Of Christ's being our surety, of Christ's paying our debt, of our sins im- puted to Christ, of Christ's righteousness imputed to tis, of Christ's dying to appease the wrath of God and reconcile him to us, enough hath been spoken already to clear the meaning of them who use these expressions, and to manifest the truth of that which they intend by them, so that I shall not need again to consider them as they lie in this disorderly, confused heap which we have here gathered together.
Our justification by Christ being cashiered, he falls upon our sanctifica- tion in the next place, that he may leave us as little of Christians as he hath done our Saviour of the true Messiah. Infused grace is first assault- ed. The various acceptations of the word "grace" in the Scripture this is no place to insist upon. By " grace infused" we mean grace really be- stowed upon us, and abiding in us, from the Spirit of God. That a new spii'itual life or principle, enabling men to live to God, — that new, gracious, heavenly quaUties and endowments, as light, love, joy, faith, etc., bestowed on men, — are called " grace" and " graces of the Spirit,"^ I suppose will not be denied. These we call "infused grace" and "graces;" that is, we say God works these things in us by his Spirit, giving us a " new heart and a ncAv spirit, putting his law into our hearts, quickening us who were dead in trespasses and sins, making us light who were darkness, filling us with the fruits of the Spirit in joy, meekness, faith, Avhich are not of ourselves but the gifts of God." ^ Mr B. having before disclaimed all original sin, or the depravation of our nature by sin, in deadness, darkness, obstinacy, etc., thought it also incumbent on him to disown and disalloAv all repara- tion of it by grace; and all this under the name of a " mere Christian," not knowing that he discovcreth a frame of spirit utterly unacquainted with the main things of Christianity.
Free grace is next doomed to rejection. That all the grace, mercy, goodness of God, in our election, redemption, calling, sanctification, par- don, and salvation, is free, not deserved, not merited, nor by us any way procured, — that God doth all that he doth for us bountifully, fully, freely, of his own love and grace, — is afllrmed in this expression, and intended thereby. And is this found neither name nor thing in the Scriptures ? Is there no mention of " God's loving us freely; of his blotting out our sins for his own sake, for his name's sake; of his giving his Son for us from his own love ; of faith being not of ourselves, being the gift of God ; of his saving us, not according to the works of righteousness which we have done, but of his own mercy; of his justifying us by his grace, be- getting us of his own will, having mercy on whom he will have mercy ; of a covenant not like the old, wherein he hath promised to be merciful to our unrighteousness," etc.?* or is it possible that a man assuming to himself the name of a Christian should be ignorant of the doctrine of the free grace of God, or oppose it and yet profess not to reject the gospel as a
' Rom. iii 25 ; Acts xiii. 38, 39 ; Eom. iv. 5, 8, v. 1 ; Phil. iii. 9, 10 ; Rom. x. 3, 4. ' Eph. ii. 1, 2; Gal. v. 23-25. 3 phii. i. 6, ii. 13; Jer. xxxi. 33, xxxii. 39; Ezek.
xi. 19. xxxvi. 26, 27 ; Ileb. viii. 10. ♦ Eph. i. 4 ; John iii. 16 ; 1 John iv. 8, 10 ; Rom. V. 8; Eph. ii. 8; Tit. iii. 3-7; James i. 18; Rom. ix. 18; Heb. viii. 10-12.
so THE PREFACE OF MR RIDDLE
fiible? But tills was, and ever will be, the condemnation of some, that "b'ght is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light."
About the next ex]iression, of the world of the elect, I shall not con- tend. That by the name of " the world" (which term is used in the Scrip- tures in great variety of significations), the elect, as being in and of this visible world, and by nature no better than the rest of the inhabitants thereof, are sometimes peculiarly intended, is proved elsewhere,^ beyond whatever Mr B. is able to oppose thereunto.
Of the irresistible working of the Spirit, in bringing men to believe, the condition is otherwise. About the term "irresistible" I know none that care much to strive. That "faith is the gift of God, not of ourselves, that it is wrought in us by the exceeding greatness of the power of God; that in bestowing it upon us by his Spirit (that is, in our conversion), God eftectually creates a new heart in us, makes us new creatures, quickens us, raises us from the dead, working in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure; as he commanded light to shine out of darkness, so shining into our hearts, to give us the knowledge of his glory ;^ begetting lis anew of his own will," so irresistibly causing us to believe, because he eifec- tually works faith in us, — is the sum of what Mr B. here rejecteth, that he might be sure, as before, to leave nothing of weight in Christian religion uncondemned. But these trifles and falsities being renounced, he com- plains of the abuse of his darling, that it is called carnal reason; which being the only interpreter of Scripture which he allows of, he cannot but take it amiss that it should be so grossly slandered as to be called "carnal." The Scripture, indeed, tells us of a " natural man, that cannot discern the things which are of God, and that they are foolishness to him; of a carnal mind, that is enmity to God, and not like to have any reasons or reasonings but what are carnal ; of a wisdom that is carnal, sensual, and devilish ;' of a wisdom that God will destroy and confound;"' and that such is the best of the wisdom and reason of all unregenerate persons ; — but why the reason of a man in such a state, with such a mind about the things of God, should be called " carnal," Mr B. can see no reason; and some men, j^erhaps, will be apt to think that it is because all his reason is still carnal. When a man is " renewed after the image of him that created him" he is made "spiritual, light in the Lord," every thought and imagina- tion that sets up itself in his heart in opposition to God being led captive to the obedience of the gospel. We acknowledge a sanctified reason in such an one of that use in the dijudication of the things of God as shall afterward be declared.