3X T I A& 
 .CSTT 
 
VaSUDUCPA'fflKDSr 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PROTESTANT DOCTRINE 
 
 CONCERNING JUSTIFICATION, 
 
 AND OF ITS 
 
 PREACHERS AND PROFESSORS FROM THE UNJUST CHARGE OF 
 
 JOraHSTOMKJkSfSMl^L 
 
 In a Letter from the Author, to a Minister in the Country. 
 
 77. 
 
 BY THE REVEREND ROBERT TRAILL, A. M. 
 
 COLUMBIA : 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WEIR 
 
 1840. 
 
PREFATORY M@TQ© 
 
 It is proposed to publish in the Town of Columbia, from time to time, if 
 the enterprise can be sustained, a series of Tracts, on the fundamental doc- 
 trines of the gospel, selected from the writings of our standard Divines. — 
 The letter of Traill, vindicating the great Protestant doctrine of Justification, 
 from the misrepresentations and abuse which the carnal and ungodly have 
 been disposed to heap upon it, from the time of the Apostle Paul, until the 
 present day, is sent forth first, on account of its own intrinsic excellence, and 
 its peculiar adaptedness to the state of the times. The errors which Traill 
 as called upon to expose, more than a hundred years ago, are propagated 
 at the present day with an industry and zeal worthy of a better cause. They 
 are still cheating thousands of their souls ; and in this age of blasphemy and 
 rebuke, it becomes every true minister of Christ to bear a faithful testimony 
 for the despised and calumniated gospel. New books are not needed. The 
 ■ontroversics of the present times involve principles which have again and 
 ".gain been ably and satisfactorily discussed ; and all that is necessary is to 
 bring into public notice, the valuable writings of "those able ministers of the 
 New Testament," who have long gone to their rest. Though dead, they can 
 yet speak to us as they did to the men of their own generation. The high 
 character of Traill, for learning and piety — his sufferings in the cause of 
 truth, and the flattering encomiums bestowed upon him by such men as Her- 
 vey and Cecil, should secure avery favorable reception to any production of 
 his. If this little tract should meet with the success which it deserves, it 
 will soon be followed by other selections equally valuable, either from his 
 ^^'ritings, of from those of some other Divines of the same period. 
 
 J. H. THORN WELL. 
 
A VINDICATION. 
 
 Your earnest desire of information about some difference amongst Non- 
 conformists in London, whereof you hear so much by flying reports, and 
 profess you know so little of the truth thereof, is the cause of tins writing. 
 
 You know that, not many months ago, there was fair-like appearance of 
 • inity betwixt the two most considerable parties on that side ; and their dif- 
 ncos having been rather in practice than principle, about church order 
 and communion, seemed easily reconcileable, where a spirit of love, and of a 
 sound mind, was at work. But how short was the calm ! For quickly 
 arose a greater storm from another quarter ; and a quarrel began upon 
 it points, even on no less than the doctrine of the grace of God in Jesus 
 Christ, and the justification of a sinner by faith alone. Some think, that 
 tue reprinting of Or. Crisp's book gave the first rise to it. But we must 
 look farther back tor its true spring. It is well known, but little considered, 
 what a great progress Arminiamsm had made in this nation before the be- 
 ginning of the civil war. And surely it hath lost little since it ended. — 
 What can be the reason why the very Parliaments in the reign of James 1. 
 and Charles I. were so alarmed with Arminianism, as may be read in histo- 
 -} , uid is remembered by old men ; and that now for a long time there hath 
 ; ! ,i no talk, no fear of it; as if Arminianism were dead and buried, and no 
 man knows where its grave is? Is not the true reason to be found in 
 universal prevailing in the nation? 
 
 But that which concerneth our case is, that the middle way betwixt the 
 
 Tiinians and the Onhordox, had been espoused, and strenuously defended 
 
 and promoted, by some Nonconformists, of great note for piety and parts; 
 
 isually such men that are for middle ways in points of doctrine, have 
 
 a greater kindness for that extreme they go half-way to, than for that which 
 
 go half-way from. And the notions thereof were imbibed by a great 
 
 many students, who labored (through the iniquity of the times) under the 
 
 great disadvantage of the want of grave and sound divines, to direct and as. 
 
 aist their studies at universities ; and therefore, contented themselves whh 
 
 studying such English authors as had gone in a path untrod, both by our pre- 
 
 jsors, and by the Protestant universities abroad. 
 
 These notions have been preached, and wrote against, by several dii 
 amongst themselves ; and the different opinions have been, till of late, mana- 
 ged with some moderation ; to which our being all borne down by persecu- 
 tion, did somewhat contribute. 
 
 It is a sad, but true observation, that no contentions are more easily kin. 
 died, more fiercely pursued, and more hardly composed, than those of di- 
 vines ; sometimes from their zeal for truth, and sometimes from worse prin- 
 -, that may act in them, as wed as in other men. 
 
 The subject of the controversy is about the justifying grace of God in Je- 
 T-i Christ. Owned it is by both : and both fear it be abused: either by 
 turning it into wantonness, hence the noise of Anlinomianism : or, by cor- 
 r-.>ting it with the mixture of works, hence the fears on the other side, of 
 
Arminianism. Both parties disown the name cast upon them. The one will 
 not be called Armintans : and the other hate both name and thing of Anti- 
 nomianism, truly so called. Both sometimes say the same thing, and profess 
 their assent to the doctrinal articles of the Church of England, to the Con- 
 fession of Faith and Catechisms composed at Westminster, and to the Har- 
 mony of the Confessions of all the reformed churches, in these doctrines of 
 grace. And if both be candid in this profession, it is very strange that there 
 should be any controversy amongst them. 
 
 Let us, therefore, first take a view of the parties, and then of their princi- 
 ples. As to the party suspected of Antinomianism and Libertinism in this 
 city; it is plain, that the churches wherein they arc concerned, are more 
 strict and exact in trying of them that offer themselves unto their commu- 
 nion, as to their faith and holiness, before their admitting them; in the engage- 
 ments laid on them to a gospel-walking at their admission, and in their in- 
 spection over them afterwards. As to their conversations, they are gene- 
 rally of the more regular and exact frame ; and the fruits of holiness in their 
 lives, to the praise of God, and honor of the Gospel, cannot with modesty be 
 denied. Js it not unaccountable, to charge a people with licentiousness, 
 when the chargers cannot deny, and some cannot well bear the strictness of 
 their walk? It is commonly said, that it is only their principles, and tho 
 tendency of them to loose walking, that they blame. But, waiving that at 
 present, it seems not fair to charge a people with licentious doctrines, when 
 the professors thereof are approved of for their godliness ; and when 
 they do sincerely profess, that their godliness began with, and is promoted by 
 the faith of their principles. Let it not be mistaken, if I here make a com- 
 parison betwixt Papists and Protestants. The latter did always profess the 
 doctrine of justification by faith alone. This was blasphemy in the Papist's 
 ears. They still did, and do cry out against it, as a licentious doctrine, and 
 destructive of good works. Many sufficient answers have been given unto 
 this unjust charge. But to my purpose : the wonder was, that the Papists 
 were not convinced by the splendid holiness of the old believers, and by the 
 visible truth of their holy practice ; and their professing, that as long as they 
 lived in the blindness and darkness of popery, they were profane ; and that 
 as soon as God revealed the gospel to them, and had wrought in them the 
 faith theroof, they were sanctified and led other lives. So witnessed the no- 
 ble Lord Cobham, who suffered in King Henry the V.'s time, above an hundred 
 years before Luther. His words at his examination before the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, and his clergy were these : "As for that virtuous man, 
 Wickliff, (for with his doctrine he was charged,) whose judgment ye so high- 
 ly disdain, I shall say of my part, both before God and man, that before 1 
 knew that despised doctrine of his, I never abstained from sin ; but since I 
 learned) therein to fear mv Lord God, it hath otherwise, I trust, been with 
 me. So much grace could I never find in all your glorious instructions." — 
 Fox's Book of Martyrs, vol.. 1, p. 640, col. 2, edit. 1664. And since 1 am on 
 that excellent book, I entreat you to read Mr. Patrick Hamilton's little trea- 
 tise, to which Frith doth preface, and Fox doth add some explication, vol. 2, 
 p. 181 — 192 ; where ye will find the old plain Protestant truth about law and 
 gospel, delivered without any school-terms. To this, add, in your reading, 
 in the same vol. 2, p. 497 — 509, Heresies and Errors falsely charged on 
 Tmdal's writings ; where we will seethe old faith of the saints in its simpli- 
 city, and the old craft and cunning of the Anti-christian party, in slandeiing 
 
the truth. I must, for my part confess, that these plain declarations of gos- 
 pel-truth, have a quite other favor with me, than the dry insipid accounts 
 thereof given by pretenders to human wisdom. 
 
 But passing these things, let us look to principles, and that, with respect to 
 their native and regular influence on sanctification. And I am willing that 
 that should determine the mutter, next to the consonancy of the principles 
 themselves, to the word of God. It can be no doctrine of God, that is not. 
 according to godliness. Some think that if good works, and holiness, and 
 repentance, be allowed no room in justification, that there is no room left for 
 them in the world, and in the practice of believers. So hard seems it to be 
 to some to keep in their eye the certain fixed bounds betwixt justification 
 and sanctification. There is no difference betwixt a justified and a sancti- 
 fied man ; for he is always the same person that partakes of these privileges. 
 But justification and sanctification differ greatly in many respects, as is com- 
 monly known. But to come a little closer : 
 
 The party here suspected of Antinomianism, do confidently protest, before 
 God, angels and men, that they espouse no new doctrine about the grace of 
 God and justification, and the other coincident points, but what the reform- 
 ers at home and abroad did teach, and all the Protestant churches do own. 
 And that in sum is : " That a law-condemned sinner is freely justified by 
 God's grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ ; that he is jus- 
 tified only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to him by God of his free 
 grace, and received by faith alone as an instrument; which faith is the gift of 
 the same grace." For guarding against licentiousness, they constantly teach, 
 out of God's word, " That without holiness no man can see God : That all 
 that believe truly on Jesus Christ, as they are justified by the sprinkling of 
 his blood, so are they sanctified by the effusion of his spirit: that all that 
 boast of their faith in Christ, and yet live after their own lusts, and the 
 course of this world, Imve no true faith at all ; but do in their profession, 
 and contradicting practice, blaspheme the name of God, and the doctrine of 
 his grace ; and continuing so, shall perish with a double destruction, beyond 
 that of the openly profane, that make no profession." And when they find 
 any such in their communion, which is exceeding rarely, they cast them 
 out as dead branches. They teach, "That as the daily study of sanctifi- 
 cation is a necessary exercise to all that are in Christ : so the rule of their 
 direction therein, is the holy spotless law of God in Christ's hand : That the 
 Holy Ghost is the beginner and advancer of this work, and faith in Jesus 
 Christ the great mean thereof: That no man can be holy till he be in 
 Christ, and united to him by faith ; and that no man is truly in Christ, but he 
 is thereby sanctified. They preach the law, to condemn all flesh out of 
 Christ, and to shew thereby to people, the necessity of betaking them- 
 selves to him for salvation." See the savoury words of the blessed Tmdal, 
 caSed the Apostle of England, in his letter to John Frith, written Jan. 1533 : 
 Book of Martyrs, vol. 2, p. 308: "Expound the law truly, and open the 
 veil of Moses, to condemn all fl sh. and prove all men sinners, and all deeds 
 under the law, before mercy have taken away the condemnation thereof, to 
 be sin and damnable ; and then as a faithful minister, set abroach the mercy 
 of our Lord Jeans, and let the wounded consciences drink of the water of 
 him. And then shall your preaching be with power, and not as the hypo- 
 crites. And the spirit of God shall work with you ; and all consciences 
 shall bear record unto you, and feel that it is so. And all doctrine that cast- 
 
6 
 
 eth a mist on these two, to shadow and hide them, I mean the law of God, 
 and mercy of Christ, that resist you with all your power." And so do we. 
 
 What is there in all this to be offended with 1 Is not this enough to vin- 
 dicate our doctrine from any tendency to licentiousness ? I am afraid that 
 there are some things wherein we differ more than they think fit yet to ex- 
 press. And I shall guess at them. 
 
 1. The first is about the imputed righteousness of Christ. This right- 
 eousness of Christ in his active and passive obedience, hath been asserted by 
 Protestant divines, to be not only the procuring and meritorious cause of 
 our justification ; for this the Papists own ; but the matter, as the imputa- 
 tion of it is the form of our justification : though I think that our logical 
 terms are not so adapted for such divine mysteries. But whatever pro- 
 priety or impropriety be in such school-terms, the common Protestant doc- 
 trine hath been, that a convinced sinner seeking justification, must have no- 
 thing in his eye but this righteousness of Christ, as God proposeth nothing 
 else to him ; and that God, in justifying a sinner, accepts him in this right- 
 eousnoss only, when he imputes it to him. 
 
 Now, about the imputed righteousness of Christ, some say, "That it be- 
 longs only to the person of Christ : he was under the law and bound to keep 
 it for himself, that he might be a fit Mediator, without spot or blemish. — 
 That it is a qualification in the Mediatior, rather than a benefit acquired by 
 him, to be communicated to his people." For they will not allow " this 
 personal righteousness of Christ so to be imputed to us in any otherwise 
 than in the merit of it, as purchasing for us a more easy law of grace ; in 
 the observation whereof, they place all our justifying righteousness :" un- 
 derstanding hereby, " our own personal inherent holiness, and nothing else." 
 
 They hold, " that Christ died to merit this of the Father, viz : that we 
 might be justified upon easier terms under the gospel, than those of the law 
 of innocency. Instead of justification by perfect obedience, we are now to 
 be justified by our own evangelical righteousness, made up of faith, repentance, 
 and sincere obedience." And if we hold not with them in this, they tell the 
 world we are enemies to evangelical holiness, slighting the practice of all 
 good works, and allowing our hearers to live as they list. Thus they slan- 
 der the preachers of free grace, because we do not place justification in our 
 own inherent holiness ; but in Christ's perfect righteousness, imputed to us 
 upon our believing in him. Which faith, we teach, purifies the heart, and 
 always inclines to holiness of life. Neither do we hold any faith to be 
 true and saving, that doth not shew itself by good works ; without which, 
 no man -is or can be justified, either in his own conscience, or before men. 
 But it doth not hence follow, that we cannot be justified in the sight of God 
 by faith only, as the apostle Paul asserts the latter, and the apostle James 
 the former, in a good agreement. 
 
