Saints but they raise up the fallen again that they be not ruined For the promises also are expresly extended unto the Righteous sometimes fallen into sin Psal 37.24 and 89.30 31 32 33 34. The same Authour writing against the Papist upon the same subject saith Fides tune dicitur justificare cum actum proprium c. Faith is then said to justifie when it can exercise Pareus lib. 1. de amissione gratiae cap. 7. prope finem and doth exercise its proper act of Receiving Remission of sins but a Faith that is sick wounded oppressed with the filth of the flesh and as it were bound with the fetters of sin doth not exercise nor can it exercise this act and a little after But God doth not impute sin to the just that are fallen to wit when they repent but before they repent he doth indeed impute sin to them by inflicting temporal punishments and unless they repented he would impute sin to them by inflicting also eternal punishments And he thus concludes Tune igitur fides in lapsis habitualiter tantion manens propriè justificans dici aut eos justificare non potest Therefore Faith then remaining habitually only in the lapsed it cannot properly be said to be justifying or to justifie them Thus far Pareus Whereby we plainly see that he held the Covenant of Grace to be conditional as we do that Faith and Repentance are conditions of it especially Faith is the main condition by the acts whereof we are justified and receive Remission of sin not by the habit because it is the Act and not the Habit that receives Christ and Remission of sins through him 2. He held that after Justification sincere Obedience to the Lord in the avoiding of wilful presumptuous sins of Omission and Commission is a Condition so necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation that without such Obedience either continued without intermission or after some notable intermission of its acts and weakning of its habit renewed again by new acts of Faith and Repentance Salvation cannot be obtained nor Damnation avoided 3. That though there be such conditions required of the Elect in order to Justification and of the justified in order to Salvation yet they are not uncertain as to the event but shall through special effectual Grace be infallibly performed and the Elect and Justified shall be eternally saved This was the Gospel that Pareus preached and the Synod of Dort approved And it is that and no other which we preach also Therefore it must needs be a great falsehood and slander that we preach a new Arminian Gospel We find likewise that the Divines of Geneva Deodat and Tronchin in the Synod of Doâ—t were for the conditionality of the Covenant of Grace in the sense before explained for thus they write in their suffrage concerning the second Article Fides est revera conditio novi foederis respectu ordinis inviolabilis a Deo instituti Act. Synod Dondrect part 2. page 132. c. Faith is indeed the Condition of the new Covenant in respect of the inviolable order instituted by God but it is also a promised gift of the new Covenant and an effect of our ingrafting into Christ In these words 1. We observe That in the Judgment of those Divines approved by the Synod of Dort God by his absolute Will hath instituted a conditional order between the antecedent and subsequent blessings of the new Covenant 2. That Faith is the Condition ordained by God for obtaining the subsequent blessings of the Covenant such as Justification Pardon of sin c. 3. That it is not habitual Faith or the first habitual seminal permanent principle of Faith but it is actual Faith because they say that it is the effect of our ingrafting into Christ but the first seminal permanent principle of Faith is not the effect of our ingrafting into Christ otherwise we should be ingrafted into Christ before we have so much as the least seminal principle of Faith since the cause must be before the effect Therefore to avoid that absurdity we think they meant that our ingrafting into Christ begins in the Spirits working in us the seminal principle of Faith which concurs to the producing of the Act of Faith which being our formal vital Act though produced by the Vertue of the Seminal Principle and the effectual influence of the Spirit is the Condition of the Covenant performed by us and withal is the effect of our initial ingrafting into Christ The same Doctrine is believed and professed at Geneva at this day Witness what was lately Taught and Published by Turretin Professor of Divinity there In Page 196. of that Book he saith that Christ requires Faith in God's Promises and Obedience to his Commandments Turrotin Institut Theologiae Eleâ—ct Part. 2. Edit Genev. 1688. as the Duties and Conditions of the Covenant And in the same Page he saith that The form of Words wherein the new Covenant is expressed I will be your God and you shall be my People comprehends both the Benefits promised on God's part and the Duties required on our part And first he explains at large what promised Benefits on God's part are implied in the Words I will be your God Secondly he shews what Duties required on our parts are implied in the Words you shall be my People After he had in general opened the meaning of the foresaid Form of the Covenant he comes to particulars and in the 29. Paragraph he sayes The Principal Duties required of us are Faith and Repentance Faith which embraces the Promises and Repentance which fulfils the Commandments Faith answers to the Promise of Grace believe and thou shalt be saved Repentance is commanded Lege Evangelicâ by the Evangelical Law walk before me and be thou perfect Gon. 17.1 For as on God's part there are two principal Benefits of the Covenant Remission of sins and the writing of the Law in the Heart so on Man's part two Duties ought to answer unto them to wit Faith which applies unto us the Remission of sins and Repentance or the study and endeavour of Sanctification which reduces into practice the Law written in the Heart by walking in God's Statutes which Christ meant when he said Mark 1.25 Repent and believe the Gospel In Page 202. he puts the Question Whether the Covenant of Grace be conditional and what are the Conditions of it And in Answer to it he distinguishes between several sorts of Conditions and as we have done shews that in some sense it is not Conditional and then he concludes that in another sense it it Conditional and Page 203. he proves it by three Arguments 1. Because it is proposed with a Condition expressed John 3.16 36. Bom. 10.9 Acts 8.37 Mark 16.16 And frequently in other places 2. Because if it were not conditional there would be no place for Threatnings in the Gospel which cannot be denounced but against those who neglect to performe the Condition prescribed For the
the Scripture and considers the form of Words used there by the Holy Writer which plainly sets forth the Justification of the Gentiles as an End and their Conversion from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God as a Means to attain that End Now the Means is always in execution before the End Consequently Conversion is and must be before Justification And if so then there is a real change in the Soul before Justification the Person to be justified is prepared disposed and qualified by converting Grace in order of nature at least before he be Justified And till he be so changed by converting Grace he is not capable of being Justified according to Gods Order of dispensing Saving Grace unto his People This our Authour saw well enough Lett. pag. 16. when he quoted Gal. 2.16 to prove that a Man is to believe that he may be Justified For that plainly shews that Faith is a Means to obtain Justification and all the World knows that the Means is always first in execution as hath been said before the End be thereby obtained Now we demand if a Man must have Faith before he be Justified must there not be a real change in him must he not be changed from being an Vnbeliever to be a Believer and must he not also be initially sanctified Is not true Faith a Holy Vertue and doth it not denominate the subject of it to be so far holy as he is a true Believer Peter saith that sincere Faith is a pretious thing 2 Pet. 1.1 and Jude v. 20. affirms that our Faith is a most holy faith and it is true both of the object of our Faith the things which we believe and of our Faith it self the Habit and Act whereby we do believe both are holy And how can it be but Faith must be holy since it is one of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 And surely nothing but what is holy can be a Fruit of the Holy Spirit From all which we may confidently conclude that something which is holy is wrought in us and by us before we be Justified for it is wrought in us and by us that we may be Justified Thus we learn from Scripture that by preventing converting Grace there is a real change wrought in the Soul before we be Justified that that change is from falsehood to truth from evil to good and that thereby the Person to be Justiâ—ied of an unholy Vnbeliever becomes an holy Believer and so is a Subject capable of being immediately justified by Christs Righteousness imputed to him upon his Conversion and penitent believing And here we might further demonstrate that there are through Grace some holy Dispositions wrought in the Soul before Justification by all those Scriptures that put Repentance before Remission of Sins but this we have done already when we proved sincere Repentance to be a dispositive Condition of Justification Therefore we pass from this First to our Second Head of Arguments Secondly We prove by Reason agreeable to Scripture that it is an Errour to deny that there is any real change that there can be any holy qualification or Disposition wrought in us by the Grace of God antecedently to our Justification Reason 1. First we reason thus Faith is a Condition of Justification as we have proved at large therefore it may well be a qualification of the Person to be justified and we much wonder that our Authour should boldly deny the possibility of any such qualification For it is less to be a Qualification than to be a Condition If then Faith be a Condition it may much more be a Qualification And that for Faith to be a Qualification is less than to be a Condition is hence evident because Faith as the Gift of God without any Act of ours may be a Qualification but to make it a proper Condition it must be our own free Act receiving Christ and his Righteousness though produced by the strength of God's Special Grace Now it is plainly less for us to be the Subjects only passively receiving the Gift of Faith than to be the Agents freely producing the Act and performing the Condition of Faith Although then our Authour might seem to have some Reason to doubt whether Faith be the proper Condition of the Covenant with respect to Justification yet we cannot imagine why be should deny that it can possibly be a Qualification of the Person to be justified for it is very easily conceivable that it may be such a Qualification as it is a Grace given unto and wrought in the Person to be Justified on purpose that he may be thereby qualified for the great and blessed Priviledge of Justification What impossibility is there in all this That God should constitute and ordain that none thould ever be Justified by Christ's Righteousness but those that are so qualified and that Faith shall be the Qualification And then because no Man can by his natural power qualify himself with this Faith that God for Christs sake should by his Spirit give Saving Faith unto all his Select People and special Favourites and thereby qualiâ—ie them for Justification We can see no Shadow of Repugnancy and Impossibility but that God may do this if he please And when he hath done it when he hath qualified a Man with faith he most certainly hath a Qualification for the Benefit of Justification And this is so far from darkning the Glory of God's free Grace in Christ that on the contrary it greatly sets it forth and illustrates it that God will not only freely promise Justification through Christ unto all that are qualified with true faith but that for Christ's sake he freely gives them that faith and doth himself qualifie them therewith The like we say of Repentance it is a Qualification of God's own ordaining and of God's own giving Nor doth Faith and Repentance their being Conditions hinder their being Qualifications for they may be and are both All that we have hitherto ascribed to Repentance in order to Justification is to be a dispositive Condition of the Subject and that is the same thing with a qualifying Condition and a qualifying Condition is a Qualification We have indeed given more to faith for according to the Scripture we have owned it to be the only receptive applicative Condition of Justification which is more than to be either a meer Qualification or a meer Condition for neither is Qualification nor Condition meerly as Qualification and as Condition receptive and applicative of Christ and his Righteousness unto Justification To be so receptive and applicative is not essential to the general notion of a Condition but to the special notion of such a condition And yet this receptive applicative nature of Faith as such a special condition doth not at all hinder it from being a qualification of the Person to be justified For the same Faith in different respects is capable of different Notions Or if any should doubt of that
without just reason we think to satisfie them we may well say what is a great truth that the habitual Seminal Principle of Faith is a qualification of the Person to be justified and that the actual Exercise of Faith is the receptive applicative Condition of Justification This is our first Reason 2. Reason The seminal abiding Principle of Faith is a holy disposition of the Soul whereby it is inclined and fitted to elicit and produce the Acts of Faith This is clear because it is in a special manner the gift of a Holy God and the fruit of his Holy Spirit who cannot be the Authour of any Seed Disposition Inclination or Habit in the Soul of Man but what is good and Holy But now that Seminal abiding Principle of Faith is before Justification This is clear as the Sun because it is before the Act of that Faith whereby alone we are said to be justified and that it is before the justifying act of faith we thus demonstrate That which concurs to the producing of the Act is before the act since it is in part the cause of the act and the cause as such must always be in order of Nature at least before the effect and it implies a contradiction that it should be otherwise But the Seminal abiding Principle of Faith concurs to the producing of the Act of justifying Faith for it is given unto us for that end that it may fit us for inclines us to and help us in acting Therefore it is before the Act of justifying Faith and consequently before Justification it self Here then we have found a Holy Seed and Principle put by God into the Soul before Justification And therefore it is utterly false which the Letter saith that there neither is nor can be any good or holy thing in the Soul or any real change wrought on the Soul before Justification 3. Reason The Act of Justifying Faith is a good and holy thing since it is the effect of God's Holy Spirit and the first Fruit of the foresaid Holy Seed of Faith in the Soul But so it is that even according to our Authours own Principles the Act of Faith is before Justification For as was observed before he says out of Gal. 2.16 We believe that we may be justified and if so then it is evident that our believing is in order of Nature at least before we be justified 2. He holds that Faith is the Instrumental cause of Justification and lays great stress upon that Notion as if it were the great fundamental of his Religion he likewise finds great fault with us for not holding with him that Faith is the Instrumental cause of Justification Now according to this Opinion of his he cannot avoid the placing of the Act of Faith before Justification because it is the Act of Faith that receives Christ and his Righteousness and that is the instrumental cause of Justification But all the World knows that every proper cause as an instrumental cause is in its kind is in order of Nature before its effect Either then some holy good thing is in us before Justification or Actual Faith is no holy good thing and his instrument wherewith he makes such a noise is good for nothing but to blow the Coals of Strife and Contention 4. Reason Before a Man can be justified by Faith there must be a real and holy change in him because of an Unbeliever he must become a Believer and that cannot be without a real change and a holy one too Now that a Man from being an Unbeliever must come to be a Believer in Christ before he can be justified by Faith in Christ is self-evident for how can a Man be justified by Faith in Christ who yet hath no Faith in Christ he must then have Faith before he can be justified by Faith But how shall he get this Faith Can he get Faith whilst he still remains in Unbelief that is impossible For Unbelief either signifies not believing or it signifies positive disbelieving and 1. If it signifie not believing it stands in a contradictory opposition to believing and contradictions are utterly inconsistent Can a Man believe in Christ and not at all believe in Christ at the same time We hope our Authour will not be so ridiculous as to go about to reconcile contradictions 2. If Unbelief signifie positive disbelieving disbelieving in power and prevalency then it stands in a contrary opposition to believing and two contraries in power and prevalency are likewise utterly inconsistent in the same subject at the same time A Man that is in the very Act of positive disbelief and under the power and prevalency of it cannot possibly have an actual Faith in Christ at that time Therefore that an Unbeliever may get actual Faith in Christ and be justified by that Faith he must of necessity be changed really and effectually changed he must be changed from being an Unbeliever to be a Believer he must come off from his sin of not believing or of disbelieving unto the practice of his Duty of believing in Christ that he may be justified by Faith But this cannot possibly be without a real change nay this coming off from the sin of Unbelief to the Duty of Believing is a real change and a holy change too therefore there is and must be a real holy change in Man in order of Nature at least before his Justification by Faith in Christ This is as certain and evident as that Two and Two make Four Yet our Authour finds fault with us for making it a part of our new Scheme that there must be a real change in a man let page 30. that he must be changed from his Unbelief that he may come to Christ by Faith for Justification And elsewhere he says That it is the experience of every Believer that every one who believeth on Jesus Christ page 11. acts that Faith as the chief of Sinners And if so then it follows by necessary consequence that every one who believes on Christ acts that Faith as an Unbeliever for according to him unbelief is the chiefest sin so he writes expresly That Vnbelief is the most provoking to God page 15 16. and the most damning to man of all sins Unbelief then is the chiefest sin and if so certainly the Unbeliever must be the chiefest Sinner and the Believer who acts his Faith as the chief of Sinners must act his Faith as an Unbeliever And that is a very odd way of acting Faith to believe as an Unbeliever Yet no man can help it for if our Authors Doctrine be true it must be so and cannot be otherwise because it is that which the experience of all Believers witnesseth unto and as he writes page 24. The Believer or Accepter of Christ in the very act of believing or accepting of Christ expresly disclaims all things in himself but sinfulness and misery And if he do so then he disclaims that is renounces his Faith it self in
unchristian a thing he hath done in accusing the Brethren as aforesaid We 1. Here declare in general before we come to examine the several particulars in his Letter which relate to this matter That we never were and that we now are not and that we trust in God we never shall be Arminians or Pelagians This we freely and unfeignedly declare as in the presence of the Lord to whom we must give an account of all our Actions 2. And yet further to remove all ground of suspicion if it be possible of our corrupting the Gospel in the point of Justification we accept of the Test proposed to us by the Authour of the Letter Pag. 29. and declare That we will subscribe all those Articles of the Confession of Faith which he hath there transcribed together with the Passage out of the larger Catechism We say We will subscribe them in the Assemblies own sense We add this limitation because the Authour of the Letter hath not taken into his Test that part of the larger Catechism * Question How is the grace of God manifested in theâ— second Covenant which declares that God in the second Covenant requires Faith as the condition to interest Sinners in Christ Nay he denies Faith to be either condition or qualification and will have it to be only the Instrument of Justification But by Comparing the confession of Faith with the Catechism we find that the Assembly held Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition And therefore every honest Man that will subscribe in the Assemblies own sense must so hold Faith to be an Instrument as to be a Condition also Now the Question is How Faith can be both an Instrument and a Condition To which we answer That in our Judgement it is thus Distinguish between a meer Physical Instrument and a moral federal Instrument Faith is not a meer physical Instrument but it is a moral federal Instrument Now a moral federal Instrument is the same thing with a federal Condition Instrument and Condition in this sense are but two words to signifie the same thing If this do not satisfie our Brother but he will still say That the notion of an Instrument and the notion of a Condition are two distinct notions and cannot both agree to the same thing to the same faith We answer 1. If he will say so we desire the World to take notice that it is he himself who opposes the Assembly and not we 2. In behalf of the Assembly we answer That the notion of a moral federal Instrument and the notion of a federal Condition are not two distinct but one and the same notion 3. Suppose they were two distinct notions yet the same thing the same faith in different respects is capable of two distinct notions But so it is that Faith may be considered under two different respects 1. Faith is considered with respect to Christ himself and his Righteousness and so it hath the notion of an Instrument whereby we receive Him and His Righteousness and apply them to our own Souls 2. Faith is considered with respect to Justification it self or the Act whereby God Justifies us for the sake of Christ and his Righteousness and so it hath the notion of a Condition upon which God Justifies us for the sake of Christ and his Righteousness In this respect Faith cannot have the notion of a Phisical Instrument for a Physical Instrument as such hath a Physical Causality but our Faith cannot have a Physical Causality upon Gods Act whereby he Justifies Let it be considered that both our Catechisms larger and lesser affirm Justification to be an Act of God Now how an Act of ours such as Justifying Faith is can have a Phisical Causality and Influence upon the producing of an Act of God is above our comprehension Sure we are that if any Man will maintain such an Opinion he ascribes more to Faith in the point of Justification than we dare do We should rather think that the Instrument which God uses in producing his own Justifying Act is his own Gospel-promise of Pardon and Justification to the penitent Believer for the sake of Christ in whom he believes Acts 10.43 Object But doth not the second Article of the II Chap. of the Confession of Faith say expresly that Faith is the alone Instrument of Justification Answ 1. And so say we too It is the alone Instrument the alone moral federal Instrument or the alone receptive applicative Condition 2. Distinguish between an Instrument immediate and mediate Now Faith is not said to be the alone immediate Instrument of Justification nor do we conceive how it can so be in a physical sense because it hath no immediate physical influence upon the producing of Gods Justifying Act. But Faith may be said to be the mediate Instrument of Justification because it is the immediate Instrument whereby we receive Christ and his Righteousness hoc posito this being done this Instrumental Means being used and this Condition being performed Christ and his Righteousness being received by Faith as the Instrumental Means of that reception God himself for Christs sake justifies us by his Law of Faith This seems plainly to be the sense of the Assembly as appears by their saying in the passage of the larger Catechism quoted by the Letter That Faith Justifies a Sinner onely as it is an Instrument by which the Sinner receiveth and applieth Christ and his Righteousness Mark the Expression They do not say that Faith Justifies only as an Instrument whereby God Justifies the Sinner but onely as an Instrument whereby the Sinner receives and applies Christ and his Righteousness If the Authour of the Letter have any other Notions of Faith's being a Physical Instrument much good may they do him but let him not think to impose them upon us or upon the Words of the Assembly We take their Words in the sense they are capable of without self contradiction For we have more respect for that Reverend and learned Synod than to put a sense upon their Words they are not fairly capable of or that shall make them speak Contradictions Therefore as they hold Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition so do we We hold it so to be an Instrument as that its being an Instrument shall not hinder it from being a Condition And so to be a Condition as that its being a Condition shall not hinder it from being an Instrument This we take to be the plain and native sense of the Assembly and in this sense we heartily assent to their Words But so doth not our Authour for in the 9th and 25th Pages of his Letter he saith that Faith is neither Condition nor Qualification but a meer Instrument Whereas the Assembly saith expresly both that Faith is a Condition and also that it is an Instrument Therefore he contradicts the Assembly and doth not take their Words in their plain and native sense For had he so taken them as
to him and upon the best Reasons and Motives that appeared to him from the consideration of things willingly to choose or refuse them and to act or not to act to act thus or otherwise as he saw cause Whence we may confidently conclude that the formal essential Nature of Man's Free-will consists in this Power of acting willingly according to the Judgment of Right Reason and not in the former undeterminedness or indifferency of the Will to do or not to do to do Good or Evil even when all things pre-requisite to its doing and acting do meet together and concur to cause it to do and act Upon this occasion we cannot but mention with approbation a Passage of a very Reverend and Dignified Divine of the Church of England in a Discourse of Christian Liberty Chap. 11. Sect. 3. pag. 139 140 141. As for those that contend that it is more praise-worthy to do Good and forbear evil having a power to do otherwise than to be under a necessity of so doing supposing they mean by necessity such as is not from without or from an inward blind instinct but from an understanding Principle and Perfection of Nature I must needs tell them there is no Proposition in the World more false or absurd I will not therefore stick to say that to have the Will necessarily determined to all Good and from all evil from an over-powering sense of the becomingness and excellency of the one and the vileness and odiousness of the other is the very perfection of Liberty And this is so far from being impossible to be obtained by Creatures or by our selves that by the help of God's Grace it is in a large measure even in this life attainable I mean such a sense of Good and Evil as shall certainly determine us to Good and against Evil in most of the Instances of each There are some Immoralities and wicked Actions that they who have attained to but very mean and ordinary Degrees of Goodness cannot perswade themselves so much as to endeavour to reconcile their Minds to Nay there are some that no Man can easily be supposed able to consent to but an extraordinarily depraved and wicked Wretch let the Motives that are used to perswade him be what they will Such as blaspheming of God contriving the murder of our Parents of a most obliging Friend Torturing of innocent Babes and the like horrid Villanies Surely then a Man is capable of such a vivid sense of the hatefulness of Sin in gneral as will whilst it lasts render it impossible for him to will deliberately to commit any known Sin whatsoever It is confessed that we cannot hope to get past all danger of sudden surprizals so long as we inhabit these Bodies and remain in our present unhappy Circumstances but I say so powerful a sense of the infinite unrighteousness disingenuity unreasonableness folly and madness of opposing the Holy Will of our Great Creator and Blessed Redeemer may by the Divine Assistance be acquired even on this side Heaven as shall determine us effectually against all deliberate and wilful Violations of the Divine Laws For this we have the Authority of a great Apostle St. John saith in his 1 Epist 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God c. This excellent Passage of Bishop Fowler 's may help to clear up the foresaid difficulty and to shew us how the Act of believing may be a Duty and Condition of the Gospel and yet be produced by the effectual Grace of God assisting our Faculties in that production for the efficacy of Grace doth not hinder but rather further the free exercise of our liberty of Will in producing the Act of Faith So that our believing in Christ being an Act of Free Obedience notwithstanding that the Regenerating Principle of Spiritual Life and Seed of Faith inclines and byasses us to act and the actual Influence of the Spirit causeth us to reduce the Principle into Act we can see no reason at all why the actual believing in Christ may not be both our duty and likewise the condition upon the free performance of which God promiseth to justify us to pardon our sins and give us a Right and Title to Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Authour confesseth that the Covenant of Redemption was strictly conditional Lett. p. 24. Mat. 26.39 Joh. 10.18 and that Christ's offering up the Humane Nature in sacrifice to God was in part at least the strict Condition of it and yet Christ performed that Condition as necessarily and unavoidably as we perform the Condition of actual believing when we are influenced thereunto by the special and effectual Grace of God This we take to be a demonstration that the meer infallible certainty and necessity of the Elect's believing in Christ cannot hinder their Faith from being a proper Evangelical Condition of the new Covenant And having thus at large declared in what sense we hold the Covenant of Grace not to be conditional and in what sense to be conditional We shall next prove against our Authour that it really is conditional and that it is not without Ground that we believe it so to be In order hereunto we premise these two Things 1. That it is with respect to the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant that we hold it to be Conditional that is it is with respect to Justification and Glorification For as the Professors of Leyden say in their Synopsis of purer Divinity Disp 22. pag. 259. Promissiones Evangelii sunt potissimum duae 1. De Justificatione coram Deo per fidem 2. De Haereditate vitae eternae Rom. 1.17 1 Johan 2.25 The Promises of the Gospel are principally two The first is the Promise of Justification in the sight of God by Faith And the second is The Promise of inheriting Eternal Life It is these Promises and the Covenant of Grace in respect of these Promises which we hold to be Conditional II. That by a Condition we understand a Duty which God requires of us for obtaining the Promised Benefit so as to suspend his giving us the promised Benefit upon our performing the Duty required Assuring us that if we perform the Duty required we shall have the promised Benefit but if we do not perform the Duty required we shall not have the Benefit promised These two things premised we come to prove that the Covenant of Grace is really Conditional as aforesaid with respect to its subsequent Blessings and Benefits And this we shall do 1. by Scripture 2. by Reason consonant to Scripture 3. by Testimonies of Orthodox Divines even of those very Divines whom our Authour affirms to be against us And 1. We prove by Scripture that the Covenant of Grace is Conditional in the sense before explained And we begin with Rom. 10. v. 9. where though the word Condition be not expressed yet we have the
truth that Repentance is before Justification at least in order of Nature They object further if Repentance be before Justification then it is either before or after Faith but it cannot be before Faith for it is impossible that a man should sincerely repent before he believe Nor can it be after Faith if it be before Justification for a man is justified by Faith and that assoon as he believes We answer That men needed not to be deluded by such a silly sophism if they would distinguish 1. Between the Abiding Seed and Principle and the Transient Act of Faith 2. Between the Assenting Act of Faith and it s fiducially consenting act For though Faith in the Principle of it be but one single Grace yet in the Exercise of it it hath several acts successively following one another and yet not so closely neither but that the Act of Repentance may come between them Now to apply these distinctions we say that from Repentance's being before Justification it doth by no means follow that it is altogether and in all respects before Faith For 1. The Seed and Principle of Faith is before the Act of Repentance 2. The assenting Act of Faith is also before the Act of Repentance And thus from a principle of Faith and by the help of an Act of Faith the Soul sincerely repents in order to Justification and pardon of sin then after the said Act of Repentance there comes another Act of Faith to wit the Act of Fiducial consent to receive Christ as he is offered in the Gospel whereupon the penitent believing Soul is immediately justified and pardoned This we learn of Calvin who in his Institutions lib. 3. cap. 3. Sect. 19. writes thus Sic Christus suas conciones auspicatus est c. So also Christ began his Sermons Mark 1.15 The Kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the Gospel First he declares that the treasures of God's mercy were opened in him Then 2. He requires Repentance And 3. and lastly He requires a trust or relyance on the promises of God Here we have the Lords order of things judiciously set forth 1. He declares that the Treasures of God's Mercy are opened in him This Declaration of God's Infinite Mercy in Christ held forth to lost Sinners of Mankind is the object of our Faith of assent and we are bound to assent to it as an infallible Truth and to be firmly perswaded of it 2. He requires our Repentance he requires that assenting to the Truth of the Gospel and being firmly perswaded that God is upon terms of Mercy with us through him we should repent and be heartily sorry that by our sins we have offended so merciful a God and resolve in God's strength to do so no more 3. And lastly That supposing we so repent from a principle of Faith assenting to the Revelation of God's great Mercy in Christ to lost Sinners indefinitely he requires that we trust and rely on God's promises and on Christ as held forth to us in the promises that according to his promises he will for Christ's sake be merciful to us in pardoning us all our sins When we are through Grace arrived at this Act of Faith whereby we trust and rely on God's promises and on Christ as held forth to us in the promises then we are instantly pardoned accepted as Righteous and get a right to Life for the alone satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of our Lord Redeemer But we could never attain to this Act of Faith and thereby to pardon of sin for Christ's sake if we did not first believe with the Faith of assent that God through Christ is upon terms of Mercy and Peace with us That is the first Act of Faith and when it is of the right kind and proceeds from the right Principle the super-natural Seed of Faith put into the heart it is through the influence of the Holy Spirit of mighty force and efficacy 1. To make us repent to make us through Grace heartily sorry for having displeased and dishonoured so good and Merciful a God by our sins and to make us resolve through Grace to do so no more 2. It is of as great force and efficacy to make us trust and rely on Gods promises and on Christ revealed in the promises that God according to his promises will for Christ's sake justifie and pardon us Thus we have answered that frivolous Objection and clearly shewed how true Repentance is in order before Justification and pardon of sin and yet not altogether and in all respects before Faith but partly after and partly before Faith after the principle and assenting Act of Faith but before the fiducially consenting and trusting Act of Faith And what though no Man could give a clear account of the exact order observed by our Souls in the acting of their several Graces yet that should hinder no Christian from believing that true Repentance is in order before pardon of sin because God who cannot he hath plainly told us in the Scripture of Truth that it is in order before pardon as hath been proved If then we have any Faith in God and his Word We should say Let God be True who ever proves a Lyar. Certainly it is very unreasonable foolish and dangerous too to deny or doubt of that which is clear because we cannot throughly understand that which is obscure to wit the precise order of the Souls acting its Graces This may suffice at present to prove that the Gospel-promise of Justification and pardon of sin is conditional and that Faith and Repentance are the Condition of it 2. In the second and last place we shall briefly prove by Scripture that the Gospel-promise of Glorification and Eternal Salvation is conditional and that sincere obedience is the Condition of it For the better understanding of our meaning in this matter we premise a few things As 1. That this is to be understood upon supposition that a man lives some considerable time after that he is effectually called and justified and pardoned upon his first believing and repenting and that he hath space and opportunity to perform his Covenant Engagement unto the Lord and to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance If the Man dye presently after his Justification and pardon there is no more required on his part the Spirit perfects his begun Sanctification and God through Christ consummates his Salvation without requiring any more of him than what he is inabled to do as he is a dying But if God give him time and opportunity and he live It is required that proportionably to his Talents and time he serve the Lord in Faith and Holy Obedience that he renew his Faith and Repentance for pardon as often as he finds that he has fallen into sin and that he return to his Duty again serving the Lord all his days in Faith Hope Love Fear Patience Meekness Humility and Heavenly-mindedness c. 2. The Obedience that is required as aforesaid must
per impossibile that a Christian have a sincere Faith separated from sincere Obedience if nothing but a sincere Act of Faith be required of him as indispensably necessary to Salvation he is safe and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Salvation though he lead a wicked life as aforesaid But this is false and absurd therefore that principle from whence this follows is false and absurd also that is it is false and absurd that nothing but an Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to Salvation And not only Logick allows us to argue thus sometimes from a supposed impossibility John 8.55 but even our blessed Saviour who is truth it self hath done it before us If I should say quoth our Saviour I know not the Father I should be a lyer like unto you but I know him c. In like manner S. Paul argues ab impossibili saying Though we or an angel from heaven Gal. 1.8 preach another Gospel to you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed 3. We Answer That when it is said that sincere Faith cannot be without sincere Obedience the meaning is that sincere Faith is of an Obediential Nature and is of it self apt to put us upon the several Acts of sincere Obedience and will certainly do it if it be rightly used and put forth into strong vigorous Acts if the Spirit of the Lord concur with it if it be not hindred by the flesh and by the prevalency of tentations But the meaning is not that sincere Faith always actually and infallibly produceth the imperat acts of sincere Obedience as necessarily as the Sun produces light and as the Fire produceth Heat For the Principle of sincere Faith doth not so necessarily produce its own formal elicit Acts much less doth it so necessarily produce the Acts of other gracious Principles and Habits whose Acts are not the formal elicit but the imperat Acts of Faith And it is but too well known by sad experience that the Principle of sincere Faith or even the languid weak Act of that Principle doth not necessarily and infallibly alwayes produce all those Acts of sincere Obedience to the Lord which are necessary towards the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory For had not David and Solomon a Principle of sincere Faith and who can say and prove that they had not then some weak languid Acts of Faith And yet that Faith in them for some considerable time was separated from that sincere Repentance and Obedience which is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory This is too evident to be denyed And surely what hath been is possible to be though we heartily wish that it may never actually be any more and that none of God's People may ever fall so foully nor lye so long in Sin as David and Solomon did But we think our Authour or any for him will find it a hard Task to prove that sincere Faith both as to the Habit and some weak Act cannot be for some time actually separated from such imperat Acts of Repentance and sincere Obedience as are indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory in Heaven and further he may find it a Task no less hard to determine precisely how long time they may be actually separated but not one Minute longer If he think that he can do either or both of these we do intrent him to do it for in truth it will be a kindness to us who do really find the difficulty so great that we are not able to master it without help 4. We Answer That though it were well proved that sincere Faith can in no case be separated for one Minute from the imperate Acts of that sincere Repentance and Obedience which is indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory in Heaven yet it doth by no means follow that Faith onely and not sincere Obedience distinct from Faith is required of us as indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory in Heaven for Faith and Obedience may both be required and we have already proved by plain Scripture that they are both required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory and without our having both as the Lord hath required we cannot be out of danger of coming short of Eternal Life and Glory The clear evidence of this Truth hath made our ablest and most Judicious Divines acknowledge that upon supposition that the Saints fallen into gross sins against Knowledge and Conscience like those of David and Solomon should dye in them before they had through Grace returned unto their Obedience to the Lord renewed both their Faith and their Repentance and got both the Guilt and Filth of those Sins washed and purged away by the most pretious Blood and holy Spirit of Christ they would be damned and lost for ever This Mr. Rutherford in his Examen Arminianismi p. 620. acknowledges to be a Truth in these Words Nisi renati in atrecia peccata lapsi resipiscerent in aeternum ipsis pereundum esset juxta comminationes Evangelicas Vnless the Regenerate after they have fallen into atrocious sins did repent they must perish everlastingly according to the threatnings of the Gospel Of this Perswasion were our excellent Divines in the Synod of Dort so was Mr. Perkins Bishop Abbot Downham Mr. Burgess Pareus Turretin c. as shall be shewed hereafter by the express Words of most of them This same Truth hath also been acknowledged and maintained by the French Divines who Answered that pestilent Book of the Jansenians called the Renversement and corruption of the Morals of Jesus Christ by the Errors of the Calvinists in the point of Justification Jurieu and others in answer to that most virulent Book go upon our Principle aforesaid and thereby vindicate the Reformed Churches from the blasphemous Reproaches which the Jansenians cast upon us all upon pretence that we all hold the abominable Opinion aforesaid that we are safe as to our Eternal state if we have but a true Faith though we live in the love and practice of all manner of Villanies except Unbelief 5. One great Reason we do not say the onely but one great Reason on our part why a sincere Faith is of its own Nature obediential that is it inclines to obedience and is of it self naturally apt to produce in us sincere Obedience and will not fail to do it if it be rightly used and be not hindred It is this a sincere Faith firmly assents to the Truth of the foresaid Commands Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel whereby we have proved that sincere Obedience is by the Lord made indispensably necessary unto and the condition of obtaining Eternal Salvation and from the infallible Truth of God's Word it assures us that there is no obtaining of Eternal Salvation unless we be sincerely obedient unto the Lord that if
