A Treatise of Justifying Righteousness, Book 1 · Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII.
The Concord of Protestants in the Matter of Justification defended, against Dr. Tullies Oppositions, who would make Discord under pretence of proving it.
§. 1. WHile Truth is pretended by most, that by envious striving introduce Confusion, and every evil Work, it usually falleth out by God's just Judgment, that such are almost as opposite to Truth, as to Charity and Peace. What more palpable instances can there be, than such as on such accounts have lately assaulted me: Mr. Danvers, Mr. Bagshaw, &c. and now this Learned Doctor. The very stream of all his Opposition against me about Imputation, is enforced by this oft repeated Forgery, that I deny all Imputation of Christ's Righteousness: Yea, he neither by fear, modesty, or ingenuity, was restrained from writing, pag. 117. [Omnem ludibrio habet Imputationem] [He derideth all Imputation]. Judg by this what credit contentious Men deserve.
§. 2. The conciliatory Propositions which I laid down in an Epistle to Mr. W. Allens Book, I will here transcribe, that the Reader may see what it is that these Militant Doctors war against.
Lest any who know not how to stop in mediocrity, should be tempted by Socinians or Papists, to think that we countenance any of their Errors, or that our Differences in the point of Justification by Faith or Works, are greater than indeed they are; and lest any weak Opinionative Persons, should clamour unpeaceably against their Brethren, and think to raise a name to themselves for their differing Notions; I shall here give the Reader such evidences of our real Concord, as shall silence that Calumny.
Though some few Lutherans did, upon peevish suspiciousness against George Major long ago, assert, That [Good Works are not necessary to Salvation]: And though some few good Men, whose Zeal without Judgment doth better serve their own turn than the Churches, are jealous, lest all the good that is ascribed to Man, be a dishonour to God; and therefore speak as if God were honoured most by saying the worst words of our selves; and many have uncomely and irregular Notions about these Matters: And though some that are addicted to sidings, do take it to be their Godly Zeal to censure and reproach the more understanding sort, when they most grosly err themselves: And though too many of the People are carried about through injudiciousness and temptations to false Doctrines and evil Lives; yet is the Argument of Protestants thus manifested.
1. They all affirm that Christ's Sacrifice, with his Holiness and perfect Obedience, are the meritorious Cause of the forgiving Covenants, and of our Pardon and Justification thereby, and of our Right to Life Eternal, which it giveth us. And that this Price was not paid or given in it self immediately to us, but to God for us; and so, that our foresaid Benefits are its Effects.
2. They agree that Christ's Person and ours were not really the same; and therefore that the same Righteousness, which is an Accident of one, cannot possibly be an Accident of the other.
3. They all detest the Conceit, that God should aver, and repute a Man to have done that which he never did.
4. They all agree that Christ's Sacrifice and Merits are really so effectual to procure our Pardon, Justification, Adoption, and right to the sealing Gift of the Holy Ghost, and to Glory, upon our Faith and Repentance; that God giveth us all these benefits of the New-Covenant as certainly for the sake of Christ and his Righteousness, as if we had satisfied him, and merited them our selves: and that thus far Christ's Righteousness is ours in its Effects, and imputed to us, in that we are thus used for it, and shall be judged accordingly.
5. They all agree, that we are justified by none, but a practical or working Faith.
6. And that this Faith is the Condition of the Promise, or Gift of Justification and Adoption.
7. And that Repentance is a Condition also, though (as it is not the same with Faith, as Repentance of Unbelief is) on another aptitudinal account; even as a willingness to be cured, and a willingness to take one for my Physician, and to trust him in the use of his Remedies, are on several accounts the Conditions on which that Physician will und…rtake the Cure, or as willingness to return to subjection and thankful acceptance of a purchased Pardon, and of the Purchasers Love and future Authority, are the Conditions of a Rebel's Pardon.
8. And they all agree, that in the first instant of a Man's Conversion or Believing, he is entred into a state of Justification, before he hath done any outward Works: and that so it is true, that good Works follow the Justified, and go not before his initial Justification: as also in the sense that Austin spake it, who took Justification, for that which we call Sanctification or Conversion.
9. And they all agree, that Justifying Faith is such a receiving affiance, as is both in the Intellect and the Will; and therefore as in the Will, participateth of some kind of Love to the justifying Object, as well as to Justification.