 2. There appears to be some difference, or misunderstanding of one an- 
 other, about tin; true notion and nature of justifying faith, Divines com- 
 monly distinguish betwixt the direct act of faith, and the reflex act. Th<^ 
 direct act is properly justifying and saving faith; by which a lost sinner 
 comes to Christ, and relies upon him for salvation. The reflex act. is the 
 looking back of the soul upon a former act of faith. A rational creature 
 can reflect upon his own acts, whether they be acts of reason, faith or un- 
 belief. 
 
 A direct act of saving faith, is that by which a lost sinner goes out of 
 
himself to Christ for help, relying -upon him only for salvation. A reflex act 
 ariseth from the sense that faith gives of its own inward act, upon a serious 
 review. The truth and sincerity of which is further cleared up to the con- 
 science, by the genuine fruits of an unfeigned faith, appearing to all men in 
 our good lives, and holy conversation. But for as plain as these tilings be, 
 yet we find we are frequently mistaken by others : and we wonder at the 
 mistake ; for we dare not ascribe to some learned and .good men, the prin- 
 ciples of ignorance, or wilfulness, from whence mistakes in plain cases usu- 
 ally proceed. When we do press sinners to come to Christ, by a direct 
 act of faith, consisting in an humble reliance upon him for mercy and par- 
 don ; they will understand us, whether we will or not, of a reflex act of 
 faith, by which a man knows and believes, that his sins are pardoned, and 
 that Christ is his : when they might easily know that we mean no such thing. 
 Mr. Walter Marshall, in his excellent book lately published, hath largely 
 opened this, and the true controversy of this day, though it be eight or nine 
 years since he died. 
 
 3. We seem to differ about the interest, and room, and place, that faith 
 hath in justification. That we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, is so 
 plainly a New Testament truth, that no man pretending never so barely to 
 the christian name, denies it. The Papists own it ; and the Socinians, and 
 Arminians, and all own it. But how different are their senses of it ? And 
 indeed you eannot more speedily and certainly judge of the spirit of a man. 
 than by his real inward sense of this phrase, (if you could reach it,) A sinner 
 isjuslifieil by faith in Jesus Christ. Some say, that faith in Jesus Christ 
 justifies, as it is a work, by the to credere, as if it came in the room of perfect, 
 obedience, required by the law. Some, that faith justifies, as it is informed 
 and animated by charity. So the Papists, who plainly confound justifica- 
 tion and sanctification. Some say, that faith justifies, as it is a fulfilling of 
 the condition of the new covenant, If thou bclievest, thou shalt be saved. Na) . 
 they will not hold there ; but they will have this faith to justify, as it hath a 
 principle and fitness in it to dispose to sincere obedience. The plain old 
 Protestant doctrine is, that the place of faith in justification is only that of a 
 hand or instrument, receiving the righteousness of Christ, for which only we 
 are justified. So that though great scholars do often confound themselves and 
 others, in their disputations about faith's justifying a sinner ; every poor plain 
 believer hath the marrow of this mystery feeding his heart ; and he can 
 readily tell you, that to be justified by faith, is to be justified by Christ's right- 
 eousness, apprehended by faith. 
 
 4. We seem to misunderstand one another about the two Adams, and i s- 
 pecially the latter. See Romans, v. 12, to the end. In that excellent scrip- 
 ture, a comparison is instituted, which if we did duly understand, and agree 
 in, we should not readily differ in the main things ofthegospeL The apos- 
 tie there tells us, that the first Adam stood in the room of all his natural pos- 
 terity. He had their stock in his hand. While he stood they stood in him; 
 when he fell, they fell with bim. By his fall he derived sin and death to all 
 them that spring from him by natural generation. This is the sad side. But 
 be tells us in opposition thereto, and in comparing therewith, that Christ, the 
 ■second man, is the new head of* the redeemed world. He stands in in their 
 room: his obedience is theirs ; and he communicates to his spiritual 
 spring, just the contrary to what the first sinful Adam doth to his natural ofH 
 spring; righteousness instead of guilt and sin, lite instead of death, justij 
 
8 
 
 lion instead of condemnation, and eternal life instead of hell deserved. So 
 that I think the 3d, 4th, and 5th chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, for 
 the mystery of justification; and the 6th, 7th, and 8th, for the mystery of 
 sanctification, deserve our deep study. But what say others about Christ's 
 being the second Adam 1 We find them unwilling to speak of it ; and when 
 they do, it is quite alien from the scope of the Apostle in that chapter. Thus 
 to us they seem to say : " That God, as a rector, ruler, governor, hath resolv- 
 ed to save men by Jesus Christ : that the rule of this government is the gos- 
 pel, as a new law of grace : that Jesus Christ is set at the head of this recto- 
 ral government : that in that state he sits in glory, ready and able out of his 
 purchase and merits, to give justification and eternal life to all that can bring 
 good evidence of their having complied with the terms and conditions of the 
 law of grace." Thus they antedate the last day, and hold forth Christ as a 
 Judge rather than a Saviour. Luther was wont to warn people of this dis- 
 tinction, frequently in his comment on the Epistle to the Galatians. And 
 no other headship to Christ do wc find some willing to admit, but what belongs 
 to his kingly office. As to his suretyship, and being the second Adam, and 
 a public person, some treat it with contempt. I have heard that Dr. Thom- 
 as Goodwin was, in his youth, an Arminian, or at least inclining that way ; 
 but was by the Lord's grace brought off, by Dr. Sibb's clearing up to him 
 this same point, of Christ's being the head and representative of all his peo- 
 ple. Now, though we maintain steadfastly this headship of Jesus Christ, 
 vet we say not, that there is an actual partaking of his fulness of grace, till 
 We be in him by faith ; though this faith is also given us on Christ's behalf, 
 Phil. i. 29, and we believe through grace, Acts, xviii. 27. And wc know no 
 grace, we can call nothing grace, we care for no grace, but what comes 
 from this head, the Saviour of the body. But so much shall serve to point 
 ibrth the main things of difference and mistakes. 
 
 Is it not a little provoking, that some are so captious, that no minister can 
 preach in the hearing of some, "of the freedom of God's grace ; of the im- 
 putation of Christ's righteousness ; of sole and single believing on him for 
 righteousness and eternal life ; of the impossibility of a natural man's doing 
 any good work before he be in Christ ; of the impossibility of the mixing 
 of man's righteousness and works, with Christ's righteousness, m the busi- 
 ness of justification ; and several other points," but he is immediately called. 
 or suspected to be, an Antinmnian ? If wc say that faith in Jesus Christ is 
 neither work, nor condition., nor qualification, in justification; but is a mere in- 
 strument, receiving (as an empty hand receiveth the freely given alms) the 
 righteousness of Christ ; and that, in its very act, it is a renouncing of all 
 things but the gift of grace ; the fire is kindled. So that it is come to that, 
 as Mr. Christopher Fowler said, " that he that will not be Antkhristian, must 
 be called an Antinoiuirm." Is there a minister in London, who did not preach 
 some twenty, some thirty years ago, according to their standing, that same 
 d< >ctrine now by some called Antinomian ? Let not Dr. Crisp's book be look- 
 i (I upon as the standard of our doctrine. There arc many good things in it ; 
 and also many expressions in it that we generally dislike. It is true, that 
 Mr. Burgess and Mr. Rutherford wrote against Antinomianism, and against 
 -oinc that were both Antinomians and Arminians. And it is no less true, 
 that they wrote against the Arminians, and did hate the new scheme of divi- 
 nity, so much now contended for, and to which we owe all our present con- 
 tentions. I am persuaded that, if these godly and sound divines were oa the 
 
9 
 
 present stage, they would be as ready to draw their pens against two books,, 
 lately printed agaiust Dr. Crisp, as ever they were to write against the Doc- 
 tor's book. Truth is to be defended by truth; but error is often, and unhap- 
 pily opposed by error, under truth's name. 
 
 But what shall we do in this case ? What shall we do for peace with our 
 brethren? Shall we lie still under their undeserved reproaches; and, for 
 keeping the peace, silently suffer others to beat us unjustly? If it were our 
 own personal concern, we should bear it: if it were only their charging us with 
 ignorance, weakness, and being unstudied divines, (as they have used liberally 
 to call all that have not learned, and dare not believe their new divinity,) we 
 might easily pass it by, or put it up. But when we see the pure gospel of 
 Christ corrupted ; and an Arminian gospel new vampt, and obtruded on peo- 
 ple, to the certain peril of the souls of such as believe it; and our ministry 
 reflected upon, which should be dearer to us than our lives ; can we be silent ? 
 As we have a charge from the Lord, to deliver to our people what we have 
 received from him, so, as he calls and enables, we are not to give place by 
 subjection, not for an hour, to such as creep in, not only to spy out, but to des- 
 troy, not so much the gospel-liberty, as the gospel-salvation we have in Christ 
 Jesus, and to bring us back tinder the yoke of legal bondage. And indeed the 
 case in that epistle to the Galatians and ours has a great affinity. 
 
 Is it desired that we should forbear to make a free offer of God's grace in 
 Christ to the worst of sinners ? This cannot be granted by us : for this is 
 the gospel faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, (and therefore wor- 
 thy of all our preaching of it,) that Jesus Christ came into the world to save 
 sinners, and the chief of them, 1 Tim. i. 15. This was the apostolic practice, 
 according to their Lord's command, Mark, xvi. 15, 16 : Luke, xxiv. 47. — 
 They began at Jerusalem, where the Lord of life was wickedly slain by 
 them ; and yet life, in and through his blood, was offered to, and accepted 
 and obtained by many ofthem. Every believer's experience witnesseth to 
 this, that every one that believes on Jesus Christ, acts that faith as the chief 
 of sinners. Everyman that seeth himself rightly, thinks so of himself, and 
 therein thinks not amiss. God only knoweth who is truly the greatest sinner, 
 and every humble sinner will think that he is the man. 
 
 Shall we tell men that unless they be holy, they must not believe on Jesus 
 Christ? that they must not venture on Christ for salvation, till they be quali- 
 fied and fit to be received and welcomed by him ? This were to forbear 
 preaching the gospel at all, or to forbid all men to believe on Christ. For 
 never was any sinner qualified for Christ. He is well qualified for us, 1 
 Cor. i. 30; but a sinner out of Christ, hath no qualification for Christ, but 
 sin and misery. \V i nee should we have any better, but in and from Christ? 
 Nay, suppose an im ossibility,that a man were qualified for Christ ; I boldly 
 assert, that sue i woul 1 not, nor could ever believe on Christ. For 
 
 faith, is a lust, help condemned sinner's casting himself on Christ for sal- 
 vation: andth ■■ ied man is no such person. 
 
 Shall we warn ople, that they should not believe on Christ too soon? 
 It is impossible ihould d<> it too soon. Can a man obey the 
 
 greal gospel. command too soon? 1 John, iii. 23 : or do the work God 
 too soon ? J ihn vi 28 29. A man may too soon think that he is in Christ ; 
 and that is'when i1 not so ' indeed ; and this we frequently teach. But 
 this is but an idle ■'■■■■ m, and not faith. A man may too soon fancy that 
 he hath faith; but 1 hope he cannot aet faith too soon. If any should say, 
 
10 
 
 n man may be holy too soon, how would that saying be reflected upon ? And 
 yet it is certain, that though no man can be too soon holy, (because he can- 
 not too soon believe on Christ, which is the only spring of true holiness,) yet 
 he may, and many do, set about the study of that he counts holiness, too soon; 
 that is, before the tree be changed, Math. xii. 33, 34, 35 ; before he have the 
 new heart, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27 ; and the Spirit of God dwelling in hi?n, which 
 is only got by faith in Christ, Gal. iii. 14 ; and therefore, all this man's stu- 
 dying of holiness, is not only vain labor, but acting of sin. And if this study, 
 and these endeavors, be managed as commonly they are, to obtain justifica- 
 tion before God, they are the more wicked works still. And because this 
 point is needful to be known, I would give you some testimonies for it. Doc- 
 trine of the Church of England, in her thirty-nine Articles — Art. 13 : "Works 
 done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not 
 pleasant to God ; forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ: nei- 
 ther do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the school authors say) 
 deserve grace of congruity. Yea, rather, for that they are not clone as God 
 hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but that they have 
 the nature of sin." So Confession of Faith, chap. 16, art. 7, Calvin. Instit. 
 lib. 3, chap. 15, sect. 6. " They (saith he, speaking of the Popish schoolmen) 
 have found out I know not what moral good works, whereby men are made 
 acceptable to God, before they are engrafted into Christ. As if the scrip- 
 ture lied when it said, they are all in death, who have not the iSoji, 1 John, v. 
 12. If they be in death, how can they beget matter of life? As if it were 
 of no force, whatsoever is not of faith is sin, as if evil trees could bring forth 
 goodfnat." Read the rest of that section. On the contrary, the council of 
 Trent, sess. -6, canon 7, say boldly, "Whosoever shall say, that all works 
 done before justification, howsoever they be done, are truly sin, and deserve 
 the hatred of God ; let him be anathema." And to give you one more bel- 
 lowing of the beast, wounded by the light of the gospel, see the same Council, 
 xess. 6, canon 1 1 ; Si qui* dixerit, Grutiam qua juslfcamur, esse tanium fa- 
 vorem Dei ; anathema sit. This is fearful blasphemy, saith Dr. Downham, 
 bishop of Londondery, in his orthodox book of justification, lib. 3, cap. 1, 
 where he saith, " That the Hebrew words, which in the Old Testament sig- 
 nify the grace of God, do always signify favour, and never grace inherent. — 
 And above fifty testimonies may be brought from the New Testament to 
 prove, that by God's grace his favour is still meant." But what was good 
 Church-of-England doctrine at, and after the reformation, cannot now go 
 down with some Arminianizing Nonconformists. 
 
