bloud he washeth us 4. Wee behoved to beleeve from eternity for wee are justified by Faith 5. All the justified have a reall union and interest in Christ to live by faith and wait on God in all their troubles by faith but though their be an union of love in Gods minde from eternity betweene the elect and God yet a compleat union betweene us and Christ without the Spirit and without any faith though it be boldly asserted by Familists is against the Scripture for then might wee bee borne againe and not receive Christ by faith contrary to the Scripture and be united to Christ as branches to the Vine-tree and not abide in Christ have Christ dwelling in our heart and not by faith contrary to Paul so might Christ live in us and we eat and drinke him as the true Manna have the Sonne and yet want faith contrary to the Scriptures All which or most of them prove that wee were not justified when Christ dyed on the crosse 6. All that are justified are unseparably sanctified and called â—nd the blessing of justification hath with it the receiving of the promise of the Spirit through faith and peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ accesse by faith into grace whereby we stand rejoycing in the hope of the glory of God glorying in tribulation patience experience hope but many for whom Christ dyed have none of these till they be justified by Faith the distinction of justification in or before God or to our own sense by faith will not help this for the Scripture no where speaketh of justification but by faith onely the meritorious price of our justification is payed on the Crosse but that is not justification CHAP. XIX Gods love of good will and of good liking a warrantable distinction NOr can wee stand to that Antinomian ground that in Justification there is no change of our state and spirituall condition before God and that God hath the same love to us before and after conversion and that it is a vaine distinction of Gods love of good will called amor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel benevolentiae and good liking amor complacentiae because God loveth because he loveth and for no cause in the creature not their most eminent works done by the influence of Gospel-grace But if this distinction bee right taken it hath an evident ground in Scripture We teach that the love of benevolence and good will is the liking free delight and choise of the person to glory and to all the meanes even to share in Christs Mediatory love and the fruits of his death in this love he willeth and ordaineth and layeth up good and happinesse for us expecting no payment at our hand the other love is onely denyed by Antinomians but without ground for this love of complacencie is of things not of persons and when we say God loveth his Saints for their inherent holynesse and delighteth in them for it we meane no other thing then that God loves the sparkles of his owne rarest worke his saving grace so farre as to make it a meanes to fulfill the love and gracious decree of good will of free election not that any new immanent act of love arises towards the person loved that was not in God toward that person from eternity but the truth is God first createth a lovely and love-worthy object and then out of that love that createth being and the lovely object hee goeth on to continue the former act of loving and delighting in that object and rendreth it more lovely Creatures cannot create the object of their love but find it created to their hand and expect to have some perfection added to them in an union of love with that excellent thing they love and they are often deceived and ever their love hath a cause and hire and reward in the thing loved Now when it is said that God loveth all that he hath made then he created his owne lover and his owne love 2. When hee loveth the chaines and bracelets about the neck of his Spouse Cant. 4. He there createth in his Christ a new rare piece liker to himselfe then the works of pure and simple creation this is not pure love but a continuation of his creating good will nor doth the creature engage God to love it but as divine love gave being to these ornaments of grace the inherent holinesse in his Bride so that the same love continueth it selfe in delighting in his owne worke 3. So he is said to love his Bride for or because of her excellency and beauty that he putteth on her and still he loveth his owne in Christ for his owne rare workmanship not that the creature was cause or begetter of that love and he crowneth his own gifts not our merits saith Augustine his owne worke not our worke for we are meere vessels to containe grace as grace and meere patients in this love and so he loveth Christs imputed righteousnesse in us and this righteousnesse imputed is not simply eternall but hath its rise in time If then Antinomians say we make our time-holinesse a cause and condition of eternall love they must remove this objection themselves for imputed righteousnesse which they make the cause of eternall love will stand against them more then against us For wee say both imputed and inherent righteousnesse are meere conditions no causes of eternall love and that not simply but as they are protracted and continued to carry us on to glory yea imputed righteousnesse is no more a cause of eternall love being onely a thing temporary and not eternall à parte ante nor inherent righteousnesse so must all these be expounded The Lord loveth the righteous The Lord loveth truth in the inward parts he taketh pleasure in them that feare him The Lord is ravished with one of his Spouses eyes with one chaine of her necke to him she is all faire and not a spot in her All these include not onely inherent holynesse but imputed righteousnesse and both have their use in time but can never prove that our time excellencie whether imputed or inherent is the cause condition reason merit or ground of the Lords eternall immanent and unchangeable love but the fruits thereof and the condition of its continuance And that our Lord loves us with the same love of complacency that is that he driveth on his chariot paved with love in sweet fruits of free election the same way with the same delight But that when the justified person whores swearers kils the innocent denieth the Lord Jesus as did Peter and David God loveth us as much as when they beleeve pray walke in all holy conversation and that God is not a whit displeased with the Saints for these sinnes because all his displeasure or revenging justice was drowned and swallowed up in Christs sufferings is to us abominable CHAP. XX. There
without the more forced and unnaturall is all such obedience and the lesse from a spirituall power within The beleever is saith Towne washed from all sinne made perfectly just and holy the friend and Sonne of God the Spouse of Christ the heire of all things the conquerour of all his enemies advanced to sit and remaine in the glory of heaven with Christ for ever and ever he is out of the power kingdome and limits of the Law he is one Spirit with Christ hence is peace securitie consolation joy contentment and happines of a Christian. Hee is a compleat man if wee beleeve Antinomians 1. The word preached though it dwell within him yet that it bee applyed by a Preacher from without is necessary and that Peter writ Stirre up and put in remembrance the Saints that Paul be comforted by Titus and that Christ from without blow on and act the soule to will and to doe and that Paul beseech Christ thrise and have a new answer my grace is sufficient for thee is most needfull 2. There shall be no ground of new emergent complaints to God And 3. of praises to Christ for particular victories over our lusts and the world 4. Nor any ground of spirituall submission and patience while the Lord be pleased to deliver And 5. of trusting in God and exercising faith in him who delivereth us from so great a paâ—ticular death as came on Paul in Asia and from heavinesse through manifold temptations if need be for the triall of our faith Now if all were within us and the obedience more violent and Legall lesse free and connaturall because we must goe to helps without faith needed not goe without doores or without it selfe to Christ and the in-dwelling Spirit should be one for all meanes and ordinances and new showres and bedewings and fresh drops from Christ the honey-combe of heaven should be uselesse our stock within should doe all nor should we know what it is to walke or stand on our owne clay-legs It s true if externalls and the Crosse or the Letter of Law or Gospel onely move us to obedience and there be no internall principle of grace within us then the obedience is but finer hypocrisie and lesse free and more violent and as it were forced But Antinomians imagine a beleever to bee so perfect because pardoned that the Spirit within him doth all and needeth neither Ministers nor ordinances because helps without are Legall not Gospel-like CHAP. LIV. What peace we may fetch from gracious performances THe Spirit acteth Legally say Antinomians when men measure forgivenesse by their sinne and sanctification and can beleeve no more then they have peace for and that peace dependeth on some of their owne performances in so doing saith Towne Legalists had rather gather peace and securitie from repentance and reformation of life then from justification which is onely effectuall to make and cause true peace But our minde is this Asser. 1. We are not to measure forgivenesse so by sinne and sanctification as the measure of pounds and talent-weights of pardon should arise from the like weight of pounds and talents of sinne and sanctification because great sinfulnesse and drames and halfe ounces of sanctification and love to Christ may argue to the beleever the pardon of tenne thousand talents Christ argued the woman loveth much ergo many sins are forgiven her we read not that this was the womans owne Logicke 2. We draw peace and pardon not from so many yards or ells of obedience as merchants measure cloth the Spirits consequence is not from the quantity but from the quallity of sanctification sparkles of gold may prove there is a gold mine in that ground and that in abundance nor draw we the consequence from sinnes simply but from sinnes hated subdued resisted Asser. 2. Peace with God or the peace of faith is not every way the same with peace with our selves and of our owne spirituall sense and apprehension Peace fundamentall and with God is solidly grounded on pardon Being justified by faith we have peace with God it s often so with the Saints that they have faith for pardon and yet no feeling for peace Asser. 3. We may have peace with God when wee have not peace with our selves as the covenant stands sure between God and us when we have great disquietnesse of minde either through some hainous transgression or present unbeliefe and it is not fit wee should have peace with our selves under some great sinne it is but carnall security if Peter after the deniall of Christ be quiet in Spirit and have deepe peace the disquietnesse of unbeliefe apprehending eternall wrath is sinfull but in regard of anxiety of godly sorrow its kindly there be stormes in winter when there are causes of them and faire Sommer-like weather is not so good for the season in Winter because not so kindly and sutable to a right frame of nature Asser. 4. Peace with our selves may arise from the works of saving grace but neither assurance nor peace can flow from naked acts of love and sanctification not quallified and goldned with Christ and his grace as Towne falsely slandereth us because such bastard works as are but white and comely sinnes and being in men out of Christ can but produce sandy and rotten peace but such acts of holynesse as essentially flow from heightned principles of soule-saving grace and are floured and crowned with Christs merits may bee grounds of solid peace though not causes and though some of our drosse still accompany our best performances yet may we difference in them Christs gold from our oare his wine from our dregs this peace is a heart not smiting but smiling and saying Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience c. and where there is joy there is peace both are fruits growing in the same soile so speaketh the Church with my soule I have desired thee in the night whence followeth Lord thou wilt ordaine peace for us Why For thou hast wrought all our workes in us But wee had not rather draw our peace from walking with nor from beleeving in God thorow Christ nor did wee ever meane that faith farre lesse holy walking should bee the cause of that fundamentall peace of peace betweene God and the sinner as Towne supposeth works are not fellow-mediators with Christ works had no bloud to interpose as Christ the peace-maker had for he is our peace works faith nor any thing in us were not actors nor commissioners in the treaty of pacification and the truth is the peace we have in our conscience and apprehension even from faith is the result the bloome that groweth on the stalke the floure or rose of Jesse rather then peace and it hath the right hew and resplendencie of peace because there is so much of Christ in either our faith or holy performances the rosie pleasant and
of it selfe it hath not strength to bring righteousnes and newtraâ—ly its infirmity and poverty it selfe Luther Our merit by doing the Law is just nothing What can a cursed sinner ignorant of God dead in sinnes lyable to the judgement and wrath of God deserve therefore that is the only way of eschewing the curse to beleeve in God Thou O Christ art my sin and my curse or rather I am thy sin and thy curse thy death thy wrath of God thy hell on the contrary thou art righteousnesse blessing life the grace of God my heaven for the text saith clearly Christ was made a curse for us then wee are the cause why hee was made a curse yea wee are his curse Good workes are not to bee drawne to the article of justification as Monks doe s Wee grant wee must teach of good works and charity but in the owne time and place When the question is without the lists of this Article of Justification We say with Paul by Faith in Christ onely not by the workes of the law or charity we are jâ—st not that we reject works and charity as our adversaries say When then we are in this common place of justification wee reject and condemn works wee simply reject all laws and works of the Law Tota ratio justificandi quoad nos passiva est Active Lex est elementum infirmum egenum quia reddit homines infirmiores egentiores passive quia ipsa per se non habet vim opes justitiae donandae afferendae neutraliter est infirmitas paupertas ipsa Ergo meritum nostrum plane nullum est Quid enim mirerer maledictus peccator ignorans Dei mortuus in peccatis obnoxius irae judicio Dei Quare illa unica via est evadendi maledictionem credere certâ fiduciâ dicere Tu Christe es peccatum maledictum meum seu potius ego sum peccatum tuum maledictum tuum mors tua ira Dei tua infernus tuus Tu contra es justitia benedictio vita gratia Dei coelum meum Quare textus clarè dicit Christus factus est pro nobis maledictum Itaque nos sumus causa quod factus sit maledictum imo nos ipsius maledictum sumus Luther non sunt trahenda bona opera in articulum justificationis ut Monachi fecerunt s Concedimus docendum quoque de bonis operibus charitate sed suo loco tempore quando scilicet questio est de operibus extra hunc capitalem articulum Respondemus cum Paulo sola fide in Christum nos pronuntiari justos non operibus legis aut charitate non quod opera aut charitatem rejiciamus ut adversarii nos accusant Cum versamur in communi loco de justificatione rejicimus damnamus bona opera Our Antinomians point blanck to this in all the way to heaven condemne them so Crisp Saltmarsh say the onely work of the Gospel is faith Therefore the law is passive onely in the article of Justification in which article it condemneth compelleth curseth and so is just nothing and is passive in justifying but in binding the New man to obey and in laying on him a rule of life it is active We can then easily expone Luther The just man ought not to live well in regard of any compulsion of a legall curse that the law from which in Christ hee is delivered can inflict on him Neither standeth hee in need of the Law to teach him in a compulsory legall way to live well for hee liveth not well because the Law forcing and cursing and not furnishing Grace as the Gospel doth requireth that hee live well Justus non debet bene vivere sed bene vivit hoc est non obligatur compulsione legali vi condemnatoriâ legis quia nulla condemnatio iis qui sunt in Christo ibid. Nec indiget lege quae docet eum bene vivere Injustus autem debet nexu legalis condemnationis bene vivere quia non bene vivit quod lex requirit hoc totum urget ne ex lege opâ—ribus justifieri presumant c Luth. l. 1.451 In this regard Luther doubteth not to say that the Law is simply and absolutely abolished to a just man 2. That the law is not the law if it bee not a condemning law But hee taketh the law strictly as a covenant of Workes and as opposite to Grace as Paul doth Rom. 7. Yee are not under the Law but under Grace Then the law is absolutely abolished to a just man it hath no power to accuse them for they doe willingly what the law requireth The law is not given for this end to justifie but to discover sin terrifie accuse and condemne This is the fruite of the law when it is alone without the Gospel and the knowledge of grace that it leadeth men to despaire and finall impenitence The law without Christ and the Gospel is omnipotent Yea it s invincible omnipotency the conscience compared to it most weake and poore for its a tender thing so that except it bee strengthened it is terrified waxeth paile and despaireth for the least sin therfore the law in its proper use hath more strength and might then heaven and earth can comprehend so that one tittle or iota of the law can destroy whole mankinde By the law we have no helpe but the revealing and warning of our misery Luther Itaque lex eis simpliciter est abrogata non habet igitur jus accusandi eos Sponte enim faciunt quod lex requirit Luther non data est lex ut justificet sed ut ostendat peccatum terreat accuset condemuet Hic legis effectus est quando sola est sine evangelio cognitione gratiae ut adducat in desperationem finalem impaenitentiam Lex in suo usu est omnipotens imo est invinbilis omnipotentia ad quaÌ„ collata conscientia est infirmissima et pauperrima et enim tam tenera res ut propter leviss mum peccatum ita pavefiâ—t pallescat ut disperet nisi rursus erigatur Quare lex in proprio suo usu plus virium opum habet quam coelum terra comprehendere potest ita ut etiam unus apex unum iota legis totum genus humanum occidere possit Per legem non adiutorium sed nostri mali indicium monitorium habemus All this is true of the Law as a Covenant of works without Christ and the Gospel as Luther saith quando est sola siâ—e evangelio Tom. 1. in Gen. c. 3. f. 57. Then Luther thinketh that the Law conjoyned with the Gospel and as it is in the hand of Christ hath the beeing of the law and not such terrible effects 2. Luther acknowledgeth that the law as it condemneth is to be preached to beleevers that they may crucifie
Historicall Literall and Grammaticall sense but in the Mysterious Allegoricall and Spirituall sense is the way of Legalists who say they follow the Letter and know nothing of the Spirit but the Letter killeth and the Spirit quickneth Read Philosophy dissected and the peeces called Theologia Germanica and the Bright Star and H. Nicholas his Exhortations and Documentals and you shall find strange Allegories And Saltmarsh is as Monkish in Allegories as they 2. Antinomians tell us often of imputed righteousnesse which supposeth Christ was a true reall Man and God-Man in one person and that we are saved by the merit an satisfaction of his obedience and death imputed to us But Saltmarsh and Familists herâ— tell us Christ is a meere figure sampler document or example onely in which God discovers to us grace and love And all that is spoken of Christ as in that person not in that person really but figuratively as in that person that was borne of a virgin who was circumcised c. is spoken in figure of the whole nature What Was not Christ reall and very Man our only surety Mediator High Priest who offered a reall sacrifice for us Is he nothing but a figure and if Adam was not the first man in whom all stood and fell so that all have sinned in him neither can Christ be the second Man in whom all his sonnes are justified redeemed and saved But Familists deny that Adam was the first man in whom all stood and fell as Saltmarsh told us before and therefore Familists deny that doctrine of the first and second Adam Rom. 5. and 1 Cor 15. 3. It is a mystery that all that Christ did from his childhood to his crucifying death and crosse was a discoveâ—y of God by this Figure in the whole mystery how God is in all his and works and hath his times of Law-crucifying c. Was his crucifying but a discovery or a document of God by this figure The Scripture riseth higher He was wounded for our transgression he was bruised for our iniquity the chastisement of our peace was upon him with his stripes we are healed Esai 53. And him that knew no sinne God made sinne for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him as it is 2 Cor. 5.21 And in his own selfe on the tree he bare our sinnes 1 Pet. 2.24 The Familists make Christ a discovery and a teaching figure not a true Man The Socinians make him a Man but a meere example of patient suffering if we follow him his example will save us but they denyed he payed a reall satisfactory ransome to Gods justice for us 4. By Christs death say they God witnesseth to his people that he is their God and they his people by killing all their strength and life and power of the first creation and carrying it up to a more excellent and glorious life his own Spirit How killed Christ the strength life and power of the first creation Christ is but a figure and Christ but suffers sayth Gortine and dies in us when we who beare his Image For Man saith Saltmarsh p. 3 4. is created according to the Image of God which was Jesus Christ doe suffer and die for God cannot die And to this agreeth well what Saltmarsh saith p. 288. Others say he himselfe and Familists in opposition to Protestants who make Gospel-administration to stand in repentance faith sanctification justification 285 286. the mystery of salvation is no other then Immanuel or God with us Christ being no more but an anointed one and that anointed one is our nature or weaknesse anointed with the Spirit even God himselfe who is strength And this mystery of great and exceeding glory is revealed in peeces and parts and after the manner of men according to the infirmity of our flesh within the Christian in graces c. and in the Scriptures or expressions and formes without the Christian then is Christ crucified nothing but a beleever graced within with Gods Image And p. 283. he saith O how doth the pure appearance of God powre shame upon all flesh and fleshly glory Either by letter or by graces the day of the Lord will be upon all our Cedars and Okes. Now a Saint anointed is God manifested in the flesh to Saltmarsh and will the Lord powre shame on God manifested in the flesh or is the day of the Lord against Christ â—evealed within the Christian in graces and in the Scriptures without the Christian Then is Gods wrath kindled against grace within and Scripture without brave Divinity The Scripture saith not that Christ on the Crosse killed the strength life and power of the first creation that is Gospel-grace beleeving and God manifested in the Saints that is the new creature in them and the first creation that is as they say the natuâ—rall faculties of knowing willing nilling so as the holy Ghost and the Lord Jesus must come in place of these faculties and in us love feare beleeve rejoyce and we all our powers that we had in creation must be dead passive organs Industry Arts Sciences Tongues Labouring acting of Duties quite removed as flesh and corruption and we turned in all spirit See Rise reign Er. 1 2. For Saltm saith Sparkles of Glory 230 231. all other askings or seekings of God which are not thus in Spirit or in the will or mind of God in some evidence or pure work of the Spirit is but the askings of creatures as creatures All exhortations in Scripture to this duty as Seek yee my face Pray continually are onely then rightly effectually and properly applied and obeyed when the Spirit of God doth it in the Christian when the Spirit of God breathes in and reveals the will of God and acts in the duty or expressions and the Christian speakes in himselfe or the presence of others that mind of God and so the Spirit of God cloathes it selfe in flesh or letter or expressions as to the outward man If by a pure work of the Spirit Saltmarsh mean that the Spirit acteth as the principall determining moving acting cause carrying on the work so as our Spirit and naturall faculties of mind will affection have their own subordinate and inferiour active influence in the work the holy Ghost helping our infirmities it is good but this is no new light nor Familisticall secret of all Spirit but that which Protestants teach against Den and other Arminians old liers and new lights But â— feare a pure work of the Spirit is as much as the Spirit acts purely wholly only in praying and all supernaturall acts and the naturall faculties strength power and life of the first creation are destroyed and annihilated so as we are dead passive Organs doing nothing but the Spirit doth all as Libertines say Second causes work nothing but God as the soul of all worketh all in all creatures This is the secret and so the praying and all the supernaturall duties of beleevers are pure
but a change of the endeavours to please God whereas before selfe was our God and an endeavour to turne from dead works 2. True repentance is sorrow according to God and hath acts different from Faith 3. To repent is out of godly sorrow to endeavour new obedience and amendment of life Faith is an apprehension of Divine truth to which wee give credit or an heart-dependance and recumbence on God through Christ 4. Wee are justified by faith never by repentance Wee thinke not that teares wash away sinnes Protestants speake not so 2. Nor that they make peace with God by teares they make way to sense of peace or awake us to runne to a promise the formall bottome of our peace in regard that the Lord promiseth to revive the contrite Spirit to accept broken bones to comfort mourners in Zion and wee thinke neither repentance nor good works proper and formall conditions of the covenant of grace but rather conditions of the covenanted CHAP. XXXVII How good works are necessary FOr good works 1. We call not these good works that are extorted by the terrours of the Law as a captive keepeth the high way because his Keeper leadeth him in an iron chaine Nor 2. these which flow from the sole authority of God as Lawgiver Or 3. which issue from meere morall principles without saving grace but these we call good works in an Evangelicall sense that not onely are done from the authority of the Law-giver but also from a mediatory and Evangelike obligation from the sweet attractions and drawing coards of the secrets of Christs love And 2. from Evangelike faith that purifieth the heart 3. From Physicall principles and supernaturall habits of grace good works are this way necessary 1. That as grace and glory differ not in nature but gradually as the morning dawning of twy-light and the noone-day-light so the good works done by the grace of Christ and that perfect love of God and our brethren in heaven are of the same nature different in degrees and the one degrees and waies to the other especially when from Gods free promise of the blessings of this life and that which is to come the Lord hath made a passe betweene the one and the other and the Lord hath tyed himselfe to himselfe not to us to carry on grace out of meere grace Every branch that bringeth forth fruit in me saith Christ my Father purgeth that it may bring forth more fruit unto every one that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance He that soweth to the spirit shall of the Spirit reape life everlasting There is a harvest promised to this sowing as to a speciall furtherance of our reckoning in the day of Christ hee that soweth bountefully shall reape bountefully yea sent once and againe unto my necessitie not because I desire a gift but I desire fruit that may abound to your account if ye through the spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the flesh yee shall live But being made free from sinne and become servants to God yee have your fruit unto holinesse and the end everlasting life Blessed are they that doe his commandements that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in thorow the gates into the city And lest we should think the commands are all but one only precept of beleeving hee addeth for without are Doggs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murtherers c. He that hath my commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my selfe to him All these evidence to us that holy walking is a way to heaven as sowing is to harvest and that Christ maketh a promise of life eternall to him that doth his Commandements onely the question is in what tearmes the promise is made to the doer of Gods will as a doer or as a beleever whose faith is fruitfull and with childe of Evangelike doing But wee may say the formall promise of the covenant of grace is made to beleeving as the Law-promise is made to doing Legally and perfectly out of our own without grace and that the Gospel as it is larger then the covenant of grace and as it containeth the whole doctrine of grace taught by the Prophets and Apostles is a promise of life eternall made to Evangelike and unperfect doing through the strength of grace And that because 1. God commandeth good works through the whole New Testament 2. They are so necessary as without them our faith is a dead and vaine faith and cannot justifie us 3. They are the end for which Christ redeemed us that we should live to him bee redeemed from our vaine conversation from the present evill world that we should bee a purified peculiar people to him zealous of good works and in this title also they are commanded 4. They are conditions without which wee cannot bee saved For John Baptist taught this with the Gospel Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewen downe and cast into the fire What shall we doe to be saved receiveth this answer Repent and be baptized every one of you Except yee repent yee shall all likewise perish 5. They are commanded as acts of the new creature and partly as contrary to sinnefull fiery and mighty temptations of Satan and the flesh as mortification to fleshly lust faith to unbeliefe Partly as expressions of thankfulnesse for the free redemption in Christ and commanded in the Law in the great Commandement of the loving of God with all our heart just as this Law of loving God did oblige Abraham to offer his Sonne Isaak for God and Judah to be thankefull to God for redeeming them out of the Babylonish Captivity though the Law neither commanded any father to offer his Sonne nor the people to returne from Captivity yet the eternall Law of love commandeth both these and us to doe what ever God-Redeemer commands us as well as what ever God the Law-giver injoyneth onely we cannot say Good works doe merit salvation or purchase right to life eternall Christs bloud is onely so a ransome of life 2. Nor have they any proper condignity to such a high reward being so imperfect 3. Nor can they have any effective influence or proper causality thereunto nor are they causes or conditions of justification but that which Crispe saith is not of God But withall saith he I must tell you that all this sanctification of life is not a jot of the way of a justified person to heaven it is true they are not the meritorious the efficient cause or way nor the formall covenant-condition but a way they are as sowing is to harvest running to the garland wrestling to the victory CHAP. XXXVIII The Gospel is conditionall ANtinomians deny all conditions of the covenant
