yet now hath he reconciled Col. 1.21 All the change was in the Colossians none in God the Lord loveth the righteous saith the Psalmist Psal 146.8 as soon as a man becomes righteous the divine complacence doth embrace him which it did not could not before because there was no sutable object Secondly The second Quaere is this If justification be not an immanent eternal act what is the transient act by which God justifieth a believer in this life Unto this much is not spoken among Divines some speak of a sentence before the Angels as if God did declare before them who is righteous but this I think is altogether unscriptural others speak of a sentence in conscience but this is but the manifestation of justification Let us first distinguish of justification and then answer There is a double justification constitutive justification whereby God maketh us just in this life sentential justification whereby God pronounces us just at death and judgment Constitutive justification is the foundation of sentential for the true God will not pronounce us just unless we are such and sentential justification is the compleature of constitutive For here there is sententia judicis crowning us as righteous the Quaere then being touching constitutive justification in this life I conceive with worthy Mr. Baxter that God justifies a believer by the moral agency of the Gospel by which as by his Grand Charter and Law of grace he doth make over Christ and his righteousness to the believer neither need this seem strange every humane instrument doth moraliter agere A Princes pardon conveys an impunity a Charter an estate a Law a title or right a Testament a Legacy and shall not the Gospel do as much to believers God doth constitutivè justifie the believer by making him righteous and makes him righteous by making over to him the righteousness of Christ and that he makes over by the Gospel which is his Pardon Charter Law and Testament of grace conveying the same upon believing no sooner doth a man believe but the conditional promise becomes absolute As the old Covenant running do this and live would have justified upon perfect obedience so the New running believe and be saved doth justifie upon believing as man sinning is condemned by the Law of works so man believing is justified by the Law of grace Hence the Gospel is called the ministration of righteousness as the Law is of condemnation 2 Cor. 3.9 the power of God to salvation to the believer Rom. 1.16 quia nos per Evangelium justisicat Deus because God justifies us by the Gospel as Reverend Calvin hath it on the 17th verse Virga virtutis A rod of strength Psal 110.2 that is in the Justification of men saith the excellent Dr. Reynolds and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus making us free from the law of sin and death as many Divines interpret that place Rom. 8.2 Upon which Pareus doth observe Liberatio à condemnatione legis Deo Christo Evangelio tribuitur Deo ut Authori Christo ut Mediatori Evangelio ut Organo Freedom from the coudemnation of the Law is attributed to God as the Author to Christ as the Mediatour to the Gospel as the Instrument God makes over Christ and his righteousness unto the Believer by the Gospel as by his Charter and Law of grace This is the transient act by which God doth justifie us in this life Having thus removed the Antinomian Error out of the way I shall resume my first Proposition That Justification is an holy fruit growing upon Faith in the very instant of believing a man is justified this doth appear several waies First In Justification there must be a matter or foundation a Righteousness and a perfect one such as answers the law which man is under The Law demands of us two things perfect Obedience due from us as rational Creatures and penal Suffering due from us as sinful Creatures The first Gods holiness presses for in the Command and the last Gods Justice calls for in the Threatning The Believer who hath nothing in himself hath enough in Christ to answer both Christ fulfilled all the righteousness of the Command and so satisfied Gods Holiness Christ bore the curse of the Threatning and so satisfied Gods Justice Hence he is the end of the Law to the Believer Rom. 10.4 as if the Apostle had said Whatever the Law can ask the total sum of it is in Christ and from him redounding upon the Believer as a member of his body It was a lamentable moan which Joannes Seneca made upon his Death-bed Mel. Adam in vitis Jureconsul Germanorum In vitâ nostrâ habuimus said he qui pro nobis chorum frequentarent qui pro nobis agros colerent qui pro nobis Missas celebrarent horas canonicas orarent sed ubi nunc unum reperiemus qui pro nobis in Gehennam descendat In this life we have those that will go to the Quire for us and plow for us and say Mass and pray canonically for us but where is there one that will go to Hell for us But the Believer blessed man that he is need not say who will go to Hell for me Christ was made a Curse for him neither need he ask Who will fulfil perfect obedience for me Christ hath done every jot and tittle thereof The Believer is a man in Christ and so stands in the pure robes woven all of Love and Holiness by his Saviour unless the Law can find a spot or a false thread in these he will be must be recius in Curiâ if the Law offer to hale him down to hell he will do as Tamar when brought forth to be burnt shew forth the Bracelets and the Signet the precious blood and merits of Christ which God cannot but own as the price of Redemption and Salvation Secondly In justification there must be a Justifier It is God that justifieth and whom doth he justifie but the Believer in Jesus unto him he makes over Christ and his righteousness unto him he seals an actual pardon and remission his sins are covered never to appear more in their ugly hue blotted out never to be read more in their bloody characters cast into the depths of the Sea and who can fetch them up again sought for and not found and who can charge them afresh upon the Believer St. Paul would have the debts of Onesimus put upon his account Philem. v. 18. The Believers sins do not stand as they did at first upon his score but upon Christs who came to make an end of them When the swarms of Flies were upon the Egyptians and not upon the Israelites the Text saith God made a division or as it is in the original A redemption between them Exod. 8.23 That swarms of Guilt slie about Unbelievers and none about Believers it is because the redemption is between them on the one hand neglected and on the other applied We are justified freely by
justificemur causa efficiens est misericordia Dei Christus materia verbum cum side instrumentum In Justification the efficient cause is Gods mercy Christ the matter the Word with Faith the instrument Thus the generality of Divines conclude that we are justified by faith as an instrument nevertheless some others express themselves thus That we are justified by faith as 〈◊〉 condition of the Gospel Thus the profestors of Saumiar in France Fide justificamu non tanquam parte aliquâ justitiae Thes Salm. de Justif sed tanquam conditione foederis gratiae We are justified by faith not as it is a part of righteousness but as it is the condition of the Covenant of Grace Thus Learned Mr. Woodbridge Method of Grace 101. To believe is a formal vital act of the Soul in genere physico but the use of it in justification is to qualifie us passively that we may be morally and orderly capable of being justified by God Or though physically it be an act yet morally it is but a passive condition by which we are made capable of being justified according to the order and constitution of God Thus worthy Mr. Baxter Right to Christ and life being a moral effect Confess of faith 295. and conveyed by a moral cause and way that is by a law of Grace or conditional promise or gift therefore the formal reason of faiths interest in our justification is as it is the condition of that promise by us performed and its essence or physical act the acceptance of Christ and Life commonly called its instrumentality though it be the reason why it was chosen and preferred to this office of being the condition of the promise yet is it but its aptitude to the office and so the remote and as it were material reason of its interest in our justification and not the formal Reason Touching this matter I shall offer my thoughts in these Propositions First Faith is not strictly and properly the instrument of Justification were it so a man might justifie and forgive himself For as Dr. Ames well observes as Sacraments are properly Gods instruments Bellarm. Enter Tom. 4. lib. 5. so Faith is properly mans Deus nos baptizat pascit non nosmetipsi nos credimus in Christum non Deus God baptizes and feeds us not we our selves we believe in Christ not God If then Faith which is properly mans instrument be properly the instrument of Justification a Believer doth no less than justifie himself which is harsh doctrine to me Again When we are said to be justified by Faith I suppose the Scripture doth not intend the transient act but the permanent habit and if so I cannot conceive how that can be properly strictly an Instrument Instrumenti causalitas est in usu applicatione when it is not in use and act it ceases to be an instrument The habit of faith is an habit still even when its act ceases but when its act ceases what hath it of instrumentality Secondly Faith though not properly may yet in some sense be called an Instrument because it hath a peculiar aptitude and receptivity to accept of the free-gift made in the Gospel Hence we are said by it to receive Jesus Christ Col. 2.6 to receive the atonement Rom. 5.11 to receive the gift of righteousness Rom. 5.17 to receive forgiveness of sins Acts 26.18 It hath a choice capacity to take in Christ with all his