 If then, nothing will satify our quarrellingbretbren, but either silence as to 
 the main points of the gospel, which we believe, and live by the faith of, and 
 look to be saved in; which we have for many years preached, with somp 
 seals of the Holy Ghost in converting sinners unto God, and in building them 
 up in holiness and comfort, by the faith and power of them; which also we 
 vowed to the Lord to preach to all that will Ik ar us, as long as we live, in the 
 day when we gave up ourselves to serve God with our spirit in the gospel of 
 his Son : if either this silence, or the swallowing down of Arminian schemes 
 of the gospel, contrary to the New Testament, and unknown to the reformed 
 churches,. in their greatest purity, be the only terms of peace with our 
 brethren: we must then maintain our peace with God, and our own con- 
 sciences, in the defence ol plain gospel-truth, and our harmony with the re- 
 formed churches ; and in the comfort of these bear their enmity. And 
 
11 
 
 though it be usual with them to vilify and contemn such as differ from them, 
 for their fewness, weakness, and want of learning ; yet they might know, that 
 the most learned and godly in the christian world, have maintained and de- 
 fended the same doctrine we stand for, for some ages. The grace of God 
 will never want, for it can, and will furnish, defenders of it. England hath 
 been blessed with a Bradwardine, an archbishop of Canterbury, against the 
 Pelagians; a Twisse and Ames, against the A rminians. And though they 
 that contend with us, would separate their cause altogether from that of these 
 two pests of the church of Christ — I mean Pelagius and Arminius — yet judi- 
 cious observers cannot but already perceive a coincidency ; and do fear more, 
 when either the force of argument shall drive them out of their lurking-holes, 
 or when they shall think fit to discover their secret sentiments, which yet we 
 but guess at. Then, as we shall know better what they would be at, so it is 
 very like that they will then find enemies in many whom they have seduced 
 by their craft, and do yet seem to be in their camp ; and will meet with op- 
 posers, both at home and abroad, that they think not of. 
 
 Our doctrine, of the justification of a sinner by the free grace of God in 
 Jesus Christ, however it be misrepresented and reflected upon, is yet unde- 
 niably recommended by four things. 
 
 1. It is a doctrine savoury and precious unto all serious godly persons. 
 Dr. Ames's observation holds good as to all the Arminian divinity, that it is 
 contra communem sensumfidelium ; "against the common sense of believers.' 
 And though this be an argument of little weight with them that value more 
 the judgment of the scribes, and the wise, and the disputcrs of this world, 1 
 Cor. i. 18, 19, 20, 21, than of all the godly ; yet the spirit of God, by John, 
 gives us this same argument, 1 John, iv. 5, 6. They are of the world: there- 
 fore speak they of the world, and the world heareih them. We are oj God: 
 lie that knoweth God, heareth us ; he that is not of God. heareih not us. Here- 
 by know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. How evident is it, 
 that several who, by education, or an unsound ministry, having had their 
 natural enmity against the grace of God strengthened, when the Lord by 
 his Spirit, hath broke in upon their hearts, and hath raised a serious soul- 
 exercise about their salvation ; their turning to God in Christ, and their 
 turning from Arminianism, have begun together ! And some of the greatest 
 champions for the grace of God have been persons t! us dealt with, as we 
 might instance. And as it is thus with men at their conversion, so is it found 
 afterward ; that still as it is well with them in their inner man, so doth the 
 doctrine of grace still appear more precious and savoury. On the other 
 part, all the ungodly and unrenewed, have a dislike and disrelish of this doe- 
 trine ; and are all for the doctrine of doing, and love to hear it; and, in their 
 sorry exercise, are still for doing their own business in salvation; though 
 they he nothing, and can do nothing, but sin and destroy themselves. 
 
 •J. It is that doctrine only by which a convii ced h l er can he dealt with 
 effectually. When a man is awakened, and brought lo that that all must be 
 brought to, or to worse, What, shill I da to be saved? Acts xvi. 30, 31, w« 
 have the apostolic answer to it, Believe on the > Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
 slialt he saved, and thy house. Thisanswi riSso old, that with many it seems 
 out of date. But it is still, and will < v r b '.'- ! h and new and savoury, and 
 the only resolution of this grand c'is<- of eoi sciei ce. as long as ronscience 
 and the world lasts. No wit or art of man will i ver find a crack or flaw u) 
 it, or devise another or a better answer ; n or can any but this alone heal 
 
12 
 
 rightly the wound of an awakened conscience. Let us set this man to seek 
 resolution in this case of some masters in our Israel. According to their 
 principles, they must say unto him, " Repent, and mourn for your known 
 sins, and leave them and loathe them ; and God will have mercy on you." — 
 " Alas ! (saith the poor man,) my heart is hard, and I cannot repent aright ; 
 yea, I find my heart more hard and vile than when I was secure in sin." If 
 you speak to this man of qualifications for Christ, he knows nothing of them ; 
 if of sincere obedience, his answer is native and ready: " Obedience is the 
 work of a living man, and sincerity is only in a renewed soul." Sincere obe- 
 dience is therefore as impossible to a dead unrenewed sinner, as perfect obe- 
 dience is. Why should not the right answer be given, Believe on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved ? Tell him what Christ is, what he hath 
 done and suffered to obtain eternal redemption for sinners, and that according 
 to the will of God and his Father. Give him a plain downright narrative 
 of the gospel-salvation wrought out by the Son of God ; tell him the history 
 and mystery of the gospel plainly. It may be the Holy Ghost will work faith 
 thereby, as he did in those first-fruits of the Gentiles, Acts, x. 44. If he ask 
 what warrant he hath to believe on Jesus Christ ? Tell him, that he hath 
 utter indispensable necessity for it ; for without believing on him, he must 
 perish eternally ; that he hath God's gracious offer of Christ and all his re- 
 demption ; with a promise, that upon accepting the offer by faith, Christ and 
 salvation with him, is his : that he hath God's express commandment, 1 John 
 iii. 23, to believe on Chrisfs name ; and that he should make conscience of 
 obeying it, as well as any command in the moral law. Tell him of Christ's 
 ability and good-will to save ; that no man was ever rejected by him, that cast 
 himself upon him ; that desperate cases arc the glorious triumphs of his 
 art of saving. Tell him there is no midst between faith and unbelief: that 
 there is no excuse for neglecting the one, and continuing in the other ; that 
 believing on the Lord Jesus for salvation, is more pleasing to God than all 
 obedience to his law ; and that unbelief is the most provoking to God, and 
 the most damning to man, of all sins. Against the greatness of his sins, the 
 curse of the law, and the severity of God as Judge, there is no relief to be 
 held forth to him, but the free and boundless grace of God in the merit of 
 Christ's satisfaction by the sacrifice of himself. If he should say, what is it 
 to believe on Jesus Christ? As to this, I find no such question in the word : 
 but that all did some way understand the notion of it ; the Jews that did not 
 believe on him, John vi. 28, 29, 30 : the chief Priests and Pharisees, John vii. 
 48 : the blind man, John ix. 35. When Christ asked him, Dost thou believe 
 on the Son of God ? he answered, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him ? 
 Immediately, when Christ had told him, ver. 37, he saith not, What is it to 
 believe on him 1 but, Lord, I believe ; and worshipped him : and so both pro- 
 fessed and acted faith in him. So the father of the lunatic, Mark ix. 23, 24 : 
 the eunuch, Acts viii. 37. They all, both Christ's enemies and his disci- 
 ples, knew that faith in him was a believing that the man Jesus of Nazareth, 
 was the Son of God, the Messiah, and Saviour of the world, so as to receive, 
 and look for salvation in his name : Acts iv. 12. This was the common re- 
 port published by Christ, and his apostles and disciples; and known by all 
 that heard it. li' he yet ask, what he is to believe? you tell him, that he is 
 not called to believe that he is in Christ, and that his sins arc pardoned, and 
 lie is a justified man ; but that he is to believe God's record concerning 
 Christ, 1 John, v. 10, 11, 12: and this record is, that God giveth (that is, of- 
 
13 
 
 fercth.) to us eternal life in his Son Jesus Christ; and that all that with the 
 heart helieve this report, and rest their souls on these glad tidings, shall be 
 saved : Rom. x. 9, 10, 11. And thus he is to believe, that he may be justified. 
 Gal. ii. 16. If he still say, that this believing is hard, this is a good doubt, 
 but easily resolved. It bespeaks a man deeply humbled. Any body may 
 see his own impotence to obey the law of God fully ; but few find the diffi- 
 culty of believing. For his resolution, ask him, what it is he finds makes be- 
 lieving difficult to him ? Is it unwillingness to be justified and saved? Is it 
 unwillingness to be saved by Jesus Christ, to the praise of God's grace in 
 him, and to the voiding of all boasting in himself? This he will surely denv. 
 Is it a distrust of the truth of the gospel-record? This he dare not own. Is 
 it a doubt of Christ's ability, or good-will to save ? This is to contradict the 
 testimony of God in the gospel. Is it because he doubts of an interest in 
 Christ and his redemption? You tell him, that believing on Christ, makes 
 up the interest in him. If he say, that he cannot believe on Jesus Christ be- 
 cause of the difficulty of acting this faith ; and that a divine power is need- 
 ful to draw it forth, which he finds not; you tell him, that believing in Jesus 
 Christ is no work, but a resting on Jesus Christ ; and that this pretence is as 
 unreasonable as that, if a man wearied with a journey, and who is not able to 
 go one step further, should argue, " I am so tired, that I am not able to He 
 down ;" when indeed, he can neither stand nor go. The poor wearied sin- 
 ner can never believe on Jesus Christ, till he finds he can do nothing for 
 himself; and in his first believing doth always apply himself to Christ for 
 salvation, as a man hopeless and helpless in himself. And by such reason- 
 ings with him from the gospel, the Lord will (as he hath often done) convey 
 faith, and joy, and peace, by believing. 
 
 3. This doctrine of free justification by faith alone, hath this advantage : 
 That it suits all men's spirits and frame in their serious approaches to God 
 in worship. Men may think and talk boldly of inherent righteousness, and 
 of its worth and value ; of good works, and frames, and dispositions : but 
 when men present themselves before the Lord, and have any discoveries of 
 his glory, all things in themselves will disappear, and be looked upon as 
 nothing. Zophar. though the hottest speaker uf Job's friends, did yet speak 
 rightly to him : Job xi. 4, 5 ; For Ihon. hast, said, My doctrine is pare, and lam 
 clean in thy eyes. But, O that God would speak ! And so Job found it, when 
 God displayed his glory to him, and that only in the works of Creation and 
 Providence, chaps, xxxviii. xxxix. He then changed his note. Job xl. 4,5: 
 and xlii. 2 — 6. So was it with Isaiah, chap. vi. 5, till pardoning grace was 
 imparted to him. No man can stand before this Holy Lord God, with any 
 peace and comfort, unless he have God himself to stay upon. His grace 
 and mercy in Jesus Christ, can only preserve a man from being consumed ; 
 and the faith of it from being confounded. Hence we see the difference be- 
 twixt men's frame in their disputes and doctrine about these points, and their 
 own sense and pleadings with (rod in prayer. 
 
 4. This doctrine of justification by faith, without any mixtures of man, 
 (however, and by what names and titles soever they be dignified or distin- 
 guished.) hath this undoubted advantage: That it is that all not judicially 
 hardened and blinded do, or would, or must betake themselves unto, when 
 dying. I low loath would men be to plead that cause on a death-bed, which 
 they so stoutly stand up for with tongue and pen, when at ease, and that evil 
 day far away ! They scan to be jealous, lest God's grace and Christ's 
 
14 
 
 righteousness have too much room, and men's works too little, in the business 
 of justification. But was there ever a sensible dying person exercised with 
 this jealousy as to himself? Even bloody Stephen Gardiner, when a-dying, 
 could answer Dr. Day, Bishop of Chichester, who offered comfort to him by 
 this doctrine : " What, my Lord, will you open that gap now ? Then, fare- 
 well altogether. To me, and such other in my case, you may speak it ; but 
 open this window to the people, then, farewell altogether." Book of Mar- 
 tyrs, vol. 3, p. 450. In which words, he betrayed a conviction of the fitness 
 of the doctrine to dying persons, and his knowledge that it tended to the des- 
 troying the kingdom of Antichrist. As Fox, in the same Book of Martyrs, 
 vol. 2, p. 46, gives this as the reason of Luther's success against Popery, 
 above all former attempts of preceding witnesses. " But (saith he) Luther 
 gave the stroke, and plucked down the foundation, and all by opening one 
 vein, long hid before, wherein lieth the touchstone of all truth and doctrine, 
 0.3 the only principal origin of our salvation ; which is, our free justification, 
 by faith only, in Christ the Son of God." Consider how it is with the most 
 holy and eminent saints when dying. Did ye ever see or hear any boasting 
 of their works and performances ? They may, and do own, to the praise of 
 his grace, what they have been made to be, what they have been helped to 
 do or suffer for Christ's sake. But when they draw near to the awful tribu- 
 nal, what else is in their eye and heart, but only free grace, ransoming blood, 
 and a well-ordered covenant in Christ the surety 1 They cannot bear to 
 hear any make mention to them of their holiness, their own grace and at- 
 tainments, In a word, the doctrine of conditions, qualifications, and rector- 
 al government, and the distribution of rewards and punishments, according 
 to the new law of grace, will make but an uneasy bed to a dying man's con- 
 
 iencc ; and will leave him in a very bad condition at present, and in dread 
 of worse, when he is feeling, in his last agonies, that the wages of sin is death, 
 if he cannot by faith add, But the gift of God is eternal life, through Jcsvs 
 Christ our Lord, Rom. vi. 23. He is a wise and happy man that anchors his 
 soul on that rock, at which he can ride out the storm of death. Why should 
 men contend for that in their life, that they> know they must renounce at their 
 d sath ? or neglect that truth now, that they must betake themselves unto 
 I j sn ? Why should a man build a house that he must leave in a storm, or be 
 buried in its ruins 1 Many architects have attempted to make a sure house 
 of their own righteousness : but it is without a foundation; and must fall, or 
 fje thrown down sorrowfully by the foolish builder, which is the better way. 
 It is a great test of the truth of the doctrine about the way of salvation, when 
 it is generally approved of by sensible dying men. And what the universal 
 sense of all such in this case is, as to the righteousness of Christ, and their 
 own, is obvious to any man. He was an ingenuous Balaamite, who being 
 himself a Papist, said to a Protestant, " Our religion is best to live in, and 
 your'sbest to die in." 
 
