upon false grounds 1. That a man cannot distinguish himself from hypocrites 2. That there can be no assurance but upon a full and compleat work of godliness Answ 1. No A man cannot distinguist himself certainly without faith's evidence how would you have discovered Paul having a zealous respect to all Gods Commandments 2. No one nor all your works can bring assurance sufficient I dare say that soul which seeketh establishment and to overcome doubting that way is far from it in the secret bottom of it Imperfections in all whereunto the conscience is privie will more weaken then confirm Semper operum respect nest trepidandi materia M. B. 4. All those Arguments will hold as strongly against faith for are there not many believers for a season or may not a man then know assoon the nature of his heart as the truth of his faith Answ 1. Though true faith fail never yet that is not simply from the nature of faith for there is no gift of grace but of it self it is perishable Constancy and immutability natural be only proper to God therefore Christ prayed that Peters faith might not fail 2. Faith doth not ascertain in that it indureth but in that by it the soul hath an effectual entrance into that grace wherein it standeth irremoveably Rom. 5.2 3. There is not that light of evidence in sincerity which is in faith Heb. 11.1 faith giveth light to those things which otherwise cannot lightly be discerned M. B. Now let us consider their grounds for this strange assertion Answ I cannot say what assertion you mean but it is not much material M. B. Because Rom. 4. It is said God justifieth the ungodly Now this hath a twofold Answer 1. That which our Divines do commonly give that those works are not to be understood in sensu composito c. therefore they compare these passages with those of making the blinde to see c. not that they did see while they were blinde but those who were blinde do now see and this is true and good Answ If you grant that a man is as meerly ungodly till he be justified as a man is blinde till his eyes be opened with those divines the Doctor and you might agree but this answer likes you not though you say it is good and true so well as another viz. Mr. B. 2. But I shall secondly answer it c. Vngodly there is meant of such who are so in their nature considered having not an absolute righteousness yet at the same time believers even as Abraham was So then the subject of justification is a sinner yet a believer Now it is impossible that a man should be a believer and his heart not purified Act 15. Answ So that in few and plain words your opinion is as we see by this and other passages where you call Abraham the ungodly man That a man must be a believer have his heart purified by faith be qualified as Abraham was at least then when it was said his faith was imputed for righteousness before he can be capable of justification here is poor and cold comfort to a distressed conscience who feels himself nothing but a meer compound of sin and misery Do you put men to believe and to know they believe and to be sure faith hath purified the heart but you mean not faith neither but the Law and sanctified them before they come to God who justifieth the ungodly A profound Rabbi O strange Divinity much good do it you You fear infection and so get as far from Doctor Crisp and from Paul's Doctrine as may be yet truth is with you Your Comes individuus to part at and you is impossible You might have named some of those learned men for I know them not But to deal punctually 1. You know that Doctor Crisp speaks of justification as it is Gods only free act absolving and discharging all the Elect of all their sins at once even then when he laid them on Christ Now as God said to Job Where wast thou when I cast the mountains so where was this Faith purity of heart and sanctification then this is no evasion you know but by this all you have said is annihilated he makes faith not to be necessary to justification but the evidence of it in due time for the relieving staying and comforting of the conscience troubled and affected by sin and the Law 2. To draw nearer to you who have thus set your self at this great distance that your longest weapon cannot teach your Adversary to harm him I will grant you that the Scripture setteth forth God as a justifier of them that are of the faith of Jesus Rom. 3.26 but let me then aske whether it be his faith or Gods act in justifying that doth alter him and his condition Israel looked upon the Brazen Serpent but the blessing of health came from God which did effect the cure 2. You say faith purified the heart Act. 15. what before justification or after Calvin and Luther understand that purifying to be by justification Luthers words are Totus purus es ratione hospitis tui because of Christ received by faith the heart becometh pure And when you tell us Abraham is that ungodly man if you mean he was ungodly when he was justified there is no difference But if you consider him otherwise he was then a worker and so the text is fully against you To him that worketh not c. But when Paul saith He believed in God who justifieth the ungodly it is a description of the object of faith or of God on whom faith believeth even that God whose nature property office and promise is to justifie an ungodly man and not a declaration how the subject or man is to be qualified So that the true God of the Gospell findeth men ungodly when he justifieth them but leaveth them not so Or if you will understand the place of Abraham yet there is no circumstance requiring it how ever he was so qualified by faith his heart purified he reported and found to have exellent things in him at that time when it was said his faith was imputed for righeousness Gen. 15.5 yet God in whom he believed is said to justifie them that are without such qualifications even the ungodly M. B. Another place they much stand upon is Rom. 5. Christ died for us while we were enemies while we were sinners But why then do they say that if a man be as great an enemy as enmity it self can make him if he be willing to take Christ c. be shall be pardoned which we say is a Contradiction for how can an enemy with Christ close with Christ So that would seem more then in some places they seem to allowe Answ You doe not surely deny the truth of that Scripture but argue the inconsistency of it with that assertion viz. That such great enemies and sinners closing with Christ can be pardoned this is a Contradiction say you I
