sense but to faith and the promises for the unrenewed part never told us good news of our selves our Spirituall estate or of Christ except it speak truth as the Deviâ—l speaketh to deceive and to render us secure sluggish haughty proud vaine but Antinomians say all the murthers and adulteries of beleevers are sins onely in our sense that is in the apprehension of our unrenewed part not to the light and judgement of faith now so Antinomians follow sense But 1. I should as soon beleeve the Devill saying that the adultery of a beleever is no sin as beleeve sense that is the inditement of flesh and the unrenewed part it is true the devill can say truely as the flesh also the adultery of a beleever is a sin that actually condemnes for ever to hell and argueth the committer thereof to bee in nature not in Christ which is a lye both in the matter and specially in the end to cause a beleever despaire 2. The sense and apprehension of a beleever that saith adultery in him is no sin because it was pardoned before it was committed is as false as the Devill Now the light of faith saith the contrary the Word of God saith adultery in justified David is sin but the inference and logick of the flesh is not to be beleeved therfore David is not in Christ and so farre sense is not to be beleeued 3. Antinomians know no sense but the sense and inditement of the lying flesh which they teach men to beleeve when it saith falsely that the adultery of a beleever is no sin now no whorish mother will call her own childe a Bastard and it s no wonder that the flesh especially in the fleshly Antinomian plead for the Devill and sin but sense is taken in another meaning in the Scripture for the spirituall knowledge and apprehension of the Spirit as Heb. 5.14 The strong in Christ have their senses exercised to discerne both good and ill so the use of the spirituall sense is spoken of Cant. 2.3 I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruite was sweet in my mouth Cant. 1.3 Because of the savour of thy good oyntments thy name is as anoyntment powred out therefore the Virgins love thee Joh. 6.45 All that have heard and learned of the Father come to mee Here is the actuall exercise and use of the spirituall and renewed sense which we are to believe no lesse then faith and what this sense indyteth that the Holy Spirit in us indyteth and teacheth and that we are to beleeve Luther never willeth us to close our eares and to hear nothing that this sense saith to us 12 Conclusion Luther speaketh pathetickly of the slavery and impotency of our free-will by nature but no wayes to favour Antinomians and Familists who would have us blocks and stones in all wee doe and not to pray but when the Spirit acts us immediately Man cannot naturally desire God to be God for he would have himselfe to be God and God to be no God Non potest homo naturaliter velle DeuÌ„ esse Deum imo vellet se esse Deum Deum non esse Deum Luther in regard that the efficacy and successe of free-will as of all second causes is from God depresseth the creature to heighten God Tom. 3.103 Deus labore nostro utitur sâ—u larvâ quadam sub quâ benedicit nos sua largitur ut fidei sit locus God useth our labour as a shadow or cypher under which there is place for faith Luther meaneth of imperated acts of the will flowing from the corruption of a naturall man desiring to be above a Law and without God that he may sin without being awed of Justice or of a God but there is a naturall inclination going before acts of will and reason by which a naturall man desires the being of God in so farre as he desires his own being that he may subsist in God if we suppose reason to bee in no shadow we cannot think it naturally and simply would desire that the body on which it depends were just nothing or that the rayes of the Sunne would wish the Sun to be turned into pure nothing or the streames that the fountaine were nothing Luther The will of every man would desire there were not a law if it were possible and that it selfe were altogether free grace is necessary to friend the law and the will and the Gospel Free-will since the fall by a subjective power can be carryed to good by an active power ever to ill nor could the wills active but only its subjective power stand even before the fall or promove into good Luther Free-will is meerly passive in every act that is called willing because the will is nothing except it be pulled drawn moved which drawing having influence on the members and strength either of soule or body is the wills activity and no other as the drawing of the Saw cutting the wood is to the Saw meerly passive from the Sawer nor does it conferre any thing to the drawing by way of co-operation but onely being drawn it workes on the tree being more drawn then drawing which Sawing is called the work of the Saw with the Sawer when yet it meerly suffers Luther Voluntas cujuslibet mallet si fieri posset esse nullam legem se omninò liberam necessaria est mediatrix gratia quae conciliet legem evangelio voluntati Liberum arbitrium post peccatum potest in bonum potentiâ subjectivâ in malum vero activâ semper nec enim in statu innoceÌ„tiae potuit stare activa sed subjectiva potentia nedum in â—onum proficere Liberum arbitrium est merè passivum in omni actu suo qui velle vocatur quia voluntas non nisi rapitur trahitur movetur qui tractus redundans in membra vires seu animae seu corporis est ejus activitas nulla alia sicut tractus serrae secantis lignum ' est serrae merè passivus a sectore nec ad tractum suum quicquam cooperatur sed tantum tracta jam in lignum operatur impulsa magis quam impellens quae serratio opus ejus cum serratore dicitur cum tamen merè patiatur It is cleare that Luther makes us not blocks and stones in beleeving praying or other supernaturall works as if after our conversion we were mere patients and ought not to pray but when the winde of the Spirit bloweth faire upon the flowers and the Garden Or as if the person of the Holy Ghost and Christs grace were the onely formall efficient cause and principle in all supernaturall works and we truncks and stones and not to be rebuked as slothfull servants in sins of omission or commission Luther saith the contrary To. 2. in Gen. c. 24. f. 232. Antinomoi docent simpliciter omnia peccata sublata nec arguenda esse nec homines terrendos lege Antinomians say simply
but a change of the endeavours to please God whereas before selfe was our God and an endeavour to turne from dead works 2. True repentance is sorrow according to God and hath acts different from Faith 3. To repent is out of godly sorrow to endeavour new obedience and amendment of life Faith is an apprehension of Divine truth to which wee give credit or an heart-dependance and recumbence on God through Christ 4. Wee are justified by faith never by repentance Wee thinke not that teares wash away sinnes Protestants speake not so 2. Nor that they make peace with God by teares they make way to sense of peace or awake us to runne to a promise the formall bottome of our peace in regard that the Lord promiseth to revive the contrite Spirit to accept broken bones to comfort mourners in Zion and wee thinke neither repentance nor good works proper and formall conditions of the covenant of grace but rather conditions of the covenanted CHAP. XXXVII How good works are necessary FOr good works 1. We call not these good works that are extorted by the terrours of the Law as a captive keepeth the high way because his Keeper leadeth him in an iron chaine Nor 2. these which flow from the sole authority of God as Lawgiver Or 3. which issue from meere morall principles without saving grace but these we call good works in an Evangelicall sense that not onely are done from the authority of the Law-giver but also from a mediatory and Evangelike obligation from the sweet attractions and drawing coards of the secrets of Christs love And 2. from Evangelike faith that purifieth the heart 3. From Physicall principles and supernaturall habits of grace good works are this way necessary 1. That as grace and glory differ not in nature but gradually as the morning dawning of twy-light and the noone-day-light so the good works done by the grace of Christ and that perfect love of God and our brethren in heaven are of the same nature different in degrees and the one degrees and waies to the other especially when from Gods free promise of the blessings of this life and that which is to come the Lord hath made a passe betweene the one and the other and the Lord hath tyed himselfe to himselfe not to us to carry on grace out of meere grace Every branch that bringeth forth fruit in me saith Christ my Father purgeth that it may bring forth more fruit unto every one that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance He that soweth to the spirit shall of the Spirit reape life everlasting There is a harvest promised to this sowing as to a speciall furtherance of our reckoning in the day of Christ hee that soweth bountefully shall reape bountefully yea sent once and againe unto my necessitie not because I desire a gift but I desire fruit that may abound to your account if ye through the spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the flesh yee shall live But being made free from sinne and become servants to God yee have your fruit unto holinesse and the end everlasting life Blessed are they that doe his commandements that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in thorow the gates into the city And lest we should think the commands are all but one only precept of beleeving hee addeth for without are Doggs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murtherers c. He that hath my commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my selfe to him All these evidence to us that holy walking is a way to heaven as sowing is to harvest and that Christ maketh a promise of life eternall to him that doth his Commandements onely the question is in what tearmes the promise is made to the doer of Gods will as a doer or as a beleever whose faith is fruitfull and with childe of Evangelike doing But wee may say the formall promise of the covenant of grace is made to beleeving as the Law-promise is made to doing Legally and perfectly out of our own without grace and that the Gospel as it is larger then the covenant of grace and as it containeth the whole doctrine of grace taught by the Prophets and Apostles is a promise of life eternall made to Evangelike and unperfect doing through the strength of grace And that because 1. God commandeth good works through the whole New Testament 2. They are so necessary as without them our faith is a dead and vaine faith and cannot justifie us 3. They are the end for which Christ redeemed us that we should live to him bee redeemed from our vaine conversation from the present evill world that we should bee a purified peculiar people to him zealous of good works and in this title also they are commanded 4. They are conditions without which wee cannot bee saved For John Baptist taught this with the Gospel Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewen downe and cast into the fire What shall we doe to be saved receiveth this answer Repent and be baptized every one of you Except yee repent yee shall all likewise perish 5. They are commanded as acts of the new creature and partly as contrary to sinnefull fiery and mighty temptations of Satan and the flesh as mortification to fleshly lust faith to unbeliefe Partly as expressions of thankfulnesse for the free redemption in Christ and commanded in the Law in the great Commandement of the loving of God with all our heart just as this Law of loving God did oblige Abraham to offer his Sonne Isaak for God and Judah to be thankefull to God for redeeming them out of the Babylonish Captivity though the Law neither commanded any father to offer his Sonne nor the people to returne from Captivity yet the eternall Law of love commandeth both these and us to doe what ever God-Redeemer commands us as well as what ever God the Law-giver injoyneth onely we cannot say Good works doe merit salvation or purchase right to life eternall Christs bloud is onely so a ransome of life 2. Nor have they any proper condignity to such a high reward being so imperfect 3. Nor can they have any effective influence or proper causality thereunto nor are they causes or conditions of justification but that which Crispe saith is not of God But withall saith he I must tell you that all this sanctification of life is not a jot of the way of a justified person to heaven it is true they are not the meritorious the efficient cause or way nor the formall covenant-condition but a way they are as sowing is to harvest running to the garland wrestling to the victory CHAP. XXXVIII The Gospel is conditionall ANtinomians deny all conditions of the covenant
in our selves but that the justified must be as free of all indwelling sinne as Christ Jesus or as the glorified in heaven and so absolutely perfect in our person and our works maketh all sanctification no sanctification before God and that inherent holynesse rendreth us not a whit lovely and acceptable to God more then if wee were wallowing in our lusts and serving the Devill contrary to the Scripture that saith That our sanctification is the will of God that our service is holy living and acceptable that God is well-pleased with our sacrifices of almes in Christ Jesus And that a holy and sincere profession and walking doth take the love and ravish the heart of Christ yea by this way we sinne onely in dishonouring Christ and in not walking in him contrary to the end of Redemption which calleth us to sanctification not in the sight of God but meerely declaratively for Eaton tells us that if any more be ascribed to Sanctification but a meere declaration to the eyes of men that we are healed we goe on with Papists and Bellarmine to make sanctification the onely formall cause why we are justified But the man is farre out Bellarmine and Papists say that God so farre accepteth works of inherent holynesse that without Christs imputed righteousnesse we are justified for these works we acknowledge that God for Christ loveth and accepteth works of sanctification and obligeth us to them by a command to doe them except we would sinne in omitting them but that God loveth and accepteth them as the cause of our righteousnesse in part or in whole in the matter of our justification wee utterly deny Antinomians would have all acts of sanctification meerely arbitrary and of courtesie and to come from no obligation of a command or Law and so that these acts being omitted are no sinne before God and being omitted they are but arbitrary no declarations we are not healed or discourtesies to Christ no sinnes against a Law and being performed God loveth them no more then he doth Adulteries or Murthers acted by justified persons Master Eaton ignorantly objecteth That God by justification shall place us in two contrary states of salvation and damnation to bee the members of Christ and of the Devill that God shall come short of his end of Redemption if wee be sinners in our selves then cannot the bloud of Christ clense us from all sin divers other things that are Characters of weakenesse and poore Divinity he objecteth as all his gang doth Answ. Sinners are taken two wayes in Scripture 1. For wicked men servants of sinne sinne having a dominion and Lordship over the party as in many Scriptures is cleare So we say not that we are both righteous before God and sinners in our selves we should then be both sanctified and not sanctified members both of Christ and of Sathan as hee objecteth But we take sinners in this for these that are sinnefull and have sinne dwelling in them and for such as If they say they have no sinne they are lyars and so the Scripture also taketh sinners Now Antinomians deny the justified to sin at all or to have any sinne dwelling in them because Christ hath washed away all sinne But ignorant men they should know that justification is a forinsecall and judiciall freeing us from all sinne that is from the Law-guilt and condemnation of all sinne and so all our sinnes are removed as a cloud are taken away as if they were cast into the bottome of the Sea but justification is not a Physicall washing away and expulsion of all indwelling and inhabitation of sinne and an introduction of the contrary habit as when heat commeth in the same subiect in the place of coldnesse light in the place of darkenesse whitenesse in the subject in which blacknesse did reside as Antinomians with Papists fondly conceit this is sanctification which is imperfect and graduall in this life not justification and so it followeth not that one and the same person because sinne dwelleth in him after justification but subdued and having lost his dominion is now both under the dominion of Sathan and also a member of Christ. 2. Christ obtaineth his end in Redemption which is to free the sinner from sinnes condemnation in justification fully and in sanctification by degrees not fully while we be perfected in glory Christ can well dwell in the heart by faith where sinne dwelleth as an underling but not where it dwelleth as a King and Tyrant in its full dominion which dominion is not removed formally by justification though the state of justification and the full dominion of sinne cannot stand together in the same person but properly and formally by sanctification It s true God seeth sinne pardoned and the sinner freed from the guilt but he seeth it dwelling in us not to our condemnation for the Lord imputeth it not and therefore it followeth not that the Lord both seeth us righteous in Christ and not righteous in Christ but onely hee seeth us righteous in Christ by imputation of grace and freed from condemnation and sinnefull in our selves by the inherencie and in-dwelling of sinne pardoned and subdued which is the doctrine of Prophets and Apostles delivered in the Scripture CHAP. LXXXIX Antinomians are ignorant of Faith to dreame that its Faith to beleeve against sense that our sinnes are no sinnes IT is the true nature and essence of Faith say Antinomians To beleeve cleane contrary to that which we see and beleeve in our selves if God hath spoken the contrary as if God were not able to abolish that sinne which wee dayly feele dwelling in us out of his owne sight above our reason sense and feeling The Mystery is this as for the Adulteries Oppressions treacherous Covenant-breach Lying that justified Antinomians commit Faith is to beleeve they are no sinnes before God against no Law but meere nullities in the Lords Law-court as Towne saith though Lying and deceiving reason beleeveth them to be sins for its true faith To beleeve the contrary of what sense and reason apprehendeth because God so saith and giveth his Sonnes bloud to cleanse us from all sin and sweareth the same But this is a dead false lying faith of Antinomians 1. Because the light of faith discovereth the sinnes of a justified person to bee hainous provocations of the majestie of God so David I acknowledge my transgression and my sinne is ever before me And the Church For our transgressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them And Paul in the New Testament I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good And I find then a Law that when I would doe good evill is present with me And I see another Law in my members rebelling against the Law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sinne which is in my members these three words 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know I find I see rebellion and sinne in me were words that came from the light of Faith not from lying sense And Faith and a sight of God can discover more corruption to Esaiah Job to Paul to the woman that washed Christs feet with teares then reason can reveale to them 2. Faith doth not stupifie the conscience to blot out all sense of sinne out of it its true the Libertine Pocquius spake in the stile of Eaton◠now we are quickned in the second Adam Christ through seeing sinne in our selves no more because it is dead But the second Adam commeth in the soule with a candle to make us see and know and feele by the light of Faith sinne which was hidden before 3. The Antinomian dead faith is against confession of sin because we must know and beleeve we have sinne if we confesse it this was Gods challenge to a heardned people Yet thou sayest because I am innocent surely his anger shall turne from me Behold I will plead with thee because thou saist I have not sinned This is that which the Lord commandeth onely acknowledge thine iniquity Antinomians say lying sense and corrupt reason knoweth iniquity but Faith is as blind as a Mole and seeth no sinne in the beleever 4 This faith of Antinomians is repugnant to the godly shame confusion and selfe-indignation that the justified man in Scripture beareth against himselfe for sinne The want whereof is the Whores forehead that cannot blush and therefore must Faith see and know sinnes that are the cause of shame 5. This lying faith is to beleeve that Adultery and Lying to come as well as the past sinnes are pardoned and abolished and so that they are no sinnes before ever they bee committed what feare then what holy care what challenges of conscience can be required to an Antinomian lying faith to eschew and feare these sinnes ere they be committed For its the act of lying sense say Antinomians to apprehend them as sinnes then sure they cannot lawfully be apprehended as ills to bee feared and eschewed if it bee a lying apprehension to thinke that that is a snare to my feet which is no snare at all but a boggle to affright a childe it must be a lying apprehension to conceive that a fancied snare to be an evill to bee shunned and declined If the Whore be no Whore the Antinomian needs not eschew the going neere her house for feare the house fall on him as Salomon intimateth Prov. chap. 5. And surely the justified Antinomian may goe on in Adulteries and blouds before he act them and feed his lusts without feare for if he conceive these to be sinnes it is his lying sense and deceiving reason for faith is to beleeve the just contrary that they are no sinnes and so not to bee eschewed as sinnes because an antedated pardon doth no lesse abolish their being and nature before they bee committed in which case they are remitted and so nullities and shaddowes before God then a pardon doth utterly abolish their being when they are committed in the Antinomian way CHAP. XC Antinomians free all converted or non-converted from obligation of obedience or practise of Christian duties ANtinomians cry out against Preaching of duties as a Legall way and destructive to Gospel-preaching of Christ and Faith 1. Because there bee no acts of Sanctification commanded in the Gospel so as the beleever sinneth either in omitting these duties or in doing contrary to them I appeale to all their writings for any such Commands either of Law or Gospel 2. They cry out against Preaching of duties as Legall preaching without any limitation wee cry out as much as they against this Preaching in an unjust way 1. If duties be preached without Christ and not issuing from the grace of Christ. 2. If they bee more Preached then Gospel-grace and free Redemption in Christ. 3. If duties as conditions of the Covenant of Works as parts conditions or causes of our justification are fellow-saviours with Christ be pressed 3. It will be found they free the unconverted from all doing or eschewing of sinne because they can doe nothing out of faith and out of saving principles of grace So Saltmarsh adviseth the troubled in spirit onely to beleeve immediatly everlasting love without any foregoing humiliation desire of the Physitian sense of sinne or setting on any duties Much like the Familists of New England who say that the Spirit acts most in the Saints when they indeavour least as if our doings desire sense of sinne going before conversion did so much the more hinder conversion 2 Nor can our impotency to doe good without the grace of God loose us from an obligation of doing our dutie seeing the omitting of these duties in the substance of their acts is a greater sinne then the doing of them for so the unconverted should not sinne in not giving to the poore because they cannot give it for God nor in abstaining from murther because they cannot abstain out of sonly feare or in not praying because they cannot pray in faith whereas Peter Act. 8. commandeth Simon Magus to pray though being in the gall of bitternesse hee could not pray in faith 3. The converted so should be under no obligation to pray heare beleeve but when the Spirit wrought actually in them to will and to doe for without such an actuall influence they can doe nothing CHAP. XCI How and for whom Christ intercedeth in Heaven ANtinomians hold that Christ advocateth at the right hand of God for the unbeleeving and unconverted elect as well as for beleevers onely Christ intercedeth not say they for the manifestation of the purchased Redemption to the elect not converted It s true the purchased Redemption and bloud-shed of Christ is for the elect as well not converted as converted But Antinomians goe on another ground that sinners are justified and pardoned before they be converted and beleeve But the Scripture knoweth not any intercession of Christ but for applycation of the purchased Redemption 1. Because Christ liveth againe that hee may bestow the blessings of his Testament actually upon his friends Christ confirmeth his owne Testament which no other dead friend doth and the goods of his Testament are peace Joh. 14.27 The sprinkling of the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 15 16 17 18 19 20. As Moses sprinkled the booke and the people the Tabernacle the vessels 19.20 So that Christ as our high priest is entred into heaven as a sprinkler Now he is no sprinkler to the unconverted 2. The thing he prayeth for as intercessor is the not failing of the faith of the Saints and he liveth to save the commers to God through him that is the beleevers and is touched with our infirmities and that we should hold fast our profession and by him as intercessor We have boldnesse
