absence to say nothing of everlasting huggings and embracings Asser. 7. Nor is this a good reason I find sinne rottennesse and so a deserved curse in all my workes of sanctification therefore why should I make them any bottome for assurance but I must take in Christ heere for Sanctification for if workes of this kind be not done in Faith to the knowledge of the doer they can witnesse nothing but beare a false testimony of Christ nor doe we ever teach that Christ is to bee decourted from our workes of Sanctification but even faith it selfe which is a bottome of peace to Antinomians by this reason must be cashiered for as the love of Christ our prayers humility are not formally sinnes but onely concomitantly in regard that sinne adhereth to them as muddy water is not formally clay and mudde but in mixture its clayie and muddie so our Faith is concomitantly sinnefull both because often its weake and so wanting many degrees and mixed with sinne deserves a curse as well as works of Sanctification but it apprehendeth Christ and righteousnes in him and so it bottometh our assurance If by apprehending you meane to bring to you certaine knowledge and assurance that Christ is made my righteousnesse then you beg the question if you deny this to works of Sanctification For 1 John 2.3 Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandements Ver. 5. And who so keepeth his word in him verily the love of God is perfected hereby that is by keeping his word called twise before vers 3.4 The keeping of his Commandements and vers 6. Walking as he walked Hereby saith he know wee that we are in him in Christ our propitiation and righteousnesse and thus are we justified by keeping the Commandements of God because by this we apprehend and know that we are justified 2. But then all that are justified must bee fully perswaded of their justification and that faith is essentially a perswasion and assurance of the love of God to me in Christ it s more then I could ever learne to bee the nature of Faith a consâ—quent separable I beleeve it is 3. If by apprehending Christ and his righteousnesse be understood a relying and fiduciall acquiescing and recumbencie on Christ for salvation It is granted in this sense that Faith is a bottome to our assurance of our being in Christ but that it breedeth assurance in a reflect knowledge alwaies that a beleever is in Christ is not true for 1. I may beleeve and be justified and not know yea positively doubt that I beleeve and am justified as thousands have pardon and have no peace nor assurance of their pardon and have faith in Christ and in his free love and have no feeling of Christ and of his free love For we beleeve more truth of our owne graces and so of our faith and assurance of our pardon then we can see or feele which is Gods dispensation that our life should be hid with Christ in God Ergo the life of Faith by which the just doth live is hid and above the reach of feeling at all times 2. As Faith which is the direct act of knowing and relying on Christ for pardon is a worke of the Spirit above the reach of reason so also the reflect act of my knowing and feeling that I beleeve and am in Christ which proceedeth sometime from Faith and the immediate Testimony of the Spirit sometime from our walking in Christ 1 John 2.3 4. 1 Joh. 3.14 is a supernaturall work above the compasse and reach of our Free-will and is dispensed according to the spirations and stirrings of the free grace of God and as the keeping of his Commandements actu primo and in it selfe giveth Testimony that the soule is in Christ and justified even as the act of beleeving in it selfe doth the same yet that wee actu secundo efficaciously know and feele that we are in Christ from the irradiation and light of Faith and sincere walking with God is not necessary save onely when the winde of the actuall motion and flowing of the Spirit concurre with these meanes just as the Gospel-promises of themselves are life and power but they then onely actually actu secundo animate and quicken whithered soules when the Lord is pleased to contribute his influence in the shininâ— of his Spirit Otherwise I may walke in darkenesse yea bâ—â—eeve pray love die for paine of love and have no ligh◠〈◊〉 reflect knowledge and feeling that I am in Esayâ—0 â—0 10 I may be sicke of love for Christ call knock pray conferr with the watchmen and daughters of Jerusalem and be at a low ebbe in my own sense yea the beloved may to my feeling and actuall assurance have withdrawne himselfe Cant. 3.1 2 3 4 5. Cant. 5.5 6 7 8. and all my inherent evidences cannot quicken me in any tollerable assurance It 's true Sanctification may bee darkned yea and Faith also when there is nothing to the faith-failing and outer dying but this onely of Christ the head all the life of a Saint retyring not to his faint heart but to his strong head I have prayed for you that your faith faile not but the darke evening of Davids both Faith and Sanctification and of Peter in his denying of his Master and his Judaizing Gal. 2. When he and others ver 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do crook and halt betweene Grace and the Law as the people did between Jehovah and Baal their profession of Jehovah and Christs grace being long and their practise short and inclining too much to Baal and salvation by the Law as halting is a walking with a long and a short legge the body unevenly inclining to both sides of the way this darkening I say was in the second acts of Faith and Sanctification but life and sap was at the roote of the Oake-tree when it was lopt hewed and by winter stormes spoyled of the beauty of its leaves Wee doe not say that Sanctification doth at all times actually beare witnesse or a like sensibly and convincingly that the soule is justified is in Christ there be degrees and intermission and sicke dayes both of Faith and Sanctification But we say roses and flowers have been ever since the creation and shall be to the end of the world because though they vanish in winter yet in their causes they are as eternall as the earth so is Faith and the bloomings and greene blossomings of Sanctification alwaies but there is a Sommer when they cast forth their leaves and beautie Asser. 8. To presse duties out of a principle of Faith is to presse Christ upon soules nor can the seeing of beames and light in the ayre or of Wine-grapes on the tree be a denying of the Sunne to be in the firmanent or of life and sap to be in the Vine-tree to see and feele in our selves grapes and fruits of righteousnesse except we make the grace of Christ a bastard
light A 3. Error there is in the state of the question that never a Protestant Divine Arminians and Socinians I disclame as no Protestants made either Sanctification a cause of Justification but an effect nor common Sanctification that goeth before Justification and union with Christ voide of all feeling of our need of Christ an evident signe of Justification If Master Cornewell dreame that we thus heighten preparations before conversion as he seemes in his Arguments against gratious conditions in the soule before faith he knowes not our mind and as other Antinomians doe refutes he knowes not what And 4. We had never a question with Antinomians touching the first assurance of justification such as is proper to the light of faith Hee might have spared all his Arguments to prove that we are first assured of our justification by faith not by good workes For wee grant the arguments of one sort of assurance which is proper to Faith and they prove nothing against another sort of assurance by signes and effects which is also Divine To Antinomians 1. to be justified by Faith 2. and to come to the sense and knowledge of justification which either was from eternitie as some say or when Christ dyed on the Crosse as others or when we first take life in the wombe as a third sort dreame And 3. to be assured of our justification are all one And so to be justified by faith should be to bee justified by workes which they in their conscience know we are as farre against as any men But they should remember that the peace and comfort that the Saints extract out of their holy walking is a farre other peace then that peace which is the naturall issue of justification of which Paul saith Rom. 5.1 Being therefore justified by faith we have peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with God through Jesus Christ our Lord and the peace that issueth from our holy walking or at least if they bee the same peace it comes not one and the same way For 1. Peace which is the fruit of justification is a peace in the court of God as the peace that a broken man hath in the court of justice when he knoweth his Surety hath payed the debts he dare looke Justice in the face without any warre having assurance that warre is removed and enmity with God cried downe and all sinnes are freely pardoned the peace that issues from our holy walking is in the court of conscience and sense of sincerity and straightnesse of walking and is grounded on holy walking as on a secondary helpe and if there were not some confidence that the sinfulnesse of these works are freely pardoned there should be little peace at all 2. The former peace is immediatly from pardon that is the true cause of peace the latter from signes which dwell as neighbours with pardon and is onely peace as it hath a necessary relation to pardon and is resolved in some promise of God and not as it is a worke of our owne as hungering for Christ as it s not the ground of pardon so it s not the ground of peace that issueth from pardon yet it is the ground of a comfortable word of promise Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for Righteousnesse for they shall be satisfied And the like I say of assurance comfort joy that result from holy walking and from justifying faith we never placed good works in so eminent a place as to ascribe these same effects to them and to faith in Christ. Then Master Cornewell loseth his labour to prove that God doth not first declare and pronounce us righteous upon sight and evidence of our sanctification which is a righteousnesse of our owne For to pronounce us righteous is to justifie us and doth Master Cornewell know any Protestant Divines who teach that God either first or last doth justifie us for our inherent Sanctification Then Mr. Cornwell does confound evidence and assurance of justification as if they were both one For many Saints have assurance of justification so far as they are assuredly justified doubt much of their estate through want of evidence as many beleeve and many times doubt whether they beleeve or no. Therefore the Argument to prove Abrahams assurance of justification Rom. 4. cannot conclude that Abraham had not divine evidence and assurance that hee was justified by his holy walking as by signes and fruits of faith The assurance of Christ's righteousnesse is a direct act of faith apprehending imputed righteousnesse the evidence of our justification we now speak of is the reflect light not by which wee are justified but by which we know that we are justified and the Argument that proves the one cannot prove the other Object 3. If the promise be made sure of God unto faith of grace then it is not first made sure of faith unto works But the promise is made sure of God to faith out of grace Rom. 4.5 to him that worketh not but beleeveth The opposition between grace and works Rom. 11.6 Rom. 4.4 is not onely between grace and the merits of works but between grace and the debt due to works Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt Rom. 4.4 Right of promise maketh a worke to be of debt not of grace Answ. The promise is made of righteousnesse and free justification by the grace of Christ by the promise that is by the promised seed Rom. 4. but these places speak not one word of the reflect evidence that a man hath in his owne soule by which hee knowes in himselfe hee is justified This Disputer knowes not what hee sayes hee proves we have no promise to be justified by works nor any assurance thereof from working that is not the question now but hee should prove that wee cannot know and make evident to our owne soules that wee are assuredly justified and that wee beleeve when we bring forth the fruits of faith There is one cause why there is life in this tree and another cause why all that passe by and the tree it selfe if wee suppose it to be capable of reason as man is doth know it hath life and sweet sap this latter is knowne to the tree and to others by bringing forth good fruit As if there may not be sundry causes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the being of a thing and to know the being of a thing Bringing forth fruit is not the cause of the life of the tree good works are not the cause of our justification but we know well the tree hath life when wee see it brings forth fruit as wee know we are justified and in Christ when we walke after the Spirit and not after the flesh The whole Argument is of a direct assurance called certitudo entis or of the object The Question is touching reflect certainty how persons may be sure in their own conscience called certitudo
within the trunk or body of the true to feel see and taste the sap of life from whence the fruit cometh Yea the contrary consequence is true because I smell sincerity love single intentions to please God in my works of sanctification therefore I know they came from Faith so the Holy Ghost should delude us when hee saith Wee know wee know or beleeve in Christ because we keepe his commandements Ergo We cannot know this except it bee evident that our keeping of his Commandement come from faith and the knowledge of God Object 6. Such a Faith as a Practicall Syllogisme can make is not a faith wrought by the Lords almighty power for the conclusion followeth but from the strength of reasonings not from the power of God by which alone divine things are wrought Ephes. 1.19 20. Col. 2.20 But faith wrought by a word and a worke and the light of a renewed conscience without the testimony of the Spirit is such a faith as a practicall Syllogisme can make Ergo such a faith so wrought is not wrought by the Lords almighty power The Minor is proved because all the three the Word the Worke and the light of Conscience are all created blessings and gifts and therefore cannot produce of themselves a word of almighty power and the word of it selfe is a dead letter the worke is lesse for faith commeth by hearing a word not by a worke Answ. When Master Cornwell saith By the power of God alone Divine things such as faith that layeth hold on Christs righteousnesse are wrought Ephes. 1.19 Col. 2.20 hee excludeth the ministery of the Gospel and all the promises thereof for they are created things and so they have no hand nor influence in begetting faith Antinomians will have us beleeve that Paul Ephes. 