and trust in any goodness of his owne and to make him to seek out and to hearken after Christ the true and onely right door set open in the Gospel that by him the soul may have entrance being found in him not having its owne righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through faith in Christ The righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 It is a vain and a strange conceit that the soul should convert to God by the preaching of the Law sith it can onely turne and come unto him by faith which nothing doth so much cross and hinder as the Law and it putteth the soul upon a contrary way 3. But if by conversion you mean as happily you do the change of the disposition and frame of the soul It is as certain also and clear that God doth not this by the law but by Gospel thus Act. 15.9 God purifieth the heart by faith and Acts 26.18 they sanctified by faith This is the special commendation that Paul giveth of the Gospel that therein we all with open face behold the glory of the Lord as in a glass and are changed into the same image from glory to glory even by the Spirit of the Lord. Againe can mans nature be changed till he be united and ingrafted into Christ the true vine and doth not vertue come by that insition or union And was it ever taught or read that the law should be that ministery by which this is wrought If the law do not set this object Christ before the soul nor is no mean to bring and joyn it to him how can it be an instrument to give and communicate the Spirit of Christ Indeed a legal spirit or power it hath which hath been effectual to work a great deal of reformation and legal strictness having a specious and deceitful shew and lustre as we see in the Pharisees who therefore were admired in their age O Sir if you would set before your own and the eyes of your people duely and daily that exceeding kindness of God and sweetness of his so surpassing love in Christ in so infinite expressions of it and seek to affect both your own and their hearts with it you would finde what an incredible force and vertue is in it far beyond any power in a legal Ministery to melt gaine and leaven the soul transforming it into its own nature and image which is love and mercy and so disposing you to do all things of the law freely and willingly which are but the offices and duties of love And the law was given not to beget this love but that by requiring it of us either love or enmity as it is in us might be bewrayed and made manifest In a word no sounder further nor better conversion can be wrought by the law then was in Paul before he received the Faith who in that his zeal of God was a blood-sucker and butcher of Christians Christs silly and harmless sheep for he was inwardly in the gall of bitterness c. and so are too many this day as we see finde and feel who might be metamorphozed by the Gospel and of wolves become lambs like Priest like People according to their pasture they feed in viz. as the nature of the doctrine is they receive so they are where much law is there hardness of heart cruelty self-love c. but want of meekness humbleness and mercy And it will ever be true that a legal zeal is persecuting 4. If lastly you hold this last sort of conversion to be by the law viz. to make a loose and profane man strict and religious in his course of life which is properly no souls conversion for both he may be in statu quo prius no changling in his state and his nature was principled for this way this may be granted you but alas who seeth not that this is hypocritical feigned unsound Luther saith The law can but make hypocrites if there be no further work but what is by it This I ingenuously profess what ever you may think of it that my desire is not to know or think of God out of Christ but to confine all the powers and workings of my soul unto that so pleasant and amiable object God reconciled in his Son And so to set him before me gracious propitious loving c. in all the events occurences and conditions of this life And this is the true and onely office and exercise of faith And thus I deal with God even as he also dealeth with me according to Luthers expression without the Law in his Covenant of meer grace the more I can do so the greater confidence I have towards him the better every thing he doeth pleaseth me the more welcome is the Cross and the more apt and able I am to bear and digest it the more is my heart and affections lively and sweetly stirred up and enlarged to love God and to delight my self in him by this mean the soul is made merry and kept joyful in the Lord and like an Instrument in good tune it is ready for use upon any occasion And the inward appearing and manifestation of God unto the soul in love and tender mercy doth melt it and effectually change and overcome the enmity and maliciousness of my naughty heart and nature And this light I endeavour to