that Synod And we would hope also that our Author and those of his way will not be against this mutual forbearance when they consider that the said middle-way was not only tolerated but even approved by the Synod of Dort in that the suffrages which expresly asserted it were approved and that long before it was held by our first Reformers both at home and abroad For instance the Universality of Christs death in the sense before explained was believed and professed by the Blessed Martyrs Latimer and Hooper in England as also by the Church of England her self and by Luther in Germany and Calvin at Geneva as shall be proved by their own words to be seen in their writings extant at this day if any have the considence to deny it At present we shall only give our Brethren to understand First That Luther on John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever c. says Jam sanè tibi omnibus hominibus fatendum est mundum c. Now truly thou and all men must confess that the whole race of Mankind is called the World comprehending in one all men in general and every man in particular do'st thou believe therefore that thou art a man or if thou canst neither believe nor know that put thy hand in thy bosome or feel thy Nose make an experiment whether thou hast not all thy Members full of flesh and blood as other men Wherefore then wouldst thou exclude thy self out of this word World since Christ expresly declares that God did not send his Son to the Virgin Mary only nor gave him to Peter or Paul but to the World that all might lay claim to him even as many as are called the Sons of Man c. Secondly That Calvin on 1 John 2.2 says Ego verum esse illud dictum fateor sufficienter pro toto mundo passum esse Christum sed pro electis tantum efficaciter I confess that saying to be true That Christ suffered sufficiently for the whole World but efficaciously for the Elect only And on Rom. 5.18 Communem omnium gratiam fecit quia omnibus exposita est non quod ad omnes extendatur reipsa nam etsi passus est Christus pro peccatis totius mundi atque omnibus indifferenter Dei benignitate offertur non tamen omnes apprehendunt The Apostle saith Calvin Makes Grace common to all Men because it is exposed to all Men not that it is really and effectually extended unto all For tho Christ suffered for the sins of the whole World and through the goodness of God he is indifferently offered unto all yet all do not apprehend or receive him Here is that which is called the middle-way owned by Luther first afterwards by Calvin as plainly as can be expressed in so few words Whereupon we demand Did our First Reformers Luther and Calvin by this Corrupt the Old and Preach a New Gospel or not If they did corrupt the old true Gospel and preach a new false Gospel Then 1. We owe no great thanks to them or respect to their Memory for their Service in Reforming the Church 2. If we grant this to be true of Luther and Calvin we betray the Reformation and yield to the Papists that which their hearts do most earnestly desire that Luther and Calvin may be accounted Two Impostors and Deceivers who deluded the People corrupted the Christian Religion and Preached a new Gospel to the World For our parts we dare not thus far betray the Protestant Cause to the Papists rather than do so we maintain that Luther and Calvin by holding universal Redemption in the sense explained did not corrupt the Christian Religion nor preach a new Gospel And if they did not then those amongst us who hold universal Redemption as they held it do no more corrupt Religion nor preach a new Gospel than they did and consequently it is a vile Calumny and Reproach cast upon us and through us upon 〈◊〉 First Reformers that by the middle-way aforesaid we corrupt Religion and preach a new Gospel We have been something long in shewing the false-hood of our Authors first Calumny and in wiping it off because it is general and seems to comprehend or to be the ground of all the rest that abound in his Letter But for the rest of them since we have removed the grounds of them by the account we have given of our principles in the points of Justification and of the extent of Christs death they fall of themselves and light on the head of him that raised them and therefore we shall not much trouble either our selves in refuting them or others in reading a long Refutation of them Yet we will take particular notice of some of them and briefly shew how false they are Second Calumny HIS Second is to be seen in the the sixth page of his Letter where he saith Let. pag. 6. The righteousness of Christ in his active and passive Obedience hath been asserted by Protestant Divines to be not only the procuring and meritorious cause of our Justification for this the Papists own but the matter as the Imputation of it is the form of our Justification Here a gross Calumny is implyed to wit that we differ not from the Papists in the point of Justification and to make the simple people believe this he gives them to understand that we hold Christs righteousness to be only the procuring and meritorious cause of Justification and that the Papists own this as well as we do and consequently that there is little or no difference between us and the Papists in the Fundamental point of Justification But that this is a Calumny doth appear by what we have said before when we shewed that Christs Righteousness alone comes in the place of that personal perfect sinless Righteousness which was the condition of the first Covenant in Innocency and of the law of Works and by which personal Righteousness man was to have been justified according to that Covenant if he had perfectly kept it and had not fallen from his Innocency There we shewed that since no man in his lapsed state hath or can have in himself that personal sinless righteousness every man is to seek a righteousness in Christ that may serve him for his Justification instead of that which he should have had in himself but hath not and he that seeks it in Christ as he ought to do will there find it For Christ by his obedience unto death even the death of the Cross hath paid the full price of our Redemption and by paying that price hath made full satisfaction to the Justice of God for our sins and hath merited for us the full pardon of our sins and eternal Salvation of our Souls if we sincerely believe repent and obey the Gospel by that Grace which he hath also purchased for us by his blood promised to us in his Word and gives unto us by his
fully expresses our sense and to which we heartily subscribe Agreeable to this is that which we find in Mr. Rutherford's Examination of Arminianism Chap. 13. Pag. 594. That a Promise that we shall persevere in Faith and obtain Eternal Salvation though we walk after the Flesh and lead a wicked life may be called a dissolute Promise but that we do not maintain an absolute Promise of perseverance in that dissolute sense for though the Promise of perseverance in Faith be absolute yet it is always joined with an absolute Promise of perseverance in Holiness and Obedience and as it is necessary to Salvation that Elect Believers continue in Faith so it is necessary that they continue in Holiness and Obedience And if for some time there happen to be an intermission of Faith and Obedience there must be a renewing of them again that we may obtain Salvation and this renovation of our Faith and Obedience is the effect of the absolute Promise but not the obtaining of Salvation without and before the renewing of our Faith and Repentance and returning to our Obedience This is plainly Rutherford's sense And indeed he goes further than we have done in that he ascribes an inferiour kind of Causality to Obedience and good Works in order to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation for which he quotes Calvin Bucer Examen Armin. cap. 12. Zanchy and Voetius yea he quotes the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 4.17 saying that our light Afflictions which are but for a Moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory In the Pages 531 532 533. of that Book Again he says expresly That the hope of Eternal Life ex eo vana esse colligitur si non innitatur sincerae obedientiae tanquam fulcro secundario 1 Johan 3.3 is hence proved to be vain and groundless if it be not upheld by sincere obedience as a secondary slay or prop. Pag. 592. of the same Book And in another Book he saith that it is a new Heresy of Antinomians to deny a Conditional Gospel it is all one Survey of Antin Part II. p. 63. as to belye the Holy Ghost who saith He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not is condemned already Spanhemius likewise a very Learned Divine and zealous against the Arminians in his Disputation at Leyden concerning the five controverted Articles saith in the 34th Thesis or Position Omnibus equidem externè vocatis annunciatur promissio Evangelii non tamen absolutè sed conditionatè si resipiscant credant The Promise of the Gospel is indeed preached to all that are outwardly called yet not absolutely but conditionally if they believe and repent And Thes 36. For as it is in vain that