above all things plead the necessity and alone sufficiency of the Righteousness of Jesus Christ for our Justification But to restore your words to their own channell you say that since all must be condemned if God enter into judgement therefore God gave his Son unto the death for us that thereby we might obtain Salvation And though by this passage it be clearly enough imported that it is before God and by the sentence of his Law that all men stand condemned and that therefore he hath given his Son whose Death and Bloud is the Propitiation and in whom he is well pleased to be a ransome for liberation and acceptation to all that believe on him whereby Justification by faith in Jesus Christ without the deeds of the Law is in substance granted yet for ushering in your good works to share with faith in Justification by a strange connexion you subjoin And all judgement is committed by the Father to the Son and Iesus Christ hath proposed life through his death to as many as receive his Gospell and live according to it But I must take notice 1. That by laying down the commission of judgement given to the Son as a ground to his proposing of the Gospel offer you manifestly repugne to our Lords own words and testimony expressly distinguishing the character of his first coming which was in the form of a servant to minister not to be ministered unto and by performing the Fathers commandment to save the World and not to judge it from that of his second coming which shall be with power and great glory to the Salvation of all that look for him and to judge and to execute judgement upon all that are ungodly 2. By making our Lords commission to judge antecedent to his ministration of the Gospel you invert Truth and plain Scripture-evidence whereby it is clear that our Lord was first sent into the World to preach the Gospel and lay down his life for sinners that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life And then because of his compleat and perfect obedience is exalted to be the Head of all things unto the Church and hath Authority also to execute judgement committed to him because he is the Son of Man But. 3. By this your doctrine you in effect subvert the grace of the Gospel in as much as in the place of the Gospel-covenant offering pardon and peace to poor lost sinners through Christ Jesus and with and in him all grace and glory you introduce our Lord as having by his death indeed merited the privilege of a new offer of life unto sinners but making and renewing the same in no better termes then these of the Law-covenant for as the Law sayeth that the man that doth these things shall live by them so you tell us that the termes of the Gospel-tender are to receive the same and live according to it Now if the Law doth offer life to such as receive and live according to it and our Lords proposal stand in the like termes admit the proposers not to be the same yet the proposals are certainly coincident and therefore although the eternal transaction betwixt the Father and the Son may be of Grace yet it is undeniable that in your opinion the tenders of the Law and Gospel as to us-ward do rune in the same tenor and the condescendence of both prerequiring our works is equally to be reckoned of debt These being the consequences of that Gospel-method by you here contrived and its designe no less evident to make works with saith the condition and procuring cause of our Iustification at least in the sight of Christ as the Judge appointed I add 1. That your attributing of Iustification to Christ as judge ordained over all in the last judgement is contrary to the Scripture that telleth us that it is one God that justifieth it is Christ that died marke the distinction made and no doubt reason it self informing us that it is the Law and Law-giver and not the Judge which define dutie determine paines and condemne the transgressors poenae enim persecution non Iudicis voluntati mandatur sed legis authoritati reservatur It doth also confirm that it appertaines unto God only as the Law-giver to remit the punishment incurred and accept and justify sinners upon an aequipollent satisfaction 2. The Authority to execute judgement being given to our Lord as the Mediator and because he is the Son of Man in which respect he is not the principal Author and efficient but only the meritorious cause of our Iustification not the very act but only the solemn declaration thereof can be ascrived to him in this capacity unless you can conceive that our Lord is not only both the Ransome and the accepter thereof but that by becoming the Propitiation he also becometh the partie to be appeased which are palpably inconsistent 3. The plain Scripture-truth in this point is that our Lord having compleatly obeyed the will of God and being made perfect through suffering is therefore highly exalted above every name and hath all power and judgement committed to him whereby as he doth here in time enrich with all Grace guid support and preserve all that beleeve in him and also over-rule restrain and punish all his and their Adversaries so shal he in the last day appear first to receive and welcome all his redeemed ones formerly justified by his Righteousnesse and sanctified by his Grace unto his Fathers joy And then with them to judge the reprobate and take vengeance on all that know not God and obey not the Gospel by which it is evident that Justification proceeding from God for Christs sake and necessarily preceeding both our Sanctification here and Glorification in the last day cannot be referred unto that judgement which is only declarative and executive according to these words Come ye blessed of my Father nor explicate according to its scheme And therefore although our Lord do therein for our encouragement in well doing and the commendation