hold out to all and to walk in this way of loving kindness long-suffering and compassion towards every one in doctrine and life holding it the wisest most direct effectual and Gospel-like course and way thus to overcome the frowardness and evil that is in man with lenity and goodness even as God in this way prevented and overcame me The more I can look into that gentleness aimableness and those fatherly affections in God through Christ Jesus towards me and that secreet bosome of divine love is so laid open the more are all fears banished discontentments swallowed up and I am heartned to go on chearfully in a Christian course as best becometh that holy and heavenly calling And the more abundantly Gods thoughts of peace are discovered unto me the more peace and rest I thereby finde bred and preserved in my thoughts You may account it a licentious doctrine or otherwise asperse it with indignities because you have little skill of it and may bridle your self and disciples by another mean and kinde of woful doctrine but when you have done I wish you might feel how your owne pulses do beat But I proceed You deny the Law to work onely preparatorily in conversion And I thinke he never had experience of convesion that is of your mind you would make men believe you sit downe with a legal reformation as is the case of too many instead of a Gospels-conversion or that the law had never as yet its due and perfect work upon you for then you would sing another song When the commandment came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7. Did ever any come
A RE-ASSERTION OF GRACE OR VINDICIAE EVANGELII A Vindication of the Gospell-truths from the unjust censure and undue aspersions of Antinomians In a modest Reply to Mr. Anth Burgesses Vindiciae Legis Mr. Rutherfords Triall and Tryumph of Faith from which also Mr. Geerie and M. Bedford may receive a satisfactory answer By ROBERT TOVVNE AMBR Quia Conscientiae suae luce clarescunt alienis rumoribus sordidentur JOHN 16.2 They will put you out of their Synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will thinke that he doth God service JOHN 4.4 Ye are of God little children and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold at the Angell in Cornhill 1654. The PREFACE THe written Papers of this Booke originally under the Authors owne hand did accidentally fall under my view by meanes of a faithfull friend and brother who first gave me intelligence that there was such a work in hand but not as yet perfected afterward obtaining a sight of it in its primary engrossings he borrowed the same for a time in which he might peruse and reade them over and so in the interim before they were returned to the owner they came to me the which when I had considered I found therein a composure of very excellent matter the Doctrine of the Law of God truly published in its lightening lustre and native purity drawne forth from under the vailing glosses with which it lay covered the meere Inventions of Sathan transformed into an Angell of light and restored to its former integritie and proper use Psal 12. as Silver tryed in a furnace of earth purified seaven times So that Sinah's Thunderclapps or the bolts of Horeb doe here appeare Shot out the cloudes and Pharisaicall expositions darkening the counsell of God by words without knowledge being dissolved and broken thorow Job 38. And moreover that the fainting sinner might not utterly be excluded I found comprized therein the bringing to light of life and immortality through the Gospell the opening of the kingdome of heaven the doores being largely expanded in Christs owne way 2 Tim. 1. and method of preaching which reason and the seede of the Serpent sowen therein the enemie to the simple truth of God hath endeavoured by all subtile workings and secret insinuations either wholly to shut or else to open and but to the halfe by the key of such qualifications that there is no possibility for any heart sensibly discovered by the doore so opened to enter in Onely the hypocrite who lives in a fooles paradise fraighted with a vaine imagination of his owne conditionall goodnesse doth conceitedly seeme to himselfe to enter into the kingdome of heaven Josh 6. by that way which Sathan hath prepared and cast up but the issues thereof are the issues of death leading to Jericho the accursed City so that this he shall have in the end He shall lye down in sorrow Isa 50. John 9. and because he thinks that he seeth therefore his sin remaineth For the end cannot be enjoyed but only in God own way appointed by himselfe which way thou shalt finde most clearely held out John 14. and convincingly proved in these ensuing treatises to be Christ himself by whom the believing heart hath accesse to God and comes with boldnesse to the throne of grace no man comming to the Father but by him John 10. And also that he is the doore ready to entertaine and receive into peaceable habitations and sure dwellings all such as are wounded with the invenomed arrowes of their hidden abhominations and stand trembling under the hand of God fearefull of his fiery wrath and justly deserved indignation which none may abide nor otherwise can avoid John 3. And that he is the truth of the brazen Serpent which is lifted up upon the pole in the wildernesse not for the whole but for the mortally wounded to look unto And the water of life to coole and refresh the withered heart Psal 23. parched with the heat of sin at the which as still waters the weake sheepe may drinke which otherwise were not able to stand in or withstand the boysterous streames and hold its footing in the clashing waves so that out of his belly flows the Rivers of Living Water