a great Good is ready at hand to us unless we either take and receive or fulfil the Condition which is required in the Covenant and Promise of it so that infinite benefit of Redemption is in vain purchased for us by Christ except we embrace it with a sure confidence and performe Faith and Repentance unto God requiring them as the terms of the Covenant John 3.16 Acts 2.38 And to draw towards a close with the Testimonies of some of our own English Divines we find that Dr. Robert Abbot writing against Thompson saith Abbot contra Thomsoni Diatrib de Intercis Justif p. 212. Credi non debet remissio peccatorum ante poenitentiam poenitere aliquem de peccato non potest quod nondum est c. It ought not to be believed that Remission of sins is before Repentance and a Man cannot repent of a sin that is not yet committed c. Again Remission of sins is never decreed for any of ripe years without Repentance nor is it ever granted upon another Condition that is another dispositive Condition the Faith therefore of Remission should not anticipate Repentance c. Neither let us think that without Repentance we ought ever to say Forgive us our trespasses c. And because our Authour saith that God hath blessed England with an Ames and Twiss against the Arminians Let. p. 13. p. 27. and that we neglect and despise them we will alledge some Testimonies out of their Writings by which the World may judge whether those two great Divines be for him or for us in this cause And first for Dr. Ames in his Answer to Grevinchovius page 138. he sayes Quòd fides haec non sit volitionis ipsius divinae conditio sed salutis assequendae tantùm hanc ego sententiam meam esse fateor veramque cum Deo praestiturum me confido That this faith of ours is not the condition of Gods will it self but that it is only the condition of our obtaining Salvation I confess this to be my opinion and I trust with Gods help that I shall prove it to be true We observe here that Ames distinguisheth between Gods will of our Salvation and our Salvation it self which is the object of his will As for the first to wit God's Will Faith is not cannot be the Condition of God's Will because it is Eternal and Absolute and cannot possibly depend upon any Condition whatsoever But the second to wit our Salvation the object of God's Will it may have and hath a Condition and God hath absolutely willed that it should have and depend upon a Condition and that Faith should be the Condition on which our obtaining of it doth depend This is his meaning and we agree with him in it The same Authour in another Book his Marrow of Divinity saith That the Promises of the Gospel are without any discrimination proposed unto all together with a Command to believe Medul Theologiae Lib. 1. cap. 26. pag. 112. but they are not performed unto all because Men themselves fail in performing the Condition But unto the Elect the Condition is given that the Promises may be performed to them Which he proves by three Scriptures Eph. 2.8 Acts 5.31 and chap. 11. ver 18. whereof one proves Faith and the other two prove Repentance to be the Gift of God Whence it is most evident that he thought Repentance as well as Faith to be the condition of the Gospel-Promises Again in the same Book and next Chapter he says This Justification is for Christ considered not absolutely Ibid. cap. 27. pag. 118. in which sense Christ is also the cause of effectual vocation but for Christ apprehended by faith which faith follows effectual calling as its effect and goes before Justification as the Instrumental Cause apprehending that Righteousness of Christ upon which Righteousness so apprehended Justification follows In this Passage we highly approve the order in which he placeth things as putting effectual calling in order of nature before faith and Faith before Justification But where he saith that Faith is the Instrumental Cause apprehending the Righteousness of Christ for which we are Justified some possibly may think that he ascribes too much unto Faith yet we think that the difference
between him and those who do not love to say that Faith is an Instrumental Cause is more verbal than real for he doth not say that Faith is the Instrumental cause of our Justification that indeed had been to ascribe too much unto Faith but the Instrumental cause receiving Christ and his Righteousness upon which follows Justification now we all acknowledge Faith to be of an apprehensive receptive nature and that it is the Instrumental means whereby we apprehend and receive Christ and his Righteousness that we may be Justified and our using that Instrumental means as the Lord hath appointed is the receptive condition to which the Promise of Justification is made Here then seems to be a meer difference in words when we mean the same thing Lastly for sincere Obedience he holds it to be in some sense a cause of obtaining Eternal Life which is more than we have ascribed to it in calling it a Condition for a Condition as such hath no causal Influence Ibid. lib. 2. cap. 1. pag. 199. His own Words in the said Book are these Our Obedience indeed is not the principal or meritorious cause of Eternal Life For we receive the right of this life and the life also it self from the Grace and Gift of God for the sake of Christ apprehended by faith Rom 6.23 The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But yet it is a cause some way administring helping and moving forward towards the possession of this life whereof we had the right before for which reason it is called the way in which we walk to Heaven Eph. 2.10 And it promotes our life both of its own nature because it is some degree of life it self still tending to perfection and also by vertue of God's Promise who hath promised Eternal Life to those who walk in his Commandments Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting For though all our Obedience while we live here is imperfect and contaminated with some mixture of sin Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusts against the spirit yet through Christ it is so acceptable unto God that it is crowned with a most great reward The Promises therefore made to the Obedience of the Faithful are not Legal but Evangelical although by some they are said to be of a mixt nature In all this Ames ascribes as much to sincere Obedience and makes it as necessary to Salvation as we do If we say it is a Condition he sayes it is in some sort a Cause of obtaining the poffession of Eternal Salvation And sure to be so a Cause is as much at least as to be a Condition Next let us see what Dr. Twiss faith to these things Indeed he is so clearly on our side that if the Authour of the Letter had been acquainted with his Writings he would have been wiser than to have mentioned his Name in this Cause For thus he writes We say that pardon of sin and salvation of Souls are Benefits purchased by the death of Christ to be enjoyed by Men but how Answer to a Booke called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice pag. 16. not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case and onely in case they believe For like as God doth not confer these on any of ripe years unless they believe so Christ hath not merited that they should be conferred on any but such as believe and accordingly profess that Christ dyed for all that is to obtain pardon of sin and salvation of Soul for all but how not absolutely whether they believe or no but onely conditionally to wit provided they do believe in Christ Again Men are called upon to believe and promised Ibid. pag. 28. that upon their Faith they shall obtain the Grace of Remission of sins and Salvation and these Graces may be said to be offered unto all upon Condition of faith Again As touching the Benefits of pardon of sin Ibid. page 152. and Salvation procured by Christs death we say that Christ died to procure these for all and every one but how not absolutely for then all and every one should be saved but conditionally to wit upon Condition of faith so that if all and every one should believe in Christ all and every one should be saved Again It is untrue that we must have a sufficient assurance Ibid. pag. 154. that Christ died to procure pardon of sin and salvation of soul absolutely for him whom we go about to comfort it is enough that Christ died to procure these Benefits for him conditionally to wit in case he believe and repent and of this we have a most sufficient assurance Again We say not here that any thing becomes true Ibid. pag. 163. by the Faith of him that believes it but onely this that the benefit which is procured for all and every one upon a Condition becomes his and peculiarly his alone who performeth the Condition Again Now Eternal Life we know Ibid. pag. 171. is ordained by God to be the portion of Men not whether they believe or not whether they persevere in Faith Holiness and Repentance or no but onely of such as believe repent and are studious of good Works for it is ordained to be bestowed on Men by way of reward of their Faith Repentance and good Works Again The Promises assured by Baptism Ibid. pag. 189. according to the Rule of God's