promised in Scripture peradventure they may grant that Justification in this or that place is meant of justification before God but their grant doth neither make nor mar if the evidence of the Text do not compel and convince the understanding Having thus cleared the coast of this Exception which for ought I can see is the onely Obstruction in the way I pass on to propound some Arguments by which it may be proved That we are justified by Faith in the sight of God and not before The first is drawn from the nature of Justification which is an Absolution of a Sinner from Condemnation by that gracious Sentence and signal Promise in the Gospel He that believes shall not enter into condemnation We are not to conceive of Justification as an internal immanent act of God resolving privatly in his own brest not to prosecute his right against a Sinner but it must be some declared promulged act which may be our legal discharge from the accusation condemnation of the Law for as sin is not imputed where there is no Law Rom. 5. 13. so neither is Righteousness imputed without Law And as our condemnation is no secret act or resolution of God to condemn but the very voice and sentence of the Law Cursed is he that sinneth and therefore he whom God in his eternal Decree hath purposed to save may yet for the present be under the sentence of condemnation as the Ephesians whom God had chosen to eternal Life Eph. 1. 4. were yet sometimes the children of Wrath chap. 2. 3. so on the contrary our Justification must be some declared promulged act or sentence of God which may stand good in Law for the discharge of the sinner from condemnation Indeed to our private forgiveness one of another it being meerly an act of Charity there is no more required then a Resolution within our selves to lay aside our thoughts of revenge and not to prosecute our right against him that hath injured us But the forgiveness of a Magistrate being an act of Authority must be by some formal Act of Oblivion by which all former Acts and Orders against Delinquents may be invalidated A Vote in the House or a Declaration that such an Act shall come forth is no legal security to a Delinquent So then Gods forgiveness being an Act of Authority must neither be an hidden secret purpose in his own heart nor a meer promise or Declaration of an Act of Pardon that shall be made hereafter but a formal Act of Pardon it must be that shall make the Law of condemnation to be of no force against him that pleads it And this formal Act of Pardon can be no other then the sentence of the Gospel He that believes shall be saved which is sometimes called the Law of Faith Rom. 3. 27. sometimes the Law of Righteousness Rom. 9. 31. in reference to which it is that the Lord says He that believes is passed from death to life John 5. 24. so that as every man is then condemned when the Law condemns him whatsoever the purposes of God may be unknown to us so on the contrary a man is then justified when the Gospel justifies him and not before The Argument then is in sum this If there be no Act of Grace declared and published in the word which may be a legal discharge of the Sinner while he is in unbelief then no unbelieving Sinner is justified The reason is because Justification imports a legal discharge of the Sinner by some Act of Grace declared and published in the Gospel But there is no Act of Grace declared and published in the Word which may be a legal discharge of the sinner whiles he remains in unbelief Ergo. If there be any such Act let it be produced 2. The second Argument is this They that are under condemnation cannot at the same time be justified but all the world is under condemnation before Faith Ergo none of the world are justified before Faith The major must needs be true because Justification and Condemnation are contraries and contraries cannot be verified of the same subject at the same time Justification is a moral life and Condemnation a moral death a man can no more be in a justified Estate and a state of Condemnation both at once then he can be alive or dead both at once or a blessed man and a cursed man both at once What that the Apostle describes justification by non-condemnation Rom. 8. 1. and opposeth it unto condemnation as inconsistent with the same person at the same time ver 33 34. and are at as mortal enmity one with another as good and evil light and darkness But now that all the world is under condemnation before Faith which is the minor are the very words of the Lord Jesus John 3. 18. He that believeth not is condemned already The Lord is proving that he came not into the world to condemn the world he proves it by a disjunction thus Then either he must condemn them that believe or them that do not believe not them that believe For he that believeth is not condemned nor them that do not believe For he that believeth not is condemned already to wit by the sentence of the Law Cursed is every one that sinneth so that Christ should not need to come into the world to condemn it which is also the meaning of that other phrase verse 36. He that believeth not the wrath of God abideth on him that is the wrath of God by the Law is upon every sinner yet not so necessarily but that by believing he may escape it but if he believeth not then the wrath of God abideth on him the sentence of the Law shall stand good against him for ever If then it be objected that when it is said He that believeth not is condemned condemnation must be understood of the condemnation of Conscience not before God I Answer 1. The condemnation here spoken of is the condemnation of the Law and that pronounceth all men guilty not onely in their own conscience but before God Rom. 3. 