is to Papists who make justification the expulsion of the habit of sinne and the bringing in of habituall righteousnesse which expelleth all sinne except venials which indeed are no sinnes for sinne pardoned to Antinomians and Papists who are harmonious in this point are no sinnes 2. Nothing be it adultery or parricide or any worke of the flesh committed after justification can bee sinne for it is against no Law by this way and doth not so much as prâ—judge salvation by demerit it onely scandalizeth men but cannot offend God My soule enter thou not into these mens secrets 3. Sinnes against Christian conversation such as the adulteries of the justified are no sinnes before God because all sinnes as sinnes stand in the way as contrary to salvation then aske Antinomians is a justified person obliged to eschew Adulterie they shall answer Yea hee is obliged but how There is a two fold obligation one of Law another of the free Spirit the former is removed the justified man by no Law or Law-obligation is to eschew Adultery as a sinne against God 1. Because hee is freed from the Law and all directing and obliging power of the Law 2. Because it involveth a contradiction that his Adultery should be sin when committed by him and pardoned before it be committed for so it should be sinne and no sinne How then is he obliged to forbeare Adultery Onely by an obligation Physicall and of the Spirit such as we call an obligation of naked courtesie if he forbeare it is an act of love and arbitrary freedome but if hee commit it it is not sinne because it is in him against no Law-obligation no more then an Englishman committing felony against the Lawes in England it is the Antinomians owne comparison or killing a Swan in Thames which is forbidden by the Lawes of England does faile against the Lawes of Spaine So his sin is against love not Law as if the Law commanded not all love and love with all the heart and as if these two were contrary and the Law and the Gospel did involve two contrary and contradictory wills in God and the Lord should be changeable and unconstant in Law and Gospel and his Adultery should bee contrary to men and Christian conversation onely not to God 4. All acts and personall duties of sanctification which we must persue and follow else wee cannot see God are but degrees and parts of the compleat Sanctification that wee hope for in heaven and the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more till the perfect day therefore they must be commanded as the way to salvation and not as arbitrary acts of good conversation before men but I shall here answer M. Townes objections tending to prove that good works are not so much as the way to salvation 1. If good works bee such necessary conditions that without them happinesse is not attainable then 1. though the grace of God doe save as the alone cause yet it doth not freely for what God doth freely it is without all condition or consideration of mans workes or worthynesse Answ. It is good that Towne granteth though good works be commanded in the Gospel yet grace may for all that bee the onely cause of salvation but contradicting himselfe hee saith If good workes be commanded in the Gospel then grace is not the onely cause of salvation but grace and works Law and Gospel must be confounded We say not they are so necessary necessitate medii by necessity of meanes but that any savingly beleeving at the nick of the extremity of his twelfth and last houre God taking away all opportunity of good works is undoubtedly saved but in the worke of that faith there is a seed and supernaturall disposition to good works Now that this mother never bringeth forth the birth hindereth not but good works are necessary to salvation necessitate precepti in regard of Gods commandement but Antinomians deny good works to be necessary by any commandement of God 1. Because to omit them maketh the justifyed partie lyable to no guiltinesse or sinne before God say they Because he is under no Law and where there is no Law there is no transgression nor guilt saith Saltmarsh 2. Wee being justified are under no Commandement so as wee can violate this Commandement be it of Law or of Gospel for it is pardoned before it be committed 3. What God doth freely is without conditon as a meriting cause or as a cause or condition slowing from the strength of our nature without grace Without a perfect condition free of all sinnefull imperfection adhering to it such as the Law required it is true but now the assumption of the objection is false What hee doth freely is without all condition Evangelicke wrought by the strength of grace and mixed with sinnefull infirmities so the major is most false for Faith should not then be a condition of justification good works are so conditions as they be graces also How often said Augustine with Scripture God crowneth his owne free gifts in us not our merits 4. The same way I distinguish the consideration of good works either Legall or Evangelike And 5. Towne doth conjoyne our worthinesse which is none at all with our good works which are something for they are conditions of meere grace Object 2 So saith he Yee make works the causes of salvation Answ. It followeth not that they are con-causes or joynt-causes with Christ but onely conditions just as a mans journeying on foot or horse to a City or a Kingdome to inherit it is the way condition of his entring the City But it is not his Charter or Law-title or right to enjoy the Crowne as his inheritance any effective influence to the title of the Crowne of heaven I dare not ascribe to any works in us or to any but to Christ but undeniably good works are not so much as conditions of justification they follow a man justified but goe not before justification no more then the Apple goeth before the tree or the cisterne before the fountaine nor are they the conditions of the Covenant of grace they are the conditions of covenanted ones not of the covenant Object 3. If salvation depended on condition of our good works or dignity it would be uncertaine and doubtfull Rom. 4.16 Answ. The Apostle Rom. 4.16 clearely is on the theame of Justification by faith and the condition of it which is faith onely 2. Wee say not that salvation dependeth on works as a condition but on the grace of God which worketh every good worke in us freely without hire or money neither works nor free will are our sure free hold of heaven Object 4. Yee confound Law and Gospel and runne on that common error that the Gospel is conditionall remission of sinnes dependeth not on works Answ. It is a new heresie of Antinomians to deny a conditionall Gospel it is all one as to bely
it Reader then judge how farre Antinomians differ in this from Libertines And M. Saltmarsh saith the same What ever promise there is which hath any condition into it it is ours in him in Christ who was the onely conditioned and qualified person for all promises And M. Towne Saltmarsh and all Antinomians in every page of their bookes say wee are freed from the Law as an obliging rule of holy walking and under grace that is under the Gospel because the Law is a killing dead Letter and can never give life nor Sanctification But the Gospel saith hee is like the Sunne caries along with it light and life But I pray is not the Gospel without the Spirit a killing Letter aswell as the Law and can it ever quicken or sanctifie without the Spirit more then the Law Then by this Argument the beleever is tyed to nothing as an obliging rule either of beleeving or holy walking but to that which doth effectually quicken and sanctifie so neither Commandement of Law nor Gospel without the Spirit is the beleevers rule but onely the Spirit and the Spirit effectually quickening and actually sanctifying then the Spirit must onely be our rule and we must onely be obliged to be ruled and to lye under the actings of the Spirit as dead creatures When then we neither beleeve nor repent nor abstaine from whooring robbing lying because the Spirit acteth not we sinne not for sinne is against some obligation Antinomians will not say we are obliged by any Law old or new to have the actuall breathings of the Holy Ghost when we omit good and commit evill then the holy Spirit must immediatly and onely act good in us and his non-acting immediatly must be the only cause of beleevers murthering whooring lying and is there not then a Spirit in all under the Gospel working in them all good and by no working causing all the sinnes they commit And what is sinne then but an opinion And can it be our worke or any thing but Gods worke in us CHAP. LXXVIII Libertines and Antinomians take away all sense or remorse of conscience for sinne Paral. X. LIbertines said We are to be troubled in conscience for no sinne because God worketh all in the creature and nothing is beside the will of God Libertines of our time say If God will let me sinne let him see to his owne honour And upon the same ground M. Archer saith Wee are not to bee troubled for our sinnes because they come from God and we may safely say that God is and hath a hand in and is the Author of the sinnefulnesse of his people So doe other Antinomians though they speake not out 2. Upon another ground Antinomians bury all conscience of beleevers sins 1. Because their sins are no sins being remitted before they be committed 2. Because say they it is against Faith and from unbeliefe the flesh and want of mortification to be moved or touched in conscience with sinne as I often have proved CHAP. LXXIX Libertines and Antinomians Parallel beleevers with Christ incarnate Paral. XI AS David Georgius and his cursed followers so Libertines said Christ in us dwelling was God manifested in the flesh or Christ is but a patterne type a representation or figure of patient suffering and of these vertues required in these that are to be saved So the Author of the Bright Starre makes Christ-man the patterne in the mount that in worship and conversation wee must follow And when this Author and Theologia Germanica take away God from us and say there is nothing in the creature but God they doe worse then Libertines Yea they fancie Christ incarnate to be a divine and holy man and so evert a principall Pillar of our faith that is that wee beleeve in the Sonne of God Christ-God made manifest in the flesh And the N. England Libertines teach That Christ is incarnate in every beleever So the English Antinomian saith I have nothing to doe with your Moses or the Law I am Christed and Goded And a late giddy phranticke Pamphlet which I should not honour to cite saith A man in Christ is baptized into a living active God and a dead passive creature And though Antinomians as yet seeme to grant that the Sonne of God was incarnate yet we know not how long for they equall a beleever most proudly with Christ making both his person and all his actions though Adultery Roberie Lying as cleane from sinne as Christ or his actions or as the glorified in heaven 2. Saltmarsh saith The Gospel commands rather by patterne then by precept and by imitation rather then command They deny all obligation either by Law or Gospel to lye on us 3. Because wee are in Christ they say all our sinnes all our sufferings are so drowned up swallowed and nothinged in Christ that we are neither to feare or be touched with the sense of either sinne or affliction and that the beleever is to remaine in Christ alwaies rejoycing triumphing being in heaven already and sorrow and sighing for evermore being banished away CHAP. LXXX To follow sense as a Law is our rule say Libertines and Antinomians Paral. XII LIbertines taught That any calling was lawfull and to follow callings was to follow their naturall inclination and to live as they pleased Quintinus the Libertine to one that asked how hee was in health said in wrath Can it be ill with Christ When hee was present at a solemne Masse with a Cardinall he said Hee saw the glory of God from this ground that Christians cannot sinne that their inclination and nature is their guide which they called the Spirit and they are loosed from all Law therefore with David Georgius they said A marriage-covenant tyed Christians no longer then the naturall temper and disposition of husband and wife would carry them on to agree to live together when inclinations of Christians did thwart they were free to marry another And so said they of goods that they might robbe and spoile calling inclination a calling as if it were their calling to robbe and oppresse So the same doe Antinomians teach in their beastly distinction in which Towne Eaton Denne and Saltmarsh say Beleevers are as cleane from sinne before God and as they live by faith as Jesus Christ himselfe but to men-ward declaratively and as they live by sense or seemingly as Saltmarsh meaneth or according to the flesh as Towne saith now the flesh is the Asse The beleevers sinne and may whoore kill but this following of the sense and the flesh is nothing but the Libertines following of his naturall inclination or calling Now the beleevers Adultery to Saltmarsh is but seeming Adultery then it is not in deed and before God Adultery and he followeth his sense and naturall inclination as the Libertine said in putting away his wife
Recantation of the Antinomian errour in an Epistle of D. Luther to Mr. D. Guthel containing the minde of Luther touching Antinomians as a Sect that had their rise from the Devill 69 70 71 72 73 74 Luther is for the Law 70 71 That none is perfect in this life and we are to sorrow for sin 73 74 Islebius recanted his Recantation and returned to spread Antinomianisme after Luthers death 80 81 The tenets of Islebius Antinomians in Luthers time 81 82 The Antinomian way of Paulus Crellius in Luthers time 182 183 184 How Antinomians stated the question of old 83 How the Law is a patient to beleevers 84 Of the Antinomianisme of Michael Neander 84 85 Divers distinctions touching the use of and freedome from the law tending to cleare Luthers mind 86 87 Three speciall uses of the law according to Luther Ibid. Luther refuteth Antinomians in terminis and is most contrary to them 86 87 89 How faith only justifieth as Luther saith 100 How faith and works are contrary 101 How according to Luthers minde the Law hath power over the flesh and not over the renewed conscience 102 103 How Good workes conforme to the law are not necessary 103 The law the same now and under the covenant of works Ibid The law is given properly to the new man not to the flesh 103 104 How the terrified conscience is freed from the law 105 106 How the law condemneth and terrifieth how not 106 107 How the law is given to the New man how not 108 109 Excellent replyes of a beleever to the accusing law 109 110 The tempted beleever freed from challenges of the law 110 111 How a tempted beleever is to comfort himselfe against law-temptations in the conscience 112 113 Luther is for conditions in the Covenant and for preparations before conversion 114 115 Sundry excellent answers to Satan and the law what a sinner is at the brink of dispaire 115 116 117 118 How we are patients in justification how not 118 119 How the law is weak 119 How good workes are naught 120 121 How the law is abolished how not 121 122 That the law is to be preached to all 119 120 Of the union betweene Christ and a beleever opposite to the phancied union of Familists and Antinomians who say that a beleever is Godded and Christed 123 124 125 Of our legall union our union by faith our union by marriage by nature and the intervening of interests and conditions with Christ and a sinner 125 126 127 Luther makes sin to dwell in the justified contrary to Antinomians 129 130 How it is in them and how removed pardoned sinne is essentially sin 131 132 133 134 How we are under the law and under grace in regard of the flesh and the Spirit 134 135 The divers respects of Law and Gospel 138 How the law is a dead Letter 139 Of the Letter and the Spirit 139 140 Luther detesteth allegories 139 How the beleever needeth not the Law in the Letter 142 143 None are perfect in this life as Luther saith contrary to Antinomians 143 144 We must then have patience 144 145 Sin in the beleever rageth to their feeling and yet is made lesse sin 145 146 Luther taught that the Jewes were Justified and actually pardoned by faith as we are contrary to Antinomians 146 147 148 Ch. IX Of Christian liberty and of true false sense 148 149 c. Luther in the point of Christian liberty is against the Antinomians 148 149 How the Law hath nothing to doe with the conscience according to Luther 149 150 151 152 Antinomians distinction that we sinne not against the Law but against Christ removed 151 Luther unduly chargeth these he calleth Sacramentarians with making the Spirit without the word their rule it being the doctrine of Antinomians in his time 153 154 How wee are to judge of our spirituall estate by sense how not 153 154 Luthers minde of freewill and contrary to Antinomians therein 155 156 How the will is a patient rather then an agent in good 157 158 Of the subjective and active power of freewill 158 159 Thirteen considerations of the Author touching freewill 160 161 162 163 An absolute independent power in the will to doe without the predeterminating grace of God neither peculiar to the Covenant of workes before the fall nor to the Covenant of grace after the fall 160 161 Chap. XIV Of the piece called Theologia Germanica and of the Bright starre 163 164 c. Libertines sprang from the Gnosticks Familists from Libertines Antinomians from both 163 164 165 Of John Waldesso who hath sundry principles of Familisme and Antinomianisme in his booke 164 165 God is the creature saith Theologia Germanica 165 To ascribe any thing to the creature is sinne the new man is Christ. 