all this fruitless if â—â— wâ—re left to himself the most high did from Everlasting Decree that which in time he effects by his powerful Grace to draw a remnant unto Christ that they may obtain salvation by him and to leave the rest to perish in their obstinacy Where then is our making null the revealed will of God by his Decree that Mr. C. talks of He adds The Lord himself makes this distinction with suitable promises alike to both i. e. He allows a latitude beyond the first and special Election or gift tâ— hiâ— Son with promise of life on the universal account of Grace Joh. 6. 37. which Text he miserably wrests in his following lines unto the whole my answer is briefly this The Decree of God is one thing his Command another It is the latter that constitutes our duty not the former It doth not therefore follow that because many are called and commanded to believe and Life is tendred to them on Gospel-terms therefore many are chosen besides the special Elect. But to the Text All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out In the context Christ declares 1. That there was a certain number given to him by the Father which Mr. Collier owns to be the special Elect. 2. That concerning these the will of God was that they should be brought to Inherit Eternal Life by Faith in Christ v. 40. 3. That although the natural pravity of men is such that no man without special Grace can come to Christ v. 44. yet these should by the drawings of the Father be brought to him All that the Father hath given me shall come to me 4. That these coming should in no wise be rejected by him and the reason thereof he renders v. 38 39. It is evident therefore the same persons are spoken of in the end that are intended in the beginning of v. 37. and Mr. Colliers supposition of the contrary is without ground and his reason for it ridiculous It cannot be supposed saith he that him that cometh c. is a promise to the first gift for they shall come that is All the Elect shall believe in Christ Ergo There is no promise made of their salvation by him Apage nugas That which he discourseth concerning the Book of Life p. 22. if his notion of it were granted makes nothing for him unless he suppose that the revealed will of God that declares and determines our duty what we ought to do and the Decree of God or what himself will do to be all one However we will consider what he saith viz. That Rev. 3. 5. 20. 12 15. 22. 19. must be understood to speak of the Gospel-book of Life in which all Believers are written and not the first Book of Life in which the special Elect are written I answer 1. The special Elect and true Believers are terms convertible where the one are written the other are written And it is Mr. Colliers great errour to suppose the number of the one to exceed the other As many as are ordained to Eternal Life believe so the Election obtain and the rest are blinded Acts 13. 48. Rom. 11. 7. 2. A Book is attributed to God in Scripture not properly but by a Figure called Anthropopatheia the metaphor being taken from wise men who are wont diligently to set down in a Book those notable things that they would keep in mind and signifieth his providence with respect to and most exact knowledge of all things and in the Scriptures cited by Mr. Collier it signifies Gods special knowledge of his saved ones concerning which the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 2. 19. which is as a certain Catalogue of those whom God hath chosen unto Eternal Life by Faith in Christ But Mr. C. saith they must be otherwise understood His saying they must is no proof and his reasons are too weak to inforce it His first is Because out of the Book of Life here mentioned many may be blotted I answer The expression is Figurative and is to be interpreted according to the scope of the place as God is said to blot out sin when he doth not impute it so to blot out the name of one out of the Book of Life that he doth not reckon among his saved ones which he will make manifest in the day of judgement when all the world shall know that he had no part therein thus the affirmative being put for the contrary negative the sense is briefly this God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life Rev. 22. 19. i. e. He shall have no part at all in it and so likewise e contra ch 3. 5. I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life i. e. I will reckon him amongst my own Sheep and it shall appear by my confessing him before my Father c. His second reason is Because this Book is one of thâ—se by which men shall be judged Rev. 20. 