Vnlest Grace deliver him or set him free by the Law of Faith which is in Christ Jesus Here again Augustin saith that we are freed from death by a Law that that Law is the Law of Faith that that Law of Faith is a Law of Grace for by that Law Grace frees us from death And he likewise gives us plainly to understand that that gracious Law is a new Law for he says it is the Law of Faith which is in Christ Jesus Now it is clear that the Law of Faith in Christ already exhibited in the Flesh crucified dead and buried raised from the Dead Glorified and appointed to be Lord of all and Judge of Quick and Dead made perfect and become the Authour of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him must needs be a New Law if we compare it with any Law that went before it For before the coming of Christ no Man was or could be obliged to believe in him as already Incarnate Crucified and Glorified otherwise Men had been obliged to believe a falsehood In the same Fifth Century Salvian of Marseilles wrote his Eight Books of the Government of God where he calls the Gospel the Christian Law Book 4th pag. 140. Edit Ox. 1633. In nobis Christus pâ—â—itur opprobrium in â—nobis patitur lex Christiana maledictum Saith he Christ suffers reproach by reason of us wicked Christians the Christian Law is evil spoken of by reason of us We might bring others of the Fathers for Witnesses in this cause but for the present we will content our selves with these especially the first three Justin the Martyr Cyprian end Augustin who all call the Gospel a New Law Our next Witness is Bradwardin who though he be none of the Fathers yet he lived above three hundred years agoe and our Authour cannot in reason except against him because he says in the 13th Page of the Letter that he was a blessing to England and he would make the World believe that he is for him against us Let us hear what he saies in this cause Deus dedit hominibus talem legem De causâ Dei contra Pelagiam cap. 1. Pag. 29. quam legem si non legem sanctissimam Christianam God gave unto men such a Law and what Law but the most Holy Christian Law Again He thus argues Si sola Lex Naturae sufficeret Homini c. If the Law of Nature alone were sufficient for a Man unto all things whatsoever Ibid p. 63 64. wherefore hath God who doth nothing in vain even by your own confession given another Law yea other Laws the old and the new as what wâ—â— said before doth testify especially since both these Laws to wit old and new of Moses and of Christ are more difficult to know and hard to keep than the Law of Nature For who that is wise doth any thing by more means which may be sufficiently done by fewer as natural reason and all Philosophers unanimously testifie Vnless perhaps it may be done more decently or neatly more profitably and better by many means than by few which if it be true of positive Laws and especially of the Christian Law why do you not receive it and hold it Here Bradwardin expresly calls our Christian Law a positive New Law as distinct both from the Law of Nature and Moses And in the same Page 64. he maintains that it is a Law with a Sanction of the greatest Reward and Punishment imaginable Sic Deus Summus Oeconomus in maxima domo sua c. So also God is the highest Ruler in his most great House the highest Prince in his most great Principality and the highest King of Kings in his most great Kingdome wherefore then cannot he enact or ordain that whosoever shall keep the Christian Law shall receive Eternal Glory and that they who shall not keep but contemn it shall be deprived of Glory and shall inour eternal damnation Surely he could do it and he hath done it as is manifest by what hath been said before By this Passage it is as clear as the light that Bradwardin held that the Gospel of Christ is a Law with a Sanction of Reward and Punishment and yet notwithstanding its Sanction of Punishment as well as Reward he held it to be a Law of Grace as Augustin did before him and as manifestly appears from the main scope of his Book Of the Cause of God against the Pelagians and therefore we forbear to quote any more out of it at present From the premisses it is clear that above 300 Years agoe the profound Doctor Bradwardin expresly affirmed the Law of Christ to be a positive new Law with a Sanction of Reward and Punishment and the Scope of his Book is to prove it to be a Law of Grace And by all this we think the World may now see that the Authour of the Letter told a great untruth when he affirmed that The new Law of Grace is a new Word but of an old and ill meaning and hence also People may learn what credit to give unto the Word of that Man From Fathers and Antient Writers we will come lower down and see what some of our Modern Divines since the Reformation have said in this cause and first when we look abroad we find that the Professors of Leyden in their Synopsis of purer Divinity say expresly Disp 22. Thesi 32. That Evangelium aliquando legis titulo insignitur c. The Gospel is sometimes called a Law because it also hath its own Commandments and its own Promises and Threatenings We find also that the learned Gomarus not only allows the Gospel to be called the Law of Grace but likewise gives the reason why it is so called in these Words Beneficii ratione Evangelium Gomari Operum par 3. Disp 14. Thesi 30. c. with respect unto and because of the benefit promised in it the Gospel in Holy Scripture is called The Word of the Lords Grace Acts. 14.3 the Gospel of the Grace of God Acts 20.24 the Gospel of Peace Eph. 6.15 Isa 52.7 Rom. 10.15 and the Testament or Covenant 2 Cor. 3.6 And from the prescription Evang. est lex Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or appointment of the condition and duty contained in it it is called the Law of Faith Rom. 3.27 and the Law of God by way of eminency or excellency Isa 2.3 And truly this was excellently said by Gomatus No Man we think can give a better account why the Gospel is called the Law of Grace And next when we look homewards again and cast our eyes upon our own Brittish Divines we find the greatest of them clearly of the same mind that the Gospel is a Law in the sense before explained it is the New Law of Grace We will instance in two only at present The first is Bishop Andrews no Popish Bishop such as Bradwardin was whom our Authour quotes with such an Elogium against us
we too but not in their way we will hope that he is not for the Antinomians but for the Truth and for us notwithstanding his Ambiguous Expressions Now we have seen how well he hath cleared himself of the suspicion of Antinomianism which he brought upon himself by his own Act and Deed. Let us next see how he hath cleared his Party We have declared already that we did not suspect them much less accuse them of real Antinomianism and so they needed no clearing with respect to us Yet since the Authour of the Letter hath told the World that they were both suspected and accused and since he hath undertaken to vindicate them and to clear up their innocency let us see how well he hath behaved himself in this matter And for this let us look into the Third Page of the Letter where he thus writes As to the Party suspected of Antinomianism and Libertinism in this City it is plain that the Churches wherein they are concerned are more strict and exact in trying of them that offer themselves to their Communion as to their Faith and Holiness before their admitting them in the engagements laid on them to a Gospel-walking at their admission and in their inspection over them afterwards As to their Conversations they are generally of the more regular and exact frame Is it not unaccountable to charge a People with Licentionsness when the Chargers cannot deny and some cannot well bear the strictness of their walk Then to confirm the Argument from the more than ordinary Holiness of their Lives he says that they sincerely profess that their godliness begun with and is promoted by the Faith of their Principles Here we have him pleading for his Party that he hath lately associated himself unto by an Argument that reflects on his old Friends and casts Dirt on all the Presbyterians throughout the World For the plain English of it is this we and our Party are more Godly than you our Churches are better constituted than yours we are also more holy in our Lives than you and this our Godliness and Holiness begun with the Faith of our Principles therefore it is an unaccountable thing to charge any of us with Antinomianism Now though we do not charge them yet since they are by some body charged with it or else this Authour tells a great untruth we should be glad to see them better cleared than they are by this Argument For that upon which the strength of this Argument depends is begged and not proved 1. It is taken for granted yea it is plainly enough asserted that their Churches are better constituted than ours or than all the Presbyterian Churches throughout the World And yet he knows that this is a thing in question and that the controversie about it is not yet decided yea that most we think of both Perswasions in England have agreed to leave it undecided as it was and have agreed unto an Union without the decision of it We wish therefore that this had not been mentioned but since he hath mentioned it and laid stress upon it we must refer him unto one of whom he hath heard and for whom we hope he hath yet some honourable esteem and that is the Reverend Mr. Wood against Mr. Lockyer Let him weigh well his Arguments from Page 127. to Page 168. and look forward into the Appendix if he please Let him consider also what the â—ise and peaceable Mr. Durham saith of Mr. Wood with respect to those very Arguments in his Treatise of Scandal London Edition 1659. Page 92. The Reverend and most Convincing Writer Mr. Wood c. If those Arguments do not convince our Authour we leave him to please himself a while with his new chosen Opinion but we cannot allow it to be a good Medium whereby to vindicate him and his Party from the supposed charge of Antinomianism 2. He takes it for granted nay he positively affirms that his Party are generally more holy in their Lives This is a very friendly Testimony our Authour may possibly think that he hath deserved well of them by this But we should think them to be wiser Men than to esteem him ever the better Man for such a flattering like commendation of them If an Enemy had done it or if one less concerned had said so it would have carryed in it a better grace and would have looked upon them with a better aspect For our parts we know who it was that said God I thank thee that I am not as other men are c. and we desire not to imitate such but choose rather to say with the despised Publican God be merciful to us Sinners Luke 18.13 3. He takes it for granted that Mens appearing for a time more holy than others is sufficient to secure them from falling under the just suspicion or real guilt of gross and dangerous Errours We cannot be of his mind in this 1. Because we read in History and Antient Writers That Tertullian and Origen in the Primitive Church were Men of extraordinary Parts See Vincentius Lyrinensis against Heresies from Chap. 23 10.25 Edit Oxon. 1631. and exemplary Piety as appeared both by their Labours and their Lives in Times of great Persecution yet they both fell into some gross and dangerous Errours 2. Because in the Preface to Mr. Weldes Book of the Rise c. of Antinomians in New England Pag. 3 4 5. we read That at first They would appear very humble holy and spiritual Christians and full of Christ they would deny themselves far speak â—xcellently pray with such soul-ravishing Expressions and Affections that a Stranger who loved goodness could not but love and admire them and so be the more easily drawn after them looking upon them as Men and Women as likely to know the Seerets of Christ and Bosom Counsels of his Spirit as any other And this opinion of them was the more lifted up through the simplicity and weakness of their Followers who would in admiration of them tell others that since the Apostles times they were perswaded none ever received so much light from God as such and such had done naming their Leaders 4. As they would lift up themselves so also their Opinions by gilding them over with specious terms of Free Grace Glorious Light Gospel-Truths as holding forth naked Christ And this took much with simple honest Hearts that loved Christ especially with new Converts who were lately in bondage under Sin and Weath and had new tasted the sweetness of Free Grace being now in their first love to Christ they were exceeding glad to embrace any thing that might further advance Christ and Free Grace and so drank them in that is their Errours readily 5. See there their 5th Sleight to spread their Opinions And 6. Mr. Welde says They commonly laboured to work first upon Women if once they could winde them in they hoped by them as by an Eve to catch their Husbands also Whether our Authour designed to
the Doctor in that Book And that you may see that this Passage did not drop inconsiderately from his Pen we will shew from another Book which he wrote afterwards that this was his settled judgment and that he was firmly and fully perswaded of this great Gospel-truth It is Dr. Twiss his Answer to Mr. Hoard's Book called God's Love to Mankind Pag. 37.38 As touching the conferring of Glory God doth not bestow this on whom he will finding men equal without any moving cause thereunto even in man for though there be no moving cause thereunto in man of its own nature yet there is to be found a moving cause in man by constitution Divine whereby God is as it were moved to bestow Salvation on some and not on others For God hath made a gracious promise that whosoever believeth and repenteth and continueth in Faith and repentance unto death shall be saved and whosoever believeth not and repenteth not shall be damned So then though Men are equal in original sin and in natural corruption and God bestows faith and repentance on whom of them he will curing their corruption in whom he will yet when he comes to the conferring of Glory men are not found equal in moral condition and accordingly God cannot be said in like manner to bestow Glory and Salvation on whom he will For he hath tyed himself by his own constitution to bestow Salvation on none but such as dye in the state of Grace Yet I confess some say that God bestows Salvation on whom he will inasmuch as he is the Authour of their faith and repentance and bestows these graces on whom he will Yet certainly there is a different manner in the use of this Phrase of bestowing this or that on whom he will For when God bestows Faith and Repentance he finds them on whom he will bestow it no better than others but when he comes to the bestowing of Glory he finds them on whom he bestows that far better than others And a little after Albeit saith he God hardneth whom he will by denying unto them the grace of Faith and Repentance yet notwithstanding like as it is just with God to inflict damnasion upon them for that sin whether original or actual wherein he finds them when the ministry of the Word is offered them So likewise it cannot be denyed to be just with God to leave their infidelity and impenitence wherein he finds them uncured But yet because God hath not made any such constitution namely that whosoever is found in infidelity and impenitence shall be so left and abandoned by him Therefore he is properly said as to cure it in whom he will so to leave it unoured in whom he will finding them all equal in original Sin and consequently lying equally in this their natural infidelity and impenitence So we may justly say there is no cause at all in man of this difference to wit why God cures infidelity and impenitency in one and not in another but it is the meer pleasure of God that is the cause of this difference But 2. as touching the denyal of Glory and inflicting of damnation which is the second thing decreed in reprobation there is always found a cause motive yea and meritorious hereof to wit both of the denyal of the one and inflicting of the other And God doth not proceed herein according to the meer pleasure of his will and that by reason of his own constitution having ordained that whosoever continueth finally in infidelity in profane courses and impenitency shall be damned And albeit on the other side it may be said in some sense as I formerly shewed that God saves whom he will in as much as he is the Authour of Faith which he bestows on whom he will yet in no congruous sense can he be said to damn whom he will for as much as he is not the Authour of sin as he is the Authour of Faith For every good thing he works but sin and the evil thereof he only permits not causeth And lastly as God doth not damn whom he will but those onely whom he finds finally to have persevered in sin without repentance So neither did he decree to damn or reprobate to damnation whom he will but onely those who should be found finally to persevere in sin without repentance Again in the same Book pag. 106. But I saith Twiss shall tell you the chief Flourish whereupon this Authour and usually the Arminians doth insist in this his loose Argumentation I conceive it to be this they hope their credulous Readers unexpert in distinguishing between God's eternal decree and the temporal execution thereof will be apt hereupon to conceit that we maintain that God doth not onely of meer pleasure decree whatsoever he decreeth but also that he doth decree of meer pleasure to damn men Which yet is utterly contrary if I be not deceived to the Tenet of all our Divines All concurring in this that God in the execution of the decree of damnation proceeds according to a Law and not in the execution of reprobation onely but also in the execution of election and the Law is this Whosoever believes shall be saved whosoever believes not shall be damned and like as he inflicteth not damnation but by way of punishment so he confers not salvation but by way of Reward Again pag. 184. God hath not wished but ordained and made it a positive Law that whosoever believeth shall be saved and here hence it followeth that if all and every Man from the beginning of the World to the end shall believe in Christ all and every one of them shall be saved And Pag. 229. As for Salvation that is appointed to be bestowed only by way of Reward of foregoing Faith Repentance and good works And a little after in the same Page Indeed our profession is that Gods purpose is to bestow Salvation by way of Reward of Faith Repentance and good works And accordingly there is No other assurance of election than by Faith and Holiness â— Thess 1.3 4 Remembring the work of your Faith the labour of your love and the patience of your hope knowing beloved brethren that ye are elect of God And St. Peter exhorts Christians to make their election and vocation sure by joining vertue with their faith and with vertue knowledge and with knowledge temperance and with temperance patience and with patience Godliness and with Godliness brotherly kindness and with brotherly kindness love 2 Pâ—t 1.5 6 7 10. Thus Dr. Twiss speaks our sence according to our Hearts desire and maintains the Gospel to be a Law as much as we do But now it may be our Authour will object that in all this Dr. Twiss speaks only of a Law according to which God proceeds in bestowing or not bestowing eternal life and glory upon Men but not of a Law according to which he justifies and pardons men We Answer 1. The reason of that was because the Doctor 's Adversaries gave
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
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
than this For we freely acknowledge that any person or party who find themselves unjustly suspected of and charged with horrid crimes whereof they know themselves not to be guilty may and ought to clear themselves the best way they can and if they cannot do it by Word they may very honestly do it by Writing provided that in clearing themselves they do not falsely accuse others and so fall into the same fault which they blame others for which if they do assuredly they take wrong measures for all considering Men will be apt to suspect them more than ever of Libertinism when they plainly see that they run themselves into Libertine practices in order to clear themselves of Libertine principles But after all he hath said of his Party their being falsely accused of Antinomianism and that they could no longer be silent Let. pag. 10. but must speak and write in their own defence and in defence of the Gospel we are at a loss to know who they are that so accused them We can find no such thing in Mr. Williams Book nay we find that in it which clears the chief of them of the charge of Antinomianism At the beginning of the Digression Concerning the necessity of Repentance to forgiveness of Sin pag. 113. these are Mr. Williams Words My business in this Digression is with Men of more Orthodox Principles to wit than the Antinomians There is one whom we know as well as any Man in the World to whom Mr. Williams said before his Book was all printed off This is said with respect to Mr. Cole him I mean and here I endeavour to state and make up the difference between him and Dr. Bates Hereupon that Minister looked into the Digression and read some part of it which he liked so well as thinking it might be very useful both to consirm Truth and also to maintain Peace and Love among Brethren that it was to him one motive amongst others which induced him to subscribe unto the stating of the truths and errours in Mr. Williams Book This we know to be true we know it as certainly as any other thing in the World and we mention it to show that we did not suspect that Party as our Authour hath been pleased to distinguish them much less did we accuse them of real Antinomianism So far were we from it that we were heartily glad to find that our Reverend Brother had expresly owned them to be Men of more Orthodox Principles than the Antinomians against whom and no other that Book was written How comes it then to be so often asserted or insinuated throughout the Letter that we falsely accuse them See p. 26. and charge them with Antinomianism and put them upon a necessary self-defence We think we are wronged in this matter and must think so till we see better proof than the bare word of this Authour Or if any of us had really been so unjust and uncharitable as to accuse their whole Party of Antinomianism did that warrant this Brother falsely to Recriminate as he hath done and to charge us especially our younger Brethren with Arminianism and Pelagianism Where did he learn such Morals Sure we are not in the School of Christ For Christ hath taught us all not to render evil for evil This we say upon supposition that some of us had sometime or other done him wrong in this matter which is unknown to us But if there was no such provocation given then this Authour was the more to blame to fancy or feign that we had accused his Party of Antinomianism that from thence he might take an occasion to accuse us of Arminianism and Pelagianism As for what any of us have at any time spoken or written against the Antinomian Tenents in Dr. Crisps or such Books we thought it did not at all concern them as being Men of more Orthodox Principles Tho' we could not be ignorant that there was some little difference of Judgment between some of them and us in some things yet we did not think nor say that that difference amounted to Antinomianism on their side nor could we have ever thought till the Letter informed us they would have said that it amounted to Arminianism and Pelagianism on our side But now we find we are mistaken for they have made us know that they had not so good an opinion of us as we had of them Yet we had rather be mistaken in this than in the other that is we had rather they should without cause think us to be Arminians and Pelagians than that ever we should have just cause to conclude any of them to be indeed Antinomians They tell the World by the Authour of the Letter that they have been suspected And we are afraid the late Writings of some of them will increase the suspicion But what ever suspicious Thoughts may be thereby raised in the minds of many we will endeavour to hinder such Thoughts from setling in our own Minds and still have the best opinion we can of our Brethren till we see further what the issue will be We do not then now account that Party to be really Antinomian whatever Mens Thoughts may be of some particular persons amongst them and we hope and wish we may never have cause so to do The Authour of the Letter in their name hath most solemnly protested that they are not Antinomians and we do believe it not so much because he says it as because we have other evidence to ground our belief upon For we have known very worthy Men of those who were formerly called Congregational that have been as much against Antinomian errours as we our selves are Such there are at this day and such we doubt not there will be when we are dead and gathered to our Fathers If then by his Party our Authour mean the Reverend Brethren of that Perswasion aforesaid we neither did nor do suspect them as such But for all that we are sorry that some who have made themselves of a Party should have also made themselves to be suspected at least of favouring Antinomianism This is the case of the Authour of the Letter who raised such a suspicion in the minds of some that truly loved him by recommending Dr. Crisps Book as Mr. Williams says in his late Preface and we know it to be true and by lending it to one without giving the least caution against any of the errours in it His own Conscience knows this to be true And this might very probably raise a suspicion of him in particular And we think lie was concerned to have cleared himself and expected that in his Letter he would have done it by disowning some of the Doctrinal errours in the said Booke But we are disappointed for there we do not find that he hath so clearly disowned any of the Doctrinal errours in that Book as that the People who want judgment as his expression is can discern that he hath done it This we shall
