Of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers in what sence [sic] sound Protestants hold it and of the false divised sence by which libertines subvert the Gospel : with an answer to some common objections, especially of Dr. Thomas Tully whose Justif. Paulina occasioneth the publication of this / by Richard Baxter a compassionate lamenter of the Church's wounds caused by hasty judging ... and by the theological wars which are hereby raised and managed ... Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1675 Approx. 575 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 160 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A26977 Wing B1332 ESTC R28361 10547747 ocm 10547747 45239 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A26977) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 45239) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1395:28) Of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers in what sence [sic] sound Protestants hold it and of the false divised sence by which libertines subvert the Gospel : with an answer to some common objections, especially of Dr. Thomas Tully whose Justif. Paulina occasioneth the publication of this / by Richard Baxter a compassionate lamenter of the Church's wounds caused by hasty judging ... and by the theological wars which are hereby raised and managed ... Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. [16], 198 [i.e. 193], 94, [2], 73-79 p. Printed for Nevil Simmons and Jonathan Robinson, London : 1675. In 3 parts. Each part has separate t.p. and paging : An answer to Dr. Tullies angry letter / by Rich. Baxter. London : Printed for Nevil Simmons and Jonath. Robinson, 1675 (p. 1-94)--A postscript about Mr. Danver's last book (p. 73-79). Reproduction of original in the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus). Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Paulina occasioneth the publication of this . By RICHARD BAXTER ; A compassionate Lamenter of the Churches wounds , caused by hasty judging and undigested conc●ptions , and by the Theological Wars which are hereby raised and managed ; by perswading the World that meer verbal or notional Differences are material , and such as our Faith , Love , Concord and Communion must be measured by , for want of an exact discussion of the ambiguity of words . London , Printed for Nevil Simons and Jonathan Robinson ▪ at the Kings-Arms and Golden-Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard , 1675. The Preface . Reader , IF thou blame me for writing again , on a Subject which I have written on so oft , and so lately ( specially in my Life of Faith , and Disputations of Justification ) I shall not blame thee for so doing ; but I shall excuse my self by telling thee my reasons . 1. The occasion is many loud accusations of my self , of which I have before given an account . I publish it , because I see the Contention still so hot in the Church of Christ , and mens Charity destroyed against each other ; one side calling the other Socinians , and the other Libertines , ( who are neither of them Christians ) and if I mistake not , for the most part in the dark about one Phrase , and that of mens devising , rather than about the sence : But if indeed it be the sence that they differ about , it 's time to do our best to rectifie such Fundamental Errours . I find that all of us agree ▪ in all the Phrases of Scripture . And a Mans Sence is no way known but by his expressions : The question is then , Which is the necessary Phrase which we must express our sence by ? We all say that to Believers , Christ is made our Righteousness ; We are made the Righteousness of God in him ; He hath ransomed , redeemed us , as a Sacrifice for our sins , a price ; He hath merited and obtained eternal Redemption for us , that Sin is remitted , covered , not imputed ; that Righteousness is Reckoned or Imputed to us ; that Faith is Imputed to us for Righteousness , and any thing else that is in the Scripture . But all this will not serve to make us Christians ! What is wanting ? Why , we must say that Christs Righteousness is Imputed to us as ours , and that Christ satisfied for our sins ! Well ; The thing signified seemeth to us true and good and needful , ( though the Scripture hath as good words for it as any of us can invent . ) We consent therefore to use these Phrases , so be it you put no false and wicked sence on them by other words of your own : Though we will not allow them to be necessary , because not in Scripture ; ( And we are more against adding new Fundamental Articles of Faith to the Scripture , than against adding new Orders , Forms or Ceremonies ) . But yet it will not serve : what is yet wanting ? why , we must hold these words in a right sense ! What ? yet are not your own devised words a sufficient expression of the matter ! When we have opened those words by other words , how will you know that we use those other words in a right sence , and so in infinitum . Our sence is , that Righteousness is Imputed to us , that is , we are accounted Righteous , because for the Merits of Christs total fulfilling the Conditions of his Mediatorial Covenant with the Father , by his Habitual Holiness , his Actual Perfect Obedience , and his Sacrifice , or satisfactory Suffering for our sins in our stead , freely without any merit or Conditional act of mans , God hath made an Act of Oblivion and Deed of Gift , pardoning all sin , justifying and adopting and giving Right to the Spirit and Life eternally to every one that believingly accepteth Christ and the Gifts with and by and from him . And when we accept them ▪ they are all ours by virtue of this purchased Covenant-Gift . This is our short and plain explication . But yet this will not serve : Christianity is yet another thing . What is wanting ? Why , we must say , that Christ was habitually and actually perfectly Holy and Obedient , Imputatively in our particular Persons , and that each one of us did perfectly fulfil that Law which requireth perfect Habits and Acts in and by Christ imputatively , and yet did also in and by him suffer our selves Imputatively for not fulfilling it , and Imputatively did our selves both satisfy God's Justice and merit Heaven ; and that we have our selves Imputatively a Righteousness of perfect Holiness and Obedience as sinless , and must be justified by the Law of Innocency , or Works , as having our selves imputatively fulfilled it in Christ ; And that this is our sole Righteousness ; and that Faith it self is not imputed to us for Righteousness ; no not a meer particular subordinate Righteousness , answering the Conditional part of the new Justifying Covenant , as necessary to our participation of Christ , and his freely given Righteousness . And must all this go into our Christianity ! But where is it written ? who devised it ? was it in the ancient Creeds and Baptism ? Or known in the Church for five thousand years from the Creation ? I profess I take the Pope to be no more to be blamed for making a new Church-Government ▪ than for making us so many new Articles of Faith : And I will not justifie those that Symbolize with him , or imitate him in either . But yet many of the men that do this , are good men in other respects : and I love their zeal that doth all this evil , as it is for God and the honour of Jesus Christ , though I love it not as blind , nor their Errour or their Evil. But how hard is it to know what Spirit we are of ! But it is the doleful mischief which their blind zeal doth , that maketh me speak ; That three or four of them have made it their practice to backbite my self , and tell People , He holdeth dangerous opinions ; He is erroneous in the point of Justification . And his Books are unsound and have dangerous Doctrines ; He leaveth the old way of Justification , he favoureth Socinianism , and such-like : this is a small matter comparatively . Back-biting and false reports , are the ordinary fruits of bitter contentious Zeal , and the Spirit of a Sect as such doth usually so work ( yea to confusion and every evil work , ) when it hath banished the Zeal of Love and of Good Works . Jam. 3.14 , 15 , 16. Tit. 2.14 . And I never counted it any great loss to their followers , that they disswade them from the reading of my writings ( as the Papists do their Proselytes ) as long as God hath blest our Land with so many better . But there are other effects that command me once again to speak to them . 1. One is , that I have good proof of the lamentable Scandal of some very hopeful Persons of quality , who by hearing such language from these men , have bin ready to turn away from Religion , and say , If they thus set against and condemn one another , away with them all . 2. Because divers great Volumes and other sad Evidence tells me that by their invented sence of Imputation , they have tempted many Learned men to deny Imputation of Christ's Righteousness absolutely , and bitterly revile it as a most Libertine Irreligious Doctrine . 3. But above all , that they do so exceedingly confirm the Papists . I must profess that besides carnal Interest and the snare of ill Education , I do not think that there is any thing in the World that maketh or hardneth and confirmeth Papists more , and hindreth their reception of the Truth , than these same well-meaning people that are most zealous against them , by two means : 1. One by Divisions and unruliness in Church-respects , by which they perswade men , especially Rulers , that without such a Center as the Papacy , there will be no Union , and without such Violence as theirs , there will be no Rule and Order . Thus one extreme doth breed and feed another . 2. The other is by this unsound sence of the Doctrine of Imputation of Christs Righteousness , ( with an unsound Description of Faith ) saying that every man is to believe it as Gods word ( or fide divinâ ) that his own sins are pardoned ; which when the Papists read ( that , these men make it one of the chief Points of our difference from Rome , ) doth occasion them to triumph and reproach us , and confidently dissent from us in all the rest . I find in my self that my full certainty that they err in Transubstantiation and some other points , doth greatly resolve me to neglect them at least , or suspect them in the rest which seem more dubious . And when the Papists find men most grosly erring in the very point where they lay the main stress of the difference , who can expect otherwise , but that this should make them despise and cast away our Books , and take us as men self-condemned and already vanquished , and dispute with us with the prejudice as we do with an Arrian or Socinian ? They themselves that cast away our Books because they dissent from us , may feel in themselves what the Papists are like to do on this temptation . 4. And it is not to be disregarded , that many private persons not studied in these points , are led away by the Authority of these men ( for more than Papists believe as the Church believeth ) to speak evil of the Truth , and sinfully to Backbite and Slander those Teachers , whom they hear others slander : and to speak evil of the things which they know not . And to see Gods own Servants seduced into Disaffection and abuse and false Speeches against those Ministers that do most clearly tell them the truth , is a thing not silently to be cherished by any that are valuers of Love and Concord among Christians , and of the Truth and their Brethrens Souls , and that are displeased with that which the Devil is most pleased and God displeased with . These are my Reasons , submitted to every Readers Censure ; which may be as various as their Capacities , Interests or Prejudices . My Arguments in the third Chapter I have but briefly and hastily mentioned , as dealing with the lovers of naked Truth , who will not refuse it when they see it in its self-evidence . But they that desire larger proof , may find enough in Mr. Gataker and Mr. Wotton de Reconcil . and in John Goodwin of Justification , ( If they can read him without prejudice ) . From whom yet I differ in the Meritorious Cause of our Justification , and take in the habitual and actual Holiness of Christ as well as his Sufferings , and equal in Merits ; and think that pardon it self is merited by his Obedience as well as by his Satisfaction : To say nothing of some of his too harsh expressions , about the Imputation of Faith , and non-imputation of Christs Obedience , which yet in some explications he mollifyeth , and sheweth that his sence is the same with theirs that place all our Righteousness in remission of Sin ; such as ( besides those after-mentioned ) are Musculus , Chamier , and abundance more : And when one saith that Faith is taken properly , and another that it is taken Relatively in Imputation , they seem to mean the same thing : For Faith properly taken is essentiated by its Object ; And what Christ's Office is , and what Faith's Office is , I find almost all Protestants are agreed in sence , while they differ in the manner of expression , except there be a real difference in this point of simple Personating us in his perfect Holiness , and making the Person of a Mediator to contain essentially in sensu Civili the very Person of every elect sinner , and every such one to have verily been and done , in sensu civili , what Christ was and did . I much marvel to find that with most the Imputation of Satisfaction is said to be for Remission of the penalty , and Imputation of perfect Holiness for the obtaining of the Reward Eternal Life ; and yet that the far greater part of them that go that way say , that Imputation of all Christs Righteousness goeth first as the Cause , and Remission of Sin followeth as the Effect : So even Mr. Roborough pag. 55. and others . Which seemeth to me to have this Sence , as if God said to a Believer , [ I do repute thee to have perfectly fulfilled the Law in Christ , and so to be no sinner , and therefore forgive thee all thy sin . ] In our sence it is true and runs but thus [ I do repute Christ to have been perfectly just habitually and actually in the Person of a Mediator in the Nature of Man , and to have suffered as if he had been a sinner , in the Person of a Sponsor , by his own Consent , and that in the very place , and stead of sinners ; and by this to have satisfyed my Justice , and by both to have merited free Justification and Life , to be given by the new Covenant to all Believers : And thou being a Believer , I do repute thee justified and adopted by this satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of Christ , and by this free Covenant-Gift , as verily and surely as if thou hadst done it and suffered thy self . For my own part I find by experience , that almost all Christians that I talk with of it , have just this very notion of our Justification which I have expressed , till some particular Disputer by way of Controversie hath thrust the other notion into their mind . And for peace-sake I will say again , what I have elsewhere said , that I cannot think but that almost all Protestants agree in the substance of this point of Justification ( though some having not Acuteness enough to form their Notions of it rightly , nor Humility enough to suspect their Understandings , wrangle about Words , supposing it to be about the Matter ) ; Because I find that all are agreed , 1. That no Elect Person is Justified or Righteous by Imputation while he is an Infidel or Ungodly ( except three or four that speak confusedly , and support the Antinomians ) 2. That God doth not repute us to have done what Christ did in our individual natural Person 's Physically : The Controversie is about a Civil personating . 3. That God judgeth not falsly . 4. That Christ was not our Delegate and Instrument sent by us to do this in our stead , as a man payeth his debt by a Servant whom he sendeth with the money . 5. That therefore Christs Righteousness is not Imputed to us , as if we had done it by him as our Instrument . 6. That all the fruits of Christs Merits and Satisfaction are not ours upon our first believing ( much less before ) . But we receive them by degrees : we have new pardon daily of new ▪ sins : We bear castigatory punishments , even Death and Denials , or loss of the greater assistance of the Spirit : Our Grace is all imperfect , &c. 7. That we are under a Law ( and not left ungoverned and lawless ) and that Christ is our King and Judge : And this Law is the Law or Covenant of Grace , containing , besides the Precepts of perfect Obedience to the Law natural and superadded , a Gift of Christ with Pardon and Life ; but only on Condition that we thankfully and believingly accept the Gift ; And threatning non-liberation , and a far sorer punishment , to all that unbelievingly and unthankfully reject it . 8. That therefore this Testament or Covenant-Gift is God's Instrument , by which he giveth us our Right to Christ and Pardon and Life : And no man hath such Right but by this Testament-Gift . 9. That this , ( called a Testament , Covenant , Promise , and Law in several respects ) doth , besides the Conditions of our first Right , impose on us Continuance in the Faith , with sincere Holiness , as the necessary Condition of our continued Justification , and our actual Glorification . And that Heaven is the Reward of this keeping of the new Covenant , as to the order of Gods Collation , though as to the value of the Benefit , it is a Free Gift , purchased , merited and given by Christ . 10. That we shall all be judged by this Law of Christ . 11. That we shall all be judged according to our deeds ; and those that have done good ( not according to the Law of Innocency or Works , but according to the Law of Grace ) shall go into everlasting life , and those that have done evil ( not by meer sin as sin against the Law of Innocency ) but by not keeping the Conditions of the Law of Grace , shall go into everlasting punishment . The sober reading of these following texts may end all our Controversie with men that dare not grosly make void the Word of God. Rev. 20.12 , 13.22.12 . & 2.23 . ) 12. That to be Justified at the day of Judgment , is , to be adjudged to Life Eternal , and not condemned to Hell. And therefore to be the cause or condition that we are Judged to Glory , and the Cause or Condition that we are Justified then , will be all one . 13. That to be Judged according to our deeds , is to be Justified or Condemned according to them . 14. That the great tryal of that day ( as I have after said ) will not be , whether Christ hath done his part , but whether we have part in him , and so whether we have believed , and performed the Condition of that Covenant which giveth Christ and Life . 15. That the whole scope of Christ's Sermons , and all the Gospel , calleth us from sin , on the motive of avoiding Hell , ( after we are reputed Righteous ) and calleth us to Holiness , Perseverance and overcoming , on the motive of laying up a good Foundation , and having a Treasure in Heaven , and getting the Crown of Righteousness . 16. That the after-sins of men imputed Righteous deserve Hell , or at least temporal punishments , and abatements of Grace and Glory . 17. That after such sins , especially hainous , we must pray for Pardon , and repent that we may be pardoned , ( and not say I fulfilled the Law in Christ as from my birth to my death , and therefore have no more need of Pardon . ) 18. That he that saith he hath no sin , deceiveth himself , and is a lyar . 19. That Magistrates must punish sin as God ▪ s Officers ; and Pastors by Censure in Christs name ; and Parents also in their Children . 20. That if Christs Holiness and perfect Obedience , and Satisfaction and Merit , had bin Ours in Right and Imputation , as simply and absolutely and fully as it was his own , we could have no Guilt , no need of Pardon , no suspension or detention of the proper fruits of it , no punishment for sin , ( specially not so great as the with-holding of degrees of Grace and Glory ) ; And many of the consequents aforesaid could not have followed . All this I think we are all agreed on ; and none of it can with any face be denied by a Christian . And if so ; 1. Then whether Christs perfect Holiness and Obedience , and Sufferings , Merit and Satisfaction , be all given us , and imputed unto us at our first believing as Our own in the very thing it self , by a full and proper Title to the thing : Or only so imputed to us , as to be judged a just cause of giving us all the effects in the degrees and time forementioned as God pleaseth , let all judge as evidence shall convince them . 2. And then , whether they do well that thrust their devised sence on the Churches as an Article of Faith , let the more impartial judge . I conclude with this confession to the Reader , that though the matter of these Papers hath been thought on these thirty years , yet the Script is hasty , and defective in order and fulness ; I could not have leisure so much as to affix in the margin all the texts which say what I assert : And several things , especially the state of the Case , are oft repeated . But that is , lest once reading suffice not to make them observed and understood ; which if many times will do , I have my end . If any say , that I should take time to do things more accurately , I tell him that I know my straights of time , and quantity of business better than he doth ; and I will rather be defective in the mode of one work , than leave undone the substance of another as great . July , 20. 1672. Richard Baxter . The Contents . CHap. 1. The History of the Controversie ▪ In the Apostles days : In the following Ages . Augustine and his followers Opinion . The Schoolmen . Luther : Islebius : The Lutherans : Andr. Osiander : The latter German Divines who were against the Imputation of Christ's Active Righteousness : Our English Divines : Davenant's sense of Imputation . Wotton . de Reconcil . Bradshaw , Gataker , Dr. Crisp , Jo. Simpson , Randal , Towne , &c. And the Army - Antinomians checkt by the rising of Arminianism there against it . Jo. Goodwin , Mr. Walker , and Mr. Roborough ; Mr. Ant. Burges ; My Own endeavours ; Mr. Cranden , Mr. Eyres , &c. Mr. Woodbridge , Mr. Tho. Warren , Mr. Hotchkis , Mr. Hopkins , Mr. Gibbon , Mr. Warton , Mr. Grailes , Mr. Jessop : What I then asserted : Corn. a Lapide , Vasquez , Suarez , Grotius de Satisf . Of the Savoy Declaration ; Of the Faith of the Congregational-Divines : Their saying that Christs Active and Passive Obedience is imputed for our sole Righteousness , confuted by Scripture . Gataker , Usher , and Vines read and approved my Confession of Faith. Placeus his Writings and trouble about the Imputation of Adam's Sin. Dr. Gell , Mr. Thorndike , &c. vehemently accusing the doctrine of Imputed Righteousness . The Consent of all Christians , especially Protestants , about the sense of Imputed Righteousness 1. The form of Baptism . 2. The Apostles Creed . 3. The Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creed . 4. Athanasius's Creed . 5. The Fathers sense : Laurentius his Collections : Damasus his Creed . 6. The Augustan Confession . 7. The English Articles , Homilies and Confession . 8. The Saxon Confession . 9. The Wittenberg Confession . 10. The Bohemian Confession . 11. The Palatinate Confession . 12. The Polonian Confessions . 13. The Helvetian Confession . 14. The Basil Confession . 15. The Argentine Confession of the four Cities . 16. The Synod of Dort , and the Belgick Confession . 17. The Scottish Confession . 18. The French Confession . Whether Imputation of Passion and Satisfaction , or of meritorious Perfection go first : How Christ's Righteousness is called the formal Cause , &c. That it is confessed that Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us , as our sin was to him . Molinaeus : Maresius , Vasseur , Bellarmine is constrained to agree with us . A recommendation of some brief , most clear , and sufficient Treatises on this subject ; viz. 1. Mr. Bradshaw ; 2. Mr. Gibbon's Sermon ; 3. Mr. Truman's Great Propitiation . 4. Placeus his Disput . in Thes . Salmur . 5. Le Blank 's Theses : And those that will read larger , Mr. Watton , John Goodwin , and Dr. Stillingfleet . Chap. 2. The opening of the Case , by some Distinctions , and many Propositions : Joh. Crocius Concessions premised : Mr. Lawson's Judgment . Chap. 3. A further Explication of the Controversie . Chap. 4. My Reasons against the denied sense of Imputation and personating . The denied sense repeated plainly . Forty three Reasons briefly named . Chap. 5. Some Objections answered . Chap. 6 , 7 , 8. Replies to Dr. Tully ; and a Defence of the Concord of Protestants against his Military Alarm , and false pretence of greater discord than there is . Of the Imputation of Christs Righteousness ( Material or Formal ) to Believers : Whether we are Reputed personally to have suffered on the Cross , and to have satisfied God's Justice for our own sins , and to have been habitually perfectly Holy , and Actually perfectly Obedient , in Christ , or by Christ , and so to have merited our own Justification and Salvation . And whether Christ's Righteousness Habitual Active and Passive , be strictly made our own Righteousness , in the very thing it self simply Imputed to us , or only be made ours in the effects , and Righteousness Imputed to us when we believe , because Christ hath satisfied and fulfilled the Law , and thereby merited it for us . The last is affirmed , and the two first Questions denied . I Have said so much of this subject already in my Confession , but especially in my Disputations of Justification , and in my Life of Faith that I thought not to have meddled with it any more ; But some occasions tell me that it is not yet needless , though those that have most need will not read it . But while some of them hold , that nothing which they account a Truth about the Form and Manner of Worship is to be silenced for the Churches peace , they should grant to me that Real Truth so near the Foundation ( in their own account ) is not to be silenced when it tendeth unto Peace . In opening my thoughts on this subject I shall reduce all to these Heads . 1. I shall give the brief History of this Controversie . 2. I shall open the true state of it , and assert what is to be asserted , and deny what is to be denied . 3. I shall give you the Reasons of my Denials . 4. I shall answer some Objections . CHAP. I. The History of the Controversie . § 1. IN the Gospel it self we have first Christ's Doctrine delivered by his own mouth . And in that there is so little said of this Subject that I find few that will pretend thence to resolve the Controversie , for Imputation in the rigorous sence . The same I say of the Acts of the Apostles , and all the rest of the New Testament , except Pauls Epistles . The Apostle Paul , having to do with the Jews , who could not digest the equalizing of the Gentiles with them , and specially with the factious Jewish Christians , who thought the Gentiles must become Proselytes to Moses as well as to Christ , if they would be Justified and Saved , at large confuteth this opinion , and freeth the Consciences of the Gentile Christians from the Imposition of this yoke ( as also did all the Apostles , Act. 15. ) And in his arguing , proveth that the Mosaical Law is so far from being necessary to the Justification of the Gentiles , that Abraham and the Godly Jews themselves were not Justified by it , but by Faith ▪ And that by the works of it ( and consequently not by the works of the Law or Covenant of Innocency , which no man ever kept ) no man could ever be justified : And therefore that they were to look for Justification by Christ alone , and by Faith in him , or by meer Christianity ; which the Gentiles might have as well as the Jews , the Partition-wall being taken down . This briefly is the true scope of Paul in these Controversies . § 2. But in Paul's own days , there were somethings in his Epistles which the unlearned and unstable did wrest , as they did the other Scriptures , to their own destruction , as Peter tells us , 2 Pet. 2. And it seemeth by the Epistle of James , that this was part of it : For he is fain there earnestly to dispute against some , who thought that Faith without Christian works themselves , would justifie , and flatly affirmeth , that we are Justified by Works , and not by Faith only ; that is , as it is a Practical Faith , in which is contained a Consent or Covenant to obey , which first putteth us into a justified state ; so it is that Practical Faith actually working by Love , and the actual performance of our Covenant , which by way of Condition is necessary to our Justification , as Continued and as Consummate by the Sentence of Judgment . Against which sentence of James there is not a syllable to be found in Paul. But all the Scripture agreeth that all men shall be Judged , that is , Justified or Condemned , according to their works . But it is not this Controversie ( between Faith and Works ) which I am now to speak to , having done it enough heretofore . § 3. From the days of the Apostles till Pelagius and Augustine , this Controversie was little meddled with : For the truth is , the Pastors and Doctors took not Christianity in those days for a matter of Shcolastick subtilty , but of plain Faith and Piety . And contented themselves to say that Christ dyed for our sins , and that we are Justified by Faith ; and that Christ was made unto us Righteousness , as he was made to us Wisdom , Sanctification and Redemption . § 4. But withal those three first Ages were so intent upon Holiness of Life , as that they addicted their Doctrine , their Zeal , and their constant endeavours to it : And particularly to great austerities to their Bodies , in great Fastings , and great contemp● of the World , and exercises of Mortification , to kill their fleshly Lusts , and deny their Wills , and Worldly Interests ; to which end at last they got into Wildernesses , and Monasteries , where , in Fasting and Prayer , and a single life , they might live as it were out of the World , while they were in it ; ( Though indeed persecution first drove them thither to save themselves . ) Into these Deserts and Monasteries those went that had most Zeal , but not usually most Knowledg : And they turned much of their Doctrine and discourses about these Austerities , and about the practices of a Godly Life , and about all the Miracles which were ( some really ) done , and ( some feigned ) by credulous soft people said to be done among them . So that in all these ages most of their writings are taken up , 1. In defending Christianity against the Heathens , which was the work of the Learned Doctors . 2. And in confuting swarms of Heresies that sprung up . 3. And in matters of Church-order , and Ecclesiastical and Monastical discipline . 4. And in the precepts of a Godly Life : But the point of Imputation was not only not meddled with distinctly , but almost all the Writers of those times , seem to give very much to Mans free-will , and to works of Holiness , and sufferings , making too rare and obscure mention of the distinct Interests of Christs Merits in our Justification , at least , with any touch upon this Controversie : Yet generally holding Pardon , and Grace and Salvation only by Christs Sacrifice and Merits ; though they spake most of Mans Holiness , when they called men to seek to make sure of Salvation . § 5. And indeed at the day of Judgment , the Question to be decided , will not be , Whether Christ dyed and did his part , but , Whether we believed and obeyed him and did our part : Not , Whether Christ performed his Covenant with the Father ; but , Whether we performed our Covenant with him : For it is not Christ that is to be judged , but we by Christ . § 6. But Pelagius and Augustine disputing about the Power of Nature and Freewill and the Grace of Christ , began to make it a matter of great Ingenuity ( as Erasmus speaketh ) to be a Christian . Pelagius ( a Brittain , of great wit , and continence , and a good and sober life , as Austin saith , Epist . 120. ) stifly defended the Power of Nature and Freewill , and made Grace to consist only in the free Pardon of all sin through Christ , and in the Doctrine and Perswasions only to a holy life for the time to come , with Gods common ordinary help . Augustine copiously ( and justly ) defended God's special eternal Election of some , and his special Grace given them to make them repent and believe , and presevere : ( For though he maintained that some that were true Believers , Lovers of God , Justified and in a state of Salvation , did fall away and perish , yet he held that none of the Elect did fall away and perish ; And he maintained that even the Justified that fell away , had their Faith by a special Grace above nature . ) Vid. August . de bono Persever . Cap. 8. & 9. & de Cor. & Grat. Cap. 8 , & 9. & alibi passim . § 7. In this their Controversie , the point of Justification fell into frequent debate : But no Controversie ever arose between them , Whether Christ's personal Righteousness considered Materially or Formally , was by Imputation made ours as Proprietors of the thing it self , distinct from its effects ; or , Whether God reputed us to have satisfied and also perfectly obeyed in Christ . For Augustine himself , while he vehemently defendeth free Grace , speaketh too little even of the Pardon of sin : And though he say , that Free Pardon of sins is part of Grace , yet he maketh Justification to be that which we call Sanctification , that makes us inherently Righteous or new-Creatures , by the operation of the Holy Ghost : And he thinketh that this is the Justification which Paul pleadeth to be of Grace and not of works ; yet including Pardon of sin , and confessing that sometimes to Justifie , signifieth in Scripture , not to make just , but to judg just . And though in it self this be but de nomine , and not de re ; yet , 1. no doubt but as to many texts of Scripture Austin was mistaken , though some few texts Beza and others confess to be taken in his sence : 2. And the exposition of many texts lieth upon it . But he that took Justification to be by the operation of the Holy Ghost giving us Love to God , could not take it to be by Imputation in the rigorous sence no question ; nor doth de re . § 8. But because , as some that , it seems , never read Augustine , or understood not plain words , have nevertheless ventured confidently to deny what I have said of his Judgment in the points of Perseverance ( in my Tract of Perseverance ) so , it 's like such men will have no more wariness what they say in the point of Justification ; I will cite a few of Augustin's words among many , to show what he took Justification to be , though I differ from him de nomine . Nec quia recti sunt corde , sed etiam ut recti sint corde , pretendit Justitiam suam , quâ justificat impium — Quo motu receditur ab illo fonte vitae , cujus solius haustu justitia bibitur , bona scil . vita . Aug. de Spir. & Lit. Cap. 7. Deus est enim qui operatur in eis & velle & operari , pro bona voluntate . Haec est Justitia Dei , hoc est , quam Deus donat homini quum justificat impium Hanc Dei justitiam ignorantes superbi Judaei , & suam volentes constituere , justitiae Dei non sunt subjecti . — Dei quippe dixit Justitiam , quae homini ex Deo est , suam vero , quam putant sibi suficere ad facienda mandata sine adjutorio & dono ejus qui legem dedit . His antem similes sunt qui cum profiteantur se esse Christianos , ipsi gratiae Christi sic adversantur ut se humanis viribus divina existiment implere mandata . Epist . 120. cap. 21. & 22. & Epist . 200. Et de Spir. & lit . c. 26. Factores justificabuntur : — Non tanquam per opera , nam per Gratiam justificentur : Cum dicat Gratis justificari hominem per fidem sine operibus legis , nihilque aliud velit intelligi , in eo quod dicit Gratu , nisi quia justificationem opera non precedunt : Aperte quippe alibi dicit , si gratiâ , jam non ex operibus : alioquin gratia non est gratia . Sed sic intelligendum est , factores Legis justificabuntur , ut sciamus eos non esse factores legis nisi justificentur ; ut non justificatio factoribus accedat , sed factores legis justificatio precedat : Quid est enim aliud Justificati , quam Justi facti , ab illo scilicet qui justificat Impium , ●t ex impio fiat justus ? — Aut certe ita dictum est , Justificabuntur , ac si diceretur Justi habebuntur , justi deputabuntur . Et ibid. cap. 29. Gentes qua non sectabantur justitiam apprehenderunt justitiam ; Justitiam autem quae ex fide est , impretrando eam ex Deo , non ex seipsis presumendo ; Israel vero persequens legem justitiae , in legem justitiae , non pervenit : Quare ? Quia non ex fide , sed tanquam ex operibus : id est tanquam eam per seipsos operantes ; non in se credentes operari Deum . Deus est enim qui operatur in nobis — Finis enim legis Christus est omni credenti . Et adhuc dubitamus quae sint opera legis , quibus homo non justificatur ; si ea tanquam sua credederit sine adjutorio & dono Dei , quod est ex fide Jesu Christi — Vt possit homo facere bona & Sancta , Deus operatur in homine per fidem Jesu Christi , qui finis ad Justitiam omni credenti : id est , per Spiritum incorporatus factusque membrum ejus , potest quisque illo incrementum intrinsecus dante , operari justitiam . — Justificatio autem ex fide impetratur — In tantum justus , in quantum salvus . Per hanc enim fidem credemus , quod etiam nos Deus a mortuis excitet ; interim Spiritu , ut in novitate ejus gratioe temperanter & juste & pie vivamus in hoc seculo — qui in Resurrectione sibi congrua , hoc est , in Justificatione precedit : — c. 30. Fides impetrat gratiam qua Lex impleatur . — Cap. 28. pag. 315. Ibi Lex Dei , non ex omni parte delata per injustitiam , profecto scribitur , renovata , per gratiam : Nec istam inscriptionem , quae Justificatio est , poterat efficere in Judaeis Lex in tabulis scripta . Ibid. Cap. 9. pag. 307 , 308. Justitia Dei manifestata est : non dixit , Justitia hominis vel justitia propriae voluntatis , sed justitia Dei ; Non qua Deus justus est ; sed qua induit , hominem cum justificat impium . Haec testificatur per Legem & Prophetas . Huic quippe testimonium perhibent Lex & Prophetae . Lex quidem hoc ipso , quod jubendo , & minando , & neminem justificando , satis indicat dono Dei justificari hominem per Adjutorium Spiritus — Justitia autem Dei per fidem Jesu Christi , hoc est , per fidem qua Creditur in Christum : sicut autem ista fides Christi dicta non est , qua Credit Christus , sic & illa Justitia Dei non qua Justus est Deus . Vtrumque enim Nostrum est sed ideo Dei & Christi dicitur quod ejus nobis largitate donatur . — Justitia Dei sine lege est , quam Deus per Spiritum Gratiae Credenti confert sine adjutorio legis . — Justificati gratis per gratiam ipsius : non quod sine voluntate nostra fiat , sed voluntas nostra ostenditur infirma per legem , ut sanet Gratia Voluntatem , & sanata voluntas impleat Legem . — Et cap. 10. Confugiant per fidem ad Justificantem Gratiam , & per donum Spiritus suavitate justitiae delectati , poenam literae minantis evadant . Vid. Ep. 89. q. 2. Et lib. 3. ad Bonifac. c. 7. Et Tract . 3. in Joan. when he saith that , Omnes qui per Christum Justificati justi , non in se , sed in illo ; he expoundeth it of Regeneration by Christ . Et Serm. 15. de verb. Apost . Sine voluntate tua non erit in te Justitia Dei. Voluntas non est nisi tua ; Justitia non est nisi Dei : he expounds it of Holiness . — Traditus est propter delicta nostra , & resurrexit , propter justificationem nostram . Quid est , Propter Justificationem nostram ? Vt justificet nos , & justos faciat nos . Eris opus Dei non solum quia homo es , sed quia Justus es : Qui fecit te sine te , non te justificat sine te : Tamen ipse justificat , ne sit justitia tua . — Dei justitiam dat non litera occidens , sed vivificans Spiritus . — Vid. de Grat. Christi Cap. 13 , 14. Abundance such passages in Augustine fully shew that he took Justification to signifie Sanctification , or the Spirits renovation of us ; and thinks it is called the Righteousness of God and Christ , and not ours , because by the Spirit he worketh it in us . And when he saith that bona opera sequuntur Justificatum , non precedunt Justificandum ( as in sence he often doth ) he meaneth that we are freely sanctified , before we do good . I would cite abundance , but for swelling the writing , and tiring the Reader . And his followers Prosper , and Fulgentius go the same way , as you may easily find in their writings . Johan . Crocius in his copious Treatise of Justification , Disp . 9. p. 442. saith , Augustinum Justificationis nomine utramque partem complecti , id est , tum Remissionem peccatorum quae proprie Justificatio dicitur , tum Sanctificationem — Cum quo nos sentimus quoad rem ipsam , tantum dissidemus in loquendi formâ . § 9. The Schoolmen being led by the Scholastick wit of Augustine , fell into the same phrase of speech and opinions , Lombard making Augustine his Master , and the rest making him theirs , till some began to look more towards the Semipelagian way . § 10. And when Church-Tyranny and Ignorance , had obscured the Christian Light , the true sence of Justification by the Righteousness of Christ , was much obscured with the rest , and a world of humane inventions under the name of Good works , were brought in to take up the peoples minds ; And the merits of man , and of the Virgin Mary , sounded louder than the merits of Christ , in too many places : And the people that were ignorant of the true Justification , were filled with the noise of Pardons , Indulgences , Satisfactions , Penances , Pilgrimages , and such like . § 11. Luther finding the Church in this dangerous and woful state , where he lived , did labour to reduce mens minds and trust , from humane fopperies and merits , and indulgences , to Christ , and to help them to the Knowledg of true Righteousness : But according to his temper in the heat ▪ of his Spirit , he sometimes let fall some words which seemed plainly to make Christs own personal Righteousness in it self to be every Believers own by Imputation , and our sins to be verily Christs own sins in themselves by Imputation : Though by many other words he sheweth that he meant only , that our sins were Christs in the effects and not in themselves , and Christs personal Righteousness ours in the effects and not in it self . § 12. But his Book on the Galatians , and some other words , gave occasion to the errours of some then called Antinomians , and afterward Libertines ( when some additions were made to their errours . ) Of these Islebius Agricola was the chief : Whom Luther confuted and reduced , better expounding his own words : But Islebius ere long turned back to the Contrary extreme of Popery , and with Sidonius and Julius Pflug , ( three Popish Bishops made for that purpose ) promoted the Emperours Interim to the persecution of the Protestants . § 13. The Protestant Reformers themselves spake variously of this subject . Most of them rightly asserted that Christ's Righteousness was ours by the way of Meriting our Righteousness , which was therefore said to be Imputed to us . Some of them follow'd Luthers first words , and said that Christs sufferings and all his personal Righteousness was Imputed to us , so as to be ours in it self , and when judged as if we had personally done what he did , and were righteous with the same Righteousness that he was . § 14. Ambsdorfius , Gallus , and some other hot Lutherans were so jealous of the name of works , that they maintained that good works were not necessary to Salvation . ( Yea as to Salvation some called them hurtful : ) And Georgius Major a Learned sober Divine was numbered by them among the Hereticks , for maintaining that Good works were necessary to Salvation ; as you may see in the perverse writings of Chlusseburgius and many others . § 15. Andreas Osiander ( otherwise a Learned Protestant ) took up the opinion , that we are Justified by the very essential Righteousness of God himself . But he had few followers . § 16. The Papists fastening upon those Divines who held Imputation of Christs personal Righteousness in it self in the rigid sence , did hereupon greatly insult against the Protestants , as if it had been their common doctrine , and it greatly stopt the Reformation : For many seeing that some made that a Fundamental in our difference , and articulus stantis & cadentis Ecclesiae , and seeing how easily it was disproved , how fully it was against the Doctrine of all the ancient Church , and what intolerable Consequences followed , did judge by that of the rest of our Doctrine , and were settledly hardened against all . § 17. The Learned Divines of Germany perceiving this , fell to a fresh review of the Controversie , and after a while abundance of very Learned Godly Doctors fell to distinguish between the Active and Passive Righteousness of Christ ; and not accurately distinguishing of Imputation , because they perceived that Christ suffered in our stead , in a fuller sense than he could be said to be Holy in our stead , or fulfil the Law in our stead . Hereupon they principally managed the Controversie , as about the sort of Righteousness Imputed to us : And a great number of the most Learned famous Godly Divines of the Reformed Churches , maintained that Christ's Passive Righteousness was Imputed to us , even his whole Humiliation or Suffering , by which the pardon of all sins of Commission and Omission was procured for us ; but that his Active Righteousness was not Imputed to us , though it profited us ; but was Justitia Personae to make Christ a fit Sacrifice for our sins , having none of his own , but the Suffering was his Justitia Meriti . His Obedience they said was performed nostro bono , non nostro loco , for our good but not in our stead ; but his Sufferings , both nostro bono & loco , both for our good and in our stead : but neither of them so strictly in nostrâ Personâ in our Person , as if we did it by and in Christ . The Writers that defended this were Cargius , and that holy man Olevian and Vrsine , and Paraeus , and Scultetus , and Piscator , Alstedius , Wendeline , Beckman , and many more . He that will see the sum of their arguings may read it in Wendeline's Theolog. lib. 1. cap. 25. and in Paraeus his Miscellanies after Vrsine's Corpus Theolog . After them Camero with his Learned followers took it up in France . Leg. Cameron . p. 364.390 . Thes . Sal. vol. 1. Placaei Disp . de Just . § 29. & Part. 2 de Satisf . § 42. So that at that time ( as Paraeus tells you ) there were four opinions : some thought Christ's Passive Righteousness only was Imputed to us ; some also his Active instead of our Actual Obedience ; some also his Habitual instead of our Habitual perfection ; And some thought also his Divine Righteousness was Imputed to us , because of our Union with Christ , God and Man. ( Imputed I say ; for I now speak not of Osiander's opinion of Inhesion . ) And Lubbertus wrote a Conciliatory Tractate favouring those that were for the Passive part . And Forbes hath written for the Passive only imputed . Molinaeus casteth away the distinction , Thes . Sedan . v. 1. p. 625. § 18. § 18. In England most Divines used the phrase , that we were Justified by the forgiveness of sin and the Imputation of Christs Righteousness , and being accepted as Righteous unto life thereon : But the sense of Imputation few pretended accurately to discuss . Davenant who dealt most elaborately in it , and maintaineth Imputation stiffly , in terms ; yet when he telleth you what Protestants mean by it , saith , that [ Possunt nobis imputari , non solum nostrae passiones , actiones , qualitates , sed etiam extrinseca quaedam , quae nec a nobis fluunt , nec in nobis haerent : De facto autem Imputantur , quando illorum intuitus & respectus valent nobis ad aliquem effectum , aeque ac si a nobis aut in nobis essent . ( Note , that he saith , but ad aliquem effectum , non ad omnem . ) And he instanceth in one that is a slothful fellow himself , but is advanced to the Kings Favour and Nobility for some great Service done by his Progenitors to the Common-wealth . And in one that deserving death is pardoned through the Intercession of a friend , or upon some suffering in his stead which the King imposeth on his Friend . This is the Imputation which Davenant and other such Protestants plead for ; which I think is not to be denied . Were it not for lengthening the discourse and wearying the Reader , I would cite many other of our greatest Divines , who plead for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , that Davenant here expoundeth himself . But some less judicious grating upon a harsh and unsound sence , Mr. Anthony Wotton a very Learned and Godly Divine of London , wrote a Latine Treatise de Reconciliatione , one of the Learnedst that hath ever been written of that subject , in which he laboureth to disprove the rigid Imputation of Christs Holiness and Obedience to man ; and sheweth that he is Righteous to whom all sin of Omission and Commission is forgiven ; and confuteth these three Assertions . 1. That A Sinner is Reputed to have fulfilled the Law in and by Christ . 2. And being reputed to have fulfilled the Law , is taken for formally just as a fulfiller of it . 3. And being formally just as a fullfiller of the Law , Life eternal is due to him by that Covenant , that saith , do this and live . Vid. Part. 2. li. 1. Cap. 11. pag. 152. Cum sequentibus . Thus and much further Mr. Wotton went to the very quick of the Controversie , and irrefragably overthrew the rigid Imputation . But Mr. William Bradshaw , a Learned Godly Nonconformist , being grieved at the differences about the Active and Passive Righteousness , and thinking that Mr. Wotton denied all Imputation of the Active Righteousness ( which he did not , but owneth it to be Imputed as a meritorious Cause : ) Part. 2. li. 1. Cap. 13. pag. 165. Ne illud quidem negaverim , imputari nobis illius justitiam & obedientiam , ut ad nostrum fructum redundet : Id unum non concedo , Legem nos in Christo & per Christum servâsse , ut propter eam a nobis praestitam vita aeterna ex faedere , Hoc fac et vives , debeatur . Mr. Bradshaw I say attempted a Conciliatory middle way , which indeed is the same in the main with Mr. Wotton's : He honoureth the Learned Godly persons on each side , but maintaineth that the Active and Passive Righteousness are both Imputed , but not in the rigid sence of Imputation denying both these Propositions . 1. That Christ by the Merits of his Passive Obedience only , hath freed us from the guilt of all sin , both Actual and Original , of Omission and Commission . 2. That in the Imputation of Christs Obedience both Active and Passive , God doth so behold and consider a sinner in Christ , as if the sinner himself had done and suffered those very particulars which Christ did and suffered for him . And he wrote a small book with great accurateness in English first , and Latin after , opening the nature of Justification , which hath been deservedly applauded ever since . His bosom-Friend Mr. Tho. Gataker , ( a man of rare Learning and Humility ) next set in to defend Mr. Bradshaw's way , and wrote in Latin Animadversions on Lucius ( who opposed Piscator , and erred on one side for rigid Imputation ) and on Piscator who on the other side was for Justification by the Passive Righteousness only ; and other things he wrote with great Learning and Judgment in that cause . About that time the Doctrine of personal Imputation in the rigid sence began to be fully improved in England , by the Sect of the Antinomians ( trulyer called Libertines ) of whom Dr. Crispe was the most eminent Ring-leader , whose books took wonderfully with ignorant Professors under the pretence of extolling Christ and free-Grace . After him rose Mr. Randal , and Mr. John Simpson , and then Mr. Town , and at last in the Armies of the Parliament , Saltmarsh , and so many more , as that it seemed to be likely to have carried most of the Professors in the Army , and abundance in the City and Country that way : But that suddenly ( one Novelty being set up against another ) the opinions called Arminianism rose up against it , and gave it a check and carryed many in the Army and City the clean contrary way : And these two Parties divided a great part of the raw injudicious sort of the professors between them , which usually are the greatest part : but especially in the Army which was like to become a Law and example to others . Before this John Goodwin ( not yet turned Arminian ) preached and wrote with great diligence about Justification against the rigid sence of Imputation , who being answered by Mr. Walker , and Mr. Robourough , with far inferiour strength , his book had the greater success for such answerers . The Antinomians then swarming in London , Mr. Anthony Burges , a very worthy Divine was employed to Preach and Print against them ; which he did in several books : but had he been acquainted with the men as I was , he would have found more need to have vindicated the Gospel against them than the Law. Being daily conversant my self with the Antinomian and Arminian Souldiers , and hearing their daily contests , I thought it pitty that nothing but one extreme should be used to beat down that other , and I found the Antinomian party far the stronger , higher , and more fierce , and working towards greater changes and subversions ; And I found that they were just falling in with Saltmarsh , that Christ hath repented and believed for us , and that we must no more question our Faith and Repentance , than Christ . This awakened me better to study these points ; And being young , and not furnished with sufficient reading of the Controversie , and also being where were no libraries , I was put to study only the naked matter in it self . Whereupon I shortly wrote a small book called Aphorisms of Justification , &c. Which contained that Doctrine in substance which I judg sound ; but being the first that I wrote , it had several expressions in it which needed correction ; which made me suspend or retract it till I had time to reform them . Mens judgments of it were various , some for it and some against it : I had before been a great esteemer of two books of one name , Vindiciae Gratiae , Mr. Pembles and Dr. Twisses , above most other books . And from them I had taken in the opinion of a double Justification , one in foro Dei as an Immanent eternal Act of God , and another in foro Conscientiae , the Knowledg of that ; and I knew no other : But now I saw , that neither of those was the Justification which the Scripture spake of . But some half - Antinomians which were for the Justification before Faith , which I wrote against , were most angry with my book . And Mr. Crandon wrote against it , which I answered in an Apologie , and fullyer wrote my judgment in my Confession ; and yet more fully in some Disputations of Justification against Mr. Burges , who had in a book of Justification made some exceptions ; and pag. 346. had defended that [ As in Christ's suffering we were looked upon by God as suffering in him ; so by Christs obeying of the Law , we were beheld as fulfilling the Law in him . ] To those Disputations I never had any answer . And sin●● then in my Life of Faith , I have opened the Libertine errours about Justification , and stated the sence of Imputation . Divers writers were then employed on these subjects : Mr. Eyers for Justification before Faith ( that is , of elect Infidels ) and Mr. Benjamin Woodbridg , Mr. Tho. Warren against it . Mr. Hotchkis wrote a considerable Book of Forgiveness of sin , defending the sounder way : Mr. George Hopkins , wrote to prove that Justification and Sanctification are equally carryed on together : Mr. Warton , Mr. Graile , Mr. Jessop , ( clearing the sence of Dr. Twisse , ) and many others wrote against Antinomianism . But no man more clearly opened the whole doctrine of Justification , than Learned and Pious Mr. Gibbons Minister at Black-Fryers , in a Sermon Printed in the Lectures at St. Giles in the Fields . By such endeavours the before-prevailing Antinomianism was suddenly and somewhat marvelously suppressed , so that there was no great noise made by it . About Imputation that which I asserted was against the two fore-described extremes ; in short , That we are Justified by Christ's whole Righteousness , Passive , Active , and Habitual , yea the Divine so far included as by Vnion advancing the rest to a valuable sufficiency : That the Passive , that is , Christ's whole Humiliation is satisfactory first , and so meritorious , and the Active and Habitual meritorious primarily . That as God the Father did appoint to Christ as Mediator his Duty for our Redemption by a Law or Covenant , so Christ's whole fulfilling that Law , or performance of his Covenant-Conditions as such ( by Habitual and Actual perfection , and by Suffering ) made up one Meritorious Cause of our Justification , not distinguishing with Mr. Gataker of the pure moral , and the servile part of Christ's Obedience , save only as one is more a part of Humiliation than the other , but in point of Merit taking in all : That as Christ suffered in our stead that we might not suffer , and obeyed in our nature , that perfection of Obedience might not be necessary to our Justification , and this in the person of a Mediator and Sponsor for us sinners , but not so in our Persons , as that we truely in a moral or civil sence , did all this in and by him ; Even so God reputeth the thing to be as it is , and so far Imputeth Christ's Righteousness and Merits and Satisfaction to us , as that it is Reputed by him the true Meritorious Cause of our Justification ; and that for it God maketh a Covenant of Grace , in which he freely giveth Christ , Pardon and Life to all that accept the Gift as it is ; so that the Accepters are by this Covenant or Gift as surely justified and saved by Christ's Righteousness as if they had Obeyed and Satisfied themselves . Not that Christ meriteth that we shall have Grace to fulfil the Law our selves and stand before God in a Righteousness of our own , which will answer the Law of works and justifie us : But that the Conditions of the Gift in the Covenant of Grace being performed by every penitent Believer , that Covenant doth pardon all their sins ( as Gods Instrument ) and giveth them a Right to Life eternal , for Christs Merits . This is the sence of Imputation which I and others asserted as the true healing middle way . And as bad as they are , among the most Learned Papists , Cornelius a Lapide is cited by Mr. Wotton , Vasquez by Davenant , Suarez by Mr. Burges , as speaking for some such Imputation , and Merit : Grotius de Satisf . is clear for it . But the Brethren called Congregational or Independant in their Meeting at the Savoy . Oct. 12. 1658. publishing a Declaration of their Faith , Cap. 11. have these words [ Those whom God effectually calleth , he also freely justifieth ; not by infusing Righteousness into them , but by pardoning their Sins , and by accounting and accepting their persons as Righteous , not for any thing wrought in them , or done by them , but for Christs sake alone : not by imputing Faith it self , the act of believing , or any other evangelical Obedience to them , as their Righteousness ; but by Imputing Christs Active Obedience to the whole Law , and Passive Obedience in his death , for their whole and sole Righteousness ; they receiving and resting on him and his Righteousness by Faith. ] Upon the publication of this it was variously spoken of : some thought that it gave the Papists so great a scandal , and advantage to reproach the Protestants as denying all inherent Righteousness , that it was necessary that we should disclaim it : Others said that it was not their meaning to deny Inherent Righteousness , though their words so spake , but only that we are not justified by it : Many said that it was not the work of all of that party , but of some few that had an inclination to some of the Antinomian principles , out of a mistaken zeal of free Grace ; and that it is well known that they differ from us , and therefore it cannot be imputed to us , and that it is best make no stir about it , lest it irritate them to make the matter worse by a Defence , & give the Papists too soon notice of it . And I spake with one Godly Minister that was of their Assembly , who told me , that they did not subscribe it , and that they meant but to deny Justification by inherent Righteousness . And though such men in the Articles of their declared Faith , no doubt can speak intelligibly and aptly , and are to be understood as they speak according to the common use of the words ; yet even able-men sometimes may be in this excepted , when eager engagement in an opinion and parties , carryeth them too precipitantly , and maketh them forget something , that should be remembred . The Sentences here which we excepted against are these two . But the first was not much offensive because their meaning was right ; And the same words are in the Assemblies Confession , though they might better have been left out . Scriptures . Declaration . Rom. 4.3 . What saith the Scripture ? Abraham believed God , and it was counted to him for Righteousness . Ver. 5. To him that worketh not , but believeth on him that Justifyeth the Vngodly , his Faith is counted for Righteousness . Ver. 9. For we say that Faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness : How was it then reckoned ? Ver. 11. And he received the sign of Circumcision , a seal of the righteousness of the Faith , which he had yet being uncircumcised , that he might be the Father of all them that believe , — that Righteousness might be imputed to them also . — Ver. 13. Through the Righteousness of Faith. — Ver. 16. Therefore it is of Faith that it might be by Grace . — vid. Ver. 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24. He was strong in Faith , fully perswaded that what he had promised , he was able also to perform ; and therefore it was Imputed to him for Righteousness . Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him , but for us also , to whom it shall be imputed , if we ( or , who ) believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead . Gen. 15.5 , 6. Tell the Stars — so shall thy seed be : And he believed in the Lord , and he counted it to him for Righteousness , Jam. 2.21 , 22 , 23 , 24. Was not Abraham our Father justified , by Works ? — And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith , Abraham believed God , and it was imputed to him for Righteousness . Luk. 19.17 . Well done thou good Servant , Because thou hast been Faithful in a very little , have thou authority over ten Cities . Mat. 25.34 , 35 , 40 , Come ye blessed . — For I was hungry and ye gave me Meat . Gen. 22.16 , 17 , By my self I have sworn . — Because thou hast done this thing . — Joh. 16.27 . For the Father himself loveth you , because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God. Many such passages are in Scripture . Our opinion is , 1. That it is better to justifie and expound the Scripture , than flatly to deny it : If Scripture so oft say , that Faith is reckoned or Imputed for Righteousness , it becometh not Christians , to say , It is not : But to shew in what sence it is , and in what it is not . For if it be so Imputed in no sence , the Scripture is made false : If in any sence ▪ it should not be universally denied but with distinction . 2. We hold , that in Justification there is considerable , 1. The Purchasing and Meritorious Cause of Justification freely given in the new Covenant . This is only Christ's Sufferings and Righteousness , and so it is Reputed of God , and Imputed to us . 2. The Order of Donation , which is , On Condion of Acceptance ; And so 3. The Condition of our Title to the free Gift by this Covenant ; And that is , Our Faith , or Acceptance of the Gift according to its nature and use . And thus God Reputeth Faith , and Imputeth it to us , requiring but this Condition of us ( which also he worketh in us ) by the Covenant of Grace ; whereas perfect Obedience was required of us , by the Law of Innocency . If we err in this explication , it had been better to confute ▪ us than deny God's Word . Scriptures besides the former . Declaration . 1 Joh. 2.29 . Every one which doth Righteousness is born of God. — & 3.7 , 10. He that doth Righteousness is Righteous , even as he is Righteous . — Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God. 2 Tim. 4.8 . He hath laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness . Heb. 11.23 . Through Faith they wrought Righteousness . — Heb. 12. The peaceable fruit of Righteousness . — Jam. 3.18 . The fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace . — 1 Pet. 2.24 . That we being dead to sin , should live unto righteousness , Mat 5.20 . Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , &c. — Luk. 1.71 . In Holiness and Righteousness before him all the days of our Life . — Act. 10.35 . He that feareth God , and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him , — Rom. 6.13 , 16 , 18 , 19 , 20. Whether of sin unto death , or of Obedience unto Righteousness . — 1 Cor. 15.34 . Awake to Righteousness and sin not . — Eph. 5.9 . The fruit of the Spirit is in all Goodness , and Righteousness . — Dan. 12.3 . They shall turn many to Righteousness . — Dan. 4.27 . Break off thy sins by Righteousness . — Eph. 4.24 . The new-man which after God is created in Righteousness . — Gen. 7.1 . Thee have I seen Righteous before me . — Gen. 18.23 , 24 , 25 , 26. Far be it from thee , to destroy the Righteous with the Wicked . — Prov. 24.24 . He that saith to the Wicked thou art Righteous , him shall the people Curse , Nations shall abhor him . — Isa . 3.10 . Say to the Righteous , it shall be well with him , Isa . 5.23 . That take away the Righteousness from the Righteous . — Mat. 25.37 , 46. Then shall the Righteous answer . — The Righteous into life eternal . — Luk. 1.6 . They were both Righteous before God. — Heb. 11.4 , 7. By Faith Abel offered to God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain , by which he obtained witness that he was righteous , God testifying of his Gifts . By Faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet , moved with fear , prepared an Ark , — by which he became heir of the Righteousness by Faith , 1 Pet. 4.18 . If the Righteous be scarcely saved . — Math. 10.41 . He that receiveth a Righteous man in the name of a Righteous man , shall have a Righteous mans reward . — 1 Tim. 1.9 . The Law is not made for a Righteous man , but for — Many score of texts more mention a Righteousness distinct from that of Christ imputed to us . Judg now , Whether he that believeth God should believe that he Imputeth Christs Obedience and Suffering to us , [ for our Sole Righteousness . ] That which is not our sole Righteousness , is not so Reputed by God nor Imputed : But Christs Obedience and Suffering is not our sole Righteousness . — See Davenant's many arguments to prove that we have an Inherent Righteousness . Obj. But , they mean , [ our Sole Righteousness by which we are Justified . ] Answ . 1. We can tell no mans meaning but by his words , especially not contrary to them , especially in an accurate Declaration of Faith. 2. Suppose it had been so said , we maintain on the contrary , 1. That we are Justified by more sorts of Righteousness than one , in several respects . We are justified only by Christs Righteousness as the Purchasing and Meritorious Cause of our Justification freely given by that new Covenant . We are Justified by the Righteousness of God the Father , as performing his Covenant with Christ and us , ( efficiently ) . We are justified efficiently by the Righteousness of Christ as our Judg , passing a just sentence according to his Covenant : These last are neither Ours nor Imputed to us : But we are justified also against the Accusation , of being finally Impenitent Unbelievers or unholy , by the personal particular Righteousness of our own Repentance , Faith and Holiness . For 2. We say , that there is an universal Justification or Righteousness , and there is a particular one . And this particular one may be the Condition and Evidence of our Title to all the rest . And this is our case . The Day of Judgment is not to try and Judg Christ , or his Merits , but us : He will judg us himself by his new Law or Covenant , the sum of which is , [ Except ye Repent , ye shall all perish : and , He that believeth , shall be saved : and he that believeth not , shall be condemned . If we be not accused of Impenitence or Vnbelief , but only of not-fulfilling the Law of Innocency , that will suppose that we are to be tryed only by that Law , which is not true : And then we refer the Accuser only to Christ's Righteousness , and to the Pardoning Law of Grace , and to nothing in our selves to answer that charge ; And so it would be Christ's part only that would be judged . But Matth. 25. and all the Scripture assureth us of the contrary , that it 's Our part that it is to be tryed and judged , and that we shall be all judged according to what we have done . And no man is in danger there of any other accusation , but that he did not truly Repent and Believe , and live a holy life to Christ : And shall the Penitent Believer say , I did never Repent and Believe , but Christ did it for me ; and so use two Lyes , one of Christ , and another of himself , that he may be justified ? Or shall the Vnholy , Impenitent Infidel say , It 's true I was never a Penitent Believer , or holy , but Christ was for me , or Christs Righteousness is my sole Righteousness ? that is a fashood ; For Christs Righteousness is none of his . So that there is a particular personal Righteousness , consisting in Faith and Repentance , which by way of Condition and Evidence of our title to Christ and his Gift of Pardon and Life , is of absolute necessity in our Justification . Therefore Imputed Righteousness is not the sole Righteousness which must justifie us . I cited abundance of plain Texts to this purpose in my Confession , pag. 57. &c. Of which book I add , that when it was in the press , I procured those three persons whom I most highly valued for judgment , Mr. Gataker , ( whose last work it was in this World ) Mr. Vines , and lastly Arch-Bishop Vsher to read it over , except the Epistles ( Mr. Gataker read only to pag. 163. ) and no one of them advised me to alter one word , nor signified their dissent to any word of it . But I have been long on this : to proceed in the History . — The same year that I wrote that book , that most Judicious excellent man Joshua Placaeus of Saumours in France , was exercised in a Controversie conjunct with this ; How far Adams sin is imputed to us . And to speak truth , at first in the Theses Salmuriens . Vol. 1. he seemed plainly to dispute against the Imputation of Adam's actual sin , and his arguments I elsewhere answer . ) And Andr. Rivet wrote a Collection of the Judgment of all sorts of Divines for the contrary . But after he vindicated himself , & shewed that his Doctrine was , that Adam's fact is not immediately imputed to each of us , as if our persons as persons had been all fully represented in Adam's person ( by an arbitrary Law or Will of God ) or reputed so to be : But that our Persons being Virtually or Seminally in him , we derive from him first our Persons , and in them a corrupted nature , and that nature corrupted and justly deserted by the Spirit of God , because it is derived from Adam that so sinned : And so that Adams fact is imputed to us mediately , mediante natura & Corruptione , but not primarily and immediately . This doctrine of the Good and Judicious man was thought too new to escape sharp censures , so that a rumour was spread abroad that he denied all Imputation of Adams fact , and placed original guilt only in the Guilt of Coruption , for which indeed he gave occasion . A Synod being called at Charenton , this opinion without naming any Author was condemned ; & all Ministers required to subscribe it : Amyraldus being of Placeus mind , in a speech of two hours vindicated his opinion . Placeus knowing that the Decree did not touch him , took no notice of it . But Gerissolius of Montauban wrote against him , pretending him condemned by the Decree , which Drelincourt one that drew it up , denied , professing himself of Placeus his judgment . and Rivet also , Maresius , Carol. Daubuz and others , misunderstanding him wrote against him . For my part I confess that I am not satisfied in his distinction of Mediate and Immediate Imputation : I see not , but our Persons as derived from Adam , being supposed to be in Being , we are at once Reputed to be such as Virtually sinned in him , and such as are deprived of God's Image . And if either must be put first , me-thinks it should rather be the former , we being therefore deprived of God's Immage ( not by God , but by Adam ) because he sinned it away from himself . It satisfieth me much more , to distinguish of our Being and so sinning in Adam Personally and Seminally , or Virtually : we were not Persons in Adam when he sinned ; therefore we did not so sin in him : And it is a fiction added to God's Word , to say that God ( because he would do it ) reputed us to be what we were not . But we were Seminally in Adam as in Causâ naturali , who was to produce us out of his very essence : And therefore that kind of being which we had in him , could not be innocent when he was guilty : And when we had our Natures and Persons from him , we are justly reputed to be as we are , the off-spring of one that actually sinned : And so when our Existence and Personality maketh us capable Subjects , we are guilty Persons of his sin ; though not with so plenary a sort of Guilt as he . And I fear not to say , that as I lay the ground of this Imputation in Nature it self , so I doubt not but I have elsewhere proved that there is more participation of all Children in the guilt of their parents sins by nature , than is sufficiently acknowledged or lamented by most , though Scripture abound with the proof of it : And that the overlooking it , and laying all upon God's arbitrary Covenant and Imputation , is the great temptation to Pel●gians to deny Original sin : And that our misery no more increaseth by it , is , because we are now under a Covenant that doth not so charge all culpability on mankind , as the Law of Innocency did alone . And there is something of Pardon in the Case . And the English Litany , ( after Ezra , Daniel and others ) well prayeth , Remember not , Lord , our offences , nor the offences of our Forefathers , &c. This same Placeus in Thes . Salmuriens . Vol. 1. hath opened the doctrine of Justification so fully , that I think that one Disputation might spare some the reading of many contentious Volumes . The rigid assertors of Imputation proved such a stumbling-block to many , that they run into the other extreme , and not only denyed it , but vehemently loaded it with the Charges of over-throwing all Godliness and Obedience . Of these Parker ( as is said ) with some others wrote against it in an answer to the Assemblies Confession : Dr. Gell often reproacheth it in a large Book in Folio . And lastly and most sharply and confidently Herbert Thorndike , ( to mention no more . ) The History of this Controversie of Imputation , I conclude , though disorderly , with the sense of all the Christian Churches , in the Creeds and Harmony of Confessions , because they were too long to be fitly inserted by the way . The Consent of Christians , and specially Protestants , about the Imputation of Christs Righteousness in Justification ; How far and in what sence it is Imputed . I. SEeing Baptism is our visible initiation into Christianity , we must there begin ; and see what of this is there contained . Mat. 28.19 . Baptizing them into the name of the Father , the Son , and the Holy Ghost , Mar. 16.16 . He that believeth , and is baptized , shall be saved , Act. 2.38 . Repent , and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the Remission of sins , and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost . See Acts 8.36 , 37 , 38. The Eunuch's Faith and Baptism . Act. 22.16 . Arise , and be baptized , and wash away thy sins , having called on the name of the Lord. Rom. 6.3 . So many as were baptized into Jesus Christ , were baptized into his death . Gal. 3.27 . As many as have been baptized into Christ , have put on Christ . 1. Pet. 3.21 . The like whereunto , Baptism doth also now save us , ( not the putting away the filth of the flesh , but the answer of a good Conscience towards God ) by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ . Rom. 4.24 , 25. But for us also to whom it shall be imputed , if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead : who was delivered for our offences , and was raised again for our Justification . [ Quaer . How far Christ's Resurrection is imputed to us . ] II. The Creed , called by the Apostles , hath but [ I believe — the forgiveness of sins . ] III. The Nicene and Constantinopolitane Creed , I acknowledg one Baptism for the Remission of sins ; ( Christ's Death , Burial , and Resurrection premised . ) IV. Athanasius's Creed [ Who suffered for our Salvation , descended into Hell , rose again the third day . — At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies , and shall give account for their own works ; and they that have done good , shall go into everlasting life , and they that have done evil into everlasting Fire . ] ( Remission is contained in Salvation . ) V. The Fathers sence I know not where the Reader can so easily and surely gather , without reading them all , as in Laurentius his Collection de Justif . after the Corpus Confessionum ; and that to the best advantage of the Protestant Cause . They that will see their sence of so much as they accounted necessary to Salvation , may best find it in their Treatises of Baptism , and Catechizings of the Catechumens ; Though they say less about our Controversie than I could wish they had . I will have no other Religion than they had . The Creed of Damasus in Hieron . op . Tom. 2. hath but ( In his Death and Blood we believe that we are cleansed — and have hope that we shall obtain the reward of good merit , ( meaning our own ) ; which the Helvetians own in the end of their Confession . VI. The Augustane Confession , Art. 3 , 4. Christ died — that he might reconcile the Father to us , and be a sacrifice , not only for original sin , but also for all the actual sins of men . — And that we may obtain these benefits of Christ , that is , Remission of sins , justification and life eternal , Christ gave us the Gospel in which these benefits are propounded . — To preach Repentance in his Name , and Remission of sins among all Nations . For when men propagated in the natural manner have sin , and cannot truly satisfie Gods Law , the Gospel reproveth sin , and sheweth us Christ the Mediator , and so teacheth us about Pardon of sins — That freely for Christ's sake are given us , Remission of sins , & Justification by Faith , by which we must confess that these are given us for Christ , who was made a Sacrifice for us , and appeased the Father . Though the Gospel require Penitence ; yet that pardon of sin may be sure , it teacheth us that it is freely given us ; that is , that it dependeth not on the Condition of our worthyness , nor is given for any precedent works , or worthyness of following works . — For Conscience in true fears findeth no work which it can oppose to the Wrath of God ; and Christ is proposed and given us , to be a propitiator . This honour of Christ must not be transferred to our works . Therefore Paul saith , ye are saved freely , ( or of Grace , ) And it is of grace , that the promise might be sure ; that is , Pardon will be sure ; when we know that it dependeth not on the Condition of our worthiness , but is given for Christ . — In the Creed this Article , [ I believe the Forgiveness of sins , ] is added to the history : And the rest of the history of Christ must be referred to this Article : For this benefit is the end of the history , Christ therefore suffered and rose again , that for him might be given us Remission of sins , and life everlasting . Art. 6. When we are Reconciled by Faith , there must needs follow the Righteousness of good works . — But because the infirmity of mans nature is so great , that no man can satisfie the Law , it is necessary to teach men , not only that they must obey the Law , but also how this Obedience pleaseth , lest Consciences fall into desperation , when they understand that they satisfie not the Law. This Obedience then pleaseth , not because it satisfieth the Law , but because the person is in Christ , reconciled by Faith , and believeth that the relicts of his Sin are pardoned . We must ever hold that we obtain remission of sins , and the person is pronounced Righteous , that is , is accepted freely for Christ , by Faith : And afterward that Obedience to the Law pleaseth , and is reputed a certain Righteousness , and meriteth rewards . ] Thus the first Protestants . VII . The 11th Article of the Church of England ( to which we all offer to subscribe ) is [ Of the Justification of Man. We are accounted Righteous before God , only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith ; and not for our own works or deservings . Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only , is a most wholsome doctrine , and very full of Comfort , as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification . ] The said Homilies ( of Salvation and Faith ) say over and over the same thing . As pag. 14. [ Three things go together in our Justification : On Gods part his great Mercy and Grace , on Christs part , Justice ▪ that is the Satisfaction of Gods Justice , or the Price of our Redemption , by the offering of his body , and shedding of his blood , with fulfilling of the Law perfectly and throughly ; And on our part true and lively Faith in the Merits of Jesus Christ : which yet is not ours , but by Gods working in us . And pag. [ A lively Faith is not only the common belief of the Articles of our Faith , but also a true trust and confidence of the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ , and a steadfast hope of all good things to be received at Gods hand ; and that although we through infirmity or temptation — do fall from him by sin , yet if we return again to him by true repentance , that he will forgive and forget our offences , for his Sons sake our Saviour Jesus Christ , and will make us inheritors with him of his everlasting Kingdom — Pag. 23. For the very sure and lively Christian Faith , is , to have an earnest trust and confidence in God , that he doth regard us , and is careful over us , as the Father is over the Child whom he doth love ; and that he will be merciful unto us , for his only Sons sake ; and that we have our Saviour Christ our perpetual Advocate and Prince , in whose only merits , oblation and suffering , we do trust that our offences be continually washed and purged , whensoever we repenting truely do return to him with our whole heart , steadfastly determining with our selves , through his grace to obey and serve him , in keeping his Commandments , &c. ] So also the Apology . This is our doctrine of Imputation . VIII . The Saxon Confession oft insisteth on the free Pardon of sin , not merited by us , but by Christ . And expoundeth Justification to be [ Of unjust , that is , Guilty and disobedient , and not having Christ : to be made Just , that is , To be Absolved from Guilt for the Son of God , and an apprehender by Faith of Christ himself , who is our Righteousness ; ( as Jeremiah and Paul say ) because by his Merit we have forgiveness , and God imputeth righteousness to us , and for him , reputeth us just , and by giving us his Spirit quickeneth and regenerateth us . — By being Justified by Faith alone we mean , that freely for our Mediator alone , not for our Contrition , or other Merits ; the pardon of sin and reconciliation is given us . — And before , It is certain , when the mind is raised by this Faith , that the pardon of sin , Reconciliation and Imputation of Righteousness , are given for the Merit of Christ himself — And after [ By Faith is meant Affiance , resting in the Son of God the Propitiator , for whom we are received and please ( God ) and not for our virtues and fulfilling of the Law. IX . The Wittenberge Confession , ( In Corp. Conf. pag. 104 ) A man is made Accepted of God , and Reputed just before him , for the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ alone , by Faith. And at the Judgment of God we must not trust to the Merit of any of the Virtues which we have , but to the sole Merit of our Lord Jesus Christ , which is made ours by Faith. And because at the bar of God , where the case of true eternal Righteousness and Salvation will be pleaded , there is no place for mans Merits , but only for God's Mercy , and the Merits of our Lord Jesus Christ , whom we receive by Faith : therefore we think our Ancestors said rightly , that we are justified before God by Faith only . X. The Bohemian Confession , making Justification the principal Article , goeth the same way . [ Pag. 183 , 184. By Christ men are Justified , obtain Salvation and Remission of sin , freely by Faith in Christ , through mercy , without any Work and Merit of man. And his death and blood alone is sufficient , to abolish & expiate all the sins of all men . All must come to Christ for pardon and Remission of Sin , Salvation and every thing . All our trust and hope is to be fastened on him alone . Through him only and his merits God is appeas'd and propitious ; Loveth us , and giveth us Life eternal . XI . The Palatinate Confession ib. pag. 149. [ I believe that God the Father for the most full Satisfaction of Christ , doth never remember any of my sins , and that pravity which I must strive against while I live , but contrarily will rather of grace give me the righteousness of Christ , so that I have no need to fear the judgment of God. — And pag. 155. If he merited , and obtained Remission of all our sins , by the only and bitter passion , and death of the Cross , so be it we embracing it by true Faith , as the satisfaction for our sins , apply it to our selves . — ] I find no more of this . XII . The Polonian Churches of Lutherans and Bohemians agreed in the Augustane and Bohemian Confession before recited . XIII . The Helvetian Confession , [ To Justifie signifieth to the Apostle in the dispute of Justification , To Remit sins , to Absolve from the fault and punishment , to Receive into favour , and to Pronounce just — For Christ took on himself , and took away the sins of the World , and satisfied Gods Justice . God therefore for the sake of Christ alone , suffering and raised again , is propitious to our sins ▪ and imputeth them not to us , but imputeth the righteousness of Christ for ours ; so that now we are not only cleansed and purged from sins , or Holy , but also endowed with the Righteousness of Christ , and so absolved from sins , Death and Condemnation , and are righteous and heirs of life eternal . Speaking properly , God only justifieth us , and justifieth only for Christ , not imputing to us sins , but imputing to us his Righteousness . ] This Confession speaketh in terms neerest the opposed opinion : But indeed saith no more than we all say ; Christs Righteousness being given and imputed to us as the Meritorious Cause of our pardon and right to life . XIV . The Basil Confession , Art. 9. [ We confess Remission of sins by Faith in Jesus Christ crucified . And though this Faith work continually by Love , yet Righteousness and Satisfaction for our Sins , we do not attribute to works , which are fruits of Faith ; but only to true affiance & faith in the blood shed of the Lamb of God. We ingenuously profess , that in Christ , who is our Righteousness , Holiness , Redemption , Way , Truth , Wisdom , Life , all things are freely given us . The works therefore of the faithful are done , not that they may satisfie for their sins , but only that by them , they may declare that they are thankful to God for so great benefits given us in Christ . XV. The Argentine Confession of the four Cities , Cap. 3. ib. pag. 179. hath but this hereof : When heretofore they delivered , that a mans own proper Works are required to his Justification , we teach that this is to be acknowledged wholly received of God's benevolence and Christ's Merit , and perceived only by Faith. C. 4. We are sure that no man can be made Righteous or saved , unless he love God above all , and most studiously imitate him . We can no otherwise be Justified , that is , become both Righteous and Saved ( for our Righteousness is our very Salvation ) than if we being first indued with Faith , by which believing the Gospel , and perswaded that God hath adopted us as Sons , and will for ever give us his fatherly benevolence , we wholly depend on his beck ( or will. ) XVI . The Synod of Dort , mentioneth only Christs death for the pardon of sin and Justification . The Belgick Confession § 22. having mentioned Christ and his merits made ours , § 23. addeth , [ We believe that our blessedness consisteth in Remission of our sins for Jesus Christ ; and that our Righteousness before God is therein contained , as David and Paul teach ; We are justified freely , or by Grace , through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus . We hold this Foundation firm , and give all the Glory to God — presuming nothing of our selves , and our merits , but we rest on the sole Obedience of a Crucified Christ ; which is ours when we believe in him . ] Here you see in what sence they hold that Christs merits are ours ; Not to justifie us by the Law , that saith , ( Obey perfectly and Live ) but as the merit of our pardon , which they here take for their whole Righteousness . XVII . The Scottish Confession , Corp. Conf. pag. 125. hath but [ that true Believers receive in this life Remission of Sins , and that by Faith alone in Christs blood : So that though sin remain — yet it is not Imputed to us , but is remitted , and covered by Christs Righteousness . ] This is plain and past all question . XVIII . The French Confession is more plain , § 18. ib. pag. 81. [ We believe that our whole Righteousness lyeth in the pardon of our sins ; which is also as David witnesseth our only blessedness . Therefore all other reasons by which men think to be justified before God , we plainly reject ; and all opinion of Merit being cast away ; we rest only in the Obedience of Christ , which is Imputed to us , both that all our sins may be covered , and that we may get Grace before God. ] So that Imputation of Obedience , they think is but for pardon of sin , and acceptance . Concerning Protestants Judgment of Imputation , it is further to be noted ; 1. That they are not agreed whether Imputation of Christ's perfect Holiness and Obedience , be before or after the Imputation of his Passion in order of nature . Some think that our sins are first in order of nature done away by the Imputation of his sufferings , that we may be free from punishment ; and next , that his perfection is Imputed to us , to merit the Reward of life eternal : But the most learned Confuters of the Papists hold , that Imputation of Christs Obedience and Suffering together , are in order of nature before our Remission of sin and Acceptance , as the meritorious cause : And these can mean it in no other sence than that which I maintain . So doth Davenant de Just . hab . et act . & Pet. Molinaeus Thes . Sedan . Vol. 1. pag. 625. Imputatio justitiae Christi propter quam peccata remittuntur , & censemur justi coram Deo. Maresius Thes . Sedan . Vol. 2. pag. 770 , 771. § 6 & 10. maketh the material cause of our Justification to be the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ , yea the Merit of his Satisfaction , and so maketh the formal Cause of Justification to be the Imputation of Christs Righteousness , or which is the same , the solemn Remission of all sins , and our free Acceptance with God. Note that he maketh Imputation to be the same thing with Remission and Acceptance ; which is more than the former said . 2. Note , that when they say that Imputation is the Form of Justification , they mean not of Justification Passively as it is ours , but Actively as it is Gods Justifying act ; so Maresius ibidem . And many deny it to be the form : And many think that saying improper . 3. Note , that it is ordinarily agreed by Protestants , that Christs Righteousness is imputed to us in the same sence as our sins are said to be imputed to him ; ( even before they are committed many Ages ; ) which cleareth fully the whole Controversie to those that are but willing to understand , and blaspheme not Christ ; so Maresius ubi supra : Quemadmodum propter deliquia nostra ei imputata punitus fuit Christus in terris ; ita & propter ejus Justitiam nobis imputatam coronamur in Caelis . And Joh. Crocius Disput . 10. p. 502. And Vasseur in his solid Disp . Thes . Sedan . Vol. 2. pag. 1053 , 1054. While he mentioneth only Satisfaction for our Justification , yet § 27. saith that Satisfaction is imputed to us , and placeth Christs Imputed Righteousness in his Obedience to the death ; and saith that this satisfying Obedience , in suffering , is our Imputed Righteousness . Ea igitur Obedientia Christi qua Patri paruit usque ad mortem crucis , qua coram Patre comparuit ut voluntatem ejus perficeret , qua a Patre missus , ut nos sui sanguinis effusione redimeret , justitiae ejus pro peccatis nostris abunde satisfecit ; ea inquam obedientia ex gratia Patris imputata & donata , illa justitia est qua justificamur . And they ordinarily use the similitude of the Redemption of a Captive , and Imputing the Price to him . He addeth ( Hence we may gather that as Christ was made sin , so we are made the Righteousness of God , that is by Imputation ] which is true . The plain truth in all this is within the reach of every sound Christian , and self-conceited wranglers make difficulties where there are none . Yea , how far the Papists themselves grant the Protestant doctrine of Imputation , let the following words of Vasseur on Bellarmine be judg . [ Bellarm. ait ; Si solum vellent haeretici nobis imputari Merita Christi , quia nobis donata sunt , & possumus ea Deo Patri offerre pro peccatis nostris , quoniam Christus suscepit super se onus satisfaciendi pro nobis , nosque Deo Patri reconciliandi , recta esset eorum Sententia : I doubt some will say , it is false , because Bellarmine granteth it ; but Vasseur addeth [ Haec ille : sed an nostra longe abest ab illâ , quam in nobis requireret sententia . ] And I wish the Reader that loveth Truth and Peace to read the words of Pighius , Cassander , Bellarmine , &c. saying as the Protestants , cited by Joh. Crocius de Justificat . Disput . 9. pag. 458. &c. And of Morton Apolog especially Tho. Waldensis . Nazianzen's sentence prefixed by the great Basil-Doctors to their Confession , I do affectionately recite , [ Sacred Theologie and Religion is a simple and naked thing ; consisting of Divine Testimonies without any great artifice : which yet some do naughtily turn into a most difficult Art. The History of the Socinians opposing Christs Satisfaction and Merits I overpass , as being handled by multitude of Writers . If any impartial man would not be troubled with needless tedious writings , and yet would see the Truth clearly , about Justification and Imputation , in a very little room , let him read , 1. Mr. Bradshaw , 2. Mr. Gibbon's Sermon in the Exercises at Giles's in the Fields . 3. Mr. Truman's great Propitiation . 4. Joshua Placeus , his Disput . de Justif . in Thes . Salmur . Vol. 1. 5. And Le Blank 's late Theses ; Which will satisfie those that have any just capacity for satisfaction . And if he add Wotton de Reconciliatione , and Grotius de Satisfactione , he need not lose his labour : no nor by reading John Goodwin of Justification , though every word be not approveable . And Dr. Stillingfleet's Sermons of Satisfaction , coming last , will also conduce much to his just information . So much of the Historical part . CHAP. II. Of the true stating of the Controversie , and the explication of the several points contained or meerly implyed in it . I take explication to be here more useful than argumentation : And therefore I shall yet fullier open to you the state of our differences ▪ and my own judgment in the point , with the reasons of it , in such necessary Distinctions , and brief Propositions , as shall carry their own convincing light with them . If any think I distinguish too much , let him prove any to be needless or unjust , and then reject it and spare not . If any think I distinguish not accurately enough , let him add what is wanting , and but suppose that I have elsewhere done it , and am not now handling the whole doctrine of Justification , but only that of Imputation , and what it necessarily includeth . THough a man that readeth our most Learned Protestants , professing that they agree even with Bellarmine himself in the stating of the case of Imputation , would think that there should need no further stating of it . I cited you Bellarmine's words before with Vasseurs consent : I here add Johan . Crocius de Justif . Disp . 10. pag. 500.501 . Vide hominis sive vertiginem sive improbitutem , clamat fieri non posse ut Justitia Christi nobis imputetur eo sensu qui haereticis probetur — Et tamen rectam vocat sententiam , quam suam faciunt Evangelici . Quod enim cum rectâ ratione pugnare dicit , nos per Justitiam Christi formaliter justos nominari & esse , nos non tangit : Non dicimus ; Non sentimus : Sed hoc totum proficiscitur e Sophistarum officinâ , qui phrasin istam nobis affingunt , ut postea eam exagitent tanquam nostram : ( yet some of our own give them this pretence . ) Nos sententiam quam ille rectam judicat , tenemus , tuemur ; sic tamen ut addamus , quod Genti adversariae est intolerabile , non alia ratione nos justos censeri coram Deo. ] But by Justification the Papists mean Sanctification : And they count it not intolerable to say that the penalty of our sins is remitted to us , by that Satisfaction to the Justice of God according to the Law of Innocency , which Christ only hath made . But though many thrust in more indeed , and most of them much more in words ; yet you see they are forced to say as we say whether they will or not : For they seem unwilling to be thought to agree with us , where they agree indeed . ] And the following words of Joh. Crocius pag. 506 , 507. &c. shew the common sence of most Protestants , [ When Bellarmine observeth that Imputation maketh us as righteous as Christ , he saith , [ If we said that we are Justified by Christs essential righteousness . — But we say it not . Yea above all we renounce that which the Sophister puts in of his own , even that which he saith of Formal Righteousness : For it is not our opinion , that we are constituted formally Righteous by Christ's Righteousness , which we rather call the Material cause . — § 32. Christs satisfaction is made for all : But it is imputed to us , not as it is made for all , but as for us . I illustrate it by the like . The Kings Son payeth the debt of a Community deeply indebted to the King , and thence bound to perpetual slavery . This payment gets liberty for this , and that , and the other member of the Community : For it is imputed to them by the King as if they had paid it . But this Imputation transferreth not the honour to them , but brings them to partake of the Benefit . So when the price paid by Christ for all , is imputed to this or that man , he is taken into the society of the Benefit , — Pag. 503. Distinguish between the Benefit , and the Office of Christ . The former is made ours , but not the latter , — Pag. 542. The Remission of sin is nothing but the Imputation of Christs Righteousness . Rom. 4. Where Imputation of Righteousness , Remission of Iniquities , and non-imputation of sin , are all one , — Pag. 547. God imputeth it as far as he pleaseth , — Pag. 548. Princes oft impute the merits of Parents to unworthy Children , — Pag. 551. He denyeth that we have Infinite Righteousness in Christ , because it is imputed to us in a finite manner , even so far as was requisite to our absolution . But I will a little more distinctly open and resolve the Case . 1. We must distinguish of Righteousness as it relateth to the Preceptive part of the Law ; and as it relateth to the Retributive part : The first Righteousness , is Innocency contrary to Reatus Culpae : The second is Jus ad impunitatem & ad praemium ( seu d●num , ) Right to Impunity and to the Reward . 2. We must distinguish of Christs Righteousness , which is either so called , formally and properly , which is the Relation of Christs person to his Law of Mediation imposed on him . 1. As Innocent and a perfect obeyer ; 2. As one that deserved not punishment , but deserved Reward . Or it is so called materially and improperly ; which is , Those same Habits , Acts and Sufferings of Christ , from which his Relation of Righteous did result . 3. We must distinguish of Imputation , which signifyeth ( here ) 1. To repute us personally to have been the Agents of Christs Acts , the subjects of his Habits and Passion in a Physical sence . 2. Or to repute the same formal Relation of Righteousness which was in Christs person , to be in ours as the subject . 3. Or to repute us to have been the very subjects of Christ's Habits and Passion , and the Agents of his Acts in a Political or Moral sense , ( and not a physical ) ; as a man payeth a debt by his Servant , or Attorney , or Delegate . 4. And consequently to repute a double formal Righteousness to result from the said Habits , Acts , and Passions ; one to Christ as the natural Subject and Agent , and another to us as the Moral , Political , or reputed Subject and Agent ( And so his Formal Righteousness not to be imputed to us in it self as ours , but another to result from the same Matter . ) 5. Or else that we are reputed both the Agents and Subjects of the Matter of his Righteousness , morally , and also of the Formal Righteousness of Christ himself . 6. Or else by Imputation is meant here , that Christ being truly reputed to have taken the Nature of sinful man , and become a Head for all true Believers , in that undertaken Nature and Office in the Person of a Mediator , to have fulfilled all the Law imposed on him , by perfect Holiness and Obedience , and Offering himself on the Cross a Sacrifice for our sins , voluntarily suffering in our stead , as if he had been a sinner , ( guilty of all our sins ) As soon as we believe we are pardoned , justified , adopted for the sake and merit of this Holiness , Obedience and penal Satisfaction of Christ , with as full demonstration of divine Justice , at least , and more full demonstration of his Wisdom and Mercy , than if we had suffered our selves what our sins deserved ( that is , been damned ) or had never sinned : And so Righteousness is imputed to us , that is , we are accounted or reputed righteous , ( not in relation to the Precept , that is , innocent , or sinless , but in relation to the Retribution , that is , such as have Right to Impunity and Life , ) because Christ's foresaid perfect Holiness , Obedience and Satisfaction , merited our Pardon , and Adoption , and the Spirit ; or merited the New-Covenant , by which , as an Instrument , Pardon , Justification and Adoption are given to Believers , and the Spirit to be given to sanctifie them : And when we believe , we are justly reputed such as have Right to all these purchased Gifts . 4. And that it may be understood how far Christ did Obey or Suffer in our stead , or person , we must distinguish , 1. Between his taking the Nature of sinful man , and taking the Person of sinners . 2. Between his taking the Person of a sinner , and taking the Person of you and me , and each particular sinner . 3. Between his taking our sinful persons simply , & ad omnia , and taking them only , secundum quid , in tantum , & ad hoc . 4. Between his suffering in the Person of sinners , and his obeying and sanctity in the Person of sinners ▪ or of us in particular . 5. Between his Obeying and Suffering in our Person , and our Obeying and Suffering in his Person ( Natural or Political . ) And now I shall make use of these distinctions , by the Propositions following . Prop. 1. The phrase of [ Christ's Righteousness imputed to us ] is not in the Scripture . 2. Therefore when it cometh to Disputation , to them that deny it , some Scripture-phrase should be put in stead of it ; because , 1. The Scripture hath as good , if not much better , phrases , to signifie all in this that is necessary . 2. And it is supposed that the Disputants are agreed of all that is express in the Scripture . 3. Yet so much is said in Scripture , as may make this phrase [ of Imputing Christ's Righteousness to us ] justifiable , in the sound sence here explained : For the thing meant by it is true , and the phrase intelligible . 4. Christ's Righteousness is imputed to Believers , in the sixth sence here before explained ; As the Meritorious cause of our Pardon , Justification , Righteousness , Adoption , Sanctification and Salvation , &c. as is opened . 5. Christ did not suffer all in kind ( much less in duration ) which sinful man deserved to suffer : As e. g. 1. He was not hated of God ; 2. Nor deprived or deserted of the sanctifying Spirit , and so of its Graces and Gods Image ; Nor had 3. any of that permitted penalty by which sin it self is a misery and punishment to the sinner . 4. He fell not under the Power of the Devil as a deceiver and ruler , as the ungodly do . 5. His Conscience did not accuse him of sin , and torment him for it . 6. He did not totally despair of ever being saved . 7. The fire of Hell did not torment his body . More such instances may be given for proof . 6. Christ did not perform all the same obedience in kind , which many men , yea all men , are or were bound to perform . As 1. He did not dress and keep that Garden which Adam was commanded to dress and keep . 2. He did not the conjugal offices which Adam , and millions more , were bound to . 3. Nor the Paternal Offices to Children . 4. Nor all the offices of a King on Earth , or Magistrate : nor of a Servant , &c. Nor the duty of the Sick. 5. He did not repent of sin , nor turn from it to God , nor mortifie or resist in himself any sinful lust ; nor receive a Saviour by Faith , nor was circumcised or baptized for the Remission of his sins ; nor loved God or thanked him for redeeming or pardoning him ; nor obeyed God in the use of any Ordinance or Means , for the subduing of sin , and healing or saving of his Soul from any sin or deserved wrath of God ; with much more such . 7. Christ did perform much which no man else was bound to do : As to redeem Souls , to work his Miracles and the rest of the works , peculiar to the Mediator . 8. That Law which bound us to Suffering , ( or made it our due ) bound not Christ to it , ( as being innocent ) ; But he was bound to it by the Fathers Law of Mediator , and by his own voluntary sponsion . 9. The Law obliging every sinner himself to suffer , was not fulfilled by the Suffering of Christ our Sponsor : But only the Lawgiver satisfied by attaining its Ends. For neither the letter nor sence of it said , [ If thou sin , thou or thy surety shall suffer . ] 10. Christ satisfied Justice and obeyed in Humane Nature , which also was Holy in him . 11. He did not this as a Natural Root , or Head to man , as Adam was ; to convey Holiness or Righteousness by natural propagation , as Adam should have done ; and did by sin : For Christ had no Wife or natural Children ; But as a Head , by Contract as a Husband to a Wife , and a King to a Kingdom , and a Head of Spiritual Influx . 12. No as being Actually such a Head to the Redeemed when he Obeyed and Suffered ; but as a Head by Aptitude and Office , Power and Virtue , who was to become a Head actually to every one when they Believed and Consented ; Being before a Head for them , and over those that did exist , but not a Head to them , in act . 13. Therefore they were not Christs members Political , ( much less Natural ) when he obeyed and died . 14. A Natural Head being but a part of a person , what it doth the Person doth . But seeing a Contracted Head , and all the members of his Body Contracted or Politick , are every one a distinct Person , it followeth not that each person did really or reputatively what the Head did . Nay it is a good consequence that [ If he did it as Head , they did it not ( numerically ) as Head or Members . ] 15. Christ Suffered and Obeyed in the Person of the Mediator between God and man ; and as a subject to the Law of Mediation . 16. Christ may be said to suffer in the person of a sinner , as it meaneth his own person reputed and used as a sinner by his persecutors , and as he was one who stood before God as an Undertaker to suffer for Man's sin . 17. Christ suffered in the place and stead of sinners , that they might be delivered , though in the person of a Sponsor . 18. When we are agreed that the Person of the Sponsor , and of every particular sinner are divers ; and that Christ had not suffered , if we had not sinned , and that he as a Sponsor suffered in our stead , and so bore the punishment , which not he , but we deserved ▪ If any will here instead of a Mediator or Sponsor call him our Representative , and say that he suffered even in all our Persons reputatively not simpliciter , but secunduùm quid , & in tantum only ; that is , not representing our Persons simply and in all respects , and to all ends , but only so far as to be a sacrifice for our sins , and suffer in our place and stead what he suffered ; we take this to be but lis de nomine , a question about the name and words : And we will not oppose any man that thinketh those words fittest , as long as we agree in the matter signified . And so many Protestant Divines say that Christ suffered in the person of every sinner , ( at least Elect , ) that is , so far only and to such effects . 19. Christ did not suffer strictly , simply ▪ absolutely , in the person of any one elect sinner , much less in the millions of persons of them all , in Law-sence , or in Gods esteem . God did not esteem Christ to be naturally , or as an absolute Representer , David , Manasseh , Paul , and every such other sinner , but only a Mediator that suffered in their stead . 20. God did make Christ to be sin for us ; that is , A Sacrifice for our sin , and one that by Man was reputed , and by God and Man was used , as sinners are , and deserve to be . 21. Christ was not our Delegate in Obeying or Suffering : We did not commission him , or depute him to do what he did in our stead : But he did it by God's Appointment and his own Will. 22. Therefore he did it on God's terms , and to what effects it pleased God , and not on our terms , nor to what effects we please . 23. God did not suppose or repute Christ , to have committed all or any of the sins which we all committed , nor to have had all the wickedness in his nature which was in ours , nor to have deserved what we deserved : Nor did he in this proper sence impute our sins to Christ . 24. The false notion of God's strict imputing all our sins to Christ , and esteeming him the greatest sinner in the World , being so great a Blasphemy both against the Father and the Son , it is safest in such Controversies to hold to the plain and ordinary words of Scripture . And it is not the Wisdom nor Impartiality of some men , who greatly cry up the Scripture perfection , and decry the addition of a Ceremony or Form in the Worship of God ; that yet think Religion is endangered , if our Confession use not the phrases of [ God 's Imputing our sin to Christ , and his Imputing Christ's Righteousness to us ] when neither of them is in the Scripture ; As if all God's Word were not big or perfect enough to make us a Creed or Confession in such phrases as it is fit for Christians to take up with ▪ Countenancing the Papists , whose Faith is swelled to the many Volumes of the Councils , and no man can know how much more is to be added , and when we have all . 25. God doth not repute or account us to have suffered in our Natural persons what Christ suffered for us , nor Christ to have suffered in our Natural persons . 26. Though Christ suffered in our stead , and in a large sence , to certain uses and in some respects , as the Representer , or in the Persons of sinners ; yet did he not so far represent their persons in his Habitual Holiness and Actual Obedience ( no not in the Obedience of his Suffering , ) as he did in the suffering it self . He obeyed not in the Person of a sinner , much less of millions of sinners ; which were to say , In the person of sinners he never sinned . He suffered , to save us from suffering ; but he obeyed not to save us from obeying , but to bring us to Obedience . Yet his Perfection of Obedience had this end , that perfect Obedience might not be necessary in us to our Justification and Salvation . 27. It was not we our selves who did perfectly obey , or were perfectly holy , or suffered for sin in the Person of Christ , or by Him : Nor did we ( Naturally or Morally ) merit our own Salvation by obeying in Christ ; nor did we satisfie Gods Justice for our sins , nor purchase pardon of Salvation to our selves , by our Suffering in and by Christ ; All such phrase and sence is contrary to Scripture . But Christ did this for us . 28. Therefore God doth not repute us to have done it , seeing it is not true . 29. It is impossible for the individual formal Righteousness of Christ , to be our Formal personal Righteousness . Because it is a Relation and Accident , which cannot be translated from subject to subject , and cannot be in divers subjects the same . 30. Where the question is , Whether Christs Material Righteousness , that is , his Habits , Acts and Sufferings themselves , be Ours , we must consider how a man can have Propriety in Habits , Acts and Passions who is the subject of them : and in Actions , who is the Agent of them . To Give the same Individual Habit or Passion to another , is an Impossibility , that is , to make him by Gift the subject of it . For it is not the same , if it be in another subject . To make one man really or physically to have been the Agent of anothers Act , even that Individual Act , if he was not so , is a contradiction and impossibility ; that is , to make it true , that I did that which I did not . To be ours by Divine Imputation , cannot be , to be ours by a false Reputation , or supposition that we did what we did not : For God cannot err or lie . There is therefore but one of these two ways left , Either that we our selves in person , truly had the habits which Christ had , and did all that Christ did , and suffered all that he suffered , and so satisfied and merited Life in and by him , as by an Instrument , or Legal Representer of our persons in all this ; Which I am anon to Confute : or else , That Christs Satisfaction , Righteousness , and the Habits , Acts and Sufferings in which it lay , are imputed to us , and made ours ; not rigidly in the very thing it self , but in the Effects and Benefits ; In as much as we are as really Pardoned , Justified , Adopted by them , as the Meritorious cause , by the instrumentality of the Covenants Donation , as if we our selves had done and suffered all that Christ did , as a Mediator and Sponsor , do and suffer for us : I say , As really and certainly , and with a fuller demonstration of Gods Mercy and Wisdom , and with a sufficient demonstration of his Justice . But not that our propriety in the benefits is in all respects the same , as it should have been if we had been , done , and suffered our selves what Christ did . Thus Christs Righteousness is ours . 31. Christ is truly The Lord our Righteousness ; in more respects than one or two : 1. In that he is the meritorious Cause of the Pardon of all our sins , and our full Justification , Adoption , and right to Glory : and by his Satisfaction and Merits only , our Justification by the Covenant of Grace against the Curse of the Law of Works is purchased . 2. In that he is the Legislator , Testator and Donor of our Pardon , and Justification by this new-Testament or Covenant . 3. In that he is the Head of Influx , and King and Intercessor , by and from whom the Spirit is given , to sanctifie us to God , and cause us sincerely to perform the Conditions of the Justifying and saving Covenant , in Accepting and Improving the mercy then given . 4. In that he is the Righteous Judge and Justifyer of Believers by sentence of Judgment . In all these Respects he is The Lord our Righteousness . 32. We are said to be made the Righteousness of God in him : 1. In that , as he was used like a sinner for us , ( but not esteemed one by God ) so we are used like Innocent persons so far as to be saved by him . 2. In that through his Merits , and upon our union with him , when we believe and consent to his Covenant , we are pardoned and justified , and so made Righteous really , that is , such as are not to be condemned but to be glorified . 3. In that the Divine Nature and Inherent Righteousness ▪ to them that are in him by Faith , are for his Merits , given by the Holy Ghost . 4. In that God's Justice and Holiness Truth , Wisdom , and Mercy , are all wonderfully demonstrated in this way of pardoning and justifying sinners by Christ . Thus are we made the Righteousness of God in him . 31. For Righteousness to be imputed to us , is all one as to be accounted Righteous , Rom. 4.6 , 11. notwithstanding that we be not Righteous as fulfillers of the Law of Innocency . 34. For Faith to be imputed to us for Righteousness , Rom. 4.22 , 23 , 24. is plainly meant , that God who under the Law of Innocency required perfect Obedience , of us to our Justification and Glorification , upon the satisfaction and merits of Christ , hath freely given a full Pardon and Right to Life , to all true Believers ; so that now by the Covenant of Grace nothing is required of us , to our Justification , but Faith : all the rest being done by Christ : And so Faith in God the Father , Son and Holy Ghost , is reputed truly to be the condition on our part , on which Christ and Life , by that Baptismal Covenant , are made ours . 35. Justification , Adoption , and Life eternal are considered ; 1. Quoad ipsam rem , as to the thing it self in value . 2. Quoad , Ordinem Conferendi & Recipiendi , as to the order and manner of Conveyance and Participation . In the first respect , It is a meer free-gift to us , purchased by Christ : In the second respect , It is a Reward to Believers , who thankfully accept the free-Gift according to its nature and uses . 36. It is an error contrary to the scope of the Gospel to say , that the Law of Works , or of Innocency , doth justifie us , as performed either by our selves , or by Christ . For that Law condemneth and curseth us ; And we are not efficiently justified by it , but from or against it . 37. Therefore we have no Righteousness in Reality or Reputation formally ours , which consisteth in the first species ; that is , in a Conformity to the Preceptive part of the Law of Innocency ; we are not reputed Innocent : But only a Righteousness which consisteth in Pardon of all sin , and right to life , ( with sincere performance of the Condition of the Covenant of Grace , that is , True Faith. ) 38. Our pardon puts not away our Guilt of Fact or Fault , but our Guilt of , or , obligation to Punishment . God doth not repute us such as never sinned , or such as by our Innocency merited Heaven , but such as are not to be damned , but to be glorified , because pardoned and adopted through the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ . 39. Yet the Reatus Culpae is remitted to us Relatively as to the punishment , though not in it self ; that is , It shall not procure our Damnation : Even as Christ's Righteousness is , though not in it self , yet respectively as to the Benefits said to be made ours , in as much as we shall have those benefits by it . 40. Thus both the Material and the Formal Righteousness of Christ are made ours ; that is , Both the Holy Habits and Acts , and his Sufferings , with the Relative formal Righteousness of his own Person , because these are altogether one Meritorious cause of our Justification , commonly called the Material Cause . Obj. But though Forma Denominat ; yet if Christs Righteousness in Matter and Form , be the Meritorious Cause of ours , and that be the same with the Material Cause , it is a very tolerable speech to say , that His Righteousness is Ours in it self , while it is the very matter of ours . Ans . 1. When any man is Righteous Immediately by any action , that action is called the Matter of his Righteousness , in such an Analogical sense as Action , an Accident may be called Matter , because the Relation of Righteous is founded or subjected first or partly in that Action . And so when Christ perfectly obeyed , it was the Matter of his Righteousness . But to be Righteous and to Merit are not all one notion : Merit is adventitious to meer Righteousness . Now it is not Christs Actions in themselves that our Righteousness resulteth from immediately as his own did ; But there is first his Action , then his formal Righteousness thereby ; and thirdly , his Merit by that Righteousness which goes to procure the Covenant-Donation of Righteousnass to us , by which Covenant we are efficiently made Righteous . So that the name of a Material Cause is much more properly given to Christs Actions , as to his own formal Righteousness , than as to ours . But yet this is but de nomine . 2. Above all , consider what that Righteousness is which Christ merited for us , ( which is the heart of the Controversie . ) It is not of the same species or sort with his own . His Righteousness was a perfect sinless Innocency , and Conformity to the preceptive part of the Law of Innocency in Holiness . Ours is not such . The dissenters think it is such by Imputation , and here is the difference . Ours is but in respect to the second or retributive part of the Law ; a Right to Impunity and Life , and a Justification not at all by that Law , but from its curse or condemnation . The Law that saith , Obey perfectly and live , sin and die , doth not justifie us as persons that have perfectly obeyed it , really or imputatively ▪ But its obligation to punishment is dissolved , not by it self , but by the Law of Grace . It is then by the Law of Grace that we are judged and justified . According to it , 1. We are not really or reputatively such as have perfectly fulfilled all its Precepts : 2. But we are such as by Grace do sincerely perform the Condition of its promise . 3. By which promise of Gift , we are such as have right to Christs own person , in the Relation and Union of a Head and Saviour , and with him the pardon of all our sins , and the right of Adoption to the Spirit , and the Heavenly Inheritance as purchased by Christ . So that besides our Inherent or Adherent Righteousness of sincere Faith , Repentance and Obedience , as the performed condition of the Law of Grace , we have no other Righteousness our selves , but Right to Impunity and to Life : and not any imputed sinless Innocency at all . God pardoneth our sins and adopteth us , for the sake of Christ's sufferings and perfect Holiness : But he doth not account us perfectly Holy for it , nor perfectly Obedient . So that how-ever you will call it , whether a Material Cause or a Meritorious , the thing is plain . Obj. He is made of God Righteousness to us . Ans . True : But that 's none of the question . But how is he so made ? 1. As he is made Wisdom , Sanctification and Redemption as aforesaid . 2. By Merit , Satisfaction , Direction , Prescription and Donation . He is the Meritorious Cause of our Pardon , of our Adoption , of our Right to Heaven , of that new Covenant which is the Instrumental Deed of Gift , confirming all these : And he is also our Righteousness in the sense that Austin so much standeth on , as all our Holiness and Righteousness of Heart and Life , is not of our natural endeavour , but his gift , and operation by his Spirit ; causing us to obey his Holy precepts and Example . All these ways he is made of God our Righteousness : Besides the Objective way of sense ; as he is Objectively made our Wisdom , because it is the truest wisdom to know him ; So he is objectively made our Righteousness , in that it is that Gospel-Righteousness which is required of our selves , by his grace , to believe in him and obey him . 41. Though Christ fulfilled not the Law by Habitual Holiness and Actual Obedience , strictly in the Individual person of each particular sinner ; yet he did it in the nature of Man : And so humane nature , ( considered in specie , and in Christ personally , though not considered as a totum , or as personally in each man , ) did satisfie and fullfil the Law and Merit . As Humane Nature sinned in Adam actually in specie , and in his individual person , and all our Persons were seminally and virtually in him , and accordingly sinned , or are reputed sinners , as having no nature but what he conveyed who could convey no better than he had ( either as to Relation or Real quality ) : But not that God reputed us to have been actually existent , as really distinct persons in Adam ( which is not true . ) Even so Christ obeyed and suffered in our Nature , and in our nature as it was in him ; and humane sinful nature in specie was Universally pardoned by him and Eternal life freely given to all men for his merits , thus far imputed to them , their sins being not imputed to hinder this Gift ; which is made in and by the Covenant of Grace : Only the Gift hath the Condition of mans Acceptance of it according to its nature , 2 Cor. 5.19 , 20. And all the individuals that shall in time by Faith accept the Gift , are there and thereby made such as the Covenant for his merits doth justifie , by that General Gift . 42. As Adam was a Head by Nature , and therefore conveyed Guilt by natural Generation ; so Christ is a Head ( not by nature but ) by Sacred Contract ; and therefore conveyeth Right to Pardon , Adoption and Salvation , not by Generation , but by Contract , or Donation . So that what it was to be naturally in Adam , seminally and virtually , though not personlly in existence ; even that it is , in order to our benefit by him to be in Christ by Contract or the new Covenant , virtually , though not in personal existence when the Covenant was made . 43. They therefore that look upon Justification or Righteousness , as coming to us immediately by Imputation of Christs Righteousness to us , without the Instrumental Intervention and Conveyance or Collation by this Deed of Gift or Covenant , do confound themselves by confounding and overlooking the Causes of our Justification . That which Christ did by his merits was to procure the new Covenant . The new Covenant is a free Gift of pardon and life with Christ himself , for his merits and satisfaction sake . 44. Though the Person of the Mediator be not really or reputatively the very person of each sinner , ( nor so many persons as there are sinners or believers , ) yet it doth belong to the Person of the Mediator , so far ( limitedly ) to bear the person of a sinner , and to stand in the place of the Persons of all Sinners , as to bear the punishment they deserved , and to suffer for their sins . 45. Scripture speaking of moral matters , usually speaketh rather in Moral than meer Physical phrase : And in strict Physical sence , Christs very personal Righteousness ( Material or Formal ) is not so given to us , as that we are proprietors of the very thing it self , but only of the effects ( Pardon , Righteousness and Life , ) yet in a larger Moral phrase that very thing is oft said to be given to us , which is given to another , or done or suffered for our benefit . He that ransometh a Captive from a Conquerer , Physically giveth the Money to the Conquerer & not to the Captive , & giveth the Captive only the Liberty purchased : But morally and reputatively he is said to give the Money to the Captive , because he gave it for him . And it redeemeth him as well as if he had given it himself . He that giveth ten thousand pounds to purchase Lands , & freely giveth that land to another ; physically giveth the Money to the Seller only , and the Land only to the other . But morally and reputatively we content our selves with the metonymical phrase , and say , he gave the other ten thousand pound . So morally it may be said , that Christs Righteousness , Merits and Satisfaction , was given to us , in that the thing purchased by it was given to us ; when the Satisfaction was given or made to God. Yea when we said it was made to God , we mean only that he was passively the Terminus of active Satisfaction , being the party satisfyed ; but not that he himself was made the Subject and Agent of Habits and Acts , and Righteousness of Christ as in his humane nature , except as the Divine Nature acted it , or by Communication of Attributes . 46. Because the words [ Person ] and [ Personating ] and [ Representing ] are ambiguous ( as all humane language is , ) while some use them in a stricter sense than others do , we must try by other explicatory terms whether we agree in the matter , and not lay the stress of our Controversy upon the bare words . So some Divines say that Christ suffered in the Person of a sinner , when they mean not that he represented the Natural person of any one particular sinner ; but that his own Person was reputed the Sponsor of sinners by God , and that he was judged a real sinner by his persecuters ; and so suffered as if he had been a sinner . 47. As Christ is less improperly said to have Represented our Persons in his satisfactory Sufferings , than in his personal perfect Holiness and Obedience ; so he is less improperly said to have Represented all mankind as newly fallen in Adam , in a General sense , for the purchasing of the universal Gift of Pardon and Life , called , The new Covenant ; than to have Represented in his perfect Holiness and his Sufferings , every Believer considered as from his first being to his Death . Though it is certain that he dyed for all their sins from first to last . For it is most true , 1. That Christ is as a second Adam , the Root of the Redeemed ; And as we derive sin from Adam , so we derive life from Christ , ( allowing the difference between a Natural and a Voluntary way of derivation . ) And though no mans Person as a Person was actually existent and offended in Adam , ( nor was by God reputed to have been and done ) yet all mens Persons were Virtually and Seminally in Adam as is aforesaid ; and when they are existent persons , they are no better either by Relative Innocency , or by Physical Disposition , than he could propagate : and are truly and justly reputed by God to be Persons Guilty of Adams fact , so far as they were by nature seminally and virtually in him : And Christ the second Adam is in a sort the root of Man as Man , ( though not by propagation of us , yet ) as he is the Redeemer of Nature it self from destruction , but more notably the Root of Saints as Saints , who are to have no real sanctity but what shall be derived from him by Regeneration , as Nature and Sin is from Adam by Generation . But Adam did not represent all his posterity as to all the Actions which they should do themselves from their Birth to their Death ; so that they should all have been taken for perfectly obedient to the death , if Adam had not sinned at that time , yea or during his Life . For if any of them under that Covenant had ever sinned afterward in their own person , they should have died for it . But for the time past , they were Guiltless or Guilty in Adam , as he was Guiltless or Guilty himself , so far as they were in Adam : And though that was but in Causâ , & non extra causam ; Yet a Generating Cause which propagateth essence from essence , by self-multiplication of form , much differeth from an Arbitrary facient Cause in this . If Adam had obeyed , yet all his posterity had been nevertheless bound to perfect personal persevering Obedience on pain of Death . And Christ the second Adam so far bore the person of fallen Adam , and suffered in the nature and room of Mankind in General , as without any condition on their part at all ; to give man by an act of Oblivion or new Covenant a pardon of Adams sin , yea and of all sin past , at the time of their consent , though not disobliging them from all future Obedience . And by his perfect Holiness and Obedience and Sufferings , he hath merited that new Covenant , which Accepteth of sincere , though imperfect , Obedience , and maketh no more in us necessary to Salvation . When I say he did this without any Condition on mans part , I mean , He absolutely without Condition , merited and gave us the Justifying Testament or Covenant . Though that Covenant give us not Justification absolutely , but on Condition of believing , fiducial Consent . 2. And so as this Vniversal Gift of Justification upon Acceptance , is actually given to all fallen mankind as such ; so Christ might be said to suffer instead of all , yea and merit too , so far as to procure them this Covenant-gift . 48. The sum of all lyeth in applying the distinction of giving Christs Righteousness as such in it self , and as a cause of our Righteousness , or in the Causality of it . As our sin is not reputed Christs sin in it self , and in the culpability of it ( for then it must needs make Christ odious to God ) but in its Causality of punishment : so Christ's Material or Formal Righteousness , is not by God reputed to be properly and absolutely our own in it self as such , but the Causality of it as it produceth such and such effects . 49. The Objections which are made against Imputation of Christs Righteousness in the sound sense , may all be answered as they are by our Divines ; among whom the chiefest on this subject are Davenant de Justit . Habit & Actual . Johan . Crocius de Justif . Nigrinus de Impletione Legis , Bp. G. Dowman of Justif . Chamier , Paraeus , Amesius and Junius against Bellarm. But the same reasons against the unsound sence of Imputation are unanswerable . Therefore if any shall say concerning my following Arguments , that most of them are used , by Gregor . de Valent. by Bellarm. Becanus , or other Papists , or by Socinians , and are answered by Nigrin●s , Crocius , Davenant , &c. Such words may serve to deceive the simple that are led by Names and Prejudice ; but to the Intelligent they are contemptible , unless they prove that these objections are made by the Papists against the same sence of Imputation against which I use them , and that it is that sense which all those Protestants defend in answering them : For who-ever so answereth them , will appear to answer them in vain . 50. How far those Divines who do use the phrase of Christs suffering in our person , do yet limit the sense in their exposition , and deny that we are reputed to have fulfilled the Law in Christ : because it is tedious to cite many , I shall take up now with one , even Mr. Lawson in his Theopolitica , which ( though about the office of Faith he some-what differ from me ) I must needs call an excellent Treatise , as I take the Author to be one of the most Knowing men yet living that I know . ) Pardon me if I be large in transcribing his words . Pag. 100 , 101. [ If we enquire of the manner how Righteousness and Life is derived from Christ , being one unto so many , it cannot be , except Christ be a general Head of mankind , and one Person with them , as Adam was . We do not read of any but two who were general Heads , and in some respect virtually , All mankind ; the first and second Adam . — The principal cause of this Representation whereby he is one person with us , is the will of God , who as Lord made him such , and as Lawgiver and Judge did so account him . But , 2. How far is he One person with us ? Ans . 1. In general so far as it pleased God to make him so , and no further . 2. In particular , He and we are one so far 1. As to make him liable to the penalty of the Law for us . 2. So far as to free us from that obligation , and derive the benefit of his death to us . Though Christ be so far one with us as to be lyable unto the penalty of the Law , and to suffer it , and upon this suffering we are freed ; yet Christ is not the sinner , nor the sinner Christ . Christ is the Word made flesh , innocent without sin , an universal Priest and King : but we are none of these . Though we be accounted as one person in Law with him , by a Trope ; yet in proper sence it cannot be said that in Christ's Satisfying we satisfied for our own sins . For then we should have been the Word made flesh , able to plead Innocency , &c. All which are false , impossible , blasphemous if affirmed by any . It 's true , we are so one with him , that he satisfied for us , and the benefit of this Satisfaction redounds to us , and is communicable to all , upon certain termes ; though not actually communicated to all : From this Unity and Identity of person in Law ( if I may so speak ) it followeth clearly that Christ's sufferings were not only Afflictions , but Punishments in proper sense . — Pag. 102 , 103. That Christ died for all in some sence must needs be granted , because the Scripture expresly affirms it ( vid. reliqua . ) — There is another question unprofitably handled , Whether the Propitiation which includeth both Satisfaction and Merit , be to be ascribed to the Active or Passive Obedience of Christ ? Ans . 1. Both his Active , Personal , Perfect and Perpetual Obedience , which by reason of his humane nature assumed , and subjection unto God was due , and also that Obedience to the great and transcendent Command of suffering the death of the Cross , both concur as Causes of Remission and Justification . 2. The Scriptures usually ascribe it to the Blood , Death , & Sacrifice of Christ , and never to the Personal Active Obedience of Christ's to the Moral Law. 3. Yet this Active Obedience is necessary , because without it he could not have offered that great Sacrifice of himself without spot to God. And if it had not been without spot , it could not have been propitiatory and effectual for Expiation . 4. If Christ as our Surety had performed for us perfect and perpetual Obedience , so that we might have been judged to have perfectly and fully kept the Law by him , then no sin could have been chargeable upon us , and the Death of Christ had been needless and superfluous . 5. Christs Propitiation freeth the Believer not only from the obligation unto punishment of sense , but of loss ; and procured for him not only deliverance from evil deserved , but the enjoyment of all good necessary to our full happiness . Therefore , there is no ground of Scripture for that opinion , that the Death of Christ and his Sufferings free us from punishments , and by his Active Obedience imputed to us we are made righteous , and the heirs of life . 6. If Christ was bound to perform perfect and perpetual Obedience for us , and he also performed it for us , then we are freed not only from sin , but Obedience too : And this Obedience as distinct and separate from Obedience unto death , may be pleaded for Justification of Life , and will be sufficient to carry the Cause . For the tenor of the Law was this , Do this and live : And if man do this by himself or Surety , so as that the Lawgiver and supreme Judg accept it , the Law can require no more . It could not bind to perfect Obedience and to punishment too . There was never any such Law made by God or just men . Before I conclude this particular of the extent of Christs Merit and Propitiation , I thought good to inform the Reader , that as the Propitiation of Christ maketh no man absolutely , but upon certain terms pardonable and savable ; so it was never made , either to prevent all sin , or all punishments : For it presupposeth man both sinful and miserable : And we know that the Guilt and Punishment of Adams sin , lyeth heavy on all his posterity to this day . And not only that , but the guilt of actual and personal sins lyeth wholly upon us , whilest impenitent and unbelieving and so out of Christ . And the Regenerate themselves are not fully freed from all punishments till the final Resurrection and Judgment . So that his Propitiation doth not altogether prevent but remove sin and punishment by degrees . Many sins may be said to be Remissible by vertue of this Sacrifice , which never shall be remitted . ] So far Mr. Lawson . Here I would add only these Animadversions . 1. That whereas he explaineth Christs personating us in suffering by the similitude of a Debtor and his Surety who are the same person in Law : I note 1. That the case of Debt much differeth from the case of Punishment . 2. That a Surety of Debt is either antecedently such , or consequently : Antecedently , either first one that is bound equally with the Debtor ; 2. or one that promiseth to pay if he do not . I think the Law accounteth neither of these to be the Person of the principal Debtor ( as it doth a Servant by whom he sends the Debt . ) But Christ was neither of these : For the Law did not beforehand oblige him with us , nor did he in Law-sence undertake to pay the Debt , if we failed . Though God decreed that he should do so ; yet that was no part of the sence of the Law. But consequently , if a friend of the Debtor when he is in Jayl will , without his request or knowledg , say to the Creditor , I will pay you all the Debt ; but so that he shall be in my power , and not have present liberty ( lest he abuse it ) but on the terms that I shall please ; yea not at all if he ungratefully reject it ] This Consequent Satisfyer , or Sponsor , or Paymaster , is not in Law-sence the same Person with the Debtor : But if any will call him so , I will not contend about a word , while we agree of the thing ( the terms of deliverance . ) And this is as near the Case between Christ and us , as the similitude of a Debtor will allow . 2. I do differ from Mr. Lawson and Paraeus , and Vrsine , and Olevian , and Scultetus and all that sort of worthy Divines in this ; that whereas they make Christs Holiness and perfect Obedience to be but Justitia personae , necessary to make his Sacrifice spotless and so effectual : I think that of it self it is as directly the cause of our Pardon , Justification and Life , as Christs Passion is ; The Passion being satisfactory and so meritorious , and the personal Holiness Meritorious and so Satisfactory . For the truth is , The Law that condemned us ▪ was not fulfilled by Christs suffering for us , but the Lawgiver satisfied instead of the fulfilling of it : And that Satisfaction lyeth , in the substitution of that which as fully ( or more ) attaineth the ends of the Law as our own suffering would have done . Now the ends of the Law may be attained by immediate Merit of Perfection as well as by Suffering ; but best by both . For 1. By the perfect Holiness and Obedience of Christ , the Holy and perfect will of God is pleased : whence [ This is my beloved Son , in whom I am well pleased . ] 2. In order to the ends of Government , Holiness and perfect Obedience , is honoured and freed from the contempt which sin would cast upon it ; and the holiness of the Law in its Precepts is publickly honoured in this grand Exemplar ; In whom only the will of God was done on Earth , as it is done in Heaven . And such a Specimen to the World is greatly conducible to the ends of Government : So that Christ voluntarily taking humane nature , which as such is obliged to this Perfection , He first highly merited of God the Father hereby , and this with his Suffering , went to attain the ends that our suffering should have attained , much better . So that at least as Meritorious , if not secondarily as satisfactory , I see not but Christs Holiness procureth the Justifying Covenant for us , equally with his Death . A Prince may pardon a Traitor for some noble service of his Friend , as well as for his suffering : much more for both . This way go Grotius de satisf . Mr. Bradshaw and others . 3. When Mr Lawson saith that the Law binds not to Obedience and Punishment both , he meaneth as to the same Act : which contradicts not what Nigrinus and others say , that it binds a sinner to punishment for sin past , and yet to Obedience for the time to come : ( which cannot be entire and perfect . ) So pag. 311. Cap. 22. Qu. 2. Whether there be two parts of Justification , Remission and Imputation of Christs Righteousness . 1. He referreth us to what is aforecited against Imputation of Christs Active Righteousness , separated or abstracted for Reward from the Passive . 2. He sheweth that Paul taketh Remission of sin and Imputation of Righteousness for the same thing . ] So say many of ours . In conclusion I will mind the Reader , that by reading some Authors for Imputation , I am brought to doubt whether some deny not all true Remission of sin , that is , Remission of the deserved punishment . Because I find that by Remission they mean A non-Imputation of sin under the formal notion of sin ; that God taketh it not to be our sin , but Christs ; and Christs Righteousness and perfection to be so ours , as that God accounteth us not as truly sinners . And so they think that the Reatus Culpae as well as Poenae simply in it self is done away . Which if it be so , then the Reatus Poenae , the obligation to punishment , or the dueness of punishment , cannot be said to be dissolved or remitted , because it was never contracted . Where I hold , that it is the Reatus ad Poenam , the Dueness of punishment only that is remitted , and the guilt of sin not as in it self , but in its Causality of punishment . And so in all common language , we say we forgive a man his fault , when we forgive him all the penalty positive and privative . Not esteeming him , 1. Never to have done the fact . 2. Or that fact not to have been a fault , and his fault ; 3. but that punishment for that fault , is forgiven him , and the fault so far as it is a cause of punishment . We must not feign God to judg falsly . This maketh me think of a saying of Bp. Vshers to me , when I mentioned the Papists placing Justification and Remission of sin conjunct , he told me that the Papists ordinarily acknowledg no Remission . And on search I find that Aquinas and the most of them place no true Remission of sin , in Justification : For by Remission ( which they make part of Justification , ) they mean Mortification , or destroying sin it self in the act or habit . But that the pardon of the punishment is a thing that we all need , is not denyable ; nor do they deny it , though they deny it to be part of our Justification . For it 's strange if they deny Christ the pardoning power which they give the Pope . And as Joh. Crocius de Justif . oft tells them , They should for shame grant that Christs Righteousness may be as far imputed to us , as they say a Saints or Martyrs redundant merits and supererogations are . But if the Guilt of Fact and Guilt of Fault in it self considered , be not both imputed first to us , that is , If we be not judged sinners , I cannot see how we can be judged Pardoned sinners ; For he that is judged to have no sin , is judged to deserve no punishment . Unless they will say that to prevent the form and desert of sin , is eminenter , though not formaliter , to forgive . But it is another ( even Actual ) forgiveness which we hear of in the Gospel , and pray for daily in the Lords prayer . Of all which see the full Scripture-proof in Mr. Hotchkis of Forgiveness of sin . CHAP. III. A further explication of the Controversie . Yet I am afraid lest I have not made the state of the Controversie plain enough to the unexercised Reader , and lest the very explicatory distinctions and propositions , though needful and suitable to the matter , should be unsuitable to his capacity ; I will therefore go over it again in a shorter way , and make it as plain as possibly I can ; being fully perswaded , that it is not so much Argumentation , as help to understand the matter , and our own and other mens ambiguous words , that is needful to end our abominable Contentions . § 1. THE Righteousness of a Person is formally a moral Relation of that Person . § 2. This moral Relation , is the Relation of that person to the Rule by which he is to be judged . § 3. And it is his Relation to some Cause , or supposed Accusation or Question to be decided by that judgment . § 4. The Rule of Righteousness here is Gods Law , naturally or supernaturally made known . § 5. The Law hath a Preceptive part , determining what shall be due from us , and a Retributive part determining what shall be due to us . § 6. The Precept instituting Duty , our Actions and Dispositions , which are the Matter of that duty , are physically considered , conform or disconform to the Precept . § 7. Being Physically , they are consequently so Morally considered , we being Moral Agents , and the Law a Rule of Morality . § 8. If the Actions be righteous or unrighteous , consequently the Person is so , in reference to those Actions , supposing that to be his Cause , or the Question to be decided . § 9. Unrighteousness as to this Cause , is Guilt , or Reatus Culpae ; and to be unrighteous is to be Sons , or Guilty of sin . § 10. The Retributive part of the Law is , 1. Premiant , for Obedience ; 2. Penal , for Disobedience . § 11. To be Guilty or Unrighteous as to the reward , is , to have no right to the reward ( that being supposed the Question in judgment ) : And to be Righteous here , is to have right to the reward . § 12. To be Guilty as to the penalty ; is to be jure puniendus , or Reus poenae , or obligatus ad poenam . And to be righteous here , is to have Right to impunity , ( quoad poenam damni & sensus . ) § 13. The first Law made personal , perfect , persevering Innocency both mans duty , and the Condition of the Reward and Impunity , and any sin the condition of punishment . § 14. Man broke this Law , and so lost his Innocency , and so the Condition became naturally impossible to him , de futuro . § 15. Therefore that Law as a Covenant , that is , the Promissory part with its Condition , ceased ; cessante capacitate subditi ; and so did the preceptive part . 1. As it commanded absolute Innocency ( of act and habit . ) 2. And as it commanded the seeking of the Reward on the Condition and by the means of personal Innocency . The Condition thus passing into the nature of a sentence ; And punishment remaining due for the sin . § 16. But the Law remained still an obliging Precept for future perfect Obedience , and made punishment due for all future sin : and these two parts of it , as the Law of lapsed Nature , remained in force , between the first sin , and the new-Covenant promise or Law of Grace . § 17. The eternal Word interposing , a Mediator is promised , and Mercy maketh a Law of Grace , and the Word becometh mans Redeemer by undertaking , and by present actual reprieve , pardon and initial deliverance : and the fallen world , the miserable sinners , with the Law and obligations which they were under , are now become the Redemers jure Redemptionis , as before they were the Creator's jure Creationis . § 18. The Redeemers Law then hath two parts ; 1. The said Law of lapsed nature ( binding to future perfect obedience or punishment ) which he found man under ( called vulgarly the Moral Law. ) 2. And a pardoning Remedying Law of Grace . § 19. Because man had dishonoured God and his Law by sin , the Redeemer undertook to take mans nature without sin , and by perfect Holiness and Obedience ▪ and by becoming a Sacrifice for sin , to bring that Honour to God and his Law which we should have done , and to attain the Ends of Law and Government instead of our Perfection or Punishment , that for the Merit hereof we might be delivered and live . § 20. This he did in the third person of a Mediator , who as such had a Law or Covenant proper to himself , the Conditions of which he performed , ( by perfect keeping . 1. The Law of Innocency ; 2. Of Moses ; 3. And that proper to himself alone ) and so merited all that was promised to him , for Himself and Us. § 21. By his Law of Grace ( as our Lord-Redeemer ) he gave first to all mankind ( in Adam , and after in Noah , and by a second fuller edition at his Incarnation ) a free Pardon of the destructive punishment ( but not of all punishment ) with right to his Spirit of Grace , Adoption and Glory , in Union with Himself their Head , on Condition initially of Faith and Repentance , and progressively of sincere Obedience to the end , to be performed by his Help or Grace . § 22. By this Law of Grace ( supposing the Law of lapsed nature aforesaid , inclusively ) all the World is ruled , and shall be judged , according to that edition of it ( to Adam or by Christ ) which they are under . And by it they shall be Justified or Condemned . § 23. If the question then be , Have you kept or not kept the Conditions of the Law of Grace , Personal Performance or nothing must so far be our Righteousness , and not Christs keeping them for us , or Satisfaction for our not keeping them . And this is the great Case ( so oft by Christ described Mat. 7. & 25. &c. ) to be decided in judgment ; and therefore the word Righteous and Righteousness are used for what is thus personal hundreds of times in Scripture . § 24. But as to the question , Have we kept the Law of Innocency ? we must confess guilt and say , No : neither Immediately by our selves , nor Mediately by another , or Instrument : for Personal Obedience only is the performance required by that Law ; Therefore we have no Righteousness consisting in such Performance or Innocency ; but must confess sin , and plead a pardon . § 25. Therefore no man hath a proper Vniversal Righteousness , excluding all kind of Guilt whatsoever . § 26. Therefore no man is justified by the Law of Innocency ( nor the Law Mosaical as of works ; ) either by the Preceptive or Retributive part : for we broke the Precept , and are by the Threatning heirs of death . § 27. That Law doth not justifie us , because Christ fulfilled it for us : For it said not ( in words or sense ) [ Thou or one for thee shall Perfectly Obey , or Suffer : ] It mentioned no Substitute : But it is the Law-giver ( and not that Law ) that justifieth us by other means . § 28. But we have another Righteousness imputed to us instead of that Perfect Legal Innocency and Rewardableness , by which we shall be accepted of God , and glorified at last as surely and fully ( at least ) as if we had never sinned , or had perfectly kept that Law ; which therefore may be called our Pro-legal Righteousness . § 29. But this Righteousness is not yet either OURS by such a propriety as a Personal performance would have bin , nor OURS to all the same ends and purposes : It saveth us not from all pain , death or penal desertion , nor constituteth our Relation just the same . § 30. It is the Law of Grace that Justifieth us , both as giving us Righteousness , and as Virtually judging us Righteous when it hath made us so , and it is Christ as Judg according , to that Law ( and God by Christ ) that will sentence us just , and executively so use us . § 31. The Grace of Christ first giveth us Faith and Repentance by effectual Vocation : And then the Law of Grace by its Donative part or Act doth give us a Right to Vnion with Christ as the Churches Head ( and so to his Body ) and with him a right to Pardon of past sin , and to the Spirit to dwell and act in us for the future , and to the Love of God , and Life eternal , to be ours in possession , if we sincerely obey and persevere . § 32. The total Righteousness then which we have ( as an Accident of which we are the Subjects , ) is 1. A right to Impunity , by the free Pardon of all our sins , and a right to Gods Favour and Glory , as a free gift quoad valorem , but as a Reward of our Obedience , quoad Ordinem conferendi & rationem Comparativam ( why one rather than another is judged meet for that free gift . ) 2. And the Relation of one that hath by grace performed the Condition of that free Gift , without which we had been no capable recipients : which is initially [ Faith and Repentance ] the Condition of our Right begun , and consequently , sincere Obedience and Perseverance ( the Condition of continued right . ) § 33. Christs personal Righteousness is no one of these , and so is not our Constitutive Righteousness formally and strictly so called : For Formally our Righteousness is a Relation , ( of right ; ) and it is the Relation of our own Persons : And a Relation is an accident : And the numerical Relation ( or Right ) of one person cannot be the same numerical Accident of another person as the subject . § 34. There are but three sorts of Causes ; Efficient , Constitutive , and Final . 1. Christ is the efficient cause of all our Righteousness : ( 1. Of our Right to Pardon and Life ; 2. And of our Gospel-Obedience : ) And that many waies : 1. He is the Meritorious Cause : 2. He is the Donor by his Covenant ; 3. And the Donor or Operator of our Inherent Righteousness by his Spirit : 4. And the moral efficient by his Word , Promise , Example , &c. 2. And Christ is partly the final cause . 3. But all the doubt is whether his personal Righteousness be the Constitutive Cause . § 35. The Constitutive Cause of natural bodily substances consisteth of Matter disposed , and Form. Relations have no Matter , but instead of Matter a Subject ( and that is Our own persons here , and not Christ . ) and a terminus and fundamentum . § 36. The Fundamentum may be called both the Efficient Cause of the Relation ( as commonly it is ) and the Matter from which it resulteth : And so Christs Righteousness is undoubtedly the Meritorious efficient Cause , and undoubtedly not the Formal Cause of our personal Relation of Righteousness : Therefore all the doubt is of the Material Cause . § 37. So that all the Controversie is come up to a bare name and Logical term , of which Logicians agree not as to the aptitude . All confess that Relations have no proper Matter , besides the subject : all confess that the Fundamentum is loco efficientis , but whether it be a fit name to call it the Constitutive Matter of a Relation , there is no agreement . § 38. And if there were , it would not decide this Verbal Controversie : For 1. Titulus est fundamentum Juris : The fundamentum of our Right to Impunity and Life in and with Christ , is the Donative act of our Saviour in and by his Law or Covenant of Grace : that is our Title ; And from that our Relation resulteth , the Conditio tituli vel juris being found in our selves . 2. And our Relation of Performers of that Condition of the Law of Grace , resulteth from our own performance as the fundamentum ( compared to the Rule . ) So that both these parts of our Righteousness have a nearer fundamentum than Christs personal Righteousness . § 39. But the Right given us by the Covenant ( and the Spirit and Grace ) being a Right merited first by Christs personal Righteousness , this is a Causa Causae , id est , fundamenti , seu Donationis : And while this much is certain , whether it shall be called a Remote fundamentum ( viz. Causa fundamenti ) and so a Remote Constitutive Material Cause , or only ( properly ) a Meritorious Cause , may well be left to the arbitrary Logician , that useeth such notions as he pleases ; but verily is a Controversie unfit to tear the Church for , or destroy Love and Concord by . § 40. Quest . 1. Is Christs Righteousness OVRS ? Ans . Yes ; In some sense , and in another not . § 41. Quest . 2. Is Christs Righteousness OVRS ? Ans . Yes ; In the sense before opened ; For all things are ours ; and his righteousness more than lower Causes . § 42. Quest . 3. Is Christs Righteousness OVRS as it was or is His own , with the same sort of propriety ? Ans . No. § 43. Quest . 4. Is the formal Relation of Righteous as an accident of our persons , numerically the same Righteousness ? Ans . No ; It is impossible : Unless we are the same person . § 44. Quest . 5. Is Christ and each Believer one political person ? Ans . A political person is an equivocal word : If you take it for an Office ( as the King or Judg is a political person ) I say , No : If for a Society , Yea ▪ But noxia & noxa caput sequuntur : True Guilt is an accident of natural persons , and of Societies only as constituted of such ; and so is Righteousness ; Though Physically Good or Evil may for society-sake , befal us without personal desert or consent . But if by [ Person ] you mean a certain State or Condition ( as to be a subject of God , or one that is to suffer for sin ) so Christ may be said to be the same person with us in specie , but not numerically ; because that Accident whence his Personality is named , is not in the same subject . § 45. Quest . 6. Is Christs Righteousness imputed to us ? Ans . Yes ; If by imputing you mean reckoning or reputing it ours , so far as is aforesaid , that is such a Cause of ours . § 46. Quest . 7. Are we reputed our selves to have fulfilled all that Law of Innocency in and by Christ , as representing our persons , as obeying by him ? Ans . No. § 47. Quest . 8. Is it Christs Divine , Habitual , Active or Passive Righteousness which Justifieth us ? Ans . All : viz , the Habitual , Active and Passive exalted in Meritoriousness by Union with the Divine . § 48. Quest . 9. Is it Christs Righteousness , or our Faith which is said to be imputed to us for Righteousness ? Rom. 4. Ans . 1. The text speaketh of imputing Faith , and by Faith is meant Faith , and not Christs Righteousness in the word : But that Faith is Faith in Christ and his Righteousness ; and the Object is quasi materia actus , and covenanted . 2. De re , both are Imputed : that is , 1. Christs Righteousness is reputed the meritorious , Cause . 2. The free-gift ( by the Covenant ) is reputed the fundamentum juris ( both opposed to our Legal Merit . ) 3. And our Faith is reputed the Conditio tituli , and all that is required in us to our Justification , as making us Qualified Recipients of the free-Gift merited by Christ . § 49. Quest . 10. Are we any way Justified by our own performed Righteousness ? Ans . Yes ; Against the charge of non-performance , ( as Infidels , Impenitent , Unholy , ) and so as being uncapable of the free-gift of Pardon and Life in Christ . CHAP. IV. The Reasons of our denying the fore-described rigid sence of Imputation . Though it were most accurate to reduce what we deny to several Propositions , and to confute each one argumentatively by it self , yet I shall now choose to avoid such prolixity ; and for brevity and the satisfaction of such as look more at the force of a Reason , than the form of the Argument , I shall thrust together our denyed Sence , with the manifold Reasons of our denyal . WE deny , that God doth so Impute Christs Righteousness to us , as to repute or account us to have been Holy with all that Habitual Holiness which was in Christ , or to have done all that he did in obedience to his Father , or in fulfilling the Law , or to have suffered all that he suffered , and to have made God satisfaction for our own sins , and merited our own Salvation and Justification , in and by Christ ; or that he was , did and suffered , and merited , all this strictly in the person of every sinner that is saved ; Or that Christs very individual Righteousness Material or Formal , is so made ours in a strict sense , as that we are Proprietors , Subjects , or Agents of the very thing it self simply and absolutely , as it is distinct from the effects ; or that Christs Individual Formal Righteousness , is made our Formal Personal Righteousness ; or that as to the effects , we have any such Righteousness Imputed to us , as formally ours , which consisteth in a perfect Habitual and Actual Conformity to the Law of Innocency ; that is , that we are reputed perfectly Holy and sinless , and such as shall be Justified by the Law of Innocency , which saith , Perfectly Obey and Live , or sin and die . ] All this we deny . Let him that will answer me , keep to my words , and not alter the sense by leaving any out . And that he may the better understand me , I add . 1. I take it for granted that the Law requireth Habitual Holiness as well as Actual Obedience , and is not fulfilled without both . 2. That Christ loved God and man with a perfect constant Love , and never sinned by Omission or Commission . 3. That Christ died not only for our Original sin , or sin before Conversion , but for all our sin to our lives end . 4. That he who is supposed to have no sin of Omission , is supposed to have done all his duty . 5. That he that hath done all his duty , is not condemnable by that Law , yea hath right to all the Reward promised on Condition of that duty . 6. By Christs Material Righteousness , I mean , those Habits , Acts and Sufferings in which his Righteousness did consist , or was founded . 7. By his and our Formal Righteousness , I mean the Relation it self of being Righteous . 8. And I hold that Christs Righteousness , did not only Numerically ( as aforesaid ) but also thus totâ specie , in kind differ from ours , that his was a perfect Habitual and Actual Conformity to the Law of Innocency , together with the peculiar Laws of Mediator-ship , by which he merited Redemption for us , and Glory for himself and us : But ours is the Pardon of sin , and Right of Life , Purchased , Merited and freely given us by Christ in and by a new Covenant , whose condition is Faith with Repentance , as to the gift of our Justification now , and sincere Holiness , Obedience , Victory and Perseverance as to our possession of Glory . Now our Reasons against the denyed sence of Imputation are these . 1. In general this opinion setteth up and introduceth all Antinomianism or Libertinism , and Ungodliness , and subverteth the Gospel and all true Religion and Morality . I do not mean that all that hold it , have such effects in themselves , but only that this is the tendency and consequence of the opinion : For I know that many see not the nature and consequences of their own opinions , and the abundance that hold damnable errors , hold them but notionally in a peevish faction , and therefore not dammingly , but hold practically , and effectually the contrary saving truth . And if the Papists shall perswade Men that our doctrine , yea their 's that here mistake , cannot consist with a godly life , let but the lives of Papists and Protestants be compared . Yea in one of the Instances before given ; Though some of the Congregational-party hold what was recited , yet so far are they from ungodly lives , that the greatest thing in which I differ from them is , the overmuch unscriptural strictness of some of them , in their Church-admissions and Communion , while they fly further from such as they think not godly , than I think God would have them do , being generally persons fearing God themselves : ( Excepting the sinful alienation from others , and easiness to receive and carry false reports of Dissenters , which is common to all that fall into sidings . ) But the errors of any men are never the better if they be found in the hands of godly men : For if they be practised they will make them ungodly . 2. It confoundeth the Person of the Mediator , and of the Sinner : As if the Mediator who was proclaimed the Beloved of the Father , and therefore capable of reconciling us to him , because he was still well-pleased in him , had ( not only suffered in the room of the sinner by voluntary Sponsion , but also ) in suffering and doing , been Civilly the very person of the sinner himself ; that sinner I say , who was an enemy to God , and so esteemed . 3. It maketh Christ to have been Civilly as many persons as there be elect sinners in the World : which is both beside and contrary to Scripture . 4. It introduceth a false sence and supposition of our sin imputed to Christ , as if Imputatively it were his as it is ours , even the sinful Habits , the sinful Acts , and the Relation of evil , Wicked , Vngodly and Vnrighteous which resulteth from them : And so it maketh Christ really hated of God : For God cannot but hate any one whom he reputeth to be truly ungodly , a Hater of God , an Enemy to him , a Rebel , as we all were : whereas it was only the Guilt of Punishment , and not of Crime , as such that Christ assumed : He undertook to suffer in the room of sinners ; and to be reputed one that had so undertaken ; But not to be reputed really a sinner , an ungodly person , hater of God , one that had the Image of the Devil . 5. Nay it maketh Christ to have been incomparably the worst man that ever was in the World by just reputation ; and to have been by just imputation guilty of all the sins of all the Elect that ever lived , and reputed one of the Murderers of himself , and one of the Persecutors of his Church , or rather many : and the language that Luther used Catechrestically , to be strictly and properly true . 6. It supposeth a wrong sence of the Imputation of Adams sin to his posterity : As if we had been justly reputed persons existent in his person , and so in him to have been persons that committed the same sin ; whereas we are only reputed to be now ( not then ) persons who have a Nature derived from him , which being then seminally only in him , deriveth by propagation an answerable Guilt of his sinful fact , together with natural Corruption . 7. It supposeth us to be Justifiable and Justified by the Law of Innocency , made to Adam , as it saith [ Obey perfectly and Live. ] As if we fulfilled it by Christ : which is not only an addition to the Scripture , but a Contradiction . For it is only the Law or Covenant of Grace that we are Justified by . 8. It putteth , to that end , a false sence upon the Law of Innocency : For whereas it commandeth Personal Obedience , and maketh Personal punishment due to the offender : This supposeth the Law to say or mean [ Either thou , or one for thee shall Obey ; or , Thou shalt obey by thy self , or by another : And if thou sin thou shalt suffer by thy self , or by another . Whereas the Law knew no Substitute or Vicar , no nor Sponsor ; nor is any such thing said of it in the Scripture : so bold are men in their additions . 9. It falsly supposeth that we are not Judged and Justified by the new Covenant or Law of Grace , but ( but is said ) by the Law of Innocency . 10. It fathereth on God an erring judgment , as if he reputed , reckoned or accounted things to be what they are not , and us , to have done what we did not . To repute Christ a Sponsor for sinners who undertook to obey in their natures , and suffer in their place and stead , as a Sacrifice to redeem them , is all just and true : And to repute us those for whom Christ did this . But to repute Christ to have been really and every one of us , or a sinner , or guilty of sin it self ; or to repute us to have been habitually as Good as Christ was , or actually to have done what he did , either Naturally or Civilly and by Him as our substitute , and to repute us Righteous by possessing his formal personal Righteousness in it self ; All these are untrue , and therefore not to be ascribed to God. To Impute it to us , is but to Repute us as verily and groundedly Righteous by his Merited and freely-Given Pardon , and Right to Life , as if we had merited it our selves . 11. It feigneth the same Numerical Accident [ their Relation of Righteousness ] which was in one subject to be in another , which is Impossible . 12. It maketh us to have satisfied Divine Justice for our selves , and merited Salvation ( and all that we receive ) for our selves , in and by another : And so that we may plead our own Merits with God for Heaven and all his benefits . 13. The very making and tenor of the new Covenant , contradicteth this opinion : For when God maketh a Law or Covenant , to convey the effects of Christs Righteousness to us , by degrees and upon certain Conditions , this proveth that the very Righteousness in it self simply was not ours : else we should have had these effects of it both presently and immediately and absolutely without new Conditions . 14. This opinion therefore maketh this Law of Grace , which giveth the benefits to us by these degrees and upon terms , to be an injury to Believers , as keeping them from their own . 15. It seemeth to deny Christs Legislation in the Law of Grace , and consequently his Kingly Office. For if we are reputed to have fulfilled the whole Law of Innocency in Christ , there is no business for the Law of Grace to do . 16. It seemeth to make internal Sanctification by the Spirit needless , or at least , as to one half of its use : For if we are by just Imputation in Gods account perfectly Holy , in Christs Holiness the first moment of our believing , nothing can be added to Perfection ; we are as fully Amiable in the sight of God , as if we were sanctified in our selves ; Because by Imputation it is all our own . 17. And so it seemeth to make our after-Obedience unnecessary , at least as to half its use : For if in Gods true account , we have perfectly obeyed to the death by another , how can we be required to do it all or part again by our selves ? If all the debt of our Obedience be paid , why is it required again ? 18. And this seemeth to Impute to God a nature less holy and at enmity to sin , than indeed he hath ; if he can repute a man laden with hateful sins , to be as perfecty Holy , Obedient and Amiable to him as if he were really so in himself , because another is such for him . 19. If we did in our own persons Imputatively what Christ did , I think it will follow that we sinned ; that being unlawful to us which was Good in him . It is a sin for us to be Circumcised , and to keep all the Law of Moses , and send forth Apostles , and to make Church-Ordinances needful to Salvation . Therefore we did not this in Christ : And if not this , they that distinguish and tell us what we did in Christ , and what not , must prove it . I know that Christ did somewhat which is a common duty of all men , and somewhat proper to the Jews , and somewhat proper to himself : But that one sort of men did one part in Christ , and another sort did another part in him , is to be proved . 20. If Christ suffered but in the Person of sinful man , his sufferings would have been in vain , or no Satisfaction to God : For sinful man is obliged to perpetual punishment ; of which a temporal one is but a small part : Our persons cannot make a temporal suffering equal to that perpetual one due to man : but the transcendent person of the Mediator did . Obj. Christ bore both his own person and ours : It belongeth to him as Mediator to personate the guilty sinner . Ans . It belongeth to him as Mediator to undertake the sinners punishment in his own person . And if any will improperly call that , the Personating and Representing of the sinner , let them limit it , and confess that it is not simply , but in tantum , so far , and to such uses and no other , and that yet sinners did it not in and by Christ , but only Christ for them to convey the benefits as he pleased ; And then we delight not to quarrel about mere words ; though we like the phrase of Scripture better than theirs . 21. If Christ was perfectly Holy and Obedient in our persons , and we in him , then it was either in the Person of Innocent man before we sinned , or of sinful man. The first cannot be pretended : For man as Innocent had not a Redeemer . If of sinful man , then his perfect Obedience could not be meritorious of our Salvation : For it supposeth him to do it in the person of a sinner : and he that hath once sinned , according to that Law , is the Child of death , and uncapable of ever fulfilling a Law , which is fulfilled with nothing but sinless perfect perpetual Obedience . Obj. He first suffered in our stead and persons as sinners , and then our sin being pardoned , he after in our persons fulfilled the Law , instead of our after-Obedience to it . Ans . 1. Christs Obedience to the Law was before his Death . 