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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	faith_n	lord_n	1,391	5	3.9699	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85510	A modest vindication of the doctrine of conditions in the Covenant of Grace, and the defenders thereof, from the aspersions of arminianism & popery, which Mr. W. E. cast on them. By the late faithful and godly minister Mr. John Graile, minister of the gospel at Tidworth in the county of Wilts. Published with a preface concerning the nature of the Covenant of Grace, wherein is a discovery of the judgment of Dr. Twisse in the point of justification, clearing him from antinomianism therein. By Constant Jessop, minister of the Gospel at Wimborn minister in the county of Dorset. Whereunto is added, a sermon, preached at the funeral of the said Mr. John Grail. By Humphrey Chambers, D.D. and pastor of the church at Pewsie.	Graile, John.; Chambers, Humphrey, 1598 or 9-1662.; Jessop, Constantine, 1601 or 2-1658. Pauls sad farewel to his Ephesians.	1654 (1654)	Wing G1477; Thomason E817_1; Thomason E817_2; ESTC R207370	97,971	125

Controversie doth turn 2. That your saying That Papist ascribe not any meritoriousnesse to conditions c. is most false if there be any truth in these Protestants collections yea that it doth asperse these reverend Protestant Authours fore-named who oppose the Papist in the very particular 3. That those of our Divines who maintain conditional promises in the Covenant whilst withal they exclude all claim of dignity worth merit or any such causality from these conditions do not joyne with Papists as you would make the people believe but with Protestants against Papists and differ not one hairs breadth from those who aver the Covenant to be absolute not conditional for by the Conditions which they deny they understand meritorious Conditions 4. That in rejecting this distinction between a Condition and a meritorious Cause and asserting the Covenant to be without not only meritorious conditions but all other also you oppose all Orthodox Divines that ever I met with not only those that hold the Covenant to be conditional but those also who in terminis aver the absoluteness of it for by the conditions they reject they understand meritorious ones as hath been shewed and joyn with Mr. Saltmarsh Dr. Crisp and such other whom the Othodox not out of malice but for distinction sake and for the due desert of some of their Tenents do call Antinomians But let us see what further strength you bring to the battering of this distinction for your charge of Popery will not hold You add therefore farther Did Adams doing merit life None will say it Yet the Grace of God is more shewed in the latter then in the first Covenant Therefore in it no conditions at all Sir The Apostle saith To him that worketh the reward is reckoned not of grace but of debt Rom. 4. 4. I know some hold the Covenant with Adam wherein works were injoyned to be a Covenant of Grace I have heard Mr. Symonds of Holland deliver that in a Sermon at Rederith and thereupon divide the Covenant of Grace into the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Faith Certainly had Adam kept the condition of the first Covenant he had done no more then his Duty nor had he profited God at all besides there would have been small or no proportion between that his Work and the reward all which are required to merit proper So that in some sense that may be called a Covenant of Grace Neverthelesse in the latter Covenant of Faith the grace of God is so far more fully richly and gloriously manifested then in that of Works as that it obtaineth the title of the Covenant of Grace The Apostle saith it was by Faith that it might be by Grace Rom. 4. 16. And the Scripture being so plain for it I ought to believe it though I could not make it out to others wherein it was freer nor yet apprehend it my self But my good friend the businesse is not so difficult but that it may be and hath been already dispatch'd by some of our side and the freenesse of the latter above the former notwithstanding the conditionality of both at large discovered And that not by excluding faith or the condition of faith from the latter as you would have it for that would interfere with that of the Apostle now cited By Faith that it might be of Grace where Faith is taken in not left out to make out the freenesse Nor yet only because faith is given of God and so ability to keep the latter Covenant is given which is something For though that strength Adam had to keep the first Covenant was freely bestowed on him by God in his Creation yet when God was pleased to enter into a Covenant with him he had it in him and was to work in his own strength and power Whereas in the New Covenant God finds man in an impotent weak and dead condition and graciously promiseth to work in him ability to do what he requireth This I say is something that serves to shew the freenesse of Divine Grace in the new Covenant for the Apostle saith expresly Ephes 2. 