Man Made Righteousness by Christs Obedience, Preface – Errata
Man made Righteous BY Christ's Obedience. Being two SERMONS AT Pinners-Hall. With Enlargements, &c. Also some REMARKS ON Mr. Mather's Postscript, &c.
By DANIEL WILLIAMS.
LONDON, Printed for I. Dunton at the Raven in the Poultry, 1694.
IN a Paper signed by G. Griffith, T. Cole, N. Mather, I. Chancy, R. Trail, Ri. Taylor; and since Printed by Mr. Chancy. Neonom. Vnmask'd, pa.3.p.96. they Charge me: He teacheth, That the Righteousness of Christ is imputed only as to effects, with a purchase of a Conditional Grant, viz. this Proposition, He that believeth shall be saved. Gospel-truth, p. 39.
My words there are these: The difference is not 4. Whether Christ by his Righteousness merited for all the Elect that they should in his time and way, be certainly partakers of its saving Effects; and did not only purchase a Conditional Grant of those Effects, viz. that Proposition, He that believeth shall be saved. 5. Nor whether besides those Effects being made ours, the very Righteousness of Christ is imputed to True Believers, as what was always undertaken and designed for their Salvation, and is now as effectual to their actual Pardon and Acceptance to Life; yea, is pleadable by them as their Security; and is as useful to their Happiness, as if themselves did and suffered what Christ did. All these I affirm, p. 39, 40.
Can any thing be more contrary: They say I affirm what I do expresly deny; and that I deny what I expresly affirm.
Mr. M. saith, my damning Error is: He is one that makes Vnion to Christ; our having this Righteousness upon us, and our being justified by it, to be given us in way of Reward, of something done by us.
My only words to which he twice refers are these, Gospel-benefits are no reward of Debt; and yet they are given in a way of Reward; the Benefits are given not for our Faith, yet upon Believing; not upon it as a meriting Consideration, yet upon it, as that the presence whereof is made necessary by the Gospel, this having required Faith, and confined the Benefit to him that Believes, Defence of Gospel-Truth, p. 25. These and other Imputations I have spoke to.
You see, I say only Benefits indefinitely; the thing done by us here, is only Believing: In way of Reward, is only a performance of a Gospel-promise, made to encourage and move Sinners to Believe.
To the READER.
It is fit that God (whose we are) should use us to his own Purposes, however unagreeable to our Inclinations the Work is, or Mysterious the Design of Providence be at present. I am sure Peace is my delightful pursuit, though unreasonable Men force me to Debates, as part of my Employ. The several Books written, and Sermons studiously preached for Antinomianism, had not engaged my Pen at first, if the Leaven had not spread to the open Censure of the usefulest Ministry as legal, the Hazard of the Souls, and Peace of our Congregations, and the common Reproach of the Dissenters. When a Testimony by Gospel-Truth stated was published, I resolved to cease any further Progress in this Affair, being assured it was sufficient to inform such as were not given up to those Delusions, against which only it was designed. But Mr. Chancy's Notorious Misrepresentation of my Principles, necessitated my Defence of Gospel-Truth, when his Billingsgate Language would have been wholly slighted. Since then he hath published three Books unworthy of my regard, being he was resolved to persist in mistaking the Matters in Debate, and must argue in a way I was sure the Iudicious would Contemn; and only such Simple ones be confirmed thereby, who had no List or Patience to read an Answer. He was followed by one Mr. Edwards, a Man even of far less Iudgment and equal Violence, two Pages of whose Book assured me, that reading furth…, was only to view an Emblem of Hell, viz. Hot Fire and thick Darkness. His Name-sake, the Learned Author of Crispianism Unmask'd, treated his Answer thereto, with the same due Pity as I have done. The War among the Angels also was written with an Air of such Falshood and Profaneness, as cautioned any from answering it, who had not the like Freedom to form an Antinomian Prayer. That Vnchristian Spirit all these Men discover, is convictive that Christ employs them not. The Fury and Arts of the Promoters and Abetters of their new Gospel (without Precepts or Threatnings) appearing a publick Damage, as they unseasonably divided the Nonconformists, rendred me Industrious to allay the Heats; but I soon found that such as opposed the Union at first, would not quit the occasion they had framed, to keep up a Faction opposite thereto. Hence, though we got them to Subscribe with us an Agreement in Doctrines, and therein we mutually engaged to be at Peace, and not expose each other; it was not three Weeks e'er new Books were published, and their Pulpits (without any Provocation on our parts) filled with the former Railings, reckoning, it seems, themselves at Liberty, because they judged we thought our selves obliged by our Subscriptions to be silent. I, for the Publick Good, connived at this, and at Mr. Cole's violent Censures and Misrepresentations of our Iudgment at Pinners-Hall near twelve Months, without the least return; till at last, in a Sermon there, he proclaimed, That Gospel-Truth stated, was just the Case of the Parable of the Pharisee. I thought it my Duty, to shew in my next Turn, in the calmest words, that Gospel-Truth stated, agreed in nothing with the Pharisee; and was quarrelled with only because it urged the Imitation of the Publican in his Penitent Humiliation as necessary to Forgiveness (which that Brother constantly exclaims against) and I urged the Necessity of an end to Contentions. I medled not again, and forbore exposing his Mysterious Nonsence, which his Books as well as Sermons ministred sufficient Advantage for; though, alas, he and his Party (I know not why) judge once Vindicating our selves from false Aspersions, is an intolerable Crime in me, when his frequent, and weak as well as passionate Outcries, are very Iustifiable, even though he still Imputes to us what we Abhor. For some time we were quiet, and it was my hope we should continue so; but Mr. Mather, the great Enemy to the Union, finding he could no longer instigate others to blow the Flames, finds an occasion to get into Pinners-Hall, upon the Sickness of one of the six Lecturers; and there, as he owneth in his Preface, studiously and of purpose renews the Debate. Mr. B. and I were oft as good as named by him, and the very Body of our Ministers arraigned as Socinians, and by him charged as holding Soul-destroying Errors, if there be, or… ever were, any in the World: Enemies to Christ's Righteousness at Heart, worse than Papists; with the like envenomed Reproaches. And with the rest of his Stuff, he under the Pain of Damnation, required the People to believe, that Christ's Incarnation was no part of his Humiliation, and every Believer was as Righteous as Christ in Equality; and not in Similitude only with other things, which the following Tract insists on. These he had oft in his own place preached, and long endeavoured to make our Ministry hateful to his Hearers; yet that I was silent under: But serious Thoughts of the Design, and Tendency of his open Attempt at Pinners-Hall, forced me in my next Turns in that Lecture, to preach the Principal Heads of the following Sermons, which I enlarged in four Discourses at my own place. Yet I had that regard to Peace, that as I forbear all Indecent Reflections, so I took no notice that any one asserted what I determine against; and had never published them, except that he had Printed his, and that with the Scandalous Name he intends us to be called hereafter by, viz. Semi-Socinian. Sober Men justly cry out against these Debates, but I appeal to their Consciences, where the Blame must be laid? Can we be Faithful to Christ, to our Ministry, to Souls that need our help, or to our own Name, as Ministers, if we lye down with these Calumnies and Misrepresentations? Though did they only plead for their own Whimsies, I should for Peace disregard them; but to make it their daily work to Prejudice the People against the Faithfulest Ministry, and run them into Confusion of Mind for a Factions sake, calls I think for an Industrious Opposition. If you ask what in us is it they so exclaim against, I answer, It's 1. That though we own Christ's Righteousness is truly imputed to us, yet we deny that God esteems us to have done and suffered what Christ did. 2. Though we own that God requires nothing of us to be a meriting legal Righteousness, or Atonement for Sin; yet we say, that God in a way of governing Grace, requires some Duty to be performed on Man's part (to which he enableth us) whereupon he applies to us the Beneficial Effects and Fruits of Christ's Righteousness, according to the respective Gospel Promises; and thereby incourageth us to those Duties; governs our Fears and Hopes: And that's the Heart of the Controversie, for they think no Duty, as a Duty is ordained, a means to any Benefit: They own no Law but the Law of Works, which admitted nothing short of perfect sinless Obedience: And because we cannot perform that, as the Meriting Condition of Life in the Adjustment of Iustice; therefore Men must do nothing, as a Condition of enjoying any Benefits in Christ's Right, by the Adjustment of Grace in a way of Authority: Since we cannot be wholly Sinless, it's all as one whether we are Sincere or no. 3. We own that it is Faith alone is the receiving Condition of Iustification; yea I add, That it's the only express'd Condition of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in order to Pardon; but all is in vain, because we say that Repentance is necessary to our actual Pardon. Mr. M. falsly pretends, that their Notions are the Truth in the Churches Possession since the Reformation. But I have proved the contrary by many Quotations in my Defence of Gospel-Truth; and the very I… dicious and Learned Apology of the Subscribers of my Book hath added a greater Number. I will of Hundreds I could produce, give two Testimonies, Mr. Perkins's Order and Causes of Salvation, &c. Cap. 36. Quest. Whether is Justifying Faith commanded in the Law? Ans. It is commanded in the Law of Faith, namely the Gospel, but not in the Law of Works, that is, in the Moral Law, Rom. 3.27. The Reasons are these. 