endeavour to make out from several passages in the Letter it self As 1. In Page 10. All that he saith against that Book is this There are many Expressions in it that we generally dislike Now this he might safely say and yet not disown any but in his heart believe every Doctrinal point in it There are many precious Truths ill expressed by some very Orthodox Divines and in such a case we may well say that we dislike the way of expression tho' we dearly love the Truth so expressed We find that the Reverend and pious Mr. Rutherford in a Fast Sermon preached before the House of Commons in the Year 1643. on Dan. 6.26 saith Page 32. That the Antinomian is the Golden white Devil a Spirit of Hell cloathed with all Heaven and the Notions of Free Grace It seems the Devil of Antinomianism did not appear white enough to our Authour in Dr. Crisps Book but what if he had appeared in a better and whiter Dress what if the Antinomianism had been better expressed how would the Authour of the Letter have liked it then Truly for any thing he hath here said to the contrary he might have liked it well enough It is true in the end of that Paragraph he says That Error is often and unhappily opposed by Error under Truths name And we confess he may possibly apply one part of that passage unto Dr. Crisps Book and we would hope that he thereby meant that indeed there are Errours in Dr. Crisps Book but withal we must say that such an acknowledgment of Errour to be in that Book is too obscure to be discerned by the ordinary people that want judgment and for whose use he saith he wrote his Book and that because it is a general expression which is true enough in it self without respect to Dr. Crisps Book and whether it be applied thereunto or not 2. In Page 26. he sayes We justly complain that in their opposing of true Antinomian Errours and particularly the alledged Tenents of Dr. Crisp they hint that there is a Party of c. Now pray mark how warily he expresseth himself and how tender he seems to be of the credit of that Book He doth not say true Antinomian Errors and particularly the Tenents of Dr. Crisp for then indeed he had plainly confessed that there are true Antinomian Errours in the Book but he only saith the alledged Tenents of that Doctor by which Word Alledged he may make some People believe that he never meant there were any true Antinomian Errours in that Drs. Book but that true Antinomian Errours are alledged out of it by Mr. Williams and others and that very wrongfully as Mr. Chancey pretends 3. In Page 24. he says It is not yet called in question by any but that there is a decreed Justification from Eternity Here may be another Juggle for these words there is a decreed Justification from Eternity are capable of the Antinomian sense nay more they are not fairly capable of any other sense to understand them properly For a decreed Justification is not the Decree it self but the object or effect of the Decree The Decree it self is from Eternity but the object and effect of the Decree is in time as Dr. Twiss tells us and even common sense and reason may assure us of it For the Decree being from Eternity and the object and effect of the Decree being after the Decree it cannot be from Eternity too and if it be not from Eternity it must be in time And yet the Letter saith that a decreed Justification though it be the object or effect of the Decree is from Eternity which is the very Errour of the Antinomians who ignorantly confound the object and effect of the Decree with the Decree it self We are sure the Words of the Letter bear this sense yet we will not positively affirm that he meant them in this sense because we would hope though he hath said expresly that there is a decreed Justification from Eternity that yet he onely meant and would have said that there is a Decree of Justification from Eternity If any now should object on his behalf and say the that foresaid words not only may but must be understood of the Eternity of the Decree it self and cannot be understood of the Eternity of the decreed Justification which is the effect of the Decree because of the distinction which follows of a virtual and actual Justification We can easily answer that if we our selves were true Antinomians and durst so far dissemble as sometimes to seem not to be Antinomians we could make the opinion of Justifications actual existence from Eternity consist well enough with the distinction of vertual and actual Justification mentioned in the Letter For we would understand it with respect to manifestation Thus 1. Justification which actually existed from Eternity was virtually manifested in and by the Death and Resurrection of Christ 2. It is actually manifested and is actual in manifestation when we lay hold on and plead Redemption in Christs Blood by Faith And thus by a different use of Words a Man void of the fear of God might juggle and at different times and upon different occasions might please two contrary Parties and make them both believe that he were of their Judgment We do not say that our Authour doth so only we wish that he had not expressed himself so ambiguously but that with more plainness and simplicity he had declared himself against those Antinomian Errours Thus he had effectually removed all grounds of suspecting him any more whereas as he hath carried the matter in general doubtful expressions it may be to avoid the displeasure of some of his good Friends instead of fully clearing himself he hath left ground to suspect him still that if he be not a real Antinomian he is at least a Favourer of them and one that would keep up his Interest amongst them and therefore in speaking of Dr. Crisps Book all that he sayes is that he likes not his way of expressing himself and that there are true Antinomian Errours alledged out of it but not that there are any really in it as also he grants to the Antinomians that there is a decreed Justification from Eternity which is as much as they desire for decreed Justification is distinct from and is the object and effect of the Decree And so if Justification as it is the object and effect of the Decree be from Eternity then the Antinomians and he are agreed in that matter and both of them hold that not onely the Decree of Justification as of all other things is from Eternity but that Justification it self is from Eternity We do not see how Men of their Principles can gather any other sence from his Words But whether he used such Words on purpose to make them conceive good hopes of him we shall neither affirm nor deny but leave it to his own Conscience And as the Antinomians may hope well of him so will
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
it is the cause though Calvin Twiss Ames Rutherford c. have not spared to say and write that it is in some sense a cause an inferiour disposing cause c. but a duty and condition until the performing whereof God hath suspended the Gift of Eternal Life and Glory and to the Performers of which duty and condition he hath freely promised and according to his promise he graciously giveth Eternal Life and Glory for the sake of Christs meritorious Righteousness only And we desire it may be alwayes remembred that from this condition of sincere obedience we do by no means exclude but include the continued exercise of Faith in Christ as that which is the spring of it and which runs through all the parts of it as also we hold that it comprehends the continued practice of Repentance and Love to God and Man Such sincere Obedience we hold to be a condition to be performed on our part Ezek. 18.24 25. Heb. 10.38 for the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory For we learn from the Scriptures of Truth that if any of God's People should apostatize from Faith in Christ fall from the Profession and Practice of Christs true Religion and give themselves up to the wilful commission of all manner of Abominations and dye in that state without Repentance they would lose their Right to Eternal Life be shut out of Heaven and cast down to Hell there to suffer the Vengeance of Eternal Fire Whereas on the contrary all that continue to the end in the exercise of Faith in Christ and in the practice of Repentance and Evangelical Obedience they have their Right to Life and Glory still continued to them and shall through God's Grace and Mercy and Christ's Righteousness and Merits be put into the full and eternal possession of it If our Authour should object and say that we suppose an impossibility from whence there is no right arguing for or against any thing We desire him to consider what Dr. Twiss sayes in the 29 Page of his Answer to the Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice His Words are When we say the elect Saints cannot fall from Grace this is spoken not in respect of any absolute impossibility but meerly upon supposition of God's upholding them And accordingly they are said to be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Now this impossibility of falling away from Grace in Scholastical account is but an Impossibility Secundum quid like as we say It is impossible that Antichrist should fall or the Jews be called till the time which God hath appointed is come