8. We are saved by Grace through faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God where the giving of the thing required to wit Faith is introduced by the Apostle to shew the freeness of Grace But the superabundancy of Grace in the latter Covenant appears mostly in this that in the former the matter of mans Justification had been something of his own his own exact and perfect obedience to the Law of God but in the latter the matter of it is an others the perfect Righteousness of Christ In the one man runs into himselfe for the price of his life and happiness But in the other faith carries him out of himself unto another the Lord Jesus Christ for all In the one the condition it self and the keeping of it was to have been the matter of mans Righteousness the ground of his Justification In the other it is only the Instrument and Mean In the one the condition it self Works procured life in and of themselves without any reference to any other but in the other Faith is looked on not as a Work but as an Instrument nor doth it save for any excellency worth or vertue that is in it but only because it layes hold on Christ I cannot better expresse my self then in Mr. Gatakers words Rejoynder p. 46 47. In the one Works are considered as in themselves performed by the Parties to be justified and live In the other Faith is considered and required not as a work barely done by us but us an Instrument whereby Christ is apprehended in whom is found and by whom that is done whereby Gods Justice is satisfied and life eternal meritoriously procured for us so that they differ as much as these two Propositions 1. Pay your debt of a thousand pounds and be free 2. Rely on such a friends satisfaction made for it and be as free as if you had made full payment and satisfaction your self All this and more you may find in that reverend Divine your contempt of whom and all other not of your way sads the hearts of your friends and makes them fear that which they are loath to suspect concerning you You proceed and tell us that though it be not meritorious yet if it be Antecedent it must be Effective For an Antecedent condition is effective Sir By your own maintaining faith to be an instrument in the work of our salvation which I think is more then a condition though no more I believe then truth you must of necessity grant it both a precedency and efficiency therein for instruments are alwayes reckoned to the efficient cause and in order of nature precede the effect And thus I conceive that faith is effective in the work of our salvation as an instrument receiving Christ not as a condition Conditions are not effective but instruments are As for that of Chamier that a

marry without advising with her Uncle about it she loseth her right to the Legacy given her which by the way may shew the weakness of that Argument that is taken from the word Testament which some use against Conditions as if Conditions could not stand with a Testamentary disposition Now such is Gods grant of salvation it is made in Christ it is made in him unto Believers it is not made to sinners as sinners as some aver but to repenting and believing sinners John 6. 38. 39 40. This is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him have everlasting life The Grant being made unto us as Believers I conceive we have not right unto the benefit granted until we doe believe Sure I am we cannot have right but by and through our union to him which union being an inestimable benefit we cannot have right before we have benefit 7. Because you are so ready to charge your Adversaries with nonsense and contradictions let us mind you of the old rule He that accuseth another of dishonesty must look well to himself and let the inconsequences which necessarily follow from your Doctrine be our last Argument I beseech you therefore to read me those riddles your Tenents seem to me to contain and to lead me out of those mazes and Meanders which I think your Positions lead unto at least to deliver your self out of them for perhaps my senses may not lead me to follow your clue unlesse I see better solutions then I have seene or heard from you hitherto I beseech you tell me then 1. How there can be Many yea or any true Believers who were never humbled when yet all men must see their Righteousnesse drosse and dung must be schooled by the Law to know their need of Christ before they can or will make out unto him 2. How the same man may be actually reconciled to God have wrath removed from him and be beloved of God with the love of complacency and yet at the same time in regard of the same evil works be an enemy unto God a child of wrath and have wrath abiding on him 3. How the same man may be actually justified and quickned and yet actually dead in regard of the same sins at the same time 4. How the same man at the same time can be a member of Christ one in him and united to him as he must be who is actually justified and a member also of the divel as he cannot