A Breviate of the Doctrine of Justification , Dilivered in many Books , By RICHARD BAXTER : In many Propositions , And the Solution of 50 Controversies about it .

Written , 1. To end such Controversies . 2. To confute Rash Censurers and Errours . 3. To inform the Ignorant . 4. To procure Correction from wiser men , if I mistake .

Occasioned by some mens Accusation of me to others , that will not vouchsafe their Instruction to my self .

And by the Erroneous and dangerous Writings and Preachings of some well-meaning men , such as Mr. Troughton , &c. who at once mistake and misreport God's Word and ours , and fight in the dark against Christian Faith and Love .

LONDON , Printed for Tho. Parkhurst , at the Bible and Three Crowns , at the lower end of Cheapside . 1690.

§ . 1. THE Doctrine of the Justification of sinful man , by Christ as our Redeemer , Saviour and Judge , is of so great moment , that it should be Skilfully taught to all that are Catechised . And yet by the Unskilfulness of Teachers , is become a foot-ball of Strife and Contention , and of Wrathful Censures , and Reproach , among those who are most zealous for the safe and honourable preservation of it , and really differ more in the Terms and Methods which they think must preserve it , than in the inward practical sense of the matter itself .

§ . 2. Two things constitute this itch or leprosy rather of strife , which experience maketh us fear is uncurable : And these two are one . Ignorance : Ignorance of the case : And Ignorance of our Ignorance . But what Ignorance is it ? I am grieved to know and speak it . It is Ignorance of words or the art of speaking ; of Grammar and Logick . O what a plague did Nimrod bring on the World , and what a Babel hath it been by the confusion of language to this day ! How vain hath peaceable Dr. Wilkins attempt of an Universal Character proved ? My good old highly valued Friend , Mr. John Eliots long ago wrote to me , that to make the Hebrew the Universal Language , and to set up a Godly Magistracy in the world were the two things yet to be done for Universal Concord and Reformation : Alas , good man ? Abi in cellam ▪ &c. If you can get the Earth to drink up the flood of Persecution cast out against you in New-England , it is well . Little did I think when I was a Schoolboy Learning my Grammar , that I should live to find that the Christian World is all in confusion ▪ Divisi●n , Wrath , Schism , War , and Blood , and much , if not mostly for want of Skill in words or Grammar !

But indeed were there one Universal Language it would not be enough to heal us . For we are mostly so dull of nature , & so slothful in our Studies , and so apt to speak as our parents or first Masters or ●ompany teach us , that we are utterly disagreed and unreconcileable about the sense of our ommon words in our Mother Tongue . So that if English were the only Language of the World , we should still be disagreed : I have been a great comtemner of vain ostentation in Critical or Verbal Skill : But I see that rightly used about things necessary , it must be a principal help to end most of our Controversies .

§ . 3. Though supernatural Revelation far exceedeth the meer light of Nature , and the teachings of the Creation ▪ yet the difficulty of learning and speaking many Languages , without which we cannot Preach abroad in the World , and the Universal Wars about words that take up and corrupt mankind , do make me read the 19 Psalm . with great regard , and not think so hardly as I have been tempted to do , of Gods dealing with the heathen and generality of mankind , while the Heavens declare the glory of God , and the firmament sheweth his handy works , while day unto day utters Knowledge and while Sun Moon , and Stars , do Preach God with so loud a voice , and their sound goeth through all the World and there is no Nation or Tongue where their sound is not heard : And it is not a Syllable or Letter , an Accent or an Emphasis , that doth obscure their sense . And they all tell the World that God is , and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him . And that the invisible things of God are seen by the things that are made , and in him we live and move and have our being , and that in every Nation , he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him . It is most legible in the book of Nature , and Providence , that God useth all the World upon terms of mercy , and not according to the utmost desert of sin ; and that this mercy should lead them to repentance , and that God is infinitely good , and therefore to be Loved above all : And that he that truly so loveth God , shall not lie in Hell and be separated from him .

§ 4. Were it only Plow-men and other of the unlearned Vulgar that thus contended about words not understood , they had some excuse : But it is those that have from their Child-hood been bred up to learn the art of speaking by their Parents , and School masters , Books , and Universities . And when they have been thus tutor'd thirty or forty years , and exercised in Pulpits to the talking art , and gloried in it ; they are after all this the incendiaries of the world , for want of understanding what to say .

Yea were it only men that understand not Hebrew , Greek , Latin or any Language save one , and were Skilful in that one , we might have some hope of ending this blind War . But it is kept up by our unskilfulness in the English tongue , as well as of the Greek and Hebrew . Men have not brains and diligence to exclude Equivocals , or to distinguish of their sense ; or to state the sence of their terms before they dispute . Nor to understand each others meaning , but fight in confusion in the dark like the Physicians that let the Patient die , because they could not agree whether he should take succinum , Carabes , Electrum or Amber .

§ 5 Whither need we to go for an instance of this unhappiness , but to our controversies about Justification ? How many Books , Sermons , Disputings , and Back-biting Revilings , are employed about words neither explained nor understood ! Rash folly and confident rage beseem not holy things , that should be managed by Reverence and Discretion .