that in the Gospell the word and the Spirit are alwayes joyned and therefore saith Christ the words that I speake are spirit and life that is they come from the spirit and carry spirit with them Then 1 the Gospell pâ—eached externally to Del and to Antinomians is not that word by which Christ converts soules faith is not from outward hearing as an instrument of our conversion the contrary of which we have proved It s from the inward word in the heart now the word in the heart is very faith it selfe the argument of both Swenckefel and Del is nothing for it is this the word outwardly preached except it come to the heart can never convert the soule because it is but a meere sound saith Swenckefeld it s but a very letter say Antinomians therefore the externall word is no instrument of our conversion but onely the internall word I utterly deny the consequence lay a pen well inked to paper a thousand times it shall never write except the hand of the writer draw the characters ergo the pen is no instrument of writing it followes not So bread except by the blessing of God it be turned into blood and flesh can never nourish ergo the bread that the Baker bakes is no instrument by which we are nourished It s an unjust consequence and distroyes all ordinances naturall and Spirituall It onely followes ergo the word without us is no efficacious cause of conversion and no principall cause and can do nothing except the Spirit inact and animate and concurre with the word which we with both hands yeeld and beleeve as a Gospel-truth The word is but a sound a letter I answer it is not a common sound such as the odes of Horatiâ—s and Epistles of Seneca render but it is in it selfe a sound filled with Majesty power heaven so as every word seemes to be with-child of grace and life yea and separate the word from the Spirit and in the stile conveyance method there is so much divinity majesty holinesse life gravity as the child bewrayes heaven in its forehead and lookes like the Father and Author God and therefore it s more then a sound to a deafe soule actu secundo it hath but a sound and whereas Antinomians say it s but a dead letter they speake of the paper inke and printed characters of the word but vvee take it not so but as the vvords do connotate and involve the things signified the precious promises and as the Lord saith Hose 8. The great things of my law and so they are not dead letters but the instrument chariot meanes of conveyance of Christ and the Spirit to the heart and though vvithout the Spirit the vvord vvorkes not as no instrument no toole nor hammer no axe can build a house except the Mason and Carpenter act and move them shall it follow they are not for that instruments at all 2 Del and Antinomians with Swenckefeld will have the Gospel preached to none but to those that have the internall word and Spirit in their hearts then when Christ and the Apostles Mat. 13. Act. 28. Act. 13. preach Christ and the Gospel in the letter as some other thing then the Law it is not the word of God nor the Gospell why it wants the Spirit to goe along with it and can never change nor reforme saith Del pag. 18. and begetteth but a literall and feighned faith saith Swenckefeld and the word and the Spirit are alwayes joyned saith Del pag. 19. now this is not the written read nor externally preached Gospel nor the Scripture so they must but coâ—sen us for they meane the internall word not verbum vocale And the preaching of faith that Saltmarsh speaketh of free grace pag. 146 is not the Scripture nor preached word which I demonstrate Del speaketh of such a word as hath the Spirit alwayes ioyned with it pag. 19. But the scripture and the externall vocall word hath not alwayes the Spirit joyned with it for when it is preached to Reprobates and to malicious obdured soules that stumble at Christ and the word being thereunto appointed 1 Pet. 2.7 Mat. 13 14 15. Ioh. 12.37 38 39. Ioh. 9.39 It hath not the Spirit joyned with it 2 They speake of such a word as hath the Spirit actually converting and which is therein differenced from the Law that is but a dead letter and cannot minister the Spirit so Del ser. pag. 18 19. So Saltmarsh free grace pag. 146 147 so Swenckfeld ibid. therefore all that Antinomians and Swenckfeldians say that they take not away Word ministery ordinances preaching are meere delusions for by the word of God that begets faith they meane the internall word not scripture nor the written and preached word and so they say nothing to take off this error justly layd upon them to wit that under the Gospell there is no need of Scripture Preaching Sacraments hearing nor doing of any duties to men nor abstinence from murthering killing whoring stealing c. all exterâ—alls are indifferent 3 You see how false it is that the Gospell is not to be preached to any but to those that are converted because it cannot be received by faith by any but by such contrary to Christs expresse commands to his Apostles Mat. 28.19 20. Goe teach all nations so Paul preached to the obstinate Jewes Act. 13 to the scoffing Athenians Act. 17. Is it not therefore the Gospel that they preachâ— 4 It is an undue arguing of Swenckefeldians and Antinomians The word is a literall carnall sensible thing ergo God workes not faith which is a spirituall grace thereby for it followes onely God workes not faith by the vocall word alone except he put to the pul of omnipotency of grace 2 The assumption is false the preached word though in its sound it be carnall literall bodily yet in its power Majesty and the thing signified which is the birth in the wombe of the word it is spirituall lively heavenly 5 Nor doth it follow that Iustification begins at man if the vocall word be the instrument thereof except they say that hearing and preaching did necessarily and effectually produce justification and conversion they are no parts no members no efficacious causes of conversion or Iustification 6 Iustifying faith and salvation both are in their nature things spirituall and yet have their originall from the word preached as an instrument yea from the foolishnesse of preaching 1 Cor. 1.21 Nor is the word altogether bodily because it incurres in the sense of hearing but taking the word preached as it includes the great things of God not as it is letters and sounds it is not carnall but spirituall 2 Cor. 10.5 Sharper then a two edged sword to save or kill on either edges Heb. 4.12 yea even when it is rejected the savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2.16 17. And the Everlasting Gospell Rev. 14.6 7 Nor can it follow that justifying faith is a work of man
of it selfe it hath not strength to bring righteousnes and newtraâ—ly its infirmity and poverty it selfe Luther Our merit by doing the Law is just nothing What can a cursed sinner ignorant of God dead in sinnes lyable to the judgement and wrath of God deserve therefore that is the only way of eschewing the curse to beleeve in God Thou O Christ art my sin and my curse or rather I am thy sin and thy curse thy death thy wrath of God thy hell on the contrary thou art righteousnesse blessing life the grace of God my heaven for the text saith clearly Christ was made a curse for us then wee are the cause why hee was made a curse yea wee are his curse Good workes are not to bee drawne to the article of justification as Monks doe s Wee grant wee must teach of good works and charity but in the owne time and place When the question is without the lists of this Article of Justification We say with Paul by Faith in Christ onely not by the workes of the law or charity we are jâ—st not that we reject works and charity as our adversaries say When then we are in this common place of justification wee reject and condemn works wee simply reject all laws and works of the Law Tota ratio justificandi quoad nos passiva est Active Lex est elementum infirmum egenum quia reddit homines infirmiores egentiores passive quia ipsa per se non habet vim opes justitiae donandae afferendae neutraliter est infirmitas paupertas ipsa Ergo meritum nostrum plane nullum est Quid enim mirerer maledictus peccator ignorans Dei mortuus in peccatis obnoxius irae judicio Dei Quare illa unica via est evadendi maledictionem credere certâ fiduciâ dicere Tu Christe es peccatum maledictum meum seu potius ego sum peccatum tuum maledictum tuum mors tua ira Dei tua infernus tuus Tu contra es justitia benedictio vita gratia Dei coelum meum Quare textus clarè dicit Christus factus est pro nobis maledictum Itaque nos sumus causa quod factus sit maledictum imo nos ipsius maledictum sumus Luther non sunt trahenda bona opera in articulum justificationis ut Monachi fecerunt s Concedimus docendum quoque de bonis operibus charitate sed suo loco tempore quando scilicet questio est de operibus extra hunc capitalem articulum Respondemus cum Paulo sola fide in Christum nos pronuntiari justos non operibus legis aut charitate non quod opera aut charitatem rejiciamus ut adversarii nos accusant Cum versamur in communi loco de justificatione rejicimus damnamus bona opera Our Antinomians point blanck to this in all the way to heaven condemne them so Crisp Saltmarsh say the onely work of the Gospel is faith Therefore the law is passive onely in the article of Justification in which article it condemneth compelleth curseth and so is just nothing and is passive in justifying but in binding the New man to obey and in laying on him a rule of life it is active We can then easily expone Luther The just man ought not to live well in regard of any compulsion of a legall curse that the law from which in Christ hee is delivered can inflict on him Neither standeth hee in need of the Law to teach him in a compulsory legall way to live well for hee liveth not well because the Law forcing and