John 10. And the good Shepheard who fully manageth that relation for the good of his tender ones he feeds his Flock Isa 40. like a Shepheard he gathers the Lambes with his arme John 15. and carries them in his Bosome and gently leads those that are with young The Vine in which the Branches live and in whom his people enjoy their life by faith Gal. 2. being dead in themselves through the Law John 1. Colos 1. Isaiah 6.1 Rev. 1. Eph. 5. Eph. 1. Acts 15. Rom. 8. so that what they have or enjoy doth proceed and issue from that Root so full of moysture of which fulnesse they receive and grace for grace They live but it is in him who is their life They are righteous and that compleatly but it s through his Robes They are cleansed and washed but it is by his Bloud They are accepted but it is in the Beloved They are adopted but it is in the first begotten among many Brethren Their Hearts are purified but it is by the faith of the Son of God They are free from Condemnation but it is because they are in Christ Jesus for to such there is no condemnation Nay reckon up all their participations and we shall finde that they are in and proceed from him who is the head Coloss 1. that in all things he might have the preheminence So that What have they but they have received it And a believing man may say most truely In Christ I have and am all things but out of him I am meerly nothing nay less than nothing and vanity And why should this Doctrine be so impugned but that the strong man armed and keeping his house will not be quiet for feare he should be dispossessed but by all means possible both as Fox and Lyon bestirres himself that he may keep and retain his ancient hold when as it ought rather to be highly extolled and magnified in Heart Press and Pulpit Mic. 4. seeing it lifts up and establisheth the mountaine of the house of the Lord in the top of the mountaines and exalts it above the hills and doth but fulfill that saying of Isaiah where the Prophet speakes in the person of God himselfe Isa 52. Behold my Servant meaning Christ shall deale prudently he shall be exalted extolled and shall be very high though many should be astonished at him because his visage not appearing comely to the eye of fl sh and blood was so marred more than any man and his forme more than the Sons of men But what God in Himselfe or his Word hath most highly exalted that Sathan alwayes an enemy to the truth of God and the seed of the
Christ a distressed and pursued soul may be safe and in peace but nowhere else M. B. Now these speak of Christs death as an universal meritorious cause without any application of Christs death unto this or that soul Therefore you must still carry this along with you that to that grand mercy of justification somthing is requisite as the efficient viz. the grace of God something meritorious viz. Christs sufferings something instrumental viz. faith and one is as necessary as the other Answ The full bent and chief drift of the Doctors ministery is the application of Christ and the benefits of his death unto the soul who so see any thing cannot but so judge I marvel then at this your so palpable accusation 2. Dr. Crisp speaketh of justification as it is Gods alone gracious act in Christ discharging and acquitting all the Elect in him at the time of his passion and resurrection fully and for ever This was done in fore caeli or as others coram judicio Dei As for the instrumentals whether the word to reveal and publish it or faith to apprehend and rest on it they were neither necessary to that Act of God but onely afterward to give evidence and assurance to the several consciences of all those Elect of what was done for them freely by God in Christ upon the cross For there God was in Christ reconciling them to himself 2 Cor. 5.18 M. B. I will but mention one place more Psal 68.18 Thou hast received gifts even for the rebellious also c. adding Is not all this strange Though the Author press sanctification never much in other places yet certainly such principles as these over grow it Answ 1. Why is it that you think this strange viz. That the loathsomness and hatefulness of this rebellion is transacted from the person upon the back of Christ he beareth the sin as well as the shame c. So that God acquitted his Elect and satiffied his justice in Christ their Sure y and by this means it cometh to pass that God can dwell withthose persons Is this any more then what Paul saith in short and plain words viz. Christ was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 and Ephes 2.14 Christ by his Crosse hath slain enmity and made peace Is not Christ the Communis terminus the bond and mean of union and atonement with God by his only sacrifice while we were sinners enemies in our selves we were reconciled in Christ Rom. 5.10 The ground and reason of your opposing is in that you are of opinion that God commeth unto us by or with or because of some inherent graces or qualifications in us which be as a Load-stone to draw and unite his affection and that Christ is but the meritorious cause of this a Papistical conceit God is in Christ and where Christ is there is God present I am in the Father and the Father in me Ioh. 14.10 he that hath the Son hath the Father also and he that hath not the Son hath not the Father He that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me Ioh. 13.20 God then loveth uniteth himself and cometh to the soule only in and through Christ In whom he makes us accepted Eph. 1.6 and that only of his grace If the presence of good works you so contend for in justification were granted you yet God hath no respect to them but beholdeth us as sinful wretches plunged into all confusion