benefits Thirdly The proper formal reason why we are justified by Faith is because it is the condition of the Gospel on which God the Great Donor gives out Christ with all his blessings We are not justified by faith as for any reason intrinsecal or in the nature of it but as it doth inright and instate us into Christ and his righteousness and how is that done the old Law-rule must be remembred Voluntas donatoris observetur the Donors Will is the best guide and what is that in this case Clearly in the Gospel Christ and his righteousness are given upon the condition of faith Bellarmine asserting that it did not please God to give justification upon the condition of faith alone Dr. Ames answers him Bell. Everum Tom. 4. lib. 5. Vel maximè placuit boc Deo It pleased him altogether We must take as God gives God in the great charter gives out Christ and his righteousness upon the condition of faith Faith therefore instates and inrights us into these as it is the condition of that grant And by consequence we are justified by it as such as when a Prince grants a pardon upon condition the Traitor take it from him with his own hands his taking it gives impunity not because of the organical apprehensiveness in the hand but because it is the modus donationis the pardon runs upon those terms So when God grants justification upon condition of believing we are justified by faith not because of its intrinsecal receptivity or apprehensiveness but because that faith which stands in the Gospel as the condition of justification is found in the heart Thus much touching the manner how this holy fruit grows upon Faith Thirdly The next thing considerable is the continuance of this holy fruit Justification is a flower of Paradice which never dies once justified and ever justified The righteousness of God which is put upon the Believer is never taken off again The pardon which is sealed in the Court of heaven is never reversed The cloud of Guiltiness once scattered never gathers together The sins cast into the depth of Sea never come up more Camb. Eliz p. 384. When the Jesuite Chreicion taken at Sea tore and threw over-board certain papers of dangerous consequence the torn pieces were by the wind blown back again into the Ship and afterwards artificially put together discovered the Popish design then on foot but when God casts our sins into the depth of the Sea all the breath of the infernal Spirits can never blow them up again they shall be remembred no more All things in Justification concur to make this good Free-grace which is the first mover in it is a fountain ever flowing and a Sun which knows no going down The Righteousness of Christ which is the matter of it is a robe which can never wear out The Gospel which is the Charter of it is a grant never out of date Faith which is the Medium to it will under the divine influences stirring up the nest of gracious principles bud and blossom forth in fresh acts and when the acts cease it abides in the root kept alive by the eternal Spirit breathed from the endless life of Merit in Christ All which make the righteous man an everlasting foundation only here is a Quaere to be resolved Do not Believers fall into sin and doth not sin make a breach upon Justification and if so how doth it continue I Answer The sins of Believers are either sins of meer infirmity and daily incursion or sins
it the root of the matter is in the weakest of them though not the same verdure of notions or expressions the substance or holy seed of true resignation may be latent in a bruised reed or smoaking flax in a poor spirit or the pulse of a desire I have read of a Noble person in Spain who being as was supposed absolutely dead Melch Adanum 〈◊〉 Vesalâ—â— was diffected and upon the opening of his breast they found to their great amazement his heart beating some weak believers may seem totally dead in whom yet before God to whom all things are naked and open as in an Anatomy there is found a vital pulse of faith secretly working God saith a Reverend Divine brings not scales to weigh but a touch-stone to try our graces If there be but the least dram of gold but the least smoke or weik in the socket as the expression is Matth. 12.20 God accepts it neither do I mean that this resignation is acted perpetually but with many sad pauses and interruptions which happen partly by the blasts of Satans temptations making the believer walk like Peter upon the water now a good step and then ready to sink when the wind grows boisterous till his faith buoy him up again with a Lord save me partly by the allurements and entanglements of the world which are to him as the stone and the string were to Anselms bird now up in ascensions of soul to God and Christ and then down again to the earth and earthly things and partly from the indwelling sin which make him live as his Saviour did on earth a meer conflicting life Christ endured the contradiction of sinners and he the contradiction of sins the indwelling corruption makes his soul like a palsey hand with contrary motions Lord I believe help my unbelief whilest faith moves forward unbelief draws back after he hath in a princely manner wrestled with God he goes off Jacob-like halting in one infirmity or other CHAP. V. Reasons proving the Essential nature of Faith as the condition of the Gospel to consist in an holy thorough dependant Self-resignation THUS far of the nature of this Resignation as to its Objects Ends and Adjuncts It remains that I lay down my reasons why I place the vitality and essential nature of faith as it is the condition of the Gospel in such a resignation as is before described And for this First That precious faith which is the Evangelical condition is more then a bare naked assent to the Gospel-truth and less then an assurance of love and pardon from God wherefore it must needs be some middle thing between both such as Resignation is I shall endeavour to make good both propositions First Pretious faith is more then a bare naked assent to the Gospel-truth This will be clear by the ensuing considerations First A naked assent is but credere Deo a believing Scriptural axiomes to be true but pretious faith is a far nobler thing and therefore very emphatically painted out in Scripture in the Old Testament 't is credere in Deum a believing in Jehovah Gen. 15.6 importing a fiducial act 't is a trusting in the Lord Psal 2.12 where the Hebrew word imports a flying for refuge a running under the wings of free-grace as chickens do under the hen 't is a leaning upon God Isa 50.10 as not able to stand alone without a recumbency on mercy 't is a rolling our selves upon God Psal 37.5 as weary and without rest till we come to lodg in goodness in the New Testament 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a believing into Christ very frequent in the Gospel of St. John a phrase wholly the holy spirits never found in any Greek Author a bare assenter may believe about Christ but the true believer believes into Christ so as to be in neer union with him 't is a putting on of Christ Rom. 13.14 the believer strips himself of his lusts nay and of his own righteousness to be invested with Christ 't is a receiving of Christ Joh. 1.12 all Christ merit and spirit cross and crown together 't is a faith which hath its being in God as its ultimate center 1 Pet. 1.21 Scripture is but a medium the ultimate object is God himself All which imports of precious faith are much above the sphear of a meer assent Secondly Precious faith is the very condition of the Gospel God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 but a naked assent is not such that is required not only in the Gospel but in the moral Law too and found not only in godly but wicked men nay and in devils themselves who believe and tremble It is true some Scriptures seem to lay much upon assent thus we find If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.9 And whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God 1 Joh. 5.1 And these things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you might have life through his name Joh. 20.31 But these places import not as if a naked assent were the sull condition of Gospel-grace for then a man might be saved in his sins a man in arms against his maker might stand Gods grace might embrace him whom his holiness abhors and Christ might sive him who will not have him reign over him light might be in communion with darkness and Christ might have concord with Belial all which are impossibles in themselves and incompossibles with the design of the Gospel but they intend such an assent as is in conjunction with a true resignation of the heart to the terms of the Gospel Corde credere quad Deus eum excitaverit est non mode assentiri historiae de excitato Jesu sed certâ—â— cordis siducist beneficial mortis resurrectionis Christi amplecti saith Reverend Parent on Rom. 10.9 whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ namely with such a faith as is accompanied with all that which belongeth to a true faith is born of God so the Dutch Annotators on 1 Joh. 5.1 intelligendum est de side non qualicunque sed actuosa saith Grotius on Joh. 20.31 The Learned Bishop Downame saith Covenant of Grace P. 91. that assent is the very condition required in the promise of the Gospel but what an one is it a true willing lively effectual assent such an one as by which we receive Christ not only in our judgments but in our hearts and wills acknowledging him for our Saviour and resting on him for salvation Such an assent as this is no other then precious faith but a naked assent is much below it Thirdly Precious faith doth unite us unto Christ and gives us a being in him A believer from the first
