thing meant by Condition as really as if it were expressed For saith the Apostle If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy Hâ—â—rt that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved This Evangelical Pronsise and Proposition is as Conditional as is that Legal one Rom. 10.5 The man that doth those things shall live by them But that Legal Promise and Proposition is Conditional and confessed so to be therefore is this conditional also If it be said that the Condition is not the same nor doth it serve to the same end and purpose we grant that For we never said nor thought that the Conditions are the same and for the same Ends and Purposes for the one is a Legal Condition the other is Evangelical and so they differ specisically and in kind But what then Therefore they are not both Conditions We deny the Consequence For though they differ in the specisical yet they agree in the generical nature of Conditions And Faith is as properly a Condition in genere conditionis Evangelicae as personal perfect sinless Obedience is a Condition in genere conditionis legalis that is Faith is as properly an Evangelical Condition as perfect sinless Obedience is properly a Legal Condition We remember that the Pelagians of old objected against the Orthodox that either our Faith is not wrought in us by the Special Grace of God or else it cannot be a Duty and so it cannot be a Condition But we know also how St. Augustin answered their Objection Lib. de praedestin Sanct. cap. 11. Their Objection was this Cum dicitur si credideris salvus eris c. When it is said if thou believest thou shalt be saved The one of these to wit Faith is required of us by a Command the other to wit Salvation is offered us by Promise then that which is required is in Man's Power as that which is promised is in God's Power To this Pelagian Objection Augustin answers thus Sic dicitur si credideris salvus eris Quemadmodum dicitur si Spiritu c. That is So it is said if thou believest thou shalt be saved as it is said if you through the Spirit do mortifie the Deeds of the Body you shall live Rom. 8.13 For here also the one of these two is required and the other is promised as then although it be the Gist of God to mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh yet it is required of us with an offer of the Reward of Life for our encour agement thereunto Just so Faith is also the Gift of God although it be required of us with an offer of the Reward of Salvation for our encouragement to believe when it is said if thou believest thou shalt be saved For those things are therefore both commanded us and also shewed to be the Gists of God that it may be known that both we do them and also that God causeth us to do them Thus Augustin We find the like Objection with the like Answer to it in Bradwardin De Causâ Dei lib. 2. cap. 28. p. 567 569. The Objection Si Deus necessario requiratur ad agendum c. If it be necessary that God concur to the proper production of every Act of the Creatures Will since God's concurring or acting is not in the power of the Creature then no act of the Creature would be in its own power The Answer is In rerum temporalium spiritualium administratione videmus c. In the administration both of temporal and spiritual things we see that there are more Powers and Dominions over the same thing subordinate to one another as Inferior and Superior wherefore no Man ought to doubt but that though the Will of the Creature have Power and Dominion over its own Act yet thereby is not excluded a Superior Power and Lord to wit God himself from a Superior Power Dominion and Efficiency in respect of the same Act. And a little after he says out of Thomas Aquinas The Will is said to have Dominion over its own Act not by excluding the first cause but the first cause doth not so act on the Will as to determine it necessarily to one thing as he determines Nature or natural Agents and therefore the determination of the Act is lest in the power of the Vnderstanding and Will We mention both these Objections with Answers to them out of St. Augustin and Bradwardin to shew that though we cannot believe without but do believe by the Grace of God yet that no ways hinders our Faith from being a duty required of us and also a Condition of the Covenant to be performed by us and we know our Authour cannot bring any appearance of an Argument against this but that which was brought by the Pelagians in the time of St. Augustin and which he answered As for the place of Scripture we are arguing from we have Calvin on our side acknowledging that it contains a Conditional Promise of the Gospel-Covenant a Promise of Righteousness and Salvation to all that sincerely believe in Christ with their Hearts and confess him with their Mouths For thus he writes Instit Lib. 2. cap. 5. Sect. 12. speaking of this very place of Scripture to wit Rom. 10.5 8 9. id reputans Paulus c. i. e. Paul considering this that Salvation is offered in the Gospel not upon that hard difficult impossible condition which the Law requires of us to wit that they only shall obtain Salvation who have fully kept all the Commandments but upon a condition that is easie ready and soon attained unto to wit the Condition of Faith he confirms it with this testimony To wit the Testimony of Moses which Paul quotes out of Deuteronomy chap. 30. ver 11 12 13 14. and interprets it of the Doctrine of Faith in the Gospel Let any read and compare Rom. 10.6 7 8. with Deut. 30.11 12 13 14. And they will see that Calvin did rightly conclude from those places that in the Judgment of St. Paul Salvation is promised us here in the Gospel upon a much easier Condition than it was in and by the Law This conditionality of the Covenant of Grace is clearly proved also by all those places of Scripture which assure us 1. That all who believe shall be justified and saved John 3.16 18 36. John 6.40 John 20.31 Mark 16.16 Acts 10.43 and 13.39 Rom. 4.24 Gal. 2.16 and 3.9 11. 2. That they who believe not whilst they continue in Unbelief shall not be justified and saved John 3.18.36 and 8.24 Mark 16.16 Revel 21.8 These Scriptures plainly shew that Faith is a Condition of the Covenant because the definition and nature of a Condition agrees to it For 1. Faith is a Duty which God requires of us for obtaining the promised benefit of Justification and Salvation 1 John 3.23 Rom. 10.9 2. God hath suspended his giving us the promised benefit of Justification and Salvation upon our performing the required Duty of
per suos Ministros c. When the Voice of God by his Ministers so founds outwardly in the Ears of the Body that together with it the Spirit of God inwardly fits or prepares the Mind of the Hearer that it may be able to understand and Efficaciously disposes the Will to Assent or rather Consent Then they proceed to the next Tertium est fides vera c. The third is true Faith to wit when from Effectual Calling there arifeth the Knowledge of Salvation understood and again Assent follows that Knowledge and that such an Assent as applies the Promise of the Gospel to the Believers own Conscience c. Lastly They say that the fourth and fifth means are the Effects of true Faith in the Elect and they are Justification and after that Sanctification and Perseverance to the end From this Testimony of the Embdane Divines it is as evident that in their Judgment there are some Holy saving Preparations and Dispositions in the Souls of Gods select People before they be justified as it is evident that the second is before the fourth for Effectual Vocation whereby those Holy Dispositions are wrought in the Soul is the second and Justification is the fourth between which actual Faith comes in as the Third So that if we can but reckon two three four and can understand that if the second be before the third it must be also before the fourth then may we see that there are some Holy Dispositions and Qualifications in the Soul arising from Effectual Calling before Justification This was read in and approved by the Synod and therefore here we have again the Testimony of the whole Synod of Dort for Holy Dispositions and Qualifications in the Soul before Justification It would be almost endless to run over all the Suffrages of the several Colledges of Divines and to quote what they have said to this purpose therefore we shall pass that as superfluous and conclude with the Testimony of our own Brittish Divines which is to be seen in their Collegiate Suffrage translated into English and Printed in the year 1629. Their Words are God doth regenerate by a certain â—inward and wonderful Operation The Suffrage of the Divines of Great Brittain Art 3.4 pag. 70.80 81. the Souls of the Elect being stirred up and prepared by the foresaid Acts of his Grace and doth as it were create them anew by infusing his quickning Spirit and seasoning all the Faculties of the Soul with new qualities Here by Regeneration we understand not every Act of the Holy Spirit which goes before or tends to Regeneration but that Act