2. The sins which he suffered for , were not only before Conversion , but endure as long as our lives : Therefore if he fulfilled the Law in our persons after we have done sinning , it is in the persons only of the dead . 3. We are still obliged to Obedience our selves . Obj. But yet though there be no such difference in Time , God doth first Impute his sufferings to us for pardon of all our sins to the death , and in order of nature , his Obedience after it , as the Merit of our Salvation . Ans . 1. God doth Impute or Repute his sufferings the satisfying cause of our Pardon , and his Merits of Suffering and the rest of his Holiness and Obedience , as the meritorious cause of our Pardon and our Justification and Glory without dividing them . But 2. that implyeth that we did not our selves reputatively do all this in Christ : As shall be further proved . 22. Their way of Imputation of the Satisfaction of Christ , overthroweth their own doctrine of the Imputation of his Holiness and Righteousness . For if all sin be fully pardoned by the Imputed Satisfaction , then sins of Omission and of habitual Privation and Corruption are pardoned ; and then the whole punishment both of Sense and Loss is remitted : And he that hath no sin of Omission or Privation , is a perfect doer of his duty , and holy ; and he that hath no punishment of Loss , hath title to Life , according to that Covenant which he is reputed to have perfectly obeyed . And so he is an heir of life , without any Imputed Obedience upon the pardon of all his Disobedience . Obj. But Adam must have obeyed to the Death if he would have Life eternal : Therefore the bare pardon of his sins did not procure his right to life . Ans . True , if you suppose that only his first sin was pardoned : But 1. Adam had right to heaven as long as he was sinless . 2. Christ dyed for all Adams sins to the last breath , and not for the first only : And so he did for all ours . And if all the sins of omission to the death be pardoned , Life is due to us as righteous . Obj. A Stone may be sinless , and yet not righteous nor have Right to life . Ans . True : because it is not a capable subject . But a man cannot be sinless , but he is Righteous , and hath right to life by Covenant . Obj. But not to punish is one thing and to Reward is another ? Ans . They are distinct formal Relations and Notions : But where felicity is a Gift and called a Reward only for the terms and order of Collation , and where Innocency is the same with perfect Duty , and is the title-Condition ; there to be punished is to be denyed the Gift , and to be Rewarded is to have that Gift as qualified persons : and not to Reward , is materially to punish ; and to be reputed innocent is to be reputed a Meriter . And it is impossible that the most Innocent man can have any thing from God , but by way of free-Gift as to the Thing in Value ; however it may be merited in point of Governing Paternal Justice as to the Order of donation . Obj. But there is a greater Glory merited by Christ , than the Covenant of works promised to man. Ans . 1. That 's another matter , and belongeth not to Justification , but to Adoption . 2. Christs Sufferings as well as his Obedience , considered as meritorious , did purchase that greater Glory . 3. We did not purchase or merit it in Christ , but Christ for us . 23. Their way of Imputation seemeth to me to leave no place or possibility for Pardon of sin , or at least of no sin after Conversion . I mean , that according to their opinion who think that we fulfilled the Law in Christ as we are elect from eternity , it leaveth no place for any pardon : And according to their opinion who say that we fulfilled it in him as Believers , it leaveth no place for pardon of any sin after Faith. For where the Law is reputed perfectly fulfilled ( in Habit & Act ) there it is reputed that the person hath no sin . We had no sin before we had a Being ; and if we are reputed to have perfectly obeyed in Christ from our first Being , we are reputed sinless . But if we are reputed to have obeyed in him only since our believing , then we are reputed to have no sin since our Believing . Nothing excludeth sin , if perfect Habitual and Actual Holiness and Obedience do not . 24. And consequently Christs blood shed and Satisfaction is made vain , either as to all our lives , or to all after our 〈◊〉 believing . 25. And then no believer must confess his sin , nor his desert of punishment nor repent of it , or be humbled for it . 26. And then all prayer for the pardon of such sin is vain , and goeth upon a false supposition , that we have sin to pardon . 27. And then no man is to be a partaker of the Sacrament as a Conveyance or Seal of such pardon ; nor to believe the promise for it . 28. Nor is it a duty to give thanks to God or Christ for any such pardon . 29. Nor can we expect Justification from such guilt here or at Judgment . 30. And then those in Heaven praise Christ in errour , when they magnifie him that washed them from such sins in his blood . 31. And it would be no lie to say that we have no sin , at least , since believing . 32. Then no believer should fear sinning , because it is Impossible and a Contradiction , for the same person to be perfectly innocent to the death , and yet a sinner . 33. Then the Consciences of believers have no work to do , or at least , no examining , convincing , self-accusing and self-judging work . 34. This chargeth God by Consequence of wronging all believers whom he layeth the least punishment upon : For he that hath perfectly obeyed , or hath perfectly satisfied , by himself or by another in his person , cannot justly be punished . But I have elsewhere fully proved , that Death and other Chastisements are punishments , though not destructive , but corrective : And so is the permission of our further sinning . 35. It intimateth that God wrongeth believers , for not giving them immediately more of the Holy Ghost , and not present perfecting them and freeing them from all sin : For though Christ may give us the fruits of his own merits in the time and way that pleaseth himself ; yet if it be we our selves that have perfectly satisfied and merited in Christ , we have present Right to the thing merited thereupon , and it is an injury to deny it us at all . 36. And accordingly it would be an injury to keep them so long out of Heaven , if they themselves did merit it so long ago . 37. And the very Threatning of Punishment in the Law of Grace would seem injurious or incongruous , to them that have already reputatively obeyed perfectly to the death . 38. And there would be no place left for any Reward from God , to any act of obedience done by our selves in our natural or real person : Because having reputatively fulfilled all Righteousness , and deserved all that we are capable of by another , our own acts can have no reward . 39. And I think this would overthrow all Humane Laws and Government : For all true Governours are the Officers of God , and do what they do in subordination to God ; and therefore cannot justly punish any man , whom he pronounceth erfectly Innocent to the death . 40. This maketh every believer ( at least ) as Righteous as Christ himself , as having true propriety in all the same numerical Righteousness as his own . And if we be as Righteous as Christ , are we not as amiable to God ? And may we not go to God in our Names as Righteous ? 41. This maketh all believers ( at least ) equally Righteous in degree , and every one perfect , and no difference between them . David and Solomon as Righteous in the act of sinning as before , and every weak and scandalous believer , to be as Righteous as the best . Which is not true , though many say that Justification hath no degrees , but is perfect at first ; as I have proved in my Life of Faith and elsewhere . 42. This too much levelleth Heaven and Earth ; For in Heaven there can be nothing greater than perfection . 43. The Scripture no-where calleth our Imputed Righteousness by the name of Innocency , or sinless Perfection , nor Inculpability Imputed . Nay when the very phrase of Imputing Christs Righteousness is not there at all , to add all these wrong descriptions of Imputation , is such Additions to Gods words as tendeth to let in almost any thing that mans wit shall excogitate and ill beseemeth them , that are for Scripture-sufficiency and perfection , and against Additions in the general . And whether some may not say that we are Imputatively Christ himself , Conceived by the Holy Ghost ; Born of the Virgin Mary , suffered under Pontius Pilate , Crucified , &c. I cannot tell . To conclude , the honest plain Christian may without disquieting the Church or himself , be satisfied in this certain simple truth ; That we are sinners and deserve everlasting misery : That Christ hath suffered as a Sacrifice for our sins in our room and stead , and satisfied the Justice of God : That he hath by his perfect Holiness and Obedience with those sufferings , merited our pardon and Life : That he never hereby intended to make us Lawless have us Holy , but hath brought us under a Law of Grace : which is the Instrument by which he pardoneth , justifieth and giveth us Right to life : That by this Covenant he requireth of us Repentance and true Faith to our first Justification , and sincere Obedience , Holiness and Perseverance to our Glorification , to be wrought by his Grace and our Wills excited and enabled by it : That Christs Sufferings are to save us from suffering ; but his Holiness and Obedience are to merit Holiness , Obedience & Happiness for us , that we may be like him , and so be made personally amiable to God : But both his Sufferings and Obedience , do bring us under a Covenant , where Perfection is not necessary to our Salvation . CHAP. V. The Objections Answered . Obj. 1. YOV confound a Natural and a Political person : Christ and the several believing sinners are not the same natural Person , but they are the same Political . As are with us , saith Dr. Tullie , the Sponsor and the Debtor , the Attorney and the Clyent , the Tutor and the Pupil ; so are all the faithful in Christ , both as to their Celestial regenerate nature , of which he is the first Father , who begetteth sons by his Spirit and seed of the Word to his Image , and as to Righteousness derived by Legal Imputation . Vid. Dr. Tullie , Justif . Paul. p. 80 , 81. It 's commonly said that Christ as our surety is our Person . Ans . 1. The distinction of a Person into Natural and Political or Legal , is equivoci in sua equivocata : He therefore that would not have contention cherished and men taught to damn each other for a word not understood , must give us leave to ask what these equivocals mean. What a Natural Person signifieth , we are pretty well agreed ; but a Political Person is a word not so easily and commonly understood . Calvin tells us that Persona definitur homo qui caput habet civile . ( For omnis persona est homo , sed non vicissim : Homo cum est vocabulum naturae ; Persona juris civilis . ) And so ( as Albenius ) civitas , municipium , Castrum , Collegium , Vniversitas , & quod . libet corpus , Personae appellatione continetur , ut Spigel . But if this Definition be commensurate to the common nature of a civil person , then a King can be none ; nor any one that hath not a civil head . This therefore is too narrow . The same Calvin ( in n. Personae ) tells us , that Seneca Personam vocat , cum prae se fert aliquis , quod non est ; A Counterfeit : But sure this is not the sence of the Objectors . In general saith Calvin , Tam hominem quam qualitatem hominis , seu Conditionem significat . But it is not sure every Quality or Condition : Calvin therefore giveth us nothing satisfactory , to the decision of the Controversie which these Divines will needs make , whether each believer and Christ be the same Political Person . Martinius will make our Controversie no easier by the various significations gathered out of Vet. Vocab . Gel. Scaliger , Valla ; Which he thus enumerateth . 1. Persona est accidens conditio hominis , qualitas quâ homo differt ab homine , tum in animo , tum in corpore , tum in externis . 2. Homo qualitate dictâ proditus : 3. Homo insigni qualitate praeditus habens gradum eminentiae , in Ecclesia Dei , &c. 4. Figura , seu facies ficta , larva histrionica , &c. 5. Ille qui sub hujusmodi figura aliquam representat , &c. 6. Figura eminens in aedificiis quae ore aquam fundit , &c. Individua substantia humana , seu singularis homo . 8. Individua substantia Intelligens quaelibet . Now which of these is Persona Politica vel Legalis . Let us but agree what we mean by the word and I suppose we shall find that we are agreed of the Matter . When I deny the Person of Christ and the sinner to have been the same , or to be so reputed by God , I mean by Person , univocally or properly , An Individual Intelligent substance . And they that mean otherwise are obliged to Define ; For Analogum per se positum stat pro ▪ suo significato famosiore . If they mean that Christ and the Believer are the same as to some Quality , or Condition , let them tell us what Quality or Condition it is , and I think we shall be found to be of one mind . But I think by the similitudes of a Sponsor , Attorney , and Guardian , that they mean by a Political Person ( not as a society , nor such as agree in Quality , but ) A natural Person so related to another Natural person , as that what he doth and suffereth , Is or Hath , is limitedly to certain ends and uses as effectual as if that other person himself did and suffered , Were or Had numerically the same thing . I obtrude not a sense on others , but must know theirs before I can know where we differ . And if this be the meaning , we are agreed : Thus far ( though I greatly dislike their way that lay much stress on such humane phrases , ) I grant the thing meant by them . Christs Holiness Habitual and Actual , and his Merits and Satisfaction are as effectual to a believers Justification and Salvation upon the terms of the Covenant of Grace ( which is sealed by baptism ) as if we had been , done and suffered the same our selves . But still remember that this is only [ limitedly ] to these uses , and on these termes and no other , and I think that this is the meaning of most Divines that use this phrase . But the sense of those men that I differ from and write against ( the Libertines and Antinomians , and some others that own not those names , ) is this : that A Legal Person is one so Related to anothers Natural person as that what he Hath , Doth , or Suffereth in such a case , is ( not only effectual as aforesaid to others , but ) is in itself simply Reputed or Imputed to be Morally , though not physically , the Habit , Act and Suffering , the Merit and satisfactory Sacrifice of the other person : And so being the reputed Haver , Doer or Sufferer , Meriter or Satisfyer himself , he hath absolute right to all the proper results or benefits . And so a man may indeed many ways among us Represent or Personate another . If I by Law am Commanded to do this or that service per meipsum aut per alium , I do it in the Moral or Law-sence , because the other doth it in my name and I am allowed so to do it . So if I appear or answer by any Proctor or Attorney ; if the Law make it equal to my personal appearance and answer , it is said that I did it by him : ( but only so far as he doth it as my Representer or in my name ) : So if I pay a debt by the hand of my Servant or any Messenger , if so allowed , I do it by that other . So indeed a Pupil , doth by his Guardian what his Guardian doth , only so far as the Law obligeth him to consent or stand to it . We did not thus our selves fulfil all the Law in and by Christ : Nor are we thus the Proprietors of his Habitual perfection , Merits or Satisfaction . The common reason given by the contrary-minded is , that he was our Surety , or Sponsor , or fidejussor : and so we translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.22 . and I remember not any other text of Scripture allegable for that title . But this word doth not necessarily signifie any such Representer of our Persons as aforesaid . Nay when he is called thus the fidejussor of a better Covenant , it seemeth plain that it is Gods Covenant as such , and so Gods Sponsor that is meant ; and as Grotius saith Moses pro Deo spospondit in Lege Veteri : Jesus pro Deo in Lege Nova : Lex utraque & pactum continet , promissa habet . Sponsorem dare solent minûs nati : & Moses & Deus hominibus melius nati erant quam Deus qui inconspicuus . So also Dr. Hamond [ He was Sponsor and Surety for God , that it should be made good to us on Gods part , on Condition that we performed that which was required of us : ] And here they that translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Testament , never intended that it was our Part of the Covenant that is meant by a Testament : But ( the most Judicious expositor , ) Mr. Lawson on the text , truly saith [ The Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets translated into Greek will tell us ; That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always signifieth a Law or a Covenant , and for the most part both : so it doth in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists where it seldom signifieth the last Will and Testament of a man. The same thing is a Law in respect of the precepts , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned Surety , signifieth one that undertaketh for another to see something paid or performed : And though the word is not found in the New Testament except in this place , &c. But Varnius tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Mediator ; and so it is taken here as it 's expounded by the Apostle in the Chapter following : And because a Priest doth undertake to procure from God , both the Confirmation and performance of the promises to the people , and to that end mediates between both ; therefore he is a Surety and Mediator of the Covenant , and in this respect the Surety and Mediator of the Covenant is a Priest . ] So Calvin ( though almost passing it by ) seemeth to intimate that which I think is the truth , that Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Gods Covenant from the sacerdotal appropinquation , mentioned vers . 19. &c. And M●rlorate after Theoph●lact , Sponsorem pro Mediatore & intercessore posuit . So Paraeus in loc . Est novi faederis Sponsor Christus , quia novum faedus sanguine & morte sua obsignavit . So the Dutch Annot. and many others , besides the Ancients , by a Sponsor , tell us is meant a Mediator . And we grant that a Mediator is not of one , but doth somewhat on the behalf of both parties . But that as Mediator he Is ; Hath , Doth , Suffereth , Meritteth , Satisfyeth ; so as the Representer or person of each believer , as that every such Person is supposed in Law to have Been , Done , Suffered , Merited , thus in and by the Mediator , is neither signified by this or any other text . 2. And they that distinguish of a Natural and Political Person , do but darken the case by an ill-expressed distinction , which indeed is not of two sorts of Persons , but between Reality and Acceptation , taking Person properly for a Natural Person : It 's one thing to be such a Person , and another thing to have the Act , Passion , Merit , &c. Accepted for that other Person : And this latter signifieth , either 1. That it was done by the other person mediately , as being a cheif Cause acting by his Instrument . 2. Or that it was done for that other Person by another . The first is our denyed sence , and the second our affirmed sence . Among us Sureties and Sponsors are of several sorts : Grotius de Jure Belli tells you of another sense of Sponsion in the Civil Law , than is pertinent to the objectors use : And in Baptism the same word , hath had divers senses as used by persons of different intentions . The time was when the Sponsor was not at all taken for the Political Person ( as you call it ) of Parent or Child , nor spake as their Instrument , in their name : But was a Third person , who ( because many parents Apostatized , and more Died in the Childs minority ) did pass his word , 1. That the Parent was a credible Person , 2. That if he Dyed so soon or Apostatized , he himself would undertake the Christian Education of the Child . But the Parent himself was Sponsor for the Child in a stricter sense , ( as also Adopting Pro-parents were , & as some take God-fathers to be now , ) that is , they were taken for such , whose Reason , will and word , we authorised to dispose of the Child as obligingly , as if it had been done by his own reason will and word , so be it , it were but For his good , and the Child did own it when he came to age : And so they were to speak as in the Childs name , as if Nature or Charity made them his Representers , in the Judgment of many . ( Though others rather think that they were to speak as in their own persons , e. g. I dedicate this Child to God , and enter him into the Covenant as obliged by my Consent . ) But this sense of Sponsion is nothing to the present Case . They that lay all upon the very Name of a Surety as if the word had but one signification , and all Sureties properly represented the person of the Principal obliged person , do deal very deceitfully : There are Sureties or Sponsors , 1. For some Duty , 2. For Debt , 3. For Punishment . 1. It is one thing to undertake that another shall do a Commanded duty : 2. It 's another thing to undertake that else I will do it for him : 3. It 's another thing to be Surety that he shall pay a Debt , or else I will pay it for him : 4. It 's another thing to undertake that he shall suffer a penalty , or else to suffer for him , or make a Valuable Compensation . 1. And it 's one kind of Surety that becometh a second party in the bond , and so maketh himself a debtor ; 2. And it s another sort of Surety that undertaketh only the Debt afterward voluntarily as a Friend ; who may pay it on such Conditions as he and the Creditor think meet , without the Debtors knowledg . Every Novice that will but open Calvin may see that Fidejussor and Sponsor are words of very various signification ; and that they seldom or never signifie the Person Natural or Political ( as you call it ) of the Principal : Sponsor est qui sponte & non rogatus pro alio promittit , ut Accurs . vel quicunque spondet , maximè pro aliis : Fidejubere est suo periculo fore id , de quo agitur , recipere : Vel , fidem suam pro alio obligare . He is called Adpromissor , and he is Debtor , but not the same person with the Principal , but his promise is accessoria obligatio , non principalis . Therefore Fidejussor sive Intercessor non est conveniendus , nisi prius debitore principali convento : Fidejussores a correis ita differunt , quod hi suo & proprio morbo laborant , illi vero alieno tenentur : Quare fideijussori magis succurrendum censent : Veniâ namque digni sunt qui alienâ tenentur Culpâ , cujusmodi sunt fidejussores pro alieno debito obligati , inquit Calv. There must be somewhat more than the bare name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once used of Christ as Mediator of Gods Covenant , or the name of a Surety as now used among men , that must go to prove that the Mediator and the several sinners are the same Legal Persons in Gods account . But seeing Legal-Personality is but a Relation of our Natural person , to another Natural person , that we may not quarrel and tear the Church when really we differ not 1. Let our agreement be noted . 2. Our difference intelligibly stated . 1. It is granted ( not only by Dr. Tullie , but others that accurately handle the Controversie , ) 1. That Christ and the Believer never were nor are our Natural person ; and that no union with him maketh us to be Christ , or God , nor him to be Peter , John , or Paul , &c. That we know of no third sort of Natural person , ( which is neither Jesus , nor Peter , John , &c. ) But composed of both united , which is constituted by our Union . For though it be agreed on , that the same Spirit that is in Christ is ( operatively ) also in all his Members , and that therefore our Communion with him is more than Relative , and that from this Real-Communion , the name of a Real-Vnion may be used ; yet here the Real-Vnion is not Personal ( as the same Sun quickeneth and illuminateth a Bird and a Frog and a Plant , and yet maketh them not our person : ) Therefore he that will say we are Physically one with Christ , and not only Relatively ; but tell us [ ONE What ? ] and make his words Intelligible ; and must deny that we are ONE PERSON : and that by that time we are not like to be found differing . But remember that while Physical Communion , is confessed by all , what VNION we shall from thence be said to have ( this Foundation being agreed on ) is like to prove but a question , de realitione & nomine . 2. Yea all the world must acknowledg that the whole Creation is quoad praesentiam & derivationem more dependant on God than the fruit is on the Tree , or the Tree on the Earth , and that God is the inseperate Cause of our Being , Station , and Life ; And yet this natural intimateness , and influx , and causality , maketh not GOD and every Creature absolutely or personally One. 3. It is agreed therefore that Christ's Righteousness is neither materially nor formally , any Accident of our natural Persons ; ( and an Accident it is ) unless it can be reduced to that of Relation . 1. The Habits of our Person , cannot possibly be the habits of another inherently . 2. The actions of one cannot possibly be the actions of another , as the Agent , unless as that other as a principal Cause , acteth by the other as his Instrument or second Cause . 3. The same fundamentum relationis inherent in One Person , is not inherent in another if it be a personal Relation : And so the same individual Relation that is one Mans , cannot numerically be another Mans , by the same sort of in-being , propriety ▪ or adherence . Two Brothers have a Relation in kind the same , but not unmerically . 4. And it is agreed that God judgeth not falsly , and therefore taketh not Christ's Righteousness to be any more or otherwise ours ; than indeed it is ; nor imputeth it to us erroneously . 5. Yet it is commonly agreed , that Christ's Righteousness is OVRS in some sense ; And so far is justly reputed Ours , or imputed to us as being Ours . 6. And this ambiguous syallable [ OVRS ] ( enough to set another Age of Wranglers into bitter Church-tearing strife , if not hindred by some that will call them to explain an ambiguous word ) is it that must be understood to end this Controversie . Propriety is the thing signified . 1. In the strictest sense that is called Ours , which inhereth in us , or that which is done by us . 2. In a larger ( Moral ) sense , that which a Man as the principal Cause , doth by another as his Instrument , by authorizing , commanding , perswading , &c. 3. In a yet larger sense that may be called OVRS , which a third person doth partly instead of what we should have done ( had , or suffered ) and partly for our use , or benefit . 4. In a yet larger sense that may be called OVRS , which another hath , or doth , or suffereth for our Benefit , ( though not in our stead ) and which will be for our good , ( as that which a Friend or Father hath , is his Friends or Childs , and all things are Ours , whether Paul , or &c. and the Godly are owners of the World , in as much as God will use all for their good ) . 7. It is therefore a Relation which Christ's Righteousness hath to us , or we to it , that must here be meant by the word [ OVRS ] : Which is our RIGHT or Jus ; And that is acknowledged to be no Jus or Right to it in the foresaid denied sense ; And it is agreed that some Right it is . Therefore , to understand what it is , the Titulus seu Fundamentum juris must be known . 8. And here it is agreed ; 1. That we are before Conversion or Faith related to Christ as part of the Redeemed World , of whom it is said , 2 Cor. 5.19 . That God was in Christ , reconciling the World to himself , not imputing to them their sins , &c. 2. That we are after Faith related to Christ as his Covenanted People , Subjects , Brethren , Friends , and Political Members ; yea , as such that have Right to , and Possession of Real Communion with him by his Spirit : And that we have then Right to Pardon , Justification , and Adoption , ( or have Right to Impunity in the promised degree , and to the Spirits Grace , and the Love of God , and Heavenly Glory ) . This Relation to Christ and this Right , to the Benefits of his Righteousness are agreed on : And consequently that his Righteousness is OVRS , and so may be called , as far as the foresaid Relations and Rights import . II. Now a Relation ( as Ockam hath fully proved ) having no real entity , beside the quid absolutum , which is the Subject , Fundamentum , or Terminus , he that yet raileth at his Brother as not saying enough , or not being herein so wise as he , and will maintain that yet Christ's Righteousness is further OVRS , must name the Fundamentum of that Right or Propriety : What more is it that you mean ? I think the make-bates have here little probability of fetching any more Fuel to their Fire , or turning Christ's Gospel into an occasion of strife and mutual enmity , if they will but be driven to a distinct explication , and will not make confusion and ambiguous words their defence and weapons . If you set your quarrelsome Brains on work , and study as hard as you can for matter of Contention , it will not be easie for you to find it , unless you will raze out the names of Popery , Socinianism , Arminianism , or Solifidianism , Heresie , &c. instead of real Difference . But if the angriest and lowdest Speakers be in the right , Bedlam and Billingsgate may be the most Orthodox places . Briefly , 1. The foresaid Benefits of Christ's Righteousness , ( Habitual , Active and Passive ) as a Meritorious , Satisfactory , Purchasing Cause , are ours . 2. To say that the Benefits are Ours , importeth that the Causal Righteousness of Christ is related to us , and the Effects as such a Cause : and so is it self OVRS , in that sense , that is , so related . 3. And Christ himself is OVRS , as related to us as our Saviour ; the Procurer and Giver of those Benefits . And do you mean any more by [ OVRS ] ? If you say that we deny any Benefits of Christ's Righteousness which you assert , name what they are . If you say that we deny any true Fundamentum juris , or reason of our title , name what that is . If you say that we deny any true Relation to Christ himself , tell us what it is : If you cannot , say that you are agreed . 1. If you say that the Benefit denied by us , is that we are judged by God , as those that ( habitually and actively ) have perfectly fulfilled the Law of Innocency our selves , though not in our natural Persons , yet by Christ as representing us , and so shall be justified by that Law of Innocency as the Fulfiller of it , we do deny it , and say , That you subvert the Gospel , and the true Benefits which we have by Christ . 2. If you say that we deny that God esteemeth or reputeth us , to be the very Subjects of that Numerical Righteousness , in the Habits , Acts , Passion or Relation , which was in the Person of Christ , or to have done , suffered , or merited our selves in and by him , as the proper Representer of our Persons therein ; and so that his Righteousness is thus imputed to us as truly in it self our own propriety , we do deny it , and desire you to do so also , lest you deny Christianity . 2. If you blame us for saying , That we had or have no such Relation to Christ , as to our Instrument , or the proper full Representer of each Believers particular Person , by whom we did truly fulfil the Law of Innocency , habitually and actively , and satisfied , merited , &c. We do still say so , and wish you to consider what you say , before you proceed to say the contrary . But if you come not up to this , where will you find a difference . Object . 2. Christ is called The Lord our Righteousness , and he is made Righteousness to us , and we are made the Righteousness of God in him , 2 Cor. 5.21 , &c. And by the Obedience of one , many are made Righteous . Answ . And are we not all agreed of all this ? But can his Righteousness be Ours no way but by the foresaid Personation Representating ? How prove you that ? He is Our Righteousness , and his Obedience maketh us Righteous . 1. Because the very Law of Innocency which we dishonoured and broke by sin , is perfectly fulfilled and honoured by him , as a Mediator , to repair the injury done by our breaking it . 2. In that he suffered to satisfie Justice for our sin . 3. In that hereby he hath merited of God the Father , all that Righteousness which we are truly the Subjects of , whether it be Relative , or Qualitative , or Active ; that is , 1. Our Right to Christ in Union to the Spirit , to Impunity , and to Glory ; And , 2. The Grace of the Spirit by which we are made Holy , and fulfil the Conditions of the Law of Grace . We are the Subjects of these , and he is the Minister , and the meritorious Cause of our Life , is well called Our Righteousness , and by many the material Cause , ( as our own perfect Obedience would have been ) because it is the Matter of that Merit . 4. And also Christ's Intercession with the Father , still procureth all this as the Fruit of his Merits . 5. And we are Related as his Members ( though not parts of his Person as such ) to him that thus merited for us . 6. And we have the Spirit from him as our Head. 7. And he is our Advocate , and will justifie us as our Judg. 8. And all this is God's Righteousness designed for us , and thus far given us by him . 9. And the perfect Justice and Holiness of God , is thus glorified in us through Christ . And are not all these set together enough to prove , that we justly own all asserted by these Texts ? But if you think that you have a better sense of them , you must better prove it , than by a bare naming of the words . Object . 3. If Christ's Righteousness be Ours , then we are Righteous by it as Ours ; and so God reputeth it but as it is : But it is Ours ; 1. By our Vnion with him . 2. And by his Gift , and so consequently by God's Imputation . Answ . 1. I have told you before that it is confessed to be Ours ; but that this syllable OVRS hath many senses ; and I have told you in what sense , and how far it is OVRS , and in that sense we are justified by it , and it is truly imputed to us , or reputed or reckoned as OVRS : But not in their sense that claim a strict Propriety in the same numerical Habits , Acts , Sufferings , Merits , Satisfaction , which was in Christ , or done by him , as if they did become Subjects of the same Accidents ; or , as if they did it by an instrumental second Cause . But it is OVRS , as being done by a Mediator , instead of what we should have done , and as the Meritorious Cause of all our Righteousness and Benefits , which are freely given us for the sake hereof . 2. He that is made Righteousness to us , is also made Wisdom , Sanctification and Redemption to us : but that sub genere Causae Efficientis , non autem Causae Constitutivae : We are the Subjects of the same numerical Wisdom and Holiness which is in Christ . Plainly the Question is , Whether Christ or his Righteousness , Holiness , Merits , and Satisfaction , be Our Righteousness Constitutively , or only Efficiently ? The Matter and Form of Christ's Personal Righteousness is OVRS , as an Efficient Cause , but it is neither the nearest Matter , or the Form of that Righteousness which is OVRS as the Subjects of it ; that is , It is not a Constitutive Cause nextly material , or formal of it . 3. If our Union with Christ were Personal , ( making us the same Person ) then doubtless the Accidents of his Person would be the Accidents of ours , and so not only Christ's Righteousness , but every Christians would be each of Ours : But that is not so . Nor is it so given us by him . Object . 4. You do seem to suppose that we have none of that kind of Righteousness at all , which consisteth in perfect Obedience and Holiness , but only a Right to Impunity and Life , with an imperfect Inherent Righteousness in our selves : The Papists are forced to confess , that a Righteousness we must have which consisteth in a conformity to the preceptive part of the Law , and not only the Retributive part : But they say , It is in our selves , and we say it is Christ's imputed to us . Answ . 1. The Papists ( e. g. Learned Vasque● in Rom. 5. ) talk so ignorantly of the differences of the Two Covenants , or the Law of Innocency and of Grace , as if they never understood it . And hence they 1. seem to take no notice of the Law of Innocency , or of Nature now commanding our perfect Obedience , but only of the Law of Grace . 2. Therefore they use to call those Duties but Perfections ; and the Commands that require them , but Counsels , where they are not made Conditions of Life : and sins not bringing Damnation , some call Venial , ( a name not unfit ) and some expound that as properly no sin , but analogically . 3. And hence they take little notice , when they treat of Justification , of the Remitting of Punishment ; but by remitting Sin , they usually mean the destroying the Habits : As if they forgot all actual sin past , or thought that it deserved no Punishment , or needed no Pardon : For a past Act in it self is now nothing , and is capable of no Remission but Forgiveness . 4. Or when they do talk of Guil● of Punishment , they lay so much of the Remedy on Man's Satisfaction , as if Christ's Satisfaction and Merits had procured no pardon , or at least , of no temporal part of Punishment . 5. And hence they ignorantly revile the Protestants , as if we denied all Personal Inherent Righteousness , and trusted only to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness as justifying wicked unconverted Men : The Papists therefore say not that we are innocent or sinless , ( really or imputatively ) ; no not when they dream of Perfection and Supererrogation , unless when they denominate Sin and Perfection only from the Condition of the Law of Grace , and not that of Innocency . 2. But if any of them do as you say , no wonder if they and you contend : If one say , We are Innocent , or Sinless in reality , and the other , we are so by Imputation , when we are so no way at all ( but sinners really , and so reputed ) ; what Reconciliation is there to be expected , till both lay by their Errour ? Object . 5. How can God accept him as just , who is really and reputedly a Sinner ? This dishonoureth his Holiness and Justice . Answ . Not so : Cannot God pardon sin , upon a valuable Merit and Satisfaction of a Mediator ? And though he judg us not perfect now , and accept us not as such ; yet 1. now he judgeth us Holy , 2. and the Members of a perfect Saviour ; 3. and will make us perfect and spotless , and then so judg us , having washed us from our sins in the Blood of the Lamb. Object . 6. Thus you make the Reatus Culpae , not pardoned at all , but only the Reatus Poenae . Answ . 1. If by Reatus Culpae be meant the Relation of a Sinner as he is Revera Peccator , and so to be Reus , is to be Revera ipse qui peccavit ; then we must consider what you mean by Pardon : For if you mean the nullifying of such a Guilt , ( or Reality ) it is impossible , because necessiate existentiae , he that hath once sinned , will be still the Person that sinned , while he is a Person , and the Relation of one that sinned will cleave to him : It will eternally be a true Proposition , [ Peter and Paul did sin ] ; But if by Pardon you mean , the pardoning of all the penalty which for that sin is due , ( damni vel sensus ) so it is pardoned ; and this is indeed the Reatus poenae : Not only the Penalty , but the Dueness of that Penalty , or the Obligation to it , is remitted and nullified . 2. Therefore if by Reatus Culpae you mean an Obligation to Punishment for that Fault , this being indeed the Reatus poenae , as is said , is done away . So that we are , I think , all agreed de re ; And de nomine you may say that the Reatus Culpae is done away or remitted , or not , in several senses : In se it is not nullified , nor can be : But as Dueness of Punishment followeth , that is pardoned . Object . 7. You have said , That though we were not personally but seminally in Adam when he sinned , yet when we are Persons , we are Persons guilty of his actual sin : And so we must be Persons that are Partakers of Christ's Actual Righteousness , and not only of its Effects , as soon as we are Believers . For Christ being the Second Adam , and publick Person ▪ we have our part in his Righteousness , as truly and as much as in Adam's sin . Answ . 1. We must first understand how far Adam's sin is ours : And first I have elsewhere proved that our Covenant-Vnion and Interest supposeth our Natural Vnion and Interest ; and that it is an adding to God's Word and Covenant , to say , That he covenanted that Adam should personate each one of his Posterity in God's imputation or account , any further than they were naturally in him ; and so that his innocency or sin should be reputed theirs , as far as if they had been personally the Subjects and Agents . The Person of Peter never was in Reality or God's Reputation , the Person of Adam . ( Nor Adam's Person the Person of Peter ) : But Peter being virtually and seminally in Adam , when he sinned , his Person is derived from Adam's Person : And so Peter's Guilt is not numerically the same with Adams , but the Accident of another Subject , and therefore another Accident , derived with the Person from Adam ( and from nearer Parents ) . The Fundamentum of that Relation ( of Guilt ) is the Natural Relation of the Person to Adam , ( and so it is Relatio in Relatione fundata ) . The Fundamentum of that natural Relation , is Generation , yea a series of Generations from Adam to that Person : And Adam's Generation being the Communication of a Guilty Nature with personality to his Sons and Daughters , is the fundamentum next following his personal Fault and Guilt charged on him by the Law : So that here is a long series of efficient Causes , bringing down from Adam's Person and Guilt a distinct numerical Person and Guilt of every one of his later Posterity . 2. And it is not the same sort of Guilt , or so plenary , which is on us , for Adam's Act , as was on him , but a Guilt Analogical , or of another sort : that is , He was guilty of being the wilful sinning Person , and so are not we , but only of being Persons whose Being is derived by Generation from the wilful sinning Persons , ( besides the guilt of our own inherent pravity ) : That is , The Relation is such which our Persons have to Adam ' s Person , as make it just with God to desert us , and to punish us for that and our pravity together . This is our Guilt of Original sin . 3. And this Guilt cometh to us by Natural Propagation , and resultancy from our very Nature so propagated . And now let us consider of our contrary Interest in Christ . And , 1. Our Persons are not the same as Christ's Person , ( nor Christ's as ours ) nor ever so judged or accounted of God. 2. Our Persons were not naturally , seminally , and virtually in Christ's Person ( any further than he is Creator and Cause of all things ) as they were in Adams . 3. Therefore we derive not Righteousness from him by Generation , but by his voluntary Donation or Contract . 4. As he became not our Natural Parent , so our Persons not being in Christ when he obeyed , are not reputed to have been in him naturally , or to have obeyed in and by him . 5. If Christ and we are reputed one Person , either he obeyed in our Person , or we in his , or both . If he obeyed as a Reputed Sinner in the Person of each Sinner , his Obedience could not be meritorious , according to the Law of Innocency , which required sinless Perfection ; And he being supposed to have broken the Law in our Persons , could not so be supposed to keept it . If we obeyed in his Person , we obeyed as Mediators , or Christ's , of which before . 6. But as is oft said , Christ our Mediator undertook in a middle Person to reconcile God and Man , ( not by bringing God erroneously to judg that he or we were what we are not , or did what we did not , but ) by being , doing , and suffering for us , that in his own Person , which should better answer God's Ends and Honour , than if we had done and suffered in our Persons , that hereby he might merit a free Gift of Pardon and Life ( with himself ) to be given by a Law of Grace to believing penitent Accepters . And so our Righteousness , as is oft opened , is a Relation resulting at once from all these Causes as fundamental to it , viz. Christ's Meritorious Righteousness , his free Gift thereupon , and our Relation to him as Covenanters or United Believers . And this is agreed on . Object . 8. As Christ is a Sinner by imputation of our sin , so we are Righteous , by the imputation of his Righteousness . But it is our sin it self that is imputed to Christ : Therefore it is his Righteousness it self that is imputed to us . Answ . 1. Christ's Person was not the Subject of our personal Relative Guilt , much less of our Habits or Acts. 2. God did not judg him to have been so . 3. Nay , Christ had no Guilt of the same kind reckoned to be on him ; else those unmeet Speeches , used rashly by some , would be true , viz. That Christ was the greatest Murderer , Adulterer , Idolater , Blasphemer , Thief , &c. in all the World , and consequently more hated of God , ( for God must needs hate a sinner as such ) . To be guilty of sin as we are , is to be reputed truly to be the Person that committed it : But so was not Christ , and therefore not so to be reputed . Christ was but the Mediator that undertook to suffer for our sins , that we might be forgiven ; and not for his own sin , real or justly reputed : Expositors commonly say that to be [ made sin for us ] , is but to be made [ a Sacrifice for sin ] . So that Christ took upon him neither our numerical guilt of sin it self , nor any of the same species ; but only our Reatum Poenae , or Debt of Punishment , or ( lest the Wrangler make a verbal quarrel of it ) our Reatum Culpae non qua talem & in se , sed quatenus est fundamentum Reatus poenae : And so his Righteousness is ours ; not numerically the same Relation that he was the Subject of made that Relation to us ; nor yet a Righteousness of the same Species as Christ's is given us at all , ( for his was a Mediators Righteousness , consisting in , 1. perfect Innocency ; 2. And that in the Works of the Jewish Law , which bind us not ; 3. And in doing his peculiar Works , as Miracles , Resurrection , &c. which were all His Righteousness as a conformity to that Law , and performance of that Covenant , which was made with , and to him as Mediator ) . But his Righteousness is the Meritorious Cause and Reason of another Righteousness or Justification ( distinct from his ) freely given us by the Father and himself by his Covenant . So that here indeed the Similitude much cleareth the Matter ; And they that will not blaspheme Christ by making guilt of sin it self in its formal Relation to be his own , and so Christ to be formally as great a sinner as all the Redeemed set together , and they that will not overthrow the Gospel , by making us formally as Righteous as Christ in kind and measure , must needs be agreed with us in this part of the Controversie . Object . 9. When you infer , That if we are reckoned to have perfectly obeyed in and by Christ , we cannot be again bound to obey our selves afterward , nor be guilty of any sin ; you must know that it 's true , That we cannot be bound to obey to the same ends as Christ did , ( which is to redeem us , or to fulfil the Law of Works ) But yet we must obey to other ends , viz. Ingratitude , and to live to God , and to do good , and other such like . Answ . 1. This is very true , That we are not bound to obey to all the same ends that Christ did , as to redeem the World , nor to fulfil the Law of Innocency . But hence it clearly followeth that Christ obeyed not in each of our Persons legally , but in the Person of a Mediator , seeing his due Obedience and ours have so different Ends , and a different formal Relation , ( his being a conformity proximately to the Law , given him as Mediator ) that they are not so much as of the same species , much less numerically the same . 2. And this fully proveth that we are not reckoned to have perfectly obeyed in and by him : For else we could not be yet obliged to obey , though to other ends than he was : For either this Obedience of Gratitude is a Duty or not ; If not , it is not truly Obedience , nor the omission sin : If yea , then that Duty was made a Duty by some Law : And if by a Law we are now bound to obey in gratitude ( or for what ends soever ) either we do all that we are so bound to do , or not . If we do it ( or any of it ) then to say that we did it twice , once by Christ , and once by our selves , is to say that we were bound to do it twice , and then Christ did not all that we were bound to , but half : But what Man is he that sinneth not ? Therefore seeing it is certain , that no Man doth all that he is bound to do by the Gospel , ( in the time and measure of his Faith , Hope , Love , Fruitfulness , &c. ) it followeth that he is a sinner , and that he is not supposed to have done all that by Christ which he failed in , both because he was bound to do it himself , and because he is a sinner for not doing it . 3. Yea , the Gospel binds us to that which Christ could not do for us , it being a Contradiction . Our great Duties are , 1. To believe in a Saviour . 2. To improve all the parts of his Mediation by a Life of Faith. 3. To repent of our sins . 4. To mortifie sinful Lusts in our selves . 5. To fight by the Spirit against our flesh . 6. To confess our selves sinners . 7. To pray for pardon . 8. To pray for that Grace which we culpably want . 9. To love God for redeeming us . 10. Sacramentally to covenant with Christ , and to receive him and his Gifts ; with many such like ; which Christ was not capable of doing in and on his own Person for us , though as Mediator he give us Grace to do them , and pray for the pardon of our sins , as in our selves . 4. But the Truth which this Objection intimateth , we all agree in , viz. That the Mediator perfectly kept the Law of Innocency , that the keeping of that Law might not be necessary to our Salvation , ( and so such Righteousness necessary in our selves ) but that we might be pardoned for want of perfect Innocency , and be saved upon our sincere keeping of the Law of Grace , because the Law of Innocency was kept by our Mediator , and thereby the Grace of the New-Covenant merited , and by it Christ , Pardon , Spirit and Life , by him freely given to Believers . Object . 10. The same Person may be really a sinner in himself , and yet perfectly innocent in Christ , and by imputation . Answ . Remember that you suppose here the Person and Subject to be the same Man : And then that the two contrary Relations of perfect Innocency , or guiltlesness , and guilt of any , ( yea much sin ) can be consistent in him , is a gross contradiction . Indeed he may be guilty , and not guilty in several partial respects ; but a perfection of guiltlesness excludeth all guilt . But we are guilty of many a sin after Conversion , and need a Pardon . All that you should say is this , We are sinners our selves , but we have a Mediator that sinned not , who merited Pardon and Heaven for sinners . 2. But if you mean that God reputeth us to be perfectly innocent when we are not , because that Christ was so , it is to impute Error to God : He reputeth no Man to be otherwise than he is : But he doth indeed first give , and then impute a Righteousness Evangelical to us , instead of perfect Innocency , which shall as certainly bring us to Glory ; and that is , He giveth us both the Renovation of his Spirit , ( to Evangelical Obedience ) and a Right by free gift to Pardon and Glory for the Righteousness of Christ that merited it ; And this thus given us , he reputeth to be an acceptable Righteousness in us . CHAP. VI. Animadversions on some of Dr. T. Tullies Strictures . § . 1. I Suppose the Reader desireth not to be wearied with an examination of all Dr. Tullies words , which are defective in point of Truth , Justice , Charity , Ingenuity , or Pertinency to the Matter , but to see an answer to those that by appearance of pertinent truth do require it , to disabuse the incautelous Readers ; Though somewhat by the way may be briefly said for my own Vindication . And this Tractate being conciliatory , I think meet here to leave out most of the words , and personal part of his contendings , and also to leave that which concerneth the interest of Works ( as they are pleased to call Man's performance of the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace ) in our Justification , to a fitter place , viz. To annex what I think needful to my friendly Conference with Mr. Christopher Cartwright on the Subject , which Dr. Tullies Assault perswadeth me to publish . § . 2. pag. 71. Justif . Paulin. This Learned Doctor saith , [ The Scripture mentioneth no Justification in foro Dei at all , but that One , which is Absolution from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law. Answ . 1. If this be untrue , it 's pity so worthy a Man should unworthily use it against peace and concord . If it be true , I crave his help for the expounding of several Texts . Exod. 23.6 , 7. Thou shalt not wrest the Judgment of thy Poor in his Cause : Keep thee far from a false Matter , and the Innocent and Righteous slay thou not ; for I will not justifie the wicked ] . Is the meaning only , I will not absolve the wicked from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law ( of Innocency ) ? Or is it not rather , [ I will not misjudg the wicked to be just , nor allow his wickedness , nor yet allow thee so to do , nor leave thee unpunished for thy unrighteous judgment , but will condemn thee if thou condemn the Just ] . Job 25.4 . How then can Man be justified with God ? or , How can he be clean that is born of a Woman ? Is the sense , [ How can Man be absolved from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law ? ] Or rather , [ How can he be maintained Innocent ? ] Psal . 143.2 . In thy sight shall no Man living be justified . Is the sense , [ No Man living shall be absolved from the Maledictory sentence of the Law ? Than we are all lost for ever : Or rather no Man shall be found and maintained Innocent , and judged one that deserved not punishment ] ; ( Therefore we are not judged perfect fulfillers of that Law by another or our selves ) . Object . But this is for us and against you : for it denyeth that there is any such Justification . Answ . Is our Controversie de re , or only de nomine , of the sense of the word Justifie ? If de re , then his meaning is to maintain , That God never doth judg a Believer to be a Believer , or a Godly Man to be Godly , or a performer of the Condition of Pardon and Life to have performed it , nor will justifie any believing Saint against the false Accusations , that he is an Infidel , a wicked ungodly Man , and an Hypocrite , ( or else he writeth against those that he understood not ) . But if the Question be ( as it must be ) de nomine , whether the word Justifie have any sense besides that which he appropriateth to it , then a Proposition that denieth the Existentiam rei , may confute his denyal of any other sense of the word . So Isa . 43.9 , 26. Let them bring forth their Witnesses that they may justified : Declare thou that thou mayest be justified ; that is , proved Innocent . But I hope he will hear and reverence the Son ; Matth. 12.37 . By thy words thou shalt be Justified , and by thy words thou shalt be Condemned ] ( speaking of Gods Judgment ) which I think meaneth ( de re & nomine ) Thy Righteous or unrighteous words shall be a part of the Cause of the day , or Matter , for or according to which , thou shalt be judged obedient or disobedient to the Law of Grace , and so far just or unjust , and accordingly sentenced to Heaven or Hell , as is described Matth. 25. But it seems this Learned Doctor understands it only , By thy words thou shalt be absolved from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law , and by thy words contrarily condemned . Luk. 18.14 . The Publican [ went down to his House justified rather than the other ] ; I think not only [ from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law of Innocency ] but [ by God approved a sincere Penitent ] , and so a fit Subject of the other part of Justification . Acts 13.39 . is the Text that speaketh most in the sense he mentioneth ; And yet I think it includeth more , viz. By Christ , 1. we are not only absolved from that Condemnation due for our sins ; 2. but also we are by his repealing or ending of the Mosaick Law justified against the Charge of Guilt for our not observing it ; and 3. Augustine would add , That we are by Christ's Spirit and Grace made just ( that is , sincerely Godly ) by the destruction of those inherent and adherent sins , which the Law of Moses could not mortifie and save us from , but the Spirit doth . Rom. 2.13 . Not the Hearers of the Law are just before God , but the Doers of the Law shall be justified ] . Is it only , The Doers shall be Absolved from the Maledictory Sentence , & c. ? Or first and chiefly , They shall be judged well-doers , so far as they do well , and so approved and justified , so far as they do keep the Law ? ( which because no Man doth perfectly , and the Law of Innocency requireth Perfection , none can be justified absolutely , or to Salvation by it ) . Object . The meaning is , ( say some ) The Doers of the Law should be justified by it ; were there any such . Answ . That 's true , of absolute Justification unto Life : But that this is not all the sense of the Text , the two next Verses shew , where the Gentiles are pronounced partakers of some of that which he meaneth inclusively in doing to Justification : Therefore it must include that their Actions and Persons are so far justified , ( more or less ) as they are Doers of the Law , as being so far actively just . Rom. 8.30 . Whom he justified , them he also glorified ; And 1 Cor. 6. ●● ▪ Ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus , and by the Spirit of our God. Many Protestants , and among them Bez● himself , expound ( in the Papists and Austins sense of Justification ) as including Sanctification also , as well as Absolution from the Curse : And so Arch Bishop Vsher told me he understood them . As also Tit. 3.7 . That being justified freely by his Grace . And many think so of Rom. 4.5 . he [ justifieth the Vngodly ] say they , by Converting , Pardoning , and Accepting them in Christ to Life . And Rom. 8.33 . Who shall condemn ? it is God that justifieth , seemeth to me more than barely to say , God absolveth us from the Curse , because it is set against Man's Condemnation , ( who reproached , slandered and persecuted the Christians as evil Doers , as they did Christ , to whom they were predestinated to be conformed ) . And so must mean , God will not only absolve us from his Curse , but also justifie our Innocency against all the false Accusations of our Enemies . And it seemeth to be spoken by the Apostle , with respect to Isa . 