Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	faith_n	heart_n	sprinkle_v	2,758	5	11.3113	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76812	The covenant sealed. Or, A treatise of the sacraments of both covenants, polemicall and practicall. Especially of the sacraments of the covenant of grace. In which, the nature of them is laid open, the adæquate subject is largely inquired into, respective to right and proper interest. to fitnesse for admission to actual participation. Their necessity is made known. Their whole use and efficacy is set forth. Their number in Old and New Testament-times is determined. With several necessary and useful corollaries. Together with a brief answer to Reverend Mr. Baxter's apology, in defence of the treatise of the covenant. / By Thomas Blake, M.A. pastor of Tamworth, in the counties of Stafford and Warwick.	Blake, Thomas, 1597?-1657.; Cartwright, Christopher, 1602-1658.	1655 (1655)	Wing B3144; Thomason E846_1; ESTC R4425	638,828	706

conclusion with me is de fide when it is concluded 4. He saies I must have better proof before I can believe that it is assurance of our own sincerity or actual justification which the Apostle calls the full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 And I think he is the first man amongst orthodox Divines that hath doubted that assurance of acceptance is meant in that place Faith is that grace say the last Annotations whereby we either do or may approach unto God with full assurance of acceptance Is not that boldnesse in our addresses mentioned ver 19. an evident symptome of it And is not sincerity fet forth in those words having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water as the basis or bottome of it not of our acceptance but of our assurance I must hear somewhat more before I can question it There followes 5. And as hardly can I discern assurance of our sincerity in the description of faith Heb. 11.1 unlesse you mean that hope is part of faith and assurance the same with hope both which need more proof Hope may be without assurance and when it is joyned with it yet is not the same thing onely such assurance is a singular help to the exercise of hope And can you not discern a double encomium of faith in those words The first with respect to things past and present as well as things to come where it is said to be The evidence of things not seen Faith makes that evident which otherwise would not be known The other respective to things to come and that not evil but onely good not things feared but hoped expressed in these words Faith is the substance of things hoped for both of them rather expressing what faith does then what faith is and I know not why that speech of hope should be brought in here when it is onely said that the good things hoped for are that which faith realizes to the soul It is said further 6. It is true that faith may be said as you speak to realize salvation to the soul that is when the soul doubteth whether there be indeed such a glory and salvation to be expected and enjoyed by believers as Christ hath promised ere faith apprehendeth it as real or certain and so resolves the doubt And is this all that faith can possibly do and for which this high praise is here given unto it Against this I say First This was expressed in the former branch the evidence of things not seen faith believes a heaven as well as a creation Secondly a faith short of justifying may do this an historical faith assents to the highest dogmatical truthes Thirdly will you have the full assurance of hope Heb. 6.11 to be no other then to get assurance that there is a heaven though we shall never come to heaven which would be a contradiction for hope hath possession in expectation Fourthly doth not our hope enter into that within the vail whither our forerunner is gone before us Heb. 6.19 and are we not saved by hope Rom. 8.24 Faith then being said to be the substance of things hoped for it doth not barely tell us that there is a heaven that is too lank and lean a commendation of it but the office of it is to realize the possession of it to us It followes But when the doubt is whether I be a true believer saith resolves it not Faith hath its hand in the resolving of this doubt in believing from the Scriptures what are the Symptomes or cognizances of true believing and gathering them up by reflex upon it self It followes And when the doubt is whether this certain glory and salvation shall be mine faith onely cooperateth to the resolve of it by affording us one of the propositions but not both and not wholly the conclusion If faith affords us one of the propositions and findes the other in the Scriptures that is to me sufficient It followes 7. I am of Dr. Amesius his mind that it is one of faiths most eminent acts by which it is there described But undoubtedly you were not so in your sixth animadversion when you left it so low as we have heard and made it no more then the faith of wicked men may reach There is added But so think not they that tell us that is none of the instrumental