and being moved to pity us he considereth our persons and receiveth us alone in our Lord Jesus Christ yea he only beholdeth as our selves so all our good works in that perfection of his Son else they could not be accepted nor liked saith Mr. Calvin And these are the only true and most powerful and operative principles of all right sanctification though your legally-forced sanctity or reformation may grow and arise out of another natural principle and dead root Lastly as for that conversion and change of the most rebellious by the Ministery it is the product or effect of this doctrine I muse that a man of your parts and Religion should so stumble in so clear a light LECTURE IIII. 1 Tim. 1.8 9. Knowing the Law is good if a man use it lawfully M. B. Having confuted some dangerous inferences that the Antinomian makes from that precious Doctrine of justification Answ Egregiam vero laudem spolia ampla refers tu Review now your elaborate work and you will not finde one syllable of real confutation you may learn palmodiam canere I only intend to defend and vindicate the assertions and cause of your later Antinomians as you are pleased to call them as for Islebius Agricola he is none of my acquaintance I never read him If you wrong him God is his Judg and avenger yea and this also I would have the Reader know thāt I am minded to pass by whatever I shall henceforth meet withall whether positive or controversal if it do not directly touch or reflect upon his three named Antinomians lest all the rest in this book be taken for orthodox or I be accounted an approver of it for many things in it besides are to me unsavoury and unsound M. B. sect 2. They tell us not only of a righteousness or justification by imputation but also Saintship and holiness by this obedience of Christ And hence it is that God seeth no sin in believers Answ If they tell you of such perfection that God seeth no sin they withal in the same place tell you if you had the same ears to hear it that this justification or Saintship is by imputation and not by inherent sanctification If Christ be held forth unto you by God himself as one that hath washed you and cleansed you from all sin and withal it be given you so to apprehend and receive it what think you now of your self and condition while you abide in this light In the Creed you say I believe a holy Church yet the Church it self is no exterior or visible thing that the world can discern though the persons be visible and her holiness is invisible onely faith which is of things not seen Heb. 11.11 can behold this purity of the Church not in the Law nor any work or inherent thing but as she is washed and made clean in the blood and righteousness of her Redeemer The Church is all fair saith August for her filthiness is taken away by Christ and he hath made her fair Look upon the Christians life and there thou maist finde many things that thou blamest If he look within himself the work of renovation there wrought it is also imperfect and not pure but as he is beheld in Christ who hath sanctified him he is altogether pure and holy but faith only seeth this Mark but this one saying of Calvin To the intent that God may no more be an enemy and take part against us who are
believing Faith onely is the condition or instrument that doth receive the Covenant but yet that a man believe is required the change of the whole man Answ They qualifie the subject believing in some sense is true but do they qualifie before he believe in believing or after Faith this you should have told us it may be concluded from your words that they must qualifie the subject before he believe and this is your reason because that a man believe is required the change of the whole man as if good works did change the man and so were pre-required to believe I answer 1. That the heart must be first changed I grant for the natural heart is evil and unbelieving And secondly It is a good work to renew and change it yet that is no work of ours but Gods Thirdly Do our good works qualifie towards God Coram judicio Dei as Melanct. or towards others Or to our own sight and sense Is not Christ in us put upon us formed and dwelling in us qualification sufficient for acceptance to salvation M. B. Vse Answ You are still ministring your vain Antidotes Take you heed of that spiritual Anti-Christ within man which strongly maketh head against the true Christ What you preach and profess may be a deceitful flourish you bid reconcile Law and Gospel Justification and holiness c. I know none making such jars between one and the other as doth your self Is the Law then against the Promise Gal. 3.21 That is a blinde conceit Christ was ordained to be the Righteousness of the sinful and lost soul of man and to be received by it in the feeling of the failing and want of all goodness in it self He dwelleth in the poor meek low and broken heart to receive heal and satisfie it We may think and talk of him out of us as held forth in the letter and outward Ministry and all this to small and no effectual consolation or purpose LECT V. 1 Tim. 1.9 Knowing this that the Law is not made for a righteous man M. B. COncerning the righteous man here we must not interpret it of one absolutely righteous but one that is so quo ad conatum desiderium Answ Why may we not understand it as well of one who hath attained to righteousness by Faith which is absolute and perfect as of inherent sanctification which is inchoat and imperfect or why is it that you do altogether exclude this passive and imputed righteousness You do not with the Papists hold it onely to be a putative and not real righteousness And you erre if you take that which is sensible inchoat