but be who still remains an ungodly impenitent and unbelieving person 5. How faith in the work of Justification serves for any farther use then to assure us that we are justified seeing it doth not concur to the essence and being of it or to the constituting of us in a state justifiable and how we are said to be justified by Faith and not by Works when Works assure us of our being justified as well as Faith 6 How in the Petition Forgive us our debts we can pray for any thing more then assurance of pardon when actual pardon is passed long before And how sins can be actually pardoned before they be committed and the guilt removed before it is contracted 7 How God who promiseth pardon to Believers only and condemneth thousands for their impenitency and unbelief can without blemish of his Honour Truth and Justice give pardon to any in his impenitency and unbelief 8 How a man can be said to be bound by Covenant to keep or break the Covenant when yet in the Conant there are no conditions on mans part required to be performed 9 Why it doth not follow from your Tenents that a man may be actually Justified and saved without faith when yet you maintain actual Justification before faith and faith to be required not to the essence of it or interesting of persons in it but only to the assuring them of their interest therein 10. Why it follows not also from them that Christians may live as they list seeing you hold that no conditions are on their part required so that they cannot break the Covenant Whether Doctor Preston dares the Believer to sin if hee can I yet finde not but this I find That hee holds that the Believer may both sin and by sinning may break the Covenant as you may find in his Treatise of the New Covenant p. 458 459 460. c. These are some of the many for more might be named straites and intricacies your Positions lead your self and your followers into out of which how you will rid your self I wot not but sure I am that your Solutions hitherto given do yeild no manner of real satisfaction not only not to my self but not to any other of your godly and intelligent Auditors that I have yet met with Toward the close of your Sermon you ushered in your Authorities with this Objection But many good Divines call it a Conditional Covenant But Sir you are meal mouthed in the very Objection for not only many but the most part of Divines call it so All that I have ever yet met with Dr. Crisp Mr. Saltmarsh and your self exepted As for those Authors you bring I shall by and by shew your fowle play in citing some of them and your mistake of others and discover most if not all of them to be on my side and to be only against meritorious Conditions The like mincing you used in a passage in the beginning of your Sermon viz. That some good Divines say That Faith and Repentance are the way to glory Whereas if you be pleased to rub your poll I believe you may call to mind not only that some but most good Divines call these Conditions and say as much of good Works as you here allow to Faith namely that they are via ad regnum the way to the Kingdom though not Causa regnandi the cause of reigning I am sure Mr. Perkins Dr. Preston Bishop Davenant and most others I have read do call them so But you are politick in these expressions for thereby you would perswade your hearers that you had many on your side like some Travellers who passing on in solitary wayes keep a whistling and a hooping as if they had a great deal of company whereas alas they are either wholly alone or at most have but one or two Companions Now Sir for your reply to this Objection we shall refer it to the close of all and at present shall look into the Authours you bring and see whether they stand for the opinion for which you cited them or rather against it as shall be made to appear and then shall add some others to them You begin with the Fathers but there you are sparing in your citations you tell us the Question was rarely agitated then But you might have said that the Fathers if they faulted in any thing about the matter in Controversie it was in giving too much to Faith Repentauce and good Works by

a gold chain with a rich Jewel of the Crown in it and withal should bind himself to give her both the chain and a will to wear it Again He is both without doors knocking and within doors opening yet he never cometh in but upon condition we open which condition is also his own work He offers Righteousness so the sinner believe and he works belief that the sinner may have Righteousnesse pag. 109. Thus you see others as well as Dr. Preston assert the absolutenesse of the Covenant in that part who yet still maintain the other part viz. the promise of life and salvation to be conditional which as hath been already shewed Dr. Preston doth maintain 8. As for Mr. Walker he denies not all kinds of conditions in the place cited but only Conditions Legal and conditions for which meritorious ones but conditions which are as a means by which the free gift is received and as a qualification whereby one is made capable and fit to receive and enjoy the free gift such he granteth and calleth them Conditions in the place cited by you saying There is no condition of the Covenant propounded but only the way and means to receive the blessing or the quality and condition by which men are made capable and fit to enjoy the blessing which is as much as I plead for under that Title As for Mr. Strong though both what I have heard from him my self and also what I have heard from others who have seen his Sermon induce me to believe that he is not against our conditions yet having not his Sermon I must be altogether silent at this time concerning him By this Sir you may see that I have looked into the most of the Authors which you cited and amongst them all I must professe unto you that I find not one that speaketh fully for you but more against then for your Tenent and for that sort of conditions whose cause I plead I must intreat you therefore to shake hands with them and leave them to stand on my side To them I shall add some few more 1 Mr. Perkins shall be the first who puts down conditions in the very description of the Covenant saying The Covenant of Grace is that whereby God freely promising Christ and his benefits exacteth again of man that he would receive Christ by faith and repent of his sins In the Covenant of Grace two things saith he elsewhere must be considered the substance thereof and the condition The Substance of the Covenant is that Righteousnesse and life everlasting is given to Gods Church and people by Christ The Condition is that we for our parts are by faith to receive the foresaid benefits and this condition is by grace as well as the substance 2. Mr. Reynolds shall be the next in his Treatise of the Life of Christ p. 399. he calls Faith the conveyance and p. 403. We expect Justification by faith in Christ Faith unites us to Christ and makes his death merit life kingdom sonship victory benefits to become ours You may see p. 451 452 453. That to marriage between Christ and his Church whereby the Church hath a right and propriety created to the Body Name Goods Table Possession and Purchases of Christ is essentially required consent which consent must be mutual for though Christ declare his good will when he knocketh at our doors yet if we keep at distance stop our ears at his invitations there is then no Covenant made It is but a wooing and no marriage c. Pag. 465 466 467. That the office of Faith is to unite to Christ and give possession of him till which union by Faith be made we remain poor and miserable notwithstanding the fulness that is in Christ Pag. 478 479. and to name no more pag. 512. setting down the difference between the two Covenants he saith They differ in the Conditions for in the old Covenant legal obedience but in the new Faith only is required and the certain consequent thereof Repentance 3. Mr. Ball shall be the third who saith The Covenant of Grace doth not exclude all conditions but such as will not stand with grace and pag. 18. The stipulation required is that we take God to be our God that is that wee repent of our sins believe the Promises of mercy and embrace them with the whole heart and yeild love fear reverence worship and obedience to him according to the prescript rule of his Word and p. 20. If then we speak of Conditions by conditions we understand whatsoever is required on our part as precedent concomitant or subsequent to Justification Repentance Faith and Obedience are all conditions But if by conditions we understand what is required on our part as the cause of that God promised though only instrumental Faith or belief in the Promises of free mercy is the only condition 4. Let learned Pemble be the fourth who speaking of the difference between the Law and the Gospel saith The diversity is this The Law offers life unto man upon condition of perfect obedience cursing the transgressors thereof in the least kind with eternal death The Gospel offers life unto man upon another condition viz. Repentance and Faith in Christ promising remission of sin to such as repent and believe That this is the main essential difference between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace we shall endeavor to make good against the Romish Apostacy And about a leaf after Hence we conclude firmly that the difference between the Law and the Gospel assigned by our Divines is most certain and agreeable to the Scriptures viz. That the Law gives life unto the Just upon condition of perfect obedience in all things The Gospel gives life unto sinners upon condition they repent and believe in Christ Jesus Where you may take notice that he layes it down not as his own private opinion but as the general Tenent of all the Orthodox Divines in his time and that in opposition to our Popish Adversaries It was then no Popery to hold conditions in the Covenant and as he of the Divines of his time so may I of the Divines of this present age See their consent and harmony herein Larg cat p. 9. 5. Doctor Downam shall be the fifth That which is the only condition of the Covenant of Grace by that alone we are justified But Faith is the only condition of the Covenant of Grace which is therefore called Lex fidei And l. 7. c. 2. Sect. 6. Our Writers distinguishing the two Covenants of God that is the Law and the Gospel whereof the one is the Covenant of Works the other is the Covenant of Grace do teach that the Law of Works is that which to Justification requireth Works as the condition thereof The Law of Faith that which to Justification requireth faith as the condition thereof The former saith Do this and thou shalt live the latter Believe in Christ and thou shalt be saved

doth not justifie for it is against both his truth and justice 2. It may be taken for one that is ungodly and unjustifiable in himself but yet believing on Christ is through him and his satisfaction Just and so justifiable Such an ungodly person God doth Justifie and thus Ames Paraeus Bishop Downam and those other Divines I have in their descriptions of Justification make not a sinner simply but a believing sinner to be the subject of Justification or the person to be justified Now whereas you say That no where in Scripture a Believer is called ungodly I conceive it false He is called so there For who is the ungodly person spoken of there but Abraham and he was justified as hath been shewed when he did believe Besides God the object of faith Justifying who is described there to be the Justifier of the ungodly is said in ver 26. of the foregoing Chapter to be the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus I beseech you tell me doth not the Apostle speak of one and the same Justification in both places Doth he not in both places describe one and the same person the person that is justified Him then whom he calls a Believer on Christ in one place the same he calls an ungodly person in the other and whom he cals an ungodly person in this in that he stiles the same a believing person Certainly seeing as it is Chap. 3. vers 30 that it is one God that justifies both the Circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith i.e. All that are justified both Jew and Gentile circumcised or uncircumcised by or through one and the same mean of faith It must needs be that the ungodly person spoken of in the next Chapter is such an ungodly person as hath faith and doth believe or else God should justifie some without faith to which the former place doth aver the contrary That place in the Romanes then concerning Gods justifying the ungodly will not bear the Position you ground upon it viz. That sinners are justified before they do believe or that we do not believe that we may be justified as the Doctor expresseth it an assertion as rotten as the foundation on which it is built and expresly contrary to the Apostle who tells us Galat. 2. 16. that hee had believed on Christ that so he might be justified by the Faith of Christ Thus have I given you an account of some and those of the main of your Arguments both wherein they have not satisfied me concerning the Tenent you endeavoured to maintain and wherein also they have offended me whilst they wounded that I hold for truth through the sides of Popery and Arminianism I shall now shew you some grounds of my belief on the contrary first taking leave in a word to state the Question and to set downe how and what I hold concerning it First then I distinguish between both a condition and a meritorious cause as also between it and an impulsive cause By condition I understand neither any thing meriting Justification at Gods hands in the least degree nor yet any thing moving the Lord to Justifie or bestow Salvation on us Secondly By Conditions I understand the restipulation or repromission in a Covenant the termes and Articles of Agreement in a Covenant betweene equals and the thing commanded or required in a Covenant betweene Superiors and Inferiors such as is the Covenant between God and man Thirdly Whereas there are conditions yet I assert them not in any rigid and legal but in an Evangelical way Not so as if they were not strictly and in a rigid exactnesse perfectly kept there were no hope of Salvation but so as if that they be not in some measure sincerely observed there is sure damnation Mr. Ball will tell you that whereas in the Covenant of Nature perfect obedience is exacted so that if there be the least failing in any jot or tittle and that but once a man can never be justied thereby nor can the breach be made up by any repentance In the Covenant of Grace perfect obedience is indeed required yet so as Repentance is admitted and sincerity accepted Conditions in this Evangelical way I plead for and conceive That God in the New Covenant doth not promise life and salvation absolutely unto his chosen whether they believe and repent or no but doth require from and command them to repent and believe if they will be partakers of the benefits purchased by his Son and promised by himself in that his Covenant which that they may do he himself of his own grace and for his own Sons sake bestowes faith and repentance on them Nor have they a right to any actual enjoyment of these benefits untill they do actually repent and believe The Grounds of my perswasion in this particular follow 1. That Covenant wherein is a mutual stipulation is conditional But such is the new Covenant therefore that is conditional As on Gods part life and salvation are promised so on mans repentance and faith and perseverance therein are required and to be promised Mar 1. 15. Chap. 6. 12. Acts 2 38. chap. 3. 19. chap. 20. 21. John 6. 28 29. chap. 3. 15 16. John 8. 24. Rom. 10 6 7 8 9 John 8. 31. Chap. 15 5 6 7 10. Heb. 3. 6. Chap. 10 38. He cannot see wood for trees that doth not take notice of these Evangelical commands wherein performance of Gospel conditions and perseverance in that performance are required they every where so abundantly occur Choose we out one of the places named and a little insist on it that Rom. 10 9. the rather for that in your answer to Mr. S. you make some reply thereto How say you do you prove that Rom. 10 9. is set down the forme and tenure of the New Covenant I deny it The Apostles intent is c. Sir It is clear as Calvin notes that the Apostle here opposeth the Righteousnesse of faith to the Righteousnesse of Works It is also clear that in describing the Righteousnesse of Works he setteth downe the very tenor and form of that Covenant The man that doth them shall live by them ver 5. And in opposition thereunto delivers this to be the speech of the Righteousnesse of Faith If thou confessest with thy mouth and believest with thine heart c. If then it be granted which cannot be denyed that in these words The man that doth them shal live by them the tenor of the Covenant of Works is contained it must needs follow by the rule of opposition that in these words If thou confessest and believest c. the tenor of the Covenant of Grace is also contained Besides when the Apostle saith The Word is nigh thee c. That is the Word of faith which we preach That if thou confesse c. What I pray you doth he mean by the Word of Faith but the Gospel or what else did the Apostle preach but the Gospel The sum of which he

so the marriage may be made and continued And what doth Zanchy I pray you here say more then any of those whom you oppose or who is there of those against whom you alledge him that doth not assert the very same If you look back into his Commentary on the same Chapter and verse you shall find him speaking the same thing and explicating himself in what sense he saith 't is a Promise without a Condition It is to be noted saith he explicating those words I will betroth thee to me that this is a simple and Evangelical promise without any condition for here God doth exact nothing to wit to be done by their owne strength but doth simply promise what he himself will do to his Church so that he doth promise faith it selfe without which the rest of the Promises can have no place in us 2. You may observe That when he saith The Promise is made without any condition his meaning is without any Condition in us Antecedaneous as a moving cause inducing or inclining the Lord to enter into this Covenant and to make this matrimonial Contract all the cause thereof the Lord finds in of and from himself in which regard he prevents us not we him Thus he doth afterwards clearly expresse himself By that word I wil betroth thee he doth give us to understand that God is the Author of our Reconciliation and consequently of our Salvation He it is that doth first come to us and betroth us to himself Wee do not prevent him or seek him to be our husband but he preventeth us that he may betroth us unto himself 1 John 4. Not that wee loved him first but he loved us first Wo be to us if God did not prevent us Thus Zanchy and what have you gained by him in this particular or your opposites lost Do they not speak the same things and when they assert Conditions yet deny them to be on our part antecedaneous or any moving causes acknowledging that all doth proceed from the meer good pleasure of God according to the purpose which he purposed in himself and that he loveth his people with whom he makes the Covenant because he loveth them as Moses sometime said to Israel 3. That in denying of Conditions he doth deny conditions that are meritorious and that the Covenant it self as also the Promises are free without respect unto or dependance on any thing that is of merit in us Thus in the very next page setting down the substantial or essential heads of the Covenant he delivereth his mind The manner of making the Covenant or of promising is that God of his free grace without any merits of ours doth make this Covenant with us and it doth not depend on any merits of our own at all And do not those whom you oppose and think to strengthen your opposition against them by Zanchies Authority produced and urged for you do not I say they