A treatise of justifying righteousness in two books ... : all published instead of a fuller answer to the assaults in Dr. Tullies Justificatio Paulina ... / by Richard Baxter.

Object. 9. When you infer, That if we are reckoned to have perfectly obeyed in and by Christ, we cannot be again bound to obey our selves afterward, nor be guilty of any sin; you must know that it's true, That we cannot be bound to obey to the same ends as Christ did, (which is to redeem us, or to fulfil the Law of Works) But yet we must obey to other ends, viz. In∣gratitude, and to live to God, and to do good, and other such like.

Answ. 1. This is very true, That we are not bound to obey to all the same ends that Christ did, as to redeem the World, nor to fulfil the Law of Innocency. But hence it clearly followeth that Christ obeyed not in each of our Persons legally, but in the Person of a Mediator, seeing his due Obedi∣ence and ours have so different Ends, and a diffe∣rent formal Relation, (his being a conformity proxi∣mately to the Law, given him as Mediator) that they are not so much as of the same species, much less numerically the same.

2. And this fully proveth that we are not reckon∣ed to have perfectly obeyed in and by him: For else we could not be yet obliged to obey, though to other ends than he was: For either this Obedience of Gratitude is a Duty or not; If not, it is not truly Obedience, nor the omission sin: If yea, then that Duty was made a Duty by some Law: And if by a Law we are now bound to obey in gratitude (or

for what ends soever) either we do all that we are so bound to do, or not. If we do it (or any of it) then to say that we did it twice, once by Christ, and once by our selves, is to say that we were bound to do it twice, and then Christ did not all that we were bound to, but half: But what Man is he that sinneth not? Therefore seeing it is certain, that no Man doth all that he is bound to do by the Gospel, (in the time and measure of his Faith, Hope, Love, Fruitfulness, &c.) it followeth that he is a sinner, and that he is not supposed to have done all that by Christ which he failed in, both because he was bound to do it himself, and because he is a sinner for not doing it.

3. Yea, the Gospel binds us to that which Christ could not do for us, it being a Contradiction. Our great Duties are, 1. To believe in a Saviour. 2. To improve all the parts of his Mediation by a Life of Faith. 3. To repent of our sins. 4. To mortifie sinful Lusts in our selves. 5. To fight by the Spi∣rit against our flesh. 6. To confess our selves sin∣ners. 7. To pray for pardon. 8. To pray for that Grace which we culpably want. 9. To love God for redeeming us. 10. Sacramentally to co∣venant with Christ, and to receive him and his Gifts; with many such like; which Christ was not capable of doing in and on his own Person for us, though as Mediator he give us Grace to do them, and pray for the pardon of our sins, as in our selves.

4. But the Truth which this Objection intima∣teth, we all agree in, viz. That the Mediator per∣fectly kept the Law of Innocency, that the keeping of that Law might not be necessary to our Salvati∣on,

(and so such Righteousness necessary in our selves) but that we might be pardoned for want of perfect Innocency, and be saved upon our sincere keeping of the Law of Grace, because the Law of Innocency was kept by our Mediator, and thereby the Grace of the New-Covenant merited, and by it Christ, Pardon, Spirit and Life, by him freely given to Believers.