1.19.20 Col. 1.20 thinkes no ministery of the Word nor any hearing of the preached Word begetteth faith contrary to Rom. 1.16 Rom. 10.17 but by the onely immediate power of the Spirit we are converted without the Word Nor is here that which is in question concluded never Protestant Divine taught that without the actuall influence of omnipotent Grace can faith or spirituall sense that we are justified be produced by the Word worke or created light alone nor can the corne grow alone by power in the earth clouds or raine nor any Creature move without the actuall influence of the omnipotent Lord in whom we move therefore by this reason we could not know that the Sunne shall rise by the rising of the morning starre nor can we have any supernaturall sense by our holy walking contrary to Scripture 1 John 2.3 1 John 3.14 But we know by this all faith is ascribed by Antinomians to the immediate testimonie and Enthusiasticall inspiration of the Spirit as for the searching of Scripture say they it s not a sure way of searching and finding Christ it s but a dead letter and holds forth a covenant of works in this letter and therefore with the old Anabaptist they 'll have no teaching by Scripture but onely teaching by the Spirit We hold that conditionall promises are made to duties of Sanctification therefore we may have comfort and assurance from them in our drooping condition Cornewell answereth Pap. 23.24 25. The promises are not made to us as qualified with such duties of sanctification for then they should belong to us of debt not out of Grace Rom. 4.4 But in respect of our Vnion with Christ in whom they are tendered to us and fulfilled to us Satisfaction is made to the thirstie not for any right his thirst might give him in the promise but becausâ— it directeth to Christ who fulfilleth the condition and satisfieth the soule and the soule must first have come to Christ and gotten his first assurance from faith in Christ not from these conditions and duties Answ. 1. This is a yeelding of the cause We say there bee promises of the water made to thirsty soules not as if the right jus law merit debt that we have to them belonged to us for the deede done but for Jesus Christ onely 2. Not as if wee upon our strength and the sweating of free-will did conquer both the condition and reward 3. But yet wee have comfort and assurance when we by grace performe the duty that our faithfull Lord who cannot lye will fulfill his owne promise 4. He knoweth nothing of the Gospel who thinketh not God by his promise commeth under a sweet debt of free-grace to fulfill his owne promise and that this debt and grace are consistent But Antinomians breath smell of flâ—shly liberty for they tell us Conditionall promises are Legall contrary to the Gospel Rom. 10.9 John 3.16 Joh. 5.25 That that it s not safe to close with Christ in a conditionall promise if any thing be concluded from water and bloud it s rather damnation then salvation That its a sandy foundation to prove that Christ is mine from a gracious worke done in me by Jesus Christ were it even Faith For we are compleatly united to Christ without faith wrought by the Spirit It s incompatible with the Covenant of Grace to joyne faith with it To be justified by faith is to bee justified by workes That to say there must be faith on mans part to receive the Covenant is to undermine Christ. Neither Cornwell nor Saltmarsh oppose these blasphemies but extoll the Patrones of them in New-England Father save me from this houre Father is a word of Faith But had Christ need of Faith Answ. Not of faith of confiding in him that justifieth the sinner except he had faith of the justifying of his cause in Gods acquitting him of suretieship when he had payed all but hee had faith of dependencie on God in his trouble that God would deliver him and he was heard in that which he feared And Q. 2. how could there be a faith of dependencie in Christ for hee was the same independent God with the Father Answ. There were two relations in Christ one as Viator going toward glory and leading many children with him to glory another as comprehensor seeing and enjoying God 2. There were two sights in Christ one of Vision another of Vnion the sight of Vnion of two natures is the cause of the sight of vision Christ being on his journey travelling toward glory did with a faith of dependency rest on God as his Father seeing and knowing that the Union could not be dissolved but as a Comprehensor and one at the end of the race injoying God in habit there was no necessitie that Christ should alwaies Et in omni differentiâ temporis actually see and enjoy God in an immediate vision of glory For 1. this implyeth no contradiction to the personall union even as the seeing of God habitually which is the most joyfull sight intelligible and by necessitie of nature does produce joy and gladnesse may and did consist in
Libertines doe us from which wee are as farre as the East from the West Propos. â— It is not our doctrine but the weakenesse of sinners and of the flesh that we should be shie to Christ and stand aloofe from the Physitian because of the desperate condition of our disease This is as if one should say it is not fit for the naked to goe to him who offereth white linnen to cloath him nor that the poore should goe to him who would be glad you would take his fine gold off his hand or to say set not a young plant but let it lye above earth till you see if it beare fruit Unworthinesse in the court of justice is a good plea why Christ should cast us off but unworthynesse felt though not savingly is as good a ground to cast your selfe on Christ as poverty want and weakenesse in place of a Statute and act of Parliament to beg though the letter of the Law forbid any to beg Propos. 4. Acting and doing thouâ—h neither savingly nor soundly is not merit of grace yet not contrary to grace to obey the law of nature to give almes is not against grace Libertines should not reject this though it be not all but a most poore All to engage Christ. Propos. 5. Faith is a morall condition of life eternall and wrought in us by the free grace of God I never saw a contradiction between a condition wrought by irresistible grace and the gift or free grace of life eternall for life eternall given in the law and Adams doing and performing by the irresistible acting and assisting of God are not contrary yet the former was never merit but grace the latter was Legall doing Propos. 6. We doe receive the promise of willing and doing wrought immediatly in us according to the good will and most free grace of Christ and yet we are agents and worke under Christ. Propos. 7. Luther for I could fill a booke with citations Calvine and all our Protestant Divines are for qualifications voyd of merit or promise before conversion and for gracious conditions after conversion under the Gospel Antinomians belie Luther Propos. 8. Antinomians yeeld the preaching of the Law and preparations before conversion and conditions after and peace from signes of sanctification c. yet they are to be reputed enemies to grace and holinesse and turne all sanctification in their imaginary faith and justification of which they are utterly ignorant Never Antinomian knew rightly what free justification is Propos. 9. Immediate resting on Christ for all wee doe and drawing of comfort from the testimony of a good conscience are not contrary Propos. 10. Holinesse idolized or trusted in is to make Christ the alone Saviour no Saviour Propos. 11. God is not provoked to reprobate whom hee elected from eternity by new sins yet is hee displeased with Davids adultery so farre as to correct him for it and Solomon for his back-sliding with the rod of men Propos. 12. Works before justification please not God but it followes not that God keeps not such an order as sense of sin though not saving should goe before pardon and conversion no more then because Adams sin pleased not God therefore it should not goe before the Sons taking on our flesh If we are not to doe nor act any thing before conversion neither to heaâ—e conferre know our sinfull condition nor be humbled for sin despaire of salvation in our selves because these are not merits before conversion nor can they procure conversion to us neither are wee after conversion to beleeve for beleeving cannot merit righteousnessâ— and lâ—fe eternall nor are we to heare pray be patient rejoyce in trâ—â—â—lation for not any of these can procure life eternall to us And why is not the doing of the one as wâ—ll as the other a seeking righteousnesse in our selves Propos. 13. The promise of Christs comming in the flesh 2. and of giving a new heart are absolute promises the former requireth no order of providence but that sin goe before redemption the latter requireth an order of providence not of any Gospel-promise or merit in any sort there nâ—ver was never can be merit betwâ—en a meere creature and God Propos. 14. There is no faith no act of Christs coyn or of the right stamp before justification Propos. 15. Wee are justified in Christ virtually as in the publike Head when hee rose again and was justified in the Spirit 2. In Christ as hâ—s merits are 〈◊〉 cause of our justification 3. In Christ apprehended by faâ—th formâ—lly in the Scriptures sense in the Epistle to the Romanes and Galathians not that faith is the formall cause or any merit in justification but because it layâ—s â—old on impâ—ted riâ—â—â—eoâ—snesse which is the formall cause of our justiâ—â—caâ—ion 4. We are justified in our own sense and feeling not by faith 〈◊〉 because wee may beleeve and neither know that wee bâ—lâ—eve nor be sensible of our justification but as wee know that wee beleeve whether this knowledge result from the lighâ— of faith or from signes as meanes of our knowledge 5. Juâ—â—iâ—ication by way of declaration to others is not so infallible as that the Scripture calls it justification properly so named Object 8. I was sixthly in hearing the word shined upon by a sweet witnessing of the Spirit But O how I did strive against this work I was called upon but I put away all promises of mercy from me I may justly say The Lord saved me whether I would or no. Sometimes I was dead and could not pray sometimes so quickened that me thought that I could have spent a whole night in prayer to God Answ. 1. If the faith of the eternall love of free election was his first conversion no wonder hee was shined upon with light But it was not Scripture-light but wild-fire for the method of Christs drawing in the Scripture is not Enthusiasticall up at secret election at first There is no doubt wee put Christ away from us after conversion Cant. 5.1 and that so Christ saves us against our will That the principle of saving is free grace 2. that free will is neither free nor willing till Christ first draw us till hee renew and work upon the will But I feare Antinomians will have free will a block to doe nothing at all If Christ will let me sinne say they let him look to it upon his honour be it And Faith justifies an unbeleever that is that faith that is in Christ justifieth me who have no faith in my selfe And It is legall to say wee act in the strength of Christ. And To take delight in the holy service of God is to goe a whoring from God And A man may not be exhorted to any duty because hee hath no power to doe it And The Spirit acts most in the Saints when they endeavour least And In the conversion of a sinner the faculties of the soule and working thereof are
in all things that concerne salvation nor doth the Lord work in us to will and to doe if we will not doe without any prior dependence on the â—nfluence of the grace of God we as much work in our selves willing and doing as the Lord doth and the Lord in his grace shall follow and not lead our will 3. Grace doth not conferre any help on the will to â—ctuate it and to strengthen it in doing good in believing â—epenting loving God hoping as Grevinchovius saith but will and grace doe both joyntly meet in one and the same effect in which 4 Free-will divideth the spoyl with Christ and what need we say worthy is the Lamb who has redeemed us if free-will in the application of redemption share equally with the Grace of Christ 3. The third way is that free-will is said to believe repent love God by a meer extrinsecall denominationâ— because it carieth that graceâ— which formally and only doth perform all these supernaturall actions so Grace doth all and free-will is a meer patient that conferreth no vitall subordinate and active influence in these acts as we say the Apothecaries glasse healeth the wound because the oyl in the glasse worketh the cure when the glasse doth actively contribute nothing to the cure or the Asse maketh rich when it carieth the gold that enricheth only this sense Antinomians hold forth and make us meer patients and blocks in the way to heaven and this sense Jesuites especially Martinez de Ripaldâ— falsly chargeth upon Luther and Calvin and the Councell of Trent inspired with the same lying Spirit saith the same 4. The fourth sense is that Grace and free-will doth work so as Grace is the principall first inspiring and fountane cause 1. It being a new supernaturall disposition and habite in the soule Joh. 14.23 1 Joh. 2.27 1 Ioh. 3.9 Ioh. 4.14 Esai 44.3.4 Ezech. 36.26.27 Deut. 30.6 A good treasure or stock of grace Matth. 12.35 Luk. 6.45 And also actually it determineth sweetly enclineth and stirreth the will to these acts yet so as free-will moveth actively freely and confeâ—reth a radicall vitall subordinate influence is not a meer patient in all these as Antinomians dream Psal. 119.32 I will run the way of thy Commandements when thou shall enlarge my heart Ioh. 14.12 he that believeth in me the works that I doe he shall doe and greater then these Matth. 12.50 He that doth the will of my heavenly Father the same is my brother c. 1 Cor. 9.24 So runne that ye may obtaine Revel 2.2 I know thy works and thy labour 1 Thess. 1.3 Remembring without ceasing your work of faith and labour of love and patience of Hope 1. We are not dead in supernaturall works and meer blocks Rom. 6.11 Wee are alive unto God in Iesus Christ Ephes. 2.1 He hath quickned us Revel 2.3 For my names sake thou hast laboured and had not fainted 1 Cor. 15.58 Be ye steadfast unmoveable alwayes aboundant in the work of the Lord there is activity in the Spirit to lust against the flesh Gal. 5.17 Rom. 7.15 Nor is the blessednesse of the Saints only passive in receiving though to be justâ—fied and receive Christs righteousnesse be the fountain blessednesse Psal. 32.1 Rom. 4.6.7 Gal. 3.13 But the Scripture speaketh of a true and solide blessednesse in action Psal. 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way Esai 56.2 Blessed is the man that doth this Iam. 1.12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation Psal. 119.2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies Psal. 106.3 Blessed are they that keep judgement Revel 22.14 Blessed are they that doe his Commandements Math. 5. Blessed are they that mourn that hunger and thirst Then there must be a part of blessednesse in sanctification as in justification though the one be the cause the other the effect Asser. 6. The Lords working in us the condition of the Covenant of Grace such as faith is by his efficacious grace doth not free us from sinne when we believe not nor involve God in the fault when he worketh not in us to believe as Crispe imagineth Here let me by the way remove the arguments of Dr Crispe by the which he imagineth that there is no condition at all in the covenant of grace Argum. 1. The Covenant should not be everlasting if it depended on a condition of faith to be performed by us for wee faile in our performances daily and the Covenant is anulled and broken so soone as the condition is broken Ans. â— We speak not so that the Covenant of grace depends on a condition in us dependency includes a causality in that of which the thing has deâ—endency we know nothing in us either faith or any other thing that is the cause of the covenant of grace or of the fulfilling of it a cause is one thing a condition caused by grace is an other thing for the peâ—pâ—â—uity of the covenant there is not requiâ—ed a condition always in act 1. If at the elevenâ—h or at the twelf houre you come to Chriâ—t the nature of this covenant promiseth you welcâ—me 2. Particular failings and acts of unbeleif doe well consist with the habite and stock of faith that remaineth in him that iâ— borne 〈◊〉 God 〈◊〉 is the act so tyed to a time But 3. There is by â—enuure of â—he Covenant a Priviledge twofold here 1. If by the Law a man step a haire-breath wide off the way the doore of Paradise is bolted on him and in againe can he never enter hee must seek another entery the man has done with heaven that way the law knoweth not such a thing as repentance but the Covenant of grace being made with a sinner a slip an act of unbeliefe doth not forfeit the mercy of this covenant But Christ saith if you fall there is place to rise againe if you sin there is an Advocate there is a blood of an eternall covenant the covenant stands still to make up roome for repeated grace for a thred and continued tract of free-grace and mercy all along that your foot never go out of the traces of renewed pardon while you be in heaven though the child of God ought not to sinne yet can he not out-sin the eternity of the new covenant nor can he sin an eternall priest out of heaven 2. The Law requireth a stinted measure of obedience even to the superlative with all the soule and the whole strength any lesse is the forfeiting of salvation But the covenant of grace stinteth no weak soule Christ racketh not nor doth he as it were play the extortioner and say either the strongest faith or none at all he maketh not Abrahams foot a measure to every poor sinner many smoaking flaxes and broken reeds on earth are now up before the throne mighty Cedars high tall green planted on the banks of the river of life if Adam bee the first in Heaven what though I be the last that enter in though I