cursing and not furnishing Grace as the Gospel doth requireth that hee live well Justus non debet bene vivere sed bene vivit hoc est non obligatur compulsione legali vi condemnatoriâ legis quia nulla condemnatio iis qui sunt in Christo ibid. Nec indiget lege quae docet eum bene vivere Injustus autem debet nexu legalis condemnationis bene vivere quia non bene vivit quod lex requirit hoc totum urget ne ex lege opâ—ribus justifieri presumant c Luth. l. 1.451 In this regard Luther doubteth not to say that the Law is simply and absolutely abolished to a just man 2. That the law is not the law if it bee not a condemning law But hee taketh the law strictly as a covenant of Workes and as opposite to Grace as Paul doth Rom. 7. Yee are not under the Law but under Grace Then the law is absolutely abolished to a just man it hath no power to accuse them for they doe willingly what the law requireth The law is not given for this end to justifie but to discover sin terrifie accuse and condemne This is the fruite of the law when it is alone without the Gospel and the knowledge of grace that it leadeth men to despaire and finall impenitence The law without Christ and the Gospel is omnipotent Yea it s invincible omnipotency the conscience compared to it most weake and poore for its a tender thing so that except it bee strengthened it is terrified waxeth paile and despaireth for the least sin therfore the law in its proper use hath more strength and might then heaven and earth can comprehend so that one tittle or iota of the law can destroy whole mankinde By the law we have no helpe but the revealing and warning of our misery Luther Itaque lex eis simpliciter est abrogata non habet igitur jus accusandi eos Sponte enim faciunt quod lex requirit Luther non data est lex ut justificet sed ut ostendat peccatum terreat accuset condemuet Hic legis effectus est quando sola est sine evangelio cognitione gratiae ut adducat in desperationem finalem impaenitentiam Lex in suo usu est omnipotens imo est invinbilis omnipotentia ad quaÌ„ collata conscientia est infirmissima et pauperrima et enim tam tenera res ut propter leviss mum peccatum ita pavefiâ—t pallescat ut disperet nisi rursus erigatur Quare lex in proprio suo usu plus virium opum habet quam coelum terra comprehendere potest ita ut etiam unus apex unum iota legis totum genus humanum occidere possit Per legem non adiutorium sed nostri mali indicium monitorium habemus All this is true of the Law as a Covenant of works without Christ and the Gospel as Luther saith quando est sola siâ—e evangelio Tom. 1. in Gen. c. 3. f. 57. Then Luther thinketh that the Law conjoyned with the Gospel and as it is in the hand of Christ hath the beeing of the law and not such terrible effects 2. Luther acknowledgeth that the law as it condemneth is to be preached to beleevers that they may crucifie
or the Spirit which is not the doctrine that Paul and Iohn received from the Lord Gal. 1.8 2 Ioh. v. 10. 1 Cor. 11.23 But Familists will have the Scriptures to beare witnesse to us of and to reveale the Father and the Son but for the holy Spirit he must be revealed without the testimony of Prophets and Apostles though Christ our dying friend hath left us his will in his last testament confirmed by the death of the Testator and forbids us to expect any farther revelation Heb. 1.1.9.16.17.27.28 Rev. 22.12.18.19 Is it not safer to beleeve the Prophets and Apostles upon whose word and doctrine we are builded as living stones and a habitation to God Eph. 2.20 21 22. then to relye upon the word of such seducers as H. Nicholas Del Saltmarsh and the like who come in their owne name and bring neither word nor workes to witnesse their doctrine not so much as Simon Magus and the Antichrist who bring wonders and living miracles to evidence that they are sent from God Familists have no escape but to say that their new discoveries are revealed to them by the Spirit to be contained in the spirituall and allegoricke sense of the Scripture Now undeniably the Scripture hath a literall sense and here it hath a mysticall and spirituall sense and so many senses as the Papists teach So Bellermine de verb. dei l 3. c. 3. Thomas p. 1. art 10. So Cajetanus ibid. Alpâ—onsus a Castro l. 1. adver her Lyra in 2. Reg. 7 Bucanus in Theolog. Scolastic part 2. c. 3. q. 5. 11. The same Gospell-truths in the manner of preaching and delivering of them may be spiritually by some and literally and dryly published by others and nothing is thereby either added or taken away from the substance of truth But duties commanded in the Law are then pressed upon the consciences of the hearers in a legal way when they are forced upon the consciences of the people upon legal motives Law-obligations threatnings of curses sad judgements but they are then spiritually preached when they are pressed upon the hearers in a terrible Law-way but for that end discovered to them that they may be chased into Jesus as to the Gospel-sanctuary and City of refuge to such as runne themselves out of breath to be in the bosome of our Saviour 2. They would be pressed so spiritually as there may bee still a pointing at a pardoning ransome and a healing and curing spirit so that all obedience must be new from new principles of the Mediators grace and upon Gospell motives only not from Hagar and the covenant tending to bondage Nor 3. upon the same necessity and account they were to be performed by vertue of a Covenant of workes What I before said toucheth the question whether the formall and last object of our faith be the word of God or the anointing strength saving grace and eye-salve of the Spirit as some Schoolmen Granado and others affirme the latter but the word is the formall object of faith the saving grace or anointing the efficient by which we are anointed inabled and quickned to beleeve the word now the eye-salve or anointing is not that which we see and beleeve that which we see is the saving Gospel-truths we beleeve Saltmarsh with Familists denying the Scripture to bee the word of God will have the inward supernaturall grace and anointing to be the only obliging rule of faith otherwise saith he it s in vaine to write bookes one against another for we then but set letter to letter argument to argument reason to reason but all in vaine without the Spirit as if Christ in proving the resurrection against Saduces Paul in proving justification by faith without works against such as turn the grace of God into wantonnes had not set letter to letter argument to argument and all in vaine for they remained still blinde yet Christ and Paul convinced and silenced these obstinate wranglers by the word of God without powring the Spirit on them without whose power they remained unconverted and hardened against the truth the formall object is that into which our faith is resolved when we give a reason of our faith as thus for what cause or formall motive doe you see with the eye of faith and believe that Maries son is the Messiah only Saviour ye do answer because so saith the Lord in the Old and N. Testament and that is the true object but yee doe not give an account of your faith when yee answer I beleeve it because I have eyes within inlightned because that is not to answer what is the true object of your faith if any aske you upon what morall grounds goe you to Rome yea give no reason if yee answer I goe to Rome because I have a will and a locomotive power in the nerves and muscicles of my body to move for now you answer by the efficient cause when the question is made of the formall objective cause If any aske why doe you see colours in day-light yee doe not answer because I have eyes and a seeing faculty but to the former you say I goe to Rome for such businesse to the lâ—tter I see colours in day-light because they are seeable and colours cloathed with light before my eyes so 1 Ioh. 5.10 He that beleeveth on the Sonne of God hath the witnessâ— within him that is the beleever hath objectively the the truth stamped in his heart but the anointing by which he was inabled to receive the testimony and truth is not for that the object or the thing beleeved or received but the saving helpe by which wee are strengthened to beleeve and receive the testimony the inward speaking of God to the heart as Augustine saith lib. 11. confess c. 3. sine strepitu syllabarum without noise of words is the saving apprehending of Christ and Gospell-truths but it is not the thing or object savingly apprehended the day-starre in the heart is not the Gospell-truth that wee see and receive but the light of Christ inabling and the Spirit strengthning the soule to beleeve and receive these Gospell-truths for without the day-starre and Spirit no man can see these truths 12. Upon the principles of Antinomians and Familists these and the like Gospell-promises I will give you a new heart and a new spirit Behold I make all things new a bruised reed shall hee not breake Come to me all yee that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Him that commeth I will in no wise cast away but will raise him up at the last day Yee that have no mony come buy and eat c. are as literall and legall being written and preached and as carnall for they value them to be but outward ordinances as this Cursed be every one that abides not in all that is written in the Law of God to do it or as the very Law and Covenant of workes which promiseth not any new heart but presseth the Law in its