and there 's the sea and yonder 's the Sun Moon and Stars sensibly pointing from one creature to another so it is with the believer when he is irradiated by the holy spirit he can look into his own heart and experimentally say this is the pretious faith and that is the love in incorruption and the other is the meekness of wisdom and so go over all the parts of the new creature formed within him or at least over such or so many of them as may assure him that he is in a state of grace This is the way of assurance first there is a constellation of faith and other graces in the heart then these graces irradiated by the holy spirit send forth a kind of splendor which the soul reflecting on it self taking up it comes to attain assurance well knowing that such and such things accompany salvation and import no less then a Divine favour notable is that of St. Paul in whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise Eph. 1.13 Mark after ye believed first there must be faith and the train of graces attend thereon and then comes the seal of the spirit of promise the same spirit which endited the promises in the word comes and seals them on the heart whereas in the word there are such promises made to faith and love and holiness the irradiating spirit plainly discovers that faith and that love and that holiness to be indeed in the heart and so seals up the promises to the believer in particular as if it had expresly said this or that promise belongs to thee Hence the believer so sealed may say of the promises as Origen did of those Scriptures which did much affect him haec est Scriptura mea this promise is mine and that promise is mine nay all the Land of promise as much as I can set my foot on is mine own There are three seals to the promises first God seals them for true in the blood of his own Son in whom all of them are Yea and Amen then man seals them for true by faith he that believeth sets to his seal that God is true and then again God seals them for true to the believer in particular by his irradiating spirit Faith then goes before all other graces but assurance comes after them as being no other then the clear evidence of their true existence in the soul Unless we allow this distinction we gratifie the Enthusiasts who declaim against all marks of grace as legal things and sandy foundations Sixthly Faith stands upon the word of God purely totally and entirely In point of expectation it will not look without a word of promise in point of obedience it will not stir a foot without a word of command in point of doctrine it will not lend an ear without a word of instruction Hence Reverend Calvin saith Inst l. 3. c. 2. Perpetuam esse fidei revelationem cum verbo nec magis ab eo posse divelli quà m radios à Sole unde oriuntur Faith hath a perpetual relation to the word and can no more be sundred from it then the beams from the Sun from whom they arise should it be sundred from it it would lose its nature and cease to be faith but assurance doth not stand so purely totally and entirely upon the word this is also manifest by the manner of attaining assurance that is not made axiomatically in an Enthusiastical way as if there were an inward voice saying thou art justified but discoursively and after some such manner as in this practical Syllogism Whosoever believeth his sins are forgiven but I believe Ergo my sins are forgiven Here the conclusion which imports assurance in it stands upon two propositions the Major is meerly grounded upon the word but the Minor stands upon spiritual sense and experience caused by the holy spirit irradiating the soul in its reflections upon its own estate therefore assurance which is comprized in the conclusion doth not stand so meerly upon the word as faith doth Thus the Learned Pemble speaking of that Syllogism saith the major is of faith the minor of sense and experience And the conclusion of both but chiefly of faith as it follows on the premises by infallible argumentation and partly of sense as it is founded on the inward experience of Gods grace working upon our souls What the doctrine of Faith is is to be sought in Bibles but whether there be a particular act of faith or not such as is comprized in the minor Com. R m. 8. cap. must be looked for in the heart Fides non creditur sed habetur sentitur in corde saith Learned Pareus Faith is not believed but had and felt in the heart Actus reflexivus in ipsam fidem quo credo me credere non est ipsa fides sed potiùs sensus fidei Loc. Com. 689. saith Maccovius The reflexive act whereby I know that I believe is not properly faith but the sense of it But you will say if the minor stands upon sense and experience how can the conclusion which imports assurance be de fide And Bellarmine argues thus D. justificat l. 3. c. 8. Nothing can be certain with a certainty of faith unless it be conteined in the word of God upon which if it lean not it is not faith but that such or such a man is justified in particular is not conteined in the word neither can it be deduced from thence for then I must argue thus the word saith All that truly turn to God shall find mercy but I do truly turn to him therefore I am sure of mercy in which the minor is not in the word By the way we may observe what an excellent foundation the Jesuite layes for his disputation Fides non est nisi verbi divini auctoritate nitatur that is not faith which is not bottomed on the authority of the divine word Oh rare if this were believed what would become of Popery What of all the hay and stubble of their vain Traditions Why do they play the wily Gibeonites with their old bottles and clowted shoes obtruding their unwritten verities and mouldy customs upon the Church of God I can be assured of no Religion which is not founded on Scripture But for answer The certainty of the Doctrine of Faith which respects the whole Church is to be found in the Scripture but the certainty of an act of Faith which is in a particular man is to be found in the heart by spiritual sense and experience and so in Bellarmines minor the certainty of my turning to God stands not upon the word but upon spiritual sense and experience yet nevertheless the conclusion which imports assurance is de fide for every conclusion is so which stands upon one proposition contained in Scripture and upon another gathered from sense or experience as the case is in all such practical Syllogisms yet withall as I said at first the
very instant of believing a man is justified before God The Antinomians indeed makes as if it came forth much sooner even as early as eternity it self as if it were an immanent eternal act in God But the error of this opinion may be easily made appear For First An immanent act abides in God and doth not as the transient make any change at all in the creature but in justification there is a great change made in man though not a Physical one such as is made in sanctification yet as moral and a relative one the sins which before cried at heaven gates for vengeance are now cast into the depths of the sea the soul which was at the brink of hell is now in the suburbs of heaven the pure beams of grace breaking forth upon it the prison garments of guilt are changed and the righteousness of God is upon the believer the blood of the Lamb is upon his conscience and the damning destroying Law passes over him Again an immanent act in God is the same with Gods essence and not as the transient the same with the effect produced Gods willing is but the divine essence with an habitude to such an object his decrees are himself decreeing otherwise the simplicity of his nature would be overthrown such an immanent act is the decree of justification but justification it self is an effect in time else Gods judicial act may be exercised about a non-existing creature a non ens may be justified a man that is not may be made righteous fin may be remitted before it is committed absolution may anticipate guilt and righteousness Law all which are things hard to be swallowed If any thing in justification look like an immanent act it is either Gods complacential love or the imputation of righteousness but that neither of these are such is clear in Scripture which expresses the same as things future he that loveth me shall be loved of my father saith our Saviour Joh. 14.21 righteousness shall be imputed to us if we believe Rom. 4.24 a shall be cannot be put upon an immanent act futurity cannot be found in eternity Secondly If justification were an immanent eternal act what means a Mediator God and man were at one before would the Lord of all be made under his own Law to bring in righteousness into an already righteous world would he shed his precious blood on a cross to purge away sins eternally forgiven was his sweet-smelling sacrifice to atone a reconciled God did he pay down so great a sum of merits to purchase a freedom for such as were free-born long before doth he still intercede with God to save those from wrath who before were secure from it by an eternal justification this opinion seems to make void the whole satisfaction of Jesus Christ what the Apostle said of the Law if righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2.21 the same may be said here if righteousness come any other way then by the death of Christ if it come by an immanent eternal act then Christ is dead in vain Thirdly No man can be at once in two contrary states in a state of wrath and in a state of love too every man whilest an unbeliever is in a state of wrath the wrath of God abides on him Joh. 3.36 God is angry with him every day Psal 7.11 and whilest he is in a state of wrath he cannot be in a state of love Joseph whilest he was in prison in his old cloaths was not in change of raiment in Pharaohs Court St. Paul reckoning up a black Catalogue of sins barring men from inheriting the kingdom of God saith of the unconverted Corinthians such were some of you 1 Cor. 6.11 as yet they were in the chains