is being planted together in Christs death in our union with Christ. So as a believer is to consider himselfe dead to sinne only in the fellowship of Christs death mystically and to consider himself only dying to sinne in his own nature spiâ—itually so as in Christ he is only compleat and in himselfe imperfect at the best I finde saith Saltmarsh no promise made against the never committing such a particular act or sinne which a man lived in in his unregenerated condition there are differences made but it puzzles both Dâ—vines and the godliest to finde a difference between sinnes committed before and after regeneration for take a man in the strength of naturall or common light lâ—ving under a powerfull word or preacher by which his candle is better lighted then it was such a man shall sinne against as seeming strong conviction as the other if not more This to me is that which the Libeâ—tines of New-England say That there is no differencs between the graces of hypocrites and believers in their kind And now in the Covenant of works a legalist may attaine the same righteousnesse for truth which Adam had in innocency before the fall And a living faith that hath living fruits may grow from the living law I see not but all these must follow if a regenerate David or Peter may commit the same act of relapse and falling in the same sinne of adultery and murther after conversion which he committed before conversion then he must commit the same sin with the like intension hight of bensill of wil after as before conversion he muâ—t now after he is converted fall again in the same act of murther denyall of Christ being now converted which he committed before conversion that is as the unconverted man with the rankest and highest strength of lust unrenewed will in its fervor of strength and rebellion did murther dâ—ny Christ without any reluctancy and prâ—testation on the contrary from the renewed will or the Spirit he may being converted fall in the same sinne yea with a higher hand and without any reluctancy from the regenerate part this to me must inferre necessarily the Apostacy of the Saints as that believers may fall againe in these same sinnes with as high and up-lifted hand against God with as strong full and high bended acts of the will after as bâ—fore conversion so as the battell of the Spirit against the â—lesh in this wicked relapse does utterly cease for Perkins who denyeth a man can fall in the same sinne of which he once syncâ—rly repented and whom Saltmarsh judgeth a Legalist and Anti-Christian in this point denyeth that a Convert may fall in the same sinne that he committed in his unregenerated state or that a Convert can fall in the same sinne every way the same with the like strength of corruption that this Convert before acted in his unregenerated condition yea or regenerate he having a further growth of habituall renovation in the second fall and so a higher habituall reluctancy of the renewed part then when he formerly fell in thâ— same sinne and so it cannot be the same sinne but a lesser otherwise he never sincerly repented of the former sinne if this bee more grievous and committed with a higher hand Now Saltmarsh his ground is different fâ—om all Proâ—estant Divines to wit That the wound pricking or sorrow for sinne in an enlightned soule leaveth no such habituall impression of remorse as the man dare never adventure to commit the like again for saith he thâ— gales and breathings of the Spirit of sorrow for sinne are like the winde that makes a thing move or tremble while the power of the aire is upon it but as that slackens or breaths so doth it But this is to say right down that the Spirit of Grace that causeth sorrow according to God and repentance which is never to be repented of is but an evanishing and transient act like the blowing of the wind on a tree the Scripture maketh the spirit that produceth mourning and remorse for sin when the sinner sees him whom he has pierced an habituall in-dwelling Spirit and calls him Zach. 12.10 The Spirit of grace and supplication if then the Spirit of Adoption be no transient but an habituall and inbiding grace as is evident Rom. 8.23 24 25 26. It is a received spirit abiding in us helping our infirmities teaching us what to pray it is Esa. 44. â— 4 5 6. Water poured on the thirsty making us confesse and subscribe the Covenant if it be as it is the New heart Ezech. 36.26 27. The Law in the inner parts Ier. 31.33 the seed of God 1 Ioh. 3.9 the annointing abiding in us 1 Ioh. 3.27 A well of water of an everlasting spring within us Ioh. 4.14 I seâ— not how a Spirit groaning in us when we pray Rom. 8.26 sighing sorrowing for the in-dwelling body of sin Rom 7.14 23 27. can be but a passing away motion like a blast of ayre but this is the mystery of Libertines that theâ—e is no inherenâ— grace in-biding in the Saints no spring of sanctification all grace is in Christ and his imputed righteousnesse and so they destroy sanctification 2. The ayme of Sal. is here that if we sorrow once and scarce that at the beginning of conversion wee are never more to confesse or sorrow for sinne when that transient motion like a fire-flaught in the ayre is gone But for mortification against all contrary blasphemies we say Asser. 1. Mortification is not as Mr Denne saith An apprehension of sin slâ—in by the body of Christ 1. Because this apprehension is an act of faith in the understanding faculty believing that Christ has mortified sin for me and so Mr Denne saith vivification is to live by faith that is to believe that I am justified and have life and righteousnes freely in Christ. Now mortification is not formally any such apprehension it doth flow from faith as the effect from the cause but mortification denominates the man mortified not in his apprehending and knowing that Christ waâ— mortified and dyed for him but in that he really himself is dead when it is said â—ol 3.3 for you are dead Gal. 6.14 by Christ I am crucified to the world and the world crucified to me by this fancy the world and the sinfull pleasures crucified must be the faith and apprehension that is in the fleshly pleasures and lawlesse-lusts by which these lusts apprehend and know that Christ dyed for them for Paul saith as well that the world is crucified to him as he unto the world 2. Mortification is a deadnesse in will and affections and the abaiting halfe death the languor and dying of the power of our lusts to sinne as a believer is dead to vaine-glory when contentedly he can be despised have his name trampled on be called a Deceiver a Samaritan and when the Apostles went out from the Councell Act. 5.41 Rejoycing
non-jâ—stifâ—catioâ— Protestants make mortification and repentance some other thiâ—g then Faith Townes asser of grace pag. 32. Regeneration and justification not one as Antinomians teach No assurance can flow from acts of sanctification performed by our good nature The Antinomâ—an Mortification a delusion How we see righteousnesse in our selves a Rise reigne er 7. pa 2. b Rise reigne er 15. pag. 3. Holinesse and mortification inherent in us Rise reigne er 17. pag 4. (d) Rise reigne er 77 pag. 15. Antinomians deny all inherent holinesse to be in us How we are to see grace in our selves Nothingnâ—sse in our selves heighteneth the price of Christ. How Ministers are to deale with troubled soules Christ more to be chosen then the comforts and peace that results from duties Vnder soule-trouble we are to doe but not to rest and 〈◊〉 in what wee doe Love-Iealousies under desentiâ—n Desertions have a time Christ recompences his absence with doubled smilings Saltmarsh Free Grace c. â— pag. â—8 Works of sanctification though polluted with sinne may bottome assurance We doe not at all times know that we beleeve a Saltmarsh ibid. 84. There is need of the aâ—â—uall influâ—nce of grace to the reflâ—ct knowledge of ouâ— faith and spirituall condition The witnessing of â—anctification sometime darke Duties performed in faith not contrary to free Grace The difficulty of aâ—taiâ—iâ—g comfort when God deserteth Sense of Christ's absence cannot be out-reasâ—ned Wee may 〈◊〉 argue a troubled soule All in glory farre short of what they owe to Christ. God cannot â—e quarrelled in deserting Wee cannot beare fulnesse of glory in this life Longings after Christ strongest in absence When the soul is in laâ—guishiâ—g dispâ—sition after Chrisâ— its fittest to pray him home againe Christs love not lordly The Lords joyfull returne after desertion How neare Christ is in desertion Christ pardoneth love-errors and can hardy punish them Saltmarsh in hiâ— Free-grace cap. V. pag. 92 93. It is a lie and not a Gospel-secret that none are to question their faith whether it be true or no. We may so far question our faith as to try whether it be true or not We are to beleeve after Christs fashion and order not after our owne Saltmarsh â—6 64 There is nothing in Scripture to prove that the Saints have not doubted of their temptations Beleevers doe doubt whether they beleeve or not under greâ—t temptations (a) Story rise reign er 32 (b) Er. 10. (c) Saltmarsh Free-grace cap. 5. pag. 93. Doubting in beleevers no signe that thâ—y are under the Law Saltmarsh Ibid. pag. 64. Saltmarsh pag 95. Sanctification in it selfe is an infallible signâ— of justification but not ever so to us How acts of sanctification make good that wee beleeve Assurance may flow from othâ—r maâ—ks theâ— the immediate testimony of the Spirit The inward testimony of the Spirit The holy Ghost speaketh by marks of Sanctification How Anâ—iâ—omians compare the evidence from marks of sanctification and that which is from faith together Degrees of freedome of grace Antinomians who deny all preparations before faith must hold that faith â—loweth from naturall principles in us as Pelagiâ—ns of old aid Pag. 95. The broad seal of the Spirit puls no man beyond all hazard of doubting is Libertines dreame a Rise reigne er 42. Saltmarsh 65. Doubting whether the sound beleevers â—aith be true or not is not that unbeleefe that excludeth us out of the eternall rest Ibid. 69. Crisp. Vol. 2. Ser. XV. (b) Rise reigne er 72. (c) Ibid. 73. (d) Er. 75. Scriptures and reasons from thence make good that we know our justification by our sanctification (a) Ser. 15. Vol. 2. Libertines say there be no mâ—rks in the children of God of true sanctification which can difference them from hypocrites Works of sanctification are not doubtsome warrants and evidences of justification (b) Vol. 2. Ser. XV. pag. 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 c. Works may prove faith and faith workes to be done in Christ The question mistated by M. Cornwell Whâ—t waâ— Sanctifiâ—â—â—â—on doth evidence Justification Peace from justification and peace from sanctification how different To be â—ssured of righteoâ—snesse and to know that we are in that state are two diffireÌ„t things Cornwell pag. 12. M Cornwell proveth what is not in question Many things are made over to vs by the debt of promise that aâ—e ours ouâ— of free graâ—c also Rise reign aâ—d ruine crâ— Conditionall Gospel-promises argue free grace not debt (b) Rise reign er 62. (c) Rise er 38. Cornwell pag. 15. Cornwell pa. 16.17.18 a Rise er 39. b Er. 9. Gospel-promises are made to acts of Sanctification Antinomians deny all conditionall promises a Rise raigne er â—â— b Er. 38. (c) Er. 30. (d) Er. 69. (e) Er. 37. f Er. â—7 g Er. 2â— h Er. 38. What kind of faith was in Christ. Christ had not saith of justifying the sinner but of justifying his cause How faith of dependencie was in Christ. How the not-seeing of God might stand with the personall union A rare providence that Christ is put to God save me We are not to be discouraged when we are not heard at first Prayers of the Saints not ever heard â—t first and the Reasons We are readier to pray then to praise Christ bottometh his prayers on the sweet relation of a Father Vse Sonnes onely can pray The power of prayer Rise reign ruine â—r 34. Christs sufferings but for an houre Christ suffered â— value what wee should have suffered Whence commeth the dignity of Christs sufferings The more exceâ—lent the life of Christ was the more heavie was the lâ—sse thereof How Christs sufferings were were limited being infinite Our debt of love to Christ eternall Our sufferings short and measured by yards â—weetnâ—ss of love 〈◊〉 Christ measureth by yards and weigheth by ounces all the sufferings of the Saints Vse 3. We are not to weary for length of time under suffering Death soure and blacke to nature and to Christ for sundâ—â— reasonâ— Christ sensible of paine and death as aâ—y man Coelestis ira quos premit miseros faâ—it Humana nullos Gods Anger against Christ. Many edges of words in Christs complaint My God my God why hast thou c. Christs soule-sâ—ffâ—rings most 〈◊〉 how his life was invaded The personaâ—â— union not dissolved in Câ—rists suffering Vse 1. Christ did 〈◊〉 the whole Crosse we but 〈◊〉 bitâ— and 〈◊〉 of it Vse 2. Soules are of great value with God We sell soules at an easie rate How great strong was Christs love God hâ—d one Son he gave him for us Christ had 2. loves â— glories he bestowed them on us Christ overcome with love How death is sweetned to us â—n Christ. Christ repents not of his love to us The fifth article of Christs prayer the Correction Christs will in his suffering subordinate to Gods will Doubts on the contrary removed We are to confâ—rme our will to Gods revealed will as a rule not to his decree
temporall wrath 35 Sin is sometimes put for temporary punishment and to remove temporary punishment is to pardon sin in Scripture-sense 36 Soule-troubles in devils and men must be extreame 38 Conscience the sorest enemy 38 The terrours of an evill conscience 38 Difference betweene the soule-torment of the damned and the Saints in 3. points 39 God punisheth sometimes the sinnes of his children with spirituall punishments 40 Christs soule-trouble different from ours 43 The causes of soule desertions 43.44.45 Soule desertions sharpened with sense 44 Desertions after evident and full manifestations of God 44.45 Desertion under a three-fold consideration 46 Patience requisite under soule-trouble 46 We are not so freed from sin being justified but there is a ground of distance betweene the Lord and us 46.47 Mis-judging thoughts of Christ in us by nature 47 Sinne not ever the cause of desertion 47.48 Externall heavy judgements and soule-desertions not Pedagogicall but common to the Saints under the N. Test. 48.49 Active desertion is not our sin but the Lords trying of us 49 Desertions more proper to the Saints then to the unregenerat 49 Christs desertion of another nature then ours 49 Desertion not melancholie 50 The various dispensation of God in leading soules to heaven 51 Divers causes of desertion 51 Continuated manifestations of Christ necessary 51.52 Divers reasons why we are not to quarrell with Divine dispensation in desertion 52 Gods manifestations his owne and most free 52 Submission and charity required to Gods dispensations 52 Apprehensions biggest and most terrible in desertion because of the darkenesse of the minde 53 Sathan can raise our apprehensions to swelling thoughts of Gods dispensation as too greevous to be borne 54 Our love is sweyed with jealousies and mis-giving 54.55 Divine dispensation not our rule 55 Vnbeliefe is querulous mis-beleeving of our state too frequent in desertion but more of Christ. 56 Mis-judging of our actions frequent in desertion 56.57 Antinomians mistake touching anxiety for sinne 57 We may long for Christ absent but not mis-judge him 57.58 Divers considerable reasons of Christs absence 58.59 Mis-judging argueth softnesse of nature and weakenesse of judgement 59.60 Saints must looke for a growing crosse 60 A growing faith for growing crosses 61 Anxitie in Christ. 61 62 A sinnelesse oblivion in Christ. 62 How Christs sensitive affection are under a Law 62 Christs losse great 62 The personall union hindred not the operations of sinnelesse humane infirmities 62 Christs anxiety sinnelesse 63 No mistake in Christs soule deserted 63 Christs desertion reall 63 Judiciall mispending of our affections 64 How Christ was forsaken 64 The sinner shiftlesse in judgement 64.65 No hypocrites formally in hell and at the last judgement 65 A wakened conscience speechlesse 65.66 Three demands of justice given in against Christ. 