Edward Fisher · 54 of 56

Appendix · Part 2

blessedness and ultimate end; but none, we conceive, will be peremptory in

saying, they have a threatening of hell annexed to the law they are under. And we

can by no means allow, that a believer, delivered by Christ from the covenant of

works, is still obnoxious, upon every new transgression, to the threatening of hell,

supposed to be inseparably annexed to the law of creation, or of the ten

commandments; which law every reasonable creature must for ever be under,

since this would, in effect, be no other than, after he is delivered from hell in one

respect, to bind him over to it in another. Whatever threatening one may suppose

belonged to the moral law of the ten commandments, antecedently to its receiving

a covenant form, all was, for certain, included in the sanction of the covenant of

works: so that Christ, in bearing the curse of it, redeemed believers from the hell,

vindictive wrath and curse, their sins in any sort deserved; the hand-writing that

was against them he cancelled, tore to pieces, and nailed to his cross. Hence the

threatening of hell and the curse are actually separated from the law of the ten

commandments, which believers are under as a rule of life; and to hold otherwise

is the leading error, yea, the very spring and fountain-head of Antinomianism; on

all which, Burgess, Rutherford, and others, may be heard.

QUERY V.—If it be peculiar to believers to be free of the commanding power

of the law, as a covenant of works?

Though our saying we cannot comprehend how the covenant of works, as such,

continues to have a commanding power over believers, that covenant form of it

being done away in Christ with respect to them, gives no sufficient foundation to

this query, since we affirm nothing concerning any but believers, whose freedom

from the commanding power of that covenant, the query seems, as much as we

do, to allow of; we answer affirmatively: for, since it is only to believers the Spirit

of God in Scripture says, "Ye are not under the law," the main import of which

phrase is, subjection to the commanding power of it, as a covenant,—"but under

grace"; and since they only are, by virtue of their union with Christ, actually freed

from being under the law, by Christ's being made under it, i.e., under its

command, as above, as well as under its curse for them; and since according to

our Confession, it is the peculiar privilege of believers, which, therefore, believers

have no interest in, not to be under the law as a covenant of works, to be justified

or condemned thereby, we can allow no other, besides believers, to be invested

with that immunity.

All unbelievers within, as well as without, the pale of the visible church, since

they seek righteousness only by the works of the law, and are strangers to the

covenant of grace, we always took to be debtors to the whole law, in their own

persons. And this their obligation, under the DO, or commanding power of that

covenant, we took to be inviolably firm, till such time as by faith they had

recourse to him who is "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that

believeth"; else we thought, and do still think, if their obligation to the command

of that covenant be dissolved, merely by their living under an external gospel

dispensation, they would be cast quite loose from being under any covenant at all,

contrary to the common received doctrine of the Protestant churches, namely,

that every person whatsoever is in and under one or other of the two covenants

of works and grace; nor could they, unless they be under the commanding power

of the covenant of works, be ever found transgressors of the law of that

covenant, by any actual sin of their own, nor be bound over anew under the

covenant-curse thereby.

The covenant of works, it is true, is, by the fall, weak and ineffectual, as a

covenant, to give us life, by reason of our weakness and disability to fulfil it,

being antecedently sinners, and obnoxious to its curse, which no person can be,

and yet at the same time have a right unto its promise. Hence, for any to seek life

and salvation by it now, is no other than to labour after an impossibility; yet does

it nevertheless continue in full force, as a law requiring of all sinners, while they

continue in their natural state, without taking hold, by faith, of Christ and the

grace of the new covenant; requiring of them, we say, personal and absolutely

perfect obedience, and threatening death upon every the least transgression. From

the commanding power of which law, requiring universal holiness in such rigour,

as that, on the least failure in substance, circumstance, or degree, all is rejected,

and we are determined transgressors of the whole law; believers, and they only,

are freed, as we said above. "But to suppose a person," says Dr. Owen, "by any

means freed from the curse due unto sin, and then to deny that, upon the

performance of the perfect sinless obedience which the law requires, he should

have right to the promise of life thereby, is to deny the truth of God, and to

reflect dishonour upon his justice. Our Lord himself was justified by the law; and

it is immutably true, that he who does the things of it, shall live in them." "It is

true," adds the same author, "that God did never formally and absolutely renew,

or give again this law, as a covenant of works, a second time; nor was there any

need that so he should do, unless it were declaratively only. And so it was

renewed at Sinai; for the whole of it being an emanation of eternal right and truth,

it abides, and must abide in full force for ever. Wherefore, it is only so far broken