of sin and wrath and immediately after speaking of them as converted he saith but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God then the prisoners were become favourites in the Court of heaven and stood in their robes of grace and righteousness then and not before as evidently appears by the words were and are relating to two distinct states in two distinct times they were not could not be in both states at once but if justification be eternal a man may be at once in contrary states as an unbeliever he may be under wrath and yet as a justified one under love I know a man under wrath may be under a love of benevolence which is the purpose of God to bestow grace and glory but he cannot at the same time be under a love of complacence which is directly contrary to a state of wrath nevertheless eternal justification makes a man capable of both at once Fourthly Justification and sanctification are inseparable companions no more to be sundred then the merits and spirit of Christ which are the respective causes thereof where grace pardons there it heals where Christ is made righteousness there he is made sanctification for he cannot be divided and taken by piece-meal but if justification be an eternal act then these twins of grace may be parted an unconverted man may be justified because that is from eternity and withall unsanctified because unconverted in which case he must needs be in a strange posture at once under two contrary reigns of grace and sin partly in Christ as justified by his blood and partly out of Christ as void of his spirit the light of Gods countenance shines upon him and yet within he wears the image of Satan a blessed one he must needs be because his iniquity is forgiven and an anathema too because no lover of Jesus Christ he is a justified and accepted man and yet a man in his sins all which absurd consequences are unavoidable if justification be an eternal act Thus much may suffice to discover the error of this opinion only there are two Quaeres which must be answered First The first Quaere is this If justification be not an eternal immanent act is not there a change in God God displicentially hates all the workers of iniquity and such are all men before conversion if therefore before conversion he hate and after it he love them is there not a change in him I answer no there is none God such is his infinite sanctity cannot but complacentially love righteousness and displicentially hate iniquity love and hatred are not in God as sin and righteousness are in man in man sin and righteousness succeed one the other but in God love and hatred are eternal and simultaneous the change therefore which is where the succession is and not where the eternal sameness is is in man only and not in God the man who was in a state of sin and so the object of Gods displicential hatred is now in a state of righteousness and so the object of Gods complacential love thus the Apostle you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works
of gross enormity and conscience-wasting such as Davids Murther and Adultery and Peters denial of his Master the first sort of these through the rich grace of the Gospel are pardoned as I may so say of course and so make no breach at all upon justification De peccate mortals veniali Non excludunt fideles à favore Dei à spe regni coelestis They exclude not Believers from the favour of God nor from the hope of the heavenly kingdom saith that eminent Divine Robert Baronius God such is his infinite mercy doth not impute these to them Hence he bears witness of David That he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the daies of his life save only in the matter of Uriah 1 Kings 15.5 Infirmities are not reckoned the matter of Uriah is the only exception The latter sort of sins in Believers are gross enormous ones touching these our famous Divines at the Synod of Dort say that these are not pardoned to the Believer till he per excitatam fidem poenitentiam veniam impenetraverit obtain remission by a renewed act of faith and repentance His universal justification is not frustrated and yet till he renew his faith and repentance his particular sin is not pardoned his right to the Kingdom of heaven is not taken away but only his aptitude Just as the Leper who whilst his leprosie was on him had a right to his house but not a fitness till his purgation The seeds of faith and repentance are in him but they must be stirred up into fresh acts Wells of Salvation pag. 184. Dr. Spurstowe saith that a Believer under such sin may not immediately lay hold on the promise of Forgiveness until he first renew his repentance till then to lay hold on the Promises is not faith but presumption Faith alwaies proceeds according to Gods method and that is to give out pardon upon repentance God first hears Ephraim bemoaning himself and then remembers him with mercy Jer. 31.18 Treatise of Justification Mr. Burgess conceives That a Believer under such a sin without renewed repentance is under an actual guilt obliging him to eternal wrath neither can he say My God and My Christ For mine own part I conceive that such gross sins being the plain merits of eternal wrath do stab the Believer at the very heart and leave an hellish sting upon the Conscience They lie as a dog at the door ready to tear out his throat and do as it were thrust off his Soul from Christ and Grace They very much weaken the habits of faith and other graces so that these languish and are ready to die Such dismal effects as these made David roar all the day and cry out of broken bones and Peter go out and weep bitterly judging and condemning himself for his soul denial of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 14.72 which we translate he thought thereon and wept but others render it obvelavit se he covered his head and wept As a condemned Malefactor he vailed his face in the sense of that sin which deserved no less than eternal death Such sins make Believers in their return to their Father acknowledge as the Prodigal did that they are unworthy to be called the Sons of God Nevertheless such gross sins of Believers are as I take it pardoned as soon as committed even before actual faith and repentance renewed I say before actual faith for the habit of falth is still in the believer I say before repentance renewed afterwards for the believer in the very commission of a known sin hath a kind of repentance there is some renisus voluntatis the regenerate part opposes it the spirit lusteth against the flesh Cum peccant eâ tantùm parte quâ non sunt regeniti peccant secundum verò interiorem partem nolunt detestantur peccatum ergò non plenâ voluntatate peccant Epist pag. 114. thus Learned Zanchy My grounds why such gross sins of believers are pardoned before the subsequent acts of Faith and Repentance are these First The concessions of the above-named worthy Divines induce me to it They say the Believer notwithstanding such sins is still in a state of justification and I see not how the guilt of one sin unpardoned which obliges him to eternal wrath can possibly consist with a justified state Justificatio nullum locum relinquit condemnationi They say he hath a right to the kingdom of heaven and I cannot imagine how an obnoxiousness to wrath resulting from one unpardoned sin can simul semel stand with a right to heaven They say the holy seed of regeneration abides in him still and I believe regeneration and condemnation cannot be together Secondly The Scripture-expressions are very pregnant The Believer notwithstanding such sins is a believer still and whilst such shall not come into condemnation Joh. 5.24 He is a man in Christ and to such there is no condemnation Rom. 8.1 Neither do the subsequent words hinder who walk not after the flesh for those as I conceive intend not a step or a partionlar act of sin but a walk and general trade of it such as never is found in a believer there is no condemnation to such The Apostle saith not Disp Theol de perseverantiâ that there is nihil condemnabile but there is nulla condemnatio saith Spanhemius He saith not there is nothing damnable in the believer for sin in it self is alwaies such but there is no condemnation for the pardon keeps the guilt from redounding upon the person because he is a member of Christ the believer notwithstanding such sins is a Son still and if a son then an heir Rom. 8.17 and if a son then abiding in the house for ever Joh. 8.35 He hath still a Well of water in him springing up to life everlasting Joh. 4.14 And where the spirit of Christ is such a Well there the Blood of Christ is a laver cleansing away all sin Thirdly It is considerable what the Scripture means when it saith that we are justified by faith doth it mean the act of faith or the habit if the act there seem to be as many intercisions in justification as there are cessations in the act of faith upon which account I suppose that the vinculum unionis the bond of Union whereby the Believer is knit unto Christ is not a transient thing such as the act of faith is but a permanent one such as the habit if then the habit be the thing that abides in the believer notwithstanding his sin Fourthly It is to me very momentous that though sins of infirmity and enormity differ in proportion as much as Gnats and Camels yet the least of them deserves condemnation as well as the greatest and the greatest of them may have pardon in the very same way as the least There are not in the Gospel two distinct waies appointed for
