house Both these Apostles do inform us that there is something to be done of us that we may be saved that is that we must repent and believe in Christ and be fruitful in all good works which are inseparable effects of Faith and Repentance Whereupon St. Paul exhorteth us not to be weary of well doing Gal. 6.9 and to incourage us hereunto he telleth us that in due time we shall reap if we faint not There is something then to be done or us contrary to Mr. S. his assertion that we may receive more then we have already For as we are here by the Apostle given to understand this present life of ours is but the seed time wherein we are to sow the seeds of virtue and good works and hereafter at Christs appearing the harvest cometh when we shall reap a crop of glory This is the expectation of all true believers for as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 15.19 had we hope in Christ only in this life we were of all men the most miserable Lastly Whereas he saith We are to do as much as if we were to be saved by what we do because we should do as much for what is done already for us and to our hands as if we were to receive it for what we did our selves Hereunto I answer That seeing Gods glory is to be preferred before our own salvation therefore we ought both to desire and to endeavour were it possible to do not as much but more for what is done for us already as if we were to be saved by what we do our selves But otherwise I must tell him that if we would obtain our salvation for our own works then we must look to it that they be pure and perfect and that we do all that the Law requireth without fayling in any thing But he that shall challenge such perfection to himself is to be ranked amongst proud Pharisees and deserveth not the name of an humble and lowly hearted Christian For a farewel therefore to this first reason of his I would know how Faith can be the only work of the Gospel if the Gospel do teach us to do as much in way of thankfulnesse to God for our redemption and salvation as if we were to redeem and save our selves Obiect 2 I come now to his next Reason whereby he endeavourete to prove That Faith is the only work of the Gospel Salvation saith he is a short work Believe and thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.10 Answ But I must tell him As short as he maketh it there will be work enough for the believer all his life long for the Faith which St. Paul speaketh of will not suffer a believer to be idle or unfruitful but as he himself telleth us Gal. 5.6 1 Cor. 15.58 it worketh by love yea it stirreth up believers alwaies to abound in the work of the Lord. Mt. S. his Faith therefore if it be without works and do set all upon Christs score as if he had repented for us and done all for us that we our selves should do is no better as St. James telleth us Jam. 2.17 then a dead Faith Obiect 3 Now whereas he saith It is the Gospel way of dispensation to assure and passe over salvation in Christ to any that will believe Answ I grant it is so but must tell him that true Faith as our Saviour himself teacheth us is to believe the Gospel Mark 1.15 The Faith therefore that is not founded on the Promises of the Gospel but a mans own fancie as is the Faith which Mr. S. requireth is not a true but a false Faith Obiect 4 But saith he There needs no more on our sides to work or warrant salvation to us but to be perswaded that Jesus Christ died for us because Christ hath suffered and God is satisfied Now suffering and satisfaction that great work of salvation How Christ by his Passion hath wrought the great work of our salvation I have already shewed But it followeth not hereupon that there is nothing to be done by us in a lower way for we must walk in that narrow way of which our Saviour speaketh Matth. 7.14 Matt. 7.14 that leadeth unto life or else we shall never come to Heaven nor have any part in that salvation which is there purchased and prepared by Christ for his Saints It 's therefore not only a false but a most impious and most dangerous assertion to say as here Mr. S. doth That there needs no more on our sides to work or warrant salvation to us but to be perswaded that Jesus Christ died for us If this were so then indeed salvation would be a short work For not only all those must needs be saved who are perswaded that Christ died for all men absolutely and therefore for themselves in particular but also the most loose and licentious Libertines and carnal Gospellers that are for even those if not all yet many of them do perswade themselves that Christ died for them as well as for any other but this Faith of theirs is nothing else but most deadly and damnable presumption as is shewed in the 15. Question Lastly Whereas he objecteth and saith They only Obiect 5 are justified who believe Rom. 1.17 Acts 13.39 And that we are justified by grace not of works Rom. 3 2â— Answ This we willingly grant but tell him that there is more required to our salvation than to our justification For as Bernard saith excellently well Bona operae De gratiae et libero arbitrio sunt occultae praedestinationis indicia futurae glorificationis praesagia via regni non causa regnandi Good works are tokens of our predestination that otherwise lieth hidden from us fore-tokens of our future glorification the way to the Kingdom but not the cause of the crown Whosoever therefore liveth here idly and worketh not nor imployeth the talent which he hath received of his heavenly Lord and Master shall never come to Heaven Matth. 25.30 but be cast into utter darknesse where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Again whereas he saith They only are justified who believe We acknowledge this true but tell him that no man believeth until he seeth his own misery by sin and in what great need he standeth of Christ as hath been already shewed Albeit then we are justified by Faith only yet this Faith is not ordinarily to be had without some precedent qualifications such as are the hearing of the word denial of a mans own self and of his righteousnesse and a belief of perswasion that salvation is to be had by Christ only Object 2. Gods love is not offered to all equally and indifferently or to all absolutely Object 2 Secondly He alledgeth also these sayings of holy Scripture against us as if they excluded all preparation to Faith God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 God so loved the world that he gave his
tamen factam nostram Hence I infer these three Conclusions 1. That a man may have right to a thing and yet no right in it 2. That as long as he hath no right in it it is none of his 3. That it becometh his by being delivered unto him Now I demand Is not Christ delivered unto us by God the Father and by himself when in the Gospel he is preached and offered unto us and we by Faith do accept of him and not before These things being thus premised I will now by Gods gracious assistance examine Master S. his 7. Arguments whereby he endeavoureth to prove that Christ is not made ours by Faith Object It is an act of Omnipotency saith he to make Christ ours God only therefore doth this and no act of ours Answer Whereunto I answer that God only doth make Christ ours as the Author of this Divine Act and that Faith doth make him ours after a far inferiour manner that is as an instrument created by God in our hearts whereby we do lay hold of Christ and receive him being offered and given unto us of God Christ then is said to be made ours by Faith in the same sense as we are said to be justified by Faith that is Organice instrumentally For as Keckerman hath observed in his Logick the Act of the Author or Principal efficient cause is many times attributed to the Instrument Thus not only our justification but also our sanctification which is Gods proper Act an Act of his Almighty power is in holy Scripture attributed to Faith sometimes to the word of God and sometimes to the Ministers who do preach the word To Faith Acts 15.9 where St. Peter saith that God did purifie the hearts of the believing Gentiles by Faith to wit both from the guilt of sin in their justification and from the tyranny and dominion of sin in their sanctification To the word 1 Pet. 1.23 We are born again not of mortal seed but of immortal by the word of God Lastly to the Ministers of the word 1 Cor. 4.15 For St. Paul saith to the Corinthians I have begotten you by the Gospel And he calleth Onesimus his for and saith Philem. 11. that he begat him in his bonds He telleth us also that God sent him to the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to light Act. 26.18 and from the power of Satan to God Now in the same sense that we are said to be purified converted and born again by Faith the word and the Ministers that preach the word Is Christ said to be made ours and we to be justified by Faith to wit instrumentally as by means which it pleased God to use in our ingrafting into Christ and in our justification which are wrought only and altogether hy his Divine power and not by any power of the means which receive all their efficacy from him and can do nothing towards a sinners conversion of themselves The result of all thit I have said is this It is an Act of Gods Almightiness to make Christ ours by his own power and authority as the Author of this work But it is no Act of Omnipotency to make Christ ours instrumentally that is to receive him by Faith when he is offered to us of God A second Objection of M. S. is this Objection If Faith should give us our interest in Christ then as our Faith increaseth our interest should increase and we should be more and more justified and forgiven which none allow It is true indeed Answer if Faith did justifie us by any inherent virtue or dignity of its own then as M.S. saith the more we grow in Faith the more we should be interested in Christ be more more justified but he wel knoweth that the Protestant Doctrine is that Faith justifieth not as it is a vertue or any act of ours sed objectivè et correlativè but in regard of Christ the object thereof whereunto it relateth Even as a Chirurgion may be said to heal a man that is wounded with his own hands not that his hands had any vertue in them to heal but because by them he searched the wound and applyed a healing plaister unto it which drew out the purulent corruption and cured him For even so are we in like manner said to be justified and saved by Faith because we do by Faith lay hold of Christ and apply his merits to our souls So that it is not so much Faith as Christ in whom we believe by whom we are justified and saved that is who hath both merited our justification and doth actually acquit and absolve us from our sins And in like manner doth Faith interest us in Christ not for the dignity and worthiness thereof but because it is Gods Ordinance and appointment that we should receive Christ and have him dwelling in our hearts by Faith Wheresoever therefore there is true Faith to be found though never so weak and faint or feeble that man is a true member of Christ perfectly justified and absolved from all his sins Those of old amongst the Israelites that were stung with the fiery Serpents were perfectly cured if they did look up to the brasen Serpent and beheld it although their sight was never so dark and dim as well as the younger sort whose sight was most perfect so a weak Faith as well as a strong doth lay hold of Christ and of justification and salvation by him For as the Israelites were healed by beholding the brazen Serpent because it was Gods Ordinance that health which was otherwise wrought miraculously only by his own Divine power should hereupon follow and ensue so the same is to be said of Faith And therefore from hence an answer may be given to that question which Mr. S. asketh in his next words where speaking of some who call these other acts of Faith that is when it is grown and encreased Faith of assurance and Acts of manifestation he faith If Faith be thus in its other degrees of working Objection Why not in its first His meaning is as I take it if Faith when it is encreased doth only assure a man of his salvation and maketh the pardon of his sins manifest unto him why doth not the first and least degree of Faith also give us only an assurance and manifestation of our salvation by Christ but otherwise not any interest in him at all Answer Whereunto I answer First that a strong Faith doth give us that assurance and evidence or manifestation of our salvation by Christ which a weak Faith cannot because it doth lay firm hold on the promises of the Gospel that are the only ground of assurance which of a weak Faith are apprehended but weakly even as an Israelite with a quick sight could by that natural vertue that was in his eye more clearly behold the brazen Serpent then he that had a dark and dim eye sight But as he that did lift up his eyes and beheld