as a covenant, that all mankind having sinned against the command of it, and so

by guilt, with the impotency to obedience, which ensued thereupon, defeated

themselves of any interest in its promise, and possibility of attaining any such

interest, they cannot have any benefit by it. But as to its power to oblige all

mankind unto obedience, and the unchangeable truths of its promises and

threatenings, it abides the same as it was from the beginning. The introducing of

another covenant, [adds he again on the same head,] inconsistent with, and

contrary to it, does not instantly free men from the law as a covenant; for, though

a new law abrogates a former law inconsistent with it, and frees all from

obedience, it is not so in a covenant, which operates not by sovereign authority,

but becomes a covenant by consent of them with whom it is made. So there is no

freedom from the old covenant, by the constitution of the new, till it be actually

complied with. In Adam's covenant we must abide under obligation to duty and

punishment, till by faith we be interested in the new."

From all which it appears to be no cogent reasoning to say, if the unbeliever be

under the commanding power of the covenant of works, then would he be under

two opposite commands at once, viz: to seek a perfect righteousness in his own

person, and to seek it also by faith in a surety; for, though the law requires of us

now, both active and passive righteousness in our own persons, and likewise,

upon the revelation of Jesus Christ in the gospel, as Jehovah our righteousness,

obliges us to believe in and submit to him as such, yet, as it is in many other cases

of duties, the law requires both these of us, not in sensu composito, as they say,

but in sensu diviso. The law is content to sustain and hold for good the payment

of a responsible surety, though itself provides none; and wills us, being insolvent

of ourselves, cheerfully, thankfully, and without delay, to accept of the non-such

favour offered unto us. But till the sinner, convinced of his undoneness otherwise,

accept of, use, and plead that benefit in his own behalf, the law will, and does go

on in its just demands and diligence against him. Having never had pleasure in the

sinful creature, by reason of our unfaithfulness, it can easily admit of the marriage

to another husband, upon a lawful divorce, after fair count and reckoning, and full

satisfaction and reparation made for all the invasions upon, and violations of the

first husband's honour; but, when the sinner, unwilling to hear of any such

motion, still cleaves to the law, its first husband, what wonder the law, in that

case, go on to use the sinner as he deserves? In short, this pretended absurdity, at

worst, amounts to no more than this,—Make full payment yourself, or find me

good and sufficient payment by a surety, till which time I will continue to proceed

against you, without mitigation or mercy. Wherefore, the unbeliever is justly

condemned by the law, both because he did not continue in all things written in

the book of the law to do them, and because he did not believe on the name of

the Son of God.

QUERY VI.—If a sinner, being justified, has all things at once that are

necessary for salvation? And if personal holiness, and progress in holy

obedience, is not necessary to a justified person's possession of glory, in case of

his continuing in life after his justification?

Ans.—The ground of this query, marked out to us, is, in these words of holy

Luther,—"For in Christ I have all things at once, neither need I anything more,

that is necessary unto salvation." And to us it is evident, that this is the believer's

plea, viz: Christ's most perfect obedience to the law, for him, in answer unto its

demand of good works for obtaining salvation, according to the tenor of the first

covenant, which plea the representation alleges to be cut off and condemned by

the Act of Assembly, But, without saying any thing of the old Popish reflection on

the doctrine of free justification by faith, without works, as it was taught by

Luther and other reformers, or the hardship of having this question put to us, as if

we had given ground of being suspected for enemies to gospel holiness, which our

consciences bear us witness, is our great desire to have advanced in ourselves and

others, as being fully persuaded, that without it neither they nor we shall see the

Lord; we answer to the first part of the query—

That, since a justified person, being passed from death to life, translated from the

power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son, and blest with all the

spiritual blessings in Christ, is, by virtue of his union with him, brought into and

secured in a state of salvation; and therefore, in the language of the Holy Ghost,

actually, though not completely, saved already; and since, in him, he has

particularly a most perfect, law-binding, and law-magnifying righteousness,

redemption in his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, access,

acceptance, wisdom, sanctification, everlasting strength, and, in one word, an

over-flowing, ever-flowing fullness, from which, according to the order of the

covenant, he does, and shall receive whatever he wants; hence, according to the

Scripture, in Christ all things are his and in him he is complete. Considering, we

say, these things, we think a justified person has in Christ at once all things

necessary to salvation, though of himself he has nothing.