God in Christ and that must needs in flame the Heart towards him Tamum amamus quantum credimus Hence Aquinas himself confesses That though Faith and Hope may be without Charity yet without Charity they are not properly Virtues And Durandus saith Credere in Deum non est praecise actus fidei sid actus fidei charitatis simul To believe in God is not precisely an act of Faith but of Faith and Charity together So Inseparable are these two Graces But leaving the Schoolmen I shall proceed Faith connects all Graces together in a triple way it connects them in the fontal cause the boly Spirit which it receives all Graces are from the Spirit and the Spirit is received by Faith hence rivers of living water flow in the Believers heart Joh. 7.38 that is All Graces flow there as waters from a fountain it connects them in the Rule the Command of God which it universally respects It is observed by Divines That the five last Commands in Deut. 5. run thus Thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not commit Adultery and thou shalt not Steal and thou shalt not bear false Witness and thou shalt not Govet The word And points out to us that all the Commands are coupled together by God like the Curtains of the Tabernacle all are as it were one body and Faith hath a respect to every one of them and in every one owns the same stamp of Divine Authority He that said Love thy God said also Love thy Neighbour He that said Be Zealous said also Be Meek and Patient and Obedient and abundant in all Grace It connects them also in the end the Glory of God which it looks at in all things all Graces tend to that Glory and Faith is the single eye which guides them all thither Bonum opus intentio facit Enarr in Psal 31. in Pras intentionem sides dirigis saith St. Austin Faith knows what that is wherein God would be glorisied All Graces being thus connected in Faith which is a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or firmament as the word is Col. 2.5 to them all it comes to pass that Faith in actuating any one Grace gives a strength and further growth to every other Grace Thus it is in Graces respecting distinct Tables the more we act our Love to God the more will be our Love to our Neighbour this though belonging to the second Table flows ex fonte pietatis out of that fountain of Piety which respects the first Thus it is in those Graces which are seemingly contrary as in Zeal and Meekness the more we act our Zeal for God the more will be our Meekness towards Men. Hence in the Primitive Christians who were so hot for Christianity was found a very meek Spirit and the reason is because a Man cannot truly actuate one Grace but he will have more of that Spirit which is fontally all Grace and graciously multiplies Talents in the use of them Neither can he truly obey one Command but it will render his Heart more Obediential and ready to obey others also as being enjoined by the same Authority nor can he in one thing look at Gods Glory but it will in some measure encline him to seek it in other things also and so the New Creature grows in every part and his Path shines more and more to the perfect day in Heaven CHAP. XI Precious Faith considered in the Crowns and Statures thereof The Divine Experiences of Faith as it Experiments the Divinity of Scripture in the Precepts Promises Threatnings and Supernatural Truths thereof Concerning the Blessed Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence Jesus Christ the Mcdiator and the Efficacy of Grace HAVing treated of Justification Adoption and Sanctification which are Fruits of Faith and are more or less in all Believers I now proceed to some other which are The Crowns and Statures of Faith and to be found not in all Believers at least not at first but in such as have made a good progress in Grace Faith have made a good progress in Grace Faith having obtained the Holy Spirit with all its Graces doth now go on like The Baptized Eunuch rejoycing in the ways of God glorying in Free Grace triumphing in Jesus Christ warring against Corruptions actuating Holy Graces bowing down under the Commands of Heaven sucking the Sweet-Breasts of the Promises and waiting for the Heavenly Dews and Distillations of the Spirit and in this holy Progress gathers up many choice Experiments more worth than a World All learned Men are for Experiments and every one would cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it the Sages of the Law are for tried Cases which have been sub judice the Physitian sets a probatum est on approved Medicines the Anatomists hunts after the arcana of Nature by Dissection of Bodies and the Chymist by Dissolution thereof Experience is procreatrix Artium the very Parent of Arts whose universal Precepts are collected by an induction of particulars but there are no Experiments like those of Faith Dr. Dees Spirits made as if they would reveal great Mysteries to him such as they called the Cabbala of Nature the Numbers of the World the linea Spiritus Sancti the Mirabilia Dei and the Nova terra bringing forth without Tillage but all these were but Dreams and Impostures and so I suppose are many things in Chymistry like Helmonts Alkahest wonderful if true But the Experiments of Faith are great Realities and withal Divine as much above those in the Sphear of Nature as Souls are above Bodies and Heaven is above Earth God in the Prophet calls on his People to baing in the Tythes for his House and so by their Obedience to prove him If he would not open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it Mal. 3.10 When Faith goes on in a Tract of Obedience proving of God Heaven opens in wonderful Experiences of him the Manna of holy Truth is then tasted the Hony-combs of Free-Grace drop upon the Heart Promises are realized exemplified in Providences Divine Helps and Salvations come down and call for Eben-Ezers to be set up for them and Discoveries of heavenly things in their certainty and excellency are in a manner made as if a Man could look into the Holy of Holies and see God Face to Face Some such Experiences I suppose the learned Rivet had in his last Sickness in which he said of himself In these ten days I have made a greater progress in Divinity than in all my Life but leaving Generals I shall come to Particulars One great Experiment of Faith is touching the Truths of God a Believer in his holy Progress comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding as the Apostle speaks Cal. 2.2 At the first he hath a Stock of Divine Knowledg but after Experience Riches and all Riches of it at the first
instant of faith is no longer in himself or the old Adam but a man in Christ hence the same royal robe of righteousness which Christ hath upon himself covers him also which renders faith exceeding precious George Prince of Anhalt was upon this account much delighted with this similitude As the ring is highly prized for the diamond in it so faith justifies us for the pearl of price the Son of God whom it apprehends the believer is found in Christ not having his own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ Phil. 3.9 Hence also the very same spirit of holiness which is upon Christ in heaven above measure falls down upon the believer according to measure a piece of bread is a poor imnimate thing in it salt but when by digestion it comes into the body and is transubstantiated into flesh there is an humane spirit in it a man before faith is an earthly carnal thing but as soon as by faith he becomes a member of Christ a piece as it were of his flesh and of his bones he hath another spirit in him even the same with Christ Christ above and he below and the same spirit in both a great mystery such as a naked assent cannot reach unto he that hath no more is but a glass eye or wooden leg in the body of Christ or rather he is not at all in it but outwardly tied to it by a name and form of knowledge without any part in the righteousness or spirit of Christ Fourthly By virtue of its union with Christ Precious faith bears many excellent fruits it ushers in a spiritual life into the soul that of the Prophet the just shall live by his faith thrice quoted by St. Paul in the New Testament is exemplisied in every believer but he that hath but a naked assent though with a goodly structure of Evangclical truths standing upon it is but a dead man and his notions like the Egyptian Pyramides are but monuments for the dead Again it brings down pardon of sin into the soul whosoever believeth in him that is in Christ shall receive remission of sins Acts 10.43 but a naked assent leaves a man as fast in the 〈◊〉 of guilt as ever before Moreover it purifies the heart and quenches the fiery darts of Satan it carries out the dust and rubbish out of the heart and makes it a sanctuary or holy place for God and if Satan come and let fly his temptations it beats them off from the soul Thus Bucer when in his sickness he was admonished to arm himself against Satan answered in Christo sum nihil habeo cum diabolo commune I am in Christ and have nothing in common with Satan but where there is only a naked assent the holy truths going no further then the Understanding the Will is left in the mire and pollution of its lusts and is ready as soon as the tempter comes to join with his seducing proffers Thus far of the first proposition that faith is more then a naked assent Secondly The second proposition is That faith is less then an assurance of love and pardon from God only we must first distinguish between faith in the root and faith in the flower between faith in the lowest stature and faith in its full-grown perfections That assurance which the infant faith cannot reach the full-grown faith may arrive at which I suppose was the reason that those prime Reformers Luther and Calvin and after them Beza and Zanchy with many others did define faith by a plerophory or full perswasion of Gods love they being themselves in the joys of faith drew its picture not according to the infant model but the perfect lineaments thereof as they found them in themselves so they held them out to the world Again we must distinguish between seminal assurance and actual an infant faith hath