50.8 . He is near that justifieth me , who will contend with me ? Which my reverence to this Learned Man sufficeth not to make me believe , is taken only in his sense of Absolution . Rev. 22.11 . He that is Righteous , let him be justified still , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) which not only our Translaters , but almost all Expositors take as inclusive of Inherent Righteousness , if not principally speaking of it . To speak freely , I remember not one Text of Scripture that useth the word [ Justifie ] in this Doctor 's sense ; that is , Only for the said absolution from the Curse of the Law : For all those other Texts that speak for Justification by Christ's Grace , and Faith , and not by the Works of the Law , ( as Rom. 3.20 , 24 , 28 , 30. and 4.2 , 5 , 25. & 5.1 , 9 , 16 , 18. 1 Cor. 4.4 . Gal. 2.16 , 17. & 3.8 , 11 , 24. & 5.4 , &c. ) do all seem to me to mean , not only that [ we are absolved from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law ] , but also that we are first made , and then accounted Persons first meet for Absolution , and next meet for God's Acceptance of us as just , and as Heirs of Life Eternal , and meet for the great Reward in Heaven : For when the Apostle denieth Justification by Works ; it is not credible that he meaneth only , that [ By the Works of the Law no Man is absolved from the Curse of the Law ] ; But also , No Man by the Works of the Law , is before God taken for a Performer of the necessary Condition of Absolution and Salvation , nor fit for his Acceptance , and for the Heavenly Reward . Answ . 2. But let the Reader here note , that the Doctor supposeth James to mean , that [ By Works a Man is absolved from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law , and not by Faith only ] . For that James speaks of Justification in foro Dei is past all doubt : And who would have thought that the Doctor had granted this of the Text of James ? But mistakes seldom agree among themselves . Answ . 3. And would not any Man have thought that this Author had pleaded for such an Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , as justifieth not only from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law , but also from the very guilt of sin as sin , we being reputed , ( not only pardoned sinners , but ) perfect fulfillers of the Law by Christ , and so that we are in Christ conform to the Fac hoc or preceptive part commanding Innocency ? Who would have thought but this was his drift ? If it be not , all his angry Opposition to me , is upon a mistake so foul , as reverence forbids me to name with its proper Epithets : If it be , how can the same Man hold , That we are justified as in Christ , conform to the Precept of perfect Innocency ? And yet that The Scripture mentioneth no Justification at all , in foro Dei , besides that one , which is Absolution from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law. But still mistakes have discord with themselves . Answ . 4. It is the judgment indeed of Mr. Gataker , Wotton , Piscator , Paraeus , Vrsine , Wendeline , and abundance other excellent Divines , that as sins of omission are truly sin , and poena damni , or privations truly punishment ; so for a sinner for his sin to be denied God's Love and Favour , Grace and Glory , is to be punished ; and to be pardoned , is to have this privative punishment remitted as well as the rest ; and so that Justification containeth our Right to Glory , as it is the bare forgiveness of the penalty of sin ; because Death and Life , Darkness and Light are such Contraries , as that one is but the privation of the other : But this Learned Doctor seemeth to be of the commoner Opinion , that the Remission of Sin is but one part of our Justification , and that by Imputation of perfect Holiness and Obedience we must have another part , which is our Right to the Reward ▪ ( and I think a little Explication would end that difference ) . But doth he here then agree with himself ? And to contradict the common way of those with whom he joyneth ? Do they not hold that Justification is more than an Absolution from the Maledictory Sentence of the Law ? Answ . 5. But indeed his very Description by Absolution is utterly ambiguous : 1. Absolution is either by Actual Pardon , by the Law or Covenant of Grace ; which giveth us our Right to Impunity : 2. Or by Sentence of the Judg , who publickly decideth our Case , and declareth our Right determinatively : Or by execution of that Sentence in actual delivering us from penalty ; And who knoweth which of these he meaneth ? This is but confusion , to describe by an unexplained equivocal word . And who knoweth what Law he meaneth , whose Maledictory Sentence Justification absolveth us from ? Doth he think that the Law of Innocency , and of Moses , and the Law of Grace are all one , which Scripture so frequently distinguisheth ? Or that each of them hath not its Malediction ? If he deny this , I refer him to my full proof of it , to Mr. Cartwright and elsewhere . If not , we should know whether he mean all , or which . 3. And what he meaneth by the Sentence of the Law is uncertain : Whether it be the Laws Commination , as obliging us to punishment , which is not a Sentence in the usual proper sense , but only a virtual Sentence , that is , the Norma Judicis ; or whether he mean the Sentence of God as Judg , according to the Law : which is not the Sentence of the Law properly , but of the Judg : It 's more intelligible speaking , and distinct , that must edifie us , and end those Controversies which ambiguities and confusion bred and feed . Answ . 6. But which-ever he meaneth , most certainly it is not true that the Scripture mentioneth no other Justification in foro Dei. For many of the fore-cited Texts tell us , that it oft mentioneth a Justification , which is no Absolution from the Maledictory Sentence , ( neither of the Law of Innocency , of Moses , or of Grace ) but a Justification of a Man's innocency in tantum , or quoad Causam hanc particularem , Viz. 1. Sometimes a Justifying the Righteous Man against the slanders of the World , or of his Enemies . 2. Sometimes a justifying a Man in some one action , as having dealt faithfully therein . 3. Sometimes a judging a Man to be a faithful Godly Man , that performeth the Conditions of Life in the Law of Grace made necessary to God's Acceptance . 4. Sometimes for making a Man such , or for making him yet more inherently just , or continuing him so . 5. Sometimes for Justification by the Apology of an Advocate , ( which is not Absolution ) . 6. Sometimes for Justification by Witness . 7. And sometimes , perhaps , by Evidence . As appeareth , Isa 50.8 . Rom. 8.33 . ( and so God himself is said to be justified , Psal . 51.4 . Rom. 3.4 . and Christ , 1 Tim. 3.16 . ) 1 King. 8.32 . Hear thou in Heaven , and do , and judg thy Servants , condemning the Wicked to bring his way upon his Head ; and justifying the Righteous , to give him according to his Righteousness , ( where the Sentence is passed by the Act of Execution ) . Is this absolving him from the Curse of the Law ? So 1 Chron. 6.23 . so Mat. 12.37 . & Jam. 2.21 , 24 , 25. where Justification by our Words and by Works is asserted ; and many other Texts so speak : Frequently to Justifie , is to maintain one , or prove him to be just . It 's strange that any Divine should find but one sort of sense of Justification before God mentioned in the Scriptures . I would give here to the Reader , a help for some excuse of the Author , viz. that by [ praeter unam illam quae est Absolutio ] he might mean , which is partly Absolution and partly Acceptation , as of a fulfiller of the Precept of Perfection by Christ , and partly Right to the Reward , all three making up the whole ; but that I must not teach him how to speak his own mind , or think that he knew not how to utter it ; And specially , because the Instances here prove that even so it is very far from Truth , had he so spoken . Answ . 7. But what if the word [ Justification ] had been found only as he affirmed ? If Justice , ( Righteousness ) and Just , be otherwise used , that 's all one in the sense , and almost in the word ; seeing it is confessed , that to Justifie , is , 1. To make Just ; 2. Or to esteem Just ; 3. Or sentence Just ; 4. Or to prove Just , and defend as Just ; 5. Or to use as Just by execution . And therefore in so many senses as a Man is called Just in Scripture , he is inclusively , or by connotation , said to be Justified , and Justifiable , and Justificandus . And I desire no more of the Impartial Reader , but to turn to his Concordances , and peruse all the Texts where the words [ Just , Justice , Justly , Righteous , Righteousness , Righteously ] are used ; and if he find not that they are many score , if not hundred times used , for that Righteousness which is the Persons Relation resulting from some Acts or Habits of his own , ( as the Subject or Agent ) and otherwise than according to his solitary sense here , let him then believe this Author . § . 3. But he is as unhappy in his Proofs , as in his singular untrue Assertion : [ Rom. 8.2 , 4. The Law of the Spirit of Life , hath freed us from the Law of Sin and of Death . Gal. 3.13 . God sent his Son , thta the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us ; Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law ; and many more such : Here is no mention of any but one legal Justification ] . Answ . 1. Reader , do you believe that these two Texts are a perfect Enumeration . And that if these mention but one sense or sort of Justification , that it will follow that no more is mentioned in Scripture : Or if many hundred other Texts have the same sense ? 2. Nay , he hath chosen only these Texts where the word [ Justification ] or [ Justifie ] is not at all found . By which I may suppose that he intendeth the Controversie here de re , and not de nomine . And is that so ? Can any Man that ever considerately opened the Bible , believe that de re no such Thing is mentioned in Scripture . 1. As making a Man a believing Godly Man. 2. Or as performing the Conditions of Life required of us in the Covenant of Grace . 3. Nor esteeming a Man such . 4. Not defending or proving him to be such . 5. Nor judging him such decisively . 6. Nor using him as such . 7. Nor as justifying a Man so far as he is Innocent and Just against all false Accusation of Satan or the World. 3. The first Text cited by him , Rom. 8.24 . downright contradicts him : Not only Augustine , but divers Protestant Expositors suppose , that by the Law of the Spirit of Life is meant , either the quickning Spirit it self given to us that are in Christ , or the Gospel , as it giveth that Spirit into us ; And that by delivering us from the Law of Sin , is meant either from that sin which is as a Law within us , or Moses Law , as it forbiddeth and commandeth all its peculiarities , and so maketh doing or not doing them sin ; and as it declareth sin , yea , and accidentally irritateth it : Yea , that by the Law of Death is meant , not only that Law we are cursed by , and so guilty , but chiefly that Law , as it is said Rom. 7. to kill Paul , and to occasion the abounding of sin , and the Li●e of it : And that by [ the fulfilling of the Law in us , that walk not after the Flesh , but after the Spirit ] , is meant [ that by the Spirit and Grace of Christ , Christians do fulfil the Law , as it requireth sincere Holiness , Sobriety and Righteousness , which God accepteth for Christ's sake ; which the Law of Moses , without Christ's Spirit , enabled no Man to fulfil ] . Not to weary the Reader with citing Expositors , I now only desire him to peruse , Ludov. de Dieu on the Text. And it is certain , that the Law that Paul there speaketh of , was Moses Law : And that he is proving all along , that the observation of it was not necessary to the Gentiles , to their performance , or Justification and Salvation , ( necessitate praecepti vel medii ) ; ( for it would not justifie the Jews themselves ) . And sure , 1. all his meaning is not , [ The Law will not absolve Men from the sense of the Law ] . But also its Works will give no one the just title of a Righteous Man , accepted of God , and saved by him , as judging between the Righteous and the wicked : ( as Christ saith , Matth. 25. The Righteous shall go into Everlasting Life , &c. ) 2. And if it were only the Maledictory Sentence of Moses Law , as such , that Paul speaketh of Absolution from , as our only Justification , then none but Jews and Proselites who were under that Law , could have the Justification by Faith which he mentioneth ; for it curseth none else : For what-ever the Law saith , it saith to them that are under the Law : The rest of the World were only under the Law of lapsed Nature , ( the relicts of Adam's Law of Innocency ) and the Curse for Adam's first Violation ; and the Law of Grace made to Adam and Noah , and after perfected fullier by Christ in its second Edition . 2. His other Text [ Christ redeemed us from the Curse of the Law ] proveth indeed that all Believers are redeemed from the Curse of the first Law of Innocency , and the Jews from the Curse of Moses Law ( which is it that is directly meant ) : But what 's that to prove that these words speak the whole and the only Justification ? and that the Scripture mentioneth no other ? § . 4. He addeth , [ Lex est quae prohibet ; Lex quae poenam decernit ; Lex quae irrogat : Peccatum est transgressio Legis : Poena effectus istius trangressionis ; Justificatio denique absolutio ab ista poena : Itaque c●m Lex nisi praestita nenimem Justificat , & praestitam omnes in Christo agnoscunt , aut Legalis erit omnis JUstificatio coram Deo , aut omnino nulla ] . Answ . 1. But doth he know but one sort of Law of God ? Hath every Man incurred the Curse by Moses Law that did by Adams ? Or every Man fallen under the peremptory irreversible condemnation which the Law of Grace passeth on them that never believe and repent ? Doth this Law , [ He that believeth not shall be damned ] damn Believers ? One Law condemneth all that are not Innocent . Another supposeth them under that defect , and condemneth peremptorily ( not every Sinner ) but the Wicked and Unbelievers . 2. Again here he saith , [ Justification is Absolution from that Penalty ] . But is a Man absolved ( properly ) from that which he was never guilty of ? Indeed if he take Absolution so loosly as to signifie , the justifying a Man against a false Accusation , and pronouncing him Not-Guilty ; So all the Angels in Heaven may possibly be capable of Absolution : Justification is ordinarily so used , but Absolution seldom by Divines . And his words shew that this is not his senses , if I understand them . But if we are reputed perfect fulfillers of the Law of Innocency by Christ , and yet Justification is our Absolution from the Curse , then no Man is justified that is Righteous by that Imputation . 3. And how unable is my weak Understanding , to make his words at peace with themselves ? The same Man in the next lines saith , [ Lex nisi praestita neminem justificat : and all Justification before God must be legal or none ] ; so that no Man is justified but as reputed Innocent , or a performer of the Law : And yet Justification is our Absolution from the Punishment and Malediction of the Law ; As if he said , No Man is justified but by the pardon of that sin which he is reputed never to have had , and Absolution from that Curse and Punishment which he is reputed never to have deserved or been under . Are these things reconcileable ? But if really he take Absolution for justifying or acquitting from a false Accusation , and so to be absolved from the Malediction of the Law , is to be reputed one that never deserved it , or was under it , then it 's as much as to say , that there is no pardon of sin , or that no Man that is pardoned , or reputed to need a Pardon , is justified . 4. All this and such Speeches would perswade the Reader that this Learned Disputer thinketh that I took and use the word [ Legal ] generally as of that which is related to any Law in genere , and so take Evangelical contrarily for that which is related to no Law : whereas I over and over tell him , that ( speaking in the usual Language that I may be understood ) I take [ Legal ] specially ( and not generally ) for that Righteousness , which is related to the Law of Works or Innocency , ( not as if we had indeed such a Righteousness as that Law will justifie us for ; But a pro-Legal-Righteousness , one instead of it , in and by our perfect Saviour , which shall effectually save us from that Laws condemnation ) : And that by [ Evangelical Righteousness ] , I mean , that which is related to the Law of Grace , as the Rule of Judgment , upon the just pleading whereof that Law will not condemn but justifie us . If he knew this to be my meaning , in my weak judgment , he should not have written either as if he did not , or as if he would perswade his Rsaders to the contrary : For Truth is most congruously , defended by Truth : But if he knew it not , I despair of becoming intelligible to him , by any thing that I can write , and I shall expect that this Reply be wholly lost to him and worse . 5. His [ Lex nisi praestita neminem justificat ] is true ; and therefore no Man is justified by the Law , But his next words [ & praestitam omnes in Christo agnoscunt ] seemeth to mean that [ It was performed by us in Christ ] ; Or that [ It justifieth us , because performed perfectly by Christ as such ] : Which both are the things that we most confidently deny . It was not Physically , or Morally , or Politically , or Legally , or Reputatively , ( take which word you will ) fulfilled by us in Christ : it doth not justifie us , because it was fulfilled by Christ , ( as such , or immediately , and eo nomine ) . It justified Christ , because he fulfilled it ; and so their Law doth all the perfect Angels . But we did not personally fulfil it in Christ ; it never allowed vicarium obedientiae to fulfil it by our selves or another : Therefore anothers Obedience , merely as such , ( even a Mediators ) is not our Obedience or Justification : But that Obedience justifieth us , as given us only in or to the effecting of our Personal Righteousness , which consisteth in our right to Impunity , and to God's Favour and Life , freely given for Christ's Merits sake , and in our performance of the Conditions of the Law of Grace , or that free Gift , which is therefore not a co-ordinate but a sub-ordinate Righteousness ( and Justification ) to qualifie us for the former . This is so plain and necessary , that if ( in sense ) it be not understood by all that are admitted to the Sacramental Communion , ( excepting Verbal Controversies or Difficulties ) I doubt we are too lax in our admissions . § . 5. Next he tel's us of a threefold respect of Justification : 1. Ex parte principii . 2. Termini . 3. Medii : ( I find my self uncapeable of teaching him , that is a Teacher of such as I , and therefore presume not to tell him how to distinguish more congruously , plainly , and properly , as to the terms ) . And as to the Principle or Fountain whence it floweth , that is , Evangelical Grace in Christ , he saith , It is thus necessary , that in our lapsed State all Justification be Evangelical ] . Answ . Who would desire a sharper or a softer , a more dissenting or a more consenting Adversary ? Very good : If then I mean it ex parte principii , I offend him not by asserting Evangelical Righteousness : The Controversie then will be only de nomine , whether it be congruous thus to call it . And really are his Names and Words put into our Creed , and become so necessary as to be worthy of all the stress that he layeth on them , and the calling up the Christian World to arrive by their Zeal against our Phrase ? Must the Church be awakened to rise up against all those that will say with Christ , [ By thy words thou shalt be justified ] . And with James , [ By Works a Man is justified , and not by Faith only ] , and [ we are judged by the Law of Liberty ] , and as Christ , Joh. 5.22 . [ The Father judgeth no Man , but hath committed all Judgment to the Son ] ; and that shall recite the 25 th Chapter of Matthew . Even now he said at once , [ There is no Justification in foro Dei , but Absolution , &c. The Law of the Spirit of Life hath freed us , &c. Here is no mention of any Justification but Legal ] . And now [ All our Justification ex parte principii , is only Evangelical ] . So then no Text talks of Evangelical Justification , or of Justification ex parte principii : And Absolution which defineth it , is named ex parte principii . And yet all Justification is Evangelical . Is this mode of Teaching worthy a Defence by a Theological War ? 2. But Reader , Why may not I denominate Justification ex parte principii ? Righteousness is formally a Relation : To justifie constitutively , is to make Righteous . To be Justified , ( or Justification in sensu passivo ) is to be made Righteous ; And in foro , to be judged Righteous : And what meaneth he by Principium as to a Relation , but that which other Men call the Fundamentum , which is loco Efficientis , or a remote efficient ? And whence can a Relation be more fitly named , than from the fundamentum , whence it hath its formal being ? Reader , bear with my Error , or correct it , if I mistake . I think that as our Righteousness is not all of one sort , no more is the fundamentum : 1. I think I have no Righteousness , whose immediate fundamentum is my sinless Innocency , or fulfilling the Law of Works or Innocency , by my self or another : and so I have no fundamentum of such . 2. I hope I have a Righteousness consisting in my personal Right to Impunity and Life ; and that Jus or Right is mine by the Title of free Condonation and Donation by the Gospel-Covenant or Grant : And so that Grant or Gospel is the fundamentum of it : But the Merits of Christ's Righteousness purchased that Gift , and so those Merits are the remote fundamentum or efficient : And thus my Justification , by the Doctor 's confession , is Evangelical . 3. I must perish if I have not also a subordinate personal Righteousness , consisting in my performance of those Conditions on which the New-Covenant giveth the former . And the fundamentum of this Righteousness is the Reality of that performance , as related to the Irrogation , Imposition , or Tenor of the Covenant , making this the Condition . This is my Heresie , if I be heretical ; and be it right or wrong , I will make it intelligible , and not by saying and unsaying , involve all in confusion . § . 6. He addeth , [ Ex parte Termini Legalis est , quia terminatur in satisfactione , Legi praestanda : Liberavit me à Lege mortis , &c. And hence , he saith , the denomination is properly taken . Answ . 1. The Reader here seeth that all this Zeal is exercised in a Game at Words , or Logical Notions ; and the Church must be called for the umpirage , to stand by in ▪ Arms to judg that he hath won the Day : What if the denomination be properly to be taken from the Terminus ? Is it as dangerous as you frightfully pretend to take it aliunde ? 2. But stay a little : Before we come to this , we must crave help to understand what he talketh of : Is it , 1. Justificatio , Justificans ( active sumpta ) ? Or , 2. Justificatio Justificati ( passive ) ? 3. Or Justitia ? 1. The first is Actio , and the Terminus of that Action is two-fold . 1. The Object or Patient ( a believing Sinner ) . 2. The Effect , Justificatio passivè , neither of these is the Law , or its Malediction . But which of these is it that we must needs name it from ? 2. The passive or effective Justification is in respect of the Subjects Reception called Passio : In respect of the form received , it is as various as I before mentioned . 1. The Effect of the Donative Justification of the Law of Grace , is Justitia data ; a Relation ( oft described ) . 2. The Effect of the Spirits giving us Inherent Righteousness , is a Quality given , Acts excited , and a Relation thence resulting . 3. The Effect of Justification per sententiam Judicis , is immediately a Relation , Jus Judicatum . 4. The Effect of an Advocates Justification , is Justitia & persona ut defensa seu vindicata . 5. The Effect of Executive Justification , is Actual Impunity or Liberation . And are all these one Terminus , or hence one name then ? These are the Termini of Justificatio Justificantis , ut Actionis ; and nothing of this nature can be plainer , than that , 1. Remission of sin ( passively taken ) the Reatus or Obligatio ad poenam , ( the first ad quem , and the second à quo ) are both the immediate Termini of our Act of Justification . 2. That the Terminus Justitiae , as it is the formal Relation of a Justified Person , as such , is the Law as Norma Actionum , as to Righteous Actions , and the Law or Covenant , as making the Condition of Life , as to those Actions , sub ratione Conditionis & Tituli . And the Promissory and Minatory part of the Law , as Justitia is Jus praemii , & impunitatis . First , The Actions , and then the Person are Just in Relation to the Law or Covenant , by which their Actions and they are to be judged . But the remoter Terminus is the malum à quo , and the bonum ad quod . And as à quo , it is not only the evil denounced , but also the Reatus , or Obligation to it , and the efficacious Act of the Law thus cursing , and the Accusation of the Actor or Accuser , ( real or possible ) that is such a terminus . II. But when he saith , Ex parte Termini Legalis est , either still he taketh legal generally , as comprehending the Law of Innocency , of Works , and of Grace , or not . If he do , I must hope he is more intelligent and just , than to insinuate to his Reader , that I ever mention an Evangelical Justification that is not so legal , as to be denominated from the Law of Grace , as distinct from that of Works : If not , he was indebted to his intelligent Reader for some proof , that no Man is justified against this false Accusation ; [ Thou art by the Law of Grace the Heir of a far sorer punishment , for despising the Remedy , and not performing the Conditions of Pardon and Life . And also for this thou hast no right to Christ , and the Gifts of his Covenant of Grace ] . But no such proof is found in his Writings , nor can be given . III. But his [ Quia Terminatur in satisfactione Legi praestanda ] . I confess it is a Sentence not very intelligible or edifying to me . 1. Satisfactio proprie & stricte sic dicta differ● à solutione ejusdem quod sit , solutio aequivalentis alias indebite : Which of these he meaneth , Satisfaction thus strictly taken , or solutio ejusdem , I know not : Nor know what it is that he meaneth by Legi praestandâ : Indeed solutio ejusdem is Legi praestanda , but not praestita by us ( personally or by another ) : For we neither kept the Law , nor bare the full Penalty ; And the Law mentioned no Vicarium Obedientiae aut p●enae ; Christ performed the Law , as it obliged himself as Mediator , and as a Subject , but not as it obliged us ; for it obliged us to Personal performance only : And Christ by bearing that Punishment ( in some respects ) which we deserved , satisfied the Law-giver , ( who had power to take a Commutation ) but not the Law : unless speaking improperly you will say that the Law is satisfied , when the remote ends of the Law-giver and Law are obtained . For the Law hath but one fixed sense , and may be it self changed , but changeth not it self , nor accepteth a tantundem : And Christ's suffering for us , was a fulfilling of the Law , which peculiarly bound him to suffer , and not a Satisfaction loco solutionis ejusdem : And it was no fulfilling the Penal part of the Law as it bound us to suffer : For so it bound none but us ; so that the Law as binding us to Duty or Suffering , was neither fulfilled , nor strictly satisfied by Christ ; but the Law-giver satisfied , and the remote ends of the Law attained , by Christ's perfect fulfilling all that Law which bound himself as Mediator . Now whether he mean the Law as binding us to Duty , or to Punishment , or both , and what by satisfaction I am not sure : But as far as I can make sense of it , it seeneth to mean , that Poena is satisfactio loco obedientiae , and that Punishment being our Due , this was satisfactio Legi praestandâ , ( for he saith not Praestita ) . But then he must judge that we are justified only from the penal Obligation of the Law , and not from the preceptive Obligation to perfect Obedience . And this will not stand with the scope of other Passages , where he endureth not my Opinion , that we are not justified by the fae hoc , the Precept as fulfilled , or from the Reatus Gulpae in se , but by Christ's whole Righteousness from the Reatus ut ad paenam . 2. But if this be his sense , he meaneth then that it is only the Terminus à quo , that Justification is properly denominated from . And why so ? 1. As Justitia and Justificatio passive sumpta , vel ut effectus , is Relatio , it hath necessarily no Terminus à quo ; And certainly is in specie , to be rather denominated from its own proper Terminus ad quem . And as Justification is taken for the Justifiers Action ; why is it not as well to be denominated from the Terminus ad quem , as à quo ? Justificatio efficiens sic dicitur , quia Justum facit : Justificatio apologetica , quia Justum vindicat vel probat . Justificatio per sententiam , quia Justum aliquem esse Judicat : Justificatio executiva , quia ut Justum eum tractat . But if we must needs denominate from the Terminus à quo , how strange is it that he should know but of one sense of Justification ? 3. But yet perhaps he meaneth , [ In satisfactione Legi praestitâ , though he say praestandâ , and so denominateth from the Terminus à quo : But if so , 1. Then it cannot be true : For satisfacere & Justificare are not the same thing , nor is Justifying giving Satisfaction ; nor were we justified when Christ had satisfied , but long after : Nor are we justified eo nomine , because Christ satisfied , ( that is , immediately ) but because he gave us that Jus ad impunitatem & vitam & spiritum sanctum , which is the Fruit of his Satisfaction . 2. And as is said , if it be only in satisfactione , then it is not in that Obedience which fulfileth the preceptive part as it bound us : for to satisfie for not fulfilling , is not to fulfil it . 3. And then no Man is justified , for no Man hath satisfied either the Preceptive or Penal Obligation of the Law , by himself or another : But Christ hath satisfied the Law-giver by Merit and Sacrifice for sin . His Liberavit nos à Lege Mortis , I before shewed impertinent to his use , Is Liberare & Justificare , or Satisfacere all one ? And is à Lege Mortis , either from all the Obligation to Obedience , or from the sole mal●diction ? There be other Acts of Liberation besides Satisfaction : For it is [ The Law of the Spirit of Life ] that doth it : And we are freed both from the power of indwelling-sin , ( called a Law ) and from the Mosaical Yoak , and from the Impossible Conditions of the Law of Innocency , though not from its bare Obligation to future Duty . § . 7. He addeth a Third , Ex parte Medii , quod est Justitia Christi Legalis nobis per fidem Imputata : Omnem itaque Justificationem proprie Legalem esse constat . Answ . 1. When I read that he will have but one sense or sort of Justification , will yet have the Denomination to be ex termino , and so justifieth my distinction of it , according to the various Termini ; And here how he maketh the Righteousness of Christ to be but the MEDIVM of our Justification , ( though he should have told us which sort of Medium he meaneth ) he seemeth to me a very favourable consenting Adversary : And I doubt those Divines who maintain that Christ's Rig●teousness is the Causa Formalis of our Justification , ( who are no small ones , nor a few , though other in answer to the Papists disclaim it ) yea , and those that make it but Causa Materialis , ( which may have a sound sense ) will think this Learned Man betrayeth their Cause by prevarication , and seemeth to set fiercly against me , that he may yeeld up the Cause with less suspicion . But the truth is , we all know but in part , and therefore err in part , and Error is inconsistent with it self . And as we have conflicting Flesh and Spirit in the Will , so have we conflicting Light and Darkness , Spirit and Flesh in the Understanding ; And it is very perceptible throughout this Author's Book , that in one line the Flesh and Darkness saith one thing , and in the next oft the Spirit and Light saith the contrary , and seeth not the inconsistency : And so though the dark and fleshy part rise up in wrathful striving Zeal against the Concord and Peace of Christians , on pretence that other Mens Errors wrong the Truth , yet I doubt not but Love and Unity have some interest in his lucid and Spiritual part . We do not only grant him that Christ's Righteousness is a Medium of our Justification , ( for so also is Faith a Condition , and Dispositio Receptiva being a Medium ) ; nor only some Cause , ( for so also is the Covenant-Donation ) ; but that it is ▪ an efficient meritorious Cause , and because if Righteousness had been that of our own , Innocency would have been founded in Merit , we may call Christ's Righteousness the material Cause of our Justification , remotely , as it is Materia Meriti , the Matter of the Merit which procureth it . 2. But for all this it followeth not that all Justification is only Legal , as Legal noteth its respect to the Law of Innocency : For 1. we are justified from or against che Accusation of being non-performers of the Condition of the Law of Grace ; 2. And of being therefore unpardoned , and lyable to its sorer Penalty . 3. Our particular subordinate Personal Righteousness consisting in the said performance of those Evangelical Conditions of Life , is so denominated from its conformity to the Law of Grace , ( as it instituteth its own Condition ) as the measure of it , ( as Rectitudo ad Regulam ) . 4. Our Jus ad impunitatem & vitam , resulteth from the Donative Act of the Law or Covenant of Grace , as the Titulus qui est Fundamentum Juris , or supposition of our Faith as the Condition . 5. This Law of Grace is the Norma Judicis , by which we shall be judged at the Last Day . 6. The same Judg doth now per sententiam conceptam judg of us , as he will then judg per sententiam prolatam . 7. Therefore the Sentence being virtually in the Law , this same Law of Grace , which in primo instanti doth make us Righteous , ( by Condonation and Donation of Right ) doth in secundo instanti , virtually justifie us as containing that regulating use , by which we are to be sententially justified . And now judg Reader , whether no Justification be Evangelical , or by the Law of Grace , and so to be denominated : ( for it is lis de nomine that is by him managed ) . 8. Besides that the whole frame of Causes in the Work of Redemption , ( the Redeemer , his Righteousness , Merits , Sacrifice , Pardoning Act , Intercession , &c. ) are sure rather to be called Matters of the Gospel , than of the Law. And yet we grant him easily ; 1. That Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law of Innocency , and was justified thereby , and that we are justified by that Righteousness of his , as the meritorious Cause . 2. That we being guilty of Sin and Death , according to the tenor of that Law , and that Guilt being remitted by Christ , as aforesaid , we are therefore justified from that Law , ( that is , from its Obligation of us to Innocency as the necessary terms of Life , and from its Obligation of us to Death , for want of Innocency ) : But we are not justified by that Law , either as fulfilled or as satisfied by us our selves , either personally or by an Instrument , substitute or proper Representative , that was Vicarius Obedientiae aut poenae . 3. And we grant that the Jews were delivered from the positive Jewish Law , which is it that Paul calleth , The Law of Works . And if he please , in all these respects to call Justification Legal , we intend not to quarrel with the name , ( though what I called Legal in those Aphorisms , I chose ever after to call rather , Justitia pro-legalis ) . But we cannot believe him , 1. That it is only Legal ; 2. Or that that is the only ( or most ) proper denomination . § . 8. He proceedeth thus , [ And it will be vain , if any argue , That yet none can be saved without Evangelical Works , according to which it is confessed that all men shall be judged : for the distinction is easie ( which the Author of the Aphorisms somewhere useth ) between the first or Private , and the last or Publick Justification . — In the first sense it is never said , That Works justifie , but contrary , That God justifieth him that worketh not , Rom. 4.5 . In the latter we confess that Believers are to be justified according to Works , but yet not Of ( or By ) Works , nor that that Justification maketh men just before God , but only so pronounceth them . Answ . 1. This is such another Consenting Adversary as once before I was put to answer ; who with open mouth calls himself consequentially what he calleth me ; if the same Cause , and not the Person make the Guilt . Nay let him consider whether his grand and most formidable Weapon [ So also saith Bellarmine , with other Papists ] do not wound himself : For they commonly say , That the first Justification is not of Works , or Works do not first justifie us . Have I not now proved that he erreth and complyeth with the Papists ? If not , let him use better Arguments himself . 2. But why is the first Justification called Private ? Either he meaneth God's making us just constitutively , or his judging us so : and that per sententiam conceptam only , or prolatam also . 1. The common distinction in Politicks , inter judicium Privatum & Publicum , is fetcht from the Judg , who is either Persona privata vel publica : a private Man , or an authorized Judg judging as such : And so the Judgment of Conscience , Friends , Enemies , Neighbours , mere Arbitrators , &c. is Judicium privatum ; and that of a Judg in foro , is Judicium publicum , ( yea , or in secret , before the concerned Parties only in his Closet , so it be decisive ) : If this Learned Doctor so understand it , then , 1. Constitutive Justification ( which is truly first ) is publick Justification , being done by God the Father , and by our Redeemer , who sure are not herein private authorized Persons . 2. And the first sentential Justification , as merely Virtual , and not yet Actual , viz. as it 's virtually in the Justifying Law of Grace as norma Judicis is publick in suo genere , being the virtus of a Publick Law of God , or of his Donative Promise . 3. And the first Actual Justification , per Deum Judicem per sententiam conceptam ( which is God's secret judging the Thing and Person to be as they are ) is ( secret indeed in se , yet revealed by God's publick Word but ) publick as to the Judg. 4. And the first sententia prolata ( the fourth in order ) is someway publick as opposite to secresie , ( for , 1. it is before the Angels of Heaven ; 2. And in part by Executive demonstrations on Earth ) : But it is certainly by a publick Judg , that is , God. 5. And the first Apologetical Justification by Christ our Interceding Advocate , is publick both quoad personam , and as openly done in Heaven : And if this worthy Person deny any Justification per sententiam Judicis , upon our first Believing , or before the final Judgment , he would wofully fall out with the far greatest number of Protestants , and especially his closest Friends , who use to make a Sentence of God as Judg to be the Genus to Justification . But if by [ Private and Publick Justification ] ; he means [ secret and open ] . 1. How can he hope to be understood when he will use Political Terms unexplained , out of the usual sense of Politicians : But no men use to abuse words more than they that would keep the Church in flames by wordy Controversies , as if they were of the terms of Life and Death . 2. And even in that sense our first Justification is publick or open , quoad Actum Justificancantis , as being by the Donation of a publick Word of God ; Though quoad effectum in recipiente , it must needs be secret till the Day of Judgment , no Man knowing anothers Heart , whether he be indeed a sound Believer : And so of the rest as is intim●ted . Concerning , what I have said before , some may Object , 1. That there is no such thing as our Justification notified before the Angels in Heaven . 2. That the Sententia Concepta is God's Immanent Acts , and therefore Eternal . Answ . To the first , I say , 1. It is certain by Luk. 15.10 . that the Angels know of the Conversion of a Sinner , and therefore of his Justification and publickly Rejoyce therein . Therefore it is notified to them . 2. But I refer the Reader for this , to what I have said to Mr. Tombes in my Disputation of Justification , where I do give my thoughts , That this is not the Justification by Faith meant by Paul , as Mr. Tombes asserteth it to be . To the Second , I say , Too many have abused Theology , by the misconceiving of the distinction of Immanent and Transient Acts of God , taking all for Immanent which effect nothing ad extra . But none are properly Immanent quoad Objectum , but such as God himself is the Object of , ( as se intelligere , se amare ) : An Act may be called indeed immanent in any of these three respects ; 1. Ex parte Agentis ; 2. Ex parte Objecti ; 3. Ex parte effectus . 1. Ex parte agentis , all God's Acts are Immanent , for they are his Essence . 2. Ex parte Objecti vel Termini , God's Judging a Man Just or Unjust , Good or Bad , is transient ; because it is denominated from the state of the Terminus or Object : And so it may be various and mutable denominatively , notwithstanding God's Simplicity and Immutability . And so the Sententia Concepta is not ab Aeterno . 3. As to the Effect , all confess God's Acts to be Transient and Temporary . But there are some that effect not ( as to judg a thing to be what it is ) . 3. Either this Militant Disputer would have his Reader believe that I say , That a Man is justified by Works , in that which he called [ making just , and the first Justification ] , or not : If he would , such untruth and unrighteousness ( contrary to the full drift of many of my Books , and even that which he selected to oppose ) is not a congruous way of disputing for Truth and Righteousness : nor indeed is it tolerably ingenuous or modest . If not , then why doth he all along carry his professed agreement with me , in a militant strain , perswading his Reader , that I savour of Socinianism or Popery , or some dangerous Error , by saying the very same that he saith . O what thanks doth God's Church owe such contentious Disputers for supposed Orthodoxness , that like noctambuli , will rise in their sleep , and cry , Fire , Fire , or beat an Allarm on their Drums , and cry out , The Enemy , The Enemy , and will not let their Neighbours rest ! I have wearied my Readers with so oft repeating in my Writings ( upon such repeated importunities of others ) these following Assertions about Works . 1. That we are never justified , first or last , by Works of Innocency . 2. Nor by the Works of the Jewish Law ( which Paul pleadeth against ) . 3. Nor by any Works of Merit , in point of Commutative Justice , or of distributive Governing Justice , according to either of those Laws ( of Innocency , or Jewish ) . 4. Nor by any Works or Acts of Man , which are set against or instead of the least part of God's Acts ▪ Christ's Merits , or any of his part or honour . 5. Nor are we at first justified by any Evangelical Works of Love , Gratitude or Obedience to Christ , as Works are distinguished from our first Faith and Repentance . 6. Nor are we justified by Repentance , as by an instrumental efficient Cause , or as of the same receiving Nature with Faith , except as Repentance signifieth our change from Vnbelief to Faith , and so is Faith it self . 7. Nor are we justified by Faith as by a mere Act , or moral good Work. 8. Nor yet as by a proper efficient Instrument of our Justification . 9. Much less by such Works of Charity to Men , as are without true love to God. 10. And least of all , by Popish bad Works , called Good , ( as Pilgrimages , hurtful Austerities , &c. ) But if any Church-troubling Men will first call all Acts of Man's Soul by the name of WORKS , and next will call no Act by the name of Justifying Faith , but the belief of the Promise ( as some ) or the accepting of Christ's Righteousness given or imputed to us , as in se , our own ( as others ) or [ the Recumbency on this Righteousness ] ( as others ) or all these three Acts ( as others ) ; and if next they will say that this Faith justifieth us only as the proper Instrumental Cause ; And next that to look for Justification by any other Act of Man's Soul , or by this Faith in any other respect , is to trust to that Justification by Works , which Paul confuteth , and to fall from Grace , I do detest such corrupting and abusing of the Scriptures , and the Church of Christ . And I assert as followeth ; 1. That the Faith which we are justified by , doth as essentially contain our belief of the Truth of Christ's Person , Office , Death , Resurrection , Intercession , &c. as of the Promise of Imputation . 2. And also our consent to Christ's Teaching , Government , Intercession , as to Imputation . 3. And our Acceptance of Pardon , Spirit , and promised Glory , as well as Imputed Righteousness of Christ . 4. Yea , that it is essentially a Faith in God the Father , and the Holy Ghost . 5. That it hath in it essentially somewhat of Initial Love to God , to Christ , to Recovery , to Glory ; that is , of Volition ; and so of Desire . 6. That it containeth all that Faith , which is necessarily requisite at Baptism to that Covenant ; even a consenting-practical-belief in God the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost : and is our Christianity it self . 7. That we are justified by this Faith , as it is [ A moral Act of Man , adapted to its proper Office , made by our Redeemer , the Condition of his Gift of Justification , and so is the moral receptive aptitude of the Subject , or the Dispositio materiae vel subjecti Recipientis ] : Where the Matter of it is [ An adapted moral Act of Man ] ( by Grace ) . The Ratio formalis of its Interest in our Justification is [ Conditio praestita ] speaking politically , and [ Aptitudo vel Dispositio moralis Receptiva ] speaking logically ; which Dr. Twiss still calleth Causa dispositiva . 8. That Repentance as it is a change of the Mind from Unbelief to Faith , ( in God the Father , Son ; and Holy Ghost ) is this Faith denominated from its Terminus à quo ( principally ) . 9. That we are continually justified by this Faith as continued , as well as initially justified by its first Act. 10. That as this Faith includeth a consent to future Obedience , ( that is , Subjection ) so the performance of that consent in sincere Obedience , is the Condition of our Justification as continued ( Secondarily ) as well as Faith ( or consent it self ) primarily : And that thus James meaneth , that we are Justified by Works . 11. That God judging of all things truly as they are , now judgeth Men just or unjust , on these Terms . 12. And his Law being Norma judicii , now vertually judgeth us just on these terms . 13. And that the Law of Grace being that which we are to be judged by , we shall at the last Judgment also be judged ( and so justified ) thus far by or according to our sincere Love , Obedience , or Evangelical Works , as the Condition of the Law or Covenant of free Grace , which justifieth and glorifieth freely all that are thus Evangelically qualified , by and for the Merits , perfect Righteousness and Sacrifice of Christ , which procured the Covenant or free Gift of Universal Conditional Justification and Adoption , before and without any Works or Conditions done by Man whatsoever . Reader , Forgive me this troublesom oft repeating the state of the Controversie ; I meddle with no other . If this be Justification by Works , I am for it . If this Doctor be against it , he is against much of the Gospel . If he be not , he had better have kept his Bed , than to have call'd us to Arms in his Dream , when we have sadly warred so many Ages already about mere words . For my part , I think that such a short explication of our sense , and rejection of ambiguities , is fitter to end these quarrels , than the long disputations of Confounders . 4. But when be saith , [ Works make not a Man just , and yet we are at last justified according to them ] , it is a contradiction , or unsound . For if he mean Works in the sence excluded by Paul , we are not justified according to them , viz. such as make , or are thought to make the Reward to be not of Grace , but of Debt : But if he take Works in the sense intended by James , sincere Obedience is a secondary constitutive part of that inherent or adherent personal Righteousness , required by the Law of Grace , in subordination to Christ's Meritorious Righteousness ; And what Christian can deny this ? So far it maketh us Righteous , ( as Faith doth initially ) . And what is it to be justified according to our Works , but to be judged , so far as they are sincerely done , to be such as have performed the secondary part of the Conditions of free-given Life ? 5. His [ According ] but not [ ex operibus ] at the Last Judgment , is but a Logomachie [ According ] signifieth as much as I assert : But [ ex ] is no unapt Preposition , when it is but the subordinate part of Righteousness and Justification , of which we speak , and signifieth ( with me ) the same as [ According ] . 6. His Tropical Phrase , that [ Works pronouce us just ] is another ambiguity : That the Judg will pronounce us just according to them , as the foresaid second part of the Constitutive Cause , or Matter of our Subordinate Righteousness , is certain from Matth. 25. and the scope of Scripture : But that they are only notifying Signs , and no part of the Cause of the day to be tryed , is not true , ( which too many assert ) . § . 9. He proceedeth , [ If there be an Evangelical Justification at God's Bar , distinct from the legal one , there will then also be in each an absolution of divers sins : For if the Gospel forgive the same sins as the Law , the same thing will be done , and a double Justification will be unprofitable and idle . If from divers sins , then the Law forbids not the same things as the Gospel , &c. ] Answ . It 's pitty such things should need any Answer . 1. It 's a false Supposition , That all Justification is Absolution from sin : To justifie the sincerity of our Faith and Holiness , is one act or part of our Justification , against all ( possible or actual ) false Accusation . 2. The Law of Innocency commanded not the Believing Acceptance of Christ's Righteousness and Pardon , and so the Remnants of that Law in the hand of Christ ( which is the Precept of perfect Obedience de futuro ) commandeth it only consequently , supposing the Gospel-Promise and Institution to have gone before , and selected this as the terms of Life ; so that as a Law in genere ( existent only in speciebus ) commandeth Obedience , and the Law of Innocency in specie commanded [ personal perfect perpetual Obedience , as the Condition of Life ] ; so the Gospel commandeth Faith in our Redeemer , as the new Condition of Life : on which supposition , even the Law of lapsed Nature further obligeth us thereto : And as the Commands differ , so do the Prohibitions . There is a certain sort of sin excepted from pardon , by the pardoning Law , viz. Final non-performance of its Conditions : And to judg a Man not guilty of this sin , is part of our Justification , as is aforesaid . § . 10. He addeth , [ If Legal and Evangelical Justification are specie distinct , then so are the Courts in which we are justified . — If distinct and subordinate , and so he that is justified by the law , is justified by the Gospel , &c. ] Answ . 1. No Man is justified by the Law of Innocency or Works , but Christ : Did I ever say that , [ That Law justifieth us ] , who have voluminously wrote against it ? If he would have his Reader think so , his unrighteousness is such as civility forbids me to give its proper Epithets to . If not , against what or whom is all this arguing ? 2. I call it [ Legal ] as it is that perfect Righteousness of Christ our Surety , conform to the Law of Innocency ; by which he was justified ( though not absolved and pardoned ) : I call it [ pro Legalis justitia ] , because that Law doth not justifie us for it ( but Christ only ) but by it given us ad effecta by the New-Covenant ; we are saved and justified from the Curse of that Law , or from Damnation , is certainly as if we had done it our selves : I call Faith our Evangelical Righteousness , on the Reasons too oft mentioned . Now these may be called Two Justifications , or ( rather ) two parts of one , in several respects , as pleaseth the Speaker . And all such Word-Souldiers shall have their liberty without my Contradiction . 3. And when will he prove that these two Sorts , or Parts , or Acts , may not be at once transacted at the same Bar ? Must there needs be one Court to try whether I am a true Believer , or an Infidel , or Hypocrite ; and another to judg that being such , I am to be justified against all Guilt and Curse , by vertue of Christ's Merits and Intercession ? Why may not these two parts of one Man's Cause be judged at the same Bar ? And why must your Pupils be taught so to conceive of so great a business , in it self so plain ? § . 11. He proceedeth , [ The Vse of this Evangelical ▪ Justification is made to be , that we may be made partakers of the Legal Justification out of us , in Christ : And so our Justification applyeth another Justification , and our Remission of sins another . Answ . No Sir ; but our particular subordinate sort of Righteousness , consisting in the performance of the Conditions of the free Gift , ( viz. a believing suitable Acceptance ) is really our Dispositio receptiva , being the Condition of our Title to that Pardon and Glory , which for Christ's Righteousness if freely given us . And our personal Faith and Sincerity must be justified , and we in tantum , before our Right to Christ , Pardon and Life can be justified in foro . 2. And to justifie us as sincere Believers , when others are condemned as Hypocrites , and Unbelievers , and Impenitent , is not Pardon of Sin. These Matters should have been put into your ( excellent ) Catechism , and not made strange , much less obscured and opposed , when laying by the quarrels about mere words , I am confident you deny none of this . § . 12. He addeth , [ Then Legal Justification is nothing but a bare word , seeing unapplyed ; as to the Matter it is nothing , as it is not called Healing by a Medicine not applyed ; nor was it ever heard that one Healing did apply another ] . Answ . Alas , alas , for the poor Church , if this be the Academies best ! sorrow must excuse my Complaint ! If it be an Argument it must run thus : If Legal ( or pro-legal ) Righteousness ( that is , our part in Christ's Righteousness ) be none to us ( or none of our Justification ) when not-applyed , than it is none also when it is applyed : But , &c. Answ . It is none till applyed : Christ's Merits , or Legal Righteousness justifie himself , but not us till applyed : ( Do you think otherwise , or do you wrangle against your self ? ) But I deny your Consequence : How prove you that it is none when applyed therefore ? Or the Cure is none when the Medicine is applyed ? Perhaps you 'l say , That then our Personal Righteousness , and subordinate Justification , is ours before Christ's Righteousness , and so the greater dependeth on , and followeth the less . Answ . 1. Christ's own Righteousness is before ours . 2. His Condition , Pardon to fallen Mankind is before ours . 3. This Gift being Conditional , excepteth the non-performance of the Condition ; And the nature of a Condition , is to suspend the effect of the Donation till performed . 4. Therefore the performance goeth before the said Effect , and our Title . 5. But it is not therefore any cause of it , but a removal of the suspension ; nor hath the Donation any other dependance on it . And is not all this beyond denial with Persons not studiously and learnedly misled ? But you say , It was never heard that one Healing applyed another . Answ . And see you not that this is a lis de nomine , and of a name of your own introduction for illustration ? If we were playing at a Game of Tropes , I could tell you that the Healing of Mens Vnbelief is applicatory for the healing of their Guilt ; And the healing of Men's Ignorance , Pride , and Wrangling about words , and frightning Men into a Conceit that it is about Life and Death , is applicatory as to the healing of the Churches Wounds and Shame . But I rather chuse to ask you , Whether it was never heard that a particular subordinate personal Righteousness ( even Faith and Repentance ) was made by God the Condition of our Right to Pardon , and Life by Christ's Righteousness ? Did you never teach your Sholars this , ( in what words you thought best ? ) And yet even our Faith is a Fruit of Christ's Righteousness ; but nevertheless the Condition of other Fruits . If you say that our Faith or Performance is not to be called Righteousness , I refer you to my Answer to Mr. Cartwright ; And if the word Righteousness be not ofter ( ten to one ) used in Scripture for somewhat Personal , than for Christ's Righteousness imputed , then think that you have said something . If you say , But it justifieth not as a Righteousness , but as an Instrument . I Answer , 1. I have said elsewhere so much of its Instrumentality , that I am ashamed to repeat it . 2. It justifieth not at all , ( for that signifieth efficiency ) ; but only maketh us capable Recipients . 