worse opinion of my self than I had though I think he hath told you of my Pride an hundred times This is no more than his predecessors in this Art of reviling have charged their neighbours withal when they deserveâ— better usage There was one for instance that would needs prove from Mr. Baxters writings as this man labours to do from mine that he was hypocritically proud So he himself tells us k Appendix to the 5 Disp of right to the Sacraments p. 484. Preface before his Confession of Faith and you shall have my answer at present in his words I will by the help of God search my heart for this sin of pride and desire him to do the like and see that he be well acquit from usurping Gods prerogative and from slandering his Brother 2. How came I to be so unhappy that only those that know me not load me with this charge and never any of my Brethren told me of it to my face 3. It will be worth such mens labour to search how much pride may lie in their impatience of Contradiction and being such that a man knows not how to speak to them for fear of being contumeâ—ious in withdrawing or not giving them the honour they expect I remember hâ—â— St. Austin excused a friend of his to a man of such a Spirit and with a fear least after all his caution he should seem contumelious himself in that Apology I hear thou complainest of Memoratus a Brother that he answered something contumeliously to thee which I beseech thee not to account a reproach When as I am certain that it did not proceed from a proud Mâ—nd For I know that Brother of mine if he speak any thing with greater fervency for his Faith and for the Charity of the Church than thy gravity would willingly hear that is not to be called contumely but confidence and assurance of the truâ—â— of what he said For he â—esired to reason and confer not to fawn and flatter In such a confidence which I feel still unshaken in my mind after all his batteries I will proceed take it â—ow he please to make good my charge by giving only some notorious instances of all those things and several others as they occur to my thoughts For we need not drink up all the Sea to know that it is salt as Irenaus speaks nor is it fit to trouble the world with too long a discourse about one mans follies And if you please we will begin with his Ignorance N. C. It will be a very ungrateful discourse C. Not more to you than to me who heartily wish there were a way of curing Ulcers without unripping them first and laying them open But I look upon this man as so empty and yet so confident and self-conceited that there is no way to do him good but by laying him naked before himself And I doubt not also but to make my discourse very profitable to others who will give it the hearing for he that corrects one may mend an hundred N. C. Proceed then C. You have had some tast already of his skill St. Taffee will be a witness of it as long as he lives But to take him down still lower and keep him from medling hereafter with things beyond his reach I shall give you a more full demonstration of his Ignorance and make it manifest that of a Scholar he is the worst Horseman that ever bestrid a Book you will give me leave to allude to his own Rhetorick having rid himself clean out of the saddle And since Divinity seems to be hâ—â— prime Profession we will begin withâ—â— principal point of it and that is justifying Faith and good works Aboâ—â— which things he tells us how excellently Mr. d p. 18. Baxter hath wrote and because he hath done so well imagine they are all sound in those points Wheâ— as he himself good man either doâ— not know what Mr. Baxter saith 〈◊〉 else is not of his Mind From whence conclude that a man may as easily be 〈◊〉 Antinomian and not know it whatsoeveâ— he saith to the contrary as he hoâ—â— dangerous opinions about Faith and not know it N. C. What are they I know none C. He tells you not only what his own but what the N. C. opinion is about Justification by Faith in these words We say only Faith justifies as an Instrument though not that Faith which is alone m Pag. 19. Now Mr. Baxter I assure you is none of those but must be exempted out of his We. For there being two things which this Boldface affirms First that only Faith justifies and secondly that it justifies as an Instrument he will say neither of them for any good but looks on them as dangerous Positions N. C. You just sure or else Phil. is in a bad case C. It is as I tell you For to say that Faith only justifies is to say that God doth not say true who tells us we are not justified by Faith only This Mr. Baxter repeats over and over again n In his Disput of Justification and in his Letter but I must cite the very words or else I fear he will wrangle The Question is saith he o Ib. pag. 192. in what sense we are justified by Works and not by Faith only You answer in a direct contradiction to St. James saying it is by Faith only So dare not I directly say it is not by works when God saith it is But think I am bound to distinguish and shew in what sense Works justifie and in what not and not to say flatly against