Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n body_n nature_n soul_n 2,893 5 5.2542 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A63017 The re-assertion of grace, or, VindiciƦ evangelii a vindication of the Gospell-truths, from the unjust censure and undue aspersions of Antinomians : in a modest reply to Mr. Anth. Burgesses VindiciƦ legis, Mr. Rutherfords Triall and tryumph of faith, from which also Mr. Geerie and M. Bedford may receive a satisfactory answer / by Robert Towne. Towne, Robert, 1592 or 3-1663.; Bushell, Seth, 1621-1684.; Towne, Robert, 1592 or 3-1663. Monomachia, or, A single reply to Mr. Rutherford's book ... 1654 (1654) Wing T1980; ESTC R23436 205,592 262

There are 5 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

condition the free gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6.23 All the Orthodox deny the promise of the Gospel to be conditional for if good works be conditions of life in the Covenant of Grace what then are the conditions of the Covenant of works Or wherein do they differ As this is to confound Law and Gospel Nata est in scholis Pseudo Apostolorum thus to distinguish between justification and salvation so it is remarkable that this distinction and question did first come out of the school of the false Prophets who thereby occasioned great disturbance in the Church as Act. 15.1 5. So Gerard c. M. B. Now by the Antinomian Argument as a man may be justified while he is wicked and doth abide so so also he may be glorified and saved for this is their principle that Christ hath purchased justification glory and salvation for us even though sinners and enemies Answ Methinks your face should blush for shame at the framing of this so appareatly unjust charge and accusation doth any say that Justification leaveth a man wicked Nay do not all and every write otherwise let others judge I say no more But that their principle is undenyably true yet your Logick can finde no ground in it for this corrupt and absurd inference If Christ ever purchased glory justification and salvation for us it was when and while we were sinners and enemies or not at all for he purchased nothing since ye became holy and a friend to God or him neither needed to purchase righteousness and life for any but sinners How are you permitted to err and mislead M. B. 6. They are in their own nature a defence against sin and corruption if we consider the nature of these graces Eph. 6.14 16. there you have some graces a shield some a breast-plate c. Answ 1. Graces as you call them or gifts of Grace are improperly put in and reckoned among good works 2. The defence and power they have against sin is especially in regard of their object Christ his righteousness and promises For thence it is that all they are so good and useful armour If you have Faith and hope and ever was in any great conflict you have found that all your defence help stay and victory was onely from and by Christ the object he is the onely refuge plea and sure Rock when all works will fail M. B. 8. They are necessary by debt and obligation Answ The works of the Law are debts required to be payed first that we may have life and favour but the love and works of the Gospel are for life peace and favour first had and obtained M. B. 9. And the Law of God still remaineth as a rule and directory Answ As it ruleth so it reigneth reproveth and condemneth and when you have walked most precisely according to it it will subdue you and your obedience under the Curse Gal. 3.10 for all you can do is too light when it is put into this balance You say The Antinomian teacheth the abolition of all the Commandments He is an Antinomian indeed that doth so but I must you still thus wrong and slander us M.B. 10. They are necessary by way of comfort to our selves And this opposeth many Antinomian passages who forbid us to take any peace by our holiness Answ There be divers kindes of comfort arising from different grounds and considerations The Doctor speaks of that peace and comfort which ariseth from the true and certain knowledge of remission of sins and reconciliation with God the true proper and pure fountain whereof is Christ crucified as for your works they are like puddle-water a blundered and polluted stream or a deceitful brook yea as a broken Cistern that holdeth little or none You say in temptation they fail and are not to be regarded or looked at See this answered also in the third prejudicial inference Lect. 3. M. B. These good works though imperfect may be a great comfort to us as the testimony of Gods eternal love towards us Thus did Hezekiah 2 King 20.3 he is there a thankful acknowledger of what was in him c. Answ The best and most satisfactory testimony and assurance of Gods love is his giving of that dear Son of his love to die that we might live through him Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.9 10. In this he commends sets forth and confirms his love Rom. 5.8 to put it out of all doubt 2 The next testimony is the giving of his Spirit for to reveal the things of Christ the unsearchable riches in him Joh. 16.14 Eph. 3.8 To shed abroad that love in our hearts that so the soul may know it feel the consolation of it c. 3 A third is the delivering and freeing of our hearts and natures from that bondage and pollution of sin by sanctifying us in body soul and spirit yet these are no causes but effects and expressions of his free and eternal love because he loved his own he doth all for them Our works are no