of the riches of his bountie make mention of our good works and shall certainly in that day also crown his own free grace in us with a reward yet thence to inferre that our Justification before God and in order to his holy justice having for its alone cause the Righteousnes of Jesus Christ and imported in the compellation ye blessed of my Father is founded on our weak love and scant charity which even the Righteous in that day seeme ashamed to owne is both a groundless error and high presumption But I proceed to your next words viz. That Christ Iesus hath proposed life through his death to as many as receive his Gospel and live according to it That this is a manifest perversion of the free Grace of God whereby our Lord Jesus doth freely hold out himself unto us not only for to be our Righteousnesse for Justification but also our Sanctification through his Spirit unto the glory of God and therefore
unto the grace of God in Christ Jesus while in the mean time you do still arrogate them as a condition on the creatures part you the more declare the folly but in nothing diminish the sinfulnesse of your vanity These things need not to be illustrat questionless who ever doth consider his lost condition by reason of sin and wrath and hearkeneth unto that fundamental Gospel-precept deny thy self imprimis all self-righteousnesse and beleeve will find the power thereof so deeply descending into his Soul that all the desire trust and hope thereof will be fixed on Jesus Christ alone and to be found in him not having his own righteousnesse which unto his sincere reflection will be so far from appearing a condition that it will disappeare as dung but that Righteousnesse which is through the faith of Christ the Righteousnesse which is of God by faith But who can sufficiently declare and regret the madnes and ingratitude of this pride of man Jesus Christ is made of God unto us Righteousnesse and yet we will thereto join our own for Justification in Gods sight He is also made unto us Sanctification that in Him we may bring forth the fruits of holinesse unto the glory of God and the very same fruits will we impropriat to be the condition and as it were the price of our acceptance even with himself who is our only acceptation and our all Sir be not deceived as they who in the sight of sin and fear of wrath fâ—ee unto Christ alone for a refuge do finde his Righteousness not more sufficient then freely offered to every one that willeth for Justification in Gods sight so your Doctrine requiring both faith and a holy life as the previous conditions to give an interest in Christs Death and ascriving Justification to faith because forsooth of the pitiful fruits of our righteousnesse and not that perfect Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ which it doth apprehend is wholly dissonant unto the method of the Gospel and cannot possibly attain its end What shall be then said of your ensuing words Now judge but a little what it is to have a right apprehension of things since I have in a few plain words told you that which with much nicety swels among you to Volumes Really Sir if I may use the liberty of answering by you permitted I would say what a sad thing is it to have a wrong and conceited apprehension of things since you have in a few involved words in such a manner obscured and confounded a plain point of truth that notwithstanding of express Scripture-light yet it hath necessarily required a great many words clearly to unsold it There remaineth now to be considered the main reason whereby as you shut up so you would seem to enforce the opinion which we have heard and that is the necessity of a holy life which you say Your way of Iustification doth clearly declare as being that whereupon we shall be solemnly judged justified and absolved at the last day and afterward you add That it may correct the error of many carnall Christians who love well to hear of Salvation by the death of Christ provided they be bound to do nothing themselves that they may be saved 'T is answered 1. That there are many seeming Christians who have a name that they live and are dead who have and do delight in a form of knowledge but want the power of whose delusion the error which you mention may be a part is an old and true regret And yet the explication by you delivered being so many wayes unsound and peccant as we have heard cannot possibly be an antidote 2. As these carnal Christians pretending to lay hold on Jesus Christ for Righteousnesse and yet wholly neglecting the study of holiness are of all men the most sadly deceived and most wretched deceivers so your manner of Justification derogating from the holy Iustice of God and the perfect Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ flattering the natural mans pride to which of all vices we are most prone and seducing souls from the free Grace of the Gospel cannot be less dangerous and pernicious But 3. This your reason for departing from Justification by faith only as encouraging to licentiousness is so directly the objection which the Apostle Paul taketh notice of and fully answereth after his having declared the truth of Justification as by us professed that we are thereby exceedingly fortified The passage is thus the Apostle having shewed that it is by the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ that the free Gift cometh upon all men to Iustification of life and that it is by the obedience of one that many are made righteous and summing up the whole matter that it is grace that reigneth through Righteousnesse unto eternal life by Iesus Christ our Lord he subjoineth What shall we say then shall we continow in sin that grace may abound Seing it is not by our works but of free grace through faith in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ that we are justified from sin shall we therefore in as much as sin commendeth grace and our good works availl not continow in sin that grace may abound The plain insinuation of what you object Now hear the Apostles answere both for us and himself 1. He saveth justification by faith only cannot encourage to sin because such as do thereby truely lay hold on Jesus Christ partake of his death and are made conformable thereto How shall they then that are dead to sin live any longer therein Sin may indeed remain but that they who through faith in his Death are planted in the likenesse thereof and become as crucified with him should live any longer in sin is not possible To the same purpose it is that the Apostle Iohn saith whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin and he cannot sin because he is born of God And yet if any false pretender should therefore say either that he cannot transgress or that his transgressions are no sins and so license himself unto wickedness he but deceiveth himself and the truth is not in him 2. Paul saith that Justification through faith importeth a more certain assurance of good works then any thing by you urged The necessity of good works which ye plead for is only that of a condition strict indeed as to its obligation but very uncertain if not desperat as to its cause and reall existence being previously required unto our acceptance by and being in Christ as I have already shewed whereas the Apostle tells us plainly that according to the truth of Justification by him and by us asserted the necessity of good works is causally certain depending upon such infallible causes that whereever true Faith is the study of holiness must necessarily ensue and where this is not the pretense of Faith and Justification thereby is but vain and groundlesse For seing by Faith the only requisite on our part for Justification we are not only dead indeed with Jesus Christ unto sin but planted
Who would think that this were the accusation of Non-conformists who from the very beginning of Reformation have been continually vexed by your impositions and not rather conceive the objection to be made by them against your violent pressing of Crosse Surplice Service-book Book of Canons and other â—rash wherewith the Lords people have been uncessantly urged as the main yea only things of Religion But I cannot stand upon every one of your calumnies the Lord deliver you from this perverse spirit Only if by the driving objected you do understand our causing the people of the Land to stand stedfast and adhere to the Lords Covenant whereby they were formerly obliged it is already fully answered But that which you say is of greatest weight is that we are guilty of the waxing cold in Love to which our Saviour knits the abounding of Iniquity And this challenge you qualify by our judging you in Matters which are doubtful disputations spreading tattlesâ— of you as you call them carrying sowrly toward you and casting odious aspersions upon you as Apostates and the like with petulant railings and this you adde is a greater persecution then any little suffering of ours in the World Sir though I cannot sooth you as you do your felf by the mouth of your N. C. whose tongue you teach to speak lyes in your smooth words of deceit by telling you that too much of what you speak is true Yet I heartily wish there were more Charity on all sides but where you accuse us of waxing cold in Love and thence would inferre our accession to the present abounding iniquity I would first have you to read the text aright which runeth thus And because iniquity shall aboâ—nd the love of many shall wax cold which is a plain inversion of your causality 2. Admitting your ground to be good I seriously wish without vanity that the waxing cold in love both toward God and your Neighbour were not more your sin then ours then had we not been scorched into a blacknesse and consumed almost into ashes by these fiery trials kindled blown and kept into a flame by the Grandees of your way pourtrey them as you please whose heat speaks them to be set on fire against the Work People and Interests of God 3. To call the causes of our Differences matters which are doubtfull Disputations when both by Scripture Reason and Solemne Engagements and many sad experiences they are so fully determined is indeed to put false glosses upon things and to pretend to be a good Christian and to acclaime the charity and kindnesse of others in an avoued persistence in open Perjury Opposition to the Cause of God and persecution of his People is it not to wipe your mouth and say you have done no wickednesse But you say it is from the spirit of the Devil to fasten the brand of Apostasie upon the leaving of a partie and that to grow wiser is not to play the changling nor is a consciencious obedience to standing Laws time-serving Sir as I love neither to irritate nor prejudicate by hard words so I approve not either your or your N. C. tattles but if to leave God and not a Partie be Apostasie if to forsake the way and Truth of God be to play the changling and if to obey and conforme to mischief framed by a Law be time-serving I am sadly apprehensive that what you account to be but the Malice of the spirit of the Devil shall one day be found the Verdict of the Spirit of God Whether it be thus or not in our controverted differences let the things themselves and the issue of our discourse declare What you tell us of the primitive application of the word Apostasie is no restriction of its proper acceptation And for your other petty conceits in this place with your mock-complaint of the persecution of a just but disdained censure they are not of that moment to stop my procedour to that part of your conference which concerns Episcopacie This head you say falls asunder in