3. We are justified by it as a medium , and that is a Condition performed ( as aforesaid ) : And when that Condition by a Law is made both a Duty and a Condition of Life , the performance is by necessary resultancy [ a Righteousness ] . But we are not justified by it , as it is a Righteousness in genere ; nor as a mere moral Virtue or Obedience to the Law of Nature ; but as it is the performance of the Condition of the Law of Grace ; and so as it is this particular Righteousness , and no other . § . 13. [ In Legal Justification ( saith he ) taken precisely , either there is Remission of sin , or not : If not , What Justification is that ? If yea , then Evangelical Justification is not necessary to the application of it ; because the Application is supposed , &c. ] Answ . 1. What I usually call [ Evangelical Righteousness ] he supposeth me to call Justification ; which yet is true , and sound , but such as is before explained . 2. This is but the same again , and needeth no new answer ; The performance of the Condition is strangely here supposed to follow the Right or Benefit of the Gift or Covenant : If he would have the Reader think I said so , he may as ingeniously tell , that I deny all Justification : If not , what meaneth he ? CHAP. VII . Dr. Tullies Quarrel about Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , considered . § . 1. CAp. 8. pag. 79. he saith , [ Because no Man out of Socinus School , hath by his Dictates more sharply exagitated this Imputation of Righteousness , than the Author of the Aphorisms ; and it is in all mens hands , we think meet to bring into a clearer Light , the things objected by him ( or more truly his Sophistical Cavils ) whence the fitter Prospect may be taken of almost the whole Controversie ] . Answ . That the Reader may see by what Weapons Theological Warriours wound the Churches Peace , and profligate brotherly Love ; let him consider how many palpable Untruths are in these few Lines , even in matter of Fact. 1. Let him read Dr. Gell , Mr. Thorndike , and by his own confession , the Papists ( a multitude of them ) and tell me true , that [ No Man out of Socinus School hath , &c. ] To say nothing of many late Writings near us . 2. If I have , 1. never written one word against [ Imputation of Righteousness ] there or elsewhere ; 2. Yea , have oft written for it ; 3. And if those very Pages be for it which he accuseth ; 4. Yea , if there and elsewhere I write more for it than Olevian , Vrsine , Paraeus , Scultetus , Wendeline , Piscator , and all the rest of those great Divines , who are for the Imputation only of the Passive Righteousness of Christ , when I profess there and often , to concur with Mr. Bradshaw , Grotius , and others that take in the Active also , yea and the Habitual , yea and Divine respectively , as advancing the Merits of the Humane ; If all this be notoriously true , what Epithets will you give to this Academical Doctors notorious Untruth ? 3. When that Book of Aphorisms was suspended or retracted between twenty and thirty years ago ( publickly ) , because of many crude Passages and unapt Words , and many Books since written by me purposely , fully opening my mind of the same things ; all which he passeth wholly by , save a late Epistle ; what credit is to be given to that Man's ingenuity , who pretendeth that this being in all mens hands , the answering it will so far clear all the Controversie . § . 2. Dr. T. [ He hence assaulteth the Sentence of the Reformed ; because it supposeth , as he saith , that we were in Christ , at least , legally before we believed , or were born . But what proof of the consequence doth he bring ? ] ( The rest are but his Reasons against the Consequences , and his talk against me , as pouring out Oracles , &c. ) Answ . 1. Is this the mode of our present Academical Disputers , To pass by the stating of the Controversie , yea , to silence the state of it , as laid down by the Author , whom he opposeth in that very place , ( and more fully elsewhere often ) ? Reader , the Author of the Aphorisms , pag. 45. and forward , distinguishing as Mr. Bradshaw doth , of the several senses of Imputation , and how Christ's Righteousness is made ours , 1. Beginneth with their Opinion , who hold , [ That Christ did so obey in our stead , as that in God's esteem , and in point of Law we were in Christ dying and suffering , and so in him we did both perfectly fulfil the Commands of the Law by Obedience , and the Threatnings of it by bearing the Penalty , and thus ( say they ) is Christ's Righteousness imputed to us , viz. His Passive Righteousness for the pardon of our sins , and deliverance from the Penalty ; His Active Righteousness for the making of us Righteous , and giving us title to the Kingdom ; And some say the Habitual Righteousness of his Humane Nature , instead of our own Habitual Righteousness ; Yea , some add the Righteousness of the Divine Nature ] . The second Opinion which he reciteth is this , [ That God the Father accepteth the sufferings and merits of his Son , as a valuable consideration , on which he will wholly forgive and acquit the Offenders , and receive them into his favour , and give them the addition of a more excellent happiness , so they will but receive his Son on the terms expressed in the Gospel . And as distinct from theirs , who would thus have the Passive Righteousness only imputed , he professeth himself to hold with Bradshaw , Grotius , &c. that the Active also is so imputed , being , Justitia Meriti , as well as Personae , and endeavoureth to prove it : But not imputed in the first rigid sense , as if God esteemed us to have been , and done , and suffered our selves in and by Christ , and merited by him . Thus he states the Controversie ; And doth this Doctor fight for Truth and Peace , by 1. passing by all this ; 2. Saying , I am against Imputed Righteousness ; 3. And against the Reformed ? Were not all the Divines before named Reformed ? Was not Camero , Capellus , Placeus , Amyrald , Dallaeus ▪ Blondel , &c. Reformed ? Were not Wotton , Bradshaw , Gataker , &c. Reformed ? Were not of late Mr. Gibbons , Mr. Truman , to pass many yet alive , Reformed ? Must that Name be shamed , by appropriating it to such as this Doctor only ? 2. And now let the Reader judg , with what face he denieth the Consequence , ( that it supposeth us to have been in Christ legally , &c. ) When as I put it into the Opinion opposed , and opposed no other . But I erred in saying , that [ most of our ordinary Divines ] hold it ; But he more in fathering it in common on the Reformed . § . 2. Dr. T. [ 2. Such Imputation of Righteousness , he saith , agreeth not with Reason or Scripture : But what Reason meaneth he ? Is it that vain , blind , maimed , unmeasurably procacious and tumid Reason of the Cracovian Philosophers ? — Next he saith , Scripture is silent of the Imputed Righteousness of Christ ; what a saying is this of a Reformed Divine ? so also Bellarmine , &c. Answ . Is it not a doleful case that Orthodoxness must be thus defended ? Is this the way of vindicating Truth ? 1. Reader , my words were these , ( just like Bradshaws ) [ It tea●heth Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in so strict a sense , as will neither stand with Reason , nor the Doctrine of the Scripture , much less with the PHRASE of Scripture , which mentioneth no Imputation of Christ or his Righteousness ] . 1. Is this a denying of Christ's Righteousness imputed ? Or only of that intollerable sense of it ? 2. Do I say here that Scripture mentioneth not Imputed Righteousness , or only that strict sense of it ? 3. Do I not expresly say , It is the Phrase that is not to be found in Scripture , and the unsound sense , but not the sound ? 2. And as to the Phrase , Doth this Doctor , or can any living Man find that Phrase in Scripture , [ Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us ] ? And when he knoweth that it is not there , are not his Exclamations , and his Bug-bears [ Cracovian Reason , and Bellarmine ] his dishonour , that hath no better Weapons to use against the Churches Peace ? To tell us that the sense or Doctrine is in Scripture , when the question is of the Phrase , or that Scripture speaketh in his rigid sense , and not in ours , is but to lose time , and abuse the Reader , the first being impertinent , and the second the begging of the Question . § . 3. Dr. T. The Greek word answering to Imputation , is ten times in Rom. 4. And what is imputed but Righteousness ? we have then some imputed Righteousness . The Question is , only what or whose it is , Christ's or our own ? Not ours , therefore Christs : If ours , either its the Righteousness of Works , or of Faith , &c. Answ . 1. But what 's all this to the Phrase ? Could you have found that Phrase [ Christ's Righteousness is imputed ] , why did you not recite the words , but Reason as for the sense ? 2. Is that your way of Disputation , to prove that the Text speaketh of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , when the Question was only , In what sense ? What kind of Readers do you expect , that shall take this for rational , candid , and a Plea for Truth ? 3. But to a Man that cometh unprejudiced , it is most plain , that Paul meaneth by [ imputing it for Righteousness ] that the Person was or is , accounted , reckoned , or judged Righteous , where Righteousness is mentioned as the formal Relation of the Believer : so that what-ever be the matter of it ( of which next ) the formal Relation sure is our own , and so here said : And if it be from the matter of Christ's Righteousness , yet that must be our own , by your Opinion . And it must be our own , in and to the proper Effects , in mine . But sure it is not the same numerical formal Relation of [ Righteousness ] that is in Christ's Person , and in ours : And it 's that formal Relation , as in Abraham , and not in Christ , that is called Abraham's Reputed Righteousness in the Text : I scarce think you will say the contrary . § . 4. Dr. T. [ But Faith is not imputed to us for Righteousness . Answ . Expresly against the words of the Holy Ghost there oft repeated . Is this defending the Scripture , expresly to deny it ? Should not reverence , and our subscription to the Scripture sufficiently rather teach us to distinguish , and tell in what sense it is imputed , and in what not , than thus to deny , without distinction , what it doth so oft assert ? Yea , the Text nameth nothing else as so imputed , but Faith. § . 5. If it be imputed , it is either as some Virtue , or Humane Work , ( the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credere ) or as it apprehendeth and applyeth Christ's Righteousness ? Not ( the first ) — If Faith be imputed relatively only , as it applyeth to a Sinner the Righteousness of Christ , it 's manifest that it 's the Righteousness of Christ only that is imputed , and that Faith doth no more to Righteousness , than an empty hand to receive an Alms. Answ . 1. Sure it doth as a voluntarily receiving hand , and not as a mere empty hand . And voluntary grateful Reception may be the Condition of a Gift . 2. You and I shall shortly find that it will be the Question on which we shall be Justified or Condemned ; not only whether we received Christ's Righteousness , but whether by Faith we received Christ in all the Essentials of his Office , and to all the essential saving Uses : Yea , whether according to the sense of the Baptismal Covenant , we first believingly received ▪ and gave up our selves to God the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , and after performed sincerely that Covenant . 3. But let me defend the Word of God : Faith is imputed for Righteousness , even this Faith now described ; 1. Remotely , ex materiae aptitudine , for its fitness to its formal Office ; And that fitness is , 1. Because it is an Act of Obedience to God , or morally good , ( for a bad or indifferent Act doth not justifie ) . 2. More specially as it is the receiving , trusting , and giving up our selves to God the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , to the proper ends of Redemption , or a suitable Reception of the freely offered Gift ; and so connoteth Christ the Object ( for the Object is essential to the Act in specie ) . 2. But proximately Faith is so reputed , or imputed , as it is the performance of the Condition of the Justifying Covenant or Donation . And to be imputed for Righteousness , includeth , That [ It is the part required of us by the Law of Grace , to make us partakers of the Benefits of Christ's Righteousness , which meriteth Salvation for us instead of a legal and perfect Righteousness of our own , ( which we have not ) . Or , [ Whereas we fell short of a Righteousness of Innocency , Christ by such a Righteousness hath merited our Pardon and Salvation , and given title to them by a New Covenant of Grace , which maketh this Faith the Condition of our Title ; and if we do this , we shall be judged evangelically Righteous ; that is , such as have done all that was necessary to their right in Christ and the said Benefits ; and therefore have such a Right ] . This is plain English , and plain Truth , wrangle no more against it , and against the very Letter of the Text , and against your Brethren and the Churches Concord , by making Men believe that there are grievous Differences , where there are none . Reader , I was going on to Answer the rest , but my time is short , Death is at the door : Thou seest what kind of Work I have of it , even to detect a Learned Man's Oversights , and temerarious Accusations . The weariness will be more to thee and me , than the profit : I find little before , but what I have before answered here , and oft elsewhere ; And therefore I will here take up , only adding one Chapter of Defence of that Conciliation which I attempted in an Epistle to Mr. W. Allens Book of the Two Covenants , and this Doctor , like an Enemy of Peace , assaulteth . 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 undertake 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 〈…〉 Intellect and the Will ; and therefore as in 〈…〉 , 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 feigned to be against , or instead of the free Mercy of God. 2. As they are against , or feigned , 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 such-like 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 he 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 no● injustum , where Righteousness is not due . But when 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 statu●nt , 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 ; Vrsine , 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 my 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 11 th , 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 ▪ 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. An Answer to Dr. Tullies Angry Letter . Reverend Sir , If I had not before perceived and lamented the great Sin of Contenders , the dangerous snare for ignorant Christians , and the great Calamity of the Church , by making Verbal Differences seem Material , and variety of some Arbitrary Logical Notions , to seem tantum non , a variety of Religions ; and by frightning Men out of their Charity , Peace , and Communion , by Bugbear-Names , of this or that Heresie or dangerous Opinion , which is indeed but a Spectrum or Fantasm of a dreaming or melancholy Brain , your Justificatio Paulina , and your Letter to me , might be sufficient means of my full Conviction . And if once reading of your Writings do not yet more increase my love of the Christian simplicity , and plain old Divinity , and the amicable Communion of practical Christians upon those terms , and not medling with Controversies in a militant way , till by ●ong impartial studies they are well understood , I must confess my non-proficience is very unexcusable . With your self I have no great business : I am not so vain as to think my self able to understand you , or to be understood by you : and I must not be so bold as to tell you why , much less will I be so injurious to the Reader , as by a particular examining all your words , to extort a confession that their sense is less or worse than I could wish : For cui bono ? What would this do but more offend you ? And idle words are as great a fault ▪ in writing as in talk : If I have been guilty of too many , I must not so much add to my fault , as a too particular examination of such Books would be . But for the sake of your Academical Youth , whom you thought meet to allarm by your Caution , I have answered so much of your Treatise as I thought necessary to help even Novices to answer the rest themselves . For their sakes ( though I delight not to offend you ) I must say , That if they would not be deceived by such Books as yours , it is not an Answer to them that must be their preservative , but an orderly studying of the Doctrines handled ; Let them but learn truly the several senses of the word [ Justifica●ion ] , and the several sorts , and what they are , and still constrain ambiguous words to confess their sense , and they will need no other Answer to such Writings . And as to your Letter ( passing by the spume and passion ) I think these few Animadversions may suffice . § . 1. Between twenty and thirty years ago , I did in a private Disputation prove our guilt of the sins of our nearer Parents ; and because many doubted of it , I have oft since in other writings mentioned it : About three years ago , having two Books of Mr. William Allens in my hand to peruse , in order to a Publication , ( a Perswasive to Vnity , and a Treatise of the Two Covenants ) ; in a Preface to the latter , I said , [ That most Writers , if not most Christians , do greatly darken the Sacred Doctrine , by overlooking the Interest of Children in the Actions of their nearer Parents , and think that they participate of no guilt , and suffer for no original sin , but Adam ' s only , &c. ] You fastened on this , and warned seriously the Juniors , not rashly to believe one that brings forth such Paradoxes of his ( or that ) Theologie , which you added to your [ O caecos ante Theologos quicunque unquam fuistis ] : The charge was expressed by [ aliud invenisse peccatum Originale , multo citerius quam quod ab Adamo traductum est ] . Hereupon I thought it enough to publish that old private Disputation , which many before had seen with various Censures : Now you send me in your Letter the strange tidings of the success : You that deterred your Juniors by so frighful a warning , seem now not only to agree with me , that we are guilty of our nearer Parents sin , and contract additional pravity from them as such , ( which was my Assertion ) but over-do all others , and Truth it self in your Agreement ! Now you take it for an injury to be reported to think otherwise herein than I do : yea , and add , [ Which neither I , nor any Body else I know of , denies as to the thing , though in the extent , and other circumstances , all are not agreed , and you may in that enjoy your Opinion for me ] . This is too kind : I am loth to tell you how many that I know , and have read , deny it , lest I tempt you to repent of your Agreement . But doth the World yet need a fuller evidence , that some Men are de materiâ agreed with them , whom they raise the Country against by their Accusations and Suspicions ? But surely what passion or spatling soever it hath occasioned from you , I reckon that my labour is not lost : I may tell your Juniors , that I have sped extraordinary well , when I have procured the published consent of such a Doctor . Either you were of this mind before or not : If not , it 's well you are brought to confess the Truth , though not to confess a former Error . If yea , then it 's well that so loud and wide a seeming disagreement is confessed to be none , that your Juniors may take warning , and not be frightned from Love and Concord by every melancholy Allarm . Yea , you declare your conformity to the Litany , [ Remember not our Offences , nor the Offences , of our Fore fathers ] , and many words of indignation you use for my questioning it . All this I like very well as to the Cause ; And I matter it not much how it looks at me : If you agree more angrily than others disagree , the Cause hath some advantage by the Agreement . Though me-thinks it argueth somewhat unusual , that seeming Dissenters should close by so vehement a Collision . But yet you will not agree when you cannot chuse but agree , and you carry it still as if your Allarm had not been given without cause : Must we agree , and not agree ? What yet is the Matter ? Why it is [ a new original sin ] . My ordinary expressions of it may be fully seen in the Disputation : The phrase you laid hold on in a Preface is cited before , [ That we participate of no guilt , and suffer for no original sin but Adam ' s only ] , I denied . And what 's the dangerous Errour here ? That our nearer Parents sin was Adams , I may presume that you hold not . That we are guilty of such , you deny not : That it is sin , I find you not denying : sure then all the difference must be in the word [ ORIGINAL ] . And if so , you that so hardly believe your loud-noised disagreements to be but verbal , must patiently give me leave here to try it . Is it any more than the Name ORIGINAL that you are so heinously offended at ? Sure it is not : Else in this Letter purposely written about it , you would have told your Reader what it is . Suffer me then to summon your Allarm'd Juniors to come and see what a Spectrum it is that must affright them ; and what a Poppet-Play or dreaming War it is , that the Church is to be engaged in , as if it were a matter of Life and Death ? Audite juvenes ! I took the word [ ORIGINAL ] in this business to have several significations . First , That is called [ ORIGINAL ] Sin , which was the ORIGO of all other sins in the Humane World : And that was not Adam's sin , but Eves . 2. That which was the ORIGO of sin to all the World , save Adam and Eve , communicated by the way of Generation : And that was Adams and Eves conjunct , viz. 1. Their first sinful Acts ; 2. Their Guilt ; 3. And their habitual pravity ( making it full , though in Nature following the Act ) . This Sin , Fact , Guilt , and Habit , as Accidents of the Persons of Adam and Eve , are not Accidents of our Persons . 3. Our personal participation ; 1. In the guilt of the sin of Adam and Eve ; 2. And of a vicious privation and habit from them , as soon as we are Persons . Which is called Original sin , on three accounts conjunct ; 1. Because it is a participation of their Original Act that we are guilty of ; 2. Because it is in us ab Origine , from our first Being ; 3. And because it is the Origo of all our Actual Sins . 4. I call that also [ ORIGINAL ] ( or part of Original Sin ) which hath but the two later only ; viz. 1. Which is in us AB ORIGINE , from our first personal being ; 2. Which is the Root or ORIGO in our selves of all our Actual Sins : And thus our Guilt and Vice derived from our nearer Parents , and not from Adam , is our Original Sin ; That is , 1. Both Guilt and Habit are in us from our Original , or first Being ; 2. And all our Actual Sin springeth from it as a partial Cause : For I may presume that this Reverend Doctor doth not hold that Adam's sin derived to us is in one part of the Soul , ( which is not partible ) and our nearer Parent 's in another ; but will grant that it is one vitiosity that is derived from both , the latter being a Degree added to the former ; though the Reatus having more than one fundamentum , may be called diverse . That Origo & Active & passive dicitur , I suppose we are agreed . Now I call the vicious Habits contracted from our nearer Parents by special reason of their own sins , superadded to the degree , which else we should have derived from Adam , a part of our original sinful Pravity , even a secondary part . And I call our guilt of the sins of our nearer Parents ( not Adam's ) which you will , either a secondary Original Guilt , or Sin , or a secondary part of our Original Guilt . See then our dangerous disagreement : I call that ORIGINAL , which is in us ab Origine , when we are first Persons , and is partly the Root or Origo in us of all our following Actual Sin : though it was not the Original Sin of Mankind , or the first of Sins . The Doctor thinks this an Expression , which all Juniors must be warned to take heed of , and to take heed of the Doctrine of him that useth it . The Allarm is against this dangerous word [ ORIGINAL ] . And let a Man awake tell us what is the danger . But I would bring him yet to agreement even de nomine , though it anger him . 1. Let him read the Artic. 9. of the Church of England , and seeing there Original Sin is said to be that corruption of Nature whereby we are far gone from Original Righteousness , and are of our own Nature inclined to evil , so that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit . The lust of the flesh called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which some do expound the Wisdom , some Sensuality , some the Affection , some the desire of the Flesh , not subject to the Law of God ] : Seing a degree of all this same Lust is in Men from the special sins of their Fore-fathers , as well as from Adam's ; Is not this Degree here called Original Sin ? ( why the Church omitted the Imputed Guilt aforesaid , I enquire not ) . 2. If this will not serve , if he will find me any Text of Scripture , which useth the Phrase , [ ORIGINAL Sin ] , I will promise him hereafter to use it in no other sense , than the Scripture useth it . 3. If that will not serve , if the Masters of Language will agree , ( yea , to pass by our Lexicons , if the Doctors of that University will give it us under their hands ) that the word [ ORIGINAL ] is unaptly and dangerously applyed to that sinful Guilt and Pravity which is in us ab Origine Nostrae existentiae , and is the internal Radix vel Origo of all our Actual Sin , in part of Causality , I will use that Epithete so no more . 4. If all this will not serve , if he himself will give me a fitter Epithete , I will use it : And now we over-agree in Doctrine , a word shall not divide us , unless he will be angry because we are agreed , as Jonas was that the Ninivites were spared , because it seemed to disgrace his Word . § . II. pag. 4 , 5 , &c. You invite me to , [ a full entire retractation of my Doctrine of Justification ( you add , By Works ) and the secondary Original Sin ] . 1. Will you take it well if I retract that which you profess now to hold , and know none that denyeth , then there is no pleasing you : If I must be thought to wrong you for seeming to differ from you , and yet must retract all : What , yours and all Mens ? 2. Do you mean the words or the sense of Justification ( as you call it ) by Works ? For the words , I take you for a subscriber to the 39 Articles ; and therefore that you reject not the Epistle of St. James : And for the sense , I confess it is a motion suitable to the Interest of your Treatise , ( though not of the Truth ) : He that cannot confute the Truth , would more easily do his Work , if he could perswade the Defenders of it to an Entire Retractation . Hereupon , pag. 5. you recite my words , of the difficulty of bringing some Militant Divines to yield : Your Admonition for Self-Application of them is useful , and I thank you for it : But is it not a streight that such as I am in , between two contrary sorts of Accusers ? When Mr. Danvers , and Multitudes on that side , Reproach me daily for Retractations , and you for want of them ? How natural is it now to Mankind , to desire to be the Oracles of the World , and that all should be Silenced , or Retracted , which is against their Minds ? How many call on me for Retractation ? Mr. Tombes , and Mr. Danvers , for what I have Written for Infants-Baptism : The Papists for what I have Written against them : And how many more ? And as to what I have Retracted , One reproached me for it , and another either knoweth not of it , or perswadeth others that it is not done . You say , pag. 6. [ A great out-cry you have made of me , as charging you with things you have Retracted — And pag. 7. What 's the reason you have not hitherto directed us to the particulars of your Recantation ; what , when , where ? — You direct one indeed , to a small Book , above Twenty years a-go retracted . — All I can pick up of any seeming Retractation , is that you say , that Works are necessary at least to the continuation of our Justification . Answ . Either this is Written by a Wilful , or a Heedless mistaking of my words . The first I will not suspect ; it must therefore be the second , ( for I must not judg you Vnable to understand plain English ) . And is it any wonder if you have many such Mistakes in your disputes of Justification , when you are so heedless about a matter of Fact ? Where did I ever say , that I had Recanted ? Or that I Retracted any of the Doctrine of Justification , which I had laid down ? Cannot you distinguish between Suspending , or Revoking , or Retracting a particular Book , for the sake of several Crude and Incongruous Expressions , and Retracting or Recanting that Doctrine of Justification ? Or can you not understand words , that plainly thus Distinguish ? Why talk you of what , and when , and where , and conjecture at the words , as if you would make the Reader believe , that indeed it is some confessed Errors of mine , which you Confuted ? and that I take it for an Injury , because I ▪ Retracted them ? And so you think you salve your Confutation , whatever you do by your Candour and Justice : But you have not so much as Fig-leaves for either . It was the Aphorisms , or Book , that I said was above Twenty years a go Revoked : When in my Treatise of Infant-Baptism , I had craved Animadversions on it , and promised a better Edition , if I Published it any more ; I forbad the Reprinting it , till I had time to Correct it ; and when many called for it , I still deny'd them . And when the Cambridg Printer Printed it a second time , he did it by Stealth , pretending it was done beyond Sea. In my Confession Twenty years ago , I gave the Reasons , Preface , pag. 35. [ I find that there are some Incautelous Passages in my Aphorisms , not fitted to their Reading , that come to suck Poyson , and seek for a Word to be Matter of Accusation and Food for their Censuring opinionative Zeal . — And pag. 42. If any Brother understand not any word in my Aphorisms which is here Interpreted , or mistake my sense about the Matter of that Book , which is here more fully opened ; I must expect , that they interpret that by this . And if any one have so little to do as to write against that Book ( which is not unlikely ) if he take the Sense contrary to what I have here and else-where since then Published , I shall but neglect him as a Contentious , Vain Wrangler , if not a Calumniator ] . I Wrote this sharply , to forwarn the Contentious , not knowing then that above Twenty years after , Dr. Tully would be the Man. Pag. 43. [ If any will needs take any thing in this Book to be rather a Retractation , than an Explication , of what I have before said , though I should best know my own Meaning ; yet do such commend me , while they seem to blame me : I never look to write that which shall have no need of Correction . — And Cap. 1. pag. 2. [ Lest I should prove a further Offence to my Brethren , and a Wrong to the Church , I desired those who thought it worth their Labour , to vouchsafe me their Animadversions , which I have spent much of these Three last years in considering , that I might Correct what-ever was discovered to be Erroneous , and give them an account of my Reasons of the rest . I have not only since SVPPRESSED that Book which did offend them , but also laid by those Papers of Vniversal Redemption , which I had written , lest I should be further offensive , &c. ] In my Apologie else-where I have such-like Passages , ever telling Men that [ It was the first Book I wrote in my Vnexperienced Youth ; that I take the Doctrines of it to be sound and needful , save that in divers places they are unskilfully and incautelously worded . ( As the Word [ Covenant ] is oft put for [ Law , ] &c. ) And that I wrote my Confession , and Disputes of Justification , as an Exposition of it ; and that I Retracted , or Suspended , or Revoked , not the Doctrine , but the Book , till I had Corrected it , and did disown it as too unmeet an Expression of my Mind , which I had more fully exprest in other Books . And is not this plain English ? Doth this warrant a Wise and Righteous Man , to intimate that I accuse him of writing against that Doctrine of Justification which I Recanted , and to call for the What , and Where , and When ? Yea , and tell me , that I [ refer you to a small Book ] when instead of referring you to it , I only blame you for referring to that alone , when I had said as before ? When many Divines have published the first Edition of their Works imperfectly , and greatly corrected and enlarged them in a Second ( as Beza his Annotations , Polanus his Syntagma , and many such ) all Men take it for an Injury for a Neighbour twenty years after , to select the first Edition to confute as the Author's Judgment : Much more might I , when I published to the World , that I Suspended the whole Book , and have these twenty four years hindred the Printing of it ; professing that I have in many larger Books , more intelligibly and fully opened the same things . Yea , you fear not pag. 23. to say , That I tell you of about 60 Books of Retractations , in part at least which I have Written ] ; when never such a word fell from me . If I say , That one that hath published his Suspension of a small Book written in Youth , not for the Doctrine of it , but some unfit Expressions , and hath since in al-most thirty Years time , written about sixty Books , in many or most of which is somewhat of the same Subject , and in some of them he fullier openeth his Mind ; should be dealt with by an Adversary , according to some of his later and larger Explications , and not according to the Mode and Wording of that one Suspended Book alone : Shall such a Man as you say , that I [ tel you of about sixty Books of Retractations ] ? Or will it not abate Mens reverence of your disputing Accurateness , to find you so untrusty in the Recitation of a Man's words ? The truth is , it is this great Defect of Heed and Accurateness , by hasty Temerity , which also spoileth your Disputations . But , pag. 7. the Aphorisms must be , [ The most Schollar-like , and Elaborate ( though Erroneous ) Book in Controversie , you ever Composed ] . Answ . 1. Your Memory is faulty : Why say you in the next , that I appeal to my Disputation of Justification and some others ; but you cannot Trudg up and down , to every place I would send you , your Legs are too weak ? Either you had read all the sixty Books which you mention ( the Controversal at least ) or not : If not , How can you tell that the Aphorisms is the most Elaborate ? If yea , Why do you excuse your Trudging , and why would you select a Suspended Book , and touch none that were Written at large on the same Subject ? 2. By this ( I su●pose to make your Nibble to seem a Triumph ) you tell your Reader again , how to value your Judgment . Is it like that any Dunce that is diligent , should Write no more Schollar-like at Sixty years of Age than at Thirty ? And do you think you know better what of mine is Elaborate , than I do ? Sure that Word might have been spared ; When I know that one printed Leaf of Paper hath cost me more Labour than all that Book , and perhaps one Scheme of the Distinctions of Justification , which you deride . If indeed you are a competent Judg of your own Writings , Experience assureth me , that you are not so of mine . And pag. 25. you say , You desire not to be preferred before your Betters , least of all when you are singular ; as here I think you are . § . III. Pag. 9. You are offended for being put in the Cub , with divers mean and contemptible Malefactors . ] Answ . O for Justice ! 1. Was not Bellarmin , or some of the Papists and the Socinians , as great Malefactors , with whom ( as you phrase it ) you put me in the Cub ? 2. Are they Malefactors so far as they agree with you in Doctrine , and are you Innocent ? What is the Difference between your Treatise , in the part that toucheth me , and that of Mr. Eyres , Mr. Crandon , and some others such ? Dr. Owen , and Dr. Kendale , indeed differed from you ; the latter seeking ( by Bishop Vsher ) an amicable Closure , and the former ( if I understand his Book on the Hebrews ) less differing from me in Doctrine , than once he either did , or seemed to do . ( And if any of us all grow no Wiser in thirty years Study , we may be ashamed ) . But to give you your due Honour , I will name you with your Equals , as far as I can judg , viz. Maccovius , Cluto , Coccejus , and Cloppenburgius , ( I mean but in the Point in Question ; it 's no Dishonour to you to give some of them Precedencie in other things ) . It may be also Spanhemius , was near you . But ( if I may presume to liken my Betters ) no Men seem to me to have been so like you , as Guilielmus Rivet , ( not Andrew ) , Mr. George Walker , and Mr. Roborough . ( I hope this Company is no Dishonour to you ) . And very unlike you are Le Blank , Camero , Davenant , Dr. Hammond , Mr. Gataker , Mr. Anthony Wotton , and in Complexion Scotus and Ockam , and such as they : If yet I have not Chosen you pleasing Company , I pray you choo se so your self . But you say on , [ Had you not ( in your Memory many Scores of greatest Eminence and Repute in the Christian World , of the same Judgment with me — Know you not , I speak the same thing with all the Reformed Churches , &c. — For shame let it be the Church of England , with all the rest of the Reformed , &c. ] Answ . 1. I know not what you hold , even when I read what you write : ( I must hope as well as I can , that you know your self ) : How then should I know who are of the same Judgment with you ? 2. Yet I am very confident , that all they whom you mention , are of the same in some thing or other ; and in particular , that we are Justified by Faith , and not by the Works of the Law , or any Works in the sence denied by St. Paul , &c. 3. Do not I , with as great Confidence as you , lay Claim to the same Company and Concord ? And if one of us be mistaken , must your bare Word determine which it is ? Which of us hath brought the fuller Proofs ? I subscribe to the Doctrine of the Church of England , as well as you ; and my Condition these thirteen or fourteen years , giveth as much Evidence , that I am loth to subscribe to what I believe not , as yours doth of you . And you that know which of my Books is the most Elaborate , sure know , that in that Book which I Wrote to explain those Aphorisms ( called my Confession ) I cite the Words of above an Hundred Protestant Witnesses , that give as much to Works as I do : And that of this Hundred , one is the Augustine Confession , one the Westminster Synod , one the Synod of Dort , one the Church of England , each one of which being Collectives , contain many . ( And here I tell you of more ) . And have you brought more Witnesses ? Or any to the contrary ? Did you Confute , or once take Notice of any of these ? 4. Do you not here before you are aware , let your Reader know that it was , and still is , in the Dark , that you Alarm the World about our dangerous Differences , and run to your Arms undrest , before your Eyes are open ? Qui conveniunt in aliquo tertio , &c. They that agree with the Church of England , in the Doctrine of Justification by Faith , do so far agree between themselves : But Dr. Tullie , and R.B. do agree with the Church of England , in the Doctrine of Justification by Faith. Ergo. — The Article referreth to the Homilies , where it is more fully Explained . 5. May not I then retort your Argument , and bid you [ For shame let it be no longer Bellarnine , and R.B. but the Church of England , and all the Reformed , and R.B. ] ? Disprove the Witnesses twenty years ago , produced by me in this very Cause ; or else speak out , and say , [ The Church of England , and the rest of the Reformed , hold Justification by Works , just as Bellarmine and the Papists do ] which is it which you would fasten on me , who agree with them ( as if you had never there read my Answer to Mr. Crandon , objecting the same thing ) . § . IV. Your Censure , pag. 10 , 11. of my Windings , Clouds of Novel Distinctions , Preambles , Limitations , &c. is just such as your Treatise did bid me expect : Till you become guilty of the same Crime , and fall out with Confusion , and take not equivocal ambiguous Words unexplained , instead of Univocals , in the stating of your Questions , I shall never the more believe that Hannibal is at the Gates , or the City on Fire , for your Allarms . § . V. Pag. 11. Where you tell me , that [ You have no Profit by my Preface : I shall not deny it , nor wonder at it ; you are the fittest Judge : Where you say , that [ I have no Credit , ] You do but tell the World at what Rates you write . Honor est in honorante . And have all my Readers already told you their Judgment ? Alas ! How few ? In all London , not a Man hath yet given me Notice of his Dislike , or Dissent . And sure your own Pen is a good Confuter of you . It is some Credit , that such a Man as you , is forced to profess a full Consent to the Doctrine , though with passionate Indignation . You tell me of [ Nothing to the Question ] . But will you not be angry if I should but tell you , how little you did to state any Question , and in Reason must be supposed , when you assaulted my Doctrine , to take it as I stated it ; which I have fully shewed you ? You tell me , that You Charged me only with new Original Sin , underived from Adam , unknown , unheard of before , in the Christian World. Answ . De re , is not our Guilt of nearer Parent 's Sins such which you and all that you know ( now at last ) confess ? De nomine , 1. Tell the World if you can , when I called it [ New Original Sin , or underived from Adam , or unknown , or unheard of ] . There are more ways than one of Derivation from Adam . It is not derived from him by such Imputation as his first Sin ; but it is derived from him as a partial Causa Causae , by many Gradations . All Sin is some-way from him . Either you mean that I said , that it was not Derived from Adam , or you gather it by some Consequence from what I said . If the First , shew the Words , and the Shame shall be mine . If not , you know the old Law , that to false Accusers , it must be done as they would have done to the Accused . But if it be your Consequence , prove it , and tell the World , what are the Premises that infer it . § . VI. Pag. 12. You friendly help me to profit by my self , however you profess that you profit not by me ! What I have said to you against [ Hasty Judging ] , I have first said to my self , and the more you warn me of it , the more friendly you are : If it be not against such as you but my self , it is against my self that I have a Treatise on that Subject ; but I begin to think my self in this more Seeing than you ; for I see it both in my self and you , and you seem to see it in me , and not in your self . But with all Men , I find , that to see the Spots in our own Face immediately is hard , and to love the Glass which sheweth them , is not easie ; especially to some Men that neither are low , nor can endure to be so , till there is no Remedy . But , Sir , how easie a Way of Disputing have you happily light on , Who instead of Examining the hundred Witnesses which I brought , and my else-where oft proving the Doctrine opposed by me to be Novel , and Singular , do in few words talk of your holding the Doctrine delivered to the Saints , and of the many Worthies that concur with you , and of my pelting at their Heads , and draging them by the Hoary-heads , as a Spectacle and By-word to all , ( by proving their consent by express Citations ) what Armies , and of what Strength appear against me , whose Names I defie and wound , through yours ? Answ . And is not he a weak Man that cannot talk thus upon almost any Subject ? But who be these Men , and what be their Names ? Or rather , first , rub your Eyes , and tell us what is the Controversie ? Tully sometimes talkt at this rate in his Orations , but verily much better in his Philosophy . And you see no cause to repent , but you bless God that you can again and again call to all Youth , that as they love the Knowledg of Truth , they take me not for an Oracle in my bold dividing Singularities ] . Answ . That the Name of Truth is thus abused , is no News ; I would the Name of God were not : And I am sorry , that you see no Cause to repent . I am obliged to love you the better , for being against dividing Singularities in the general Notion ; I hope if you knew it , you would not be for them , as in singular Existents . But sure , none at Oxford are in danger of taking me for an Oracle ? This is another needless Work. So Spanhemius took that for a Singularity , which Dallaeus in a large Catalogue , hath proved the Common Judgment of the Church , till Contention of late caused some Dissenters . Will you cease these empty general Ostentations , and choose out any one Point of real ▪ Difference between you and me about Justification , and come to a fair Trial , on whose side the Churches of Christ have been for 1500 years after Christ ; yea , bring me but any two or one considerable Person , that was for a thousand years for your Cause against mine , and I will say , that you have done more to confute me by far , than yet you have done ; and if two only be against me , I will pardon you for calling me Singular . § . VII . Pag. 13 , 14 , 15. You again do keep up the Dividing Fear , are offended that I perswade you , that by Melancholy Phantasms you set not the Churches together by the Ears , and make People believe that they differ , where they do not : And you ask , Who began the Fray ? Answ . 1. Do you mean that I began with you ? You do not sure : But is it that I began with the Churches , and you were necessitated to defend them ? Yes , if Gallus , Ambsdorfius , Schlusselburgius , and Dr. Crispe , and his Followers , be the Church ? But , Sir , I provoke you to try it by the just Testimony of Antiquity , who began to differ from the Churches . In this Treatise I have given you some Account , and Vossius hath given you more . which you can never answer : But if my Doctrine put you upon this Necessity , what hindred you from perceiving it these twenty years and more , till now ? O Sir , had you no other work to do , but to Vindicate the Church and Truth ? I doubt you had . § . VIII . But pag. 15. You are again incredulous , that [ All the Difference betwixt you and me , or others of the same Judgment in the Point of Justification , is meerly Verbal ; and that in the Main we are agreed ] . And again you complain of your weak Legs . Answ . 1. I do agree with very many against , their wills in Judgment ( because the Judgment may be constrained ) , but with none in Affection , as on their part . Did I ever say , that I differed not from you ? I tell you , I know not what your Judgment is , nor know I who is of your Mind ? But I have not barely said , but oft proved , that ( though not the Antinomians ) the Protestants are mostly here agreed in the Main . If you could not have time to read my larger Proof , that short Epistle to Mr. Allen's Book of the Covenant , in which I proved it , might have stopt your Mouth from calling for more Proof , till you had better confuted what was given . But you say , [ Are perfect Contradictions no more than a difference in Words ? Faith alone , and not Faith alone ? Faith with and without Works ? Excuse our Dulness here ] . Answ . 1. Truly , Sir , it is a tedious thing , when a Man hath over and over Answered such Objections ; yea , when the full Answers have been twenty years in Print , to be put still to say over all again , to every Man that will come in and say , that his Legs are too weak to go see what was answered before : How many score times then , or hundreds , may I be called to repeat . 2. If I must pardon your Dulness , you must pardon my Christianity ( or chuse ) who believe that there is no such [ perfect Contradictions ] between Christ's , [ By thy Words thou shalt be Justified ] and Paul's , [ Justified by Faith , without the Works of the Law ] or [ not of Works ] ; and James's [ We are justified by Works , and not by Faith only ] . Must we needs proclaim War here , or cry ▪ out , Heresie , or Popery ? Are not all these Reconcileable ? Yea , and Pauls too , Rom. 2. The Doers of the Law shall be justified . 3. But did I ever deny that it is [ by Faith alone and without Works ] ? Where , and when ? But may it not be , by Faith alone in one sense , and not by Faith alone in another sense ? 4. But even where you are speaking of it , you cannot be drawn to distinguish of Verbal and Real Differences . Is it here the Words , or Sense , which you accuse ? The Words you dare not deny to be Gods own in Scripture , spoken by Christ , Paul , and James . My Sense I have opened to you at large , and you take no Notice of it ; but as if you abhorred Explication and Distinction , speak still against the Scripture Words . § . IX . Pag. 16. But you say , [ Let any discerning Reader compare the 48 § . of this Preface with the Words in pag. 5. of your Appeal to the Light , and 't is likely he will concur with me , in that Melancholy Phantasm , or Fear : For 't is worth the noting , how in that dark Appeal where you distinguish of Popish Points , i. e. some-where the Difference is reconcileable , others in effect but in words ; we have no Direction upon which Rank we must bestow Justification , nothing of it at all from you , Name or Thing : But why , next to the All-seeing God , you should know best your self ] . Answ . Alas , Sir , that God should be in such a manner mentioned ! I answered this same Case at large in my Confession , Apologie , Dispute of Justification , &c. Twenty years ago , or near ; I have at large Opened it in a Folio ( Cathol . Theol. ) which you saw , yea , in the very part which you take Notice of ; and now you publish it [ worth the Noting , that I did not also in one sheet of Paper , Printed the other day against a Calumnie of some Sectarian Hearers , who gave me no Occasion for such a work . Had it not been a Vanity of me , Should I in that sheet again have repeated , how I and the Papists differ about Justification ? Were you bound to have read it in that sheet , any more ▪ than in many former Volumns ? It 's no matter for me ; But I seriously beseech you , be hereafter more sober and just , than to deal with your Brethren , the Church and Truth , in such a manner as this ! But by this Talk I suspect , that you will accuse me more for opening no more of the Difference in this Book . But , 1. It is enough for to open my own Meaning , and I am not obliged to open other Mens : And my own I have opened by so many Repetitions , in so many Books , as nothing but such Mens Importunity and obstructed Minds , could have Excused . 2. The Papists minds sure , may be better known by their own Writings , than by mine : The Council of Trent , telleth it you : What need I recite it ? 3. I tell you again , as I did in my Confession , that I had rather all the Papists in the World agreed with us , than disagreed : I like a Doctrine the better , and not the worse , because all the Christian World consenteth to it . I am not ambitious to have a Religion to my self , which a Papist doth not own . Where they differ , I am sorry for it : And it pleaseth me better , to find in any Point that we are agreed , than that we differ . Neither you , nor any such as you , by crying [ O Popish ! Antichristian ! ] shall tempt me to do by the Papists , as the Dominicans , and Jansenists , and some Oratorians , do by the Calvinists : I will not with Alvarez , Arnoldus , Gibieuf , &c. make the World believe , that my Adversaries are much further from me than they are , for fear of being censured by Faction , to be one of them . If I would have been of a Church-Faction , and sold my Soul to please a Party , I would have begun before now , and taken a bigger Price for it , than you can offer me if you would . Pag , 17. You say , [ Pile one Distinction or Evasion on another , as long as you please ; as many several Faiths , and Works , and Justifications , as you can name , all this will never make two Poles meet ] . Answ . And do you cry out for War in the Darkness of Confusion , as long as you will , you shall never tempt me by it to renounce my Baptism , and List my self under the grand Enemy of Love and Concord , nor to Preach up Hatred and Division for nothing , as in the Name of Christ . If you will handle such Controversies , without Distinguishing of Faiths , Works , and Justifications , I will never perswade any Friend of mine to be your Pupil , or Disciple . Then Simon Magus's faith , and the Devils faith , and Peters faith must all pass for the same , and justifie accordingly . Then indeed , Believing in God the Father , and the Holy Ghost , yea , and Christ , as our Teacher , King and Judg , &c. must pass for the Works by which no Man is Justified ! If Distinction be unsound , detect the Error of it : If not , it is no Honour to a disputing Doctor to reproach it . § . X. But pag. 17. you set upon your great unde●eiving Work , to shew the evil of ill using Words : [ Words ( you say ) as they are enfranchised into Language , are but the Agents and Factors of things , for which they continually negotiate with our Minds , conveying Errands on all occasions , &c. ( Let them mark , that charge the vanity and bombast of Metaphors on others , one word [ Signa ] should have served our turn instead of all this ) . [ Whence it follows , that their use and signification is Vnalterable , but by the stamp of the like publick usage and imposition from whence at first they received their being , &c. ] Answ . O Juniors , Will not such deceiving Words save you from my Deceits ? But , 1. Is there a Law , and unalterable Law for the sense of Words ? Indeed , the Words of the sacred Text must have no new Sense put upon them . 2. Are you sure that it was Publick usage , and Imposition from whence they first received their being ? How shall we know that they grew not into publick use from one Mans first Invention , except those that ( not Publick use , but ) God Himself made ? 3. Are you sure that all or most Words now , Latine or English , have the same , and only the same use or sense , as was put upon them at the first ? Is the change of the sense of Words a strange thing to us ? 4. But that which concerneth our Case most , is , Whether there be many Words either of Hebrew and Greek in the Scripture , or of Latine , English , or any common Language , which have not many Significations ? Your Reputation forbids you to deny it . And should not those many Significations be distinguished as there is Cause ? Are not Faith , Works , Just , Justice , Justification , words of divers senses in the Scripture ? and do not common Writers and Speakers use them yet more variously ▪ And shall a Disputer take on him , that the use or signification of each is but one , or two , or is so fixed that there needeth no distinction ? 5. Is the change that is made in all Languages in the World , made by the same publick usage and imposition , from which at first they received their being ? 6. If ( as you say ) the same thing can be represented by different words , only when they are Synonymous , should we not avoid seeming to represent the same by Equivocals , which unexplained are unfit for it ? Pag. 20. You tell me what sad work you are doing ; and no wonder , Sin and Passions are self-troubling things : And it 's well if it be sad to your self alone , and not to such as you tempt into Mistakes , Hatred , and Division . It should be sad to every Christian , to see and hear those whom they are bound to Love , represented as odious : And you are still , pag. 19. feigning , that [ Every eye may see Men dealing Blows and Deaths about , and therefore we are not wise if we think them agreed . But doubtless , many that seem killed by such Blows as some of yours , are still alive ? And many a one is in Heaven , that by Divines pretending to be Orthodox , were damned on Earth ! And many Men are more agreed than they were aware of . I have known a Knavish Fellow set two Persons of quality on Fighting , before they spake a word to one another , by telling them secretly and falsly what one said against the other . Many differ , even to persecuting and bloodshed , by Will and Passion and Practice , upon a falsly supposed great - difference in Judgment . I will not so suddenly repeat what Proof I have given of some of this in the place you noted , Cath. Theol. Confer . 11 , 12 , & 13. There is more skill required to narrow differences , than to widen them ; and to reconcile , than to divide ; as there is to quench a Fire , than to kindle it ; to build , than to pull down ; to heal , than to wound . I presume therefore to repeat aloud my contrary Cautions to your Juniors . Young-Men , after long sad Experience of the sinful and miserable Contentions of the Clergie , and consequently of the Christian World , that you may escape the Guilt , I beseech you , whoever contradicteth it , consider and believe these following Notices : 1. That all Words are but arbitrary Signs , and are changed as Men please ; and through the Penury of them , and Mans imperfection in the Art of Speaking , there are very few at all , that have not various Significations . 2. That this Speaking-Art requireth so much time and study , and all Men are so defective in it , and the variety of Mens skill in it is so very great , that no Men in the World do perfectly agree in their interpretation and use of Words . The doleful plague of the Confusion of Tongues , doth still hinder our full Communication , and maketh it hard for us to understand Words our selves , or to be understood by others ; for Words must have a three-fold aptitude of Signification . 1. To signifie the Matter , 2. And the Speakers conceptions of it . 3. And this as adapted to the hearers Mind , to make a true Impression there . 3. That God in Mercy hath not made Words so necessary as Things , nor necessary but for the sake of the Things : If God , Christ , Grace , and Heaven , be known , believed , and duly accepted , you shall be saved by what Words soever it be brought to pass . 4. Therefore Real Fundamentals , or Necessaries to Salvation , are more easily defined than Verbal ones : For more or fewer Words , these or other Words are needful to help some Persons , to Faith , and Love , and Holiness , as their Capacities are different . 