habits and acts in specie as circumstantiated by immediate necessitating or unresistible premotion and yet taketh not away their Liberty because he maketh them will and not nil the sin These do but play with the name of Free-will and are confuted as aforesaid from the instance of Adam and from the scope of Scripture and do subvert the Foundations of Christianity To will is the proper act of my will and if he that moveth me by prime physical efficiency to will the circumstantiated act of Sin deprive me not of my Liberty because it is willing that he maketh me do then if Men or Devils had Power to make me will Sin as I cause my Pen to write or the Fire to burn this or that it would be no loss of Liberty But of this more largely elsewhere CHAP. XV. Of Effectual Grace and how God giveth it § 1. AS I said before about Sufficient Grace so here about Effectual the first thing to be done by Disputers is to agree what that is which they here call Grace as the Subject of the Question And as I there shewed 1. It cannot or must not be God's essential Will or Power for that is simple and immutable and not in it self save relatively distinguishable into sufficient and effectual 2. An Efflux or vis which is neither God nor the Effect there is none or none proveable 3. It is not Faith it self that is meant here by Grace for it is the Grace that effecteth Faith and it were absurd to ask what Faith is effectual to make or cause it self This is true both of the Act and Habit. The meaning is not what Habit of Faith is effectual to the Act nor what Act to the Habit or it self but what Grace of God is effectual to cause both Act and Habit. 4. Therefore there is nothing left to be meant by Grace but the two things before mentioned viz. 1. The gracious Means or second Causes appointed by God to cause our Faith 2. The first moving Impress on the Soul as it is antecedent to Act and Habit supposing that such there is though some deny that there is any such thing § 2. And for the first all means will be uneffectual without God's inward Operation by his Spirit He must work on the Speaker and on the Hearer to make means effectual as is agreed on But whether as God worketh in Naturals according to the aptitude of natural second Causes so he work Faith and other Graces by a settled proportion of Concourse agreeable to the Aptitude of gracious second Causes or Means of Grace is a Question too hard to be boldly and peremptorily determined by us that are in so much darkness § 3. But it seemeth to us that God would not have made it so great a part of his Government to establish a Course of Means if he did not intend to work ordinarily by them and according to their fitness Christ is the chief Means and instituteth the rest Scripture Ministers Example good Company merciful Providences Afflictions Meditation Books Prayer Sacraments c. are all appointed for such effects And if God would ordinarily work immediately without means what need all these This teacheth Infidels to say that he may do it without Christ. The Spirit first indited the Word as we cut a Seal to be the instrument of Impression and then by that word doth work on Souls § 4. But if God did tie himself not only ordinarily but alwaies to apt means no mortal could say what means is sufficient and what is insufficient and what is more than sufficient even necessarily efficacious For the means 1. are very many and more than we can take notice of and if one be wanting it may render the rest insufficient or uneffectual how excellent soever in themselves 2. And that means is fitted to one Hearer that is not fitted to another All have not the same temptations hindrances prejudices objections weaknesses nor obstinacy And God only knoweth when means are adequately fitted to the desired effect upon mens Souls § 5. And though many of the means operate ex parte sui necessarily yet so do not all For Preachers and Instructers are free Agents and so it must be other effectual means that must first move them to do their Duty for a Sinner's good Which who can judge of § 6. But God is the Arbitrary Absolute Lord of all means and therefore he can change and dispose of them as he pleases and yet work by them So that the Effect is nevertheless from God's free or arbitrary Volition though he never went beyond the aptitude of means When even a silly man can turn the natural course of Water and Wind to move his Mill or Sails at his pleasure without any alteration of their natures A Fisher can use his Bait as may serve his end and a Physician can vary his Medicines to cure the Disease without changing their nature or curing without them § 7. But there is no question but God can work without means and Intellectual Souls being so near to the first Cause it is utterly uncertain to us whether in Works of Grace God have not a double operation on the Soul one by his appointed means and another by immediate Influx and if it be so how these concurr to one and the same effect and also how God doth immediately move Souls are all past Man's reach and should be acknowledged above our Disputes § 8. II. God hath more inward operations on Man's Soul than one or two whether with means or without to bring us to Faith and Repentance The mind must be enlightened the dull faculties must be excited especially Conscience and Will and the Will must be touched with the gust of Divine Love to breed a holy Complacency in good and many Impediments must be removed some by outward acts of Providence and some by inward Grace And where Impediments are not removed no doubt but there needeth more of the other Acts of Grace to bring such a Soul to Faith and Repentance than in one where there is less resistance § 9. And seeing that Recipitur ad modum recipientis and the disposition of the Recipient hath so great a hand as common Experience telleth us in almost all the Changes in the World what wonderful variety of Effects doth the same Action of the Sun produce throughout the World by the diversity of receptive dispositions Therefore no mortal man can say when the efficacy or success of Divine Grace is more to be ascribed to the Preparatory Disposition of the Recipient by a former act of Grace and when more to the present moving Influx nor what proportion these alwaies bear as comparable And what man dare say that he can search out the waies of God § 10. When we know so little of the secret Energies of natural Principles nor how God produceth Animals in the Womb nor how he causeth our Food to nourish us nor how any of our Senses do
man can do any more good than he doth and so That he hath no meerlysufficient Grace to any one act in all his life § 28. The Controversie about sufficient Grace is the same in the true meaning of it with that of the Power of Mans Free-will For when by sufficient Grace we mean nothing but the enabling a Man to the act or giving him Power to do it the stress of the Question is Whether Man hath truly any Power to do more than he doth For if he have such a Power Grace hath given it him if it be for a Work that Grace is needful to So that indeed were it not for Custom and Expectation this Question should be handled under that of the Power and Liberty of Man's Will § 29. No man hath at the present Grace sufficient for his Salvation if he have longer time to live Because the Grace or help of the present hour is not sufficient for the next but there must be continual Supplies from God supposing that we distinguish of Grace by the distinct numerical acts and hours for and in which we need it But if you distinguish of Grace by the species of Acts for which it is needful and not by the numerical acts then it may be truly said that the same Grace in specie which a Believer hath to day may be sufficient to his Salvation or to his life's end § 30. But if you speak de gradu that Grace may be sufficient to one thing which is not sufficient to another And so 1. An Infidel may have Grace sufficient to forbear some Sin or avoid some Temptation or use some means that tendeth to Faith and Repentance who hath not Grace sufficient to believe and repent unto Salvation 2. A man may have Grace sufficient to enable him to believe