19. That all the world may become guilty before God 2. The condemnation in conscience of the unbelieving world is either true or false If true then it is according to the judgement of God and speaks as the thing is and so God condemns as well as the conscience and in this case we may say as John doth 1 John 3. 20. If our hearts condemn us God is greater then our hearts and knoweth all things and by consequence doth much more condemn us If false then seeing all the unbelieving world is under the same condemnation the conscience of an unbeliever when it condemns him for drunkenness adultery swearing c. is erroneous and the way to comfort them is to perswade them so and thereby to blinde their eyes and harden their hearts and sear up their consciences that they may never see nor be affected with sin till they fall irrecoverably into
the effects of Election In the mean time what a miserable circle is the poor restless doubting soul conjured into through the want of its Evidence and knows not where to finde it his Faith must first evidence his Justification by his Election and then it must evidence his Election by his Justification till in the issue this new Gospel leave him without all Evidence of Eternal Life 2. But the very truth is it is not Faith which doth evidence Syllogistically and it is most absurd to say we are justified by Faith because Faith doth evidence our Justification Syllogistically let the Argument be this If we are said to be justified by Faith because Faith doth evidence Justification Syllogistically then we may be said to be justified by sense and reason as well as by Faith which is absurd The reason is because sense reason concur with Faith in a Syllogistical evidence for clearing of which let us again set before us the former Syllogism He that believeth is justified But I believe Therefore I am justified The major onely is the assent or act of Faith The Assumption an act of sense or spiritual Experience The Conclusion an act of Reason That he that believes is justified this Faith doth evidence That I believe is evidenced to me by mine own Spiritual Experience That therefore I am justified is the evidence of reason inferring the Conclusion out of the premises wherefore Faith must be said to justifie in some other respect then that it doth evidence Justification or else we cannot be said to be justified by Faith at all A third Argument to prove that the Justification by Faith is not meerly a Justification in our Consciences is this That Interpretation of the Phrase which makes us at least concurrent causes with God in the formal act of our own Justification is not true The reason is because our Justification by Faith in regard of the formal act of pronouncing us just is in Scripture attributed wholly unto God It is God that justifieth Rom. 8. 33. that imputeth Righteousness Rom. 4. 6 8. We do no more justifie our selves then we glorifie our selves It is God alone doth both and we are passive in both Rom. 8. 30. But to interpret our justification by Faith meerly for a justification in our own Conscienes is to make us at least concurrent causes with God in the formal act of our own Justification This is so clear that it needs no proof For us to be justified in our own Consciences what is it but for our own Consciences to pronounce us just and what is this but for our selves to justifie our selves And so our Justification by Faith is not Gods act onely but our own also in part It is true that the Spirit of God doth justifie us in our own Consciences but not without the concurrent testimony and justification of our Consciences The Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beareth witness not to our Spirits but with our Spirits verily if our hearts condemn us we can have no evidence nor assurance before God 1 John 3. 19 20 21. You know what was here excepted viz. That if we were altogether passive in being justified then we are justified before we believe An Exception so childish That if all Error were not a piece of witchery I should wonder it should proceed out of that mouth To believe is indeed a formal vital act of the soul in genere physico but the use of it in Justification is to qualifie us passively that we may be morally and orderly capable of being justified by another even by God the great Judge of life and death Will any sober man impute to us that because we maintain Justification by Faith in this sense therefore we set up our selves as Judges together with God of our own souls or that we have therefore a joynt concurrence with him in making that gracious Law by and according to which we are justified or in pronouncing a sentence of Absolution upon our selves He would be thought more worthy to be derided then disputed with that should infer Because some Offenders against our Laws are not capable of Pardon unless they can read the Book therefore he that reads must needs be one of the State in making that Law or a Judge with his Judge in absolving himself according to that Law If a Magistrate grant a