justifying act which is there described But doubtlesse they may very well think so This here mentioned is a more eminent work of faith then that of justifying as a child on a Giants head is further removed from the earth and nearer the clouds then the Giant himself Faith that gives assurance presupposeth the justifying act already done by it self and addes more to it when a man believes savingly there is Certitudo objecti he that believes shall be saved but this here mentioned is Certitudo subjecti when the good hoped for is assured to the soul If there be any other promise made of God for good this work of faith I confesse takes it in and I do not believe that the Apostle doth limit this work of faith to the hope of salvation but I am sure he doth not exclude it that being the chiefest thing in our hope that is undoubtedly chiefly intended and might well by me be mentioned It followes 8. This which you took to be a good answer is that great mistake which hath so hardened the Papists against us and were it not for this point I should not have desired much to have said any thing to you of the rest about conditional sealing as being confident that we mean the same thing in the main If that be that great mistake I am still in the mistake and you are the first man that ever went about to rectifie it but you herein fail that you shew not wherein the mistake lies Those Divines that deny faith to be assurance that were as much as to define a man by such excellencies that are to be found in few men and so to exclude the common pitch of men from the species of mankind do not yet deny but that faith may attain to assurance It followes 9. You forsake them that use to give this answer when you confine it to those onely that with assured grounds and infallible demonstrations can make it good to themselves that they believe i. e. savingly I think that they as well as I confine it to those that you here mention It followes I doubt that answer then will hold but to very few if you mean by assured grounds c. such as they are actually assured are good and demonstrative I believe that strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life and few there be that find it There are not many we may fear that do savingly believe and many of those are not yet assured that they do believe and to this Mr. Baxter hath spoke abundantly sufficient in his Saints rest It followes 10. Demonstrations

expresse words that he hath said it will it not be said on Mr. Baxters credit that I said it and wrong'd him in it But I desire the Reader to peruse the whole Chapter and in case he find not Mr. Baxters name there at all then he must needs conclude that this was spoken at least improvidè et inconsultè and some testimony of humane frailty given in it I recite indeed some passages of Mr. Baxters in that Chapter without his name being unwilling indeed to make it known that he was in any such opinion or that he had laid any such charge of intolerable ignorance upon learned Divines as there he does But of this he hath heard enough already from other hands How can he tell that I mean him in those passages seeing I never named him but that the words are his And when these words now in question produc'd at a good distance from the other are none of his who can say that I meant him much lesse can they say that I have expressely charged them uppon him If they be in any odde corner of his book as he saies he knows not but that they may be he then may be yet charged with them and therefore injuriously complains of any injurious charge upon him But to return to what we have in hand Though in Mr. Baxters five first Reasons there is much very well worth animadversion yet seeng there is nothing but that which hath either already been spoken to or else that tends to the overthrow of that senselesse sottish tenent which I professe to abhorre I shall passe them by For his additionall 26. Arguments which he sets I know not for what reason at a great distance from the rest the greatest part of them are brought and mightily fortified to beat down that which I think never any but himselfe set up I think his misconceit first hatch't it and I am well content to stand by and see him murder it For so many of them as look at all in opposition to any thing that I hold I shall take them into consideration His two first arguments drawn from Authority Arguments bowrrowed from humane authority examined the first of the Assembly of Divines and others of a number of Fathers are brought to prove that the profession of a justifying faith is required to baptisme and what is that to me who never denyed it but in plain words have often affirmed it It is sufficiently implyed where I require a dogmatical faith to Baptisme A dogmatical faith assents to that of Apollos Jesus is the Christ and when I say that this entitles I cannot mean concealed or denyed but openly professed If I say that a man hath six pence in his purse may dine at such an ordinary I do not mean with six pance concealed or denyed but produced and payed Have I not both the words