To the second part of the query we answer, that personal holiness, and

justification, being inseparable in the believer, we are unwilling, so much as the

query does, to suppose their separation. Personal holiness we reckon so necessary

to the possession of glory, or to a state of perfect holiness and happiness, as is the

morning light to the noon- day warmth and brightness,—as is a reasonable soul to

a wise, healthy, strong, and full grown man,—as an antecedent is to its

consequent,—as a part is to the whole; for the difference betwixt a state of grace

and of glory, we take to be gradual only, according to the usual saying, "Grace is

glory begun, and glory grace in perfection." So necessary, again, as motion is to

evidence life, or in order to walking, not only habitual, but actual holiness and

progress in holy obedience, one continuing in life, we are clear, are so necessary,

that without the same none can see the Lord. And as it is not only the believer's

interest, but his necessary and indispensable duty, to be still going on "from

strength to strength, until he appear before the Lord in Zion"; so the righteous, we

believe, "will hold on his way, and he who is of clean hands will grow stronger

and stronger": for though the believer's progress in holy obedience, by reason of

the many stops, interruptions, and assaults he frequently meets with from Satan,

the world, and in-dwelling corruption, is far from being alike at all times, yet "the

path of the just," though he frequently fall, will be "as the shining light, that

shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Though he may, at times "become

weary and faint in his mind," yet shall he, by waiting on the Lord, "renew his

strength, and mount up as with eagles' wings," &c. But still the believer has all

this in and from Christ: for whence can our progress in holiness come, but from

the supply of his Spirit? Our walking in holy obedience, and every good motion of

ours, must be in him, and from him, who is the Way and the Life, who is our

head of influences, and the fountain of our strength, and who "works in us both

to will and to do." "Abide in me," says he, "and I in you. For without me ye can

do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is

withered."

But if the meaning of the query be, of such a necessity of holy obedience, in

order to the possession of glory, as imports any kind of causality, we dare not

answer in the affirmative; for we cannot look on personal holiness, or good

works, as properly federal and conditional means of obtaining the possession of

heaven, though we own they are necessary to make us meet for it.

QUERY VII.—Is preaching the necessity of a holy life, in order to the

obtaining of eternal happiness, of dangerous consequence to the doctrine of free

grace?

Ans.—The last of the two clauses of the eighth act of Assembly, being

complained of in the representation, is the first and main ground of this query.

And ere we make answer to it, we crave leave to explain ourselves more fully as

to the offence we conceive to be given by that act; namely, that, in opposition to,

and in place of the believer's plea of Christ's active righteousness, in answer to the

law, demanding good works, for obtaining salvation according to the tenor of the

first covenant, cut off, as we apprehend, by the fifth act; ministers are ordered, in

the eighth act, to preach the necessity of our own personal holiness, in order to

the obtaining of everlasting happiness. As also, that our inherent holiness seems to

be put too much on the same foot, in point of necessity, for obtaining everlasting

happiness, with justification by the Surety; which the frame of the words, being

as follows, will well admit, viz: "Of free justification through our blessed Surety,

the Lord Jesus Christ, received by faith alone; and of the necessity of an holy life,

in order to the obtaining of everlasting happiness." Moreover, that the great

fundamental of justification is laid down in such general terms, as adversaries will

easily agree to, without mention of the Surety's righteousness, active or passive,

or the imputation of either; especially since a motion in open Assembly for adding

the few, but momentous words,—imputed righteousness, was slighted. And,

finally, that that act is so little adapted to the end it is now given out to have been

designed for, viz:—a testimony to the supreme Godhead of our glorious God and

Saviour Jesus Christ, and against Arianism, especially since not the least

intimation or warning against that damnable heresy is to be found in the act itself,

nor was made to that Assembly, in passing of it.

To the query, we answer, that we cordially and sincerely own a holy life, or good

works, necessary, as an acknowledgment of God's sovereignty, and in obedience

to his command: for this is the will of God, even our sanctification; and, by a

special ordination, he has appointed believers to walk in them: necessary, for

glorifying God before the world, and showing the virtues of him who hath called

us out of darkness into his marvellous light: necessary, as being the end of our

election, our redemption, effectual calling, and regeneration; for "the Father chose

us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy; the Son

gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to

himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works"; and by the Holy Spirit are we

created in Christ Jesus unto them: necessary, as expressions of our gratitude to

our great Benefactor; for being bought with a price, we are no more our own, but

henceforth, in a most peculiar manner bound, in our bodies and in our spirits,

which are his, to glorify, and by all possible ways, to testify our thanksgiving to

our Lord Redeemer and Ransomer; to him "who spared not his own Son, but

gave him up to the death for us all"; to him "who humbled himself, and became

obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, for us": necessary, as being the

