that hath enough in him to draw all Men to him yet all and every Man come not We must from the Event expound the words All Men Joh. 12.32 with limitation unto all sorts degrees and Nations and not of individuals and particular Men even as Paul was to be a Witness to All Men Acts 22.15 and Joh. 12.19 i.e. many 7. In vain do Men speak of a good Life without Regeneration or Faith in Christ and Gospel Assistances are not sufficient without the effectual operation of the spirit Assistances do only suppose infirmity in us and they who are regenerate are subject to weakness but unregenerate are worse than impotent or weak and weak believers have inward Life as well as outward assistances Joh. 15.4 Col. 1.11 Phil. 4.13 Therefore outward means are not sufficient to un regenerate dead Sinners 8. The work of effectual calling doth convince us what we are by nature before it we are Ignorant Averse Dead Rebellious A new Heart will I give you not a new faculty but a Will made free from its Love to evil and Enmity to good God effectually perswades and also enables us to believe in Christ The effectually called are justified 1. To justify is all one as in English to make just but in this point it is to be taken as in a course of Law to absolve acquit discharge to repute a Man as just who is guilty subject to accusation and condemnation 2. We agree that in this gracious act God doth acquit the believer who is penitent also from deserved condemnation and doth put him into the condition of a Righteous Person 3. There is a concurrence of free grace and satisfaction and redemption in this act See Rom. 3.24 God's love and Christs Death Rom. 5.9 4. He that is justified is accepted and look'd upon as Righteous in the sight of God. 5. God justifieth as both gracious and just Rom. 3.24 with ver 26. the Sinner is in himself unrighteous the righteous God looks for a perfect Righteousness the Righteousness of Christ is most perfect called the Righteousness of God by Faith Rom. 3.22 and the Righteousness of one Rom. 5.17,18 With this alone the just God is satisfied who doth graciously impute or reckon it to every one who believeth by faith we are invested in it and entituled to it by Gods free gift 6. The just God set forth Christ a propitiation or atonement by the Sacrifice of himself Rom. 3.25 With this God was satisfied and it being intended for him that believes it is accounted to him and he receives and applies it for his justification 7. The Person being untighteous and guilty is not justified as an innocent Righteous Person in himself but for Christs sake He doth repent and confess his iniquity and guilt 1 John 1.9 and is taught to plead as we see Rom. 8.33,34 He is taught to shew cause why he is not condemned 8. It is the nature of Faith in general to answer to and correspond with the gracious Acts of God so it doth in Justification Here 's a gift of Righteousness and Faith humbly receiveth it and because that perfect Righteousness of Christ is that by which a guilty offender is justified Rom. 3.19 and faith alone doth receive appropriate and apply it therefore we are justified by faith alone Rom. 3.22,25,26,28 9 I humbly conceive Faith is not imputed for Righteousness Rom. 4.5 as that which is accepted instead of a perfect personal Righteousness thus if we have faith it shall serve and be taken where perfect Righteousness is not to be had For 1. The Person justified is in himself unrighteous and guilty and God doth not justify him for that which is taken instead of Personal Righteousness for then God would seem to have respect to a Man 's own Personal Righteousness in defect of which he takes what may be had 2. Because God looks upon our Mediator as Obeying Dying Satisfying and not upon us who are unable to satisfy See Rom. 3.22,24,25,26 3. Because our Faith is not to be taken separately from its object Christ It was not looking but looking on the Serpent that healed so it is believing in Christ that justifies and saves Joh. 3.14,16 Faith without works is imputed but not without Christ. I do not say that Faith is imputed as taken for its object i. e. Christ is imputed nor that faith is imputed as taken in lieu of Personal Righteousness but Faith with its object Christ is imputed for Faith cannot be separated from him its object for the Righteousness of Christ and Faith in Christ are required to justification the one with and not without the other 10. Not to impute Sin is not to reckon it to condemnation and it is not so reckoned because Christ died and when it is not imputed to condemnation it is pardoned Ephes 1.7 11. They who say we are justified by Faith as a condition and are not Socinians do mean soundly and no more but that Faith is required to justification and to ascribe as little as may be to Faith and as much as may be to Christ To say that Faith is a condition without which a Man is not justified is to speak too little because it is positively required not as that without which but as that by which a Man is justified And they who say as the Glorious Reformers spake we are justified by Faith as by an instrument produce warrant from the Scripture make up the number of Causes compleat and ascribe but the lowest degree of causality to Faith both agree in the main Doctrines and differ in manner of Explication 12. He who is justified by Faith in Christ is also justified by Works The Person spoken of by Paul is a guilty unrighteous Sinner Rom. 3.19 The Person spoken of by James is a formal professor who saith he hath Faith chap. 2.14 He hath no true Faith who hath not Works to his Faith and therefore cannot be justified 13. The way of justification even before Christ was by Faith in him Rom. 3.21,22 14. No Man is actually justified before he doth believe The believer was intentionally justified from eternity in decree meritoriously from the Death of Christ 15. A Justified Person is taught to pray for pardon Mat. 6.12 and to confess his Sin 1 Joh. 1.9 Are Adopted 1. To adopt is to make or take one for a Child who by Nature is not a Child and he hath the Name State Dignity and privileges of a Child 2. Adoption is an Act of Grace and if that which follows our effectual Calling and justification be an Act of grace then surely Vocation and Justification must be by Grace 3. Adoption is the foundation of our Coheirship with Christ 4. The privileges and honour belong to them who believe Joh. 1.12 they have a right to them tho' they may want the comfort of them through unbeleif 5. By regeneration we partake of the New Nature by Adoption we are admitted to the condition of Sons 6. Gods People under
serve them for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments III. Thou shalt not take the Name of the LORD thy God in vain for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain IV. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy eattel nor the stranger that is within thy gates For in six days the the LORD made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it V. Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee VI. Thou shalt not kill VII Thou shalt not commit adultery VIII Thou shalt not steal IX Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife nor his man-servant nor his maid-servant nor his ox nor his ass nor any thing that is thy neighbour's The LORD'S Prayer MATTH VI. OVR Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread. And forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors And lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever Amen The CREED I Believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth And in Jesus Christ his Only Son our Lord which was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into * i. e. Continued in the state of the Dead and under the power of Death till the third Day Hell the third Day he arose again from the Dead he ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he shall come to judge the Quick and the Dead I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of Sins the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting Amen FINIS PART II. A sensible Demonstration of the existence of God. SECT I. God is I. ALL Religion and Righteousness is grounded upon this foundation That God is Besides the belief I have in God by revelation and Spiritual sense I am convinced that he is by these evident proofs laid all together 1. I am certain that I was come into the World before I knew of my coming 2. I am certain I made not my self I was before I knew my self to be what I am 3. I am certain my Parents and other Persons and Creatures were in being before me 4. I am certain that no Being is so likely to make himself and all other things as Man is because he is a rational Being of great invention and contrivance 5. No Men of this inquisitive and learned Age pretend to make or to be present at the making of the admirable frame of the Universe and if any Man or Men of former Ages had made the World we of this Age should have found them in it For 1. They who could make themselves could preserve themselves 2. They who could make themselves and the World must needs be great and happy 3. They who were once great and happy and always continued to be so For 1. if they did depose or divest themselves of their happiness freely and of choice they were defective in Wisdom to exchange a happy Being for a less happy or for nothing and by consequence were not wise enough to make the World. 2. If they grew weary of themselves they were not happy 3. If they were constrained to unmake themselves they were not superior but subject to other Powers Therefore I believe there were no such Men no such self-makers and makers of other things I conclude that I am made by another who made all things else and he is the first infinite Cause in which my thoughts and belief do rest who is infinitely Wise Great and Good to whom be glory for ever Again it is impossible to prove there is no God for all things are mediums to prove that he is and there is no medium to prove that he is not Lastly all Men Die they who are prepared and willing do believe in God they who are unwilling cannot refuse to Die therefore there is a Superior Power that is Lord of Life and Death and he is the living God. SECT II. Of the Holy Scriptures The Scriptures are of God. 1. NO Man can know the mind and will of the infinite God Creator and Governor of the World except he be pleased to make it known That his will should be known is necessary or else we could not worship nor please him by doing his Will. 2. Besides the light of Nature we have his will made know by revelation by which God who made the World is so revealed and declared that as sure as I am that God made the World so sure am I that God gave the Scriptures to direct us in the way of Duty and Happiness 3. I find the Book of God in the possession of his Church and People like a Royal Charter in a City by which the City is constituted and governed and enjoy their privileges When I peruse the Charter I know it to be the King 's and no private Mans invention or forg'd instrument I know the great Charter of the City of God to be his Word 1. By the matter of it For instance Who can describe or declare the infinite God by his Glorious Names and Titles and attributes but himself Who can declare his relation to himself as Father Son and Holy Ghost but himself Who can prescribe his Worship make Laws set down rewards and declare what shall be in the World to come but himself 2. I observe the Style and Manner of speaking the manner of revealing the admirable consent of the Old and New Testament tho given the one so long before the other the scope of the whole their perfection and efficacy as able to make a Man Wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 by the operation of the Holy Ghost Authority of the Scriptures 1. The Scriptures derive their Authority from God their Author The Church is not the Author of the Scriptures therefore they derive not their Authority from it The Testimony and Tradition of the Church is but Ministerial We are directed to place our faith in the Word as it is Gods who gave it by inspiration 2 Tim.