God that we are not justified by works under any notion but only by the Faith that works p Which is Philag his Assertion A denial of Gods assertions is an ill expounding of him N. C. This I confess is plain C. He speaks as home to the other part and not only denies that Faith justifies as an Instrument q Confess of Faith p. 88 89. but saith it is besides nay against the Scripture to say that Faith justifies as an Instrument r Ib. pag. 295. N. C. I did not think Phil. had clasht with M. Baxter and held Errors of such a Nature C. Nor he neither for he doth not use to think but only imagine If he had read and considered his Books he would have found that those who say Faith justifies as a s Quà Instrumentum p 95. true Instrument do most certainly make it to justifie as an action of man and in saying that it justifies as an Instrument yet not as an Act or by Actions they speak most gross contradiction seeing an Instrument is an Efficient Cause and Action is the Causality of the Efficient N. C. I do not well understand the danger of this C. He tells you t Disput of Justification p. 224. p. 214 216. It makes man his own justifier or the next cause of his Justification and by his own act to help God to
teach them in that manner But I remember withal that in their Confession of Faith chap. 14. they tell us something else viz. that the Principal Acts of saving Faith are receiving and resting on Christ alone for Justification Sanctification and eternal life by virtue of the Covenant of Grace C. True But you know that this is not so much read as the other and is more fitted for Divines than you not are any of you wont to read it till you have the former perswasion rooted in your hearts Besides they do not speak here of Faith as justifying but of the principal acts of saving Faith and you know they use to make a difference between these two They put also relying on him for Justification in the first place and more than that in the eleventh Chapter which is concerning Justification they tell you that Faith receiving and resting on Christ and his Righteousness is the alone Instrument of Justification And therefore the common opinion is that it Justifies as it hath a respect to the blood of Christ and his Righteousness But I have a more mighty Argument to prove that this is the Orthodox sense of that Assembly which is from the Parliament it self Who in their Ordinance of Octob. 20. 1645. giving Rules and Directions concerning Suspension from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in case of Ignorance or Scandal deliver this Definition of Faith which a Communicant is to be instructed in It is a grace whereby we believe and trust in Christ for remission of sin and life everlasting according to the promise of the Gospel b And that you know is to those who believe And by this Faith alone he is to know Christ and his benefits are applied This is the more to be observed because they made this Ordinance considering the Wonderful Providence of God in calling them to the great and difficult work of reforming and purging his Church and People as you read in the Preface and because this definition is again repeated in the Form of Church Government to be used in the Church of England and Ireland after advice had with the Assembly of Divines c Aug. 29. 1648. p. 29. N. C. You pack a great many things together which I had forgotten C. You may see by that I have studied your Catechism as well as ours though I have not told you my name By which he may know that I am old enough to shew if I pleased how deeply Antinomianism is rooted in your peoples hearts notwithstanding all that Mr. Baxter and others have done to pluck it up For such men as he who talk rawly and negligently of Divine things help to maintain and support it Nor do I see any reason to alter my opinion that many of you are Antinomians and do not know it just as I told you the last time d Continuation of the Fr. Deb. p. 87. that you are wont to rail very often like this Hotspur of yours even when you say you aborr it N. C. I abhorr those reflections you made upon what was done and said by some men in the late times and I think he hath School'd you to purpose for it Are you not sensible how oft you broke his Majesties gracious Act of Pardon And will you think your self a fit reprover of others for the breach of his Laws when you do not observe the chiefest and most beloved of them your self C. I must confess that this man hath more of a Pedant in him than any one I know and very magisterially stands over me with Rod in hand And when he hath laid on as many lashes as he could then he takes breath and says Now Sir go on with your Lesson and please you e P. 123. And so I will a great deal further than he ever expected to hear And I have such a Lessoâ— now for him as will make him give over the Trade of Schooling if he have any wit in his head till he be better learned N. C. Speak out then C. You need not fear it for I stand in no awe of his correction I rather pity him when I think what a taking he will be in after he finds that Indemnity