Johannes in eremo. Memoirs, relating to the lives, of the ever-memorable, Mr. John Cotton,…

They Talk of Justification in mere Ignorant Confusion;—They say, That to Justify is not to make Righteous, but to Judge Righteous.

They Talk of Justification in meer Ignorant Confusion;—They say, That to Justify is not to make Righteous, but to Judge Righteous.

They Err Grossly, saying, that by [Faith Imputed for Righteousness] and [our being Justified by Faith] is not meant, the Act, or Habit of Faith, but the Object, Christs Righteousness: Not sticking thereby to turn such Texts into worse than Non-sense.

These Things, which our Churches with amazement, behold Mr. Baxter thus calling Fictions, Falsehoods, Forgeries, Ignorant Confusions, and Gross Errors, Were Defended by Mr. Norton, as the, Faith once Delivered unto the Saints: Nor do our Churches at this Day consider them, as any other than, Glorious Truths of the Gospel; which, as they were maintained by Mr. Norton, So, two Divines which were the Scholars of Mr. Norton, Well-known in both Englands, Nathanael and Increase Mather, (Fratrum D•lce Par;) and a Third, a Worthy Minister of the Gospel, Mr. Samuel Willard, now Living in the same House from whence Mr. Norton went, unto that not made with Hands, have in their Printed Labours most accurately Expressed them, and Confirmed them▪ Hence, although, as on the One side, I have this Passage of Mr. Baxters, in a Letter from him, written but a few Months before he Dyed, I am ⟨p. 18⟩as […] a Lover […] the New-England Churches, as any Man, according to Mr. Nortons, and the Synods, Model; So, on the other side, the Memory of Mr. Baxter is on many accounts, Zealously Loved among the Churches of New-England, yet E pousing the Principles, for their Establishment wherein, Mr. Norton had appeared: Nevertheless, inasmuch as Mr. Baxter, just before his Entrance into his Everlasting Rest, requested of my Parent then in London, Sir, If you know of any Errors in any of my Writings, I Pray you to Confute them after I am Dead! I thought it not amiss, to Regard so far the Gospel-Truths of Justification at this Day Labouring, as to take Occasion from the Mention of Mr. Nortons Book, to say, That in that One Book of his, There is a Confutation of Mr. Baxter, who seems to Oppose those things, which, the Churches of New England judge cannot be Denied without Corrupting of Christianity, and Subverting of the Gospel. But waving any further mention of the Book, I cannot leave unmentioned a Couple of Passages in the Preface of it, which is Dedicatory to the General Court of the Massachust Colony. One is this; I appeal to any Competently Judicious and Sabre-minded man, if the Denial of Rule in the Presbytery, of a Decisive Voice in the Synod, and of the Power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion, do not in this Point Translate the Papal Power unto the Brotherhood of every Congregation. Another is this;