 But notwithstanding of these great advantages (and they are but a few of 
 many) that this doctrine is attended with, there are not a few disadvantages it 
 labours under ; which, though they arc rather to its commendation than re- 
 proach, yet they do hinder its welcome and reception. As, 
 
 1. This doctrine is a spiritual mystery, and lieth not level to a natural un- 
 derstanding : 1 Cor. ii. 10, 14. Working for life, a man naturally under- 
 stands ; but believing for life, he understands not. To mend the old man he 
 knows ; but to put on the new man by faith, is a riddle to him. The study of 
 
15 
 
 holiness, and to endeavor to square his life, according to God's law, he know* 
 a little of, though he can never do it ; but to draw sanctification from Christ 
 by faith, and to walk holily, in and through the force of the Spirit of Christ 
 • in the heart by faith, is mere canting to him. A new life he understands a 
 little ; but nothing of a new birth and regeneration. He never saw himself 
 stark dead. Nay, not only it is unknown to the natural man, but he is, by 
 his natural state an enemy to it. He neither doth or can know it, nor ap- 
 prove of it : 1 Cor. ii. 14. Wisdom, (that is, Christ's way of saving men, 
 revealed in the gospel,) isjustifie I of all her children, and of them only: Math, 
 xi. 19 : Luke vii. 29, 30, 35. This enmity in men to the wisdom of God, is 
 the cause not .only of this contempt of its ministry but is a temptation to many 
 ministers to patch up and frame a gospel that is more suited to, and taking 
 with, and more easily understood by such men, than the true gospel of Chrisl 
 is. This Paul complains of in others, and vindicates himself from, 1 Cor. i. 
 17, and ii. 2. He warns others against it, Col. ii. 8 : 2 Cor. xi. 3. 4 : Gal. 
 i. 6, 7, 8, 9. And it is certain that doing for life, is more suited to corrupt 
 nature, than believing is. 
 
 2. Our opposcrs in this doctrine have the many for them, and against us, 
 as they of old boasted : John vii. 48. This they have no ground to glory in, 
 though they do ; nor we to be ashamed of the truth, because we cannot vie 
 numbers with them. With our opposers are all these sorts, (and they make 
 a great number,) though I do not say or think, that all of our opposers arc to 
 be ranked in any of these lists ; for some both godly and learned, may mis- 
 take us and the truth, in this matter. 1. They have all the ignorant people, 
 that know nothing of either law >. gospel. They serve God, (they say, but 
 most falsely,) and hope that Ge<; will be merciful to them, and save them. — 
 To all such, both the clear explication of God's law, and the mysteries of the 
 gospel, are strange things. Yet sincere obedience they love to hear of; for 
 all of them think there is some sincerity in their hearts, and that they can do 
 somewhat. But of faith in Christ they have no knoweledge; except by faith you 
 understand a dream of being saved by Jesus Christ, though they know nothing 
 of him, or of his way of saving men, nor of the way of being saved by him. 2. 
 All formalists are on their side, people that place their religion in trifles, because 
 they are strangers to the substance thereof. 3. All proud secure sinners are 
 against us, that go about with the Jews, to establish their own righteousness : 
 Rom. x. 3. The secure arc whole, and see no need of the physician; the 
 proud have physic at home, and despise that that came down from heaven. — 
 (. All the zealous devout, people in a natural religion, arc utter enemies to 
 the gospel. By a natural religion, I mean that that is the product of the rem- 
 nants of God's image in fallen man, a little improved by the light of God'^ 
 word. All such cannot endure to hear, that God's law must be perfectly ful- 
 filled in every tittle of it, or ao man can be saved by doing; that they must 
 all perish forever, that have not the righteousness of a man that never sinned, 
 who is also God over all blessed for ever, to shelter and cover them from a 
 holy God's anger, and to render them accepted of him : that this righteous- 
 ness is put on by the grace of God, and a man must betake himself to it, and 
 receive it as a naked blushing sinner : that no man can do anything that is 
 good, till gospel-grace renew him, and make him first a good man. This 
 they will never receive, but do still think that a man may grow good by do- 
 ing good. 
 
16 
 
 3. Natural reason is very fertile in its objections and cavils against the doc- 
 trine of the grace of God ; and especially when this corrupt reason is polish, 
 ed by learning and strong natural parts. When there are many to broach 
 such doctrine, and many so disposed to receive it, is it any wonder that the^, 
 gospel-truth makes little progress in the world ? Nay, were it not for the di- 
 vine power that supports it, and the promises of its preservation, its enemies 
 are so many and strong, and true friends so few and feeble, we might fear its 
 perishing from the earth. But we know it is impossible. And if the Lord 
 have a design of mercy to these nations, and hath a vein of his election to 
 dig up amongst us, we make no doubt but the glory of Christ, as a crucified 
 Saviour, shall yet be displayed in the midst -of us, to the joy of all that love 
 his salvation, and to the shame of others : Isa. lxvi. 5. 
 
 4. I might add the great declension of some of the reformed churches, 
 from the purity and simplicity of that doctrine they were first planted in. — 
 The new Methodists about the grace of God, had too great an increase in 
 the French churches. And, which was very strange, this declension ad- 
 vanced amongst them, at the same time when Jansenism was spreading 
 amongst many of the church of Rome : so that a man might have seen Pa- 
 pists growing better in their doctrine, and Protestant's growing worse. See 
 Mr. Gale's Idea of Jansenism, with Dr. Owen's preface. What there 
 is of this amongst us in England, I leave the reader to Mr. Jenkyn's Celeus- 
 ma, and to the Naked Truth, part 4. And if there be any warping toward 
 Arminian doctrine by some on our side, in order to ingratiate themselves 
 with the Church that hath the secular advantages to dispense, and to make 
 way for some accommodation with them, I had rather wait in fear till a fur- 
 ther discovery of it, than offer to guess at. 
 
 5. Lastly : It is no small disadvantage this doctrine lies under, from the 
 spirit of this day we live in. A light, frothy, trifling temper, prevails general- 
 ly ; doctrines of the greatest weight are talked of and treated about, with a 
 vain, unconcerned frame of spirit ; as if men contended rather about opin- 
 ions and school-points, than about the oracles of God, and matters of faith. — 
 But if men's hearts were seen by themselves, if sin were felt, if men's con- 
 sciences were enlivened, if God's holy law were known in its exactness and 
 severity, and the glory and majesty of the law-giver shining before men's eyes; 
 if men were living as leaving time, and launching forth into eternity, the 
 gospel-salvation of Jesus Christ would be more regarded. 
 
 Object. 1. Is there not a great decay amongst professors in real practical 
 godliness ? Are we like the old Protestants or the old Puritans? I answer, 
 that the decay and degeneracy is great, and heavily to be bewailed. But 
 what is the cause? and what will be its cure ? Is it. because the doctrine of 
 morality, and virtue, and good works, is not enough preached? This can- 
 not be : for there hath been for many years a public ministry in the nation, 
 that make these their constant themes. Yet the land is become as Sodom 
 for all lewdness ; and the tree of profanencss is so grown, that the sword of 
 the magistrate hath not yet been able to lop off* any of its branches. Is it 
 because men have too much faith in Christ ? or too little ? or none at all ? — 
 Would not faith in Christ increase holiness? did it not always so? and will 
 it not still doit? Was not the holiness of the first Protestants eminent and 
 shining? and yet they generally put assurance; in the definition of their 
 faith. We cannot say that srospcl-holiness hath prospered much by the cor- 
 rection or mitigation of that harsh-like definition. The certain spring of this 
 
17 
 
 prevailing wickedness in the land, is people's ignorance and unbelief of the 
 gospel of Christ ; and that grows by many prophets that speak lies to them 
 in the name of the Lord. 
 
 Object. 2. But do not some abuse the grace of the gospel, and turn it into 
 wantonness? Answer. Yes: some do, ever did, and still will do so. But it is 
 only the ill-understood and not believed doctrine of grace that they abuse. — 
 The grace itself no man can abuse ; for its power prevents its abuse. Let us 
 see bow Paul, that blessed herald of this grace, (as he was an eminent in- 
 stance of it,) dcaleth with this objection, Rom. vi. 1, &c. What doth he to 
 prevent, this abuse 1 Is it by extenuating what he bad said, chap. v. 20, that 
 ■ • a bounds much more ichere sin had abounded? Is it by mincing grace 
 smaller, that men may not choke upon it, or surfeit by it? 1- it by mixing 
 .thing of the law with it, to make it more wholesome ? No : but only by 
 plain asserting the power and influence of this grace, wherever it really is ; 
 I length m that chapter. This grace is all treasured up in Christ Je« 
 red to all men in tin- gospel* poured forth by our Lord in the working of 
 faith, and drunk in by the elect in the exercise of faith; and becomes in them 
 a living spring, which will, and must break out and spring up in all holy con- 
 ation, li irts them to drink in more and more of this grace by 
 faith. And as for such as pretend to grace, and live ungodly, the Spirit of 
 ■ ires, they are void of grace, which is always fruitful in good works: 
 2 Peter, ii. and Jud . apostle orders the. churches to cast such 
 out: 1 Cor. v. : 2 Tim. iii. 5: and to declare to them, as Peter did to a 
 professor, Ac' ■. 21, that they have no part nor portion in this matter, 
 for their heart is not rigM in the sight of God : though the doctrine be right 
 that they hypocritically prof 
 
 But if our brethren will not forbear their charge of Antinomianism. we en- 
 it them that they will give it in justly. As, 1. On them that say, that the 
 w of Cod is repealed ; so that no man is now under it, 
 mned tor breaking it, or to be saved bykeepingit; which 
 to us is rank Antinomianism and Arminianism both: yea, that it doth not 
 require perfect holiness. But indeed what can it require I for it is no 
 if; its sanction ; <!. 2. On them let the charge lie, that are un- 
 
 oity. And both they and we know where to 
 find such true Antinomians in great abundance, who yet are never called by 
 . And is it not somewhat strange, that men who h v s so much 
 inst an Antinenaian principle, h icb kindness for true Antino- 
 
 mians in practice] 3. Let him be called by this ugly name, thai judgethnot 
 tnd word of Cod, written in tl d New Testament* to be 
 
 rule of life to i rs, and aaith not that all such should study 
 
 formity thereunto: Rom. xii. 2. 4. That encourageth himself in sin, 
 and hardeneth himself in impenitence, by the doctrineidf the gospel. No 
 man that knows and believes the gospel, can do so. What some hypoci 
 
 do is n I all such persons and p : and 
 
 owe iat can really encourag .or influence tJ 
 
 :.. That thinketh holiness is not ] to all that would be saved. We 
 
 to, but that it is a great part of salva- 
 ■ 
 • 
 
 newer ion in him; and that h io1 renew 
 
 the d pentance for repeated washing and pardoning. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 Lastly : That say that a sinner is actually justified before he be united to 
 Christ by faith. It is strange, that such that are charged with this, of all 
 men do most press on sinners to believe on Jesus Christ, and urge the dam- 
 nation threatened in the gospel upon all unbelievers. That there is a de- 
 creed justification from eternity, particular and fixed as to all the elect, and a 
 virtual perfect justification of all the redeemed, in and by the death and resur- 
 rection of Jesus Christ: Isaiah, liii. 11 : Rom. iv. 25: Heb. ix. 26, 28, and 
 x. 14, is not yet called in question by any amongst us ; and more is not craved 
 but that a sinner, for his actual justification, must lay hold on, and plead this 
 redemption in Christ's blood by faith. 
 
 But on the other hand, we glory in any name of reproach (as the honora- 
 ble reproach of Christ) that is cast upon us for asserting the absolute, bound- 
 less freedom of the grace of God, which excludes all merit, and every thing 
 like it ; the absoluteness of the covenant of grace, (for the covenant of re- 
 demption was plainly and strictly a conditional one, and the noblest of all 
 conditions was in it — the Son of God's taking on him man's nature, and of- 
 fering it in sacrifice, was the strict condition of all the glory and reward 
 promised to Christ and his seed, Isaiah, liii. 10, 11,) wherein all things are 
 freely promised, and that faith that is required for sealing a man's interest in 
 the covenant is promised in it, and wrought by the grace of it, Eph. ii. 8. — 
 That faith at first is wrought by, and acts upon a full and absolute offer of 
 Christ, and of all his fulness ; an offer that hath no condition in it, but that 
 native one to all offers, acceptance ; and in the very act of this acceptance, 
 the accepter doth expressly disclaim all things in himself, but sinfulness and 
 misery. That faith in Jesus Christ doth justify (although by the way it is 
 to be noted, that it is never written in the word, that faith justifieth actively, 
 but always passively : that a man is justified by faith, and that God justifieth 
 men by, and through faith ; yet admitting the phrase) only as a mere instru- 
 ment receiving that imputed righteousness of Christ, for which we are justi- 
 fied ; and that this faith, in the office of justification, is neither condition nor 
 qualification, nor our gospel-righteousness, but in its very act a renouncing 
 of all such pretences. 
 
 We proclaim the market of grace to be free : Isa. Iv. 1, 2, 3. It is Christ's 
 last offer and lowest : Rev. xxii. 17. If there be any price or money spoke 
 of, it is no price, no money. And where such are the terms and conditions, 
 if we be forced to call them so, we must say, that they look liker a renoun- 
 cing, than a boasting of any qualifications or conditions. Surely the terms 
 of the gospel-bargain are, God's free giving and our free taking and re- 
 ceiving. 
 
 We arc not ashamed of teaching the ineffectualncss of the law, and all the 
 works of it, to give life ; either that of justification, or of regeneration and 
 sanctification, or of eternal life : That the law of God can only damn all sin- 
 ners ; that it only rebukes, and thereby irritates and increases sin; and can 
 never subdue it, till gospel-grace come with power upon the heart ; and then 
 when the law is written in the heart, it is copied out in the life. 
 