will do him no more service than to say In Speech beware your Br This you must know is the Cuckoe Song which we hear over and over till we are tired with it Indemnity Indemnity Indemnity It is ten times at least repeated in his Preface and I have not leisure to tell how many times in the Book And yet for all this we mâ—st be so civil as to believe that he is not in love with Tautologies f P. 230. being not in love with tautologies I shall c. No by no means Though his whole Preface be little else but his Letter turn'd into an Epistle g Although my whole Book be nothing but a Letter to you yet I shall add an Epistle c. if you know the difference a vain repetition of the same things and oft-times in the very same words yet we must rather suspect our own blockishness than his love of Tauâ—ology to be the reason of it He is no Parrot he would have you know h Though he tells us very often of the Parrot N. C. pag. 168 266 286. that hath but a few things to prattle and says them often over He hath the act of Indemnity to talk of and then the Act of Oblivion then the Act of Oblivion and after that the Act of Indemnity and then Indemnity again and so forward c. which calls to mind I cannot help it the story of Scarpaccia which we find in a certain Italian Hospital not now to be named who had a conceit that he was King of Cuckoes and so to every one that spoke to him good or bad he would always answer with great readiness Cuckoe Cuckoe Cuckoe And being demanded why he answered not to the purpose he replied again I am King Cuckoe Cuckoe Cuckoe N. C. Methinks you are beside your Book C. Not at all Look into his Preface p. 7. and there he tells you I have laid the axe to the root of the Act of Indemnity Turn over a new leaf and you take him at it again p. 8. those Pioneers the two Debates have been undermining that great wall of defence viz. the Act of Indemnity And he hath not done with it yet I knock he saith sâ— hard upon the Act of Indemnity p. 10. Once more p. 11. I make nothing he tells you of the Act of Indemnity having razed the foundation as it is in his Book 249 of the Act of Indemnity He thinks sure we have little to do but are as idle as the boys in the Street who gather about a Parrot to hear it talk Otherwise he would not have troubled us with such a Pen-and-Inkhorn Preface consisting of two and forty pages when he had so little new to add N. C. He tells you i Preface pag. 1.
justifie him For so all Instruments do help the principal cause And yet by a self contradiction this opinion makes Faith to be of no moral worth and so no vertue or grace yea I think it lays the blame of mans infidelity on God For the assertors of it have a device to make it a passive Instrument from whence follow these absurdities N. C. I will not trouble my brains about it but I see I may omit a Question which he asks you viz. Do you not think that good works are the Instrumental cause of our Justification as well as Faith C. I must tell you in brief that all the Questions he propounds to me in that place are such as he would never have askt if he had but attain'd a smattering knowledg in Mr. Baxter's writings whom he commends just as he discommends me without understanding him For he would have taught him That neither Faith nor any work of ours are causes of our Justification either Principal or Instrumental u Confess of Faith pag. 31. and other places Disput of Justific pag. 75. N. C. But there is one Question he asks wherein he prays you to speak out for it is suspected there is a Snake in your Grass C. A Maggot in his Brain N. C. And that is are not Faith and Obedience both one and the same thing C. He hath a resolution in Mr. Baxter Our first Faith is not the same with Obedience to Christ how should it yet it essentially contains are solution and Covenant to obey him x Confess of Faith p. 38 39. But there is no end of these impertinent Questions You will ask me next how I prove my self not to be a Papist N. C. No I 'le let the rest alone because I see what you will say and this indeed was not the main thing that you and I first intended to debate Yet there are some Questions about this matter in another place to which I would gladly have though it be but a brief Answer C. Where shall we find them N. C. There where he comes to your description of Faith pag. 63. C. I remember the place Where I find him in the same posture that the Bishop of Galloway did his Reprover vexing himself with his own anger tumbling and weltring in the puddle of his tumultuous thoughts whereof he cannot rid himself bragging most vainly but producing nothing that may be accounted worthy of an answer y Defence pag. 169. For I having told you that the Faith our Saviour speaks of in those words Joh. 6.29 This is the work of God that you beleive on him whom he hath sent viz. justifying and saving Faith is an effectual perswasion that Jesus is sent of God He very gravely tells me that I deny Faith to consist in assent or perswasion which are the same thing and so contradict the men of my way Was there ever such a giddy-braind