66 Help neerer in trouble then we apprehend 67 Christ made use of Faith in trouble for our cause 68 Christs death-gripe 69 Doubtings for want of qualifications how cured 69.70 Two false wayes of curing doubting whether the soule bee in Christ or not 70 To argue no faith from faint performances of duties is unjust reasoning 70 How farre we may argue no faith from sinfull walking 71 Antinomians doubts touching the spirituall estate of the soule discussed and disproved 72 The immutabilitie of Gods love no ground but multitudes may doubt whether they be in Christ or not 72.73 Saltmarsh examined in this point 72.73 74.75 A necessitie of inherent signes and qualifications to doubting soules 73.74 How God loveth his Sonne Christ and beleevers with the same love 74 How far Sanctification may evidence that a soule is in Christ. 76 From no sanctification we may conclude no justification 77 Protestants make mortification and repentance some other thing then faith 77 Regeneration and justification not one 78 No assurance can flow from acts performed by our good nature 78 Antinomian Mortification a delusion 79 How we see forgivenesse in our selves 79 Antinomians deny all inherent holinesse in us 80 How we are to see grace in our selves 80 Nothingnesse in our selves highteneth the price of Christ. 81 How Ministers are to deale with troubled soules 82 Christ more to be chosen then the comforts of Christ. 82 Vnder soule-trouble we are to doe but not to conside in what we doe 83 Love-jealousies under desertion 84 Desertions have a time 84 Christ râ—compences his absence with double smiling 84 Works of sanctification though polluted with sinne may bottome assurance 85 We doe not all times know that we beleeve 85.86 There is need of actuall influence of grace to the reflect knowledge of our spirituall state 86 The witnessing of sanctification sometime darke 86 Duties performed in faith not contrary to grace 87 Hard to be comforted in desertion 87 Sense of Christs absence cannot be out-reasoned 88.89 All in glory short of what they owe. 90 God cannot be quarrelled in desertion 90 We cannot beare fulnesse of glory in this life 90 Longing after Christ strongest in absence 91 The languishing soule may pray home Christ. 92 Christs love not Lordly 92 The Lords returne after sad desertion joyfull 92.93 How neere Christ is in desertion 93 Christ pardoneth and rarely punisheth love-errours 94 It s a lie that none are to question their faith as Saltmarsh saith 94 We are to beleeve after Christs fashion not our owne 95 Saints may doubt whether they beleeve or no. 96 Doubting in beleevers proveth them not to bee under the Law 97 Sanctification of it selfe is an infallible signe of justification but not ever so to us 98 How acts of sanctication make good that we beleeve 99 Assurance may flow from other marks then the immediate testimony of the Spirit 99.100 The inward testimony of the Spirit 100 The Holy Ghost speaketh by marks 100 How Antinomians compare evidences of marks and of faith together 101 Degrees of freedome of grace 101.102 Antinomians denying preparation must be Pelagians 102 The broad Seale of the Spirit excludeth not all doubting 102 Doubting of the truth of Faith is that unbeliefe that excludeth us out of our heavenly rest 104 That we may know justification by sanctification proved 105 Works done in faith are not doubtsome evidences of justification 106 Works may prove faith and faith Works 107 How sanctification doth prove justification 108 Peace from justification and from sanctification how different 110 To be assured of righteousnesse and know that wee are in that state two different things 111.112 M. Cornwel proveth what is not in question 112 Many things ours both by debt of promise and by grace 112.113 Conditionall Gospel-promises argue free grace not debt 113 Gospel-promises made to acts of sanctification 116.117 Antinomians deny all conditionall promises 117 What kind of faith was in Christ. 117.118 How faith of Dependance was in Christ. 118 The not seeing of God may stand with personall union 118 A rare providence that Christ is put to God save me 119 We are not to storme that we are not heard at first 120
over-Sea-hop farre off Not far off saith Faith A very present help in trouble or a help easily or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exceedingly found in troubl◠So Psalm 44 9. Thou hast cast us off Hebr. Thou art farre from us thou hast put us to shame What lower could the people be Vers. 19. We are in the dungeon in the place of dragons We are in the cold grave beside the wormes and corruption and thou hast covered us with the shaddow of death a cold bed Yet then see what Faith saith Vers. 20. Wee have not forgotten the name of our God Our God is a word of great faith And to come to Christ his Soule was troubled He was at What shall I say In a great perplexitie Yet he hath a strong faith both of his Father and of his owne condition He beleeved God to bee his Father and calleth him Father Yea in this hell hee applyeth the relation of a Father to himselfe Matth. 26.39 O my Father this is the warmest love-thought of God and when his comfort was ebbest his confidence in the Covenant strongest My God my God c. It s much glory to our Lord that Faith sparkle fire and bee hot when comfort is cold and low O what an honour to God the man is slaine and cold dead yet he beleeves strongly the salvation of God Christ kills the poore man and the mans faith kisseth and hangeth about Christs neck and sayes If I must dye let Christs bosome be my death-bed Then hee must beleeve if God was his Father by good Logick he must be the Sonne of God and if God was his God then the heire of all must claime the priviledges of all the Sons of the house in Covenant God I may say was more then Christs God and more then in covenant with God as he was more then a servant so more then a Sonne then a common one and Christs faith is so rationall and so binding with strength of reason that he will but use such a weapon as we may use even the light of Faith and hee will claime but the common benefit of all the Sonnes in covenant when he saith My God my God What ever Papists say if ever Christ was in hell it is now but see hee hath heaven present with him in hell If God could be apprehended by faith in hell as a God in covenant then should hell become heaven to that beleeving soule Christ tooke God and his God and his Father as Jonah a type of him downe to the bowels of hell with him and as we see some dying men they lay hold on some thing dying and dye with that in their hand which wee call the dead-gripe so Christ died with his Father by faith and his Spouse in regard of love stronger then the grave in his arms this was Christ's death embracings his death-kisse and Job professeth so much Lower hee could not be then hee complaineth hee is chap. 19. in all respects of body which was a clod of bones and skin in regard of wife servants deare friends of the hand of God in his soule Yet vers 25. I know that my goel my kinsman Redeemer liveth and that hee shall stand the last man on the earth This leadeth us in our forlorn perplexities to follow Christ's foot-steps both under evills of punishment and sin The people in their captivity in Babylon Ezek. 37. were an hoast of dead and which is more dry bones the Churches in Germany in Scotland are dry bones and in their graves the Churches in England and Scotland in regard of the sinfull divisions and blasphemous opinions in the worship of God are in a worse captivity and lower then dry bones and our woes are not at an end yet the faith of many seeth that deliverance and union there must be and that our graves must be opened and that the wind of the Lord must breathe upon the dry bones that they may live God hath in former times opened our graves when strange lords had dominion over us I would wee were freed of them now also but our yoke is heavier then it was but God shall deliver his people from those that oppresse them Again as you see in great perplexity Christ beleeved God to be his Father and that hee himselfe was a Son so are wee under pressures of conscience and doubtings because of sinne to keep precious high and excellent love-thoughts of Jesus Christ. Object 1. But what if a soule be brought to doubt of its conversion because hee findeth no good hee either doth or can doe true faith is a working faith Answ. Some so cure this as they prove Physicians of no value to poore soules I mean Antinomians For say they This is the disease that you in doubting of your faith because you find not such and such qualifications in you therefore seek a righteousnesse in your selfe and not in Christ. I should easily grant that man's inherent righteousnesse is in his carnall apprehension his very Christ and Redeemer but in the mean time These are two carnall and fleshly extremities and faith walketh in the middle between them 1. It s a fleshly way to say that because I find sinne reigning in me I have killed my brother saith a Cain I have betrayed the Lord of glory saith a Judas yet I am not saith a Libertine to question whether I beleeve or no for this putteth fleshly and prophane men on a conceit Be not solicitous what you are take you no feare of serving sin and divers lusts but beleeve and never doubt whether your faith be a dead or a living faith though you goe on to walk after the flesh but beleeve and doubt not whether you beleeve or no. The other extremity is of some weak Christians who because they find that in them that is in their flesh dwelleth no good and they sinne daily find much untowardnesse and back-drawing in holy duties therefore say they Christ's This is a false Conclusion drawn from a true Antecedent and springeth from a root of selfe-seeking and righteousnesse which wee naturally seek in our selves for I am not being once justified to seek my justification in my sanctification but being not justified I may well seek my non-justification in my non-sanctification as Libertines say this is the fault of all when it is the fault onely of some weak mis-judging soules so doe they take the Saints off from all disquietnesse and griefe of mind for neglect of spirituall duties as if all godly sorrow and displeasure for our sinfull omissions were nothing but a legall sorrow for want of selfe-righteousnesse and a sinfull unbeleefe but it s formally not any such thing but lawfull and necessary to make the sinner goe with a low sayle and esteem the more highly of Christ and it s onely sinfull when abused to such a legall inference I omit this and this I sinne in this and this ergo God is not my Father nor am
the Papists circle because workes to my sense and spirituall discerning may and doe adde evidence and light to faith and faith addeth evidence and light to works as wee prove the cause from the effect and the effect from the cause especially under desertion without the fault of circular arguing but Papists beleeve the Scripture to bee the word of God because the Church saith so else it should be no word of God to them more then the Turkes Alcaron and they beleeve that the Church saith that Scripture is the Word of God because the Scripture saith that the Church saith so This is no proof at all and a vaine consequence without Faith its unpossible to please God no worke can bee proved solidly Gods without faith but how then followeth it Ergo we cannot prove faith to bee true from good works Saltmarsh can make no Logicke out of this nothing followeth from this antecedent but ergo by hypocriticall works done without faith we cannot prove our faith to be true faith valeat totum the conclusion is not against us Wee acknowledge except good works carry the stampe and image of faith they are not good works but if they carry this stampe as we presuppose they do in this debate because works are more sensible to us then faith it followeth well then we may know our faith by our workes and a beleever doing workes in faith and out of warmenesse of love to Christ and a sincere sense of his debt he may bee ignorant that he doth them in faith but a coale of love to Christ smoaking in his soule and the sincere sense of the debt that love layeth on him to doe that yea and to swimme through hell to pleasure Christ are ordinarily more sensible then faith and led us to know there must be faith where these are 3. Nor are ours litigious and disputable marks except when our darknesse raiseth disputes more then the Gospel it selfe is litigious for men of corrupt minds raise doubts against the Gospel and weake beleevers sometime would argue themselves out of faith Christ out of imputed righteousnesse election of grace and effectuall calling yet are not these litigious points and say that the evidence of the Spirit be as light and evident as the Sunne light in it selfe so is the Gospel yet are we to seeke evidences for our faith and peace in such markes as the Holy Ghost has made way-markes to heaven by this we know c. but we build our knowledge and sense on these markes as on secondary pillars and helps which a divine and supernaturall certitude furnisheth though without the influence of the Spirit they shine not evidently to us but our faith resteth on the testimony of the Spirit witnessing to our hearts and this is not to bring a candle to give light to the Sunne but to adde the light of supernaturall sense to the light of divine faith else they may as well say that the confirming evidence that comes to our sense from the Sacraments addeth some thing to the Word which is a light and a Sunne-light to our eyes if we did confide in them as causes of our justification it were Pharisaicall but divine motives and secondary grounds though they bee mixed of themselves with sinnefull imperfections may be by divine Institution helps and confirmatory grounds of our faith and joy and the Scripture saith so as we heard alledged The question proposed by F. Cornewell I shall not father upon that learned and godly Divine Master Cotton Whether a man may evidence his justification by his Sanctification hee should have added whether he may evidence to himselfe or his owne conscience his justification for that so he may evidence i◠in a conjecturall way to others no man doubts 2. The question is mistated as if Sanctification did formally evidence Justification as Justification in abstracto and Faith in its actuall working it s enough against Antinomians if it evidence to the sense of the person that he is in the state of justification and that hee hath faith to lay hold on Christs righteousnesse when he esteemes the Saints precious and placeth his delight in them Sanctification doth not as Libertines would imagine evidence justification as faith doth evidence it with such a sort of clearenesse as light evidenceth colours making them actually visible now light is no signe or evident marke of colours Love and workes of sanctification doe not so evidence justification as if justification were the object of good works that way faith doth evidence justification but sanctification doth evidence justification to be in the soule where sanctification is though it doth not render justification actually visible to the soule as light maketh colours to be actually visible or as faith by the light of the Spirit rendreth justification visible for even as smoake evidenceth there is fire there where smoake is though smoake render no fire visible to the eye and the moving o◠the pulse evidenceth that there is yet life though the man be i◠a swoone and no other acts of life doe appeare to the eye an◠the morning starre in the East when its darke evidenceth tha◠the Sunne shall shortly rise yet it maketh not the Sunne visibl◠to the eye and the streames prove there is an head-spring whence these streames issue yet they shew not in what part of the earth the head-spring is so as to make it visible to the eye so doth Sanctification give evidence of Justification onely as markes signes and gracious effects giveth evidence of the cause as when I find love in my soule and a care to please God in all things and this I may know to bee in mee from the reflect light of the Spirit and from these I know there is faith in me and justification though I feele not the operation of faith in the meane time yet the effect and signe makes a report of the cause as acts of life eating and drinking and walking in me doth assure me that I have the life of nature So the vitall acts of the life of Faith doe as signes and effects give evidences of the cause and fountaine yet there is no necessity that with the same light by which I know the effect I know the cause because this is but a light of arguing and of heavenly Logick by which we know by the light of the Spirits arguing that we know God by the light of Faith because wee keep his Commandements and know arguitivè by Gods Logick that we are translated from death to life because wee love the Brethren in effect we know rather the person must bee justified in whom these gracious evidences are by heare-say report or consequence then we know or see justification it selfe in abstracto or faith it selfe but the light of faith the testimony of the Spirit by the operation of free Grace will cause us as it were with our eyes see justification and faith not by report but as we see the Sunne
shall seek the Lord. Zech. 12.11 And in that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon It s good to lie and wait at the doore and posts of Wisdomes house and to lie and attend Christs tyde it may come in an houre that you would never have beleeved O what depth of mercy when for naturall or no saving-one-waiting or upon a poore venture What if I goe to Christ I can have no lesse then I have beside any gracious intention the Lord saves and the wind not looked for turnes faire for a sea-voyage to heaven in the Lords time Asser. 12. The ground moving Christ to renew his love in drawing a fallen Saint out of the pit is the same that from heaven shined on him at the beginning Love is an undevided thing there are not two loves or three loves in Christ that which begins the good work promoves it even the same love which Christ hath taken up to heaven with him and there ye find it before you when ye come thither 2. Some love-sicknesse goes before his returne Cant. 3. I was but a little passed I found him whom my soule loves the skie devides and rents it selfe and then the Sunne is on its way to rise the birds begin to sing then the Summer is neere the voice of the Turtle is heard then the winter is gone when the affections grow warme the welbeloved is upon a returne 3. You die for want of Christ absence seemes to be at the highest when hunger for a renewed drawing in the way of comforting is great and the sad soule lowest he will come at night and sup if hee dine not 4. Let Christ moderate his own pace hope quietly waiteth Hope is not a shouting and a tumultuous grace 5. Your disposition for Christs returne can speake much for a renewed drawing as when the Church findes her own pace sâ—ow and prayes draw me we will runne then hee sendeth ushers before to tell that he will come 6. Sick nights for the Lords absence in not drawing are most spirituall signes Antinomians beleeve that all the promises in the Gospel made upon conditions to bee performed by creatures especially free-will casting in its share to the worke smell of some graines of the Law and of obedience for hire and that bargaining of this kind cannot consist with free grace And the doubt may seeme to have strength in that our Divines argue against the Arminian decree of election to glory upon condion of faith and perseverance foreseene in the persons so chosen because then election to glory should not be of meere grace but depend on some thing in the creature as on a condition or motive at least if not as on a cause worke or hire But Arminians reply the condition being of grace cannot make any thing against the freedome of the grace of election because so justification and glorification should not be of meere grace for sure we are justified and saved upon condition of faith freely given us of God The question then must bee Whether there can be any conditionall promises in the Gospel of Grace or whether a condition performed by us and free grace can consist together Antinomians say they are contrary as fire and water Hence these positions for the clearing of this considerable question Pos. 1. The condition that Arminians fancie to bee in the Gospel can neither consist with the grace of election justification calling of grace or crowning of beleevers with glory this condition they say we hold but they erre because it is a condition of hire that they have borrowed from Lawyers such as is betweene man and man ex causa onerosa it s absolutly in the power of men to doe or not to doe and bowes and determineth the Lord and his free will absolutly to this part of the contradiction which the creature choseth though contrary to the naturall inclination and Antecedent will and decree of God wishing desiring and earnestly inclining to the obedience and salvation of the creature Now works of grace and infinite grace flow from the bowels and in-most desire of God nothing without laying bonds chaines or determination on the Lords grace or his holy will Could our well-doing milke out of the breasts of Christs free grace or extrinsecally determine the will or acts of free-bounty Grace should not be grace But without money or hire the Lord giveth his wine and milke Isai 55.1 Ephes. 2.1 2. Ezech. 16.5 6 7. 2 Tim. 1.9 Tit. 3.3 2. Because such a condition is of work not of grace and so of no lesse Law-debt and bargaining then can be between man and man And the party that fulfilleth the condition is 1. most free to forfeit his wages by working or not working as the hireling or labourer in a vineyard yea or any Merchant ingaged to another to performe a condition of which he is Lord and Master to doe or not doe 2. He is no wise necessitate nor determined any way but as the hire or wages doe determine his will who so worketh but the wages being absolutely in his power to gaine them or lose them determine his will which cannot fall in the Almightie 3. Such a condition performed by the creature putteth the Creature to glory but not in the Lord but in himselfe Rom. 4.2 For if Abraham were justified by works hee hath whereof to glory but not before God Yea Adam before the fall and the elect Angels hold not life eternall by any such free condition of obedience as is absolutely referred to their free will to doe or not to doe so our Divines deny against Papists with good warrant the free-hold of life eternall by any title of merit Sure if God determine freewill in all good and gracious acts as I prove undeniably from Scripture 2. From the dominion of providence 3. The covenant between the Father and the Sonne Christ. 4. the intercession of Christ. 5. The promises of a new heart and perseverance 6. Our prayers to bow the heart to walke with God and not to lead us into temptation 7. The faith and confidence wee have that God will worke in the Saints to will and to doe to the end 8. The praise and glory of all our good works which are due to God onely c. If God I say determine free will to all good even before as after the entrance of sinne into the world and that of Grace for this grace hath place in Law-obedience in Men and Angels then such a condition cannot consist with Grace For such a condition puts the creature in a state above the Creator and all freedome in him Pos. 2. Evangelike conditions wrought in the Elect by the irresistible grace of God and Grace doe well consist together Joh. 5.24 Verily Verily I say unto you hee that heareth my word and beleeveth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not
by election 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constraineth us there is a peece of eternitie of heaven in the breasts of the Martyrs of Jesus Christ. Abraham must goe when he is called Lydia cannot keepe the doore when love removes the handles of the barre and must be in The Lord casts in fire-workes of love in at the windowes of the Apostles soules O! their nets and callings and their All become nothing they must leave all and follow Christ. Wee must bee loggish and crabbed timber that take so much of Omnipotencie or else we cannot be drawne to the Sonne Men thinke it but a step to Christ and Heaven ah wee have but a poore and timorous suspition of heaven by nature it is no lesse then a creation to be drawne to Christ. 2. We are needy sinners and neede as much mercy as would save the Devils as may bee gathered from Hebrew 2.16 3. We are by nature as good clay and mettall to be vessels of revenging justice and firewood that could burne as kindely in hell as Devils or any damned whatsoever 4. Not onely at our first conversion must wee bee drawne but the Spouse prayes Cant. 1. to be drawne there 's need that Christ use violence to save us while wee be in heaven for Christ hath said Matth. 7.14 Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life I grant Antinomians who loose us from all duties and say Christ hath done all to our hand make little necessity of drawing at all For Crispe saith The strictnesse of the way Math. 7.14 is not the strictnesse of the conversation but all a mans owne righteousnesse must bee cut out of the way otherwise it is a broader way then Christ allowes of I confesse if in this one point all the strictnesse of the way to heaven were then the way 1. should bee strait and narrow onely to those that trust in their owne righteousnesse but I hope there is much more strictnesse then in that one point as in mortifying idol-lusts loving our enemy feeding him when he is hungry suffering for Christ bearing his Crosse denying our selves becomming humble as children being lowly and mocke and following Christs way in that 2. Christ speaks of two wayes a wide and a broad way and a narrow way Now if the narrow way be all in a quitting our owne righteousnesse onely as Crispe saith perverting the Text then all the latitude and easinesse of the broad way must be that all the world that runne to hell they follow no sinnes sweet and pleasant to the flesh no delightfull lusts contrary to the duties of the first and second Table their onely sinne is to trust in their owne righteousnesse which is against both Law and Gospel 3. Christ commandeth his hearers to enter in this strait way which is clearely a way of holy walking no lesse then of renouncing our owne righteousnesse For Christ both in the foregoing and in the following words urgeth duties as not to judge rashly Vers. 1. to eye our owne faults rather then our brothers Vers. 3.4 5. not to prophane holy Ordinances Vers. 6. to pray assiduously Vers. 7.8 9 10. to doe to others as we would they should doe to us Verse 12. to be good trees and bring forth good fruit not to content our selves with an empty dead Faith as Dr. Crispe and Libertines doe but to doe the will of our heavenly Father to the end of the Chapter But let the Reader observe as we doe detest all confidence in our inherent holynesse and all merit and deny that our strictest walking can in any sort justifie us before God so Libertines in all their writings and conference cast shame upon strict walking as Popish Pharisaicall and Legall and will have this our Christian liberty that holy walking is not so much as no part of our justification which thing wee grant but saith Crispe All our sanctification of life is not a jot of the way of a justified person to heaven the flat contrary of which Paul saith Ephes. 2.10 For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus into good works which God hath before ordained that we should walke in them That which we should walk in must be a jot and more of our way to heaven and the same Crispe Beleevers are kept in holynesse sincerity simplicity of heart but all this hath nothing to doe with the peace of their soule and the salvation and justification thereof See hee confounds salvation and justification As if sincere walking were no way to salvation because it is no way to justification and because it s not the meritorious cause of our peace and salvation for Christ alone is so the cause But therefore must it be no condition of salvation It is a prophane and loose consequence But doe not Libertines teach that no man is saved but these that walke holyly and that sanctification is the unseparable fruit and effect of justification Answ. They say it in words but fraudulently 1. Because all Sanctification to them all Repentance all mortification all new obedience is but an apprehension that Christ hath done all these for them and that is their righteousnesse and so Christ repented for them and mortified sinne for them and performed all active obedience for them Now this sanctification is Faith not the personall walking in newnesse of life that Christ requires 2. This sanctification by their way is not commanded by God nor are beleevers obliged to it under danger of sinning against God for through the imputation of Christs righteousnesse saith Chrispe All our sinnes are so done away from us that wee stand as Christs owne person did and doth stand in the sight of God nor is there a body of sinne in Christ. I assume but Christ is not obliged to our personall holiness that were an impossible immagination 2. All acts of sanctification to the justified person are free he may doe them yea hee may not doe them and can bee charged with no sinne for the omitting of them for hee is not under any morall Law and where there is no Law there is no sinne say Libertines 3. Men are kept in holinesse sincerity simplicity of heart saith Crispe What is that kept They are meere patients in all holy walking and free will does nothing but the Spirit immediatly workes all these in us if therefore we omit them it must bee the fault of the Spirit as Crispe speaketh not our fault nor ought wee to pray but when the Spirit moves us as before you heard so that this sanctification is not any holyness opposite to the flesh and to sinne forbidden in the Law of God but a sort of free and arbitrary and immediate acting of the Spirit in the omission of which acts the justified person no more sinnes against God then a tree or a stone which are creatures under no morall Law of God when these creatures doe not pray nor love Christ
otherwise for the Apostle avoucheth the Gospel is preached the promise of salvation published to all that call on the Lords Name v. 12. Be they Jewes or Grecians that is Gentiles and beleeve they must or else they cannot pray and needs they must heare or then they cannot beleeve and hear they cannot except God send Preachers But God hath sent Preachers with pleasant feet to both Iewes and Gentiles as the Prophets Isaiah and Nahum fâ—retold v. 13 14 15. and they have not all obeyed v. 16 17 18. But it may be said They have not all heard the Gospel preached this must certainly excuse the Gentiles if they beleeve not having never heard of Christ how can they beleeve as it is v. 14. It s a rationall excuse I cannot sin in not beleeving the Gospel saith the Gentile yea and Christ frees them from the sin of unbeliefe also Ioh. 15.22 If I had not come and spoken unto them and so if they had not had a Lord Speaker from heaven they had not had sin That is they should have ben free of the Gospel-sin of unbelief but now they have no cloak for their sin Now they cannot say Lord we cannot beleeve a Gospel never spoken to us by any nor heard of by us But sure the Iewes heard these creatures and works of God that preached his glory Psal. 19.6 And if they preach Christ objectively as Amyrald and other Arminians fancie then the not hearing and not obeying the Gospel thus preached had been their sin though Christ or his Apostles had never spoken the Gospel which is contrary to Christs word Ioh. 15.22 And contrary to Paul how shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard by the preaching of a sent Minister who subjectively and vocally must preach the Gospel But to return to the state of the question 4. So much of God is revealed to all even to those who never heard of Christ as serves to make all unexcusable for that knowing willingly and knowingly they glorifie not God as God Rom. 1.19 20 21. 5. All within the visible Church have meanes sufficient in their kinde in genere mediorum externorum to save them 6. As none can be saved by the light of nature nor ever any used or could use it so far forth as to improve it for their sufficient preparation to receive the tidings of the Gospel either from Men or Angels sent to preach to them or by any inspiration bringing the sense or things signified in the Gospel so saved they cannot bee by any name under heaven but by the Name of Christ that is Christ named preached and revealed in the Gospel Act. 4.10 11 12. Joh. 14.6 Heb. 11.6 Joh. 5.40 and 1 Joh. 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and hee that hath not the Son hath not life 7. The question is whether or no God so farre forth willeth desireth intendeth that all and every one within and without the visible Church Tartarians and Indians who never by any rumor hard of Christ not excepted that hee giveth them sufficient meanes and helps of a common and universall grace which if they would use well the Lord should so reward pro-move or increase whether out of decencie or a congruous disposition of goodness or of equity or of free promise or any obligation so farre as to send the Gospel to them and bestow on them a larger measure of saving and internall grace by which they should if they so would bee converted to the Faith of Christ and saved We deny Arminians affirme 2. Whether the Lord from eternity late Arminians are for time-election hath absolutely without any provision in or pre-science or fore-knowledge of good works Faith perseverance in both or of condition reason cause merit qualification in some certaine and definite persons rather then others predestinated and chosen them to glory and life eternall And all the meanes conducing to this end and that of meere free grace because he so willeth or if the Lord passe no definite compleat peremptorie and irrevocable decree to save some certain persons while he forsees them expiring and dying in faith and holy conversation Arminians hold that the Lords decree of election of men to glory is generall conditionall incompleat changeable while he forsees they have ended their course in the Faith and then peremptorily and irrevocably he passeth a fixed decree to save such and not others we deny any such loose decrees in the Almighty and beleeve that of free grace he chuseth some absolutely without conditions in them or respect to any good foreseene to be in them rather then in others because He hath mercy on whom hee will and hardens whom he will Rom. 9.17.18 3. Upon this generall indefinite revocable and conditionall good will and intention of God to save all and every one whether or no did the Father give his Sonne and the Sonne dye for all and every one intending absolutely to impetrate and obtaine to all and every one of mankinde remission of sinnes and especially expiation of sinne originall and all sins against the covenant of works and salvation to them all both within and without the visible Church and the opening of the gates of heaven so as God hath laid aside his anger for all these sins hath made all savable reconciliable that notwithstanding of divine Justices plea against men all and every one may according to the intention of God bee saved in his bloud so they would as they may and can beleeve in Christ we deny Arminans here affirme 2. The mind of Arminians Arminians runne upon six Universalities 1. They say God beareth to all and every man of what kind soever an equall universall and Catholike good will yâ—a to Esau Pharaoh Judas as to Jaakob Moses and Peter to save them all so as this love is not stinted to any certaine persons precisely and absolutly loved and chosen to salvation 2. That there is a Catholicke price an universall ransome given by Christ dying on the Crosse for all and every one an Attonement made and a Redemption purchased in Christs bloud by which all and every one Pharaoh Judas Cain all the heathens Tartarians Americans Virginians that never heard of Christ are made savable and reconcilâ—iable and God made placable and exorable to them so aâ— though they be lost in the first Adam yet have they a new venture of heaven and in Christs death the Lord hath a generall antecedent and priâ—â—ry intention to save all without exception yet no more to save Moses and Peter then Judas and Pharaoh Yea that the fruit of Christs death and the effect of it may stand though all and every one of mankinde were eternally lost and not one person saved 3. As there was a Catholicke forfeiture of all so there is a second covenant of free grace made with all and every one of Adams sonnes with promises of free grace a new heart righteousnesse and
eternall life to all and every one upon faire conditions if their free will play the game of salvation and damnation handsomely as if Christ were not free wills choisest tutor 4. All and every man are received in this covenant in the new state of reconciliation grace and favour and justification from any breach of the Law or the first covenant all are once fairely delivered both young and old from damnation and wrath all the heathen are reconciled and justified by Christ in his blood and all sinnes now are against the 1. Covenant of grace Christ and all mankinde now beginne to reckon on a new score 2. Though the ship be broken and all mankinde sent to Sea to die there yet so are they cast over board as Christ the surety of a better Covenant is made the great vessell that ship-broken men may if it seeme good to Lord free will swimme unto and so come safe the second time to land 3. So as there be two Redemptions in Christ two Justifications by grace 4. Yet neither the tydings of this new covenant made with all men nor this state of reconciliation or justification are ever revealed to the thousand part of mankind and though all and every one be under this Law of Faith and Covenant of Grace yet is this obliging and supernaturall Law never promulgate to millions of mankind whom it obligeth to obedience so farre forth as by the good industry and improving of common gifts of nature or rather the hire and merit of men out of Christ to make a conquest of the preached Gospell and Christ free will doing its best 5. All and every Mothers sonne and children of Adam are called and invited yea and Christ by our Text draweth all and every man though they will not be drawn say they the sole cause of election reprobation of salvation damnation lying on mans free will 6. All and every one are furnished with all externall meanes of salvation with sufficient grace and absolute indifferenciâ— and power of free will to say ay or no to the drawing of Christ and purchase by industrious improvement and carefull husbanding of the common gifts or relicts of nature and their new sufficient grace if they could give it a name to us a farther degree of grace while they conquesse the Preaching of the Gospell and the grace of conversion Yet so are they let Christ doe his best as all may be converted or not any one at all but all lost and all may persevere in grace and be saved as not one men shall be damned and all may so totally and finally fall away from grace as not one man may persevere but all be eternally lost if free will use his owne liberty notwithstanding of the Lords eternall decrees of Election or Reprobation or of Christs death the strength of free grace the intercession of Christ at the right hand of God the unchangeable love of God for all these can doe nothing to marre the absolute and independent free will of men to worke as it listeth for either wayes Propos. 1. Election is the decree of free grace setting apart certaine definite individuall and particular men to glory 1. The men chosen and drawne are by head designed Jaakob not Esau before the children had done good or evill though Esau be elder Isaak must be the Sonne of the promise father and mother were free grace rather 〈…〉 of Abraham and Sarah now paâ—led natures 〈…〉 Eâ—mael Peter and John not Judas the Sonne of 〈…〉 Abraham and his house worshipping Idols beyond the 〈◊〉 is singled out not any other the Lord sets his love on 〈◊〉 Jews because he loved them Deut 7.7 When their Father 〈…〉 Amorite and their mother an Hittite and they dy◠〈…〉 bloud Ezech. 16.3.4.5.6.7 not any one of the rest of the Canaanites the Tribes of Judah is the King by Tribe not any of the rest of the Families Low Jephtahs Family not anâ— of the rest of the sonnes of that Family None of the seven sonnes but the dispised shepheard the ruddy Boy singing after the Ew's David forgotten by all as none of the number 2. They are pointed out with the finger with pronownes Psalm 87.5 And of Sion its said this man Hebr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man and man shall be born in Sion Esai 49.1 The Lord hath called me from the womb from the bowels of my mother hath hee made mention of my name Thou art head or member or of which the Prophet spake it s all one in the mouth of God by name from eternity John Anna c. Esai 43.1 O Israel feare not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name thou art mine So the Lord points them out with the finger Esai 49.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold these shall come from farre and behold these from the North. North-land men and from the Sea Ilanders or from the West West-land men so it may be read and these from the land of Shimin Ezech. 36.20 These are the people of the Lord. Hebr. 11.13 All these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 died in the Faith they are named and told by the head Revel 14.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are thrise in one Verse These are they that are not defiled with women these are they that follow the Lambe whithersoever he goeth These were redeemed from amongst men 3. They are defined by their countrey Esai 19.18 Five Cities of the land of Egypt shall speake the Language of Canaan Vers. 24. In that day Israel shall bee the third part with Egypt and Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the Land Vers. 25. Whom the Lord of Hosts shall blesse saying blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the worke of my hand Zephan 3.10 From beyond the river of Ethiopia my suppliants even the daughters of my dispersed shall come .4 Their names are particularly inrolled in the Lambes booke of life Luk. 10.20 Revel 13.8 Revel 20.15 As Citizens of some famous incorporation or Senators that governes a Citie are written in the booke of Records of the King or Citie so these that are to follow the Lambe cloathed in white are booked in the publike Register of heaven in the minde of God to be members of the heavenly Society 5. It was no blind bargaine that Christ made hee knew what he gave hee knew what he got Christ told downe a definite and certaine Ransome as a told summe of money every penny reckoned and layed and he knew who was his own and whom and how many by the head and name he bought there is no hazard that one come in in the lieu and roome of another Joh. 10.14 I am the good Shepherd how is that made good He hath particular care of all the flock by the head he knowes how many and who are his if any bee not his if any be sicke or lost or wandered away that proves a good Shepherd I know my sheepe
72.12 All Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall serve him it s meant of Christ and in the letter cannot be true if many refuse him to be their King Psalm 2.9.2.3 Lâ—k 19 14. Psal. 110.1 So is it said Psal. 22.27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turne to the Lord and all the kindreds of â—he Nations shall worship before thee Now that he meaneth of spirituall turning to God and of Repentance is cleare Vers. 18. For the Kingdome is the Lords and he is the Governour among the Nations Vers. â—3 A seed shall serve him it shall be counted to the Lord for a Generation Except there be a restriction of this All how will Arminians eschew this that all and every man of the heathen shall repent and be a holy seed devoted to the Lord as his Righteous ones For sure the same expression of all Nations Esai 40.16 are taken for all and every one of mankinde Psalm 66 9. All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy name Esai 66.23 And it shall come to passe that from one new Moone to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come â—o worship before me saith the Lord. Let Arminians speake if all flesh that commeth before God from Sabbath to Sabbath under the New Testament to worship be as large and comprehensive as the same expression Esai 40.6 All flesh is grasse Sure the latter comprehendeth all Adams Sonnes without exception even including infants the former cannot beare so wide a sense So Gen. 12.3 In thee shall all the Families of the earth be blessed Gen. 22.18 If the meaning be that without any figure or exception all and every family be blessed in Christ then shall I inferre that all the families of the earth without exception are justified by faith in Christ Gal. 3.10 11 12 13.14 And that the Nations of the earth without exception are heires of the promise have right to strong consolation are fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope laid before them and have anchored thâ—ir hope up within the veilo whither the fore-runner Christ hath entred for of these Nations the Apostle expoundeth the promise Hebr. 6.13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20. So Esai 27.6 Israel shall blossome and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit then shall there bee none on earth but the blossoming Iâ—rael of God Rom. 11.26 And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written there shall come out of Sion a deliverer c. These that Paul calleth all Israel Esaiah 69.20 21. calleth Jaakob and the seed and the seeds seed Esaiah 59.19 So shall they feare the name of the Lord from the West and his glory from the rising of the Sunne Mal. 1.11 For from the rising of the Sunne even to the going downe of the same any name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name shall bee great among the heathen saith the Lord of Hosts If from the East to the West and in all places of the Gentiles men feare the name of the Lord then sure the whole inhabitants of the earth between the rising of the Sunne to the going downe of the same must bee converted to Christ and offer prayers prayses spirituall service to Christ except some restriction be made the most part from the East to the West are enemies to the Gospel And how would Arminians triumph if so much were said for universall Redemption as here is said for universall Regeneration and Conversion of all except we say there must be a figure a Senechdoche of All for many Or Christs all and universalitie of converted ones must bee here meant Joh. 1.9 That was the true light that inlighteneth every one that commeth into the world What Even infants who come into the world and all and every one of Adams Sonnes it cannot bee true in any sense except it be meant of the light of the Gospel that yet never came to the halfe part of the world For Vers. 10. The world knew him not and Vers. 6. There was a man sent from God whose name was John ver 7. the same came for a witnesse to beare wâ—tnesse of the light that all men through him might beleeve Can any divinity teach that God intended that all and every mortall man should beleeve by him that is by the Ministery of John the morning starre which was to fall and disappeare and shine no more at the rising of Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse 1 Joh. 2.27 Yee need not that any teach you but the anointing that yee have received teacheth you all things Why should then fewer have the Spirit of holy unction in them then the world for whom Christ is a propitiation and all the visible Saints that John writeth unto 1 Joh. 1 2. 2.1.2 4.9 God sent his onely begotten Sonne to the world that we through him might live nor need we flee to that exposition ever and anone that Christ dyed for all that is all ranks of men For All is put in Scripture ordinarily for many as Deut. 1.21 Psal. 71.18 Ier. 15.10 and 19.9 and 20.7 and 23.30 and 49.17 Ezech. 16.27 Exod. 33.10 Col. 1.28 Isai. 61.9 Gen. 41.57 Mark 14.4 Joh. 3.26 Acts 17.31 and 10.38 Mark 1.37 2 Cor. â— 2 Luke 24.47 and 4.15 Isai 2.2 3. Otherwise I could say Christ died for no man because the Scripture ascribeth an universality to the wicked Jer. 6.28 c. 9.2 Mic. 1.7 1 Iohn 2.15 16. and 1 Iohn 5.19 And surely that election and redemption move both in the same spheare and or be of the free love of God is cleare to me from that place Ioh. 3.16 on which Arminians confide much for Gods love to save mankinde by the death of Christ is the very love of election to glory of such certaine persons as the Lord therefore gives grace to beleeve because they are ordained to life eternall so that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as many and the number of beleevers and of the chosen to life are equall Acts 13.48 Ioh. 10.26 Rom. 8.29.30 1. That love cannot bee a generall confused antecedent conditionall love offered to all the world on condition they beleeve for that the Scripture freeth thousands of the sinne of unbeliefe of that love if Christ come not to them and speake not Ioh. 15.22 and Paul saith Rom. 1.14 How shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard Now the loved world Ioh. 3.16 is obliged to beleeve 2. That love that is the cause of Christs death is Ioh. 15.13 the greatest love that is it is such a giving love whereby Christ gives his Sonne that with him hee cannot but give his Holy Spirit faith and salvation yea and all things Rom. 8.32 But the conditionall generall love is not the greatest love for the Lord beareth not the greatest