causes or motives to him nor yet sure testimonies of Gods eternal love for many a Papist heathen and reprobate for the matter and shew of works exceed divers of them who believe Therefore if you will have them such testimonies and so have comfort from them you must look on them in all their causes especially in 1 The Efficient and the impulsive and moving cause which be neither the light judgement or dictamen of reason and natures principles nor the command coaction and commination of the Law by its rule and authority extorting them from us as being unwilling but they come from a free and voluntary spirit so made by the spirit of regeneration and Adoption moving to do good in love and delight Rom. 8.14 therefore be they called the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Secondly in the subject that the person be reconciled accepted and in favour through Faith in Christ Jesus Heb. 11.6 Lastly to say nothing of the form or object the end they are to be referred unto is not self-praise or profit to procure nor preserve by them our own peace favour or salvation with God which be the effects of Faith in Christ but simply Gods honour his Churches and our neighbours good even as our love is due also Mat. 22.37.39 And if these circumstances required necessarily to every good work Displicet deo dubitatio quare neque cols neque invocari cum dubitatione ●otest Melanct. be considered the soul will finde little need of works as testimonies and arguments of Gods love For that must be out of doubt first for a doubtful Conscience cannot please God by any work or obedience And your example of Hezekiah cometh nothing neer to make good your Assertion For as Gods works for us are testimonies of his love so our works at the most are but witnesses of our love unto him and therefore cannot be testimonies as you affirm of Gods
Christ a distressed and pursued soul may be safe and in peace but nowhere else M. B. Now these speak of Christs death as an universal meritorious cause without any application of Christs death unto this or that soul Therefore you must still carry this along with you that to that grand mercy of justification somthing is requisite as the efficient viz. the grace of God something meritorious viz. Christs sufferings something instrumental viz. faith and one is as necessary as the other Answ The full bent and chief drift of the Doctors ministery is the application of Christ and the benefits of his death unto the soul who so see any thing cannot but so judge I marvel then at this your so palpable accusation 2. Dr. Crisp speaketh of justification as it is Gods alone gracious act in Christ discharging and acquitting all the Elect in him at the time of his passion and resurrection fully and for ever This was done in fore caeli or as others coram judicio Dei As for the instrumentals whether the word to reveal and publish it or faith to apprehend and rest on it they were neither necessary to that Act of God but onely afterward to give evidence and assurance to the several consciences of all those Elect of what was done for them freely by God in Christ upon the cross For there God was in Christ reconciling them to himself 2 Cor. 5.18 M. B. I will but mention one place more Psal 68.18 Thou hast received gifts even for the rebellious also c. adding Is not all this strange Though the Author press sanctification never much in other places yet certainly such principles as these over grow it Answ 1. Why is it that you think this strange viz. That the loathsomness and hatefulness of this rebellion is transacted from the person upon the back of Christ he beareth the sin as well as the shame c. So that God acquitted his Elect and satiffied his justice in Christ their Sure y and by this means it cometh to pass that God can dwell withthose persons Is this any more then what Paul saith in short and plain words viz. Christ was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 and Ephes 2.14 Christ by his Crosse hath slain enmity and made peace Is not Christ the Communis terminus the bond and mean of union and atonement with God by his only sacrifice while we were sinners enemies in our selves we were reconciled in Christ Rom. 5.10 The ground and reason of your opposing is in that you are of opinion that God commeth unto us by or with or because of some inherent graces or qualifications in us which be as a Load-stone to draw and unite his affection and that Christ is but the meritorious cause of this a Papistical conceit God is in Christ and where Christ is there is God present I am in the Father and the Father in me Ioh. 14.10 he that hath the Son hath the Father also and he that hath not the Son hath not the Father He that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me Ioh. 13.20 God then loveth uniteth himself and cometh to the soule only in and through Christ In whom he makes us accepted Eph. 1.6 and that only of his grace If the presence of good works you so contend for in justification were granted you yet God hath no respect to them but beholdeth us as sinful wretches plunged into all confusion and being moved to pity us he considereth our persons and receiveth us alone in our Lord Jesus Christ yea he only beholdeth as our selves so all our good works in that perfection of his Son else they could not be accepted nor liked saith Mr. Calvin And these are the only true and most powerful and operative principles of all right sanctification though your legally-forced sanctity or reformation may grow