and so defective to be yet more worthy to give the denomination M. B. pag. 49. The Antinomian and Papist do both concur in this errour though upon different grounds that our righteousness and works be perfect c. and that not only in Justification but in Sanctification also Answ Though the righteousness of Faith in Christ and sanctification by his Spirit which are inseparable in regard of the subject be two distinct things yet they argue not the party to be in a twofold estate towards God for acceptance to favour and life but his estate is peaceable and safe onely by the free grace of Justification You grant your sanctification is imperfect and defective Now sith the sinfulness remaining in us doth dispread it self throughout all the powers of the soul all parts actions and passages of the whole man When you then have gathered and summ'd up all in one do you not bring all your works in the end to yur Justification by your confession of weaknesses wants pollutions c. and so seek forgiveness of the sins of your Prayers Etiam bona opera egent remissione peccati your failings in your Sermons errours of heart and life And this is in effect to have all healed and justified by free justification or the blood of Christ knowing that otherwise all is damnable and in law and justice to be rejected know it and cause also your hearers to learn it that though Justification be one individual act yet the vertue and efficacy of it is necessarily to be extended throughout all the life and wayes of man It purifieth the man and maketh all pure also and acceptable Tit. 1.15 To the pure all things are pure Thus may you see that it is a truth that all are become perfect and the manner also how and lastly that all is in Justification and not in Sanctification and so know your mistake If you receive not this how shall what is imperfect be accepted except either by some mitigation of Gods Justice contrary to that place so much and that without cause urged against us Matt. 5.17 18 or that you will so far be beholding to the new Covenant with the Arminian as to seek for the Grace of it which may pardon or pass by our defects or in effect to deny the extent and continuance of the force and vertue of Justification and Christs blood unto the last end What you charge upon your old Antinomian Islebius I pass by as an Author I never read M. B. As for the latter Antinomian he speaketh very uncertainly and inconsistently Sometimes he grants the Law is a rule but very hardly and seldom then presently kicketh all down again for saith he it cannot be conceived that it should rule but that it also should reign and therefore thinks it impossible that one act of the Law should be without the other the damnatory power of the Law is inseparable from it Can you put your Conscience under the Mandatory power and keep it from the damnatory Assert of Gr. p. 33. Answ None can speak more uncertainly and inconsistently then you in these Lectures you make neither to appear in your adversary but he proveth you guilty of both For when you use these expressions Good works are necessary in the justified and then presently They are necessary in him that is to be justified Again onely Faith in Christ is necessary to salvation the promises of life are made to the believer and good works have the promises of life every good work thou canst do hath a promise made to it of eternal life c. you both leave your reader uncertain what your opinion is and these will in no wise consist together besides many other like passages Also here you say he grants it a rule and yet do charge him with the total abolition of it pag. 43. Is not this inconsistency You say he granteth it hardly nay doth it freely without constraint B. And seldom Ans If need require he will do it toties quoties This is not to kick all down again to say the Law if it rule it doth also reign the latter doth not overthrow the former but onely it crosseth and overthroweth your vain and ayry conceit of a Law ruling and not reigning You say he thinks it impossible that one act of the Law should be without the other
the consent or opinion of Divines as the best yea sole reason and warrant you have for this whereas you regard not their concurrence in other things 4. Your inference is as strange viz. That there must then necessarily be grace included in the morall Law for suppose your reducement be true yet the same grace was still contained and kept in the ceremoniall as before and it could import no whit of its native vertue or as a physicall ingredient infuse its spirit strength or force to alter and qualifie the Law of works for then grace were no more grace nor works no more works If you make the morall so capacious as to receive into it the other as a greater Orbe the lesser or as your Chest doth a box of oyntment or the Ark the Pot of Manna yet there is no necessity of any influence from one into the other or of any thing to be poured out of one vessell into another but all that grace of remission of sins c. was still preserved and kept in the ceremoniall Law and so no grace in the morall 4. If the Apostle did speak as much against the ceremoniall as morall Law was it not because the people had no further respect then to the act observance or thing done resting in the bare use without faith in Christ the onely treasure hid and propounded in and by them and so they made that to be worke which was grace and so no difference between ceremoniall and morall things Sincere accepâ—â— non sunt proâ—â—ie opera hoâ—â—num sed â—â—ei nam niâ—â—l agimus sed â—â—ferimus nos â—â—eo ad recipiâ—â—ndam ejus â—â—vatiam Cal. And being thus perverted the continuance and use of circumcision and the