two the one a general consideration of that Government the other supposing it were amisse how far it ought to be separated from And for the Government in place of all these weighty and unanswerable objections viz. the want of our Lords Warrant 2. Repugnancie to his and his Apostles Precepts and practice of restless labour simplicity equality humility and contempt of the world c. 3. Disconformity to the first and purer times of the Primitive Church 4. The pride avarice usurpation and cruelty to which it naturally tends and hath been depraved And lastly these evil and bitter fruits of profanity ignorance and superstition that it hath ever in its prevalencie produced which have been charged upon and made out against it by many of the Lords faithfull Witnesses you make your N. C. faintly and poorly to aledge I cannot think that Church-men should be called Lords and be great Persons that this is a desingenuous prevarication is obviously manifest Yet such is the weaknesse of your cause that the meanest argument you could put in your N. C. mouth is stronger then your answere wherein you tell us That this belongs not to the thing it self but is an addition of the Christian Magistrat But I must remember you first that Church-men and Ministers are not capable of every addition Civil offices and administrations are very lawfully bestowed by the Magistrat upon fit Recipients but as for Ministers they are not only an intolerable distraction many degrees above that charitable imployment which the Apostles could not bear but so inconsistent with the nature manner and end of their Ministrie that even our Lord while in this capacitie doth bruskly decline to be so much as an amicable trister And therefore to justify Bishops titles from this ground that they are extrinsick additions or from their civil place and voice in Parliament is no wayes concludent 2. Though this were not yet I am confident that who ever considers the received use and import of this title of Lord amongst us will find it an addition as full of fastuous vanity for Ministers as the title of Rabbi even admitting that its excess did lye another way therefore excepted against and prohibited by our Lord was unlawfull for the Apostles but 3. This title is not an addition flowing from the Christian Magistrat as you pretend but the very product of that pride and usurpation that at first exalted Prelacie which as as first it was assumed by the connivence of if not rather forced from the Civil Magistrat so now by the Bishops it is only derived from him in consequence of that Supremacie which both falsly against our Lord Jesus Christ and traiterously to the Pope in this respect their proper head they have for their own conveniencie transferred upon him But you add that we consider not that Sir and Lord Gentleman and Nobleman differ but in degree since therefore a Minister by Office â—hes the temporall â—onour of
destroy all liberty and render men in every Oath how free and voluntary soever obnoxious to the Magistrat's absolute control and plainly to ranverse both the freedom of making and necessity of keeping all vowes which nevertheless the Lord hath most expressly allowed and confirmed Sir as I have with you supposed the matters of the Covenant to be in themselves indifferent and taken this pains for no other end then to rectifie your Common sense and refell your pretended Demonstration notwithstanding of so faire a concession so give me leave again to remember you and all concerned that seing the matters in these Covenants were antecedently true and righteous and are now concluded under the great Oath of God your pitiful quibling upon the Kings power in matters free and indifferent is so far from licensing us to the least violation that though we do further unanswerably alledge his Majesties supervenient ratification yet it is more for your redargution then our own confirmation whose Consciences are by the former ground most satisfyingly established And here I might put a period to my reflections on this Dialogue seing that what remaines doth nothing convel these sure grounds whereupon we are founded but because in pursuance of your conceit of the Magistrats power of rendering the matter of Vowes antecedently free unlawful and thereby making their obligation to cease you in returne to the Question What could move the King to preferre Episcopacie to Presbyterie pretend to many strong inductives whereby you suppose the change to be undeniably authorized This calumny must also be removed And before I enter upon this matter I cannot but commend your providence who fearing that your allegations would be found false do prudently provide a refuge in the profound and recluse deepth of Princes their secrets which you think should put a stop to the inquirie which indeed neither you nor all men beside are able to answere but as the strange wickedness and folly of this Act is such as all the devices imaginable cannot so much as vernish it with any apparent colour and its consequences have been so pernicious as have left no Subject in the Nations unconcerned in their smart so I hope without the imputation of a mutinous curiosity I may take the liberty to tell you that it was not our Leaders which occasioned the work you hint at to the King's Grand-father his Father and Himself Art thou he that troubleth Israel is an old and royall accusation of the Lord's Ministers I wish the answer now a dayes were as improper as I am tender to use it we have not troubled Israel but thou and thy Fathers house in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and thou hast followed thy own inventions I need not put you in minde of K. Iames his engagements to defend the Gospel and maintain the true and pure Ordinances and Discipline of God's house and how he thereafter turned