man as this set a cock-horse who posts away without his Errand and tells the world I deny Faith to be an assent or perswasion when I tell him it is Doth he no◠deserve to have his fingers rapt or to be soundly scourged that takes Pen in hand to confute a Book and never minds or else understands not what he writes against N. C. But you say Faith consists not in a bare perswasion c. C. True That saving Faith which I speak of doth not consist in a bare assent to the Truth of the Gospel but yet it is an assent though it be something more Assent is the General nature of Faith but there is a difference between Faith that is saving and Faith that is not saving which I there expressed by the word effectual And here again he blunders and keeps a pudder to make a plain ching obscure N. C. You will not say it was plain sure C. Yes but I will though nothing can be so plain and clear which th◠mans confused thoughts shall not trouble The difference I made between this Faith which our Saviour speaks of and a bare perswasion that he came from God was this that it is a perswasion of that Truth with its fruits and effects Which I expessed in these words becoming his Disciples sincere Profession of his Religion and living according to it For unless our minds being convinced of the Truth it have this effect upon our wills to make us consent to obey it and sincerely purpose to do according to our perswasion and unless also if we live we make good this purpose and both profess and perform obedience to the Gospel we do not the work of God which our Saviour speaks of nor have that faith which will bring us to everlasting life This he might have found affirm'd by Mr. Baxter in as round words as mine if he had spent that time in reading and meditating which he spends in scribling It 's all one saith he z Appendix to Disput of Right to the Sacraments p. 509. in my account to believe in Christ and to become a Christian c. To be a believer a Disput of Justif p. 77 78. and to be a Disciple of Christ in Scripture sense is all one and so to be a Disciple and to be a Christian and therefore Justifying faith comprehends all that is essential to our Discipleship or Christianity as its constitutive causes To which he adds this Proposition Those therefore who call any one act or two by the name of Justifying Faith and all the rest by the name of works and say that it is only the act of recumbency on Christ as Priest or on Christ as dying for us or only the act of apprehending or accepting his imputed righteousness by which we are justified c. do pervert the Doctrine of Faith and Justification ☞ and their Doctrine tendeth to corrupt the very nature of Christianity it self I could add a great deal more with as much ease as I can write but that I think this sufficient to be replyed to his long babble about the Nature o◠Faith and we must not suppose the world at leisure to read the same thing over perpetually If it do not satisfie him let him enjoy the vain conceit of his own skill nay let him crow over me and bear himself with the same pertness to use an expression I have somewhere met with that a Daw sits cawing an◠pecking upon a Sheeps back He will be but a Jack Daw for all that N. C. You grant then that there may be a perswalion where it is not effectual C. Who doubts of it But it is not saving Faith which was the thing 〈◊〉 were speaking of As he might have observed had he not kept such a cawing to himself that he could not hear us N. C. He makes account the Questions he asks you there are unanswerable C. He doth so And not to dissemble they seem to be no less subtil and profound than the admired Cryptick Question of Chrysippus if you ever heard
Parkhurst at the end of Mr. Sam. Rolls his Book called London's Resurrection But I should write a new Book should I proceed to represent only all the weak and ungrounded Conclusions which this Man makes in that Preface Who he is I have plainly enough signified to those who will be at the pains to read this Dialogue relying chiefly upon his own confession to several persons though it is easie enough other ways to find him out To whom I intended at first another person should have directed a very short Preface I mean that the Epistle of Isidorus Peleusiota to Candidianus d L. 1. Epist 480. should only have been prefixed to this Book and no other And though for good Reasons I have made a longer my self yet I shall commend that also to his Meditations Why dost thou make such hast to injure him whom thou oughtest rather to love for declaring what opinion all have of thee Differences have often corrected and set straight men of ingenuous spirits by making way for a cure of that which they have contumeliously committed If therefore thou thinkest those things reproachful which thou hast heard preserve thy self by well-doing unreproachable For if thou dost amend thy works these disgraces will vanish together therewith That I assure you was my end in Writing again to make him better known to himself and the Truth better known to the People to make him more careful what he writes