for bringing forth these great and wonderful Works of his but the contrary is simply possible on either part Thus Twiss Our Answer then is that the Apostacy of a Saint is not simply and absolutely impossible Alas it is but too possible with respect to us considered in our selves but it is onely impossible in some respects to wit in respect of God's Purpose and Promise and Christ's Intercession c. And notwithstanding its being impossible in this sense yet we find it supposed and granted also to be possible in another sense And further we find that the Spirit of God in Holy Scripture supposes greater Impossibilities than that seems to be and rationally argues from them too Witness John 8.55 Gal. 1.8 If any should further object and say that hereby we destroy the Saints Assurance of Eternal Life and Glory by holding that their obtaining of it is suspended on a condition We Answer the consequence is false because those who are assured upon good Grounds that they are truly Converted and Justified by Faith in Christ's Blood See 1 Joh. 2.19 may from Holy Scripture be assured of the condition of perseverance through Grace in Faith Repentance and whatever God hath made necessary to their obtaining Eternal Life and Glory Indeed if our Glorification depended upon a Condition of which we could not be sure then neither could we be sure of Glorification it self But we believe and maintain that through Grace we may and ought to be sure of the Condition to wit of Perseverance and consequently that we may and ought to be sure of our future Glorification which is infallibly promised to perseverance in Faith and Holiness We know the Followers of Luther whom our Authour so much magnifies as if he were for him and his Party deny that a Saint can be absolutely sure ordinarily in this World that he shall be saved in the World to come It is true they maintain that a Saint may and ought to be absolutely sure that he is in a state of Grace and Salvation for the present but they deny and on their Principles must deny that he can have an absolute but onely a conditional assurance of his Eternal Salvation and Glorification because they say he cannot be absolutely sure that he shall not fall totally and finally from the state of Grace that he is now in If we should follow Luther or the Lutherans in this what a Clamour would our Authour raise against us how would he proclaim us to the World to be Arminians or Papists yet Luther was a blessed Man and most Orthodox Divine because in his Commentary on the Galathians he seems to hold with our Authour in some things though in other things of greater importance he be against him and us too But Holy Scripture is the Rule and Measure of our Faith in these and all other Religious Matters and according to the Prescript thereof we believe profess and preach to the People that as Christ purchased all Grace for us by his Blood so he gives it unto us by his Spirit in the use of his appointed Means and what Saving Grace he once gives unto his People he never wholly takes away from them again and that if at any time they fall into Sin against Knowledge and Conscience he raises them up again by causing them to renew their Faith and Repentance and never wholly leaves them nor forsakes them but gives them still more Grace according to their need and by Grace prepares them for and at last brings them unto Glory Thus we desire and endeavour to Preach Christ and now we appeal to all who have any Conscience of Truth and Honesty whether we neglect to Preach Christ or whether in the preaching of Christ we set up any thing in co-ordination with him yea whether we be not so far from it that on the contrary we make all subordinate to him and derive all Grace from him not only the Grace of Justification and Glorification which are promised on Condition of Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience but also the Grace of effectual Vocation Faith and Repentance in a Word all the Grace whereby we perform the whole condition of the Covenant from first to last From the premisses it may manifestly appear to any that are not stark blind that we do not hold Faith Repentance and
pleased him This Proposition is self-evident for it is of the very Essence of Free-will in God the First and Freest Agent that in all external temporal things which fall under his Free-will he might have done them or not have done them he might have done them thus as he doth them or he might have done them otherwise than he hath done if he had pleased But antecedently to his free Purpose and Decree the whole ordering of the Covenant of Grace and of its terms and receptive Condition depended upon God's Free-will and Soveraign Pleasure Hence the Gospel is called the Mystery of God's Will and the Revelation of the Gospel unto us is said to be the making known unto us the Mystery of his Will according to his Good Pleasure which he hath purposed in himself Eph. 1.9 Now if the whole Mystery of the Covenant of Grace depended on God's Free-will then the ordaining of this or that to be the receptive Condition of the Covenant depended on his Will also and so antecedently to the free Purpose of his Will there was no natural necessity that Faith alone and no other thing should be the receptive Condition of the Covenant 2. It is not yet past Dispute amongst Divines Whether antecedently to God's free Purpose and Decree to save us by the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ alone he might not have freely purposed and decreed to have pardoned and saved us some other way Amongst our Reformed Divines Calvin Twiss and Rutherford and others were of this Opinion yea even Dr. Owen himself was once of this Opinion though afterwards he changed his mind in that as he did in other things witness what he wrote in his Book called The Death of Death in the Death of Christ Or A Treatise of Redemption c. Book II. Chap. II. Page 57. The Foundation of this whole Assertion seems to me to be false and erroneous viz that God could not have Mercy on Mankind unless satisfaction were made by his Son It is true indeed supposing the Decree Purpose and Constitution of God that so it should be that so he would manifest his Glory by the way of vindicative Justice it was impossible that it should otherwise be for with the Lord there is neither change nor shadow of turning Lam. 1.18 1 Sam. 15.29 But to assert positively that absolutely and antecedently to his Constitution he could not have done it is to me an unwritten Tradition the Scripture affirming no such thing neither can it be gathered from thence in any good consequence if any one shall deny this we will try what the Lord will enable us to say unto it and in the mean time rest contented in that of Augustin though other ways of saving us were not wanting to his Infinite Wisdome yet certainly the way which he did proceed in was the most convenient because we find he proceeded therein Thus Dr. Owen in that Book and though he unsaid this again and embraced that Opinion which he then called an unwritten Tradition yet there are other Learned Divines of that same Opinion at this Day Mistake us not for we do not say that we are of it but that some are and that the matter is not yet past dispute And the Consequence which we infer is undeniable that if God antecedently to his Constitution and Degree could have pardoned and saved us some other way without the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ then surely he could have offered and promised us Pardon and Salwation without the Condition of Faith in Christ and upon what other Condition he pleafed 3. Though we grant that upon supposition that God would pardon our Sins and save our Souls it did not consist with the Glory of his Justice and Honour of his Law and Government to do it without Satisfaction for the Offence we had given and the Dishonour we had done him by our Sins and therefore it was necessary not onely from the free purpose of God's Will but also from the nature of his vindictive governing Justice that Christ by suffering in our stead should satisfie his Justice for our Sins yet doth it not follow at all by any natural necessity arising immediately from the essential nature of Faith without any appointment and constitution of God's Will that Faith because it is of a receptive nature and nothing else shall be the Condition upon the performance whereof Christ with his Satisfaction and Merits shall be not only offered but given unto us For as Dr. Owen saith very well in his little Book of the Trinity and Satisfaction of Christ pag. 208. The satisfaction made for Sin being not made by the Sinner himself there must of necessity be a Rule Order and Law-constitution how the Sinner may come to be interested in it and made Partaker of it for the consequent of the freedome of one by the suffering of another is not matural or necessary