and corrupted his way by no less then a direct invasion of Christ's Throne manifest perversion of his Ordinances designed subjection of the liberty of the Gospel and its Ministery to his lust and pleasure and open persecution of many faithful Ministers and Professours These things if you were ingenuous you should rather have essayed to answere as being already objected and proven by others then provoked me to the repetition As to what you objecte from latter times I am sorry that by so rude and false an accusation viz. You involved the Nations in bloud and not satisfyed with all the security you could demand you engaged with the King his Enemies in England and opposed the design of his deliverie An. 1648 you should engage me to reflect upon a worthy but abused Prince all whose faults I think both may and ought to be buried under his mis-fortune but seing this you will not suffer I shall only desire you and others to consider these sad grievances which are elswhere undeniably cleared viz. 1. The Prelatick Tyranny and impositions of these times 2. The rage and fury wherewith they endeavoured to inflame and stirre up all against this Kingdome after that they had first constrained us to just defence 3. Their notorious and reiterate persidies whereby they rendered all securitie desperate And lastly the sin of that backsliding course 48. now so evidently unmasked by the 9 Act of the late Parliament 1661 which instead of delivering did visibly precipitate his Majestie 's sad fate these things are so manifest even from the publick Records of the Nation that I can not but admire the effronterie of your confidence that can so overly pass them But you add a Question In a word what jealousies had you justly raised in the hearts of Princes of your Government Sir I wish you had deigned your self with another word of answere for really I know none except these old and endless ones the temptation and sin of all worldly Powers against the Lord and his Anointed As for our Tyranny 1649. against the Nobility you should first have answered for their breach of trust 1648 But since they themselves have publickly by the Act above mentioned avowed it your charge of Tyranny against the moderately disproportionate censures then inflicted merites no answere In the last place you say our Ministers divided shamefully among themselves I grant and sinfully also though that all engaged were not equally guilty and this was a great triall but since that an excess of charity toward your party on the one hand and a sounder judgement of your principles or rather looseness on the other was the only cause of the difference is it not invidious in you not only to have dissappointed your favourers but to taxe the greater number whom you have since so fully justified as men of maximes incompatible with Government Sir this is the summe of the account you make us of the reasons of his Majesties change with what evidence the Reader and not you must judge If he miss your Sun in its Meridian and finde your light to be but darkness a more simple eye and heart may be both his satisfaction and your remedy If I might enlarge in a more full returne I could easily demonstrate that all things being considered both before at and since the Kings restauration his adhering to the Covenant and owning that interest had been not only his safety and peace but his most certain establishment and Glory if the favour and countenance of the most High the firme love and loyalty of all good men and the undoubtedly equal compliance and submission of the other parties may be fit media in such an argument the conclusion is obvious But lest you say art thou made of the Kings Councel Forbear leaving events to God I shall be silent Having all along endeavoured to burne in the close of this Dialogue you go about to blowe us I am not for triffling with you in such unsincere and mixed complements the Lord purge both you and us from all dross and restore to
together with him in the likeness of his Resurrection and alive through him unto God that we also should walk in newness of life the necessity of holiness is evidently thereby as much assured as the acts of life are in their proper principle How can it then be alledged that in our way the necessity of holiness is less secured then in yours Nay such is the certainty of this truth that true Faith in Jesus Christ is the root and principle of the new life of holiness that as it is by you acknowledged so I cannot but wonder how reason could so quickly desert you as to think that any necessary effect such as you must grant good works to be of true Faith can be rationally joined with its cause in the consideration of a condition which your discourse imports If fire or life were in any case required as a condition he that should thereto join heat or motion necessarily thereon dependent were plainly ridiculous I need not take notice of what may be objected from these seeming Beleevers who because of their profession are said to be in Christ and yet for want of fruits to be cut off as it doth not more militat against us then against you who acknowledge true faith to be alwayes fruitful so it answereth it self But 3. because by necessity its like that you do understand the obligation to holiness as if in your way it were rendered more binding and pressing and thence would commend your explanation as more engaging unto a holy life I shall not here resume what I have already declared viz. 1. That to press the necessity of holiness antecedently to our being and acceptation in Jesus Christ is vain and fruitless 2. That to join our imperfect holiness with Christs unspotted and alone sufficient Righteousnesse which is faiths value is proud and presumptuous but rather represent these true grounds of the necessity of holinesse which are found in our way equally yea more obliging then all your vain pretenses And 1. We say with the Apostle that the holy and just and good Law of God remaineth in its entire force threatning and condemning all sin whereever found and as the poor sinner convicted is thereby urged to flee for refuge unto Christ who alone delivereth from the wrath to come so he who expecteth Salvation by the Death of Christ and doth not witness the truth of his profession in a holy life is in so farre no less exposed to its severity and terror neither can the Beleever sinning whatever may be the difference of his state in Gods sight more pretend to the peace and favour of God without repentance renewed and faith in Christ reacted whence the study of holiness will undoubtedly revive and flow then the wicked persisting in his impenitence What is then the difference betwixt you and us You must acknowledge that the great obligation of holiness doth descend from the Law of God and we grant that this holy Law continueth in the same force and power against all sin I say not sinners whereever found whether in the Beleever or Unbeleever so that thereby in our way licentiousnesse to sin must be equally excluded If you say that by requiring Faith alone for Iustification we relaxe the study of holiness I must again tell you that true faith in Christ Iesus the thing which we require cannot be without the study of holiness Next if any person should thence delude himself unto licentiousness the Holy Law of God remaining in the same severity against it cannot but in our way wherein that high aggravation of turning the Grace of God unto wantonnesse is more manifest be also more powerful If any man go on to urge us with the possible delusions of presumption and libertinisme whereunto the Devil both hath and may abuse the truth and free grace of God he but fighteth with the Devils weapons whereby mans wretched frailty is indeed discovered but the truth by Paul plainly asserted against the like cavâ—â—â—aâ—ions and by us owned not in the least impugned Nay I may further affirme that as all error is delusâ—on and inductive of more so where one hath been tempted to abuse the proposal of free Grace hundreds through Natures pride both desiring and overvaluing propriety have stumbled upon this your so descrived conjunction of our good works and fallen into that not entire submitting unto the Righteousness of God and a going about to establish their own Righteousness by which sin the rock of Salvation became unto the Iews a rock of offence 2. As the Law in the severity of its sanction doth still abide in force to deterre from all sin to bring in and reclaime unto Iesus Christ our Righteousnesse and also our Sanctification so it s more binding Authority derived from the greatness and goodness of God it s own holiness and perfection are upon none so powerful and in none so effectual as these who through faith have laid hold on Christ Iesus for Righteousness and therethrough alone have attained unto peace I need not tell you that true repentance discovering the sinfulness as well as the guiltiness of sin cannot but endeare holiness and that God appearing in Christ Iesus in that inconceivable glory of his Holiness Iustice Love and Mercy and justifying us through Faith in his Name cannot but beget a deeper reverence and a greater regard to his will and commandments then all the thunderings of mount Sinai the greatest motive to holiness in the construction of your way But when I consider that Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousnesse and that the Law through Faith is not made void but more established and therefore we are chosen and created in him unto holiness and good works to the Glory of God when I observe the connexion that God hath established and his word holds out betwixt Iustification and Sanctification 1. In his purpose Eph. 1. 4. 2 Thess. 2. 13. 2. In his promise Ezek 36. 25 26 27. Micah 7. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 3. In his precept Tit. 3. 8. 4. In Christs purchass Tit. 2. 14. 5. In the Gift of Christ to his people 1 Cor 1. 30. 6 In the sincere desire of and great dâ—light in holiness as well as pardon recorded of the Saints in all the Scripture specially Psal. 51. 103. 3. 7. In the description of lustification given us by Paul in the first 6 chap. Rom. and Gal. 2. I seriously wonder how you or any man can doubt but a holy life both in its obligation and also in its performance is by the way of Iustification by Faith only molsty assured 3. In the way of Justification by faith only not only the obligation of the Law of God remains in the manner declared but also our Lord for our further encouragement unto holiness hath graciously intimat that even these good works wâ—ich we performe in his strength shall be by the same grace from which they flow also graciously rewarded Wherefore the Apostle saith
Which in effect is the very worst account that even the enemies of the truth do give of them and cannot be received by any impartial inquirer Yet seing it is most evident that persecution for Religion was the true cause moving the body of the Protestants to their own defence and that their Ministers and Teachers whom God had honoured to be instrumental in their conversion as Beza and others did countenance these wars and constantly maintain that a defensive resistance to subjects in a due capacity was no more prohibite upon the account of persecution for Religion then in the case of any other intolerable oppression The mixture of mans corruption inseparable even from his best actions in the prosecution of so good a cause can neither prejudge its justice nor deprive us of the advantage of this precedent But knowing your former answers to be weake and unsatisfying you subjoyne that you do not deny