Scripture alleadged by him do prove and we do constantly professe and preach the same but by that which he hath written in other places of this Treatise I know that he hath another meaning and that is that Christ performed the conditions of the Covenant of grace or of the Gospel for us that is as he speaketh that he repented for us and believed for us and that his Faith and Repentance are in the Gospel offered unto us and are accepted of God for us as if we our selves did repent and believe This strange opinion of his I have examined Quest 13. Whither I do referr you for more ample satisfaction in this matter Sixthly It 's no more saith Mr. S. to offer Jesus Christ then any grace of Christs or gift of Christ unto a sinner For a sinner is as unprepared and unfit for the one as the other equally in sin and pollution to both All this is true I grant if he do speak of a sinner as he is by nature and of himself But what can be inferred or concluded hence against the Protestant Doctrine that hath been hitherto constantly taught I cannot see nor perceive but may rather wrest his weapons out of his hands and use them against himself For if it be all one or as he saith if it be no more to offer Christ then any grace of Christ or gift of Christ unto a sinner then seeing the grace and gift of remission of sins or of justification is received by Faith as both St. Peter teacheth Acts 10.43 and St. Paul Acts 26.18 Christ himself also is to be received of us by Faith and as our sins are not forgiven but we are bound over unto punishment for them in Gods word until we believe in Christ so neither can any have any interest in Christ as long as we remain in infidelity and incredulity do not believe in him contrary to Mr. S. Mr. D. new doctrine Thus I have answered this Objection also according to the generality of the words wherein it was propounded But thinking more intentively with my self what M. S. his meaning might be I guessed that his words must be taken Restricte in a more restrained sense as if he should reason thus The graces of Faith and Repentance are freely and absolutely offered in the Gospel without requiring any antecedent act of Faith or Repentance whereby they are to be received and made ours therefore Christ is also as absolutely offered without any condition either of Faith or Repentance Now hereunto I do answer that all are in the Gospel commanded to believe in Christ and to repent that they may be saved by him but Faith and Repentance were never offered to all neither by Christ himself nor by his Apostles when they preached the Gospel nor are the Ministers of the Gospel now so to offer them It 's true Christ giveth Faith and Repentance to his spiritual Israel This we are to teach Acts 5.31 that men may be stirred up to seek both Faith and Repentance of Christ in the use of such means as he hath prescribed But it is one thing to teach this and another to offer Faith and Repentance to all absolutely It is Christ and his merits that are offered unto us in the Gospel but Faith is required of us as the means whereby both himself and his merits are received and Repentance and new Obedience is in joyned as a necessary condition without which we can have no communion with Christ as I shall have occasion to shew hereafter But if I shall grant that Faith and Repentance are offered unto us in the Gospel yet I may retort the Argument of Mr. S. upon himself for Faith and consequently Repentance are not offered unto us nor wrought in us nisi mediante verbo but by the means and ministery of the word For Faith cometh by hearing Rom. 10.17 and hearing by the word of God therefore Christ is neither absolutely offered nor absolutely made ours sed mediante eodem verbo et fide but by means of the same word and Faith whereby we receive him Lastly I do argue thus eternal life is not to be had without Faith in Christ This St. John giveth us to understand when he saith John 20.31 These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name Seeing therefore as Mr. S. saith we are alike indisposed to any gift of Christ as we are to Christ himself it followeth therefore necessarily that seeing the gift of life is not ours without Faith neither is Christ himself ours without Faith which if it be granted it cannot be avoided but must needs be acknowledged that he is made ours by Faith And this the Apostle expresly avoucheth Eph. 2.12 Ye were at that time without Christ that is whilest they were Infidels and unbelievers Lastly This spiritual work saith Mr. S. is a new Creation and so works of preparation are not so proper in that Eph. 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus Answer That our regeneration is a new Creation we do all acknowledge but that every work of Creation doth exclude all precedent preparations will not so easily be granted For Beasts Birds and Fishes were not made immediatly of nothing but of a precedent matter And God created man also not immediatly of nothing but his Body was first prepared and created of the dust of the earth and when that was perfectly formed he breathed the breath of life into his nostrils that is he infused his Soul into his Body Gen. 2. and so he was made a living Soul The same course also doth the Lord ordinarily take in our regeneration which is a new Creation For that there are certain preparations such as are the hearing of the word some knowledge of sin and of a mans own misery by sin and of the grace of God in Christ ordinarily thereunto precedent in adultis in those that are of capacity and understanding shall be shewed afterwards God willing in the seventh Question It doth not appear therefore neither by this nor by any former Reasons of Mr. S. that Christ is ours before we do believe in him or that he is not made ours by Faith Objection Whereas therefore he saith immediatly before the first of those aforesaid seven Reasons of his that we are not to consider neither Faith nor Repentance as bringing-in Christ in the Soul but Christ bringing-in them and working them more and more in the soul Unto this I answer Answer that Christ by bringing-in as he speaketh that is by working Faith and Repentance in the Soul doth bring-in himself into it and taketh and keepeth possession of it and so we are interested in Christ For until Christ worketh these graces in us by his Spirit we are altogether aliens from him and have no communion with him at all It is no good reasoning to say Christ worketh Faith in
Secondly Grace is taken by a Metonymie for a supernatural gift of grace Eph. 4.7 2 Cor. 6.1 as in these places following Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ c. We beseech you that ye receive not the Grace of God in vain Under this latter signification of Grace are comprehended both Christ himself John 4.10 for he calleth himself the gift of God and all the several Acts also or parts of our salvation which he hath merited for us and worketh in us or bestoweth upon us as our justification adoption sanctification preservation in the state of Grace redemption from hell and eternal glorification and salvation in Heaven Now judge whether those can be enemies to Grace or whether they are justly charged not to preach free Grace who do thus ascribe our whole salvation to the Grace of God It is true indeed we do teach men to repent and believe in Christ that they may be saved by him but withal we do teach them that Faith and Repentance are Graces of God or dona ex gratiâ gifts of his Grace and that they cannot practise nor perform them viribus liberi arbitrii sui by their own free will or by any power of their own but must seek and sue unto God for them in the use of such means as he hath prescribed For God doth not force his graces upon us nor doth not work upon us as on stocks or stones but seeing he hath made us reasonable creatures he therefore speaketh unto us by his word and perswadeth and inableth us by his Spirit to do those things which he requirerh of us Thus he dealeth with us as with men but yet so that still our salvation is wholly of his grace both the beginning middle and the end thereof For though it bee we that do repent and believe and obey and not God yet we do all this not of our selves but by his grace Thus do we alwaies and in all things magnifie and extol the grace of God acknowledging it to be the only cause of our whole salvation by Christ Yet all this that I have said Objection Mr. S. thinketh to overthrow by saying That all sorts even Papists and Arminians do thus acknowledge grace in general as we do But who seeth not that we do more then so Answer For whereas they do divide the salvation of a sinner between mans Free-will and Gods free grace yea do terminate his conversion ultimately and leave it in the power of his own Free-will we ascribe it only to grace Quest 2. Whether a man when he is converted from Infidelity to Fayth do change his estate before God Reconcil of God to man pag. 32 MAster D. saith that a mans believing doth not change his estate before God Whereupon that I may passe my censure this I say that if before God he meaneth only according to that he is in Gods eternal predestination this may be admitted for so he is a believer that is decreed to be a believer from all eternity But if his meaning be that his estate before he believed and after his conversion is the same before God that is in Gods account or in reality and truth as well as in outward appearance in which sense Zachary and Elizabeth are said both to be righteous before God this may not be granted For upon Zacheus his conversion our Saviour spake unto him and said Luke 1. This day is salvation come unto this house He was not in the state of salvation therefore before Now the same is to be said of all other converts and true believers whereof is to be seen in the Ephesians Eph. 2.1 2. of whom St. Paul saith You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in times past ye walked and afterwards he speaketh unto them and saith Ye were sometimes darkness Eph. 4.8 but are now light in the Lord. Now I would know whether he doth not change his estate that passeth from death to life which our Saviour our in express words affirmeth of the believer John 5.24 and from darkness to light As manifest a change of their estate do those words of the Apostle import and imply when he saith unto them Remember that ye being in times passed Gentiles in the flesh that at that time ye were without Christ Eph. 2.11 12 13. being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world But now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ Can any thing be spoken more plainly to shew what a great difference there was between their former estate and condition whilest they remained in infidelity and their present since they were converted to the Faith of Christ To be without Christ and without God and to be nigh unto God and unto Christ that is to be the children of God and members of Christ must needs argue a great change in a mans spiritual estate Those words also of St Paul Col. 1.13 do evince as manifest a change of our spiritual estate when he saith That God the Father hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son For how is it possible there should be any such translation if our state remained unalterable and still the same It is false therefore that Mr. D. teacheth to wit Reconcil of God to man pag. 27.28 That our Faith only giveth us evidence and assurance of our salvation which we had before but that we are not to believe and to serve God that we may obtain salvation non per modum meriti not by way of merit I mean not so but that we may obtain by Faith both right unto and possession or fruition of that salvation in Heaven which Christ hath purchased for us In this he contradicteth the Scripture for St Peter calleth the salvation of our souls the end of our Faith Now I would know 1 Pet. 1.9 whether a man doth undertake or do any thing nisi ex intuitu et cum intentione finis but for some end or other which he propounds unto himself When we do therefore believe in Christ and Repent us of our sins past we do it with this intention and for this end That we may be partakers of eternal salvation in Heaven through Christ Whereupon when the Jaylor demanded of Paul Silas Sirs What must I do to be saved Acts 16.31 They said Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved thou and thine house He findeth fault with this question Reconcil of God to man pag. 34. If the Jaylor had asked this question of Mr. D. he in choâ—er scorn would have answered him What thou ignorant and impious man dost thou ask me what thou must do to be saved as if Christ had not throughly wrought and
with his own right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins Acts 5.31 To whom also hath God promised remission of sins Verily not to those that do live in sin but that do leave their sins and return unto GOd Ezek. 18.21 22 23 24. Pardon of sin therefore or which is all one justification and absolution from sin is not to be had until a man do repent and become a new man But what need I to heap up any more testimonies or to use any more reasons seeing St. Paul shutteth up his disputation of justification in these words Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law Rom. 3.28 It will not serve M. D.'s turn to say That Pauls meaning is that we are justified declaratively to our own consciences by Faith only and not by works For St. Peter who spake by the same Spirit that St. Paul did teacheth us That by the constant practice not only of Faith but of other vertues and good works also we are to make our Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 2.10 that is to our own souls and consciences Consequently therefore by the same works may also be assured in our consciences of our justification before God and of our reconciliation to his Divine Majesty For he that is assured of his Election and of his effectual Vocation is assured of his justification and salvation Mr. D. therefore setteth a false glosse upon St Pauls words when he saith that his meaning is not that we are actually justified before God by Faith only but declaratively to our own consciences for thus are we justified by other Vertues as well as by Faith SECT II. Mr. D. his Objections answered ALL these plain Testimonies and many more Mr. D. thinketh to avoid and put off by saying that we were justified actually by Christs righteousness before we did believe even at that very time when he suffered his bitter Passion and bare our sins on his Body on the Tree and that therefore as I intimated before the Scriptures which say we are justified by Faith must be thus understood That Faith justifieth declaratively that is that our Faith declareth and maketh it evident unto our consciences that our sins are forgiven and that we are justified before God But the Scriptures as I have shewed do speak so plainly that they will not suffer themselves thus to be wrested Notwithstanding he goeth about to prove this his exposition by these Arguments following Object Confer p. 14. Rom. 4.5 Rom. 5.10 1. That the Act of our Faith is a Consequent of our justification and not an Antecedent is plain For God justifieth the ungodly And we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son when we were enemies Now saith he Believers cannot be called enemies but friends But we were reconciled when we were enemies The answer hereunto is easie to wit Answer That we were ungodly and so enemies antecedenter ad reconciliationem nostram that is before we were reconciled but not when we did actually believe The Apostle therefore in these words of his denotat tatum terminum à quo istius reconciliationis non terminum ad quem that is And so speaketh in the same sense as Isay doth c. 3. when he saith The lame man shall leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb sing which as Chamier saith must be understood in sensu diviso non in composito he sheweth what manner of persons we were before we were reconciled to God not what we are being reconciled He speaketh therefore in the same sense as our Saviour doth when he saith Math. 11.5 the lame walk and the deaf hear The meaning whereof no man will conceive to be that the lame still continuing lame did walk and that the deaf still continuing deaf did hear but that those who formerly were lame and deaf being cured by Christ did go and hear And even so in like manner when the Apostle saith that God justifieth the ungodly and that we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son when we were enemies the meaning is not That the ungodly remaining ungodly are justified or that any are enemies to God after they are actually reconciled unto him but that we who by nature and of our selves were ungodly and therefore enemies were justified from that ungodliness of ours and reconciled unto God when we believed in Christ Objection But saith he We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Christ bare our sins in his body on the Tree Remission of sin therefore is even as ancient as satisfaction for sin and at what time Christ Jesus taketh our sins upon himself at the same time are the persons of Gods Elect just before the tribunal of Almighty God Answer Hereunto I answer That we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son meritoriè that is in regard of merit but are not actually reconciled until we do by Faith receive Christ apply the merits of his Passion to our souls In the same sense is Christ said to bear our sins on his Body on the tree that is the punishment of our sins whereby he purchased the pardon of them It doth not follow therefore neither from these nor from any other the like sayings that actual remission of sins is as ancient as satisfaction for sin nor that the persons of Gods Elect were just before the Tribunal of God at the same time when Christ Jesus took our sins upon himself Mr. D. therefore doth indeed wrest those places of Scripture which speak of the actual performance of the price of our Redemption when he alledgeth them to impugn actual remission of sins by Faith Another of his Objections is this Object Confer p. 15. They that are ingrafted into Christ Jesus are justified but we must be ingrafted into Christ Jesus before we can believe therefore we must be justified before we can believe What force and what strength there is in this reasoning of his I will request him to consider by the like Answer They that are ingrafted into Christ Jesus are holy for so are all his members but we must be ingrafted into Christ Jesus before we can believe therefore we must be holy before we can believe Will he say that this is rightly concluded from the premises No he must not for he telleth us that holiness cannot go before Faith but must follow it But to answer his Argument Confer p. 21. When he saith They that are ingrafted into Christ Jesus are justified But we must be ingrafted into Christ Jesus before we can believe If here he do understand priority of time I deny this Assumption of his For at the same time that we are ingrafted into Christ we receive power from him to believe Again seeing Christ is offered unto us in the Promises of the Gospel How can we be made partakers of Christ if we
do not by Faith believe and receive those promises To say nothing that to be ingrafted into Christ is nothing but to believe in Christ For God by working Faith in us doth ingraft us into Christ I deny therefore his minor Proposition for we are not ingrafted into Christ at all untill the Spirit hath wrought Faith in us He alledgeth That the effects of righteousness is Assurance but to what purpose I know not Obiect Esay 32.17 unless it be against himself For if righteousness do alwaies bring assurance with it of Gods Love favour or of the forgiveness of sins and of our justification then it cannot be said that we are assured of our justification only by Faith as he teacheth Afterwards I finde him reasoning thus St. Peter saith Object That Christ bare our sins in his own Body on the tree that we being delivered from sin might live in righteousness 1 Pet. 2.24 St. John tells us John 1.29 Christ takes them away Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world If the justice of God hath laid allour iniquities upon his back hath not his mercy taken them from us If the Lord Christ did take them away then they are no more Answ For answer hereunto I say first That they are taken away and are no more in regard of any satisfaction to be performed by us for so Christ bare them and took them away as I have shewed before Again I do here further add That the persons of whom both St. Peter and St. John do speak in these words are Believers Christ bare our sins that is ours who believe in him for of them St. Peter speaks and to them he wrote this and not to infidels So also when St. John saith Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world By the world here he meaneth all those throughout the world both Jews and Gentiles that do believe in him and receive him for their Saviour in the same sense as St. John the Apostle speaketh when he saith If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the just 1 John 2.1 and he is the propitiation for our sins ours of the Jewish Nation or of the Israelites who do believe in him and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world that is of all both Jews and Gentiles that do believe in him throughout the world SECT III. An Objection answered I Have done with Mr. D. And must now essay if I can give satisfaction to a stronger reason than any of his which I finde alledged by an acute and learned Divine for whom I am no fit match Vindic Gra. Lib. 1. Sect. 4. For thus doth he reason Justificatio est actus Dei immanens non transiens that is to say an internal not an external Act of God est ergo aeternus non temporaneus it is therefore eternal and not done in time as the outward works of God are Whereupon he inferreth and concludeth that when the Scripture saith We are justified by Faith the meaning hereof is that we are justified by Faith in tribunali conscientiae that is that God when we believe in Christ justifieth us in the tribunal which be setteth up in our own souls and consciences but that otherwise we were justified ab aeterno apud Deum eternally with God But methinks this exposition of his quite overthroweth the Doctrine of justification by Faith as it is taught by the Protestants For the Protestants Doctrine is First that our justification is actus individuus an individual act that is accomplished all at once in one and the same instant Secondly quòd non admittit majus et minus that it is not increased nor diminished by degrees as our sanctification is But this justification is not any such indivisible act For frequent and ordinary experience sheweth that those who are Believers and in the state of grace yea excellent Christians otherwise are somtimes confident that their sins are pardoned and that they are in Gods favour and at other times though they rely still upon God for the pardon of their sins and for salvation by Christ yet they cannot say that they are pardoned In a word the Children of God have sometimes a greater sometimes a lesser assurance of the pardon of their sins and of their salvation and sometimes hardly any at all The reason whereof in many of them is melancholy abounding which depraveth the fancy depresseth the heart and alwaies raiseth fears in opposition contrary to that which a mans heart is set upon and which it most desireth Somtimes again the Faith of the Believer is assailed with strong strange and hideous temptations which deprive him of that assurance which formerly he had or were it not for these temptations would have And sometimes also weakness of judgment in those whose hearts are upright with God is a great cause why they cannot lay hold of that comfort which belongeth unto them Now if we shall say that a man is justified by Faith when his Faith doth declare and evidence unto his conscience that his sins are pardoned then we shall exclude some of these good Christians from the state of justification and of others of them we shall say contrary to the common tenent of Protestants that they are sometimes more and sometimes lesse justified Object But how then shall we answer the aforesaid Reason which is alledged to prove the eternity of the justification of Gods Elect Answ I answer it thus That the Decree indeed of justifying or absolving Believers is an immanent and eternal Act of God Thus they are justified ab aeterno in mente Dei eternally in Gods counsel or in Gods mind and purpose even as those that are arraigned in Courts of justice here in this world are acquitted or condemned in animo et mente judicis in the Judges mind and decree or determination before he passeth sentence of judgment upon them But they are not actually judged until this sentence is pronounced and published Now the same is to be said concerning the actuall justification of those that do believe in Christ For justification as the Protestants do prove by the Scriptures est vocabulum forense is a judicial term and therefore is to be taken in sensu forensi in a judicial sense It importeth therefore an external judicial act of God that is to say his pronouncing or publishing of sentence of judgment For then is a Judge said to judge him that is arraigned before him when he giveth either sentence of absolution or condemnation upon him and even in like manner God the judge of all the world doth justifie those that believe in Christ by passing sentence of absolution upon them and condemneth all unbelievers and ungod y sinners by giving sentence of condemnation against them Object But it may be you will say unto me It is true Christ at his coming will judge the quick and the dead
but where doth he now passe sentence either of absolution or condemnation upon any that they may be said to be judged by him I answer that he doth this in his word Answ in verbo Evangelij where every true believer may find himself already justified from his sins in scriptis as the Lawyers use to speak sententia finali with such a definitive sentence as shall stand for ever and never be revoked but confirmed by Christ at the latter day This answer offered it self unto me long since when I read the former Objection and I have found since that it was no new invention or device of mine own but the old Protestant Doctrine Zanch. de attributis Dei lib. 4. cap. 2. q. 6. For thus writeth Zanchius a learned judicious and an ancient Protestant This grace whereby we are justified before God data fuit ab aeterno was given us from all eternity because he loved eternally in Christ and made us accepted unto himself in him as the Apostle saith to the Ephesians Notwithstanding we are not reipsa really justified by his grace but when we do by Faith apprehend it For neither is the arraigned person said to be absolved that is justified though the Prince have decreed that he shall be absolved until the arraigned person himself hath heard the voice of absolution and hath assented thereunto When we hear the voice of the Gospel we hear the voice of absolution when we assent thereunto we do reipsa really or indeed receive absolution or are justified Therefore the Apostle when he speaketh of this grace as we are justified thereby doth not name only grace but joyneth Faith with it as it is every where manifest in his Epistle Thus hath the most learned and judicious Zanchius opened this matter I have also of late since I penned this met with a Treatise of learned Mr. Rutherfurth The Trial Triumph of Faith p. 62. wherein I find that he fully accordeth with Zanchius his words are these Justification is a forinsecal sentence in time pronounced in the Gospel and applyed to me now and never while the instant now that I believe it 's not formally an act of the understanding to know a truth concerning my self but it 's an heart-adherence of the affection to Christ as the Saviour of sinners at the presence of which a sentence of free absolution is pronounced Suppose the Prince have it in his mind to pardon twenty malefactors his grace is the cause why they are pardoned yet are they never in Law pardoned so as they can in Law plead immunity †that is until while they can produce their Princes Royal sealed pardon Thus far Mr. Rutherfurth Mr. Gataker Two other learned Divines also whom I have lately read do thus answer the former Objection they say That justification is not an Act immanent and eternal in God Mr. Ball in his Treatise of Faith p. 89. but transient and in time inferring some change in the person justified not physical but moral in respect of state whereby it comes to passe that the person is in another condition and account then he was before This answer I conceive is the same in sense with the former For I demand What change of estate is there in him that is justified I mean not as he is also sanctified but as he is justified but this that whereas before he was guilty of eternal damnation and bound over to eternal punishment for his sins he is now absolved from the guilt of his sins and from the sentence of condemnation But where is he thus absolved now and was not so before Profecto non in mente Divinâ certainly not in Gods mind and purpose for God is unchangeable I would gladly therefore be taught and informed where this is done any where else nisi in verbo Evangelii But by Christ in his Gospel For although Christ do by his Spirit absolve the Believer in foro conscientiae suae in his own conscience yet hereby he is not justified before God but in his conscience assured of his justification as hath been before declared See Mr. Baxter who I think hath excellently unfolded this matter in his Aphorismes of justification SECT IIII. Two Reasons more proving that we were not justified ab aeterno BY this that hath been said I suppose this matter is sufficiently cleared but were it so that a satisfactory answer could not be readily given to such intricate doubts and difficulties in such high mysteries as this is Communem tamen Protestantium doctrinam relinquendam et repudiandam non esse judicarem I would judge that it were not good hereupon to depart from the common received doctrine of the Protestants that is so well grounded on the holy Scripture For besides all the former testimonies that I have alledged St. Paul reckoning up the several links of the golden chain of our salvation and setting them down in order doth not rank our Justification with our Election but placeth it after our Vocation for so he saith whom God hath predestinated them he hath called whom he hath called them he hath justified whom he hath justified them he hath glorified Now it is certain we are called in time non ab aeterno not from everlasting It followeth necessarily therefore that we were not eternally justified but at that very time when being effectually called we did believe in Christ For as the Apostle here informeth us objectum justificationis adaequatum sunt vocati the called of God that is effectually by his spirit ingrafting his word in their hearts are the adequate object of justification that is all such and only such called ones doth God justifie 'T is evident therefore from these words of St. Paul that none are actually justified until they are called The force of this Reason will not be avoided by saying That St. Paul speaketh here of a declarative justification or of justification not as it is really acted Object but only as we are by Faith assured of it Answer Fo◠saint Paul speaketh here of things as they are in themselves not of the bare manifestation of them of real predestination real vocation and real glorification and therefore also of a real justification Again in this golden Chain of our salvation predestination is the first Principle or first cause of it glorification is the end or consummation of it and the means by which we do proceed from predestination to glorification are our vocation and justification Whence it followeth that the Apostle speaketh here of a real justification for the manifestation thereof unto a Believers conscience is no necessary means of his salvation A very hard and harsh sentence it would be to say That none can possibly be saved who is not assured of his salvation by having it made evident to his conscience that his sins are pardoned and that he is in the state of grace A more comfortable and truer assertion it is to say that every one though
Deo definito not from eternity but at that time which God had determined Gal. 4.4 His Passion therefore either must not be the cause of our justification or if we shall say that it is as this most learned Divine and all other for any thing that I know to the contrary do we must needs grant that we were not actually justified ab aeterno from all eternity but in time Lastly Whereas St. Paul teacheth Rom. 3.24 25. that We are justified by the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood from hence also it followeth that our sins are actually pardoned and we justified from them in time and not from all eternity For it cannot be said of our Election and there is the same reason of every other immanent and eternal Act of God that we were elected through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus as a cause thereof For our Election is immediatly of Gods grace and not effected by any external means or for any external cause extra Deum without God himself no more then are opera ulla ejus ad intrà any of his internal acts or works For as much therefore as the Apostle teacheth That we are justified by the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood unto me it seemeth very evident that our justification can be none of the immanent and eternal works of God that are acted altogether within himself Object I know there are those that do object against this that I have said those words of St Paul 2 Thess 2.13 where he telleth them That God had from the beginning chosen them unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth But his meaning is not That sanctification of the Spirit and Faith of the truth were any causes no nor means of their Election but of their salvation as if he should have said God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation to be enjoyed and possessed of you by being sanctified by Gods Spirit and by believing in Christ as by means leading thereunto Thus the Apostle in saying he hath chosen you unto salvation that is to obtain salvation by sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth maketh these means of their salvation not of their Election Yea not only the Orthodox Protestant Divines but Popish Doctors also do thus expound these words of St. Paul amongst whom Estius commenteth thus upon them The effects of Gods Election ordained unto salvation are hereby signified as if he should say God hath chosen you or hath taken you unto salvation by means thereunto allotted to wit through sanctification of the Spirit and Faith of the truth Theophylact also alledged by him thus expoundeth these words God hath from the beginning that is from eternity chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit that is saith he he hath saved us in sanctifying us by the Spirit Thus our salvation is by means but our Election is the immediate work or act of God whereof there can no cause or reason be given nisi bene placitum Divinum but Gods own gracious good pleasure This that I have thus taught is the Doctrine of the most Orthodox Divines I cannot therefore but wonder what should move the most illustrious Chamier to say quòd amari mereamur à Deo per imputationem justitiae Christi et quôd inde diligamur et destinemur vitae aeternae that we deserve to be loved of God through the imputation of Christs righteousnesse and that thereupon we are beloved and allotted or elected unto eternal life This I say seemeth unto me a most strange assertion for hence it would follow that Gods Love and his Election were not free or altogether gratuitous But God speaking unto his Church and people saith dilexi te gratis I have loved thee freely And St. Paul teacheth that God hath predestinated us to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will The same Apostle also saith that the Election of Gods people is of grace Now merit and free love and grace cannot stand together Christ indeed hath merited all the saving effects of Gods Love at dilectio ipsamet Dei est gratuitae but Gods love it self is not merited but free He loveth us meerly ex beneplacito suo of his good pleasure This love of his is the cause why he gave us his only begotten Son to work our salvation John 3.16 This love of his therefore must needs be the cause also of all Christs merits both of our redemption justification adoption sanctification and glorification Neither our justification therefore nor any other of these can be the cause of Gods love if we shall speak properly of his love and not of some one or other effects thereof But proceed we to the next thing wherein Chamierus dissenteth from that which is most commonly taught by other Protestants concerning our justification This learned man also teacheth contrary to the common Doctrine of the Protestants that there are no preparations unto our justification Now if it were as he saith that our justification is an eternal Act of God this would necessarily follow But seeing we are not actually justified until we do believe in Christ and are not ordinarily brought to renounce our selves and to put the whole confidence of our salvation in Christ until we be wrought upon and prepared thereunto both by the Law and the Gospel as is to be shewed in the next Question therefore seeing he produceth nothing that I have met with for confirmation of this his assertion I will leave the further examination and sifting of it unto its due place And so I come to the last thing that by the learned Chamierus is asserted in opposition to the common Doctrine of Protestants and that is That we are not justified by Faith in Christ for he speaketh expresly and saith falsum est fidem impetrare justificationem It 's false that Faith obtaineth justification For confirmation whereof he reasoneth thus If it were so then Faith should go before our justification both in reason and in time which may by no means be granted For Faith it self is by it self a part of our sanctification but there is no sanctification but it is after justification which in deed and in nature is before it Which is the cause why we do say that Faith doth no otherwise justifie but relatively that is because it hath for its peculiar object the mercy of God on which it relieth Now this is that properly that justifieth as the Church is built relatively upon the Faith of Peter that is upon Christ whom the Faith of Peter confessed That I may examine these things in order as they lie First whereas he saith If Faith should obtain our justification then Faith should go before our justification both in reason and in
time I deny this consequence for from hence it followeth only that Faith goeth before our justification in order of nature or in reason but not in time because a man is justified at the same instant that he layeth hold on Christ believeth in him But he denieth that Faith goeth before our justification in any respect at all his reason is because Faith is a part of our sanctification but there is no sanctification but it is after justification which indeed and in nature is before it The first of these Propositions I do willingly grant that Faith is a part of sanctification but whereas he assumeth that there is nosanctification but it is after justification I cannot assent unto him in this For many worthy Divines do hold that sanctification is before justification their judgment therefore I might oppose unto the learned Chamiers others that hold the contrary For the clearing of this matter I do distinguish of sanctification and say that it is either habitual and so God doth sanctifie us by infusing holinesse into us or actual and so we do sanctifie our selves by renouncing the works of sin and living holily Of both these Moses speaketh when he saith Sanctifie your selves and be ye holy for I am the Lord your God and ye shall keep my Statutes and do them Lev. 20.7.8 for I am the Lord which sanctifie you When the Lord saith here Sanctifie your selves and be ye holy this must be understood of actual sanctification that is of holiness that is to be actually performed by us But whereas the Lord useth this as a reason to stir us up hereunto for I am the Lord which sanctifie you this is spoken of habitual sanctification For how doth the Lord sanctifie us but by infusing the habit or the internal grace of holinesse into us whereby we are inabled to perform the several acts of holinesse or to live holily the effectual excitation of Gods blessed Spirit herewith concurring But because these words of the Lord which I have alledged though they speak of a twofold sanctification are taken in another sense by very learned Divines than this that I have given for confirmation therefore of habitual sanctification I do alledge those words of St. Paul 1 Thess 5.23 where he prayeth that God would sanctify them wholly or throughly And those 1 Cor. 1.30 where he saith That Christ is made unto us sanctification See also 1 Pet. 1.2 Now of actual sanctification St. Paul speaketh when he saith This is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God Hereof also speaketh St. Peter in that precept of his Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts In these and in other places the Scripture speaketh of Sanctification both habitual wrought in us by God himself and of sanctification acted and wrought by us through the assistance of Gods Spirit exciting us unto holinesse Whereas then this most learned Divine saith That there is no sanctification but it is after justification this is true if it be understood of actual sanctication For we are first justified by Faith and then this Faith inflameth our hearts with the love of God and stirreth us up to glorifie him and to serve him in holiness and righteousness according to all his commandements Thus the several works of holiness and righteousness do proceed from Faith Etiamsi non elicitivè imperativè tamen though not elicitly yet imperatively Faith stirreth us up unto them For as St. Paul saith The end of the commandement is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.5 and Faith unfeigned It is true therefore that Faith and therefore justification which is thereby laid hold of and obtained is before actual sanctification For as this learned man saith well fides vera est fons et scaturigo omnium bonorum operum in fidelibus De sola fide justificante Lib. 22. cap. 12. True Faith is the fountain and source of all good works in the faithful But I cannot say that there is no sanctification but it is after justification for habitual Faith is a part of habitual anctification Now the infused habits of grace such as Faith is are before their acts If therefore it can be proved that adulti or such as are of capacity and understanding are not justified without or before actual Faith then it will inevitably follow that there is some sanctification that is not after justification Yea beside what hath been said already to prove that we are actually justified by Faith and not without it methinketh Chamierus himself doth as good as grant it when he saith Verum est proptereà nos factos in Christo justitiam Dei quòd Christo nos simus incorporati per fidem It is true that we are therefore made the righteousnesse of God in Christ because we are incorporated into him by Faith We are not then justified before Faith or before we do believe in Christ Again this most excellent Divine saith In adultis fatemur remissionem peccatorum ab inhaerente justitiâ nunquam sepaerari We confess that remission of sins is never separated from inherent righteousness in those that are grown in years But say I many of the Elect after they have the use of reason and understanding being well grown in years do yet live in sin for some time and do not serve God in righteousness until he by his grace doth afterward convert them According therefore to his own Doctrine it followeth that justification from sin at least in adultis in those that are grown in years doth not go before Faith But saith he Faith justifieth relativè as it hath for its proper peculiar object the mercy of God on which it relieth Whence as I conceive he would have it inferred That seeing the mercy of God is eternal therefore our justification is so also and therefore before Faith Now hereunto I answer that though Christs righteousnesse be materialiter the proper object of our justification or that which is imputed to us for our justification Yet I will not deny bur that Gods mercy considered as the internal cause moving God to justify us may thus be said to be the proper and peculiar object on which our Faith relyeth for justification But it doth not follow hereupon that we were justified ab aeterno from everlasting because Gods mercy is the cause of our justification no more than that we are sanctified and glorified eternally because our sanctification and glorification are wholly of Gods mercy Quest 7. Whether any previous dispositions preparations or qualifications be required of men in the Gospel that they may be partakers of salvation by Christ SECT I. The Preparations that go before our Regeneration and Conversion THose that take upon them to be the only Preachers of
Law indeed is abrogated to Believers as it is the Covenant of works or in respect of the condemning power thereof or of any power we receive thence to do the duties therein prescribed Thus as St. Paul hath told us VVe are not under the Law but under Grace But otherwise the moral Law hath not lost its power nor its authority to bind us to to our duties that we owe to God and man For in this regard St. Paul alledgeth the authority of the Law to prove that children ought to honour their Parents Eph. 6.2 and that Christians ought by love to serve one another For saith he all the Law is fulfilled in one word Gal. 5.13.14 even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self And by alike Argument from the authority of the Law he proveth that we ought to love one another Rom. 13.8 9 Owe no man any thing but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law For this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet And if there be be any other Commandement it is briefly comprehended in this saying Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Jam. 2.8 9 10 11. St. James also teacheth that believers are bound to the obedience of the Law when he saith If you fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye do well But if ye have respect to persons ye commit sin are * If believers be not bound to the obedience of the Law they cannot thereby be convicted as transgressors though they fail never so much in the duties that are therein required convinced of the Law as transgressors c. Now let any reasonable man judge whether the Apostles of Christ would thus have alledged the Law to stir up believers to mutual love and the offices thereof if the moral Law were altogether abrogated and had no authority to bind us to the obedience of it no more than the ceremonial If any one should tell Christians that they are bound to be circumciâ—ed or to abstain from the eating of Swines flesh because the Ceremonial Law forbiddeth the eating of Swines flesh and commandeth every male-child to be Circumcised the eighth day every one would laugh at such reasoning as this because the Ceremonial Law is abrogated and is of no force to bind us to the obedience of it Now thus ridiculous would these men make both St. Paul and St. James to be in pressing us to love one another by that precept of the moral Law which saith Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self if the moral Law be of no authority now to bind believers to obedience but altogether abrogated as is the Ceremonial But far be it that any Christian should thus blasphemously slight or extenuate the force of the Apostles Argument It standeth us upon therefore all of us to say and to acknowledge every one 1 Cor. 9.21 for himself as St. Paul doth That he is not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that is as it is Regula vitae et morum the Rule of our life and of our actions In this respect St. Paul said of himself That he did with his mind serve the Law of God Rom. 7.25 acknowledging that he was subject unto the direction and commanding power and authority of it And doth not St. Paul also say That the Woman that hath an husband is bound by the Law to her husband as long as he liveth Rom. 7.2 The Law therefore is not abrogated as it is the rule of righteousness whereby our actions are to be regulated but we are thus still bound unto the obedience of it SECT V. Other Objections answered whereby Mr. S. endeavoureth to prove that sinners as sinners are called to believe in Christ without any precedent Qualifications or Preparations These for the avoiding of tediousness I do divide into several ranks Object 1. That Faith is not the only work of the Gospel FIrst he objecteth thus Faith is the only work of the Gospel This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent John 6.29 And this is his commandement that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ 1 John 3.23 Whence his Conclusion seemeth to be therefore no Preparations nor any thing else is required of us but Faith only For answer hereunto I say Object that it is one thing to say as our Saviour doth that Faith is the work of God and another thing that it is the only work of God or of the Gospel as Mr. S. avoucheth For when our Saviour saith this is the work of God that ye believe in him whom he hath sent his meaning is as St. John in the latter place alledged by him expresseth it that Faith in Jesus Christ is a work commanded and required of us by God Now so is repentance also for as St. Paul saith Acts 17.30 Now that is in these daies of grace the Lord commandeth all men every where to wit to whom the Gospel is preached to repent The Lord also in the Gospel commandeth good works as necessary effects and fruits both of Faith and Repentance For Faith worketh by love Gal. 5.6 And hereupon the Apostle saith Tit. 3.8 This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be carefull to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men And afterwards ver 14. he layeth down this precept Let ours also that is believers learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful By these places it appeareth that there are other works commanded of God in the Gospel beside Faith and that as Faith hath its necessary uses so have they also theirs It doth not follow therefore because Faith is called the work of God nor because it is said this is his Commandement that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ that it is the only work of the Gospel as Mr. S. inferreth for St. John even in the place which he alledgeth speaketh the same of charity and saith 1 John 3.23 This is his Commandement that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandement Again Faith is also called the work of God not as if Repentance and all other good works were either to be contemned or neglected but because it is the only act or work prescribed us by God whereby we are to apprehend and receive Christ the bread of life that we may live eternally by him Christ in that chapter calleth himself the living bread which came down from Heaven 1 John 3.23 and saith that if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever Whereas then our Saviour said unto the Jews this is the work of God
Pauls conversion Acts 9 to prove that men come to know themselves that is their misery by sin by the preaching of Christ and that the preaching of the Law doth not prepare us for Jesus that we may believe in him For the ministery by which Paul came to see himself and to believe was the voice of Christ Answ I am Jesus of Nazareth Whereunto I answer that Pauls conversion was miraculous and extraordinary it cannot therefore be concluded from thence that men are ordinarily brought to Faith in Christ or enlightned to see their miserable estate by sin without the preaching of the Law But he goeth on forward and saith Object It is the sight and knowledge of Christ that brings men truly to see and know themselves not as they are in the estate of grace he meaneth not so but as they are in the estate of damnation for proof whereof he saith Saul Acts 9. thought himself a very holy and happy man till he met Christ in the way And biddeth us note that Christ taught him in the first place the knowledge of himself Who art thou Lord saith Saul I am Jesus of Nazareth saith Christ whom thou persecutest Christ did not tell him of his sin O thou art an accursed persecuting creature Dost ask who I am Thou hadst more need know thy self c. No no he discovereth Himself unto him And this I know was Gods usual dealing in the Gospel those whom he taught he taught them first to know Christ and this Christ our Prophet must teach thee if ever thou be taught Answ But I would know whether the Lord did not take another course with Adam when he was fallen Sure I am he first brought him to the sight and sense of his sin and misery by reproving him for the transgression of his Law before he comforted him raised him up with that Evangelical promise The seed of the woman shall break the head of the serpent And our blessed Saviour layeth it down for a general rule and direction Luke 24.47 That repentance and remission of sins must be preached in his name amongst all nations First repentance which cannot be without the knowledge of sin and then remission of sins by Faith in Christ Now as for the example of Sauls conversion which Mr. C. so much and so often urgeth it is not true which he saith as it were triumphantly Christ did not tell him of his sin O thou art an accursed persecuting creature c. For did he not plainly speak unto him and say Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And again I am Jesus whom thou persecutest It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks It 's evident that he did as manifestly and as soon if not before tell him of his sin in persecuting him as he told him that he was Jesus We may conclude therefore from hence that a man must be brought to know himself and his miserable estate and condition by sin either at the same time or before that Christ is preached and offered unto him But of this more hereafter only I will say this now that Paul was terrified and cast down indeed by those terrible words of Christ and by beholding his glorious Majesty but for the perfecting of his conversion Christ sent him to Ananias by whom he was to be taught and instructed what he was to do By him therefore he was taught all things necessary unto his salvation and so was â—â—mforted and raised up again by Faith in Christ from his former terrours and fears I say therefore as Mr. C. doth It is Christ in the preaching of the Gospel that is glad tidings for sinners remission of sins for believers and this Gospel this glad tydings cannot rightly be held forth unto the world but withal men must be shewed that they are sinners and the emptiness of duties and of all other foundations must be discovered and the danger of not accepting Christ But I demand whether this is not to be done by shewing unto men their sins by the Law and their disability to do any thing of themselves that is pleasing unto God through the corruption that is in them by the fall of Adam For this impotency of doing good and the great wrath that is due unto us for our sins the Law re ealeth and maketh known unto us which when a sinner once apprehendeth then the Gospel is to be preached and he is to be exhorted to lay hold of Jesus Christ by Faith Object as the only means of salvation But let us examine another of Mr. C's Arguments and see whether there be any more force in that Beloved saith he God hath appointed the Spirit to be the means in the preaching of the Gospel to convince the world of sin Joh. 16.9 It is the Spirit of God that convinceth the world of sin and that in the preaching of the Gospel But hereunto I answer that our Saviour saith not Answ that the Spirit of God doth in the preaching of the Gospel only reprove the world of sin absolutely but of the sin of infidelity for thus he saith VVhen the Comforter is come he will reprove the world of sin because they believe not in me Now what shall we say that none believed in Christ before this coming of the Spirit and reproving of the world of unbelief Verily no for the Apostles with many other did before this believe in him For our Saviour speaks here of the coming of the Spirit in the miraculous gifts thereof as he came upon the Apostles and other believers in the day of Pentecost and afterwards until those gifts ceased in the Church when the Gospel had been by them sufficiently confirmed Besides the world of which our Saviour there speaketh though it was convinced of sin by the miraculous gifts of the Spirit yet it never believed for our Saviour calleth it the world that believed not in him Lastly If we should say they were unbelievers and worldlings before but afterward believed when they saw the miraculous gifts that were by Christ poured down and bestowed on his Apostles and others that reproved their infidelity yet it cannot hence be inferred that all in all succeeding ages are thus to be converted and brought unto Faith in Christ But of this more hereafter when I shall examine that which he alledgeth out of Acts 2.37 In the next place he reasoneth thus All preparations and qualifications whatsoever which are not of Faith Object are sin and I am sure Faith comes by the preaching of the Gospel not of the Law Therefore the preaching of qualifications before Faith is sin for all things before or without Faith are sin His Reason if we put it in form will be thus Sin cannot prepare us for Christ but all preparations before Faith are sin therefore no such preparations or qualifications can prepare us for Christ Here I would wish him first of all to consider that by reasoning thus he striketh himself as well as us For he will not
deny thar the hearing of the Gospel goeth before Faith Now what shall we hereupon conclude that none but believers are to heat the Gospel I trow not For then there will be no hope of any mans conversion from infidelity or incredulity to Faith in Christ But that I may shew the weakness of his reasoning First I grant the major Proposition Sin cannot prepare for Christ The knowledge of sin may but not that which is absolutely and altogether sin or wherein nothing is to be found but sin for sin in this sense is opposite to all goodness Now whereas he assumeth in the minor Proposition and saith But all qualifications before Faith are sin Here I distinguish of sin and say that it is so vel per se vel per accidens either in it self and its own nature or accidentally because being otherwise good through the corruption and unbelief of him that committeth it it becometh sinful and evill as it proceeds from him Now of this latter sort is the hearing of the word both of Law and Gospel and all preparations wrought before Faith that is to say legal terrours confession of sin humiliation hope of pardon and the like For these are not evil but good in themselves and evil only by accident therefore in regard of the good that is in them they through Gods grace do prepare and dispose us unto our conversion and unto Faith in Christ I do wonder therefore that Mr. C. should say as he doth not only that all preparations and qualifications going before Faith are sin but that the preaching of such before Faith is sin Indeed it cannot but be great and grosse sin to preach and to stir men up to adultery whoredom rash swearing lying or to any thing that is simply and in it self sinful evil but otherwise I think no wise man will say that parents ought not to teach their children to know God and themselves to praise God and to perform all necessary duties both to God and man until they shall give good proof that they do believe in Christ There remaineth now only the last of Mr. C. Arguments which I shall briefly dispatch Object Christ saith he brings those Acts 2.37 from beholding of Christ to behold themselves and makes them cry out Men and brethren what shall we do c. For answer hereunto I say Answ that it cannot be concluded hence that men by the ordinary preaching of the Gospel are at all times without any sight of sin or any terrours wrought in their hearts by the Law brought to believe in Christ and so after this to see their sins For those Jews Acts 2. were by the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost bestowed on the Apostles convinced that Jesus whom they preached was the Christ And because they had consented unto and conspired his death hearing themselves accused of this by St. Peter they were pricked in their hearts with fear and sorrow knowing partly by the Law whereof they were not ignorant and partly by the Miracles which they saw that they were guilty of a most hanious murther But now that no such miracles and wonders are wrought what ordinary way is there to convince men of sin and of their danger thereby but by the preacâ—ing of the Law For by the Law cometh the knowledge of sin Rom. 3.20 Having thus examined Mr. C. Arguments and manifested the invalidity of them I will shut up this matter with shewing contrary to his Assertion that Christ is not alwaies first to be preached and that this is not the only way to bring mâ—n not only to Faith in Christ but also to the knowledge of themselves and of their sins and that therefore God never taught his people otherwise Unto this his Assertion I do oppose that which is to be read in St. Paul's Sermon unto the Athenians Acts 17. wherein he beginneth and preacheth the Law of nature unto them and thereby convinceth them of grosse idolatry and then sheweth them the necessity of repentance and preacheth Christ unto them It is not true therefore that Christ is alwaies first to be preached and offered and that men never come to see their sins until they do believe in Christ but rather on the contrary by seeing of their sins they come to see the necessity of Faith in Christ We read Acts 2â— that Foelix the Governour of the Jews under the Roman Emperour sent for Paul and heard him concerning the Faith in Christ And as he reasoned of righteousness and temperance which arâ— moral vertues taught and prescribed in the Law of nature and of judgment to come Foelix who was a most unrighteous and intemperate man trembled Now hence I infer 1. That it cannot be concluded that the Apostles did not preach the moral Law where it is said that they preached Christ or the Faith in Christ 2. That the knowledge of sin by the Law is necessary to prepare men for Faith in Christ For wherefore was it that Paul preached unto Foelix of righteousnesse and temperance but to bring him to the sight of his sins in which he lived contrary to those vertues that so despairing of salvation in himself being terrified with the judgment of God he might be driâ—en to receive Christ by Faith and to put the whole confidence of his salvation in him Yet I do not deny but that the children of God after that Faith is wrought in their hearts do ordinarily come to a more full sight and apprehension of their sins that are contrary to moral equity honesty but that is by a more perfect knowledg of the law whereby they see themselvs guilty of more sins against it then they took notice of before and of more impiety in sinning against greater light Even as the more they do grow in the knowledge undestanding of the Gospel the more they do see what sins they are guilty of against the Gospel Yea and in general also the more they do by the Gospel see and apprehend Gods mercy towards them in Christ the more wretched sinners do they acknowledge themselves to have been The sum of all is this Gods chiâ—dren are prepared unto Faith in Christ not always we say not so nor only by the preaching of the Law and the terrours thereof but more immediatly and much more by the preaching of the Gospel by hearing whereof they conceive some hope of pardon and are thereby kept from being swallowed up of desperation and do desire and pray for the forgivenesse of their sins and salvation by Christ and do never cease meditating of the gracious Promises of God in Christ until at length Faith is by the Gospel as the proper instrument or means thereof wrought in their hearâ—s For it is not the Law but the Gospel that as the Apostle saith is the power of God unto salvation Rom. 1.16 to every one that believeth Again it cannot be denyed but that men sometimes have been prepared unto their conversion to Faith
although Repentance goeth before that act of faith whereby a man believeth that his sins are pardoned yet it doth not follow hereupon that it goeth before all faith in general no nor yet before justifying and saving faith For if I shall speak Logically and properly there are as I conceive no lesse then foure several acts of faith but I do make choyce rather to speak popularly and therefore I will contract two of them into one The first act of faith is for a man to believe that the whole word of God is true or that I may speak more particularly to the matter in hand it is for him to believe that Jesus Christ being sent of his Father hath perfectly wrought and accomplished our salvation and that he doth offer this salvation unto all those who do repent and believe in him This act of faith doth not only go before repentance but before all other acts of faith also For if a man do not believe both that Christ hath absolutely and perfectly accomplished our redemption and salvation and that he doth also offer the salvation which he hath purchased unto all that do repent and believe in him he will have no incouragement neither will it be possible for him either to repent or believe to rest and rely on Christ for salvation This is that faith which is commonly called fides dogmatica vel historica doctrinal or historical faith because it goeth not beyond the faith of the Doctrine or of the History of the Bible Now this though it be absolutely necessary unto salvation yet it is not saving faith because it justifieth no man nor giveth to any man any interest or right unto salvation 2. The second act of faith is That a man do not despair though his sins be never so many or never so great but believe or perswade himself that God of his mercy through Christ will pardon them and so cast himself upon Christ or that he do trust upon Christ for salvation according to the promises of the Gospel This is saving faith or it is that act of faith whereby we are justified and saved as St. Paul giveth us to understand in those words of his which I have already alledged Rom. 3.23 24 25. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Behold it is faith in Christs blood that is in his death and passion whereby God becommeth propitious that is gracious and merciful unto us and consequently whereby we are justified and saved Now this act of faith is in nature before repentance though in time it go with it I will make this plain by a familiar comparison Sol est natura prior lumine ex illo orto The Sun is in nature before the light that springeth and proceedeth from it because in nature the cause is alwayes before the effect but the Sun and its light are simul tempore together in time For as soon as the Sun was created and placed by God in the Firmament at the very same instant did it illighten the World And even so in like manner faith in Christ is in nature before repentance but they go together in time For seeing there is no promise of pardon made to any one in the Gospel while he continueth in sin it followeth necessarily therefore that true justifying faith cannot be separated from repentance no more then saving repentance can be without such a true faith And this as I take it is the cause why remission of sins and salvation are in some places of holy Scripture attributed to repentance and in some other to saith to wit because faith and repentance are as it were twisted and infolded the one in the other For neither can a man repent without faith nor can he believe in Christ for the pardon of his sins unless his faith did stir up repentance in him and a setled purpose to forsake all sin For as long as a man liveth in sin he hath no promise from God to ground his faith upon The true Christian therefore in believing repenteth and in repenting believeth these are two inseparable Companions and as it were twins that are bread and born together Although then that act of faith whereby we do believe in Christ is in nature before repentance as the cause is before the effect yet there is no priority nor posteriority of time between them Faith is the first wheel in the Clock that moveth all the rest Mr. Panb Vind. Grat. for a man cannot believe in Christ for salvation according to the promises of the Gospel unless this faith of his do excite and stir him up to the practise of repentance The third and last act of faith is that whereby a man believeth that his sins are blotted out and forgiven and that he is in the state of salvation The former is called a direct act because it maketh a man to look directly upon Christ and to cast himself upon him for salvation This latter is called a reflexed act because a Christian reflecting and looking back upon himself and his own soul seeth faith and repentance wrought in him and hereupon concludeth that his sins are pardoned and that he now is the Child of God and an Heire of Heaven This he believeth because he seeth the conditions accomplished in him to which God hath promised remission of sins and salvation that is to say faith and repentance Thus whereas the former act of faith whereby a man doth truly believe in Christ maketh him partaker of the remission of sins and giveth him right and a true title to the Kingdom of Heaven this latter assureth him of this and breedeth and begetteth great peace quietness and comfort in his heart and conscience Now this last act of faith whereby a man thus believeth that his sins are pardoned and is assured of his salvation doth not go before but followeth after repentance For until a man seeth and perceiveth that he hath forsaken sin and that he doth repent he cannot confidently believe that his sins are pardoned nor can he have any firm assurance of salvation because he hath no word of promise from God whereon to ground that faith and assurance of his Object Another stumbling-block which our Novellists have cast in the way of many good Christians is this whereas St. Paul telleth us 1 Tim. 1.15 that Christ came into the World to save sinners behold say these men he came to save sinners not repentant sinners and hereupon they infer and conclude that a man before he repenteth even at that very time when he liveth in sin ought to believe that his sins are pardoned and that he is in the state of salvation But I answer Answ That they do deceive both themselves and others fallacia consequentis with a fallacious consequence For when or how doth Christ save
any conditions He speaketh therefore not so advisedly when he saith Reconcil of God to man pag. 64. If you search into the reason of your many years bondage of your miserable doubting you shall finde your disease in that which hath been spoken I hope the remedy also And as frivolous are those words of his Ib. pag. 65. Let us learn to distinguish when God speaketh of his Reconciliation to us and when he speaketh of our Reconciliation to him For how shall we learn this seeing he hath told us before that there is no mention in the Scripture of Gods Reconciliation to us Quest 15 but of our Reconciliation to Him But this matter shall be discussed more largely when I come to the last Question Quest 6. Whether all the Elect be justified ab aeterno When I say that we are justified by Faith instrumentally I do not meane that Faith is properly but analogically the Instrument or means whereby we do receive Christ and his righteousness to our justification from all eternity before they do believe in Christ and consequently whether the Scripture when it saith that we are justified by Faith meaneth that Faith justifieth us only in tribunali conscientiae nostrae in our own coâ—sciences as same of the learned Protestants speak or declaratively as saith Mr. D. Or whether it doth not justifie us instrumentaliter et correlativè as other Orthodox Protestants not a few do teach that is as an Instrument or means wherby we are made partakers of Christs righteousness renouncing our selves and our own works altogether and relying on Christ only for our justification SECT I. Proâ—ed by Scripture that we are actually justified by Faith IT is not denied by any that we are justified ab aeterno from all eternity in Gods eternal Counsel and Decree but so are we also eternally sanctified and gloryfied The Question is Whether we be not actually justified Or whether our sins do not remain upon record against us until we do believe in Christ Doubtless the Scripture every where avoucheth that we are justified by Faith in Christ St Paul affirmeth that the Scripture that is of the old Testament saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness Where the Apostle telleth us Rom. 4.3 whom they are to whom God impuâ—eth righteousness that is Believers It is false therefore that Mr. D. saith that men are justified by God before they do believe St. Paul also telleth us That he counted all things he had but as dung that he might win Christ be found in him not having his own righteousness which was of the Law Phil. 3.8 9. but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith In these words St. Paul giveth us to understand that there was a time when he was not in Christ for otherwise why doth he say that he accounted al things but dung that he might win Christ and be found in him if he had been in him already And he here teacheth also that this benefit did accrue unto him by being in Christ that whereas he was of himself a sinner as we all are it was by Faith in Christ only that he came to be righteous before God For why doth he say That the righteousness which is of God is through the Faith of Christ and by Faith but because we are made partakers of this righteousness to our justification before God by Faith in Christ and not otherwise Those words of the Apostle also do fully confirm this VVe who are Jews by nature Gal. 2.15 16. and not sinners of the Gentiles knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified Hence I do reason thus In the same sense that the Apostle denieth justification to works he attributeth it to Faith This is evident because he maketh a manifest opposition between justification by the works of the Law and by Faith in Christ But he denieth us to be justified by works before God and not declaratively to others or to our own consciences On the contrary therefore when St. Paul saith that we are justified by the Faith of Christ his meaning is that we are justified actually and before God by Faith and not declaratively only to our own consciences Again I do reason thus Without Christ there is no remission of sins Eph. 1.7 1 John 1.7 Apoc. 1.5 But men before they believe are without Christ Eph. 2.11.12 Therefore before they believe their sins are not pardoned or which is all one before they believe they are not justified nor absolved from their sins Moreover St. Paul teacheth us Acts 26.18 that we receive forgiveness of sins by Faith in Christ not before but after our conversion For so he saith that God sent him unto the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan to God that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance amongst all that are sanctified by Faith in Christ Hence I infer that they were not justified and absolved from their sins before they were enlightened and believed in Christ even while they walked in darknesse and were under the power of Satan For what needs the Apostle to say that he was sent to turn them from darkness to light that they might by Faith receive forgiveness of sins if they had had it before Like hereunto is that of St. Peter Be it known unto you men and brethren Acts 13.3 that by this man by Jesus Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe not any before they believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses For the Law justifieth none but condemneth all that do not in all things observe it Deut. 27.26 From which condemnation as St. Peter here teacheth they are not absolved and freed but by Faith in Christ Now what is this but to say that we are justified by Faith and not before Faith or without it I may also reason thus Whosoever is justified is reconciled unto God and through Christ doth please him For he is that beloved Son of the Father in whom he is well pleased with all that are in Christ Matth. 3.17 But without Faith it is not possible to please God Heb. 11.6 Therefore neither is it possible that any one without Faith should be justified Again there is no remission of sins to be had without repentance for our Saviour hath joyned remission of sins and repentance together He telleth his Disciples That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name amongst all Nations Luke 24.47 And Peter also saith That God hath exalted Christ
evident unto us as our severall sins do require For so it is there are hardly any of Gods Children whose consciences are not more troubled with the remembrance and remorse of some of their sins then of others It will be necessary for them therefore to pray dayly as for the pardon of their other sins so especially of these that so they may grow more and more assured of the pardon of them considering what gratious promises Christ hath made to these their paayers Verily verily I say unto you Joh. 16.23 whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you And what things soever ye desire when ye pray Mar. 11.24 believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them Sure I am there is no man living upon the face of the earth that attaineth unto such a perfect assurance of the remission of his sins that he cannot have that assurance of his increased For all graces are here imperfect in us 2 Pet. 3.18 Whereupon we are all of us commanded to grow in grace In this regard therefore he that is most assured of the remission of his sins hath still need to pray for the pardon of them Thirdly We do all of us daily commit new sins Thirdly we have need therefore daily to solicite the Lord for the pardon of them Jam. 5.16 St. James exhorteth and stirreth us up unto this when he saith Confesse your sins one to another and pray one for another For I would know of these men what he would have us to pray for Not unlikely they will say for increase of grace to conquer and overcome our sins and for health in time of sicknesse It 's true no doubt but not for these onely but for pardon of those sins of ours which do pull down Gods judgments upon us for so he giveth us to understand when he saith Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray for him And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him Here first the Apostle excepteth none no no not the best Christian that is but speaketh universally and saith Is Any man sick let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray for him Secondly he setteth down a double consequent of these their prayers when he saith the prayer of faith shall save the sick and Secondly if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him It is most evident and manifest therefore from hence that prayer is to be made for the forgivnesse not onely of the sins of those that are unregenerate and unbelievers as St. Stephen prayed for his persecutors saying Lord lay not this sin to their Charge Acts 7.60 but as well also for the sins of believers Fourthly Lastly we are daily to pray for the pardon of our sins because the day of judgment is not yet come when Christ with his own mouth will pronounce sentence of absolution on believers and of condemnation on all unbelievers and ungodly men There is none of us I presume that will say that he is holier then Epaphroditus or that hath more assurance of his sins then he had Notwithstanding Paul as much as he commendeth him prayeth heartily for him that the Lord would shew mercy unto him at that day the day of judgment in which he should be presented and appeare before Christ Now what meaneth he hereby but that the Lord would be mercifull unto him in blotting out his sins 2 Tim. 1.18 then as St. Peter speaketh that is in passing sentence of absolution upon him See Acts 3.19 and in freeing him from the dreadful sentence of condemnation which he will then passe and pronounce on the ungodly For that there shall then be not only an execution of the sentence already given in the word but a reall judgment the Scripture maketh plain Acts 17.31 God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom he hath Ordained 2. Tim. 4.1 that is by Jesus Christ And I Charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom St. Peter also speaking of himself and of the other Apostles saith that God commanded them to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is he Acts 10.42 that is Jesus Christ which was Ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead Here in the courts of this world the judgment goeth before the execution followeth after the former is the act of the judge himself the other of his Ministers that do it by his Authority and never till the judgment is past So Christ himself will sit in judgment on all the world at the latter day Math. 25.31 Math. 13.41 42. but the execution of his judgment he will commit to the Angels As long therefore as we live here who seeth not that we have all need to pray that our sins may be pardoned and that we may stand in judgment at that dreadfull day when we shall appear before the judgment Seat of Christ Psal 1.5 and every one receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 SECT VI. Another Objection answered AFter I had thus finished this Question a friend of mine acquainted me with an argument drawn a Simili from a similitude which he heard a Souldier use to prove that he was not to pray for rhe pardon of his sins it was this If one give me a garment shall I still after I have it petition and pray him to give it me It were absurd so to do Seeing therefore God upon my repentance and faith in Christ hath forgiven me my sins it will be no lesse absurd in me still to pray for the pardon of them Whereunto I answer that an apt similitude doth excellently illustrate a matter after it is proved but otherwise there is little or no force in it at all of it self to prove any thing that is doubtfull or called into Question especially Si illo pede claudicat if it do halt on that foot wherein the force and strength of the Argument lieth Now so fareth it with this Similitude of his For that garment he speaketh of was absolutely given and he put into possession of it without being further bound to the performance of any thing for the time to come unlesse it were to a duty of thankfulnesse But our sins are not forgiven us absolutely by God but upon condition that we do repent and believe in Christ and pray for the pardon of them yea and this pardon is also granted not to one individuall act of repentance or of faith and prayer but to perseverance and continuance in all these as long as we live here as I have shewed already We can
Repentance as is to be seen Math. 3.2 And thus when the Apostles were sent by Christ to preach the Gospel to the Jewes it is also said of them that they went out and preached that men should repent yea Mar. 6.12 contrary to the Opinion and practise of our new teachers we are told Heb. 6.1 that the Apostles when they planted Churches began and laid the foundation in the Doctrine of Faith and Repentance And indeed that which is else-where written and recorded of the Apostles preaching of Christ and his Gospel doth sufficiently evince and testifie that they offered not remission of sins and salvation by Christ to all absolutely without any conditions but exhorted men to repent and believe in Christ that they might obtain pardon of their sins and be saved by him Thus when certain who were pricked in their hearts by hearing Peter preach Act 2.37 said unto him and to the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins The same St. Peter also having reproved the Jewes for consenting to Christs death and shewed them who he was in the next place he letteth them understand what they were to do that they might be saved by him Repent ye therefore and be converted Act. 3.19 that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. When the Jaylor also being terrified and troubled in his mind with the fear of Gods judgements Act. 16.30 31. came to Paul and Silas and said to them Sirs What must I do to be saved they said Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved And St. Paul saith that he being called and sent of God Act. 26.20 shewed both to Jewes and Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance These things which I have thus alledged do manifest and make it evident that the Apostles did never offer salvation unto any but upon condition of their repentance and faith in Christ Now that all other Ministers of the Gospel ought to do the like those words of our Saviour do sufficiently inform us when he saith That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all Nations Luc. 24.47 Not remission of sins singly and a part by it self as our neotericks will have it but repentance and remission of sins together Thus did Christ and thus did his Apostles preach and thus hath Christ ordained that all other should preach We may be assured therefore that this is the best or rather the only way of preaching the Gospel For were there any better we cannot otherwise think but that Christ would both have followed it himself and have injoyned all his Ministers to do the same SECT II. Where is shewed which is the most profitable way of preaching the Gospel THis that I have said might be a sufficient Answer to the former Question and to all the several parts and branches of it Notwithstanding because the novellists do cry out against us and say that with our many years preaching we have converted few or none but by urging such a necessity of repentance to the obtaining of salvation as we do do terrifie and trouble many and drive them into desperation therefore I will now by Gods gracious assistance prove unto them that our Doctrine is more likely to convert sinners and to comfort them being converted then theirs To speak first of the former We do indeed denounce Gods judgements against men while they live in sin and are led by their carnal lusts telling them that they must repent and amend their lives if they will have any hope of salvation by Christ Thus do we deal with obstinate sinners endevouring to save them with fear that is with the terror of Gods judgements as St. Jude commandeth us Jud. Vers 22 23. If such preaching do no way at all conduce to a sinners conversion why doth he say On some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire But they tell us that we lay too hard a task upon men and that they have no power Object nor ability to repent and practise these things which we do require of them It s true they have not of themselves but it doth not follow hereupon Answ that our preaching of repentance unto sinners and our denouncing of Gods judgements against them is in vain and to no purpose 1. For the Spirit of God worketh with and by his word when it is preached and maketh it effectual at one time or other to as many as are ordained to eternal life The Law indeed only terrifies sinners but converteth none Act. 13.48 2 Cor. 3.7 8 9. for which cause the Apostle calleth it the Ministry of death and of cōdemnation but the Gospel he calleth the Ministry of the spirit because God sends down his spirit into the hearts of the Elect while the Gospel is ministred and preached unto them for so we read of Cornelius his Companions Act. 10.44 that while Peter preached the Holy Ghost fell on all that heard the word And while Lydia heard Paul preach the Lord by his spirit opened her heart and converted her to the faith of Christ Thus is the spirit given in the Ministry of the word Act. 16.14 and maketh it effectual to work Faith and Repentance in the Elect when these duties are preached and pressed upon them 2. Again We have this comfort that Christ hath merited for those that do believe in him 1 Cor. 1.36 not only the pardon of their sins but the spirit to sanctifie them and to work repentance in them Act. 5.31 We are not therefore to set upon the work of repentance in our own strength for then we are sure to be soyled and shall prevail nothing but we are to rely on Christ for his spirit and for his grace Gal. 3.14 that we may thereby be inabled to do those things which he requireth of us For we receive the promise of the spirit that is the spirit of God which Christ hath merited for us and God hath promised us by Faith Thus though we be never so weak of our selves yet as St. Paul saith Phil. 4.13 we are able to do all things that God requireth of us through Christ which strengtheneth us 3. And lastly We have this comfort also that by our prayers we may obtain not only other inferior gifts but the Holy Ghost himself Luck 11.13 the Authour of all sanctifying grace as our Saviour assureth us hereof Albeit then we be never so unable of our selves to repent and to bring forth the lively effects and fruits thereof yet by our prayers offered up unto God in the name of Christ we may obtain power to do all these things Such strong
pertinent to the edification of the hearers To leave this therefore it remaineth now in the last place to be discussed whether of these two wayes maketh more for the comfort of mens souls and consciences Whereunto thus I answer That is solid and true comfort which is grounded on Gods infallible word and not on mens fancies that are deceiptful But such is the comfort which the old and Orthodox Protestant Doctrine affords the hearers thereof and not the Doctrine of our Novelists For we teach as the Gospel doth that though men have been never so great sinners in times past yet that all those sins of theirs are forgiven by God and blotted out when they do repent and believe in Christ We exhort therefore all that do thus repent and believe to be of a good comfort and not to be terrified with any fear but to rest assured that they shall undoubtedly be saved through the mercy of God in Jesus Christ Thus do we comfort true believers with the unfallible and unfailable promises of Gods word which are the only safe and sure ground of comfort Object But I know that our adversaries in this controversie will here be ready to say that they do so also For although they do teach and tell their hearers that they were reconciled unto God and justified freely by his grace before they did believe and therefore without faith as we have heard Mr. D. speak Yet they say that they can have no assurance hereof until they believe Thus they teach men to believe not that they may be justified but that they may be assured of their justification and salvation by believing Now I do willingly acknowledge that true faith Answ when it is wrought in a mans heart by Gods word and spirit is an undoubted testimony of his salvation For as St. John saith He that believeth hath the witness that is 1 Joh. 5.10 of his adoption and consequently of his salvation in himself But the faith which these men do teach is nothing else but a fancy For they will have wicked men D. his Conf. p. 20. 21. even when they do continue in their sins to believe that these sins of theirs are pardoned and tell them that by believing this they are assured of their justification before God and of salvation Now this is not true faith but detestable and most damnable presumption For faith is to believe the promi es of God and to rely upon them Psal 119.41 42. as on its foundation Now I would know whether God have any where made any promise of forgiveness to men while they continue in their sins surely no but on the contrary he threatneth them by his Prophet David and saith That he will wound the hairy scalpe of such as go on forward in their wickedness Psal 68.21 And our Saviour himself told his hearers That except they did repent they should all perish It is not possible therefore for any to believe truly Luc. 13.3 I mean that their sins are pardoned until they do repent Or if even then while they continue in sin they will needs perswade themselves as many do that their sins are pardoned and forgiven through Gods mercy and Christs merits this is nothing else but presumption Those therefore that preach thus instead of comforting their hearers as they perswade them and make them to believe do nothing else but delude and deceive them For true justifying faith is not for a sinner whilst he continueth in his sins to believe that they are pardoned which is false but to rely upon Christ for the pardon of them according to the promises of his Gospel and not according to his own fancy and fond imagination as Libertines and carnal Gospellers do That this is that faith whereby we obtain pardon of our sins and are justified before Gods tribunal St. Paul maketh manifest and plain when he saith All have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3.23 24 25. being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation by faith in his blood It is not then our believing that our sins are pardoned whereby we are justified but it is our faith in Christs blood that is our relying on the merits of his death and passion whereby we obtain the pardon of them even as many did in like manner by faith in Christ obtain the health of their bodies from our Saviour when they were miraculously cured by him Mah. 8.13 For when our Saviour required faith of them saying Mar. 9.23 be it unto thee according to thy faith Or if thou canâ—t believe all things are possible to him that believeth what is meant here by faith or what were they to believe That they were already made whole by Christ No for that was false but that Christ was of that power that he could and so gracious and good that he would heal them and hereupon to rely and put their trust and confidence in him that he would cure them This was their faith whereby they obtained the health of their bodies from Christ as is yet further to be seen in the Canaanitish Woman Mat. 9.21 For she said in her self that is in her heart she believed and was perswaded If I may but touch the hem of his Garment I shall be whole not I am already but I shall be whole That this was the faith whereby she obtained the health of her body our Saviours words to her do assure us For he turned him to her and said Daughter be of good comfort thy faith hath made thee whole Eâ—en so in like manner did we when we were dead in our sins obtain the spiritual health of our souls not by believing that our sins were pardoned but by perswading our selves that God of his rich mercy would pardon them according to the gracious promises which he hath made unto us in his Gospel and by relying upon him for the pardon of them For as Christ required faith of them for the obtaining of their bodily health so also doth he of us for the spiritual health of our souls As they therefore were cured of their corporal maladies by relying on Christ according to his word so shall we be saved eternally by relying on Christ according to the promises of his Gospel SECT IV. Two Objections answered AGainst this that I have said I finde two Objections raised which I do think good to remove that they may not lie as stumbling blocks in the way of any well-minded people to indanger them upon error First Some do reason thus If a man cannot believe that his sins are pardoned until he do repent then Repentance shall go before faith which they hold as an absurdity for whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14.23 saith St. Paul And again He telleth us That without faith Heb. 11.6 it is impossible to please God But hereunto I answer That