12 15. In the Text this Book is mentioned distinct from those by which men shall be judged and the opening of it in that day signifies the glorious discovery that shall then be made of the Lord his hâ—ving ordered all things in his holy and righteous government of the world so as to fulfill his own Decree and that all his saved ones are alone beholding to free Grace dispensed according to the purpose that God purposed in himself before the foundation of the world for in the issue when men have talked their pleasure of their own ability it so comes to pass That whatsoever was not written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire not simply because they were not written there but because they being left to the way of their own heart did wilfully persist in their rebellion against God for which they must then suffer the vengeance of Eternal Fire Election he saith is no ground to discourage any from believing who saith it is That crimination hath been abundantly answered by others without the help of his Scriptureless notion The tenders of Life in the Gospel are full of Grace the command to believe equal and rational and the promise of Life to the believer sure and stedfast Election is a secret and hidden thing as to the concernment of particular persons in it which belongeth unto God and as none can know their Election of God before Faith so is it no way necessary that they should do so in order to believing for revealed things belong unto us and our Children and we are bound to attend to them in that same order in which God hath revealed them Now in the Gospel is the Salvation of God revealed to lost sinners and they simply considered as such commanded to accept of it upon the terms proposeâ— to them none are called to believe under the formal consideration of Elect persons but as weary and heavy laden sinners undone thirsty sinners in
Vindiciae Veritatis â—R A CONFâ—TATION 〈◊〉 THE Heresies and Gross Errours Asserted by THOMAS COLLIER IN HIS ADDITIONAL WORD TO HIS Body of Divinity Written by Nehemiah Coxe a Servant of Jesus Christ and Minister of his Gospel For there must be also Heresies among you that those which are approved may be made manifest among you 1 Cor. 11. 19. Ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lost ye also being led-away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness 2 Pet. 3. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. Nonnulli dum plus exquirunt 〈…〉 ando quam capiunt usque ad perversa dogmata erumpunt 〈…〉 um veritatis discipuliâ—essâ— negligunt humiliter magistrierroris fiunt Greg. LONDON Printed for Nath. Ponder at the Peacock in the Poultry near Corn-hill and in Chancery-lane near Fleet-street 1677. Christian Reader WE whose names are here subscribed thought our selves more particularly than many others obliged in Duty and Conscience to appear in the front of this Book by way of approbation of the same Wherein the manifold Errors of Tho. Collier in a Book intituled An Additional Word c. are clearly detected and solidly enervated Because although it be a most unequal judgement to make the Errours of one single person under any Profession to reflect upon the whole of the same seeing the Apostle telleth the Church in its Primitive and most pure state Act. 20. 30. That there should arise from themselves men speaking perverse things and draw away Disciples after them yet woeful experience hath taught us that there is nothing more usual with the world And we did judge that though we do not hope hereby to silence the mouth of malice yet this might be a means to set us right in the thoughts of those who are not byassed by evil affections We had hoped that the snares wherein the said Tho. Collier had been many years entangled and for which he seemed by Gods blessing on some of our endeavours to manifest repentance might have been a caution to him to avoid these dangerous Rocks for the future But to our grief we find it otherwise and see that the highest Profession cannot secure men from falling when the heart is not established with Grace and kept humble before the Lord as we see in the examples of Hymenaeus and Alexander For the Author of this work if any by reason of his inferiority in years should suspect him of an over-forwardness arising from any over-weening sâ—lf-opinion in undertaking this matter although that answer is ready in his behalf which sometime David gave to Eliah in a case though of a different yet something like nature 1 Sam. 17. 29. What have I done is there not a cause shall the whole Host of Israel be defied the principles of Gospel-truths subverted the name of God blasphemed a flood-gate of Errour open'd and any be thought over-forward to oppose the Adversary But over and above we think meet to acquaint thee that the Combatant in this Conflict was not so much prompted to it by his natural inclination as by the joint and earnest perswasion of several of the Elders and that of elder years partly because we did judge him meet and of ability for the work and next at that time of his entring upon it a more than ordinary Providence of God gave him leisure for it more then others by suspending him from other more weighty employment thereby as it were calling him out and determining him to this employ Wherein upon our perusal we hope we may truly say without particular respect to his Person he hath behaved himself with that modesty of Spirit joined with that fulness and clearness of answer and strength of argument that we comfortably conceive by Gods blessing it may prove a good and soveraign Antidote against the Poison from which as we earnestly pray the venter of it may be delivered so no less that thou also maist be preserved And in order thereunto desire of thee that thou wouldst read this ensuing discourse with this candour and charity to believe that it is Verity not Victory that is here contended for And farther we beg of God that thou maist be enabled to weigh each particular in the just Ballance of the Sanctuary and that he will direct