professing and profession both in the margent and in the Index seeing Mr. Baxter calls upon me to declare my self further in this thing I do believe and professe to hold that he that upon hearing the Gospell preacht and the truth of it published and opened shall professedly abjure all other opposite waies whatsoever and choose the Christian way for salvation promising to follow the rules of it is to be baptized and his seed and that upon a right not onely coram Ecclesia but coram Deo It being the mind of God that such should be admitted The authority of reverend Mr. Gataker against Dr. Ward is onely worthy enquiring into citing Luther Calvin Bucer Whitaker as Mr. Baxter observes But Mr. Gataker himself understands not as he saies what Dr. Ward means by the initial faith and repentance which in the judgement of the Apostles gave right to those that desired baptisme and upon that account I cannot directly tell what that is that Mr. Gataker opposeth The authorities quoted by him reach not the thing that we contend about Luther saies He meaning Philip will not baptize him unlesse he beleeve I say the same Neither Simon Magus nor any of the Samaritans men or women could have baptisme before they believed Calvin saies He had not baptized him without true faith which is doubtlesse to be understood of fides quam not quâ credimus as appears in his words before There is no doubt but Ananias had first faithfully instructed Paul in the principles of godlinesse A beliefe of such principles then Calvin meanes Bucer speakes onely of profession of faith and requiring of men to believe Neither is there any thing in Whitakers testimony that comes up to our purpose For Mr. Marshalls Sermon of unity that is added I have it not and there is nothing quoted out of it Whereas it is said that an hundred might easily and truly be cited to this purpose I say if it be but to this purpose it is not to our present purpose If they be brought to prove that justifying faith is required of men before baptisme they may well prove that but as I have said so I do say I think never man denyed it Dr. Ward I believe never opposed it If they be brought to prove that no faith that is short of that which is justifying gives title to baptisme and speak no more than those already quoted they speak not home to the purpose And in case there be any that have said that Baptisme still presupposeth regeneration and that we baptize infants or men of age onely upon this supposition as regenerate As Mr. Baxter Append. pag. 71. saies that Learned Divines have given Papists great advantage in mistaking the nature of justifying Faith thinking that it consists in a belief of the pardon of my own sins So I may say that those whosoever they are that have confounded Covenant-holinesse with that of regeneration and inherent sanctification have given as great advantage to others yea to the Papists themselves And as the former doctrine ha's perplexed many a weak soul being not able to make good their assurance they conclude thereupon their want of Faith so these as much perplex the consciences of those that administer this Ordinance which I had rather expresse in Mr. Baxters words then mine own Append pag. 70 71. No Minister can groundedly administer the Sacraments to any man but to himself because he can be certain of no mans justification being not certain of the sincerity of their faith And if he should adventure to administer upon probabilities or charitable conjectures then should he be guilty of profaning the Ordinance and every time he mistaketh he should set the seal of God to a lye And who then durst ever administer a Sacrament being never certain but that he shall thus abuse it adding further I confesse ingenuously to you that it was the ignorance of this one point which chiefly caused me to abstain from administring the Lords Supper for so many years And I confesse as ingenuously that in case he can work me to his opinion I stand resolved for present

I will not take thee for my God to rule me or be my happinesse nor will I take Christ to governe me and save me in his way nor will I be guided or sanctified by the Holy Ghost but hereafter I will and therefore I come to be baptized If I say such have right to baptisme and you say we are bound to baptize them how do you mend the matter do not you conclude your fourty sixt Section with these words Vocation which is effectual onely to bring men to an outward profession of saving faith is larger then election and makes men such whom we are bound to baptize 2. I say and do professe of those that have those secret reservations wrapt up in their brests and not yet from under the power of lusts yet convinced of their duty and acknowledging the necessity that it is the mind of God that they should be baptized and have admission to ordinances in order to bring them more sincerely and unreservedly to God And this being the will of God as you seem to yeeld when you say we are bound to baptize them I say they have right in the sight of God to Baptisme and it were ill with the Church if those