which assoon as it is there we conclude presently or as the Original hath it it may presently be rightly affirmed This man is now born of God This Spiritual Birth presupposes a Mind moved by the Spirit using the Instrument of Gods Word whence also we are said to be born again by the incorruptible Seed of the Word 1 Pet. 1.23 Which must be observed lest any one should idlely and slothfully expect an Enthusiastical Regeneration that is to say wrought by a sudden Rapture without any foregoing Action either of God the Word or Himself Furthermore we conclude that the Spirit regenerating us doth convey it self into the most inward Closet of the Heart and frame the Mind anew by curing the sinful Inclinations thereof and by giving it strength and a formal Principle In the Original it is Principium formale Or Active Power to produce spiritual and saving Actions Ephes 2.10 We are his Workman-ship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ezek. 36.26 I will take away the stony Heart and give you an Heart of Flesh From this Work of God cometh our Ability to perform spiritual Actions leading to Salvation as the act of Believing 1 John 5.1 Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Of Loving 1 John 4.7 Every one that loveth is born of God Lastly all works of Piety John 15.5 Without mere can do nothing Again Upon the former habitual Conversion Pag. 83.84 followeth our actual Conversion wherein out of our reformed or changed Will for the Original is ex mutata Voluntate God himself draweth forth the very act of our Believing and Converting and this our Will being first moved by God doth it self also work by turning unto God convertendo se ad Deum and Believing that is by executing eliciendo producing withal it s own proper lively Act. We say that God doth not only work that habitual Conversion or Change for the Word in the Original is Mutationem whereby a man gets new Spiritual Ability to Believe and Convert but also that God doth by a certain wonderful Efficacy of his secret Operation Pag. 85. extract out of our regenerated Sanatâ cured Will the very Act of Believing and Converting So the Scripture speaketh in divers places John 6.65 The Father giveth us Power to come unto the Son that is to Believe Phil. 1.29 To you it is given to Believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Act of Believing 2 Tim. 2.25 God giveth Repentance This Action of God in producing Faith doth not hinder Pag. 86. but rather is the cause that the Will doth work together with God and produce its own Act and therefore this Act of Believing howsoever it is sent or given from God yet because it is performed by Man is Attributed to Man himself Rom. 10.10 With the Heart man believeth unto Righteousness 2 Cor. 4.13 I believed therefore have I spoken Again This Action of God doth not hurt the freedom of the Will but strengthen it Pag. 87.88 Here we deny that by the Divine Operation there is any wrong offered to the Will or any hurt done to it for it is in the Original negamus loesionem voluntatis for God doth so work in Nature even when he raiseth and advanceth it above its proper Sphere that he doth not destroy the particular Nature of any thing but leaves to every thing it s own Way and Motion in actione producenda in producing its Action When therefore God worketh in the Wills of Men by his Spirit of Grace he makes them move in their own natural way or course that is freely and then they do the work the more freely by how much they are the more effectually stirred up by the Spirit of God John 8.36 If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Verily it seemeth incredible to us that God who made our Wills and gifted them with Liberty should not be able to work on them or in them after such a manner as that he may produce any good Action by them without hurting their Nature that is freely Ut quamlibet bonam actionem per easdem illaesâ earum naturâ hoc est liberé eliciat By these passages quoted out of the Suffrage of our Divines in the Synod of Dort it is most evident that
common sense and reason may understand it But our Brethren do not like the thing it self And why we pray do not they like it 1. Is it because it is called a Law Why the Scriptures of Truth call it so expresly Rom. 3.27 the law of faith Gal. 6.2 the law of Christ The Messiah's Law The Isles shall wait for his Law Isa 42.4 Or 2. Is it because it obligeth to duty with a promise of blessing to the Performers and with a threatening of misery and punishment to the Neglecters Refusers and Despisers If this be the reason wherefore they like it not then let them receive an Answer from the Lords own Mouth Luke 19.27 Those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me But we have better hopes of our Brethren Or 3. Is it because we call it a Law of Grace Why we call it a Law of Grace because it really is so it is a gracious Law For it is a Federal or Covenant-Law that makes rich Offers of Grace of Justifying and Glorifying Grace and it is a means also whereby the Lord conveys unto his People regenerating and sanctifying Grace it is a means which the Lord hath ordained to bring his People to Faith Repentance and Gospel-obedience Therefore it may well be called a Law of Grace And we think none should and especially our Angry Brethren should not like it the worse because we call it and it really is a Law of Grace They do not like the Covenant of the Gospel the worse because it is called the Covenant of Grace and why then should they like this Law of Christ the worse because we call it the Law of Grace especially when we tell them that this Law of Grace is the conditional part of the Covenant of Grace it is that part of the Covenant of Grace which respects the way of God's dispensing to us the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant such as pardon of sin and eternal Salvation And doth not the Apostle Rom. 4.16 say expresly that it is of faith that it might be by grace Or 4. And Lastly Is it because we call it a new Law If that be it that displeaseth why should our Brethren be displeased on that account since they know if it be not their own fault that we call it the new Law in no other sense than as we call the Covenant of Grace the new Covenant This Law of Grace we speak of is both new and old in different respects It is new in respect of the Covenant of Works made with Man in his state of innocency For that Covenant of Works was before this Law of Grace which came after and therefore is comparatively new Again as we Christians have it it is called new because we have the newest and clearest and last edition of it And as in these respects it is new so in other respects it is old It is old as the substance of it hath had an existence in the Church of God ever since the first promise of Grace made to our first Parents after the fall It is the everlasting Gospel Rev. 14.7 Heb. 12.26 27 28 29. which hath been in the Church under various forms of administration and will continue in us newest and excellentest form unto the end of the World We hear it is said by some that the Command to believe and repent with the promise of pardon to the penitent Believer and the threatening of punishment to the impenitent Unbeliever cannot be an Evangelical Law because God doth not give unto all special grace to enable them to believe and repent in obedience to that Command We answer 1. If that be it that hinders it from being a Law then notwithstanding that reason it is a Law to all Gods Elect for to them he gives through Christ the said special Grace 2. We deny the Consequence God gives not special Grace to the Non-elect therefore the Command to believe and repent with the annexed conditional promise of pardon and threatening of punishment cannot be a Law to them It may be and is a Law to them though the said special Grace is not given them And whereas it is objected that without such special Grace the Non-elect cannot obey that Law We Answer 1. That their cannot their Impotence is not physical but moral they cannot be cause they will not 2. The Non-elect to whom the Evangelical Law is promulgated together with it receive more Common-Grace more light and power from the Lord in order to their obeying his revealed Will than they make a good use of Hence the Professors of Leyden in their Synopsis of purer Divinity write thus concerning this matter Diligenter notandum est c. Disp 24. Thes 54 55. p. 290 291. It is diligently to be noted that this Non-election doth not take away or deny all Grace in the Non-elect but only that Grace which is peculiar to the Elect. But that Grace which in various measures is dispensed unto â—on by the administration of common Providence whether under the Law of Nature or under the Evangelical Grace is not taken away by this act of Preterition or Non-election but is rather presupposed because the Non elect are left under that common government of Divine Providence and the exercise of their own free-will But this administration of common providence always hath conjoined with it that communication of Benefits external and internal which in perfect of innocent nature was indeed sufficient to Salvation as it is manifest in the reprobate Angels and in all mankind considered in our first Parents before the Fall But in corrupt Nature so much remains or is superadded to nature under the Gospel that they are bereft and deprived of all pretence of excuse before the Divine Judgment as the Apostle testifies Acts 14.17 Rom. 1.20 2.1 John 15.22 and else-where Thus the Professors of Leyden And Dr. Owen in his Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit Page 198. sayes That where special Grace and real Conversion is not attained to wit by means of common Grace of which he is there writing it is always from the interposition of an act of wilfulness and stubbornness in those enlightened and convicted They do not sincerely improve what they have received and faint not mierly for want of strength to proceed but by a free act of their own Wills they refuse the Grace which is further tendered unto them in the Gospel So much briefly in answer to the foresaid Objection which was cast into our way and it being removed we go on with our Author who in Pag. 30. saith That New Law of Grace is a new Word but of an old and ill meaning Very well Here is a pretty Jingle of Words and it may be he or some that he knows are much pleased with such Trifles and if so here they are fitted For our parts we cannot see what should move him to say that the new Law of
but a Protestant Bishop and a zealous Protestant who held Rome to be Mystical Babylon and the Pope to be Antichrist as appears from what he wrote in Tortura Torti pag. 183 184 185 186 187. Now this zealous Protestant in his 17th Sermon of the Nativity on Psal 2.7 writes thus We had well hoped Christ would have preached no Law all Gospel he Bp. Andrews Volume of Sermons pag. 161. That he would have preached down the old Law but not have preached up any new We see it is otherwise A Law he hath to preach and preach it he will He saith himself Praedicabo Legem So if we will be his Auditors he tells us plainly we must receive a Law from his mouth If we love not to hear of a Law we must go to some other Church For in Christs Church there a Law is preached Christ began we must follow and say every one of us as he saith Praedicabo Legem Christ will preach a Law and they that are not for the Law are not for Christ It was their quarrel above at the 3d. verse they would none of Christ for this very cause that Christ comes preaching a Law and they would live lawless They would endure no Yoke that were the Sons of Belial Belial that is No Yoke But what agreement hath Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6.15 The very Gospel hath her Law A Law Evangelical there is which Christ preached And as he did we to do the like look but into the grand Commission by which we all preach which Christ gave at his going out of the World Goe saith he Mar. 28.19 preach the Gospel to all Nations teaching them what to observe the things that I have commanded you Lo here is commanding and here is observing Page 162. So the Gospel consists not only of certain Articles to be believed but of certain Commandments and they to be observed Now I know not how but we are fallen clean from the term Law nay we are even fallen out with it Nothing but Gospel now The name of Law we look strangely at we shun it in our common talk To this it is come while men seek to live as they list Preach them Gospel as much as ye will but hear ye no Law to be preached to hold or keep them in And we have Gospelled it so long that the Christian Law is clean gone with us I speak it to this end to have the one term retained as well as the other to have neither term abolished but with equal regard both kept on foot They are not so well advised that seek to suppress either name If the name once be lost the thing it self will not long stay but go after it and be lost too The Christian Religion in the very best times of it was called Christiana Lex the Christian Law And all the Antient Fathers liked the term well and took it upon them To conclude Gospel it how you will if the Gospel have not the Legalia of it acknowledged allowed and preserved to it if once it lose the force and vigour of a Law it is a sign it declines it grows weak and unprofitable and that is a sign it will not long last And Page 165. he saith 1. There is the benefit of this Law what he doth for us 2. And then what we are to do for him our duty out of this Law The benefit is the Gospel of this Law the duty is the Law of this Gospel And Page 166 They speak of Laws of Grace this is indeed a Law of Grace nay it is the Law of Grace not only as it is opposite to the Law of Nature but even because it offereth Grace the greatest Grace that ever was This was Printed and Published in the Year 1624. and that vvas before most of us vvere born And yet even then the Gospel vvas expresly called the Nevv Lavv of Grace by Bishop Andrews and therefore it is no nevv Word vvhich we have lately invented And not onely Bishop Andrews vvho vvas every vvhit as expert as our Authour can be in making a jingling noise vvith Words vvhich vvas more in fashion then than it is novv but the famous Dr. Twiss vvho vvas used to a Scholastick close way of reasoning both says and proves that the Gospel is a Lavv. Therefore he shall be our last Witness in this Cause Novv in his Ansvver to an Arminian Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice he plainly asserts as we do that God deals with Men not meerly as an absolute Soveraign arbitrary Lord but as a Ruler and Governour according to a known Law in giving unto them or with-holding from them the subsequent blessings and benefits of the new Covenant His Words are these Now like as the act of God's decree Pag. 40.41 42. is of the meer pleasure of God no temporal thing being fit to be the cause of the eternal decree of God in like sort the giving of Faith and Repentance proceeds meerly of the good pleasure of God According to that God hath mercy on whom he will Rom. 9.18 And to obtain mercy at the hand of God is to obtain faith Rom. 11.30 But as for Glory and Salvation we do not say that God in conferring it proceeds according to the meer pleasure of his will but according to a Law which is this whosoever believeth shall be saved which Law we willingly profess he made according to the meer pleasure of his will but having made such a Law he proceeds according to it No such Law hath he made according whereunto to proceed in the dispensation of the grace of Faith and Repentance In like manner the Dr. there distinguishes between the denyal of Special Grace of Faith and Repentance and the denyal of Glory As for the first the denyal of Special Grace to some when God gives it to others the Doctor says that God proceeds therein according to the meer pleasure of his Will but as to the second his own Words are these As touching the denyal of Glory and inflicting damnation God doth not proceed according to the meer pleasure of his will but according to a Law which is this Whosoever believeth not shall be damned And albeit God made that Law according to the meer pleasure of his will yet no wise man will say that he denies glory and inflicts damnation on men according to the meer pleasure of his will The case being clear that God denies the one and inflicts the other meerly for their sins who are thus dealt withal And in the next Page Like as God inflicts not damnation but by way of punishment so he doth not bestow Salvation on any of ripe Years but by way of reward Yet here also is a difference for damnation is inflicted by way of punishment for the evil works sake which are committed but Salvation is not conferred by way of Reward for the good works sake which are performed but meerly for Christs sake Thus
the Doctor in that Book And that you may see that this Passage did not drop inconsiderately from his Pen we will shew from another Book which he wrote afterwards that this was his settled judgment and that he was firmly and fully perswaded of this great Gospel-truth It is Dr. Twiss his Answer to Mr. Hoard's Book called God's Love to Mankind Pag. 37.38 As touching the conferring of Glory God doth not bestow this on whom he will finding men equal without any moving cause thereunto even in man for though there be no moving cause thereunto in man of its own nature yet there is to be found a moving cause in man by constitution Divine whereby God is as it were moved to bestow Salvation on some and not on others For God hath made a gracious promise that whosoever believeth and repenteth and continueth in Faith and repentance unto death shall be saved and whosoever believeth not and repenteth not shall be damned So then though Men are equal in original sin and in natural corruption and God bestows faith and repentance on whom of them he will curing their corruption in whom he will yet when he comes to the conferring of Glory men are not found equal in moral condition and accordingly God cannot be said in like manner to bestow Glory and Salvation on whom he will For he hath tyed himself by his own constitution to bestow Salvation on none but such as dye in the state of Grace Yet I confess some say that God bestows Salvation on whom he will inasmuch as he is the Authour of their faith and repentance and bestows these graces on whom he will Yet certainly there is a different manner in the use of this Phrase of bestowing this or that on whom he will For when God bestows Faith and Repentance he finds them on whom he will bestow it no better than others but when he comes to the bestowing of Glory he finds them on whom he bestows that far better than others And a little after Albeit saith he God hardneth whom he will by denying unto them the grace of Faith and Repentance yet notwithstanding like as it is just with God to inflict damnasion upon them for that sin whether original or actual wherein he finds them when the ministry of the Word is offered them So likewise it cannot be denyed to be just with God to leave their infidelity and impenitence wherein he finds them uncured But yet because God hath not made any such constitution namely that whosoever is found in infidelity and impenitence shall be so left and abandoned by him Therefore he is properly said as to cure it in whom he will so to leave it unoured in whom he will finding them all equal in original Sin and consequently lying equally in this their natural infidelity and impenitence So we may justly say there is no cause at all in man of this difference to wit why God cures infidelity and impenitency in one and not in another but it is the meer pleasure of God that is the cause of this difference But 2. as touching the denyal of Glory and inflicting of damnation which is the second thing decreed in reprobation there is always found a cause motive yea and meritorious hereof to wit both of the denyal of the one and inflicting of the other And God doth not proceed herein according to the meer pleasure of his will and that by reason of his own constitution having ordained that whosoever continueth finally in infidelity in profane courses and impenitency shall be damned And albeit on the other side it may be said in some sense as I formerly shewed that God saves whom he will in as much as he is the Authour of Faith which he bestows on whom he will yet in no congruous sense can he be said to damn whom he will for as much as he is not the Authour of sin as he is the Authour of Faith For every good thing he works but sin and the evil thereof he only permits not causeth And lastly as God doth not damn whom he will but those onely whom he finds finally to have persevered in sin without repentance So neither did he decree to damn or reprobate to damnation whom he will but onely those who should be found finally to persevere in sin without repentance Again in the same Book pag. 106. But I saith Twiss shall tell you the chief Flourish whereupon this Authour and usually the Arminians doth insist in this his loose Argumentation I conceive it to be this they hope their credulous Readers unexpert in distinguishing between God's eternal decree and the temporal execution thereof will be apt hereupon to conceit that we maintain that God doth not onely of meer pleasure decree whatsoever he decreeth but also that he doth decree of meer pleasure to damn men Which yet is utterly contrary if I be not deceived to the Tenet of all our Divines All concurring in this that God in the execution of the decree of damnation proceeds according to a Law and not in the execution of reprobation onely but also in the execution of election and the Law is this Whosoever believes shall be saved whosoever believes not shall be damned and like as he inflicteth not damnation but by way of punishment so he confers not salvation but by way of Reward Again pag. 184. God hath not wished but ordained and made it a positive Law that whosoever believeth shall be saved and here hence it followeth that if all and every Man from the beginning of the World to the end shall believe in Christ all and every one of them shall be saved And Pag. 229. As for Salvation that is appointed to be bestowed only by way of Reward of foregoing Faith Repentance and good works And a little after in the same Page Indeed our profession is that Gods purpose is to bestow Salvation by way of Reward of Faith Repentance and good works And accordingly there is No other assurance of election than by Faith and Holiness â— Thess 1.3 4 Remembring the work of your Faith the labour of your love and the patience of your hope knowing beloved brethren that ye are elect of God And St. Peter exhorts Christians to make their election and vocation sure by joining vertue with their faith and with vertue knowledge and with knowledge temperance and with temperance patience and with patience Godliness and with Godliness brotherly kindness and with brotherly kindness love 2 Pâ—t 1.5 6 7 10. Thus Dr. Twiss speaks our sence according to our Hearts desire and maintains the Gospel to be a Law as much as we do But now it may be our Authour will object that in all this Dr. Twiss speaks only of a Law according to which God proceeds in bestowing or not bestowing eternal life and glory upon Men but not of a Law according to which he justifies and pardons men We Answer 1. The reason of that was because the Doctor 's Adversaries gave
that more and worse is feared which what it should be we cannot imagine unless it be that they fear we will at last renounce Christ and Christianity But to this we will say with David 2 Sam. 16.12 it may be the Lord will look upon our case and requite us good for this reviling Dr. let p. 12. Downame Bishop of Derry whom our Authour also commends in his Letter shall next come in for a Witness on our behalf who in his Book of the Covenant of Grace saith The promises of the Gospel cannot be applyed to any aright but only to those who have the condition of the promise page 134 135. which is the justifying Faith For the Gospel doth not promise Justification and Salvation to all but to those only who have a justifying Faith Therefore a Man must be endued with justifying Faith before he can or ought to apply the promises of the Gospel to himself For as Salvation is promised to them that believe so damnation is denounced to them that believe not Mark 16.16 John 3.16 18. Again No man ought to apply the promise of the Gospel to himself who hath not the condition of the promise ibid. page 153. unless he will perniciously deceive himself For as he that believeth shall be saved so he that believeth not shall be condemned page 154. Again As we daily sin so we must daily ask forgiveness Prayer being the means that God hath ordained to that end Object Yea But saith the Papist ye forsooth have already full assurance of the remission of all your sins not only past but also to come Answ It is absurd to imagine that sins be remitted before they be committed and much more that we be assured they are remitted before they be either remitted or committed That indeed were a Doctrine to animate and to encourage Men to sin But howsoever the Pope sometimes forgiveth sins to come yet God doth not When God justifyeth a man he giveth him remission of sins past Rom. 3.25 As for time to come we teach that although Christ hath merited and God hath promised remission of sins of all the faithful unto the end of the World notwithstanding remission of sins is not actually obtained and much less by special Faith believed until Men do actually believe and repent and by humble and faithful Prayer renew their Faith and Repentance For as God hath promised to the faithful all good things But how Matt. 7.7 8. To them that ask Luke 18.13 14. that seek that knock So also remission of sins Neither is it to be doubted but that remission of sin though merited by Christ though promised by God though sealed unto us in the Sacrament of Baptisme is obtained by the effectual Prayer of those who believe and repent for whom Christ hath merited it and to whom God hath promised it in his Word and sealed it by the Sacrament even as the obtaining of the rain which God had promised 1 Kings 18. ver 1 41. and the Prophet Elias had foretold is ascribed to the effectual Prayer of Elias James 5.16 18. To Bishop Downames we add the very Learned and Pious Gatakers Testimony When â—altâ—arsh the Antinomian had objected and said either place Salvation on a free bottom or else you make the New Covenant but an old Covenant in new terms Do this and live believe this and live repent and live obey and live Gataker replies This is frivolous because as hath been shewed Gatakers shadows without Substance page 49. Salvations free bottom is no way impeached by such conditions as these required and scandalous because therein the Apostles Doctrine is not covertly but directly challenged as overthrowing and razing the foundation of free Grace For what is believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved but believe and live Or what is repent that your sins may be done away but repent and live Or what is He is the Authour of Salvation to all that obey him but obey and live And I demand again what this amounts unto whether it be any other than blasphemy to say that the Apostles by such their Doctrine did not place Salvation upon a free bottom but brought in the old Covenant again in new terms Sir Dare you say in your new revealed Mystery believe not and yet live repent not and yet live obey not and yet live Again We may truly say that you and yours are they that either cannot or will not see the Wood for Trees Ibid. page 57. the conditions on which Salvation by Christ is propounded though in the Gospel they do every where occur and offer themselves will ye nill ye to your eyes With Gataker we joyn Mr. Ball who in his Treatise of Faith recommended by a Preface of Dr. Sibbes saith Balls Treatise of Faith part 1. page 86. The promise of remission of sins is conditional and becometh not absolute until the condition be fulfilled This is the word of Grace Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved When doth this conditional proposition become absolute When we believe what That our sins are pardoned No but when we believe in Christ to obtain pardon which is the thing promised upon condition of belief Again The priviledge of Grace and Comfort which comes to the Soul by believing must be distinguished from the Condition of the Covenant Ibid. page 89. which is required on our parts before we can obtain pardon Again We can teach no Faith to Salvation but according to the rule of Christ Repent and believe the Gospel no remission of sin Ibid. page 136. but according to the like Rule Luke 24.47 Acts 2.37 38. But Faith seeketh and receiveth pardon as it is proffered in the word of Grace Repentance is necessary to the pardon of sin as a condition without which it cannot be obtained not as a cause why it is given Luke 13.3 1 John 1.9 Acts 11.18 If Mercy should be vouchsafed to all indifferently the Grace of God should be a boulster to mans sin c. Lastly We conclude this head of our defence with the Testimony of the Synod of Dort We have already shewed that the Geneva Divines in that Synod gave it in under their hands and were therein approved by the Synod That the Covenant of Grace is conditional We might be large in shewing the like of many others but we will confine our selves for brevities sake to the Embdan Bremen and English Divines their Suffrages recorded in the Acts of the Synod First The Embdane Divines in the Synod said That God required the same conditions from those that were in Covenant with him under the Old and New Testament to wit Faith and the obedience of Faith Act. Synodi Dord part 2. page 93. Gen. 12. Abraham believed God and the Apostle â—in Rom. 4. Teaches that we are saved by the same Faith Gen. 17. Abraham is commanded to walk before God and be perfect The same is every where
obtained Hence Paul saith Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die And Heb. 3.12 Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God We do not therefore think that the Act it self of believing repenting and mortifying the flesh doth effect or merit the conservation of Justifying Grace because all these things are done by us faintly and imperfectly sometimes also through the Prevalency of some great Tentation they are as it were choaked and oppressed but we say that God himself of his free Mercy preserves the Regenerate in a state of Grace and Salvation whilst they walk in these wayes As therefore for the preservation of Natural Life it is necessarily required that a Man carefully avoid Fire Water Precipices Poysons and other things which destroy the Health of the Body so for the preservation of Spiritual Life it is necessarily required that a Man avoid Vnbelief Impenitency and other things that are destructive and contrary to the Salvation of Souls which cannot be avoided unless the opposite and contrary Actions be exercised But these Actions do not preserve the Life of Grace properly and of themselves by touching or producing the very effect it self of preservation but improperly and by accident by excluding and removing the cause of destruction Thus we have at large refuted the Authour of the Letter his Second Errour against the Purity of Christian Faith and have fully and clearly proved the Covenant of Grace to be Conditional This we have done first by clear Scripture Secondly by certain and evident Reason grounded upon Scripture Thirdly by Testimonies of Orthodox Divines and First by Testimonies of the Antient Doctors of the Primitive Church Secondly by Testimonies of Divines of the Reformed Churches both at Home and Abroad and particularly by the Testimony of the Divines of the Famous Synod of Dort Whence it is as clear as the Sun that we preach no new Arminian Gospel in this great Point of the Covenant of Grace and consequently that the Authour of the Letter is a false Witness in Matter of Fact who hath proclaimed us to the World to be Preachers of a new Arminian Gospel on the account of our Doctrine in the point of Justification If after all this he should say that though we have proved the Covenant to be conditional and Faith to be the receptive applicative condition of it yet we have not proved that Faith justifies as a Condition We Answer That look by what place of Scripture he shall ever be able to prove that Faith justifies as an Instrument and a hand by the same shall we prove that Faith justifies as a receptive applicative condition For as we said before we take a receptive applicative Condition and a moral foederal instrument to be one and the same thing So did the Westminster Assembly of Divines before us And in this sense which alone is justifiable we hold Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition with respect to Justification And if that will please our Authour we shall grant him that Faith is a hand and not only a hand but an eye and a mouth too an eye to look unto Christ crucified John 3.14 15. John 6.40 Isa 45.22 And a mouth to eat and drink and feed on his Crucified Flesh and Blood John 6.35 50 51 53 54 55 56 57 58. We shall conclude this Answer with the Testimony of Two Learneder and Wiser Men than our Authour seems to be The first is the Reverend Mr. Lukin a Worthy Judicious Congregational Minister in his Life of Faith printed above Thirty years ago Lukin 's Life of Faith p. 24 25. For the question about the Interest of Faith in our Justification whether it justifie as an Instrument or as a Condition I think saith he it deserves not half the words that have been used about it they are both of them School-terms and not found in the Scripture and should not therefore disturb the peace of the Church especially seeing both Parties at variance are agreed in the thing but not in the formal notion under which they do conceive it and I think both lides are so far agreed that Faith may be called an Instrument allowing much impropriety of speech and that it may be called a Condition while we thereby do not suppose any such thing as merit Thus Mr. Lukin Now we heartily accept of this expedient for the calming of the Tempest which the Letter hath raised We will never desire the Authour to call Faith a meritorious condition for we never called it so our selves if he will grant us that it is but improperly an Instrument of Justification The other is the Learned Turretin that famous Calvinist Professor of Divinity lately at Geneva who writes thus Caeterum non anxiè quaerendum putamus an fides instrumenti notionem induat in hoc negotio c. Turretin Instit part 2. loc 16. quaest 7. p. 737. But we do not think that it is curiously to be enquired after whether Faith put on the nation of an Instrument in this matter of Justification or likewise of a condition as it seems to some men For nothing hinders but both notions may be ascribed to it provided Condition be not taken for that in consideration whereof God justifies Man in the Covenant of Grace after the manner that works were the Condition of Justification in the Legal Covenant For in this sense it cannot be called a condition unless we come over to the Socinians and Arminians who will have Faith or the Act of believing to be accepted by God for perfect Righteousness which we have but now resuted But taking the word Condition in a large sense for all that which is required on our part to obtain that benefit whether it have the notion of a cause properly so called or only of an instrumental Cause for as that Condition hath the relation of an Instrument so that Instrument hath the nature of a Condition on our part without which Justification cannot be obtained Thus Turretin to which we fully agree except that we think he gives too much to Faith in conceiving it to be an instrumental cause of Justification yet since he says that it is no cause properly so called it follows necessarily that it is not properly an instrumental cause and so hath no proper causal influence upon the act of Justification and if so then it is but improperly an instrument as Mr. Lukin saith and so the whole Controversie comes to nothing but a strife about the propriety or impropriety of a word which Turretin plainly saw and therefore confessed that Faith is so an Instrument as to be a Condition and so a Condition as to be an Instrument of Justification And taking the word Instrument in a moral Sense for a means of receiving the benefit of Justification for Christ's sake only we do unfeignedly affirm as Turretin doth that a sincere Faith is both the Instrument and Receptive
without just reason we think to satisfie them we may well say what is a great truth that the habitual Seminal Principle of Faith is a qualification of the Person to be justified and that the actual Exercise of Faith is the receptive applicative Condition of Justification This is our first Reason 2. Reason The seminal abiding Principle of Faith is a holy disposition of the Soul whereby it is inclined and fitted to elicit and produce the Acts of Faith This is clear because it is in a special manner the gift of a Holy God and the fruit of his Holy Spirit who cannot be the Authour of any Seed Disposition Inclination or Habit in the Soul of Man but what is good and Holy But now that Seminal abiding Principle of Faith is before Justification This is clear as the Sun because it is before the Act of that Faith whereby alone we are said to be justified and that it is before the justifying act of faith we thus demonstrate That which concurs to the producing of the Act is before the act since it is in part the cause of the act and the cause as such must always be in order of Nature at least before the effect and it implies a contradiction that it should be otherwise But the Seminal abiding Principle of Faith concurs to the producing of the Act of justifying Faith for it is given unto us for that end that it may fit us for inclines us to and help us in acting Therefore it is before the Act of justifying Faith and consequently before Justification it self Here then we have found a Holy Seed and Principle put by God into the Soul before Justification And therefore it is utterly false which the Letter saith that there neither is nor can be any good or holy thing in the Soul or any real change wrought on the Soul before Justification 3. Reason The Act of Justifying Faith is a good and holy thing since it is the effect of God's Holy Spirit and the first Fruit of the foresaid Holy Seed of Faith in the Soul But so it is that even according to our Authours own Principles the Act of Faith is before Justification For as was observed before he says out of Gal. 2.16 We believe that we may be justified and if so then it is evident that our believing is in order of Nature at least before we be justified 2. He holds that Faith is the Instrumental cause of Justification and lays great stress upon that Notion as if it were the great fundamental of his Religion he likewise finds great fault with us for not holding with him that Faith is the Instrumental cause of Justification Now according to this Opinion of his he cannot avoid the placing of the Act of Faith before Justification because it is the Act of Faith that receives Christ and his Righteousness and that is the instrumental cause of Justification But all the World knows that every proper cause as an instrumental cause is in its kind is in order of Nature before its effect Either then some holy good thing is in us before Justification or Actual Faith is no holy good thing and his instrument wherewith he makes such a noise is good for nothing but to blow the Coals of Strife and Contention 4. Reason Before a Man can be justified by Faith there must be a real and holy change in him because of an Unbeliever he must become a Believer and that cannot be without a real change and a holy one too Now that a Man from being an Unbeliever must come to be a Believer in Christ before he can be justified by Faith in Christ is self-evident for how can a Man be justified by Faith in Christ who yet hath no Faith in Christ he must then have Faith before he can be justified by Faith But how shall he get this Faith Can he get Faith whilst he still remains in Unbelief that is impossible For Unbelief either signifies not believing or it signifies positive disbelieving and 1. If it signifie not believing it stands in a contradictory opposition to believing and contradictions are utterly inconsistent Can a Man believe in Christ and not at all believe in Christ at the same time We hope our Authour will not be so ridiculous as to go about to reconcile contradictions 2. If Unbelief signifie positive disbelieving disbelieving in power and prevalency then it stands in a contrary opposition to believing and two contraries in power and prevalency are likewise utterly inconsistent in the same subject at the same time A Man that is in the very Act of positive disbelief and under the power and prevalency of it cannot possibly have an actual Faith in Christ at that time Therefore that an Unbeliever may get actual Faith in Christ and be justified by that Faith he must of necessity be changed really and effectually changed he must be changed from being an Unbeliever to be a Believer he must come off from his sin of not believing or of disbelieving unto the practice of his Duty of believing in Christ that he may be justified by Faith But this cannot possibly be without a real change nay this coming off from the sin of Unbelief to the Duty of Believing is a real change and a holy change too therefore there is and must be a real holy change in Man in order of Nature at least before his Justification by Faith in Christ This is as certain and evident as that Two and Two make Four Yet our Authour finds fault with us for making it a part of our new Scheme that there must be a real change in a man let page 30. that he must be changed from his Unbelief that he may come to Christ by Faith for Justification And elsewhere he says That it is the experience of every Believer that every one who believeth on Jesus Christ page 11. acts that Faith as the chief of Sinners And if so then it follows by necessary consequence that every one who believes on Christ acts that Faith as an Unbeliever for according to him unbelief is the chiefest sin so he writes expresly That Vnbelief is the most provoking to God page 15 16. and the most damning to man of all sins Unbelief then is the chiefest sin and if so certainly the Unbeliever must be the chiefest Sinner and the Believer who acts his Faith as the chief of Sinners must act his Faith as an Unbeliever And that is a very odd way of acting Faith to believe as an Unbeliever Yet no man can help it for if our Authors Doctrine be true it must be so and cannot be otherwise because it is that which the experience of all Believers witnesseth unto and as he writes page 24. The Believer or Accepter of Christ in the very act of believing or accepting of Christ expresly disclaims all things in himself but sinfulness and misery And if he do so then he disclaims that is renounces his Faith it self in
the Lord himself hath taught us by his holy Spirit in the Canonical Scriptures And therefore if the Scriptures be true this Doctrine cannot be false but is and must be true and it is very strange and wonderful if all true Christians be afraid to dye in the Faith of the true Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures We rather think that if they be not delirious but have the use of their Reason they are not true Christians but meer Hypocrites that renounce the foresaid Doctrine of Justification and are afraid to stand to it at Death We are sure that good Hezekiah was not afraid to stand to this Doctrine when he justly apprehended himself to be under the Sentence of Death since we find it written in Isa 38.3 4. That he prayed thus unto the Lord Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight c. And God was so far from being displeased with this his Prayer that he most graciously accepted it and shewed himself so well pleased with Hezekiah that he gave him a further Lease of his Life for fifteen years and Sealed the Lease with a Miracle a thing we do not find that ever the Lord did for any other Man before or since We have also read of many in History and have heard of others and have our selves known some who have not been afraid to stand to our Doctrine aforesaid at Death but have died comfortably in the Faith of it As for our selves we live in the Faith of it and desire to die also in the Faith of it and as we account it our Duty to stand to it in Life and at Death so we trust and hope that if the Lord be pleased to preserve to us the use of our Reason and to continue to us the Presence of his Spirit and Assistance of his Grace we shall be enabled to perform our Duty in owning at Death and if he call us to it in Sealing with our Blood the said true Doctrine of Justification which we have preached to his People in the time of our Life As for our Author we hope he agrees with us that Christs Righteousness is never to be renounced but always to be trusted to and relied upon as the cause of our Justification and Salvation both in Life and at Death What then would he have us to renounce If it be our own Merits he knows very well that we admit not the very possibility of any proper Merits of our own and that we renounce all Confidence in such a Chimera as much as he or any Man can do If it be our own good Acts or Works as the Cause of our Justification He may know by what we have said before that we renounce as much as he doth and something more too all causal Influence of any good Acts or Works of ours upon Justistification If it be Faiths being the Condition of Justification that he would have us to renounce That we can never do either in Life or at Death for the Reasons we have given before Besides he himself ascribes as much and we think something more to Faith in the matter of Justification than we do for he maintains Faith to be the Instrument of Justification and if it be a proper Instrument it must have an Instrumental Causality upon Justification and so must be an Instrumental Cause and to be an Instrumental Cause is more than to be a Receptive Condition of Justification If we may be afraid then to stand to it at Death that Faith is the Condition of Justification he may have more Cause to be afraid to stand to it at Death that Faith is the Instrument of Justification But we suspect his meaning is that we will and must be afraid to stand to it at Death that Repentance is a Condition necessary to Justification and that perseverance in Faith and in the Practice of Repentance and Holiness is necessary to the obtaining Possession of Eternal Salvation and if this be it indeed which he thinks we and all sensible men must be afraid to stand to at Death and therefore must renounce we cannot but judge the Man to be under a strong Delusion for First The Scripture is as full and clear for the Truth of these things as it is for the Truth of any other Article of the Christian Faith Secondly We have the Concurrent Judgment of Divines both Ancient and Modern agreeing with us in the same Truth as we have proved at large Thirdly We have heard of many and have known some who upon their Death-bed have bitterly lamented and bewailed that they had not repented of their Sins in time that for and through the Meritorious Righteousness of Christ they might have obtained Pardon and Justification but we never heard of or knew any who upon their Death-bed lamented and bewailed that they had repented too soon in order to their obtaining Pardon and Justification through Christs Meritorious Righteousness The like we may say of the Necessity of a Holy Life in Order to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation through Christ many have most lamentably bewailed on their Death-bed their own Folly and Wickedness in not preparing themselves for Happiness by the Practice of Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. But we could never hear of any who on their Death-bed lamented and bewailed that they had held the Erroneous Opinion that the sincere Practice of Holiness is necessary to the obtaining of Salvation and Happiness through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ On the contrary the Generality of People that are serious and sensible they then acknowledge the Necessity of sincere Repentance in Order to the obtaining Pardon of Sin and the Necessity of Holiness in Order to the obtaining of Salvation and Happiness through Jesus Christ our Lord. So abominably false is it that no sensible man dare stand to our Doctrine at his Death that the quite contrary is true and no knowing sensible Man but will gladly stand to it and own it with all his Heart except such Nominal Christians as are Conscious to themselves that they are Hypocrites and unconverted Sinners and fear that if the Gospel be true they shall certainly be damned And therefore they may possibly some of them at least flatter themselves with the Hopes that God for Christs sake will Pardon and Justifie them before and without Repentance and save them without Holiness But we dare not humour such People nor flatter them however they may flatter themselves and therefore we must in faithfulness to Peoples Souls tell them from God that except they repent they shall perish and that without Holiness they shall never see the Lord so as to be Happy in the sight of him And for the Hypocrites Hope of being pardoned without Repentance and of being Happy without being Holy it shall certainly perish with himself His Hope shall be cut off and
pleased him This Proposition is self-evident for it is of the very Essence of Free-will in God the First and Freest Agent that in all external temporal things which fall under his Free-will he might have done them or not have done them he might have done them thus as he doth them or he might have done them otherwise than he hath done if he had pleased But antecedently to his free Purpose and Decree the whole ordering of the Covenant of Grace and of its terms and receptive Condition depended upon God's Free-will and Soveraign Pleasure Hence the Gospel is called the Mystery of God's Will and the Revelation of the Gospel unto us is said to be the making known unto us the Mystery of his Will according to his Good Pleasure which he hath purposed in himself Eph. 1.9 Now if the whole Mystery of the Covenant of Grace depended on God's Free-will then the ordaining of this or that to be the receptive Condition of the Covenant depended on his Will also and so antecedently to the free Purpose of his Will there was no natural necessity that Faith alone and no other thing should be the receptive Condition of the Covenant 2. It is not yet past Dispute amongst Divines Whether antecedently to God's free Purpose and Decree to save us by the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ alone he might not have freely purposed and decreed to have pardoned and saved us some other way Amongst our Reformed Divines Calvin Twiss and Rutherford and others were of this Opinion yea even Dr. Owen himself was once of this Opinion though afterwards he changed his mind in that as he did in other things witness what he wrote in his Book called The Death of Death in the Death of Christ Or A Treatise of Redemption c. Book II. Chap. II. Page 57. The Foundation of this whole Assertion seems to me to be false and erroneous viz that God could not have Mercy on Mankind unless satisfaction were made by his Son It is true indeed supposing the Decree Purpose and Constitution of God that so it should be that so he would manifest his Glory by the way of vindicative Justice it was impossible that it should otherwise be for with the Lord there is neither change nor shadow of turning Lam. 1.18 1 Sam. 15.29 But to assert positively that absolutely and antecedently to his Constitution he could not have done it is to me an unwritten Tradition the Scripture affirming no such thing neither can it be gathered from thence in any good consequence if any one shall deny this we will try what the Lord will enable us to say unto it and in the mean time rest contented in that of Augustin though other ways of saving us were not wanting to his Infinite Wisdome yet certainly the way which he did proceed in was the most convenient because we find he proceeded therein Thus Dr. Owen in that Book and though he unsaid this again and embraced that Opinion which he then called an unwritten Tradition yet there are other Learned Divines of that same Opinion at this Day Mistake us not for we do not say that we are of it but that some are and that the matter is not yet past dispute And the Consequence which we infer is undeniable that if God antecedently to his Constitution and Degree could have pardoned and saved us some other way without the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ then surely he could have offered and promised us Pardon and Salwation without the Condition of Faith in Christ and upon what other Condition he pleafed 3. Though we grant that upon supposition that God would pardon our Sins and save our Souls it did not consist with the Glory of his Justice and Honour of his Law and Government to do it without Satisfaction for the Offence we had given and the Dishonour we had done him by our Sins and therefore it was necessary not onely from the free purpose of God's Will but also from the nature of his vindictive governing Justice that Christ by suffering in our stead should satisfie his Justice for our Sins yet doth it not follow at all by any natural necessity arising immediately from the essential nature of Faith without any appointment and constitution of God's Will that Faith because it is of a receptive nature and nothing else shall be the Condition upon the performance whereof Christ with his Satisfaction and Merits shall be not only offered but given unto us For as Dr. Owen saith very well in his little Book of the Trinity and Satisfaction of Christ pag. 208. The satisfaction made for Sin being not made by the Sinner himself there must of necessity be a Rule Order and Law-constitution how the Sinner may come to be interested in it and made Partaker of it for the consequent of the freedome of one by the suffering of another is not matural or necessary but must proceed and arise from a Law-constitution Compact and Agreement Now the way constituted and appointed is that of Faith or believing as explained in the Scripture Thus Dr. Owen To which we add that the Scripture explains it thus Gal. 5.6 That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but Faith which worketh by Love From this Passage of Dr. Owen and the Argument contained in it it is most evident that it doth not arise immediately and necessarily from the receptive nature of Faith that it is the Condition of the Offer and Promise but from the Will of God constituting and appointing it to be the Condition Faith's receptive apprehensive nature is but a remote Reason of its Conditionality and doth but make it fit to be the Condition if God please to make it so And it is God's Will and Law-constitution onely which is the nearest and formal Reason of its Conditionality and which doth immediately and formally make it to be the Condition of the Covenant Joh. 6.40 This is no new notion of ours we find it long agoe before many of us were born Walaeus Doctor and Professor of Divinity in Leyden in his Enchiridion Religionis Reformatae pag. 112. said that Fides nos Justificat sed relativè considerata quia haec est Voluntas Dei ut qui credit in Christum ejus meriti fiat Particeps Faith Justifies us but relatively considered because this is the Will of God that he who believes in Christ shall be made Partaker of his Merit And not onely Mr. Baxter but Cartwright also pag. 179. of his Book against Baxter agrees with him in acknowledging this Truth his Words are these The Reason why Christs Righteousness cannot Justifie except it be apprehended by Faith is this That God doth require Faith of us Faith I say apprehending Christ and his Righteousness believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that so we may be Justified Gods Will is properly the cause yet there is a congruity in the thing it self an aptitude you grant in the nature of Faith It is of an
apprehensive nature and its apprehending Christs Righteousness the Will of God still presupposed doth make this Righteousness ours even as a Gift becomes ours by our receiving of it These Worthy Divines we see were of our Opinion That it is not the nature of Faith it self nor its relation unto Christ which is essential to it that doth formally make it to be the Instrumental Means or Condition of our Justification but it is the Will of God ordaining it to that Office It is true they held and we with them hold that there is a congruity and fitness in Faith to be the receptive and applicative Condition of the Promise and of Christ and his Righteousness therein because it is of a receptive applicative nature yet that doth not formally make it the Condition For notwithstanding its fitness to be the Condition yet it would never have actually and formally been the Condition of Justification nor would it ever have availed us to Justification if God by an Act of his Free-will had not made it the Condition of Justification Is not Justification a great Blessing and Benefit which is in the power and at the disposal of God and Christ and may not God do what he will with his own may not he give his Blessing and Benefit upon what Terms and Conditions he and his Son shall think fit to agree upon This surely is so evident that no reasonable Man can have reason to deny it And then the consequence is as evident that it is not any thing intrinsecal to Faith and so not its relation to Christ which is intrinsecal to it that can nextly and formally make it the Instrumental Means or Condition of Justification but it is and must be the Will of God and his Son Christ Jesus agreeing that Faith shall be and ordaining Faith to be the Instrumental Means Terms and Condition of our Justification For these Reasons we dissent and all Men that love the Truth should dissent from our Authour if by saying that an accepting Faith is the native Condition of the Offer of Christ and of all his fulness he mean That Faith of its own nature necessarily is the condition of the promise and could not possibly 〈◊〉 otherwise so that 〈◊〉 being the condition doth necessarily and wholly arise from its own intrinsecal nature and not at all from the Will of God and Christ constituting and ordaining it do that Office of being the Condition of the promise We dare not uscribe so much Vertue and Efficacy to the intrinsecal Nature of Faith in the matter of our Justification But if by saying That an accepting Faith is the Native condition of the offer of Christ and his fulness our Authour means no more but this That Faith being of a receptive Nature it hath a natural aptitude and fitness to be made the condition of the promise of Justification and that that was a reason why it pleased God and Christ to make and constitute Faith to be the receptive condition of Justification we shall not oppose but join with him in this sense of his words But though we grant him for the reason aforesaid that Faith is the one native receptive condition of Justification yet we can never grant that Faith taken in his sense for the one single Grace or it may be for one single Act of the one single Grace of Faith is the only condition of Justification and much less that it is the only condition of Glorification For as Faith is the one yea and only receptive condition so true Repentance it the dispositive condition of Justification or of the Person to be justified in order to his Justification And moreover Repontance is as native a condition in its kind as Faith in its kind it is us native a dispositive condition as Faith is a native receptive condition For sincere Repentance being a Godly sorrow for having displeased and dishonoured God and a firm resolution through Grace to do so no more it doth from the very nature of the thing dispose and prepare the Soul for pardon and then God hath likewise for that reason Willed Ordained and Constituted Repentance to be the dispositive Condition of pardon of Sin and Justification As we proved before by plain testimonies of God's Holy Word And though Faith and Repentance be equally necessary from the Will Ordination and Constitution of God and Christ yet of the two Repentance seems to be the most necessary with that kind of necessity which ariseth precisely from the nature of the thing For it seems to be absolutely impossible because repugnant to the perfection of God's Holy Nature to Justifie Pardon and Love with a Love of Complacency a Rebellious Sinner whilst he is impenitent and continues his full Resolution to go on in his Rebellion and Enmity against Heaven The sense of this Truth seems to have been much upon the very Reverend and Learned Mr. Clarkson's Spirit and therefore it made him say in his Discourse of free Grace page 129 130 131. If the terms or conditions be such as it is not possible in the nature of the thing that the mercy offered should be effected without them then the offers of saving mercies are as free and gracious as can be as there is any possibility they should be and no more can be desired Then he takes Repentance for his instance we do not say that he altogether excludes the other terms but that Repentance is that which he Jingles out to instance in and which he much insists upon as taken in its Latitude And thus he goes on Let me clear this in one of those terms which is comprehensive of all the rest It is required of those who will partake of Saving Mercies that they leave sin forsake their evil ways Prov. 28.13 Isa 55.7 2 Tim. 2.19 This is the summ of all Conditions and whatever is required in other terms is included in this or may be resolved into it Now it is not possible that saving Mercies should otherwise be had that they should be received or enjoyed but upon these terms not only because the Lord would have it so but because the Nature of the thing doth so require it that it is not otherwise feasible for sin is our impotency Now can we possibly have strength in the inner man if we will not part with our weakness Sin is our deformity that which renders our Souls loathsome and ugly in the eye of God Now can our Souls be made lovely if we will not part with that which is our defilement and ugliness Can we be made clean if we will not part with our leprosie Sin is our enmity against God therein it consists now can we possibly be reconciled if we will not lay aside our enmity Sin is the wound the mortal Disease of the Soul and can you be healed if you will not part with your Disease Sin is your Misery and can you be happy if not part with your misery Happyness consists in the enjoyment of God