but must proceed and arise from a Law-constitution Compact and Agreement Now the way constituted and appointed is that of Faith or believing as explained in the Scripture Thus Dr. Owen To which we add that the Scripture explains it thus Gal. 5.6 That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but Faith which worketh by Love From this Passage of Dr. Owen and the Argument contained in it it is most evident that it doth not arise immediately and necessarily from the receptive nature of Faith that it is the Condition of the Offer and Promise but from the Will of God constituting and appointing it to be the Condition Faith's receptive apprehensive nature is but a remote Reason of its Conditionality and doth but make it fit to be the Condition if God please to make it so And it is God's Will and Law-constitution onely which is the nearest and formal Reason of its Conditionality and which doth immediately and formally make it to be the Condition of the Covenant Joh. 6.40 This is no new notion of ours we find it long agoe before many of us were born Walaeus Doctor and Professor of Divinity in Leyden in his Enchiridion Religionis Reformatae pag. 112. said that Fides nos Justificat sed relativè considerata quia haec est Voluntas Dei ut qui credit in Christum ejus meriti fiat Particeps Faith Justifies us but relatively considered because this is the Will of God that he who believes in Christ shall be made Partaker of his Merit And not onely Mr. Baxter but Cartwright also pag. 179. of his Book against Baxter agrees with him in acknowledging this Truth his Words are these The Reason why Christs Righteousness cannot Justifie except it be apprehended by Faith is this That God doth require Faith of us Faith I say apprehending Christ and his Righteousness believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that so we may be Justified Gods Will is properly the cause yet there is a congruity in the thing it self an aptitude you grant in the nature of Faith It is of an
be pardoned and saved for the sake of Christ who shed his most precious Blood for the remission of sins 3. The very same Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used in this same sense by Origen in his Third Book against Celsus Cambridge Edition pag. 154. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God grants the Grace of Repentance i. e. the Gracious Blessing and Priviledge which is obtained by Repentance to wit pardon of sin This is and must be the sense of Origen's Words there and they can have no other For Origen affirms there in opposition to the Calumny of Celsus as shall be shewed by and by that Men must first be truly penitent they must be inwardly changed and converted from Evil to Good before God be merciful to them so as to pardon their sins And when they are so wrought upon as to be really changed converted and become truly penitent then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God grants them the Grace of Repentance that is the pardon of their sins which is the gracious Benefit annexed to Repentance and promised to all upon Condition that they truly repent To put another sense on Origen's Words would be to make Non-sense of them and to make him say That if Men be first truly penitent God will afterwards give them Grace whereby they may be or are made truly penitent Origen was not such a filly Man as to write thus foolishly for the Christian Religion against a learned and malitious Heathen 4. Clement and Origen's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace of Repentance is the same thing with Tertullian's Fructus Paenitentiae Fruit of Repentance but Tertullian's Fruit of Repentance is pardon of sin for so he writes Lib. de Pudicitiâ Cap. 10. Ita cessatio delicti radiae est veniae ut venia sit paenitentiae fructus Ceasing from sin is so the root of pardon that pardon is the fruit of repentance 5. And Lastly the Words-which immediately follow in Clement shew this to be his meaning for he adds Let us take a diligent view of all Generations and learn that in every Generation the Lord hath given place of Repentance to such as were willing to turn unto him Noah preached Repentance and they that obeyed were saved Jonah preached Destruction to the Ninivites but they repenting them of their sins appeased God by their humble Supplications and were preserved These Words plainly shew that by saying that through the Blood of Christ shed for our Salvation God hath offered the Grace of Repentance to the whole World Clement meant that God hath admitted all Men to Repentance as the way and means to obtain Pardon and hath promised and according to his Promise doth give them Pardon for Christ's sake upon their Repentance But it may be some will Object that yet the same Clement in the same First Epistle to the Corinthians saith pag. 67. They the Holy Men before and under the Law were all Glorified and made Great not by themselves or by their own Works or by the just Actions which they did but by his Will So we Christians then being called in Christ Jesus by his Will are not justified by our selves nor by our own wisdome or knowledge or piety or by the works which we have done in holiness of heart but by Faith whereby the Almighty God hath Justified all Men from the beginning of the World to whom he Glory for ever and ever Amen We Answer that this makes nothing against us for we have believed we do and through Grace will always believe that God Justisies us by Faith and not by any Works distinct from Faith in the sense before explained that is that God of his own Gracious Will and Pleasure hath ordained Faith to be the only receptive applicative Condition Means or federal moral Instrument of Justification upon our performing of which Condition or using of which Means and Instrument God doth freely justifie us for the sake of Christ's satissactory meritorious Righteousness onely We do indeed with Clement and with the Holy Prophets and Apostles believe that sincere Repentance is pre-required as a dispositive Condition to our obtaining of Justification yet we do not say any more than they did that we are Justified by Repentance but together with them we say that we are Justified by Faith only because God hath appointed Faith onely to that Office of being the receptive Condition and inward applicative Means of Justifiaation through Christ's Blood Clemeut's saying that God Justifies us by Faith and not by Works must undoubtedly be understood in this sense as appears by what we have quoted and shall now further quote out of him Pag. 102. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us speedily remove this evil from among us and let us fall down before the Lord humbly beseeching him with Tears that being become favourable he would be reconciled unto us By this Passage we see that Clement held as we do that repenting of mourning for and turning from our known sins and humble earnest Prayer to God through Christ is a means indispensably necessary to be used by us before we can have ground to hope that God will have mercy on us in pardoning our sins And as he held Faith and Repentance together to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Justification and pardon of sin so he held sincere Obedience in a course of holy living to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Glorification and Eternal Salvation For thus he writes pag. 61 62. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Since therefore all things are both seen and heard by him let us fear him and forsake all foul desires of evil Actions that so we may be protected by his Mercy from those Judgments which are to come For whither can any one of us flee from his powerful Hand And what World will entertain any of them who fall off from him or turn Renegado's Let us come unto him therefore in the holiness of our Souls lifting up unto him pure and undefiled hands loving this our gentle and merciful Father who hath made us unto himself the portion of his election And pag. 73. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us therefore earnestly strive to be sound in the number of them that wait on him that so we may be made Partakers of those Gifts which are promised But Beloved how shall this be done If our Thoughts be stedfastly fixed upon God by Faith if we enquire after those things which are well-pleasing and acceptable unto him if we do those things which are agreeable to his pure and irreproveable will and follow the way of Truth Casting away from us all injustice and iniquity covetousness contentions malignities and deceits whisperings and backbitings hatred of God pride and boasting vain-glory and ambition for they that do these things are abominable unto God and not onely the Doers thereof but they also which consent thereunto For the Scripture saith c. As in Psalm 50. which Clement quotes from v. 16.