in Austins case that would pray Da castitatem da temperantiam Domine sed non modò should be denyed all investiture in Church priviledges Where Mr. Baxter saies that faith which is the condition of the promise is the condition in foro Dei of title to the seal And I say that I judge the contrary to be undenyable After many words which are needlesse to repeat we have his reasons with a complaint that I have given no reason of my denyal To which I say That which in a parenthesis without reason is affirmed may without rendring any reason be denyed But before I come to consider of his reasons it is necessary that the terms be looked into and the question rightly stated that there may be no misunderstanding When Mr Baxter speaks of the condition of the promise I suppose he means the condition called for in order to the attainment of the thing promised the promise for the object of the promise as it is taken Heb. 11.13 Otherwise the promise it self properly taken hath no condition There was no condition inducing God to make promise of Christ nor to make tender of any such promise But he promises glory by Christ on his own terms and propositions Now for the reasons themselves to make good that that which is the condition of the promise is the condition of title to the seal The first is The seal is but an affix to the promise therefore that which is the condition of the promise is the condition of the seal The seal is no affix to the thing promised but it is often separated from it It is a means to convey and a way to confirm it upon Gods tearms to those that have their Interest in the Covenant 2. The use of the seal is to confirm the promise to him to whom it is sealed Therefore the condition of the promise is the condition of the seal When it is granted that the use of the seal is to confirm the thing promised it will not therefore follow that there is the same condition required for interest in the seal as for interest in the thing in promise If a man will ingage under seal to give me one hundred pounds provided that I will come to such a place and accept it my professed willingnesse will Interest me in the seal my actual acceptance in the Moneys 3. If the promise and seal have two distinct conditions then there are two distinct Covenants for from the conditions most commonly are contracts specified and therefore Wesenbechius and such like Logical Civilians call it the form of the contract or stipulation to be either pura vel in diem vel sub conditiene and those subconditions are specified oft from their various conditions But there is not two Covenants Therefore I know not well how to reach this Is there not one thing needful to interest me in a bargain or to make me a Covenanter and another thing to obtain the benefit accruing by such conditional bargain or Covenant 4. Is it not against the nature and common use of sealing that it should be in order before the promise or Covenant And that men should first have right to that seal on one condition before they have right to the promise and then have right to the promise after on another condition But sure it is not against the nature of seals to be before the mercy covenanted for and promised And I beseech you take this into serious consideration and do not sleightly passe it Justifying faith with you is the Covenant and do not you preach to work men up to it and I hope your labours are happily successeful Yet all of these to whom you preach perhaps not a man excepted hath this seal and is baptized Do you now in all your Ministerial labours go against the nature and common use of sealing To keep a due order we must then forbear baptizing not onely till men professe to believe but are actually in the faith in a way that justifies 5. If it be so undenyable that that faith which is the condition of the promise is not the condition in foro Dei of title to the seal as you affirm why then do ye build so much against Mr. Tombs on that Argument from Acts 2. The promise is to you and your Children arguing a right to the seal from an interest in the promise I Argue not from an interest in the seal to an interest in the thing promised but require something further By this it appears that you take the promise properly and not for the thing promised and then I pray you reconcile this to your second reason The use of a seal is not to confirm in this that I have a promise but that I shall have interest in the good that is promised 6. Where you say that an acknowledgement of the necessity of such faith with ingagement to it is sufficient for a title to the seal I reply then those that at present renounce Christ so it be against their knowledge and conscience and will ingage to own him sincerely for the future have a title to Baptisme How comes I pray you that future in you manifest much reading in the Law and I have heard this as a Maxime In obligationibus ubi nullus certus statuitur dies quovis die debetur There is no day overtaken but the ingagement is for present though God in mercy except when for a long time the ingagement hath been presumptuously neglected But bring me a man that in his heart is convinced that Jesus is the Christ with his mouth professes him and ingages for him and in the mean space actually renounceth him and I will do what you would have me with him That is a man that is falling headlong