165 166 How creatures are under-under-causes of their owne working 166 The hell and heaven of Familists 167 The Familists acknowledge no Christ but a metaphoricall Christ. 167 168 So Theol. Germanica and the piece called the Bright-star The workes of H. Nicholas 168 Familists of England dissemble their grossest points Their Petition to King James 168 Vent their malice in the Petition against Puritans were tollerated by Prelates because they railed against non-conformists 169 The contents of the Petition of the Familists in England to King James 168 169 170 Chap. XV. Of the Familists and Antinomians in New England 171 Their rise ib. Their tenets 171 172 173 The Saints suffering are God manifested in the flesh as Saltmarsh and Familists say 172 173 174 Saltmarsh Chaplaine to the Generall Sir Tho. Fairfax goes along with the Familists of N. England ibid. Ordinances of preaching reading hearing Sacraments are not to be seperated from the Spirit nor the Spirit from them 175 Chap. XVI Of the first Authors of Antinomianisme and Familisme in N. England as Mistresse Hutchison M. Wheelwrit their preaching seditious railing and foule tenets 176 177 178 Mrs. Hutchison bold maintained she might preach to a Congregation and alledged the example of Priscilla 178 Her abominable tenets in which she denied the immortality of the soule the resurrection Christ heaven sanctification asserted revelations beside and without the word of God 178 179 A Generall Assembly at Cambridge in N. England confuted and condemned M. Hutchison M. Wheelwright and others 180 M. Hutchison bare thirty formed monsters 181 Was excommunicated banished to the Road-Iland killed by the Indians she and all her house 181 182. as is reported Mrs. Dyer a Familist the wife of William Dyer a prime Familist brought forth a terrible monster 181 182 Chap. XVII Of the late Familists banished out of N. England in Massachusets and now inhabitants of Shaw-omet otherwise called Providence 188 The blasphemous tenets of Sam. Gortyn a wicked Familist who preacheth openly in and about London 183 184 185 Gortyn and these Familists deny God incarnate and say every suffering Saint is Christ and there is not another Christ. 184 185 186 So doth M. Beacon
sense but to faith and the promises for the unrenewed part never told us good news of our selves our Spirituall estate or of Christ except it speak truth as the Deviâ—l speaketh to deceive and to render us secure sluggish haughty proud vaine but Antinomians say all the murthers and adulteries of beleevers are sins onely in our sense that is in the apprehension of our unrenewed part not to the light and judgement of faith now so Antinomians follow sense But 1. I should as soon beleeve the Devill saying that the adultery of a beleever is no sin as beleeve sense that is the inditement of flesh and the unrenewed part it is true the devill can say truely as the flesh also the adultery of a beleever is a sin that actually condemnes for ever to hell and argueth the committer thereof to bee in nature not in Christ which is a lye both in the matter and specially in the end to cause a beleever despaire 2. The sense and apprehension of a beleever that saith adultery in him is no sin because it was pardoned before it was committed is as false as the Devill Now the light of faith saith the contrary the Word of God saith adultery in justified David is sin but the inference and logick of the flesh is not to be beleeved therfore David is not in Christ and so farre sense is not to be beleeued 3. Antinomians know no sense but the sense and inditement of the lying flesh which they teach men to beleeve when it saith falsely that the adultery of a beleever is no sin now no whorish mother will call her own childe a Bastard and it s no wonder that the flesh especially in the fleshly Antinomian plead for the Devill and sin but sense is taken in another meaning in the Scripture for the spirituall knowledge and apprehension of the Spirit as Heb. 5.14 The strong in Christ have their senses exercised to discerne both good and ill so the use of the spirituall sense is spoken of Cant. 2.3 I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruite was sweet in my mouth Cant. 1.3 Because of the savour of thy good oyntments thy name is as anoyntment powred out therefore the Virgins love thee Joh. 6.45 All that have heard and learned of the Father come to mee Here is the actuall exercise and use of the spirituall and renewed sense which we are to believe no lesse then faith and what this sense indyteth that the Holy Spirit in us indyteth and teacheth and that we are to beleeve Luther never willeth us to close our eares and to hear nothing that this sense saith to us 12 Conclusion Luther speaketh pathetickly of the slavery and impotency of our free-will by nature but no wayes to favour Antinomians and Familists who would have us blocks and stones in all wee doe and not to pray but when the Spirit acts us immediately Man cannot naturally desire God to be God for he would have himselfe to be God and God to be no God Non potest homo naturaliter velle DeuÌ„ esse Deum imo vellet se esse Deum Deum non esse Deum Luther in regard that the efficacy and successe of free-will as of all second causes is from God depresseth the creature to heighten God Tom. 3.103 Deus labore nostro utitur sâ—u larvâ quadam sub quâ benedicit nos sua largitur ut fidei sit locus God useth our labour as a shadow or cypher under which there is place for faith Luther meaneth of imperated acts of the will flowing from the corruption of a naturall man desiring to be above a Law and without God that he may sin without being awed of Justice or of a God but there is a naturall inclination going before acts of will and reason by which a naturall man desires the being of God in so farre as he desires his own being that he may subsist in God if we suppose reason to bee in no shadow we cannot think it naturally and simply would desire that the body on which it depends were just nothing or that the rayes of the Sunne would wish the Sun to be turned into pure nothing or the streames that the fountaine were nothing Luther The will of every man would desire there were not a law if it were possible and that it selfe were altogether free grace is necessary to friend the law and the will and the Gospel Free-will since the fall by a subjective power can be carryed to good by an active power ever to ill nor could the wills active but only its subjective power stand even before the fall or promove into good Luther Free-will is meerly passive in every act that is called willing because the will is nothing except it be pulled drawn moved which drawing having influence on the members and strength either of soule or body is the wills activity and no other as the drawing of the Saw cutting the wood is to the Saw meerly passive from the Sawer nor does it conferre any thing to the drawing by way of co-operation but onely being drawn it workes on the tree being more drawn then drawing which Sawing is called the work of the Saw with the Sawer when yet it meerly suffers Luther Voluntas cujuslibet mallet si fieri posset esse nullam legem se omninò liberam necessaria est mediatrix gratia quae conciliet legem evangelio voluntati Liberum arbitrium post peccatum potest in bonum potentiâ subjectivâ in malum vero activâ semper nec enim in statu innoceÌ„tiae potuit stare activa sed subjectiva potentia nedum in â—onum proficere Liberum arbitrium est merè passivum in omni actu suo qui velle vocatur quia voluntas non nisi rapitur trahitur movetur qui tractus redundans in membra vires seu animae seu corporis est ejus activitas nulla alia sicut tractus serrae secantis lignum ' est serrae merè passivus a sectore nec ad tractum suum quicquam cooperatur sed tantum tracta jam in lignum operatur impulsa magis quam impellens quae serratio opus ejus cum serratore dicitur cum tamen merè patiatur It is cleare that Luther makes us not blocks and stones in beleeving praying or other supernaturall works as if after our conversion we were mere patients and ought not to pray but when the winde of the Spirit bloweth faire upon the flowers and the Garden Or as if the person of the Holy Ghost and Christs grace were the onely formall efficient cause and principle in all supernaturall works and we truncks and stones and not to be rebuked as slothfull servants in sins of omission or commission Luther saith the contrary To. 2. in Gen. c. 24. f. 232. Antinomoi docent simpliciter omnia peccata sublata nec arguenda esse nec homines terrendos lege Antinomians say simply
right to heaven of which the Law saith nothing 6. The Law gives a reward as a due debt though not merit the Goâ—pel giveth a reward against merit CHAP. IX Of the threatnings of the Law and Gospel TOuching the third part as the Law is in strict tearmes divided from the Gospel 1. The Law-threatnings are on the person for the actions and for the least faile in thought word or deed but the Gospel-threatnings are rather on the â—tate then the actions or if they be on the actions it is for the condition and state therefore the learned Pareus saith that the Gospel as the Gospel hath no threatnings at all For indeed the state of the kingdome of the beleever fenceth him from the curse he is free from condemnation because he is under another King then the man that is under the Law As the man in Scotland is free from Murther which he committed in Spaine not because his act of Murther deserveth not hee should die but because he is a member of the state of Scotland and no penal law of Spaine can reach him in that Sate Pareus thus farre saith true that it is the Law properly that curseth and that the Gospel as the Gospel curseth not but is properly glad tydings For 1. He that beleeveth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is already condemned that is before his unbeliefe sentence is passed on him by the Law and the Gospel doth but ratifie the sentence For if we suppose there had never been a Gospel nor a Mediatour the sinner should have been a cast-away and sentenced man but now because he beleeveth not he shall not see life but the wrath of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abideth on him then it was on him before if hee should beleeve in the Sonne of God the sentence of the Law should be taken off the Prince offereth a pardon of grace to a man that hath 〈◊〉 hâ—s Sonne so he will accept of it he refuseth to accept of a Pardon and therefore dyeth rather for his bloud-shâ—d then for his not accepting pardon it would seeme among men too lâ—w a cause of death to put him to death for refusall of a pardon at 〈◊〉 the sentence was given out for killing the Kings Sonne onely he dyeth more deservedly that both he killed the Son and despised his Princes grace or rather his doome is aggravatâ—d and the chaines of Capernaum are made heavieâ— because they comparatively justifie Sodome and so the Gospel-vengeance is an addition to the Law-vengeance as he that dyeth of an extreame distemper of body and by a gracious Physitian may be cured but refuseth the medicine the distemper is the Physicall cause of his death his contempt of the art of the Physitian is the morall cause and a reason why he dyeth without the compassion of his friends and with greater torment of mind to himselfe Yea Faith is not properly the cause that hath any effective influence on so noble effects as are free pardon and free salvation farre lesse is it any meritorious cause Christ hath no joint causes with him in this excellent worke of saving a sinner unbeliefe is a morall cause non removens prohibens 2. The Gospel is an exception of grace against the Law for the Law saith He that sinnes shall dye the Gospel addeth except he beleeve or he shall certainly dye except he beleeve in him who justifieth the ungodly so that the Gospel saith Amen to the Lawes threatning and taketh them not off nor contradicteth them in their owne nature 3. What ever threatnings are executed against an unbeleever they are the Law-threatnings it s a Law-death that the unbeleever dyeth for all that eternally perish doe perish under the law and the covenant of works never man is lost under Christ if therefore the Gospel say Whoremonâ—ers Adulterers Murtherers Drunkards shall not inherite the kingdome of God this threatning doth necessarily presuppose a Law-state if they which doe such things remaine under the Law otherwise the Gospels intent is not that they perish but that they beleeve and be saved CHAP. X. Of Gospel feare 〈…〉 with Gospel-freedome to feare hell so wee 〈…〉 and punishment more then sinne for sinne is a 〈…〉 then punishment For 1. we are commanded to 〈◊〉 him who can cast both soule and body into hell 2. It s not a Law-spirit of bondage that some tremble at the word of 〈◊〉 nor for Josiahs hâ—â—rt to melt at the reading of the â—aw 3. Not to be affraid of judgement is a part of a heart rockie and hardened Though Felix his trembling at judgement did prove him to bee under the Law because hee feared onely â—udgement and judgement as a greater evill then sinne Nor is it mercinary to love the reward so it be not more in our intention then a holy communion with God For 1. Moses by Faith had an eye to the recompence of reward Paul set the garland before him as his end 2 Wee are commanded so to runne that we may obtaine to lay up a sure foundation that we may lay hold on life eternal Onely wee are not to make happinesse and our created blessednesse so much out formall end in running our race as holynesse and our objective happinesse which is God himselfe If Antinomians would difference betweene love of a hire and hireling love then should not Towne condemne the just nor can the Fathers under the Law be said to have served the Lord with an upright heart if they served him for hire which Satan judged hypocrisie in Job cap. 1. vers 9.10 See Psalm 73.25 Job 13.15 CHAP. XI Law-feare and Gospel-faith consistent NOr doth Master Towne and Antinomians inferre by good arguing because beleevers may bee stricken off sinnes upon the consideraton of Law-threatnings that their sinnes deserve not wrath as well as the sinnes of others as â— Job saith What then shall I doe when God riseth up and â— Destruction from God was a terror to me But it followeth not that therefore to obey God sub paenà for feare of the condemning Law is not free Gospel-obedience For it s most false seeing this obedience for feare of the desert of sinne was in Paul though he was perswaded that eternall wrath should never be inflicted on him as is cleare by his words Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord wee perswade mâ—n And we know if our earthly house be dissolved we have an house not made with hands but eternall in heaven 2. Law-threatning when Faith assureth the conscience of freedome from the wrath to come and love-perswading are most consistent For most cleare it is that Christ and his Apostles doe command and strictly charge in the Gospel So Antinomians erre who teach that the Gospel perswadeth rather then commandeth and reasons and argues us to duties rather then bindes and enforces and that holinesse and sanctification now is not such as is faâ—hioned by the Law of outward command but by
but prayer hearing preaching Sacraments reveale them onely This is no Gospel-divinity 5. Nor was God in a way of reconciliation and peace with the Jewes under the Old Testament rather then pacified except Antinomians say God saw sinne in Jaakob under the old Testament Numb 23.21 He blotted not out their sinnes as a thicke cloud Esai 43.25 and cast not their iniquities in the depth of the Sea Mich. 7.19 20. Nor blessed them with pardon Psal. 32.1 2. but kept an after reckoning of wrath as a non-pardoning as an unpacifyed God toward them which belyeth the Holy Ghost in the Old Testament almost in every page 6. Nor is it true that Christ getteth us the love of God he purchaseth to us all the fruites of Gods free love such as Redemption pardon imputed righteousnesse effectuall calling justification repentance faith perseverance glory But we all maintaine against Papists that Christ given as Mediator Christ dying for us is the fruit of Gods free love and of our election to grace and glory but not the cause or a meane getting to us Gods love Learned Twist and protestant Divines to whom Saltmarsh though he undertakes to write of free grace is but a yesterday novice prove against Papists Dominicans Iesuits that Christ Mediator his bloud is not the Meritorious cause of the free and eternall love of God to man 1. Because nothing in time is or can be the cause of that which is eternall Christ is given in time and dyeth in time as our surety he is an eternall Mediator dying in Gods decree but that cannot make him the cause begetting Gods love to us 2. Gods free love and his grace is the cause why hee giveth his Sonne to dye for us Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.9 then Christ dying cannot bee the cause of Gods love 3. The free love of God should not be free if it had a meritorious cause CHAP. LII That we are not freed from outward Ordinances nor is it Legall to be under them as Antinomians say ANtinomians pick a quarrell against the Law and would have us freed from it because it sanctifieth not and cannot give us grace to obey but by this wee are not under the Gospel because the Gospel of it selfe or any word of grace without the Spirit cannot worke faith or give grace or sanctifie But I know Antinomians thinke that the Spirit freeth us from all outward ordinances from any obligations that an outward command can lay on us whether of Law or Gospel For Saltmarsh teacheth us That the Spirit of Adoption worketh Legally not freely when wee doe things meerely as commanded from the power of an outward Commandement or precept in the word that brings forth but a Legall or at best but a mixt obedience and service of something a finer hypocrisie But if hee meane by a meere outward command the letter onely pressing obedience without the acting of the Spirit or any influence of the life of Christ this is a dead work and cannot come at all meerely from the power of an outward command for the very outward command of the Gospel holdeth forth to the understanding in the very Letter which is a signification of Gods good and holy will the authority of God the love of Christ as this Peter lovest thou mee feed my Lambs and none can out of the conscience of the majestie authority and love of Christ obey this command without the influence of the Spirit of grace so hee refuteth not us for we teach no such thing But Saltmarsh his meaning is that the meere outward Letter of the sweetest Gospel-command or promise such as He that beleeveth in the Sonne hath life and shall never come to judgement him that commeth I will in no sort cast away but will raise him up at the last day c. layeth no obligation of obedience on us at all but the Spirit acting and immediatly moving us effectually to obey layeth on all the obligation and all alongs M. Towne proveth wee are freed from the Law with all its authority offices and effects and are not under the Lawes rule to direct or teach yea nor is it to give us saith Saltmarsh So much as a heame of light nor to command bind or oblige us because the Law saith Towne hath not any sanctifying vertue and power to subdue sinne but we are under grace that is the grace of the Gospel which effectually subdueth sinne and sanctifieth And this is Townes Argument all alongs the Law of works is a meere passive thing and vrge the Law never so earnestly with all its motives and meanes yee can never make me keepe it ergo wee are freed from the Law and clearly then are wee under the commanding power of no outward ordinances because they cannot effectually sanctifie and subdue sinne not the preaching of the Gospel nor the Law nor praying nor hearing nor Sacraments wee are under nothing but grace and that onely actuall such as is the effectuall and irresistible blowing of the Holy Ghost for sure habituall grace in us cannot effectually worke for the subduing of sin So say Libertines of New England We are under no Gospel-exhortations to beleeve and none are to bee exhorted to beleeve but such whom we know to be the elect of God or to have his Spirit in them effectually The reason is outward exhortations oblige none but the Elect and not them all whereas Christ commanded to preach the Gospel to every creature to all Nations So say they We are not to pray against all sinne because the old man must be in us so long as wee live So said the Pelagians of old and A man may not bee exhorted to any duty because he hath no power to doe it All tend to this that to preach the Gospel to sinners and for Saltmarsh to write a booke of free grace is a Legall straine of teaching and not becomming the glory of the New Testament because grace goeth not ever along with teaching litterally 2. We are not under the Gospel or any Gospel-ordinances because of our selves we have no power to obey them this is to make us guilty of no sinne at all because to sinne is to act against an obligation of a Law and when grace acteth not on us we faile against no obligation at all because we can doe no otherwise 3. This is deepe Pelagianisme to say wee cannot sinne if we have not power to eschew sinne and obey God and to make our owne strength or the strength of another without us the measure and binding rule of our obedience CHAP. LIII Necessity of ordinances and of written and preached Scripture to the most perfect FRom this it commeth that Antinomians judge there is no need that a soule once in Christ goe out for new and fresh supply of actuall grace because it is acted by the Spirit inhabitating And Saltmarsh The more any motion or obedience is caused from things
beautifull morning skie is not the Sunne but the result and daughter of the Sunne and the faire skie together and faith that acteth much upon the promises as upon the report of credentiall letters doth and must apprehend more pardon then peace can beare witnesse to sinne hath a bloudy tongue and cryeth fury and vengeance aloud faith must lye on the attonement of the bloud of Jesus which our sense cannot reach Faith is a starre of a greater magnitude and higher elâ—vation then our poore low-creeping feeling So wee thinke we had more of Christ and the acting of the Spirit at our first conversion then long after because when our spirituall apprehension is young and tender the acts of apprehension are more wanton and fiery but when experience and growth of grace commeth the motions of sense are more stayed and solid and as spiritie and active and more but to greene sense little seemeth much But that which Antinomians ayme at is to blow away all peace that commeth from personall sanctification because they are enemies to personall mortification and make this to be our peace of repenting and mortifying sinne abstaining from fleshly luâ—â—s that Christ repented mortified sinne and lusts on the Crosse for us and we beleeve this and there is an end Hence they condemne aâ—l experience of the acting of God in and on the soule to comfort the soule or helpe faith in times of desertion For Saltmarsh who in his cures of all our Legall and carnall agues is silent of experience and thinketh outward ordinances and the promises written for our learning and comfort because outward and written and vocall to be old Testament and Legall waies though Peter call them sincere milke exceeding great and precious promises and Paul Thinke they were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope and Christ speaking of his Commandements which were written and spoken by him and so outward saith that they were a badge visible to all the world that they were his Disciples If yee keep my Commandements yee shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandements and abide in his love And to Job the words of the Lords mouth were more then his necessary food And Christ giveth his judgement in a spirituall not a Legall song of outward ordinances Thy lips O my Spouse drop as the honey combe honey and milke are under thy tongue To David they were sweeter then the honey or honey combe sweet to his tast yea above gold or fine gold as all riches better then thousands of gold and silver his heritage for ever To Saltmarsh the Word is a dead outward legall thing and all this to them must be spoken of the inward and spirituall word written in the heart as Libertines taught So Bulling advers Anabapti It is true it is for that soule-acting and Spirit-converting power so but in the meane time upon this ground old Anabaptists rejected the Word and the Ministery and tooke thâ—m to 〈◊〉 Law written in the inward parts and the annoinâ—ing that 〈◊〉 all things abusing Jer. 31. â—3 and 1 Joh. 2.27 So doâ— Antinomians upon this ground reject all experiences contrary to the Scripture experience worketh hope then it should cheere us in sad houres thus the Church comforteth her selfe I considered the dayes of old and called to remembrance my songs in the night So David looketh back to this longing to see saith he thy power and thy glory so as I have seene thee in the Sanctuary 2. Peter puts it on the Saints If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious 3. It s a sinnefull neglect to look to no experience But none saith where is God my maker who giveth songs in the night saith Elihu 4. Antinomians are angry at experiences 1. Because they teach there is no difference betweene the graces of hypocrits and beleevers in the kinds and so no experiences betweene the one and the other can render any difference 2. Experience is an outward ordinance of gathering from such and such a dispensation of God such a tryed conclusion Now Saltmarsh thinketh all outward ordinances as outward Legall things and so it would appeare Christ in the New Testament-worship which is spirituall and in nothing Legall hath appointed neither preaching nor praying nor hearing nor Sacraments nor Christian Assemblies nor conferences nor admonishing exhorting one another nor writing for all these are outward things and I grant if Christ joyne not his influence of grace neither is Pauls planting nor Appollos his watering any thing Yet Apostles and Teachers are not Legall ordinances 3. Antinomians offend at all inherent grace and created quallifications in us as evidences or helps to testifie wee are in Christ for they are all deceiving differences saith Crispe and may be in hypocrits and say I they can be no otherwise in hypocrites then deluding signes then the voice and testimonie of the Spirit for there is a thing like a voice in the Temporaries and also a thing like faith which is no faith Now experiences remaine as inherent and habituall observations of the Spirits actings in the Soule CHAP. LV. How farre inherent qualifications and actions of grace can prove we are in the state of grace ANtinomians make a hideous out-cry against signes and marks of our justification because indeed they are enemies to sanctification For establishing soules saith Saltmarsh upon any works of their owne as away meane or ground of assurance as that upon such a measure of repentance or obedience they may beleeve by I dare not deale in any such way of our owne righteousnesse because I find no infallible marke in any thing of our owne sanctification save in a lower way of perswasion or motive I find none in the Old or New Testament but have cause to suspect their owne righteousnesse as David Peter Paul So the Libertines of New England Though a man can prove a gracious worke in himselfe and Christ to bee the author of it yet this is but a sandâ—e foundation And it is a fundamentall and soule-damning error to make sanctification an evidence of justification And it were to light a candle to the Sunne Yea it darkeneth justification the darker my sanctification is the brighter is my justification And I may know I am Christs not because I doe crucifie the lusts of the flesh but because I doe not crucifie them but beleeue in Christ that crucified them for me So D. Crispe Cornewell Towne teach that love to the brethren sincerity c. are marks by which others may know us rather then we our selves So Saltmarsh followeth Crispe We never said that a naturall mans devotion or his bastard prayers or wild-fire of blind zeale can argue the translation of the man from death to life as Saltmarsh
Holy Ghost and that none can doe these works in them but Châ—ist and the inference made from them are the reasonings of the Holy Ghost and the result is an infallibly assurance Antinomians thinke both they may be counterfeit works and the reasoning and inference from thence to be a worke of our owne Spirit onely We say of the Spirit of grace joyning with our Spirit as is cleare 1 Cor. 2.12 3. The inference say they breeds no certaine and infallible assurance but probable onely and conjecturall evidence 4 If these works were not done in faith and known by us to be so done I should grant they could give but an uncertaine and controverted evidence Antinomians say wee separate them from faith and saving grace and that thus separated they beare testimony that wee are in Christ which is a calumny of theirs not our Doctrine Asser. 6 The assurance of our spirituall acts resulting from our Christian walking is a mediate assurance collected by inference not immediate as when we see the Sunne 2. It is called knowledge and assurance in the Word 1 Joh. 2.3 1 Joh. 3.14 vers 18.19 but it is not properly Faith but sense therefore we doe not build assurance of justifying faith on works of grace Antinomians say that we make our works the pillars and causes of our Faith But the promise the sufficiency of Christ the free grace of God to us are the onely pillars of our faith and our works of grace are the ropes by which the ship and passengers are drawne to the rock that is higher then themselves but they are not the rocke they are not the formall objective Sunne-light by which we passe our judgement and determination of Christ the Mediator his sweetnesse and power to save nor the causes of the soules resting on the bloud of attonement as Sunne-light is the formall reason and medium without of our judging of colours and their beauty They are onely land-marks by which we may the better judge of our state and not the shoare the land-marke onely sheweth how neere wee are to shoare by them we know that we know and beleeve in Christ. Finally they are rather negatives against unbeliefe then positive evidences of faith and serve for incouragements that we cast not away our confidence For if I doubt of my state whether I be translated and in Christ or no I cannot but doubt of my actions if I doubt if the tree be a naturall Olive I cannot but thinke the fruit must be but wild Olives and when we shall be unclothed with our darkenesse of body we shall not need such crutches to walke by Faith for sight shall leade us CHAP. LVI How duties and delight in them take us not off Christ. HEnce Antinomians when they say we must not so much as see our good works for not to see them is spirituall poverty and we cannot see them but we must trust in them and build on them And therefore best remove such chalke stones and rotten foundations as holy walking and live loosely that wee sowing sinne may reap pardoning grace So they say I know I am Christs because I doe not crucifie the lusts but beleeve that Christ hath crucified them for mee And our sanctification when darke and lesse maketh justification brighter And frequencie and length of holy duties are signes of one under a covenant of works and so under the curse of Law And to take delight in the holy service of God is to goe a whoring from God And the Spirit acts most in the Saints when they endeavour least All these say to be rich in works of sanctification is to be poore in grace 2. To doe and act nothing and so sinnefully to omit the duties that the grace of God calleth for Tit. 2.11 is the way to have the Spirit acting graciously then sinne that grace may abound be sicke and exceeding sicke that Christ may bestow on you much Gospel-physicke To be aboundant in the worke of the Lord to delight in the Law of the Lord in the inner man to labour more aboundantly then they all to bee rich in good works are nothing else but to goe a whoring from God So Saltmarsh expoundeth these words I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Such were yee but yee are justified but yee are sanctified c. That Christ beleeved repented sorrowed for sinne mortified sinne perfectly for me and this saith hee is sanctification and the fulnesse of his the All in All. Then to doe nothing my selfe but sinnefully to omit all duties and let Christ doe all is full sanctification and the lesse yee doe the more Christ doth for you Object 1. Christ saith not Peter be encouraged to beleeve because thou art an holy obedient loving Apostle But I have prayed that thy faith faile not Saltmarsh Free grace pag. 32.33 Answ. In that place he doth not shew Peter how he should know by such and such signes that hee beleeved but for Peters comfort and faith he sheweth him the true cause why he should not fall away to wit because his Advocate interceedeth for him Object 2. Christ saith not to his Apostles O my Disciples though I be from you yet yee have been thus and thus humble penitent obedient and let this be your ground and assurance when I am gone but hee layes in promises yee beleeve in God beleeve also in me I will send the Comforter Saltmarsh pag 33. Answ. We make no qualifications object or ground or cause of faith but onely signes to know wee have faith therefore might Christ haue said ye shall know yee love me and beleeve because you love those begotten of me 1. But we thinke though naturall sweating at duties setteth not the Spirit on edge to worke graciously yet to worke by the grace of God increaseth both talents and grace 2. Nor the frequent actings of grace nor the simply looking on them especially under sad houres to wine to our feet againe are ill but the abuses to bee avoided As 1. the comparative poring and the more frequent living on the comforts of our owne gracious actings more then on Christ himselfe and his death is as if I would live to much on a sight of a new created birth in my selfe and the Image of the second Adam when I have Christ himselfe to live on 2. Excessive out-running and over-banke-flowings of wondring at what is done in our selves by the grace of Christ cannot want a great deale of mixture of our selfe for we are not so found on acttings of grace in others and that is a token there is a selfe-reflection in the worke and that I sit downe and write of my selfe a hundred in stead of fifty 3. All comparative over-loving of created comforts must take the heart in so farre off Christ. 4. We should wonder more at the depth and height of free grace in the Creator and in Christ the well-head then in our selves for
deliberation knowledge action from the soule in either supernaturall works of grace or sinne as if the soule were turned in a rock or a stone 5. All the sinnes of beleevers their Adulteries murthers lying cousening must be counted on the Lords score I tremble to speake it upon his honour be it if he will suffer perfect Angels to sinne more then he can suffer Angels and the glorified that stand before the throne to fall or transgresse CHAP. LXXII Glorifying of God in sanctification needfull ANntinomians tell us of a two fold glorifying of God one in the eyes of God primary immediate passive divine by faith in which God glorifieth himselfe in us justifying us Faith being the Creator as it were of a certaine divinitie as Rom. 4.20 Abraham gave glory to God whereas unbeliefe maketh him a lyar There is another glorifying of God that is outward more fleshly and humane secondary mediate in the eyes of men by good works in sanctification in which we are agents and glorifie God by the Spirit by which wee are partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and it is done in a grosser manner by declaring God glorified before men by our good works Math. 5. and greatly inclineth to the glorifying of man by this Abraham hath to glory and rejoyce in holy works but not before God Answ. 1. We are not meere passive in beleeving for then should we not be commended for beleeving nor should wee know rely and trust in an all-sufficient Saviour in beleeving on him though there be a passion in beleeving 2. These enemies of Sanctification abase all holy walking and works of sanctification calling holy walking 1. glorifying of God outwardly and before men in a fleshly manner Whereas God seeeth it and acknowledgeth it in his owne sight sincere unfained perfect in its kind with perfection of parts not of degrees they would have all Sanctification finer hypocrisie I know thy works saith Christ to Smyrna and tribulation and poverty but thou art rich That wee might serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before him all the daies of our life And whatsoever yee Servants doe doe it heartily as to the Lord not to men Commending our selves to every mans conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the sight of God Abraham walke before mee and bee thou perfect saith the Lord. How many of the good Kings did right in the sight of the Lord It s true our best works are polluted with sinne and in the matter of justification cannot endure the strict Law-censure of the Judge of the world if God narrowly marke iniquity But Antinomians are so at odds with holy walking that they will have all the sincere works of the Saints wrought by the grace of God to bee in their substance before God plaistered hypocrisie and yet in the justified these hypocriticall works are no sinne there being no more sinne in the justified nor any thing contrary to a Law which the Lord can see as a sinne more then in Jesus Christ. So here is holy sanctified and lawfull sinne and an innocent hypocrisie and holy and harmlesse corruption and flesh 3. A declarative glorifying of God in the eyes of men not of God must argue the beleever to be lawlesse and a Libertine before men and that he needeth not before men and in his conversation with wife brother children neighbours in his words promises covenants buying selling works of his calling doe all as in the sight and presence of God for if he walke rightteously in his conversation with men hee is behinde Gods backe the Lord seeth him not if he walke unjustly in fornication uncleannesse cousening lying God seeth not these to be sins 4. Why doe Antinomians exclude from works of sanctification the worke of beleeving Are we not to doe all good works in faith as well as for the glory of God and are we not to eat and drinke in faith Rom. 14. vers 22.23 are they not bastard works that come not from such a root as faith As the fruit is ill if the tree be ill and so we must glorifie God primarily immediatly in the sight of God passively in this declarative and active and secondary glorifying of God 5. The Antinomians exclude a third sort of glorifying God to wit in private when neither God seeth them nor men but they are done in a secret closet as praying praysing meditating and soliloquies of the soule with God almes given in private that men see not nor doe the poore know of it this is neither passive nor active glorifying of God and so the division is lame except Antinomians will have us comming with our secret prayers and almes to the streets and cause a trumpet to be blowne as Pharisees doe 6. The gloryfying of God by men that see our good works incline of it self to no glorifying of man more then Abrahams giving glory to God but onely as we either trust to our good works or vainely conceit we are justified by our good works and then being abused they incline to glorifie men and make us vainely rejoyce and boast in them before God So if Abraham should thinke his act of beleeving were his onely righteousnesse before God his beleeving in God should be as fleshly a glorifying of man as any his works of Sanctification CHAP. LXXIII Sanctification concurs as well as Justification to make Saints THough Sanctification say Antinomians make men Saints declaratively to men-ward yet the true cause that makes them Saints in the sight of God is justification To this wee say 1. Take Sanctification as Eaton and Saltmarsh and Denne say Protestant Divines whom they are pleased to call Legalists doe for such holinesse as they say is in Anchorits Eremits and Monks for externall works done without faith it makes men neither Saints before God nor men but meere faireded hypocrites such a sanctification wee disclaime But take Sanctification for holy walking in the strength of the grace of justification and grace inherent in us so we say Justification and Sanctification ought not to bee separated but both concurre to make us Saints the one as the cause the other as the unseparable effect And most false it is that Eaton saith That Sanctification is so farre from being the cause of making us Saints to God-ward that properly it doth but declare that we are Saints to man-ward for so Antinomians make Sanctification nothing but a poore shaddow like an Yvie bush that is no cause of wine but a meere signe to declare and shew in this there is wine Now sure by Sanctification we are partakers of the Divine nature and the Spouses beauty not onely in regard of imputed righteousnesse but also a holy and sincere walking and blamelesse profession of the truth in a chaine of the Spouses necke and in her personall acts of praying and praysing and the sweet ministery of the Gospel in regard of
which Her lips drop as a honey combe butter and milke are under her tongue and the smell of her garments like the smell of Lybanon her feet beautifull with shooes her two breasts like two Young Roes that are twins c. Sanctification must render the Spouse a societie of Saints even in the eyes of God and not only meerely and declaratively to men-ward as the Yvie-bush is a signe of wine Let Antinomians say Are not the Saints partakers of the Divine nature in the sight of God as well as declaratively in the sight of men 2. If the charity of the Philippians bee an odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing to God And If to doe good and to communicate be such sacrifices where with God is well pleased though their charity and good works doe not justifie them yet these good works must smell sweetlie to God and bee well-pleasing in his sight and by them God must repute them sanctified though the sanctification be unperfect and not in its measure every way conformable to the spirituall and perfect Law and they are not then meerely declaratively and to men-ward onely Saints by their works of Sanctification 3. The contrary works in the Saints the shutting up their bowels against their indigent brethren their byting and devouring their acts of Adultery and Murther and lying are ill smelling and displeasing in the eyes of God not onely declaratively before men but really and in truth in the sight of God in regard that the Lord 1. is displeased with these sins 2. Forbiddeth them in his Law 3. Rebuketh them 4. Punisheth them 5. Setteth the conscience on against the beleever that doth them that they are grieved for them and mourne 6. Hideth his countenance from them commands us to confesse and crave pardon for them then the Lord must take notice of the contrary acts and command commend and reward them be well-pleased with them and they must be more then naked declarations and signes of Saintship to men-ward The Lord himselfe pronounceth the Saints blessed not onely for Christs imputed righteousnesse which is indeed the first cause fountaine and ground thereof but also for our works of Sanctification as Blessed are the undefiled in their way that feare the Lord and delight in his Commandements that keepe judgement and that doe righteousnesse at all times that doe what Christ commands that doe his Commandements Then God must judge them more then declarations to men-ward because this is the blessing of eternall life in Christ Jesus CHAP. LXXIIII The harmonious compliance of old Libertines Familists and Antinomians WEe doe so much the more hate the Antinomian way as Antichristian and fleshly for there bee other Antichrists then the Pope of Rome and many False Christs risen now in that in the doctrine of sinne sorrow for sinne repentance sanctification c. they doe so comply with the old Libertines in Calvins time and with David Georgius and Henrie Nicolas and the late Familists Parall I. Libertines in Calvins time said The state of innocencie was to know nothing good or ill more then children and Adams first sinne is to know good and ill and regeneration is to be stript naked of the knowledge and sense of either sinne or righteousnesse and therefore the Libertines said to any man troubled in conscience with sinne O Adam dost thou yet know somewhat Is not the old Adam yet crucified If they saw any stricken with the feare of the judgement of God Hast thou yet say they a tast of the old Aple beware that that morsell doe not strangle thee If any man was touched in conscience with remorse of sinne and did sorrow or repent for his transgressions they said sinne raigned in that man hee was sinnes captive Just so the Familists of New England In conversion say they the faculties of the soule and workings thereof are destroyed and in stead of them the holy Ghost comes in And a man must take no notice of sinne nor of his repentance for sinne And frequencie or length of holy duties or trouble of conscience for neglect thereof are all signes of one under a covenant of works that is of one in whom old Adam liveth and raigneth And I know I am Christs not because I crucifie the lusts but because I doe not crucifie them And our late Antinomians say To bee touched with any sense of sinne and for David to confesse his sinne or bee grieved for it was saith M. Towne from want and weakenesse of faith that is from the old man I cannot saith he looke on my selfe my actions sinnefull and my conscience and see my sinnes remaine but I looke to the records of heaven and Gods justice and since the bloud-shed I can find nothing there against me but sinnes as a debt discharged are become a nullitie before the Lord and therefore my peace and happinesse consisteth in the forsaking and not considering my selfe and in my living and abiding in Christ who is in heaven This not considering himselfe and his sinnes is neither to know sorrow mourne for feare or bee humbled for sinne Prâ—testant Divines say when the Lord forgiveth a sinner yet the sinner will never forgive himselfe but know consider feare mourne and be humbled for his sinnes Antinomians say all these are works of the flesh and of unbeliefe and of the Old Adam just as the Libertines said so to feele sinne dwelling in them as Paul did Rom. 7. saith Eaton is an act of the flesh contrary to faith and if saith Saltmarsh A beleever live onely by sense reason and experience of himselfe and as hee lives to men he meaneth dayly sinning by reason of an indwelling corruption he liveth both under the power and feeling of of sinne and under the Law But if hee live by faith he liveth out of the power of all condemnation and unrighteousnesse Then to Antinomians feeling of sin in us and sense reason and experience knowing and discerning sinne in us and our fearing sinne sorrowing or being humbled for it or any acts of repentance are contrary to living by faith and so the works of the old Adam knowing ill and a taste of the soure apple What then is regeneration and the killing of the body of sin and of old Adam It is the abolishing of all conscience knowledge discerning feeling feare sorrow dejection of men for feare of sinne Hence Master Archer D. Crispe and Saltmarsh make Sermons against feare of or trouble for sinne as works of unbeliefe as contrary to the power of God faithfulnesse providence death of Christ free grace a weakening of faith a damping of all religious service And for their not knowing of any good wee doe or acts of Sanctification which is the other branch of the Libertines regeneration Familists say To fetch comfort from experience of grace in our selves is no
the heart spoken of Jer. 31.33 is the very new heart and the Spirit or the heart of flesh Ezech. 36.26 27. the circumcised heart Deut. 30.6 the new creature the Lord Jesus formed in the heart by Faith Gal. 4.19 Ephes. 3.17 it is not any meanes or cause or author of the new heart but it is the new heart it selfe formed by the Holy Ghost as the Author and Father of the second birth by the Word written conveyed by preaching to the soule Now except Del would say Christ onely worketh inward reformation by inward reformation onely for this inward word is inward reformation he cannot make sense of this inward word excluding the Law and outward Word both of Law and Gospel as he doth For nothing can bee more false then that the Word whereby Christ reformes is not the Word without us as the Word of the Law is but the Word within us For I find great ignorance if not worse in Familists and Antinomians in this Saltmarsh saith The Spirit worketh Legally and not freely when men doe things as meerely commanded from the power of an outward Commandement or precept in the Word he meaneth in the written Scripture For saith hee that bringeth forth but a Legall or at best but a mixt obedience and service and a finer hypocrisie and when they doe because of some vow or covenant when they take any outward thing to move them rather then apply Christ for strength life and Spirit For it is the outward Word onely in its kind that is the sole and onely objective cause as wee see colours onely because they are colours and the Light of the day-light-Sun onely because it is light and nothing else can be the object of the sense of seeing but light and colours and we onely heare sounds meerely because they are sounds and smell things odoriferous and smellable because they cast a smell and onely taste meats meerely and formally because they are sweet sowre bitter sharpe or some way good or ill to the taste Now life or the faculty of seeing hearing smelling tasting are in no sort the object of seeing hearing smelling tasting Just so when wee doe meerely for the Word in the Prophets and Psalmes without us and but of conscience and meerely as commanded from the power of an outward Commandement or Precept I adde or a Gospel-promise written in the Word then we obey God in a free filiall Gospel-way out of meere conscience to an outward Command as the onely objective ground warrant and rule of our obedience what ever Papists on the one extremity say for an unwritten Word of God and Enthysiasts on the other hand for a Word within or a Spirit acting and obliging as their onely rule excluding the Law and Gospel because they are Letters and written and Scripture and a Word without as the onely objective ground and warrant of Divine Faith was in the Prophets time Thus saith the Lord. And in Christ and the Apostles time According as it is written in the Prophets in the Scriptures So Christ Luk. 24.26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory Vers. 27. And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets hee expounded unto them all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe Vers. 45. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures and said unto them thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day and remission of sinnes should be preached in his name among the Nations Then Christ would have beleeving and repentance Preached and commanded for no warrant and objective ground but because the Word without the Commandement or Precept in the Word commandeth it and this Satan cannot call finener hypocrisie So Revel 2.11 Hee that hath an eare to heare an inward and renewed a circumcised eare and heart Let him heare what the Spirit saith to the Churches this Spirit speaking to the Churches is not an inward word or a regenerating Spirit in the heart of beleevers in these seven Churches Antinomians pervert the Word of God so But it is the Holy Ghost speaking in the Word without the written preached and externall Epistles that the Spirit sent to these seven Churches and so the onely meane of Abrahams obedience to sacrifice his onely sonne Isaak and the onely warrant for his faith was the Commandement of God and a Word without Goe now take thy sonne thy onely sonne Isaak and offer him to me Many other things naturall reason a seeming contrary word that he should be the sonne of Promise seeme to command the contrary but Abrahams faith appeared in this that he closed his eyes at all Commandements and carnall inhibitions of nature on the contrary and meerely for an externall command of God as the sole and onely objective warrant and formall object of his faith and of his obedience without because God so commanded he obeyed and so are wee to obey and beleeve upon no objective cause warrant or ground but the written or preached Precept or promise of the Gospel or Covenant of grace that is a word without us and the onely meane of faith and inward reformation and this Word is written as the Law is in the Scriptures and layeth an authoritative binding power on our conscience to obey God for his onely Word as the Law doth But it is not the onely Word that is the efficient and effectually working cause of our obedience if the Spirit of grace doe not concurre with both the written and preached Law and written and preached Gospel and covenant of grace wee cannot obey Antinomians make obedience for the outward written command as the onely objective cause and warrant of our faith and obedience through the effectuall working of the Spirit two contrary obediences imagining that the former is Literall Legall and finer hypocrisie and the latter the onely true obedience A grosse mistake 1. Because none can sincerely obey meerly from the power of an outward command or precept in the Word but the man whose eares the Lord circumciseth Deut. 30.6 Revel 2.11 and whose understanding Christ openeth to understand the Word without Luk. 24.45 and therefore the Word without is the onely meanes of inward reformation 2. The Letter of the Covenant of grace holdeth forth the inward grace signified and cannot bee contrary to the inward Word in the heart for the Holy Ghost as the principall efficient causeth us to obey for conscience of the command written and preached in the Gospel which is belâ—eve in the Lord Jesus or the written promise he that beleeveth shall be pardoned and saved And to say they are contrary is as good sense as to say light and colours because they are without us they are therefore contrary to life and the visive faculty of seeing within us or that sounds or sweet smelling flowers without because they are without must be contrary to the naturall faculty and sense of hearing and smelling
in our selves but that the justified must be as free of all indwelling sinne as Christ Jesus or as the glorified in heaven and so absolutely perfect in our person and our works maketh all sanctification no sanctification before God and that inherent holynesse rendreth us not a whit lovely and acceptable to God more then if wee were wallowing in our lusts and serving the Devill contrary to the Scripture that saith That our sanctification is the will of God that our service is holy living and acceptable that God is well-pleased with our sacrifices of almes in Christ Jesus And that a holy and sincere profession and walking doth take the love and ravish the heart of Christ yea by this way we sinne onely in dishonouring Christ and in not walking in him contrary to the end of Redemption which calleth us to sanctification not in the sight of God but meerely declaratively for Eaton tells us that if any more be ascribed to Sanctification but a meere declaration to the eyes of men that we are healed we goe on with Papists and Bellarmine to make sanctification the onely formall cause why we are justified But the man is farre out Bellarmine and Papists say that God so farre accepteth works of inherent holynesse that without Christs imputed righteousnesse we are justified for these works we acknowledge that God for Christ loveth and accepteth works of sanctification and obligeth us to them by a command to doe them except we would sinne in omitting them but that God loveth and accepteth them as the cause of our righteousnesse in part or in whole in the matter of our justification wee utterly deny Antinomians would have all acts of sanctification meerely arbitrary and of courtesie and to come from no obligation of a command or Law and so that these acts being omitted are no sinne before God and being omitted they are but arbitrary no declarations we are not healed or discourtesies to Christ no sinnes against a Law and being performed God loveth them no more then he doth Adulteries or Murthers acted by justified persons Master Eaton ignorantly objecteth That God by justification shall place us in two contrary states of salvation and damnation to bee the members of Christ and of the Devill that God shall come short of his end of Redemption if wee be sinners in our selves then cannot the bloud of Christ clense us from all sin divers other things that are Characters of weakenesse and poore Divinity he objecteth as all his gang doth Answ. Sinners are taken two wayes in Scripture 1. For wicked men servants of sinne sinne having a dominion and Lordship over the party as in many Scriptures is cleare So we say not that we are both righteous before God and sinners in our selves we should then be both sanctified and not sanctified members both of Christ and of Sathan as hee objecteth But we take sinners in this for these that are sinnefull and have sinne dwelling in them and for such as If they say they have no sinne they are lyars and so the Scripture also taketh sinners Now Antinomians deny the justified to sin at all or to have any sinne dwelling in them because Christ hath washed away all sinne But ignorant men they should know that justification is a forinsecall and judiciall freeing us from all sinne that is from the Law-guilt and condemnation of all sinne and so all our sinnes are removed as a cloud are taken away as if they were cast into the bottome of the Sea but justification is not a Physicall washing away and expulsion of all indwelling and inhabitation of sinne and an introduction of the contrary habit as when heat commeth in the same subiect in the place of coldnesse light in the place of darkenesse whitenesse in the subject in which blacknesse did reside as Antinomians with Papists fondly conceit this is sanctification which is imperfect and graduall in this life not justification and so it followeth not that one and the same person because sinne dwelleth in him after justification but subdued and having lost his dominion is now both under the dominion of Sathan and also a member of Christ. 2. Christ obtaineth his end in Redemption which is to free the sinner from sinnes condemnation in justification fully and in sanctification by degrees not fully while we be perfected in glory Christ can well dwell in the heart by faith where sinne dwelleth as an underling but not where it dwelleth as a King and Tyrant in its full dominion which dominion is not removed formally by justification though the state of justification and the full dominion of sinne cannot stand together in the same person but properly and formally by sanctification It s true God seeth sinne pardoned and the sinner freed from the guilt but he seeth it dwelling in us not to our condemnation for the Lord imputeth it not and therefore it followeth not that the Lord both seeth us righteous in Christ and not righteous in Christ but onely hee seeth us righteous in Christ by imputation of grace and freed from condemnation and sinnefull in our selves by the inherencie and in-dwelling of sinne pardoned and subdued which is the doctrine of Prophets and Apostles delivered in the Scripture CHAP. LXXXIX Antinomians are ignorant of Faith to dreame that its Faith to beleeve against sense that our sinnes are no sinnes IT is the true nature and essence of Faith say Antinomians To beleeve cleane contrary to that which we see and beleeve in our selves if God hath spoken the contrary as if God were not able to abolish that sinne which wee dayly feele dwelling in us out of his owne sight above our reason sense and feeling The Mystery is this as for the Adulteries Oppressions treacherous Covenant-breach Lying that justified Antinomians commit Faith is to beleeve they are no sinnes before God against no Law but meere nullities in the Lords Law-court as Towne saith though Lying and deceiving reason beleeveth them to be sins for its true faith To beleeve the contrary of what sense and reason apprehendeth because God so saith and giveth his Sonnes bloud to cleanse us from all sin and sweareth the same But this is a dead false lying faith of Antinomians 1. Because the light of faith discovereth the sinnes of a justified person to bee hainous provocations of the majestie of God so David I acknowledge my transgression and my sinne is ever before me And the Church For our transgressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them And Paul in the New Testament I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good And I find then a Law that when I would doe good evill is present with me And I see another Law in my members rebelling against the Law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sinne which is in my members these three words 〈◊〉