10. And that no Man can chuse or use Christ as a Means (so called, in respect to his own intention) to bring him to God the Father, who hath not so much love to God, as to take him for his end in the use of that means.
11. And they agree, that we shall be all judged according to our Works, by the Rule of the Covenant of Grace, though not for our Works, by way of commutative, or legal proper merit. And Judging is the Genus, whose Species is Justifying and Condemning: and to be judged according to our Works, is nothing but to be justified or condemned according to them.
12. They all agree, that no Man can possibly merit of God in point of Commutative Justice, nor yet in point of Distributive or Governing Justice, according to the Law of Nature or Innocency, as Adam might have done, nor by the Works of the Mosaical Law.
13. They all agree, that no Works of Mans are to be trusted in, or pleaded, but all excluded, and the Conceit of them abhorred.
1. As they are seigned to be against, or instead of the free Mercy of God.
2. As they are against, or seigned, instead of the Sacrifice, Obedience, Merit, or Intercession of Christ.
3. Or as supposed to be done of our selves, without the Grace of the Holy Ghost.
4. Or as supposed falsly to be perfect.
5. Or as supposed to have any of the afore-disclaimed Merit.
6. Or as materially consisting in Mosaical Observances.
7. Much more in any superstitious Inventions.
8. Or in any Evil mistaken to be Good.
9. Or as any way inconsistent with the Tenor of the freely pardoning Covenant. In all these senses Justification by Works is disclaimed by all Protestants at least.
14. Yet all agree, that we are created to good Works in Christ Jesus, which God hath ordained, that we should walk therein; and that he, that nameth the Name of Christ, must depart from iniquity, or else he hath not the Seal of God; and that he that is born of God sinneth not; that is, predominantly. And that all Christ's Members are Holy, Purified, zealous of Good Works, cleansing themselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit, that they might perfect Holiness in God's fear, doing good to all Men, as loving their Neighbours as themselves; and that if any Man have not the Sanctifying Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, nor without Holiness can see God.
15. They all judg reverently and charitably of the Ancients, that used the word [Merit of Good Works], because they meant but a moral aptitude for the promised Reward, according to the Law of Grace through Christ.
16. They confess the thing thus described themselves, however they like not the name of Merit, lest it should countenance proud and carnal Conceits.
17. They judg no Man to be Heretical for the bare use of that word, who agreeth with them in the sense.
18. In this sense they agree, that our Gospel-Obedience is such a necessary aptitude to our Glorification, as that Glory (though a free Gift) is yet truly a reward of this Obedience.
19. And they agree, that our final Justification by Sentence at the Day of Judgment doth pass upon the same Causes, Reasons, and Conditions, as our Glorification doth.
20. They all agree, that all faithful Ministers must bend the labour of their Ministry in publick and private, for promoting of Holiness and good Works, and that they must difference by Discipline between the Obedient and the Disobedient. And O! that the Papists would as zealously promote Holiness and good Works in the World, as the true serious Protestants do, whom they factiously and peevishly accuse as Enemies to them; and that the Opinion, Disputing, and name of good Works, did not cheat many wicked Persons into self-flattery and Perdition, while they are void of that which they dispute for. Then would not the Mahometans and Heathens be deterred from Christianity by the wickedness of these nominal Christians, that are near them: nor would the serious practice of that Christianity, which themselves in general profess, be hated, scorned, and persecuted by so many, both Protestants and Papists; nor would so many contend that they are of the True Religion, while they are really of no Religion at all any further, than the Hypocrites Picture and Carcass may be called Religion: Were Men but resolved to be serious Learners, serious Lovers, serious Practisers according to their knowledg, and did not live like mockers of God, and such as look toward the Life to come in jest, or unbelief, God would vouchsafe them better acquaintance with the True Religion than most Men have.
§. 3. One would think now that this should meet with no sharp Opposition, from any Learned lover of Peace; and that it should answer for it self, and need no defence. But this Learned Man for all that, among the rest of his Military Exploits, must here find some Matter for a Triumph.
And 1. Pag. 18. he assaulteth the third Propos. [They all detest the Conceit, that God should aver, and repute a Man to have done that which he never did].
