The marrow of true justification, or, Justification without works containing the substance of two…

We preach to you, Sinners, that Jesus Christ will entertain you, if you come to him, bid you welcome, and not cast you off, because of the Greatness of your Sins, though you have no Qualifications to recommend you to him. Would you wash your selves from your Sins, and then come to the Fountain of his Blood to be washed; we hold forth Christ to be your whole Saviour, and that he is set forth as the Propitiation through Faith in his Blood, whom if you close with, and believe in, you shall be justified: We tell you God justifies the Ungodly, i. e. that they are so before justified.

Nor is ou• Doctrine any other, than what all sound Protestants have always contended for; nay, which the Church of England in her 39 Articles doth assert, viz. Imputed Righteousness and Justification only for the Merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own Works and Deservings, and that we are justified by Faith only; and that Works done before the Grace of Christ, and the Inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasing to God, forasmuch as they spring not from Faith in Christ, neither do they make Men meet to receive Grace, &c.

Let me exhort you not to receive for Truth all things that you find asserted in some Men's Books, Sermons, and Writings, though recommended by such Men you have so great a Veneration for. I hope some of those Ministers that have set their Hands to Mr. William's late Book, will see Cause to repent of their rash Act, and great Inadvertency; for we cannot see but that the said Book brings in another Gospel, or is a Subversion of the Gospel (tho' the unwary Reader may not soon discover the Poison that lies hid in it) and 'tis full of hard, and uncouth, or unintelligible Terms, Notions and Expressions, not formerly known to the Christian World: 'Tis strange to me that he should intimate and hold forth the Gospel to be a Law, or Command of Duty, as a Condition with the Sanction of Threats upon Non-performance, and Promises of Rewards upon Performance of sincere Obedience; for if Sincerity of Grace and Holiness be not the Condition of that which he often calls the Rule of the Promise, which he nevertheless says is not the Precept, I understand him not: Doth he not mean a Man must be holy, sincere, or a New Creature, before he ventures on the Promise of the Gospel, or can be justified, which is the Error my Text opposes; as if the free Promise of the Grace of God in laying hold on Christ and his Righteousness justifies us not, but that we must get some inherent Qualifications of Holiness, as the Rule of the Promise, before we venture upon it, or throw our selves upon Jesus Christ, and so must receive him as Saints and not as Sinners; which is directly contrary to what all our true Protestant Writers and Modern Divines have all along asserted. The Papists say, a Man must be inherently righteous before he can be declared just; and that Faith justifies, as it infuses such a Righteousness in us: And this Man says but little else, if I understand him; i. e. a Man must answer the Rule of the Gospel-Promise, asserting that the Gospel doth judicially determine a Conformity to the Rule thereof; and when God forgives, he judicially declares a Man hath true Faith, and by Faith he means doubtless more than a laying hold on Christ, viz. the making good the Baptismal Covenant, i. e. to love, serve, and sincerely to yield Obedience to the Gospel; so that Faith must by him be taken in a large and comprehensive manner: