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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	efficient_a	faith_n	instrumental_a	2,644	5	11.5403	5	true

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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

for application say they is the end of impetration and impetration the foundation of application So that the Arminian doctrine of conditions to be performed by mans owne power which make the issue of Christs death to be uncertaine and pendulous on mans free will is wholly razed thereby but our doctrine of conditions purchased for us by the death of Christ and to be wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ are no way shaken The purchases of Christs death may be surely applied to them for whom they are purchased though they be applyed conditionally Nor is that other maxime of any more strength positâ causâ totali sequitur effectus the totall cause being put the effect followeth for if you speak of mans actual salvation or the application of salvation unto man you cannot say that Christs death is the total cause of it The whole and sole meritorious cause it is But I hope Gods grace is the impulsive cause Christs spirit the efficient cause and faith the instrumental cause And bonum est ex integris causis Good doth arise from all causes entire Now though an instrument be the meanest of causes yet is it necessary in the way of an instrument nor can the effect be in act before it be used Your third head contained such Scriptures as speake of Christ and salvation as of a gift a free gift In pursuance of which you delivered Christ is given freely given of God And if by grace then not of works And what can be laid on the creature that is not a worke If but a Rose not free To be freely and by condition is an absolute and flat contradiction For answer the Covenant with Adam in a passage before you aver to be conditional And in a passage following you seeme to intimate that it is free by saying that he could not have merited had he kept the condition It seems then that to be free and yet to be conditional as flat a contradiction as it is you your selfe have admitted in the Covenant with Adam Did you seriously consider what you spake when you said if but to pay a rose the tenure is not free Certainly my Country men in Glocester-shire account that a very free tenure nor think I them therein mistaken And if some Gentlemen should bestow on you an hundred pound a year on condition you should be more liberal to the poor to the expence not of a rose or two or a penny or two but it may be ten or twenty pound a yeare which unlesse you constantly exhibite you were to lose the principal If for all this condition you should not say that this were a free gift I should account you fowly unthankful If my memory faile not our ancient godly Divines use those similitudes of a Rose or pepper corne to set out the condition not of faith but of good works which they maintaine to be required under the Gospel as a consequent condition By which expression of theirs they do as you say destroy the freenesse of grace But your bare saying so doth not prove it The truth is the Arminians and Papists were more beholding to you for some passages in your Sermons then our ancient godly Protestant Divines But come wee to your Argument which if not taken out of Doctor Crispe is yet certainly the same with his vol. 1. p. 64. p. 179. By gift and on condition is a flat contradiction But take heed that you and the Doctor make not the Scriptures to speake absolute and flat contradiction which say wee are saved by grace through faith Eph. 2. 8. And therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace Rom. 4. 16. And being justified freely by his grace through faith in his blood Rom. 3. 23 24. And in the very place cited by you and the Doctor Rom 11. 6. If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace But if it be by works it is no more of grace otherwise works are no more works where it followes what then Israel hath not obtained what he seeketh for And if you ask wherefore the Apostle will tell you Rom. 9 32. Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law So likewise Where is boasting then it is excluded By what Law of works Nay but by the law of faith Rom 3. 27. And to him that worketh not but believeth Rom. 4. 5. The Scriptures joyn faith and free grace yea they tell us that freenesse of grace is upheld by that requisite or condition of faith But you call it a flat contradiction The Scriptures oppose faith and works But you say What can be laid upon the creature that is not a work You would beare men in hand that we teach contradictions But I am sure these passages of yours contradict the Scripture Again did not Christ lay repentance and faith upon the creature when he said repent and believe the Gospel Matth 4. 17. Mark 1. 15. yea doth he not lay it on them upon paine of damnation when he doubles it Luke 13. 35. except ye repent ye shall perish Did not the Apostles lay something on the creature when they thus answered their troubled converts who in anguish of spirit came with these queries to them men and brethren what shal we doe Acts ● 37. And Sirs what shall I do to be saved ch 16. 20. I say when they thus answered them repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be converted Did they not require something of them and lay something on them And did Christ or his Apostles think you preach any thing contradictory to free grace or free gift I hope whatever contradictions you pinne on our Sermons you will take heed what you fasten on the sayings of Christ and his Apostles whose doctrine we must take leave to believe and follow how contradictory soever it be deemed in the world Do not say here that Christ did not require them nor his Disciples presse them as conditions or as a worke which is the Doctors evasion for you your selfe know that we disclaime faith as a worke as much as you Wee maintaine not any worthinesse excellency or merit in faith I desire you to shew me if you can in any of ours that faith doth justifie as a work done by us or for any worthinesse or excellency that is in it I am sure that I can shew you the contrary and you may also see it if you be pleased to peruse Mr. Gatakers rejoynder to Saltmarsh p. 51. 53. This is that we maintaine that faith is so required of God that if we have it we shall have salvation and if we have it not we cannot have salvation and that not only in knowledge but in the being of it not only the evidence declaration and manifestation of that which is the Doctors opinion p. 168. and I feare is also yours but not the receipt benefit or being of it and that because it