pardon to an Offender upon condition that he accept it his acceptance is indeed his own act yet in a Moral consideration 't is onely a passive condition making him capable of being pardoned according to the Magistrates will though a man have in himself more ability to read and accept of a Pardon then a sinner hath to believe and no man I trow will say that by his acceptance he is a concurrent cause in the formal act of his own Absolution In like maner we say we are not social causes with God either in making the law of Grace or in pronouncing our selves just according to that law and therefore Justification by Faith cannot be onely justification in Conscience yet Faith is required on our part which though Physically it be an act yet morally it is but a passive condition by which we are made capable of being justified according to the order and constitution of God It is God that glorifies us and not we our selves yet surely God doth not glorifie us before we believe I shall adde but one thing more which I wish may be seriously considered If justification by Faith must be understood of justification in our Consciences then is not the word Justification taken properly for a justification before God in all the Scriptures from the beginning to the end We read of no justification in Scripture but by Faith or Works when the Scriptures speak of justification by Works Mr. Eyre says it must be understood of a justification before men when it speaks of justification by Faith he says in like maner it must be understood of a justification before our own Consciences and neither of these the justification before God and verily neither of them of much worth in the Apostles judgement 1 Cor. 4. 3. And yet of any other justification before God which is neither of these two we do not read in all the Scripture The Antinomians may read their eyes out before they produce us one Text for it And what a most incredible thing is it that a word so often used should never be read in its most natural and true signification and that so glorious a Blessing as Justification before God should never be mentioned by its own name in all the Bible yea verily the whole comfort of this inestimable Blessing will be utterly taken from us for if the Scripture doth not say that any man is justified before God then no mans Faith can evidence to him that he is justified before God And if justification by Faith be not justification before God then is there no justification before God for any man living
everlasting flames 3. The condemnation with which the unbeliever is condemned is expressed verse 36. by the abiding of the wrath of God upon him 4. It is also opposed unto salvation verse 17. God sent not his Son to condemn the world but to save it and surely the condemnation which is opposed to Salvation is more then the condemnation of a mans own conscience for that may very well consist with Salvation yea they that are saved are for the most part more subject to it in this life then they that perish 3. A third Argument is drawn from the several comparisons by which justification by Faith is illustrated Sometimes 't is compared to the Israelites looking up to the Brazen Serpent for healing Joh. 3. 14. Num. 21. 8 9. As then they were not first healed and then looked up to see what healed them but they did first look upon the Serpent and then they were healed Even so is it the will of God That whosoever seeth and believeth the Son shall be justified John 6. 40. He is not first justified and then seeth the Son sometimes Faith is compared to eating and Justification to the nourishment which we receive by our meat John 6. 51 52 53 54. We are not first nourished and then eat the meat that nourisheth us but we eat our meat that we may be nourished by it In like maner we are not first justified and then believe on Christ that hath justified us but we believe in Christ that we may be justified 4. A fourth Argument is drawn from the perpetual opposition between Faith and Works from whence the Argument is this What place and order Works had to justification in the Covenant of Works the same place and order Faith hath to our justification in the Covenant of Grace But Works were to go before our Justification in the Covenant of Works Ergo Faith is to go before our Justification in the Covenant of Grace To the minor I say nothing because there is not a man in the world that doth deny it as I know of and that being granted the major also must be out of question If the tenor of the first Covenant Do this and live by the consent of all People and Nations Jews and Gentiles will undeniably evince that Works were necessary Antecedents of justification in that Covenant why then should not Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved which is the tenor of the New Covenant Rom. 10. 