And is not this true? Do any sober Men deny it, and charge God with Error or Untruth? Will not this Man of Truth and Peace, give us leave to be thus far agreed, when we are so indeed?
But saith he, [Yea, the Orthodox abhor the contrary, if [to have done it] be taken in sensu forensi, (for in a Physical and Personal, they abhor it not, but deride it): Doth the Aphorist abhor these and suchlike sayings, [We are dead, buried, risen from the Dead with Christ?]
Answ. 1. Take notice Reader, that it is but the Words, and not the Matter that he here assaulteth; so that all here seemeth but lis de nomine. He before, pag. 84. extolleth Chrysostom for thus expounding, [He made him sin for us]; that is, to be condemned as an Offender, and to die as a Blasphemer. And this sense of Imputation we all admit; (But Chrysostom in that place oft telleth us, That by [Sin] he meaneth both one counted a wicked Man by his Persecutors, [not by God] and one that suffered that cursed Death, which was due to wicked cursed Men: And which of us deny not Justification by Works as Chrysostom doth? I subscribe to his words, [It is God's Righteousness; seeing it is not of Works (for in them it were necessary that there be found no blot) but of Grace, which blotteth out and extinguisheth all sin: And this begetteth us a double benefit, for it suffereth us not to be lift up in mind, because it is all the Gift of God, and it sheweth the greatness of the benefit]. This is as apt an Expression of my Judgment of Works and Grace as I could chuse. But it's given to some Men to extol that in one Man, which they fervently revile in others. How frequently is Chrysostom by many accused as favouring Free-Will, and Man's Merits, and smelling of Pelagianism? And he that is acquainted with Chrysostom, must know, That he includeth all these things in Justification. 1. Remission of the Sin, as to the Punishment. 2. Remission of it by Mortification, (for so he calleth it, in Rom. 3. p. (mihi) 63.) 3. Right to Life freely given for Christ's sake. 4. And Inherent Righteousness through Faith: And he oft saith, That this is called the Righteousness of God, because as God, who is living, quickeneth the dead, and as he that is strong giveth strength to the weak; so be that is Righteous, doth suddenly make them Righteous that were lapsed into sin], as he there also speaketh. And he oft tells us, It is Faith it self, and not only Christ believed in, that is imputed for Righteousness, or Justifieth: And in Rom. 4. p. 80. he calleth the Reward, [the Retribution of Faith]. And pag. 89. he thus conjoyneth [Faith and Christ's Death] to the Question, How Men obnoxious to so much sin are justified, [he sheweth that he blotted out all sin, that he might confirm what he said, both from the Faith of Abraham by which he was justified, and from our Saviours Death, by which we are delivered from sin]. But this is on the by.
2. But saith Dr. T. The Orthodox abhor the contrary in sensu forensi.
Answ. How easie is it to challenge the Titles of Orthodox, Wise, or good Men to ones self? And who is not Orthodox, himself being Judg? But it seems with him, no Man must pass for Orthodox that is not in so gross an error of his Mind, (if these words, and not many better that are contrary must be the discovery of it) viz. That will not say, that in sensu forensi, God esteemeth Men to have done that which they never did. The best you can make of this is, that you cover the same sense, which I plainlier express, with this illfavoured Phrase of Man's inventing: But if indeed you mean any more than I by your sensus forensis, viz. that such a suffering and meriting for us may, in the lax improper way of some Lawyers speaking, be called, [Our own Doing, Meriting, Suffering, &c.] I have proved, that the Doctrine denied by me, subverteth the Gospel of Christ.
Reader, I remember what Grotius (then Orthodox, thirty years before his Death) in that excellent Letter of Church-Orders, Predestination, Perseverance, and Magistrates, animadverting on Molinaeus, saith, How great an injury those Divines, who turn the Christian Doctrine into unintelligible Notions and Controversies, do to Christian Magistrates; because it is the duty of Magistrates to discern and preserve necessary sound Doctrine, which these Men would make them unable to discern. The same I must say of their injury to all Christians, because all should hold fast that which is proved True and Good, which this sort of Men would disable them to discern. We justly blame the Papists for locking up the Scripture, and performing their Worship in an unknown Tongue. And alas, what abundance of well-meaning Divines do the same thing by undigested Terms and Notions, and unintelligible Distinctions, not adapted to the Matter, but customarily used from some Persons reverenced by them that led the way? It is so in their Tractates, both of Theology and other Sciences; and the great and useful Rule, Verba Rebus aptanda sunt, is laid aside: or rather, Men that understand not Matter, are like enough to be little skilful in the expressing of it: And as Mr. Pemble saith, A cloudy unintelligible stile, usually signifieth a cloudy unintelligent Head, (to that sense): And as Mr. J. Humfrey tells Dr. Fullwood, (in his unanswerable late Plea for the Conformists against the charge of Schism) pag. 29. [So overly are men ordinarily wont to speak at the first sight, against that which others have long thought upon]; that some Men think, that the very jingle of a distinction not understood is warrant enough for their reproaching that Doctrine as dangerous and unsound, which hath cost another perhaps twenty times as many hard studies, as the Reproachers ever bestowed on that Subject.
To deliver thee from those Learned Obscurities, read but the Scripture impartially, without their Spectacles and ill-devised Notions, and all the Doctrine of Justification that is necessary, will be plain to thee: And I will venture again to fly so far from flattering those, called Learned Men, who expect it, as to profess that I am perswaded the common sort of honest unlearned Christians, (even Plowmen and Women) do better understand the Doctrine of Justification, than many great Disputers will suffer themselves or others to understand it, by reason of their forestalling ill-made Notions: these unlearned Persons commonly conceive, 1. That Christ in his own Person, as a Mediator, did by his perfect Righteousness and Sufferings, merit for us the free pardon of all our sins, and the Gift of his Spirit and Life Eternal, and hath promised Pardon to all that are Penitent Believers, and Heaven to all that so continue, and sincerely obey him to the end; and that all our after-failings, as well as our former sins, are freely pardoned by the Sacrifice, Merits, and Intercession of Christ, who also giveth us his Grace for the performance of his imposed Conditions, and will judg us, as we have or have not performed them]. Believe but this plain Doctrine, and you have a righter understanding of Justification, than many would let you quietly enjoy, who tell you, [That Faith is not imputed for Righteousness; that it justifieth you only as an Instrumental Cause, and only as it is the reception of Christ's Righteousness, and that no other Act of Faith is justifying, and that God esteemeth us to have been perfectly Holy and Righteous, and fulfilled all the Law, and died for our own sins, in or by Christ, and that he was politically the very Person of every Believing Sinner]; with more such like.
And as to this distinction which this Doctor will make a Test of the Orthodox, (that is, Men of of his Size and Judgment) you need but this plain explication of it.
1. In Law-sense, a Man is truly and fitly said himself to have done that, which the Law or his Contract alloweth him to do either by himself or another; (as to do an Office, or pay a Debt by a Substitute or Vicar). For so I do it by my Instrument, and the Law is fulfilled and not broken by me, because I was at liberty which way to do it. In this sense I deny that we ever fulfilled all the Law by Christ; and that so to hold subverts all Religion as a pernicious Heresie.
2. But in a tropical improper sense, he may be said to [be esteemed of God to have done what Christ did; who shall have the benefits of Pardon, Grace, and Glory thereby merited, in the manner and measure given by the free Mediator, as certainly as if he had done it himself]. In this improper sense we agree to the Matter, but are sorry that improper words should be used as a snare against sound Doctrine, and the Churches Love and Concord. And yet must we not be allowed Peace?
§. 4. But my free Speech here maketh me remember how sharply the Doctor expounded and applyed one word in the retracted Aphorisms: I said (not of the Men, but of the wrong Opinion opposed by me) [It fondly supposeth a Medium betwixt one that is just, and one that is no sinner] one that hath his sin or guilt taken away, and one that hath his unrighteousness taken away: It's true in bruits and insensibles that are not subjects capable of Justice, there is, &c. There is a Negative Injustice which denominateth the Subject non-justum, but not injustum, where Righteousness is not due. But where there is the debitum habendi, its privative. The Doctor learnedly translateth first the word [fondly] by [stolide]; and next he (fondly, though not stolidè) would perswade the Reader, that it is said of the Men, though himself translate it [Doctrina].