 That we call men to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, in that case the first 
 Adam brought them to, and left them in ; in that case that the law finds and 
 leaves them in, guilty, filthy, condemned : out of which case they can only 
 be delivered by Christ, and by believing on him. 
 
 That we tell sinners, that Jesus Christ will surely welcome all that come 
 to him ; and as he will not cast them out for their sinfulness, in their nature 
 
19 
 
 and by-past life, so neither for their misery, in the want of such qualifications 
 and graces that he only can give. 
 
 That we do hold forth the propitiation in Christ's blood, as the only thing 
 to be in the eye of a man that would believe on Christ unto justification of 
 life ; and that by this faith alone, a sinner is justified, and God is justified in 
 doing so. 
 
 That God justijieth the ungodly, Rom. iv. 5, neither by making him godly 
 before he justify him, nor leaving him ungodly after he hath justified him; 
 but that the same grace that justifies him, doth immediately sanctify him. 
 
 If for such doctrine we be called Antinomians, wc are bold to say, that 
 there is some ignorance of, or prejudice at the known Protestant doctrine, in 
 the hearts of the reproachers. 
 
 That there are some things wc complain of. As, 
 
 1. That they load their brethren so grievously with unjust calumnies, either 
 directly, or by consequence : as when they preach up holiness, and the ne- 
 cessity of it, as if it were their proper doctrine, and disowned by us ; when 
 they cannot but know in their consciences, that there is no difference betwixt 
 them and us, about the nature and necessity of holiness, but only about its 
 spring and place in salvation. We derive it from Jesus Christ, and faith in 
 him ; and know assuredly, that it can spring from nothing else. We place 
 it betwixt justification and glory, and that is its scripture place ; and no where 
 else can it be found or stand, let them tiy it as much and as long as they will. 
 
 2. That they seem very zealous against Antinomianism, and forget the other 
 extreme of Arminianism ; which is far more common, as dangerous, and far 
 more natural to all men. For though there have been, and may be this day, 
 some true Antinomians, either through ignorance or weakness, reeling to 
 that extreme, or by the heat of contention with, and hatred of Arminianism, 
 (as it is certain some very good and learned men have inclined to Arminian- 
 ism, through their hatred of Antinomianism, and have declared so much,) 
 and some may, and do corrupt the doctrine of the gospel, through the unrc- 
 newedness of their hearts : yet how destructive soever this abuse may be to 
 to the souls of the seduced, such an appearance of Antinomianism is but a 
 meteor or comet, that will soon blaze out, and its folly will be quickly hissed 
 off the stage. But the principles of Arminianism arc the natural dictates of 
 a carnal mind, which is enmity both to the law of God, and to the gospel of 
 Christ ; and, next to the dead sea of Popery, (into which also this stream 
 runs,) have, since Pclagius to this day, been the greatest plague of the church 
 of Christ, and it is like will be till his second coming. 
 
 3. We do also justly complain, that, in their opposing of true Antinomian 
 errors, and particularly the allcdged tenets of Dr. Crisp, they hint that there 
 is a party of ministers and professors that defend them ; whereas, we can 
 defy them to name one minister in London at least, that doth so. 
 
 4. That expressions capable of a good sense, are strenuously perverted, 
 contrary to the scope of the writer or speaker. But this and such like are 
 the usual methods of unfair contenders. Were the like methods taken on the 
 other side, how many Popish, Arminiaii. yea, and Socinian expressions, might 
 be published ? If any gospel-truth be preached or published, that reflects on 
 the idol of self-righteousness, and justification thereby, it is soon quarrelled 
 with. But reproaches cast on the free grace of God, and the imputed right- 
 eousness of Christ, arc with them, if not approved, yet but venial, well-meant 
 
20 
 
 mistakes. Let men's stated principles be known, and their expressions ex- 
 plained accordingly, or mistakes and contentions will be endless. 
 
 5. We do also complain, that love to peace hath made many grave and 
 sound divines i'orbear to utter their minds freely in public on these points : 
 whereby the adverse party is emboldened ; and such ministers as dare not 
 purchase peace by silence, when so great truths are undermined, are exposed 
 as a mark. But we do not question but these worthy brethren, when they 
 
 he points of controversy accurately stated, (as they may shortly,) 
 will openly appear on truth's side, as we know their hearts are for it. 
 
 6. Lastly: We complain, that the scheme of th. .intended for by 
 our opposers, is clouded, veiled, and darkened by school-terms ; new, un- 
 couth, and nnscriptural phrases; whereby, as they think, to guard them- 
 
 ition, so they do incr< jies of their brethren, 
 
 and keep their principles from the knowledge of ordinary people,', 
 much concerned on those points as any scholar or divine. 
 
 This ersy looks like a very bad omen. We thought we might 
 
 healed our old ! - in smaller things; and behold a new -one is 
 
 threatened in the gre: I ers. We did hope, thai; the good old Protes- 
 
 tant doctri I in 1 arts of all the n 
 
 our side, but now ry, and that the sour leaven of , 
 
 ism works strongly. Their : do not yet own the name; but the 
 
 young ee : and with them no books or ; 
 
 1 cion of a philosopher than ofa.divini : 
 
 a divine, than to di; r true 
 
 divinity hath a higher and nob r. origins 
 
 r be rightly 
 principli m than reason, even the teach I But 
 
 for Lutl er. Z tn< hy, Twisse, Ames, P. rl ' their 
 
 spirit and stam] • 
 
 We were in I after the Lord had so - : | r his 
 
 truth and people, in - botfvunder 1 
 
 gr< so mightily 
 
 under the two last reii 
 
 istablishment of our gospel-liberty in this, thai and hands 
 
 should have been unanimously 1 in the ad ork of 
 
 . But we find, that as we have for i asure, 
 
 the power, \ n in no small danger of losing also the purit) 
 
 pel. And without them what signifies lib< 
 
 It is undoubted, that, the devil designs the obstructing of the course of the 
 gospel : and in this he h ith often had the service of the tonguesand pens of 
 good m of bad. Y t we are not without hope, that the Lord, in 
 
 his wisdom and mercy, will defeat'him; and that these contentions m 
 I 
 
 ; irthering of this good end, let me request a few things of my 
 ir< n. 
 L t us not receive reports suddenly of one another. In times of con- 
 tention, many false reports are raised, and rashly believed. This is both the 
 
 I of contention. For all the noise of Antinomianism, ] 
 declare, that I do not know (and I have both opportunity and inclination to 
 inquire) any one Antinomian minister or christian in London, who is 
 
21 
 
 really such as their rcproachcrs paint them out, or such as Luther and Calvin 
 wrote against. 
 
 2. Let us make Christ crucified, our groat study, as christians ; and the 
 preaching of him our main work, ;is ministers : 1 Cor. ii. 2. Paul determin- 
 ed to know nothing else. But many manage th i ministry, as if they had 
 
 •I up a contrary determination, even to know anything, save Jesus Christ 
 andjiim crucified. We arc amazed to sec so many ashamed of the cross 
 of Christ, apa to behave as if they accounted the oi salvation hythe 
 
 slain Son of God, an old antiquated story, and unfit to he daily preached. — 
 And what comes in the room thereof is not unknown, nor is it worth the 
 mentioning. For all thing-! that come in Christ's room, andjustle him out, 
 either of hearts or pulpits, ar to a christian. How many 
 
 ions may a man hear, and read when print ind hooks written. 
 
 about the w ly to heaven, wherein is hardly the name of Jesus Christ? And • 
 
 le. be named, it is the name of Christ as a Ji I sr rather 
 
 than that of a Saviour. And as little room hath Christ in many men's pray- 
 ers, except it be in the conclusion. When we cannot avoid the observing of 
 
 ■ sad things, let it be a sharp spur to us, to preach Christ more, to pray 
 more in his name, and to live more to his praise. Let us not be deceived 
 with that , That Christ, may be preached whan he is not named. — 
 
 preaching of the gos Ii le naming of Christ, and so called, Rom. xv. 
 20. And Paul was to bear Christ's name before the Gentiles, and Kings, 
 awl the children of Israel, Acts ix. 15. 
 
 3. Let us study hard and pray much, to know the truth and to cleave un- 
 to it. It is an old observation, Ante Pelagium securius loquebantur p aires : 
 "Before Pelagius even the lathers spoke more carelessly:" meaning well, 
 and fearing no mistakes in their hearers. Now it is not so ; the more care- 
 ful should we bo m our doctrine. Let us search our own consciences, and 
 
 how weourselves are justified before God. So Paul argued, Gal. ii. 15, 
 16. And let us bring forth that doctrine to our people, that we find in our 
 Bibles, and have felt the' power of upon our own hea 
 
 4. Let us not run into extremes upon the righto.- I, through the 
 heat of contention ; but carefully ! good old way of the Protcsi: 
 doct.- : rein so many thousands o and martyrs of Jesus have 
 lived holily, and died happily, who n ! of our new schemes and 
 notions. 
 
 And for this end. I take and cleave to if the Assembly's Con-^ 
 
 fession of Faith and Cs More we own not ou wi 
 
 crave not of our brethren ; and because we deal fairly and openly, 1 
 it down verbatim, Conf. chap. xi. Of Justification. Ar!. 1. "Those whom 
 God effectually caileth, he also freely justifieth : not by infusing righteous- 
 ness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by ace ccepting 
 their persons as righteous; n >t for any thing wrought in them, or done b) 
 them, but for C he alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of be- 
 lieving, or any other evangelical obedience, to them, as their righteousness : 
 but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they re- 
 ceiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith ; which faith they 
 have, not of themselves, it is tin; gift of God." 
 
 Art. 2. " Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteous- 
 ness, is the alone instrument of justification. Yet it is not alone in the per- 
 
22 
 
 son justified, but it is ever accompanied with all other saving graces ; and is 
 no dead faith, but worketh by love." 
 
 Art. 3. " Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt 
 of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satis- 
 faction to his Father's justice in their behalf. Yet, in as much as he was 
 given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in 
 their stead, and both freely, not for any thing in them, their justification is on- 
 ly of free grace ; that both the exact justice, and rich grace of God, might 
 be glorified in the justification of sinners." 
 
 Art. 4. " God did, from all eternity, decree to justify all the elect ; and 
 Christ did, in the fulness of time, die for their sins, and rise again for their 
 justification : nevertheless, they are not justified, until the Holy Spirit doth, 
 indue time, actually apply Christ unto them." 
 
 Art. 5. " God cloth continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified. 
 And although they can never fall from the state of justification, yet they may, 
 by their sins, fall under God's fatherly displeasure ; and not have the light 
 of his countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess 
 their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance." 
 
 Art. 6. " The justification of believers under the Old Testament was, in 
 all these respects, one and the same with the justification of believers under 
 the New Testament." This is the whole chapter exactly. 
 
 Larger Catechism. Q. " How doth faith justify a sinner in the sight of 
 God ? Answ. Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of 
 those other graces which do always accompany it ; or of good works that 
 are the fruits of it; nor as if the grace of faith, or any act thereof, were im- 
 puted to him for his justification ; but only as it is an instrument by which he 
 receiveth and applieth Christ and his righteousness." 
 
 Let these weighty words be but heartily assented to in their plain and na- 
 tive sense, and we are one in this great point of justification. But can any 
 considering man think, that the new scheme of a real change, repentance, 
 and sincere obedience, as necessary to be found in a person that may lawful- 
 ly come to Christ for justification ; of faith's justifying as it is the spring of 
 sincere obedience ; of a man's being justified by, and upon his coming up to 
 the terms of the new law of grace, (a new word, but of an old and ill mean- 
 ing :) can any man think, that this scheme, and the sound words of the Rev- 
 erend Assembly do agree? Surely, if such a scheme had been offered to 
 •that grave, learned, and orthodox synod, it would have had a more severe 
 censure passed upon it, than I am willing to name. 
 
 Do we not find, in our particular dealing with souls, the same principles I 
 am now opposing ? 
 
 When we deal with the carnal, secure, careless sinners, (and they are a 
 vast multitude.) and ask them a reason of that hope of heaven they pretend 
 to, is not this their common answer? " I live inoffensively ; I keep God's law 
 as well as I can ; and wherein I fail, I repent, and beg God's mercy for 
 Christ's sake. My heart is sincere, though my knowledge and attainments 
 Be short of others." If we go on to enquire further, What acquaintance they 
 have with Jesus Christ ? what applications their souls have made to him ? 
 what workings of faith on him? what use they have made, of his righteous- 
 ness for justification, and his spirit for sanctification ? what they know of 
 living by faith in Jesus Christ? we are barbarians to them. And in this 
 sad state many thousands in England live, and die, and perish eternally. Yet 
 
23 
 
 so thick is the darkness of the age, that many of them live here, and go hence, 
 with the reputation of good christians : and some of them may have their fu- 
 neral sermon and praises preached by an ignorant flattering minister ; though 
 it may be that the poor creatures never did, in the whole course of their 
 life, nor at their death, employ Jesus Christ so much for an entry to heaven, 
 purchased by his blood, and only accessible by faith in him, as a poor Turk 
 doth Mahomet, for a room in his beastly paradise. How common and fear- 
 ful a thing is this in this land and city ! 
 
 When we come to deal with a poor awakened sinner, who seeth his lost 
 state, and that he is condemned by the law of God, we find the same princi- 
 ples working in him : for they are natural, and therefore universal in all 
 men, and hardly rooted out of any. We find him sick and wounded ; we 
 tell him where his help lies, in Jesus Christ ; what his proper work is, to ap- 
 ply to him by faith. What is his answer ? " Alas ! saith the man, I have 
 been, and am so vile a sinner, my heart is so bad, and so full of plagues and 
 corruptions, that I cannot think of believing on Christ. But if I had but 
 repentance, and some holiness in heart and life, and such and such gracious 
 qualifications, I would then believe :" when indeed, this his answer is as full of 
 nonsense, ignorance, and pride, as words can contain or express. They im- 
 ply, 1. " If I were pretty well recovered, I would employ the Physician. 
 Christ. 2. That there is some hope to work out these good things by myself, 
 without Christ. 3. And when I come to Christ with a price in my hand, I 
 shall be welcome. 4. That I can come to Christ, when I will." So igno- 
 rant are people naturally, of faith in Jesus Christ ; and no words or warnings 
 repeated, nor plainest instructions, can beat into men's heads and hearts, 
 that the first coming to Christ by faith, or believing on him, is not a believing 
 we shall be saved by him, but a believing on him that we may be saved by 
 him. And it is less to be wondered at, that ignorant people do not, when so 
 many learned men will not understand it. 
 