5. But as he that truly believeth in , and giveth up himself to God the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , according to the sense of the Baptismal Covenant , is a true Christian , to be loved , and shall be saved ; so he that understandeth such Words , as help him to that true Faith and Consent , doth know so much of the Verbal part , as is of necessity to his Christianity and Salvation . 6. And he that is such , holdeth no Heresie or Error inconsistent with it : If he truly love God , it 's a contradiction to say , that he holdeth an Error inconsistent with the Love of God. 7. Therefore see that you Love all such as Christians , till some proved or notorious inconsistents nullifying his Profession disoblige you . 8. Take your selves to be neither of Roman , or any other Church as Vniversal , which is less than the Vniversality of all Christians headed by Christ alone . 9. Make this Love of all Christians the second part of your Religion , and the Love of God , of Christ , of Holiness and Heaven , the first ; and live thus in the serious practice of your Covenant , even of Simple Christianity : For it 's this that will be your Peace , in Life and at Death . 10. And if Men of various degrees of Learning ( or Speaking-skill ) and of various degrees of Holiness , Humility , and Love , shall quarrel about Words , and forms of Speech , and shall hereticate , and revile , and damn each other , while the Essentials are held fast and practised , discern Right from Wrong as well as you can ; but take heed that none of them make Words a snare , to draw you injuriously to think hatefully of your Brother , or to divide the Churches , or Servants of Christ : And suspect such a Snare because of the great ambiguity of Words , and imperfection of Mans Skill and Honesty in all Matters of debate : And never dispute seriously , without first agreeing of the Sense of every doubtful term with him that you Dispute with ] . Dr. Tully's Allarm , and other Mens militant Course , perswaded me as a Preservative , to commend this Counsel to you . § . XI . Pag. 19. You next very justly commend Method , ordering , and expressing our Conceptions , of which ( you say ) I seem to make little account in Comparison ] . Answ . 1. Had you said , that I had been unhappy in my Endeavours , your Authority might have gone for Proof with many : But you could scarce have spoken a more incredible word of me , than that I seem to make little account of Method , I look for no sharper Censure from the Theological Tribe , than that I Over-do in my Endeavours after Method . You shall not tempt me here unseasonably , to anticipate what Evidence I have to produce for my acquittance from this Accusation . 2. But yet I will still say , that it is not so necessary either to Salvation , or to the Churches Peace , that we all agree in Methods and Expressions , as that we agree in the hearty reception of Christ , and obedience to His Commands ? So much Method all must know , as to know the Beginning and the End , from the Effects and Means , God from the Creature , and as our true consent to the Baptismal Covenant doth require ; and I will thankfully use all the help which you give me to go further : But I never yet saw that Scheme of Theologie , or of any of its Heads , which was any whit large , ( and I have seen many ) which was so exact in Order , as that it was dangerous in any thing to forsake it . But I cannot think meet to talk much of Method , with a Man that talketh as you do of Distinguishing , and handleth the Doctrine of Justification no more Methodically than you do . § . XII . But pag. 19. you instance in the difference between Protestants and Papists , about the Necessity of Good works , which is wide in respect of the placing or ranking of them , viz. The one stretching it to the first Justification , the other not , but confining it to its proper rank and province of Inherent Holiness , where it ought to keep ] . Answ . Wonderful ! Have you that have so loudly called to me to tell how I differ about Justification , brought your own , and as you say , the Protestants difference to this ? Will none of your Readers see now , who cometh nearer them , you or I ? 1. Is this distinction our proof of your accurateness in Method , and Order , and Expression ? What meaneth a distinction between [ First-Justification , ] and [ Inherent Holiness ] ? Do you difference them Quoad ordinem , as First and Second ? But here is no Second mentioned : Is it in the nature of the things [ Justification , and Inherent Holiness ] ? What signifieth the [ First ] then ? But Sir , how many Readers do you expect who know not , 1. That it is not to the First Justification at all , but to that which they call the Second or Increase , that the Church of Rome asserteth the necessity or use of Mans meritorious Works ? See what I have fully cited out of them for this , Cath. Theol. Lib. 2. Confer . 13. pag. 267. &c. saving that some of them are for such Preparatives as some call Merit of Congruity , and as our English Divines do constantly preach for , and the Synod of Dort at large assert ; though they disown the name of Merit , as many of the Papists do . They ordinarily say with Austine , Bona opera sequuntur Justificatum , non praecedunt Justificandum . 2. But , I hope , the word [ First ] here overslipt your your Pen , instead of [ Second ] : But suppose it did so : What 's the difference between the Papists first or second Justification , and the Protestants Inherent Holiness ? None that ever I heard or read of : Who knoweth not that the Papists take Justification for Inherent Holiness ? And is this the great difference between Papists and Protestants , which I am so loudly accused for not acknowledging ? viz. The Papists place Good-Works before Justification , that is , Inherent Holiness ; and the Protestants more rightly place them before Inherent Holiness ? Are you serious , or do you prevaricate ? The Papists and Protestants hold , that there are some Duties and common Grace , usually preparatory to Conversion ( or Sanctification ) ; which some Papists ( de nomine ) call Merit of Congruity , and some will not . The Papists and Protestants say , that Faith is in order of nature , at least , before that Habitual Love , which is called Holiness , and before the Works thereof . The Papists and Protestants say , that Works of Love and Obedience , follow our First Sanctification , and make up but the Second part of it , which consisteth in the Works of Holiness . If you speak not of Works in the same sense in each part of your Assignation , the Equivocation would be too gross , viz. If you should mean [ Papists rank the necessity of preparatory Common Works , or the Internal act of Faith , or Love , stretching it to the First Justification ; and Protestants rank other Works , viz. The fruits of Faith and Love , with Inherent Holiness . All agree , 1. That Common Works go before Sanctification . 2. That Internal Love , and other Grace , do constitute Sanctification in the First part of it . 3. That Special Works proceeding from Inward Grace , are the effects of the First Part , and the constitutive Causes of the Second Part of Sanctification ; as the word extendeth also to Holiness of Life : And whilst Papists take Just●fication for Sanctification , in all this there is De re no difference . ( But your accurate Explications by such terms , as [ Stretching , Confirming , Province , &c. ] are fitter for Tully , than for Aristotle ) . And is this it in the Application that your Zeal will warn Men of , that we must in this take heed of joyning with the Papists ? Do you mean [ Rank Good-Works with Inherent Holiness , and not with the First Sanctification , and you then do widely differ from the Papists ] ? Will not your Reader say , 1. What doth Inherent Holiness differ from the First Sanctification ? 2. Do you not invite me thus herein to be a Papist , when they rank them no where but , as you say , the Protestants do ? 3. Do not you here proclaim , that Papists and Protestants differ not about the necessity of Good-works to Justification ? But yet I that would make no Differences wider than they are , can find some greater than you have mentioned . Truly Sir , I am grieved and ashamed , to foresee how Learned Papists will make merry with such Passages ; and say , See here how we differ from the Protestants ! See what it is for , that the Protestant Doctors separate from the Church of Rome ! viz. Because we make Good-Works necessary to the First Justification , which unless equivocally spoken , is false ; and because the Protestants rank them with Inherent Holiness , as we do ] . What greater advantage will they desire against us , than to choose us such Advocates ? And to shew the World that even where their keenest Adversaries condemn them , and draw Men from them , they do but justifie them ? Who knoweth what a Temptation they may make of such passages to draw any to Popery ? It is my assurance , that such Over-doing , is Vndoing ; and that mistaken Accusations of the Papists greatly advantage them against us , which maketh me the more against such Dealing ; besides the sinfulness , of pretending that any differences among Christians , are greater than indeed they are . But may not I think that you take the word [ Justification ] here in the Protestant Sense , and not in the Papists , when you say that they rank Good-work's-necessity as stretcht to the First Justification ? No sure : For , 1. Protestants use not to distinguish of a First and Second Justification , which Papists do , but of Justification as Begun , Continued , and Consummate . 2. If it were so , it were not true : For the First Justification in the Protestant Sense , is our first right to Impuni●y and Life Eternal , freely given to Believers , for the Merits of Christs perfect Righteousness and Satisfaction . And Papists do not make Good-works ( unless Equivocally so called ) necessary to this ; but as a Fruit to follow it . As for Remission of Sin , I have else-where proved , 1. That most commonly by that word the Papists mean nothing , but that which we call Mortification , or Putting away , or destroying the Sin it self , as to the habit and ceasing the Act. 2. That most of them are not resolved , where the Remission of the Punishment ( which Protestants call Remission of Sin , or Forgiveness ) shall be placed : They differ not much as to its Time , but whether it be to be called any part of Justification : Some say , yea ; some make it a distinct thing . Most describe Justification by it self , as consisting in our Remission of , or Deliverance from Sin it self , and the infused habit of Love or Righteousness ( all which we call Sanctification ) , and the forgiveness of the Penalty by it self , not medling with the Question , whether the latter be any part of the former ; so much are they at a loss in the Notional part among themselves . But they ( and we ) distinguish of Forgiveness , as we distinguish of Penalties : We have a right to Impunity as to everlasting Damnation , upon our first being Justified ; but our Right becometh afterward more full , and many other Penalties are after to be remitted . § . XIII . Pag. 20. In my 42. Direct . for the Cure of Church-divisions , telling the Weak whom they must follow , I concluded , 1. That the necessary Articles of Faith must be made our own , and not taken meerly on the authority of any ; and we must in all such things of absolute necessity keep company with the Vniversal Church . 2. That in Matters of Peace and Concord the greater part must be our Guide . 3. That in Matters of humane Obedience , our Governours must be our Guides . And , 4. In Matters of high and difficult Speculation , the judgment of one Man of extraordinary Vnderstanding and Clearness , is to be preferred before the Rulers and the major Vote . I instanced in Law , Philosophy , Physick , Languages , &c. and in the Controversies of the Object of Predestination , the nature of the Will 's Liberty , Divine Concourse , the determining way of Grace , of the definition of Justification , Faith , &c. ] Here I was intreated before God and my Conscience , to search my self , with what Design or Intent I wrote this , and to tell you , Who that One is , that we may know whom to prefer , and to whom , in the Doctrine of Justification , &c. Answ . How greatly do you dishonour your self , ( and then you will impute it to me ) by insisting on such palpably abusive Passages ? Had you not been better , have silently past it by ? 1. Doth not the World know , that Heathens and Christians , Papists and Protestants , are Agreed on this general Rule ? 2. And will you make any believe that Definition of Justification is none of these Works of Art , which depend on humane Skill ? How then came you to be so much better at it than I ? I find not that you ascribe it to any special Revelation which you have . And if you should ascribe it to Piety , and say , Hoc non est Artis , sed Pietatis opus : I would go to many a good Woman before you . Nor do you plead general Councils , nor the Authority of the Church . 3. And what sober Scholar will you make believe , that by laying down this common Rule , I signifie some One singular Person , as an Individuum determinatum ; whom therefore I must acquaint you with ? These things are below a Grave Divine . Pag. 21. Where you called me to seriousness or diligence in my search , and I told you by what , and how many Writings , I have manifested my almost thirty years Diligence in this Controversie , and that I am now grown past more serious and diligent Studies ; that I might shew you what a trifling way it is , for a Man to wrangle with him that hath written so many things , to tell the World what his studies of this Point have been , and never to touch them , but to call him a - new to serious diligence : You now expostulate with me , whether you accused me for want of diligence ? I talk not of Accusing , but I tell you , that I have done my best ▪ and that it were a poor kind of dealing with your self , if you had written against many , as you have done against me twenty five years ago , and very often , if instead of taking any notice of your Labours , I should call you now to diligent Studies . As for your Lesson , pag. 22. that tumbling over many Books without meditation , may breed but Crudities , &c. It is very true , and the calamity of too many of the literate Tribe , who think that they have deserved Credit and Reverence , when they say the words which others , whom they would be joyned with , have said before them : Want of good Digestion is a common Disease of many that never complain of it , nor feel any present trouble by it . Pag. 22 , 23. You insinuate that about Retractation , which I before detected : I told you when , and where , I Suspended or Retracted the Book , and for what Reasons , and you presently feign a Retractation of the Doctrine , and of about sixty Books of Retractions . It 's well that pag. 23. you had the justice not to justifie your [ Nec dubito quin imputatam Christi justitiam incluserit ] ; But to confess your Injustice , was too much : It is not your own Retractation that you are for , it seems . § . XIV . Pag. 23 , 24. You talk as if my supposing that both [ Justice ] and [ Imputation ] , are capable of Definitions which are not the Things , were a Fallacy , because [ or ] is a disjunctive ; viz. When I say that the Definition of the one , or the other , is not the Thing . Do you grant it of them Disjunctively , and yet maintain the contrary of them Conjunct ? Yes , you say , [ Imputed Justice cannot differ from its true definition , unless , you will have it to differ really from it self ] . And , pag. 34. you say , [ I am ashamed you should thus over and over expose your self — as if supposing ( Definitions ) true , they were not the same Re , with the Definitum . — Good Sir , talk what you please in private , to such as understand not what you say , and let them give you a grand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for your pains ; but you may do well to use more Civility to the reason of a Scholar , though he hath not yet worn out his Freshmans Gown ] . Answ . This is no light or jesting Matter : The comfort of Souls dependeth on it . I see some Men expect that Reverence of their Scholarship should give them great advantage : But if one argued thus with me for Transubstantiation , I would not turn to him , to escape the Guilt of Incivility . If the Definition , and the Definitum , as in question now , be the same Thing , wo to all the Unlearned World , and wo to all Freshmen , that yet have not learnt well to define ; and wo to all Divines that differ in their Definitions , except those that are in the right . I know that a Word and a Mental Conception , are not Nothing : They may be called Things , but when we distinguish the Things from their Signs , Names , or Definitions , we take not the word [ Things ] so laxly , as to comprehend the said Signs , Names , &c. When we say , that the Thing defined is necessary , but to be able to Define it , or actually to Define it , is not necessary ( to Salvation ) it is notorious that we take Definition ( as Defining ) actively , as it is Actus definientis ; and Definire sure is not the same with the Thing defined . I have heard before your Letter told me , that Definitum & definitio idem sunt : But , I pray you , let us not quibble almost all the World under a sentence of Damnation . As long ago as it is since I read such words , I remember our Masters told us , ( I think Schibler in his Topicks for one ) that when they are taken Pro terminis Logicis definitio & definitum non sunt idem ; but only when they are taken Pro rebus per eos terminos significatis ; and that there they differ in Modo significandi essentiam , the definitum signifying the Essence confusedly , and the Definition distinctly . If you will take the Res definita , for that which is strictly nothing but Rei conceptus inadaequatus seu partialis , ( that is , a Species ) and that not as the thing is Existent extra intellectum , but as the conception is an operation of the Mind , so I confess , that he that hath a true Conception of a Species as meerly denominated , or as defined , hath the same conception of it : And also the Thing named , and the Thing defined , is the same thing in it self . Homo & Animal rationale , are the same ; that is , it is the same essence , which is denominated Homo , and defined Animal rationale . And it is the same Conceptus mentis , which we have ( if true ) when we denominate , and when we define . But as Things are distinct from the knowledg and signs of Things , nothing is Res , that is not existent ; and nothing existeth but in Singulars ▪ ( or Individuals ) : And as nothing can be defined but a Species , so a Species , or any Vniversal , is nothing but a Notion , or Ens rationis , save as it existeth in the said Individuals . And in the Individuals , it is nothing but their being as partially , or inadequatly taken , or a Conceptus objectivus partialis , ( whether it be of a thing really , or only intellectually partible , or any thing which our narrow Minds cannot conceive of , Vno & simplici conceptu activo ) . Now if you take the word [ Definition ] for the Species , as existent in Individuals , it is really a part of the thing ; that is , a Partial objective conceptus , or somewhat of the Thing as Intelligible : But this is to take [ Definition ] in Sensu passivo , for the Thing defined ; which our Case distinguisheth . But Sir , I crave your leave , to distinguish Real objective Beings , from , 1. The Knowledg . 2. and the Names , and other Logical Organs , by which we know them , and express our knowledg of them : God , Christ , Grace , Glory , Pardon , Justification , Sanctification , the Gospel-Doctrine , Precept , Promises , Faith , Hope , Love , Obedience , Humility , Patience , &c. are the Res definitae in our Case , not as they are in esse cognito , or in the notion or idea of them , but in esse reali . To Define properly , is either , 1. Mentally to conceive of these things ; 2. or Expressively , to signifie such Conceptions , agreeably to the nature of the things known , or Expressively defined : Which is , if the Definition be perfect , under the notions of a Genus , and Differentia . The Definition as in Words , is but a Logical Organ , ( as Names are also Notifying signs ) : Mental defining , is but the said distinct knowledg of the thing defined , and is neither really the Thing it self , nor usually of necessity to the Thing : Which two , I shall prove distinctly as to the sense of our Case . 1. The Definition of Justification , is either our Distinct knowledg , or Expression of it : Justification is not our Distinct knowledg , or Expression of it : Therefore the Definition of Justification , and Justification , are not the same . Justification In sensu activo , is not an Act of God , and In sensu passivo , is the Relative state of Man thereby effected : But the Definition of Justification is neither . The Definition of Justification , is a work of Art ; but Justification is a Work of Grace . A wicked damnable Man , or a damned Devil , may define Justification , and so have the Definition of it ; but not Justification it self . The Definition of Justification , Faith , Love , &c. is Quid Logicum ; but Justification , Faith , Love , &c. are things Physical and Moral . A Man is Justified ( or hath Christs Righteousness imputed to him ) in his sleep , and when he thinketh not of it ; but he hath not the Active definition of Justification in his sleep , &c. Other things be not the same Really with their D●finition , therefore neither is Justification , Faith , &c. The Sun is not really the same thing with a Definition of the Sun ; nor Light , Heat , Motion , &c. A Brute can see , taste , feel , smell , that cannot define them . If you have a Bishoprick , because you define a Bishoprick , or have a Lordship , a Kingdom , Health , &c. because you can define them , your Axiome hath stood you in good stead . The Definition is but Explicatio rei : But Rei explicatio non est ipsa res . Individuals ( say most ) are not Definable : But nothing is truly Res , but Individuals . Vniversals as they are in the Mind , are existent Individual Acts , Cogitations , N●tions : As they are out of the Mind , they are nothing but Individuorum quid intelligibile . The Definition of Learning , of a Doctor , &c. may be got in a day : If Learning and Doctorship may be so , what useless things are Universities and Books ? Perswade a hungry Scholar , that he hath Meat and Drink ; or the Ambitious , that he hath Preferment ; or the Covetous , or Poor , that he hath Money , because he hath in his Mind , or Mouth , the Definition of it ; and quibble him into satisfaction by telling him , that Definitio & definitum sunt idem re . We know and express things narrowly by Names , and largely and distinctly by Definitions : The Definition here , is Explicatio nominis , ( as Animal rationale , of the name Homo ) ; and both Name and Definition , as they are Verba mentis vel oris , or Verborum significatio , are surely divers from the things named and defined , known and expressed ; unless by the Thing you mean only the Knowledg , or Notion of the Thing . Therefore though Cui competit definitio eidem quoque competit definitum , & contra , & quod convenit definitioni convenit definito : Yet say not that Imputed Righteousness in Re , is the same with the Definition , as it is the Definers act . By this time you have helpt Men to understand by an Instance , why St. Paul so much warneth Christians to take heed lest any deceive them by vain Philosophy , even by Sophistry , and abused , arbitrary Notions . Remember , Sir , that our Case is of grand Importance ; As it is stated in my Direct . 42. which you assaulted ; it is [ Whether if the Question were of the Object of Predestination , of the nature of the Will 's liberty , Divine concourse , and determining way of Grace , of the Definition of Justification , Faith , &c. a few well studied Divines are not here to be preferred before Authority , and the major Vote . Such are my words . I assert , 1. That the Defining of Justification , Faith , &c. is a work of Art. 2. And I have many and many times told the World ( which you seem to strike at ) that Christians do not differ so much in their Real conceptions of the Matter , as they do in their Definitions . 1. Because Definitions are made up of Ambiguous words , whose Explication they are not agreed in ; and almost all Words are ambiguous till explained ; and ambiguous Words are not fit to define , or be defined , till explained . And , 2. Because both selecting fit terms , and explaining them , and ordering them , are works of Art , in which Men are unequal ; and there is as great variety of Intellectual Conceptions , as of Faces . 3. And I have often said , That a Knowledg intuitive , or a Simple apprehension of a thing as Sensate , or an Internal experience , or Reflect act , and a general notion of some things , may prove the truth of Grace , and save Souls , and make us capable of Christian Love and Communion , as being true saving Knowledg . 4. And consequently I have often said , that many a thousand Christians have Faith , Hope , Desire , Love , Humility , Obedience , Justication , Adoption , Vnion with Christ , who can define none of these : Unless you will speak equivocally of Definition it self , and say as good Melancthon , and as Gutherleth , and some other Romists , that Notitia intuitiva est definitio , who yet say but what I am saying , when they add , [ Vel saltem instar definitionis ] . If all are without Faith , Love , Justification , Adoption , who cannot give a true Definition of them , how few will be saved ? How much more then doth Learning to Mens salvation , than Grace ? And Aristotle then is not so far below Paul , or the Spirit of Christ , as we ( justly ) believe . The Case is so weighty and palpable , that you have nothing to say ; but as you did about the Guilt of our nearer Parents sins , to yield all the Cause , and with a passionate clamour to tell Men that I mistake you , or wrest your words ; of which I shall appeal to every sober Reader , that will peruse the words of mine which you assault , and yours as they are an Answer to mine . In a word , you go about by the abuse of a trivial Axiome of Definitions , 1. To sentence most Christians to Hell , and cast them into Desperation , as wanting the Grace which they cannot define . 2. And to destroy Christian Love and Concord , and tear the Church into as many Shreds , as there be diversities of Definitions used by them . 3. And you would tempt us to think much hardlier of your self , than we must or will do ; as if your Faith , Justification , &c. were unsound , because your Definitions are so . I know that Vnius rei una tantum est Definitio , speaking , 1. Not of the Terms , but the Sense . 2. And supposing that Definition to be perfectly true ; that is , the truth of Intellection and Expression consisting in their congruity to the Thing ; while the thing is one and the same , the conception and expression which is perfectly true , must be so too . But , 1. Our understandings are all imperfect , and we know nothing perfectly but Secundum quaedam ; and Zanckez saith truly , that Nihil scitur , if we call that only Knowledg which is perfect : And consequently no Mental Definition is perfect . 2. And Imperfections have many degrees . 3. And our Terms , which make up that which you know I called a Definition in my Dir. 42. ( as it is in words ) are as aforesaid , various , mutable , and variously understood and used . § . XV. Pag. 24. Again you are at it , [ Whom do you mean by that one rare Person , whose single Judgment is to be preferred in the point of Justification , and to whom ] . Answ . 1. No one that knoweth not the difference between an Invididuum vagum & determinatum . 2. No one that is of so hard Metal , as in despite of the plainest words , to insinuate to the World , that these words [ A few well-studied Judicious Divines ] do signifie only one ; and that these words [ One Man of extraordinary understanding and clearness ] , ( is to be preferred before the Rulers and major Vote , in difficult speculations ) do signifie one individuum determinatum in the World , and that the Speaker is bound to name the Man. No one that thinketh that Pemble , who in his Vind. Grat. hath almost the very same words , said well , and that I who repeat them , am as criminal as you pretend : No one who either knoweth not , that almost all the World ( even Papists ) agree in this Rule , or that thinketh his judgment fit herein to bear them all down : No one who , when his abuses are brought into the open Sun-shine , will rather accuse the Light than repent . But , pag. 25. After some words to jeer away Conviction , you tell me , [ We must have some better account of you , quem quibus , than what you have given us yet . I shall take leave to present our indifferent Readers with a more ingenuous and truer state of the Question , far more suitable both to my plain meaning and the clear purport of your Direction . Let the Case be this : There is One who of late hath raised much dust among us , about the grand Article of Justification ; Whether it be by Faith without Works , or by Faith and Works too ? All our old Renowned Divines on this side and beyond the Seas are unanimously agreed , that Justification is by Faith alone , i. e. without Works . This one Person hath often published his Judgment to the contrary — so that a poor Academical Doctor may very rationally enquire of you , Who in this case is to be preferred ? That one , or those many ? Answ . There was a Disputant who would undertake to conquer any Adversary : When he was asked , How ? He said he would pour out upon him so many and so gross untruths , as should leave him nothing to answer congruously , but a Mentiris ; and then all the World would judg him uncivil , and condemn him for giving such an unreverent answer . But you shall not so prevail with me , but I will call your Reader to answer these Questions : 1. Whether it be any truer , that [ This is the clear purport of my Direction ] , than it is that I say , There is but one Star in the Firmament , because I say that one Star is more Luminous than many Candles ? 2. Whether if a diseased Reader will put such a Sense upon my words , his Forgery be a true stating of the Question between him and me , with out my consent ? 3. Whether an intimation that this ONE is either Vnicus , or Primus , or Singular , in the definition of Justification , or the interest of Works , be any truer , than that he is the only ejected Minister in England , While the writings of Bucer , Ludov. Crocius , Joh. Bergius , Conrad . Bergius , Calixtus Placeus , le Blank , Dave . Gatak . Wott . Prest . Ball , and multitudes such are visible still among us ? 4. Whether he deals truly , wisely , or friendly with the holy Scripures , and the Protestants , who would perswade the Ignorant , that this is the true state of the Controversie , [ Whether it be by Faith without Works , or by Faith and Works too , that we are justified ] While the Scripture speaketh both , and all Protestants hold both in several senses ? And whether this easie stating of Controversies , without more Explication or Distinction , be worthy an Academical Disputant ? 5. Whether it be true or notoriously false , that [ All our Renowned Divines on this side , and beyond the Seas , are agreed ] , of that in this Question of the interest of Works , which this one contradicteth ? 6. Whether this Doctors naked Affirmation hereof be better proof , than that one Mans citation of the words of above an Hundred ( yea many Hundred ) as giving as much to Works as he doth , is of the Contrary ? 7. Whether it be an ingenuous way beseeming Academics , to talk at this rate , and assert such a stating of the Question and such consent , without one word of notice or mention of the Books , in which I state the Question , and bring all this evidence of consent ? 8. If such a Doctor will needs enquire , whether the secret thoughts of the Writer meant not himself , when he pretendeth but to accuse the Rule there given , and should enquire but of the meaning of the words , whether it savour more of Rationality , or a presumptuous usurping the Prerogative of God ? § . XVI . Pag. 27. Though your approach be wrathful , you are constrained to come nearer yet , and you cannot deny my Rule of Direct . in other Points , but only those of [ High and difficult speculation ] : And do you deny it there ? You will deal with it but as the application of that Rule to the Definition of Justification ? ( And shall we lose your favour , by forcing you to lay by your Opposition as to all the rest ? ) But here you say you [ exceedingly differ from me ] ; Or else you would be ashamed of so much Combating in the dark : Exceeding oft signifieth some extream . Your Reasons are , 1. You hold not the Doctrine of Justification to be properly of Speculative concern , but wholly Practical : Where yet you confess , that in all Practical knowledg , there be some antecedent contemplations of the Nature , Properties , End , Object , and that to know the certain number of Paces b●me-ward , is a Speculative nicety ] . Answ . And can you find no fairer a shift for disagreement ? I would such as you made not the Doctrine of Justification too little Practical ? I am far from thinking that it is not Practical : But is not a Logical definition the opening the Nature , Properties , End , Object , or some of these which you call Contemplations ? Make not plain things dark , Sir : The use of Art is not to shut the Windows , and confound Mens Minds . I take all Theologie to be together , Scientia-affectiva-practica ; for our Intellect , Will , and Practice , must be possest or ruled by it : But it is first Scientia , and we must know before we can will and practise . And though all right knowledg tend to Practice , yet forgive me for telling you , that I think that many holy Persons in Scripture and Primitive times , loved and practised more than you or I , who knew not how to form an exact Logical Definition . And that he that knoweth the things of the Spirit spiritually , by Scripture Notions , may practise them as fully , as he that knoweth and speaketh them in the Notions of Aristotle ; or else the School-Men excel the Apostles . Though ambling be an easie Pace , which Horses are taught by Gives and Fetters , it followeth not that a Horse cannot travel as far in his natural pace . When you have said all , Logical defining shall be a work of Art , and the Church should not be torn , and Souls shall not be damned , for want of it . He that Loveth , Believeth , Hopeth , Obeyeth , and by doing them hath a reflecting perception what they are , and hath but such a knowledg of the Gospel as may be had without a proper Definition , shall be saved . Pag. 28 , 29. you say , [ Nor is the Doctrine of Justification so high and difficult , but that the meanest Christian may understand it sufficiently to Salvation , so far as words can make it intelligible ] . Answ . Your own blows seem not to hurt you . I thank you for granting so much hope to the meanest Christians . But what 's this to your Case ? 1. Do the meanest Christians know how to define Justification , and all the Grace which they have ? 2. Are they acquainted with all the [ Words that should make it intelligible ? ] Pag. 29. you add , [ You have done little service to your weaker Christians to perswade them otherwise ( as well as to the great blessed Charter of Salvation ) and to lead them out of the plain road into Woods and Mazes , to that one Man of extraordinary Judgment and Clearness ; no body must know what his Name is , or where he dwells , and so to whirle them about till you have made them giddy — ] . Answ . How easie is it to talk at this rate for any Cause in the World ? Is this Disputing or Reasoning ? Cannot I as easily say thus against you ? But the question is of Things visible : I willingly appeal to any intelligent impartial Divine , who will read what you and I have written of Justifi-fication , which of us it is that hath done more to bring Men out of Woods and Mazes , into the plainest Road ? Let them , that have leisure for no more , read but my Preface to my Disput . of Justif . and mark which side wrongeth weak Christians , and the Charter of Salvation . § . XVII . Pag. 29. you add , [ Sir , I understand something at these years , without your Tutorage , of the duty both of Pastors and People : But I know not what you mean to make the way to Heaven ( revealed sufficiently to all , &c. ) to be a matter of high abstruse Speculation , as if none but great Scholars , and Men of extraordinary Judgment , could by the right use of Scriptures , and other ordinary common means , be able to find it out , till they have met with that Elias , &c. ] Answ . Still I see we shall agree whether you will or not : O , Sir , it is just the contrary that I wrote for : And I need but repeat your words to answer you . I am not disparaging your understanding , otherwise than you may so call the vindicating of needful truth : Nor did I ever presume to offer you my Tutorage : You speak all this with too much tenderness . But that which I have written almost all my Books of Controversie against , is this making the Way to Heaven more difficult and be wildring , than the Scriptures make it . Therefore it is that I have perswaded Men to lay less stress on arbitrary humane Notions : But the question is now , whether it be your Course or mine , that is guilty of this ? Are Logical Definitions the necessary Way to Heaven ? Doth the Scripture sufficiently reveal such Definitions to all ? Do all ordinary Believers by the use of the Scripture , know how to define ? Do not Logicians make true defining one of the surest signs of clear and accurate knowledg ? Why should you and I dispute thus about Matters of Fact ? I know by the principles of Conformity , that your Judgment is not like to be narrower than mine about the state of determinate Individuals : I suppose you would take as many to the Lords Supper as Believers , as I would , and absolve as many , and pronounce as many saved at Buryal . Let you and I call but a dozen of the next Families together , and desire every Man and Woman of them , to give you a Definition of Justification , ( out of the hearing of the rest ) and if they all give you a true definition , and one definition , I will write a Retractation . I know you not ; but by your now telling me , of your understanding of the duties of Pastors and People , I may suppose that you have been a Pastour , ( else — ) . And if so , that you have had personal conference with most ( if not all ) of your Flock . If you have found them all such able concordant Definers of Justification , you have had a more learned Flock than I had . I doubt your Learned Scholars could not do it , till they met with some such Elias or Aristotle , as you ! Yea , let us take only such as by their Lives we commonly judg truly Godly Christians : And if all these give you one and a true definition of Justification , then do you tell them that Defining is no such difficult work , but ordinary Christians may and do attain it , and I that make it difficult , make the way to Heaven difficult , for Defining is the way to Heaven : But if not one of many Score or Hundred ( till you teach them anew ) do give you a true and the same Definition ; I will go on and still say , that They wrong Souls , the Gospel , and the Church , who pretend such necessity and facility of defining , and will censure , reproach , or damn all that agree not with them in a Definition , when they have as real though less distinct a knowledg of the thing . I doubt not but you know how much difference there is among Learned Men about Definitions themselves in general : Whether they belong to Metaphysicks , Logicks , or Physicks ? Whether Definitio Physica ( as Man is defined per Animam , Corpus & Vnionem ) be a proper Definition ? Whether a true Logical and Physical definition should not be the same ? Whether Definitio objectiva be properly called Definitio , or only Formalis ? Whether Accidents may be properly defined ? An Genus definiri possit ? An pars Logica definiri possit ? An individua possint definiri ? ( Inquit Hurtado , Negari non potest Individuis definitio substantialis ; & quidem essentialis Physice ; est enim de essentia hujus hominis haec anima cum hoc Corpore ; Imo & essentialis Metaphysice — si individua recte possent penetrari , illorum definitio esset omnium perfectissima An ea quae differunt definitione distinguantur realiter ? With a multitude such . And is the Art of Defining so easie , as that ordinary Christians salvation must lie upon it , when so many things about Defining are among the subtilest Doctors undetermined ? And as Ignorant as I am , while you suppose me unable to define Justification , I would wish you ( not for my sake , but theirs ) that you will not sentence all as unjustified to Damnation , that are not more skilful in defining than I , and that you will not reject all such from the Sacrament and Communion of the Church . § . XVIII . Yet again , pag. 30. you tell me , [ I cannot well swallow down in the lump , what you would have me and others to do , when you direct us to prefer that one Man before the Rulers and majority of Votes , till you acquaint us who that Gentleman is , and what sort of Rulers and Majorities you mean ] . Answ . What you cannot swallow you must leave : I will not cram or drench you . I could wish for your own sake , that you had not thus often told the World of such a Malady , as that must needs be which hindreth your swallow : When , 1. You your self receive the same Rule in other Instances , and make all this stir against it only , as to the Definition of Justification , even the Logical definition , which is Actus definientis , called Definitio formalis , and not the Definitio objectiva , as the Ipsum definitum is by some improperly called . 2. And when the words in that Instance are not [ ONE MAN ] but [ a few Men ] which your Eyes may still see ; and when in the General direction where one Man is mentioned , there is no such word as [ that one Man ] , or the least intimation of an Individuum determinatum ; You greatly wrong your Honour by such dealing ; As you do by adding , 1. [ For the single Person ( that Monarch in Divinity ) to whom we are upon differences to make our Appeals , &c. ] Answ . If you hold on thus to talk as in your sleep , and will not shut your Chamber-door , but commission the Press to report your words to the World , how can your best Friends secure your reputation ? Is not all this talk of single Person , and Monarch in Divinity , and Appeals , the effects of a Dream , or somewhat worse ? These Fictions will serve no honest ends . But you next come indeed to the true difficulty of the Case , and ask : [ I beseech you Sir , how shall your ignorant or weaker Christian be able to judg of fitness ? — He had need to have a very competent measure of Abilities himself , who is to give his verdict of anothers , &c. ] This is very true and rational : But it concerneth you as much as me to answer it , unless you will renounce the Rule . And seeing you grant it in other Instances , if you please to answer your own question as to those other , you have answered it as to this : And if you will not learn of your self , I am not so vain as to think , that you will learn of me . In case of Subtilties which depend upon Wit , and Art , and Industry , in that proportion which few , even faithful Men attain , I remember but one of these ways that can be taken ; Either wholly to suspend our Judgments , and not to meddle with them , till we can reach them our selves ; Or to take them fide humana , or as probabilities on the Credit of some Men , rather than others : As to the first , I am for as much suspension of Judgment ▪ as will stand with the part of a Learner ( where we must learn ; and in useless things for a total suspension ) . But where Learning is a duty , all Men come to Knowledg by degrees , and things usually appear to them in their probability , before they appear in ascertaining evidence . Therefore here the Question is , Whose judgment I shall take as most probable ? ( Were the case only , how far we should Preach our Judgment to others , there Rulers must more determine ; or if it were , How to manage our Judgment so as to keep Vnity and Concord , the Church , or major Vote must over-rule us ) . But it being the meer Judgment or Opinion that is in question , either we must adhere to the Judgment , 1. Of Rulers as such , 2. Or the major Vote as such , 3. Or to those that are most Excellent in that part of Knowledg : Why should I waste time to give you the Reasons against the two first , which are commonly received ? When even the Papists , who go as far as any I know living in ascribing to One Man , and to major Votes , yet all agree , that a few subtile Doctors , yea one in the things in which he excelleth , is to be preferred before Pope or Council : And therefore the Scotists prefer one Scotus , Lychetus , Memisse , Rada , &c. before a Pope or Multitude , and so do the Nominals , one Ockam , Gregory , Gabriel , Hurtado , &c. and so the other Sects . The thing then being ▪ such as neither you , nor any Man can deny , the difficulty which you urge , doth press you and all Men : And it is indeed one grand calamity of Mankind , and not the least hinderance of Knowledg in the World ; that he that hath it not , knoweth not what another hath , but by dark Conjectures . 4. And therefore Parents and Pupils know not who is their best Tutor : The hearers that are to chuse a Teacher , hardly know whom to chuse ; for , as you say truly , he must know much that must judg of a knowing Man. God hath in all Arts and Sciences given some few Men an excellency of Wit and Reach above the generality of their Profession , and they have a more clear and solid Judgment . If all Men could but know who these be , the World would in one Age be more recovered from Ignorance than it hath been in ten . But the power of the Proud , and the confidence of the Ignorant , and the number of all th●se , and the Slanders and Scorn , and peevish Wranglings of the common Pride and Ignorance against those few that know what they know not , is the Devils great means to frustrate their endeavours , and keep the World from having knowledg . T●is is certain and weighty Truth , and such as you should make no Malignant applications of , nor strive against . Mankind must needs acknowledg it . Your urgent questioning here [ Do you not mean your self ? ] doth but expose you to pity , by opening that which you might have concealed . And to your Question I say , could I enable all Ignorant Men to know who are the best Teachers , I should be the grand Benefactor of the World : But both the blessing of excellent Teachers , and also of acquaintance with them and their worth , is given by God , partly as it pleaseth Him , freely , even to the unworthy , and partly as a Reward to those that have been faithful in a little , and obeyed lower helps ; ( for there is a Worthiness to be found in some Houses , where the Preacher cometh with the voice of Peace , and unworthiness , which oft depriveth Men of such Mercies . ) Both absolutely Free-Grace , and also Rewarding-Grace , do here shew themselves . But yet I add , 1. That Light is a self-demonstrating thing ; and will not easily be hid . 2. And those that are the Children of Light , and have been true to former helps and convictions , and are willing to sell all for the Pearl , and fear not being losers by the price of Knowledg , but would have it whatever Labour or Suffering it must cost , and who search for it impartially and diligently , and forfeit it not by Sloth , or a fleshly , proud , or worldly Mind , these , I say , are prepared to discern the Light ; when others fall under the heavy Judgment of being deceived by the Wranglings , Scorns , Clamours and Threatnings of PROUD IGNORANCE . And thus one Augustine was a Light in his time , and though such as Prosper , Fulgentius , &c. knew him , Pelagius and the Massilienses wrangled against him : And Luther , Melancthon , Bucer , Phagius , Zuinglius , Calvin , Musculus , Zanchius were such in their times ; and some discerned them to be so , and more did not : If Men must have gone by the judgment of Rulers , or the major Vote of Teachers , what had become of the Reformation ? If you can better direct Men how to discern Gods Gifts and Graces in His Servants , do it , and do not cavil against it . As for your [ One single Protestant in such a case as Justification ] , and your [ I wish it be not your meaning ] Pag. 31. they deserve no further answer , nor I all the anger , pag. 31 , 32 , 33. § . XIX . But pag. 34. Note again , 1. That it is not Objective Definitions , ( as some call them ) but [ Logical , Artificial Definitions , ] supposed to be Mens needful Acts , which you say are Re , the same with the Definitum . 2. And that yet you must have it [ supposed that these Definitions are true ] . And I suppose that few Good Christians comparatively know a true one , no , nor what a Definition , ( or the Genus and Differentia which constitute it ) is . You say , [ I absolutely deny what you so rashly avow , that the Definition of Justification is controverted by the greatest Divines : This is one of your liberal Dictates : The Reformed Divines are all , I think , before you , agreed about the nature of Justification , its Causes , &c. and consequently cannot differ about the Definition ] . Answ . 1. But what if all Divines were so agreed ? So are not all honest Men and Women that must have Communion with us : Therefore make not Definitions more necessary than they are , nor as necessary as the Thing . 2. You must be constrained for the defending of these words , to come off by saying , that you meant , That though they agree not in the Words , or Logical terms of the Definition ; but one saith , This is the Genus , and this is the Differentia , and another that it is not this but that ; one saith this , and another that is the Formal , or Material Cause , &c. yet de re , they mean the same thing , were they so happy as to agree in their Logical defining terms and notions : And if you will do in this , as you have done in your other Quarrels , come off by saying as I say , and shewing Men the power of Truth , though you do it with never so much anger , that you must agree , I shall be satisfied , that the Reader is delivered from your snare , and that Truth prevaileth , what ever you think or say of me . 3. But because I must now answer what you say , and not what I foresee you will or must say , I must add , that this passage seemeth to suppose that your Reader liveth in the dark , and hath read very little of Justification . 1. Do all those great Divines , who deny the Imputation of Christs active Righteousness , and take it to be but Justitia Personae , non Meriti , and that we are Justified by the Passive only , agree with their Adversaries , who have written against them , about the Definition and Causes of Justification ? Will any Man believe you , who hath read Olevian , Vrsine , Paraeus , Scultetus , Piscator , Carolus Molinaeus , Wendeline , Beckman , Alstedius , Camero , with his followers in France , Forbes , with abundance more , who are for the Imputation of the Passive Righteousness only ? Were Mr. Anth. Wotton , and Mr. Balmford , and his other Adversaries , of the same Opinion in this ? Was Mr. Bradshaw so sottish as to write his Reconciling Treatise of Justification in Latine and English , to reduce Men of differing minds to Concord , while he knew that there was no difference , so much as in the Definition ? Was he mistaken in reciting the great differences about their Senses of Imputation of Christs Righteousness , if there were none at all ? Did Mr. Gataker agree with Lucius and Piscator , when he wrote against both ( as the extreams ) ? Did Mr. Wotton , and John Goodwin , agree with Mr. G. Walker , and Mr. Roborough ? Doth Mr. Lawson , in his Theopolitica agree with you , and such others ? Doth not Mr. Cartwright here differ from those that hold the Imputation of the Active Righteousness ? What abundance of Protestants do place Justification only in Fogiveness of Sins ? And yet as many ( I know not which is the greater side ) do make that Forgiveness but one part , and Imputation of Righteousness another . And how many make Forgiveness no part of Justification , but a Concomitant ? And many instead of [ Imputation of Righteousness ] put [ Accepting us as Righteous , for the sake , or merit of Christs Righteousness imputed ] ( viz. as the Meritorious Cause ) . And Paraeus tells us , that they are of four Opinions , who are for Christs Righteousness imputed ; some for the Passive only ; some for the Passive and Active ; some for the Passive , Active , and Habitual , some for these three and the Divine . And who knoweth not that some here so distinguish Causes and Effects , as that our Original Sin ( or Habitual say some ) is pardoned for Christs Original ( and Habitual ) Holiness : Our Omissions for Christs Active Obedience , and our Commissions for His Passive ? Or as more say that Christs Passive Righteousness as Satisfaction , saveth us from Hell or Punishment , and His Active as meritorious , procureth Life as the reward ? When many others , rejecting that Division , say ; That both freedom from Punishment , and right to Glory are the conjunct effects of His Habitual , Active , and Passive Righteousness , as an entire Cause ( in its kind ) ; as Guil. Forbes , Grotius , Bradshaw , and others truly say : Besides that many conclude with Gataker , that these ▪ are indeed but one thing and effect , ( to be Glorified , and not to be Damned or Punished ) ▪ seeing not to be Glorified is the Paena damni , and that the remitting of the whole Penalty damni & sensus , and so of all Sin of Omission and Commission , is our whole Justification . And I need not tell any Man that hath read such Writers , that they ordinarily distinguish of Justification , and give not the same Definition of one sort as of another , nor of the Name in one Sense as in another . Many confess ( whom you may read in Guil. Forbes , and Vinc. le Blanck ) that the word [ Justifie ] is divers times taken in Scripture ( as the Papists do ) as including Sanctification : And so saith Beza against Illyricus , pag. 218. as cited by G. Forbes , [ Si Justificationem generaliter accipias , ut interdum usurpatur ab Apostolo , Sanctificatio non erit ejus effectus , sed pars aut species ] : And as I find him ( mihi ) pag. 179. Quamvis Justificationis nomen interdum generaliter accipiatur pro omni illius Justitiae dono quam a patre in Christo accipimus , &c. And how little are we agreed whether Reconciliation be a part of Justification or not ? Yea , or Adoption either ? Saith Illyricus [ Hoc affirmo , recte posse dici Justificationem esse Causam omnium beneficiorum sequentium : Nam justificatio est plena Reconciliatio cum Deo , quae nos facit ex hostibus filios Dei : ] To which Beza ibid. saith , ( distinguishing of Reconciliation ) Neutro modo idem est Reconciliatio ac Justificatio . — Si Remissio peccatorum est Justificationis Definitio , quod negare non ausis , &c. Of the three sorts or parts of Christs Righteousness imputed to make up three parts of our Justification , see him de Predest . pag. 405. Col. 2. which Perkins and some others also follow . Olevian ( as all others that grosly mistake not herein ) did hold , that God did not judg us to have fulfilled all the Law in Christ ; and that our righteousness consisteth only in the Remission of Sin , and right to Life as freely given us for anothers Merits : But Beza insisteth still on the contrary , and in his Epistle to Olevian , ( pag. 248. Epist . 35. ) saith , Quid vanius est quam Justum arbitrari , qui Legem non impleverit ? Atqui lex non tantum prohibet fieri quod vetat , — verum praecipit quod jubet . — Ergo qui pro non peccatore censetur in Christo , mortem quidem effugerit ; sed quo jure vitam praeterea petet , nisi omnem justitiam Legis in eodem Christo impleverit ? ( This is the Doctrine which Wotton and Gataker ( in divers Books largely ) and Bradshaw , after many others do Confute . Yet saith he , N●que vero id obstat , quominus nostra Justificatio Remissione peccatorum apte & recte definiatur ] , Which is a contradiction . Yet was he for Love and Gentleness in these differences ; ibid. Yet Qu. & Resp . Christ . pag. 670. He leaveth out Christs Original Habitual Righteousness , [ Non illa essentialis quae Deitatis est , nec illa Habitualis , ut ita loquar , Puritas Carnis Christi . — Quae quum non distingueret Osiander faedissime est hallucinatus . And ibid. 670. he giveth us this description of Justification . Qu. Quid Justificationem vocat Paulus hoc loco ? R. Illud quo Justi fimus , id est , eousque perfecti , integri , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ut plenissime , non tantum aboleatur quicquid in nobis totis in est turpitudinis , qua Deus summe purus offendi ullo modo possit , verum etiam in nos comperiatur quicquid in ha● humana naturae usque adeo potest eum delectare , ut illud vita aeterna pro bona sua voluntate coronet ] . Yet ( as in his Annot. in Rom. 8.30 . & alibi ) he confesseth that Justification in Scripture , sometime is taken for Sanctification , ( or as including it ) so he taketh our Sanctification to contain the Imputation of Christs Sanctity to us . ( Qu. & Resp . pag. 671. ) 1. Dico nostras Personas , imputata ipsius perfecta sanctitate & integritate , plene sanctas & integras , ac proinde Patri acceptas , non in nobis sed in Christo censemur . 2. And next the Spirits Sanctification ; and thus Christ is made Sanctification to us . Dr. Twisse , and Mr. Pemble , Vind. Grat. distinguish of Justification as an Immanent Act in God from Eternity , and as it is the notice of the former in our Consciences : But doubtless the commonest Definitions of Justification agree with neither of these : And Pemble of Justification otherwise defineth it ( as Mr. Jessop saith Dr. Twisse did ) . Lud. Crocius Syntag. pag. 1219. thus defineth it , [ Justificatio Evangelica est actus Divinae gratiae , qua Deus adoptat peccatorem per approbationem obedientiae Legis in sponsore atque intercessore Christo , & per Remissionem peccatorum ac Justitiae imputationem in eo qui per fidem Christo est insitus ] . And saith , pag. 1223. [ Fides sola justificat quatenus notat Obedientiam quandam expectantem promissionem ut donum gratuitum — & apponitur illi Obedientiae quae non expectat promissionem ut donum omnino gratuitum sed ut mercedem propositam sub Conditione operis alicu●us praeter acceptationem & gratitudinem debitam , quae sua Natura in omni donatione quamvis gratuita requiri solet . Et ejusmodi Obedientia peculiariter opus ab Apostolo , & Latinis proprie Meritum dicitur ; & qui sub hac conditione obediunt Operantes vocantur , Rom. 4.4 . & 11.6 . This is the truth which I assert . Conrad . Bergius Prax. Cathol . dis . 