6 9. plead as strongly for the like necessity of the Antecedency of Faith to justification in this Covenant 2. Faith and Works have the like order to justification in their respective Covenants or else justification by Faith and justification by Works are not opposed for Opposita sunt circa idem The Jews looked after Righteousness by the works of the Law The Apostle tells them they must seek it by Faith Now if they say we must be justified by Works to wit formally and before God and the Apostle say Nay but we must be justified by Faith to wit declaratively and before Conscience then the establishing of justification by Faith will not destroy justification by Works and so there will be nothing but falshoods and equivocations in all the Apostles Disputations against Justification by Works And how easily might the Jews and the Apostle have been reconciled They say We must be justified by Works and he says We must be justified by Faith it is but distinguishing Works do justifie us before God but Faith must evidence and declare this to us and they are agreed 5. Adde further what the Apostle says 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you but you are washed but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Where the opposition between the time past and the time present doth evidently argue that the words have this sense Such and such you were in time past Fornicators Idolaters c. and therefore must have been shut out of the Kingdom of God verse 10. But Now you are washed Now and not before you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus that is through Faith in his name compare Acts 3. 16. and 10. 43. If then the Corinthians were not justified before Faith Why are Englishmen It is to no purpose to say here That now they were declared in their own Consciences to be justified and so they were not before whiles they lived in those abominable sins For 1. Why may not we understand the word Sanctified in the same sense seeing we are said to be sanctified by Faith Acts 26. 18. and 15. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 22. as well as justified by Faith And so suppose that these Corinthians had a seed of Grace before but buried under the dirt and rubbish of vile sins till by Faith they came to see that they were sanctified There is nothing can be alledged for Justification before believing which will not hold as strongly for Sanctification before believing nor any reason why Sanctification should not be understood for a Sanctification declared as well as Justification for a Justification declared 2. The Justification which they now had was that which gave them right and title to the Kingdom of God which right and title they had not before no more then others that did yet continue in Idolatry Fornication Uncleanness and the other sins specified It is acknowledged of all hands that Justification includes an adjudging of us unto life or a giving us a right to the Heavenly Kingdom if then these Corinthians had this right before they believed then did their Faith give them no more security of Salvation in point of right then they had before or then might be affirmed of them who did yet abide in their sins and by consequence if they had lived and dyed in their sins they might have gone to Heaven notwithstanding though for want of Faith to see this their right they could not have departed with so much comfort of Spirit For if faith do onely declare that we have a Title to the Heavenly Kingdom then it makes no relative change in our condition from a state of death into a state of life and so whether we believe or no all is one as to the certainty of our Salvation though we want the evidence and perswasion of it If it be here said that all whom God in his secret justification hath adjudged unto life shall have the evidence thereof by Faith I Answer This evidence is of such necessity as that if they have it not they shall lose that life to which they are adjudged or no If not then whether they believe or do not believe they shall be saved If it be then is there no absolute justification before Faith and justification must be conditional and the immediate and absolute right to life must be acknowledged to be a consequent of Faith which will at once overthrow Mr. Eyres Opinion and confirm this Argument without any more ado What remains to be done is to
remove those Objections which seem of weight to Mr. Eyre for confirmation of his Opinion The first is drawn from those Scriptures which seem to hold forth an immediate actual reconciliation of sinners to God upon the death of Christ without the intervention of Faith As Matth. 3. 17. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased viz. with sinners and Rom. 5. 10. We were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son Answ To the former of these places I answer 1. That the well pleasedness of God need not be extended beyond the person of Christ who gave himself unto the death an offering and a sacrifice unto God of a sweet smelling savor Eph. 5. 2. 2. If we should extend it also unto men which is neither necessary nor probable yet will the words prove no more then that it is through Christ that God is well pleased with men whensoever it be that he is well pleased Verbs and Participles of the present Tense though the Verb in this place be not the present Tense but the first Aorist have sometimes the signification of the future Tense as John 4. 25. The Messiah cometh that is will shortly come and chap. 5. 25. The hour is coming and now is that is will shortly be and 14. 3. If I go I come again so in the Greek that is I will come again 2 Cor. 3. 16. When it namely Israel shall turn to the Lord the vail shall be taken away The Verbs in the Greek are both of the present Tense hundreds of the like instances are obvious somtimes they are Notes of affirmation without reference to any determinate time as Rom. 8. 24. By hope we are saved not presently for it follows immediately hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for Ergo to be saved by hope imports that a man is not yet saved but the meaning is That it is in the way of hope and patient expectation that men are saved whensoever it be that they are saved So 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be unto God that giveth us the victory to wit the victory over death by and in the Resurrection and the meaning is That it is through God that we have the Victory be it when it will be that we have it for if the words must needs be understood as if we had the Victory presently then Paul and the Christians of his age were raised before they were dead and the Christians of following ages before they were born So Heb. 10. 35. Your confidence hath a great recompence of reward that is shall have Jam. 1. 17. Every good gift cometh down from above not as if it must needs be coming down when the Apostle spake those words but that whensoever any receives a good gift it is from God But why do we fight against God Is it not the testimony of the holy Ghost as express as words can deliver it That without Faith it is impossible to please God or to be pleasing unto God as Enoch was by Faith Heb. 11. 5. 6. It was a poor answer that Mr. Eyre gave to Mr. Good when he asked him Whether God were well pleased with unregenerate men to say He was well pleased with unregenerate men but not with their unregeneracy as if God were well pleased with unregenerate men whiles unregenerate but afterwards were well pleased with their unregeneracy also The like Answer I give to Rom. 5. 10. we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son to wit That Christs death was the price of our Reconciliation and and so it is through the death of Christ that we are reconciled be it when it will be that we are reconciled Here then we must distinguish as it were of three Periods of the will of God 1. As it may be conceived immediatly after sin committed before the consideration of the death of Christ And now is the Lord at enmity with the sinner though not averse from all ways and means by which he may return to Friendship with him again 2. As it may be conceived after the consideration of the death of Christ and now is the Lord not onely appeasable but doth also promise that he will be reconciled with sinners upon such terms as himself shall propose 3. As the same will of God may be considered after an intercession on Christs part and Faith on the sinners part and now is God actually reconciled and in Friendship with the sinner when then the Apostle says We are reconciled through the death of Christ he doth not mean That immediatly upon the death of Christ we are actually reconciled unto God for in the very next verse he saith That through Christ we have now and not before received the atonement or reconciliation which in plainer terms is this That now that is since we are Believers we are actually reconciled unto God But his meaning is That through the death of Christ it is that the promise of reconciliation is made by and according to which we are actually reconciled unto God after we believe suitable to that of the Lord Jesus This is the new Testament in my blood obtained and sealed by my blood which was shed for the remission of the sins of many Matth. 26. 28. The ground of all this is because the death of Christ was not solutio ejusdem but tantidem not the payment of that which was in the obligation but of the equivalent being not the payment of the debtor but of the surety and therefore it doth not deliver us ipso facto but according to the compact and agreement between the Father and him when he undertook to be our surety If a debtor bring me what he owes me it dischargeth him presently but the payment of a surety is a payment refusable of it self and therefore effects not the discharge of the principal debtor but at the time and according to the conditions agreed upon between the Surety and the Creditor If then our Adversaries could prove either that it was the will of God in giving up Christ to the death or the will of Christ in giving himself to the death that this death of his should be available to the immediate and actual Reconciliation and Justification of the sinner without any condition performed on the sinners part it were somthing to the purpose But till this be done which indeed can never be done they were as good say nothing When Christ gives us an account both of his own and his Fathers will in this matter he tells us That this is the will of him that sent him That whosoever seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life John 6. 40. without which Faith Christ shall profit us nothing Gal. 5. 4. 1 John 5. 11 12. He that hath not the Son hath not life So much for that Objection The next which was one of the two made use of against me after Sermon is this Object 2. If we
