is spoken of Holiness in any mere Man on Earth, since the Fall, is spoken of Sincere Holiness; for Perfect Holiness none had. I have room but to expostulate this Matter. Is that Dung, which is the effect of Regeneration in the Soul and Actings? Is that Dung, which is so often honoured with the Name of the Spirit it self, and called the Spirit of Love, Prayer? &c. I not that more lovely, which is called the Divine Nature? 2 Pet. 1. 4. How aimable must that be, which is the New Man after God's Image? Eph. 4. 24. The New Heart? Ezek. 18. 31. The Law of God in the Heart, and the Grace of God? Are those Works Dung, to which we are created in Christ Jesus, Eph. 2. 10. and enabled by the Spirit? Or is that Filthiness, which renders Saints the Excellent of the Earth? Psal. 16. 3. The Imitators of Christ? Was not this it for which Caleb was said to have another Spirit? And upon account whereof we must love the Godly, as begotten of God? Is it not pleasing to God, to which he hath made so many Promises; for which he so commends Moses, David, and all the Saints; calling such a peculiar People? &c. It's no small thing with which Christ is so pleased in his Spouse; as you see in the Song of Solomon. Can that be Dung, which is a Meetness for Glory, an Honour to God, and Credit to Religion? How can it be acceptable to God, through Christ, if it be Filthiness, and changed into the Nature of our Flesh and Corruption? Wickedness will never be accepted with God for Christ's sake, though imperfect Goodness shall. Read what is spoken of Sincerity, Uprightness, &c. and see, will it agree to what's mortal Poyson? What a reproach is it to Christ, to call his Life in us, and the Beginning of Glory, by this Title? Nay, to make his Triumphs in us so low, as that all he hath improved his Members to, is mere Filthiness? It's well if the Scriptures can escape clean, if all the Works of the Spirit are thus debased when they pass through Men. But I less wonder that Doctor Crisp should speak thus of the Righteousness of Saints, as in them; when he is so positive, that the Enemies of Christ may have Sincerity and Singleness of Heart towards God, and a constant Purpose and Inclination of Heart to the whole Will of God; and reach the very Practice of the VVill of God in universal Obedience: And that therefore none of these are a sure Sign of an Interest in Christ. See p. 450, 451, 452.
TESTIMONIES.
Read what the Assembly and Elders at the Savoy say of Effectual Vocation, Sanctification, and Good VVorks, chap. 10, 13, 16. And so of Faith and Repentance. The New-England Synod confute, as Errour 36. All the Activity of a Believer, is to act to Sin. And Errour 35. The Efficacy of Christ's Death, is to kill all Activity of Graces in his Members, that he might act all in all. Read Dr. Owen's Treatise of Holiness annexed to that of the Spirit.
The Grounds of the Doctor's Mistake.
Because our Goodness extends not to God, for his profit; therefore he regards it no more than Dung and Filthiness. Because we are, after all our Obedience, unprofitable Servants to God, and less profitable Servants than we should be; therefore our Holiness is as unpleasing to him as Dung. Because God abhorred the New Moons and Sabbaths of the Hypocrites; therefore he loaths the sincere Obedience of the Upright. Obj. Doth not Israel say, Isa. 64. 6. All our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags? Ans. But that is spoken of Persons, and not of real Holiness. It's the same as Mic. 7. 4. The best of them is a Bryar. And Isa. 1. 6. From the crown of the head, to the sole of the foot, we are putrifying Sores: Corruption had invaded the very Priests, and the generality of the best Professors, who seemed the most righteous. And that the sence of the place refers to Persons, see the Verse before; Thou meetest him that rejoyceth, and worketh righteousness, &c. Behold thou art wroth; for we have sinned. q. d. VVere we VVorkers of Righteousness, thou would'st meet us, and we should rejoyce: But because we are not so, but have sinned, thou art wroth. See ver. 7. There is none that calleth on thy Name, that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee. q. d. VVe are all remiss, the best of us are as Prayerless. See the 6th. ver. it self; We are all as unclean things; our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags; we all fade as a Leaf. q. d. There's a general Apostacy and Degeneracy among us: But allow that it were spoken of Righteousness as a Quality; will it follow, that because the dead Shadow of Righteousness, in so backsliding and defiled a People, was Rags, that therefore the lively Actings of Grace, through the Influence of the Spirit, must be menstruous Cloaths or Rags?
Obj. The Apostle saith, Phil. 3. 8. For whom I have suffered the Loss of all things, and do count them Dung, that I may win Christ, and be found, &c.
1. A. If this Place speaks of Gospel-righteousness, as his own things which he counted Dung, it doth not prove that Holiness is Dung; all it can inferr, is, that in Comparison with winning Christ, it was esteemed as Dung. And who must not own, that compared with gaining Christ, the best thing in us is vile; yea, compared with his Righteousness: But yet it may not be vile in itself; asRivals with Christ we must hate Father and Mother. But doth it follow, that Father or Mother are hateful, absolutely considered? No, VVe are bound to love them, when not compared with Christ. I need add no more in answerto the Doctor's Reason; but though I own the imputed Righteousness of Christ for our Justification, yet I think to ground it on this Place, is a Damage to the Truth; and therefore I add, 2. A. Gospel-holiness or Righteousness is not here intended by Dung. The foreign was that Dogs-meat which he renounced, and left to those Dogs (which Term they gave the Gentiles) V. 2. to glory in. VVho were those he calls Dogs? They were the Concision (alluding to Baal's Priests) or the Jews that rejected Christ, by an Opinion of more Excellency in Jewish Observations, and an Abuse of the Mosaick Frame. VVhat were the Things he counted Dung? I answer, They were the Jewish Privileges, and that conceited Christless Righteousness, which he once valued, as those Dogs at present did. But it was not that Gospel-holiness, which by the Grace of Christ, he was now Partaker of. Obj. How do both these appear? I answer plainly, from the whole Scope of the Chapter. 1. They were his Christless Privileges and Righteousness which he called Dung. For 1. his Discourse is a Warning against the Jewish Perverters and Opposers of the Gospel. Ver. 2. Beware of Dogs, beware of Evil Workers, beware of the Concision. 2. He states a Comparison, wherein he opposeth them, and includes a great Part of Gospelholiness in that Opposition. Ver. 3. For we are the Circumcision, which Worship God in the Spirit, viz. not carnally, and with beggarly Elements, as they do; and rejoyce in Christ Jesus: q. d. We feel a true and solid Joy in, and by Christ, whom they refusing to accept of, are without; yea, and are tormented with Guilt and Fears, for their way make not the Comers to it perfect. And have no Confidence in the Flesh: That is, in being the natural Seed of Abraham by descent, and not his Spiritual Seed by Faith, as Rom. 9. 7, 8. Neither because they are the Seed of Abraham, are they all Children, &c. That is, they which are the Children of the Flesh, these are not the Children of God, &c. Or else in being Partakers of the Jewish Privileges; as Gal. 6. 12. as many as desire to make a fair shew in the Flesh, they constrain you to be Circumcised; of this Number were these, whom the Apostle warneth the Christians against; but now by the Gospel, we are brought to place our Hopes in greater and surer things. 3. He enumerates these Jewish Pretensions, which he had as much right to glory in, as these boasting Enemies. Ver. 4, 5, 6. He was a Jew by Birth, and not a mere Proselyte; circumcised as soon as any, of the strictest Sect, as fiery zealous against Christ as they, and as ceremonious as the best, touching the Righteousness which is in the Law blameless: He intends not Sinless-Obedience, nor Gospel-Sincerity; but a Life not to be blamed by the Rule of the Jewish Pedagogie, i. e. in the Judgment of strict Observers. 4. Of these he professeth a Renunciation, when converted to Christ. Ver. 7. But what things were gain to me: That is, these that I reckoned as much upon, as they now do, I counted loss for Christ; when he met me by the way, and led me to a truer Judgment of him and my self, I soon preferred him his Grace, his Benefits, and Instruction before all these. And Ver. 8. Yea, doubtless, &c. That is, I have no Suspicion of my Choice, and am still of the same Mind; they are still with me vain things, of no value, compared with that I have since known, and experienced in and by Christ; yea, for him, without repining; I have not only quitted those Jewish things, but I have suffered the loss of all things: viz. my Name, my Friends, my Estate, my Ease, and Life it self, in a fixed Purpose, and do count them but Dung, that I may win Christ. What these Jews do so boast of, and the World so esteem, even all are to me but Dogs-meat, &c. that I may but fully possess Christ, and the full Effects of his Undertakings in perfect Peace, Holiness and Glory, somewhat of which are already begun in me.