7. pag. 983. tells us that the Breme Cat●chism thus openeth the Matter : [ Qu. Quomodo Justificatur Homo coram Deo ? R. Accipit Homo Remissionem peccatorum & Justificatur , hoc est , Gratus fit coram Deo in vera Conversione , persolam fidem , per Christum , sine proprio Merito & dignitate . Cocceius disp . de via salut . de Just . pag. 189. Originalis Christi Justitia correspondet nostro Originali peccato , &c. vid. coet . plura vid. de foeder . Macovius Colleg. de Justif . distinguisheth Justification into Active and Passive , and saith , Justificatio Activa significat absolu●ionem Dei , que Hominem reum a reatu absolvit : And he would prove this to be before Faith , and citeth for it ( abusively ) Paraeus and Tessanus , and thinketh that we were absolved from Guilt from Christs undertaking our Debt , Thes . 12. thus arguing , [ Cujus debita apud Creditorem aliquis recepit exsolvenda , & Creditor istius sponsionem ita acceptat , ut in ea acquiescat , ille jam ex parte Creditoris liber est a debitis : Atque Electorum omnium in singulari debita apud Deum Patrem Christus , ex quo factus est Mediator , recepit exolvenda , & Deus Pater illam sponsionem acceptavit , &c. Passive Justification , which he supposeth to be our application of Christs Righteousness to our daily as oft as we offend . Th. 5. ( And part 4. disp . 22. he maintaineth , that There are no Dispositions to Regeneration ) . Others of his mind I pass by . Spanhemius Disput . de Justif . saith , that [ The Form of Passive Justification consisteth in the apprehension and sense of Remission of Sin and Imputation of Christs Righteousness in capable Subjects ] grosly : Whereas Active Justification ( Justificantis ) ever immediately causeth Passive ( Justificationem justificati ) which is nothing but the effect of the Active , ( or as most call it , Actio ut in patiente ) : And if this were the Apprehension and Sense ( as aforesaid ) of Pardon and imputed Righteousness , then a Man in his sleep were unjustified , and so of Infants , &c. For he that is not Passively justified , is not at all justified . I told you else-where , that the Synops . Leidens . de Justif . pag. 413. Th. 23. saith , That Christs Righteousness is both the Meritorious , Material , and Formal Cause of our Justification . What Fayus , and Davenant , and others say of the Formal Cause , viz. Christs Righteousness imputed , I there shewed : And how Paraeus , Joh. Crocius , and many others , deny Christs Righteousness to be the Formal Cause . Wendeline defineth Justification thus ( Theol. Lib. 1. c. 25. p. 603. ) Justificatio est actio Dei gratuita , qua peccatores Electi , maledictioni legis obnoxii , propter justitiam seu satisfactionem Christi fide applicatam & a Deo imputatam , coram tribunali Divino , remssis peccatis , a maledictione Legis absolvuntur & justi censentur . And pag. 615 , 616. He maintaineth that [ Obedientia activa , si proprie & accurate loquamur , non est materia nostrae Justificationis , nec imputatur nobis , ita ut nostra censeatur , & nobis propter eam peccata remittantur , & debitum legis pro nobis solvatur ; quemadmodum Passiva per imputationem censetur nostra , &c. Et post [ Si dicus Christum factum esse hominem pro nobis , hoc est , nostro bono , conceditur : Si pro nobis , hoc est , nostro loco , negatur : Quod enim Christus nostro loco fecit , & factus est , id nos non tenemur facere & fieri , &c. Rob. Abbot approveth of Thompsons Definition of Evangelical Justification , ( pag. 153. ) that it is , Qua poenitenti & Credenti remittuntur peccata , & jus vitae aeternae conceditur per & propter Christi obedientiam illi imputatam : ( Which is sound , taking Imputatam soundly , as he doth ) . Joh. Cr●cius , Disp . 1. p. 5. thus defineth it , [ Actio Dei qua ex gratia propter satisfactionem Christi peccatoribus in Christum totius Mundi redemptorem unicum , vere credentibus gratis sine operibus aut meritis propriis omnia peccata remittit , & justitiam Christi imputat ad sui nominis gloriam & illorum salutem aeternam . And he maketh only [ Christs full satisfaction for Sin , to be the Impulsive-External , Meritorious , and Material , Cause , as being that which is imputed to us ; and the Form of Justification to be the Remission of Sin , Original and Actual , or the Imputation of Christs Righteousness ( which he maketh to be all one ) or the Imputation of Faith for Righteousness ] . Saith Bishop Downame of Justif . p. 305. [ To be Formally Righteous by Christs Righteousness imputed , never any of us , for ought I know , affirmed . The like saith Dr. Pride●aux , when yet very many Protestants affirm it . Should I here set together forty or sixty Definitions of Protestants verbatim , and shew you how much they differ , it would be unpleasant , and tedious , and unnecessary . And as to those same Divines that Dr. Tully nameth as agreed , Dr. Davenants and Dr. Fields words I have cited at large in my Confes . saying the same in substance as I do ; as also Mr. Scudders , and an hundred more , as is before said . And let any sober Reader decide this Controversie between us , upon these two further Considerations . 1. Peruse all the Corpus Confessionum , and see whether all the Reformed Churches give us a Definition of Justification , and agree in that Definition : Yea , whether the Church of England in its Catechism , or its Articles , have any proper Definition : Or if you will call their words a Definition , I am sure it 's none but what I do consent to . And if a Logical Definition were by the Church of England and other Churches held necessary to Salvation , it would be in their Catechisms ( if not in the Creed ) : Or if it were held necessary to Church-Concord , and Peace , and Love , it would be in their Articles of Religion , which they subscribe . 2. How can all Protestants agree of the Logical Definition of Justification , when 1. They agree not of the sense of the word [ Justifie , ] and of the species of that Justification which Paul and James speak of ? Some make Justification to include Pardon and Sanctification , ( see their words in G. Forbes , and Le Blank ) ; many say otherwise . Most say that Paul speaketh most usually of Justification in sensu forensi , but whether it include [ Making just ] as some say , or only [ Judging just ] as others , or Nolle punire , be the act as Dr. Twisse , they agree not . And some hold that in James Justification is that which is eoram hominibus , when said to be by Works ; but others ( truly ) say , it is thay coram Deo. 2. They are not agreed in their very Logical Rules , and Notions , to which their Definitions are reduced ; no not so much as of the number and nature of Causes , nor of Definitions ( as is aforesaid ) : And as I will not undertake to prove that all the Apostles , Evangelists and Primitive Pastours , knew how to define Efficient , Material , Formal and Final Causes in general , so I am sure that all good Christians do not . 3. And when Justification is defined by Divines , is either the Actus Justificantis , and this being in the predicament of Action , what wonder if they disagree about the Material and Formal Causes of it ? Nay , it being an Act of God , there are few Divines that tell us what that Act is : Deus operatur per essentiam : And Ex parte agentis , his Acts are his Essence , and all but one . And who will thus dispute of the Definition and Causes of them , Efficient , Material , Formal , Final ? when I presumed to declare , that this Act of Justifying is not an immanent Act in God , nor without a Medium , but Gods Act by the Instrumentality of his Gospel-Covenant or Promise , many read it as a new thing ; and if that hold true that the First Justification by Faith , is that which Gods Gospel-Donation is the Instrument of , as the Titulus seu Fundamentum Juris , being but a Virtual and not an Actual Sentence , then the Definition of it , as to the Causes , must differ much from the most common Definitions . But most Protestants say that Justification is Sententia Judicis . ( And no doubt but there are three several sorts , or Acts called Justification , 1. Constitutive by the Donative Covenant , 2. Sentential , 3. Executive . ) And here they are greatly at a loss , for the decision of the Case , what Act of God this Sententia Jucis is . What it will be after death , we do not much disagree : But what it is immediately upon our believing . It must be an Act as in patiente , or the Divine essence denominated from such an effect . And what Judgment and Sentence God hath upon our believing , few open , and fewer agreee . Mr. Tombes saith it is a Sentence in Heaven notifying it to the Angels : But that is not all , or the chief : some run back to an Immanent Act ; most leave it undetermined : And sure the Name of Sentence in general , signifieth no true Conception of it at all , in him that knoweth not what that Sentence is , seeing Universals are Nothing ( out of us ) but as they exist in individuals . Mr. Lawson hath said that wihch would reconcile Protestants , and some Papists , as to the Name , viz. that Gods Execution is his Sentence ; He Judgeth by Executing : And so as the chief punishment is the Privation of the Spirit , so the Justifying Act , is the executive donation of the Spirit . Thus are we disagreed about Active Justification ( which I have oft endeavoured Conciliatorily fullier to open . ) And as to Passive Justification ( or as it is Status Justificati ) which is indeed that which it concerneth us in this Controversie to open , I have told you how grosly some describe it here before . And all agree not what Predicament it is in : some take it to be in that of Action , ut recipitur in passo ; and some in that of Quality and Relation Conjunct : But most place it in Relation ; And will you wonder if all Christian Women , yea or Divines , cannot define that Relation aright . And if they agree not in the notions of the Efficient , Material , Formal and Final Causes , of that which must be defined ( as it is capable ) by its subjectum , fundamentum and terminus . I would not wish that the Salvation of any Friend of mine ( or any one ) should be laid on the true Logical Definition of Justification , Active or Passive , Constitutive , Sentential or Executive . And now the Judicious will see , whether the Church and Souls of Men be well used by this pretence , that all Protestants are agreed in the Nature , Causes and Definition of Justification ; and that to depart from that one Definition ( where is it ? ) is so dangerous as the Doctor pretendeth , because the Definition and the Definitum are the same . § XX. P. 34. You say [ You tremble not in the audience of God and Man to suggest again that hard-fronted Calumny , viz. that I prefer a Majority of Ignorants before a Learned man in his own profession . Answ . I laid it down as a Rule , that They are not to be preferred : You assault that Rule with bitter accusations , as if it were unsound ( or else to this day I understand you not . ) Is it then [ a hard-fronted Calumny ] to defend it , and to tell you what is contained in the denying of it . The audience of God must be so dreadful to ( you and ) me , that ( without calling you to consider whether the Calumny be not notoriously yours ) I heartily desire any judicious person to help me to see , that I am here guilty , if it be so . But you add , [ You know not what the Event of all this may be ▪ For suppose now , being drag'd in my Scarlet , ( a habit more suitable for him that Triumphs ) at the Wheel of your Chariot in the view of all men , I should happen to be degraded and turned out of my literate Society ; would it not trouble you ? no doubt : but then it might happen to be too late . Answ . 1. It would trouble me : because ( though I know you not ) our fame here saith that you are an honest , and very modest man , and those that are Nicknamed Calvinists prefer you before most others of your rank . But alas , what is Man , and what may Temptation do ? 2. did you think that your Scarlet or Mastership did allow you to write copiously , as you did , against your Neighbour who never medled with you , and made it a crime in him , whom you accuse , to defend himself , and a righteous cause ? I see in this age we deal on hard unequal terms with some Men that can but get into Scarlet . 3. You would make your Reader believe by these words that you are really Melancholly , and fear where no fear is ▪ A Reverend Doctor , whose Book hath the Patronage of one of the greatest Bps. of England writeth against one of no Academical degree , who hath these 13. years and more been judged unworthy to preach to the most ignorant Congregation in the Land , and by the ( Contrived ) distinction of Nonconformists from Conformists , goeth under the scorn and hatred of such , as you pretend to be in danger of , and hath himself no security for his liberty in the open Air ; that this Learned man in his honour , should conceit that an Answer from this hated person might endanger his degradation and turning out of his place , is so strange a fancie , as will make your Readers wonder . 4. But whether you are Melancholly or no I know not ; but if you are not unrighteous , I know not what unrighteousness is . Will you bear with the diversion of a story ? When the Moors were sentenced to ruin in Spain , one of the Disciples of Valdesso ( a Scholar ) fell into the displeasure of the Bp. of Toledo : A Neighbour Doctor knowing that the Bps. favour might bestead him — ( whether accidentally or contrivedly I know not ) hit upon this happy course : The Scholar and he being together in a solemn Convention , the Scholar was taking Tobacco , and the Dr. seeing the smok threw first a Glass of Beer in his face , and cryed Fire , Fire ; The Scholar wiped his face , and went on ; The Doctor next threw an Ink-bottle in his Face , crying still Fire , Fire ; The Scholar being thus blackt , perceived that he was like to be taken for a Moor , and ruined , and he went out and carefully wash'd his face : the Doctor charged him openly for affronting him ( yea and injuriously calumniating him ) by the fact : For saith he , there was necessary Cause for what I did : There is no smoak without some fire : that which fired you might next have fired the House , and that the next House , and so have burnt down all the City : and your action intimateth as if I had done causelesly what I did , and done you wrong : The Scholar answered him ; I knew not , Sir , that it was unlawful to wash me , but I will take no more Tobacco that I may no more offend you ; But if in this frosty weather the thickness of my breath should be called smoak ▪ may I not wash my face , if you again cast your Ink upon it ? No , saith the Doctor , It is not you , nor any private man that must be judg whether you are on Fire or not , in a publick danger : Must the City be hazarded , if you say that it is not Fire ? The Scholar asketh , may I not refer the case to the standers-by , and wash my face if they say , It was no Fire ? No , saith the Dr. that is but to call in your Associates to your help , and to add Rebellion and Schism to your disobedience : I perceive what principles you are of . Why then , saith the Scholar , if I must needs be a Moor , my face and I are at your mercy . But pardon this digression , and let you and I stand to the judgment of any righteous and competent Judge , whether you deal not with me in notorious injustice , so be it the Case be truly stated . The person whom you assaulted is one , that attempted ( with success ) the subversion of Antinomianism and the clearing of truth ; their Ignorance of which was the Cause of their other Errours . But having let fall , ( for want of use in writing ) some incongruous words ( as Covenant for Law , &c. ) and that somewhat often , and some excepting against the Book , he craved their animaversions , and promised to suspend the Book till it were corrected ; and purposely wrote a far greater Volumn in explication of what was dark , and defence of what was wrongfully accused , and many other Volumns of full defence : No man answereth any of these : but after twenty years , or thereabout , ( though I protested in print against any that would write against the Aphorisms , without regard to the said Explications ) you publish your Confutation of part of those Aphorisms , and that with most notorious untruth , charging me to deny all Imputation of Christs Righteousness , when I had there profest the Contrary , and taking no notice of any after-explication or defence , and parallelling me with Bellarmine , if not with Hereticks or Infidels ( for I suppose you take the denyers of all Imputation to be little better . ) This Book you publish without the least provocation with other quarrels , dedicating it to that R. Rd. B. who first silenced me ; ( as if I must go write over again all the Explications and Defences I had before written , because you ( that are bound to accuse me ) are not bound to read them : ) and this you do against one that at that time had been about 13 years silenced , ejected , and deprived of all Ministerial maintenance , and of almost all his own personal Estate , desiring no greater preferment than leave to have preached for nothing , where is notorious necessity , could I have obtained it , sometimes laid in the common Jail among Malefactors , for preaching in my own house , and dwelling within five miles of it : after fined at forty pound a Sermon for preaching for nothing ; looking when my Books and Bed are taken from me by distress , though I live in constant pain and langour , the Constable but yesterday coming to have distrained for sixty pound for two Sermons ; hunted and hurryed about to Justices at the will of any ignorant — Agent of — that will be an Informer , and even fain to keep my doors daily lockt , if it may be to save my Books a while : Yet the exciting of wroth by publick Calumny against one so low already , and under the persecuting wrath of your friends , was no fault , no injustice in you at all ! ( nor indeed did I much feel it . ) But for me who am thus publickly by visible Calumny traduced , truly to tell you where you mistake , and how you wrong Gods Church and Truth more than me , and if also I offer peaceably to wash my own face , this is hard fronted Calumny , dragging a Doctor in Scarlet at the Wheels of my Chariot , which might occasion his degrading and turning out , &c. This over-tenderness of your honour as to other mens words , ( and too little care of the means of it , as to your own ) hath a cause that it concerneth you to find out . Had you the tenth part as many Books written against you , as are against me ( by Quakers , Seekers , Infidels , Antinomians , Millenaries , Anabaptists , Separatists , Semi-separatists , Papists , Pseudo-Tilenus , Diocesans , Conformists , and many Enemies of Peace , ( to whom it was not I , but your self that joyned you ) it would have hardened you into some more patience . If you will needs be militant you must expect replies : And he that will injuriously speak to the World what he should not speak , must look to hear what he would not hear . But you add ; Sir , the Name and Quality of a DOCTOR and Master of a Literate Society , might have been treated more civilly by you . Answ . 1. I am ready to ask you forgiveness for any word that any impartial man ( yea or your Reverend Brethren of that Academy themselves , whom I will allow to be somewhat partial for you ) shall notifie to me to be uncivil or any way injurious . 2. But to be free with you , neither Doctorship , Mastership nor ●carlet will Priviledg you to fight against Truth , Right , and Peace , and to vent gross mistakes , and by gross untruths in matter of fact , such as is your [ Omnem ludibrio habet imputationem ] to abuse your poor Brethren , and keep the longconsuming flàmes still burning , by false representing those as Popish , and I know not what , who speak not as unaptly as your self , and all this without contradiction . Were you a Bp. my Body and Estate might be in your power , but Truth , Justice and the Love of Christians , and the Churches peace , should not be cowardly betrayed by me on pretense of reverence to your Name and Quality . I am heartily desirous that for ORDER-sake the Name and Honour of my Superiours may be very reverently used . But if they , will think that Errour , Injustice , and Confusion must take sanctuary under bare Ecclesiastical or Academical Names and robes , they will find themselves mistaken : Truth and Honesty will conquer when they pass through Smithfield flames : Prisons confine them not ; Death kills them not ; No siege will force an honest Conscience by famine to give up . He that cannot endure the sight of his own excrements must not dish them up to another mans Table , lest they be sent him back again . And more freedom is allowed against Peace-Breakers in Frays and Wars , than towards men that are in a quieter sort of Controversie . § XX. P. 36.37 . You say [ For your various Definitions of Justification , Constitutive , Sentential , Executive , in Foro Dei , in foro Conscientiae , &c. — What need this heap of distinctions here , when you know the question betwixt us is of no other Justification , but the Constitutive in foro Dei , that which maketh us righteous in the Court of Heaven ? I have nothing to do with you yet in any else , as your own Conscience will tell you when you please : If you have not more Justice and civility for your intelligent Readers , I wish you would shew more Compassion to your Ignorant Homagers , and not thus abuse them with your palpable Evasions . Answ . Doth the question , Whether the several sorts of Justification will bear one and the same Definition , deserve all this anger ( and the much greater that followeth ) ? 1. Seeing I am turned to my Reader , I will crave his impartial judgment : I never received and agreed on a state of the question with this Doctor : He writeth against my books : In those Books I over and over and over distinguish of Justification , Constitutive , Sentential , and Executive ( besides those subordinate sorts , by Witness , Evidence , Apology , &c. ) I oft open their differences : He writeth against me , as denying all Imputation of Christs Righteousness , and holding Popish Justification by works , and never tells me whether he take the word [ Justification ] in the same sense that I do , or in which of those that I had opened : And now he passionately appealeth to my Conscience that I knew his sence : What he saith [ my Conscience will tell me ] it is not true . It will tell me no such thing : but the clean contrary , that even after all his Disputes and Anger , and these words , I profess I know not what he meaneth by [ Justification . ] 2. What [ Constitutive in foro Dei , that which maketh us Righteous in the Court of Heaven ] meaneth with him , I cannot conjecture . He denyeth not my Distinctions , but saith , what need they : I ever distinguished Making Righteous , Judging Righteous . Executively useing as Righteous : The first is in our selves ; The second is by Divines said to be in foro Dei , an act of Judgment ; the third is upon us after both : now he seemeth to confound the two first , and yet denyeth not their difference ; and saith , he meaneth [ Constitutive in foro : ] He that is made Righteous is such in se ; and as such is Justifiable in foro : ] We are Made Righteous by God as free Donor and Imputer , antecedently to judgment : We are in foro sentenced Righteous by God as Judg : so that this by sentence presupposeth the former : God never Judgeth us Righteous and Justifieth us against Accusation , till he have first Made us Righteous and Justified us from adherent Guilt by Pardon and Donation . Which of these meaneth he ? I ask not my Ignorant homagers who know no more than I , but his Intelligent Reader . He taketh on him to go the Commonest way of Protestants : And the Commonest way is to acknowledg that a Constitutive Justification , or making the man Just , ( antecedent to the Actus forensis ) must need go first : but that it is the second which Paul usually meaneth , which is the actus forensis , the sentence of the Judg in foro , contrary to Condemnation : And doth the Doctor think that to make Righteous and to sentence as Righteous are all one ? and that we are made Righteous in foro otherwise than to be just in our selves , and so Justifiable in foro , before the Sentence ? or do Protestants take the Sentence to be Constituting or Making us Righteous ? All this is such talk as had I read it in Mr. Bunnyan of the Covenants , or any of my Ignorant Homagers , I should have said , the Author is a stranger to the Controversie , into which he hath rashly plunged himself : but I have more reverence to so learned a man , and therefore blame my dull understanding . 3. But what if I had known ( as I do not yet ) what sort of Justification he meaneth ? Doth he not know that I was then debating the Case with him , whether the Logical Definitions of Justification , Faith , &c. are not a work of Art , in which a few well-studied judicious Divines ( these were my words ) are to be preferred before Authority , or Majority of Votes . And Reader , what Reason bound me to confine this Case , to one only sort of Justification ? And why , ( I say , why ) must I confine it to a sort which Dr. Tully meaneth , when my Rule and Book was written before his , and when to this day I know not what he meaneth ? Though he at once chide at my Distinguishing , and tell me that All Protestants agree in the Nature , Causes , and Definition , ( and if all agreed , I might know by other Mens words what he meaneth ) yet to all before-said , I will add but one contrary Instance of many . Cluto , in his very Methodical but unsound Idea Theol. ( signalized in Voetii Biblioth . ) defineth Justification so , as I suppose , best pleaseth the Doctor , viz. [ Est Actio Dei Judicialis , qua redemptos propter passiones justitiae Divinae satifactorias a Christo sustentatas , redemptisque imputatas , a peccatis puros , & consequenter a poenis liberos , itemque propter Obedientiam a Christo Legi Divinae praestitam redemptisque imputatam , justitia praeditos , & consequenter vita aeterna dignos , ex miserecordia pronunciat ] . In the opening of which he telleth us , pag. 243. ( against multitudes of the greatest Protestants Definitions . ) [ Male , alteram Justificationis partem , ipsam Justitiae Imputationem statui , cum Justificatio non sit ipsa Imputatio , sed Pronunciatio quae Imputatione , tanquam fundamento jacto , nititur . And he knew no sense of Justification , but [ Vel ipsam sententiae Justificatoriae in mente Divina prolationem , sive Constitutionem , vel ejus in Cordibus redemptorum manifestantem Revelationem : And saith , Priori modo factum est autem omnem fidem , cum Deus omnes , quibus passiones & justitiam Christi imputabat , innocentes & justos reputaret , cum ejus inimici , adeoque sine fide essent , ( so that here is a Justification of Infidels , as innocent for Christs Righteousness imputed to them ) : Quare etiam ut jam facta fide apprehendenda est . The second which follows Faith , is Faith , ingenerating a firm perswasion of it . Is not here sad defining , when neither of these are the Scripture - Justification by Christ and Faith ? And so § . 32. the time of Justification by Faith he maketh to be the time when we receive the feeling of the former : And the time of the former is presently after the Fall ; of all at once : And hence gathereth that [ Ex eo quod Justificatio dicitur fieri propter passiones & obedientiam Christi , quibus ad perfectionem nihil deest , nobis imputatas ( before Faith or Birth ) consequitur innocentiam & justitiam in Redemptis quam primum perfectas & ab omni macula puras esse — ] and so that neither the pronunciation in mente Divina , or imputation ullis gradibus ad perfectionem exsurgat . But what is this pronunciation in mente Divina ? He well and truly noteth , § . 29. that [ Omnes actiones Divinae , fi ex eo aestimentur quod re ipsa in Deo sunt , idem sunt cum ipso Deo , ideoque dependentiam a Causa externa non admittant : Si tamen considerentur quoad rationem formalem hujus vel illius denominationis ipsis impositae in relatione ad Creaturas consistentem , ipsis causae impulsivae assignare possunt , &c. This distinction well openeth , how God may be said to justifie in His own Mind : But what is that effect , Vnde essentia vel mens Divina ita denominatur justificans ? Here he is at a loss , neither truly telling us what is Justication Constitutive , Sentential , nor Executive ( but in the little part of [ Feeling ] God 's secret Act ) yet this dark Definer truly saith [ Ex sensu Scripturae verissime affirmetur hominem per fidem solam justificari , quia ex nostra parte nihil ad Justificationem conferendum Deus requirit , quam ut Justificationem in Christo fundatam credamus , & fide non producamus , sed recipiamus . If yet you would see whether all Protestants agree in the Definition of Justification , read the multitude of Definitions of it in several senses ; in Learnrd Alstedius his Definit . Theol. c. 24. § . 2. pag. 97. &c. [ Justificatio hominis coram Deo est qua homo in foro Divino absolvitur , seu justus esse evincitur contra quemvis actorem , Deo ipso judice , & pro eo sententiam ferente ] . But what is this Forum ? Forum Divinum est ubi Deus ipse judicis partes agit , & fert sententiam secundum leges a se latas ? But where is that Est internum vel externum ? Forum divinum internum est in ipsa hominis Conscientia , in qua Deus Thronum justitiae erigit in hac vita ibi agendo partes actoris & judicis : Forum Conscientiae . ( But it is not this that is meant by the Justification by Faith ) . Forum divinum externum est , in qua Deus post hanc vitam extra hominem exercet judicium , 1. Particulare , 2. Vniversale . This is true and well : But are we no where Justified by Faith but in Conscience , till after Death ? This is by not considering , 1. The Jus ad impunitatem & vitam donatum per foedus Evangelicum upon our Believing , which supposing Faith and Repentance is our Constitutive Justification , ( virtually only sentential ) . 2. And the Judgment of God begun in this Life , pronounced specially by Execution . Abundance of useful Definitions subordinate you may further there see in Alstedius , and some wrong , and the chief omitted . The vehement passages of the Doctors Conclusion I pass over ; his deep sense of unsufferable Provocations , I must leave to himself ; his warning of the dreadful Tribunal which I am near , it greatly concerns me to regard : And Reader , I shall think yet that his Contest ( though troublesome to me that was falsly assaulted , and more to him whose detected Miscarriages are so painful to him ) hath yet been Profitable beyond the Charges of it to him or me , if I have but convinced thee , that 1. Sound mental Conceptions of so much as is necessary to our own Justification , much differ from proper Logical Definitions : And that , 2. Many millions are Justified that cannot define it : 3. And that Logical Definitions are Works of Art more than of Grace , which require so much Acuteness and Skill , that even worthy and excellent Teachers may be , and are disagreed about them , especially through the great ambiguity of Words ; which all understand not in the same sence , and few are sufficiently suspicious of , and diligent to explain . 4. And therefore that our Christian Love , Peace , and Concord , should not be laid upon such Artificial things . 5. And that really the Generality of Protestants are agreed mostly in the Matter , when they quarrel sharply about many Artificial Notions and Terms in the point of Justification . ( And yet after all this , I shall as earnestly as this Doctor , desire and labour for accurateness in Distinguishing , Defining and Method , though I will not have such things to be Engins of Church-Division . ) And lastly , Because he so oft and earnestly presseth me with his Quem quibus , who is the Man , I profess I dreamed not of any particular Man : But I will again tell you whom my Judgment magnifies in this Controversie above all others , and who truly tell you how far Papists and Protestants agree , viz. Vinc. le Blank , and Guil. Forbes , ( I meddle not with his other Subjects ) , Placeus ( in Thes . Salmur . ) Davenant , Dr. Field , Mr. Scudder ( his daily Walk , fit for all families ) Mr. Wotton , Mr. Bradshaw , and Mr. Gataker , Dr. Preston , Dr. Hammond , ( Pract. Cat. ) and Mr. Lawson ( in the main ) Abundance of the French and Breme Divines are also very clear . And though I must not provoke him again by naming some late English men , to reproach them by calling them my disciples , I will venture to tell the plain man that loveth not our wrangling tediousness , that Mr. Trumans Great Propit . and Mr. Gibbons serm . of Justif . may serve him well without any more . And while this worthy Doctor and I do both concord with such as Davenant and Field as to Justification by Faith or Works , judg whether we differ between our selves as far as he would perswade the World , who agree in tertio ? And whether as he hath angrily profest his concord in the two other Controversies which he raised ( our Guilt of nearer Parents sin , and our preferring the judgment of the wisest , &c. ) it be not likely that he will do so also in this , when he hath leisure to read and know what it is that I say and hold , and when we both understand our selves and one another . And whether it be a work worthy of Good and Learned men , to allarm Christians against one another for the sake of arbitrary words and notions ( which one partly useth less aptly and skilfully than the other ) in matters wherein they really agree . 2 Tim. 2. 14. Charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words , to no profit , but to the subverting of the Hearers ( yet ) study to shew thy self approved unto God , a workman that need not be ashamed , rightly dividing the word of Truth Two Sparks more quenched , which fled after the rest from the Forge of Dr. Tho. Tully . § . 1. DId I not find that some Mens Ignorance and factious Jealousie is great enough to make them combustible Recipients of such Wild-fire as those Strictures are ; and did not Charity oblige me to do what I have here done , to save the assaulted Charity of such Persons , more than to save any Reputation of my own , I should repent that I had written one Line in answer to such Writings as I have here had to do with : I have been so wearied with the haunts of the like Spirit , in Mr. Crandon , Mr. Bagshaw , Mr. Danvers , and others , that it is a work I have not patience to be much longer in , unless it were more necessary . Two sheets more tell us that the Doctor is yet angry ; And little that 's better that I can find . In the first , he saith again , that [ I am busie in smoothing my way where none can stumble in , a thing never questioned by him , nor by any Man else , he thinks , who owns the Authority of the second Commandment ] . And have I not then good Company and Encouragement not to change my Mind ? But , 1. He feigneth a Case stated between him and me , who never had to do with him before , but as with others in my Writings , where I state my Case my self . 2. He never so much as toucheth either of my Disputations of Original Sin , in which I state my Case and defend it . 3. And he falsly feigneth the Case stated , in words ( and he supposeth in a sense ) that I never had do do with : Saying , [ I charge you with a new secondary Original Sin , whose Pedegree is not from Adam : I engage not a syllable further ] . And pag. 8. [ You have asserted that this Novel Original Sin is not derived from our Original Father ; no line of Communication between them ; a sin besides that which is derived from Adam , as you plainly and possitively affirm ] . I never said that it had no Pedegree , no line of Communication , no kind of derivation from Adam . 4. Yea , if he would not touch the Disputation where I state my Case , he should have noted it as stated in the very Preface which he writeth against ; and yet there also he totally overlooketh it , though opened in divers Propositions . 5. And the words in an Epistle to another Mans Book , which he fasteneth still on were these ; [ Over-looking the Interest of Children in the Actions of their nearer Parents , and think that they participate of no Guilt , and suffer for no Original Sin , but Adams only ] . And after , [ They had more Original Sin than what they had from Adam ] . 6. He tells me , that [ I seem not to understand my own Question , nor to know well how to set about my Work ] ; and he will teach me how to manage the Business that I have undertaken , and so he tells me how I MUST state the Question hereafter , ( see his words ) . Reader , some Reasons may put a better Title on this Learned Doctors actions ; but if ever I write at this rate , I heartily desire thee to cast it away as utter DISHONESTY and IMPUDENCE . It troubleth me to trouble thee with Repetitions . I hold , 1. That Adams Sin is imputed ( as I opened ) to his Posterity . 2. That the degree of Pravity which Cains nature received from Adam , was the dispositive enclining Cause of all his Actual Sin : 3. But not a necessitating Cause of all those Acts ; for he might possibly have done less evil and more good than he did . 4. Therefore not the Total principal Cause ; for Cains free-will was part of that . 5 Cains actual sin increased the pravity of his nature . 6. And Cains Posterity were ( as I opened it ) guilty of Cains actual sin ; and their Natures were the more depraved by his additional pravity , than they would have been by Adams sin alone ( unless Grace preserved or healed any of them ) . The Doctor in this Paper , would make his Reader believe that he is [ for no meer Logomachies ] and that the difference is not in words only , but the thing . And do you think that he differeth from me in any of these Propositions , or how this sin is derived from Adam ? Yet this now must be the Controversie de re . Do you think ( for I must go by thinking ) that he holdeth any other Derivation than this ? Or did I ever deny any of this ? But it is vain to state the Case to him : He will over ▪ look it , and tell me what I should have held , that he may not be thought to make all this Noise for nothing . He saith pag. 8. [ If it derive in a direct line from the first Transgression , and have its whole Root fastened there , what then ? why then some words which he sets together are not the best sense that can be spoken . It is then but words , and yet it is the thing : What he may mean by [ a direct Line ] , and what by [ whole Root fastened ] I know not ; but I have told the World oft enough what I mean ; and what he meaneth , I have little to do with . But if he think , 1. That Adams Person did commit the sin of Cain , and of all that ever were since committed ; and that Judas his act , was Adams personal act . 2. Or that Adams sin was a total or necessitating Cause of all the evil since committed ; so do not I , ( nor doth he , I doubt not ) . And now I am cast by him on the strait , either to accuse him of differing de re , and so of Doctrinal errour , or else that he knoweth not when the difference is de re , and when de nomine , but is so used to confusion , that Names and Things do come promiscuously into the Question with him : And which of these to chuse , I know not . The Reader may see that I mentioned [ Actual Sin , and Guilt ] : And I think few will doubt , but Adams [ Actual sin , and Cains , ] were divers ; and that therefore , the Guilt that Cains Children had of Adams sin and of Cains was not the same : But that Causa causae is Causa causati , and so that all following Sin was partly ( but partly ) caused by Adam's , we shall soon agree . He addeth that I must make good that new Original Sin ( for he can make use of the word New , and therefore made it ) doth mutare naturam , as the Old doth . Ans . And how far it changeth it , I told him , and he taketh no notice of it : The first sin changed Nature from Innocent into Nocent ; the Second changeth it from Nocent into more Nocent : Doth he deny this ? Or why must I prove any more ? Or doth nothing but Confusion please him ? 3. He saith , I must prove that the Derivation of Progenitors sins is constant and necessary , not uncertain and contingent . Ans . Of this also I fully said what I held , and he dissembleth it all , as if I had never done it : And why must I prove more ? By what Law can he impose on me what to hold ? But really doth he deny that the Reatus culpae , yea and ad Poenam , the Guilt of nearer Parents sins is necessarily and certainly the Childs , though Grace may pardon it ? If he do not , why doth he call on me to prove it ? If he do confess the Guilt , and deny it necessary , when will he tell us what is the Contingent uncertain Cause ? For we take a Relation ( such as Guilt is ) necessarily to result a posito fundamento . § . 2. He next cavilleth at my Citations , about which I only say , either the Reader will peruse the cited words , and my words , which shew to what end I cited them ( to prove our Guilt of our nearer Parents sins ) or he will not . If he will not , I cannot expect that he will read a further Vindication . If he will , he needeth not . § . 3. His second Spark is Animadversions on a sheet of mine , before mentioned , which are such as I am not willing to meddle with , seeing I cannot either handle them , or name them as the nature of them doth require , without offending him : And if what is here said ( of Imputation and Representation ) be not enough , I will add no more , nor write over and over still the same things , because a Man that will take no notice of the many Volumns which answer all his Objections long ago , will call for more , and will write his Animadversions upon a single Sheet that was written on another particular occasion , and pretend to his discoveries of my Deceits from the Silence of that Sheet , and from my naming the Antinomians . I only say , 1. If this Mans way of Disputing were the common way , I would abhor Disputing , and be ashamed of the Name . 2. I do friendly desire the Author of the Friendly Debate , Mr. Sherlock , and all others that would fasten such Doctrines on the Non-Conformists , as a Character of the Party , to observe that this Doctor sufficiently confuteth their partiality ; and that their Academical Church-Doctors , are as Confused , as Vehement maintainers of such expressions as they account most unsavoury , as any even of the Independants cited by them : Yea , that this Doctor would make us question whether there be now any Antinomians among us , and so whether all the Conformists that have charged the Conformists , yea or the Sectaries , with having among them Men of such unsound Principles , have not wronged them , it being indeed the Doctrine of the Church of England which they maintain , whom I and others call Antinomians and Libertines : And I hope at least the sober and sound Non-Conformists are Orthodox , when the vehementest Sectaries that calumniated my Sermon at Pinners Hall , are vindicated by such a Doctor of the Church . 3. I yet conclude , that if this One Mans Writings do not convince the Reader , of the Sin and Danger of Allarming Christians against one another , as Adversaries to great and necessary Doctrines , on the account of meer Words not understood , for want of accurateness and skill in the expressive Art , I take him to be utterly unexcusable . Pemble Vind. Gra● . p. 25. It were somewhat if it were in Learning as it is in bearing of a Burthen ; where many weak Men may bear that which One or few cannot : But in the search of Knowledg , it fares as in discrying a thing afar off ; where one quick-sight will see further than a thousand clear Eyes . FINIS . I had not time to gather the Errata of any but the First Book : Correct these Greater , or you will misunderstand the Matter . PAge , 27. Line 2. Read self , the Act. p. 54. l. 30. r. as obliging . p. 58. l. 20. for of r. or , p. 59. l. 1 , and 2. r. who is not . p. 86. l. 32. for OURS r. OUR Righteousness . p. 88. l. 7. for Covenanted r. Connoted . p. 97. l. 31. r. and suffering . p. 103. l. 9 , 10. for have us Holy , r. leave us unholy . p. 110. l. 10. for we , r. were . p. 111. l. penult . and p. 112. l. 5. and 10. for our , r. one . l. 21. for but , r. must . p. 115. l. 25. for raze out , r. rake up , p. 117. l. 18. r. personating Representation . p. 118. l. 2. for Minister , r. Meriter . p. 119. l. 16. for are , r. are not . p. 140. l. 23. for if , r. that . p. 126. l. 23. for arrive , r. arm . p. 149. l. 19. r. and the. p. 153. l. 23. r. and will. p. 154. l. 26. r. our own-innocency , it . p. 157. l. 29. r. Private , but. p. 169. l. 2. r. conditional . p. 177. l. 9. r. sufficiency , p. 181. l. 27. for argument , r. agreement . The Lesser Errata . PReface p. 3. l. 16. r. eternal . Contents , p. 2. l. 21. r. Wotton . p. 11. l. 4. for no , r. in . l. 17. r. praetendit . l. 27. r. sufficere . p. 12. l. 1. r. ficantur : l. 16. r. impetrando , l. antipen . r. Credimus . p. 13. l. 2. r. praecedit . p. 16. l. 26. r. Schlussel Burgius . p. 22. l. 9. for that , r. the p. 36. l. antipen . dele by . p. 55. l. 10. for no , r. not . p. 60. l. 15. for then , r. there . p. 64. l. 5. for of , r. or . p. 68. l. 28. r. so to . p. 80. l. 17. r. if you will sontes . p. 91. l. 20. dele the. p. 94. l. 2. for but , r. as . l. 11. dele and. p. 102. l. 1. r. per. p. 104. l. antipen . r. Albericus . p. 135. l. 20. r. praeditus - l. 23. r. aliquem . p. 112. l. 28. r. relatione . p. 116. l. 21. r. fulfillers . p. 120. l. 11. r. Vasquez . p. 150. l. 26. r. indebitae . p. 167. l. 29. for if , r. is . p. 184. l. penult . for as , r. and. In a Cursory view of some Pages , I since see these faults . PReface , Page 8. Line 22. for and , r. as . Book 1. P. 172. l. 1. r. is it true . Answer to the Letter , P. 93. l. ult . for Conformists ; r. Nonconformists . Book 2. Part 3. P. 16. l. 20. for tum , r. tu . P. 54. l. 14. for apt , r. yet , l. 28. for produceth , r. proceedeth . P. 56. l. 13. for still , r. not . P. 65. l. 13. for Guilt , r. Gift . Book 2. Part 1. P. 259. l. 8. r. Causas . P. 268. l. 4. for first , r. full . P. 269. l. 28 fore Jure , r. iu re . And I must tell the Reader that it is so long since the Papers to Mr. Cartwright were written , that if there be any passage which in my later Writings I correct , I must desire him to take the latter as my Judgment : For I am none of those that pretend my Youthful Writings to be sufficiently Accurate , much less Faultless , or that to avoid the Imputation of Mutability , profess to be no wiser than I was between twenty and thirty Years ago . I find somewhat , Book 2. Part 3. P. 51 , 52. which needeth this Explication , viz. [ God as Judg of lapsed Man , when He was judging him , added an Act of Grace , which in several respects is , 1. A Promise . 2. A Deed of Gift . 3. An Act of Oblivion or universal conditional Pardon . 4. A Law. 5. And as it hath respect to Christs absolutely promised and foreseen Merits , it may be said , to be like or Equivolent to an universal conditional Sentence : But taking the word [ Sentence ] strictly as it is [ a Sentence of the Individuals according to the Rule of a Law as kept or broken ] , so it is not properly a Sentence as to us ( as is after proved . ) A POSTSCRIPT , ABOUT Mr. DANVERS ' s Last BOOK . WHen this Book was coming out of the Press , I received another Book of Mr. Danvers against Infants Baptism , in which he mentioneth Dr. Tullies proving what a Papist I am , in his Justif Paul. ( with Dr. Pierces former Charges ) and lamenting that no more yet but one Dr. Tully hath come forth to Encounter me , Epist . and Pag. 224. The perusal of that Book ( with Mr. Tombs short Reflections ) directeth me to say but this instead of any further Confutation . That it is ( as the former ) so full of false Allegations set off with the greatest Audacity ( even a few Lines of my own about our meeting at Saint James's left with the Clerk , grosly falsified ) and former falsifications partly justified , and partly past over , and his most passionate Charges grounded upon Mistakes , and managed by Misreports , sometime of Words , sometime of the Sense , and sometime of Matters of Fact ; in short , it is such a bundle of Mistake , Fierceness and Confidence , that I take it for too useless and unpleasant a Work to give the World a particular Detection of these Evils . If I had so little to do with my Time as to write it , I suppose that few would find leisure to read it : And I desire no more of the willing Reader , then seriously to peruse my Book ( More Reasons for Infants Church-membership ) with his , and to examine the Authors about whose Words or Sense we differ . Or if any would be Informed at a cheaper rate , he may read Mr. Barrets Fifty Queries in two sheets . And if Mr. Tombes revile me , for not transcribing or answering more of his Great Book , when I tell the Reader that I suppose him to have the Book before him , and am not bound to transcribe such a Volume already in Print , and that I answer as much as I think needs an Answer , leaving the rest as I found it to the Judgment of each Reader , he may himself take this for a Reply ; but I must judg of it as it is . I find but one thing in the Book that needeth any other Answer , than to peruse what is already Writt●n : And that is about Baptizing Naked : My Book was written 1649. A little before , common uncontrolled Fame was , that not far from us in one place many of them were Baptized naked , reproving the Cloathing way as Antiscriptural : I never heard 〈◊〉 deny this Report : I conversed with divers of 〈…〉 Church , who denied it not : As 〈…〉 denied it to me , so I never read one that did 〈…〉 to my knowledg : He now tells me Mr. Fisher , Mr. Haggar , and Mr. Tombes did : Let any Man read Mr. Tombes Answer to me , yea and that Passage by him now cited , and see whether there be a word of denial : Mr. Fisher or Haggar I never saw : Their Books I had seen , but never read two Leaves to my remembrance of Mr. Fishers , though I numbered it with those that were written on that Subject , as well I might : I knew his Education and his Friends , and I saw the Great Volume before he turned Quaker , but I thought it enough to read Mr. Tombes and others that wrote before him , but I read not him , nor all Mr. Haggars : If I had , I had not taken them for competent Judges of a fact far from them , and that three years after : Could they say , that no one ever did so ? The truth is that three years after , mistaking my words , as if I had affirmed it to be their ordinary practice ( as you may read in them ) which I never did , nor thought , they vehemently deny this : ( And such heedless reading occasioneth many of Mr. Danvers Accusations ) . I never said that no Man ever denied it ▪ for I have not read all that ever was written , nor spoken with all the World : But no Man ever denied it to me , nor did I ever read any that denied it . And in a matter of Fact , if that Fame be not credible , which is of things Late and Near , and not Contradicted by any one of the most interessed Persons themselves , no not by Mr. Tombes himself , we must surcease humane Converse : Yet do I not thence undertake that the same was true , either of those Persons , or such as other Writers beyond Sea have said it off . I saw not any one Baptized by Mr. Tombes or any other in River or elsewhere by Dipping at Age : If you do no such thing , I am sorry that I believed it , and will recant it . Had I not seen a Quaker go naked through Worcester at the Assizes , and read the Ranters Letters full of Oathes , I could have proved neither of them . And yet I know not where so long after to find my Witnesses : I abhor Slanders , and receiving ill Reports unwarrantably : I well know that this is not their ordinary Practice : The Quakers do not those things now , which many did at the rising of the Sect ; and if I could , I would believe they never did them . 2. This Book of Mr. Danvers , with the rest of the same kind , increase my hatred of the Disputing Contentious way of writing , and my trouble that the Cause of the Church and Truth hath so oft put on me a necessity to write in a Disputing way , against the Writings of so many Assailants . 3. It increaseth my Grief for the Case of Mankind , yea of well-meaning godly Christians , who are unable to judg of many Controversies agitated , otherwise than by some Glimpses of poor Probability , and the esteem which they have of the Persons which do manage them , and indeed take their Opinions upon trust from those whom they most reverence and value ; and yet can so hardly know whom to follow , whilst the grossest Mistakes are set off with as great confidence and holy pretence , as the greatest Truths . O how much should Christians be pitied , that must go through so great Temptations ! 4. It increaseth my Resolution , had I longer to live , to converse with Men that I would profit , or profit by , either as a Learner hearing what they have to say , without importunate Contradiction , or as a Teacher if they desire to Learn ▪ of me : A School way may do something to increase Knowledg ; but drenching Men , and striving with them , doth but set them on a fiercer striving against the Truth : And when they that have need of seven and seven years Schooling more , under some clear well studied Teacher , are made Teachers themselves , and then turned loose into the World ( as Sampsons Foxes ) to militate for and with their Ignorance , what must the Church suffer by such Contenders ? 5. It increaseth my dislike of that Sectarian dividing hurtful Zeal , which is described James 3. and abateth my wonder at the rage of Persecutors : For I see that the same Spirit maketh the same kind of Men , even when they most cry out against Persecutors , and separate furthest from them . 6. It resolveth me more to enquire less after the Answers to Mens Books than I have done : And I shall hereafter think never the worse of a Mans writings , for hearing that they are answered : For I see it is not only easie for a Talking Man to talk on , and to say something for or against any thing , but it is hard for them to do otherwise , even to hold their Tongues , or Pens , or Peace : And when I change this Mind , I must give the greatest belief to Women that will talk most , or to them that live longest , and so are like to have the last word , or to them that can train up militant Heirs and Successors to defend them when they are dead , and so propagate the Contention . If a sober Consideration of the first and second writing ( yea of positive Principles ) will not inform me , I shall have little hope to be much the wiser for all the rest . 7. I am fully satisfied that even good 〈◊〉 are here so far from Perfection , that they must bear with odious faults and injuries in one another , and be habituated to a ready and easie forbearing and forgiving one another . I will not so much as describe or denominate Mr. Danvers Citations of Dr. Pierce , to prove my Popery and Crimes , nor his passages about the Wars , and about my Changes , Self-contradictions , and Repentances , lest I do that which savoureth not of Forgiveness : O what need have we all of Divine Forgiveness ! 8. I shall yet less believe what any Mans Opinion ( yea or Practice ) is by his Adversaries Sayings , Collections , Citations , or most vehement Asseverations , than ever I have done , though the Reporters pretend to never so much Truth , and pious Zeal . 9. I shall less trust a confounding ignorant Reader or Writer , that hath not an accurate defining and distinguishing Understanding , and hath not a mature , exercised , discerning Knowledg than ever I have done ; and especially if he be engaged in a Sect ( which alas , how few parts of the Christian World escape ! ) For I here ( and in many others ) see , that you have no way to seem Orthodox with such , but to run quite into the contrary Extream : And if I write against both Extreams , I am taken by such Men as this , but to be for both and against both , and to contradict my self . When I write against the Persecutors , I am one of the Sectaries , and when I write against the Sectaries , I am of the Persecutors side : If I belie not the Prelatists , I am a Conformist : If I belie not the Anabaptists , Independants , &c. I am one of them : If I belie not the ●●pists , I am a Papist ; if I belie not the Arminians , I am an Arminian ; if I belie not the Calvinists , I am with Pseudo-Tilenus and his Brother , purus putus Puritanus , and one Qui totum Puritanismum totus spirat ( which Joseph Allen too kindly interpreteth ) : If I be for lawful Episcopacy , and lawful Liturgies and Circumstances of Worship , I am a temporizing Conformist : If I be for no more , I am an intollerable Non-Conformist ( at this time forced to part with House , and Goods , and Library , and all save my Clothes , and to possess nothing , and yet my Death ( by six months Imprisonment in the Common Goal ) is sought after and continually expected . If I be as very a Fool , and as little understand my self , and as much contradict my self , as all these Confounders and Men of Violence would have the World believe , it is much to my cost , being hated by them all while I seek but for the common peace . 10. But I have also further learned hence to take up my content in Gods Approbation , and ( having done my duty , and pitying their own and the Peoples snares ) to make but small account of all the Reproaches of all sorts of Sectaries ; what they will say against me living or dead , I leave to themselves and God , and shall not to please a Censorious Sect , or any Men whatever , be false to my Conscience and the Truth : If the Cause I defend be not of God , I desire it may fall : If it be , I leave it to God how far He will prosper it , and what Men shall think or say of me : And I will pray for Peace to him that will not hate and revile me for so doing . Farewell . Septemb. 4. 1675. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A26977-e2550 [ 1 Not by imputing Faith it self , part of Believing , or any other Evangelical Obedience to them as their Righteousness ] [ 2 For their sole Righteousness . Mark , Virtually . Not absolutely . Mark by a Trope . Mark how far .