are justified in Christ then we are justified before we believe But we are justified in Christ Ergo. Answ We may conceive of a Threefold Justification 1. a Justification purposed in the decree of God Gal. 3. 8. The Scriptures foreseeing that God would justifie the Gentiles through Faith 2. A Justification purchased and impetrated in the death of Christ who by his death hath obtained eternal Redemption for us Heb. 9. 12. which Redemption is the Remission of sins Eph 1. 7. 3. There it also a Justification exemplified in the resurrection of Christ who himself was justified in his own resurrection and thereby became the exemplary cause of Justification to believers by vertue of which themselves shall also be justified in such time and upon such terms as shall be agreed upon between the Father and Christ I use the term of an exemplary cause rather then of a common person because a common person may be the effect of those whom he represents as the Parliament of the Commonwealth but Christ is such a common person as that he is the cause of those whom he represents in every thing in which he represents them so that when we say We are justified in Christ the meaning is no more but this That Christ is made the cause and patern according to which Justication shall certainly follow on them that believe But what is this to our deliverance from condemnation or what benefit do we receive by it before we believe Should a man argue thus in any other benefits we receive by Christ and from Christ as the exemplary cause he would make himself deservedly ridiculous For example We are said to be risen with Christ Christ himself being risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15. 20. So that Christ in his resurrection is the exemplary cause of our resurrection in which we are therefore said to bear the image of the heavenly Adam verse 49. Would any sober man infer Therefore our own personal resurrection is past already to wit before our selves are dead or that we are not to be raised at all because we are risen already in Christ Yet no man living can shew any reason of difference why we may not as justly infer that our resurrection is passed already because we are risen in Christ as that our Justification is past before we believe because we are justified in Christ No doubt but most men would account the just contrary a necessary consequence Again We are sanctified in Christ as well as justified in Christ Our old man is crucified with him Rom. 6. 6. and he is said to be made Sanctification to us as well as Righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 30. And why then may we not inveigh against Regeneration and personal Sanctification as well as against personal Justification for if we are sanctified in Christ then we are sanctified before Faith and we need not mortifie sin and dye to the world c. all this is done already in Christ in whom we are sanctified before Faith we need onely to have it declared to us that we are sanctified To draw up the Answer more close Justification is either causal and virtual or actual and formal The former is no other then a Justification of Christ himself with a connotation of others who by virtue of this Justification of his are themselves to be justified in due time as our resurrection in Christ is nothing else but Christ himself risen as the first fruits of them that slept and so become the exemplary cause of a resurrection afterwards to follow us but as the resurrection of Christ makes no real change in us till our selves be risen so neither doth the justification of Christ make any moral change in us from death to life till our selves be justified Actual and formal justification is when we are acquitted from the guilt of sin by the gracious sentence of the Gospel He that believes shall not enter into condemnation Now then if we speak of Justification formal then I deny that we are justified in Christ which is the opponents Assumption And if we speak of Justification causal then I do utterly deny the Proposition viz. That if we are justified in Christ then we are justified before we believe the Reason is because to be justified in Christ is not to be justified simply no more then to be risen in Christ is to be risen simply or to be glorified in Christ is to be glorified simply and therefore the inference is a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter They are credulous souls I 'le assure you that will be drawn by such Decoys as these into Schism and Faction to the hardening and discomforting of more hearts in one hour then the Opinion it self should it obtain will do good to while the world stands Object 3. The last and great Argument succeeds and that is this If we are in Covenant before we believe then we are justified before we believe But we are in Covenant before we believe Ergo. Answ Were it supposed that we were in Covenant before Faith yet would the Proposition be faulty The Reason because the Blessings of the Covenant have an order and dependance one upon another and are enjoyed successively one after another God in his Covenant promises Holiness and Glory as well as Justification yet he would argue most absurdly that should say We are sanctified and glorified before Faith because we are in Covenant bfore Faith But I am unwilling to multiply quarrels If the great difference lay here it were an easie matter to be reconciled 2. I do utterly deny the Assumption viz. That we are in Covenant with God before we believe if at least the Phrase of being in Covenant be understood properly for such an interest in the Covenant as gives a man right and title to the Blessings of the Covenant That in this sense we are not in Covenant before we believe is that which I shall prove by and by But first I shall give Mr. Eyre a fair hearing though he would not give it me and I believe is resolved to give it to no body else whiles the judgement of the cause must be left to the people The proof of the Assumption stands thus If the Spirit be given us before we believe then we are in Covenant before we believe But the Spirit is given us before we believe Ergo the proof of the minor is from the tenor of the New Covenant Heb. 8. 