this Father Why even God for none is so much a Father as he none so affectionate as he Thorefore he shall receive thee his Son although thou hast prodigally spent that which thou hadst received from him although thou returnest naked yet he will receive thee because thou art returned And he will rejoyce more in thy return than in another mans sobriety Sed si poeniteat ex animo but it is on condition that thou repent from thy heart that thou compare thy hunger-starved condition with the plenty of thy Fathers hired Servants that thou forsake the swine those unclean beasts that thou come back to thy Father though he be offended with thee saying Father I have sinned nor am I worthy to be now called thine By this we plainly see that Tertullian preached the necessity of sincere Repentance antecedently to the obtaining pardon of sin Next to Tertullian we alledge blessed Cyprian for a Witness of the same Truth Thus then he writes Dominus loquitur c. Operum Cypr. Tom. 1. Epist 18. edit Colon. Agrip. An. 1617. The Lord speaketh and saith to whom shall I look but to him that is humble and still and trembleth at my words Seeing we ought to be all such they then much more ought to be such whose Duty it is to endeavour that after a grievous fall they may obtain God's favour and mercy by true Repentance and great humility In his 52 Epistle to Antonianus page 59. Dominus in Evangelio c. The Lord in the Gospel setting forth the goodness and kind affection of God the Father saith What man is there of you who if his Son ask of him bread will give him a stone Or if he ask a fish will give him a Serpent If ye then who are evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him The Lord here makes a comparison between a Carnal Father or a Father of the Flesh and the Eternal and large goodness and kindness of God the Father Now if it be so that this evil sinful Father upon Earth who hath been grievously offended by his sinful and wicked Son yet if afterwards he see him reformed and having forsaken the sins of his former Life and being by the sorrow of Repentance amended and changed to sober and good manners and to the Discipline of Innocency or to a Holy course of Life he both rejoyceth and is glad and having received him whom he formerly had cast off he embraces him with the desire of a Fatherly Joy How much-more doth that One and True Father who is Good Merciful and Kind yea Goodness Mercy and Kindness it self rejoyce in the Repentance of his Children neither doth he threaten wrath to the penitent nor punishment to them that mourn and lament But he rather promiseth them pardon and favour Whence the Lord in the Gospel saith They are blessed who mourn for he that mourns moves compassion Whereas he that is stubborn and proud heaps up to himself the wrath and punishment of the judgment to come And in the same Epistle page 60. Scimâ—s juxtd Divinarâ—m Scripturdrum fidem ductore hortatore ipso Deo ad agendum poenitentiam peccatores redigi veniam atque indulgentiam poenitentibus non denegari We know according to the Faith of the Holy Scriptures God himself being both the Author and Exhorter that Sinners are brought to Repentance and also that forgiveness and favour is not denyed them when they do repent And in his eighth Epistle to the Clergy and People after he had told them that according as it had been revealed and foretold by prophecy the Enemy had got power over them and had raised a terrible Persecution against them because of their Divisions and Contentions their breaking the Lords Commandments and sleepy way of Prayer and after he had most passionately exhorted them to give themselves much to Watching and prayer to earnest frequent fervent Prayer Night and Day and had pressed them thereunto both by precept and example of Christ and his Apostles who spent Days and Nights in Prayer and had likewise encouraged them thereunto by telling them that Christ prayed not for himself and his own sins but for them and for their sins he added as it is in pag. 16. of that Book Quod si pro nobis c. i. e. which if it be so that he the Lord Jesus labours and watches and prays for us and for the pardon of our sins how much the more should we continue in Prayer and Supplication We have Jesus Christ our Lord and God to be Advocate and Intercessour for our Sins if so be or on condition that we repent of our sins past and confessing and being sensible of our Faults whereby we now at this present time offend the Lord we promise that for time to come we will walk in his ways and fear his Commandments By this that we have cited and by much more that we could cite out of Cyprian it may evidently appear that that blessed Martyr of Jesus was far from being of Opinion that God pardons the sins of his People before they repent Indeed to tell People that God pardons their sins before they repent it is falsa misericordia false or deceitful Mercy it is not curare sed si dicere verum volumus occidere the way to cure but if we will speak the Truth to kill Souls in the Judgment of those Ancient Elders and Deacons who wrote the 31. Epistle to Cyprian page 37. and Cyprians himself was of the same Judgment for thus he writes in the same Book pag. 143. Qui peccantem c. That is De lapsis Tom. 2. He who flatters a sinner with sweet and pleasant words gives him occasionto sin and doth not restrain but nourish his sinful lusts Whereas he who at once both reprovesâ— and instructs his brother by giving him more solid and firm counsel he helps him forward in the way to Salvation Whom I love saith the Lord I rebuke and chasten So the Minister of God ought not to deceive the People by cunning and cousening compliances but to provide sound and saving Remedies for their Souls He an ignorant unskilful Chirurgion who is afraid to feel with his hand the swelling is hollowness of wounds and whilst he keeps the corrupt humour close shut up in the secret recesses of the bowels he increases it and makes the wound more dangerous The wound must be opened and incisions must be made and the Malady must be cured with a stronger and sharper Remedy even by cutting off and taking away the flesh that is corrupted and putrified Let the sick Person cry out and complain as he will by reason of the pain which he hath not patience to endure yet afterwards he will thank the Chirurgion when he finds that he is cured Thus Cyprian and sure this is sufficient to shew that he would never have said that it
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
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 Condition of it It is clear also that he held as we do that God by his Special Grace purchased for us by Christ and given to us for Christ's sake enables us and all the Elect to perform the Condition of Faith and Repentance and that effectually and infallibly As for the Non-Elect who do not perform the Condition he says the reason the culpable reason of that is because they will not and though it be true also that they cannot yet that is not a meer Physical but a moral cannot which ariseth from the evil disposition of their minds and affections whereby they will not That this was Dr. Twiss his Judgment is evident by these following Testimonies of his quoted out of the same Book Observe we farther how this Authour confounds impotency moral Ibid. p. 155 156. which consisteth in the corruption of mans powers natural and impotency natural which consisteth in bereaving him of power natural The Lord tells us by his Prophet Jeremiah cap. 13.23 That like as a Blackamore cannot change his skin nor a Leopard his spots no more can they do good that are accustomed unto evil Now if a man taken in stealth shall plead thus before a Judge My Lord I beseech you have compassion upon me for I have so long time inured my hands to pilfering that now I cannot forbear it will this be accepted as a good plea to save him from the Gallows As for Faith It is well known that Divines distinguish between fides acquisita and sides infusa acquired and infused Faith That we may call a Faith naturally acquired which is found in carnal Persons whether Prophane or Hypoâ—ritical And this to wit the infused is a Faith inspired by God's Spirit The object of each is all one and a Man may suffer Martyrdom for the one as well as for the other which manifesseth the pertinacious adherence thereunto And it appears that all Professions have had their Martyrs Albeit it be not in the power of Nature to believe side infusa with an inspired Faith yet it is in the power of nature to believe the Gospel side acquisitâ with an acquired Faith which depends partly upon a mans Education and partly upon reason considering the credibility of the Christian way by light of natural observations above all other ways in the World And when men refuse to embrace the Gospel not so much because of the incredibility of it but because it is not congruous to their natural affections as our Saviour tells the Jews light came into the World and men loved darkness Father than light because their deeds are evil John 3.19 Is there any reason why their condemnation should be any whit the easier for this Neither have I ever read or heard it taught by any that 〈◊〉 shall be damned for not believing with an infused Faith which is as much as to say because Goâ—d hath not regenerated them but either because they have refused to believe or else if they have embraced the Gospel for not living answerable thereunto which also is in their power quoad exteriorem vitae emendationem As to the outward Reformation of their Life though it be not in their power to regenerate their wills and change their hearts any more than it is to illuminate their minds Yet I never read that any mans damnation was any whit the more encreased for not performing these acts Again The Man bereaved of his eyes hath a will to read and consequently it is no fault for not reading For all sin is in the Will But it is not so in not obeying either Law or Gospel