design, not only of the world, but of all ordinances and providences; even that as

he who has called us is holy, so we should be holy in all manner of conversation:

necessary, again, for evidencing and confirming our faith, good works being the

breath, the native offspring and issue of it: necessary, for making our calling and

election sure; for they are, though no plea, yet a good evidence for heaven, or an

argument confirming our assurance and hope of salvation: necessary, to the

maintaining of inward peace and comfort, though not as the ground and

foundation, yet as effects, fruits, and concomitants of faith: necessary, in order to

our entertaining communion with God even in this life; for, "if we say we have

fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth":

necessary, to the escaping of judgments, and to the enjoyment of many promised

blessings; particularly there is a necessity of order and method, that one be holy

before he can be admitted to see and enjoy God in heaven; that being a disposing

mean, preparing for the salvation of it, and the king's highway chalked out for the

redeemed to walk into the city: necessary, to adorn the gospel and grace our holy

calling and profession: necessary, further, for the edification, good, and comfort,

of fellow-believers: necessary, to prevent offence, and to stop the mouths of the

wicked; to win likewise the unbelieving, and to commend Christ and his ways to

the consciences: necessary, finally, for the establishment, security, and glory of

churches and nations. Though we firmly believe holiness necessary upon all these

and more accounts, and that the Christian ought to live in the continued exercise

of gospel repentance, which is one main constituent of gospel holiness, yet we

dare not say a holy life is necessary in order to the obtaining of eternal happiness;

for, to say nothing of the more gross sense of these words, [manifestly injurious

to the free grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith in whose righteousness alone

we are appointed to obtain salvation, from first to last,] which yet is obvious

enough, though we are far from imputing it to the Assembly; we cannot, however

they may be explained into an orthodox meaning, look upon them as wholesome

words, since they have at least an appearance of evil, being such a way of

expression as Protestant churches and divines, knowing the strong natural bias in

all men towards seeking salvation, not by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, but by

works of righteousness done by themselves, and the danger of symbolizing with

Papists and other enemies of the grace of the gospel, have industriously shunned

to use on that head; they choosing rather to call holiness and good works

necessary duties of the persons justified and saved, than conditions of salvation;

consequents and effects of salvation already obtained, or antecedents, disposing

and preparing the subject for the salvation to be obtained, than any sort of causes,

or proper means of obtaining the possession of salvation; which last honour, the

Scripture, for the high praise and glory of sovereign grace, seems to have reserved

peculiarly unto faith; and rather to say, that holiness is necessary in them that

shall be saved, than necessary to salvation; that we are saved, not by good works,

but rather to them, as fruits and effects of saving grace; or that holiness is

necessary unto salvation, not so much as a mean to the end, as a part of the end

itself; which part of our salvation is necessary, to make us meet for the other that

is yet behind.

Wherefore, since this way of speaking of holiness with respect to salvation, is, we

conceive, without warrant in the holy Scripture, dissonant from the doctrinal

standards of our own and other reformed churches, as well as from the chosen

and deliberate speech of reformed divines treating on these heads; and since it

being at best but proposition male sonans, may easily be mistaken, and

afterwards improved, as a shade or vehicle, for conveying corrupt sentiments,

anent the influence of works upon salvation; we cannot but reckon preaching the

necessity of holiness in such terms to be of some dangerous consequence to the

doctrine of free grace. In which apprehension we are the more confirmed, that at

this day the doctrine of Christ, and his free grace, both as to the purity and

efficacy of the same, seems to be much on the wane, and Popery, with other

dangerous errors and heresies destructive of it, on the waxing; which certainly

calls aloud to the churches of Christ, and to his ministers in particular, for the

more zeal, watchfulness, and caution, with reference to the interests of truth; and

that especially at such a time, cum hereticis nec nomina habeamus communia, ne

eorum errori favere videamur.

If in any case, certainly in framing acts and standards of doctrine, there is great

need of delicacy in the choice of words; for the words of the Holy Ghost in

Scripture, under which we include such as in meaning and import are equivalent

to them, being an ordinance of divine institution, for preserving the truth of the

gospel, if these be once altered or varied, all the wisdom and vigilance of men will

be ineffectual to that end. And it is well known, by costly experience to the

churches of Christ, that their falling in with the language or phrase of corrupt

teachers, instead of serving the interest of truth, which never looks so well as in

its own native simplicity, does but grieve the stable and judicious, stagger the

weak, betray the ignorant, and, instead of gaining, harden and open the mouths of

adversaries. And that it is said in a text, "They do it to obtain a corruptible crown,

but we an incorruptible," will not warrant the manner of speech in the query; for

the word, in the original, signifies only to receive or apprehend, being accordingly

rendered in all Latin versions we have seen, and in our own translation in the

verse immediately preceding, viz: "One receiveth the prize"; and though the word

did signify to obtain, in the most strict and proper sense it could not make for the

purpose, unless it were meant of the believer's obtaining the incorruptible crown,

not by faith, but by works. And that an ill chosen word in a standard may prove

more dangerous to the truth, than one not so justly rendered in a translation, with

several other things on this head, might be made very evident, were it not that we

have been, we fear, tedious on it already.