Word I find to be of two sorts Some are of Benefits procured unto us by Christ which are to be conferred on us conditionally they of this first sort are Justification and Salvation for Abraham received Circumcision as a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Circumcision therefore was an assurance of Justification to be had by Faith if such were Circumcision to the Jews we have good reason to conceive that such is Baptism unto us Christians for as that was unto them so this is the Sacrament of Regeneration unto us And good reason the Sacraments which are Seals of the Covenant should assure that unto us which the word of the Covenant doth make Promise of Now the word of the Covenant of Grace doth promise unto us both Remission of sin and Salvation upon Faith in Christ This by our Doctrine we promise unto all and assure unto all as well as they do by theirs If all and every one should believe we nothing doubt but they should be justified and saved On the other side if not one of ripe years should believe I presume our Adversaries will confess that not one of them should be saved Again Justification and Salvation is promised in the Word Ibid. pag. 190. and assured in the Sacraments upon performance of a Condition on Mans part Now the Condition of Justification and Salvation we all acknowledge to be Faith Thus Dr. Twiss frequently in the foresaid Book And that this was his setled Judgment will appear by what he wrote afterwards in the Year
without just reason we think to satisfie them we may well say what is a great truth that the habitual Seminal Principle of Faith is a qualification of the Person to be justified and that the actual Exercise of Faith is the receptive applicative Condition of Justification This is our first Reason 2. Reason The seminal abiding Principle of Faith is a holy disposition of the Soul whereby it is inclined and fitted to elicit and produce the Acts of Faith This is clear because it is in a special manner the gift of a Holy God and the fruit of his Holy Spirit who cannot be the Authour of any Seed Disposition Inclination or Habit in the Soul of Man but what is good and Holy But now that Seminal abiding Principle of Faith is before Justification This is clear as the Sun because it is before the Act of that Faith whereby alone we are said to be justified and that it is before the justifying act of faith we thus demonstrate That which concurs to the producing of the Act is before the act since it is in part the cause of the act and the cause as such must always be in order of Nature at least before the effect and it implies a contradiction that it should be otherwise But the Seminal abiding Principle of Faith concurs to the producing of the Act of justifying Faith for it is given unto us for that end that it may fit us for inclines us to and help us in acting Therefore it is before the Act of justifying Faith and consequently before Justification it self Here then we have found a Holy Seed and Principle put by God into the Soul before Justification And therefore it is utterly false which the Letter saith that there neither is nor can be any good or holy thing in the Soul or any real change wrought on the Soul before Justification 3. Reason The Act of Justifying Faith is a good and holy thing since it is the effect of God's Holy Spirit and the first Fruit of the foresaid Holy Seed of Faith in the Soul But so it is that even according to our Authours own Principles the Act of Faith is before Justification For as was observed before he says out of Gal. 2.16 We believe that we may be justified and if so then it is evident that our believing is in order of Nature at least before we be justified 2. He holds that Faith is the Instrumental cause of Justification and lays great stress upon that Notion as if it were the great fundamental of his Religion he likewise finds great fault with us for not holding with him that Faith is the Instrumental cause of Justification Now according to this Opinion of his he cannot avoid the placing of the Act of Faith before Justification because it is the Act of Faith that receives Christ and his Righteousness and that is the instrumental cause of Justification But all the World knows that every proper cause as an instrumental cause is in its kind is in order of Nature before its effect Either then some holy good thing is in us before Justification or Actual Faith is no holy good thing and his instrument wherewith he makes such a noise is good for nothing but to blow the Coals of Strife and Contention 4. Reason Before a Man can be justified by Faith there must be a real and holy change in him because of an Unbeliever he must become a Believer and that cannot be without a real change and a holy one too Now that a Man from being an Unbeliever must come to be a Believer in Christ before he can be justified by Faith in Christ is self-evident for how can a Man be justified by Faith in Christ who yet hath no Faith in Christ he must then have Faith before he can be justified by Faith But how shall he get this Faith Can he get Faith whilst he still remains in Unbelief that is impossible For Unbelief either signifies not believing or it signifies positive disbelieving and 1. If it signifie not believing it stands in a contradictory opposition to believing and contradictions are utterly inconsistent Can a Man believe in Christ and not at all believe in Christ at the same time We hope our Authour will not be so ridiculous as to go about to reconcile contradictions 2. If Unbelief signifie positive disbelieving disbelieving in power and prevalency then it stands in a contrary opposition to believing and two contraries in power and prevalency are likewise utterly inconsistent in the same subject at the same time A Man that is in the very Act of positive disbelief and under the power and prevalency of it cannot possibly have an actual Faith in Christ at that time Therefore that an Unbeliever may get actual Faith in Christ and be justified by that Faith he must of necessity be changed really and effectually changed he must be changed from being an Unbeliever to be a Believer he must come off from his sin of not believing or of disbelieving unto the practice of his Duty of believing in Christ that he may be justified by Faith But this cannot possibly be without a real change nay this coming off from the sin of Unbelief to the Duty of Believing is a real change and a holy change too therefore there is and must be a real holy change in Man in order of Nature at least before his Justification by Faith in Christ This is as certain and evident as that Two and Two make Four Yet our Authour finds fault with us for making it a part of our new Scheme that there must be a real change in a man let page 30. that he must be changed from his Unbelief that he may come to Christ by Faith for Justification And elsewhere he says That it is the experience of every Believer that every one who believeth on Jesus Christ page 11. acts that Faith as the chief of Sinners And if so then it follows by necessary consequence that every one who believes on Christ acts that Faith as an Unbeliever for according to him unbelief is the chiefest sin so he writes expresly That Vnbelief is the most provoking to God page 15 16. and the most damning to man of all sins Unbelief then is the chiefest sin and if so certainly the Unbeliever must be the chiefest Sinner and the Believer who acts his Faith as the chief of Sinners must act his Faith as an Unbeliever And that is a very odd way of acting Faith to believe as an Unbeliever Yet no man can help it for if our Authors Doctrine be true it must be so and cannot be otherwise because it is that which the experience of all Believers witnesseth unto and as he writes page 24. The Believer or Accepter of Christ in the very act of believing or accepting of Christ expresly disclaims all things in himself but sinfulness and misery And if he do so then he disclaims that is renounces his Faith it self in
Spirit So that we are compleat in him who is our head our living and life-giving head in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell that out of his fulness we might receive and grace for grace Now will any man of Conscience who hath a competent Understanding of the controversies between us and the Papists say that they give as much to Christ in the point of the Justification of a Sinner as here we do and ever did We ascribe all satisfaction for sin both with respect to eternal and temporal punishment unto Christ and his righteousness We likewise ascribe unto Christ and his righteousness all merit of every good thing whatsoever all merit of pardon of sin of right to eternal life and of eternal life it self and all the degrees of it all merit of whatsoever Grace here and of eternal Glory hereafter Dare any man say that the Papists do all this that they ascribe all satisfaction and all merit unto Christ and his Righteousness And that as we so they deny that men do satisfie Gods justice for sin with respect to any punishment and that they properly merit any the least grace or favour at the hands of God We think no Protestant especially that is a Minister of Christs Gospel will be so impudent or so far imitate the Father of Lyes as to affirm these things to be true which all the World know or may know to be notoriously false There are indeed some Papists for instance Bellarmin lib. 2. da justif cap. 7 Who in dispute grant so much to us that they may seem unto some who do not throughly understand their principles to have yielded the whole cause to us And therefore some of our famous Divines as Dr. Downhame Prideaux Rivet Le Blanc Turretin have not stuck to say that Bellarmin there grants the very thing which Protestants plead for and he had disputed against and that if he would stand to those few words and not contradict them again there might be an end of that Dispute about the imputation of Christs Righteousness Turret Inst part 2. loc 16. p. 709. After Turretin had quoted Bellarmin saying That if the Protestants would have this only that Christs merits are imputed to us because they are given to us by God and we may offer them to the Father for our sins because Christ took upon him the burden of satisfying for us and reconciling us to God the Father their opinion or judgment would be right He adds immediately after this Concession and Confession of Bellarmin Atqui nihil aliud volumus nam quod addit nos velle ita imputari nobis Christi justitiam ut per eam formaliter justi nominemur simus hoc gratis falsò supponit ex praeposterâ suâ bypothesi de justificatione morali Yea but or surely we would have no other thing but what Bellarmin hath here granted us for as to that which he adds that we would have Christs Rigteousness so imputed to us that by it we may be denominated and may be formally Righteous he supposeth it without proof and falsely upon their perverse and preposterous Hypothesis concerning a moral Justification Thus Turretin writes of the Concession and Confession of Bellarmin and other Papists Then he proceeds to shew that notwithstanding those good words of theirs whereby they seem to come over to us yet they and we are never the nearer but remain at as great distance as before because by Gods imputing to us Christs merits in order to Justification they mean that for the sake of Christs merits imputed to us God infuses Grace into us by which infused Grace it is that we are justified according to their principles Whereas we hold that Christs merits are so imputed and communicated to us ut sint causa meritoria sola nosirae justificationis nec ulla alia detur justitia propter quam absolvimur in conspectu dei that they are the alone meritorious cause of our Justification neither is there any other Righteousness for which we are absolved in the sight of God Thus Turretin shews that notwithstanding the seeming agreement between Protestants and Papists in the point of Justification yet the reall difference remains still But how doth he shew it Doth he shew the difference by denying that Christs Righteosness is the meritorious cause of our Justification because the Papists affirm it to be so in some sense No no Turretin hath left that unto our Author to do if he please but he shews that there is a great difference in the point of justification between us and them 1. In that we hold Christs Righteousness to be the meritorious cause of Justification in another sense than they hold it so to be 2. In that we hold Christs Righteousness exclusively of all other to be the only meritorious cause of Justification whereas the Papists deny this and affirm that men are first formally jnstified before God by infused Grace and Justice and that by the exercise of that infused Grace and Inherent Justice they themselves do merit their further Justification in this World and eternal Life and Glory in the World to come And we think this is a very considerable difference Yet this is far from being all the difference for Monsieur Claude who was one of those Divines whom our Author calls middle-way-men in his defence of the Reformation shews Claudes Historical defence of the Reformation par 2. ch 6. p. 217 218. c. that notwithstanding the agreement that there may be in some things between Protestants and Papists in the point of Justification there still remain no less than twelve differences relating to that point whereof many are very considerable we pray all who desire satisfaction in this matter to consult the place in Monsieur Claudes Book which we referr to especially let those who can consult the original in which all is clear whereas some things are obscure and hardly intelligible in the Translation there a man may see the true reason why our first Reformers laid so great stress upon the Controversies they had with the Chuch of Rome about the Article of Justification and that they then had and we at this day still have great cause so to do and yet amongst all those Controversies which Claude observes to be between us and Rome upon that Article there is not a word of that Dispute about the matter and form of Justification about which our Author in his great Wisdom thought fit to inform the ordinary plain people who either want time or judgment to peruse large and learned Tractates Letter p. 35. with p. 6. The man it seems would have the people to think that surely he is mighty well acquainted with all the opinions that have been in the Church and that he can inform them of them all and tell them to a hair which is right and which is wrong therefore he reckons up so many Controversies as have been and are among Reformed
Divines But cui bono to what good end and purpose did it serve to tell simple injudicious people that there are so many differences amongst Protestant Divines about Justification Whatever our Author may think of it others cannot but judge that this course tends rather to confound distract and unsettle injudicious people than to edify and stablish them in the Faith For it is not probable that there are many so very injudicious as to believe that he can lay the Spirits again which he hath raised we mean that he can infalliblydecide the Controversies which he hath brought upon the Stage before the People and so quiet the minds of those whom he hath perplexed and discomposed To us he seems not altogether so well qualified for deciding of Controversies and quieting peoples minds as for throwing dirt on his Brethren and calumniating them to the People as if they differed not from the Papists in holding Christs Righteousness to be the meritorious cause of Justification which if it be not a lye we are sure it is a swinging falsehood and a very great mistake Third Calumny HIS Third Calumny is to be seen in the 8th and 9th Pages of the Letter and it is That we deny the Headship of Christ and not only deny his Suretiship his being the Second Adam and a publick Person but also treat these things with contempt All which is utterly false and on the contrary we declare that with all our hearts we own Christs Headship and Suretiship his being the Second Adam and a Publick Person For his Headship we believe according to the Seventh Canon of the Synod of Dort on the first head of Doctrine concerning Divine Predestination Tâ—at Deus Christum ab reterno Mediatorem omnium Electorum caput salutisque fundamentum constituit God from eternity ordained Christ to be the Mediator and Head of all the Elect and the foundation of Salvation We believe also according to the Suffrage of our Brittain Divines read in and approved by the same Synod That Christ is the head and foundation of the Elect so that all saving Graces prepared in the Decree of Election are bestowed upon the Elect only for Christ and through Christ English Translation of the Suffrage p. 5 6. This was their Position upon which they say That God in the eternal Election of particular Men by one and the self same Act doth both assign Christ to be a head to them and also doth appoint them according to his good pleasure to be the Members of Christ to wit in time when they believed For his Suretiship doth this man think that he can make the simple People believe that we are so impious as to deny it and treat it with contempt when as the Apostle saith expresly that Jesus was made a Surety of a better Testament Heb. 7.22 But it may be our Author means that some of us deny the Aminomian notion of a Surety and treat their notion with contempt and indeed that may be but what then Doth it follow that therefore we deny Christs real and true Suretiship which God hath revealed in his Word for our Faith and Comfort Before that consequence be admitted our Author must prove that the Antinomian notion is the real true Scripture-notion of Christs Suretiship which we do indeed deny and contemn as a very false unscriptural notion and challenge him to prove it by Scripture As for Christs being the Second Adam it is an abominable falshood that we deny it or treat it with contempt so far are we from so doing that on the contrary we do most firmly believe it and openly confess that as the First Adam was the cause of Sin and Death unto all who in the ordinary way of human Generation partake of the natural Bitth so Christ as the Second Adam is the cause of Righteousness and Life unto all who by Divine Regeneration partake of the Spiritual Birth But as no man suffers any actual prejudice by the first Adam before he be naturally begotten and generated so no man actually receives in himself any saving benefit from Christ as the Second Adam before he be Spiritually begotten and regenerated our meaning is that no man actually receives from Christ before the time of his Spiritual Regeneration any benefit that hath a necessary and infallible connexion with Salvation by the Constitution and Ordination of God Lastly That we deny and contemn Christs being a Publick Person is false So far are we from that That on the contrary we sincerely declare to all the World that we most firmly and stedfastly believe that Christ is a Publick Person that he is the publick Prophet Priest and King of the whole Catholick Church and that it is his proper incommunicable Glory to be such a publick Person Fourth Calumny HIS Fourth Calumny is that we teach such Doctrine in the point of Justification as neither we our selves nor any other sensible man dare stand to at Death This is to be seen in the 18th and 19th pages of his Letter If this were true we confess it might justly prejudice People against our Doctrine and give them and our selves too cause enough to suspect it to be false But this is like the rest utterly false and contrary to Experience For our Doctrine is as we have said often that Christs most perfect satisfactory Meritorious Righteousness is to us and all that are saved instead of that perfect sinless Righteousness which we ought to have had in our selves but since the fall neither have nor can have and that by and for the said Righteousness of Christ alone we are justified from the guilt of all our sins of Omission and Commission Original and Actual and are accepted as Righteous before God and receive a Right and Title to Eternal Life This is the only Righteousness which we crust to as the cause of our Justification this Righteousness we hold to be given unto us if through Grace we sincerely believe in Christ and repent of our sins and that on the account of this Righteousness we shall obtain eternal Life and Salvation if through Grace we persevere to the end in Faith and Repentance and in leading a holy Life as was before explained But on the contrary we maintain that the forsaid Righteousness of Christ is not given to any for their actual Justification before they first through Grace sincerely believe and repent and that none shall obtain eternal Life and Salvation on the account of Christs Righteousness but those who after they have first believed and repented do not Apostatize either totally or finally but in opposition to such Apostacy persevere in Faith repentance and holy Gospel-obedience unto Death This is the summ and substance of our whole Doctrine in the point of Justification Now why we or any sincere Christan should be afraid to stand to this Doctrine at the hour of death and in the day of Judgment it is above our Capacity to understand for this is the Doctrine which
us by the Devil and the World or by our own mistaken Consciences And who dare deny the Truth of this May not the Devil and the World falsly accuse do not they too often falsly accuse us and say that we are Hypocrites and have neither true Faith nor Repentance When this Brother accuseth us so falsly as he doth in his Letter we need not think it strange that the Devil and the World do falsly accuse us Yea we have that within our own breasts that may sometimes through the temptations of Satan or the remainders of sinful Darkness and Unbelief falsly accuse us of predominant Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitency Now if at the same time we are really true Converts and through Grace sincerely believe and repent what Man that is endued with common Sense and reason can reasonably deny that our sincere Faith and Repentance is a sufficient Defence and Justification of us against all such false accusations Sure we are that our infinitely Gracious God and Saviour allows our plea and we most heartily bless his Name for it hath sometimes by his Spirit and Grace sensibly helped us to make our defence by clearing up to us the sincerity of our Faith and Repentance and by enabling us to take unto our selves the Comfort and to give him all the Glory of our being sincere penitent Believers notwithstanding all that the Devil World or Flesh say falsly to the contrary But as for those who are impenitent Unbelievers indeed all the World knows that the Faith and Repentance which they have not can never justifie them from the Unbelief and Impenitency which they really have deeply rooted in their hearts In short We maintain that Christ's meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness only justifies us at Gods Bar from all our sins against any Law of God whatsoever as soon as we through Grace performe the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance And then that sincere Faith and Repentance is our Defence and Justification before our most Gracious God and before all honest Men against all false accusations of our not having performed the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance But as for those who continue still in Unbelief and Impenitence they have nothing to defend and justifie them but if they live and dye in that stare their Unbelief and Impenitence will bind upon them to Eternity the Curse and Condemnation of the Law and moreover will bring upon them the sorer Vengeance of the despised Gospel John 3.18 19 20. and Heb. 2.2 3. and 12.25 Thus Achilles is on his Legs again without receiving the least hurt from the weak efforts of that assailant who hath nothing to say to him without misrepresenting him but that he doth not like his Language pretending that it is unscriptural let p. 41 42. dangerous and tends to the dishonouring of Christs Righteousness c. but that pretence is utterly false For 1. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Gospel-Obedience is a righteousness is evident from the Nature of the thing For 1. They are Duties which we owe unto the Lord our God and it is self-evident that it is a righteous thing to give unto God the things that are Gods 2. It is confessed by our Divines in their Disputes against the Papists that our Faith Repentance sincere Obedience and Holyness is a Righteousness For they generally grant that we have a two-fold Righteousness 1. The Righteousness of Christ imputed to us 2. A Righteousness inherent in us and adherent to us which we receive from Christ by his Spirit and Grace This is expresly confessed by that same Bishop Downham in his Book of Justification which our Author page 12. of his Letter commends as an Orthodox Book There that Reverend and Learned Divine affirms that we are Righteous both by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us which is our Principal Righteousness and likewise by another Righteousness wrought in us and performed by us which is our secondary subordinate Righteousness If our Authour should have the Confidence to deny this it will be proved against him by Authority both Divine and Humane 2. This our subordinate Righteousness is rightly termed Evangelical because it is required by the Word of the Gospel wrought by the Spirit of the Gospel and is a complying with the terms and a performing of the Condition of the Gospel 3. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Obedience is a subordinate Righteousness by which we are defended and justified against the false charge of Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitence is so far from being unscriptural that it agrees exactly with the very Letter Scope and Sense of the Scripture in the second Chapter of James if that Epistle be Scripture as I hope we all believe that it is for there a Man is expresly in formal terms said to be justified by works James 2.21 24 25. which words can signifie no less than this That the good Works and sincere Obedience of a good Man do justifie him against the false accusation of being an Hypocrite or prophane Libertine As to what our Authour says in page 41. That works of Righteousness are only a Justification of Faith and not of the Person of the Believer it is a notorious falsehood and expresly contradicts the Spirit of God who faith that a man is justified by works and particularly that Abraham and Rahab were justified by works and not that their Faith only was justified by Works We do not deny but that good Works do justifie Faith but we also affirm with James that they do likewise justifie the person of the Believer But how is that Why they justifie his Person in tantum in so far as they are his Defence and Justification against the false charge of his being a Hypocrite or Libertine and not a true penitent obedient Believer In all this neither doth James nor we after him dishonour the Righteousness of Christ in the least for our inherent and adherent Righteousness is intirely subordinate to Christ's imputed Righteousness it hath also quite another Vse and Office than Christ's imputed Righteousness and it proceeds from it as the only meritorious cause thereof We abhor all Opinions and Practices that have the least real tendency to dishonour Christ or his Righteousness We ascribe this to Christ as his peculiar incommunicable Glory that as was said before his righteousness alone comes in the place of that personal perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant of Innocency and Law of Works And as for that personal imperfect yet sincere Righteousness which through the Grace of Christ we attain unto by Believing Repenting and Obeying the Gospel it is nothing but the Condition of the new Covenant by performing whereof we get and keep an Interest in Christs imputed Righteousness by and for which alone we are justified from all our sins of what kind soever and have a right unto and at last get possession of Eternal Life and Glory in God's Heavenly Kingdom We have
have everlasting Life And Art 6. he sayes that Faith embraces and appropriates to ones self Christ and all that is in him for since be is offered us to be possessed by us with this condition if we believe in him one of the two thâ—n must necessarily be to wit either that all is not in Christ which is necessary to our Salvation Or if all be in him then he possesseth all things who possesseth Christ by Faith And in his short Confession Art 10. Itaque meritò concludere possumus in uno Jesu Christo contra omnia mala quae conscièntias nostras terrere possunt praesentissima remedia reperiri Sed addenda est conditio si ista remedia nobis applicemus Therefore we may justly conclude that in one Jesus Christ there are found soveraign infallible remedies against all the evils that can terrifie our Consciences But this condition must be added if we apply those remedies to our selves We see Beza put it into his Confession of Faith as an Article of his Belief that the Gospel Covenant hath a Condition and is conditional The same Authour in his little Book of Questions and Answers the First Part to the Question You say then that Good Works are necessary to Salvation he Answers that if Faith be necessary to Salvation then Good Works are likewise necessary to it non tamen ut salatis causam yet not as the cause of Salvation for we are justified and therefore live onely by Faith in Christ but as something that is necessarily joined with Faith as Paul saith they are the Children of God who are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.14 And John that he is righteous who doth righteousness 1 John 4.7 So that it plainly appears they are contentious Men who condemn the necessity of Good Works as a false Doctrine Thus Beza And we do no more say that Good Works are necessary as the cause of Salvation than he doth nor do we any more than he say that Good Works without Faith are the necessary Condition of obtaining Salvation On the contrary we say that Faith is the Spring of all our good Motions and runs through them all and that it is Good Works done from a Principle of Faith and Love which are the necessary Condition of obtaining Salvation Lastly To the Question What then if Faith be first given to a Man at the point of Death For this seems to have been the case of the penitent Thief who was crucified with Christ What good Works can such a Man do Beza Answers Yea the Faith of that Thief in a most short time was unspeakably energetical or effectual and operative for he reproved the other Thief for his blasphemies and wickedness he abhorred his own Crimes with a firm and most wonderful Faith he acknowledged Christ to be an Eternal King and prayed unto him as a Saviour under the very ignominy and shame of the Cross when all his own Disciples were silent and spoke not one word for him he did also openly rebuke the Jews for their Cruelty and impious Expressions But so it is that Confession of sin Prayer to God the Father through Christ and thanksgiving are the most excellent Works of the First Table which in no Man can be wholly separated from Faith And although some may be so prevented by Death as not to have power to shew forth any works of the Second Table yet in such a Man Faith is not therefore to be esteemed idle and unfruitful because it hath Love conjoined though not in Energie and Act yet in Power and Principle Thus far Beza To which we agree as we said before In such extraordinary cases God requires no more of Men as absolutely necessary to their Salvation than they have time and strength to perform but accepts the will for the deed through Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 8.12 Our next Witness is Mr. Fox the Authour of the Book of Martyrs The World hath been told already in the defence of Gospel-Truth pag. 35. that holy Mr. Fox in his Latine Book of Christ freely Justifying maintains that Faith is the proper receptive applicative Condition of Justification and that Repentance is the dispositive Condition it is that which prepares us for receiving Justification But some who read that Discourse of his in the Book of Martyrs which our Authour directs them unto may possibly object that in the second Volume of the Book of Martyrs pag. 192. he saith The Promise of Life and Salvation is offered unto us freely without any Condition We Answer It is true he doth say so but he means that it is without any Meritorious Legal Condition and all such Conditions we reject as much as he did or any Man can do as appears by what we have said at large in giving account of our Judgment concerning the Conditionality of the Covenant That this was Mr. Fox's true meaning appears from his own Words in the same Page a few Lines after The Voice of the Gospel saith he differeth from the Voice of the Law in this that it hath no Condition adjoined of our meriting but only respecteth the Merits of Christ the Son of God If our Authour will not admit of this explication of Fox's Words that he only rejected all Meritorious and Legal Conditions but will needs have it that he absolutely rejects all Conditions of the Covenant of Grace both Legal and Evangelical then we must say that he hath little respect to the Memory and Credit of Mr. Fox since he makes him most shamefully to contradict himself And was he fit then to write a Book of Martyrs or to be himself a Witness for the Truth against the Papists Can he be justly admitted to bear witness against others who by self-contradiction is a false Witness against himself Truly we should be loath so to expose that good Man to the scorn of the Papists and therefore we positively affirm that he doth not contradict himself at all because the Conditions are of different kinds which he denies and affirms He denies that there are any properly meritorious legal Conditions of the new Covenant and so do we He affirms that there is a proper Evangelical Condition to wit Faith and constant Confession They are his own Words in his Latine Book aforesaid And we join with him in affirming the same And now we do further make it known to the People that Mr. Fox in the said Book concerning Christ freely Justifying doth grant that after we are freely justified by Faith in Christ sincere Obedience to Christ's Commandments is necessary to retain or not to lose our Justification These are his own Words Quod autem dici solet per obedientiam retineri justificationis gratiam Page 369 370. ut hoc concedatur aliquo modo non tamen hinc c. As for that which useth to be said that the Grace of Justification is retained by Obedience though that be granted in some sense yet it doth not follow from hence that Justification
per suos Ministros c. When the Voice of God by his Ministers so founds outwardly in the Ears of the Body that together with it the Spirit of God inwardly fits or prepares the Mind of the Hearer that it may be able to understand and Efficaciously disposes the Will to Assent or rather Consent Then they proceed to the next Tertium est fides vera c. The third is true Faith to wit when from Effectual Calling there arifeth the Knowledge of Salvation understood and again Assent follows that Knowledge and that such an Assent as applies the Promise of the Gospel to the Believers own Conscience c. Lastly They say that the fourth and fifth means are the Effects of true Faith in the Elect and they are Justification and after that Sanctification and Perseverance to the end From this Testimony of the Embdane Divines it is as evident that in their Judgment there are some Holy saving Preparations and Dispositions in the Souls of Gods select People before they be justified as it is evident that the second is before the fourth for Effectual Vocation whereby those Holy Dispositions are wrought in the Soul is the second and Justification is the fourth between which actual Faith comes in as the Third So that if we can but reckon two three four and can understand that if the second be before the third it must be also before the fourth then may we see that there are some Holy Dispositions and Qualifications in the Soul arising from Effectual Calling before Justification This was read in and approved by the Synod and therefore here we have again the Testimony of the whole Synod of Dort for Holy Dispositions