be mans but it must be which I abhorre to writ or speak the Lords 3. God takes all upon himselfe in genere causae gratiosae Liberrimae independentis primae non obligatae ad agendum ex ullae lege in the kind of a cause that worketh by meer grace freely Indepdenently without any Law above him to obliege him to doe otherwise with his own then he freely willeth decreeth promiseth for men carnally divide Gods decree which is most free from his promise which is as free as his decreeâ— but it followeth in no sort as Arminians and Jesuites object to us therefore men who doe not believe pray walk holily are not in the fault being under a Law to obey for sinnefull inability to obey can ransome no man from the obligation of obedience and most blasphemous it is that because God undertaketh in the Covenant that we shall walk in his commandements as he doth promise Ezech. 36.27 and that we shall feare him Ier. 32.39.40 That God should therefore be in the fault and we free of all fault when in many particulars we offend all Iam. 3.2 and we fear not God in this or this sinne as is possible and may be gathered from Iosephs speech to his brethren who sayes he would not wrong them for he feared God and Iobs word that he durst not dispise the cause of his servant because he was affraid of God Yet God promiseth that he will keep Ioseph Iob and all the elect in the way of Gods Commandements that they shall not fully fall away from him God never by promise covenant oath or word undertaketh o keep his elect from this or this particular breach and act of unbeliefe against the Covenant of grace 4. The fault against the Gospel or any sin in a believer must justly be imputed to him because he is tyed by the Evangelick Law not to sinne in any thing the Gospel granteth pardons but not dispensations in any sins and it can in no sort bee imputed to God because if any believer fall in a particulaâ— sin or act of unbeliefe against the covenant of grace the Lord neither decreed nor did ever undertake by Covenant or promise to keep him by his effectuall grace from falling in that sinne for the Lord would then certainly have keeped him as he did Peter and doth all the Elect that are effectually called that in mighty temptations their faith faile them noâ— Nor is the act of believâ—ng that is wanting in that particular fall such a condition of the Covenant as Christ either promised to work or the necessary condition of the Covenant of Grace or such a condition the want whereof doth annull and make voyde the eternall Covenant of grace 5. I here smell in Antinomians that God must bee in fault as the author of our unbelief our stony hearts our walking in our fleshly wayes because God hath promised to give us faith and a heart of flesh to walk in his wayes as the old Libertines said God was the principall and chief cause of sin and that God did all things both good and ill the Creatures did nothing So Calvine in insâ—itut adversus Libertines chap. 14. in opus pag. 446. Mr. Archer down right saith God is the authour of sin what end is there of erâ—ing if God leave us It is true the tie and all the tie of giving a new heart and the Spirit of grace and supplication lieth on the Lord who promised so to do Deut. 30.6 Ezech. 11.19.20 chap. â—6 26.27 Ier. 31.33 34.35.36 But yet so that we are under the obligation of divine precepts to doe our part Ezech. 18.31 make you a new heart and a new Spirit for why will ye die O house of Israel Ier. 4.4 Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the fore-skinne of your heart Ephes. 4.23 be renewed in the Spirit of your mind Rom. 12.2 Rom. 13.14 and 1 Thessal 5.17 pray without ceasing Psal. 50.15 Call upon mee Matth. 26.41 Watch and pray Therefore all the tie and obligation of what ever kâ—nd cannot so free us from sinfull omissions nor can the tye ly on God evangelick commandments are accompanied with grace to obey grace layeth a tie on us also to yeeld obedience 6. It s a foule and ignorant mistake in Crispe to make the Covenant nothing but that love of God to man which hee cast on man before the Children had done good or evill Rom. 9.1 That love is eternall and hath no respect to faith as to a condition but it s not the covenant it selfe because it is the cause of the covenant 2. To the love of election there is no love no work no act of beleeving required on our part Yea no mediator no shedding of blood wee are loved with an everlasting love before all these but the covenant though as decreed of God it be everlasting as all the works of creation and divine providence which fall out in time and have beginning and end are so everlasting for God decreed from eternity that they should be yet it is not in being formally while it bee preached to Adam after his fall and there is required faith on all the Saints part to lay hold on the Covenant Esai 56.4 and to make it a covenant of peace to the Saints in particular 2. Faith is the condition of the covenant 3. Christ the mediator of it 4. Christs blood the seal of it 5. The Spirit must write it in our heart But the love of election is a compleat free full love before our faith or shedding of blood or a mediator be at all Object We are not saved nor justified nor taken in Covenant by faith as a work saith Crispe for then we should not bee saved by grace and grace should not be grace but wee are justified by faith that is by that Christ which faith knoweth according to that by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many therefore faith is no condition of this covenant Answ. The contrary rather followeth 1. Seeing Crisp doth say none under heaven can bee saved till they have believed We are not taken in covenant by faith neither wee nor scripture speak so taking us in covenant is before wee can beleeve but we lay hold on Christ and righteousnes by faith not as a work but a necessary condition required of us 2. I leave it to the consideration of the Godly if beleeving in him who justâ—fieth the ungodlâ— be no condition a work justifying I do not think it but onely I beleeve and know that Christ justified me before I beleeved from eternity as some say when I was conceived in the womb â—s Crispe saiâ—h and that the threatning he that believeth not iâ— condemned already carries this sence he that believeth not that he is not condemâ—â—d hee is already condemned Who can believe such toyes 2. Beleeving is a receiving of Christ Ioh. 〈…〉 Christs dwelling in the heart Ephes. 3.17 Then to 〈◊〉 must bee to
and committing of fornication 2. Because for not mortifying of fornication the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience ver 6 Now wrath comâ—s not on wicked men because they believe not that Christ abstained from fornication for them many walk in uncleannesse covetousnesse who are therefore under wrath who are not obliged to believe that because they never â—eard the Gospel 3. Such an abstinence from fornication is here commanded as the Colossians and other Gentiles walked in ver 7. and which they had now put off with the old man ver 8. But the Colossians while they were Gentiles and heard not of the Gospel did not walk in this as in a sin that they believed not that Christ abstained from fornication for them and satisfied divine justice for their fornication but their sin was that in person they committed these sinnes 1 Pet. 2.11 Dearely beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from flâ—sâ—ly lusts that warre against the soule ver 24. Who his own self bare our sinnes in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sinnes should live to righteousnesse Rom. 8.11 And if the Spirit of him that raised Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall alsâ— quicken your mortall bodies ver 12. Therefore brethren we are debters not to thâ— flesh to live after the flâ—sh vers 13. for if yee live after the flâ—sh yee shall die But if yee through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live ver 10. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin Gal. 5.24 They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections lusts Gal. 2 1â— For I through the Law am dâ—ad to the Law that I might live unto God all Gospel-commands to subdue the lusts of flesh not to serve the flesh as debters paying rent thereunâ—o to mortifie the deeds of the body not to live to our selves c. were meer precepts for justification not for sanctification and mortification of lusts and should â—urn the Saints into meere Solifidians Gnosticks empty Professors and fruitlesse trees if ouâ— mortification were not in the weakning of lusts â—bstinence from sin service and living to him who is our ransomner There is nothing more false then that ever our Divines taught to mortifie sinnes by vowes promises strictnesse and severity oâ— duties watchfulnesse scarce rising so high for mortification as Christ For its Christ and faith in his death that is the spring and fountaine of mortification yet is mortification formally in holy walking and not formally in belâ—eving for then should we be justified by mortification for sure we are justified by faith 2. Faith is a duty of the first Table respecting God in Christ as its object mortification to uncleannesse vaine-glory or the like is a duty of the second Table respecting men Asser. 4. The living of the just by faith is as well the life of sanctification as of justification its true the life of justification is the cause more compleat and perfect and the other the effect and unperfect but our spirituall condition is not only in sanctification but also in justification And only enemies of free-grace separate the one from the other and highten the one to feed men on the East wind and lessen the other as if sanctification were an accident and some indifferent Ceremony that men walk after the flâ—sh and believe that Christ for them walked after the Spirit and that is enough nor doe wee teach men to weigh their state of Grace in the scales of mortification or simple not acting of sin as mortification commeth from morall and naturall principles but as it floweth from faith apprehending Christ crucified and from the Spirit of the Father and the Son drawing the sinner to Christ and our blessednesse is no lesse in that corruption is subdued and the dominion removed then in that the curse is taken away Saltmarsh when he willeth the sinner as a sinner a Parricide a Man-slayer a slave to his lusts to beâ—ieve and apply Christ as his Redeemer without any sense of sin or humiliation at all and then saith the mans blessednesse is more to have the curse of sin then the corruption of sinne removed clearly concludeth that a man that walks after his lusts in actuall lusting against the Lord Iesus and the Gospel proud vaine selfe-righteous is as such a man to believe and so blessed and may promise to himselfe peace though he walk after the imaginations of his own heart Nor is arguing against the tentation with spirituall reason frâ—m the word as Ioseph did Gen. 39.8.9 and Job ch 2.9.10 and David 2 Sam. 16.7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. our own power or contrary to the fighting by the shield of faith the Word of God as Saltmarsh imagineth Assert 5. It is to be reputed as a most blasphemous assertion that we know we are Christs not because we crucifie the lusts of the flesh but because we do not câ—ucifie them Pet 1. Crucifying of our lusts is a mark of our being in â—hrisâ— Gal. â— 24 Rom. 8.13 This maketh walking afâ—er the Spirit and a parting from iniquity and being pure in Spirit and dying to an 〈◊〉 of no interest in Christ contrary to Rom. 8.1 2. 2 Tim. 2.19 Math. 5.8 1 Pet. 24. Gal. 1.4 1 Pet. 1.18 and contrary to the whole Gospel which was that blasphemy of David George who taught mortification was to act all uncleannesse without shame or sense of sinne â—nd the more men are vâ—yd of the common passion that follows sin the more mortified and spirituall they are and this is very like â—â—e Libertines way who teach That to take delight in the holy service of God is to goe a whooring from God and that they are legally biassed that would mortifie the flâ—sh by watchfulnesse and strictnesse of walking whereas to put our duties on the Throne with Christ and to put Christs crown on our mortification as if we were thereby justified is the Idolatry But the delighting in the Law of the Lord and taking of the Lords testimonines for our heritage a serving the Lord with chearefulnesse and fervor of Spirit Psal. 1.2 Psal. 119.111.262 Isai. 58.13 Psal. 112.1 Rom. 7.22 Rom. 12.8 2 Cor. 9.7 Phil. 4.4 Act. 20.24 Iaem 1.2 are marks of a blessed condition If any teach that wee mortifie the flesh by watchfulnesse and strictnesse of walking as if these did merit mortification we judge it cursed doctrine but if Libertines deny as they doe that acts of mortification doe formally consist in watchfull strict and accurate walking with God in being not taken nor madly drunken with the lusts of sin but dead to pleasures as these acts flow from the Spirit of Christ we curse their fleshly doctrine also It s no consequent to say because Regeneration is not a work of nature but of the Spirit of God and the way of the
under the Law as a rule of rightenesse and to walk holily as being obliged from the conscience of any command either of Law or Gospel is legall bondage from which Christ has set us free as to be circumcised is a part of the Law-yoke so they teach then to be inherently holy is unlawfull to Antinomians Mr Town Pag. 6. Yet I wish that I be not mis-taken for I never deny the Law to be an eternall and inviolable rule of righteousnesse But yet affirm that its the grace of the Gospel which effectually and truly conformeth us therunto Answ. 1. I wish Mr Towne doe mistake for hee that teacheth that believers are freed from the Law as a rule teaching directing and from the Law with all its offices and authority he denyeth the Law to believers to be an eternall and inviolable rule of righteousnesse or then he must speak contradictions to wit that the believer is not under the Law as a rule of righteousnesse for so saith Towne he should not be under grace which is contrary to the Apostle Rom. 6.14 and yet he is under the Law as an eternall and inviolable rule of righteousnesse for I ask to whom is the Law an eternall and inviolable rule of justice to the believer or no If to the believer then he must be under it but Antinomians say that is Pharisaicall and Popish that is to put Christs free-man saith Twone under his old keeper the Law as if he were a malefactor if the Law be no eternall and inviolable rule of righteousnesse why doth Mr Towne say so 2. That rule to the which the grace of the Gospel doth conforme us that rule we must be under but Mr Towne saith The grace of the Gospel truly conformeth us to the eternall and inviolable rule of righteousnesse Ergo c. 3. An inviolable rule of justice cannot be violated and contravened by these to whom it is a rule without sinne else it s not an unviolable rule then if believers cannot violate the Law and murther and commit adultery but they must sinne by violating the rule then as believers are obliged not to murther not to commit adultery so must they be under the inviolable rule of righteousnesse contrary to which Antinomians teach All that Mr Towne can say against us in this argument is a calumny that we make the Law not the Gospel to give power to subdue sinne but the truth is neither Law nor Gospel giveth grace but the God of grace hath promised in the Gospel grace and a new heart and a new spirit to the Elect and grace goeth not along with the Gospel as a favour of equall extension with the preached Gospel but millions heare the Gospel who remaine voide of grace and have no right to any promise or grace the Law leaveth not off to be the rule of tighreousnesse though it cannot effectually make its disciples holy and conforme to the rule no more then the Gospel should not be the Law and rule of faith because without the influence of the Spirit of grace it can make no Disciples conforme to Iesus Christ and his image for many Elect for a long time heare the Gospel and have no grace to obey while the time of conversion come and many are more blinded and hardned that the Gospel is preached to them and it were better they had never heard nor known the way of truth Towne pag. 6.7 Rom. 7.6 The meaning is through faith is bred assured confidence lively hope pure love toward God invocation of his name without all wavering or doubting or questioning his good-will audience and acceptance which could never be attained by all the zeal and conscience towards God according to the Law of workes and the knowledge of the glory of God is given according to a covenant of meere grace without addition or mixture of works and the opposition is plaine to be not so much bâ—tweene the grosse hypocrite who is only brought to outward subjection and correspondency to the Law as betweene him that in good earnest and in downe uprightnesse of heart giveth over himself wholly to the Law of God Rom. 10.2 as the wife to the husband and guid of her youth to be ordered in all things inwardly and outwardly after the minde of God therein according to his legal conscience which is never pacified with works and the man who knoweth and worshippeth God alone according to the Gospel of Grace Answ. This is a close perverting of the word of truth 1. The Antinomian faith may here be smelled that by faith is bred assured confidence without all wavering feare or doubting c. Then whoever once doubt or waver are yet under the Law of works a doctrine of dispaire to broken reeds who are not undâ—r the â—aw but married to a new husband Christ and yet cry Lord I beleeve help my unbelief Why feare yee O yee of little faith is there not doubting here and a broken faith which Christ softly bindeth up 2. The Covenant of Grace and Gospel commandeth faith and also good works as witnesses of our faith but Towne will have good works in any notion of an evangelick command to stand at defiance with a covenant of meere grace when Grace is the fountaine and cause of our walking in Christ 2 Cor. 1.10 by the grace of God wee had our conversation in tht world in simplicitie and godly sincerity 1 Cor. 15.10 I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God that is in mee It s true Holy walking by the grace of God and Christs righteousnesse in justification is a wicked mixture which we detest 3. The opposition Rom. 7. is betweene any unconverted man under the Law be he hypocrite or a civill devill or be he any other man on the one part and a beleever married to Christ and dead to the Law on the other for that which is common not to grosse hypoâ—rites only but to all naturall men out of Christ is ascribed to the man that is under the Law by the Apostle as 1. He is under the Lawes dominion and condemnation vers 1. 2. The Law has power over him as the living husband over the wife vers 2.3 The poor man cannot look to Iesus to another lover and husband the Law as a hard husband leads him and cries obey perfectly or be eternally damned 3 He is a man in the flesh in whose members concupiscence and lust rageth as a young vigorus mother bringeth forth children lusts of the flesh to death as married to hell and the second death vers 5. 4 He serves God according to the oldnesse of the letter that is carnally hypocritically like an out-side of a rotten Pharisee and not according to the newnesse of the Spirit that is in a Spirituall maner Yet Mr. Towne extolls him as one that in good earnest and downe-rightnesse of heart yeeldeth and giveth over himselfe to the Law of God as the wife to the husband
soule to heaven A weak hackney if spritie may accomplish a great journey Object 7. Satan puts us cleane back here wee are proving oâ—â— faith by our works when as no works can be proved solidly good but by our faith for without faith its unpossible to please God Wee know that every piece of money is valued according to the image and superscription if Cesar be not there though it be silver yet it is not coyne it is not so currant So there is not any thing of Sanctification currant and of true practicall use and comfort to a beleever if Christ be not there Crispe saith Sanctification and good works are litigious grounds of our faith This bordereth with the language of Libertines It is a fundamentall and soule-damning errour to make sanctification an evidence of justification And Christ's worke of grace can no more distinguish betweene an hypocrite and a Saint then the raine that falls from heaven between the just and the unjust And The Spirit gives such full evidence of my good estate spiritually that I have no need to be tryed by the fruits of sanctification this were to light a candle to the sunne Answ. 1. That which the Spirit of God calleth saving knowledge 1 Joh. 3.14 Hereby know we c. 1 Joh. 2.3 4 5. that doth Libertines affirme to be a policy of Satan leading us back againe and a soule-condemning errour 2 1 Joh. 3.10 In this are the children of God manifest and the children of the Devill whosoever doth not righteousnesse is not of God neither hee that loveth not his brother This is some other difference then the raine can make between the just and the unjust And 1 Joh. 5.8 And there are three that bear witnesse on earth the Spirit and the water and the bloud and these three agree in one And that wee may know that the Spirit is in us is evident 1 Joh. 4.12 13. No man hath seen God at any time If wee love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us Hâ—reby wee know that wee dwell in him and hee in us because hee hath given us of his Spirit Now 1 Joh. 3.3 Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himselfe even as hee is pure And Rom. 8.1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus which walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and Spirit perfecting holinesse in the feare of God Hence wee argue Whoever walketh after the Spirit must know his Guide that leads the sonnes of God Rom. 8.14 and whoever purgeth himselfe and loveth his brother and perfecteth holinesse in the feare of God he must know that hee so doth but hee that doth walk so knoweth that he is in Christ freed from condemnation and that God dwelleth in him for it is expresse Scripture Hee that is holy may know hee is chosen to be holy Ephes. 1.4 Now Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen It is God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 Hee that is conformed to the image of his Son and called may know that hee is predestinated thereunto Rom. 8.29 30. and shall be glorified Now Crispe laboureth to prove that these which commonly goe for marks and infallible signes of our justification and interest in Christ which are universall obedience sincerity love to the brethren are either found in no man in their perfection or they be such marks as agree to good and bad to hypocrites and Saints and so are not infallible marks just as the falling of raine and the shining of the sunne doth not difference between just and unjust men because both have a like portion and share in sunne and raine Now for the former reason Faith and the light of it is unperfect capable of accession and so tainted with sinne and if this be a strong reason it cannot give assurance which Libertines doe not all hold The other is the saying of Papists teaching us to doubt of our salvation because there be such shifts wiles circuits and lurking places in a mans heart that hee can give no infallible judgement with any divine certainty of himselfe or his owne spirituall state But is there not so much darknesse so much night and blindnesse in our mind as in admitting of the light of immediate witnessing of the Spirit which they call the Broad-seale of heaven wee may no lesse be deceived then wee are in the light that resulteth from our signes of sanctification There is a like darknesse and no lesse delusions from the white Spirits the day-light-ghosts and Angels of Enthusiasts and dumbe and Scripture-lesse inspirations then in black Spirits But sure wee walke not in the wayes of sanctification sleeping nor doth the Spirit perfect holinesse in the Saints as in a night-dreame wee being led with fancie as frantick men are Shall the Saints when they attest the Lord of their sincere desire and unfained intentions though mixed with great weaknesse bring before God their integrity and their rejoycing of a good conscience as Paul the Apostles Peter John James Lord thou knowest that I love thee David who desired God might try him Job Ezekiah Jeremiah Daniel c. hold forth to God their conjectures fancies and such moth-eaten and rotten signes of their justification as Crispe and others say may be and were in Pharisees in Papists Hypocrites and bloudy Oppressours carnall Jewes following the righteousnesse of the Law Publicans Heathen Harlots all the wicked Sects for Crispe saith All these have your marks of sanctification such as are universall obedience sincerity zeale for God love to the brethren Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous before God walking in all the commandements and ordinances of the Lord blamelesse Luk. 1.6 was this such a righteousnesse attested by the Holy Ghost as is in Paul a persecuter in Heathens in Pharisees in carnall Jewes I grant it was not that righteousnesse of God through faith Phil. 3. yet it was a fruit and infallible signe of that righteousnesse and such as did prove them to be in Christ. And 2. all our acts of sanctification are no acts no infallible marks of justification to my soule except they be done in faith yea without faith they are sinne Rom. 14.23 but when I find they are done in faith they adde a further degree of evidence and certitude that they argue me to have saving faith and interest in Christ as in the Lord my righteousnesse Jer. 23.6 for that is his name And this reason doth conclude its unlawfull to seek any ground of assurance in sanctification except wee would with Papists argue in a circle thus How know you that your works are signes of justification Because they are stamped with faith And how know you that your justification and faith are not counterfeit By your works But this is not
of his essence which is as David saith every where Ps. 139.7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit but so he is in Heaven in Hell in the Sea 2. But he dwelleth in the Saints in regard of the works operations gifts and graces of the holy Ghost 1. Because the holy Spirit is in them in that they have in them the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 such as love joy peace long suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith now these are not the holy Ghost who is eternall and God uncreated but are created in time out of meer nothing not out of the potency of the subject but ere God produce grace so knotty and so rocky are we and so contrary to grace that he must fall upon a new and second creation Ephes. 2.10 Col. 2.10 Psal. 51.10 the same word that is used for creating heaven and earth Gen. 1. â— is here used it is not like the repairing of a fallen house where the same timber and stones may doe the work or the repairing of decayed nature when a healthy body recovereth out of a feaver Grace is a rare and curious workmanship 2. We are said to grow in grace 2 Pet. 3.18 and by grace to increase to the edifying of the body in love Ephes. 4.16 and to the measure of the stature of the fullnesse of Christ 13. and to add grace to grace 2 Pet. 1.5.6.7 and to goe on to perfection Heb. 6.1 Phil. 3.12 But the person of the holy Ghost is noâ— capable of growing or addition nor like the morning light or the New Moone that can grow and advance in perfection being God blessed for ever 3. If there be an union of the person of the Holy Ghost with the soule and not an in-dwelling by graces the beleever as a beleever must live by the uncreated and eternall life of the Holy Ghost or a created life Creatum vel increatum dividunt omne ens immediatè sicut finitum infinitum Not the former neither any man nor the man Christ can in any capacity be elevated so above it selfe as to partake of the infinite life of God how the manhood of Christ partaketh of the personall subsistence of the Godhead is incomprehensible to me except that it is not by such a union as my singular nature standeth under personality created and is by assumption rather then union how ever if there be an union of the person of the Holy Ghoâ—â— to our soules it cannot be conceived nor doth Scripture speak of it if the Saints live the life of God it must be by created Graces and this is that we conceive 4 The person of the Holy Ghost immediatly acting in the Saints without them or any active and vitall influence of the naturall faculties cannot be guilty of sinne because David and Christ are absolved of sinne in this They lâ—yd to my charge things that I knew not that is things I never acted crimes in which I had no action or hand but we are blamed in the word for all the omissions of holy duties and the Holy Ghost cannot be blamed for he bloweth when and where he listeth and is under no Law in his motions of free grace then he who cannot be blamed in not acting cannot bee united as one spirit person with person with him who is justly to bee blamed in not acting Asser. 4 It must evidently follow that there is in the Saints a grace created that is neither Christ nor the Holy Ghost in person for what reason any hath to phancy an union of the person of Christ or the Holy Ghost in the Saints the same reason have they to say that all the three are united to the person of the beleever in all supernaturall actions for the Father is said to draw men to the Sonne Iohn 6.44 and Christ to reveal the Father and to draw men Iohn 1.18 Iohn 12.32 and the Holy Ghost to reveal the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 11. now all the three in person doe these but all the three persons are not united to beleevers in person this were a mystery greater then God manisted in the flesh and unknown to Scripture 2. If Christ be all the grace of beleevers faith in Christ and the love of Christ should be Christ. 3. Then should a beleever having a new heart and a new Spirit be Christed or Godded and God should bee incaâ—nate in every beleever and how many Christs should there be and the new heart in one Saint and the grace given to Paul should be the new heart given to Peter whereas God hath gâ—ven grace to every man according to his measure and there are diversity of gifts but one Spirit 2 Pet. 3.15 Phil. 1.9 Eph. 3.3.4.5 â— Cor. 12.3 â— 5.6 Eph. 4.16 Asser. 5. The Grace of God and our free will in a four-fold sense may be said to concurre in the same works of Grace 1. When free-will receiveth no more from Grace and the Lords drawing but only literall instruction and if by our industry an habite of the knowledge of the letter of the word be acquired its necessary only to the easier believing as Pelagius said I may believe without Preaching the Gospel by Reading but more easily by faire and powerfull preaching and by grace helping and assisting preaching but yet without grace but with greater difficulty as I may goe a journey on foot but more easily on horse-back then a horse is not simply necessary for the journey and a ship may sail more easily and expeditely with sailes yet also without sailes with the help of Oars though with more difficulty thus Christ and his Grace may be spared we may sail to heaven by natures sweating and free-wils industry though the sails of grace could more expeditely promove our journey Now we think not that Christ draweth when men speak but the bare letter of the Gospel and softly requests the dead with only sound of words and syllabls to live and Orators with golden words doe pray and perswade the blind to see and the creeples to walk but it s long erre words fetch a soule to dry bones that they may live or tye the broken eye-strings or adde vitall power and life to eyes and ankle-bones 2. Grace and free-will as Bellarmaine and the rest of the Iesuites with Arminians teach may be thought to be two joynt causes the one not depending on the other as two carrying one stone or burthen neither he helpeth him nor he him but both joyn their independent strength to one common effect Bellarmine and Grevinchovius with the like comparisons do prove that we may storm heaven by the strength of free-wâ—ll without dependence on Christ for three untruths are here taught 1. That Grace determineth not free-will a saying destructive to providence if God determine not all second causes he is not Master of all events nor hath he a dominion of providence in all things that fall out good and evill 2. Grace doth not begin