1. That which the Law revealeth not, that it commandeth not; but the Law is so far from revealing Justifying Faith, that it never knew it. 2. Adam had fully before his Fall written in his Heart the Moral Law, yet had he not Justifying Faith which apprehended Christ. He then proceeds to answer the Objections against the Gospel being a Law. Mr. Anth. Burgess in his Doctrine of Justification, Part 1. P. 161. denies that Repentance is in a Man, as a Sign only that God hath Pardoned. But saith, We must go further, and say, it's the Means and Way which God hath appointed antecedently to Pardon, so that where this goeth before, the other followeth after. This he proves by six Arguments, and the Book was Printed at the Desire of the London Synod. Calvin oft owneth the Gospel to be a Law, and in his Commentaries on Jonas, Cap. 3.10. P. 359. saith, Forgiveness is Free, and yet as oft as God proposeth Forgiveness to Sinners, this Condition is still added therewith, viz. That they Repent. He gives the Reasons of it, and calls it a Law, by which God so commands Repentance in order to Pardon, though not as a Cause of Pardon. I have in this Book endeavoured to put the Doctrine of Iustification in a plain Light; though I wonder why our Brethren still say, I mean what is quite contrary to what I say. I suppose it's because they have so long thought and represented some of our Principles contrary to what they be, that they cannot think it possible that they should be what indeed they are; or at least they will suspect us Fools and Lyars, rather than seem to own that they could be so long mistaken. I request therefore, that if Mr. M. will reply to me, he would cite my words fully, and give the Page as I have done, for hitherto my own words would have put their Calumnies to Shame; Him, while God spares me, I will attend to. He saith, That he is not far from the place, where the Weary are at Rest, and the Wicked cease from Troubling. I wish him Repentance of the Wound he hath injustly given so many, fitter to serve their Generation than him or me; and whilst he is spared (which I desire for Service may be long) that he may be less unwearied in hindring and breaking that Blessed Union which promised so much Good; though I am sorry he boasts of his own Quietness, whilst he createth Broils, and Disquiet to so many; some known to us both, he'll meet in Glory, who were comforted by the above Consideration, whilst less able to bear up under his Assaults, than by Grace I have been long strengthened to do. Nevertheless, whilst Conscience binds me to some Sharpness against his Attempt to destroy so many Ministers, as to what's more valuable than their Lives: I do from my Heart forgive him, and would rejoyce to find him convinced of his Mistake and Misrepresentation of our Principles, that we might peaceably concur in promoting the Kingdom of Christ and our common Good, and not be the Scorn of such as Glory in our Weakness.
Reader, It's worth thy notice, that there is more Safety in our way, than in the contrary, for we trust in Christ's only Righteousness for all those Things and Vses it is appointed to, even for Satisfaction to Iustice, the Pardon of all our Sins and Defects, the Acceptance of our Persons and all Performances, the Merit of all Good, yea, and our Legal and Prolegal Righteousness, renouncing every Grace and Work of ours to any of these Purposes; and this is all they pretend. But if it prove, that Christ never intended his Righteousness to be instead of true Faith and Repentance, Sincere Love to God and Men, and Perseverance in True Holiness and Fruitfulness. And that Christ will judge us according to these, as things he required to our actual enjoying of promised Benefits in his Righteousness. They who pursue and by Grace have these, will be safer than such as neglect them; yea, Mr. M. owneth, P. 67. Such are thy bounden Duties, and God will Damn thee for neglecting them. It were easie to shew how these Men contradict each other as well as themselves, but I forbear exposing them. That the Fa…her of Light and Love would guide all of us into the way of Truth and Peace, is the unfeigned Prayer of
Thy Servant in the Kingdom, and Patience of Christ, Daniel Williams.
THE Errata's are such as may easily be Corrected. Any who consider what Men I have to deal with, will excuse my frequent Repetitions, and sometimes less accurate words, as object for subject, when I would most plainly distinguish between Justifying Righteousness, with its Causes, and the Person partaker of it.