1. Justification is loudly talkt of , by men that know not , or never tell you what the word signifieth , or what the thing is : They never tell you whether they mean making Righteous Eff●ciently , or making Righteous Constitutively , or making Righteous Instrumentally , or only Virtually , absolutely or conditionally ; or only a Dispositive Reception of it as a gift ; or Esteeming one Righteous or Justifying by Apology , by Witness , by Evidence , or by Decisive Sentence of the Judge , or executively using one as Righteous ; Or many of these Conjunct , and which . Or if they name one sence , they give us quite another when they are put to define it . Mr. Bradshaws little Book is too big for their brains ; because the distinctions are so many when others by distinction and clear explication make the Controversies intelligible , ( as is excellently done by many ) they understand them not , or despise distinction , and still mouth out the ambiguous word Justification , as if they would end Controversies as a Bell Ringeth by Sound and Noise : When Paul saith , 1 Cor. 14.7 , 8. That even things without life must give a distinction in the Sounds as Harp and Trumpet , or else who can know what is Piped or Harped , or can prepare himself to the Battle ? So we unless we utter words easy to be understood , how shall it be known what is spoken ? But we speak into the air , v. 9. But confusion and ambiguity are not instructive , but deceitful to the simple .

2. So they talk much of Imputation , and neither know nor tell you what Imputation is : But take it mostly to be that which even Dr. Crispe calleth a charging God with falshood ; as if it were his Reputing , Reckoning , Esteeming or Supposing us to be what indeed we are not ▪ or to have done or suffered what we did not , or to have what we have not : Whereas Paul meaneth nothing ( & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth nothing but a true accounting us to be what we are , and to have done what we did , and to have what we indeed have . And to impute righteousness to us , signifieth but truly to Repute , Account or Judge us Righteous . Those that are here most inclined to mistake , should the rather take Mr. Bradshaw to be impartial , because he was for Independent Church Government ( tho sharp against Separation . ) And in the Preface to his English Edition of his little Book of Justification , he hath in a few lines said enough to end al this Controversy , by a true explaining in what sense Christs Righteousness is imputed to us , and how not .

3. And do they tell us with any agreement what Righteousness of Christ they call Imputed ? Some say only the Passive , some also the Active ; Some also the habitual , and some also the Divine . Much less agree they to what Effects it is imputed , and how far .

4. Also the name of Faith is used without a due and true explication of their meaning . One by Faith meaneth not Faith , but Christs Righteousness . Another calls it an Instrument , and yet denieth it to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere that is , the Act of Faith indeed , as if any thing else was that instrument . Another saith it is but one Physical act , and not like contracting , a Moral complication of many Physical Acts : One saith it is but one Act , and all other Acts of Faith he that looketh to be Justified by denieth the Doctrine of Grace or true Justification , and so leave men to despair because they can never tell which that single is , and how to escape the damning Doctrine of Justification by works . One saith it is the Understandings assent : Another that it is the Wills recumbency , or trust : One saith it is only Faith in Christ that Justifieth , and not in God the Father or the Holy Ghost : One saith it is only Faith in Christs Priestly Office , and not in Christ as Prophet or King ; some say it is not Faith in his whole Priestly Office , either his Intercession or Heavenly Priesthood , but only in his Sacrifice and Obedience . Another that it is only the trusting on his Imputed Righteousness : Another that it is none of all these , but only the belief that we are already Justified by Christ . One saith we are Justified only at once by the first numerical Act of Faith , and never by any after Act : Another that an Act of the same Species continueth our Justification . And this confusion is from the vain fantasy of men , that will divide and mince and yet will not sufficiently distinguish : and know not that by Faith is meant our becoming Christians and continuing such .

5. So they talk loud against Works in the Case of Justification , and know not what either Paul or James or Christ meaneth by works . But they dream that Works and Acts are of the same signification ; As if every humane Act were that which Paul meaneth by works , contrary to his express explication : And so to be Justified by Faith must be to be Justified by Works . One saith , we will grant Justification by Faith , if you take it aright , to be a going wholly out of our selves and denying all our own righteousness , and going to Christ and his Righteousness alone . But is their chosen Metaphor [ of Going out , and Going to ] an Act or no Act ? If an Act , than it is works , if they may be believed . If no Act , then their meaning is , we confess that you are Justified by Believing , if you do not believe : You are Justified by Faith , if Faith be nothing ; and by coming to Christ if you come not to him , or it be nothing . Such is the sence of these Confounders and Corrupters .

But these and many such mistakes are to be opened in their proper place .

That which I here intend is ( not a confutation of this or that writer , but ) to give them a breviate of my own Judgment , who will not read what I have largely written in many books long ago ▪ pretending that the length of the books is their reason ; and yet have not so much conscience as to suspend their censures , no nor their back-biting , false accusations of that which they have not leisure to understand or read ; They judge hard cases which they never digested by any answerable Study ; and Scruple not Judging and Slandering per●ons unheard .

Corrupting the Gospel , and so excellent a Subject as the Doctrine of Grace , and of the Office and Merits and Judgment of Christ , and so of Christianity it self , is a matter that conscience should more tenderly fear , than wearing a Surplice , or kneeling at the Sacrament , or communicating with a Church that useth the Common-Prayers . To think those unworthy of their Communion that use such Ceremonies or forms of prayer , and at the same time to prophane so high a part of the name of God , as is his Grace in Christ , and his Justifying , Governing and Saving works , and this ( quoad verba ) by corrupting it even in Essentials , and then to defame as erroneous those that are not as Ignorant and Erroneous as themselves , and to foment malice and errour and Sects by such lying defamations : This is a Nonconformity which I earnestly desire that no man that loveth Christ , or Free grace , or the Church or his own Soul ; may ever take for his duty or his honour , or rashly as a sequacious admirer of any mistaken leader be ever guilty of : What is straining at a Gnat and swallowing a Camel , if this be not ? And of how ill a constitution is such a blind and partial conscience ?

I shall here study brevity , and first explain the Doctrine of Grace , and Righteousness and Justification , in some self-evident Propositions And next briefly resolve about fifty doubts or Controversies hereabout .