their ruine Then he parallells Baptisme with it The like figure whereunto even Baptisme doth also now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ which according to Interpreters implyes no more then a resemblance or as Calvin speaks a correspondence though Heb. 9.24 the Apostle useth the same word otherwise The Ark then saved a few when the rest were destroyed Baptisme now saves a few by the resurrection of Christ It will alwaies be saith Calvin on the words as it was in Noahs daies when mankind runnes on their own ruine God wonderfully saves some from the common destruction But here an objection lies that Noahs Ark and New Testament Baptisme are nothing parallell few entred that but now numerous or rather innumerable multitudes are baptized The Apostle answers that the parallell lyes not between the outward Baptisme that is the outward act as man administers it which he calls putting away the filth of the flesh which we know is the work of Baptisme but the answer of a good conscience or the restipulation of a good conscience I desire now to know how the Apostle can be salved from a contradiction He saies Baptisme saves and yet saies the outward putting away the filth of the flesh doth not save but the answer of a good conscience towards God Now this putting away the filth of the flesh done in the Name of Christ or in the Name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost is Baptisme so is not the answer of a good conscience that is no Baptisme The Apostle then should rather have said that the answer of a good conscience saves and not Baptisme But he saies Baptisme saves I see no other way of reconciliation or to make sense of his words then to understand him that Baptisme saves as it hath its work on the conscience as it works upon our understanding and our faith as a sign and seal and is no immediate conveyance of happinesse not any other way of conveyance then as it hath its work on the conscience of the receivers Reasons con ∣ firming Reasons First The Word and Sacraments work after one and the same manner on the soul for salvation respective to any mediate or immediate way of conveyance of any graces or priviledges This is evident in regard of that relation that the Sacraments have to the Word as appendants to it But the force of the Word on the soul to salvation is not inherent not by any immediate conveyance of inward graces or priviledges but as it hath its work on the understanding and faith of him that receiveth it they that understand not are as the highway-ground that gaines nothing It is the power of God for salvation to them that believe Rom. 1.16 It profits not where it is not mixtwith faith Heb. 4.2 It is effectual onely in those that believe 1 Thes 2.13 The bare work done in hearing saves none and so also it is with Sacraments Secondly Signes and pledges added to promises are efficacious no other ways then as they work upon the understanding and faith of those that receive them as signes This may be made good in particular instances in a large induction of signes of all sorts The double sign vouchsafed of God to Gideon for his confirmation in the deliverance of Israel Judg. 6. did not work at all towards such a deliverance further then as it had its work upon the understanding and faith of Gideon to whom it was given The Scarlet thred in Rahabs window had no power for her safety further then it was a sign between her and Joshua minding Joshua of his engagement to her The rainbowe is of no power to save the world from an universal deluge of water further then it minds and assures us of Gods promise The same we may say of all signes and pledges both humane and divine But Sacraments are signes and pledges added to promises as we see here in the text Sacraments then have no others efficacy then as they work on the understanding and faith of the receivers Thirdly There is nothing that is material sensible corporeal that hath any immediate influence or operation upon any object that is spiritual This is plain There must be proportion between the agent and the patient the instrument working and the object wrought upon But the Sacramental signes that we receive as seales are material corporeal sensible and therefore have no such immediate influence upon the soul for the work of grace or conveyance of it Fourthly If this Scripture hold out the work of Sacraments onely by way of sign and seal and no other Scripture holds out any other work to be wrought by them in the soul then this is the whole of their work This is clear Scripture must somewhere hold out the whole that Sacraments effect But this is the whole that the Apostle in this Scripture gives to them where he gives an account of the fruit of Abrahams Circumcision neither is there any other Scripture in which any more is attributed to the working of Sacraments The assumption is of two parts The first none can question that the Apostle ascribes no more here to Sacraments then as hath been said For the second that no other Scripture ascribes any thing further to them shall God willing be made good when we come to examine those Scriptures which are brought in by way of objection for a further work If any would see authorities quoted of men of eminent name that have appeared in defence of this position I shall referre him to reverend Mr. Gatakers learned dispute held with reverend Dr. Ward where he may see multitudes voting for it And when Dr. Ward a Quod quosdam theologos ait hic haerere baptismi effectum hunc ad electos restringere Imo non qu●dam dunxtaxat sed multo maxima nostrorum pars non tam hic haerent quam ex adverso se diserte opponunt quod ex testimoniis sup●a adductis luculentissime demonstratum est saith that some Divines do stick at his tenent and do restrain the effect of Baptisme infallibly taking away the guilt of original sin onely to the effect Mr. Gataker replyes not alone some but the greater part of our Divines do not so much stick or hesitate here as professedly oppose which is evidently demonstrated in the testimonies saith he before cited pag. 134. And my reverend friend Mr. Bedford unhappily engaged in this controversy to carry the Sacraments higher then Scripture hath raised them misled with the over esteem of some that have gone that way tells us of hir discouragement by reason of the multitude of those of an opposite opinion that held otherwise then he did about the Sacraments And Mr. Baxter rightly doth observe that at the first broaching of this doctrine among us it was so much disrelished not by Dr. Taylour onely but by most Divines and godly people as

adds The like figure whereunto Baptisme doth now save us by the resurrection of Christ The Arke did save those that entered into it Baptisme doth save those that are received into the Church by it And whereas an objection is obvious that Noahs Arke and New-Testament Baptisme doth much differ and that in the very thing in which the similitude is brought few entered the Arke and were saved by it but myriads of thousands are baptized This the Apostle answers in the Parenthesis there interposed that the parallel lies not between the Arke and the outward act of Baptisme as by man administred and there called the putting away the filth of the flesh so there is a vast disproportion the outward act as administred by man saves not but between the Arke and the inward work which is The answer of a good conscience towards God That of Tertullian which Beza sayes may serve as a Comment upon these words is elegant The soul is established by answering and not by washing And further to clear this text we must know that the Covenant hath a Proposition in it to which all in Covenant must give assent He that believes and repents shall be saved This assent is presupposed in all those that make actual improvement of the Sacraments Faith and Repentance being the terms of the Covenant And this Divines in their Treatises of Conscience call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now in case we have the benefit of salvation by Sacraments conscience must answer and a good conscience onely can answer But I believe I repent This Divines call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then and not otherwise Sacraments save Dr. Slater on Rom. 2.25 hath these words Here I think the observation is easie out of the body of the text that the work done in Sacraments availes not to righteousnesse or salvation except the condition of the Covenant be performed by those that partake them first the condition then the Antithesis shewes it if thou be a breaker of the Law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision that is all one to thee as if thou hadst never been circumcised yea a gentile wanting the Sacrament having obedience is nearer heaven then thou that hast the Sacrament and neglectest obedience and weigh well that the Lord in promising or sealing binds not himself to performance but conditionally that we perform our restipulation and whence Sacraments should have their efficacy but from the promise and grace of God I see not Circumcision in the flesh engaged the receivers to circumcision in the heart Deut. 10.16 where these did concurre there was a man in Covenant and upright in Covenant And Jer. 9.25 wrath is denounced of God against several Nations and the circumcised and the uncircumcised in the threat are put in equipage together equally and alike to suffer And to take off all scruple or offence that might be taken there is a distinction brought of Circumcision in the flesh and Circumcision in heart Judah had Circumcision in the flesh to plead but remained uncircumcised in heart and therefore fares no better then those that were uncircumcised in flesh Jer. 4.4 The Prophet commands Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your heart ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem lest my fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings On these terms the fury of the Lord is prevented Those Israelites that passed out of Egypt into the wildernesse for Canaan had the Cloud and the Sea of the same use as Baptisme And Manna and the Rock of the same use as the Lords Supper The two former are called by the name of Baptisme and the two latter Spiritual meat Spiritual drink All were baptized in the one and all did eat and drink of the other yet sayes the text with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wildernesse If you would know who suffered thus under Gods displeasure the text tells you Lusters after evil things v. 6. Idolaters v. 7. Fornicators v. 8. Tempters of Christ v. 9. Murmurers v. 10. And Heb. 3.17 The Apostle demanding But with whom was God grieued fourty years answers Was it not with them which had sinned whose carcases fell in the wilderness Further demanding to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believed not These wanting the answer of a good conscience fell short of the Sacramental engagements and also came short of true happinesse Arguments evincing it 1. This might be further evinced with arguments 1. In this case where the soul answers not to Sacramental engagements Sacraments are but as outward shadowes and bare empty signs and set out by the Spirit of God in Scripture with all their Rites and Ceremonies as other Ordinances of like nature in the most low despicable and undervaluing words that is possible Baptisme in the letter is no better with the Apostle then putting away the filth of the flesh the cleansing of the hands the feet or face from dirt or filth is the same with it The Pharisees washing of hands yea their washing of cups platters as low as it is laid by our Saviour was as efficacious and as acceptable Circumcision also when it led not to but from Christ is called by the Apostle by the name of Concision Phil. 3.2 Any gash made in the flesh or rent in the garment as well pleaseth The Apostle therefore Rom. 2.25 saith Circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the Law but if thou be a breaker of the Law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision If you understand the Apostle speaking the sense of the carnal Jewes with whom he had to deal then you must understand the keeping of the Law in its full perfection for to this Circumcision lookt upon as a leading Law-Ceremony did engage He that is circumcised is a debtor to the while Law if we understand him speaking of it as a seal of the righteousnesse of faith then sincerity is intended If this be wanting Circumcision is uncircumcision where that of the heart is there Circumcision in Gods account is and where it is not there Circumcision is not Rom. 2.28 29. We are the Circumcision saith the Apostle that worship God in Spirit and truth when the cutting of the foreskin in those false teachers was no better then Concision the worship of God in Spirit in whomsoever it was was Circumcision Arg. 1 2. Sacraments in this case are onely aggravations of sin and heightning of judgements In case of uncircumcision in the time of the Law and Non-baptisme in these times sins were no more then transgressions of the Law but now they are breaches of Covenant Then they would have been meerly rebellion against Soveraignty but now they are Apostasie and treacherie In Sacraments we close with God and take his Name upon us as his servants in sin we depart from him and refuse to serve him Thus our bond

an enemy of the Churches peace that dissents in judgement from the Church in some particulars as in ages past it was or he that confessedly dissents from the Church whereof he is and where he lives and as that present it stands I think here the determination is easie Let us enquire whether of these dissents will work more heart-broyles quarrels contentions envyings mutuall oppositions and needless disputes and let that be agreed upon as well it may to bear the blame If all must be tyed up to keep peace and be at one with the Church as to all particular tenents in the revolution of all these ages they are then tyed to know and their Pastors are bound to teach what in all successive ages hath been the Churches opinion But this were a great burden for Pastors and far more intolerable to be put upon the people If a man may be secure in this that he goeth not against truth I think he need not trouble himself as to ages past in the matter of peace Had you produced the vote of Antiquity as a probable inducement to perswade that you had truth according to Scripture and reason on your part it had been somewhat such appeals to humane Authority after Divine Testimony produced is ordinary but to dissent from the Church in which a man lives and of which he is to avoid the danger of a breach of peace with the Church that sometimes was is such a way of peace that I never yet knew troden or taken 2. Whether Antiquity be as cleer for you as the Church in present is for me The latter you freely grant but the former will I think hardly be yeelded notwithstanding what you say Because a word or an opinion that is unsound hath got possession of a little corner of the world for about 150 yeers therefore I am suspected as a novelist for forsaking it Whereas it is to avoid singularity and notorious novelty that I assent not to your way The same I say about the interest of mans obedience in his justification as continued and consummate in judgement If either Clemens Roman Polycarp Ignatius Justin Martyr Irenaeus Tertullian Origen Athenagoras Tatianus Clem. Alexand Minutius Faelix Arnobius Lactantius Cyprian Athanasius Eusebius Greg. Nazianzen Epiphanius Cyrill Hierosol Synesius Cyrill Alaxandr Macarius Hierome Salvian Vincentius Lirin Vigilius or any councill were of your mind in any one of these points and against mine then I will confess at least my supine negligence in Reading and my very faulty Memory in retaining their words How fully you have proved the unfoundness either of the word or opinion in question others must judge But whether the novelty be so notorious as you speak is to be enquired into and in order to that I shall request you Some things propounded to the Readers consideration To take into consideration who they be that make the loudest noyse and send out the greatest Cracks about the Fathers If the Church of Rome may be believed all Antiquity is theirs Hoping to put that cheat upon us as the Gibeonites sometimes did upon Israel Ad patres si quando licebit accedere confectum est praelium Tam sunt omnes nostri quam Gregorius 13. Papa filiorum ecclesiae amantissimus Pater Testes fenestrae omnes res reculae It is still their pretence that all former ages were on their side If we might but appeale to the Fathers saith Campian the controversie were ended They are all as fully ours saith he as Pope Gregory the 13. that most Loving father of the Sons of the Church As the windowes in the Church all other things and thinglings to take the liberty to coyne English as he doth Latine are their witnesses So all the Fathers also that the truth is with them I will say no more but that these naked names will appear to Judicious Readers but as an empty sound a voice and nothing more 2. That some of untainted integrity and of no lesse ability to give account of the Judgement of Antiquity in these controversies have asserted the full contrary to that which you here with so much confidence deliver Chemnitius was a man differing from you in every piece of this doctrine in which you dissent from me and particularly your adversary in all these three poynts in which you make this appeal to former ages He is a man zealous for the instrumentality of Faith in Justification he is large in asserting the promise of mercy in Christ to be the speciall object of Justifying Faith and against your distinction of Justification begun by Faith alone and consummate by works yea there is not a man that ever wrote that appears more your adversary in this poynt then he being judged the most learned grave and moderate of that party in the Reformed Churches wherewith you are most displeased in this Controversie yet he is full in quotation of Antiquity as of his side both in his Common places and in his Examination of the Council of Trent 144. After a List of authorities brought by him his close is worth observation (a) Haec pauca ideo annotavi ut ostenderem doctrinam nostram de Justificatione habere testimonia omnium piorum qui omnibus temporibus fuerunt idque non in declamatoriis rhetoricationibus nec in otiosis disputationibus sed in seriis exercitiis poenitentiae fidei quando conscientia in tentationibus cum suâ indignitate vel coram ipso judicio Dei vel in agone mortis luctatur Hoc enim solo modo rectissimè intelligi potest doctrina de justificatione sicut in Scripturâ traditur Quaeres put concerning this Appeale These few saith he I have noted that it may appear that our doctrine of Justification is attested by all the Godly of all ages that have lived in all times and that not in their Rhetoricall declamations or vaine disputes but in their serious exercises of Repentance and Faith in their Conflicts of conscience in temptation or with their own unworthinesse or before the Tribunal of God or in the Agony of death For this way saith he the doctrine of Justification as it is delivered in Scripture can alone rightly be understood What can be now more contrary then his Testimony and yours how high are both your confidences in full contradiction one against another That which you say is a notorious novelty he saith hath the attestation of all antiquity who shall he now believe that hath not nor cannot search the Authors themselves that have lived in your 1300. or 1400. years 3. I would have you to take into serious consideration these following Quaeres 1. Whether the doctrine of those that bore the name and outward face of the Church was uniforme through out that whole series of time that you take in in you● challenge Whether in the time of Thomas Aquinas and the following ages the doctrine concerning Justification in the Latine Church was the same as in the daies