thy heart into the love of Truth which shall be the daily Prayer of Thine in the Lord William Kiffen Daniel Dyke Joseph Maisters James Fitton Henry Forty William Collins TO THE READER Courteous Reader AMongst all those vanities which are under the Sun this is none of the least That some men puft up with a conceit of their sufficiency for every undertaking do daily burthen the world with their raw and indigested notions and whilst they contemn that guidance they might have in the way of truth from the labours of others who have been raised up and enabled of God to transmit to posterity the Doctrine of the Gospel in a form of sound words do darken counsel by words without knowledge But alas Our sorrow on this account may be drowned in Tears for a greater evil if we reflect on the more bold and dangerous attempts of some who are not satisfied to have darkened the shining lustre of divine truth unless they do also subvert the foundations of the Christian Religion by a downright opposition to some of the most important Doctrines thereof And one sad instance of this kind we have in a Book not long since published by Thomas Collier which he calls An Additional Word c. which hath occasioned my writing this small Treatise in answer thereto For although the argument of the Book may not seem to require his pains inasmuch as there is nothing urged by him to give countenance to his corrupt notions but it hath either been answered many times already by those that have written against the Pelagians Jesuites and Socinians in whose steps Mr. Collier very frequently treads or else where he doth transcend the Heresies of those mentioned its weakness and impiety is more manifest then to need any refutation by another yet on many accounts some Answer to him was judged necessary not only by my self but by divers others whose Judgement in this matter I esteemed much more then my own That so at least a Publick testimony might be born against those gross Errors therein by him expos'd to publick view and by the detection of them the intanglement and seduction of weak though well-meaning Souls might be prevented who otherwise were in danger to be drawn away by him to drink in those notions that will eat as doth a Canker and also that persons irreligious and ungodly who are ready to catch at any thing even against the Judgement of their own Consciences that may give them quiet in their sinful ways might not rest in peace on those Pillows he hath prepared for them by his endeavour to perswade them That there is no such Eternal wrath and Judgement like to overtake them as
Eph. 2. 8 9 10. 3. The meritorious cause of our Justification is the Obedience of Christ both passive and active and our actual Voet. Select Disput pars 5. p. 281. Justification is the effect or consequent of the imputation thereof unto us Justification in the formal reason thereof doth speak two things 1. A discharge from condemnation or the remission of sins which was purchased by the death and blood-shedding of Christ Gal. 3. 13. Eph. 1. 7. The benefit of which purchase râ—dounds to us because of Gods reckoning upon our account or imputing to us what our surety suffered in our stead Isa 53. 6. 11. 2. The adjudging of us to be Heirs of and so inrighting us in Life and Glory for the sake of Christs active Obedience imputed to us in like manner Rom. 3. 22. ch 4. 4 5. 5. 19. Gal. 2. 15. ch 3. 11 12. 4. True and lively Faith whereby we receive Christ and his benefits freely given of God to us and rest on him and his Righteousness is the instrument of our Justification Joh. 1. 12. Rom. 5. 17. So that Faith alone justifieth though justifying Faith is never alone but worketh by love and that Righteousness for the sake of which we are justified before God was wrought out and fulfilled only by Christ who was made sin for us although he knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him And therefore in the business of Justification Faith is opposed to all good works as exclusive of them from any influence into the obtaining of our pardon and acceptance with God Rom. 3. 20 21 22. v. 28. chap. 4. 4 5. Gal. 2. 16. ch 3. 11 12. The first mention of this Article that I meet with in Mr. Colliers Book is ch 1. p. 12. where after some boasting of his clear stating the matter in his Body of Divinity he thus writes If any persons dare to maintain that any are justified before God without Faith and Holiness as the terms thereof though not the deserving cause I must leave them to their own understanding without all Scripture grounds for my own part I fully on good grounds believe the contrary Notwithstanding Mr. Colliers swelling words of vanity and contempt of the understanding of others I must tell him even these words are not so clear and scriptural but that they give just occation to suspect his own understanding to be dark and his judgement to be unsound For although true and justifying Faith is pregnant with good works and whosoever is justified is sanctified also and that Faith considered as a Grace inherent in us belongs to our sanctification yet doth not the Scripture any where allow good works the same influence into our Justification as it doth unto Faith which is a clear evidence that it is not the act of believing â—â—r any other holy duty for which we are