and Qualifications in the Soul before Justification It would be almost endless to run over all the Suffrages of the several Colledges of Divines and to quote what they have said to this purpose therefore we shall pass that as superfluous and conclude with the Testimony of our own Brittish Divines which is to be seen in their Collegiate Suffrage translated into English and Printed in the year 1629. Their Words are God doth regenerate by a certain â—inward and wonderful Operation The Suffrage of the Divines of Great Brittain Art 3.4 pag. 70.80 81. the Souls of the Elect being stirred up and prepared by the foresaid Acts of his Grace and doth as it were create them anew by infusing his quickning Spirit and seasoning all the Faculties of the Soul with new qualities Here by Regeneration we understand not every Act of the Holy Spirit which goes before or tends to Regeneration but that Act which assoon as it is there we conclude presently or as the Original hath it it may presently be rightly affirmed This man is now born of God This Spiritual Birth presupposes a Mind moved by the Spirit using the Instrument of Gods Word whence also we are said to be born again by the incorruptible Seed of the Word 1 Pet. 1.23 Which must be observed lest any one should idlely and slothfully expect an Enthusiastical Regeneration that is to say wrought by a sudden Rapture without any foregoing Action either of God the Word or Himself Furthermore we conclude that the Spirit regenerating us doth convey it self into the most inward Closet of the Heart and frame the Mind anew by curing the sinful Inclinations thereof and by giving it strength and a formal Principle In the Original it is Principium formale Or Active Power to produce spiritual and saving Actions Ephes 2.10 We are his Workman-ship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ezek. 36.26 I will take away the stony Heart and give you an Heart of Flesh From this Work of God cometh our Ability to perform spiritual Actions leading to Salvation as the act of Believing 1 John 5.1 Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Of Loving 1 John 4.7 Every one that loveth is born of God Lastly all works of Piety John 15.5 Without mere can do nothing Again Upon the former habitual Conversion Pag. 83.84 followeth our actual Conversion wherein out of our reformed or changed Will for the Original is ex mutata Voluntate God himself draweth forth the very act of our Believing and Converting and this our Will being first moved by God doth it self also work by turning unto God convertendo se ad Deum and Believing that is by executing eliciendo producing withal it s own proper lively Act. We say that God doth not only work that habitual Conversion or Change for the Word in the Original is Mutationem whereby a man gets new Spiritual Ability to Believe and Convert but also that God doth by a certain wonderful Efficacy of his secret Operation Pag. 85. extract out of our regenerated Sanatâ cured Will the very Act of Believing and Converting So the Scripture speaketh in divers places John 6.65 The Father giveth us Power to come unto the Son that is to Believe Phil. 1.29 To you it is given to Believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Act of Believing 2 Tim. 2.25 God giveth Repentance This Action of God in producing Faith doth not hinder Pag. 86. but rather is the cause that the Will doth work together with God and produce its own Act and therefore this Act of Believing howsoever it is sent or given from God yet because it is performed by Man is Attributed to Man himself Rom. 10.10 With the Heart man believeth unto Righteousness 2 Cor. 4.13 I believed therefore have I spoken Again This Action of God doth not hurt the freedom of the Will but strengthen it Pag. 87.88 Here we deny that by the Divine Operation there is any wrong offered to the Will or any hurt done to it for it is in the Original negamus loesionem voluntatis for God doth so work in Nature even when he raiseth and advanceth it above its proper Sphere that he doth not destroy the particular Nature of any thing but leaves to every thing it s own Way and Motion in actione producenda in producing its Action When therefore God worketh in the Wills of Men by his Spirit of Grace he makes them move in their own natural way or course that is freely and then they do the work the more freely by how much they are the more effectually stirred up by the Spirit of God John 8.36 If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Verily it seemeth incredible to us that God who made our Wills and gifted them with Liberty should not be able to work on them or in them after such a manner as that he may produce any good Action by them without hurting their Nature that is freely Ut quamlibet bonam actionem per easdem illaesâ earum naturâ hoc est liberé eliciat By these passages quoted out of the Suffrage of our Divines in the Synod of Dort it is most evident that
pleased him This Proposition is self-evident for it is of the very Essence of Free-will in God the First and Freest Agent that in all external temporal things which fall under his Free-will he might have done them or not have done them he might have done them thus as he doth them or he might have done them otherwise than he hath done if he had pleased But antecedently to his free Purpose and Decree the whole ordering of the Covenant of Grace and of its terms and receptive Condition depended upon God's Free-will and Soveraign Pleasure Hence the Gospel is called the Mystery of God's Will and the Revelation of the Gospel unto us is said to be the making known unto us the Mystery of his Will according to his Good Pleasure which he hath purposed in himself Eph. 1.9 Now if the whole Mystery of the Covenant of Grace depended on God's Free-will then the ordaining of this or that to be the receptive Condition of the Covenant depended on his Will also and so antecedently to the free Purpose of his Will there was no natural necessity that Faith alone and no other thing should be the receptive Condition of the Covenant 2. It is not yet past Dispute amongst Divines Whether antecedently to God's free Purpose and Decree to save us by the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ alone he might not have freely purposed and decreed to have pardoned and saved us some other way Amongst our Reformed Divines Calvin Twiss and Rutherford and others were of this Opinion yea even Dr. Owen himself was once of this Opinion though afterwards he changed his mind in that as he did in other things witness what he wrote in his Book called The Death of Death in the Death of Christ Or A Treatise of Redemption c. Book II. Chap. II. Page 57. The Foundation of this whole Assertion seems to me to be false and erroneous viz that God could not have Mercy on Mankind unless satisfaction were made by his Son It is true indeed supposing the Decree Purpose and Constitution of God that so it should be that so he would manifest his Glory by the way of vindicative Justice it was impossible that it should otherwise be for with the Lord there is neither change nor shadow of turning Lam. 1.18 1 Sam. 15.29 But to assert positively that absolutely and antecedently to his Constitution he could not have done it is to me an unwritten Tradition the Scripture affirming no such thing neither can it be gathered from thence in any good consequence if any one shall deny this we will try what the Lord will enable us to say unto it and in the mean time rest contented in that of Augustin though other ways of saving us were not wanting to his Infinite Wisdome yet certainly the way which he did proceed in was the most convenient because we find he proceeded therein Thus Dr. Owen in that Book and though he unsaid this again and embraced that Opinion which he then called an unwritten Tradition yet there are other Learned Divines of that same Opinion at this Day Mistake us not for we do not say that we are of it but that some are and that the matter is not yet past dispute And the Consequence which we infer is undeniable that if God antecedently to his Constitution and Degree could have pardoned and saved us some other way without the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ then surely he could have offered and promised us Pardon and Salwation without the Condition of Faith in Christ and upon what other Condition he pleafed 3. Though we grant that upon supposition that God would pardon our Sins and save our Souls it did not consist with the Glory of his Justice and Honour of his Law and Government to do it without Satisfaction for the Offence we had given and the Dishonour we had done him by our Sins and therefore it was necessary not onely from the free purpose of God's Will but also from the nature of his vindictive governing Justice that Christ by suffering in our stead should satisfie his Justice for our Sins yet doth it not follow at all by any natural necessity arising immediately from the essential nature of Faith without any appointment and constitution of God's Will that Faith because it is of a receptive nature and nothing else shall be the