their following wars to have been direct Rebellion And is this the vindication you promised Only you bid us consider the fierce Spirit of that Nation and we must confess it was not Religion but their temper that was to be blamed Well Sir is this your candor The question is whether or not Religion was the cause of these wars which if the lawfulness thereof were not first supposed were utterly impertinent and you not darring to deny it do first tell us by a blunt petitio principii that the wars were rebellion and then that the French temper more then Religion is to be therefore blamed Who should regard such a pitiful Sophister But seing it can not be denyed that the many and great injuries suffered upon the account of Religion were the just provocation to these wars although some small censuâ—e either of precipitancy or of excess in the prosecution may possibly be imputed to the hote temper of that people or excused by the signal insolencie of ther provocations yet sure I am that neither the cause of Religion nor the justice of it is thereby in the least disproven But now you say many of the eminent men of that Church are fully convinced of the evill of these courses yea one of the glories of our Nation Cameron in the wars of the last King directly preached against their courses as Rebellion I will not answere that possibly it hath befallen the eminent men of that Church as it did many of our own who as they were removed from the first times of the Reformation the then opposition of adversaries from the evidence of the Lord's Spirit presence that therein appeared so according to the influence of after temptations were induced to condemne that which otherwise they would have approven It is enough for us that your many eminent whoever they be are more then overballanced by many more and more eminent still abyding on our side And for Cameron whom forsooth in your pedantick stile you more then cannonize by terming a Glory you must pardon us who know him better whatever be his opinion in this matter not to be dazled by his splendour specially seing you know that if we were disposed to vie with you in such vanities we might by adducing King Iames his justifying of the French Protestants their defensive wars in his answer to cardinal Perron eclipse this your glory into obscurity but what need of more words If these last wars were purely defensive for Religion they could not be rebellious and if they were not we only lose the instance but not the argument as I have abundantly proven But to this you make your N. C. Answer by asking How did the late King give assistance to the Rochellers in the last wars if so be they were rebellious And to this you reply That it proceeded from a particular reason Viz. Because the King of Britain had become the surety in the former pacification that the French King should observe the agreement Sir If I had the management of your N. C. part I think I should not have troubled you with this answer The assistance you mention was so like rather to a treachery that both for the good of these poor Protestants and for the honour of our King's memory I wish it had never been But since you suppose it to have been real how is it that by your return you do so pitifully betray your cause For seing by your acknowledgment the late King did in the pacification after the second war of Rochell with consent of the French King become surety to his Protestant subjects for due observance and by this his accession clearly acknowledged the lawfulness and validitie of the Protestants their treatie it is a more manifest confession of the Peoples right and capacity to restrain both by contract and necessary force the unjust and persecuting violence of their Prince then all the instances adduced do afford It is true you adde That this assistance was on our Kings part most just what ever the Subjects of France their part in it might be But where is your reason for this insinuat distinction Or what Logickâ— can prove that a just concurring assistance may be given in an unjust war That the King of Britain interposing was injured and affronted by the King of France his breach is not denyed by or contrary to us more then the injury done by the French King unto these his Protestants subjects But to clear this passage of your foolish quibles The Duke of Rohan in the Ninth of his Politick Discourses entituled His Apology upon the last troubles of France because of the Religion plainly tell us that the King of Britain did by a Gentleman sent to him remonstrat how he was surety in the last peace and did compassionate the Protestants their sufferings that if by fair means he did not obtain relief he would ingage his whole Kingdomes and his proper Person in so just a war to which he found himselfe oblidged in honour and conscience providing that the Protestants would take armes with him and promise as he would do not to hearken to any treatie but jointly with him And thereto the Duke subjoines that this promise of assistance was his principal ingagement to arme What think you then Do not these words plainly enough denote both Religion to have been the cause and what was the Kings approbation of these wars Or if you doubt the French man's faith pray take but a view of Mr Rushworth's Collections as to this affair and there beside the confimation of what the Duke sayes I am perswaded you will find the King so express and the Parliament so cordial in their resentments of the wrongs done to these poor Protestants and in their readinesse to assist for their relief that you will be ashamed hereafter to scorn your selfe by such confident childish conjectures and distinctions But I am sorry that by reflecting upon the part of the French Protestants in that war as less just then the King of Britains you should have forced