seminal assurance light is sown for the righteous Psal 97.11 but the crop of comfort doth not immediately spring up the weakest believer is heir to all the joys of heaven only he doth not presently know his title he hath not ordinarily actual assurance at the very first I say not ordinarily for we must not limit the holy one who by his royal prerogative may let in the sweet sense of his love in the first instant of believing These distinctions premised the meaning of the proposition is That faith in its lowest measure which is the condition of the Gospel doth not essentially include assurance And this I shall manifest by the ensuing considerations First All true believers have not assurance Scripture and experience manifest it there are Lambs which are gathered into the arms and laid in the bosome of free-grace yet know not where they are There are little ones babes in Christ which can only hang upon the breast and are not grown up into the reflections and joys of faith the poor in spirit the mourners the hungry and thirsty after righteousness mentioned in the fifth chapter of Matthew are all of them true believers blessed ones and heirs of the promises and yet all of them are without any glimpse of assurance the poor in spirit all in rags of unworthiness and self-nothingness as if he had no title to the kingdom the mourners weeping and desolate like Hagar in the wilderness with her bottle spent as if there were no Well of comfort near them the hungry and thirsty like men in a famine drooping and fainting away in fits of soul-emptiness as if there were no such thing as hidden Manna for them It is very observable in the Canticles that Christ takes notice of the tender grape just at its first appearing the very first opening or budding forth of faith is welcom to him if the wine be but in the cluster if there be but faith in desire Christ saith destroy it not the blessing of Abraham is in it out of this little grain of mustard-seed heaven will grow in this smoking slax there 's a divine spark though the smoak of doubts and temptations muffle it up in obscurity it will break out at last into slames of love and joy in the infant-believers assurance is not to be expected because of their primordial weakness and in well-grown believers it may be suspended because of Gods infinite soveraignty in the dispensing thereof as he pleaseth Cruciger on his death-bed prayed thus Invoco te Domine languidâ imbecillâ side sed side tamen Lord I call upon thee with a weak and languishing faith but yet with a faith Pious Justus Jonas who was present with Luther at his death and took as it were his last breath into his bosome was in his own sickness sainting and cold-hearted till a servant of his rubbed him up with some comforts out of the Gospel Holy Bayn saith of himself I thank God sustentation in Christ I have and some little strength suavities spiritual I tast not any even the choice servants of God may walk in
conclusion doth not stand so entirely on Scripture as a direct act of faith doth Seventhly Faith is more purely faith then assurance is In faith we look off from our selves thus the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking off from our selves unto Jesus Christ Hebr. 12.2 but in assurance we look into our selves by reflecting on our own estate Whilest faith goes out of self and hangs upon free-grace in one promise or other assurance is at home telling over its riches and faring delitiously every day in the love of God in faith there is nothing but meer dependance but in assurance there is a mixture of sense If a poor man in his rags and extremities leave himself upon God for daily bread as having nothing and yet possessing all things in the promise his faith is more purely faith then the rich mans is who hath creature-comforts flowing about him and running in at every sense If one poor in spirit in the midst of his wants and spiritual necessitles cast himself upon free-grace it is more meer faith then for one to sit under assurance with pots of Manna and spiritual flagons round about him When Jacob heard the report of a living Joseph and put himself upon the chariots sent for him it was nothing but meer belief but when he saw Josephs face his eyes were witnesses of the thing when a man that walketh in darkness and seeth no light will yet hang on the report of a Jesus and put himself upon the chariot of the promises it is nothing else but pure faith but when he comes to see the light of Gods face and in it a piece of the heavenly vision it is not all faith but faith and sight together Thus far of the second proposition that faith is less then assurance In which phrase I intend not a comparison between them in point of dignity but only that pretious faith such as is the condition of the Gospel may really be where the garland of assurance is not superadded as a King is really a King before his Coronation so faith is really faith before it be crowned with the sense of Gods love These two propositions made good I come at last to gather up my first reason Faith is more then a naked assent to the Gospel and less then an assurance of love and pardon from God therefore it must needs be some middle thing between both such as resignation is Let us put another practical Syllogism Whosoever believeth shall be saved But I believe Ergo I shall be saved the major proposition is the object of assent the conclusion is an act of assurance but the minor or middle proposition is an act of faith or resignation Resignation includes assent and which is more it yields up the soul to the terms of the Gospel but it doth not immediately arrive at assurance as it was with Jacob when he heard his mothers counsel touching the blessing between his assent to the counsel and his audible hearing the blessing pronounced on him there was a putting on the garments of his elder brother so it is with the believer when his heavenly Father offers him the Evangelical blessing between his assent and his assurance of the blessing there is a putting on the robe of Christs rightcousness a meer assentor hath as it were but the sight of his eyes in looking on the rich treasures of the Gospel a young believer hath a real title thereunto and a man of assmance over and above his title is able to bring his evidences and read them to his comfort Secondly That faith consists in resignation will appear from the way which God uses in the working of faith God works it in a way of perswasion God shall perswade Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem Gen. 9.27 that is in the Church of God where the true Shem the name of Godis When God comes with his Almighty Oratory and speaks to the heart perswading dwell not O man any lorger at home in thy will or righteousness come into Shem into my Name into my mercy by a true recumbence into my holiness by a cordial obedientialness and by the sweet strains of free-grace the man is charmed into a surrender of himself unto the Divine call then there is saith indeed Hence believers in Scripture are called perswaded ones And some of them believed Act. 17.4 in the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And some of them were perswaded and on the contrary unbelievers are called the unperswadeable ones ver 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as will not suffer themselves to be perswaded Faith is called perswasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a yielding to the true Suada the spirit and wisdom of God none ever spake or taught like him and unbelief is called an unperswadethleness or contumacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it contradicts and blasphemes at the sweet compellations of free-grace if not outwardly as those wretches Act. 18. 6. yet inwardly for it gives God the lye 1 Joh. 5.10 Again God works it in the evidence and demonstration of the spirit thus the Apostle saith His preaching was in the demonstration of the spirit and power 1 Cor. 2.4 and then as a sweet fruit thereof follows faith standing in the power of God in the very next verse when the spirit comes in its divine Logick and demonstratively points out this is the true Jesus that is the very Gospel and here is the only way of salvation and the pure light and evidence presses in so far upon the man that like one under a clear demonstration he is out-reasoned and cannot say nay to it but yields and delivers up himself to the Gospel to be moulded and cast into the holy figure thereof then there is true faith wrought in him Hence faith is sometimes set out by silence in Scripture truly my soul waiteth on God Psal 62.1 or as it is in the Hebrew my soul is silent to God when the truth comes in the clear evidence and demonstration of the spirit the soul is silent let God say what he will the soul contradicts not but keeps an holy silence scaling and subscribing to the truth and goodness of God in every thing Moreover God works it in the power of spiritual arms casting down strong holds and captivating thoughts to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. when God comes to the heart which naturally is as a strong City full of forts and towers of pride and by unbelief barred and fast locked up against all holy truths and layes a close spiritual siege to it and shuts it up under sin and wrath and makes inward batteries upon the forts and towers thereof and the trumpet of the word sounds louder and louder in conscience till the cursed walls fall down and the everlasting gates be opened to the Lord of glory and the heart surrender up it self with all its thoughts as a willing prisoner to those Gospel-truths which before it