 W hen we deal with a proud, self-righteous hypocrite, we find the same 
 principles of enmity against the grace of the gospel. A profane person is 
 not so enraged at the rebukes of sin from the law, as these Pharisees are at 
 the discovery of their ruin by unbelief. They cannot endure to have their 
 idol of self-righteousness touched ; neither by the spirituality of God's law, 
 that condemns all men, and all their works, while out of Christ; nor by the 
 gospel, which reveals another righteousness than their own, by which they 
 must be saved : but they will have God's ark of the covenant to stand as a 
 captive in the temple of their Dagon of self-righteousness, until the ven- 
 ue of God's despised covenant overthrow both the temple, and idol, and 
 worshippers. 
 
 There is not a minister that dealeth seriously with the souls of men, but 
 he I'm Is an Arminian scheme of justification 'in every unrenewed heart. — 
 And is it not sadly to he bewailed, that divines should plead that same eause. 
 that we daily find the devil pleading in the hearts of all natural men? and 
 that instead of casting down, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5, they should be making defences 
 for such strong holds, as must either be levelled with the dust, or the rebel 
 that holds them out must eternally perish? 
 
 It is w) bad way of studying the gospel, and of attaining more light into it, 
 thai maj boused in dealing particularly with the consciences of all sorts of 
 men, as we have occasion. More may be learned this way, than out of ma- 
 il v large books. And if ministers would deal more with their own con- 
 
24 
 
 sciences, and the consciences of others, in and about these points, that are 
 most properly cases of conscience, we should find an increase of gospel-light, 
 and a growing fitness to preach aright ; as Paul did, 2 Cor. iv. 2 : By mani- 
 festation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God. 
 
 Let us keep up, in our hearts and doctrine, a reverend regard of the holy 
 law of God, and suffer not a reflecting, disparaging word or thought of it. — 
 The great salvation is contrived with a regard to it ; and the satisfaction giv- 
 en to the law, by the obedience and death of Christ our surety, hath made it 
 glorious and honorable, more than all the holiness of saints on earth, or of 
 the glorified in heaven, and than all the torments of the damned in hell : 
 though they do also magnify the law, and make it honorable. But if men 
 will teach that the law, and obedience unto it, whether perfect or sincere, is 
 the righteousness we must be found in, and stand in, in our pleading for jus- 
 tification ; they neither understand what they say. nor whereof they affirm, 1 
 Tim. i. 7. They become debtors to it, and Christ profits them nothing. Gal. ii. 
 21, and v. 2. 5. And we know what will become of that man, that hath 
 his debts to the law to pay, and hath no interest in the surety' at. — 
 
 Yet many such offer their own silver, which, whatever coin of man be upon 
 it, is reprobate, and rejected both by law and gospel. 
 
 - Let us carefully keep the bounds clear betwixt the law and gospel ; which 
 '• whosoever doth, is a right perfect divine," saith blessed Luther, in his 
 Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians : a book that hath more plain 
 sound gospel, than many volumes of some other divines. Let us keep the 
 law as far from the business of justification, as we would keep condemna- 
 tion, its contrary. For the law and condemnation are inseparable, but b\ 
 the intervention of Jesus Christ our surety, Gal. iii. 10 — 14. But in the 
 practice of holiness, the fulfilled law given by Jesus Christ to believers as a 
 rule, is of great and good use to them ; as hath been declared. 
 
 Lastly: Be exact in your Communion and Church-administrations. If 
 any walk otherwise than becometh the gospel, if any abuse the doctrine of 
 grace to licentiousness, draw' the rod of discipline against them the more se- 
 verely, that ye know so many wait for your halting, and are ready to speak 
 evil of the ways and truths of ( tod. 
 
 The wisdom of God sometimes orders the different opinions of men about 
 his truth, for the clearing and confirming of it ; while each side watch tto 
 extremes that others may be in hazard of Winning into. And if controversj 
 hi' fairly and meekly managed this way, we may differ, and plead oiir opin- 
 ions, and both love and edify them we oppose, and may beloved and edified 
 by them in their opposition. 
 
 I know no fear possesseth our side, but that of Arminianism. Let us be 
 fairly secured from that ; and as we ever hated true Antinoinianism, so we 
 are ready to oppose it with all our might. But having such grounds of jeal- 
 ousy as I have named, (and it is well known that. I have not named all.) men 
 will allow us to fear, that this noise of Antinomianism is raised, and any ad- 
 vantage they have by the rashness and imprudence of some ignorant men, is, 
 improved to a severe height by some, on purpose to shelter Arminianism in its. 
 growth, and to advance it further amongst us ; which we pray and hope the 
 Lord will prevent. 
 
 Your's ROB. TRAILL. 
 
25 
 
 POSTCPJPT. 
 
 This paper presented to thee, was, in its first design, intended as a private 
 letter to a particular brother, as the title bears. How it comes to be pub- 
 lished, 1 shall not trouble the world with an account of. 1 think that Dr. 
 Owen's excellent book of Justification, and Mr. Marshall's book of the mys- 
 tery qf sanctification by faith in Jesus Christ, are such vindications and con- 
 firmations of the Protestant doctrine, against which I fear no effectual oppo- 
 sition. \)r. Owen's name is so savourj and famous, bis soundness in the 
 faith, and ability in learning for its defence, so justly reputed, that no sober 
 man will attempt him. Mr. Marshall was a holy retired person; and is on- 
 ly known to the most of us by his book published lately. The book is a 
 deep, practical, well-jointed discourse ; and requires a move than ordinary 
 attention in the reading- of it with profit. And if it be si) I look 
 
 upon it as one of thei iosI a Eul books the world hath seen for many years. 
 lis excellency is, that it leads the serious reader directly to Jesus Christ, and 
 cuts the sinews and overturns the foundation of the new divinity, by th 
 argument of gospel -holiness, by which many, attempt to overturn the old. — 
 And as it hath already the seal of high approbation, by man)- judicious minis- 
 ters and christians that have read it; so 1 fear not but it will stand fin 
 rock against all opposition, and will prove good seed, and l'ood, and light, and 
 life, to many hereafter. 
 
 All my design in publishing this is, plainly and briefly, to give some infor- 
 mation to ordinary plain people, who either want time or judgment to peruse 
 large and learned tractates, about this point of justification, wherein every 
 one is equallj concerned. 
 
 The theme; of justification hath suffered greatly by this, that many have 
 employed their heads and pens, who never had their hearts and consciences 
 exercised about it. And they must be frigid and dreaming speculations that 
 all such are taken up with, whose consciences are not enlivened with their 
 personal concern in it. 
 
 These things are undoubted: 1. That as it is a point of highest concern 
 to every man, so it is to the whole doctrine of Christianity. All the 
 fundamentals of christian truth, center in this of justification. The Trinity 
 of persons in the God-head; the incarnation of the onlj begotten of the Fa- 
 ther: the satisfaction paid to the law and justice of God, for the sins of the 
 world, by his obedience and sacrifice of himself in that flesh h 
 and the divine authority of the scriptures, which reveals all of this ; are all 
 straight lines of truth, that center in this doctrineof the justification of a sin- 
 ner bythe imputation and application of thai satisfaction. No justification 
 without a righteousness; no righteou n be, but what answers fully and 
 
 i\ the holy law of God; no such righteousness can be performed, but 
 by a divine person ; no benefit can accrue to a sinner by it, unless it be some 
 way his, and applied to him ; no application can be made of this, but by 
 faith in Jesus Christ. And as the connection with, and dependence of this 
 truth upon, the other great mysteries of divine truth, is evident in the plain 
 proposal of it; so the same hath been sadlj manifest in this, that the forsak- 
 ing of the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ's righteousness, hath 
 been the first step of apostacy in many, who have not stopped till they revolt- 
 ed from Christianity itself. Hence so many Anninians, and their chief lead- 
 ers too, turned Socinians. From denying justification by Christ's righteous- 
 ness, they proceeded to the denying of his satisfaction ; from the denial of 
 
26 
 
 his proper satisfaction, they went on to the denying of the divinity of his per- 
 son. And that man's charity is excessive, that will allow to such blasphe- 
 mers of the Son of God, the name of Christians. Let not then the zeal of 
 any so fundamental a point of truth, as that is of the justification of a sinner 
 by faith in Christ, be charged with folly. It is good to be always zealously 
 affected in a good thing : and this is the best of things. 
 
 2. It is undoubted that there is a mystery in this matter of justification. 
 As it is God's act, it is an act of free grace and deep wisdom. Herein jus- 
 tice and mercy kiss one another in saving the sinner. Here appears God- 
 man, with the righteousness of God, and this applied and imputed to sin- 
 ful men. Here man's sin and misery, are. the field in which the riches of 
 God's grace in Christ are displayed. Here the sinner is made righteous by 
 the righteousness of another, and obtains justification through this righteous- 
 ness, though he pays and gives nothing for it. God declares him righteous, 
 or justifies him freely ; and yet he is well paid for it by the redemption that 
 is in Christ Jesus, Rom. iii. 24, 25, 26. It is an act of justice and mercy 
 both, when God justifies a believer on Jesus Christ. And must there not 
 then be a great mystery in it ? is not every believer daily admiring the depth 
 of this way of God ? This mystery is, usually, rather darkened than illus- 
 trated, by logical terms used in the handling of it. The only defence that 
 good and learned men have for the use of them is, (and it hath great weight) 
 that the craft of adversaries doth constrain them to use such terms, to find 
 them out, or hedge them in. It is certain, that this mystery is as plainly 
 revealed in the word, as the Holy Ghost thought fit to do in teaching the 
 heirs of his grace ; and it were well if men did contain themselves within 
 these bounds. 
 
 3. It is certain, that this doctrine of justification proposed in the word, 
 hath been very differently understood and expressed by men, that profess 
 that God's word is the only rule of their thoughts and words about the things 
 of the Spirit of God. It hath been, and will be still a stone of stumbling ; 
 as our Lord Jesus Christ himself was, and is, Rom. ix. 32, 33 ; 1 Pet. ii. 7, 8. 
 
 4. That whatever variety and differences there be in men's notions and 
 opinions (and there is a great deal) about justification, they arc all certainly 
 reducible to two ; one of which is every man's opinion. And they are : 
 That the justification of a sinner before God, is either on account of a right- 
 eousness in and of ourselves ; or on account of a righteousness in another, 
 even Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah our righteousness. Law and gospel, faith 
 and works, Christ's righteousness and our own, grace and debt, do equally 
 divide all in this matter. Crafty men may endeavor to blend and mix these 
 things together in justification ; but it is a vain attempt. It is not only most 
 expressly rejected in the- gospel, which peremptorily determines the contra- 
 riety, inconsistency, and incompatibility betwixt these two; but the nature 
 of the things in themselves, and the sense and conscience of every serious 
 person, do witness to the same, that our own righteousness, and Christ's 
 righteousness, do comprehend all the pleas of men to justification; (one or 
 other of them every man in the world stands upon;) and that they arc in. 
 consistent with, and destructive, one of another, in justification. If a man 
 trusts to his own righteousness, he rejects Christ's: if he trusts to Christ's 
 righteousness, he rejects his own. If he will not reject his own righteous, 
 ncss, as too good to be renounced; if he will not venture on Christ's right. 
 
27 
 
 ncss, as not sufficient alone to bear him out, and bring him safe off at God's 
 bar, he is in both a convicted unbeliever. And if he endeavor to patch up 
 a righteousness before God, made up of both, he is still under the law, and 
 a despiser of gospel-grace : Gal. ii. 21. That righteousness that justifies a 
 sinner, consists in aliquo indivisibili: and this every man finds when the case 
 is his own, and he is serious about it. 
 
 5. These different sentiments about justification, have been at all times 
 managed with a special acrimony. They that are for the righteousness of 
 God by faith in Jesus Christ, look upon it as the only foundation of all their 
 hopes for eternity, and therefore, cannot but be zealous for it. And the 
 contrary side are as hot for their own righteousness, the most admired and 
 adored Diana of proud mankind, as if it were an image fallen down from 
 Jupiter ; when it is indeed the idol that was cast out of heaven with the devil, 
 and which he hath ever since been so diligent to set up before sinful men to 
 be worshipped, that he might bring them into the same condemnation with 
 himself: for by true sin, and false righteousness, he hath deceived the whole 
 icorhl : Rev. xii. 9. 
 
 6. As the Holy Ghost speaking in the scriptures, is the supreme and in- 
 fallible judge and determiner of all truth ; so where he cloth particularly, 
 and on purpose, deliver any truth, there we are specially to attend and learn. 
 And though, in most points of truth, he usually teachcth us by a bare au- 
 thoritative narration ; yet, in some points, which his infinite wisdom foresaw 
 special opposition to, he doth not only declare, but debate and determine the 
 truth. And the instances are two especially. One is -about the divinity of 
 Christ's person, and dignity of his priesthood ; reasoned, argued, and deter- 
 mined, in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The other is about justification by 
 faith ; exactly handled in the Epistles to the Romans, and to the Galatians. 
 In the former of these two, the doctrine of free justification is taught us most 
 formally and accurately. And though we find no charge against that church 
 in Paul's time, or in his epistle for their departing from the truth in this 
 point ; yet the wisdom of the Holy Ghost is remarkable in this, that this doc- 
 trine should be so plainly asserted, and strongly proved, in an epistle to that 
 church, the pretended successors whereof have apostatized from that faith, 
 and proved the main asserters of that damnable error, of justification by 
 works. That to the Galatians is plainly written, to cure a begun, and obvi- 
 ate a full apostacy, from the purity of the gospel, in the point of justification 
 by faith, without the works of the law. And from these two epistles, if we 
 be wise, we must learn the truth of this doctrine, and expound all other scrip- 
 tures, in a harmony with what is there so sctly determined, as in foro con- 
 tra il/rtnrio. 
 
 7. Lastly: It is not to be denied or concealed, that on each side, some 
 have run into extremes, which the generality do not own, but arc usually 
 loaded with. The Papists run high for justification by works; yet even 
 some of them in the Council of Trent, discoursed very favorably of justifica- 
 tion by faith. The Arminians have qualified a little the grossness of the 
 Popish doctrine in this article : and some since have essayed to qualify that 
 of the Arminians, and to plead the same cause more finely. Again, some 
 have run into the other extreme, as appeared in Germany a little after the re- 
 formation : and some such there have been always, and in all places, where 
 the gospel hath sinned ; and these were called Antinomians. But how OH- 
 
28 
 
 justly this hateful name is charged upon the orthodox preachers and sincere 
 "believers of the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith only, who keep 
 the gospel-midst betwixt these two rocks, is the design of this paper to discov- 
 er. What we plead for is in sum : That Jesus Christ our Saviour is the 
 fountain opened in the house of David, for sin and for uncleanness, wherein 
 only men can be washed, in justification and sanctification ; and that there is 
 no other fountain of man's devising, nor of God's declaring, for washing a 
 sinner first, so as to make him fit and meet to come to this, to wash, and to 
 be clean. 
 
 As for inherent holiness, is it not sufficiently secured by the spirit of Christ 
 received by faith, the certain spring and cause of it ; by the word of God, 
 the plain and perfect rule of it ; by the declared necessity of it to all them 
 that look to be saved, and to justify the sincerity of a man's faith ; unless we 
 bring it into justification, and thereby make our own pitiful holiness sit on 
 the throne of Judgment, with the precious blood of the Lamb of God. 
 
 Though I expect a more able hand will undertake an examination of the 
 new divinity, yet, to fill up a little room, I would speak somewhat of the 
 Achillean argument, that is so much boasted of, and so frequently insisted 
 on by them, as their 'shield and spear. Their argument is this : That 
 Chri sousness is our legal righteousness : but our own is our evangel- 
 
 ical righl : that is, when. a sinner is charged wifh sin against the 
 
 holy law of God, he may oppose Christ's righteousness as his legal defence; 
 but against the charge of the gospel, especially for unbelief, he must pro- 
 duce his faith, as his defence or righteousness, against that charge. 
 
 With a great deference to such worthy divines as have looked on this as 
 an argument of weight. I shall, in a few words, essay to manifest that, this 
 is ei : h r a . aying .'\ ime in other odd words, that is commonly taught by 
 us ; or a sophism ; or a departing from the Protestant doctrine about justi- 
 fication. 
 
 1. This argument concerns not at all the justification of a sinner before 
 God. For this end, no more is needful than to consider what this charge is, 
 against whom it is given, and by whom. The charge is said to be given in 
 by God ; and a.charge of unbelief, or disobeying the gospel. But against 
 whom? Is il a believer or unbeliever ? And these two divide all 
 
 mankind. If it be against a believer, it is a false charge, and can never be 
 given in by the God of truth. For the believer is justified already by faith. 
 and as to this charge he is innocent. And innocence is defence enough to a 
 man falsely charged, before a righteous judge. Is this charge given in against 
 an unbeliever ? We allow it is a righteous charge. Ay, but, say they, 
 " Will Christ's righteousness Mian from tins charge of Gospel-unbe- 
 
 !iel .'"' The answer is plain. No, it will not : nor yet from any other charge 
 whatsoever, either from law or gospel; for he hath nothing to do with 
 Christ's righteousness while an unbeliever. What then doth this arguing re- 
 prove? Is it that no man's faith in Christ's righteousness can be justified in 
 its sincerity before men, and in a man's own conscience, but in and by the 
 fruits a true lively faith ? In this they have no opposers that 1 know of. Or 
 is it, that, a man may have Christ's righteousness for his legal righteousness, 
 and yet be a rebel to the gospel, and a stranger to true holiness ? Who ever 
 affirmed it? Or is it, that this gospel-holiness is that that a man must not 
 only have, (for that we grant) but also may venture to stand in, and to be 
 
29 
 
 found in before God, and to venture into judgment with God upon, in his 
 cluim to eternal life? Then we must oppose them that think so, as we know 
 their own consciences will when in any lively exercise. These plain principles 
 of gospel-truth, while they remain, (and remain they will on their own foun- 
 dation, when we' are. ;ill i:i our graves, and our foolish contentions are buried) 
 do overthrow this pretended charge. 1. That Christ's righteousness is the 
 only plea and answer of a sinner arraigned at God's bar for life and death. 
 "■}. This righteousness is imputed to no man but a believ< r. 3. When it is im- 
 puted ! md i h, it immediately and eternally bi i 
 
 : God, angels, men, ai ils: Rom. viii. 33, 
 
 35, 38, .".ih It is a right hat is never lost, never tal .never 
 
 feetual; answereth all chs ttended with all graci , 
 
 2. I would ask: What ; man from the 
 sin of the imaj is now con- 
 sider the real sin. I 
 
 more; renin it the law, which binds all men to believe God, 
 
 say what he will ; mot I, which tells us wh 
 
 should! nd commands l ieve. it this case, (and it is 
 
 pity lit imon,) that a poor soul is 
 
 troubled about tl unbelief, in callin liar: 1 
 
 John, v. 10 ; in< hful prom: 
 
 iod will to save, ihrist ; as many 
 
 Long in a state of t 
 
 i have unbelief in som : ..... ..mam's 
 
 faith staggered sometimes : G< ii. and xx. ay to a 
 
 conscience thus troubled 1 Will any man dare tell him, that Ch 
 
 i his legal righteousness against the 
 law; but for gospel-charges, he must answer them in his own name? I 
 
 our hottest opposers would abhor such 
 tell such a man, iliul the blood of Jesus Christ, cleanseth jro-t 
 and that his justification from his unbelief must be only in that 
 eousness which he so sinfully had rejected while in flnbelief, and no-. 
 hold on by faith. 
 
 3. But some extend this are 
 
 That not only nun must have their i ith for their righl 
 
 it the charge of impenitence, sincer- 
 ; that of hypocrisy, ho] liness, and ] 
 
 icy. If they 
 true faith, and 
 of the gr >d in us : 
 
 but highly dislike 1 tend- 
 
 C % and to run e 
 aj corruption 
 . But if th r jointly or separately, th 
 
 from, or mixed with 
 Christ's righteo and plea for salva- 
 
 . that it is end its native tendency is, 
 
 to turn Christ's imputed right' ail the 
 
 solid p a< ■ oi believew, and to excli ion out 
 
 world, and reserve it to another, and that with a horrible uncertainty of any 
 
30 
 
 particular man's partaking of it. But these blessed truths of God, and 
 blessings of believers, stand on firmer foundations than heaven or earth, 
 and will continue fixed against all the attempts of the gates of hell. — 
 Blessed be the rock, Christ, on which all is built ; blessed be the new cove- 
 nant, ordered in all things and sure ; and blessed is lie that bclieveth ; for 
 there shall be a performance of those things which are told him from the 
 Lord : Luke, i. 45. Amen. 
 London, September 1, 1692. 
 
APPENDIX BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 The term, Antinomianism, is employed to denote a System of doctrine, which naturally 
 leads to licentiousness of life. Those who deny that the law of God is the measure of duty, 
 or that personal holiness should be sought by Christians, are those alone who can proper- 
 ly be charged with Antinomian principles. The scriptures are so pointed and explicit in 
 pressing upon believers that, " denying ungodliness and wordly lusts, they should live 
 soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world," that it becomes a matter of no 
 little interest, even to the speculative inquirer, to account for the origin of Antinomianism. 
 We must not confound the origin of the word, with the origin of the thing. The latter 
 existed long before a single term, expressive of its true character, was applied to it. The 
 word was coined in the sixteenth century, to denote the peculiar opinions of John Agricola, 
 and his followers, in regard to the law. Agricola was a native of Aisleben — a friend and 
 abettor of Luther, until he began to propagate his extravagant opinions in the year 1538. 
 The thing existed as far back certainly, as the days of Paul and James. That the preach- 
 ing of the " word of the truth of the gospel," should have been attended with Antinomi- 
 an consequences upon any mind, however illiterate, can be accounted for, only by the sin- 
 gular tendency of man to oscillate, in his opinions and practices, from one extreme to ano- 
 ther. When, after a dreary night of Arminian darkness, and of legal bondage, the doc- 
 trines of grace arc proclaimed with clearness and power ; there are always found, men, 
 who, unable to endure the light which reveals the folly of their slavish toils, and unchris- 
 tian schemes, pervert the Gospel, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. If the 
 Pharisees and Doctors of the law had not galled and broken the necks of the people, by the 
 yoke of servitude which they imposed upon them, Paul, perhaps, would never have been 
 slanderously reported as teaching men to do ill, that good might come ; neither would any 
 have been tempted to boast of a faith which produced no fruit. Christians, no doubt, indi- 
 rectly and incidentally, afforded plausible pretexts to the carnal and profane. Those who 
 had been required to go through the laborious drudgery of establishing their own righteous- 
 ness — a toil not unlike that imposed upon the Hebrews by the Egyptian task-masters — 
 who were at all enlightened to perceive the defects and wickedness of their best perform- 
 ances, could not but hail with joy the proclamation of a perfect righteousness, which was 
 the " end of the law to every one that believed." And in their anxiety to free others from 
 the same gross and slavish delusions under which they had labored themselves, it is not 
 strange — it is natural that, in some instances, a phraseology more remarkable for point 
 than accuracy, should have been adopted for the purpose of effect. They saw the rcio-nino- 
 power of legalism — they had felt its bitterness and knew its curse, and consequently spoke 
 with the energy and pathos of men in earnest, when endeavoring to arrest the pharisaical 
 bias of the carnal heart. The dreams of the sleeper may be changed while his slumbers 
 arc unbroken. Many, no doubt, received opinions in the head, which found no entrance in 
 t lie heart; and confounding the important distinction between justification and sanctifica- 
 tion, and wilfully misled by the incautious statements of true disciples, pretended to re- 
 ceive Christ ; but it was a divided Christ, so that they might freely indulge the lascivious 
 propensities of the carnal mind. These are the men whom Jude and Peter denounce, 
 and whose monstrous opinions James refutes. Three circumstances, therefore, conspired 
 to produce the Antinomianism of the Apostolic age. 1 . The previous prevalence of legal 
 opinions : and 2, the reception of the true doctrine of justification, as a matter of the head 
 \. thont the concurrence of the heart; and consequently, separated from the gospel doc- 
 trine of sanctification. The mutual action and reaction of these two circumstances, gave 
 a violent impetus to these extravagant opinions ; the natural vibration of the mind is from 
 the extreme of legalism to that of licentiousness : and nothing but the grace of God can 
 fix it in the proper medium of Divine truth. The gospel, like its blessed Master, is alwaj-s 
 crucified between two thieves — legalists of all sorts on the one hand, and Antinomians on 
 th other: the former robbing theSaviour of the glory of his work for us, and the other 
 robbing him of the glory of his work within us. 3. Another circumstance which should 
 be specially noted, as contributing to a spirit of blasphemy among the ungodly, was, that 
 the gospel laid the axe at the root of human pride. It excluded all boasting on the part of 
 man. In the plenitude of his pride, lie had indulged the golden dream of buying the favor 
 of his God, by his vain oblations, his empty sacrifices, and heartless formality of worship ; 
 and when assured that even his righteousnesses were as filthy rags, when reminded of his 
 
32 
 
 native depravity and helplessness, like the encaged, but untamed tiger, he gnashed his 
 teeth in rage, and vented his blasphemy against God, by abusing, perverting and corrupting 
 the glorious gospel of grace. Such was the spring of Antinomianism in daring blasphe- 
 mers. To men, inflated with conceptions of their own sufficiency and intrinsic goodness, 
 the gospel, when unaccompanied by saving grace, will produce one of two effects: cither 
 contempt for its doctrines, or unblushing licentiousness. In the one case, its principles 
 are utterly rejected — in the other they madden and destroy. Both effects flow from the 
 same principles of pride. They arc only different streams from the same fountain. 
 The Antinomianism which sprung up in the time of Luther, (if indeed it can be called 
 Antinomianism,) seems to have been nothing more than a very violent revulsion in weak 
 minds, to the opposite extreme from the papal doctrine concerning good works. Whatever 
 may have been the errors of Agricola and his followers, Popery should be regarded as their 
 legitimate father. As long as men act upon the principle of "contraria contrariis curan- 
 u, when the gospel once comes to be proclaimed, will infallibly be followed 
 among unrenewed men, ! if some sort. The effect will be different, according to 
 
 the aspect in which the gospel is most strongly conl '. If it is seen ai 
 
 rjcctly in collision with our pride and natural self-suffl . result will be infati 
 
 blindness to its truth, or an r; tcyof life. If it is rieweda sysl 
 
 . full i d fr e salvation, without the works of the law, as a free gift of Go ; . 
 result will be a greedy appropriation of the blessing, without receiving Him by whom alone 
 istowed. The idea uppermosl F divine grace ; 
 
 and hence that spiritual training by which we are for the inheritance of the 
 
 saints in light, is totally disr< "aided, or presumptuously denied ; as if an unholy heart could 
 hold everlasting communion withaholy God. 
 
 Whatever form, : Antinomianism may assume, it springs from legalism. None 
 
 rashinto the o le, but those who have been in the other. IiLr. Crisp was really,as 
 
 usu , the founder of English Antinomianism, let it be remi 
 
 , eas notorii >ui I me, "a low Arminian, who held the merit ci'good works, and 
 
 looked for salvation more from his own doings, than froj 
 er." The Antinomi 
 
 ions, than in ' ■ 
 
 stimony to'' tee and worth, signed 1 
 
 it tincture oflil i— 
 
 rillous to apply t< 
 the Root. From tb •' Anti- 
 
 u ' ■ ■ i i after 1 
 
 in 1643, no; the time of Trail] mat has 
 
 ' land. 
 ' I middle waj which Traill alludes, is pn bably t] 
 
 rowed and I '';>.ir-'. ; d Bax- 
 
 ter, among the 1 
 stive it part in this cor i:om they . 
 