justified but that in this business Faith is to be considere as relative to Christ and that it is the object of Faith apprehended thereby on the account of which its said to justifie And this Mr. Collier cannot but own if he understands what is asserted by himself in his Bodâ— of Div. concerning the imputation of Christs Righteousness unto us in order to our Justification before God For if we are justified freely by Grace and are presented without spot before God in an imputed Righteousness then can our good works have no interest in the reason of our acceptance with him And indeed if this were not so we could not be justified at all forasmuch as the Lord is of purer eye then to behold iniquity and our sanctification is imperfect so that if all our Righteousnesses so far forth as ours be examined in strictness of justice they will be found but filthy raggs a Covering too narrow and a Bed too short Yea if those that plead mosâ— for the interest of good works in our Justification would seriously consider what themselves dare abide by before the tremendous tribunal of the great Judge they must all fly to Bellarmines tutissimum est and put an end to this controversie by acknowledging that they dare not venture into Gods sight nor pass out of the World to his Judgement-seat in their own Righteousness But indeed there is another principle laid down once and again by Mr. C. in those Chapters of his Book already examined which if true renders all discourses of deliverance from wrath to come by Christ needless and without ground It is this That the penalty of the breach of the first Covenant was only temporal death and Eternal damnation is inflicted on men only for sinning against the Gospel the Law of Faith Now if this were true Besides that in some respects it renders the condition of those that never heard of Christ more eligible then those who live under the sound of the Gospel 1. If there be no Law threatning Eternal death Ferg Differ of Moral Virtue Grace p. 107. but the Law of Faith then there is no such thing as forgiveness and remission of sin in the World For the Gospel denounceth damnation only against final impenitency and unbelief and as these are not pardoned nor pardonable so on the other hand if there be no Law threatning Eternal death besides the Gospel then is there no other sin we need forgiveness of 2. If this be true Then Christ never dyed to free any from wrath to come which yet is plentifully asserted in the Scriptures wherein we read also that his death was for the Redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Covenant Heb. 9. 15. For it is non-sense to say that he hath freed us from the curse of the Gospel yea it is a repugnancy unless you will introduce another Gospel to relieve against the terms of this nor will that serve the turn unless you likewise find another Mediator to out-merit this Thus Mr. Ferguson in answer to one of Mr. Colliers mind So then if Mr. C. will abide by this notion and the just consequences thereof his sense of our Justification must either be contradictory to himself or else very corrupt and unsound Another passage that hath a bad aspect this way you meet with Addit Word p. 50. where he gives this reason why his supposed deliverance of the damned will not extend to any degree of Glory but only a deliverance from pain and misery For they are under no promise of reward of Good works because they had none That God will graciously reward the good works of Believers is granted so that besides that joy and glory that all Saints have an immediate right to by virtue of their interest in Christ every one shall receive a superadded Crown according as his work shall be which layeth a foundation for our believing the enjoyment of different degrees of Glory among the blessed in another world But to suppose as Mr. C. here doth That the admission of persons into the Kingdom of
God is for the sake of their own good works is contrary to the whole current of Scripture and cannot consist with a sound Judgement concerning our Justification but necessarily leads to a Popish or Socinian notion thereof I cannot see what good works the Thief upon the Cross had to procure his admission into the Kingdom of God yet he being freely justified by Grace went immediately from the Cross to Paradise To conclude this no less offensive is that passage we meet with p. 59. The Protestants to be rid of Popish meritorious works run themselves too much in both principle and practice beyond almost all works of Charity This hath a long time been the clamour of the Jesuites against the faithful Ministers of the Gospel and for Mr. Colliers joyning with them in this calumny and slander of which neither he nor they can ever make proof at least so far as concerns their Doctrine there is no reason but their refusing to advance the good works of men into the room of Christ and to assign unto them what we are alone beholding to his Righteousness for On other accounts none plead the necessity of good works nor press men to holiness with greater earnestness and force of Scripture reason then they do as cannot but be known to all that are conversant in their Writings And therefore publick satisfaction for this reproach cast not on particular persons but on the whole Protestant interest is justly expected from