and repent unto Justification and yet not have at that instant Grace sufficient to enable him to love God above all as God with a fixed habitual Love and to live an holy life for the Spirit and Sanctification are promised on condition of Faith and Repentance 3. A sanctified man that is yet but weak may have Grace sufficient to live to God a holy life at present and yet not have Grace sufficient for greater trials of Duty and Temptation And therefore Augustine and all his Followers still say That the Grace of Perseverance is a Gift over and above the Grace of meer Sanctification in the weakest degree § 31. By all this it is evident that he that disputeth of the sufficiency of Grace must first distinctly tell us 1. Whether he mean extrinseck Grace or intrinseck 2. If extrinseck Whether he mean it comprehensively of all extrinseck Grace together or only of some particular part of sort 3. If the latter Whether he speak of the sufficiency of Christ's Death and Righteousness Sacrifice Merit Intercession c. or of the sufficiency of the Gospel-Covenant or Promise or of the sufficiency of Preaching Praying and other means or of the Scripture-Records c. 4. If he speak of intrinseck Grace Whether the Question be of Sufficiency ex parte Dei agentis which none must question or ex parte effecti 5. If the latter What is the effect whose sufficiency he questioneth 1. Is it a Grace or Power to do some more common good use some means forbear some evil as the Unregenerate may do 2. Or is it a Power truly to repent and believe 3. Or to love God habitually and live holily 4. Or to overcome greater Temptations and persevere 6. And he must tell you whether he speak 1. De specie whether the Grace or Power sufficient to this sort of Acts or Duty be sufficient to another or to all 2. Or de gradu Whether this degree be sufficient against a greater degree or sort of Temptation 3. Or as men use to distinguish Grace and Help by numerical Acts and Hours Whether the Grace of this Hour and Act be sufficient for the next or for all The sence of all these Questions is distinct 7. But his last and greatest difficulty will be to tell you truly and plainly what is that Grace which is the subject of his Question of its sufficiency in the general nature of it and as related to the thing which it is called sufficient to § 32. For by Grace he meaneth 1. Either somewhat ex parte Dei agentis 2. Or ex parte effecti or 3. Quid medium 1. Grace as it is in God the Agent 2. Or as it is in Man the Recipient 3. Or as it is somewhat between both § 33. I. Grace as it is in God is nothing but his Essence not as Essence but as an essential Power Intellect and Will denominated by Connotation from the effect This is commonly agreed on God doth operate per essentiam and not by Accidents § 34. II. If they mean any mediate thing between God and the Effect either they speak of the first effect or a second and so on If they speak but of secondary effects and the meaning be only whether one effect be a sufficient Cause for another they mean either an outward or an inward Grace or Effect If an outward then the sence of the Question is Whether some other Work of God be sufficient to move the Will of Man And then it must be told what other Work you mean Whether an Angel or the Planets or the Word or Preacher or an outward Mercy or Affliction or what it is But if you speak of the very first effect then the fancy is almost proper to Aureolus among the Schoolmen to think that there is something from God antecedent to the Creature and Motion which may be called Action or Energy or Efflux which is neither the Creator nor a Creature neither Cause substantial nor Effect but Causation As if some Beam of Virtue or Force went from God to produce every Creature and Motion which is neither God nor the Creature or Motion But this is commonly and justly rejected as feigning a third sort of Entity between God and the Creature which it passeth the wit of Man to conceive of what it should be ☞ And if God do immediately per essentiam cause that middle Entity or Action or Force which he saith is no Creature why may he not as well immediately per essentiam cause the Creature and motion it self This therefore cannot be the thing meant by Grace in this Question To question the sufficiency of God's Essence is intolerable To question the sufficiency of a mediate divine Efflux or Action which is between God and the Creature and Effect is to dispute in your Dream of a Chimera an unproved and a disproved and commonly-denied Entity To dispute of the sufficiency of Angels Scripture Sermons c. to work Grace is not the thing commonly intended in this Controversie of Grace Each several sort of means may be sufficient in its own kind and to its own use but no one of them is sufficient to the
willeth them to be future or because they are future from the free Agent 's Will Ans. 1. God's Knowledge ex parte sui is his Essence and hath no Cause for it is no Effect God's Understanding Will and Power are essentially One but as various inadequate conceptions they only make up perfect Unity and are not Causes and Effects to one another much less caused by any Creature 2. But Futurity is caused by that which causeth the thing future And therefore the futurity of Sin is caused by Man that causeth Sin so far as it is capable of a Cause of which more in due place But as Futurity is not Existence so it needeth not an existent but sometimes only a future cause 3. And God's Intellect is terminated on things as Intelligible and that is as they are And so on things that are future by his own will as such and on things future by Man's Will as such as far as Futurity is an object of an eternal mind § 9. The many Disputes de scientia simplicis intelligentiae purae visionis mediae I think best abbreviated according to the forementioned Principles God's essential Understanding is but One Things intelligible are many God's simple Intellect may be variously denominated as related to and terminated on various intelligible Objects and so according to their Order But this signifieth no real diversity at all in God but in the things known Nor must we dream that Scientia simplicis intelligentiae is like man's a knowledge of certain Logical Notions or Propositions by way of Thinking as to know that This is possible and the other is possible and that is convenient as if God needed such second notions to know by but it is infinitely above Man's mode of knowing His Knowledge is first effective and then intuitive and this without diversity or change in God § 10. It is a great aggravation of the Presumption and Prophaneness of many voluminous School-Disputes about the unsearchable nature of divine Intellection that the certain Knowledge of our own great ignorance even about every silly Creature and of God's incomprehensibleness and infinite distance do not prevail to repress such audaciousness and bring men to more Modesty and Reverence of God And how much more learnedâ—y and wisely doth he answer abundance of their Questions who saith I know not than they that by presumptuous conclusions take on them to know what they do not nor ever will do in this World CHAP. V. Of ELECTION § 1. ELECTION in Scripture sometimes signifieth God's actual choosing or taking one Man or People from among others to himself either for his special Complacency and Service by Sanctification or Conversion or to some special Office as David was chosen from among his Brethren And sometimes it signifieth God's eternal Will or Decree so to choose call or sanctifie and save men at a determinate time as in Eph. 1. and elsewhere § 2. God will convert justifie adopt and save some men by his Grace § 3. Therefore it is certain that God from Eternity did will or decree so to do For the event in time maketh it fit so to denominate God's eternâ— will Though there was nothing before the Creation really but God and so real existent Man was not the Object of his Will and Man in esse cognito was nothing but God himself there being nothing else from Eternity except as Eternity comprehendeth Time § 4. In the same manner as God bringeth men to Grace and Glory he willeth or decreeth to do it For his Decree to do it is no real Act of God distinct from his Essence but it is his simple essential will denominated from the effect related to it Therefore the Controversies about Election â—re resolved into those about the giving of Grace â—nd Salvation and there will be clearlier opeâ—ed § 5. Glorification Perseverance Adoption â—ustification Sanctification Faith and Repentance â— or Vocation preparatory common Grace and â—he Gospel and other means of Conversion are â—everal Gifts of God's Grace through Christ Therefore God's Decrees to give them may be â—liversly denominated from relation to the effect The Decree to glorifie may be distinguished from the Decree to convert to justifie â—c And yet where all these are really conjoined and are but as the parts of one Engine the several gifts which make up One Salvation as the object â—or effect is in that sence One so may God's Decree be called One as related to it So that they that say God's Decrees about our Salvation are many and they that say They are one do both speak Truth and disagree not § 6. They that will denominate God's Volitions or Decrees according to the Order of Intention must not mean that Ex parte Volentis God hath really many thoughts Volitions or Decrees and that the first is de fine and the next de mediis But only that in the order of real Causation one of God's Gifts or Effects is made to be a Cause or Means to the production or attainment of another and so the latter is to be Man's End intended in the use of the former and so Man is first to intend the End before he useth the Means But no Gift Work or Creature is to be called God's End except when we speak Vulgarly after the manner of Men that which we will not defend as proper Speech § 7. Yet God may be said to will and nâ—â— One thing to produce or Cause another whicâ— importeth only that it is a second Efficient Causâ— of that Other and the other an intended Effect and also that the other is to man to have rationâ—â— finis and so may be called finis operis operanâ—â—â— secundarii § 8. God is not an Efficient Cause of Himself or any thing in Himself and therefore not properly an End to Himself because there is nothing in Him Caused But if any will speak otherwise as if there were in God himself Eternal Causatioâ— Efficient and final and Eternal Effects and thereby explain the Doctrine of the Trinity let them remember that they venture on singular Expressions and such as favor of Imperfection but we hope that they differ from the Commoner way but in a Logical Notion rather than in a real Conception § 9. If we may not say that God is his owâ— End for every End hath a Means and there is no Means to God's Beings or Perfections then he is not properly said to have any End For nothing but Himself can properly be his End § 10. Yet when by an End we mean but improperly the ultimate Effect and not any thing which to God is Causa agendi and so declare that we take the words End and Intention equivocally as to God and Man the phrase may be used And in that sence we must say that God's will as Efficient being the Beginning of all things God's will as fulfilled and pleased is the End of all which yet signifieth not any diversity or change in God for his
Non-futurity or Nothing be therefore any thing God's knowing that it will be and yet is not proveth that the thing future is nothing and therefore Futurity no modus rei but a Name put by us on Nothing from God's Will to make it Supposing it be not Sin which God will not make but hath another Cause I had thought you had known how commonly the School-men prove That things that are not may be certainly known by God yea how the Nominals prove his Knowledge of future Contingents from his meer Perfection so that Socinus is not unanswered in those things and yeâ— Futures and Futurity are no beings At least you may see Answer enough in Strangius and Le Blank 〈…〉 two Authors well worth your reading Those 〈…〉 hings are certo futura which God will certainly make or certainly knoweth will be done and 〈…〉 et Futurity be nihil reale I would you had told me whether you take the Reality of Futurity to be 〈…〉 n esse rei extrinsecae or in esse objectivo intrinseco The former you are not able considerately to believe that nothing can have any real mode accident or affection if none of these what is 〈…〉 t then You must needs hold to the latter and then in man the futurity of things is nothing real â—ut the mode of his Cogitation or Conception as I have afore said we may have real thoughts that here is not such or such a thing but will be in which we frame a real Idea of that which will be and is not in our minds from the helps of similitudes or words and so say Such a thing thought on and named but not in being will be But in God there is nothing but God the Creature is of him and is in him dependently as their Cause and Comprehender but not as constituent of his immanent acts Why you add Suppose nothing to have some Verity is above my reach I think Nothing hath no Verity But 1. God's Knowledge that it will be hath Verity 2. The Proposition This will be may have Verity 3. But the thing future hath not Veritas rei Futurity as in re hath no more Entity than Possibility But to will or know that quid nominatum can be and that it will be are two real acts in Man and two extrinseck Denominations of the Divine Will and Intellect When you have answered what I said of Dr. Twisse I may review it Ad 4. You say Future is nothing ergo â—â—thing is future I am glad that the Creed a 〈…〉 Bible are not thus worded Future in your fir 〈…〉 Proposition signifieth the Affection or somewh 〈…〉 real of the thing future and so it is nothing 〈…〉 you take future so in the second it is fuâ—ile 〈…〉 true being but a gross expression of Nothing hath real Futurity which is aliquid rei But according to common use your second Propositio 〈…〉 will be taken for a denial of the Saying Somewhat will be and this is a real truth You say th 〈…〉 Proposition is identical as Nothing is Nothing We speak not of the Being or truth of Propositions or Conceptions but of futurity it self as incomplexum You after confess I told you so May you not equally say Negations Non-existents Non-futurity are nothing ergo Nothing is a Negation Non-existent Non-future Answer one and you answer the other Negations in mente are Thoughts and in the Mouth they are Words but in re negata they are nothing So I say of Non-futurity and Non-existence Frail Man dreameth that the mundus naturalis is the same with the mundus fantasticus notionalis in his Brain and Oh! how commonly do Words and Thoughts go in Disputes for Extrinseck Realities Ad 5. Because God decreeth to do any thing you and I when we know it may truly say This will be and will be is no being but Gods will and our knowledg and our words are Alas that so much skill is necessary not to be deceived by ambiguity of words God's Knowledg and your Knowledge and your Words may be all true and yet Futurity ex parte rei futurae hath no proper Verity metaphysical physical or moral being no subject capable of any such You say Did not the Futurity of the World result from a Decree It 's 〈…〉 earisome at every Sentence to repeat Distinction and open Confusion The futurity of the World is nothing Extra mentem Divinam humanam extra propositionem de futuritione Why talk you of our designing another Origin when we are proving that it 's nothing and needs no Cause And why answer you not what I wrote against Dr. Twisse before you call for an Answer to him Or at least why answer you not Strangius but impertinently talk of the Serpent Socinus If Socinus had no more wit than to take the Futurity of Sin for a Being Substance Accident or Mode no wonder if he knew not how to deny that God is the Cause of it And why do you not attempt to answer me who tell you That if you take it to be a real Being and eternal you must take it to be God himself for nothing else is eternal But I pray you say not like your former arguing about nothing The eternal Futurity of Sin is God himself ergo God is the eternal Futurity of Sin The Subject and Predicate are not so convertible as you