and arise out of another natural principle and dead root Lastly as for that conversion and change of the most rebellious by the Ministery it is the product or effect of this doctrine I muse that a man of your parts and Religion should so stumble in so clear a light LECTURE IIII. 1 Tim. 1.8 9. Knowing the Law is good if a man use it lawfully M. B. Having confuted some dangerous inferences that the Antinomian makes from that precious Doctrine of justification Answ Egregiam vero laudem spolia ampla refers tu Review now your elaborate work and you will not finde one syllable of real confutation you may learn palmodiam canere I only intend to defend and vindicate the assertions and cause of your later Antinomians as you are pleased to call them as for Islebius Agricola he is none of my acquaintance I never read him If you wrong him God is his Judg and avenger yea and this also I would have the Reader know thāt I am minded to pass by whatever I shall henceforth meet withall whether positive or controversal if it do not directly touch or reflect upon his three named Antinomians lest all the rest in this book be taken for orthodox or I be accounted an approver of it for many things in it besides are to me unsavoury and unsound M. B. sect 2. They tell us not only of a righteousness or justification by imputation but also Saintship and holiness by this obedience of Christ And hence it is that God seeth no sin in believers Answ If they tell you of such perfection that God seeth no sin they withal in the same place tell you if you had the same ears to hear it that this justification or Saintship is by imputation and not by inherent sanctification If Christ be held forth unto you by God himself as one that hath washed you and cleansed you from all sin and withal it be given you so to apprehend and receive it what think you now of your self and condition while you abide in this light In the Creed you say I believe a holy Church yet the Church it self is no exterior or visible thing that the world can discern though the persons be visible and her holiness is invisible onely faith which is of things not seen Heb. 11.11 can behold this purity of the Church not in the Law nor any work or inherent thing but as she is washed and made clean in the blood and righteousness of her Redeemer The Church is all fair saith August for her filthiness is taken away by Christ and he hath made her fair Look upon the Christians life and there thou maist finde many things that thou blamest If he look within himself the work of renovation there wrought it is also imperfect and not pure but as he is beheld in Christ who hath sanctified him he is altogether pure and holy but faith only seeth this Mark but this one saying of Calvin To the intent that God may no more be an enemy and take part against us who are
from it 2. As for your instance in the Magistrate I answer If the Magistrate have no power to punish he is no compleat Magistrate See Rom. 13.4 He is a minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil this is one maine part of his effice and as effential to it as it is to countenance and defend the innocent and good Also 1 Pet. 2.14 Governours be sent of purpose for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well 2. Your other instance of confirmed Angels is as ineffectual They were under a law say you Answer Well it is true and those that fell are condemned by that law they were under And now suppose any of them that do stand should yet sin as did the other would they not fall into the same condemnation It may be disputable yet it is currant with most that the Elect Angels are confirmed by Christ now I would learn Whether the benefit they have by Christ is in that the condemning power is taken from the Law they live under so that though they fall it cannot hurt them or is it in that they are upheld and established in their integrity that they cannot fall as did the evil angels and yet the condemnation remaineth in the law still Who then do now need most rectifying I fear you wittingly do oppose the truth And your manner of replying doth confirme this my opinion If what is said be true and evident let it leave you satisfied and not go on against the clear light M. B. Every believer though justified by Christ is under the moral Law of Moses as also the Law of Nature Answ You are too bold and peremptory in your assertion For 1. If believers be under those laws then he is under their curse S● judice nemo no●●ns absol●itur Ascendet quisque mentis su●e ●●●bunale c. for both of them do curse and condemne all that any way disobey them but every one under them do many wayes disobey them Where is there any one if any stirring be in him but he may observe within his own thoughts and feel a sentence given out against him daily for one thing or other that he is found to be guilty of But is it not written that Christ was made under the law to redeem us from under it Gal. 4.4 again Rom. 6.14 you are not under the law but under grace whether now shall we believe Paul thus saying by the infallible Spirit of God or shall we credit you speaking contrary of your own head by a private spirit 2. You say though justified by Christ Now I here would aske whether by justification his condition or estate be not changed he was under the Law before and is he so still what availeth then his justification or where is his liberty wherewith Christ hath made him free Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access unto this grace wherein we stand This grace of justification is like the City of Resuge for the peace and safety of the soul unto which it betaketh it self by faith that so it may finde rest and security by escaping the coademnation and danger of the Law when it is pursued by sin and the tempter Heb. 6.18 so that a Christian by his faith seeketh to be delivered from the law in the purest obedience and best works whereof the conscience cannot be secure nor dare not rest vae etiam laudabili vitae si remota sit misericordia Indeed faith worketh also by love in another sphere and consideration and here in love he is under the law serving his neighbour in the freedome and willingness of his minde Gal. 5.13 according to that exhortation Eph. 5.2 Walk in love as Christ hath loved us and given himself for us c. but this appertaineth onely to our conversation and the things of this life and is so perfect in none but that law he serveth under will finde matter and cause of condemnation so that still the soul elevated and kept above in saith by which it liveth Gal. 2.20 would be found in Christ having his righteousness which is perfect and everlasting and not having its own righteousness which is of the law Phil. 3.9 If there be no curse nor danger in the works of our own righteousness or of the law it having lost its condemning power as you affirme why should Paul be afraid to be found there But in temptation and the time of inward conflict the truth benefit and necessity of this will better appear and so be discerned and readily received and without temptation Christianus nullus est It seemeth your spirits live and abide under the law as under a quiet and peaceable government without sense or fear of condemnation and without inward molestation or chock of conscience in that you tell us of being under both the natural and moral law and yet free from condemnation of either And you would patronize D.T. Regula vitae and yet dare not nor cannot do planè plenè I finde you in doctrine agreeing with Doctor Laud who in a Sermon on Ashwednesday before the King his text being Jer. 6.16 said that the old pathes wherein we might rest were the Creed the Lords Prayer and the ten Commandments and added that the law was like unto a serpent at the hedge bottome which had lost its sting I believed him not though you do And so he told the King and the rest what a pestilential sect the Antinomians were and thus he did labour as you do to make the world believe that there are some abolishers of the law that these against whom you write and all others who go in the same way are such and so not to be tolerated in the kingdome And about the same time D. Gifford after many invectives against that sect and sort for it is spoken against everywhere Act. 28.22 in the closure he gave this wise admonition to his hearers viz. To repent to believe and to do as they should do and so he would warrant them to be saved Here was repentance faith and inchoate obedience as in your friend D. Tailer but in which will you place salvation In all you and these your complices do say and teach and then in none at all doth the truth of God say for If ye be circumcised Christ profiteth nothing Gal. 5.2 You cannot but see as D. Tailor in that his book so others of great note amongst you to preach and print many erroneous things and why do you not blaze or reprove those their assertions as being far more palpable and of more dangerous consequences then is the worst or weakest expression you can finde in your Antinomian authors Is it out of a pure zeal for God I doubt it or you come forth thus Goliah-like to shew your valour and to defie the family of faith And so to gratifie others you
through Christ we have entrance unto the Father and Eph. 3.12 By him we have boldness and entrance with confidence by faith in him If Mr. Rutherf object But these are not in full and absolute perfection where yet true faith may be Who saith so or who but Mr. Rutherf would so closely pervert the truth that I may retort his owne words Being justified by faith we have peace c. In whom believing ye rejoyce c. God hath begotten us againe to a lively hope c. Rom. 5.1 1 Pet. 1.3 8. Nay saith Mr. Rutherf This is a close perverting of the truth for he doubts not but that there are many weak believers of a trembling timerous and troubled spirit whose faith is not yet able to over-master their fears which cause torment and disquietness but I cease And Mr. Rutherf hereby smels our faith Reply Naribus utilis yet no unsavory errour And know it that it is the effect of the law of works upon the natural conscience and the unbelief of the Gospel that keep the soul in bondage through that slavish fear Mr. Rutherf ibid. The covenant of grace commands faith and also good works as witnesses of faith but Mr. T. will have good works in any Notion of an Evangelick command to stand at defiance with the covenant of grace Repl. What contend you for if you grant grace to be the fountain-cause of all holy walking then not the law 2. If it be a lively and free fountain then doth holiness issue out of it as a pleasant stream and how now do good works stand at defiance with the covenant of grace Besides it is said Catachresti●●s abusively and not properly that the covenant of grace commands faith and good works for it promiseth to give both to them who have power to neither Lastly these works are not done as conditions to obtain eternal life for that is said passim to be by faith without works faith for salvation good works for conversation Mr. Rutherf ibid. The man under the law cannot give himself to be ruled by the law after the minde and will of God as Mr. T. saith except Antinomians be Pelagians Reply It s a palpable wrong I have no such words as that a man under the law can give himself to be ruled by it after the mind and will of God you have a strange conscience that no better bridleth you though your affections be void of love to your Adversary I might more truely reply by your doctrine That a man under the law can do it for you free none from under it or else you are not ruled by it after the mind and will of God And that is most propable who now is the Pelagian But to deal plainly what say you of Paul and many zealous Jews who in earnest applied themselves to do the things of the Law so that Paul saith touching it he was blameless and that before his conversion to the faith To do it after the mind and will of God is your addition Mr. Rutherf Paul speaks of a man under the Law in the flesh and in opposition to that under Grace married to Christ he that is dead to the Law married to Christ and serves God spiritually And it 's clear the Apostle counts it a part of deliverance from the Law and a fruit of our marriage to Christ that we bring forth fruit to God walk holily and serve in newness of spirit Reply Jam convenimus What contend you for all is granted that I desire or said for 1. then Christ and not the Law as a husband makes fruitfull 2. Then there was a serving of God under the Law in the oldness of the letter 3. Where or how then find you me to be against holy walking and according to the rule of righteousness Is not this your false slander Assert How can Christ redeem us from the Law except in the same sense and extent that Christ was under it Mr. Rutherf 1. Christ was under the Law of Ceremonies I hope Gentiles were not under that Reply The question is of the moral and you talk vainly of ceremonial Mr. Rutherf If Christ was under the Law as a rule to free us from it why commands he to imitate him Reply Christ was under the Law for life even to obtaine favour and salvation for us so he is in the end of the Law for righteousness to all that believe 2. It is by his spirit and power any imitate him walking as he did and so do keep the Law as he did freely in love not for self-life or self-ends for so did Christ who sought not himself Assert pag. Mr. T. hath a strange evasion The spirit is free why will you controle and rule it by the Law whereas the nature of it is freely to conforme heart and life to the outward rule of the law without the help of the law as a crooked thing is made straight c. Mr. Rutherf To do the will of God meerly as commanded from the power of an outward commandment is legal saith Saltmatsh and Mr. T. saith it is to controul the free spirit Three means saith T. are passive to hear read receive Sacraments are so many restraints laid on the free spirit Reply I say again If the spirit rule you according to the Law then neither Law nor you do rule it but the Law is onely the rule or pattern according to which the Spirit formeth you What can be more plain to him that will see and grant any truth And this makes no contrariety but a sweet harmony between the word and the spirit yea and establisheth the Law by the faith and Spirit of the Gospel And here you would range us among the old Anabaptists Enthusiasts c. and love to expatiate having burst the banks and bounds of charity and truth I am not more strange to you then this is to me That you are of such a spirit 2. Where say I that meanes are passive The Spirit is pleased to blow sweetly by all Evangelical meanes as Preaching Prayer Sacraments c. and we rightly using them do carry our selves passively that the Spirit may thereby breath and give life to our Spirits and that we may have it more abundantly Mr. Rutherf What T. meaneth in saying The spirit freely conformeth the heart to it Reply The sense is easie and plain if your mind were not finister Mr. Rutherf If the meaning be that the Law of it self cannot convert a man to God Antinomians father most falsly such dreames on us but if the Spirit conform us to the outward rule of the Law then must the Law be yet a rule to our obedience Reply When you please you can spell out my meaning But 1. Whether it be your dream or no I leave it Yet you know that your Brethren so hold and teach and may be forced to own this brat or novell-assertion of theirs 2. As if Mr. Rutherf were in a dream he in his other book would seem
tendering Christ to thieves c. whoso upon that ground or tender receiveth him in so doing doth confess himself a thief and if he were not self-convicted and condemned he would never believe or receive Christ for the end of the action is it that putteth him upon the action he believeth in Christ or receiveth him that he may be saved therefore he seeth he is lost and cannot otherwise be saved This is clear But that expression is most strange when you say that sinners remaining in that damnable state do believe For 1. Can they possibly be out of that damnable state before they believe or any other way but by faith in Christ 2. Again if they believe in Christ can you imagine that they shall remain in statu quo prius What a false myst is this or vile dust that you cast before the eyes of people but you are in the net and your end is perceived But what preparations would you desire more then that God should give a heart to such sinners to come to Christ a heart sensible of sin apprehensive of danger desirous to be in a secure condition and that is resolved that peace and safety is onely in Christ and by Christ else the soul cometh not to Christ and if it come not to him it hath no encouragement by Dr. Crisp's Ministery Do not condemn the innocent You often speak of a lazie dead faith If yours were truely operative we should finde you more in the way of truth and charity Faith worketh by love Gal. 5.6 I end commending to your second thoughts your own words pag. 128. Though thou were upon the borders of hell yet the Gospel though it except thee from all actual mercy yet not from the duty of believing and coming to Christ Those that sin against the holy Ghost are condemned for unbelief Be reconciled first to your self and so to the Doctor 8 Exception against Mr. Town Mr. Rutherf Mr. Town saith All our obedience as it is the work of the Spirit is passive Reply Here I observe a twofold failing 1. In that the occasion of these words and unto which they relate is concealed Dr. Tailer said God looketh not on their obedience as theirs but as it is his own work in them Now then I grant it in a sort to be his own work but so it is passive to us and so it must be unless you put no difference between what the Spirit worketh in and upon us and what we work by the same Spirit for here we act And your dealing is not fair in that you leave out the words in them for so Mr. T. saith What the Spirit worketh is passive to them But 2. see how you pervert this and so infer as you please That now it is sacriledge for us to be holy and to adde any of our active holiness to Christs active obedience Repl. The former Clause ariseth not from my premises as you cannot but see unless this be the meaning to make our selves holy which is Gods work alone not ours at all And if you will adde our active holiness to Christs it is no other then sacriledge though Mr. T. hath no such words for you steal and take from Christ what you put to your own obedience M. Rutherf page 121. Use Antinomians cry down duties This is not the way of grace Repl. You take it to be your duty and part unjustly to charge your brethren 2. Duties are to be cried and chased out of the way of Free-grace if you rightly conceive and take it as Eph. 2.8 9. Tit. 3.5 Rom. 11.6 But they are not to be denied in practice and conversation Mr. Rutherf p. 126. Often that which troubleth is subtil and invisible pride he will not believe for want of self-worthiness as I dare not rest on Christ nor apply promises because of my sinful unworthiness I am not good enough for Christ Then you adde Right and saving humiliation conjoyned with faith c. Repl. First you principle your hearers by your doctrine for such temptations and thoughts telling them that sinners as sinners have nothing to do with Christ they must be better qualified bring saving humiliation repentance and faith and now you chide and reprove them for such conceits of their wants and unworthiness as to be thereby letted and deterred for coming to Christ This is your inconstancie And if now you apprehend this to be the ordinary and usual temptation of a troubled dejected sinner desirous of Christ and would clear it that self-unworthiness is no bar why are you so invective against Dr. Crisp Oh consider and be better advised But it is improper and unscripture-like to call humiliation saving as also inconsistent with self-unworthiness 9 Exception Dr. Crisp We cannot gather assurance of a spiritual state from holy walking Mr. Rutherf Holy walking is performed by that efficacious grace promised in the Covenant as an argument on which we may build our peace as a grace threeded upon the free promise Repl. He that believeth is onely in a safe and sure state Joh. 3.36 2. The question will be Whether the holy walking be performed by that efficacious grace of the Covenant You must know it as an effect of such a cause for all walking in a Legal way will not argue it as we see in Paul while a Pharisee Phil. 3.8 First the soul must be in the covenant of Grace and be certain of that else it cannot say This is the performance of the promise nor That holiness of mine is threeded upon the promise A servant may be obedient as well as a childe but that will neither make nor prove him free in Christ by adoption It was not Abel's sacrifice that did witness his faith for Cain sacrificed also but his faith proved his offering to be good and acceptable Heb. 11.4 But I must that any experienced man should say that there is no more light of evidencing a good estate nor more certain ground of peace and comfort in a true justifying faith then is in holy walking and sincerity or should oppose Dr. Crisp seeing his doctrine is not onely true but so very necessary especially considering how Some of you grant that many do seek and gather all their peace and comfort in a meer Legal way and by their reformation and performances in whom the Law never wrought to death and condemnation that all their life and hope might be the faith of Christ their righteousness He that was sensibly dead knoweth how he was quickned and restored to life and he that knoweth in himself what death and life is If then he need and can do it he may use his after-holiness and obedience as Adminicula fidei but so ut alibi statuat solidura firmamentum Calv. See more in answer to Mr. Burgess if need require 10 Exception Mr. Rutherf Mr. Eaton brings divers Reasons to prove that we are not both righteous in the sight of God and yet sinners in our selves Repl. What an open