bene vivit nec indiget lege quae doceat cum bene vivere In justus autem debet bene vivere quia non bene vivit quod lex requirit hoc toâ—um urget ne ex lege et operibus justi fieri praesumant sed per fidem accipiant Spiritum sine lege operibus quo legi satisfaciant How the beleever needeth not the Law in the letter neither is under it a Towne all 7â— 77 78. b Saltmarsh free grace 140. c Eaton honey combe â— 11.322.323.324 c. d Randel Preface to the Bright-star Luâ—her never dreamed beleevers to bee perfect as Antinomians think e Luth. tom 1. f. 65. f Luth tom 4. f. 343. g Luther to 3. in Gen. f. 2. in c. 25. Patience required that sin dwell in us e Luth. tom 1. f. 65. f Luth tom 4. f. 343. g Luther to 3. in Gen. f. 2. in c. 25. Patience required that sin dwell in us h Saltm â—re grace 140. I Towne asser gr 15â— 157 158.159 k Luther tom 4 f. 63. m Luther tom 2. f. 432. Sin rageth more in the godly then in the wicked n Luth. tom 2 f. 434. How sin pardoned is no sin k Luther tom 4 f. 63. m Luther tom 2. f. 432. Sin rageth more in the godly then in the wicked n Luth. tom 2 f. 434. How sin pardoned is no sin o Luther to 4. f 173. p Luth. tom r. in Gen. c. 3. f 57 q Luther to 4. f 404· r Luther to 4. in Gen. c. 42. f. 96. o Luther to 4. f 173. p Luth. tom r. in Gen. c. 3. f 57 q Luther to 4. f 404· r Luther to 4. in Gen. c. 42. f. 96. Luther taught that the Jewes were iustified by faith as wee are the Antinomians say the contrary s Luth. tom 2 â—5 t Luther to â— 397. w Luther to â— 413. y Luther tom â— in Gen. c. 13 f. 35. z Luther â— â— 523. s Luth. tom 2 â—5 t Luther to â— 397. w Luther to â— 413. y Luther tom â— in Gen. c. 13 f. 35. z Luther â— â— 523. a Luth. tom 4.164 Luther in the point of Christian Liberty against the Antinomians * Luther to 2. â— 78. b Luther tom 1 â— â—31 c Luther to 3.394 d Luther tom 1 473. a Luth. tom 4.164 Luther in the point of Christian Liberty against the Antinomians * Luther to 2. â— 78. b Luther tom 1 â— â—31 c Luther to 3.394 d Luther tom 1 473. How the Law hath nothing to doe with the conscience in Luthers meaning e Luther tom 4 150. e Luther tom 4 150. f Luth tom 4.149 g Luth. tom 3. f. 421. f Luth tom 4.149 g Luth. tom 3. f. 421. How the conscience is free according to the minde of Luther That distinction of Antinom that We cannot sin against God as a commanding lawgiver but against God Redeemer only removed Rise reigne ruine of Antinomiaâ—s in New England p. 60 61. art 2â— h Luth. tom 4. f. 410. i Luth tom 4.403 k Luth. to 1. in Gen. c. 24. f. 23â— l Luther tom 3 in Gen. f. 38. m Luther tom 4. in Gen. 41. â— 84. h Luth. tom 4. f. 410. i Luth. tom 4.403 k Luth. to 1. in Gen. c. 24. f. 23â— l Luther tom 3 in Gen. f. 38. m Luther tom 4. in Gen. 41. â— 84. o Del ser. 12.13 15. to judge of our spiritual condition by sense hath a two fold meaning Luther in the matter of free-will against Antiâ—omians Familists a Luth. tom 1. f. 9. 1 Luth. tom 1. f. 9. b Luther to 1. f. 11. c Luth. tom 1. f. 27. f Luth. tom 1.306 b Luther to 1. f. 11. c Luth. tom 1. f. 27. f Luth. tom 1.306 g Luther to 1.46 g Luther to 1.46 Tom. 3. f. 82. h Luther to 4. f 174. Tom. 3. f. 82. h Luther to 4. f 174. Of the subjective and active power of free-will Luth. tom 2. f. â—06 k Luther to 3.200 l Luth. tom 3.457 Luth. tom 2. f. â—06 k Luther to 3.200 l Luth. tom 3.457 m Luther to 2.215 n Luth. tom 3.218 m Luther to 2.215 n Luth. tom 3.218 o Luth. tom 1. f. 46.138 p Luther tom â— 140. o Luth. tom 1. f. 46.138 p Luther tom â— 140. Note an absolute independent power to doe what ever God commandeth peculiar neither to the covenant of workes before the fall nor to the law or Gospel after the fall but iâ— ever was common to all States to the creature to act dependently upon Gods predetermination Libertines sprang from the Gnosticks Familists from Libertines Antinomians from both a Theol. Ger. â— 2â— p. 53. b Bright stare c. 8 p. 11. The wild stuffe that is in Theologia Germani and the Brightst Theol. Germ. c. 14. vetus homo est Adamus inobediemia ipseitas egoitas â—t â—imilia ut novâ—s homo est Christus obedientia How creatures are under-under-causes of their own working and yet in beâ—ing and working depend on God The heaven hell of Familists included within the lists of this life The Familists acknowledge no Christ but a Metaphoricall Chriâ—t Of the Familists in England in reigne of K Jâ—mes and the contents of a supplication they â—râ—sented to the King Familists dissemble and cover theâ—â— foulest and grossest poynts of doctrine from the simple prelats patrons of Familists The rise of the late Familists in N. England Of Mistris Hutchison and her tenets Of M. Wheelwright a preacher in N. England a prime Familist The tenets of the laâ—tâ—r familists called Gortenianss Gortine and the latter Familists of New England deny the incarnation or that Christ was true man and dyed for us Del ser p. 19. M. Beacon turneth Christ over in a metaphâ—ricall Saviour as all Familisâ—â— doe John Waldesso so much extolled by M. Beacon is an Enthysiast and rejecteth the scriptures Seaven headed policy p. 111. Of other Antinomians now in England 〈◊〉 would câ—eare how he said 〈◊〉 hath perfectly beleeved repented and mortified 〈◊〉 for us but 〈◊〉 no purpose Sparkles of glory p. 3. Familists deny the first Adam to be a true man but a figure only and Christ to be man only figuratively in regard of his mysticall body the saints in whom he dyes and suffereth Familists acknowledge no visible buâ— only invisible Church Familists teach that Christ is not ascended to heaven in our flesh and nature Sparkles of glory p. 49. What is Antichrist to Familiâ—â—s not the Pope but the Protesta 〈◊〉 whome they fasly call legall teachers Saltmarsh maketh the Antichrist to come in with arts tongues yet flowers the Margine of his book with bits of broken Greek such as he can Familists with Saltmar make three admâ—nistrations of Law Gospel and all Spirit Antinomians two Law and Gospel as they expone them Wars under the New Testament for any religious causâ— not lawfull to Familists who yet practise them not a little The Baptists
c. 3. ca. 30.31.32 Towne asser pag. 131. Saltmarsh free grace 140. b Crispe vol. 2. ver 5. pag. 154.155.156 c 1 Ioâ— 1.8 d 1 Ioh. 2.1 e Prov. 20.19 f Ecclâ—s â— 10 g Râ—m 3 1â— Psâ— 14.3 h August Inest non ut non sit sed ut non imputetur i Rom. 7.14 15 16. Gal. 5. â—7 18 Heb. 12.1 k Aug. contr duâ—s epiâ—â— Pelagâ—â—â— â— c. 1â— â—nest non ut non sit sed ut non imputetur l Col. 3.7.8 9. Ephes. 4.22 23 4. 2 Pet. 3.4 m Matth. 6.12 Towne Asser of Free grace 131. o Rom. 7.22 23. a Towne ass pap 71. b Rom. 7.23 a Towne asser of grace pag. 75. a Towne 〈◊〉 96. â—7 98 â—aton Honey-combe 〈◊〉 7. 1â—6 137.138 b 〈◊〉 vol. â— ser. 5. â— â—49 Their covenant tooke not all their sinnes away but some sinnes were upon them for that time which was the cause of that comâ—â—â—int c Numb cap. 23. v. 20. â—1 22.23 d Eâ—ton Hâ—n câ—mbe 7.139 p. 47. â—2 68 e Crispe vol 2. ser. 3. pag. 91.92.93.94 Honey combe cap. 1.3.5.7 through the whole worke Towne 71.96.97.98 g Psal. 139. â— h Ioh. 21.17 Psal. 11.4 Psal. 139.1.2 3 4 5. 1 King 8.39 i Math. 5.27 28.29 Matâ—h 10.32 k 2 Sam. 11 7 8 9 l Math. 16 23 m 2 Sam. 11 9 10.11 1 Cor. 11 30 n 1 Cor. 10.21 o 1 Sam. 11.27 p Deut. 1.37 2 Sam. 12. Gal 2.11.12 Matth. 26.69.70 71 72. Rev. 19 10. cap. 22.8 9. q Zach. 12.10 Acts 2.37 38 41 42 47. 1 Tim. 1.15.13 14. Psal. 5 â— 3 2 Sam. 24 10. b Prov. 28.13 â—sal 32.5 〈…〉 1.9 c 1 Tâ—m 1.13 The belâ—ever is to confesse 〈◊〉 against Antinomians Antinomian 〈…〉 Psal. 7.3 Eâ— 64. â— 7 â— Esâ— 59.11 12 1â— 14. Dâ—n 9.5 6 7 8 9.10 11 12 13. Ier. 14.8.9 10. Ioâ— 1.8 h Crispe vol. â—er pâ— 160. â—61 a Towne ass grace p. 31. How duties are to bee preached b Towne aâ—ser 36. a Crisp vo â— sâ— 4 pag. 109 110. Towne asser of grace pag 1.8 Power of love pag. 31. c Towne asser 139 d Mar. 10.25 Luk 18.25 e Matth. 13 46 47. f Luk. 14.26 g 1 Cor 9.24 25. h Heb. 12 4. i 1 Pet. 2.11 k 2 Tim. 2.4 l Rev. 2 â—6 cap 3.21 m Rev. 12.11 Epbes. 5.5 n Iude 23. o Eph. 5 3. Psal. 16.3 p Math. 5.28 q Luk. 13.24 r 1 Pet. 4.8 s Power of love pag. 2. a Saltmarsh answ to M. Gattaker b Asser. grace pag. 107. c Eaton Honey combe pag. 127.128.129 d 2 Sam. 11.27 e Ps. 32. â— 2. Rom 4.1 2 3 4 5 6. f Lam. .1 g Psal. 79. â— h Psal. 80. â— i Psal. 90. k Dâ—ut 1. â— l Deut. 9. â— m Esa. 1. â— n Matth. 16.22.23 o 1 Cor. 10.12 p Ephes. 6.1 a Towne asser pag. 13â— Aâ— Papisticall Spirit is a man justified and yet countable for sinne â—â—â—spe vol. 1. ser. 8 pa. â—45 Though a bâ—lâ—evâ—r sinne the Law hath no more to say to him then if he had not sinned Saltmarsh Free grace pag. 140. He is as free from the law on earth as if he were in heaven a 1 Cor. â—1 30 b Lev. 26. â—â— 4 Psal. 89 3â— 32 33 3â— c Exod. 4.4 d Deuâ— â— â—0 e 2. Châ— 1â— 9 f 2. 〈…〉 19. a Zach. 12.10 b Ezâ— 7.16 c Mat. 26.75 d Luk. 7.18 e Esai 59.11 f Iam. 4.8 g Iam. 4.9 h Math. 5 4. i Honey comb pag. 449. k Towne as 25.26.34 Honey combe c. 16.446.447 l 2 Cor. 7.10 1â— a Towne asser pag. 32. b Honey comb cap. 5. pag. 87. cap. 9. pag. 95. Saltmarsh Free gr par 2. cap. 32. p. 142. A beleever in Christ hath perfectly obeyed the whole Law perfectly suffered and satisfied for all his sinnes is perfectly righteous sitteth in heavenly places but if he live onely by sense reason and experience of himselfe as hee liveth to men both under the power and â—â—oâ—ing of sinne and the Law p Christs counsell to Laodiceâ— pag. 35. b Power of love p. 29 30 Crispe vol. 1. ser. 6. pag 159 In the covenant of grace man is tyed to no condition that he must performe that if he dâ—e not performe the covenant is made void by him d Câ—ispe vol. 1 ser. 7. pag. 190. e Ryse raâ—gne err f Ephes. 3.17 g 2 Tim. 2.26 h Ephes. 2.2 a Rise raigne er 17. b Rise raigne er 50. c Town ass Pag. 66. d Rev. 3.19.20 e Matth. 8. v. 9 10. Ephes. 3 8. 1 Câ—r 15.9 f Mark 9. â—4 g Cant. 1.5 h Cant. 5.1 i 1 Cor. 15.9 10. i Cor. 2.12 k 2 Cor. 1.12 a Denne conference with a siâ—ke mar pag. 31.32.33 b Heb 6. â— c 2 Cor 7.10 11 1â— Râ—m 3. Gal. 3. Repentance not a formall bottome and ground of peace e Esâ—i 57.15 f Psal. 51.7 g Esai 61.1 2 3. a 1 Tim. 4 8. b Ioh. 15.2 c Math. 25 29 d Gâ—l 6.8 e 2 Cor. 9.6 Phil. 4.17.18 f Rom. 8.13 g Rom. 6 22. h Rev. â—2 14. i Ioh. 14 2â— k Rom. 1â— â— 2 c. Ephes. 4.1 2. Matth. 7.21 22 25 26 â—7 Matth. 12 50. 1 Thes. 4. â— 3 4. Eâ—hes 6.1 2. Eph. 5 1 â— 3 4. Col. 〈…〉 3 4 1 Pet. 2.1 2 3 c. 1 Pet. 4.1 2 3 c. l Iam. â— m 1 Pet. â— 24 n 1 Pet. â— 3 o Gâ—l 1. â— p Tit. 2.24 q Math. 3.10 r Act. 2.37.38 s Luk. 13.3 t Ephes. 6.14.15 16. u Col. 3.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. 1 Pet. â— 1 2 3 4. x Mat. 2â— 37 Deut. â— 5 Crispe vol. â— â—er 4. pag. 89. z Crispe Ser. 6. vol. 1. pâ— 160 16â—.162 a Power of love pag. â—1 b Saltmarsh Free grace pag. â—06 207 c Saltmarsh Free grace pa. 152.153 What a condâ—â—â—on 〈…〉 d Ier. 31.33 34. 〈◊〉 32.19 40 〈◊〉 5â— 11 Hâ—b 8 10. Ezech. 36.26 e Ioh. 5.25 Ioâ— 2.18 â—6 f Luk. 3.11 Act 2.3 Ioâ— 5.4 g Mat. 7.21 Ephes. 4.24 Put on the New Man Rom. 8.13 If yee live after the flesh yee shall die Heb. 12.14 Without holynesse none shall see God Matth. 1â— 20 21. Matth. 10.30 (h) Rom. 2 7· i Rom. 3.26 27 28 29 30.31 See Ioh. 8.24 1 Cor. 6.9 10. 1. Matth. â—8 3 Eph. 5.5 Acts 16.31 Hebr. 11.2 Matth. 16.24 Matth. 1â— 50 1 Ioh. 3.3 a Saltmarsh free grace 5â— 60 6â— 6â—.63.64.6â— b Eato Hon combe c. 8. ca 164 16â— A man in Christ p. 3â—â— c Denne dâ—ct of Iohn Baâ—â—â—st pag. 45. d Col. 3 5. â— Antinomians Make mortification no reâ—d or personall worke in us but an imputative apprehension beleeving Christ was mortiâ—ed for us e 1 Peâ— 2.11 f Rom. 10.14 g Ioâ— 15.22 a Towne â—sser of grace â—â— pâ— 76.77.78 â—aâ—on Honey combe 〈◊〉 13.173 How Christ removeth the sinne cleâ—ving to our work b Rom. â— 23 24 25. Gal 5.17 Phil. 3. â—â— c Iâ—m â—â— Ecâ—les 7.20 Prov. â—0 9
works of the Spirit and works of all Spirit and perfect according to the rigor of the Law for the acts of the pure Spirit admitting of no retardment pollution or sinne from our nature must be as perfect as pure works of Angels And if our naturall faculties be not wholly dead they are but acts of the creature as the creature then are all our supernaturall personall duties no lesse perfect and sinlesse then the imputed righteousnesse and actings of Christ. 2. Then the holy Spirit onely is to be blamed when either the Saints pray not or pray not in the Spirit or not with that fervor faith feeling and pure spirituality that God requireth in his holy word this if any thing is a pillow of security 3. So all the exhortations to pray continually to act and work out our salvation in feare to love the brethren must be given to the holy Ghost not to us the contrary whereof is evident we the Saints not God not the Spirit of God are exhorted to praying and acts supernaturall which cannot be if the Saints have no more active influence in all these then stones blocks have for that is none at all then are we meere passive and dead in all these then must a praying Christian be God or his Spirit manifested in the flesh as to this and a Christian beleeving praising is the like CHAP. XXIII Praying a Law-bondage the letter of the word no obliging Rule to those that are in the Spirit by the way of Saltmarsh 22. WHile Christians are in bondage and not yet brought into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God Rom. 8. they are under the ministration of prayer as children are to a Father in nonage vnd â—upillage Sparkles p. 232. A. His sense is that the Saints may be in a state of not praying at all in this life but taking bondage for a state of frailty absence froÌ„ God it is true praying argueth some Bondage want of full and compleat redemption that we as women travelling in birth long after But Saltmarsh meaneth of Legall Bondage and feare of the curse and fleshly and carnall feare and most blasphemously he makes Pauls thrice praying to remove the Messenger of Satan Christs thrice praying O my Father if it be possible remove this cup not be praying in the spâ—irit but in weaknesse or the flesh according to their own wills which must make praying in faith to be in the same act praying out of legall and fleshly unbeliefe and make Christ under a fit of unbeliefe and not to pray in the Spirit when he said Remove this Cup c. Now Saltmarsh could not have brought a place more against himselfe to prove that prayer is not a fit of Legall bondage then Rom. 8. For it is said v. 15. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to feare but the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father 23. The meere Commandements and letter of Scripture is not a Law to a Christian why he should walk in duties but the law written in our hearts Sparkles page 243 245. Ans. Then the written Gospel and promises of the new Covenant obligeth not a beleever to pray beleeve give almes or not to kill his father or King but when the H. Ghost breatheth in the soule to doe these duties then if a beleever whoore swear kill rob blaspheme misbeleeve c. he sinnes not against any command in Law or Gospel because the holy Spirit acted him not to abstain and God the holy Ghost is the onely cause of all the sinnes of the Saints because he concurres not with more then the letter even with saving grace to prevent these sinnes Wee sinne not in not praying not beleeving when the grace of God joyns not then a man being in Christ may whore rob blaspheme misbeleeve c. if God wil be wanting to him with his flowings and outâ—shinings of free grace let him see to it blame himselfe he fails against no Law Commandement or Obligation Libertines taught the very same to wit That God is the onely cause of sin no creature Man nor Angel is to be rebuked or punished for sin God sinnes in them Oh blasphemy 2. We never said that the meer Commandements and Letter of the Scripture is our obliging rule as the Letter is a thing of Ink and a Paper divided from the naturall and genuine sense but as it includes the things signified and as it expresseth to us what is the good perfect and acceptable will of God which will obligeth Christians with an obligation different from any obligation that the Lâ—w written in the heart layes on us But this is as much as when a Sectary being justified robbeth and killeth the innocent hee fails nothing against this written commandement Thou shalt not murther and a Saint cannot sinne yea if the Law written in the heart excite him not to abâ—taine he sinnes against no commandement of God but the Law written in the heart is the new creation as acting which cannot be a Regula or Rule but a regulatum a thing ruled and this is to make the Spirit within us not the spirit as speaking in the Word the formall object of our faith the Judge of controversies and that is then lawfull that every unwarranted spirit biddeth us doe and beleeve 3. The Law written in our hearts is either an obliging Law to the Christian because it is onely written in the heart or because it is written in the Scripture or agreeable to that which is written in the Scripture If the former be said then is the impulsion of the Spirit in the heart without any relation to the Word our warrant this is nothing but Scripture lesse revelation if then a Spirit in the heart comand Becold Knippeâ—dâ—â—ing to â—oe aâ—ts of murther and Rebellion â—s they did they 〈◊〉 in not obeying these impulsions which yet are contrary to the revealed will of God Now it is a contradiction iâ— one and the same act to obey the revealed will of God and that lawfully and not to obey it and that also lawfully If this heart-law be an obliging law because it is also written in the Scripture then is the meere Commandemement and Letter of the Scripture the last obliging law at least to a Christian. And then yet when the Spirit does not conjoyne his sweetest breathings to procure in us an holy abstinence from murther harlotry perjury but the Christian falls in these sinnes he sinnes not because no man sinnes when he doth what he is not obliged to forbeare or not to doe For every one that sinneth doth against an obliging Rule But when there is no inspiration nor actuall moving or stirring law in the heart there is no obliging Rule at all that the Christian can contravene For if the law in the heart be the onely Rule that obligeth a Christian it must oblige as it stirreth and moveth us then when it stirres or works not it