sacrifices did oppose Christ and grace though they did not so as they were instituted and commanded by God to be used Sacrifices and Sacraments be Gods Ordinances which rightly understood and taken and purely used are not properly mans works but Gods He propoundeth and commendeth thereby unto us his grace and the work of redemption by Jesus Christ the sole object that our faith is to look at and to be exercised about in the use of them If we handle them sincerely we bring no work nothing for acceptation with God but onely are receivers of what he freely giveth unto us It s an easie and too common an errour to turn all into works even Baptism and the Lords Supper whereby the simple nature and verity of them is extinguished and lost Christ profiteth none but such as despairing of Law and works do by faith she onely unto the promise of his grace If a man seek help or comfort in any one act or work he is then bound to seek the same in all the works of the Law and so is a debter to fulfill the whole Law and is quite fallen from grace so is it Gal. 5.2 3 4. Behold I Paul say unto you that if you be circumcised namely in that perswasion that that act will avail you any thing Christ shall not profit you at all c. 5. Lastly This say you hath been alway a strong Argument to perswade you c. And there appeareth no strength in it but it is as weak silly and poor as any and whereas you say alwaies I understand you thus viz. since you entertained that conceit that the Law of works is a Covenant of grace by a mistake herein you might be confirmed in that errour but what bred or occasioned that opinion at first And we now having the same morall Law how is it if the ceremoniall be included in that second Commandment that it doth not bind us also to sacrifice be circumcised c. as it did the Jews else we have not all in the Law Mr. B. This will appear from the visible seal to ratifie the Covenant Argn. 5 which was by sacrifices and sprinkling the people with blood and this did signifie Christ the Mediatour of this Covenant Answ Interpreters vary about the meaning of that Covenant-book or Testament that was sprinkled with blood Exod. 24. If you will contend it was the Law largely taken even for what was delivered on Mount Sinai In which large acceptation that Law blood of sprinkling and other ceremonies then used were typicall and shadows of future good things Heb. 10.1 then you exclude the Morall Law strictly taken as a rule of righteousness for it was not typicall And now what have you gained by making this a Covenat of grace which the Jews lived under or where or what grace is found in the morall Law But when Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you Exod. 24.8 your Marginall note telleth you It was to signifie that the Law being broken by us could alone be satisfied by the blood and death of Christ Let Moses be typicall Mediatour yet it followeth not that it was not a covenant of works if you take it for the Law morall but contrarily that it was no other for a Mediator was therefore needfull because by the Law the people were convinced that there was dissention and variance between God and them in that they were proved to be transgressors of that his Law and the enmity was to be slain and abolished and a reconcilement made by a middle person Argn. 6 The residue of this Section I leave as dubious and obscure of whom you mean I know not Mr. B. If the Law was that same Covenant with that Oath God made to Isaac then it must needs be a Covenant of grace But c. Therefore God remembers what he had promised to Abraham Deut. 7.2 It shall come to pass if ye hearken to these judgements and do them that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the Covenant and mercy which he sware unto thy Fathers Answ Nothing is more evident by this place then that the Law requiring these judgements to be hearkened unto and done was a distinct doctrine from that Covenant made with them in their Fathers For 1. God requires of them the doing of the one but promises that he himself will keep the other the Covenant and the mercy so that this wholly rests and relyeth on him 2. He calls and commendeth himself first to be the Lord their God not upon condition of their doing or obedience but before he required it and as the ground of commanding it 3. The Covenant and mercy was made long before and confirmed by Oath in the dayes of their Fathers these stand all in that text fully against you and for us Yet he dealing with them as a Father with his Children is willing to manifest his faithfulness and love in keeping Covenant and promise made long before in that way of their obedience and dutifulness but that he made that Covenant the same with the Law is denied as utterly false If you say to your Child he shall find you a loving and kind
are onely of force for that and during Christ time 2 Exception 2 Against what is said to 1 Cor. 11. Mr. Rutherf saith Faith doth no more hinder a justified person to receive unworthily the Lords Supper then it doth hinder him to commit Adultery Reply It 's true faith is not alway effectual in all to hinder the doing of both these But what then Is it not for want of the exercise of faith in vigour life and perfection that these or any other sins are not prevented So if faith do not hinder what then can hinder what purifieth the heart and rightly principleth and disposeth the soul to all good actions but faith but not faith as a dead quality or habit lying still and idle within but as it 's lively and operative according to its nature and property 2. What else doth the Soul in eating and drinking the Lords Supper imploy or set on work but faith Nay is the act of eating and