against the Papists And truly I wonder that you should cavil at that distinction I gave between a condition and a meritorious cause And more that you should say that Papists ascribe no merit to conditions and preparations You know the question concerning the conditional promises of the Gospel is handled under that concerning the necessity of works where our Writers grant a necessity of presence but not of efficiencie which Bellarmine contends for Now I pray what doe they understand by that efficiency but a meritorious efficiency or what other then that can be ascribed unto works yea that our Authours understand merit by that efficiency they deny Adde to Chemnitius Chamier and consider two passages in him But the Gospel doth not promise salvation without any condition of observing the law nor did ever any of ours teach that so that he do not take the word condition for merit And in ch 5. Sect. 11. For the condition of faith is not antecedent but consequent because there is no merit of faith considered or faith is not the cause of salvation To these joyne Doctor Ames who saith We doe not deny that good works have any relation to salvation for they have the relation of an adjunct consequent and of the effect to salvation obtained as they speake and of an adjunct antecedent and disposing to salvation to be obtained and also of an Argument confirming our assurance and hope of salvation But we deny that any works of ours can be a meritorious cause of justification and salvation And in the Chapter before Promises with a condition of obedience as the causes of that right which we have to the thing promised are proper to the law but promises with condition of obedience as of the adjunct or effect of the thing promised or the donation of it have place in the most bountifull kingdome of grace where there is no place found for our merits Bishop Davenant shall be the next who averring repentance faith and love to be necessary to justification adds by way of explication and in opposition to the Popish sense of necessity These and the like inward works of the heart are necessary to all that are justified not because they conteine in themselves that efficacy or merit of justification but because according to Gods ordination either they are required as conditions precedaneous to or concurrent with justification as to repent and to believe or else as effects necessarily flowing from justifying faith as to love God to love our neighbour And in his next Chapter stating this question whether good works may be said to be necessary to justification and salvation he sets downe in his first and second conclusions that in controversies with Papists and Sermons to vulgar people wee should not use such expressions without due explication of them and that because both Papists and people wil be ready to understand them necessarily as meritorious causes of salvation Shewing by example of the Ancient Fathers how careful they have beene to forbeare some forms of speech by reason of the corrupt sense of hereticks to which purpose he alledgeth that of Hierom that which may well be spoken is not sometimes to be spoken by reason of the Ambiguity Neverthelesse in his fifth sixth and seventh Conclusions he maintains that they are necessary thereto though not as meritorious causes yet as previous and concurrent conditions Let Mr. Perkins be the first wee name for this particular who in his Reformed Catholick besides the head of Merit which wholly makes for us and shewes sufficiently the Papists to be Patrons of merit in that of Repentance speaking of the differences between us and Papists therein saith The fourth abuse is touching the effect and efficacy of Repentance for they make it a meritorious cause of remission of sin and of life everlasting flat against the Word of God And a little after They ascribe to their contrition the merit of congruity which cannot stand with the sufficient merit of Christ We for our parts hold that God requires contrition at our hands not to merit remission of sins but that we may acknowledge our owne unworthinesse be humbled in the fight of God and distrust all our own merits and further that we may make more account of the benefit of Christ wherby we are received into the favour of God and more carefully shun sin for time to come But we acknowledge no contrition at all to be meritorious save that of Christ I might adde to these learned Camero and repeate that which I cited out of him before it being the very distinction which you call a most weake evasion and the defence of which we are now upon As also renowned Pemble who spends a whole Chapter in refuting that opinion of Bellarmine and the Romanists viz. That faith justifies us as an efficient and meritorious cause obtaining deserving and in its kinde beginning justification But I shall content my self with the recitall of two more who handle the very Question now in controversie Whether the Promises of the Gospel be absolute or conditional And determine that they are absolute not conditionall The first of these is Broachman who saith It is not controverted Whether the promises of the Gospel that they may be fruitfull and saving do require faith Neither is it called into controversie Whether the promises of the Gospel be so free and absolute that they discharge a man from a serious sorrow for sins and from all study of good works For he must be an infant in Scripture that is not acquainted with these assertions of the holy Spirit But the true state of the question is whether the Gospel for any our worth intention work merit or any disposition in us doth promise to us grace mercy remission of sinnes and eternal life or rather for and through Jesus Christ apprehended by faith And againe in answer to Bellarmines fifth objection which was that the promises of the Gospel doe alwayes require the condition of Faith Thus hee saith which wee grant And further averrs that this condition of faith will stand with his Assertion of absolute promises For saith he We warned you in the beginning that it is not controverted Whether the promises of the Gospel doe require faith which wee willingly grant But whether in the free remission of sins the condition of Faith be required as any work of ours or certain disposition in us to which as to an efficient helping or cooperating cause the free remission of sins may be ascribed which we do roundly deny The other is Mr. Burges who asserts the same out of Broachman as I conceive By these Citations I hope it will more then sufficiently appear to an eye not strangely possest with prejudice 1. That the distinction between a Condition and a meritorious Cause is no slender and weak Evasion but a maine and fundamental Distinction in this Controversie such as on which the very hinges of the