he hath a true perswasion of the things of God but after Experience a Plerophory or full perswasion thereof Here I shall Instance in that one Fundamental Comprehensive Truth which is pregnant with all other viz. that the holy Scriptures are the very Word of God and so to be embraced by all Christians The Papists say That the Authority of the Scriptures depends at least quoad nos on the Definition of the Church and that upon that account chiefly it is to be beloved by us By the Church they mean the Church of Pastors and those gathered in a Council to desine the Canon of Scripture Saint Paul speaks of a Church which is The Pillar and Ground of the Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 But as our learned Whitaker hath observed That is not the Church of Pastors but of Believers and in truth the Word of Life is more purely held forth in the Lives and Experiences of Believers than in the Gifts of Pastors This Thesis some of their Grandees have prosecuted even to Blasphemy saying That without the Judgment of the Church they would give no more credit to Matthew than to Livy and value the Scriptures much as they do Esops Fables That this Opinion is false is as clear as the Light true Faith is a pure infusion which hangs on the irradiating Spirit as a Beam on the Sun and in Scripture sees with the credenda the reason of believing in the Divine Authority stamped thercon The Ministery used about it may be Mans but the Authority on which it leans must be Gods Theol. Nat. Tit. 209. Tota causa tota radix totum fundamentum credendi verbis Dei debet esse quia ipse dicit saith Raimundus De Sabunde Unless we believe God for himself our Faith is not Divine if the Fulciment of it be humane it is such it self Saint Paul would not have Our Faith stand in the wisdom of men Comment in Mich. 7. 1 Cor. 2.5 Saint Jerom saith In homine spes vana vera in Deo est and a little after Nolite credere in ducibus non in Episcopo non in Presbytero non in Diacono non in quâlibet hominum dignitate If Believers believe the Scriptures upon the Authority of Pastors Pastors believe them upon their own Or if they say that they have the Testimony of the Spirit all Believers may say the same and thereby believe as well as themselves and without their Authority The Thessalonians Received the Word as the Word of God without asking the Judgment of the Church 1 Thess 2.13 The Bercans Received it with all readiness and instead of consulting the Church Searched the Scriptures Acts 17.11 The true Church cannot be known but by the Scriptures De Uniâ—â—â— Feel caâ—â— 3. â—â— Thus Saint Austin writing against the Donatists saith Sunt certe libri Dominici quorum Autoritati utrique consentimus utrique credimus ibi queramus Eccl siam ibi discutiamus cansam And again Ecclesiam suam demonstrent si possunt non in sermonibus rumoribus Afrorum non in Conciliis Episcoporum non in literis disputatorum non in signis prodigiis fallacibus sed in preseriptâ— legis in Prophetarum praedactis in Psalmorum cantibus in ipsius Pastoris vocibus in Evangelistarum praedicationibus laboribus hoc est in omnibus Canonicis Sanctorum Librorum Autoritatibus And if I must know the Church by the Scripture I must in all reason own the Scripture before I own the Church or its Decisions The Church may bear witness to the Scripture but in a subordinate Ministerial way The supream adequate witness thereof is only that Spirit which outwardly indited it in the letter and inwardly imprints it on the Heart The Church may bear witness to the Scripture but it can add no Authority to it If the Church hath Authority to define the Canon it must have it from Scripture and then the Scripture must have Authority even quoad nos before that Definition unless they will absurdly distinguish and say That the Scripture-Authority before the Definition is only as to Pastors and not as to Believers till after it All the Churches Authority is from Scripture and How can the derivative Authority add to the Primitive The Scripture is Principium scientificum and therefore to be received by its light without a quare or reason why it is so the Scripture is a Foundation to the Church Eph. 2.20 and such a one that the Church is no further a Church than as it is built thereon and How can the Church be a Foundation to the Scripture The Scripture is a Law to the Church every Soul must be under it and How can the Subject-Church give Authority to the Law which it Self is under The Judgment of the Church hath been variable in the Council of Carthage under Cyprian it was Decreed that those which were baptized by Hereticks returning to the Church should be rebaptized the one Baptisin being only in the Church and none without it Vbi Ecclesia non est Baptisma non est Afterwards the first Council of Carthage called the First not as if it had been first in time but as omitting the first Cyprianical Council as antiquated enacted that Baptism made in the name of the Sacred Trinity should not be reiterated all crying out Absit against reiteration In the seventh General Council of Constantinople the 338 Bishops cried down Images might and main Quomodo Dei matrem quam obumbravit plenitudo Deitatis vulgaris Gentilium ars pingere audet non fas est Christianis qui spem Resurrectionis babent demonum culturae consuetudinibus uti flagitium est as Gregorius Theologus said Fidem habere in coloribus non in corde Quis gloriam splendorem Christi effigiare posset mortuis coloriius said Eusebius Pamphili in his Letter to the Empress Constantia One would have thought that the broken Images would never have been set together again but within less than half a Century comes the second Council of Nice and there the 350 Bishops bring in Images again under the wings of the old Cherubims and set them up upon Jacobs Pillar and back them with Fathers and Miracles They throw out Anathema's against the Iconoclasts and reject with a Curse the Books of Eusebius as a Man delivered over in reprobum sensum And are well perswaded that Angels are Corporeal and may be pictured A little after and within the same half-Century comes the Council of Francford halting between both the former speaking half in the Language of Ashdod and half in the pure Language allowing Images but denying any Worship to them And as touching the Canon it will afterwards appear how the Council of Laodicea differs about that from the third Council of Carthage and how the fixth Council of Constantinople in confirming them both varies from it self The Judgment of the Church hath been subject to Error the famous Council of Nice had two lapses in it in the twelfth
Canon it forbids Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to return to their Military Employment and in the Ninteenth it commands Rebaptization of such as were Baptized by Hereticks The Emperour Zeno being expulsed the Tyrant Basiliscus by the perswasion of Timotheus Aelurus wrote Letter in condemnation of the General Council of Chalcedon unto which as impious as they were no less than five hundred Bishops subscribed at the Tyrants Command And touching the Canon if the Council of Laodicea be right in it that of Carthage is not so and consequently that of Constantinople which takes in both must needs be in an Error These things premised Can the unvariable and infallible Scripture hang upon a variable and errable Authority such as Mans is May all the precious Promises of Life and Salvation be precarious and pendent on an Humane Arbitrium Tertullian in his Apology speaking of that old Decree among the Romans that no God should be consecrated without the approbation of the Senate saith Apud nos de humano arbitratu divinitas pensitatur nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit If the Authority of Scripture depend on the Church then we may say Nisi homini Scriptura placuerit Scriptura non erit and by consequence all the Faith of the Saints must be pendulous and hanging on uncertainties If the Churches desinition be so momentous to Scripture let us see what the Church hath done in it Hath it collected the Canonical Books into a body 'T is probable Ezra collected the Books of the Old Testament into a body and so think many of the ancient Fathers And I suppose St. John collected the Books of the New Testament together for he lived after all the other Apostles even unto the time of Trajan that by his vigilancy the Canon of the New Testament might be kept pure and unadulterate When after St. Pauls death there was a Book called Periodus Pauls Teclae spread abroad under the Name and Title of Paul St. John discovered it to be spurious insomuch that the Author of it confessed that he did it amore Pauli And I believe what was done in this collection of the Canon was not done by an ordinary Spirit but by a Prophetical Spirit in Ezra and an Apostolical one in St. John In the mean time it appears not to have been done by an act of the Church but leaving this particular When and how did the Church define the Canon Such a momentous thing should have been done by the Primo-primitive Church in the first Century whilest the Church of Christ was a pure Virgin as Egesippus said Lib. 3. Dist 21. Quest 1. Thus the School-man Durandus lays it down Hoc quod dictum est de approbatione Scripturae per Ecclesiam intelligitur solum de Ecclesiâ que fuit tempore Apostolorum qui suerunt repleti Spiritu sancto No Church so fit to do it as that which had so much of the holy Spirit but nothing was done in it in that Age. The so called Canons of the Apostles which in the 85th Canon take in three Books of Macchabees into the old Canon and the Constitutions and Epistles of Clement into the new are clearly adulterate these condemn second Marriages deprive not a Clergy-man of communion for Fornication or Perjury or Thest and speak of Altars Oblations Vessels of Gold and Silver sanctified Cantors and Lectors and many other such-like altogether unknown in those Apostolical times About these Canons Mirè inter se digladiantur Pontisicii saith one Gelasius in a Roman Synod of seventy Bishops