speak the same thing with him in this particular Hitherto I shewed that Zanchy is not so much for you as you would make the world believe he is I shall now make it appear that in the same place however he doth not use the word Condition which yet he doth in other places yet he speaks the same thing for substance which they do against whom you alledg him And that there are such conditions required on the Churches part as wee plead for Consider with me to this purpose 1. His explication of that phrase I will betroth thee to me When God doth make a new Covenant with any people he is said to betroth them to himself because that by the bond of the Covenant he will unite himself to that people and they are likewise joyned to God as the Bridegroome is to the Bride and the Bride to the Bridegroom faith of the Marriage being given on both sides or by both parties And 2. His definition of the Covenant which he doth afterwards largely insist on setting down the chief and essential heads thereof The Covenant of God with man saith he is mutua pactio a mutual agreement between both parties wherein God of his meer grace and for Christs sake doth promise two things 1. That he will be a God to us or receive us into his favour pardoning all our sins for Christs sake and impute his righteousnesse unto us 2. That he wil bestow the Kingdom of Heaven on us for our inheritance And doth also require of man two things 1. Faith 2. Obedience that he order his life according to the pleasure of God and both parties do by outward signes confirm Fidem sibi invicem datam You may find the same thing delivered by him in the first and second Heads of the Covenant And in the next page The substance of the Covenant on Gods part saith he is that which God of his free grace doth offer and promise us on our part that which he doth require of us and which we promise to perform That we do embrace this reconciliation offered and promised That we will be his people c. Now Sir if you will be pleased to consider these several assertions of Zanchy in this very place which you your self did quote 1. Faith is that Grace which is on the Churches part necessary to make up the marriage Covenant between the Lord and her 2. This grace the Lord doth promise absolutely to give it being that grace without which the rest of the Promises have no place in us 3. It is also our duty God doth in the Covenant command it we promise to perform it 4. It is that wherein on our part the substance of the Covenant doth consist Lay them altogether and you may clearly see here is an acknowledgment of the thing faith is the condition of the Covenant though he doth not give it the name But to give you a further taste of him that it may be out of all question that he doth assert conditions both name and thing I shall only intreat you to peruse one place more in him where he doth largely handle that great blessing and benefit of the Covenant the remission of sins in the sixth place he comes to consider On what condition it is offered and conferred and mentions three 1. The first and chief is the true and constant practice of Repentance 2. Confession and acknowledgment of our offences to those whom we have injured and wronged 3. A brotherly forgiving of those which have sinned against and offended us Where he doth withal maintain that they are conditions not for which but without which the remission of sins is not obtained denying them to be conditions meritorious Therefore S. John saith If we confess behold the condition yet he doth not say for our confession he will forgive Justification cannot be had without faith but we do not say it is obtained for the worth of our faith but freely or of free-grace Moreover

of hope of a future happinesse or glorious Resurrection 1 Thess 4. 13. Howbeit with due moderation in humility of soul and quiet submission to the will of God it is not onely warrantable but laudable a practice which grace bringeth the people of God unto to mourne over the faithful Messengers of God when they are by death called home out of this present world When Steven was slaine by the Jewes Devout men carried him to his Burial and made great lamentation over him This is mentioned by the Holy Ghost not as a groundlesse but as a gracious practice of these Believers evidencing their Christian love to Stephen that blessed Martyr of the Lord. In proportion to this great lamentation made by devout men at Stephens Funeral and the sore weeping of the Believers of Ephesus at Pauls final parting from them mentioned in my Text I doubt not but our mourning over our deceased Brother at this time is lawful and laudable in the presence of the Lord. I will not multiply words in reference to this our Reverend Brother now taken from us I shall leave his Works to praise him in the Gate being well assured that many who have felt and tasted the power and comfort of his Ministry will beare witnesse to him and the working of God in him for their good One thing there is relating to his death which I cannot omit that the Lord greatly testified his acceptation of him in his Work in that he dyed of Epaphroditus his sicknesse of whom the Apostle wrote That for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death The Work of Christ of which Epaphroditus was sick was as far as wee can judge a special part of the Disease of which this our Brother dyed for after that some symptomes and beginnings of a bodily weaknesse had seized upon him his turn came to supply a Lecture at a place somewhat remote from his owne habitation which therefore some neerly related to him earnestly perswaded him to forbear for that time but such was his Zeal towards the work of Christ that it caused him to neglect his friends advice and his own health and to overlook his present danger and so undertake the Work of Preaching the Gospel in his course under the weight of which labour of love his weak body did apparently sink in the time and place of that publick service after which returning home he declined more and more untill the time of his death Our Saviours words therefore seem plainly to reach this our Brother and pronounce him blessed Blessed is that servant whom the Lord when he cometh shall find so so doing The Lord when he came to this our Brother by death found him doing so doing doing his Lords Work faithfully and therefore looking on him we have cause to part with him rejoycingly being much assured of his blessednesse yet looking at our selves we have cause to part with him sadly when we consider that we shal have his help and see his face no more A Pillar is fallen and by the fall thereof a great breach made in this place this County this Land which that the Lord may be pleased in mercy to make up by increasing the number strengthning the hands and blessing the Labours of his faithful Servants in the Ministry we have great cause to bow our knees before him and to beg this favor from him in the name of the Lord Jesus to whom with the Father and blessed Spirit be praise and Glory for ever Amen FINIS a Vind. Ley Lect. 26. pag. 249. b Ames coron artic 1. c. 1. § 4 Impetration is the foundation of application c Camero in Ps 68. inter Arg Solut. Med. ult d Prideaux Ser● Draught of the brook And Perk. Ref. Cath. of Merit e Panstr Cathol tom 3. l. 14. c. 16. 21. ad 25. f Ibid. 9. 38. 12 Cor. 4. 17. h Jer. 3. 13. i 〈…〉 k 〈…〉 p. 112. l Gataker Rejoynd p. 31. m Fidem ponī ut conditionem salutem quidem antecedentem sed electionem ipsam consequentem nunquam à nostris negatum fuit summā verò cum religione constanter traeditum Cor. de Elect. c. 1. §. 4. p. 7. n 2 Thes 2. 11. o Rejoynder p. 47. p Si igitur haec esset mens et sententia Synodi quod simpliciter vellet monstrare illum de quo jam diximus modum et ordinem quo juxta Scripturae traditionem Deus utitur quando homines vult deducere ad justificationem et si illa quae Scriptura tradit procedere tribuerent non viribus liberi arbitrii sed gratiae Dei et operationi Sp. Sancti nec in illis praeparationibus constituerem meritum aut dignitatem propter quam justificemur facilè posset de vocabulo praeparationis dextrè juxta Scripturam intellecto conveniri Exam. part 1 p. 172. q Falsum est igitur quod in 9 canone nobis tribuunt quasi docemus nullum plane motum voluntatis divinitus donatum et excitatum praeced ere acceptionem justificationis Omnino enim docemus poenitentiam et contritionem praecedere Non dicimus praecedere tanquam meritum quod suâ dignitate cooperatur ad justificationem consequendam sed sicut sensus morbi aut dolor vulneris non est meritum sanationis sed urget et impellit ad desiderandum quaerendum et sucipiendum medicum r At Evangelium non promittit salutem absque ulla conditione legis observandae neque id nostrumquisquam docuit modò ne conditio pro merito sumatur tom 3. l. 15. c. 2. § 9. nam et fidei conditio non est antecedens sed consequens quia nullum fidei meritum attenditur sive fides non est causa salutis ſ Non negamus bona opera ullam relationem habere ad salutem habent enim relationem adjuncti consequentis et effecti ad salutem ut loquuntur adeptam et adjuncti antecedentis ac disponentis ad salutem adipiscendam atque etiam argumenti confirmantis fiduciam ac spem salutis sed negamus ulla opera nostra causam esse posse meritoriam justificationis ac salutis Bel. ener tom 4. lib. 6 cap 6. s Promissiones cum conditione obedientiae ut causae juris quod habemus ad rem promissam sunt propriae legis sed promissiones cum conditione obedientiae ut adjuncti aut effecti rei promissae vel dona●ionis ejus locum suum habent in benignissimae gratiae regno ubi meritis nostris nullus habetur locus cap. 5. §. 2. t Haec et hujusmodi opera cordis interna sunt omnibus justificatis necessaria non quod contineant in se efficaciam seu meritum justificationis sed quod juxta ordinationem divinam vel requirentur ut conditiones praeviae seu concurrentes sicuti poenitere et credere vel ut effecta à fide justificante necessariò manartia ut amare Deum diligere proximum De just act cap. 30. Q. 1.