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cause_n	according_a	grace_n	work_n	1,598	5	6.0605	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41355	The marrow of modern divinity touching both the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace, with their use and end, both in the time of the Old Testament, and in the time of the New : wherein every one may cleerly see how far forth he bringeth the law into the case of justification, and so deserverh the name of legalist : and how far forth he rejecteth the law, in the case of sanctification, and so deserveth the name of Antinomist : with the middle path between them both, which by Iesus Christ leadeth to eternall life : in a dialogue, betwixt Evangelista, a minister of the Gospel, Nomista, a legalist, Antinomista, an Antinomian, and Neophytus, a young Christian / by the author, E.F. ; before the which there is prefixed the commendatory epistles of divers divines of great esteem in the citie of London ; whereunto is also added, the substance of a	Fisher, Edward, fl. 1627-1655.; Hamilton, Patrick, 1504?-1528. Patricks places.	1646 (1646)	Wing F997; ESTC R1839	130,516	286

I may say as Jacob did of his venison Gen. 27.20 The Lord hath brought it unto me let me speak it without vain glory I have endeavoured herein to imitate the laborious Bee who out of divers flowers gathers honey and wax and thereof makes one combe if any soule feels any sweetnesse in it let them praise God and pray for me who am weak in faith and cold in love E. F. TO THE READER IF thou wilt please to peruse this little Book thou shalt finde great worth in it There is a line of a gracious Spirit drawne through it which hath fastned many precious truths together and presented them to thy view according to the variety of mens spirits the various ways of presenting known truths are profitable The grace of God hath helped this Author in his worke if it in like manner helps thee in reading thou shalt have cause to blesse God for these truths thus brought to thee and for the labours of this good man whose ends I believe are very syncere for God and thy good Jer. Burroughes OCcasionally lighting upon this Dialogue under the Approbation of a learned and judicious Divine I was thereby induced to read it and afterwards upon serious consideration of the usefulnesse of it to commend it to the people in my publike Ministry Two things in it especially tooke with me first the matter the main substance being distinctly to discover the nature of the two Covenants upon which all the mysteries both of Law and Gospel depend To see the first Adam to be primus foederatus in the one and the second Adam in the other to distinguish rightly betwixt the law standing alone as a Covenant and standing in subordination to the Gospel as a servant this I assure my selfe to be the key which opens the hiden treasures of the Gospel As soone as God had given Luther but a glimpse hereof hee professeth that hee seemed to bee brought into Paradise again and the whole face of the Scripture to bee changed to him and he looked upon every truth with another eye Secondly the manner because it is an Irenicum and tends to an accommodation and a right understanding Times of Reformation have always been times of division Satan will cast out a floud after the woman as knowing that more die by the disagreement of the humours of their own bodies than by the sword and that if men be once engaged they will contend if not for truth yet for victory Now if the difference be in things of lesser consequence the best way to quench it were silence this was Luthers counsell given in an Epistle written to the Divines assembled in a Synod at Norimberge Meum consilium fuerit cum nullum sit Ecclesiae periculum ut hanc causam sinatis vel ad tempus sopitam utinam extinctam jacere donec tutiore meliore tempore animis in pace firmatis charitate aduatis eam disputetis I think it were good counsell concerning many of the Disputes of our times But if the difference be of greater concernment as this is then the way to decide it is to bring in more light which this Authour hath done with much evidence of Scripture backt with the authority of most moderne Divines so that whosoever desires to have his judgement cleered in the maine controversie betweene us and the Antinomians with a small expence either of money or time hee may here receive ample satisfaction this I testifie upon request professing my selfe a friend both to truth and peace Novem. 12. W. Strong THis book at first well accommodated with so valuable a testimony as M. Caryls besides its better-approving it self to the choicer spirits every where to the speedy distribution of the whole impression it might seeme a needlesse or superfluous thing to adde any more to the praise thereof yet meeting with detracting language from some few by reason of some phrases by them either not duly pondered or not rightly understood it is thought meete this second impression to relieve that worthy testimony which still stands to it with fresh supplies not for any need the truth therein contained hath thereof but because either the prejudice or darknesse of some mens judgements doth require it I therefore having throughly perused it cannot but testifie that if I have any the least judgment or rellish of truth hee that findes this book findes a good thing and not unworthy of its title and may account the Saints to have obtained favour with the Lord in the ministration of it as that which with great plainenesse and evidence of truth comprises the chiefe if not all the differences that have been lately ingendred about the Law it hath I must confesse not onely fortified my judgement but also warmed my heart in the reading of it as indeed inculcating throughout the whole Dialogue the cleer and familiar notion of those things by which we live as Hezekias speaks in another case and it appeareth to me to be written from much experimentall knowledge of Christ and teaching of the Spirit Let all men that taste the fruit of it confesse to the glory of God he is no respecter of persons and endeavour to know no man henceforth after the flesh nor envie the compiler thereof the honour to be accounted as God hath made him in this point a healer of breaches and a restorer of the over-grown paths of the Gospel as for mine own part I am so satisfied in this testimony I lend that I reckon what ever credit is thus pawned will be a glory to the name that stands by and avows this truth so long as the book shall endure to record it Ihshua Sprigge Grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus My loving friend in Christ I Have according to your desire read over your Booke and finde it full of Evangelicall light and life and I doubt not but the oftner I read it the more true comfort I shall finde in the knowledge of Christ thereby the matter ●s pure the method is Apostolicall wherein the works of love in the right place after the life of faith bee effectually required God hath endewed his Fisher with the Net of a trying understanding and discerning iudgement and discretion whereby out of the Christaline streams of the well of life you have taken a messe of the sweetest and wholsomest fish that the whole world can afford which if I could daily have enough of I should no more care for the flesh or the works thereof Samuell Prittie A CATALOGUE of those Writers names out of whom I have collected much of the matter contained in this ensuing Dialogue A Doctor Ames M. Aynsworth B M. Beza M. Bulenger M. Bradford M. Bastingius Bishop Babington M. Ball M. Robert Boulton M. Samuel Boulton C M. Calvin M. Culverwell M. Carelesse M. Cornwall D Du Plesse B. D●wname Doctor Di●da●e M. Dixon M. Dyke E M. Elton F M. Fox M. Frith M. Forbs G M. Greenham M. Gibbens M. Thomas Goodwin

of it or being at all affected with it so far are wee from comming out of it And if the Lord be pleased by any means to open our eyes to see our misery and we doe thereupon begin to step out of it yet alas wee are prone rather to goe backwards towards the first Adams pure estate in striving and strugling to leave sinne and performe duties and doe good works hoping thereby to make our selves so righteous and holy that God will let us into Paradise againe to eat of the tree of life and live for ever and this we do untill we see the flaming sword at Edens gate turning every way to keepe the way of the tree of life Is it not ordinary when the Lord convinceth a man of his sin eyther by means of his Word or his Rod to cry after this manner O I am a sinfull man for I have lived a very wicked life and therefore surely the Lord is angry with mee and will damne me in hell ô what shall I do to save my soule And is there not at hand some ignorant miserable comforter ready to say yet doe not despayre man but repent of your sins and aske God forgivenesse and reforme your life and doubt not but he will be mercifull unto you for hee hath promised you know that at what time soever a sinner repenteth of his sins hee will forgive him And doth hee not hereupon comfort himself and say in his heart at least ô if the Lord will but spare my life and lengthen out my days I will become a new man I am very sorry that I have lived such a sinfull life but I will never doe as I have done for all the world ô you shall see a great change in me believe it And hereupon he betakes himself to a new course of life and it may be becomes a zealous professour of Religion performing all Christian exercises both publike and private and leaves off his old companions and keeps company with religious men and so it may be goes on till his dying day and thinks himselfe sure of Heaven and eternall happines yet it maybe all this while is ignorant of Christ and his Righteousnes and therefore establisheth his own Where is the man or where is the woman that is truly come to Christ that hath not had some experience in themselves of such a disposition as this if there be any that have reformed their lives and are become Professours of Religion and have not taken notice of this in themselves more or lesse I wish they have gone beyond a legall Professour or one still under the covenant of works Nay where is the man or woman that is truly in Christ that findeth not in themselves an aptnes to withdraw their hearts from Christ and to put some confidence in their owne works and doings if there be any that do not find it I wish their hearts deceive them not Let me confesse ingeniously I was a professour of Religion at least a dozen yeeres before I knew any other way to eternall life then to be sorry for my sins and aske forgivenesse and strive and endeavour to fulfill the Law and keepe the Commandements according as Master Dod and other godly men had expounded them and truly I remember I was in hope I should at last attain to the perfect fulfilling of them and in the mean-time I conceived that God would accept the will for the deed or what I could not doe Christ had done for me And though at last by meanes of conferring with Master Thomas Hooker in private the Lord was pleased to convince me that I was yet but a proud Pharisee and to shew mee the way of faith and salvation by Christ alone and to give mee as I hope a heart in some measure to embrace it yet alas through the weaknesse of my faith I have been and am still apt to turne aside to the covenant of works and therefore have not attained to that joy and peace in believing nor that measure of love to Christ and man for Christs sake as I am confident many of Gods Saints do attain unto in the time of this life the Lord be mercifull unto mee and increase my faith And are there not other though I hope but few who being enlightned to see their misery by reason of the guilt of sin though not by reason of the filth of sinne And hearing of justification freely by grace through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ do applaud and magnifie that doctrine following them that doe most preach and presse the same seeming to be as it were ravished with the hearing thereof out of a conceit that they are by Christ freely justified from the guilt of sin though still they retain the filth of sin these are they that content themselves with a Gospel knowledge with meere notions in the head but not in the heart glorying and rejoycing in free grace and justification by faith alone professing faith in Christ and yet are not possessed of Christ these are they that can talke like believers and yet do not walke like believers these are they that have language like Saints and yet have conversations like Devils these are they that are not obedient to the Law of Christ and therefore are justly called Antinomians Now both these paths leading from Christ have been justly judged as erronious and to my knowledge not onely a matter of 18 or 20 years agoe but also within these three or foure years there hath been much a doe both by preaching writing and disputing both to reduce men out of them and to keep them from them and hot contentious have been on both sides and all I fear me to little purpose for hath not the strict professour according to the Law whilst he hath striven to reduce the loose professour according to the Gospel out of the Antinomian path intangled both himselfe and others the faster in the yoke of bondage and hath not the loose professour according to the Gospel whilst he hath striven to reduce the strict professour according to the Law out of the legall path by promising liberty from the Law taught others and been himselfe the servant of corruption For this cause I though I be nothing have by the grace of God endeavoured in this Dialogue to walk as a middle-man betwixt them both in shewing to each of them his erronious path with the middle path which is Jesus Christ received truly and walked in answerably as a means to bring them both unto him and make them both one in him And oh that the Lord would be pleased so to blesse it to them that it might be a means to produce that effect I have as you may see gathered much of it out of known and approved Authours and yet have therein wronged no man for I have restored it to the right owner again in the margent some part of it my manuscripts have afforded me and of the rest I hope

of the Law be an error yet it seemeth that by Luthers own confession it is but an error on the right hand Evan. But yet I tell you it is such an error that by the Apostle Pauls own confession so far forth as any man is guilty of it He makes his services his Saviours and rejects the grace of God and makes the death of Christ of none effect ond perverteth the Lords intention both in giving the Law and in giving the Gospel and keeps himselfe under the curse of the Law and maketh himself the sonne of a bond-woman a servant yea and a slave and hinders himselfe in the course of well doing and in short he goeth about an impossible thing and so loseth all his labour Nom. Why then Sir it should seeme that all my seeking to please God by my good works all my strict walking according to the Law and all my honest course of life hath rather done mee hurt then good Evan. The Apostle sayth that without faith it is impossible to please God that is sayth Calvin Whatsoever a man thinketh purposeth or doeth before hee be reconciled to God by faith in Christ is accursed and not onely of no value to righteousnesse but of certain deserving to damnation so that sayth Luther Whosoever goeth about to please God with works going before faith goeth about to please God with sin which is nothing else but to heap sin upon sin to mock God and to provoke him to wrath nay sayth the same Luther in another place If thou beest without Christ thy wisdome is double foolishnesse thy righteousnesse is double sin and iniquity and therefore though you have walked very strictly according to the Law and led an honest life yet if you have rested and put confidence therein and so come short of Christ then hath it indeed rather done you hurt then good For sayth a godly writer vertuous life according to the light of nature turneth a man farther off from God if he add not thereto the effectuall working of his Spirit and sayth Luther they which have respect onely to an honest life it were better for them to be adulterers and adulteresses and to wallow in the mire And surely for this cause it is that our Saviour tels the strict Scribes and Pharisees who sought justification by works and rejected Christ that Publicans and harlots should enter into the Kingdome of God before them And for this cause it was that I sayd for ought I know my neighbour Neophytus might bee in Christ before you Nom. But how can that be when as you know he hath confessed that he is ignorant and full of corruption and comes far short of me in gifts and graces Evan. Because as the Pharisee had more to doe before he could come at Christ then the Publican had so I conceive you have more to doe then he hath Nom. Why Sir I pray you what have I to doe or what would you advise me to doe for truly I would be contented to bee ruled by you Evan. Why that which you have to doe before you can come at Christ is to undoe all that ever you have done already that is to say whereas you have endeavoured to travail towards heaven by the way of the Covenant of works and so have gone a wrong way you must goe quite back again all the way you have gone before you can tread one step in the right way And whereas you have attempted to build up the ruines of old Adam and that upon your selfe and so like a foolish builder to build a tottering house upon the sands you must throw down and utterly demolish all that building and not leave a stone upon a stone before you can begin to build anew and whereas you have conceived that there is a sufficiencie in your selfe to justifie and save your selfe you must conclude that in that case there is not onely in you an insufficiencie but also a non-sufficiencie yea and that sufficiencie that seemed to be in you to bee your losse in plain termes you must deny your selfe as our Saviour sayth Matthew 16.24 That is You must utterly renounce all that ever you are and all that ever you have done All your knowledge and gifts all your hearing reading praying fasting weeping and mourning all your wandring in the way of works and strict walking must fall to the ground in a moment briefly whatsoever you have counted gain to you in the case of Justification you must now with the Apostle Paul count losse for CHRIST and judge it to be dung that you may win CHRIST and bee found in Him not having your own righteousnesse which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Neo. O but Sir What would you advise me to doe Evan. Why man what ayleth you Neo. Why Sir as you have been pleased to heare them two to declare their condition unto you so I beseech you to give me leave to doe the same and then you will perceive how it is with me Sir not long since it pleased the Lord to visit mee with a great fit of sicknesse so that indeed both in mine own judgement and in the judgement of all that came to visite mee I was sick unto death whereupon I began to consider whither my soule was to goe after its departure out of my body and I thought with my selfe that there was but two places heaven and hell and therefore it must needs goe to one of them then my wicked and sinfull life which indeed I had lived came into my minde which caused me to conclude that hell was the place provided for it which caused me to bee very fearfull and to bee very sorry that I had so lived and desired of the Lord to let me live a little longer and I would not faile to reforme my life and amend my ways and the Lord was pleased to grant mee my desire since which time though indeed t is true I have not lived so wickedly as formerly I had done yet alas I have come far short of that godly and religious life which I see other men live and especially this my neighbour Nomista and yet you seem to conceive that he is not in a good condition and therefore surely I must needs be in a miserable condition alas Sir what doe you thinke will become of me Evan. I doe perceive that although wee have by the Lords assistance our comming together opened and cleered the new and living way to eternall life yet the Lord hath not been pleased to open your eyes to see it so that you would still be going thither the old and naturall way and therefore as a further means to discover it to you I pray you consider that although in the making of the covenant of works at the first God was one party and man another yet in making it the second time God was on both sides