2. It was not Gospel-holiness which he counted Dung or Loss, For, 1. This was not his own Righteousness, which is of the Law, as opposed to that which is by the Faith of Christ. Nay, This is by the Faith of Christ; our Hearts are purified by Faith, Act. 15. 9. In Christ we are created thereto, and by him it is wrought through Faith in all his Members, who are all in him; and in this Union to him, I desire to continue, and share in the fuller Effects of. 2. This Holiness, instead of renouncing, or suffering the Loss of it, he earnestly presseth after, and expects to obtain; this is the Scope of Ver. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. that I may know him, viz. perfectly in his Person and Influences; and the Power of his Resurrection, i. e. in a perfect Newness of Heart and Life; and be conformable to his Death; i. e. wholly mortified and dead to Sin: If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead? that is, be as holy, and happy, as then I shall be, which is without Spot or Wrinkle, or any such thing. If I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ; i. e. be as holy and happy as he designed to make me, when he seized me in my first Conversion, reaching forth unto those things that are before; that cannot be imputed Righteousness, for this he had in his first Justification; but it's that perfect Holiness and Glory, which he expected in Christ hereafter. And this is the Mark for the Price of the high Calling of God in Christ; viz. What God intended in his Act, when he called me in Christ; and what I had in my Eye, when I consented to that Call, as the encouraging Reward. Now is not Holiness a great part of all these? and instead of renouncing it, he tells us he is for it, by any means, I follow after, reaching forth, I press towards; which was all needless, as to what he had already. 3. He bewails and owns the Weakness and Imperfection of this Righteousness at present, though he was pressing after it. Ver. 12. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. Ver. 13. I count not my self to have apprehended, forgetting the things which are behind. Can this be true of imputed Righteousness? Was not that attained at first? Is not that perfect when first justified? Or would Paul forget this, though his small Degrees of Holiness past, he might so forget, as that lesser Degrees should not hinder his Pursuit after more?
Obj. But, Ver. 8. Paul speaks in the present Tense; I do count all things loss, and therefore it was not his former Jewish Privileges. A. It was his present Act towards an Object past. q. d. I even now still account them all vain; yea, and it may extend to all present secular Advantages also, as Life, Honour, and Estate, &c. q. d. I value nothing as a crucified Christ, that I may fully know and enjoy him as a living Member in Eternity it self. But I hope none can think, that his winning Christ is either a first Interest in Christ, or the Imputation of his Righteousness for Justification; for this he with Comfort knew he already had, and was not now to win by Perseverance, and growing Vigour. Far less can any think, that he accounts Holiness Dung; for what more he desired of Christ, was in order to perfect the Holiness begun already by Christ in him; and had he lost that which was already begun, he had vainly expected a further Participation of Christ for Holiness or Joy. This Righteousness, which is of God by Faith, is that eminent Holiness he waited for, and if he could be found in Christ by an abiding Union he knew he should arrive at.