drinking formally any other thing but to believe So that if faith be not to be put forth and exercised and then where is justification there may be a bodily action in using the visible Elements which is unworthy indeed and not befitting a Christian but no spiritual eating as the Ordinance requireth You make your self sport saying Mr. T 's sense seemeth to carry That a justified person cannot sinne nor eat and drink unworthily because faith makes him worthy and if so the way is a wanton merry way Reply My words speak no such thing if you lift to spell them aright but if your ill-will suffer you not The Lord forgive and amend it Faith includeth all It presupposeth hunger and thirst before eating 2. a true and spiritual receiving 3. inward refreshing and satisfaction thereby whence 4. followeth love rejoycing with thanksgiving so that he who eateth and drinketh in faith cannot eat and drink unworthily The ground out of which all your seven Arguments grow and receive their supposed strength is that mixt-justice or that Mosaical-Government which we do not now live under And therefore that failing they will all totter and fall It needs then your second hand and labour to uphold and confirm it Moreover to the seventh and last requiring some more particular answer I say 1. That all afflictions are subservient to the Law and signes of wrath is no errour or position of ours neither is our assertion founded upon it 2. Yet as afflictions come from justice offended and provoked to inflict them for sinne so they are appendices of the Law and you cannot disprove it 3. You adde as a thing that we hold That as believers are freed from the ruling power of the Law so are they also from the Rod. Whereas 1. your doctrine by a direct and necessary consequence doth free the believer from the ruling power of the Law while you place him under a mixt-Government of justice and mercy for the Law is pure justice without mixture and a strict and exact rule without mitigation 2. It is false that we free believers from the Rod as your own eyes may witness while you read our positions for we do not cry down all Crosses and secure the justified from all affliction In this our way we have had and still expect many a scratch and prick from you and others and yet not for any desert or errour that all your diligence can finde and prove Your other pretended errour is cleared before Lastly though Christ paid for sins before yet the Law acquits them not nor conscience apperehends it not before actual justification 3 Exception is against the Covenant Mr. Rutherf Some teach this Covenant hath no condition so Dr. Crisp and other Libertines Reply We must have your lash and unworthy brand also You may sin and we are made to suffer but unless you bring in Free-will this Covenant of Grace will prove absolute no part of it lying on us for that presupposeth some power and goodness where is none for this Covenant is with man being fallen and so having lost all therefore it behoveth that it should be sutable to his broken state requiring neither promising no good conditionally where nothing could be first given by him 2. It is granted by all that all was transacted between God the Father and the Sonne from eternity and that the Covenant as it cometh and is commended to us is as the breaking up of that great seal the opening and manifestation of those secrets concluded upon so farre as they concern the raising of the Elect of God out of their sinful dust unto everlasting blessedness so that what is in the decree of heaven concerning them the same is contained in the Covenant then as God purposed to give repentance faith holiness so he hath included and promised all in the Covenant and these are truely parts and branches of it and not properly conditions Now we see that as there were thoughts of peace in God for us when we were in our lowest and worst condition and in what way and after what manner his mind is to recover our souls from their lost Estates and restore and give life favour and glory unto them so by this Covenant also he hath laid cleared to us a firm ground upon which we may with comfort and considence expect and wait for faith and all things to be given freely unto us This agreeth to the expressions of Zanchie Calvin Parous c. Indeed God observeth his due and set order in giving and working one thing before and another after so as a prius and a posterius is granted but the first suppose repentance or faith is not a condition of what followeth except with us and according to these Authors you will call it a condition of state that is Conditio statuâ— God bringeth the soul unto such a state or case as he humbleth it and then giveth Grace c. Thus many promises are with an if If ye repent if ye believe then thus it shall be unto you and denote onely order and consequence as Calvin saith not condition As a Husbandman soweth not his land till it be plowed and fitted if he be asked why he doth not commit his seed to it he will answer it must be prepared first but one part of his worke is not the condition of the other when the whole lyeth on him Again if the promise to give faith and repentance be not in the Covenant where is it to be found Is there any thing to be looked for not mentioned in the Covenant 3. You call it a Covenant of Grace now if it be of Grace then works are excluded yea repentance and faith as our acts and if it be free that necessarily fighteth against all conditions it cannot be free and conditional The more freely the riches of Gods Grace is held forth the more glorious and admirable is it in our eyes Besides it is your expression That Christ is a party contracting or a Covenanter undertaking for