10 11. I will put my laws into their minde and they shall all know me which is a promise of giving the Spirit to work Faith Answ The Explication of the terms of this Argument is a sufficient refutation of it God is said to give in Scripture sometimes when no receiving follows and thus the Word Give signifies no more then the will of God constituting and appointing Thus God gave his Son unto death that is constituted and appointed that he should die There is
no other name given under Heaven Acts 4. 12. that is no other name appointed so Eph. 1. 22. and 4. 11. and a hundred other places In this sense the giving of the Spirit is no more then the sending and as it were the constituting of the Spirit to be by way of specialty the worker and cause of Faith 2. The word give doth sometimes include a receiving and possession of the thing given as in the ordinary use of the word and thus the Spirit is given when we receive him and are as it were possest of him and he becomes ours and dwells in us Thus the Lord promiseth to give the Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11. 13. and we are said to receive the spirit by Faith Gal. 3. 14. and the Spirit is said to dwell in us by Faith Eph. 3. 16 17. with Rom. 8. 10 11. and of this latter way of giving the Spirit is the Question to be understood 2. The Spirit may be said to be given three ways 1. Essentially 2. Personally 3. In reference to his operations The Spirit is not given to us essentially for so he is God and is equally every where nor can he be more peculiarly in one then in another Nor 2. Personally for that cannot be conceived without a personal union which would denominate us as truly to be the Spirit of God as the like union in the man Christ Jesus did denominate him to be the Son of God 3. The Spirit therefore must be said to be given to us in regard of some peculiar operations which he worketh in us which are incommunicable to those which have not the Spirit so that common convictions illuminations humiliations some joys of heart and the like which are transient Works of the Spirit common to them that are saved and to them that perish Heb. 6. 4. Matth. 13. 20. and all other works which may either go before or be without Faith these are none of them such kinde of works as that in respect of them the Spirit should be said to be given to us wherefore there being no peculiar work of grace before Faith it self which may not be wrought in a Hypocrite which hath not the Spirit as well as in a childe of God therefore the Spirit is neither given nor received before Faith be wrought but is given and received together with Faith in the same instant of time and not before Indeed as every cause is in nature before its effect so the Spirit also in order of causes is before Faith but that he is therefore given to us in the least atome of time before the being of Faith is a meer non-sequitur and contrary to the received maxime Posita causa in actu ponitur effectus which rule Mr. Eyre hath often abused to prove a Justification immediatly upon the death or resurrection of Christ and yet here he cannot understand it so that as a man doth first build himself an house and then dwells in it So the Lord Jesus by his Spirit doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 3. 3. build and organize and prepare as we render the Greek wood Luke 1. 17. the soul to be a house unto himself and then by the same Spirit dwells in it immediatly And this is that which I would have spoken publiquely in answer to this Argument if Mr. Eyre had not been beyond measure obstreperous Yet here it may be demanded Whether Faith it self be not given to us by vertue of the Covenant made withus Answ Faith is not given to us by vertue of the Covenant made with us but by vertue of the Covenant made with Christ that is God hath promised and covenanted with Christ that if he will lay down his life for the redemption of sinners those sinners shall be drawn to believe in Christ and thereby to partake of the benefits of his death That this is so the Scriptures are plain Isa 53. 10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for him he shall see his seed He shall see of the travel of his soul by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many so Isa 55. 4. 5. Behold thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the holy One of Israel for he hath glorified thee Psal 2. 8. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance c. So Psal 110. 3. Matth. 12. 21. And why did the Lord appoint Apostles and Ministers to carry the sound of the Gospel from one end of the earth to the other and subdueth Nations to the obedience of the Faith but that he may accomplish his promises made to his Son such as are recorded in Psal 89. 25 26 c. Now to the words of the Covenant Jer. 31. 31. repeated by the Apostle Heb. 8. 10. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel I will put my laws into their mindes and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people From whence Mr. Eyre infers That the Spirit and Faith is given by vertue of the Covenant made with us But I answer 1. That if Mr. Eyre will urge the words of this Text rigorously they would prove more then he would have For it is manifest That this Covenant contains a promise of sending Christ into the world and giving him up to death for our sins as the Apostle doth directly prove Heb. 10. 14 15 16. and why then may it not be inferred That the elect are in Covenant with God not onely before they believe but also before the death of the Mediator and so his death was not to obtain all or any of the blessings of the Covenant but onely as the Socinians to declare and confirm to us That we may believe that God of his own meer good will without expecting any satisfaction will do all this good for us for if it be a good consequence We are in Covenant before we believe because the Covenant promiseth to give us Faith Then is this also a good consequence We are in covenant before the death of Christ because the Covenant promiseth to give Christ to death And what answer Mr. Eyre will give to avoid this consequence for I presume he will not grant it and to defend his position that we are in Covenant with God upon the death of Christ and not before notwithstanding the Covenant Promise to give Christ the same Answer will serve my turn for the vindication of my Assertion That we are in Covenant with God upon believing and not before notwithstanding the same Covenant promise Faith 2. But upon a most serious perusual of this Text I finde it so contradictory to Mr. Eyr's purpose that I cannot but wonder what he means to shelter his Opinion under the protection of it If we read the words in Heb. 8. 10. or Jer. 31. 33. and
be given he is not our God nor we his people for it is in vain for God to give Faith for an end which may be well enough attained without Faith But God promiseth to give Faith that he may be our God and we his people Jer. 31. 33. Heb. 8. 10. Ezek. 11. 19 20. and 36. 25 26 27 28. 37. 23 24 26 27. besides multitudes of other Scriptures I have onely one observation to adde which the most learned amongst the Jewish and Christian Writers do often take notice of and that is this That God is never said to be our God in reference to his giving of the first grace but onely in reference to the blessings which he promiseth to them that have Faith Heb. 11. 16. He is not our God that he may give us Faith but is every where said to give us Faith that he may be our God In times past you were not a people but are now the people of God 1 Pet. 2. 10. And now I might spare the pains of further proof of the position last defended a Viz. That we are in not Covenant before Faith yet to the Scriptures already advanced let me adde a few more Isa 55. 3. Come unto me that is Believe in me John 6. 35. and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you 2. The voice of the Gospel which is the Covenant of Grace is every where Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved in opposition to the Covenant of Works which saith Do this and live Rom. 10. 5. 6. 9. This is the Covenant whereof Christ is Mediator Heb. 9. 15. That they that are called unto Faith shall receive the promise of the eternal inheritance 3. The Covenant of Grace is preached to every man and every man called upon to fulfil the conditions of it that he may receive the blessings of it which condition is Faith Heb. 4. 1 2 10. Is there an absolute promise made to every man that God will give him grace or is it sense to exhort men to take hold of Gods Covenant as the phrase is Isa 66. 4 6. or to enter into Covenant with God if the Covenant be onely an absolute promise on Gods part or to exhort men to be stedfast in the Covenant of God to hold fast the faith and their confidence in Christ as the Scriptures are wont to do Heb. 3. 12 13 14. and 10. 23. or to accuse and blame and damn men for unbelief and rejecting of the Gospel Was it ever known that men should be counted worthy of death for not being the objects of an absolute promise 4. If the Covenant of grace be an absolute promise then no men in the world but wicked ungodly men are in covenant with God When a covenant is fulfilled it ceaseth to be any more a covenant In this life we are properly said to be in covenant with God when we shall be perfected in glory in the heavenly kingdom we cannot properly be said to be in covenant Now absolute promises of grace are made onely to wicked men when grace is given them then is the covenant so far forth fulfilled and so far forth they cease to be in covenant and so none but wicked men shall be perfectly in covenant with God But it is beside my purpose work to follow this pursuit any further Thus then you have with advantage the copy of the Sermon you have often desired to which though it is likely somthing is or will be said which at this distance I am never like to hear of yet sure I am that nothing can be answered consistent with the truth of Scriptures I am sorry for the breaches that are amongst you for the grief of the godly and the hardning of multitudes to their own destruction The God and Father of the Lord Jesus restore you to peace and quiet that spirit of Division that is gone abroad amongst you to his Grace I commend you rest Imprimatur Edm. Calamy May 26. 1652. Yours in the nearest bonds Benj Woodbridge FINIS