And next he bloweth his Trumpet to the War, with this exclamation, [Stolide! O vocis mollitiem, & modestiam! O stolidos Ecclesiae Reformatae Clarissimos Heroas! Aut ignoravit certè, aut scire se dissimulat, (quod affine est calumniae) quid isti statuant, quos loquitur, stolidi Theologi].
Answ. 1. How blind are some in their own Cause? Why did not Conscience at the naming of Calumnie say, [I am now committing it?] It were better write in English, if Latin translations must needs be so false! we use the word [fond] in our Country, in another sense than [foolish]; with us it signifieth any byassed Inclination, which beyond reason propendeth to one side: and so we use to say, That Women are fond of their Children, or of any thing over-loved: But perhaps he can use his Logick, to gather by consequences the Title of the Person, from the Title of his Opinion, and to gather [foolishly] by consequence out of [fondly]. To all which I can but answer, That if he had made himself the Translator of my Words, and the Judg of my Opinions; if this be his best, he should not be chosen as such by me. But it may be he turned to Riders Dictionary, & found there [fondly, vide foolishly].
2. The Stolidi Theologi then is his own phrase! And in my Opinion, another Mans Pen might better have called the Men of his own Opinion [Ecclesiae Reformatae clarissimos Heroas] compared with others! I take Gataker, Bradshaw, Wotton, Camero, and his followers; Ʋrsine, Olevian, Piscator, Paraeus, Wendeline, and multitudes such, to be as famous Heroes as himself: But this also on the by.
§. 5. But I must tell him whether I abhor the Scripture Phrase, [We are dead, buried, and risen with Christ].
I answer, No; nor will I abhor to say, That in sensu forensi, I am one political Person with Christ, and am perfectly holy and obedient by and in him, and died and redeemed my self by him, when he shall prove them to be Scripture Phrases: But I desire the Reader not to be so fond, (pardon the word) as by this bare question to be enticed to believe, that it is any of the meaning of those Texts that use that Phrase which he mentioneth, that [Legally, or in sensu forensi, every Believer is esteemed by God to have himself personally died a violent death on the Cross, and to have been buried, and to have risen again, and ascended into Heaven, nor yet to be now there in Glory, because Christ did and doth all this in our very Legal Person. Let him but 1. consider the Text, 2. and Expositors, 3. and the Analogy of Faith, and he will find another sense; viz. That we so live by Faith on a dying, buried, risen and glorified Saviour, as that as such he dwelleth objectively in our Hearts, and we partake so of the Fruits of his Death, Burial, and Resurrection, and Glory, as that we follow him in a Holy Communion, being dead and buried to the World and Sin, and risen to newness of Life, believing that by his Power we shall personally, after our death and burial, rise also unto Glory. I will confess that we are perfectly holy and obedient by and in Christ, as far as we are now dead, buried, and risen in him.
§. 6. And here I will so far look back, as to remember, That he (as some others) confidently telleth us, That [the Law bound us both to perfect Obedience, and to punishment for our sin, and therefore pardon by our own suffering in Christ, may stand with the reputation, that we were perfectly Obedient and Righteous in Christ.]
Answ. And to what purpose is it to dispute long, where so notorious a contradiction is not only not discerned, but obtruded as tantum non necessary to our Orthodoxness, if not to our Salvation? I ask him,
1. Was not Christ as our Mediator perfectly holy habitually, and actually, without Original or Actual Sin?
2. If all this be reputed to be in se, our own as subjected in and done by our selves political, or in sensu forensi; Are we not then reputed in foro, to have no original or actual sin, but to have innocently fulfilled all the Law, from the first hour of our lives to the last? Are we reputed innocent in Christ, as to one part only of our lives, (if so, which is it?) or as to all?
3. If as to all, is it not a contradiction that in Law-sense, we are reputed perfectly Holy and Innocent, and yet sinners.
4. And can he have need of Sacrifice or Pardon, that is reputed never to have sinned (legally)?
5. If he will say that in Law-sense, we have or are two Persons, let him expound the word Persons only, as of Qualities and Relations, (nothing to our Case in hand); or else say also, That as we are holy and perfect in one of our own Persons, and sinful, unrighteous, or ungodly in another, so a Man may be in Heaven in one of his own Persons, and on Earth, yea and in Hell in the other: And if he mean that the same Man is justified in his Person in Christ, and condemned in his other Person; consider which of these is the Physical Person, for I think its that which is like to suffer.