 I 
 
 stantiall; ined that i 1 
 
 and an i 
 
 and con 
 
 nently dangej 
 have a ] 
 
 maintained the true in th preceding 
 
 Letter. 
 According to Arminians generally, Antinomianism and i of grace wl 
 
 ■ i i;. Becaui ir ow ■■■ 
 
 erof our justification, tl 
 conclude that it excludes all persona] holiness; because itdoesnot confound atio 
 
 latter < ly. Thef illowing 
 
 ..m Traill's Sermons on the Lord's Prayer, ma - tided to their 
 
 ; ee: 
 
 "Chi > God for their sanci ideation. Election in Christ, is 
 
 an eternal purpose in God's heart and counsel about his people. Redemption by ( !h] is!, is a 
 
33 
 
 divine bargain for them and their salvation, betwixt the Father and Ihe Son. Justification 
 is a gracious sentence of God in Christ, on them that are. represented by him for accep- 
 tance. By this act and sentence the slate of their persons is favorably changed. But 
 salification is a divine work on them, that changeth their heart and nature. The Spirit 
 of sanetifieation is a precious gift of divine love; and is only given to them that arc in 
 Christ, and because they arc in him: GaL iv. (i. And because ye are sons, God hath sent 
 forth the Spirit of his Son into your //nuts, crying Abba, Father. All the anointings of 
 
 i be I lolv Ghost that believers receive, arc but s drops that fall down from the head of 
 
 our High-priest, unto the skirts of his garments : Fsali exxxiii. 2. lie received the spirit 
 without measure : Johniii. 34; that to his people, even to every one of them, grace may 
 be given, according to the measure of the gift of Christ : Eph. iv. 7 ; not according to the 
 measure thai Christ got, but the measure thai Christ giveth. And all of them receive it. 
 Horn. viii. !l : If any man have not the Spiritof Christ, he is none of his. Let him not 
 mi mi' the name of Christ, (as his Lord and Master,) that departeth not from iniquity: 2 
 'Tun. ii. l!'. All whose iniquities Christ did bear for their expiation, in due time Christ 
 blesseth them, in turning every one of them away from their iniquities: Acts hi. 26. This 
 blessing of sanetifieation is of pure grace ; for, as there is nothing of worth in a man, or re- 
 garded by God in justifying ; so there, is nothing of goodness, or of fit matter, for God to 
 work upon in his sanctifying. God's word is as clear about this as about the other. The 
 accoimt that we have so largely of the natural state of all men without Christ, is sufficient 
 to show the absolute necessity all stand in of God's grace to save them, and to declare both 
 the freedom and power of that grace in all its applications to men. Grace is the spring of 
 salvation, and of all its parts ; Christ is the root of all; and eternal life and glory is the 
 ripe fruit of all that grace of God, that reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by 
 Jesus Christ our Lord: Rom. v. 21. Sec but these texts, and read them, and conclude 
 this truth: 1 Cor. vi. 11 : Eph. ii. 1 — 7 : and Tit. iii. 3 — 7. In all which places justifica- 
 tion and sanetifieation are joined, (as they are certainly and constantly in all that partake 
 of them,) un worthiness in the receivers overcome, and passed over by the grace of the giver ; 
 and the interest of Jesus Christ, in God's giving, and in his people's receiving, of both 
 these blessings, is plainly told us." 
 
 Holiness, so far from being the cause of salvation, is a part of it : " He shall be called 
 Jesus, because he shall save his people from their sins." Sin is that body of death, from 
 which we are delivered, by the effectual operations of the Spirit of Christ. Hence it. is 
 perfectly ridiculous to represent works as conditions of salvation, since the ability and dis- 
 position to perform good works, arc blessings which we receive from our Saviour, in fulfil- 
 ment of his office as Redeemer. Holiness is a benefit received, and not a price paid ; it is 
 our meetness for heaven, not our title to it. " Gospel justification" says the Rev. Robert 
 Bragge, " is a change of state and condition in the eye of the law and the law-giver : where- 
 as gospel sanetifieation is a blessed conformity of heart and life to the law or will of the law- 
 giver. The first is relative change from being guilty to be righteous — the other, is a real 
 change, from being filthv to be holy. By the one we are made near to God, by the other 
 we are made like him. By being justified, of aliens we are made children; by being sancti- 
 fied, the enmity of the In ait is slain, and the sinner mad • not only a faithful, loyal subject, 
 but a loving, dutiful child. This may be set in the clearest light by the following simile : Our 
 children, the day they are born, are as much our children as they are ever after; but they 
 are many years growing up into a state of manhood ; their likeness to us, as it respects the 
 mind, as well as the body, is daily increasing. Thus a kind's first-born son is heir appa- 
 rent to the crown, while lying in the cradle: after-growth adds nothing to his title, but it 
 does to his fitness, to govern and succeed his father. Oxx right to heaven comes not in at 
 the doorof our sanetifieation, but at that of our justification ; but our meetness for heaven 
 does. By Christ's righteousness, it being upon us, we have a right to the inheritance ; and 
 by Christ's image, it b sing drawn upon us, we have our meetness." 
 
 Those who are anxious to see an elaborate and very able effort to reconcile the doctrine 
 of justification by works with the grace of God, as revealed in the Gospel, will find ample 
 satisfaction in the Harmonia Apostolica of Bishop Bull. If my limits allowed I would pre- 
 sent an abstract of the work, for the purpose of exposing the radical error which pervades 
 the whole system. Tin- Bishop inveighs severely against Pelagianism and those works 
 which are done by the power of nature without the grace of Christ, and denies that even 
 our evangelical obedience possesses any meril in itself — all its value is derived from the 
 nvnt of Christ. Christ merited, not that we might merit by our works, but. that we might 
 obtain. We have no strength in ourselves to do good works. This we derive from grace 
 — but the efficacy of grace depends entirely upon our own wills. Now the reigning error 
 of Arininianisin, Pelagianism and Neonomianism — for they arc all substantially the same; 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 they rest upon identically the same principle — is an utter disregard of the true Scripture 
 doctrine of graci , and a fatal misapprehension of the present condition of man in the sight 
 of God. The friends of these systems will all admit that a man is justified by grace; but 
 when they under ake to explain their meaning, " grace is no more grace. ' 
 
 The source of the error, in many minds is, the unfounded notion that grace is whatever 
 is opposed to m. nt. They judge oi the former by comparing it with the latter ; and hence 
 they suppose thai thej arc contending for salvation by grace, when they are only denying 
 salvation by merit. According to the conceptions winch we usually frame of merit, in 
 our intercouse with one another, it is impossible that man can deserve anything at the 
 hands of h s Maker. Wrapped in the blessedness and immensity oi His own nature, the 
 Eft rna I Jehovah stands in no need of am services from us ; and our constant dependence 
 upon His benevolence and bounty, for all the blessings which we enjoy, renders our h< 
 obedience nothing more than a suitable exj ression ot gratitude. We only give Him o His 
 own. The purest angels that surround His throne, strictly and properly speak ng, deserve 
 nothing at H.s hands : their joy and blessedness are nothing but the results of unrestrained 
 loving-kindness on His part. To suppose that man can merit any of 1 he ble. s ngs of God, 
 isjusl lo suppose that the obedience of man is a full equivalent for the favor of his Creator 
 — that it constitutes a value received, an actual benefit, which God is under a moral obliga- 
 tion to acknowledge. If grace then, s only that which is opposed to merit, such a thing 
 as salvation by giace, in distinction from any other scheme, is utterly impossible. The ne- 
 cessary relations subsisting between the creature and the Creator, preclude forever, even 
 from the holiest, the most, remote approximations to merit. Hence every scheme of salva- 
 tion stands upon the same footing on the score of grace ; and one can no m< re be ^aid to 
 be oi grace than another. If Adam had kept his first estate, and secured the fulfilment 
 of the promise to him and his posterity, he would have been just as far from meriting eter- 
 nal life, as the sinner redeemed by Christ ; and consequently, acccrdmg to this absurd con- 
 ception of the matter, would have been just as much saved by grace. We are not then to 
 look into the antithesis of merit, for just conceptions of grace. The scriptures no where 
 speak of 'he merit of the creature. This idea, unknown to the liolv and the good, is to 
 be found only in the hearts of the ruined and lost. Its only lodgment is in that cage ot 
 unclean birds — the unsanctificd heart of man. Strange that the wretch who is so far from 
 God — who is dead in trespasses and sins, should enhance his guilt Lv inflated corccptionsof 
 worth ! " Surely men of low degree are vanity, and mt n of high degree are a lie." To 
 what then, do the scriptures oppose grace? To works, to works of law. Grace is the op- 
 posite oi legal obedience. Justification by grace, is justification without the deeds of the 
 law. .Salvation by grace, is salvation which is not of works. " Being justified freely by 
 grace," is used as synonymous with, " being justified by faith without the deeds of the law." 
 Rom. iu. 24, 28. Grace and works are clearly opposed in Rom. xi. (5: "And if by grace, 
 then it is no more of work; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, 
 then it is no more grace ; otherwise work is no work." Also in Ephcs. ii. 8, 9 : *' For by 
 grace are ye saved through faith ; and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God : not of 
 works, lest any man should boast." The nature of a legal dispensation, or a state of proper 
 probation, is one in which God promises eternal life, upon condition of obedience to be ren- 
 dered to a specified law. The very essence of such a state consists in the prescription of 
 conditions. To prescribe the Condition is purely an act of sovereignty and grace — to be- 
 stow the blessing when the condition has been fulfilled, is an act of faithfulness, arising 
 only from the obligation which God, by liis promise, has imposed upon himself. In this 
 way, and in this way only, a divine blessing may become a matter, not of merit, but of 
 deli/ • Rpm. iv. 1 : " Now, to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of 
 debt.'" \> is due to the obedient by the divine promise. 
 
 Any plan of salvation, therefore, which lavs down any thing to be <h'ne Inj man, no mat- 
 ter what, and no matter how, whether with or without the assistance of divine grace, as a 
 condition of the Divine favor, isa legal plan, and rests upon the same fundamental princi- 
 ple, and is precisely of the same essential nature, with the scheme on w Inch the hopes of the 
 race were suspended before the fall. By a condition is meant that for the sake of which, the 
 blessing is bestowed — that to which it is promised, and without which it would not be be- 
 stowed. It is nut a value received for the blessing, or a strict and literal equivalent; the 
 blessing becomes due toil only by the grace and sovereign appointment, of God. The 
 term condition, is sometimes employed to express thai which is prior in the order of nature 
 ox of time. In this sense it is what Boston calls a condition of connexion : it denotes that 
 one event must take place before another, in consequence of their connexion in the scheme 
 of grace. Thus, in this sense, faith is a. condition of justification — not that it isa s. me- 
 thing to be done, for the sake of which we are justified, but we must be united to Christ be 
 
35 
 
 i'ure we can become partakers of his everlasting righteousness. — Holiness is a condition of 
 God: il isnecessary to the full enjoyment of the beatific vision. The successive 
 rounds in the ladder must be passed h in reach the top. When used in thii 
 
 the word condition, conveys no dangerous idea; but as an ambiguous word, liable to be 
 abused, il should be laid aside by all sound ministers of the Gospel. 
 
 It, then, God has made our sal i at ion dependent upon any th ng to be performed by us, it 
 is nol a matter of grace bul ol works. The nut, .in thai legalism is avoided byasi 
 our power to comply with the condit ons to the grace ol God, is a mere evasion of the d.fii. 
 culty. A legal dispensation □ uppo es powei in its subjects to comply with its 
 
 requiremi nts. We would instinctively revoll at the tyranny involved in the supposition 
 that Adam was destitute of the power necessary to fulfil the condition of the covenant of 
 works, li is hardly conceivable thai God would make a covenant with man, and sole; mil)' 
 ratify it without giving man the power to obey its requirements, li signifies little, wb ith- 
 er this power come from nature or from grace, (in either case it is from God,) man must 
 have it before he can be the subject or the party oi a legal covenant. Neither is the princi- 
 pie affected by he thmg required to be done ; whether it be obedience to the whole moral 
 law, or only sincere obedience, or only faith, repentance ami perseverance which are requir- 
 ed, something is to be done — a condition is prescr bed — and God's favour ultimately turns 
 upon m n's will. The principle of works is as fully recognized in a mild law as in a strict 
 one. He a< truly buys who pays only a farthing, as he who pays a thousand pounds. If 
 these principles are correct, the^Arminianism ol Bishop Bull, and Baxter, and all who co- 
 incide with them, is common ground with barefaced Pelagiamsm. There is no medium 
 in principle between Pelagian sin and Calvinism. Man is either not under a legal dispen- 
 sation at all, or there is no such thing as salvation by grace. Man is either saved by works 
 nr without them. There is no half way ground, and all the efforts to find one have proved 
 unsuccessful. Calvin sis maintain that man is not in a state of legal probation — that 
 he is condemned a. ready ; destitute o\' 1 fe and power ; and therefore incapable of being the 
 party to a legal covenant, and that God has never qualified him by grace to bee me so. He 
 is under the curse of such a covenant, and therefore cannot hope for its blessing. He is de- 
 livered from the guilt and domin on of sin by he p >wer and grace of a Redeemer. Being 
 destitute of all things in bims< If, he is justified by the righteousness of another, and sancti- 
 fied by the Spirit of another. Salvation as a harmonious whole, embracing , aid n, accept- 
 ance, adoption, peace, holiness and everlasting joy, is the free gift of God through .fesus 
 Christ our Lord. This is our testimony. In the faith of these principles we would live 
 and die, and consequently we would gl >ry in nothing but the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. He is all our "salvation and all our desire." 
 
Princeton Theolo9' 
 
 cal Seminary-SpMr 
 
 1 1012 01082 0258 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
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 m&?*W 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S.A.