of grace of justification or of salvation or that the Gospel hath any conditions at all Yea though yee should not beleeve yet God is faithfull and cannot deny himselfe to be your Redeemer So saith Saltmarsh it s not the way of a covenant that the Gospel useth but rather the promise or grace and salvation It is true if we take a condition 1. For an antecedaneous quallification going before Redemption the Gospel is no covenant of grace so as God will neither redeeme us in Christ nor propose a covenant of grace nor transact covenant-waies to be our God while we beleeve So faith is no condition Antinomians ignorant of the doctine of Protestants fancied that of us Nor doth it follow as Crispe and Antinomians say Faith obedience and repentance are not conditions because pardon and justification and salvation goe before them or because by them we purchase not Christ it onely followeth they are not such conditions as are antecedent and purchase Christ which we grant 2. If a condition be taken in Law tearmes for a condition qualification or some thing that issueth from free will without the determining grace of Christ and such a condition as salvation and righteousnesse imputed dependeth on in a proper way of condition so faith is neither strictly a condition of justification nor of righteousnesse or salvation because God of meere grace worketh both the condition faith and the thing conditioned for a condition is properly a qualification or worke to be done by a party by way of contract league and bargaine and done of the parties owne strength as the one side halfe or quarter of a covenant that obleigeth the other party to bestow a favour or reward for the performed condition as Armâ—nians say and neither in this sense doe wee ascribe a condition to men 1. Because Christ as surety undertaketh by promise to fulfill both our part and his owne I will writ my Law in their hearts Christ subscribeth the covenant for me and himselfe and leadeth our trembling hand at the pen and causeth us consent in this notion the Gospel is all promise rather then a covenant or a bargaine and there is neither limbe nor lith nor joynt of the covenant but it s all pure grace both worke and wages Antinomians cannot say that we teach We are redeemed justified saved for faith for works But if a condition be taken Evangelically for a qualification wrought in us by the grace of Christ and without which we are not justified nor saved then to deny the Gospel to be a conditionall covenant is to bely the Gospel For the whole Gospel saith He that beleeveth hath life is freely justified hee that beleeveth not is damned and the wrath of God abideth on him And that repentance and doing of Gods will and new obedience are conditions is evident by Scripture Nor is it a Popish way by works to say We seeke glory and honour and immortality by well doing Workes are not so much conditions of justification as Faith is yet are they conditions required in these that shall be saved And because Christ worketh faith in us it proveth it is not a condition of our owne working but not that it is no Evangelike condition CHAP. XXXIX Of Mortification WEe judge Repentance and Mortification of the old man to be a personall turning from sinne and the abating of the lusts of the old Adam a deading of the heart to the pleasures of sinne a growing in a heavenly disposition to rise with Christ and seeke the things that are above flowing from the death and resurrection of Christ apprehended by faith Antinomians say To repent and to mortifie sinne is to beleeve that Christ repented and mortified sinne for us and obeyed the whole Law for us It is not the not acting of sin nor is it the mortifying clensing and purifying our sinnes out of the sight of God no not by the Spirit of sanctification but it is to purifie out of our owne sight and sense before the world and declaratively these sinnes which the wedding garment hath purified out of the sight of God What is Mortification saith Denne but the apprehension of sinne slaine by the body of Christ What is vivification but our new life the just shall live by Faith I must needs say this is a shorter cut to heaven and a more Hony-Gospel then Christ and his Apostles knew For 1. They command us to mortifie our members which are on earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection c. And to forbear lying Antinomians free us from all personall mortifying our selves and put us on an imputative mortification to beleeve that Christ hath satisfied justice for our fornication and that Christ was chast in his owne person and abstained from fornication and lying for us this is to blow away all sanctification and make justification all 2. So may we live in our lusts and beleeve our lusts to be mortified in Christ and they are so and if wee should live slaves of sinnes and sonnes of the Devill and under the dominion of our lusts if we beleeve that Christ hath mortified our lusts our naked act of beleeving without any personall change in our selves maketh us sonnes of God which is nothing else but to turne the grace of God into wantonnesse Antinomians tell us it is but an abusing of grace to wantonnesse to sinne because grace doth abound and he that beleeveth cannot walke still and live according to the flesh if he still lives in his lusts his faith is no faith Answ. It s most true if Faith be taken for the affiance and recumbency of a broken sinner on Christ but the Antinomian faith is a perswasion of a fleshly Pharisie standing on his tiptoes proudly resisting Christ burning in his lusts and beleeving his boyling lusts are pardoned and remitted before ever they were committed and that they are no sinnes 2. Wee grant it is not grace but the abuse of grace that teacheth David Peter to act adultery and deny Christ but if it be the grace of Faith that is to beleeve contrary to sense that Adultery and deniall of Christ are not sinnes because sinnes pardoned are no sinnes then grace it selfe doth teach us to sinne 3. We must be justified by mortification if mortification he the faith or apprehension of our lusts crucified with Christ. 4. When the Holy Ghost biddeth us beleeve repent pray mourne rejoyce in God we have this Gospel-sense of these from Antinomians we doe all this compleatly when wee beleeve that Christ beleeved repented prayed mourned rejoyced in God for us and there is an end for sure the doing of all these came from a Spirit of Faith drawing life and strength out of Christs death and resurrection to doe all these as we draw strength from Christ to mortifie the lusts of the flesh 5. The word expoundeth mortification not to be in relative acts to beleeve Christ mortified
Holy Ghost and that none can doe these works in them but Châ—ist and the inference made from them are the reasonings of the Holy Ghost and the result is an infallibly assurance Antinomians thinke both they may be counterfeit works and the reasoning and inference from thence to be a worke of our owne Spirit onely We say of the Spirit of grace joyning with our Spirit as is cleare 1 Cor. 2.12 3. The inference say they breeds no certaine and infallible assurance but probable onely and conjecturall evidence 4 If these works were not done in faith and known by us to be so done I should grant they could give but an uncertaine and controverted evidence Antinomians say wee separate them from faith and saving grace and that thus separated they beare testimony that wee are in Christ which is a calumny of theirs not our Doctrine Asser. 