§. 7. pag. 224. He hath another touch at my Epistle, but gently forbeareth contradiction as to Num. 8. And he saith so little to the 11th, as needeth no answer.
§. 8. pag. 127. He assaulteth the first Num. of N. 13. That we all agree against any conceit of Works that are against or instead of the free Mercy of God].
And what hath he against this? Why that which taketh up many pages of his Book, and seemeth his chief strength in most of his Contest, viz. [The Papists say the same] and [so saith Bellarmine]. It's strange that the same kind of Men that deride Fanatick Sectaries, for crying out in Church-Controversies, [O Antichristian Popery, Bellarmine, &c.] should be of the same Spirit, and take the same course in greater Matters, and not perceive it, nor acknowledg their agreement with them! But as Mr. J. Humfrey saith in the foresaid Book of the word [Schism, Schism] oft canted out against them, that will not sacrilegiously surrender their Consciences, or desert their Ministry, [The great Bear hath been so oft led through the streets, that now the Boys lay by all fear, and laugh or make sport at him] so say I of this Sectarian Bugbear, [Popery, Antichristian, Bellarmine] either the Papists really say as we do, or they do not. If not, is this Doctor more to be blamed for making them better than they are, or for making us worse? which ever it be, Truth should defend Truth. If they do, I heartily rejoyce, and it shall be none of my labour any more (whatever I did in my Confession of Faith) to prove that they do not. Let who will manage such ungrateful Work. For my part, I take it for a better Character of any Opinion, that Papists and Protestants agree in it, than that the Protestants hold it alone. And so much for [Papists and Bellarmine] though I think I know better what they teach, than his Book will truly tell me.
§. 9. But he addeth, [Humane Justifying Works are in reality adverse to the free Mercy of God, therefore to be accounted of no value to Righteousness].
Answ. 1. But whose phrase is Justifying Works?
2. Doth not the Holy Ghost say, That a Man is justified by Works, and not by Faith only? Jam. 2.
3. Doth not Christ say, By thy words thou shalt be justified?
4. Do not I over and over tell the World, That I hold Justification by Works in no sense, but as signifying the same as [According to Works] which you own? And so both Name and Thing are confessed by you to be Scriptural.
5. I have before desired the Reader to turn to the words, [Righteous, Righteousness, Justification, &c.] in his Concordance. And if there he find Righteousness mentioned as consisting in some Acts of Man, many hundred times, let him next say if he dare, that they are to be had in no price to Righteousness: Or let him read the Texts cited by me in my Confession of Faith.
6. Because, Faith, Repentance, Love, Obedience, are that whose sincerity is to be judged in order to our Life or Death ere long; I will not say that they are to be vilified as to such a Righteousness or Justification, as consisteth in our vindication from the charge of Impenitency, Infidelity, Unholiness, Hypocrisie, &c. The reading of Mat. 25. resolved me for this Opinion.
§. 10. Next he noteth our detesting such Works as are against or instead of Christ's Sacrifice, Righteousness, Merits, &c. To this we have the old Cant, The Papists say the like.
Reader, I proved that the generality of Protestants are agreed in all those twenty Particulars, even in all the material Doctrines about Man's Works and Justification, while this warlike Doctor would set us all together by the ears still, he is over-ruled to assert that the Papists also are agreed with us. The more the better, I am glad if it be so, and will here end with so welcome a Conclusion, that maketh us all herein to be Friends: only adding, That when he saith that [such are all Works whatever, (even Faith it self) which are called into the very least part of Justification]; even as a Condition or subordinate personal Evangelical Righteousness, such as Christ and James, and a hundred Texts of Scripture assert; I answer, I cannot believe him, till I cease believing the Scriptures to be true; which I hope will never be: And am sorry that so worthy a Man can believe so gross an Opinion, upon no better reasons than he giveth: And yet imagine, that had I the opportunity of free conference with him, I could force him to manifest, That he himself differeth from us but in meer words or second Notions, while he hotly proclaimeth a greater discord.
AN ANSVVER TO Dr. TULLIES Angry Letter.
By Rich. Baxter.
LONDON, Printed for Nevil Simmons and Jonath. Robinson, at the Princes-Arms and Golden-Lion, in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1675.