apprehensive nature and its apprehending Christs Righteousness the Will of God still presupposed doth make this Righteousness ours even as a Gift becomes ours by our receiving of it These Worthy Divines we see were of our Opinion That it is not the nature of Faith it self nor its relation unto Christ which is essential to it that doth formally make it to be the Instrumental Means or Condition of our Justification but it is the Will of God ordaining it to that Office It is true they held and we with them hold that there is a congruity and fitness in Faith to be the receptive and applicative Condition of the Promise and of Christ and his Righteousness therein because it is of a receptive applicative nature yet that doth not formally make it the Condition For notwithstanding its fitness to be the Condition yet it would never have actually and formally been the Condition of Justification nor would it ever have availed us to Justification if God by an Act of his Free-will had not made it the Condition of Justification Is not Justification a great Blessing and Benefit which is in the power and at the disposal of God and Christ and may not God do what he will with his own may not he give his Blessing and Benefit upon what Terms and Conditions he and his Son shall think fit to agree upon This surely is so evident that no reasonable Man can have reason to deny it And then the consequence is as evident that it is not any thing intrinsecal to Faith and so not its relation to Christ which is intrinsecal to it that can nextly and formally make it the Instrumental Means or Condition of Justification but it is and must be the Will of God and his Son Christ Jesus agreeing that Faith shall be and ordaining Faith to be the Instrumental Means Terms and Condition of our Justification For these Reasons we dissent and all Men that love the Truth should dissent from our Authour if by saying that an accepting Faith is the native Condition of the Offer of Christ and of all his fulness he mean That Faith of its own nature necessarily is the condition of the promise and could not possibly 〈◊〉 otherwise so that 〈◊〉 being the condition doth necessarily and wholly arise from its own intrinsecal nature and not at all from the Will of God and Christ constituting and ordaining it do that Office of being the Condition of the promise We dare not uscribe so much Vertue and Efficacy to the intrinsecal Nature of Faith in the matter of our Justification But if by saying That an accepting Faith is the Native condition of the offer of Christ and his fulness our Authour means no more but this That Faith being of a receptive Nature it hath a natural aptitude and fitness to be made the condition of the promise of Justification and that that was a reason why it pleased God and Christ to make and constitute Faith to be the receptive condition of Justification we shall not oppose but join with him in this sense of his words But though we grant him for the reason aforesaid that Faith is the one native receptive condition of Justification yet we can never grant that Faith taken in his sense for the one single Grace or it may be for one single Act of the one single Grace of Faith is the only condition of Justification and much less that it is the only condition of Glorification For as Faith is the one yea and only receptive condition so true Repentance it the dispositive condition of Justification or of the Person to be justified in order to his Justification And moreover Repontance is as native a condition in its kind as Faith in its kind it is us native a dispositive condition as Faith is a native receptive condition For sincere Repentance being a Godly sorrow for having displeased and dishonoured God and a firm resolution through Grace to do so no more it doth from the very nature of the thing dispose and prepare the Soul for pardon and then God hath likewise for that reason Willed Ordained and Constituted Repentance to be the dispositive Condition of pardon of Sin and Justification As we proved before by plain testimonies of God's Holy Word And though Faith and Repentance be equally necessary from the Will Ordination and Constitution of God and Christ yet of the two Repentance seems to be the most necessary with that kind of necessity which ariseth precisely from the nature of the thing For it seems to be absolutely impossible because repugnant to the perfection of God's Holy Nature to Justifie Pardon and Love with a Love of Complacency a Rebellious Sinner whilst he is impenitent and continues his full Resolution to go on in his Rebellion and Enmity against Heaven The sense of this Truth seems to have been much upon the very Reverend and Learned Mr. Clarkson's Spirit and therefore it made him say in his Discourse of free Grace page 129 130 131. If the terms or conditions be such as it is not possible in the nature of the thing that the mercy offered should be effected without them then the offers of saving mercies are as free and gracious as can be as there is any possibility they should be and no more can be desired Then he takes Repentance for his instance we do not say that he altogether excludes the other terms but that Repentance is that which he Jingles out to instance in and which he much insists upon as taken in its Latitude And thus he goes on Let me clear this in one of those terms which is comprehensive of all the rest It is required of those who will partake of Saving Mercies that they leave sin forsake their evil ways Prov. 28.13 Isa 55.7 2 Tim. 2.19 This is the summ of all Conditions and whatever is required in other terms is included in this or may be resolved into it Now it is not possible that saving Mercies should otherwise be had that they should be received or enjoyed but upon these terms not only because the Lord would have it so but because the Nature of the thing doth so require it that it is not otherwise feasible for sin is our impotency Now can we possibly have strength in the inner man if we will not part with our weakness Sin is our deformity that which renders our Souls loathsome and ugly in the eye of God Now can our Souls be made lovely if we will not part with that which is our defilement and ugliness Can we be made clean if we will not part with our leprosie Sin is our enmity against God therein it consists now can we possibly be reconciled if we will not lay aside our enmity Sin is the wound the mortal Disease of the Soul and can you be healed if you will not part with your Disease Sin is your Misery and can you be happy if not part with your misery Happyness consists in the enjoyment of God
conditions are freely given by God neither if they be sincere do they by their imperfection hinder our Salvation which proceeds from another cause Here we see those four Learned Doctors Polyander Rivet Waleus and Thysius held that not only Faith but new and sincere Obedience is the condition of obtaining Salvation so that both together make up the one intire condition of the Gospel Gomarus another Learned Professor of Divinity in the Netherlands a Member of the Synod of Dort saith That the Gospel is called God's Covenant Quia mutuam Dei hominum obligationem Oper. Gomari par 3. disp 14. Thes 29. page 52. de vitâ aeternâ ipsis certâ conditione dandâ promulgat because it promulgates the mutual obligation of God and Men concerning the giving them Eternal Life upon their performing a certain condition And it is called the Covenant of God de salute per Christum gratuitâ concerning free Salvation by Christ because God in the Gospel of meer Grace publisheth and offereth unto all men whatsoever on condition of true Faith not only Christ and perfect Righteousness in him for Reconciliation and Eternal Life but also he promiseth unto his Elect and perfecteth in them the prescribed Condition of Faith and Repentance Here we see Gomarus holds Repentance to be part of the intire Condition of the Gospel Covenant Whereunto agrees the Testimony of Pemble Pemble of Justifying Faith Sect. 2. Chap. 1. page 22. who saith The Condition of the Covenant of Grace required in them that shall be justified is Faith Believe this and live is a compact of the freest and purest Mercy wherein the Reward of Eternal Life is given us in favour to that which bears not the least proportion of worth with it So that he that performs the Condition cannot yet demand the wages as due unto him in severity of Justice but only by the Grace of a free promise the fulfilling of which he may humbly sue for Ibid. page 24. And again Although saith he the Act of Justification of a sinner be properly the only work of God for the only merit of Christ Yet is it rightly ascribed unto Faith and it alone forasmuch as Faith is the main Condition of the New Covenant which as we must performe if we will be justified so by the performance whereof we are said to obtain Justification and Life Here it is observable that Pemble saith That Faith is the main Condition of the Covenant of Grace which implies there is some Condition besides but subordinate to Faith And this we do firmly hold that Faith is the main Condition because it is the only receptive applicative Condition to which Repentance the dispositive Condition and all our after-Obedience is subordinate Perkins another of those Divines whom we are said to despise gives his Vote also for the conditionality of the Covenant of Grace Witness what he writes in his Reformed Catholick In the Covenant of Grace two things must be considered Reformed Catholâ— point 4. of Justif the manner differ 2. Reason 1. The Substance thereof and the Condition The substance of the Covenant is That Righteousness and Life Everlasting is given to God's Church and People by Christ The Condition is That we for our parts are by Faith to receive the foresaid benefits And this Condition is by Grace as well as the substance And in his little Latine Tract of Predestination and the Grace of God which Dr. Twiss defended against Arminius Perkins de Praedest gratiâ edit Cant. An. 1598. pag. 130. in his Book called Vindiciae Gratiae he says Gratia secunda est vel imputata vel inhaerens Imputata est in Justificatione cujus pars remissio peccatorum c. The second Grace is either imputed or inherent Imputed Grace is in Justification whereof a part is Remission of sins and this Justification and Remission with respect to sins past remains firm and will so remain for ever That saying of the Schoolmen is most true Sins once remitted never return But when any true Believer hath fallen into some grievous hainous sin the pardon of that defection or backsliding is indeed purposed and decreed by God yet it hath no actual existence at all on God's part nor is it received at all on mans part till he repent Yea if he should never repent which yet is impossible for that one sin he would be damned as guilty of Eternal Death For there is no new pardon of any new sin without a new Act of Faith and Repentance This passage of Mr. Perkins implies to the full all that we have said concerning the necessity of Repentance as the dispositive condition of obtaining the pardon of our sins and concerning the necessity of sincere Obedience continued from a Principle of Faith and Love or after any notable backsliding renewed by new Acts of Faith and Repentance as the Condition of getting possession of the Heavenly inheritance Of the same Judgment was Pareus for thus he writes in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Fidem inserit ut doceat fidem esse conditionem sub quâ Christus nobis datus est propitiatorium Pareus in Rom. 3.25 The Apostle inserts Faith in the 25th verse to teach us that Faith is the Condition under which Christ is given us for a propitiation And again in the writing against the five Arminian Articles which he sent to the Synod of Dort not being able to go himself by reason of Age and which was read in highly approved by Act. Synod Dord part 1. p. 264. and recorded in the Acts of the Synod he says that Conditio certaminis precum vigilantiae omnino est necessaria ad perseverantiam The Condition of fighting and praying and watching is altogether necessary unto perseverance But then he adds in opposition to the Arminians That the said Condition is wrought in the faithful by the Spiâ—it of God which he proves from Deut. 30.6 Jer. 32.40 Ezek. 36.27 1 Pet. 1.5 c. And to what the Arminians said that the Condition is commanded and not promised he answers Promissiones de ipsa conditione fidei precum perseverantiae in fidelibus per spiritum Dei efficiendâ disertè loquuntur c. The promises plainly speak of the Condition of Faith Prayer Perseverance as that which is to be effected in Believers by the Spirit of God Nor doth it follow that the effecting of the Condition is not promised because it is commanded and required of the faithful For it is also commanded that they fear God and walk in his Commandments and yet God promiseth I will put my fear in their hearts c. I will cause them towalk in my Statutes c. But it is commanded not that they can of themselves but that they ought to perform it that so being sensible of their own weakness they may know what they ought to ask of God neither yet do these promises wholly exclude the great or small lapses and sins of the
obtained Hence Paul saith Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die And Heb. 3.12 Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God We do not therefore think that the Act it self of believing repenting and mortifying the flesh doth effect or merit the conservation of Justifying Grace because all these things are done by us faintly and imperfectly sometimes also through the Prevalency of some great Tentation they are as it were choaked and oppressed but we say that God himself of his free Mercy preserves the Regenerate in a state of Grace and Salvation whilst they walk in these wayes As therefore for the preservation of Natural Life it is necessarily required that a Man carefully avoid Fire Water Precipices Poysons and other things which destroy the Health of the Body so for the preservation of Spiritual Life it is necessarily required that a Man avoid Vnbelief Impenitency and other things that are destructive and contrary to the Salvation of Souls which cannot be avoided unless the opposite and contrary Actions be exercised But these Actions do not preserve the Life of Grace properly and of themselves by touching or producing the very effect it self of preservation but improperly and by accident by excluding and removing the cause of destruction Thus we have at large refuted the Authour of the Letter his Second Errour against the Purity of Christian Faith and have fully and clearly proved the Covenant of Grace to be Conditional This we have done first by clear Scripture Secondly by certain and evident Reason grounded upon Scripture Thirdly by Testimonies of Orthodox Divines and First by Testimonies of the Antient Doctors of the Primitive Church Secondly by Testimonies of Divines of the Reformed Churches both at Home and Abroad and particularly by the Testimony of the Divines of the Famous Synod of Dort Whence it is as clear as the Sun that we preach no new Arminian Gospel in this great Point of the Covenant of Grace and consequently that the Authour of the Letter is a false Witness in Matter of Fact who hath proclaimed us to the World to be Preachers of a new Arminian Gospel on the account of our Doctrine in the point of Justification If after all this he should say that though we have proved the Covenant to be conditional and Faith to be the receptive applicative condition of it yet we have not proved that Faith justifies as a Condition We Answer That look by what place of Scripture he shall ever be able to prove that Faith justifies as an Instrument and a hand by the same shall we prove that Faith justifies as a receptive applicative condition For as we said before we take a receptive applicative Condition and a moral foederal instrument to be one and the same thing So did the Westminster Assembly of Divines before us And in this sense which alone is justifiable we hold Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition with respect to Justification And if that will please our Authour we shall grant him that Faith is a hand and not only a hand but an eye and a mouth too an eye to look unto Christ crucified John 3.14 15. John 6.40 Isa 45.22 And a mouth to eat and drink and feed on his Crucified Flesh and Blood John 6.35 50 51 53 54 55 56 57 58. We shall conclude this Answer with the Testimony of Two Learneder and Wiser Men than our Authour seems to be The first is the Reverend Mr. Lukin a Worthy Judicious Congregational Minister in his Life of Faith printed above Thirty years ago Lukin 's Life of Faith p. 24 25. For the question about the Interest of Faith in our Justification whether it justifie as an Instrument or as a Condition I think saith he it deserves not half the words that have been used about it they are both of them School-terms and not found in the Scripture and should not therefore disturb the peace of the Church especially seeing both Parties at variance are agreed in the thing but not in the formal notion under which they do conceive it and I think both lides are so far agreed that Faith may be called an Instrument allowing much impropriety of speech and that it may be called a Condition while we thereby do not suppose any such thing as merit Thus Mr. Lukin Now we heartily accept of this expedient for the calming of the Tempest which the Letter hath raised We will never desire the Authour to call Faith a meritorious condition for we never called it so our selves if he will grant us that it is but improperly an Instrument of Justification The other is the Learned Turretin that famous Calvinist Professor of Divinity lately at Geneva who writes thus Caeterum non anxiè quaerendum putamus an fides instrumenti notionem induat in hoc negotio c. Turretin Instit part 2. loc 16. quaest 7. p. 737. But we do not think that it is curiously to be enquired after whether Faith put on the nation of an Instrument in this matter of Justification or likewise of a condition as it seems to some men For nothing hinders but both notions may be ascribed to it provided Condition be not taken for that in consideration whereof God justifies Man in the Covenant of Grace after the manner that works were the Condition of Justification in the Legal Covenant For in this sense it cannot be called a condition unless we come over to the Socinians and Arminians who will have Faith or the Act of believing to be accepted by God for perfect Righteousness which we have but now resuted But taking the word Condition in a large sense for all that which is required on our part to obtain that benefit whether it have the notion of a cause properly so called or only of an instrumental Cause for as that Condition hath the relation of an Instrument so that Instrument hath the nature of a Condition on our part without which Justification cannot be obtained Thus Turretin to which we fully agree except that we think he gives too much to Faith in conceiving it to be an instrumental cause of Justification yet since he says that it is no cause properly so called it follows necessarily that it is not properly an instrumental cause and so hath no proper causal influence upon the act of Justification and if so then it is but improperly an instrument as Mr. Lukin saith and so the whole Controversie comes to nothing but a strife about the propriety or impropriety of a word which Turretin plainly saw and therefore confessed that Faith is so an Instrument as to be a Condition and so a Condition as to be an Instrument of Justification And taking the word Instrument in a moral Sense for a means of receiving the benefit of Justification for Christ's sake only we do unfeignedly affirm as Turretin doth that a sincere Faith is both the Instrument and Receptive
the very act of believing He doth not disclaim his Unbelief for that is sin nor doth he disclaim the conceit of meriting Justification by his Faith for that is a sinful conceit But he disclaims his Faith it self unless his Faith be either sinfulness or misery for he disclaims all things in himself but sinfulness and misery These two to wit Sinfulness and misery are the only things which he doth not disclaim Whence it follows necessarily that he disclaims his belief it self in the very act of believing and so by this means he is enabled to believe as an Unbeliever This is it may be one of our Authours deep Mysteries for which his Proselytes admire him and hug his Letter And we confess there is no such deep Mystery as the Mystery of contradictious Non-sense But if every one who believes doth believe as the chief of Sinners and so believes as an Unbeliever and as one that disclaims all true and saving Faith we would know how it comes to pass that all the Unbelievers in the World do not believe one would think that they might all easily believe with such a Faith as is acted by a Man under that reduplicating quatenus as an Unbeliever and which in the very act of believing renounceth all saving belief even every thing but Sin and Misery Of old no Man was received into the Christian Church and accounted a Christian unless he first disclaimed and renounced his sins but now it seems there is a great alteration in the state of Christianity for a man cannot at this day be a Christian unless he disclaim or which is all one renounce his Christian Faith and that too with an exception of not disclaiming his sins If this be the only way to be a Christian one would think that all the Jews Turks and Heathens in the World might easily be Christians for they can easily believe with a Faith that in the very act of it renounces and disclaims Faith but not sin But if our Authour say that every true Christian must believe in Christ with a sincere and saving Faith which Unbelievers have not and yet at the same time he must act his Faith as an Unbeliover and in the very act of Faith he must disclaim his Faith but not his Sin of Unbelief and that there must be no real change in him from Unbelief to Faith till he have Faith and have acted his Faith as aforesaid and be justified by such an Act of Faith and then a real change passes upon him in order of Nature after his Justification but not before We answer That this is contradictious Non-sense and at this rate no man can be a Christian till he hath made both ends of a contradiction meet and hath verified both parts of a contradiction in his own Person no man can be a Christian that is really changed from being an Unbeliever to be a Believer no he cannot be a Christian till he be both an Unbeliever and Believer in predominant degrees at the same time without any real change from what he was by Nature The plain English of this is that according to the Principles of our Authour laid down in his Letter no Man can ever be a good Christian at all for the thing is impossible because it implies a manifest contradiction Yet we must be so charitable as to think that our Authour hath indeed greatly mistaken in the expressing of his mind in his Letter but that really he doth not believe those things himself We hope he is of a more Orthodox Faith and are willing to impute it to some inadvertency and inconsiderateness in the hasty writing of his Letter We think he would or should have said that every one who believes on Jesus Christ acts that Faith as one who thinks himself to have been formerly before his Conversion and Faith a chief of Sinners or one of the first rank of great Sinners But doth not think himself to be still in the same state of Unregeneracy and Unbelief for if he think so of himself after that is converted and is actually believing on Christ most certainly he thinks amiss whatever our Authour say to the contrary for he thinks falsly of himself and sins in so thinking Our Authour talks confidently of that which he doth not know to wit the experience of every Believer for certainly he was never acquainted with the experiences of the thousandth part of Believers that are in the Christian Church at this day Can he then say in Faith that it is the experience of every Believer that he acts his Faith as one who in former times hath been as great a Sinner and hath done as much dishonour to God and as much mischief to the Church and to the World as the present King of France But whatever he say or think of Believers we are perswaded that true Believers are taught of God as to be humble so to be wise in acting their Faith wiser we are confident than that every one of them should think himself to be so great a Sinner as that he hath done as much dishonour to God and mischief to the Church of Christ as Lewis the Fourteenth has done and still continues to do Again when he says that a Believer and accepter of Christ in the very act of believing and accepting expresly disclaims all things in himself but Sin and Misery we think he should have said that he either expresly or implicitly formally or virtually in the very act of Believing disclaims all things in himself as being of and from himself but Sin and Misery which are indeed of and from himself and he takes the shame and blame thereof upon himself but as for his Faith or any good disposition or qualification that is in him he ascribes it all to the free Grace of God and gives God all the Glory of it And after the same manner in the very act of believing in order of Nature before he be justified he virtually acknowledges to God's Glory that by his Grace he hath wrought a real Holy Change in his Soul and of a blind proud Unbeliever hath made him an understanding humble Believer according to that 1 John 5.20 We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true Reason 5. Fifthly and lastly The Seminal vital principle of justifying Faith is seated in the heart and the first vital act of it comes from the heart Rom. 10.10 With the heart man believes unto Righteousness We demand then concerning the first vital act of justifying Faith either it comes from a renewed Heart or an unrenewed Heart a Regenerate Heart of an â—â—â—regenerate Heart a Heart of Flesh or an Heart of Stone or if it come not from either of these then it must come from a third that is from a Heart that is neither renewed nor unrenewed neither regenerate nor unregenerate neither of Flesh nor of Stone But now 1. The first vital act of
Justifying Faith cannot come from a Heart that is neither renewed nor unrenewed neither regenerate nor unregenerate for there is no such Heart in any Man nor indeed can there be any such Heart For renewed and not at all renewed regenerate and not at all regenerate are contradictions which admit of no medium Every Heart of Man then in the whole World must be one of these but cannot be both at once nor any third thing distinct from both for there is no middle between the two betweenrenewed and not at all renewed c. Since then every Heart of Man in the World cannot be both renewed and not at all renewed at the same time nor yet be any third thing but must be either one or other 2. We say in the second place That the first vital act of Justifying Faith cannot come from an Heart not at all renewed nor regenerate For a vital act of Justifying Faith is too good and precious Fruit to grow upon the corrupt Tree of a Heart wholly unrenewed and unregenerate Our Saviour in Matth. 7.16 17 18. give us to understand that we may with as much reason expect to gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles as that a vital act of precious justifying Faith should come from a Heart that is altogether unregenerate and unrenewed It remains then in the third place that since the first vital act of justifying Faith cannot come from a Heart that is altogether unrenewed and unregenerate that is all stony hard and obstinately bent unto evil It must of necessity come from a Heart that is at least partly renewed and regenerate partly Flesh or tender and pliable to the Will of God And from this it follows unavoidably that there must be a real holy change wrought in the Heart of Man before his Justification by faith for the Heart of Man cannot possibly be renewed and regenerated either in part or in whole without some real holy change wrought in it but it is renewed and regenerated in part at least in order of Nature before the first vital act of justifying faith as hath been proved and that first vital act of faith is in order of Nature before justification by faith therefore there is and must be some real holy change wrought in the Heart before justification by faith From all which it is evident that the Opinion of our Authour is erroneous and against the purity of our Christian faith to wit that there is no real change no holy disposition or qualification before Justification by faith And that on the contrary there is and must be a real change of the Heart there are and must be several holy dispositions and qualifications wrought in the Soul by the Word and Spirit of the Lord before we can be justified by faith and our sins can be actually and absolutely forgiven us This we have clearly proved both by Scripture and by Reason agreeable to Scripture Now in the Third and Last place we shall prove it by the Testimony of famous and orthodox Protestant Divines We begin with Calvin who as was shewn before in his Commentary on Ezek. 18. v. 23. saith Praecedit veniam poenitentia quemadmodum hîc dicitur That Repentance goes before pardon of sin as it is said to doe in this place of Scripture Whence we observe 1. That it is not a meer legal Repentance such as may be in an unconverted Man that he speaks of but it is an Evangelical saving Repentance for first it is a Repentance that consists in turning from sin v. 23. yea from all sin in Heart and Affection v. 21. Secondly in doing the whole known will of God that is doing it in desire and resolution v. 21. But a meer legal Repentance doth not consist in these things nor hath it so good an effect upon the Soul Thirdly It is a Repentance to which Pardon and Life is promised through Christ But no such thing is promised to a meer legal Repentance Therefore it is not a Legal but an Evangelical Repentance that Calvin there speaks of 2. We observe that if in Calvin's Judgment a true Evangelical Repentance goes before pardon of sin and Justification then a true justifying faith goes before it also For Calvin was clearly of the opinion that faith goes before a true Evangelical Repentance in so much that he saies Instit lib. 3. cap. 3. Sect. 1. Quibus videtur fidem potius praecedere poenitentia quà m ab ipsâ manare vel proferri tanquum fructus ab arbore nunquam vis ejus fuit cognita That they never knew the power of Repentance who think that it is rather before Faith than that it slows or proceeds from Faith as Fruit from a Tree These Words of Calvin manifestly shew that he held faith to be in order of nature before true Evangelical Repentance which we must thus understand as we said before that the seminal Principle of Faith with some of its Acts to wit the assenting Act is before any Act of true Evangelical Repentance and not that all the Acts of justifying faith are before any one Act of true Evangelical Repentance otherwise we shall make Calvin foully to contradict himself For as was proved before Calvin in the same Book fol. 210. and Chapter Sect. 19. lays down the right order of things exactly saying that the Lord Christ first declares that the Treasures of Gods Mercy are in him set open to us which Declaration of his calls for the faith of assent in us After that in the second place the Lord requires us to repent induced thereunto by the faith of the said Declaration And Thirdly and Lastly Exigit fiduciam erga Dei promissiones He requires our trust in the promises of God to us now truly repenting of our sins The Act of Faith then which Calvin held to be in order before Repentance and to be the root and spring of it is the Faith of the conditional Promise of God that he hath Mercy and Pardon for us if we truly repent And this seems to be his meaning by what he writes in the second Paragraph following For saith he whilst Christ and John preach thus Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Do not they derive the cause of Repentance from the very Grace and Promise of Salvation Therefore the import of their Words is as much as if they had said because the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand therefore repent And a little after he adds Quod etiam demonstrat illa Oseae exhortatio c. Which thing also that exhortation of Hosea demonstrates Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn Hos 6.1 and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up Quia spes veniae tanquam stimulus additur ne in suis peccatis torpeant Because the hope of pardon is given as a spur to Repentance least they should lie secure in their sins By this Passage we see that the Faith which goes
before Repentance in Calvin's Judgment is not the Faith that our sins are already pardoned but that they shall be pardoned upon our sincere Repentance which Faith puts us upon acting Repentance and having put forth an Act of sincere Repentance we immediately act Faith upon the promise and apply it to our selves and trust in the Lord according to his gracious promise If this be not Calvin's sense let them free him from self-contradiction that can for we cannot otherwise do it However it be we have him expresly affirming that Faith in some sense is before Repentance and that Repentance such Repentance as that in Ezek. 18.23 is before Remission of Sins and Justification From whence it follows necessarily that in his Judgment both sincere Faith and Repentance are in order before Justification and so that there is a real change and some holy principle and disposition wrought in the Soul before Justification The same he affirms again elsewhere for thus he writes on Mark 4.12 lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Caeterùm ex eo minimè colligi debet poenitentiam esse veniae causam c. But from this it ought by no means to be inferred that Repentance is the cause of pardon as if God received into favour those who are converted because they have merited or deserved it For even Conversion it self is a sign of God's free Grace and Favour but only ordo consequentia notatur the order and consequence of things is marked out because God doth not forgive any sins but those for which Men are displeased with themselves From which Words of Calvin we observe that where there is an order and consequence of things there is a priority and posteriority and one of them is before another but so it is that in Calvin's opinion between Repentance and pardon of sin there is an order and the one is consequent upon the other pardon of sin is consequent upon Repentance therefore Repentance is before pardon of sin but Repentance can never be without some real holy change and disposition in the Penitent Therefore there is such a change and holy disposition before Pardon and Justification Again on Luke 3. v. 4. The voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord. Eadem inquit vox auribus nostris quotidie insonat ut Domino paremus viam hoc est sublatis vitiis quae regno Christi viam praecludunt accessum demus ejus gratiae The same voice saith he dayly sounds in our ears that we should prepare the way for the Lord that is that we should give access unto his grace by putting away our sins which stop up the way against the reign of Christ in us These Words plainly give us to understand that according to Calvin Repentance and turning from sin goes in order before pardon and that it prepares us for the grace of Pardon and Justification There needs no more to shew that Calvin held true Repentance as to the beginning of it to be in order before pardon of sin and Justification Yet when Repentance is taken for a course of holy living in the actual performance of our first purpose to forsake our sins and return unto the Lord then in that sense it is confessed that Calvin and we with him hold Repentance to be after the several acts of Justifying Faith and after Justification it self and that it runs parallel with our Lives and must be continued unto Death This was that which our first Reformers called the best Repentance which so enraged the Papists that in the Council of Trent they Anathematized us for this Opinion Si quis dixerit optimam poenitentiam esse tantùm novam vitam Concil Trid. Sess 14. Can. 13. Anathema sit If any shall say that a new life is onely the best Repentance let him be accursed Thus they But we do not at all fear their Curse for notwithstanding it or any other thing to the contrary we firmly believe and say that a new life is the onely best Repentance And this best Repentance this Repentance in its perfection we grant to be not only after justifying faith but also to be after Justification it self and after the forgiveness of all the sins that we had been guilty of before our Regeneration and Conversion yet for all that we still maintain according to the Scriptures of Truth that the beginning of true Evangelical Repentance is in order before forgiveness of sins and justification and we think we have Calvin on our side if we may believe his own words To Calvin succeeds Beza giving in his Testimony plainly for us and saying in his large Confession of faith Sed necesse est imprimis ut idem spiritus sanctus nos ad Jesum Christum recipiendum aptos idoneos reddat cap. 4. art 3. c. But it is necessary saith he in the first place that the same holy Spirit make us apt or fit and meet to receive Jesus Christ And in his short Confession of faith Art 11th As it was not saith he in our power to invent or find out the Medicine of Salvation so neither is it possible for us to find out the way to use that Medicine rightly Because that falls out in this matter which useth to be in bodily Diseases for as when one desperately sick is ignorant of his Disease it is necessary that the Physician not only find out a Medicine for him but likewise that he so dispose the sick Person that he may be both willing and able to use the Medicine and that he may know the way to use it aright so in the Disease of the Soul which is the most dangerous of all and in which Men are not only ignorant of but also Adversaries to their Salvation It is necessary that we understand from the same Physician First What that Medicine is then which way it is to be used Finally That by the same Physician we be made fit and meet for this that we may be both willing and able to use the Remedies proposed Again Art 19. This Remedy of free Salvation through Christ is applyed by a double efficacy of the Holy Spirit For first The Holy Spirit disposes or fits our understanding to perceive the Doctrine of the Gospel which otherwise seems meer foolishness to the World Then he perswades our minds that that Doctrine of free Salvation through Christ is not only true but also that it pertains to us And that is it which we call Faith so much commended in Scripture to wit when one perswades himself assuredly that the promises of Salvation and Eternal Life particularly and properly belong to him By these passages of Beza we see that he held as we do that before a Man do or can actually believe with a justifying Faith he is disposed fitted and prepared by Christs Holy Spirit for the right performing of that great work of believing aright And in his little Book
of Christian Questions and Answers To the Question how we can be truly said to have all gifts from Christ received by Faith since if Christ be apprehended or received by Faith Bez. lib. quaest Resp p. 1. 149. 49. pag. edit 1587. then Faith it self must go before that apprehension or reception He Answers If thou consider the order of causes I confess that the principle or beginning of Faith and that also true Faith goes before the apprehension of Christ and therefore that it is not given to them who are already ingrafted but who are to be ingrafted By this passage we see likewise that Beza never thought that all saving Grace flows into us from Christ already united to us But that before Union he gives us saving Grace by his Spirit whereby we may be united to him Christ by his Spirit first apprehends and takes hold of us and sits us for and brings us into actual Union with himself and this Grace is in the order of causes before the Union on our part and so is before our Justification If our Author had understood and considered all this that we have quoted out of Beza he would never have thought it impossible that we can have any true Grace any Holy Disposition or Qualification before we be in Christ and justified by Faith in him For it is plain that we have the Grace from Christ whereby we come to be in Christ and Christ to be in us And if it were not so it would be impossible for us ever to be actually in Christ at all or to be justified by Faith in him Our Third Witness is Mr. Fox in his Book De Christo gratis justificante Although saith he it be an undoubted Truth That Faith in Christ the most high Son of God page 307. alone without works hath the Vertue and Power of justifying as appears from the most clear words of Paul and the Examples of Saints but yet it doth not put forth this its justifying Vertue and Power upon all praeterquà m in eos quos idoneos solùm invenit suscipiendae Divinae gratiae but only upon those whom it finds fitted or qualified for receiving the Divine Grace or Favour of Justification And that is the humble and Penitent as he shews in the following Section Where towards the end of it in page 310 he says Praeparat quiâ—tem poenitentia inateriam ad suscipiendam Justificationem c. Repentance indeed prepares the matter for the receiving the Grace of Justification That is it prepares the Soul for receiving Justification not as an inherent form in the Popish Sense but as a rich Priviledge and Favour bestowed upon those who are disposed and qualified for it by Repentance And that it is not only a Legal but an Evangelical Repentance which he speaks of is evident from what he saith at large in that Section and especially from the Testimonies of Scripture which he brings to prove it Such as Psal 34.18 Isa 57.15 Our Fourth Witness is Rollok whom we made use of before and to whom Bodius his Scholar in his Commentary on the Ephes p. 1081 gives this Testimony That he was a Man quo nemo nostra aetate Christum Jesum vel penitiùs imbiberat vel aliorum animis efficacius instillabat Then whom none in our Age either had drunk in Christ Jesus more deeply or thoroughly into his own heart or more Powerfully conveyed him into the hearts and Souls of others This Holy and Orthodox Minister of Christ in his Book of Effectual Calling saith page 3 4. That in effectual Calling considered as it is internal Duplex est Dei Gratia sive operatio in cordibus nostris c. There is a two-fold Grace of God or operation in our hearts The first Grace is whilst God by his Holy Spirit creates a new and heavenly light in the mind before involved in darkness which neither saw nor could see the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 In the Will wholly perverted and turned away from God he creates a rectitude and lastly a new Sanctity in all the Affections Out of this Creation there exists or ariseth that which is called the new Creature that which is called the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes 4.24 The second Grace or the second Operation of the Spirit is the act of Faith it self or an action proceeding from the new Creature page 5. the action of the enlightned mind in knowing God in Christ the action of the sanctified Will in embracing or apprehending God in Christ Here the principal Agent is the Spirit of God himself the secondary Agent is the Humane Soul it self or rather the new Man and the new Creature it self in the Soul and its faculties In this second Grace which is the action or work of Faith we are not now meerly passive page 6. but being acted by the Holy Spirit we act being excited to believe we believe In one word with the Holy Spirit operating we cooperate and are workers together with the Holy Spirit Now he cap. 34. p. 258. tells us afterwards in the same Book that all this and more than this even the Holy Change that is wrought in the Soul by a true Evangelical Repentance is before Justification For saith he Repentance belongs to the place concerning Effectual Calling Repentance goes before Justification as Faith and Hope go before it From all which we observe that in the judgment of Rollock there is a real change made in the Soul before it be justified and that it is prepared for Justification by God's working in it an Holy Principle or disposition whereby it is inclined and enabled to produce the act of Faith whereby it receives Christ that for his sake and through his Righteousness it may be justified We might bring Dr. Ames and Dr. Twiss for our Fifth and Sixth Witnesses for they are of the same Opinion with Rollock as to this matter save that Rollock took the Word Regeneration to signifie the same thing with Sanctification which comes after Effectual Calling and Justification whereas they took Effectual Calling and Regeneration to be two words which signifie the same thing to wit the first saving change which is wrought in the Soul when a new Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life is put into it and it is brought off from Sin and the World unto Christ and unto God through Christ that it may be justified by Faith in his Blood This appears to have been their Judgment by what we have already quoted out of them upon the former head Let but any that can read in Ames his Marrow of Divinity the Twenty Sixth Chapter of the first Book concerning Vocation as likewise the Tenth Chapter of his Reply to Grevinchovius concerning the Nature of Faith where he proves That God by his Spirit puts a Seminal permanent Principle of Grace into the Soul at its first Conversion and that before any act of saving
Faith and consequently before Justification We say Let but any Man read those Two Chapters of Dr. Ames his Books now mentioned and he will see it as clear as the Sun that he was of the same mind with Rollock and held That an Holy Change is wrought on us and a Seed or Principle of Holyness is put into us and some Holy Act is produced by us before we be justified and our sins be forgiven us And as for Dr. Twiss though the Antinomians have laid claim to him and some of ours have almost given him up to them by Reason of some Expressions of his which seem to favour them yet Mr. Jessop in his Preface to Mr. Grailes Book hath shewed that they have no sufficient ground for their so doing and hath proved as we have further done that he is on our side against them Yea and against our Authour too We read that Arminius in the Preface to his Answer unto Perkins complained that though Mr. Perkins did not yet there were some others who did contend that Repentance doth not go before but follow after Remission of Sins Twiss Vind. gratiae Resp ad Arminii Praefat. pag. 17. Edit Amster 1648. fol. Whereunto Dr. Twiss answered by Confessing ingenuously That the places of Holy Scripture which prove that Repentance is before Remission of Sins are expressiora frequentiora both more express and more numerous than those that seem to favour the other Opinion And indeed the places of Scripture that speak of Peoples repenting after their Sins are pardoned prove nothing at all but what we and all sober Christians grant that our Repentance is to be continued all the days of our Life and that the Repentance which is begun before Justification and is but weak and imperfect is to be carried on through Grace unto greater Perfection afterwards by reducing our purposes into Practice and bringing forth Fruits meet for Repentance to the doing whereof the Assurance of Gods special Love to us in having pardoned our Sins and accepted us as righteous unto Life through Jesus Christ doth not a little animate and excite us As to what Twiss saith there that it is without Controversie that as Remission of Sins is an immanent Act in God it is before both Faith and Repentance that is neither more nor less than this that God himself and his Decree to remit Sin is before both Faith and Repentance which is indeed very true for God and his Decree was before this World or any thing in this World but though it be true it is nothing to the purpose for to speak properly as we ought and as the Lord speaks to us in his Word Remission of Sins is not an immanent Act of God that is it is not the Decree of God which is Eternal but the consequent and the effect of the Decree which is Temporal and is every where promised in the Scripture as a thing future and to come upon Condition of Faith and Repentance as Dr. Twiss himself expresly affirms most frequently over and over as we have shewed already and may do it yet farther hereafter From single Witnesses we pass to a whole Assembly of Divines who give in their Testimony for us and it is the Synod of Dort the most famous Assembly of Divines that ever was in the Reformed Churches for it consisted of a great number of Learned men delegated and deputed from all the best Reformed Churches in Europe In the eleventh and twelfth Canons on the third and fourth Articles their Words are as followeth Act. Synodi Dord Part. 1. p. 303. But when God executes this his good Pleasure in the Elect or works in them true Conversion he not only causeth the Gospel to be outwardly Preached to them and by the Holy Spirit powerfully enlightens their Mind that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God but also by the Efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit he penetrates or pierces into the innermost parts of Man he opens his closed he softens his hard and circumcises his uncircumcised Heart he infuses new qualities into his Will and of dead makes it alive of evil makes it good of unwilling makes it willing of disobedient makes it obedient and so Acts and strengthens it that as a good Tree it may be able to bring forth the Fruit of good Actions And then the Will now renewed is not only acted and moved by God but being acted by God it acts it self Wherefore even Man himself by that Grace received is rightly said to believe and repent This was subscribed by the whole Synod now here we have such a Testimony of the Reformed Churches for a real change for Holy Qualifications and Dispositions in the Soul of Man before Justification as we are sure our Author can never find the like to oppose against us for no real change no Holy Qualifications or Dispositions in the Soul of Man before sustification And that the Synod held this real change those Holy Qualifications or Dispositions to be in the Soul before Justification is manifest because they affirm all this to be necessary that the Will may be able to act and that the Man may produce the saving Acts of Faith and Repentance but so it is that the very Act it self of Faith is before Justification as hath been proved and so it was believed to be by the Synodic Therefore a fortiori all that is before the Act of Faith is also before Justification This were enough if we could say no more to prove that it is we who cleave to the old received Protestant Doctrine in this matter Yet something more we will adde from some of the Suffrages of the Colledges of Divines recorded in the Acts of the Synod And first we find that the Embdane Divines in their Judgment concerning the first Article do very particularly and clearly set down the way and order of Gods bringing his Elect unto Eternal Life and Glory Their Words are Actor Synodi Dord part 2. pag. 77. Via inter Electionis decretum decreti finem intermedia quâ Deus ex mera gratiâ peculiariter electos ad salutem provehit est 1. Christus 2. Vocatio ad Christum efficax 3. Fides 4. Justificatio per fidem c. The intermediate way between the Decree of Election and the end of the Decree by which God of meer Grace brings to Salvation those whom he hath peculiarly chosen is 1. Christ 2. Effectual Vocation unto Christ 3. Faith 4. Justification c. To these they speak particularly one after another First They shew that Christ is deservedly set in the first place for he is the second Adam through whom all the Elect are saved by unspeakable Mercy What they say of Christ there we all agree to and also that all the other particulars are subordinate to him and through him Then they speak to the second means which is Effectual Calling and that they say is Quando Vox Dei
But it must be confessed that the Spirit doth otherwise help before he doth inhabit and otherwise when he doth inhabit in the Soul for before be come to inhabit in the Soul he helps men that they may be Believers but when he doth inhabit and dwell in the Soul he helps them who are Believers This one Distinction of Austins attended unto would help People to understand this matter and to answer all that our Authour saith against any real change or Holy Seed Disposition or Qualification wrought in the Soul before it be justified For our Blessed Lord by his Holy Spirit first prepares and qualifies and makes us meet to be an Habitation for himself and then he comes unto us by the same Spirit and dwells in us and abides with us for ever Ephes 2.22 and 3.17 and 1 Cor. 3.16 Now the first of these is in Order before Justification God by his Spirit and Word first makes us such as his Word requires us to be that we may be justified he savingly enlightens our Minds and enlivens our Hearts he gives us a Seed of Faith and a Holy Principle of Light Lise and Love and by an influence of actual Grace causes us freely to reduce the said Seed and Principle into Act and so actually to believe and repent which when we do through Grace then he justifies us on the account of Christs satisfactory meritorious Righteousness imputed to us And after that we are effectually Called and thereupon are become Penitent Believers and are justified and reconciled the Lord gives us his Spirit and by his Spirit he comes and dwells in us he strengthens and encreases the Grace that he had begun in us and makes us more and more Holy in Heart and Life This is that which is commonly called Sanctification and follows after Justification and through Christs dwelling in us by his Spirit is carried on from one decree to another till it have attained its gradual Perfection and be consummated in Glory Let. p. 11. But he objects 2. Shall we tell Men that unles they be Holy they must not believe on Jesus Christ nor venture on him for Salvation till they be qualified and fit to be received by him This were to forbear Preaching the Gospel at all or to forbid all Men to believe on Christ for never was any Sinner qualified for Christ nor is it possible that ever any Sinner should be qualified for Christ We Answer our Author had said a little before in the same Page That every one who Believes on Christ acts that Faith as the chief of Sinners that is believes as an unbeliever as was before proved to be his meaning by his own express Words if his Words be expressive of his Mind And now by the Question which he puts to us here he seems plainly to be of Opinion that every man must believe as an unbeliever or else no man can ever believe at all and Ministers must give over Preaching the Gospel for they can never preach it as it should be preached unless they tell People that they must Act their Faith as the chief of Sinners that is they must believe as unbelievers for either we must tell People that they must believe as Unbelievers or else that they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is that they must never believe at all because it is impossible for them to be Holy till after they have believed in Christ and be united unto him by Faith This is plainly the sense of our Authors Words and the force of his Reasoning which puts us in mind of what Calvin says out of Augustin de bono perseverantiae Cap. 22. Calv. Instit lib. 3. Cap. 23. § 14. that there are insulsi doctores gratiae some foolish Preachers of Grace and surely if any they are to be accounted such Preachers who in effect tell People that they must believe as unbelievers or else they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is they must never believe at all But is there no way to avoid this foolish senseless way of Preaching Our Author thinks there is not we on the contrary are perswaded that there is a way to avoid it and in our Judgment it may thus be easily done we tell People that they must believe in Christ not as Unholy Unbelievers nor yet as Holy with that Holiness which is the effect of Believing and follows after Faith in Christ but by ceasing to be Unholy Unbelievers and by becoming Holy Believers and if they ask us how this can possibly be done we answer Not by Power of Nature but by the Power of Gods special Grace if they ask further How they can obtain that special Grace before they believe and be in Christ by Faith since all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith we answer that all Grace indeed is derived from Christ but it is a most notorious falshood that all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith for the first special Grace which is the Cause of Faith and whereby we believe in Christ is not from Christ by Faith but it is from Christ before Faith and it is given us by the Holy Spirit of Christ to work Faith in us and to bring us into Union with Christ by Faith if they say that even according to this way People must still believe before they are Holy and so must believe as not being yet Holy We answer that is true in one respect and false in another It is true that People must believe before they are Holy with that Progressive Holiness which is the effect of justifying Faith and follows after Justification but it is utterly false that People do believe or can believe savingly before they are Initially Holy before they are Holy with that first beginning and Principle of Holiness which consists in removing the ill Disposition of our Faculties and in giving our Faculties a right spiritual Supernatural Disposition and fitness for the Act of Believing this Holy Principle concurs to the producing of the Act of Faith and so must be in Order before it and then the Act it self of Faith which is an Holy Act must be in order before Justification Therefore it is utterly false that there can be no Holiness at all in any kind or degree before Faith and Justification by Faith since before actual Faith there is the Holy Seed and Principle both of Faith and Repentance and of other Graces too and in order of Nature there is an Holy actual Faith before Justification and this is a Truth so clear that our Author himself sometimes could see it as Pag. 21. Where he says that no man can do any thing that is good till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good man this is very true if it be rightly understood thus No man can do any thing that is spiritually supernaturally and savingly good till Gospel Grace that is internal special Grace renew him and make him first a
Scripture We Answer by denying the Consequence of the first Proposition as false for it doth not follow that we should warn People not to believe on Christ too soon And we have nothing Offered to prove that such an absurdity follows from our Doctrine but this mans bare Word which we have found to be so often false in matter of Fact that we can give no credit to it in other things And he is so unhappy here and elsewhere throughout his Letter that he makes his own Tongue or Pen to fall upon himself for he confesses that it is no good Argument that if People cannot be truly Holy before the Tree be changed Matth. 12.33 34 35. and before they have a new Heart Ezek. 36.26 27. as he grants they cannot then Ministers should warn People not to be Holy too soon For to give them any such warning he grants to be absur'd Let him then consider Let. p. 11 12. whether the same or the like Answer he can give to this Argument which would prove that Ministers should warn People not to be Holy too soon may not be given to the other silly Argument whereby he would prove that upon our Principle Ministers should warn People not to believe on Christ too soon for it is as certainly true that People cannot actually believe on Christ with a saving justifying Faith before the Tree be changed and the Heart be in part renewed as it is that they cannot be truely Holy before the Tree be changed and the Heart be renewed When we are to deal with Unbelievers our Lord hath given us other Work to do than to warn them not to believe too soon and let our Author try when he pleases he will find enough to do to convince them that their present Indisposition and disability to believe doth not free them from the Obligation which the Lord by his Word hath laid upon them to believe and to direct them unto the right means in the use whereof they may obtain from the Lord both the necessary Disposition unto Faith and also the Principle and Act of Faith it self Our Author we perceive has been at this Work and before we have done with him we shall see what a rare Specimen of his skill this way he hath given the World Fourthly But he farther Objects We hold forth that God justifieth the Ungodly Pag. 25. Rom. 4.5 Neither by making him Godly before he justifie him nor leaving him Ungodly after be hath justified him but that the same Grace that justifies him doth immediately sanctifie him We Answer this is the Text that our Antinomians much insist upon and think it sufficient to make all Men Antinomians And we are glad to find that it hath not that full effect upon him for tho he be one with them with respect to any Holy change in Order before Justification and denies it as they do yet he separates himself from them with respect to what follows after Justification and saith that we are sanctified immediately after Justification and so he joins himself to us now there may be good worldly Policy in this to hold with both sides as much as he can But if he do not agree with himself what ground can others have to trust him that ever he will heartily agree with them and that he doth not agree with himself we think is apparent from what he writes Pag. 16. A Man saith he is to believe that he may be justified Gal. 2.16 Again Pag. 32. No Words or Warnings repeated nor plainest Instructions can beat into Mens Heads and Hearts that the first coming to Christ by Faith or Believing on him is not a Believing we shall be saved by him but a Believing on him that we may be saved by him And again Pag. 7. The direct Act is properly justifying saving Faith by which the lost Sinner comes to Christ and relies upon him for Salvation Yet when we do press Sinners to come to Christ by a direct Act of Faith consisting in an humble reliance on him for Mercy and Pardon they will understand us whether we will or not of a reflex Act of Faith by which a Man knows and believes that his Sins are pardoned and that Christ is his when they might easily know that we mean no such thing These three Passages show clearly that he holds saving Faith to be both before Justification and before Assurance of Justification We confess that we do very well understand this to be the meaning of these Words now quoted ouâ— of his Letter for we think they are not capable of any other sense but though we understand the Words of the Letter yet we do not understand the Author of them and we much doubt whether he understands himself and that because he immediately adds Page 7. that Mr. Marshal in his excellent Book lately Published hath largely opened this and the true Controversie of this Day And Pag. 35. Marshals Book saith he is a deep practical well jointed Discourse and if it be singly used I look upon it as one of the most useful Books the World hath seen for many Years I fear not but it will stand firm as a Rock against all Opposition and will prove good Seed and Food and Light and Life to many hereafter Who that reads this can doubt but that our Author has read Marshaâ—s Book and that he approves it and believes every thing at least that is material in it and yet there is one thing very material in it and it is one of the main joints in it That justifying Faith is a Believing that we are now justified and shall be Eternally saved and that the Assurance of this that we are now justified and shall be saved is essential to the direct Act of Faith This Marshal with all his might strives to prove and it seems he hath done it to the Conviction of our Author who believes that that Opinion can never be disproved again Yea he seems so Confident of the Truth of Marshals Opinion that he spares not to reflect on the Westminster Assembly of Divines for denying it as they do in their Confession of Faith Chap. 18. Art 3. In these Words This infallible Assurance doth not so belong to the Essence of Faith but that a true Believer may mait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it Thus the Assombly But doth he reflect on them for this why if he doth not let him tell us what he means by these following Words Was not the Holiness of the first Protestants eminent and shining Let. p. 22. and yet they generally put Assurance in the Definition of their Faith We cannot say that Gospel Holiness has prospered much by the Correction or Mitigation of that harsh-like Definition If these Words of his whatever might be his Intention do not reflect upon the Assembly we do not understand plain English and moreover we cannot but think also that they imply his owning of Marshals
Definition of Faith as not being really harsh but only harsh-like though he puts Assurance into it as being essential to Faith in its direct Act. So that by comparing one Passage of his Letter with another we find that he believes with Marshal That true Faith in Christ is a Believing at first that we are justified And he believes with us that that is not true but that it is a believing only at first that we may be justified Again he believes with Marshal that justifying Faith in its first direct Act is a Believing that we shall be assuredly saved by Christ And he believes with us that justifying Faith in its first direct Act is no such thing it is not a believing that we shall be saved by Christ but it is a believing that we may be saved by Christ Further he believes with Marshal that Assurance that our Sins are forgiven and that our Souls shall be saved is essential to the first direct Act of justifying Faith And he believes with us that it is quite otherwise and that we do not get such Assurance by the first direct Act of Faith but by its reftex Acts which follow after the direct And then for the Antinomians he believes with them that before Justification there is no real change wrought in the Soul from Ungodliness to Godliness in any Kind or Degree because the Apostle Paul saith in Rom. 4.5 That God justifies the Ungodly And yet he believes with us that before Justification there is a real change wrought in the Soul from Unbelief to Faith in Christ because the same Apostle saith in Gal. 2.16 That we believe in Christ that we may be justified And he cannot deny but that a real change from unbelief to Faith in Christ is a change and a real change too from Ungodliness to Godliness in some kind or degree because he himself holds unbelief to be the chiefest part of Ungodliness and Faith in Christ to be the chiefest part of Godliness witness his own Words Pag. 15 16. That believing on the Lord Jesus for Salvation is more pleasing to God than all obedience to his Law and that unbelief is the most provoking to God and the most damning to Men of all Sins If our Author believe this then by necessary Consequence he believes that unbelief is the chiefest part of ungodliness and that Faith is the chiefest part of Godliness and that a real change from unbelief to Faith in Christ is a real change from Ungodliness to Godliness in some kind and degree The import and issue of this is that our Author believes both parts of a Contradiction With the Antinomians he believes that before Justification there is no real change from Ungodliness to Godliness in any kind or degree And with us he believes that before Justification there is a real change from the Ungodliness of unbelief to the Godliness of Faith because the Sinner through Grace comes off from his Ungodly unbelief that he may believe and he believes that he may be justified and so in order of Nature before he be justified Now since our Author is so strong a Believer that he can believe both parts of a Contradiction why may not we think that as he believes that we preach a new Pelagian Arminian Gospel so he may believe at the same time that we do not preach a new Pelagian Arminian Gospel but the old Everlasting Gospel of Christ He believes in his Letter that we do preach a new Gospel and for ought we know to the contrary he may at the same time believe in his Conscience that we do not preach a new Gospel for his Letter and his Conscience are two different things that may not have much Communion one with another yea in this matter they may be at Hostile Enmity the Letter may be against his Conscience and his Conscience against the Letter But will not the Apostle Paul justifie him in Believing Contradictions since he says in Gal. 2.16 That Men believe in Christ that they may be justified and consequently that Faith is before Justification But in Rom. 4.5 He says that God justifies the Ungodly and by that it seems that Faith is after Justification We Answer far be it from any that fear the Lord to charge the Apostle with contradicting himself or with giving any ground to believe Contradictions for thus he writes to the Corimbians 2 Cor. 1.18 As God is true our Word toward you was not Yea and Nay That is it did not contradict it self And as he did not contradict himself in Preaching and Writing to the Corinthians no more did he do it in Preaching and Writing to the Romans and Galatians We must therefore so understand Rom. 4.5 of which the Question now is as not to make it contradict Gal. 2.16 And that is no difficult matter to do For we may easily conceive that this form of Speech God justifieth the Ungodly is like that of our Saviour Mat. 11.5 The Deaf hear Now no Man is so foolish as to think that the Deaf remaining Deaf did first hear and then immeditely after were cured of their Deasness why then should we be so foolish as to understand the Apostle as if he had said that God justifies men whilest they remain ungodly without any real change wrought in them and that immeditely after he hath justified them he first begins to make them Godly and to sanctifie them We are perswaded it is much more rational to understand the Apostle the quite contrary way to wit that as the Deaf were first in Order of Nature and Causality cured of their Deafness and then they did actually hear so God first Works a Holy change in the Heart of a Sinner and of an ungodly unpenitent Unbeliever makes him a godly penitent Believer and then immediately justifies him by Faith in Christ So that the Sinner whom God justifies he is ungodly Antecedenter fed non Concomitanter that is he was ungodly in the time before he was justified but he is not ungodly either in the instant of Nature before or in the instant of Time when he is justified but on the contrary he is through Grace Godly both before and when he is justified 2dly We Answer that the Man whom God justifies by Faith in Christ is certainly Godly Evangelically both in Order of Nature before he be justified and at the time when be is justified and yet at the same time he may be said to be legally ungodly for understanding this we are to consider that the Man whom God justifies may be compared with and judged by the Law of Works or the Law of Faith if he be compared with and judged by the Law of Works he is found to be in himself an Ungodly Man because he hath not perfectly kept but hath frequently transgressed that Law and so can never be justified but is condemned by it But if he be compared with and judged by the Law of Faith the Evangelical Law the Law of the New
Scripture and Reason and the Testimony of the Synod of Dort that there can be no just ground to doubt of it And if it were otherwise and we were justified before we were sanctified in any Kind or Degree that is before there were any Holy Change wrought in us before we did begin to Convert and turn to God before we had any Holy Inclination to believe or any Holy Act of Faith and Repentance and any Holy purpose to lead a new Life then might we continue to be actually justified and pardoned without being in any Kind or Degree sanctified because by the same Reason that Justification might be begun without any Kind or Degree of Sanctification without any saving Faith and Repentance it might be continued without them But all true Protestants except Antinomians even our Author himself confess that Justification cannot be continued without any Sanctification without any true Faith and Repentance therefore Justification cannot be begun before and without them If any should say that this Argument may be retorted upon our selves for we confess that Sanctification begun in the Seed Principle and Disposition with Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance flowing from it cannot be continued without Justification therefore it follows by our own way of Reasoning that they cannot be begun before Justification at first We Answer by denying the Consequence because God hath expresly promised Justification through Christ to all that from a new Heart believe and repent and such Faith and Repentance are the Condition on which Justification is promised But God hath no where promifed either Initial or Progressive Sanctification on Condition of Justification This shows that our Argument cannot be justly retorted upon us because there is a peculiar Reason to the contrary a Reason from the Promise of God that shews Sanctification and Faith and Repentance cannot possibly be continued without Justification whereas if Justification might be begun without any Degree of Sanctification or Faith and Repentance there can no sufficient Reason be given we think why it might not be long continued without any Degree of Sanctification or any Act of Faith and Repentance As for the promise of the Spirit to sanctifie them who are justified it is made to and got by Faith by our Authors own Confession Let. p. 12. and so it presupposes Faith and Faith presupposes Effectual Calling and a Heart Renovation and Sanctification begun Now this makes for us and shews that if Sanctification begun in the first change of the Heart and first Acts of Faith and Repentance did not go before there would be no place for the Promise of the Spirit after Justification to carry on and perfect the begun Sanctification because there would be no such Person in the World as that Promise is made to for the Promise of the Spirit to sanctifie us throughly after Justification is made to true Believers which none can be till they be first initially sanctified by the Spirit of Christ not yet inhabiting but fitting up a Spiritual House for himself to inhabit which when he hath done and God hath thereupon justified us through the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us then according to his Promise he gives us his sanctifying Spirit to dwell in us and to carry on the work begun unto Perfection Thus we have made good what we undertook and have proved that there is some Preparation some Holy Disposition and Qualification some Holy Principle wrought in the Soul and some Holy Acts of Faith and Repentance produced by the Soul in order to and before Justification and that thereupon Justification follows necessarily and infallibly according to the Promise of God who cannot possibly lye and deceive But as we said at the beginning we hold this Priority of Initial Sanctification and of the first vital Acts of Faith and Repentance no farther than is necessary to verifie the expressions and fence of Holy Scripture concerning them and so we conclude this part of our Answer with that of the Learned Turretine Licet Poenitentiae c. Although Remission of Sins be Promised to Repentance Instit Theol. Elenct part 2. p. 744. because it ought to accompany Faith and to be in him who is justified as a certain Condition required of him because God cannot pardon Sin unto one who is Impenitent it doth not follow that it can be said to justifie with Faith because it Contributes nothing either Meritoriously or Instrumentally unto the Act of Justification That is because as we say Repentance is only a qualifying but not a Receptive Applicative Condition of Justification An Appendix of the third Section concerning Dispositions previous to Regeneration and through Conversion WE Remember that in our Preliminaries to the foresaid Discourse concerning the Preparations and Dispositions that are Antecedent to Justification we said that as there are some which have a necessary infallible Connection with Justification of which we have spoken already so there are others which have not such a necessary infallible Connection with it As to this last sort we do not say that they are Dispositions and Preparations with which Men are always and without which they are never nor ever can possibly be justified yet we think that ordinarily they do precede Justification and Effectual Vocation too in all that are Effectually Called and Justified All such Dispositions and Preparations our Author denies in the 12th Page of his Letter and pretends that Calvin the Church of England and Westminster Assembly of Divines do all concur with him therein We do not at all wonder that he denies all Preparations and Dispositions before Effectual Calling and the first saving Conversion since as we have seen he denies that there is any good wrought in us or done by us before Justification And as for Preparations and Dispositions before Conversion if he would or could assure us that he denies them in no other sense than all his Authors Calvin the Church of England and Assembly of Divines do deny them we should have no controversie with him about that matter but we think that he is of a different Judgment and either doth not understand in what sense it is that they deny them or if he understand them aright he doth not believe them or if he believe some part that he likes yet he doth not believe all that they say concerning those Dispositions previous to Regeneration and Conversion That it may be clearly known what our Judgment is concerning those Preparations that are ordinarily previous to Regeneration and Conversion we shall 1. Name them and shew what they are 2. Declare what our Opinion is concerning them 3. Shew that our Opinion concerning them is neither new nor singular but what we believe in this matter we have learned and received from the most eminent Pastors of the Reformed Churches whereof many lived and died in the true Faith before many of us were born First then to Name them there is 1. An Illumination of the Mind by the Word and
cause of the eternal ruin of the Souls of the Generality of them to whom or amongst whom the Gospel is preached John 3.19 4. That there are certain Internal Spiritual Effects wrought in and upon the Souls of Men whereof the Word preached is the immediate Instrumental cause which ordinarily do precede the work of Regeneration or real Conversion unto God And they are reduceable unto Three Heads 1. Illumination 2. Conviction 3. Reformation The first of these respects the Mind only The second the Mind Conscience and Affections And the third the Life and Conversation These are attained by the inward influence of the Holy Spirit upon mens Souls concurring with the Word to make it effectual unto those ends All these things may be wrought in the minds of men by the dispensation of the Word and yet the work of Regeneration be never perfected in them Yea although they are good in themselves and fruits of the kindness of God towards us they may not only be lost as unto any Spiritual advantage but also be abused to our great disadvantage Then Pag. 196. The Dectrine says he concerning these things hath been variously handled distinguished and applyed by many Learned Divines and Faithful Ministers of the Gospel Unto that Light which they received into them from the infallible Word of God they soined those experiences which they had observed in their own hearts and the Consciences of others with whom they had to do which were suitable thereunto And in the dispensation of this truth according to the measure of the gift of the Grace of Christ which they severally received they had an useful and fruitful Ministery in the World to the Converting of many unto God ☞ But we have lived to see all these things decried and rejected Thus Dr. Owen concerning Dispositions previous to Regeneration whose sense upon the whole we have here briefly and faithfully represented unto all into whose hands this may come And in the first and latter part of this long quotation we have transcribed his own words By all which we see that Dr. Owen received and approved as true good and useful the foresaid Doctrine of the English Divines at the Synod of Dort concerning Dispositions and Preparations before Regeneration and seems to have said it with some grief that he had lived to see all these things decryed and rejected to wit by some Arminian Divines of the Church of England And would it not have grieved him a little more to have seen all these things decryed and rejected also by Nonconformists that pretend to be the only party of Protestants who adhere to the old pure Doctrine of the best Reformed Churches when at the same time and in the same thing they join with the new Divines as Dr. Owen expresly calls them that is with the Arminians against the Synod of Dort and the old Doctrine of the Church of England But you may say doth our Author do so doth he decry and reject those Preparations and Dispositions before Regeneration and Conversion which our Divines maintained in the Synod of Dort and which Dr. Owen maintained after them against modern Arminians We answer if he doth not decry and reject them what means all that which he writes in the 12 page of his Letter against all Preparations and Dispositions before a saving and justifying Faith Surely he took wrong measures if the thought that those dispositions might be admitted before Regeneration and Conversion but not before a saving and justifying Faith For it is simply impossible and implyes a contradiction that they can be before Regeneration and first saving Conversion but they must be also before saving and justifying Faith So that either he must contradict himself after his usual manner if he hold the foresaid dispositions to be before Regeneration and Conversion but not before saving justifying Faith or if he affirm that they are neither before Regeneration and Conversion nor yet before saving Faith which is necessarily implyed in Regeneration and Conversion then indeed he doth not contradict himself but he doth that which is worse he contradicts the Truth and the Synod of Dort with Dr. Ames Dr. Twiss and Dr. Owen who all maintain this Truth that the said preparatory dispositions are before Regeneration and Conversion and so before a saving justifying Faith If he says that he doth not deny them to be before Regeneration and Saving Justifying Faith nor to be dispositive thereunto but that he only denies them to be dispositive unto Justification We Answer 1. That then he yields the Cause and comes over to us for we do not say that any thing before Regeneration and saving justifying Faith is or can be immediately Dispositive unto Justification but that the foresaid Preparations are Dispositive unto Regeneration and Conversion which are in Order before Justification 2. Then he is as much bound to Answer his own Argument against their being Dispositive unto Justification as we are for his Argument is this that nothing a Man doth before saving justifying Faith can dispose him for Justification because it is all Sin and Sin can never dispose a Man for Justification Now if this be true if all that a Man doth before saving justifying Faith be Sin if it be vain labour and an Acting of Sin and therefore cannot dispose him for Justification then for the same Reason it cannot dispose him for Regeneration and saving justifying Faith for it is self-evident that that which is vain labour and nothing but Sin can no more dispose a Man for Regeneration than for Justification Indeed Sin can dispose a Man for nothing but for Sin and Punishment and if that which is vain labour could dispose a Man for Regeneration and Conversion it would at once be both vain labour and not vain labour it would be vain labour for so it is said and supposed to be and it would not be vain labour because it disposes a Man for Regeneration and Conversion and that is not vain labour which is useful to so good an end as the Regenerating and Converting of a Man is But 1. our Author Objects the 13th Article of the Church of England To which we Answer 1. That the English Divines at the Synod of Dort understood the Articles of their own Church much better than our Author doth and yet they found nothing in the 13th Article against Dispositions before Conversion wrought in Sinners by the Word and Spirit of Christ 2. The Article speaks only of Works done by Infidels without any Grace of Christ at all and without any Inspiration of the Spirit Now it is Confessed that such Works are not pleasant to God See the 10th Art nor are they Dispositive unto Regeneration and Conversion But the Works which the Synod of Dort Ames Twiss and Owen affirm to be Preparatory and Dispofitive unto Regeneration and Conversion are not such Works they are not works done by the meer Power of Nature without any supernatural Grace at all but they are Works done
unwilling to believe of so great and good a man But we cannot be so confident of the sincerity of our Author as we are of Calvins and therefore we commend to his serious Consideration a passage of the Reverend and Learned Pitcarne in his Evangelical Harmony of the Apostles Paul and James in the Doctrine of Justification Art 1. Pag. 10. Tantum addo quod c. I only add says he that in the Scriptures the word Faith is also used for the Conscience or perswasion of the will of God approving our Fact or that which we are to do Whatsoever is not of faith is sin That is It is sin whatsoever it be that is done with a Conscience that is doubting and uncertain of the will of God I was not a little grieved when I read Suarez accusing our Divines that they acted the part of Sophisters when to prove Justification by Faith alone they alledge without making a right choice or putting a difference between one and another any places of Scriprure where faith is mentioned although in them there is not the least tittle to be found of Faith related to Christ and the promises of the Gospel or that hath respect unto absolution from the guilt of sin This should teach us all to take great care how we quote and apply Scripture to prove our opinions least by misapplying Texts we wrest the Scripture grieve Gods Spirit and harden our Adversaries in their Erroneous opinions 4th Obj. Fourthly He Objects against us The Seventh Canon of the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent which Anathematizeth all those who say that all works done before Justification howsoever they be done are truly sins We answer that this objection is impertinent and makes against himself as well as against us Let. p. 16.32 For 1. He says that Faith is in order of nature before Justification as we have proved from several passages in his Letter 2. He saith Pag. 11. That Faith is a work that it is a great work that it is a work of God yea a work of God which we do and cannot do too soon Now we hope he will not say that this great work of God which through Grace we do before Justification and cannot do too soon is an evil work and is truly sin And if it be not an evil work and truly sin then it must be a good work and truly Gracious And thus we have himself holding with the Council of Trent as well as we do that before Justification there is a good work which is not truly sin but truly good and Gracious If he say that Faith doth not justifie as a work that is nothing to the purpose for the Question now is not whether Faith justifie as a work or as an instrument but whether Faith really be a work an internal work of the Soul which it may well be and yet not justifie as a work And he himself hath expresly confessed that it is a work and a great work too and likewise that it is a great work which not only God doth but which we do through the Grace of God enabling us But after all if he be so resolved that he will have nothing common with the Council of Trent but differ from them in all things true or false right or wrong and therefore because they hold that justifying Faith is a good work before Justification that is not truly sin he will hold the contrary that tho justifying Faith be before Justification yet it is not a good work but an evil work and is truly sin we can say nothing to it he hath his free choice for any thing that we can do to the contrary yet we should advise him to be wiser and not to reject any Truth of the Gospel because an adversary holds and believes it And that it is a Gospel-truth that justifying saving Faith is a good work tho it be in order before Justification we doubt not but his own Conscience knows it and is convinced of it Sure we are that our Conscience is fully perswaded of it And tho' we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that justifying Faith in the best of us is too too little and weak and that the gradual defect of it is truly sin and deserves the hatred of God yet are we infallibly sure that the Grace and gracious Act it self of justifying saving Faith so far as we have any of it is truly good and cannot be truly evil and sin This we are sure is a truth and we believe it and are resolved through Grace so to do and never to like it the worse because the Papists believe it and curse all those who disbelieve it We join with them in believing the truth so far as they do believe it but we utterly abhor their cursing of Dissenters If our Author think fit to Dissent from us in this matter we shall be so far from cursing him that we shall pray God to bless him with a better understanding of this and all other things wherein he may be mistaken As for the other passage which our Author quotes out of the 11th Canon and calls the bellowing of the Beast We might pass it over for it doth not at all concern us nor the Controversie that is between the Author of the Letter and us Yet this we will say that he seems not to understand the Language of that Beast of Trent for they confess with us That the Grace whereby we are justified is the favour of God as plainly appears from what they say before the Canons in the 7th Chapter but they curse all those who say that the Grace whereby we are justified is only the favour of God For they hold that we are justified by a two-fold Grace the one External without us and it is the mercy and favour of God which is that that principally moves him to justifie us the other Internal within us the effect of the first and it is the habit of Grace or Charity infused into us by the holy Spirit to make us formally just by something Inherent in our selves Now we do not say any more than they do that we are justified by the favour of God only and exclusively of all other things for we maintain that we are justified by the Grace and Favour of God and also by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us according to Rom. 3.24 And this is the ground of the Quarrel this is it for which they Curse our Author and us both because we both believe that we are justified by Christs Righteousness imputed to us and not by Gods Grace infused into us and inherent in us And yet we believe this too to wit that Gods Grace is infused into us and inherent in us only we do not call this Justification but give it another name and call it Sanctification Those Trent Fathers therefore had no reason to be so angry with us and in their Beastly wrath to fall a cursing of us
Essential to the very first Act of justifying Faith whereby we first receive Christ and rely on him for Justification and Salvation He distinguisheth indeed as our Author doth between the Direct and Reflex Act of Faith and two things he hath there concerning the Reflex Act. 1. He doubts whether it be properly an Act of Faith at all and rather thinks that it is an Act of Spiritual sense and feeling of what is within our selves Page 172. 2. He positively affirms that the assurance we get by the Reflex Act of Faith or of Spiritual sense comes after Justification and is not of the Essence of that Faith whereby we are justified and saved and that many precious Saints are without it and subject to many doubts that are contrary to it so that they may not know at all that it shall go well with them at the day of Judgment 10th Direction Page 172 173. Then for the Direct Act of Faith he saith and so doth our Author after him that it is two-fold The 1st Direct Act of Faith is that whereby we Believe the Truth of the Gospel The 2d Is that whereby we believe on Christ as promised freely to us in the Gospel for our Salvation By the 1st Act Faith receiveth the means wherein Christ is conveyed to us By the 2d It receiveth Christ himself and his Salvation in the means And both these Acts must be performed heartily with an unfeigned Love to the Truth and a desire of Christ and his Salvation above all things This is our Spiritual Appetite which is necessary for our eating and drinking Christ the food of Life as a natural Appetitite is for bodily nourishment We must receive the love of the Truth by relishing the goodness and excellency of it and this love must be to every part of Christs Salvation to Holiness as well as to the Forgivenness of sins The former of these Acts doth not immediately unite to Christ because it is terminated only on the means of conveyance the Gospel yet it is a saving Act if it be rightly performed because it inclineth and disposeth the Soul to the latter Act whereby Christ himself is immediately received into the heart He that believeth the Gospel with hearty love and likeing as the most excellent Truth will certainly with the like heartiness believe on Christ for his Salvation Psal 9.10 Therefore in the Scripture saving Faith is sometimes described by the former of these Acts as if it were a meer believing the Gospel Sometimes by the latter as a believing on Christ or in Christ Rom. 10.9 10 11. 1 John 5.1 13. Then he saith that This Second Principal Act of Faith in Christ includeth believing on God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and that it is the same thing with trusting in God 4th Direction page 61 62 63. And elsewhere he affirms that the Direct Acts of Faith include love Now touching these Direct Acts of Faith we acknowledge that there is an Assurance Essential to the first of them whereby we believe the promises of the Gospel and that assurance is two fold Absolute and Conditional First By our Faith of the Gospel we are Absolutely sure that God according to his promise doth give Christ and Justification and Salvation through him unto all true penitent Believers 2. By our Faith of the Gospel we are Conditionally sure that if we are true penitent Believers God according to his promise doth give Christ and Justification and Salvation through him unto us in particular For the Conditional promises of the Gospel being general to all penitent Believers they comprehend all the Particulars of the same kind and therefore if we believe with an absolute assurance that God justifies and saves through Christ all penitent Believers we must by necessary consequence believe at the same time with a conditional assurance that God justifies and will save us through Christ if we be true penitent Believers This conditional assurance with respect to our selves upon supposition of our being true penitent Believers is necessarily included in the former absolute Assurance that God for Christs sake justifies and saves all true penitent Believers Then for the second Act of justifying Faith whereby we believe on Christ himself with fiducial consent according to the Gospel we freely grant that it also is accompanied with assurance but mark it not with an assurance that is Essential to it self and Essentially included in it self but with the assurance the double assurance of the first assenting Act which though it go before yet it continues and accompanies the second Act of fiducial consent And for this reason we approve of that assertion of Mr. Marshals in the 179 page of his Book That believing on Christ for Salvation as freely promised to us must needs include a dependance on Christ with a perswasion that Salvation shall be freely given as it is freely promised to us Thus he And we subsume But it is freely promised to us only on Condition that we through Grace are true penitent Believers as we before proved at large Therefore the perswasion or assurance of it which accompanies our dependance on Christ by the Second Act of Faith is a Conditional perswasion or assurance as it concerns our selves and our own Salvation in particular Yet afterwards when by Reflex Acts of Faith and self Examination we clearly perceive through the speciall assistance of the Holy Spirit that we are indeed true penitent Believers then our assurance becomes absolute and we are absolutely perswaded and assured that Christ is ours and that God is our God in Christ and that through Christ we are justified and shall be saved This is all the assurance that the Scriptures hold forth to us as attainable in this life by the ordinary assistance of Gods Spirit and Grace and if any good Men have at any time by extraordinary favour and priviledge attained to any other or more assurance they had best keep it to themselves and be very humble under it and thankful to God for it and they should not affirm it to be Absolutely and Essentially necessary to the Fiducially Consenting Act of justifying saving Faith and by that means condemn all who have not that sort of assurance as having yet no justifying saving Faith but as being still in a state of nature and Children of Wrath and of the Devil It were easy to shew if we had time and room for it here that all the reasons Scriptures and Examples which Mr. Marshal brings to prove That an absolute assurance that Christ is now ours that our sins are now pardoned that we are justified and shall be eternally saved is absolutely and essentially necessary to the direct Act of justifying Faith whereby we first receive Christ and trust on him for Justification and Salvation prove no such thing The utmost that they prove is that the foresaid assurances which we willingly admit are partly antecedent to and concomitant with and partly consequent upon the Direct Act of Faith
whereby we receive Christ with siducial consent that through him we may be justified and saved But there is not one of them that proves that an absolute Assurance that Christ for the present is ours and that we are now justified and in the State of Salvation is essentially necessary unto and included in the direct Act of justifying Faith And whereas it is Confidently said that all our Reformed Divines were for this sort of Assurance as essential to the direct Act of that Faith whereby we are first justified we Answer That it is indeed said with Confidence enough but it is a vain groundtess Confidence for though some might be of that false Opinion yet it is notoriously false that all were we shall at present give one considerable instance to the contrary and our Instance shall be in Mr. Fox the Author of the Book of Martyrs De Christe gratis Justificante p. 246 247. who in his Book of Justification written against the Papists says expresly Sic mea feri ratio ut existimem c. Such is my Judgment that I think this Confident Perswasion of Mercy and Assurance of the Promised Salvation is not the thing which properly and absolutely delivers us from Sin and justifies us before God but that there is some other thing proposed in the Gospel which must some way in Order of Nature go before this Assurance and justifie us before God for Faith in the Person of the Son necessarily goes before which Faith in the Person of the Son first reconciles us to God Afterward a confident or sure perswasion of most certain mercy follows this Faith Concerning which Mercy none of those who believe in Christ can justly doubt By this and more that Mr. Fox saith in the same place it is clear as the Light that he did not believe that an absolute Assurance of our being now pardoned justified and reconciled to God is included in and essential to the direct Act of Faith whereby we are justified in the sight of God but on the contrary he held that the direct Act of Faith in the Person of the Son of God whereby we are justified goes before the said Assurance and Assurance follows after it which is what we believe and so doth our Author with us for he tells the Unbeliever That a Man is not called to believe that he is in Christ Mark the Expression he doth not only say A Man is not called to believe that he was in Christ before he believed For that Marshal and all but Antinomians do say but he says that a Man is not called to believe that he is in Christ pro praesenti for this present that his Sins are now pardoned and he now a justified Man but he is called to believe the Gospel Record and to believe in Christ according to the Record that is he is to believe that he may be justified and not that he is justified But now Marshal unto whom our Author appeals for the opening of this matter hath so opened it that he hath shut it up in darkness Confusion and Self-contradiction as it were no difficult task to demonstrate He maintains confidently 1. That Assurance of our being now justified and of the Pardon of our Sins is necessarily and essentially included in the direct Act of justifying Faith Pag. 169 170 171.172 173 177 178 179 180 181 182 c. 2. He maintains That all the Reprobate who live in the visible Church are by God strictly obliged under Pain of Eternal Damnation to believe with the foresaid justifying Faith and absolute Assurance which is essential to it that they are now justified and that their Sins are now pardoned though it be then and always false that they are justified and their Sins pardoned Pag. 202.204 Yet he saith that this is but the Appearance of a great Absurdity Pag. 171. whereby he gives us to understand either 1. That it is no real Absurdity to hold that God obliges Men under pain of Eternal Damnation to believe assuredly that a falshood is truth and that they who are not pardoned are pardoned Or 2. That he denies the Consequence to wit that God obliges the Reprobate to believe a falshood And the meaning of that is that though he hath granted both the Premisses yet he will stifly deny the Conclusion whereby men whose eyes are open may see what a rare Gist of Reasoning Mr. Marshal was endowed with Again though he maintain that an absolute Assurance of our present Justification and future Eternal Salvation is essential to the direct Act of justifying Faith yet he saith many precious Saints who have that Faith and that Assurance of Justification and Salvation which is essential to it may not know at all that it shall go well with them at the day of Judgment Pag. 173. and this for want of the other after-Assurance which comes by the reflex Act and by Self-examination Now is not that a strange Assurance which a Man hath by Faith of his Eternal Salvation whereby he doth not know at all whether he shall be Eternally Saved or Eternally Damned for want of another kind of Assurance by Spiritual Sense and feeling whereby he may know how it shall go with him at the Day of Judgement whether he shall be then Eternally Saved or Damned to what purpose serves the first Assurance when a man can know nothing at all by it without a second Assurance Is not that a plain Indication that the first pretended Assurance is nothing but an ens rationis a Creature of a Man 's own making which hath no real Existence but in his vain Imagination Our Author sometimes seems to be wiser than to believe such vain Fancies and yet at other times he appears to be deeply in love with them as when he most highly commends Mr. Marshals Book in which we deny not but there are good things as the most Soveraign Antidote against the Poyson of the new Divinity and says that he hath largely opened this matter For our parts we are willing to impute this to his not having Attentively read that Book and so to his not knowing that Mr. Marshal did manifestly contradict and dispute against his Opinion as a Limb or Joint of the new Divinity But we are afraid his unbeliever will be really scandalized at his telling him that he is not called at the first to believe that he is now in Christ that his Sins are pardoned and he is now a justified Man though in the same Letter he sends him to Marshals Book for Information and Direction in this very matter and it tells him the quite contrary and confidently maintains that an Unbeliever is called and commanded at first upon Pain of Eternal Damnation to believe with absolute Assurance by the direct Act of Faith in Christ that he is now in Christ his Sins pardoned and he a justified Man This we are afraid will tempt his Unbeliever to say Either Sir you believe this of Marshal or not
plain with you I think this your last answer is much like all the rest that went before there is hardly a good one amongst them and the difference is that this is the worst in the whole pack And to make this good I offer these things following to the consideration of all men of common sense and reason as well as of Christian Believers 1. The Objection saith That Faith is a difficult Act and proves it to be difficult because impossible without a Divine Power which the Unbeliever sinds not To which you answer That Believing is no work but a resting and so by changing the Terms and putting Work for Act you think to impose upon silly Women and such like Persons and to make them think that you have said much when you have said nothing or worse than nothing And that you have answered the Objection when you have rather confirmed it The Objection says and proves that Faith is a difficult Act because impossible without a Divine Power This you do not deny but only deny that it is a work and so that it is a difficult work If then there be an Act that is no Work as you seem to intimate tho Faith should not be a difficult work yet it may be a difficult Act so difficult that a man cannot believe aright without Divine Assistance and this was all the Objection was designed to prove for it makes no mention of the word work it neither affirms nor denies Faith to be a work 2. I demand why you change the Terms and deny Faith to be a work whereas the Objection did not affirm it to be a work but to be an act and a difficult act because impossible to Humane Nature without the Powerful Assistance of God I cannot easily imagine what reason you had to deny Faith to be a work instead of denying it to be an act and a difficult act if you intended to answer the Objection which only affirms Faith to be a difficult act But whatever reason might move you to deny Faith to be a work which I do not well understand yet this I know that your denying Faith to be a work falls out very unluckily for you and turns to your own shame Let. pag. 11. for you your self had said before and proved from Scripture to wit from John 6.28 29. That Faith is a work yea that it is the work of God the great work of God the great work which we do and which we cannot do too soon These are your own words And yet within the compass of six Pages after you absolutely deny that Faith is any work at all This brings to my mind the old saying Oportet mendacem esse memorem A lyar had need to have a good memory And by this sign and token I know that you are a weak deceived man your self or that you are a deceiver of others It will no wise relieve you to say that though Faith be a Work yet it doth not justifie as a work but as an Insirument For 1. here you absolutely deny it to be a work and that in answer to an Objection which did not relate to Justification Therefore 2. I say that here was no occasion to speak of Justification at all and consequently no occasion to affirm that Faith justifies as an Instrument and to deny that it justifies as a work for the Question here is not at all how we are justified by Faith whether by Faith as a work or by Faith as an instrument but all the Question is whether Faith be difficult to an Unbeliever or not The Objection affirms it to be difficult because it is impossible to Humane Nature without the Grace of God you in answer to the Objection deny it to be difficult because it is no work So that it is evident this your denying Faith to be a work relates not to the manner of Faiths justifying a Man but to the difficulty of a Mans getting and using of Faith 3. It is altogether impertinent here to deny Faith to be a work in the Office or Act of Justification for though it were granted that Faith is not considered as a work in the Act of justifying yet if it be a work in its own Act of Existence the Objection remains in its full Strength and unanswered for still it is true which the Objection asserts that its very difficult for an Unbeliever to produce the Act or do the Work of Faith This you saw and therefore to cut the Sinews and to take away the main force of the Argument you absolutely deny Faith to be a Work This was your Intention in saying that Faith is no work otherwise your Answer was wholly impertinent to the Objection And indeed it must be confessed that if your Answer were true if it were true that Faith is no Work at all in any sence the Objection hath lost all its Strength and falls dead to the ground But that your Answer is not true I have had it already from your self under your own hand affirming and proving that Faith is a great Work which we cannot do too soon And least you should endeavour to bring your self off by saying that Faith is no outward bodily Work and that that was your meaning in saying that Faith is no Work I give you a third Answer and therein Thirdly I demand what you mean by the Word Work when you say that Faith is no Work Whether you do mean an outward bodily Work or an inward Heart-work And 1. I appeal to your own Conscience that you did not mean an outward Bodily Work for no Body ever said or thought that Faith is an outward Bodily Work And why should you in Answer to an Argument deny that which no Body ever affirmed yea and lay the main stress too of your Answer upon that denial 2. You could not give that Answer to such an Objection unless you was in a Dream or out of your right Mind for to Answer so as to say that Faith is not an outward Bodily work but an inward Heart-work doth not in the least touch the Objection though that be most true that Faith is no outward bodily work yet if Faith be an inward Heart-work the Objection stands in its full force and strength for inward Heart-work is the most hard and difficult work therefore if Faith be an inward Heart-work it must needs be still hard and difficult to believe which is the very thing that the Objection was brought to prove therefore if you intended to Answer the Objection by denying Faith to be a Work you must also intend to deny that it is an inward Heart-work and so that it is any work at all either inward or outward and if that were true you had indeed effectually answered the Objection But that is not true for Fourthly It is notoriously false that Faith is no inward Heart-work for to be an inward Work of the Heart is nothing but to be an inward Act of the Heart
him occasion to speak there of God's Law according to which he glorifies or damns men eternally and not of the Gospel-law according to which he either justifies or not justifies Men. But 2. We say that the Doctor 's Judgment was the same as to both to wit as to Justification as well as to Glorification and that 1. Because in his Answer to the foresaid Arminian Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to Practice Pag. 16. these are his express Words We say that Pardon of Sin and Salvation of Souls are benefits purchased by the death of Christ to be enjoyed by men but how not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case and onely in case they believe And Pag. 28. Men are called upon to believe and promised that upon their Faith they shall obtain the grace of remission of sins and Salvation and these graces may be said to be offered unto all upon condition of Faith And Pag. 189. The Promises assured by Baptism according to the Rule of Gods word I find to be of two sorts Some are of benefits procured unto us by Christ which are to be conferred on us conditionally they of this first sort are Justification and Salvation And Pag. 190. Justification and Salvation is promised in the Word and assured in the Sacraments upon performance of a condition on mans part Now the condition of Justification and Salvation we all acknowledge to be Faith And in his other Book against Hoard Some Benefits saith the Doctor are bestowed upon man only conditionally though for Christs sake and they are the pardon of sin and salvation of the Soul Twiss against Hoard p. 154. and these God doth conferr onely upon the condition of Faith and Repentance All these are the Doctor 's own express Words by which it plainly appears that his Judgment was the same with respect both to Justification and Glorification and that he held that God dispenseth to us both these benefits for Christs sake according to a Law 2. We say that the Doctor 's Judgment was the same as to both because there is the like reason for both and the Doctor 's own Argument holds for the Law of Justification as strongly as for the Law of Glorification since God hath as much constituted and ordained that all penitent Believers and none of ripe years but penitent Believers shall be justified as that all penitent persevering Believers and no others shall be glorified As it is written John 3.18 He that believeth on Christ the Son of God is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already Acts 3.19 26.18 because he hath not believed in the name of the onely begotten Son of God Luke 13.3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Acts 2.38 Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 13.39 By him all that believe are justified c. Rom. 3.25 God hath set him forth to be a propitation through faith in his Blood Rom. 4.24 It shall be imputed to us if we believe These Testimonies of Holy Writ do as certainly and evidently shew that God proceeds according to a stated Rule and standing Law of his own making in Justifying or not Justifying Men as any other Testimonies do shew that he proceeds according to a stated Rule and standing Law in Glorifying or not Glorifying Men. 3. We Answer that our wise Accuser in the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th Pages of his Letter seems plainly to be as much against God's proceeding according to a Law in Glorifying Men or not Glorifying them at death as he is against God's proceeding according to a Law in Justifying them or not Justifying them before death Otherwise we would fain know what he means by saying that the Doctrine of Conditions Qualifications and Rectoral Government and the distribution of Rewards and Punishments according to the new Law of Grace will make but an uneasie Bed to a dying Man's Conscience and will leave him in a very bad condition at present and in dread of worse when he is feeling in his last Agonies that the wages of sin is death if he cannot by faith add the Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We profess we cannot see what our Authour should design by this passage but to reflect upon us as Subverters of the true Grounds of Christian Comfort and as driving People to despair by our Doctrine of God's being a Governour and Judge who distributes eternal Rewards and Punishments unto Men See Rev. 11.18 who live in the visible Church according to the Rule of the Evangelical Law and as he finds them to be qualified through Grace or not qualified to have performed the Condition or not to have performed the Condition to have complyed with the terms of the Evangelical Law or not to have complyed with them We say we cannot see what other design he should have therein but thus to reflect upon us And if this was really his design then he denies that God proceeds according to a Law as well in Glorifying or not glorifying as in Justifying or not Justifying Men And therein he opposes Dr. Twiss and all our other Divines that he knevv of as well as us And further upon that Principle that there is no such stated Rule and known standing Law according to vvhich God hath assured us that he vvill either give eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord or inflict eternal death We chalenge our Authour to shevv us hovv in an ordinary vvay vvithout a Miracle the dying disconsolate Man can be assured by Faith that God for Christs sake will give eternal life to him in particular and not inflict upon him eternal death for his Sins For if God have not revealed in his vvritten Word to Men that through Christ he vvill give eternal life unto all penitent Believers and consequently to that dying Man in particular if he be really a true penitent Believer We say if God hath not revealed this in his vvritten Word but kept it secret vvithin himself as a thing vvhich he vvill give arbitrarily as he pleaseth without regard to any stated Rule or knovvn Lavv hovv is it possible for the poor dying Man vvithout an immediate extraordinary Revelation to knovv but that eternal death vvhich he knovvs he hath deserved and not eternal life vvhich he cannot possibly deserve shall be his everlasting portion What depends upon the meer arbitrary will and pleasure of God can never be knovvn by Man unless God reveal it either by his vvritten Word alone or by his Word and Spirit conjunct or by his Spirit immediately vvithout the Word But the poor disconsolate Man can have no hopes that God will reveal it to him by his Written Word alone or by his Written Word and
Spirit together because according to the Principle aforesaid the Written Word is supposed to say nothing at all of that matter Therefore if ever it be Revealed to the Man and so if ever he be comforted in this World it must be by the Spirit without the Word And then all the poor disconsolate Mans ground of Comfort must be reduced to this That God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word But then we demand how our Authour will be able to assure the poor disconsolate dying Man that God will really do so that God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word For that immediate extraordinary Revelation being a thing that depends also upon Gods Arbitrary Free Will he may do it or not do it as he pleaseth and if God may freely not do it how can our Authour ever assure the Man that he will do it That is that he will by his Spirit immediately and extraordinarily reveal to him without the Written Word that he shall have Eternal Life and not Eternal Death for his Portion But now if our Authour should say that God hath given unto Man a Promise in his Written Word to ground his Faith upon though he hath not given a stated Rule and standing positive Law according to which he will proceed with Man at Death and Judgment We would readily reply thus Either the Promise in the Written Word made to the dying disconsolate Man is an absolute Promise that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life however it be with him whether he be converted or unconverted penitent or impenitent believer or unbeliever And we are sure there is no such promise in the Bible and to tell him of such a Promise would be at once to belie God and to delude the poor Man Or 2. It is a conditional Promise That God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life If through Grace he unfeignedly repent of all his sins and believe on Christ with a lively effectual Faith a Faith working by Love which he is bound to do under the pain of Eternal Death If this be the Promise that the poor dying Man must ground his Faith upon that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life then this is the very thing which Dr. Twisse and we after him call the Law according to which God proceeds in dispensing to his People the subsequent Blessings of the Covenant such as Justification and Glorification are And so our Authour comes over into our Camp which he must do at last and confess if not to us at least to God that he hath grosly misrepresented and falsly accused Christ's faithful Ministers and hath endeavoured to delude the People and to render the Ministers odious to the People and thereby to hinder the success of their Ministry And he must sincerely repent of having done so But if he will yet go on in the way of his own heart we shall be sorry for him and not cease to pray the Lord if it be his will to have Mercy on him and to give him repentance for the scandalous sin which he hath committed in publickly slandring Christs Ministers and in boldly asserting a notorious falsehood in matter of fact saying That the new Law of Grace is a new Word of an old but ill meaning And that he hath really done so we have not only said but proved by the plain testimonies of credible Witnesses whereof two Sealed the Truth of the Gospel with their Blood above fourteen hundred years ago SECT II. Of his second Error that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional SEcondly the Author of the Letter asserts that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional as appears from page 18. at the end and page 24. And particularly he denies that Faith in Christ is the Condition of Justification page 8. Some say that faith justifies as it is a fulfilling of the condition of the New Covenant if thou believest thou shalt be saved This he finds fault with and opposes to it the old Protestant Doctrine as he calls it That the place of Faith in Justification is only that of a Hand or Instrument c. Where we observe 1. That he makes faith its being a Condition and its being a hand or instrument to be two opposite things the one whereof is inconsistent with and destructive of the other and so in this he not only fights against us but likewise against the Assembly of Divines at Westminster who held Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition in the matter of Justification as was shewed before 2. He makes it to be New Doctrine and contrary to the Old Protestant Doctrine to hold that Faith is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that we are Justified by Faith as a Condition of the Covenant wherein he makes the Assembly as well as us to be Preachers of a New Doctrine and Corrupters of the Gospel since they likewise held Faith to be a Condition of the Covenant as aforesaid And again in page 9. We say that Faith in Christ is neither Work nor Condition nor Qualification in Justification but is a meer instrument and he affirms that their saying so is that by which the fire is kindled So that saith he in page 10. It is come to that as Mr. Christopher Fowler said that he that will not be Antichristian must be called an Antinomian Here it is very remarkable that he not only denies Faith to be either Work Condition or Qualification in the matter of Justification but he also in effect affirms that it is Antichristian to assert that Faith is either Work Condition or Qualification and that he will therefore rather choose to be called an Antinomian for denying than to be an Antichristian for affirming it This is and must be his meaning or else he was dreaming and knew not what he did when he cited Mr. Fowler and brought in his Judicious saying with a so that it is come to that as Mr. Fowler said c. Finally in page 25 at the beginning he says that Faith in the Office of Justification is neither Condition nor Qualification but in its very act is a renouncing of all such pretences From all which it is plain that we do not wrest his Words nor charge him with an Opinion which he doth not hold for he so firmly holds the Covenant of Grace to be Absolute and not Conditional and particularly that Faith is neither the Condition of obtaining Justification nor a qualification of the Person then Justified when he believes that he glories to be accounted an Antinomian rather than renounce that Opinion page 24. And he holds it to be New and Antichristian Doctrine to maintain that Faith is either a Condition of obtaining Justification or a qualification of the Person justified or to be justified in that instant of time wherein he believes Before we refute this Opinion we will briefly
insisted long upon this that all may see how sound and orthodox our Principles are in the point of Justification and how we have been abused and misrepresented to the People by the Authour of the Letter Whether he did it ignorantly or maliciously he knows best himself But which way soever he did it it was certainly very ill done 5thly and lastly We believe that as the Faith of God's Elect is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace so that it is not an uncertain but a most certain Condition our meaning is that before the Elect believe it is not uncertain whether ever they will believe or not It is indeed uncertain to the Persons themselves but it is not objectively uncertain the thing is not uncertain in it self nor is it uncertain unto God whether ever his Elect shall believe No it is most certain in it self and unto God that all the Elect shall believe for God hath chosen them through Christ unto Faith Christ hath merited special Grace for them whereby they shall believe God through Christ hath promised that special Grace and God by his Spirit for Christ's sake gives them that special Grace whereby they do all certainly and infallibly believe The contrary Opinion to this is by our Divines generally charged upon the Arminians It is said that the Arminians hold that it is so far left to Mens Wills assisted by Universal sufficient Grace whether they will make that Grace effectual and so whether they will believe or not that it may come to pass that not one Man in the whole World shall ever eventually believe and consequently that Christ's Blood might have been shed in vain and not one Soul have been effectually redeemed and saved by it This Opinion whoever they be that hold it we utterly detest and abhor and declare to the World that as we are infallibly sure that many of the Elect have believed already and do at present believe so all and every one of them in their several times shall by the special and effectual Grace of God believe to the saving of their Souls We also believe that this certainty of the Faith of God's Elect doth not at all hinder their Faith from being a condition but rather that it makes it to be a certain Condition The Arminians pretend they cannot understand how Faith can be a Duty required of us and a condition to be freely performed by us and that yet at the same time we are so excited to it and assisted by the Grace of God in the doing of it that it is done with an infallible certainty And therefore they say that if we did believe by such a special effectual Grace as that we could not but believe at the time we are influenced by that Grace then our believing would neither be a Duty nor Condition of the Gospel Thus the Arminians argue against Special Effectual Grace But what say our Antinomians to this Argument Why truly they say it is a very good argument that the Arminians have reason on their side and that they do effectually prove that Faith cannot be a Condition of the Gospel-Covenant Now we desire the World to take notice that the Antinomians join with the Arminians against us and take up their very Argument to prove that Faith neither is nor can be a Condition of the Gospel-Covenant And since they account this their chief argument we desire they would be so just and honest as to take the whole argument and not only a part of it and consider that the whole argument proves that upon supposition of special effectual Grace Faith can neither be a Duty nor a Condition and it proves as strongly that Faith cannot be a Duty of the Gospel as that it cannot be a Condition of the Gospel Either then our Antinomians must say that Faith is no Duty because of this argument or if it may be still a Duty so may it also be still a Condition notwithstanding the force of this Argument For ought we know the right Antinomians may be willing enough to grant the consequence of the argument to be good as to both parts of it for we are afraid they care as little for Duties as they do for Conditions and some of them have plainly renounced Faiths being their Duty and have put it over upon Christ as his Duty and not theirs But we hope the Authour of thy â—etter is not yet so far gone and that he still retains some respect for Rutherfond's Examen Arminianismi which he had a hand in publishing and where he will find these words following page 270. Quaeritur an fides non potest esse conditio c. The Question is whether Faith cannot be a Condition required of the Elect by way of Duty and free Obedience and at the same time be a thing promised by God and unavoidably wrought by God in us The Remonstrants deny it we affirm it We likewise are for the affirmative against the Remonstrants who hold the negative of the Question But how to reconcile the Efficacy of God's Grace with our Free Will in doing the Duties incumbent upon us is no easie matter S. Augustin lib. deâ—praedest Sanct. cap. 14. says that it is Difficilis ad solvendum quaestio A Question difficult to be resolved Erkstra blasphemas ignorantium auribus ingeris nos lib. arb condemnare damnetur ille qui damnat Hieron Epist ad â—tisi hontem And Epist 46. Ad Valentinum he says it is difficillima quaestio paucis intelligibilis a most difficult question and such as few can understand And again lib. de gratiâ Christi contra Pelagium Caelestium cap. 47. Ista quaestio ubi de arbitrio voluntatis Dei gratiâ disputatur ita est ad discernendum difficilis ut quando c. That Question where Men dispute about Free Will and God's Grace is so hard to discern or understand that when Men defend Free Will they seem to deny God's Grace and when they assert God's Grace they seem to take away or destroy Free Will What must we do then in this case must we deny Free-will altogether No not altogether for as Augustin saith Epist 47. ad Valentinum Fides Catholica neque liberum arbitrium negat sive in vitam malam sive in bonam neque tantum ei tribuit ut sine gratiâ Dei valeat aliquid c. The Catholick Faith neither denies Free-will whether in order to a bad life or a good neither doth it ascribe so much to Free-will as that without God's Grave it can do any good c. We must not then altogether deny Free-will the Catholick Faith will not allow us so to do nor will the inward sense and experience that we have of our own Soul and its Actings suffer us to do it For as Augustin saith Lib. 83. Quaest 98. Moveri per se Animam sentit qui sentit in se esse Voluntatem He feels his Soul to be moved by it self who feels that
he hath a Will in himself And if we must not altogether deny all Free-will against Faith and Experience much less must we deny the Grace of God For as Augustin saith in the foresaid 46 Epist ad Valent. Si non est Gratia Dei quomodo Deus falvat Mundum si non est liberum arbitrium quomodo judicat Mundum If there be no Grace of God how doth God save the World And if there be no. Free-will how doth God judge the World The occasion of Augustin's writing thus is observable Two Young Men Cresconius and Felix came to Augustin from another Congregation and told him that there was a Controversie amongst them in the managing whereof some had so preached the Grace of God as to deny that Man hath any Free-will and which is worse they said that in the Day of Judgment God will not render unto every one according to their Works This was the occasion of Augustin's writing both that 46. and the following 47. Epistle to Valentinus And towards the end of the 46. Epistle he gave this prudent and wholsome Advice Vbi sentitis vos non intelligere c. that is Where you perceive that you do not understand how Grace and Free-will consist in the mean time believe the Divine Oracles for there both is a Free-will in Man and also the Grace of God without whose help Free-will can neither be converted unto God nor yet grow up in God And what you piously believe pray that you may also wisely understand This was the Advice which St. Augustin gave unto the Disputers of his time And it was very good Advice for certainly where two things are both clearly revealed in Scripture and yet we find it very difficult to understand and explain the way and manner how they do consist and agree with one another we ought firmly to believe them both upon the Authority and Veracity of God revealing though the mode and manner of their consistence in the same subject we do not understand Yet what we do believe we may and ought humbly and reverently to pray that if it be God's will we may also more throughly understand So in the present case before us we ought firmly to believe that God's Elect when they are effectually called and converted have Free-will actually to believe in Jesus Christ and also that it is by the special effectual Grace of God that they do actually believe though we do not throughly understand how these two hang together how Man's Free-will and God's Effectual Grace consist and agree with respect to the Act of Believing For both are clearly revealed in Scripture as it were easie to demonstrate See Joh. 8.36 But the mode and manner of their consistence and agreement is not clearly revealed and therefore not so necessary to be explicitely believed Yet may we humbly pray and endeavour if the Lord will so far to understand their consistence and concord as to be able in some measure to answer the Objections of those who deny either one or other of them upon pretence that they cannot both be matter of Faith because they contradict and destroy each other and so if one be true the other must be false Now we humbly conceive that the great difficulty about the concord of the freedome of Man's will and of the efficacy of God's Grace in the act of believing ariseth from the false notion of Free-will which the Remonstrants have learned from the Schoolmen and from some of the Greek Fathers to wit that the formal Nature and Essence of the liberty of the Will of Man consists in an absolute indifferency to act this or that or not to act at all as a Man pleaseth and that even when all things are put together which are pre-required to his acting We must ingenuously confess that we do not see how it is possible to reconcile this notion of Free-will with the powerful efficacy of Special Grace But we take this to be a false notion of Liberty and that therefore we are no ways concerned to trouble our selves about the reconciling of such a false notion of Liberty with the efficacy of God's Grace but rather we are concerned to find out the true Notion of Liberty of Will and to shew its consistency with the efficacy of Grace And we take this to be the formal Nature of the Liberty of Man's Will That it is a power with which God hath endâ—ed the Soul of Man whereby he is enabled to consider of and weigh the several things proposed to him and upon the Reasons and Motives that do or may appear to him from the consideration of things willingly to choose or not choose or refuse one thing and to choose or embrace another Now this notion of Free-will is well enough consistent with the efficacy of Grace For the effectual Grace of God is so far from hindering a Man from using this sort of Free-will that on the contrary it mightily helps him to use it aright for 1. The Grace of God's Spirit enlightens Man's Mind and enables him to understand the things proposed by the Word unto his choice and to see the great reason he hath to choose them 2. Grace enclines the Will of Man to follow the conduct of his enlightened understanding and willingly to choose the best Things upon the best Reasons and Motives Thus God deals with Man as a Rational Creature capable of Moral Government by Laws and Exhortations Promises and Threatnings God offers no Violence to his Faculties but influences him in a way suitable to his reasonable Nature and helps him to bring his judging and choosing Powers into Act so as not at all to hinder but rather further and promote his true Liberty According to that of our Saviour John 8.36 often used by Holy Augustin in this Controversie If the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed And that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty There is Liberty and Freedom both from the doing of Evil and to the doing of Good This was visible in our Blessed Lord himself when he was here upon Earth in his state of Humiliation Undoubtedly he was a true Man and had all the Essentials of Humane Nature in the highest degree of possible Perfection consequently he had Free-will so far as it is an Essential Property and Perfection of Humane Nature but he had not nay he could not possibly have any indifferency or undeterminedness of will to Good or Evil His Mind did not hang in aequilibrio in an even Balance between Good and Evil so as to have a Power to determine and incline himself to choose either Therefore it is demonstratively evident that the formal essential Nature of Man's Free-will doth not cannot consist in the foresaid indifferency to Good or Evil. But on the other hand The most Noble Soul of our blessed Lord was certainly endued with Power to consider and judge of the several things proposed
thing meant by Condition as really as if it were expressed For saith the Apostle If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy Hâ—â—rt that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved This Evangelical Pronsise and Proposition is as Conditional as is that Legal one Rom. 10.5 The man that doth those things shall live by them But that Legal Promise and Proposition is Conditional and confessed so to be therefore is this conditional also If it be said that the Condition is not the same nor doth it serve to the same end and purpose we grant that For we never said nor thought that the Conditions are the same and for the same Ends and Purposes for the one is a Legal Condition the other is Evangelical and so they differ specisically and in kind But what then Therefore they are not both Conditions We deny the Consequence For though they differ in the specisical yet they agree in the generical nature of Conditions And Faith is as properly a Condition in genere conditionis Evangelicae as personal perfect sinless Obedience is a Condition in genere conditionis legalis that is Faith is as properly an Evangelical Condition as perfect sinless Obedience is properly a Legal Condition We remember that the Pelagians of old objected against the Orthodox that either our Faith is not wrought in us by the Special Grace of God or else it cannot be a Duty and so it cannot be a Condition But we know also how St. Augustin answered their Objection Lib. de praedestin Sanct. cap. 11. Their Objection was this Cum dicitur si credideris salvus eris c. When it is said if thou believest thou shalt be saved The one of these to wit Faith is required of us by a Command the other to wit Salvation is offered us by Promise then that which is required is in Man's Power as that which is promised is in God's Power To this Pelagian Objection Augustin answers thus Sic dicitur si credideris salvus eris Quemadmodum dicitur si Spiritu c. That is So it is said if thou believest thou shalt be saved as it is said if you through the Spirit do mortifie the Deeds of the Body you shall live Rom. 8.13 For here also the one of these two is required and the other is promised as then although it be the Gist of God to mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh yet it is required of us with an offer of the Reward of Life for our encour agement thereunto Just so Faith is also the Gift of God although it be required of us with an offer of the Reward of Salvation for our encouragement to believe when it is said if thou believest thou shalt be saved For those things are therefore both commanded us and also shewed to be the Gists of God that it may be known that both we do them and also that God causeth us to do them Thus Augustin We find the like Objection with the like Answer to it in Bradwardin De Causâ Dei lib. 2. cap. 28. p. 567 569. The Objection Si Deus necessario requiratur ad agendum c. If it be necessary that God concur to the proper production of every Act of the Creatures Will since God's concurring or acting is not in the power of the Creature then no act of the Creature would be in its own power The Answer is In rerum temporalium spiritualium administratione videmus c. In the administration both of temporal and spiritual things we see that there are more Powers and Dominions over the same thing subordinate to one another as Inferior and Superior wherefore no Man ought to doubt but that though the Will of the Creature have Power and Dominion over its own Act yet thereby is not excluded a Superior Power and Lord to wit God himself from a Superior Power Dominion and Efficiency in respect of the same Act. And a little after he says out of Thomas Aquinas The Will is said to have Dominion over its own Act not by excluding the first cause but the first cause doth not so act on the Will as to determine it necessarily to one thing as he determines Nature or natural Agents and therefore the determination of the Act is lest in the power of the Vnderstanding and Will We mention both these Objections with Answers to them out of St. Augustin and Bradwardin to shew that though we cannot believe without but do believe by the Grace of God yet that no ways hinders our Faith from being a duty required of us and also a Condition of the Covenant to be performed by us and we know our Authour cannot bring any appearance of an Argument against this but that which was brought by the Pelagians in the time of St. Augustin and which he answered As for the place of Scripture we are arguing from we have Calvin on our side acknowledging that it contains a Conditional Promise of the Gospel-Covenant a Promise of Righteousness and Salvation to all that sincerely believe in Christ with their Hearts and confess him with their Mouths For thus he writes Instit Lib. 2. cap. 5. Sect. 12. speaking of this very place of Scripture to wit Rom. 10.5 8 9. id reputans Paulus c. i. e. Paul considering this that Salvation is offered in the Gospel not upon that hard difficult impossible condition which the Law requires of us to wit that they only shall obtain Salvation who have fully kept all the Commandments but upon a condition that is easie ready and soon attained unto to wit the Condition of Faith he confirms it with this testimony To wit the Testimony of Moses which Paul quotes out of Deuteronomy chap. 30. ver 11 12 13 14. and interprets it of the Doctrine of Faith in the Gospel Let any read and compare Rom. 10.6 7 8. with Deut. 30.11 12 13 14. And they will see that Calvin did rightly conclude from those places that in the Judgment of St. Paul Salvation is promised us here in the Gospel upon a much easier Condition than it was in and by the Law This conditionality of the Covenant of Grace is clearly proved also by all those places of Scripture which assure us 1. That all who believe shall be justified and saved John 3.16 18 36. John 6.40 John 20.31 Mark 16.16 Acts 10.43 and 13.39 Rom. 4.24 Gal. 2.16 and 3.9 11. 2. That they who believe not whilst they continue in Unbelief shall not be justified and saved John 3.18.36 and 8.24 Mark 16.16 Revel 21.8 These Scriptures plainly shew that Faith is a Condition of the Covenant because the definition and nature of a Condition agrees to it For 1. Faith is a Duty which God requires of us for obtaining the promised benefit of Justification and Salvation 1 John 3.23 Rom. 10.9 2. God hath suspended his giving us the promised benefit of Justification and Salvation upon our performing the required Duty of
Faith so as to assure us that if we performe the required Duty we shall have the promised benefit if we believe we shall be justified and saved but if we do not performe it if we do not believe we shall not be justified and saved Nothing more is any way necessary to make Faith a Condition but thesetwo things and we see by plain Scripture that both these things agree to a sincere Faith therefore 't is Condition of the Covenant and so the Covenant is Conditional 2. But now we must have a care that we do not deceive our selves and others in thinking and saying that Faith singly and separately considered by it self is the whole intire condition of the Gospel-Covenant so as to exclude all others for though it be the only condition in some respect yet it is not the only Condition in all respects It is the only receiving consenting trusting Condition but the Scripture gives us plainly to understand that besides this receptive Condition there is a dispositive Condition besides Faith the Condition of receiving Christ and Remission of sins through his Name John 1.12 Col. 2.5 Acts 10.43 There is Repentance which is the Condition the performance whereof disposes and prepares us for the receiving of remission of sins Exod. 33.5 The Lord said unto the people by Moses Ye are a stiff-necked people I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee that I may know what to do unto thee The Call to put off their Ornaments was a call to Humiliation and Repentance Till they had answered that Call they were not fit that God should shew them any favour and God speaks of himself after the manner of men as if he knew not what to do with them till they had given some evidence of their Repentance He was not willing to destroy them all and yet it was not fit that he should pardon them and shew favour to them till they had first repented of their sins Jerem. 36.3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them that they may return every man from his evil way that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin Here the Lord intimates that it was not fit they should be forgiven till they had repented and therefore he ordered that Jeremiah should tell them from him all the evil which he threatned to bring upon them if they did not repent to see if that would bring them to Repentance that they might be fit for pardon and that he might pardon them without dishonouring himself by so doing We read also that John the Baptist was sent to Preach Repentance unto the Jews Matth. 3.1 2. That by bringing them to Repentance he might prepare them to receive the Lord Christ Luke 1.17 and to receive through him the Remission of their Sins Mark 1.4 And it is for this reason that we call Repentance the disposing Condition in order to pardon of sin because it fits and prepares us for the receiving of it through Faith in Christ Jesus It may be our Authour will not like this but we little value that if we have Gods Word for our Warrant As we are sure we have for the thing we are upon We will not differ with any about the naming of a thing if we can come to an agreement about the thing it self The Thing then we stand for and are resolved through the Lord's assistance to stand for unto Death is That Repentance is a Condition of the New Covenant in order to forgiveness of sins that is It is a Duty required of us for obtaining the forgiveness of our sins so as that the forgiving us our sins is suspended till we repent and we are assured that if we repent we shall be forgiven but if we do not repent we shall not be forgiven This is all that we mean by saying that Repentance is a Condition of the Covenant And need we prove this to Christians We thought there had been no Jew Turk or Papist that had denyed this But if any Protestants that own the Divine Authority of Holy Scripture do deny it it will be no difficult matter to prove it For 1. That God hath required of us Repentance for obtaining the forgiveness of our sius and hath suspended the forgiveness of our sins till we repent This is evident from the words of the Evangelical Prophet Isa 1.16 17 18. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool And from the words of Jeremiah in the fore-cited place Jerem. 36.3 That they may return every man from his evil way that I may forgive their Iniquity and their Sin And Acts 26.18 To turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sin These Scriptures shew that Repentance is so required of us in order to obtain the forgiveness of our sins as that the forgiveness of our sins is suspended till we repent of them Repentance is required of us as a means to the end we may receive forgiveness and it is self-evident that the means must be used before the end can be obtained Though the end be first in intention yet the means must be first in Execution 2. God hath assured us of two things 1. That if we sincerely repent we shall be forgiven Witness Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Ezek. 18.21 22. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins all his transgressious that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him See ver 30. Prov. 28.13 Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy Acts 3.19 Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out 2. That if we do not sincerely repent we shall not be forgiven Psal 68.21 God shall wound the head of his Enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth still in his trespasses Luke 13.3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish From all this it appears very evident that Repentance is a Condition of obtaining the pardon of our sins and the Condition must be performed in order of Nature before the benefit promised upon Condition be obtained as we can prove if common sense be denyed from the Testimonies of Dr. Twisse Dr. Owen c. But some object Justification includes forgiveness of sin in its essential Notion and Nature and then if Repentance be before forgiveness of sin it will be before Justification stification also Answer We admit the whole Argument for it is a great
a certain order and also that he doth orderly dispense them unto his People according to his Promiseâ— But we utterly deny that God's Order of Grace doth hinder one thing in that order from being the condition of another and on the contrary we affirm that it rather makes one thing to be the condition of another And that for this Renson because the Order of Grace which the Brethren speak of either 1. It is an Order in the Promise of Justification and Pardon of which alone our Question now is to wit in the promise if you sinceroly believe with a Faith working by love you shall be justified and pardoned through Christ Or 2. It is an order out of the promise but in God's will with respect to the promise If the first that is if it be an order of Gracâ— in the promise then it is plainly a Conditional order of Grace for the promise is conditional as we have proved and the gracious order of it is this That whoever performs the Condition of it that is believes sincerely with a Faith working by Love shall have the blessing and benefit of it shall be justified and pardoned Thus the order of Grace in the Conditional Promise being plainly a Conditional order we are but just where we were for the order of Grace in the promise being but conditional it doth not help us one jot to avoid the conditionality of the Promise and Covenant 2. But if they choose to say that it is the second to wit that it is an order of Grace out of the promise but in God's will with respect to the promise and so it is an absolute order of God's will that if People sincerely believe they shall be justified and pardoned We heartily grant that it is so there is such a gracious Order or Ordination in and of God's Will and it is plainly revealed also in his Written Gospel But what then This really makes against our Brethren and for us And that because this absolute order of Grace in God's will concerning the Promise is so far from overthrowing that on the contrary it most strongly establisheth and confirmeth the conditionality of the Promise For is not this a good strong unavoidable consequence God of his free grace hath absolutely ordained that Faith shall be a condition of the Covenant and that this shall be a true conditional Gospel-promise If People sincerely believe in Christ they shall be justified and pardoned Therefore it is a true conditional Gospel-promise and cannot be otherwise All this is to us very certain and evident and therefore must conclude that we have proved by reason agreeable to Scripture that the Covenant of Grace is conditional as aforesaid And without going upon this Ground and Principle we do not conceive how Ministers can preach the Gospel honestly and faithfully to all sorts of Men they meet with as by our Commission we are obliged to do Mark 16.15 16. Rom. 10.8 9. Reason 2. The Covenant promise of Eternal Life and Glory is Conditional therefore the Covenant of Grace is Conditional with respect to its subsequent blessings and benefits The Consequence is self-evident because Eternal Life and Glory is one of the principal subsequent blessings of the Covenant of Grace We prove the antecedent against Mr. Marshalls Book and against our Authour who highly approves and commends it If sincere Obedience to the Lord be the Condition of the Covenant promise of Eternal Life and Glory then the Covenant Promise of Eternal Life and Glory is really conditional But so it is that sincere Obedience to the Lord is the Condition of the Covenant-Promise of Eternal Life and Glory Therefore that Covenant-Promise is Conditional The consequence of the first Proposition is self-evident We prove the second Proposition to wit that sincere Obedience to the Lord is the Condition of the Covenant-promise of Eternal Life and Glory Because whatsoever is so required of us as a Duty in order to the obtaining of the Eternal Life and Glory promised that our obtaining thereof is by the promise suspended on our performing that Duty and we are assured by the Lord that if we perform that Duty we shall obtain but if we perform not that Duty we shall not obtain the Eternal Life and Glory promised That is the Condition of the Covenant promise of Eternal Life and Glory it being the very definition and essential Nature of a Gospel-Condition that it be a Duty required as aforesaid But sincere Obedience to the Lord is a Duty so required in order to the obtaining of the Eternal Life and Glory promised as most evidently appears by the many plain Testimonies of God's Word whereby we have already proved sincere Obedience to be a Duty so required Therefore sincere Obedience to the Lord is and must be the Condition of the Covenant Promise of Eternal Life and Glory If our Authour or any for him should say that it is true Sincere Obedience to the Lord's Command of believing is required as aforesaid but sincere obedience to any other Command of the Lord is not necessarily required as aforesaid in order to the obtaining of the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory We reply 1. That if sincere Obedience to the Lord's Command of believing be required as necessary in the way aforesaid to the obtaining of the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory then even according to that Answer the Covenant-promise of Eternal Life and Glory is still conditional and Faith continued and persevered in to the end which is that sincere Obedience to the Lord's Command of believing is the Condition of it For the Definition and Essential Nature of a Gospel-condition agrees to Faith under that Consideration 2. We reply That the sincere Obedience which consists in the formal Elicit Act or Acts of believing is not all the sincere Obedience which is required as aforesaid And we thus prove it If it be false that no sincere Obedience is required as aforesaid but the Act of Faith then it is true that some Obedience is required as aforesaid besides the Act of Faith This proposition is self-evident because no obedience but the Act of Faith and some obedience besides the Act of Faith are manifest contradictories and two contradictories cannot possibly be both true nor both false but one of them must always be true and the other false and it cannot possibly be otherwise This being clear and undeniable we proceed to the next proposition and subsume But it is false That no sincere obedience is required as aforesaid but the Act of Faith For if no sincere Obedience but the Act of Faith be required as aforesaid that is be required as indispensably necessary to obtain the promised blessing of Eternal Life and Glory then it follows by necessary consequence that a Christian our Authour may instance in and apply it to himself or any other as he pleaseth We say it necessarily follows that a Christian if he doth but keep Faith and now and
then put it forth into Act in obedience to the single Command of believing is safe and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Life and Glory although he live in the habitual constant omission of all other Duties and in the habitual constant commission of all other sins except the sin of formal unbelief that is he is safe and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Life and Glory though he never love nor fear God and Christ nor exercise any other Grace or perform any other Duty though he never love his Neighbours nor deal justly and honestly by them yea upon this supposed Principle he is safe and runs no hazard of his Salvation though he habitually and constantly do the quite contrary and live in all other the most abominable sins against God and Man except the sin of formal unbelief For though these be sins great abominable sins of Omission and Commission against the Law of God yet to him who is supposed to be a sincere Believer and to keep his Faith under all these sins of Omission and Commission the said Duties are not commanded nor the sins forbidden under the penalty of loosing his Salvation or if the Law strictly considered as a Covenant of Works command those Duties and forbid those sins under that penalty Yet from him being a Believer the Gospel takes off the penalty as fast as the Law lays it on or rather according to the Principle we are now speaking of the Gospel binds the Laws hands so that though it would yet it cannot lay its penalty upon the man he being a Believer although he never so much deserves it by the foresaid abominations against God and Man And consequently he may omit all Duties except the Duty of believing and commit all sins imaginable except the sin of formal unbelief and yet remain safe and run no hazard of loosing the promised blessing of Eternal Life and Glory Far be it from us to charge our Authour or any of his way with such abominable practices We abhor to charge any Man with holding the absurd consequences of his opinion which he doth not own We design no such thing nor indeed any reflection at all by this Argument No but our real and whole design is to shew the natural necessary consequence and danger of holding the opinion that no sincere Obedience but Faith is required of Christians by the Covenant and Law of Christ as indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory and thereby to evince that as was said It is false that no sincere Obedience but the Act of believing is required as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory And this we think we have effectually done for if no sincere Obedience but the Act of believing be required of Christians by the Law of Christ as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory then it is self-evident that they are safe and may obtain Eternal Life and Glory if they have the Act of Faith and the Obedience which by it they yield to the Command of believing Though they want all other sincere Obedience and that is though they live in the Love and Practice of all manner of sins except the sin of Unbelief Obj. 1. If our Authour object 1. That though sincere Obedience distinct from Faith be not required of Christians as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory yet it is required as necessary to signifie and evidence to a Christian the sincerity of his Faith which he cannot be sure of unless it be evidenced to him by sincere Obedience distinct from it self Answ We answer 1. We suppose he knows well enough that there are some who hold the quite contrary to wit that it is Faith only which is indispensably necessary to evidence the sincerity of a mans Obedience and not sincere Obedience to evidence the sincerity of his Faith 2. Be it so that sincere Obedience is indispensably necessary to assure a Christian of the sincerity of his Faith yet if it be not likewise indispensably necessary to his obtaining Eternal Life and Glory he may be really safe and in no danger of loosing Eternal Life and Glory if he have a sincere Faith which is the only thing indispensably necessary though he want all sincere Obedience distinct from Faith which is pretended not to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory It is true the man cannot know that he is safe he cannot be sure and full of Spiritual Comfort without the evidence of his Faith that is without sincere Obedience But for all that if he really have Faith he is safe with respect to another World though he want sincere Obedience as the evidence of his safety by Faith and that is though he live in the Love and Practice of all manner of sins both of Omission and Commission except the sin of formal Unbelief which we think is a very great absurdity following upon the foresaid Opinion Obj. 2. If our Authour object 2. That here we suppose an impossibility to wit That a sincere Faith may be without any other sincere Obedience whereas though sincere Obedience be not required as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory yet there always is and will be sincere Obedience where there is a sincere Faith and can never be separated from it We Answer 1. That we do not argue from an impossibility as such but wholly abstracting from its being possible or impossible for a sincere Faith to be without sincere Obedience to the Lord in other things required of Christians we prove it to be false that no sincere Obedience but the Act of Faith is under the Gospel-Covenant required of Christians as indispensably necessary to obtain the promised blessing of Eternal Life and Glory because if that were not false then this would be necessarily true that though a Christian should live in the Love and Practice of all other abominations yet if per possibile vel impossibile he retain but the Act of Faith he is safe and secure with respect to his Eternal Salvation and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Life and Glory It is only this consequence which we are concerned to make good and that we have done But though the consequence and inference be good yet the consequent or thing inferred we justly account to be a very great absurdity and from that absurdity we prove the falsehood of the antecedent and principle from whence it follows by necessary consequence that is the falsehood of the Principle which saith that no sincere Obedience but the act of Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation 2. We Answer that though we suppose and grant it impossible for a sincere Faith to be without sincere Obedience yet we may very well say that it is a great falsehood that no other Obedience but that of the formal elicit Act of Faith is required of Christians as indispensably necessary to Salvation and may prove it by this Argument Suppose
through Grace we be sincerely obedient we shall be saved but if not we shall be damned Now this Faith acting upon the several parts of God's Word according to their respective Natures is of great force and efficacy to determine us unto the practice of sincere Obedience 1. the Faith of God's Word commanding sincere Obedience as indispensably necessary to Salvation makes our Consciences how down to God's Authority in the Command and makes us endeavour to yeild Obedience to it 2. The Faith of God's Word of threatning against the disobedient Rebel works upon our Fears 2 Cor. 5.10 11. Heb. 4.1 and Fear restrains us from disobedience lest thereby we should bring upon our selves the everlasting punishment threatned 3. The Faith of God's Word of Promise to obedient Believers works upon our hope and hope quickens us unto Obedience as the necessary means to obtain the Eternal Reward promised It makes us follow after Holiness in expectation of Happiness 1 John 3.2 3. It is essential to saving Faith to act thus differently on the several parts of the Word according to their respective Natures making us tremble at the Threatnings embrace the Promises and by that means obey the Commands of God As our Confession of Faith intimates in Chap. 14. Art 2. Now our Faith its being thus naturally fitted to make us sincerely obedient unto the Lord in all his Commands and Institutions ariseth partly from hence that the indispensable necessity of sincere Obedience in order to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation is one of the objects of a sound Faith which it firmly assents to and is strongly perswaded of For this firm assent and strong perswasion that sincere Obedience is so necessary to Salvation will not let us rest but will be still putting us on to yeild sincere Obedience unto the Law of Christ as that which must be done or we shall be undone for ever But if a Man be once firmly perswaded in his own Mind that no sincere Obedience but onely the Act of Faith in way of Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation his Faith will not have so much Power over him to make him sincerely obedient unto the Lord in order to Salvation Indeed it is much to be doubted whether that Man hath a sincere Faith at all who is under the Power of this erroneous Opinion that no sincere Obedience distinct from the Act of Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation for a sincere sound Faith amongst other of its Objects it believes this for one that as first Faith so next sincere Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation Thus we have proved our Second Proposition to wit It is false that no sincere Obedience but the Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory Now both the Premisses being certainly and evidently true the Conclusion follows unavoidably which is this That it is true that some Obedience besides the Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining of the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory For who is so stark blind as not to see that if it be false that no Obedience but Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation as we have proved it to be false then its contradictory is true that some Obedience besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation We proceed then and thus argue If some Obedience besides Faith be indispensably necessary to Salvation then that some Obedience besides Faith must be either a most perfect personal sinless Obedience or an imperfect personal sincere Obedience There can be no other personal Obedience but one of these two thought indispensably necessary to Salvation But it is not it cannot be a most perfect personal sinless Obedience for if such an Obedience were required as indispensably necessary to Salvation then no Man could be saved because no meer Man ever performed such Obedience to the Law of God in this life no Man ever lived so holily as never to sin in Thought Word or Deed after his Conversion and 〈…〉 And so if such sinless personal Obedience were required of all as indispensably â—â—â—â—â—sary to Salvation no Flesh could be saved but all would be damned notwithstanding all that Christ hath done and suffered to purchase Salvation for his People Christ's blood would have been so far shed in vain that not one Soul would be saved by it which were Blasphemy to affirm and therefore it cannot be that now under the Gospel-Covenant a most perfect personal sinless Obedience is required of us as indispensably necessary to Salvation Since therefore some personal Obedience besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation and it is not a most perfect personal sinless Obedience that is so necessary we must of necessity conclude that it is an imperfect personal sincere Obedience which besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation The other most perfect personal sinless Obedience is not attainable in this Life by the ordinary assistance of God's Grace but this personal imperfect yet sincere Obedience is attainable in this Life by the ordinary helps of God's Spirit and Grace For Christ's yoke is easie and his burden is light Mat. 11.30 And God's Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.3 The Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 Through the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 We purify our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit c. 1 Pet. 1.22 In short though without Christ we can do nothing John 15.5 Yet through Christ strengthening us we can do all things Phil. 4.13 that is we can do all things which Christ requires of us as indispensably necessary to our obtaining the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Salvation If any should object against this and say that a Man may be saved although he do not perform that Obedience which is indispensably necessary to Salvation because though he fall into very great Sins yet he may repent of them and so be saved through Christ upon his repentance We Answer 1. That it is contradictious Non-sence to say a Man may be saved without that sincere Obedience which God hath made indispensably necessary to his Salvation 2. We answer with Rutherford and others as aforesaid that when a Regenerate Justified Man fulls into gross Sins against Knowledge and Conscience he cannot be saved whilst he continues in those Sins without Repentance for then he doth not walk after the Spirit but rather after the Flesh then he is going astray from the way that leads to Life and Salvation and is walking in the broad way that leads to destruction And therefore if he do not turn back and return again into the narrow way that leads to Life and Salvation he will certainly be undone he will perish everlastingly Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die But when a justified Man that had fallen as is said rises again by Repentance he returns to his Obedience And we desire it
we believe and obey is so far from hindring our actual Faith and Obedience from being the Condition that on the contrary it conduceth very much to make them the Condition the Gracious Evangelical Condition of the Covenant and without it they could not be such a Condition As to what they say that special Grace necessarily causeth our Faith and Obedience we answered before that special Grace doth not cause our actual Faith and Obedience with any such kind of necessity as is inconsistent with or destructive of the true liberty of our Souls in believing and obeying Augustin the great asserter of the necessity and efficacy of Supernatural Grace against the Pelagians and Semipelagians says in his 46 Epist. to Valentinus Obedientiam nostram Deus requirit quae nulla potest esse sine libero arbitrio God requires our Obedience which without the liberty of our minds can be no obedience And our own Westminster Confession of Faith in chap 19. atr 7. says that the Spirit of Christ subdues and enables the will of man to do that freely and chearfully which the will of God revealed in the Law requireth to be done Dr. Twisse also saith frequently that the effectual will and grace of God doth not destroy but establisheth the freedom of our actions particularly in his Answer to Hoard his God's Love to Mankind Book 2. page 103. He writes thus against Mr. Mason when once God hath planted in us a principle of new Life of the Life of Grace by the Spirit of Regeneration See 127 page of his Desence of the Synod of Dort c. though all the powers thereof do incline only to that which is good like as the powers of natural corruption incline only unto evil yet the particular use and exercise of those is always free Like as the particular use and exercise of the powers of our Corruption is always free to the committing of this or that sin according unto the emergent occasions standing in congruity to every mans particular disposition And pag. 104. Should he Mr. Mason have laid to our charge that we maintain that God necessitates the will to any good act and to over-rule the will therein we should utterly deny it without distinction It is true he over-rules the will of the flesh but not the will of the spirit the Regenerate part but moves it agreeably to its nature and to work not only voluntarily but freely whatsoever it worketh For albeit the Regenerate part is like a moral vertue though as much transcendent to it as a thing supernatural transcends a thing natural inclining only to that which is good yet is it always moved to this particular good rather than to another most freely Like as a mans natural Corruption inclines a man only to evil yet to this kind of evil or to this particular evil rather than to that Man is moved most freely So that if we maintain not that God works a Man to every good act otherwise than freely let the very conscience of our Enemies judge whether we can maintain that God necessitates the will either of Men or Devils unto sin And in the next page 105 he brings for confirmation of what he had said the 11th Article of the Church in Ireland where this position is first laid down that God from all Eternity did by his Unchangeable Counsel ordain whatsoever in time should come to pass and then it is forthwith added That hereby no violence is offered to the Wills of the reasonable Creatures and neither the liberty nor the contingency of second Causes is taken away but established rather Then again in page 108. This is clearly our Doctrine to wit that when God never so effectually works any Creature to the producing of an act connatural to it yet he works the Creature thereunto agreeably to its Nature that is if it be a necessary agent moves it to work necessarily if it be a contingent agent moves it to work contingently and if it be a free agent moves it to work freely and in effect it is the Doctrine of all them who say that God determines the Will as the Dominicans or that God necessitates the Will as Bradwardin For they acknowledge hereby that God moves the Creatures to work freely in such sort That in the very act of working they might do otherwise if they would They confess this providence of God is a great mystery and not sufficiently comprehensible by humane reason Cajetan professeth thus much as before alledged and Alvarez maintaineth it in a set disputation Thus far Twiss whereby we see that he held all the good we do to be acts of free Obedience notwithstanding that we produce them by the assistance of Gods effectual Grace yea that they are so free that though secundum quid in some respect it is necessary for them to be produced yet simpliciter absolutè See page 116 117 118 119 120. simply and absolutely it is possible for them not to be produced And if our Actual Faith and Obedience be free acts of ours notwithstanding that they are also effects of God's Grace then they may be our Duties also And indeed they are Duties so necessarily required of us as that the obtaining of Justification and Glorification is suspended by the promises till the performance of them as was proved before And then it follows by necessary consequence that they are Evangelical Conditions of the promises because they have the Essential Nature of an Evangelical Condition Here we take notice by the way that there are some who distinguish between the Covenant of Grace and the administration of it and they say themselves and would make all others say with them that the Covenant it self is absolute to the Elect but that the administration of it is conditional in the preaching of the Gospel * A brief Account of the State of the differences now depending and agitated about Justification page 4. Now we must declare that we cannot say without distinction as some would have us to do that the Covenant of Grace is absolute to the Elect. We have already said and proved that the Covenant of Grace made with the Church through Christ is a complex of many promises whereof some are indeed absolute yet not so absolute neither as to exclude all use of means such are the promises of the first Grace of saving Faith and Repentance c. but others of them are conditional even to the Elect such are the promises of the subsequent blessings of the Covenant as of Justification pardon of sin and Eternal Life We do not find that those subsequent blessings of the Covenant are ever promised to any of Adams Posterity but upon some Condition expressed or implyed and most frequently the Conditions are expressed with a plain Declaration that as many as perform the conditions shall have the promised Blessings but they who never perform the conditions shall never have the promised blessings This shows plainly that the Covenant
it self is conditional in respect of the said subsequent blessings because it promiseth them conditionally and not otherwise And that which we see is granted to us that the administration of the Covenant of Grace is conditional because it is preached to all Elect and non-Elect Conditionally Affords us an irrefragable Argument to prove that it hath Conditions and is conditional For if the Covenant had no Condition at all with respect to the Elect how could we administer and preach it conditionally with respect to them If the Covenant which we administer and preach to the Elect were absolute to them so as to have no Condition and if yet notwithstanding that we should preach and administer the Covenant to them conditionally our Administration and Preaching would not agree with the Nature of the object and thing which we Administer and Preach and so it would be fallacious and deceitful The Covenant hath no Condition but is absolute to the Elect and yet must we tell them from the Lord that they must performe the condition of the Covenant-promise by believing and repenting and then they shall have the promised benefit of Justification and Pardon of sin but not otherwise Would not this be to dishonour God and abuse his People both at once To dishonour God by taking his Name in vain and preaching falsehood in his Name and to abuse his People by making them believe that the Covenant hath a Condition and that they must performe it otherwise they cannot be justified and saved when at the same time we do not believe this our selves which we tell the People but are perswaded in our own minds that the Covenant is wholly absolute to the Elect and hath no condition at all Either then as was said before we must not Administer and Preach any part of the Covenant conditionally to the Elect or there is and must be a Condition in the Covenant and if there be a Condition in the Covenant then we have what we aim at for we desire no more to prove the Covenant of Grace to be conditional and that it is not wholly absolute to the Elect. The Truth is here so clearly on our side that we think our Brethren should give Glory to God and receive his Truth without any farther wrangling opposition As for the Authour with whom we have to do though he several times expresly denies Faith to be the condition of Justification as page 8 9 25. Yet in page 24 where he affirms the Covenant to be absolute he grants that the offer of Christ and of all his fulness hath a Condition annexed to it that the Condition is acceptance of the Offer and that acceptance is a native Condition Here we have 1. An offer of Christ and of all his fulness which must of necessity include Justification for that is a part of Christ's fulness Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 Rom. 5.19 1 Cor. 1.30 2. This offer of Christ is an absolute offer which yet hath the Condition of acceptance annexed to it His meaning must be that the offer of Christ and his fulness is so absolute as to have no other Condition but yet not so absolute as not to have this one Condition of acceptance for if this be not his meaning it is contradictious Non-sense For an offer that is absolute without any Condition at all and an offer that hath a certain Condition implies a manifest contradiction And indeed his Words are that it is an absolute offer that hath no Condition in it but one Well then it is granted that the Gospel-offer of Christ and of all his fulness hath one Condition but so it is that that Gospel-offer includes an offer of Justification and therefore the Gospel-offer of Justification hath a Condition and since the offer of Justification can be nothing but the Promise of Justification held forth to the Soul by the Ministry of the Word it follows necessarily that the Promise of Justification hath a Condition And consequently that the Covenant of Grace is partly conditional it is conditional as it doth promise Justification upon a Condition 3. The Condition is Acceptance that is it is Faith for we cannot imagine what else but Faith he can mean by Acceptance For surely he doth not mean any meer natural Act of the Soul but rather some gracious supernatural Act and what that should be but Faith we cannot devise We must therefore take it for certain that by Acceptance he means Faith and our Faith in Christ is our acceptance of him and his fulness So then Faith being our Acceptance of Christ and of all his fulness which includes our Justification and our Acceptance by his own Confession being the Condition of the Offer it follows by necessary consequence that Faith is the Condition of the Offer but the Offer is the Covenant-promise of Christ and Justification through him therefore the Covenant-promise of Christ and Justification is conditional and an accepting or receiving Faith is the Condition of it Thus he contradicts himself by affirming what he had denied before and doth immediately deny again in the very next 25th Page 4. This Acceptance or Faith this accepting Faith is he sayes the native Condition of the Offer of Christ and of all his fulness and so of Justification What he means by native Condition needs an Explication for it is capable of a double meaning 1. It may signify that an accepting Faith hath a natural aptitude and fitness to be the Condition of the Offer or Promise of Christ and his fulness Or 2. That of its own Nature it necessarily is the Condition and could not possibly be otherwise so that its being the Condition ariseth wholly and necessarily from its own Nature and not at all from the Will of God constituting and ordaining it to that Office of being the Condition of the Offer or Promise Now if he mean that it is a native Condition in the first sense we agree with him for we know and acknowledge that Faith hath a natural aptitude and fitness to be the Condition of the Offer or Promise of Christ because Faith in the very Nature of it is an acceptance of Christ as he is offered in the Gospel and we conceive this might be a Reason wherefore God made choice of Faith to be the Condition of the Offer and Promise of Christ and Justification through him But if our Authour moan that Faith is the native Condition of the Offer or Promise in the second souse we must dissent from him For though the natural aptitude and fitness of Faith might be a Reason why God ordained it to be the Condition of the Promise yet it was not a necessitating Reason which so obliged God to make it the Condition of the Promise that he could not possibly do otherwise This we thus demonstrate 1. Whatsoever dependeth upon the Free-will and Soveraign Pleasure of Almighty God he might have done or not have done he might have done this way or another way if it had
Souls whose lot it is to be led into the Ditch by such blind guides But good Sir how doth it appear that our answer is wrong and yours only is right Why may not both be right and why must not both be right and both concur to make up one entire answer and full advice to a wicked man who under Conviction comes and asks Ministers what he must do to be saved If you had behaved your self in this matter like a fair adversary or an honest Man you had given in our answer fully without curtailing it for you know in your conscience that in such a case our full Answer and Advice to a Man is that he must do both he must both believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of mourn for and turn from his Sins The Conscience of Truth extorted this Confession from you in your appendix page 41. as we observed before That your hottest opposers would freely tell such a man that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin Why did not you then if you be an honest man give in our full answer and refute it if you thought it was wrong If you say that Paul did not give such a full answer and advice to the Goaler Acts 16.30 31. but bid him believe only in the Lord Jesus Christ and thereupon promised him Salvation without advising him to repent and turn from his sins We answer It is true Paul bid the Goaler believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but it is utterly false that he bid him only believe there is no such exclusive particle in the Text and though the Sacred Historian Luke mention not expresly that Paul bid the Goaler repent yet it doth by no means follow that because Luke doth not say expresly that Paul bid the Goaler repent therefore he did not bid him for it was never Lukes intention to set down in his History every Word or Sentence which Paul at any time spoke to the People Nay in the very next verse Acts 16.32 Luke says that Paul and Silas spake unto the Goaler the Word of the Lord and to all that were in his house but he doth not tell us particularly what that Word was Nor doth our Authour know nor can he with a good Conscience say that it was not an Advice and Exhortation to repent to mourn for his known sins and to leave and loath them assuring him that thereupon God would have mercy on him and pardon his sins and save his Soul for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake If our Authour say that as he cannot be sure of the negative that he did not so we cannot be sure of the affirmative that he did preach the necessity of Repentance to the Goaler We answer that we can prove and do thus prove the affirmative 1. Because it was a part of the Apostles Commission to preach Repentance unto all People as well as Faith in Christ for which see Mark 16.15 16. compared with Luke 24.47 48. But Paul was an Apostle therefore he acted according to the Apostolical Commission 2. Because Paul baptized or caused the Goaler to be baptized and it was necessary that Repentance should be preached to him and professed by him before such an one as he were admitted to Baptisme 3. Because Paul himself tells us as his words are recorded by the Sacred Historian Luke that it was his common Practice to preach Repentance as well as Faith unto all those whom he Converted or intended and endeavoured to convert unto the Christian Religion Thus did he at Lystra Acts 14.15 He exhorted the people to turn from their vanities unto the living God which made Heaven and Earth c. Thus also at Athens Acts 17.30 31. He commanded them all from the Lord to repent and perswaded them so to do by a most powerful Motive and Argument taken from God's being Rector and Judge of the World and from his having appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ and will then justifie or condemn reward or punish every man according to their works and this he assured them of by an Argument taken from Christ's Resurrection from the dead Again in Acts 20.21 he tells us That Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus were the sum and substance of his Sermons these were the two subjects that he â—ordinarily preached upon both to Jews and Gentiles And lastly in Acts 26.20 22 23. we read that he declared openly to Ring Agrippa that from the first time he was miraculously called to be an Apostle his business had been to preach Repentance and Faith From all which we conclude that we have good reason to believe and assert the affirmative that Paul did not preach Faith only but that he preached Repentance also to the Goaler and withal we challenge and defie our Authour to prove the Negative that Paul preached not the necessity of Repentance but of Faith only in order to his Salvation But saith our Authour page 15. No wit or art of man will ever find a crack or flaw in or devise another or a better answer than Pauls to the Goaler believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved We Reply It is far from the thoughts of any of us or of any good Christian to find fault with or to go about to mend Paul's Answer to the Goalers question all that we say is that his whole answer is not set down expresly by the Historian Luke and we have proved it A truer Answer cannot indeed be given than it was but a fuller may be given and we have proved it was given by Paul though not particularly expressed by Luke This may satisfie any reasonable Man for we are sure it cannot be confuted Yet for the farther satisfaction of all Men if possible we will here transeribe and set down a passage of Mr. Venning a famous Congregational Minister once in this City It is in his Sermon called the way to true happyness preached before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen January 28. 1654 5 on Matth. 7.21 page 10 11 12. I ground it further saith he on this Rule which is an undeniable one and for not attending whereunto we have had so many needless groundless and unprofitable disputes in the World The Rule is this That the Scripture doth often yea very usually put particular Duties for all Religion and therefore annexeth Salvation to distinct Graces Sometimes it is he that believeth shall be saved Elsewhere he that calleth upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved Here it is He that doth the will of God Now all these and the like are complex and comprehensive propositions and contain more in them than they make shew of for God speaks much in a little Acts and Duties of Religion being as Moralists speak of their Vertues inter se connexae linked together in a Golden Chain Religion is not this or that piece but the whole which is usually expressed in a word or
sometimes two as in Acts 20.20 21 27. compared the Apostle comprehends the whole counsel of God under Repentance and Faith also in that of Solomon Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of Man Eccles 12.13 So that if you could suppose a Man to be a Believer and to be a Believer alone it would not save him as the Apostle James saith chap. 2.14 What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say he hath faith and have not works can faith save him No no more than saying be ye warmed will warm any or be ye filled will fill any for Faith without works is dead And what is said of this may be said of the rest so that when the Scripture speaks of Salvation as annexed to any one thing it supposeth that to contain the rest The reason is evident for the Graces of God as saving are not parted There is no believing to Salvation without Repentance nor no Repentance to Salvation without believing there is no calling upon the Name of the Lord will save without departing from iniquity nor can they savingly depart from iniquity that call not on the Name of the Lord. It is not any one thing but things that pertain to the Kingdom of God Acts 1.3 It is not thing but things that accompany or as it may be better read contain Salvation Heb. 6.9 And he that takes one for all without all as our wise Authour doth will find nothing at all A part is no portion The great fallacy with which Satan deludes many men is that which Logicians call à benè compositis ad malè divisa When he gets them to take Religion into pieces and then take one piece for Religion One cries up God another cries up Christ another Faith another Love another good Works but what is God without Christ or Christ without Faith or Faith without Love or Love without Works But now take God in Christ by Faith which worketh by Love to the keeping of the Commandments of God and this is pure Religion It is the whole that is the whole of Man Yet again though I have spoken thus much to it let me make it clearer than a demonstration That one is put for all and as containing all by comparing these places of Scripture In 1 Cor. 7.19 You read that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but keeping the Commandments of God What 's that Why that is all in all In Gal. 5.6 It is neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love That 's that which availeth or is all in all Yet in Gal. 6.15 he saith neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature That 's all in all And yet for all this as if all this were nothing he tells us in Col. 3.11 That Christ is all and in all cashiering both circumcision and uncircumcision as formerly Now my beloved if you should take any one of these though each be said to be availing I say if you should take any one and lay the stress of your Salvation upon it you were undone Let our Authour and his Proselytes look to themselves It is not keeping the Commandments of God nor Faith working by Love nor the new Creature no nor Christ himself considered alone and apart that availeth any thing but these in conjunction He names one onely because where one is it is not only one there is more than one wherever one is savingly there are all in their respective places as far as they are to be in relation to Salvation Thus you see that Faith as well as Works and Works as well as Faith every one in their own order are to be taken in or we shall not be taken into the Kingdom of Heaven This Rule of interpreting Scripture is one of Vennings things that are well worth the thinking on and therefore we have set it down at large If it be duly attended to it will give light sufficient to discover the darkness of our Authours Ignorance or Hypocrisie But he objects further That no answer but this alone can rightly heal the wound of an awakened Conscience pag. 15. We reply That what he says is false and delusive in his sense taking Faith for one single act of one Grace and Duty exclusive of Repentance and all other Graces and Duties But take it according to God's usual way of speaking much in a little and in a complex comprehensive sense as taking in or not excluding but rather supposing Repentance and it is most true For the Vertue and Efficacy of Christ's Blood applyed by the Spirit and Faith to the Soul prepared by Repentance is indeed the only Remedy that can heal it But if our Authour will say that Faith in Christ alone and without Repentance will heal the wounds of awakened consciences in wicked Men at their first Conversion we cannot choose but rank him amongst those Covetous deceitful Prophets and Priests who heal the hurt of the People slightly saying Peace peace when there is no peace Jerem. 6.13 14. We are infallibly sure from the Scriptures of Truth That the Apostles Commission was to preach Repentance as well as Faith in order to Mens Justification and Salvation and that they were obedient to the Commands of their Great and Glorious Lord and preached according to their Commission For we read in God's Holy Word that when the Consciences of a multitude of unbelieving Jews who had been accessory to the most barbarous murder of Christ the Son of God and Saviour of Men were throughly awakened and their Spirits were deeply wounded by the Arrows of Conviction which Almighty God by his Word and Spirit had shot into their Souls they feeling themselves pricked in their hearts said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts 2.37 then as follows vers 38. Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins c. Here we have a Company of People in great distress of Conscience as the Goaler was and in this their Spiritual distress they do as the Goaler did As the Goaler sought advice of Paul and Silas and asked them what he should do to be saved Just so the awakened convinced Jews sought advice of Peter and the rest of the Apostles and asked them What they should do To whom Peter answered Repent and be baptized c. Whereupon we demand of our Authour was this answer of Peter a right answer or not 1. We hope he will not he dare not say it was not a right answer For Peter was an Apostle as well as Paul and at that very time he was full of the Holy Ghost and spake as he was inspired by the Holy Ghost If then he should be so bold as to say that Peter did not give them a right answer because he did not say to them as Paul said to the
sorrows and pains than to hear that this is the Command of God this is the voice of Christ the Bridegroom that they be surely perswaded that Remission of sins or Reconciliation is given not for our worthiness but freely through Mercy for Christ's sake that the benefit may be certain As for the word Justification in those passages of Paul it signifies the Remission of sins or Reconciliation or imputation of Righteousness that is the acceptation of the Person And in the same Article the paragraph concerning good works This new life then should be obedience towards God And the Gospel preaches Repentance nor can there be Faith but in those who repent because Faith comforts Mens hearts in contrition and fears of sin c. Moreover we also teach concerning this Obedience that they who commit mortal sins that is wilful presumptuous sins against Knowledge and Conscience are not just because God requires this obedience that we resist our corrupt lusts and affections But those who do not resist but obey them against the Command of God and do actions against their Conscience they are unjust and they neither retain the Holy Spirit nor Faith that is confidence of Mercy For in those who delight in sin and do not repent there cannot indeed be that Trust or Confidence which may seek for remission of sins This passage of the Augustan Confession we thus understand that habitual reigning wilful sin against Conscience and without Repentance is inconsistent with a state of Grace and Reconciliation And we think that all Protestants except Antinomians are agreed in this One passage more and we have done with this Confession of Faith It is in the same 20th Article of Faith a little before the passage last quoted There is no need here of disstations about predestination and the like For the promise is universal and it takes nothing from works yea it stirs up to Faith and to Works that are truely good For remission of sins is transferred or removed from our Works unto God's Mercy not that we may do nothing but much rather that we may know how our Obedience pleaseth God in our so great infirmity This was the first Protestant Confession of Faith written by Melancthon Received by the Protestant Churches subscribed by their Ministers and that not onely by Luther and those of his Party but even by Calvin also It was likewise subscribed by seven Princes and Dukes in Germany and by the Magistrates of Cities and presented unto the Emperour Charles V. in the Year 1530. We hope then it will not be denyed but that this Augustan Confession contains the true Doctrine of the Gospel in the points of Justification by Faith and of the necessity of Repentance unto the obtaining pardon of sin and of sincere Obedience unto the obtaining of Eternal Salvation And if so then our Doctrine in those points is likewise the true Doctrine of the Gospel for it is the same with that of the Augustan Confession as to those Matters of which we treat From the Augustan Confession and the Testimony of many Princes Pastours Cities and Churches who subscribed and received it we come to the Articles of the Church of England which we have all subscribed the 11th Article concerning Justification we most heartily embrace and acknowledge that it is a most wholsome Doctrine and full of comfort that we are justified by Faith onely in that sense which is more largely explained in the Homily of Justification to which the Article expresly refers us and which by consequence we have subscribed by subscribing the Article It is called a Sermon of the Salvation of Mankind by Christ onely and a very good Sermon it is worth a thousand of our Authour's Letter which deserves not to be mentioned the same Day with it For understanding then the true and full meaning of the Article of Justification we must have recourse to the Homily or Sermon of Salvation In which Excellent Sermon pag. 13. We read as followeth London Edit 1673. That though according to the Apostle we are justified by a true and lively Faith onely and that that Faith is the Gist of God Yet that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the Fear of God to be joined with Faith in every Man that is Justified but it shutteth them out from the office of Justifying So that although they be all present together marke that they do not onely necessarily follow and flow from Faith in time but when we are first Justified they are present together with it in him that is Justified yet they Justifie not altogether nor the Faith also doth not shut out the Justice of our good Works as necessary to be done afterwards of Duty towards God for we are most bounden to serve God in doing good Deeds commanded by him in his Holy Scripture all the Days of our life but it excludeth them so that we may not do them to this intent to be made good by doing them For all the good works that we can do be imperfect and therefore not able to deserve our Justification c. Again in the second part of that Sermon pag. 15. Nevertheless this Sentence that we be Justified by Faith onely is not so meant of them that the said Justifying Faith is alone in Man without true Repentance Hope Charity Dread and Fear of God at any time and season Nor when they say that we be Justified freely they mean not that we should or might afterwards be idle and that nothing should be required on our parts afterwards Neither they mean not so to be justified without good Works that we should do no good Works at all But this saying that we be justified by Faith onely freely and without Works is spoken for to take away clearly all Merit of our Works as being unable to deserve our Justification at God's Hand and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of Man and the Goodness of God the great infirmity of our selves and the Might and Power of God the imperfectness of our own works and the most abundant Grace of our Saviour Christ and therefore wholly to ascribe the Merit and Deserving of our Justification unto Christ onely and his most precious Blood-shedding This Faith the Holy Scripture teacheth us this is the strong Rock and Foundation of Christian Religion this Doctrine all Old and Antient Authours of Christ's Church do approve this Doctrine advanceth and setteth forth the true Glory of Christ and beateth down the vain-glory of Man this whosoever denieth is not be accounted for a Christian Man nor for a setter forth of Christ's Glory but for an Adversary to Christ and his Gospel and for a setter forth of Mens vain-glory Again pag. 16. The true meaning and understanding of this Doctrine we be Justified freely by Faith without Works or we be Justified by Faith in Christ onely is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is within us
doth justify us and deserve our Justification unto us for that were to count our selves to be justified by some Act or Vertue that is within our selves but the true understanding and meaning thereof is that although we hear God's Word and believe it although we have Faith Hope Charity Repentance Dread and Fear of God within us and do never so many Works thereunto Yet we must renounce the Merit of all our said Vertues of Faith Hope Charity and all other Vertues and good Deeds which we either have done shall do or can do as things that be far too weak and insufficient and imperfect to deserve remission of our sins and our Justification and therefore we must trust onely in God's Mercy and that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross to obtain thereby God's Grace and Remission as well of our Original Sin in Baptism as of all Actual Sin committed by us after our Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him again And at the end of the same 16. and beginning of 17. Page You see that the very true meaning of this Proposition or Saying we be Justified by Faith in Christ onely according to the meaning of the Old Antient Authours I is this We put our Faith in Christ that we be justified by him only that we be Justified by God's free Mercy and the Merits of our Saviour Christ onely and by no Vertue or good Works of our own that is in us or that we can be able to have or to do for to deserve the same Christ himself only being the Cause meritorious thereof All this we most heartily approve of But we doubt whether our Authour will join with us in it because he says the Papists own this That Christ onely is the Meritorious Cause of our Justification And if it be so Lett. pag. 6. then according to his reckoning the Church of England and we may be both Papists in the point of Justification notwithstanding that the said Homily was written purposely against the Papists and we have all subscribed to it It may be our Authour has so accustomed himself to call Men Papists when ever he is angry with them that he cannot forbear it and therefore as he used to call the Church of England Men Papists so now being angry with us his Passion may have excited him to bring his Habit into Act and to rank us also among Papists in the point of Justification But we leave this and proceed to what is more material and that is that if we be not Justified by Works because they do not nor cannot merit Justification then it will follow that for the same reason we are not Justified by Faith because Faith can no more merit Justification than Works This Objection the Authour or Authours of the Homily foresaw and answered it by confessing that Faith doth not Justify us on the account of its meritorious Nature but on another account Their Words are these As great and as godly a Vertue as the lively Faith is yet it putteth us from it self and remitteth or appointeth us unto Christ for to have only by him remission of our sins or Justification So that our Faith in Christ as it were saith unto us thus It is not I that take away your sins but it is Christ only and to him only I send you for that purpose forsaking therein all your good vertues Words Thoughts and Works and only putting your trust in Christ And in the Third Part Pag. 17. Nevertheless because Faith doth directly send us to Christ for remission of our sins and that by Faith given us of God we embrace the Promise of God's Mercy and of the remission of our sins which thing none other of our vertues or works properly doth therefore Scripture useth to say that Faith without Works doth Justify Thus far that Excellent Sermon And this is the same thing which we maintain That God hath chosen Faith above all other Graces and Vertues to be the receptive applicative Condition or moral Instrument and Means of Justification because it hath a proper and peculiar aptitude and fitness for that use being both of an illuminative and receptive Nature and as it is of an illuminative Nature it assures us that we can be Justified by no Satisfaction and Merit but that of Christ and so it sends us to him alone for Justification Then as it is of a receptive Nature it embraceth the Promise and takes hold of him and his Righteousness as held forth to us in the Promise that thereby and for the Satisfaction and Merits thereof alone and for no other thing we may be Justified In this sense we hold that we are Justified by Faith onely and that Faith is the onely receptive applicative Condition of Justification Yet this hinders not but that Repentance is the dispositive Condition of Justification The Homily saith expresly that Faith doth not shut out Repentance but that they are present together and that by Faith we trust only in Gods mercy and Christs Sacrifice to obtain thereby Remission of all Sins Original and Actual if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him again Part 2. pag. 16. Which words manifestly shew that they held Repentance to be a Condition of Justification but it cannot be according to the Authours of the Homily either a meritorious Condition for there is none such at all possible nor a receptive applicative Condition for that is the office of Faith onely Therefore it must be a dispositive Condition And then after one is Justified it is evident that they held sincere Obedience to be indispensably necessary to his continuing in a Justified state and obtaining Eternal Salvation For they say in Part 3. pag. 17. that if after we are Justified and made Members of Christ we care not how we live whether we do good or avoid evil Works we make our selves Members of the Devil and surely that is inconsistent with a Justified state Therefore to prevent our becoming Members of the Devil again sincere Obedience from a Principle of Faith and Love is indispensably necessary And that this was their true meaning is further evident from the Sermon of Good Works Part I. pag. 29. Where they quote and approve the saying of Chrysostom concerning the penitent Thief The words are This I will surely affirm that Faith onely saved him If he had lived and not regarded Faith and the works thereof he should have lost his Salvation again Indeed this is but a Supposition and we have no reason to think that if he had lived longer he would not have been careful to lead a Life of Faith and Holy Obedience yet if the antecedent be supposed the consequent necessarily follows that he would have lost his Salvation again For as it is in the Sermon of Faith To them that have evil works Second Part p. 24. and lead their Life in disobedience and transgression or
have everlasting Life And Art 6. he sayes that Faith embraces and appropriates to ones self Christ and all that is in him for since be is offered us to be possessed by us with this condition if we believe in him one of the two thâ—n must necessarily be to wit either that all is not in Christ which is necessary to our Salvation Or if all be in him then he possesseth all things who possesseth Christ by Faith And in his short Confession Art 10. Itaque meritò concludere possumus in uno Jesu Christo contra omnia mala quae conscièntias nostras terrere possunt praesentissima remedia reperiri Sed addenda est conditio si ista remedia nobis applicemus Therefore we may justly conclude that in one Jesus Christ there are found soveraign infallible remedies against all the evils that can terrifie our Consciences But this condition must be added if we apply those remedies to our selves We see Beza put it into his Confession of Faith as an Article of his Belief that the Gospel Covenant hath a Condition and is conditional The same Authour in his little Book of Questions and Answers the First Part to the Question You say then that Good Works are necessary to Salvation he Answers that if Faith be necessary to Salvation then Good Works are likewise necessary to it non tamen ut salatis causam yet not as the cause of Salvation for we are justified and therefore live onely by Faith in Christ but as something that is necessarily joined with Faith as Paul saith they are the Children of God who are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.14 And John that he is righteous who doth righteousness 1 John 4.7 So that it plainly appears they are contentious Men who condemn the necessity of Good Works as a false Doctrine Thus Beza And we do no more say that Good Works are necessary as the cause of Salvation than he doth nor do we any more than he say that Good Works without Faith are the necessary Condition of obtaining Salvation On the contrary we say that Faith is the Spring of all our good Motions and runs through them all and that it is Good Works done from a Principle of Faith and Love which are the necessary Condition of obtaining Salvation Lastly To the Question What then if Faith be first given to a Man at the point of Death For this seems to have been the case of the penitent Thief who was crucified with Christ What good Works can such a Man do Beza Answers Yea the Faith of that Thief in a most short time was unspeakably energetical or effectual and operative for he reproved the other Thief for his blasphemies and wickedness he abhorred his own Crimes with a firm and most wonderful Faith he acknowledged Christ to be an Eternal King and prayed unto him as a Saviour under the very ignominy and shame of the Cross when all his own Disciples were silent and spoke not one word for him he did also openly rebuke the Jews for their Cruelty and impious Expressions But so it is that Confession of sin Prayer to God the Father through Christ and thanksgiving are the most excellent Works of the First Table which in no Man can be wholly separated from Faith And although some may be so prevented by Death as not to have power to shew forth any works of the Second Table yet in such a Man Faith is not therefore to be esteemed idle and unfruitful because it hath Love conjoined though not in Energie and Act yet in Power and Principle Thus far Beza To which we agree as we said before In such extraordinary cases God requires no more of Men as absolutely necessary to their Salvation than they have time and strength to perform but accepts the will for the deed through Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 8.12 Our next Witness is Mr. Fox the Authour of the Book of Martyrs The World hath been told already in the defence of Gospel-Truth pag. 35. that holy Mr. Fox in his Latine Book of Christ freely Justifying maintains that Faith is the proper receptive applicative Condition of Justification and that Repentance is the dispositive Condition it is that which prepares us for receiving Justification But some who read that Discourse of his in the Book of Martyrs which our Authour directs them unto may possibly object that in the second Volume of the Book of Martyrs pag. 192. he saith The Promise of Life and Salvation is offered unto us freely without any Condition We Answer It is true he doth say so but he means that it is without any Meritorious Legal Condition and all such Conditions we reject as much as he did or any Man can do as appears by what we have said at large in giving account of our Judgment concerning the Conditionality of the Covenant That this was Mr. Fox's true meaning appears from his own Words in the same Page a few Lines after The Voice of the Gospel saith he differeth from the Voice of the Law in this that it hath no Condition adjoined of our meriting but only respecteth the Merits of Christ the Son of God If our Authour will not admit of this explication of Fox's Words that he only rejected all Meritorious and Legal Conditions but will needs have it that he absolutely rejects all Conditions of the Covenant of Grace both Legal and Evangelical then we must say that he hath little respect to the Memory and Credit of Mr. Fox since he makes him most shamefully to contradict himself And was he fit then to write a Book of Martyrs or to be himself a Witness for the Truth against the Papists Can he be justly admitted to bear witness against others who by self-contradiction is a false Witness against himself Truly we should be loath so to expose that good Man to the scorn of the Papists and therefore we positively affirm that he doth not contradict himself at all because the Conditions are of different kinds which he denies and affirms He denies that there are any properly meritorious legal Conditions of the new Covenant and so do we He affirms that there is a proper Evangelical Condition to wit Faith and constant Confession They are his own Words in his Latine Book aforesaid And we join with him in affirming the same And now we do further make it known to the People that Mr. Fox in the said Book concerning Christ freely Justifying doth grant that after we are freely justified by Faith in Christ sincere Obedience to Christ's Commandments is necessary to retain or not to lose our Justification These are his own Words Quod autem dici solet per obedientiam retineri justificationis gratiam Page 369 370. ut hoc concedatur aliquo modo non tamen hinc c. As for that which useth to be said that the Grace of Justification is retained by Obedience though that be granted in some sense yet it doth not follow from hence that Justification
fully expresses our sense and to which we heartily subscribe Agreeable to this is that which we find in Mr. Rutherford's Examination of Arminianism Chap. 13. Pag. 594. That a Promise that we shall persevere in Faith and obtain Eternal Salvation though we walk after the Flesh and lead a wicked life may be called a dissolute Promise but that we do not maintain an absolute Promise of perseverance in that dissolute sense for though the Promise of perseverance in Faith be absolute yet it is always joined with an absolute Promise of perseverance in Holiness and Obedience and as it is necessary to Salvation that Elect Believers continue in Faith so it is necessary that they continue in Holiness and Obedience And if for some time there happen to be an intermission of Faith and Obedience there must be a renewing of them again that we may obtain Salvation and this renovation of our Faith and Obedience is the effect of the absolute Promise but not the obtaining of Salvation without and before the renewing of our Faith and Repentance and returning to our Obedience This is plainly Rutherford's sense And indeed he goes further than we have done in that he ascribes an inferiour kind of Causality to Obedience and good Works in order to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation for which he quotes Calvin Bucer Examen Armin. cap. 12. Zanchy and Voetius yea he quotes the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 4.17 saying that our light Afflictions which are but for a Moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory In the Pages 531 532 533. of that Book Again he says expresly That the hope of Eternal Life ex eo vana esse colligitur si non innitatur sincerae obedientiae tanquam fulcro secundario 1 Johan 3.3 is hence proved to be vain and groundless if it be not upheld by sincere obedience as a secondary slay or prop. Pag. 592. of the same Book And in another Book he saith that it is a new Heresy of Antinomians to deny a Conditional Gospel it is all one Survey of Antin Part II. p. 63. as to belye the Holy Ghost who saith He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not is condemned already Spanhemius likewise a very Learned Divine and zealous against the Arminians in his Disputation at Leyden concerning the five controverted Articles saith in the 34th Thesis or Position Omnibus equidem externè vocatis annunciatur promissio Evangelii non tamen absolutè sed conditionatè si resipiscant credant The Promise of the Gospel is indeed preached to all that are outwardly called yet not absolutely but conditionally if they believe and repent And Thes 36. For as it is in vain that a great Good is ready at hand to us unless we either take and receive or fulfil the Condition which is required in the Covenant and Promise of it so that infinite benefit of Redemption is in vain purchased for us by Christ except we embrace it with a sure confidence and performe Faith and Repentance unto God requiring them as the terms of the Covenant John 3.16 Acts 2.38 And to draw towards a close with the Testimonies of some of our own English Divines we find that Dr. Robert Abbot writing against Thompson saith Abbot contra Thomsoni Diatrib de Intercis Justif p. 212. Credi non debet remissio peccatorum ante poenitentiam poenitere aliquem de peccato non potest quod nondum est c. It ought not to be believed that Remission of sins is before Repentance and a Man cannot repent of a sin that is not yet committed c. Again Remission of sins is never decreed for any of ripe years without Repentance nor is it ever granted upon another Condition that is another dispositive Condition the Faith therefore of Remission should not anticipate Repentance c. Neither let us think that without Repentance we ought ever to say Forgive us our trespasses c. And because our Authour saith that God hath blessed England with an Ames and Twiss against the Arminians Let. p. 13. p. 27. and that we neglect and despise them we will alledge some Testimonies out of their Writings by which the World may judge whether those two great Divines be for him or for us in this cause And first for Dr. Ames in his Answer to Grevinchovius page 138. he sayes Quòd fides haec non sit volitionis ipsius divinae conditio sed salutis assequendae tantùm hanc ego sententiam meam esse fateor veramque cum Deo praestiturum me confido That this faith of ours is not the condition of Gods will it self but that it is only the condition of our obtaining Salvation I confess this to be my opinion and I trust with Gods help that I shall prove it to be true We observe here that Ames distinguisheth between Gods will of our Salvation and our Salvation it self which is the object of his will As for the first to wit God's Will Faith is not cannot be the Condition of God's Will because it is Eternal and Absolute and cannot possibly depend upon any Condition whatsoever But the second to wit our Salvation the object of God's Will it may have and hath a Condition and God hath absolutely willed that it should have and depend upon a Condition and that Faith should be the Condition on which our obtaining of it doth depend This is his meaning and we agree with him in it The same Authour in another Book his Marrow of Divinity saith That the Promises of the Gospel are without any discrimination proposed unto all together with a Command to believe Medul Theologiae Lib. 1. cap. 26. pag. 112. but they are not performed unto all because Men themselves fail in performing the Condition But unto the Elect the Condition is given that the Promises may be performed to them Which he proves by three Scriptures Eph. 2.8 Acts 5.31 and chap. 11. ver 18. whereof one proves Faith and the other two prove Repentance to be the Gift of God Whence it is most evident that he thought Repentance as well as Faith to be the condition of the Gospel-Promises Again in the same Book and next Chapter he says This Justification is for Christ considered not absolutely Ibid. cap. 27. pag. 118. in which sense Christ is also the cause of effectual vocation but for Christ apprehended by faith which faith follows effectual calling as its effect and goes before Justification as the Instrumental Cause apprehending that Righteousness of Christ upon which Righteousness so apprehended Justification follows In this Passage we highly approve the order in which he placeth things as putting effectual calling in order of nature before faith and Faith before Justification But where he saith that Faith is the Instrumental Cause apprehending the Righteousness of Christ for which we are Justified some possibly may think that he ascribes too much unto Faith yet we think that the difference
thereunto The Discipline of Christ's Kingdom is as Cords and Bonds unto them they desire to break them and to cast off the yoke of obedience unto him And again it is as true that 〈◊〉 man is damned for not adding the efficacy of Gods Spirit unto his word They are damned for contemning Godâ—s Word and not hearkning to his Gracious Admonitions but they could do no other as this Arminian Authour intimates But what impotency is this Is it any where else than in their wills Which this Authour considers not nor distinguisheth between impotency natural and impotency moral were they willing to hearken hereunto but could not then inâ—â—gd their impotency were excusablâ— but they please themselves in their obstinate courses and if they would do otherwise I make no question but that they should have no more cause to complain of their impotency to do that good which they would do than the servants of God have yea and holy Paul himself had How can you believe saith our Saviour John 5.44 Here is a certain impotency of believing which our Saviour takes notice of but what manner of impotency is it Observe by that which followeth who receive Honour one of another and regard not the Honour which cometh of God only Therefore you hear not my words because ye are not of God John 8.47 This is as true as the word of the Son of God is true although this Authour sets himself to impugne this kind of Doctrine all along But withal consider do they deplore this impotency Doth the consideration hereof humble them Nay rather they delight in it as the Prophet noteth Jerem. 6.10 Their ears are uncircumcised and they cannot hearken Behold the Word of God is as a Reproach unto them they have no delight in it By these Testimonies of Dr. Twiss and more which might be quoted to this purpose we plainly see that though he doth every where maintain that God by his special discriminating effectual Grace enables the Elect but not the non-Elect to believe repent and obey the Gospel and so to performe the Condition of the Covenant yet at the same time he declares that the inability of the Non-Elect to believe repent and obey is a meer moral impotency arising from the ill disposition of their own minds and affections that therefore they cannot because they will not and that if they would they should be able to believe and repent and obey the Gospel Now though we heartily agree with the Doctor that it is by the special discriminating effectual Grace of God in Christ Jesus that the Elect believe repent and obey the Gospel and also that the inability and impotency which others are under to do these things is a moral and not a meer natural inability and impotence yet to show that we are far from being Pelagians or Arminians we must declare to the World That Dr. Twiss seems sometimes to ascribe more to the Natural Power of an Unregenerate Man without the Grace of God than we can allow of This he doth in the foresaid Book in defence of the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort page 48. Where after he had discoursed of natural and moral Impotency and shewed 1. That the wicked are punished for refusing to believe that this refusal is the free act of their wills and by their natural power they might abstain from this refusal and might believe with an acquired Faith as many Vnregenerate Men have done And 2. After he had likewise shewed out of Augustin That the reason why the wicked do not believe is because they will not and that if they would they might believe and that since they might believe if they would it is just with God to punish them sor not believing And 3. After he had shewed out of the same Augustin That the reason why they will not believe is either because they do not see the truth and goodness of that which they should believe or else because it doth not delight them 4. In the fourth place he adventures to go one step further and of his own head to say That except the supernatural acts of the Three Theological Vertues Faith Hope and Love all Acts and Duties inward or outward are natural and may be performed by a natural man though not in an acceptable manner for want of Faith Hope and Love supernatural Now saith he they are his own very words suppose that a man were so exact both in natural morality and in an outward conformity to the means of Grace as not to fail in any particular as he hath power to performe any particular hereof naturally in this case I say if there were any such he should be in the same case with those that are guilty of no sin but sin original c. Upon this passage we observe that the Doctor supposeth it possible for a natural man by the meer power of nature without any supernatural Grace to be so exact in doing all the Duties which God requires of him as not to fail in any particular and so to keep himself free from all actual Sin He doth not indeed say that there is or ever was or ever will be such a Man but he plainly enough says that it is naturally possible and supposes it so to be he supposes it possible for a natural man by the power of Nature so to live as to be without all actual sin This we are so far from agreeing to that on the contrary we hold it to be naturally impossible for any natural man by natural power so to live as to be without all actual sin For surely original sin in such a Man would so vigorously put it self forth into act upon the presentation of outward objects to his Senses or the formation of Notions and Idea's of things in his mind that by his meer natural power he could not possibly hinder all the Sallies and Eruptions of it This is the Catholick Faith and the contrary is pure Pelagianisme which we wonder how it should ever fall from the Pen of Dr. Twiss who was really a hater of Pelagianisme We should never have mentioned this but to let men know how far we are from Pelagianism even farther than Dr. Twiss was as to the power of a Natural Man Indeed we are so far from thinking that a Natural Man by his meer natural powers can live without all actual sin that we do not believe that a Spiritual Regenerate Man can live so exactly as to keep himself free from all actual sin although he be furnished and assisted with such a measure of supernatural Grace as the Lord doth ordinarily give out unto his own select People This is the Common Doctrine of the Reformed Churches which we can demonstrate to be true and which we firmly believe Surely then it must be a vile slander cast upon us that we are so far gone off from the Truth of the Reformed Religion Let. p. 13. as that our Cause and the Pelagians is coincident and
that more and worse is feared which what it should be we cannot imagine unless it be that they fear we will at last renounce Christ and Christianity But to this we will say with David 2 Sam. 16.12 it may be the Lord will look upon our case and requite us good for this reviling Dr. let p. 12. Downame Bishop of Derry whom our Authour also commends in his Letter shall next come in for a Witness on our behalf who in his Book of the Covenant of Grace saith The promises of the Gospel cannot be applyed to any aright but only to those who have the condition of the promise page 134 135. which is the justifying Faith For the Gospel doth not promise Justification and Salvation to all but to those only who have a justifying Faith Therefore a Man must be endued with justifying Faith before he can or ought to apply the promises of the Gospel to himself For as Salvation is promised to them that believe so damnation is denounced to them that believe not Mark 16.16 John 3.16 18. Again No man ought to apply the promise of the Gospel to himself who hath not the condition of the promise ibid. page 153. unless he will perniciously deceive himself For as he that believeth shall be saved so he that believeth not shall be condemned page 154. Again As we daily sin so we must daily ask forgiveness Prayer being the means that God hath ordained to that end Object Yea But saith the Papist ye forsooth have already full assurance of the remission of all your sins not only past but also to come Answ It is absurd to imagine that sins be remitted before they be committed and much more that we be assured they are remitted before they be either remitted or committed That indeed were a Doctrine to animate and to encourage Men to sin But howsoever the Pope sometimes forgiveth sins to come yet God doth not When God justifyeth a man he giveth him remission of sins past Rom. 3.25 As for time to come we teach that although Christ hath merited and God hath promised remission of sins of all the faithful unto the end of the World notwithstanding remission of sins is not actually obtained and much less by special Faith believed until Men do actually believe and repent and by humble and faithful Prayer renew their Faith and Repentance For as God hath promised to the faithful all good things But how Matt. 7.7 8. To them that ask Luke 18.13 14. that seek that knock So also remission of sins Neither is it to be doubted but that remission of sin though merited by Christ though promised by God though sealed unto us in the Sacrament of Baptisme is obtained by the effectual Prayer of those who believe and repent for whom Christ hath merited it and to whom God hath promised it in his Word and sealed it by the Sacrament even as the obtaining of the rain which God had promised 1 Kings 18. ver 1 41. and the Prophet Elias had foretold is ascribed to the effectual Prayer of Elias James 5.16 18. To Bishop Downames we add the very Learned and Pious Gatakers Testimony When â—altâ—arsh the Antinomian had objected and said either place Salvation on a free bottom or else you make the New Covenant but an old Covenant in new terms Do this and live believe this and live repent and live obey and live Gataker replies This is frivolous because as hath been shewed Gatakers shadows without Substance page 49. Salvations free bottom is no way impeached by such conditions as these required and scandalous because therein the Apostles Doctrine is not covertly but directly challenged as overthrowing and razing the foundation of free Grace For what is believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved but believe and live Or what is repent that your sins may be done away but repent and live Or what is He is the Authour of Salvation to all that obey him but obey and live And I demand again what this amounts unto whether it be any other than blasphemy to say that the Apostles by such their Doctrine did not place Salvation upon a free bottom but brought in the old Covenant again in new terms Sir Dare you say in your new revealed Mystery believe not and yet live repent not and yet live obey not and yet live Again We may truly say that you and yours are they that either cannot or will not see the Wood for Trees Ibid. page 57. the conditions on which Salvation by Christ is propounded though in the Gospel they do every where occur and offer themselves will ye nill ye to your eyes With Gataker we joyn Mr. Ball who in his Treatise of Faith recommended by a Preface of Dr. Sibbes saith Balls Treatise of Faith part 1. page 86. The promise of remission of sins is conditional and becometh not absolute until the condition be fulfilled This is the word of Grace Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved When doth this conditional proposition become absolute When we believe what That our sins are pardoned No but when we believe in Christ to obtain pardon which is the thing promised upon condition of belief Again The priviledge of Grace and Comfort which comes to the Soul by believing must be distinguished from the Condition of the Covenant Ibid. page 89. which is required on our parts before we can obtain pardon Again We can teach no Faith to Salvation but according to the rule of Christ Repent and believe the Gospel no remission of sin Ibid. page 136. but according to the like Rule Luke 24.47 Acts 2.37 38. But Faith seeketh and receiveth pardon as it is proffered in the word of Grace Repentance is necessary to the pardon of sin as a condition without which it cannot be obtained not as a cause why it is given Luke 13.3 1 John 1.9 Acts 11.18 If Mercy should be vouchsafed to all indifferently the Grace of God should be a boulster to mans sin c. Lastly We conclude this head of our defence with the Testimony of the Synod of Dort We have already shewed that the Geneva Divines in that Synod gave it in under their hands and were therein approved by the Synod That the Covenant of Grace is conditional We might be large in shewing the like of many others but we will confine our selves for brevities sake to the Embdan Bremen and English Divines their Suffrages recorded in the Acts of the Synod First The Embdane Divines in the Synod said That God required the same conditions from those that were in Covenant with him under the Old and New Testament to wit Faith and the obedience of Faith Act. Synodi Dord part 2. page 93. Gen. 12. Abraham believed God and the Apostle â—in Rom. 4. Teaches that we are saved by the same Faith Gen. 17. Abraham is commanded to walk before God and be perfect The same is every where
125. and Justified do sometimes through their own default fall into hainous sins and thereby they do incur the Fatherly Anger of God they draw upon themselves a damnable Guiltiness and lose their present â—tness to the Kingdome of Heaven Thon they prove their Position It is manifest say they by the Examples of David and Peter that the Regenerate can throw themselves headlong into most grievous sins God sometimes permitting it that they may learn with all humility to acknowledge that not by their own strength or deserts but by Gods Mercy alone they were freed from Eternal Death and had Life Eternal bestowed upon them Whilst they cleave to such sins and sleep securely therein God's Fatherly Anger ariseth against them Psal 89.31 Rom. 2.9 Besides they draw upon themselves damnable Guilt so that as long as they continue without Repentance in that state they neither ought nor can perswade themselves otherwise than that they are subject to Eternal Death Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die For they are bound in the Chain of a Capital Crime by the desert whereof according to God's Ordinance they are subject to Death although they are not as yet given over to Death nor about to be given over if we consider the Fatherly Love of God but are first to be rescued from this sin that they may also be rescued from the guilt of Death Lastly in respect of their present Condition they lose the fitness which they had of entâ—ing into the Kingdome of Heaven because into that Kingdome there shall in no wise enter any thing that is defiled Rev. 21.27 or that worketh Abomination For the Crown of Life is not set upon the Head of any but those who have fought a good fight and have finished their course in Faith and Holiness 2 Tim. 4.8 He is therefore unfit to obtain this Crown whosoever as yet cleaves to the Works of wickedness The Fourth Position is The unalterable Ordinance of God doth require that the Faithful so straying out of the right way must first return again into the way by a renewed performance of Faith and Repentance before he can be brought to the end of the way that is to the Kingdome of Heaven By the Decree of Election the Faithful are so predestinated to the End that they are as along the Kings High-way to be led to this appointed End no other ways than by the Means ordained by God Nor are these Decrees of God concerning the Means Manner and Order of such Events less fixed and sure than the Decrees of the End and of the Events themselves If any Man therefore walk in a way contrary to God's Ordinance namely that broad way of Vncleanness and Impenitence which leads directly down to Hell he can never come by this Means to the Kingdome of Heaven yea and if Death should overtake him wandring in this By-path he cannot but fall into Everlasting Death This is the constant and manifest Voice of the Holy Scripture Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.3 Be not deceived neither fornicatours nor idolaters c. shall inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 They are deceived therefore who think that the Elect wallowing in such Crimes and so dying must notwithstanding needs be saved through the force of Election For the Salvation of the Elect is sure indeed God so decreeing But withal by the Decree of the same our God it is not otherwise sure than by the way of Faith Repentance and Holiness Heb. 12.14 Without holiness no man shall see God The foundation of God standeth sure And Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 Again their Fifth Position is that In the mean time between the Guilt of a grievous sin and the Renewed Act of Faith and Repentance such an Offender stands by his own desert to be condemned by Christ's Merit Ibid. Art V. pag. 126 127. and God's Decree to be acquitted but actually absolved he is not until he hath obtained pardon by Renewed Faith and Repentance And for Proof of this Position they say in Page 128. The Father of Mercies hath set down this Order That the Act of Repentance must go before the Benefit of Forgiveness Psal 32.5 Ezek. 18.27 Thus those Excellent Divines and Judicious Faithful Ministers of Christ By all which it is clear as the Sun That the Synod of Dort taught the conditionality of the Covenant and held Faith Repentance sincere Obedience and Perseverance to the End to be the indispensably necessary Conditions of obtaining Eternal Salvation and therefore if there happen to be a partial Intermission of sincere Evangelical Obedience for a time by Christians falling into hainous wilful sins there must be a renewing of Faith and Repentance and a returning to their Obedience again before they can obtain the pardon of those Sins and the Eternal Salvation of their Souls which is all that we hold in this matter And it is alserted explained and solidly proved by the most Learned and Judicious Dâ—â—â—â—â—ant who was a Member of the Synod of Dâ—â— in another Book of his in these Words Bond Opera sunt necessaria ad Justificationis statum relinendum Praelect de Justitiâ Habit. Act. cap. 31. p. 404 405. conservandum non ut causae c. that is Good Workes are necessary to retain and preserve the state of Justification not as causes which of themselves effect produce or merit this Preservation but as Means or Conditions without which God will not preserve the Grace of Justification in Men. And here may be reckoned up the same Works which we mentioned in the foregoing Conclusion For as no Man receives that general Justification which froes from the Guilt of all former sins unless Repentance Faith a Purpose to lead a New Life and other Actions of that nature concurre So no Man retains a state free from Guilt with respect to following sins but by means of the same Actions of believing in God calling upon God mortifying the flesh continually repenting and grieving for the sins that are continually committed The Reason why all these things are necessarily required on our part is this because these things cannot be always absent but their contraries will begin to be present which are repugnant to the Nature of a justified Man For if you take away Faith in God and Prayer there succeeds unbelief and contempt of God's Name If you take away the endeavour of Mortification and the exercise of Repentance there breaks in upon the Man predominant Lusts and Sins wasting the Conscience Therefore because it is not God's will that Men who are Vnbelievers obstinate carnal should enjoy the benefit of Justification he requires continual Works of Faith Repentance and Mortification by whose presence are thrust as it were out of Doors and driven far away Vnbelief Obstinacy Security and other Poysons of Justifying Grace and also of particular sins there is a particular pardon
Condition of Justification SECT III. Of his Third Errour That there is no Real Change no Holy Disposition or Qualification no Good or Holy thing wrought in or done by Man in order to and before Justification That Faith is not so much as a Qualification of the Person to be justified and that Repentance is not in order before pardon of Sin HIS Third Errour against the Purity of our Christian Faith is That the Lord doth not by preventing Grace prepare dispose and fit his People for their Justification by and for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them but that his first saving work towards them and upon them is their Justification by Christ's imputed Righteousness Error 3. That this is his Opinion is evident from his own words For in page 9 11 12 15 17 18 25 26 30 31 32. He denyes That there can be any qualification in us that any real change is wrought upon us that any condition is required of us in order to our Justification he will not so much as admit of Repentance as a dispositive Condition in order thereunto and often finds fault with us for holding Faith to be a Qualification or the Condition of Justification though he knew well enough that we hold it to be only the receptive applicative Condition of Christ and his Righteousness in order to our being justified thereby Now that this Opinion is Erroneous and against the purity of our Christian Faith we shall prove 1. By Scripture 2. By Reason agreeable to Scripture 3. By the Testimony of our most Famous Orthodox Protestant Divines But before we come to our Proofs we premise a few things to give light unto what shall follow As 1. That we hold the priority of any preparation disposition qualification or condition before Justification no farther than is necessary to verifie the Expressions of Holy Scripture concerning them 2. We hold that they proceed from the Grace of God 3. That that Grace is from Jesus Christ by the supernatural influences of his Holy Spirit 4. That some of those things whereby the Spirit of Christ prepares and disposes Souls before they be justified are such as by the Constitution and Ordination of God have a necessary infallible connexion with Justification they are dispositions or qualifications sine quibus nunquam cum quibus semper justificamur without which we are never and with which we are always justified of this sort is Effectual Calling and what is commonly called Regeneration or that seminal abiding Principle of Spiritual Life which is communicated unto us in Effectual Calling and the new Birth together with the first vital actings of that Principle in Faith and Repentance That Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life with its first Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance doth according to our Judgment so prepare and dispose and qualifie the Soul for Justification that it is always infallibly connected with them according to the Word and Promise of God and it is never in any case without them and let it be always remembred that in our Opinion Actual Faith qualifies us as a receptive Condition of Christ and his Righteousness But we think also that there are other dispositions antecedent to Justification which have not such a necessary Connexion with Justification and yet they are from God's Spirit too 5. That the said Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life with its first Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance which are in order before Justification and upon which Justification always follows is the first beginning of Holiness and may well be called Initial Sanctification for it is the Holy Thing first begotten in us by God's Word and Spirit it is the first forming of Christ in us and it is the Holy Root or Seed out of which grows our Progressive Sanctification through the Influences and Operations of the Holy Spirit given us after Justification to dwell in us and to abide with us for ever These Things premised we shall prove first by Scripture that it is an Errour to deny that there is any real change in us that there can be any Qualification or Disposition wrought in us by the Grace of Christ antecedently at least in order of Nature to our Justification by the imputed Righteousness of Christ For doth not the Scripture expresly put Effectual Calling before our Justification Rom. 8.30 Whom God called them he also justified Now it is confessed that it is an inward Effectual Calling that is there spoken of and that such a Calling makes a real change in the Persons so called But so it is that this Calling is by the Spirit of God put before Justification Again in Heb. 10.16 17. there we have the Order of God's bestowing on his Select People the Blessings of the New Covenant This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Here we see that the Lord according to his Covenant first writes his Laws in the Hearts of his People which cannot be without some real change wrought on them and some Holy Principle put into them Secondly Their Sins and Iniquities he remembers no more and that is he Justifies them for pardon of sin is an essential part of Justification and is put for the whole by a Form of Speech usual enough in the Scriptures of Truth Further our Saviour himself gives us plainly to understand that this is the order of his dispensing his Saving Grace Mark 4.12 Lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them In which Words our Lord plainly intimates that the sins of the unbelieving Jews were not forgiven them that is they were not justified because they were not converted and that whomsoever he pardons and justifies he first converts them And sure Conversion imports a real change and a Principle of Grace and Holiness implanted in the Souls of the Converted This is yet clearer from the Words of our Lord to Paul recorded by Luke Acts 26.17 18. I send thee unto the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins c. By forgiveness of sins is meant Justification because forgiveness of sins is an essential part of Justification before the Gentiles could attain to this Justification consisting in the forgiveness of their sins their eyes were to be opened and they were to be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Is it not then self-evident that the Gentiles were to be really changed from what they had been in former times and that they must be renewed and become new Creatures before they could obtain the Blessing and Benefit of pardon of sin and Justification It is a wonder to us that any Man should doubt of this Matter who believes
per suos Ministros c. When the Voice of God by his Ministers so founds outwardly in the Ears of the Body that together with it the Spirit of God inwardly fits or prepares the Mind of the Hearer that it may be able to understand and Efficaciously disposes the Will to Assent or rather Consent Then they proceed to the next Tertium est fides vera c. The third is true Faith to wit when from Effectual Calling there arifeth the Knowledge of Salvation understood and again Assent follows that Knowledge and that such an Assent as applies the Promise of the Gospel to the Believers own Conscience c. Lastly They say that the fourth and fifth means are the Effects of true Faith in the Elect and they are Justification and after that Sanctification and Perseverance to the end From this Testimony of the Embdane Divines it is as evident that in their Judgment there are some Holy saving Preparations and Dispositions in the Souls of Gods select People before they be justified as it is evident that the second is before the fourth for Effectual Vocation whereby those Holy Dispositions are wrought in the Soul is the second and Justification is the fourth between which actual Faith comes in as the Third So that if we can but reckon two three four and can understand that if the second be before the third it must be also before the fourth then may we see that there are some Holy Dispositions and Qualifications in the Soul arising from Effectual Calling before Justification This was read in and approved by the Synod and therefore here we have again the Testimony of the whole Synod of Dort for Holy Dispositions and Qualifications in the Soul before Justification It would be almost endless to run over all the Suffrages of the several Colledges of Divines and to quote what they have said to this purpose therefore we shall pass that as superfluous and conclude with the Testimony of our own Brittish Divines which is to be seen in their Collegiate Suffrage translated into English and Printed in the year 1629. Their Words are God doth regenerate by a certain â—inward and wonderful Operation The Suffrage of the Divines of Great Brittain Art 3.4 pag. 70.80 81. the Souls of the Elect being stirred up and prepared by the foresaid Acts of his Grace and doth as it were create them anew by infusing his quickning Spirit and seasoning all the Faculties of the Soul with new qualities Here by Regeneration we understand not every Act of the Holy Spirit which goes before or tends to Regeneration but that Act which assoon as it is there we conclude presently or as the Original hath it it may presently be rightly affirmed This man is now born of God This Spiritual Birth presupposes a Mind moved by the Spirit using the Instrument of Gods Word whence also we are said to be born again by the incorruptible Seed of the Word 1 Pet. 1.23 Which must be observed lest any one should idlely and slothfully expect an Enthusiastical Regeneration that is to say wrought by a sudden Rapture without any foregoing Action either of God the Word or Himself Furthermore we conclude that the Spirit regenerating us doth convey it self into the most inward Closet of the Heart and frame the Mind anew by curing the sinful Inclinations thereof and by giving it strength and a formal Principle In the Original it is Principium formale Or Active Power to produce spiritual and saving Actions Ephes 2.10 We are his Workman-ship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ezek. 36.26 I will take away the stony Heart and give you an Heart of Flesh From this Work of God cometh our Ability to perform spiritual Actions leading to Salvation as the act of Believing 1 John 5.1 Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Of Loving 1 John 4.7 Every one that loveth is born of God Lastly all works of Piety John 15.5 Without mere can do nothing Again Upon the former habitual Conversion Pag. 83.84 followeth our actual Conversion wherein out of our reformed or changed Will for the Original is ex mutata Voluntate God himself draweth forth the very act of our Believing and Converting and this our Will being first moved by God doth it self also work by turning unto God convertendo se ad Deum and Believing that is by executing eliciendo producing withal it s own proper lively Act. We say that God doth not only work that habitual Conversion or Change for the Word in the Original is Mutationem whereby a man gets new Spiritual Ability to Believe and Convert but also that God doth by a certain wonderful Efficacy of his secret Operation Pag. 85. extract out of our regenerated Sanatâ cured Will the very Act of Believing and Converting So the Scripture speaketh in divers places John 6.65 The Father giveth us Power to come unto the Son that is to Believe Phil. 1.29 To you it is given to Believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Act of Believing 2 Tim. 2.25 God giveth Repentance This Action of God in producing Faith doth not hinder Pag. 86. but rather is the cause that the Will doth work together with God and produce its own Act and therefore this Act of Believing howsoever it is sent or given from God yet because it is performed by Man is Attributed to Man himself Rom. 10.10 With the Heart man believeth unto Righteousness 2 Cor. 4.13 I believed therefore have I spoken Again This Action of God doth not hurt the freedom of the Will but strengthen it Pag. 87.88 Here we deny that by the Divine Operation there is any wrong offered to the Will or any hurt done to it for it is in the Original negamus loesionem voluntatis for God doth so work in Nature even when he raiseth and advanceth it above its proper Sphere that he doth not destroy the particular Nature of any thing but leaves to every thing it s own Way and Motion in actione producenda in producing its Action When therefore God worketh in the Wills of Men by his Spirit of Grace he makes them move in their own natural way or course that is freely and then they do the work the more freely by how much they are the more effectually stirred up by the Spirit of God John 8.36 If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Verily it seemeth incredible to us that God who made our Wills and gifted them with Liberty should not be able to work on them or in them after such a manner as that he may produce any good Action by them without hurting their Nature that is freely Ut quamlibet bonam actionem per easdem illaesâ earum naturâ hoc est liberé eliciat By these passages quoted out of the Suffrage of our Divines in the Synod of Dort it is most evident that
both they and the Synod which approved their Suffrage and gave them great thanks for it did all of them believe that there is and must be a great and holy change wrought on us and holy Dispositions and Qualifications bestowed on us before we are immediately able and that we may be able to believe and repent and consequently before we are justified Yea our Divines expresly reject it as the first Arminian Error against that part of the third and fourth Articles which relates to Regeneration and Conversion unto God by Faith and Repentance That in Regeneration there are no spiritual Gifts infused into the Wills of Men. Pag. 91. This Arminian Errour they disprove and amongst other Arguments against it Pag. 92. they use this for one As the Will of a meer natural Man is said to be vicious from a certain inbred and inherent wickedness which in a wicked man even when he doth nothing is habitual so again we must acknowledge that in the Will of the regenerate there is a certain Righteousness or Goodness as it is in the Original given and infused by God which is presupposed unto their Religious Actions St. Austin in many places setteth forth this habitual Righteousness or Goodness And Prosper calls this goodness of the Will Prosper de vocat Gentium lib. 1. c. 6. superni agricolae primam plantationem the first planting of the Heavenly Husbandman Now a Plantation Notes something ingrafted in the Soul not an Act or Action flowing from the Soul Thus our Divines at Dort whereby we see that it is a branch of Arminianism to deny that there is any Holy Habit Seed Root or Permanent Principle of Grace or any Spiritual Qualification wrought in the Soul before Justification And we find that long ago Robinson one of the rigidest Seperatists from the Worship and Discipline of the Church of England yet Religiously adhered to her Doctrine in this Point we are upon for thus he writes in Defence of the Doctrine of the Synod at Dort Robinsons Defence of the Doct. of the Synod at Dort p. 109. Pag. 132.133 That a man may have his Sins pardoned who yet wants all brotherly Love and goodness the Scriptures every where deny Mat. 6.14 15. 1 Joh. 3.14 15. Mark 11 24 25. Rom. 8.1 Psal 32.1 2. And afterwards in the same Book By the Word and Spirit saith he God regenerates Men or gives them Faith and Repentance which they must have before they can believe or repent as the Child must have Life before it can live or do Acts of Life and must be generated or begotten before it have Life or Being Regeneration therefore goes before Faith and Repentance Here we see that old rigid zealous Nonconformist held that there must be a real great change made on a Man a Holy Principle must be put into him and Holy Qualifications bestowed upon him before he can believe and repent and consequently before he can be justified Pag. 56. Again before in the same Book he saith expresly that Rom. 8.29 30. Shews plainly that our Predestination or Election goes before our Calling and our Calling before our Justification And in the same Page Gods chusing a Man whether in Decree from Eternity or by Actual and Effectual Calling and calling of him out of the State of Sin by giving him the Spirit of Faith and Grace goes before his believing for he cannot believe before he have Faith nor have it before God give him it but his actual saving by Justification and Glorificaton follows after Faith The same Truth is witnessed unto by Mr. Ball in his Treatise of Faith Part 1. p. 1.36 Every one saith he is not fit to receive the Promise of Mercy the Enemies of the Gospel of Christ Worldlings Hypocrites and all in whom Sin reigneth can have no true Faith in Christ he is only sit to receive Mercy who knows that he is lost in himself and unsatiably desires to be eased of the heavy burden of his Sins Faith is a Work of Grace of the Essicacy of Gods Spirit whereby we answer to the Effectual Call of God and come unto him that we might be partakers of Life Eternal And if saving Effectual Calling be precedent to Faith the subject of living Faith is Man savingly called according to the purpose of Gods Will. We can teach no Faith to Salvation but according to the Rule of Christ Mark 1.15 Repent and Believe the Gospel no Remission but according to the like rule Luke 24.47 Acts 2.37 38. Our last Witness is Mr. Gataker who saith God doth not actually remit or release Sin until he give Grace to repent Gatakers shadows without substance p. 55. which in the Gospel Phrase and Method goes constantly before pardon c. We might easily bring many more of our Reformed Divines to witness unto this Truth but these are sufficient to shew that it is the old Protestant Doctrine generally received in the Reformed Churches that there is and must be a real Holy Change a seminal permanent Principle of Spiritual Life some Holy Dispositions and Qualifications wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ before we are justified by Faith in the Blood of Christ And here by the way we must tell our Author what it may be he doth not know First that if he will believe Bardwardin Let. p. 13. with whom he saith God blessed England against the Pelagians then he will find it to be a Branch of the Pelagian Heresie that there is no Gracious Principle no Holy Disposition or Qualification wrought in us before our Justification For Bradwardin saith so expresly Bradward de causâ dei lib. 1. Cap. 43. p. 397. Asserunt ambae partes residuae opinionis Pelagii remissionem peccati Justificationem injusti praecedere gratiam tempore vel naturâ That is Both the remaining parts of the Opinion of Pelagius assert that Remission of Sin and the Justification of the unjust go before Grace in Time or in Nature Thus Bradwardin and then he falls a Confuting of this Pelagian Opinion by such Arguments as most manifestly shew that by the Word Grace there he meant not the Good-Will Love and Favour of God but the Effect of it upon the Soul even a Gracious Gift communicated unto and a real Holy change wrought in the Soul whereby of ungracious it is made inherently Gracious and of unjust and unholy it is made inwardly Just and Holy This Grace this Gracious change he maintains to be in Order before Remission of Sin and the Denial of this Grace this Gracious change before Remission of Sin he declares to be a Branch of Pelagian Heresie We thought fit to let the World know that what by some is accounted pure Gospel Doctrine now was in former times accounted a part of Pelagius his Opinion and that even by Bradwardin whom our Authour so highly commends Yet at the same time we must declare that we do by no means approve Bradwardins way of Confuting
Church or Rome and is in it and held by some of its Bishops at this day And we know the Possibility or impossibility of the thing hath been matter of not disputes amongst their Schoolmen Witness Vasque◠in 1◠2dae Dispur 206 207. Suarez l. 2. degratiâ Cap. 22 23. Becan in Summâ Theolog. partis 2dae part 1. Tract 4. de justificat Cathol Cap. 3. q. 5. § 26. Bezant Duval Meratius if our Authour please to Consult those Popish Schoolmen he may find some Arguments that may be of some use to him and may help him to perswade the People to believe that God may forgive them their Sins before there be any saving change of their Hearts and any Holy Seed or Principle or Grace put into them or any Gracious Disposition or Qualification wrought in them by the Spirit of Christ And the People may if they please go on to drink in that Pelagian Popish and Arminian Doctrine taking it upon our Authors Word to be a part of the pure Christian Religion and of the Doctrine of Justification by free Grace without good Works and Holy Qualifications or any thing that looks like them But for our parts we declare that we are for the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort in the Point of a real Holy Change and Holy Qualifications before Justification and cannot but prefer it before that Pelagian Opinion which some People are so fond of and they must not expect that ever we will humour them in that matter unless our Authour will solidly answen our Arguments and give us better Arguments for his Opinion than we have here given for ours As for what he saith to that purpose in his Letter we can therein find nothing of any weight as r. in Page 9. We say not quoth he that there is an actual partaking of Christs fulness of Grace till we be in him by Faith though this Faith is also given us on Christs behalf Phil. 1.29 And we believe through Grace Acts 18.27 Thus he Argues to prove that all the Grace we receive from Christ comes from our being united to him by Faith and so that we cannot actually partake of the Grace of Christ before our Union with Christ by Faith Now if this be so we demand of him concerning this being in Christ by Faith or which is the same thing this union with Christ by Faith either it is effected by the Grace of Christ or without the Grace of Christ by the meer Power of Nature Not the Second to wit without the Grace of Christ by the meer Power of Nature For 1. That is rank Pelagianism or Semipelagianism at least 2. It is contrary to what he says in the same place that the Faith by which we come to be in Christ is given us on Christs behalf and that we believe through Grace The First then is that which he doth and must choose to say to wit that our Union with Christ by Faith is effected by the Grace of Christ And then it is self-evident that that Grace of Christ which Effects Faith in us and the Union with Christ by Faith is before Faith and the Union by Faith because the Cause always is and must be in Order of Nature before the Effect And further if the Grace of Christ by which we believe first in him and are united to him be before that Faith and Union by Faith then we receive that Grace from Christ before we be in Christ by Faith and we receive it to this end that our faculties may be fitted and prepared yea and powerfully helped actually to believe and by believing to be actually united unto Christ thus our Author is caught in a Net of his own making he blows hot and cold out of the same Mouth and contradicts himself most foully in saying that we do not actually partake of Christs fulness till we be in him by Faith and yet that we have that Faith and Union by Faith from the Grace of Christ as the cause thereof for certainly that Grace is a part of Christs fulness and if he give it us and we receive it from him for the producing of Faith and Union with him by Faith then we actually partake of his fulness before we be in him by Faith That People therefore may no more be puzzled with such self-confounding and contradictious Stuff we desire them to consider 1. That all our Supernatural Grace is from Christ by his Spirit this we are all agreed in 2. That yet all Supernatural Grace is not from Christ after the same Way and Manner for there is some Grace from Christ before Union and in Order to Union and some Grace is from Christ united from Christ now in actual Union with our Souls by Faith of the first sort is the first preventing Grace the Grace by which we are Effectually Called the Grace by which we are disposed and prepared to believe and by which we do actually believe and by so believing answer the Call receive Christ into our Hearts and come to be actually united unto him This Grace being the cause of Faith and of the Union by Faith is before Union with Christ and so cannot possibly be from Christ considered as united to us by Faith Though then all our Grace be from Christ yet it is notoriously false that it is all from him as ours already by Faith for preventing Grace which is before Faith is not drawn from Christ by Faith as also Faith it self we mean the first Principle and first Act of Faith is not drawn from Christ as already ours by Faith for then Faith would be both before and after it self which is contradictious non-sense and impossible Of the Second sort is all subsequent Grace the Grace of Justification of Progressive Sanctification and Perseverance yea all that Grace whereby Gods Select People being once called according to his Purpose are fitted for and brought unto Glory is from Christ united from Christ in actual Union with our Souls by Faith Augustin writing against the Pelagians above 12 hundred years ago Angust Epist 105. hath cleared up this matter in few Words writing thus to Sixtus Ita sine Spiritu sidei non est rectê quispiam crediturus nec sine spiritu orationis salubriter oraturus non quia tot sint spiritus sed omnia haec operatur unus atque idem spiritus dividens propria unicuique prout vult quia Spiritus ubi vult spirat sed quod fatendum est aliter adjuvat nondum inhabitans aliter inhabitans nam nondum inhabitans adjuvat ut sint fideles inhabitans adjuvat jam fideles That is So without the Spirit of Faith no man will ever believe aright nor without the Spirit of Prayer will any man ever pray in a saving manner not that there are so many Spirits but one and the same Spirit doth all these things dividing unto every man that which is proper to him as he will for the Spirit breaths where he will
good man that is a good man initially or make him begin to be a good Man But now this makes against our Author himself and clearly proves that no Man can believe with a saving justifying Faith till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good Man this Consequence from his own Words he can never avoid unless he will say that a saving justifying Faith is no good thing for if it be not an evil but a good thing no Man can do it till Gospel Grace have renewed him and make him first a good Man So then we have found by his own Confession that a Man is first good through Grace and then he believes in Christ to Justification And if a Man be thus good initially good before he actually believe with a saving justifying Faith then is he Holy also initially Holy before he do so believe for that Initial Goodness and this Initial Holiness is one and the same thing And further if a man may be and must be thus initially Good and Holy before he actually believe then he may be qualified before he actually believe for he cannot be Good and Holy as aforesaid without Gods putting some good qualities into him This the Synod of Dort hath determined in their 11. Canon on the 3d and 4th Articles as was shewed before and it is hoped our Author will not oppose the Determination of that Synod Now whenever God by his Spirit puts good qualities into a Man he thereby qualifies him for the very formal effect of good qualities is to qualifie the Man to whom God gives them Pag. 11. But saith our Author Whence should a Man have any good Qualification before he be in Christ by Faith since a Sinner out of Christ hath no Qualification for Christ but Sin and Misery We Answer that before a Man be in Christ by Faith he hath some good Qualification from Christ by his Spirit preparing him for and bringing him unto Union with himself by actual Faith As to what he saith that a Sinner out of Christ hath no Qualification for Christ but Sin and Misery We Answer by distinguishing thus he hath no Qualification but Sin and Misery of and from himself It is true But that he hath no Qualification of and from Christ by his Holy Spirit but Sin and Misery it is utterly false and the contrary is true to wit that a Man who hath no Qualification of and from himself but the evil Qualification of Sin and Misery yet of and from Christ by his Spirit and Word he hath the good Qualification of a Heart in part changed and renewed and of a Holy Seed and Prineiple of Grace put into his Heart Though a Man cannot qualifie himself for Christ yet nothing hinders but that Christ by his Spirit and Word can qualifie a man for Union with himself and for Justification by his Meritorious Righteousness Yes saith our Author something doth hinder for I boldly assert that such a man who were so qualified would not Let. p. 11. nor could ever believe on Christ We are not willing here to apply the Proverb That none is so bold as blind Bayard But this we must say that we cannot see that this Man hath any probable ground for such Confidence Sure we are it will be a very difficult task to prove that a man cannot possibly believe in Christ because Christ by his Word and Spirit hath fitted and qualified him for Believing But it seems nothing is difficult to this bold man and therefore he will prove it by an Argument taken from the Nature of Faith thus Faith saith he is a lost helpless condemned Sinners casting himself on Christ for Salvation But the qualified Man is no such Person And then the Conclusion if rightly inferred from the Premisses is this ergo The qualified Man is not Faith c. A goodly Argument indeed and a Foundation fit for this Man to ground his Confidence upon If he say that his Argument doth not so conclude but rather thus Faith is a Gracious Act whereby a lost helpless condemned Sinner casts himself on Christ for Salvation but the qualified Man is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner casting himself on Christ for Salvation therefore the qualified man is not what is he not why he is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner casting himself on Christ for Salvation Is this now his Argument And doth it thus conclude then his Argument is as Ridiculous as his Confidence Let him keep to his Premisses laid down in his Letter and if he can let him regularly inferr from them another Conclusion than one of these But let what will become of the form of his Argument We answer by distinguishing both Propositions And 1. For the first we say that a Person who by true Faith casts himself on Christ for Salvation is indeed a Sinnor lost and helpless in and of himself and he is condemned by the Law but tho that be true yet in Order of Nature before he believes and in the very Act of Believing he is found and helped by the Lord and hath a Pardon offered him by the Gospel and by Faith he receives it Acts 10.43 Then for the second Proposition we distinguish it also thus The qualified Man is not such a Person is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner that is the Man that is 1. Qualified with a Satisfactory Meritorious Qualification 2. That is so qualified by himself he is not such a Person It is true and we grant it But with all we say that indeed it is impossible for any Man so to qualifie himself Yet we maintain that a Man who is qualified by the Holy Spirit and free Effectual Grace of Christ is such a Person and doth by Faith â—ast himself on Christ for Salvation our being qualified by the Holy Spirit and free Effectual Grace of Christ is so far from hindring our believing as our Author boldly but ignorantly affirms that in Truth it doth very much further our believing it lets us see and causes us to feel that we are lost and helpless in and of our selves and condemned by the Law and that we are found and helped by the Lord and can be pardoned only by the Gospel Whereupon it inclines and moves us to flee unto Christ for refuge and to cast our selves on him for Justification and Salvation Thirdly In the same Page Let. p. 11. we have another of his Objections against the Truth we have been proving by Scripture Reason and Testimony of Protestant Divines Shall we saith he warn People that they should not believe on Christ too soon Either this Interrogation is altogether impertinent or there is this Argument implied in it if there be a real change and a holy gracious Principle wrought in Peoples Hearts before they do or can believe with a saving justifying Faith then it will follow that Ministers should warn people not to believe on Christ too soon but so to do is absurd and contrary to
Covenant he is found to be a Godly Man through Grace to be Evangelically Godly because he is just such a Man as the Lord by the New Covenant and Evangelical Law requires him to be that he may be first justified by Christs Righteousness imputed to him that is he is found to be a Man whom God hath blessed with a new Heart and who is a true Penitent Believer and that is a Man Evangelically Godly Now there is no Contradiction at all in this for the same Man at the same time to be legally ungodly and Evangelically Godly because it is with respect to different Laws and Covenants that such contrary things are affirmed of him Let our Author if he please consult Turretine and he will find that that Learned Calvinist saith expresly Turret Instit part 2. loc 16. pag. 714. That a true Believer when he is justified by Faith in Christ is impius partim antecedenter partim respectivè ad Justificationem non autem concomitanter Ungodly partly antecedently and that is because he was altogether ungodly in former times partly with râ—spect to Justification because he hath nothing in himself that can be the matter and cause of his Justification but he is not concomitantly ungodly that is he doth not remain Ungodly when God is justifying him and till immediafely after he be justified If our Author upon this should say to us what he saith to his poor awakened Sinner That it is Non-sense Ignorance and Pride Let. p. 31.32 to maintain that a Man must be in some measure Godly in Disposition and Principle before he be Godly in Act and that he must actually believe with a Godly Faith in Order of Nature before he he justified for this is as much as to say that a Man must be pretty well recovered before he make use of the Physician c. We should reply 1. That as for his Poor awakened Sinner he makes a poor Fool of him he puts what Words he pleases in his Mouth and makes him say in effect that if he first had Faith before he first had Faith then he would first believe before he had first believed which we think no Man ever thought or said nor is capable of saying unless it be some poor Creature that is awakened out of his right Wits or else it be such an one as our Author who hath the Art of Believing or Writing Contradictions 2. That he had need to take heed that he do not blaspheme our Saviour who hath said that the Tree must be good before the Fruit can be good Matth. 7.16 17 18. and 12. v. 33. And that is as much as if he had said what we hold that there must be some Renovation of the Inward Disposition of the Heart before a Man do actually believe with a saving justifying Faith 3. That if our Author will not believe us let him believe his own beloved self for he says Pag. 16. That a Man is to believe that be may be justified And that necessarily implies that he must bring forth some good Fruit in order of Nature before he be justified and in Pag. 12. He himself quotes Matth. 12.33 To prove that the Tree must be good before the Fruit be good 4. We believe that our Heavenly Physician comes first to us ordinarily in the Ministry of the Word by his preventing Grace and doth indeed recover us in part by curing the deadness and indisposedness of our Hearts before we go to him by an actual saving justifying Faith and thereby imploy him for our Justification Christ comes first to us by his Word and Spirit and begins to cure us of our Spiritual deadness to any thing that is savingly good before we go to him by actual justifying Faith and be by him delivered from our Legal Death in Justification by Faith in his Blood 5. If our Author will yet go on to tell the People that we teach them not to employ the Physician of Souls till they have first pretty well cured themselves we take Heaven and Earth to witness that he belies us and abuses the Simplicity of the People for we believe in our Hearts and confess with our Mouths to the Glory of Christ the Physician of Souls that it is he who by his Word Spirit and Grace both begins carries on and perfects the cure of all his select People and that he doth it in the way and order set forth in his Word of which we have here given the World an account according to that measure of Light which it hath pleased him of his rich Mercy and free Grace to bestow upon us 6. And lastly We desire it may be considered whether our Authors saying that to tell the People they must begin to be Godly through Grace by being Penitent Believers in order to their being justified is all one as to tell them that they must be pretty well recovered and must cure themselves before they employ Christ the Physician of Souls we say it is our desire People would consider whether this be not a piece of Antinomian Cant for it is certain that this is the Language of Saltmarsh one of the grossest of that Sect in England That the Promises belong to Sinners as Sinners not as repenting or humbled Sinners as is to be seen in Gatakers Shadows without Substance Pag. 53. And again saith Saltmarsh like our Author in this Do you look that Men should be first whole for the Physician or Righteous for Pardon of Sin or justified for Christ Ibid. Pag. 54. or rather Sinners Unrighteous Ungodly And Gataker there Confutes this precious Stuff in Pag. 54 55 56 57 58. Again You Saltmarsh say that every one who receives Christ receives him in a sinful Condition and consequently in an impenitent one Ibid. p. 73. And again saith Saltmarsh as our Author doth in Pag. 11. of his Letter Can any Man believe too soon Gatakers shadows without substance p. 75. To which Question Gataker Answers No more than he can repent too soon Thus we have at large answered every thing which we can find in the Letter that looks like an Objection or Argument against the Truth which we believe according to the Scriptures But after all it may be some will seriously put this Question Is it likely that God will give us any Grace to sanctifie us in any Kind or Degree before he so love us as to justifie us To which we answer that it is not only likely to be but it certainly is so that God loves us so far as to make Conditional Promises to every one of his People and so far as to give them for Christs sake Grace to begin to perform the Condition before he so far love them as actually to justifie them for Christs sake and that we say is a giving of Grace to sanctifie us Initially or to begin a Holy change in us before we be actually justified and our Sins be forgiven us This we have so clearly proved by
Translation which some of them may have or may meet with it Thus then they begin Of those things that go before Conversion The First Position There are certain external Works ordinarily required of men before they be brought to the State of Regeneration or Conversion On the 3d. and 4th Articles p. 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 c. which are wont to be performed freely by them and other whiles freely omitted as to go to Church to hear the word Preached or the like This they prove from Rom. 10.14 As also from Reason and Experience and other Scriptures Mark 6.20 Acts 13.46 Psal 58.4 5. The Second Position There are certain inward Effects going before Conversion or Regeneration which by the power of the Word and Spirit are stirred up in the hearts of Men not yet justified such as are a knowledge of Gods will a sense of sin a fear of Punshment a bethinking of freedom or deliverance and some hope or pardon The Grace of God is not went to bring men to the state of Justification in which we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by a sudden Enthusiasm or Rapture but by divers degrees of foregoing Actions taming and preparing them through the Ministry of the Word 1st This we may see in those who upon bearing S. Peters Sermon feel the burden of their sin are stricken with fear and sorrow desire deliverance and conceive some hope of Pardon All which may be collected of those words Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do 2. This the very nature of the thing requires for as in the natural Generation of man there are many previous Dispositions which go before the bringing in of the form so also in the Spiritual Generation by many actions of Grace which must go before do we come to the Spiritual Nativity 3 To conclude this appears by the Instruments which God uses for the Regenerating of men For he imployeth the Ministry of Men and the Instrument of the Word 1 Cor. 4.15 I have begotten you through the Gospel But if God would Regenerate and Justify a wicked man immediately being prepared by no knowledge no sortow no desire no hope of pardon there would be no need of the Ministery of men nor of the Preaching of the Word for this purpose Neither would any care ly upon the Ministers dividing the Word aright fitly and wisely First To wound the Confâ—iences of their Auditors with the terrors of the Law then to raise them up with the promises of the Gospel and to exhort them to beg Faith and Repentance at Gods Hand by Prayers and Tears The Third Position Whom God doth thus prepare by his Spirit through the means of the Word those doth he truly and seriously call and invite to Faith and Conversion By the nature of the benefit offered and by the most evident Word of God we must judge of those helps of Grace which are bestowed upon men and not by the abuse or the event Therefore when the Gospel of its own nature calls men to Repentance and Salvation when the Incitements of Divine Grace tend the same way we must not suppose any thing is done feignedly by God This is proved by those earnest Pathetical Intreaties 2 Cor. 5.20 We pray you in Christs stead be yeâ— reconciled to God Those exhortations 2 Cor. 6.1 We beseech you that you receive not the Grace of God in vain Those Expostulations Gal. 1.6 I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you to the Grace of Christ Those Promises Revel 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him But if God should not seriously invite all to whom he vouchsafes this gift of his Word and Spirit to a serious Conversion surely both God should deceive many whom he calls in his Sons Name and the Messengers of the Evangelical Promises might be accused of false witness and those who being called to Conversion do neglect to obey might be more excuseable for that calling by the Word and Spirit cannot be thought to leave men unexcusable which is only exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable The Fourth Position Those whom God hath thus disposed he doth not forsake nor cease to further them in the true way to Conversion before he be forsaken of them by a voluntary neglect or repulse of this initial or entring Grace The Talent of Grace given by God is taken from none but from him who first buries it by his own fault Mat. 25.28 Hence is it that in the Scriptures every where we are admonished that we resist not the Spirit that we quench not the Spirit that we receive not the Grace of God in vain that we depart not from God Heb. 3.12 Yea that is most evidently noted to be the reason of Gods forsaking man because God is first forsal 〈◊〉 by man Prov. 1.24 c. Because I have called and you refused I will laugh at your Calamity 2 Chron. 24.20 Because ye have forsaken the Lord He hath also forsaken you But never in the Scripture is there the least mention or Intimation that God is wont or that he will at any time without some fault of man going before take away from any Man the aid of his exciting Grace or any help which he hath once conferred towards Mans Conversion or as it is in the Original that is ordained unto Mans Conversion Thus the Orthodox Fathers who had to do with the Pelagians ever â—anght It is the Will of God that we continue in a good Will who before he be forsaken for sakes no Man Aug. vel Prosper aâ— Art fals ad 7. and ost-times Converts many that forsake him These are the Words of Prosper in Answer to the seventh Objection of one Vincentius against the Doctrine of Augustine and Prosper The Fifth Position These forgoing effects wrought in the Minds of Men by the Power of the Word and Spirit may be stifled and utterly extinguished by the fault of a rebellious Will and in many are so that some in whose Hearts by the virtue of the Word and Spirit some Knowledge of Divine Truth some Sorrow for Sin some Desire and Care of Deliverance have been imprinted are changed to the quite contrary they Reject and Hate the Truth they give themselves up to their Lusts are hardened in their Sins and without all desire or care of Freedom from them Rot and Puâ—rifie in them Matth. 13.19 The Wicked one cometh and catcheth away that which is sown in his Heart 2 Pet. 2.21 It had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment detrvered unto them But it is happened to them according to the true Proverb the Dog iâ— turned to his own Vomit again
Fruit of the Spirit of Bondage which prepares for the hearing of the Gospel and for the receiving of the Spirit of Adoption by the Gospel then in the Preaching the Gospel the tender Mercies of God displayed unto us and how ready be is to Pardon Sin in general and that of Free Grace may better our Repentance and when we are thus by Degrees brought to the Spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father then our Repentance shall be most perfect as before I said And when we look upon him whom we have pierced and can in Assurance of Faith say with the Apostle I live by Faith in him who loved me and gave himself for me this is of Power to prick a Master vein and make us bleed out Repentance in the sight of our Gracious God whom we have offended and who yet in despite of our Sins hath loved us more Devoutly and Affectionately than ever before Yet is it true as he the Arminian saith That Repentance is nothing worth without Faith what thinks he of Ahabs Repentance when he put on Sackcloath and wallowed in Ashes upon the Word of Judgment against his House brought unto him by the Prophet Eliah Do we not know what the Lord said hereupon unto Eliah Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me because he submitteth himself before me I will not bring that evil in his days The uttermost of the Ninivites Faith was but this that we read of who can tell if God will turn and Repent and turn from his fierce Wrath that we perish not Yet their Repentance was such that when God saw their works that they turned from their Evil Ways he repented of the Evil which he said that he would do unto them and he did it not Jon. 3.9 Thus Dr. Twiss whereby it is evident that he was far from thinking that all which a man can do before he have the Spirit of God dwelling in him and that he may get a Holy Heart and a saving Faith and so be fitted to lead a Holy Life is nothing but vain labour and an Acting of Sin Object 2. Secondly Our Author Objects the seventh Article of the 16. Chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith And our Answer is That that Article of the Confession of Faith is the same in effect with the 13th Article of the Church of England and therefore is to be taken in the same Sence to wit That the Works of unregenerate men done before and without any Grace of Christs Spirit though they may be materially good yet they are formally so sinful that they do not make a Man meet to receive any Grace from God either the Grace of Regeneration or Justification and as for the Works of unregenerate Men which are done by the help of supernatural preventing common Grace though they be better than the former which are done by the alone Strength of Nature yet they are sinful too they are so defiled with Sin as they proceed from an unregenerate Man that they cannot please God so far as to make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Justification from God nor do they make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration from God by way of Reward due to them as Congruously Meritorious thereof Yet in another sound sence they may make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration and Conversion from God to wit as they are wrought in Men by the Spirit and according to the Word and are ordained by God to be means of removing such things as hinder Conversion and of the helping men forward in the way unto and of fitting and preparing them for Conversion as a Gracious Gift which ordinarily God freely gives to those who are so prepared by the Word and Spirit of Christ In this sound sence though not in the Popish or Semipelagian sense the foresaid works do indeed make men meet to receive Grace from God and the Article of the Confession of Faith saith nothing to the contrary Yea it is plainly against that absired opinion that all that an Unregenerate man can do by any means in order to the getting of his heart savingly changed and initially sanctified by the special effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit of Christ is vain labour and an acting of Sin we say that the foresaid Article of the Confession of Faith is plainly against that absurd opinion for it says expresly That works of Unregerate men are things which God Commands and are of good use both to themselves and others and one of the best uses they can possibly be of unto themselves is to dispose and prepare them for Regeneration and Conversion and to make them if not meet yet at least less unmeet to receive special saving Grace from God through Jesus Christ And thus according to the Confession of Faith and our principle agreeable thereunto we can give encouragement to unregenerate men to attend upon God in the diligent use of means for obtaining the free and effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit and so Conversion thereby but our Author seems to tell Unregenerate men that all they can do before they be Regenerated and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them which is got only by Faith in Christ and therefore is in order of nature after Faith in Christ altho they do it with a desire that they may be Regenerated and may obtain a precious holy Faith in Christ and thereby the Holy Spirit of Christ it is all vain labour and an acting of sin Now is not this great encouragement for men to wait upon God in the use of his appointed means for the obtaining of converting Grace and a new holy heart to tell them that all they can do in order to that end is vain labour and acting of sin We hope such men will not believe our Author but if they do there is nothing can be expected from them but that â—hev should cast off all use of means and give over all reading hearing and praying for why should they trouble themselves with such Religious Exercises since all is an acting of sin and lost labour too Yet if our Author should intend to set up for a Quietist the foresaid Doctrine may be of good use to bring in Disciples to him for he can tell them holdly as his manner is that if they will become Quietists he will shew them an infallible way wherein they shall neither act sin nor yet lose their labour for if they will become right Quietists they shall neither act nor labour but wholly rest from action and labour and shall not act sin nor lose their labour because they shall not act nor labour at all but wholly rest from action and labour and whilest they are in a state of perfect rest without any kind of action or labour at all Then the Spirit of God shall fall upon them and Regenerate and Convert them 3d. Objection Thirdly He Objects the Testimony of Calvin who in his Institutions writes thus
if you do not believe it why do you commend his Book to me as that which will give me best Direction in this matter and preserve my Soul from being poysoned with the new Divinity But if you do believe him why do you contradict him he telling me one thing and you telling me the quite contrary yea the contradictory thereof Why do you also join with the new Divines against him or his Book and go about to poyson my Soul with the new Divinity in the great Point of Assurance it s not being essential to the direct Act of justifying Faith whereas the contrary Opinion of Marshal which you deny was the great Engine wherewith our first Reformers battered down the Walls of Rome Thus our Author by his way of Writing is more like to hinder men from believing and to harden them in their unbelief than to be instrumental in Converting them from unbelief to Faith in Jesus Christ Thirdly Unbeliever This believing is hard Minister This is a good doubt but easily resolved Here again the Minister makes himself ridiculous and exposes himself to the scorn and contempt of the Unbeliever for the Unbeliever makes no doubt of the matter but positively afferts that this believing is hard as being firmly perswaded in his Mind without the least Hesitation or Doubt that this believing is hard indeed and when the Minister has heard him say yea has put the Words in his Mouth and made him to say positively without doubting that this believing is hard then he answers him and says this is a good doubt and easily resolved and the plain English of that is that no doubt but a Positive Affirmation is a good doubt But supposing for once with the Minister that no doubt is a doubt yet how doth he make it appear that it is a good doubt for there are bad doubts as well as good doubts and why may not this be a bad doubt rather than a good doubt Yes saith the Minister I prove it and make it appear thus that it is not a bad but a good doubt because it bespeaks a man deeply humbled Rarâ—ly proved But why may it not as well bespeak a man to be deeply hardened in unbelief and highly listed up in pride For were not the Capernaites deeply hardned in unbelief and yet when they heard Christ himself with his own Blessed mouth preaching to them of the great necessity and usefulness of believing on him under the Figurative expressions of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood they both doubted and dishelieved and thus expressed their doubts and unbelief John 6.42 How is it that he saith I came down from Heaven And V. 52. How can this man give us his Flesh to eat And V. 60. This is an hard saying who can hear it Likewise those Jews and Heathens of whom Paul writes 1 Cor. 1.23 That Christ Crucified was unto the one sort of them a stumbling block and unto the other foolishness could doubt and say this believing in a Crucified Christ is hard and in effect they did say it and so they doubted if that be to doubt for they said it was an unreasonable foolish thing to believe to be saved by a crucified Man and that was in effect to say that it was hard to believe in Christ For it is certainly hard for a reasonable man to believe that which in his heart he judges to be unreasonable and foolish But now did this bespeak those unbelieving Jews and Heathens to be deeply humbled no sure it was so far from it that it bespoke the quite contrary it bespoke them deeply hardned in unbelief and highly lifted up in pride and self conceit Our Author has another Argument to prove it to be a good doubt because says he Any body may see his own impotency to obey the Law of God fully but few find the difficulty of believing Well be it so that few find the difficulty of believing and that few doubt whether it be difficult or not doth that prove that this particular unbeliever doubts because he finds believing to be so difficult that he is past all doubt of its being difficult and thereupon positively affirms that it is difficult and hard to believe He must have lost his reason that can deliberately think that a Man who is fully convinced of the difficulty of believing and thereupon affirms that it is hard to believe hath a good doubt whether it be difficult or not because the generality of other Men seldom think of believing or endeavour to believe and so find not the difficulty of it But 2. suppose this particular Unbeliever do not find it so difficult to believe as to be past all doubt that it is difficult only his mind is brought to an aequilibrium even ballance and hangs in suspence between these two whether it be difficult or whether it be easse to believe This supposition being true will prove indeed that the man hath a doubt in his mind concerning the difficulty of believing but it doth not at all prove that it is a good doubt The Truth is such a doubt is evil and cannot be good for the man ought to be fully perswaded in his mind that to believe in Christ crucified with a saving Faith it is really difficult and hard yea impossible to Unregenerate Nature and without the Grace of God but that to Regenerate Nature it is easie through the affistance of Gods special Grace And so here can be no room at all for the Unbelievers good doubt Next our Author falls upon the resolving of the Unbelievers pretended good doubt And in order thereunto he asks him What it is which he finds doth make believing difficult to him 1. Our Author asks the Unbeliever Whether he finds it difficult to believe because he is unwilling to be justified and saved And this saith he the Unbeliever will deny And he may well deny it and further tell our Author Sir You are very impertinent to ask me such a Question for you knew well enough without asking that that could not be the reason wherefore I think it difficult to believe for no man in his right wits was ever unwilling to be justified and saved that is unwilling to be happy for it is naturally necessary unto all men to desire happinness and therefore if the Justification and Salvation which you talk of be necessary to make me happy and if my happiness partly consist therein you know I cannot be unwilling to be justified and saved because I cannot be unwilling to be happy 2. He asks the Unbeliever Whether he finds it difficult to believe because he is unwilling to be so saved by Jesus Christ to the praise of Gods Grace in him and to the avoiding of all boasting in himself And he saith The Unbeliever will surely deny this also To which the Unbeliever may be supposed to answer Sir I thank you for your good opinion of me by this I perceive you take me to be deeply humbled indeed but
and it is most certain and evident that Faith is an inward Act of the Heart for Believers as you do confess find by Spiritual Sense and feeling that Faith is an inward Act of the Heart Let. p. 7. and the Scripture saith expresly that with the Heart Man believeth unto Righteousness Rom. 10.9 10. And therefore Faith is an inward Work of the Heart consequently it is manifestly false which you say that Faith is no Work 5. Whereas you say that Faith is no Work but a resting on Jesus Christ I reply 1. That if Faith be no Work either outward or inward because it is a resting then Faith is no inward Act for an inward Act is an inward Work and if Faith be an inward Act it is also an inward Work but you your self Page 7th of your Letter expresly say that Faith is an inward Act and I have proved it by Scripture to be an inward Act therefore it is utterly false which you say that Faith is no Work at all no not an inward Work because it is a resting on Christ. 2. Faith is both an inward Work and a resting on Christ Resting on Christ is a Figurative Expression and Faith is called by that Name it is said to be a resting on Christ because the effect or consequent of the Act of Faith in Christ is the rest of the Soul the satisfaction and quiet of the Mind the ease of the Heart and the Peace of the Conscience 3. If this sense of the form of Speech Resting on Christ by which the Act of Faith is expressed as it is a means of causing and as it connotes the foresaid effects if I say this do not please you but you will have resting on Christ to signifie a total Cessation from any inward Act Then I reply 1. That you seem to be shifting about from one Sect to another and for a time to have taken up your rest among the Quietists the Disciples of Molino's at Rome or of Madamoiselle de Bourignon in France For it is said to be their Principle that a man should cease from all Action outward and inward and when the Soul is in a State of Non-Action and perfect rest from all Labour whatsoever then a Man is most Religious and best disposed for converse with and enjoyment of God 2. If Faith be no inward Act but a resting on Christ in such a sense as that it is a Cessation from and a Negation of all Act and Action then you need no more to endeavour the Conversion of me or of any other Unbeliever for if that be true Faith then a meer nothing is true Faith and I will assure you I have that nothing as much as ever I can have it You your self in your Letter call me an Unbeliever and that signifies one that wants Faith now if I want the Act of Faith I must needs have the Negation of the Act of Faith in such a way as a Negation can be had and this Negation is a perfect Cessation and resting from any Act of Faith and further this Negation Cessation and Resting is Faith it self according to you Therefore it follows by clear and necessary Consequence that by wanting the Act of Faith I have Faith and by being an Unbeliever I am as good a Believer as your self Therefore you need no more labour to convert me than I need to convert you but let us both rest together among the new Quietists if you please 6. And now Sir I would be content to rest if you would let me alone but are not you like to disturb my rest by clamouring against me that I am unreasonable in pretending that it is hard and difficult for an Unbeliever to believe in Christ without the powerful Assistance of Gods Grace And to prove that I am unreasonable in this you boldly affirm it upon your Word as your manner is and with appearance of much Gravity you illustrate it by a similitude taken from a weary Traveller who is so tired with his journey that he can neither stand still nor yet go one step further but must of necessity lye down and rest Now say you if this Man in these circumstances should say Oh I find it difficult to lye down for I am so tired that I am not able to lie down though indeed I can neither stand nor go would it not be accounted very unreasonable And just so it is unreasonable for you an Unbeliever to pretend That it is so difficult for you to believe that you cannot do it without the powerful Grace of God for believing is resting it is ceasing from all Action and consequently it is so far from being difficult that it is one of the easiest things in the World it is of that Nature that you cannot avoid the doing of it no mâ—re than a weary Traveller can avoid lying down when he is so tired that indeed he can neither stand nor go This is the force of your Reasoning in the 17th Page of your Letter line 7 8 9 10 11. whereby you would prove me to be unreasonable in saying that it is difficult for an Unbeliever to believe on Christ without the Grace of God I have considered this your profound Reasoning for the Easiness of Believing on Christ without the Grace of God and now that I understand it my fear of being disturbed by it is over and gone yea I am beholding to you for it and I thank you Sir For this which I was afraid would have been a disturbance to me is like to be a means of bringing us both to rest I have told you before what I thought now according to my Promise I will tell you what I see Why in short by the Light of this your Illustration I see that I an Unbeliever am as good a Believer as you are and that it must be so and cannot be otherwise for as the weary Traveller that cannot possibly either stand or go must lie down and cannot but lie down unless he be hindred by force or Miracle So you and I cannot but believe unless we be hindered by Miracle But there is no fear of that God hath wrought many Miracles heretofore to perswade men to believe but he never did nor will work a Miracle to hinder us from believing I will never more Object the difficulty of Believing for want of the powerful Grace of God to enable me thereunto for if this Doctrine be true there needs no Grace to enable us to believe for believing is resting and doing nothing and that we can do as well without as with the help of Grace nay we cannot but do it unless we be hindred from resting and doing nothing and be irresistibly stirred up to Work and Act by Miracle But as I said there is no fear of that since Working and Acting would hinder us from Believing And to hinder us from Believing is contrary to the true use and end of Miracles And Sir as I will never complain more
of the difficulty of believing so in the Name of the whole Fraternity of Unbelievers I thank you for your great kindness to them and for this sweet and comfortable Doctrine if it be true which you have taught us all in your Letter which I hear is much cryed up by some Women in London who love rest and ease Now we might have all rested quietly together were it not for those you call the New and Young Divines whom you have charged with Pelagianism This was not wisely done of you for you have thereby awakened them from their rest and it is to be feared that by loud Recriminations they will disturb you and us both and proclaim the secret to the World that you your self are Confederate with Pelagians Semipelagians and Unbelievers For it is undeniable matter of Fact that it is a branch of Pelagianism and the very Root and Heart of Semipelagianism That Men can believe in Christ with a justifying Faith by the Power of Nature without the Supernatural Grace of God And if your similitude hold good men not only can believe but which is more they cannot possibly choose but they must of Necessity believe without the help of Grace unless they be hindered by a Miracle exciting them to Act and Work and to cease from rest Sir how you can come to Rest and Peace with those brisk Young Divines whose Age inclines them to Action more than to Rest I do not pretend to know but this I know that upon your foresaid Principle the Unbeliever and you are agreed and if you will be stedfast and stand to your Principle we shall live together in perfect quietness and never more differ about Believing Thus we have given an account of our Authors Way and Method of Converting an Unbeliever to Faith in Christ which is more than a resting on Christ for it is a Grace whereby we assent to Jesus his being the Christ the Son of God and only Saviour of Men and Consent to take him for our Prince and Saviour and as such receive him on his own Terms and then rest relie and trust on him for Justification c. We have shewed also what a weak and ridiculous way and Method it is and how easily an Unbeliever may Answer all that he hath said in the 16. and 17. Pages of his Letter mentioned before except a few at his first setting out he hath hardly made one right step in the whole course of that Advice which he takes upon him to give unto Ministers how they ought to deal with Unbelievers in labouring to Convert them unto Faith in Christ He hath plainly betray'd our Cause to the Unbeliever who hath brought him by his last Objection to take up with a Piece of Pelagianism and with the grossest Semipelagianism that hath been heard of in the Christian Church so weak is he not wicked we hope that he could think of no other way to Answer that Objection but by denying that Faith is any Work at all though therein he shamefully contradicts himself and the express Word of God and by affirming that it is a resting in such a sense as imports that it is neither Work nor Act but a meer Cessation from Working and Acting a doing nothing at all and from thence he labours to shew the Unbeliever that it is not difficult to believe and illustrates it by such a similitude as will make any considering man who reads it and understands the use he makes of it to think that he must be a Semipelagian who holds that a man can believe unto Justification without any Subjective Supernatural Grace of God at all Whereas he ought to have acknowledged the Truth of the Objection that it is indeed difficult and impossible too for a natural man by the power of nature ever to believe but that it is possible and easy too by the Grace of God And then he should have directed the Unbeliever unto the means whereby Grace to believe is ordinarily obtained from God through Christ and should have advised him to wait and continue waiting on God in the use of his appointed means and particularly to be much in praying as well as he can for Grace to help in time of need and desiring the prayers of Christs Ministers and People But not a word of this nay instead of advising the Unbeliever to use Gods means and seek the Grace of Faith from God through Christ he gives him to understand that Faith is nothing but a resting from all work and action and that it is no more difficult to believe than it is for a weary Traveller to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go And after he hath told the Ministers that they ought thus to resolve the doubts and answer the arguments of Unbelievers he hath the confidence to conclude that by such reasonings with an Unbeliever from the Gospel the Lord will as he hath often done convey Faith to him and joy and peace by believing This is like all the rest the Conclusion and the Premises are at irreconcileable variance with one another The Conclusion saith that the Lord will convey Faith to the Unbeliever by the reasonings in the premises and yet one of those reasonings is that Faith is nothing but a resting and such a resting as signifies a Cessation from all actings and that an Unbeliever needs no more help to believe than a weary Travellour needs help to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go We think it is a sort of Blasphemy to say wittingly and willingly that such reasonings as some of those we have noted in the 16 and 17 Pages of the Letter are either in and from the Gospel or that the Lord makes use of such self contradicting confounding fulshood as means of conveying Faith into the Hearts of his people And because in this part of his Letter he speaks to us that are Ministers and either bids us tell the Unbeliever so and so or else he affirms that we do tell him so and so we must declare to the World that we will follow his advice no further than we find it agreeable to Scripture and Reason which sometimes we do find and oftentimes the contrary as we have proved but as for what he affirms that Ministers tell the Unbeliever that Faith is not difficult that it is no more difficult to an Unbeliever than lying down is to a man when he is so tyred and weary that he can neither stand nor go we protest we are none of those Ministers we never did and through Grace never will tell any Unbeliver such an abominable falshood We know no other Ministers but our Author that Preaches such Doctrine and we have endeavoured to make him ashamed of it in hopes to bring him off from it We trust that after we have thus publickly declared against our Authors Way and Method of Converting Unbelievers to Faith in Christ and