and them more careful what they believe If any will still surmise that I have other ends than what I have declared in this and former Prefaces I have nothing to say to such now but that which a discreet and grave person e Mr. Francis Merbury mentioned upon a good occasion in the following Book Epistle before his Sermon at the Spittle 1602. whom they dare not discommend said long ago when he was misconstrued The falseness of mans heart if he set himself seriously before God cannot so deceive him but he may discern whether he have a care to avoid evil and to glorifie God In this care I have had my part and if men will report me otherways my Conscience as Job 31.36 shall make her a Garland of their Reports I am not the first whose words have been wrested and design mis-represented and defamed nor shall I be the last as long as any honest man will speak truth and but one of that angry and discontented brood remains which occasioned that apology now mentioned His words are remarkable in the middle of his Sermon concerning those who then desired a change with which I shall conclude There are two Cruel Beasts in the Land with gaunt bellies the wickedly needy and the wickedly moody The wickedly needy are they in all degrees who have consumed their own Estates and now hover over other mens The wickedly moody are they who have treasured up wrath and revenge in their minds against those who have been Gods instruments for their Nurture These disdain that a due defence should be opposed to their undutiful offence and both these and the other as it is said of Lions have for a time crookt in their nails to keep them sharp but they look for a day And God grant a day to as many of them as be impenitent and that the day they shall see may be as Zachary saith 14.12 when their eyes shall sink in their holes and their tongues consume away in their mouths Octob. 13. 1669. A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS THe Arts and shifts of the N. C. page 1 2 3 c. Some of them noted by my Lord Bacon page 5 6. A cheat cryed up by some of them for a mighty work of God page 7 8 Their ont-cries and clamors page 10 And scornful pity page 11 With denouncing of judgments upon their adversaries page 12 The surious folly of Philagathus page 13 Who resolved not to be convinced page 14 15 And phancies himself another David page 16 But is more like Don Quixote page 17 c. A short account of his misadventures from page 19 to 38 A ready way to compose a great Book c. page 39 40 An answer to his cavil against the Title of my Book page 41 How he misrepresents my words page 43 A wretched Apology for his Friends page 44 45 c. His unjust and undutiful complaints page 46 Makes the people believe they are Martyrs page 47 And in Eyptian bondage page 48 Ingratitude to their Governours c. page 50 51 The bold Ignorance of this man page 52 c. An instance in his Discourse of the Demonstration of of the spirit and of power page 54 62 Origen's interpretation of those words page 57 c. St Chrysostom's page 59 And divers others of the Ancients page 60 And of the Modern Writers page 61 Which clearly shew the impudence of this Writer page 62 63 He abuses Peter Martyr c. page 64 An casie way of writing Books page 66 67 Eâ—asmus put in to make a vain show page lb. page 68 Another instance of his shameless boldness page 70 The true ground of my Interpretation of those words page 71 72 73 c. Mr. Baxter's opinion of Grotius page ib. Philagathus rather to be called Antilegon page 75 An odious discase which some of them are sick of page 76 77 The sum of my charge against this man page 79 Their pride makes them call those proud who oppose them page 80 Of Faith's justifying us page 83 c. Other things about it page 87 c. His idle questions noted page 90 91 His rare qualities page 92 His Ignorant Discourse about the Pomps of the World page 93 What they were which Christians renounced in Baptism page 94 95 c. How inticing they were page 98 99 The Assemblies Definition of Faith page 100 c. 106 107 A new Cheat discovered page 101 102 c. An authentick Explication of the Assemblies meaning page 108 The Act of Indemnity impertinently alledged page 110 111 c. A true report of that Act and of Oblivion page 114 to 130 A fine way to keep posterity in ignorance page 118 Philagathus his false zeal page 119 120 The N. C. crossed the Design of the Act of Oblivion page 125 126 They keep up marks of Distinction page 127 Their old bad Principles ought to be remembered page 129 They make a show with words without sense page 130 Their partiality page 131 How they get credit with the people ib. page 132 133 Who are abused by ignorant but confident talkers page 135 A remarkable instance of it page ib. 136 An account of the Liturgy of Scodand and others page 137 to 145 Mr. Capel's and others opinion of Set Forms page 144 Another proof of Philag bold ignorance page 147 And presumption page 149 c. His lame account of their Opinions about the Covenant page 152 to 157 The great Charity of the N C. page 153 In what danger we are if all be true that Phil. says