Ibid. page 170. If a Man had a will to obey and believe but he could not in such a case it were unreasonable he should be punished But in the case of disobedience unto God we speak of all the fault is in the will voluntarily and wilfully they neither will obey the one nor the other Like as they that have accustomed themselves to do evil cannot do good as a Blackamoor cannot change his skin yet with this difference that man is never a whit the more excusable or less punishable for not doing that which is good not so the Blackamoor for not changing his skin But such is the shameful issue of them that confound Impotency Moral with Impotency Natural as if there were no difference c. Again To the Rule of Law objected by Mr. Hoard That contractus sub conditione impraestabili nullus aestimatur a Contract or Promise made upon a condition not performable by the Party Ibid. p. 185 186. is esteemed none at all Twiss answers thus Conditio impraestabilis a Condition not performable is there such as cannot be performed by reason of Impotency Natural but the Impotency we speak of in the case between God and Man is merely Impotency Moral to wit therefore they cannot because they will not were it not for the Corruption of their Will no Power were wanting in Man to Believe and Repent Again Dost thou complain thou hast no power to believe but I pray thee tell me hast thou any will to believe If thou neither hast nor ever hadst any will to believe Ibid. p. 219 220. what a shamesul and unreasonable thing is it to complain that thou hast no power to believe St. Paul had a most gratious will but he sound in himself no power to do what he would but what is the issue of this complaint To sly in the face of God Nothing less But to confess his own wretchedness and flee unto God in this manner who shall deliver me from the body of this death And receiving a Gracious Answer concerning this concludes with thanks I thank God through my Lord Jesus Christ If I have a will to believe to repent I have no cause to complain but to run rather unto God with thanks for this and pray him to give that power which I find wanting in me And indeed this impotency of believing and infidelity the fruit of Natural Corruption common to all is merely a moral impotency and the very ground of it is the Corruption of the Will Therefore men cannot believe cannot repent cannot do any thing pleasing unto God because they will not they have no delight therein but all their delight is Carnal Sensual and because they are in the flesh they cannot please God and because of the hardness of their hearts they cannot repent Sin is unto them as a sweet Mirsel unto an Epicure which he rolleth under his Tongue This and much more to this purpose hath Twiss in his Book against Hoard And that this was his setled Judgment is evident by what he writes in his defence of the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort It is true that it is not in the power of man to add unto the word the efficacy of God's Spirit page 122 123. and it is as true that a carnal man hath no desire that God would add the efficacy of his Spirit
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
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
Ministery of the Word in order to the Conversion of Sinners ☞ For as there is no use of the Ministery with respect to the Regenerate but that they may be prepared for and brought unto Glory so there is no use of it with respect to the Unregenerate but that they may be prepared for and brought unto Conversion In his 9th Position he brings two places of Scripture to prove that there are such dispositions previous to Conversion Mark 12.34 Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their heart Upon both these places of Scripture he quotes Calvin Observing from them that there are Preparations and Dispositions previous to saving Conversion Let Scholars consult the Author himself and read the whole Disputation if they please What we have transcribed out of it is abundantly sufficient to demonstrate that Ames is on our side and approved the said Doctrine of our Britain Divines in the Synod of Dort 2. Dr. Twiss in his answer to Mr. Hoard his Book called Gods love unto Mankind discoursing there of what our Divines at Dort Twiss against Hoard p. 205. on the Fifth Article said concerning the change which by Gods Word and Spirit is wrought in the minds affections and manners of men even of the Non-elect before Conversion and Justification he says Expresly That the dispositions which God grants unto men before saving Conversion as they are in the Elect they are preparations to further Grace and so in the Reprobate they might be preparations to further Grace if it pleased God so to ordain as to bring them on forward to Justification and true Sanctification conjunct therewith and thereby unto Salvation From which words we observe two things 1 That Dr. Twiss absolutely asserts that the previous Dispositions which God by his Word and Spirit works in the Elect before Conversion and Regeneration are preparations to further Grace 2. As for the like Dispositions wrought by the Word and Spirit in the Reprobate who are never Converted and Regenerated he affirms not that they are de facto but that they might be in them also preparations unto further Grace upon supposition that it pleased God to give them the like special effectual saving Grace which he gives unto the Elect. And afterwards in the same Book he approves what our Divines say on the 3d. and 4th Articles concerning previous dispositions and which we have quoted out of them at large only he saith he doth not sufficiently understand the last Clause of their Argument to prove their third Position Which is That calling by the Word and Spirit cannot be thought to leave men inexcusable which is only exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable Twiss against Hoard p. 218. This is the only thing in that Discourse of theirs concerning previous Dispositions which Dr. Twiss pretends not to understand Yet at the same time he says That he thinks by Gods making men unexcuseable they meant Gods so taking away all excuse from men as that thereby they become faulty and culpable before God for want of a sufficient excuse which he grants to be the ordinary meaning of the word unexcusable and then he adds In this sense I willingly subscribe unto them and therewithall shew what I take to be their meaning namely this that if God making shew that if they believe he will accept them and that they shall be saved did not indeed mean that he would in that case accept and save them then there were no reason why they should be accounted faulty and condemned for not believing Thus says he in a desire exactly to conform my self to the Judgment of these Worthies of our Church made choice of by our Soveraign to be sent in so honourable an Ambassage to countenance that famous Synod of the most Reformed Churches I have made bold to Interpret them and to show my concurrence with them c. By this passage it is evident that he approved all they wrote on that head of dispositions previous to Regeneration For he scrupled only one Clause which he so Interpreted as to remove the ground of the Scruple and then declared his Concurrence with them in that which he took to be the true sense of their words and indeed he needed not to have made any such Scrupulous Objection as he there doth for undoubtedly our Divines used the word unexcusable there in no other sense but what he yields to at last and approves of To wit That that calling by the Word and Spirit cannot be thought to leave men faulty by taking away their excuse which is only designed and exhibited to make them faulty for want of an excuse It appears plainly by the whole Series and Contexture of their discourse that this was the meaning of our most Learned and Judicious Divines and consequently that there is no difference between Twiss and them in this matter Especially it is most evident that Twiss and they exactly agreed that in the Elect the foresaid Dispositions before Conversion are Preparations to further Grace even to the speciall Grace of saving Conversion it self And this is the main thing that we now enquire after to wit Whether there be any preparatory Dispositions in the Elect before Conversion Thirdly Dr. Owen also in his Discourse in Folio concerning the Holy Spirit quotes the Judgment of our Brittain Divines at the Synod of Dort concerning the foresaid dispositions previous to Regeneration Dr. Owens discourse concerning the work of the Holy Spirit Book 3. Cap. 2. Pag. 191 192 193 194 195 196. and approves it and goes the same way that they do in discoursing of them and shewing what they are and how they are wrought First says he in reference unto the work of Regeneration it self positively considered we may observe that ordinarily there are certain previous and preparatory works or workings in and upon the Souls of men that are antecedent and dispositive unto it But yet Regeneration doth not consist in them nor can it be educed out of them This is for the substance of it the Position of the Divines of the Church of England at the Synod of Dort two whereof died Bishops and others of them were dignified in the Hierarchy I mention it that those new Divines by whom these things are despised may a little consider whose ashes they trample on and scorn Then the Dr. tells us 1. That he speaks not of the Regeneration of Infants but of the adult 2. That the dispositions previous to their Regeneration are not formal but material dispositions 3. That some of them are attainable by the power of nature alone such as are outward attendance on the dispensation of the Word and a diligent intension of mind in attending on the means of Grace to understand and receive the things revealed and declared as the mind and will of God and he says that the omitting or neglecting to use this natural ability is the principal occasion and