GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 43
same I say concerning all the reviling and contemptuous expressions that his ensuing pages are filled withal. But as to the present occa- sion, I beg his excuse if I believe him not, that the reading of the passages which he mentions out of my book filled him with " horror and indignation/' as he pretends. For whereas he acknowledgeth that my words may have a sense which he approves of (and which, therefore, must of necessity be good and sound), what honest and sober person would not rather take them in that sense, than wrest them unto another, so as to cast himself under the disquietment of a fit of horrible indignation? In this fit I suppose it was, if such a fit, indeed, did befall him (as one evil begets another), that he thought he might insinuate something of my denial of the necessity of our otun personal repentance and obedience. For no man who had read that book only of all my Avritings, could, with the least regard to conscience or honesty, give countenance unto such a surmise, unless his mind was much discomposed by the unexpected invasion of a fit of horror. But such is his dealing with me from first to last ; nor do I know where to fix on any one instance of his exceptions against me, wherein I can suppose he had escaped his pretended fit and was re- turned iinto himself, — that is, unto honest and ingenuous thoughts ; wherewith I hope he is mostly conversant. But though I cannot miss in the justification of this charge by considering any instance of his reflections, yet I shall at present take that which he insists longest upon, and filleth his discourse about it with most scurrility of expres- sions. And this is in the 16-4th page of his book, and those that follow ; for there he disputeth fiercely against me for making this to be an undue end of our serving God, — namely, that we may fiee from the ivrath to come. And w-ho would not take this for an inexpiable crime in any, especially in him who hath written so much of the nature and use of threatenings under the gospel, and the fear that ought to be ingenerated by them in the hearts of men, as I have done? Where- fore so great a crime being the object of them all, his revilings seem not only to be excused but allowed. But what if all this should prove a wdlful prevarication, not becoming a good man, much less a minister of the gospel? My words, as reported and transcribed by himself, are these : " Some there are that do the service of the house of God as the drudgery of their lives; the principle they yield obedience upon is a spirit of bondage unto fear; the rule they do it by is the laAv in its dread and rigour, exacting it of them to the utmost, without mercy or mitigation; the end they do it for is to fly from the wrath to come, to pacify conscience, and to seek for righteousness as it were by the works of the law."^ What follow unto the same purpose he omits, and what he adds as my words are not so, but his own; ubi p)udor, ' See Owen ou Communion with God, vol. ii of his works.
44; ON JUSTIFICATION".
uhi fides? That which I affirmed to be a part of an evil end, when and as it makes up one entire end, by being mixed with sundry other things expressly mentioned, is singled out, as if I had denied that in any sense it might be a part of a good end in our obedience : which I never thought, I never said ; I have spoken and written much to the contrary. And yet, to countenance himself in this disingenuous procedure, besides many other untrue reflections, he adds that I in- sinuate, that those whom I describe are Christians that seek right- eousness hy faith in Christ, p. 167. I must needs tell this author that my faith in this matter is, that such works as these will have no influence in his justification; and that the principal reason why I suppose I shall not, in my progress in this discourse, take any parti- cular notice of his exceptions, either against the truth or me, — next unto this consideration, that they are all trite and obsolete, and, as to what seemeth to be of any force in them, will occur unto me in other authors from whom they are derived, — is, that I may not have a con- tinual occasion to declare how forgetful he hath been of all the rules of ingenuity, yea, and of common honesty, in his dealing with me. For that which gave the occasion unto this present unpleasing di- gression,— it being no more, as to the substance of it, but that our sins were imputed unto Christ, and that his righteousness is imputed unto us, — it is that in the faith whereof I am assured I shall live and die, though he should write ttventy as learned books against it as those which he hatli already published; and in what sense I do believe these things shall be afterward declared. And although I judge no men upon the expressions that fall from them in polemical writings, wherein, on many occasions, they do affront their own experience, and contradict their own prayers; yet, as to those who understand not that blessed commutation of sins and righteousness, as to the sub- stance of it, which I have pleaded for, and the actings of our faith with respect thereunto, I shall be bold to say, " that if the gosj)el be hid, it is hid to them that perish."