Condition upon the performance whereof Christ with his Satisfaction and Merits shall be not only offered but given unto us For as Dr. Owen saith very well in his little Book of the Trinity and Satisfaction of Christ pag. 208. The satisfaction made for Sin being not made by the Sinner himself there must of necessity be a Rule Order and Law-constitution how the Sinner may come to be interested in it and made Partaker of it for the consequent of the freedome of one by the suffering of another is not matural or necessary but must proceed and arise from a Law-constitution Compact and Agreement Now the way constituted and appointed is that of Faith or believing as explained in the Scripture Thus Dr. Owen To which we add that the Scripture explains it thus Gal. 5.6 That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but Faith which worketh by Love From this Passage of Dr. Owen and the Argument contained in it it is most evident that it doth not arise immediately and necessarily from the receptive nature of Faith that it is the Condition of the Offer and Promise but from the Will of God constituting and appointing it to be the Condition Faith's receptive apprehensive nature is but a remote Reason of its Conditionality and doth but make it fit to be the Condition if God please to make it so And it is God's Will and Law-constitution onely which is the nearest and formal Reason of its Conditionality and which doth immediately and formally make it to be the Condition of the Covenant Joh. 6.40 This is no new notion of ours we find it long agoe before many of us were born Walaeus Doctor and Professor of Divinity in Leyden in his Enchiridion Religionis Reformatae pag. 112. said that Fides nos Justificat sed relativè considerata quia haec est Voluntas Dei ut qui credit in Christum ejus meriti fiat Particeps Faith Justifies us but relatively considered because this is the Will of God that he who believes in Christ shall be made Partaker of his Merit And not onely Mr. Baxter but Cartwright also pag. 179. of his Book against Baxter agrees with him in acknowledging this Truth his Words are these The Reason why Christs Righteousness cannot Justifie except it be apprehended by Faith is this That God doth require Faith of us Faith I say apprehending Christ and his Righteousness believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that so we may be Justified Gods Will is properly the cause yet there is a congruity in the thing it self an aptitude you grant in the nature of Faith It is of an
apprehensive nature and its apprehending Christs Righteousness the Will of God still presupposed doth make this Righteousness ours even as a Gift becomes ours by our receiving of it These Worthy Divines we see were of our Opinion That it is not the nature of Faith it self nor its relation unto Christ which is essential to it that doth formally make it to be the Instrumental Means or Condition of our Justification but it is the Will of God ordaining it to that Office It is true they held and we with them hold that there is a congruity and fitness in Faith to be the receptive and applicative Condition of the Promise and of Christ and his Righteousness therein because it is of a receptive applicative nature yet that doth not formally make it the Condition For notwithstanding its fitness to be the Condition yet it would never have actually and formally been the Condition of Justification nor would it ever have availed us to Justification if God by an Act of his Free-will had not made it the Condition of Justification Is not Justification a great Blessing and Benefit which is in the power and at the disposal of God and Christ and may not God do what he will with his own may not he give his Blessing and Benefit upon what Terms and Conditions he and his Son shall think fit to agree upon This surely is so evident that no reasonable Man can have reason to deny it And then the consequence is as evident that it is not any thing intrinsecal to Faith and so not its relation to Christ which is intrinsecal to it that can nextly and formally make it the Instrumental Means or Condition of Justification but it is and must be the Will of God and his Son Christ Jesus agreeing that Faith shall be and ordaining Faith to be the Instrumental Means Terms and Condition of our Justification For these Reasons we dissent and all Men that love the Truth should dissent from our Authour if by saying that an accepting Faith is the native Condition of the Offer of Christ and of all his fulness he mean That Faith of its own nature necessarily is the condition of the promise and could not possibly 〈◊〉 otherwise so that 〈◊〉 being the condition doth necessarily and wholly arise from its own intrinsecal nature and not at all from the Will of God and Christ constituting and ordaining it do that Office of being the Condition of the promise We dare not uscribe so much Vertue and Efficacy to the intrinsecal Nature of Faith in the matter of our Justification But if by saying That an accepting Faith is the Native condition of the offer of Christ and his fulness our Authour means no more but this That Faith being of a receptive Nature it hath a natural aptitude and fitness to be made the condition of the promise of Justification and that that was a reason why it pleased God and Christ to make and constitute Faith to be the receptive condition of Justification we shall not oppose but join with him in this sense of his words But though we grant him for the reason aforesaid that Faith is the one native receptive condition of Justification yet we can never grant that Faith taken in his sense for the one single Grace or it may be for one single Act of the one single Grace of Faith is the only condition of Justification and much less that it is the only condition of Glorification For as Faith is the one yea and only receptive condition so true Repentance it the dispositive condition of Justification or of the Person to be justified in order to his Justification And moreover Repontance is as native a condition in its kind as Faith in its kind it is us native a dispositive condition as Faith is a native receptive condition For sincere Repentance being a Godly sorrow for having displeased and dishonoured God and a firm resolution through Grace to do so no more it doth from the very nature of the thing dispose and prepare the Soul for pardon and then God hath likewise for that reason Willed Ordained and Constituted Repentance to be the dispositive Condition of pardon of Sin and Justification As we proved before by plain testimonies of God's Holy Word And though Faith and Repentance be equally necessary from the Will Ordination and Constitution of God and Christ yet of the two Repentance seems to be the most necessary with that kind of necessity which ariseth precisely from the nature of the thing For it seems to be absolutely impossible because repugnant to the perfection of God's Holy Nature to Justifie Pardon and Love with a Love of Complacency a Rebellious Sinner whilst he is impenitent and continues his full Resolution to go on in his Rebellion and Enmity against Heaven The sense of this Truth seems to have been much upon the very Reverend and Learned Mr. Clarkson's Spirit and therefore it made him say in his Discourse of free Grace page 129 130 131. If the terms or conditions be such as it is not possible in the nature of the thing that the mercy offered should be effected without them then the offers of saving mercies are as free and gracious as can be as there is any possibility they should be and no more can be desired Then he takes Repentance for his instance we do not say that he altogether excludes the other terms but that Repentance is that which he Jingles out to instance in and which he much insists upon as taken in its Latitude And thus he goes on Let me clear this in one of those terms which is comprehensive of all the rest It is required of those who will partake of Saving Mercies that they leave sin forsake their evil ways Prov. 28.13 Isa 55.7 2 Tim. 2.19 This is the summ of all Conditions and whatever is required in other terms is included in this or may be resolved into it Now it is not possible that saving Mercies should otherwise be had that they should be received or enjoyed but upon these terms not only because the Lord would have it so but because the Nature of the thing doth so require it that it is not otherwise feasible for sin is our impotency Now can we possibly have strength in the inner man if we will not part with our weakness Sin is our deformity that which renders our Souls loathsome and ugly in the eye of God Now can our Souls be made lovely if we will not part with that which is our defilement and ugliness Can we be made clean if we will not part with our leprosie Sin is our enmity against God therein it consists now can we possibly be reconciled if we will not lay aside our enmity Sin is the wound the mortal Disease of the Soul and can you be healed if you will not part with your Disease Sin is your Misery and can you be happy if not part with your misery Happyness consists in the enjoyment of God