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

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

both there and in this eleventh Argument he excludes both from the Covenant with Abraham and the work of Justification 2. Let but Martyr expound himself and then it will appear what conditions he denies and in what manner nor shall I lead you any further for discovery of this then this his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Look then Chap. 10 on those words For righteousnesse to every one that believeth and you shall find the difference betweene the Law and the Gospel thus set down by him The Law is received by doing and most exact performing that which is commanded But the Gospel by a lively and efficacious assent of faith Moses also Deut. 30. writeth concerning the Law that hee had set before the people life and death manifestly teaching that if the Law be received and fulfilled it will bring eternal life with it But seeing we are shut out from this benefit the merciful God hath provided another word to wit of faith which if by assenting to it it be received bringeth life along with it From this place it appeareth that the promises of the Law were given from the supposition or condition of Works going before But in the Gospel if works are annexed to the Promises they are not so to be understood as either the merit or causes of those Promises But we must thus conclude That these gifts of God which are promised follow after the works though they be not perfect and absolute as they are commanded in the Law This place I hope will shew that Peter Martyr was only against the condition of Works and there too against their merit or efficiency for as for their presence he allowes that they are required in the Gospel But as as for the condition of faith he is not at all against it Turne to one place more Rom. 8. If we suffer with him c. Where setting down the differences between the Promises of the Law and of the Gospel he saith They do not differ in this as some think that the Promises Evangelical have no conditions annexed but the Legal Promises are never offered without conditions for as it s said Honour thy Father and thy mother that thou maist live long upon the earth And if ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land So we read also in the Gospel Forgive and it shall be forgiven give and it shall be given c. Wherefore seeing this is not the difference we must seek out some other It appeareth therefore to him that diligently considereth that the conditions of the Law might bee causes of the obtainment of the rewards promised for if they had been perfect and absolute as the Law required them they might be compared with the rewards themselves and had also had esteem of merit but seeing these cannot be performed by men God of his mercy gave in their stead Evangelical Promises which although they have conditions added yet are offered freely Wherefore if thou joyne these three things together that the Evangelical rewards are promised freely that the conditions cannot be compared unto or equalized with them that the Promises must be most firme and take away the account of merit you may see wherein these differ from those of the Law And thus I hope it is manifest that they were conditions of Works which Peter Martyr did deny that he did not deny them simply neither but only as meritorious and causal of the benefits promised that he held faith to be the Requisite or the Condition of the Gospel So that you must give me leave to take Martyr from you too and put him down with the forenamed Authors for a patron of our Cause 3. Next unto Peter Martyr you cite Olevian but whether with any more advantage to your Cause then the former or disadvantage to us is the businesse of our present enquiry If you please with second thoughts which are most commonly the best to look into him you shall find that when he denies conditions in the Covenant they are only such as first are performed by and proceeding from our own strength which we with him do acknowledg to be none and therefore also deny the same 2. Which arise from or carry along with them a consideration of dignity or worthinesse in our selves 3. Are of a meritorious nature Such conditions as these we together with him disclaim That these are the conditions which he doth deny is so clear and plain that he which runs may read If you begin with his definition of the Covenant of Grace you shall find him in the close thereof expressing himself thus Without the condition or stipulation of any good thoughts from their own strength Having spoken concerning God who makes the Covenant he comes afterward to consider the persons with whom this Covenant is made and shewes that the very Elect themselves to whom it doth especially belong are by nature children of wrath dead in sins such whose hearts are hearts of stone unable to think a good thought of themselves meer darknesse enemies to God slaves to sinne and Satan Now forasmuch as they are such God saith he promiseth he will not make any such Covenant with them which in the least part thereof should be founded on their own strength to perform it Wherefore lest the Covenant should fail and be of none effect men being miserable dead in sins having hearts of stone such as are not subject to the Law of God neither in deed can be Rom. 8. Who are not able of themselves to think any thought that is good but that it may remain firm and everlasting he promiseth such a Covenant the whole essence whereof doth depend on himself alone and is founded in his Son Jesus Christ He promiseth also such a manner of executing in us this his decree and purpose the strength and efficacy whereof doth not proceed from corrupt man but from himself alone A little after he sums up all that he had said concerning the nature and substance of the Covenant thus Wherefore if you look upon God the efficient cause and those to whom he promiseth the Covenant or if you consider the matter and form thereof you shall still find it is a Covenant of free grace and that it doth not Depend on any condition of our worthinesse merits or our proper strength The most merciful God did see the promise would be vain in respect of our vanity which should depend on the condition of our own strength What here he doth deliver so plainly and in such expresse termes you may if you please to look into him find him afterwards repeating againe and again Sir By these passages you may see you have not gained any thing by Olevian nor your Adversaries lost by what he speaks against conditions in the Covenant Now that you may further see that he speaks rather on their side whom you oppose then for you I shall intreat you to consider some