Mr. Collier But however forasmuch as it appears that Mr. C. is little acquainted with the wholsome Doctrine of Orthodox Protestants I will give him a taste of what they teach concerning the necessity of Good works In Synopsi purioris Theologiae written by Polyander Rivet Wallaeus and Thysius no obscure men amongst the Protestants After they have in their 33 chap. laid down and abundantly confirmed that truth concerning our Justification which I have before touched in the 34ch they professedly treat of our holiness or Good works which are the fruits of a lively and justifying Faith concerning which they say § 24. Necessitas bonis operibus multifariam tribuitur Necessaria enim dicuntur 1. Necessitate praecepti divini 2. Necessitate medii ad Dei gloriam salutem nostram ordinati 3. Necessitate cultus obsequii Deo ex obligatione nostrâ naturali debiti 4. Necessitate bonae tranquillae conscientiae de sua electione vocatione ad salutem sibi probe consciae 5. Necessitate officii charitatis proximo praestandi The sense is this Good works are necessary on divers accounts They are said to be necessary 1. Because commanded of God 2. They are necessary as a medium ordered or in order to the Glory of God and our own Salvation 3. They are necessary in that they are the Worship and Obedience that we are by the Law of nature obliged to perform to God 4. They are necessary for the keeping a good and peaceful Conscience comfortably witnessing to our Election of God and calling unto Salvation 5. They are necessary on the account of that office of love that we ought to perform unto our Neighbour I might heap up testimonies of this kind and will at any time if called to it evince from the confessions of Faith of all the reformed Churches and from the Writings of all the worthy reformers that treat of this subject as also from theirs wâ—o of late have asserted our Justification by free Grace through the imputation of Christs Obedience both active and passive to us wâ—thout the works of the Law That they all plead for a necessity of good works on the account and for the ends before mentioned So then their Doctrine deserves not this calumny and if any have not practised according to their principles and profession let them bear their own burthen and shame however I suppose it is easie to manifest that no where under Heaven is impiety of every kind more abundant then amongst the Popish merit-mongers And I must say again That as the Writings of Protestants need no Advocate in this matter they sufficiently speaking for themselves so in this charge of Mr. Colliers against them thus causelesly Printed to the World and accommodate though perhaps not designedly to help forward the ruine of the Protestant interest and introduce Popery he hath raised a monument of his own petulancy and ignorance that will remain to his shame as long as his Book is in the hands of men to be read by them CHAP. VII Of the Day of Judgement and the Everlasting punishment of the wicked I Am now come to the Chapters in Mr. Colliers Book wherein he treats of the day of Judgement and the punishment of those that then come into condemnation concerning which his notions are so corrupt and accommodate to give countenance to and encourage men in a wicked course of life in this world by suggesting yea affirming that this notwithstanding there is hope for them in another world That scarce any thing could have been written more opposite and destructive to the Christian Religion and the main design of the Gospel I shall according to my former method briefly propose what the Scripture teacheth concerning this fundamental Article of the Eternal Judgement and then remove out of the way what he hath opposed thereto The Scripture teacheth 1. That there shall most certainly be a solemn and set day or time of Judgement in which God will judge the world in Righteousness by Jesus Christ Act. 17. 31. Rom. 14. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 10. 2. All persons of high and low degree good and bad must appear before his Judgement-seat and receive their sentence from him Mat. 25. 32. c. 1 Pet. 4. 5. Rev. 20. 12. 3. All the actions words and thoughts of men in this world though now never so secret must then be brought to light and accounted for Prov. 24. 12. Eccles 12. ult Mat. 12. 36 37. Rom. 2 16. 1 Cor. 4. 5. 4. Sentence shall be past upon all according as their works shall be found to have been and every man shall receive what he hath done in the body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad As is abundantly proved by the Texts cited before But yet The works of the Saints and the works of the wicked fall under a different consideration in this day For 1. The works of the Godly are not considered as meritorious of Heaven which is assigned to them for an Everlasting Inheritance by the sentence of the great judge Luke 17. 10. but only as the fruits and evidence of a true and lively Faith in Christ unto which Salvation is promised for the sake of his merit 2. The works of the reprobate world are directly considered as deserving in their own nature the punishment to be inflicted on them and they are accordingly proceeded against Rom. 6. ult Thus all nations are divided into two Companies The Sheep are set on the right hand of Christ and the Goats on his