The Scripture Gospel defended, and Christ, grace, and free justification vindicated against the libertines…

Mr. Cockain, in his Epistle, directing it to them that live Godly in Christ Jesus, t•lls them, that the Kingdom of God within them, shall never be shaken; and the Divine Nature that hath swallowed them up, shall for ever satisfy them with variety of Contentments. And is not that ours which is within us? And is this Kingdom and Divine Nature, nothing but that which Christ did without us, imputed to be done by us? And if this be no subordinate Righteousness, what doth the word signify so many hundred times used in the Scripture?

Let them but grant Justification by Faith, and let them assign Faith what Office therein they can reasonably imagine, without flat denying all Pauls Doctrine, and they will confute Dr. Crispe. Say but that Faith is imputed to us for Righteousness, and give not the lye to Paul, and sure we shall be reconciled. But if they will tell us that by Faith, Paul meaneth not Faith, but Christ's Righteousness; they must prove that they have more than a Papal Power to make God's Word, by making the Sense, when God maketh but the Letter, before we can renounce the Scripture and believe them. And yet, if they will expound Imputation soberly, we shall grant them the matter (that Christ's Righteousness is accounted to us ⟨image 79⟩of God, as the only Meritorious Cause of our Justification and Salvation) tho' we believe that by Faith, Paul meaneth Faith.

But if they still say, that by Faith is meant only the Object of Faith, and not the Act; could we but get them to forbear Anathematizing Men for being so Learned, as to understand English, we might yet hope at least, to keep the flame of their Zeal out of the thatch within the Chimney; by telling them the difference between the Object of Faith, as such, and the person that is the Object, otherwise considered. In real Existence, Christ, tho' not yet believed in, is the sole meritorious Cause: But it is only in esse cognito, that Christ is the Object of Faith. And School-Boys that have no damnable Learning, may teach these confident men, that the Object as an Object believed, is the very form in specie of the Act of Faith: It is an Act without it, but not this Act, viz. the Christian Faith. As sin in esse reall is damning, but in esse cognito objectivo, it is the form of the Grace of Repentance; so is it here. But if they will grant that by Faith is meant Faith, and not say that Paul condemneth Justification by Faith, as being but Justification by Works; let them but tell us, how it justifieth: I say not efficiently at all; but only as a mere receptive qualification: If they say as an Efficient Instrument, they give it much more than I do; and lay it on the Act or the [Greek or Hebrew] Credere, as they speak: For, what else is the Instrument; I hope they mean not that Christ and his Righteousness is but the Instrument: But of this, more after.