seem to make them You say if we say Futurity is nothing then it is a wonder an independent on God and his Will self-originated and unpreventable c. You write no wonders to me this rate of Discourse being common in the World and hath been in most Ages Is Nothing a wonder Is it a wonder for nothing to be independent but yet that which hath no dependent Being may so far as a Nothing be at God's will that he continue nothing or make something the first non agendo the second agendo as he pleases that is by willing or not willing And it were a wonder indeed for Nothing to be self-originated or that Nothing should spring from any thing as an efficient Cause But reductively some Nothings may be ascribed to God's Non-agency as Beings good are to his action As God is improperly called the Cause of Darkness because he there maketh not Light so improperly he may be said to be the Cause of Nothings because he made not the contrary Something 's You say then there is fatum Stoicissimum on God and all his Works and this Futurity binds the Almighty that he cannot do as he pleaseth in Heaven and Earth This is a wonder indeed that Nothing should be stronger than God and rule him and the World If Dr. Twisse hold Sin to be nothing doth it follow that it binds God because it 's nothing Doth Death bind God because it is but the privation of Life or vacuity si detur vacuum because it is nothing Or when there was nothing but God did Nothingness bind God Is that God
of the aptitude of your Phrase I suppose we differ not about the thing intended as long as you hold no eternal Accidents or Composition in God and that nothing is eternal but himself which I must think you do in Charity If you take futuritio rei for the modus or relation of a humane Conception or Assertion de futuris I suppose we shall not differ de re nor will you say that it is eternal 3. If you speak but suppositively that if there had been such a conceptus or Assertion from Eternity it would have been true we differ not 4. If you take Futurition extra mentem to be any thing Substance Mode Accident or any Reality or aliquid rei and that from Eternity I deny it and say That they that make an universal Spirit and they that make Matter and Motion to be eternal with God are more excusable than they that make a thing called Futurity distinct from God yea the Futurity of Sin to be eternal and God the eternal Cause of that eternal Effect I purposed at the first glance to have answered the second Paper also about God's decreeing Sin but when I had read it I was unwilling 1. Because it is but too largely answered materially in my Book already and more fully in old Papers that lie by me which I cannot transcribe 2. Because I hear so much Good of the worthy Author that I am not willing to be drawn to dispute a Case which cannot be handled justly without opening so much Evil in that which I must oppose as will sound harsh towards one that I so much honour Men are so apt to feel that as touching themselves which is spoken to their Cause If Hobbes who wrote the Treatise of Necessity against Bishop Bramhall had sent me that Paper I should readily have answer'd it But here I fear it Only I tell the Author that I have been as strongly tempted that way as most others and do acknowledge that it is the greatest difficulty in all these Controversies to conceive how free will can act otherwise than God doth predetermine it But I am satisfied in the Solution and fully satisfied that the Predeterminant Opinion which I oppose doth certainly inferr the Religion of Hobbes the denial of Christianity and leaves us no Religion but that Good and Evil Happiness and Misery are Differences all made by God himself as Light and Darkness Angels and Serpents are made to differ by him And I am not willing to let go Christianity 〈…〉 such Objections as these And it had been m 〈…〉 that he had answered what I have said to Alvarâ— Mr. Sterry c. on this Subject and taken notice of my Answers to the most of his His talk of Casualty is his sum by which if he mean that which had not a predetermined Cause Sin is casual till the Sinner determine his own will But if he mean that which is unknown to God it is not casual And the Assertion That such things are not knowable to God I have confuted at large which he here taketh no notice of If I shall find that Necessity make it my duty to give any such Paper a particular Answer if I have time I may do it But I think enough is said of that already and my leisure from better work is small RI. BAXTER CHAP. VII Of God's Providence and predetermining Premotion and Miracles § 1. THE word Providence is variously used by Writers Sometimes as comprehending God's fore-knowledge and decrees themselves Sometimes as comprehending all his Works Sometimes as comprehending all his works which follow the Creation And sometimes as signifying only his effective disposal of Persons and Things in Motions and Alterations as dictinct from Legislation which only maketh Duty and Right § 2. In CREATION God Glorified his Three Essential Principles or Attributes 1 His Omnipotency eminently in giving BEING to all things 2. His Wisdom eminently in the ORDER and Composure of all 3. His Love or Goodness eminently in the GOODNESS and Wellfare of all For he made them Good and then Rested Yet so as that all these Attributes were glorified in each part of the Effect § 3. From hence a posteriore he is in the one Relation of CREATOR Related triply to the World and specially to the Rational part That is 1. As the MAKER of things which is Creator in the narrow sence 2. As ORDINATOR 3. As BENEFACTOR And thus he is the Author of NATURE § 4. From this fundamental Relation of CREATOR and the nature of the Creature made and continued by Conservation which is a continued Creation or Efficiency there resulteth a threefold Right and further Relation to God 1. A Ius Dominii or Right of PROPRIETY and so he is our OWNER and may do with all things what he will and must be the disposer of Events 2. His Ius Imperii including Doctrine or Right of Government which to things meerly Natural is Natural Government and to Moral Agents it is Moral Government by Doctrine Laws and Executions And so he is our KING or RULER 3. His Ius Amoris ut finis or Right to be the end of all and by the Ratiâ—nal Creature to be chiefly Loved and absolutely for Himself as the Best and most Amiable and so he is our ultimate END Where LOVE is considered not only as an act of Obedience to a Rector as all other duties are but eminently as it is the final perfective Act of man closing with the final Object and so above the common nature of meer Obedience § 5. All God's after works and all our Duties to him must be observed as respecting all these Relations of God to us and our answerable Relations to him For therein is the Nature Order and Harmony of them discerned to be Glorious And unskillful confounding them is a spoiling and prophaning or dishonouring of them And thus the various acts of Providence must be set each in its proper place § 6. God being the fons naturae and having settled the frame of Nature or created Beings and second Causes in a fixed state and order in which one thing is united to another and adapted to its proper work in concurrence with the whole we must not expect that God do ordinarily violate this his established Course For his Works shall shew somewhat of his Constancy and Experience telleth us that really thus He doth § 7. But we must not dream that God is involuntarily tied to his own Work or hindered by second Causes or the course of Nature from doing what He would but His free-will delighteth it self in this Constancy and ordered Course of Nature and use of second Causes which have still all their being force and order continued by Him § 8. And the number and operations of second Causes are so unknown to us that when things seem Miracles to us it is hard for us to say that God useth no second Cause in effecting them But it is enough to the use of Miracles to
meet right and just for God to pardon and save us which is a remote disposing the fall'n sinner to be a due Recipient of God's following promised Grace And thus it is in both senses a moral Cause as it is a Cause of our Right and of Congruity and as it is though not indeed yet morally reputatively or Quasi causa physica realis of our Pardon Grace and Salvation by making them become just right and due And being thus far a Cause of the effects ad extra per extrinsecam denominationem ex connotatione relatione ad objectum it may be called with cautelous sobriety a Cause of God's own Intellections and Volitions For though in themselves they are God's Essence yet for God to know us to be redeemed and to will our present Pardon and Salvation as Redeemed ones are words that speak more than God's Essence as in it self and include the termination of his Acts on these Objects as such and so denominate God's Essence distinctly from the Objects which else would never be distinguished nor have but one name being really but one § 12. Yet all these diversifying distinguishing denominating Causes of God's Intellections Volitions and Operations must not even denominatively or relatively be counted or called Efficient Causes of God's Acts nor strictly final but objective And therefore here it must be considered what Cause an Object is which Philosophers are not well agreed in But I think I may safely say That as to moral acts the Object is to be reduced to such a cause materialis or constitutiva as they are capable of not of the Act as an Act but as this act in specie denominated from the receptive terminating matter or object And though to Man to know this or that and to will this or that ad extra seem somewhat really different or modally at least from knowing and willing our selves or some other Object yet in God it is not to be called ex parte sui a real or modal difference at all § 13. Yet I assert not that the Ratio prima of all these Diversities of the Divine Acts is ex terminis seu recipientibus For the first Reason is in and of God himself For it is God that maketh all diversities of Effects and Changes and so it is from those divers Effects of his own Will that his Will is relatively ex connotatione termini diversly denominated But that in God which is the Ratio prima diversitatis is not divers but his one simple essential Will so that it is the diversity of Objects which is the immediate Reason of distinguishing God's acts of which before § 14. These things premised I come nearer to the Question if that which existeth not do truly cause it must be either efficiently constitutively or finally The two first are denied by the common Reason of Mankind That which is not cannot effect Nothing can do nothing And to say it is not is to say it constituteth not And as it is certain that causa finalis non efficit yea is but causa metaphorice operans so it is certain that no Creature causeth any thing in God no not finally § 15. Those that say That Christ and his death and merits did not cause before Existence in esse existenti but in esse cognito as constituting the Divine Idea's 1. Must remember that the esse cognitum as they call it is no esse rei cognita at all Therefore if only the esse cognitum do cause then it was not Christ and his Merits that caused 2. In Man for an esse cognitum to cause his further acts is but for one Thought to cause another Thought or a Volition or Nolition And these Thoughts and Volitions are really divers and constituted by reception of intromitted Objects But God is no Recipient nor knoweth any Object as we do by intromission Nor hath he any such Thoughts or Idea's of Creatures as are really divers ex parte Dei but only by extrinsick denomination § 16. If it be said That then God should know nothing till it is because a denomination must be from something and nothing can be no Object or terminus and so of his Will I Ans. 1. God doth not know any thing as existent now which doth not exist now But our Now is in his Eternity and his Eternity without partition comprehendeth all our Times prae and post ab and ad are Prepositions of no signification in and of Eternity but only In And therefore as Augustine saith his Prescience is but his Science so denominated from the Order of Objects but noteth not any difference in him who hath neither prae nor post How this is to be understood without making the Creature eternally exist I have elsewhere fully opened § 17. That plain truth therefore which must here satisfie us is That God who is the first efficient and ultimate final Cause of all things and caused by none did of his free abundant Mercy undertake the saving of sinful Man and notwithstanding his Threatning and Man's Defect resolving to make advantage of our Sin and Misery for the Glory of his Wisdom Love Mercy and Justice he promised that the Eternal Word should in due time assume Man's nature and therein do and suffer that which should glorifie him more than Man's Perdition would have done and which should make it just and meet for him to save the Guilty both inceptively at the present under the Promise for 4000 years and afterward more fully at Christ's Incarnation and finally to perfect all in Glory So that the Work of our Salvation is one entire frame composed by Divine Wisdom and Love where one part is the Reason of another though none be the Cause of any thing in God And Christ's Mediation though coming after 4000 years yet was then to do that which should make it meet and right and just for God to pardon Sin before Even as in a Building the several parts may be the reason of each other because they must be all compaginated and fitted to their relative places and uses And though the Foundation make not the Superstructure it upholdeth â—itâ— And as Aquinas briefly faith Deus non propter hoc vult hoc sed vult hoc esse propter hoc nothing is the Cause of God's Will but it is God's Will that one thing shall be for another And when all his Work must be one Frame the part last made may be a reason of the former And so Christ's merits and sacrifice though after 4000 years perform that for which it became just and meet before for God to pardon Sinners For though it was not then existent yet besides the Decree the Promise Prediction and Publication made it useful to its ends in respect to GOD and Man § 18. So then though the Cause be not truly a Cause till it exist and though all the Pardon and Salvation given for 4000 years was before the existence of the merits and sacrifice of
these are the World in the worst sence 3. Consenting Subjects under the Common Law of Grace who yet were not Iews nor are not in the Covenant of Peculiarity And such are in a state of Salvation though not in the Church of the peculiar as the Subjects of Melchizedeck Sem c. and so are both in the Church and in the World in several sences § 37. Having delivered that in this great Question which seemeth to me agreeable to God's Word I advise those that use to assault such things with reproach which they find reproached by their Party to remember that God is Love and Christ is the Saviour of the World and the Pharisaical Appropriators of Mercy and Salvation do seldom know what spirit they are of CHAP. XVII Of the Necessity of Holiness and of Moral Uirtue § 1. HOLINESS is our Dedication Separation or Devotedness to God and alienation from all that stands in competition or contrariety to God § 2. It is our Separation to God as the Creator of our Nature and our Redeemer and the Author of Grace and our Felicity and the Cause of Glory As the first Efficient supreme Dirigent and ultimately final Cause § 3. It is our separation to God as our Owner by Resignation as our Ruler by Obedience and as our Benefactor and ultimate End by Thankfulness and Love in the acknowledgment of his infinite power wisdom and goodness as essential to himself and related to his works § 4. Holiness is our dispositive actual and relative separation to God 1. When our Souls are habitually inclined to God and to his Will 2. When we actually give up our selves to God and to his will by Consent first and Obedience and Love after 3. It signifieth the relation of the Person as thus habitually and actually separated A holy Priesthood 1 Pet. 2. 5 9 11. § 5. Holiness is the Habit and Act of all the three Faculties of the rational Soul viz. 1. Of the vitael Active Power by Quickening and Strength 2. Of the Intellect by Illumination 3. Of the Will by Conversion Love or Complacency § 6. The Soul as sensitive and the body it self are said to be sanctified so far as they are dispositively and actually subject and subservient to a holy Soul in Holiness and related accordingly as separate to God § 7. Our Holiness is no alienation from the Creature as a Creature in its due place and subordination to the Creator but contrarily containeth our Honour of and Love to all God's Creatures for his sake and impress and a devoting of all that is ours to his use But it containeth a renunciation of that which is against his Honour and Government and Love as such § 8. As God communicateth Holiness really and relatively to Man so holy persons communicate such Holiness to Creatures below them as consisteth in the use and relation of things separated to God by a due separation of them by their dedication and holy use and that in various degrees § 9. True Holiness is the Health the Rectitude the Honesty the Justice of man's Soul and therefore necessary as his Duty by God's Law even of Nature and to his Happiness both in the very nature of the thing and by the determination of God's Law It is a contradiction to be happy and unholy Rev. 20. 6. § 10. Holiness is the end or perfection of our Nature and God's chief Interest in man and is begun by Grace and perfected in Glory § 11. The Fear of God and his Iudgments and a Care of our own Souls and a Sorrow for Sin and a desire of Happiness may be not only Preparatives but lower parts of Holiness but the true formal specifying nature of it consisteth in a love of God's infinite goodness and a Will addicted to obey his Will or a Pleasedness in pleasing Him This is Holiness § 12. Because a man is denominated according to the predominant bent of his Will or Soul he is not to be called Holy who hath some slight inclination to please God and more to please his own carnal Appetite and Will or greater love to the Creature than to God § 13. Christ himself came into the World to recover sinful Man by Holiness to God and disdained not to be a means of Man's Sanctification and to make this the notable operation of his Holy Spirit on us § 14. Whatsoever Law Men are under before Christ or since Jew or Gentile Works or Grace no man can be saved and happy without Holiness that is unless they be devoted in Obedience and Love to GOD and Goodness § 15. No man can be damned that is holy while such nor can God hate and make miserable those that truly love him and his governing Will. § 16. Yet a person that is holy may deserve Damnation by deserving to be denied that help of the Holy Spirit by which his Holiness must be continued And as to be saved is to be perfectly sanctified so to deserve Hell is to deserve to be forsaken to the â—oâ—al loss of Holiness And so though it be hard for us to know whether Adam's first loss of Innocency was a total loss of Holiness yet if it were not it was a forfeiture of divine help and so a mediate loss of it And so a man that loveth God sincerely may by great Sin deserve to be deprived of the Spirit and therefore we must pray for the pardon of such desert for the sake of Christ though we cannot be damned or miserable while holy § 17. Obj. But how doth God love a holy Soul if he forsake him and with-hold his Spirit And if he be not loved of God he is miserable If he be loved he will not be forsaken Ans. Answer this your self as to the Case of the Angels and Adam God loved them and yet not so as to secure them from the loss of Grace But he so far loved them efficiently as to give them that grace by which they could persevere but not that by which they necessarily should persevere and he loved them complacentially according to the goodness which was in them and yet they lost it § 18. Obj. That is because they were left to their Free will and had but sufficient Grace and not efficacious determining Grace But it is now otherwise with all true Believers Ans. True Believers have not determining efficacious Grace to prevent all sin nor all such sin as Noah Lot David Peter did commit And that sin deserveth an answerable desertion of God it being a deserting him first so far And though God pardon it yet the desert is presupposed to the pardon for it is desert of punishment that is pardoned § 19. Quest. If a man were holy that is an obedient Lover of God and Goodness without Faith in Christ would that save him Answ. 1. The Covenants of Grace requireth various degrees of Faith according to its several editions and promulgations It is not the same degree of
Slave and also promiseth him great Possessions and Honours in a Kingdom in the East Indies or at the Antipodes if he will leave his Servitude and his Country and all that he hath there and go with him in his Ship and patiently endure the Sea-trials till he come thither Here he must 1. believe that the Prince hath paid his ransome 2. That he is a wise man and knoweth what he promised and skilful to conduct him safely through all the perils of the Seas 3. That he is an honest man and intendeth not to deceive him 4. That he is sufficient or able to perform his word 5. And if upon this belief he trust him he will let go all and venture in his Ship and follow him And here one tells him that the Ship is unsound another tells him that the Prince is a Deceiver unable to perform his Word or unskilful or dishonest and some way untrusty and another tells him that small matters in his own Country are better than greater with so much hazard and sets out the dangers and terribleness of the Seas Now if the man be ask'd Do you believe or will you trust me or will you not here every one by believing and trusting knoweth that a practical Trust is meant which lieth in such a confidence as forsaketh all and taketh the promised Kingdom for all his hope Such is our Saving Faith § 12. As many Acts and many Objects go to constitute Saving Faith so if you will logically anatomize it all these following must be taken in § 13. 1. The principal Efficient Cause is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost respectively according to their several operations § 14. 2. The Instrumental Cause is the Word of God and the Preaching and Preachers of it or Parents Friends or some that reveal the Word unto us § 15. 3. Subordinate auxiliary means are Providential Alterations by some awaking Judgments or inviting Mercies or convincing Examples c. § 16. 4. The Soul of Man in all its three Faculties Vital-active Intellective and Volitive is 1. the Recipient of the Divine Influx and then 2. the immediate Efficient or Agent of the Acts of Faith § 17. 5. Preparatory Grace and Duty is ordinarily Man's Disposition as he is the Recipient of God's Grace and the Agent of believing But God is free and can work on the unprepared but it is not to be taken for his ordinary way § 18. 6. The formal Object of the assenting Act of Faith is veracit as Dei revelantis the Veracity or Truth of God revealing his Will § 19. 7. The formal Object of the accepting and receiving Act is the Goodness of the Benefits offered us by the Covenant as offered § 20. 8. The formal Object of our Trust or Affiance is God's fides Fidelity because of his aforesaid Veracity in promising and his Power Wisdom and Benevolence as a Performer and this full Act comprehendeth all the rest It is God's Trustiness § 21. 9. The material Objects of the assenting Act in genere are all God's Assertions or Revelations More especially the Gospel or the Christian Faith objective according to the Edition of the Covenant which we are under § 22. The Essentials of our objective Christian Faith constitute the Essence of our active Saving Faith and the Integrals of it constitute the Integrity § 23. And it is of great importance to distinguish here as to the Word and Objects between 1. the signa or words 2. the signification or sence 3. the things matter or incomplex objects as distinct from words and sence viz. God Christ Grace Heaven Goodness Iustice Men c. And to hold 1. That the words are not necessary for themselves but for the sence and therefore Translations or any words which give us the same sence may serve to the being of Saving Faith 2. That the sence it self is not necessary for it self ultimately as if Holiness lay in notions but for the things which that sence revealeth viz. God to be loved and obeyed Christ to be received the Holy Ghost to be received and obeyed Holiness and all Grace to be received loved used encreased our Brethren to be loved Heaven to be desired c. All sence will not bring us to the reception of the things for all is not apt but any that doth this which must be divine and apt will constitute us true Believers § 24. 1. The material Objects of our acceptance and consent are the Word of God commanding offering and promising and the good of Duty and Benefit commanded offered and promised that is All that is given us in the baptismal Covenant God the Father and his Love the Son and his Grace and the Holy Ghost and his Communion The Father as reconciled and adopting us the Son as having redeemed us to teach rule justifie and save us the Holy Spirit to sanctifie comfort and perfect us § 25. 11. The material Object of our Trust or Affiance is God himself the prime Truth Power and Good and Christ as his Messenger and our Saviour and the Holy Ghost as the Author of the Word and the Word as being the Word of God You must pardon us as necessitated to call God a material Object analogically for want of words § 26. 12. The ultimate or final Objects of Saving Faith are 1. God himself the ultimate ultimum that is the perfect Complacency of his will in his Glory eternally shining forth in our Glory and the Glory of Christ with all the Church triumphant 2. Next to that This Glory it self which is a created thing and the Perfection of the Universe and of Christ's Church and our selves in which it consisteth And therein our own Perfection and our perfect sight love and praise of our glorious God and our Redeemer 3. And next under that the first fruits of all this in this World in the foresaid love of the Father and Grace of the Son and Communion of the Holy Spirit and the Church § 27. If therefore we were put to give a full description of Saving Faith we must be as large as this following or such-like in sence viz. The Faith which the Adult must profess in Baptism as having the Promise of Justification and Salvation is a sincere fiducial practical Assent to Divine Revelations and especially to the Gospel revealing and offering us God himself to be our God and reconciled Father Christ to be our Saviour viz. by his Incarnation meritorious Righteousness and Sacrifice Resurrection Doctrine Example Government Intercession and final Judgment and the Holy Ghost to quicken illuminate and sanctifie us that so we may live in the Love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Spirit and of the Christian Church being saved from our Enemies Sin and Misery initially in this Life and perfectly in eternal perfect Glory With a fiducial acceptance of the Gifts of the Covenant according to their nature and a sincere federal Consent and with a sincere
Believers or consent to the Covenant of Grace if at age 3. These penitent Believers sins are pardoned virtually before they are committed supposing them but Sins of Insirmity but this is properly no Pardon nor so to be called because it is but the position of those things which will cause Pardon hereafter To be only virtual is not to exist but to be in causis But it is too grosly inferred hence by some That it is not God then that actually justifieth but Man that performeth the Condition as if the Condition which is but a suspension of the Donation and the performance a removal of the suspending Cause were the donative Efficient and so the Receiver were the Giver As if he that opened the window were the Sun or efficient Cause of the Light or he that lets off a Crossbow by removing the Stop were the spring that effecteth the motion of the Arrow § 62. Neither Pardon nor Justification are perfect before death For there are some correcting Punishments to be yet born some Sins not fully destroyed some Grace yet wanting more Sins to be forgiven more Conditions thereof to be performed The final and executive Pardon and Justification are only perfect CHAP. XXII Of the Imputation of Righteousness § 1. THE great Contentions that have been about this Point tell us how needfull it is to distinguish between real and verbal Controversies The opening of the Doctrine of Redemption before Chap. XI hath done most that is needful to the solution of this Case we are commonly agreed in these following Points § 2. 1. That no man hath a Righteousness of his own performance by which he could be justified were he to be judged by the Law of Innocency that is all are Sinners and deserve everlasting Death § 3. 2. That Jesus the Mediator undertook to fulfil all the Law which God the Father gave him even the Law of Nature the Law of Moses and that which was proper to himself that thereby God's Wisdom Goodness Truth Justice and Mercy might be glorified and the ends of God's Government be better attained than by the Destruction of the sinful World and all this he performed in our Nature and suffered for us in our stead and was the second Adam or Root to Believers § 4. 3. That for this as the meritorious Cause God hath given him power over all Flesh that he might give eternal Life to as many as are drawn to him by the Father and given him Joh. 17. 2. He is Lord of all and all power in Heaven and Earth is given him Matth. 28. 19. and he is made Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1. 22 23. Rom. 14. 9 And for these his Merits a Covenant or Law of Grace is made to sinful Man by which all his sins are freely pardoned and Right to Impunity and Life is freely given him if he will accept it and penitently turn to God § 5. 4. Whenever a man is pardoned and justified or hath Right to Life this Law of Grace doth it as God's donative Instrument And whoever is so pardoned and justified it is for and by these Merits of Christ's Righteousness § 6. 5. But Christ doth initially pardon and justifie none by this Covenant but penitent Believers and therefore hath made it our Duty to repent and believe that we may be forgiven and have right to life as the Condition without which his donative and condonative Act shall be suspended § 7. 6. God never judgeth falsely but knoweth all things to be what they are And therefore he reputeth Christ's meritorious Righteousness and Sacrifice to be the meritorious Cause of all mens Justification who are justified and of the conditional Pardon of all the World 2 Cor. 5. 18 19 20. and as sufficient and effectual to the assigned ends as our own personal righteousness or suffering would have been and more though it be not so ours as that of our own performance would have been nor so immediately give us our Right to Impunity and Life but mediately by the Covenant § 8. 7. And as God reputeth Christ's Righteousness to be the prime meritorious Cause for which we are justified by the Law of Grace as afore-said so he truly reputeth our own Faith and Repentance or Covenant-consent to be our moral Qualification for the gift and our Holiness and Perseverance to be our moral Qualification for final Iustification and Glory which Qualification being the matter of the Command of the Law of Grace and the Condition of its Promise is so far our righteousness indeed and oft so called in the Scripture as is aforesaid § 9. 8. Therefore God may in this Sence be truly said both to impute righteousness to us and to impute Christ's righteousness to us and to impute our Faith for righteousness to us in several respects § 10. Thus much being commonly agreed on should quiet the Minds of Divines that are not wise and righteous overmuch and it beseemeth us not to make our arbitrary Words and Notions about the Doctrine of our Peace with God to be Engines to break the Church's Peace seeing Angels preached to us this great Truth That Christ came into the World for GLORY to God in the highest and for PEACE on Earth and for GOOD-WILL or LOVE from God to Man or mutual complaâ—ency and his Servants should not turn his Gospel into matter of strife § 11. That which we are yet disagreed about is the Names and Notions following As 1. What is meant by the Phrase of Imputing in several Texts of Scripture as Rom. 4. 11. That righteousness might be imputed or reckoned to them also Ans. The words seem to me to have no difficulty but what men by wrangling put into them To have righteousness impuâ—ed to them is to be reputed judged or accounted as righteous Men and so used the cause being not in the Phrasâ— it self but fore-described § 12. So what is meant Rom. 4. 6. by imputing righteousness without works Ans. Plainly reputing or judging a man righteous without the works which Paul there meaneth § 13. So what is meant by Not imputing sin Psal. 32. 2. 2 Cor. 5. 19. Rom. 5. 13. Lev. 7. 18. 1 Sam. 22. 15. 2 Sam. 19. 19. Rom. 4. 8 Ans. Not-judging a man as a Sinner guilty of punishment not charging his sin upon him in Judgment which is as 2 Sam. 19. 19. c. because he is not truly guilty or as Rom. 4. 8. c. because he is forgiven § 14. 2. What is meant by imputing our Faith to us for righteousness But of that more purposely anon § 15. 3. Whether imputing Christ's righteousness to us be a Scripture-phrase Ans. Not that I can find § 16. 4. Whether it be a fit or lawful Phrase and whether in so great matters departing from Scripture-phrase and pretending it necessary so to do be not adding to God's Word or the cause of Corruptions and Divisions in the Church and an intimation that we can speak better than the
to it For Hope may be exercised upon probabilities and most usually it is so § 12. Strong Probability with little reason of doubting may cause such strong Hopes as may cause us to live and die with comfort If doubting be small and Hope be great the Peace and Ioy will be greater than the fear and trouble § 13. Bellarmin's Moral Certainty is more than most Christians attain to and his and other mens Concession thereof tell us That in this Point our difference is less than those have thought who have said it was sufficient Cause of our Separation from Rome § 14. While we are certain that this World is fading Vanity and that there is no hope of Felicity on Earth and that therefore Godliness can cost us the loss of nothing but Vanity a Faith short of Certainty and mixt with doubting about the very Truth of the Promise it self and Life Eternal may engage a man savingly in a holy Life and the forsaking of all for the hopes of Glory And such doubting even of the Life to come or of the Gospel as keepeth not men from trusting to it for their Felicity and seeking it above all and forsaking all for it will keep no man from Salvation though it be his sin and the cause of other sins Much more may this be done when men doubt not of God's Word or the State of Glory but only of their own Sincerity Justification and Salvation CHAP. XXV Of good Works and Merit and trusting to any thing of our own § 1. HEre are several Controversies that trouble our Peace but few of them that are so great as they are commonly imagined As 1. What are good Works which indeed is of great weight and the chief in which we really differ about Works 2. Whether they are necessary to Justification or Salvation 3. Whether they are meritorious or rewardable 4. What place they have and what is their use and necessity 5. Whether we may trust to them § 2. I. It is one of the Devil 's chief Policies in the World to cast out Christ's Interest by its Counterfeits To expugn true Wisdom by counterfeit Wisdom and true Faith by counterfeit Faith and true Zeal and Piety by counterfeit Zeal and Piety and true Unity and Concord and Peace by their Counterfeits and true Worship Ministry Discipline by their Counterfeits and true Comfort by counterfeit Comfort and so also it is by counterfeit good Works that good Works are oft cast off § 3. The measure of all created Goodness is the Will of the Creator who is the prime essential Good and no Work of Man is morally good but what is made so by the Will of God that is 1. Efficiently by his operative Will 2. Directively by his commanding Will And 3. Finally and Objectively by his pleased or fulfilled Will. Man's Wit Will or Interest cannot serve to make any action morally good § 4. He that intendeth God's Honour and the pleasing of his Will and the good of his own or others Souls or the safety of Religion or the Church or State and useth means hereto not commanded or any way appointed him of God much more if directly forbidden doth not a Work that is truly good but only secundum quid § 5. Could we be sure that such a Work would save Souls or save Church or State or our Neighbours lives it would not make it morally a good Work but only make the Effect to be physically good to others that are benefited by it § 6. Therefore to build Churches or Hospitals to feed and cloath the Poor to save Mens Lives to preach the Gospel are all such as finally do a physical good and they are the matter of moral good but forma denominat Those Actions are not morally good unless 1. done in obedience to God's commanding or ruling Will 2. And finally to please his Will § 7. Those Priests therefore that set carnal ungodly Sinners Fornicators Murderers Gluttons Drunkards Lyers Perjured c. on expiating their Sins by good Works without teaching and perswading them to that internal repentance and Conversion of their Wills and holy devotedness to God by which their Works must have a right Principle End and Form do but delude men and cheat them by flattery into perdition § 8. Much more pernicious is it to take Sin Folly and Superstition for good Works and look to be saved by that which deserveth Damnation and to expiate sin by sin such are the Works of Persecuters that think they serve God by unjust killing or imprisoning his Servants or causeless silencing his faithful Ministers such were the Wars of the Croâ—sadâ—'s against the Waldenses and Albigenses and such are the Works of the Inquisition and their persecuting Executioners such are Rebellions that have fair Pretences as were those against the German Emperors Fredericks Henry c. and of many of such Agents oft against the Kings of England such hath been the zealous killing of Kings and burning of honest desirable Dissenters and such is the alienating Mens Estates from better Uses to maintain a supernumerous sinful vicious idle Monastery or their prelatical needless Pomp and Pride or to buy Pardons or Masses for departed Souls or to build useless Structures to the Honour of some Saint or Angel or to set up useless Formalities and Shadows as Candles by day-light and abundance such And such are long Pilgrimages to the Shrines of such as the Pope hath Canonized and to visit Relicks and the carrying about of Relicks with an ungrounded carnal considence in them with many such like § 9. So wosully hath the Papal Party and not they only but in too great a measure the Greeks Moscovites Armenians Syrians Coptics Abassines and most of the Churches corrupted the Christian Religion by their useless or seducing Fopperies called good Works that they have among them defiled its Purity rejected its Primitive Simplicity obscured and dishonoured its Glory and made it seem contemptible to Mahometans and Heathens and made it less fit to destroy sin and frustrate Satan and to please God and to sanctifie and save mens Souls § 10. II. Were all Sects and Parties of Christians well agreed what Works are truly good it would be a shame to us should we not agree in the main how far they are necessary when the Case is so plain throughout the Scripture I think we are commonly agreed as followeth § 11. 1. Perfect Obedience is not of absolute necessity to Salvation because we are under a Covenant that hath easier terms § 12. 2. The Works of the Mosaical Jewish Law are neither necessary necessitate praecepti vel medii that Law not binding us as such § 13. 3. Obedience to Man's Laws is not necessary when the matter is forbidden us by God's Laws or when they are Laws without power that is such as men have no Authority to make § 14. 4. No Works of special Grace are antecedently necessary to our reception of that Grace oâ— of its necessary means