6 The assurance of our spirituall acts resulting from our Christian walking is a mediate assurance collected by inference not immediate as when we see the Sunne 2. It is called knowledge and assurance in the Word 1 Joh. 2.3 1 Joh. 3.14 vers 18.19 but it is not properly Faith but sense therefore we doe not build assurance of justifying faith on works of grace Antinomians say that we make our works the pillars and causes of our Faith But the promise the sufficiency of Christ the free grace of God to us are the onely pillars of our faith and our works of grace are the ropes by which the ship and passengers are drawne to the rock that is higher then themselves but they are not the rocke they are not the formall objective Sunne-light by which we passe our judgement and determination of Christ the Mediator his sweetnesse and power to save nor the causes of the soules resting on the bloud of attonement as Sunne-light is the formall reason and medium without of our judging of colours and their beauty They are onely land-marks by which we may the better judge of our state and not the shoare the land-marke onely sheweth how neere wee are to shoare by them we know that we know and beleeve in Christ. Finally they are rather negatives against unbeliefe then positive evidences of faith and serve for incouragements that we cast not away our confidence For if I doubt of my state whether I be translated and in Christ or no I cannot but doubt of my actions if I doubt if the tree be a naturall Olive I cannot but thinke the fruit must be but wild Olives and when we shall be unclothed with our darkenesse of body we shall not need such crutches to walke by Faith for sight shall leade us CHAP. LVI How duties and delight in them take us not off Christ. HEnce Antinomians when they say we must not so much as see our good works for not to see them is spirituall poverty and we cannot see them but we must trust in them and build on them And therefore best remove such chalke stones and rotten foundations as holy walking and live loosely that wee sowing sinne may reap pardoning grace So they say I know I am Christs because I doe not crucifie the lusts but beleeve that Christ hath crucified them for mee And our sanctification when darke and lesse maketh justification brighter And frequencie and length of holy duties are signes of one under a covenant of works and so under the curse of Law And to take delight in the holy service of God is to goe a whoring from God And the Spirit acts most in the Saints when they endeavour least All these say to be rich in works of sanctification is to be poore in grace 2. To doe and act nothing and so sinnefully to omit the duties that the grace of God calleth for Tit. 2.11 is the way to have the Spirit acting graciously then sinne that grace may abound be sicke and exceeding sicke that Christ may bestow on you much Gospel-physicke To be aboundant in the worke of the Lord to delight in the Law of the Lord in the inner man to labour more aboundantly then they all to bee rich in good works are nothing else but to goe a whoring from God So Saltmarsh expoundeth these words I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Such were yee but yee are justified but yee are sanctified c. That Christ beleeved repented sorrowed for sinne mortified sinne perfectly for me and this saith hee is sanctification and the fulnesse of his the All in All. Then to doe nothing my selfe but sinnefully to omit all duties and let Christ doe all is full sanctification and the lesse yee doe the more Christ doth for you Object 1. Christ saith not Peter be encouraged to beleeve because thou art an holy obedient loving Apostle But I have prayed that thy faith faile not Saltmarsh Free grace pag. 32.33 Answ. In that place he doth not shew Peter how he should know by such and such signes that hee beleeved but for Peters comfort and faith he sheweth him the true cause why he should not fall away to wit because his Advocate interceedeth for him Object 2. Christ saith not to his Apostles O my Disciples though I be from you yet yee have been thus and thus humble penitent obedient and let this be your ground and assurance when I am gone but hee layes in promises yee beleeve in God beleeve also in me I will send the Comforter Saltmarsh pag 33. Answ. We make no qualifications object or ground or cause of faith but onely signes to know wee have faith therefore might Christ haue said ye shall know yee love me and beleeve because you love those begotten of me 1. But we thinke though naturall sweating at duties setteth not the Spirit on edge to worke graciously yet to worke by the grace of God increaseth both talents and grace 2. Nor the frequent actings of grace nor the simply looking on them especially under sad houres to wine to our feet againe are ill but the abuses to bee avoided As 1. the comparative poring and the more frequent living on the comforts of our owne gracious actings more then on Christ himselfe and his death is as if I would live to much on a sight of a new created birth in my selfe and the Image of the second Adam when I have Christ himselfe to live on 2. Excessive out-running and over-banke-flowings of wondring at what is done in our selves by the grace of Christ cannot want a great deale of mixture of our selfe for we are not so found on acttings of grace in others and that is a token there is a selfe-reflection in the worke and that I sit downe and write of my selfe a hundred in stead of fifty 3. All comparative over-loving of created comforts must take the heart in so farre off Christ. 4. We should wonder more at the depth and height of free grace in the Creator and in Christ the well-head then in our selves for
deliberation knowledge action from the soule in either supernaturall works of grace or sinne as if the soule were turned in a rock or a stone 5. All the sinnes of beleevers their Adulteries murthers lying cousening must be counted on the Lords score I tremble to speake it upon his honour be it if he will suffer perfect Angels to sinne more then he can suffer Angels and the glorified that stand before the throne to fall or transgresse CHAP. LXXII Glorifying of God in sanctification needfull ANntinomians tell us of a two fold glorifying of God one in the eyes of God primary immediate passive divine by faith in which God glorifieth himselfe in us justifying us Faith being the Creator as it were of a certaine divinitie as Rom. 4.20 Abraham gave glory to God whereas unbeliefe maketh him a lyar There is another glorifying of God that is outward more fleshly and humane secondary mediate in the eyes of men by good works in sanctification in which we are agents and glorifie God by the Spirit by which wee are partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and it is done in a grosser manner by declaring God glorified before men by our good works Math. 5. and greatly inclineth to the glorifying of man by this Abraham hath to glory and rejoyce in holy works but not before God Answ. 1. We are not meere passive in beleeving for then should we not be commended for beleeving nor should wee know rely and trust in an all-sufficient Saviour in beleeving on him though there be a passion in beleeving 2. These enemies of Sanctification abase all holy walking and works of sanctification calling holy walking 1. glorifying of God outwardly and before men in a fleshly manner Whereas God seeeth it and acknowledgeth it in his owne sight sincere unfained perfect in its kind with perfection of parts not of degrees they would have all Sanctification finer hypocrisie I know thy works saith Christ to Smyrna and tribulation and poverty but thou art rich That wee might serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before him all the daies of our life And whatsoever yee Servants doe doe it heartily as to the Lord not to men Commending our selves to every mans conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the sight of God Abraham walke before mee and bee thou perfect saith the Lord. How many of the good Kings did right in the sight of the Lord It s true our best works are polluted with sinne and in the matter of justification cannot endure the strict Law-censure of the Judge of the world if God narrowly marke iniquity But Antinomians are so at odds with holy walking that they will have all the sincere works of the Saints wrought by the grace of God to bee in their substance before God plaistered hypocrisie and yet in the justified these hypocriticall works are no sinne there being no more sinne in the justified nor any thing contrary to a Law which the Lord can see as a sinne more then in Jesus Christ. So here is holy sanctified and lawfull sinne and an innocent hypocrisie and holy and harmlesse corruption and flesh 3. A declarative glorifying of God in the eyes of men not of God must argue the beleever to be lawlesse and a Libertine before men and that he needeth not before men and in his conversation with wife brother children neighbours in his words promises covenants buying selling works of his calling doe all as in the sight and presence of God for if he walke rightteously in his conversation with men hee is behinde Gods backe the Lord seeth him not if he walke unjustly in fornication uncleannesse cousening lying God seeth not these to be sins 4. Why doe Antinomians exclude from works of sanctification the worke of beleeving Are we not to doe all good works in faith as well as for the glory of God and are we not to eat and drinke in faith Rom. 14. vers 22.23 are they not bastard works that come not from such a root as faith As the fruit is ill if the tree be ill and so we must glorifie God primarily immediatly in the sight of God passively in this declarative and active and secondary glorifying of God 5. The Antinomians exclude a third sort of glorifying God to wit in private when neither God seeth them nor men but they are done in a secret closet as praying praysing meditating and soliloquies of the soule with God almes given in private that men see not nor doe the poore know of it this is neither passive nor active glorifying of God and so the division is lame except Antinomians will have us comming with our secret prayers and almes to the streets and cause a trumpet to be blowne as Pharisees doe 6. The gloryfying of God by men that see our good works incline of it self to no glorifying of man more then Abrahams giving glory to God but onely as we either trust to our good works or vainely conceit we are justified by our good works and then being abused they incline to glorifie men and make us vainely rejoyce and boast in them before God So if Abraham should thinke his act of beleeving were his onely righteousnesse before God his beleeving in God should be as fleshly a glorifying of man as any his works of Sanctification CHAP. LXXIII Sanctification concurs as well as Justification to make Saints THough Sanctification say Antinomians make men Saints declaratively to men-ward yet the true cause that makes them Saints in the sight of God is justification To this wee say 1. Take Sanctification as Eaton and Saltmarsh and Denne say Protestant Divines whom they are pleased to call Legalists doe for such holinesse as they say is in Anchorits Eremits and Monks for externall works done without faith it makes men neither Saints before God nor men but meere faireded hypocrites such a sanctification wee disclaime But take Sanctification for holy walking in the strength of the grace of justification and grace inherent in us so we say Justification and Sanctification ought not to bee separated but both concurre to make us Saints the one as the cause the other as the unseparable effect And most false it is that Eaton saith That Sanctification is so farre from being the cause of making us Saints to God-ward that properly it doth but declare that we are Saints to man-ward for so Antinomians make Sanctification nothing but a poore shaddow like an Yvie bush that is no cause of wine but a meere signe to declare and shew in this there is wine Now sure by Sanctification we are partakers of the Divine nature and the Spouses beauty not onely in regard of imputed righteousnesse but also a holy and sincere walking and blamelesse profession of the truth in a chaine of the Spouses necke and in her personall acts of praying and praysing and the sweet ministery of the Gospel in regard of
the heart spoken of Jer. 31.33 is the very new heart and the Spirit or the heart of flesh Ezech. 36.26 27. the circumcised heart Deut. 30.6 the new creature the Lord Jesus formed in the heart by Faith Gal. 4.19 Ephes. 3.17 it is not any meanes or cause or author of the new heart but it is the new heart it selfe formed by the Holy Ghost as the Author and Father of the second birth by the Word written conveyed by preaching to the soule Now except Del would say Christ onely worketh inward reformation by inward reformation onely for this inward word is inward reformation he cannot make sense of this inward word excluding the Law and outward Word both of Law and Gospel as he doth For nothing can bee more false then that the Word whereby Christ reformes is not the Word without us as the Word of the Law is but the Word within us For I find great ignorance if not worse in Familists and Antinomians in this Saltmarsh saith The Spirit worketh Legally and not freely when men doe things as meerely commanded from the power of an outward Commandement or precept in the Word he meaneth in the written Scripture For saith hee that bringeth forth but a Legall or at best but a mixt obedience and service and a finer hypocrisie and when they doe because of some vow or covenant when they take any outward thing to move them rather then apply Christ for strength life and Spirit For it is the outward Word onely in its kind that is the sole and onely objective cause as wee see colours onely because they are colours and the Light of the day-light-Sun onely because it is light and nothing else can be the object of the sense of seeing but light and colours and we onely heare sounds meerely because they are sounds and smell things odoriferous and smellable because they cast a smell and onely taste meats meerely and formally because they are sweet sowre bitter sharpe or some way good or ill to the taste Now life or the faculty of seeing hearing smelling tasting are in no sort the object of seeing hearing smelling tasting Just so when wee doe meerely for the Word in the Prophets and Psalmes without us and but of conscience and meerely as commanded from the power of an outward Commandement or Precept I adde or a Gospel-promise written in the Word then we obey God in a free filiall Gospel-way out of meere conscience to an outward Command as the onely objective ground warrant and rule of our obedience what ever Papists on the one extremity say for an unwritten Word of God and Enthysiasts on the other hand for a Word within or a Spirit acting and obliging as their onely rule excluding the Law and Gospel because they are Letters and written and Scripture and a Word without as the onely objective ground and warrant of Divine Faith was in the Prophets time Thus saith the Lord. And in Christ and the Apostles time According as it is written in the Prophets in the Scriptures So Christ Luk. 24.26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory Vers. 27. And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets hee expounded unto them all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe Vers. 45. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures and said unto them thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day and remission of sinnes should be preached in his name among the Nations Then Christ would have beleeving and repentance Preached and commanded for no warrant and objective ground but because the Word without the Commandement or Precept in the Word commandeth it and this Satan cannot call finener hypocrisie So Revel 2.11 Hee that hath an eare to heare an inward and renewed a circumcised eare and heart Let him heare what the Spirit saith to the Churches this Spirit speaking to the Churches is not an inward word or a regenerating Spirit in the heart of beleevers in these seven Churches Antinomians pervert the Word of God so But it is the Holy Ghost speaking in the Word without the written preached and externall Epistles that the Spirit sent to these seven Churches and so the onely meane of Abrahams obedience to sacrifice his onely sonne Isaak and the onely warrant for his faith was the Commandement of God and a Word without Goe now take thy sonne thy onely sonne Isaak and offer him to me Many other things naturall reason a seeming contrary word that he should be the sonne of Promise seeme to command the contrary but Abrahams faith appeared in this that he closed his eyes at all Commandements and carnall inhibitions of nature on the contrary and meerely for an externall command of God as the sole and onely objective warrant and formall object of his faith and of his obedience without because God so commanded he obeyed and so are wee to obey and beleeve upon no objective cause warrant or ground but the written or preached Precept or promise of the Gospel or Covenant of grace that is a word without us and the onely meane of faith and inward reformation and this Word is written as the Law is in the Scriptures and layeth an authoritative binding power on our conscience to obey God for his onely Word as the Law doth But it is not the onely Word that is the efficient and effectually working cause of our obedience if the Spirit of grace doe not concurre with both the written and preached Law and written and preached Gospel and covenant of grace wee cannot obey Antinomians make obedience for the outward written command as the onely objective cause and warrant of our faith and obedience through the effectuall working of the Spirit two contrary obediences imagining that the former is Literall Legall and finer hypocrisie and the latter the onely true obedience A grosse mistake 1. Because none can sincerely obey meerly from the power of an outward command or precept in the Word but the man whose eares the Lord circumciseth Deut. 30.6 Revel 2.11 and whose understanding Christ openeth to understand the Word without Luk. 24.45 and therefore the Word without is the onely meanes of inward reformation 2. The Letter of the Covenant of grace holdeth forth the inward grace signified and cannot bee contrary to the inward Word in the heart for the Holy Ghost as the principall efficient causeth us to obey for conscience of the command written and preached in the Gospel which is belâ—eve in the Lord Jesus or the written promise he that beleeveth shall be pardoned and saved And to say they are contrary is as good sense as to say light and colours because they are without us they are therefore contrary to life and the visive faculty of seeing within us or that sounds or sweet smelling flowers without because they are without must be contrary to the naturall faculty and sense of hearing and smelling