QUERY VIII.—Is knowledge, belief, and persuasion, that Christ died for me,

and that he is mine, and that whatever he did and suffered, he did and suffered

for me, the direct act of faith, whereby a sinner is united to Christ, interested in

him, instated in God's covenant of grace? Or, is that knowledge a persuasion

included in the very essence of that justifying act of faith?

Ans. The query, it is evident, exceedingly narrows the import and design of the

Representation in the place referred to; for there we assert nothing positively

concerning the passages relating to faith, but remonstrate against condemning

them, as what to us seemed to hurt the appropriating act of faith, and to fix a blot

upon the Reformation, reformed churches, and divines, who had generally taught

concerning faith, as in the condemned passages; all which we might say, without

determining whether the persuasion spoke of in the query was the very direct and

formal act of justifying faith, yea or no. But now, since the query is put so close,

and since the matter in question is no other than the old Protestant doctrine on

that head, as we shall endeavour to make appear, the Reverend Commission, we

humbly conceive, cannot take it amiss, if we, in the first place, inquire into the

true sense and meaning of this way of speaking of faith, that we are now

questioned about.

The main of the condemned passages the query refers to, runs not in the order

therein set down, but as follows: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt

be saved"; that is, "Be verily persuaded in your heart that Christ Jesus is yours,

and that you shall have life and salvation by him; that whatever Christ did for the

redemption of mankind, he did it for you": being in matter the same with what has

been commonly taught in the Protestant churches, and, in words of the renowned

Mr. John Rogers, of Dodham, [a man so noted for orthodoxy, holiness, and the

Lord's countenancing of his ministry, that no sound Protestants in Britain or

Ireland, of what denomination soever, would, in the age wherein he lived, have

taken upon them to condemn as erroneous] his definition of faith, which we have

as follows: "A particular persuasion of my heart that Christ Jesus is mine, and that

I shall have life and salvation by his means; that whatsoever Christ did for the

redemption of mankind, he did it for me." Where one may see, though the

difference in words be almost none at all, yet it runs rather stronger with him than

in the Marrow.

In which account of saving faith, we have, first, the general nature of it; viz: a real

persuasion, agreeing to all sorts of faith whatsoever; for it is certain, whatever one

believes, he is verily persuaded of. More particularly, it is a persuasion in the

heart, whereby it is distinguished from a general, dead, and naked assent in the

head, which one gives to things that no way affect him, because he reckons they

do not concern him. But with the heart man believes here; "If thou believest with

all thine heart," says the Scripture. For as a man's believing in his heart the

dreadful tidings of the law, or its curse, imports not only an assent to them as

true, but a horror of them as evil; so here, the being persuaded in one's heart of

the glad tidings of the gospel, bears not only an assent unto them as true, but a

relish of them as good.

Then we have the most special nature of it, viz: an appropriating persuasion, or a

persuasion, with application to a person's self, that Christ is his, &c. The

particulars whereof are, first, that Christ is yours; the ground of which persuasion

is the offer and grant of Christ as a Saviour in the word, to be believed in for

salvation, by all to whom the gospel is made known. By which offer and setting

forth of Christ as a Saviour, though before we believe, we wanting union with

him, have no actual or saving interest in him, yet he is in some sense ours,

namely, so as it is lawful and warrantable for us, not for fallen angels, to take

possession of him and his salvation by faith; without which, our common interest

in him as a Saviour, by virtue of the offer and grant in the word, will avail us

nothing. But though the call and offer of the gospel, being really particular, every

one, both in point of duty and in point of interest, ought to appropriate, apply, or

make his own the thing offered, by believing, they having good and sufficient

ground and warrant in the word so to do; yet is it either neglected and despised,

or the truth and sincerity of it suspected and called in question, until the Holy

Spirit, by setting home the word of the gospel, with such a measure of evidence

and power as is effectual, satisfies the convinced sinner, that, with application to

himself in particular, "it is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus