“…beloved, though the righteousness we are to perform be superfluous and vain, in respect of any power it hath with God; to move him to do us good, yet it is not altogether superfluous; it is most true, that all the righteousness of man cannot prevail with God to do us good; there is but one mover of God, the man Christ Jesus, who is the only and sole mediator. If you will have your own righteousness to be your mediator with God, to speak to God for you, to prevail with God for you; what is this, but to put it in the room and place of Christ’s? What is the mediation of Christ else, but for him to come between God and man, and be the day’s-man to lay his hand upon both, and at once to reconcile them? and shall your righteousness be the day’s-man, and lay hands upon God and man; then farewell Christ and his mediatorship; for this is the peculiar office of Christ, to be man’s mediator, and advocate with the Father, to prevail with him for any good for us; so far, therefore, as any person looks after his own righteousness, to bring glad tidings from God to him, so far a man establisheth it in the room and place of the righteousness of God; which proceeds from the ignorance of that righteousness, and will in the bud prove a stumblingblock to men, and a rock of offence to them.” – Tobias Crisp
Category Archives: Tobias Crisp
“be ye holy”
Tobias Crisp;
Beloved, will you starve ye in a cook’s shop, as they say?
Is there such plenty in Christ, and will yon perish for hunger?
You will answer, it may be, you would close with him, you would go to him for supply with all your hearts, but you dare not, yon are afraid he will reject you, if you come to him. Beloved, come to Christ, and he will not cast you off.
Would you have joy and peace?
Come to him, and the God of peace will fill you with all peace and joy in believing.
Would you have your iniquities subdued?
Come to him, and sin shall not have dominion over you, saith the apostle; for, “Ye are not under the law, but under grace;” for it is the grace of God that brings salvation from sin, as well as from wrath; and “this grace of God, (saith the apostle) will teach you to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts.”
There is no greater motive to encourage man to venture upon any thing that Christ puts him upon, than that he hath him to enable and lead him through it. In the mean time, give me leave to put one caution to you: Christ, I say, being the head, and as the head being the beginning, the supplier of all things pertaining to life and godliness; if there be any person that either now, or at any other time, make these most desperate conclusions from any thing that they have heard, as that they may continue to sin, and go on in iniquity, Christ hath died for them; let them sin as much as they can, they cannot out-sin the death of Christ; if there be any person that charges any such untruth upon any minister, and will collect such blasphemies from the doctrine of the gospel of Christ, let them know, that God will either bring them to see the greatness of their folly, and to be ashamed of it; or, for ought I know, they may have their deserved portion in the lowest part of hell.
I dare be bold to say, there is no people, who are so prejudicial to the gospel of Christ, as such stumbling blocks are; nor unto trembling hearts that would fain close with the free grace of God in Christ, as such persons that take liberty to sin, that grace may abound; causing the gospel to be evil spoken of, and detested, and that scandalous name to be raised upon it, that it is a doctrine of liberty.
Beloved, “as he that hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;” and he that hath called you, will make you holy, as he is holy. [source]
Tobias Crisp (1600-1643)
Many Reformed folks have Crisp pegged as an antinominian, he was not.
from MEN’S OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS THEIR GRAND IDOL,
“I am not ignorant, beloved, how this assertion goeth under the foul blur of Antinomianism, that blameless walking according to the law, being established, is a fruit of ignorance, and a cause of men’s not “submitting to the righteousness of God.” And no marvel it goes for such now; for, in the apostle’s time it was accounted so; nay, it was objected against the apostle himself as direct Antinomianism: and, therefore, he was enforced to vindicate himself thus,” Do we make void the law, (saith he) through faith? God forbid!” he takes away the objection they put to him, upon his establishing of God’s righteousness, and his overthrowing our righteousness. It was objected, that hereby he went about to make void the law; and, therefore, it is no marvel it holds still as an objection, that the maintaining of this principle is the overthrowing of the law. But, beloved, I must say to you, as the apostle did in the same case, “God forbid! yea, we establish the law,” that is to say; in its right place. It takes men off from performing duties to corrupt ends, and from the bad use they are apt to make of them; namely, idolizing their own righteousness. And, therefore, he doth not condemn the use of the law, and our righteousness, simply: that which he speaks against here is the establishing of our righteousness. Our own righteousness is good in its kind, and for its own proper uses; but then it proves a fruit of sin, ignorance, and a dangerous stumbling-block, and an idol, when we go about to establish it.”
You can get a better idea of his thought by reading his sermons: http://www.grace-ebooks.com/Home.html
CHRISTIAN LIBERTY NO LICENTIOUS DOCTRINE
MEN’S OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS THEIR GRAND IDOL
THE ACT OF BELIEVING IS NOT OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
FREE GRACE THE TEACHER OF GOOD WORKS
THE USE OF THE LAW (vol. 4), “Some, it may be, will object, that all this while it seems that Christ hath not freed us frown being under the law, whereas the apostle saith, “Ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
I answer,
1. That in respect of the rules of righteousness, or the matter of obedience, we are under the law still; or else we are lawless, to live every man as seems good in his own eyes, which I know no true christian dares so much as think; for Christ hath given no new law diverse from this, to order our conversation aright by; besides, we are under the law, to know what is transgression, and what is the desert of it.” [end quote]
It’s my personal belief that Crisp was dealing with legalism in the church at the time and stressed the Gospel of free grace. This often brings trouble with the vain janglings of legal minded men.
jm