declares them Apocryphal in toto Bellarmine rejects all but the first fifty and I think all the Romanists cast away the 85th Canon touching the Scripture as Supposititious The first Virgin-Century doing nothing in this grand matter one might have lookt for it in the second or third but there is no foot-step of it In the fourth Century about the year 320 came the famous Council of Nice and then it might have been expected as the aptest foundation for their Orthodox Conclusions against Arrius and withal for a stated Rule against all future Heresies but there is a failure also nothing was done in it And into what Heart can it enter that in all those 320 years there was no Canon no Authority of Scripture no foundation for the Primitive Christians to fix their Faith upon In those days Paganism was strong and Persecutions hot and Divine Cordials necessary and yet the Scripture for want of the Churches Definition was not of Authority as to the Christians then living I say according to the Popish Thesis it was not But to go on Afterwards about the year of our Lord 368 came the Council of Laodicea which in the 59th Canon orders That no Books should be read in the Church but the Canonical ones of the Old and New Testament and enumerates as Canonical such as are received in the Reformed Church only omitting the Apocalypse And now had not that Omission been and had this Council been a General one the work had been done But afterwards in this very Century about the year 398 the third Council of Carthage in its 47th Canon reckons up as Canonical Tobit Judith two Books of Macchabees and five Books of Solomon accounting Wisdom and Ecclesiastious to be two of them In this Council St. Austin was present who yet in his Book de Civitate Dei Lib. 17. cap. 20 saith That Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus in the judgment of the more learned were not Solomens and were chiefly received in the Western Church it seems the Eastern received them not In the end of the next Century about the year 494. Gelasius Bishop of Rome with seventy Bishops enumerates the same Books as Canonical which are reckoned so in the Council of Carthage save only that he omits the Book of Nehemiah and names but one of the Macchabees These particular Provincial Councils being of incompetent Authority to desine the Canon for the Universal Church and withal variant nay repugnant among themselves Whither must we go but to a General Council but Oh how late very late doth that come How long will the Authority of Scripture and Faith of Christians be suspended and to how little satisfaction will this desinition be About the year 682 was the sixth General Council of Constantinople in Trullo and as to this Point what did it It consirmed the Canons of the Apostles the Council of Laodicea and the Council of Carthage which three in this Point being totally inconsistent each with other every one by the leave of these Fathers who confirmed them all may chuse what Canonical Books he will have whether those in the Canons of the Apostles or those in the Council of Laodicea or those in that of Carthage and what pitiful incertainties are here And now it is to little purpose to fly over many Centuries more till we come to the Councils of Florence and Trent these are late ones and as our Learned Whitaker
it is great Psal 25.11 a strange argument for pardon for it is great such as no malefactor would use to an earthly Prince but the holy man knows that it will pass with God who loves to make grace superabound there where sin hath abounded Again he extracts hope out of despair When he is ready to faint and swoon away in cold fits of spiritual deadness faith revives and points him to the fountain of life which runs over in quickning graces upon the whole Church and if he scruple his access to that fountain faith tells him that the Well is open to all comers whosoever will may take of the water of life freely whosoever hath the bucket of faith may draw out of it and if he yet reply true whosoever will may do so but oh I want a will I want an heart for God and Christ and heavenly things faith is able if awakened both to tell him that these are living groans and withall to drop some Scripture cordial into his heart such as that is Prov. 9. where Christ the wisdom of God builds his house the Church kills his beasts mingles his wine furnishes his table that is provides all heavenly blessings sends out his virgins his holy ministers and after all invites the simple and him that wanteth understanding to eat of his bread and drink of his wine in the Original it is him that wanteth heart Oh! if thou sensibly wantest an heart for spiritual things here thou art particularly called to the Gospel seast where Christs flesh is meat indeed and his blood wine indeed able to make thee live for ever Again he extracts joy out of sorrow The Apostle Paul rejoyced over the godly sorrow of the Corinthians because they received no damage in it 2 Cor. 7.9 when faith looks over all the tears and groans of the believer it saith there is no damage in these these tears are bottled in heaven the holy spirit breaths in those groans he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Psal 126.6 Oh! saith faith observe the word doubtless tears and sorrows in a godly sort are a sure sign that the harvest of joy and comfort is nigh at hand one may see the crop in the seed sown When the Emperor Julian banished Athanasius he said Nubecula est citò transibit it is but a little cloud and will soon be over when the night of darkness and discomfort is upon the soul faith is able to say 't is but a short night of sorrow joyes come in the morning Psal 30.5 and for that morning I will trust the sun of righteousness O how soon can he make it day in the soul Moreover he extracts wisdome out of folly There is not there cannot be any thing in all the world so foolish as sin and yet out of this he picks up wisdom hereby he comes to know more of his own heart There is a Mahometan fable that the heart of Mahomet being a child was cut open and a black grain called the devils portion taken out of the midst thereof A believers sins make rents and holes in his heart and through these the inward core and blackness thereof becomes visible Good Hezekiah by his fall comes to know what was in his heart Peter denying his Master comes to understand the desperate deceitfulness of his own heart which cheated him against his own resolutions into so horrible an iniquity every actual sin is to the believer a sad Commentary on his inward corruption Again hereby he comes to understand free-grace better then before that God should melt as man hardens heal as man falls and bruises himself afiesh drop pardons as man doth sins return the holy spirit as man grieves it away lengthen out patience as man abuses it use lavers as fast as man runs into pollutions evidently argues riches of immense superabounding grace towards sinners Moreover hereby he comes to know the necessity of a continual dependance on God considering the heats and colds of his heart the ups and downs of his life and the interchangeable actings of Hetis and spirit he plainly perceives that he falls of himself and stands from God dies of his own spirit and lives from Gods sins of his own and repents believes obeyes of meer grace and so understands the necessity of depending on God praying continually with the devout Psalmist Hold up my gomgs in thy paths that my footsteps slip not Psal 17.5 Lastly to name no more he extracts all out of nothing Thus the Apostle as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6.10 all things in God who is all in all Zuichemus gave Erasmus a ring which when it was unfolded represented a mundane sphear with Astrological notes engraven upon it telling him withall that now he might wear the whole world on his finger the conjugal ring whereby the soul is married to God in Christ by faith hath this posie I will be thy God which if it be unfolded is a sphear of all things the believer need not ask with Peter what shall we have Math. 19.27 for he hath all in God It is storied of the Laudanum of Paracelsus that it was almost good in all cases but however that might fail faith well understands that all things may be made out of an interest in God the universal good hence it can rationally part with all for him because it knows that there be fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and children and houses and lands and infinitely more in God CHAP. VII Of the second holy fruit of Faith in Justification its growth upon Faith as a fruit thereof with the manner continuance perfection and various excellencies of the same THUS much for the first fruit of faith being the spiritual sagacities thereof whereby it appears that the believer is the only wise man who hath eyes in his head whilest all the rest of the world be they what they will in notional knowledge walk on in darkness The second holy fruit of faith is Justification which is a very great blessing so great that in Luthers phrase it is articulus stantis cadentis Ecclesiae and in Chemnitius arx propugnaculum religionis Christianae a blessing that is pregnant with many more which occasioned a good Divine to say sin committed is every judgment radically and pardon of sin is every mercy radically you may cut out any blessing or comfort out of it particular mercies are but pardon of sin specificated and individuated brought into this or that mercy of all blessings you may say this is pardon of sin and that is pardon of sin Touching this precious fruit of faith I shall endeavour to shew these things First That it grows upon faith as a fruit Secondly The manner how it grows there Thirdly The continuance of it Fourthly The perfection of it Fifthly The various excellencies of it First This holy fruit grows upon faith in the