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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39120	Vindiciæ justificationis gratuitæ = Justification without conditions, or, The free justification of a sinner : explained, confirmed, and vindicated, from the exceptions, objections, and seeming absurdities, which are cast upon it, by the assertors of conditional justification : more especially from the attempts of Mr. B. Woodbridge in his sermon, entituled (Justification by faith), of Mr. Cranford in his Epistle to the reader, and of Mr. Baxter in some passages, which relate to the same matter : wherein also, the absoluteness of the New Covenant is proved, and the arguments against it, are disproved / by W. Eyre ...	Eyre, William, 1612 or 13-1670.; Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1654 (1654)	Wing E3947A; ESTC R40198	198,474	230

We may remember when it was not so I wish that all Orthodox Christians and especially our University Worthies who have more leisure and far greater helps for such Polemical Exercises then their Brethren abroad had more Zeal to improve this Liberty for the advantage of the Truth The Authors of most of those Errors and Blasphemies which have been lately started are but little more to be faulted then they that do profess the Truth I mean such as are indued with Gifts and Abilities who suffer them to walk abroad without check and controle seeing there is no Error whatsoever but the Scripture affords us variety of Weapons to wound and slay it We cast the blame upon Magistrates because they do suffer them nor can I excuse their connivence at any of those Evils which are contrary to the Light of Nature yet I fear the greatest share of this guilt will lie at our doors who are the Ministers of the Gospel whose office without controversie it is To contend for the Faith to convince gain-sayers and by sound Doctrine to stop their mouths who teach things which they ought not It is but a slender discharge of our Duty to cry out against Errors and Heresies and never shew and convince men what Truth and Error is such loose and general Invectives do never advantage most times they wound the sides of Truth whereas if the Trumpet gave a more certain sound and Ministers did prove those things to be Errors which they brand with this name their pains would much more succeed to the profit of their Hearers they would be better armed against such dangers Your late Resolves to emit a Declaration For giving fitting Liberty to all that fear God within this Commonwealth for the better preservation of the mutual Peace of such as fear God among themselves without imposing one upon the other and to discountenance Blasphemies damnable Heresies and Licentious Practises in Answer to the Petitions of the Congregated Churches in the Northern Counties I am perswaded have exceedingly rejoyced the hearts of all the Faithful throughout the Land Now I humbly offer it to your considerations whether it be not a necessary expedient to preserve the mutual peace of Christians straitly to prohibite under fitting penalties the giving names of obloquy or railing accusations such as the Archangel durst not bring against the Devil and the imposing of slanders upon one another I see not how any manner of good can be expected from this Practise me thinks mens Arguments might be as keen and nervous though their Language be sober beseeming Christians and civil Men. Such names they do not convince most times they harden those that are mis-led But then the mischeifs that come by it are not a few I know nothing that doth imbitter the spirits and alienate the hearts of Christians from each other so much as this and which is worse the Truths and Ways of God are not seldom nor a little clouded by this means For usually the names of the vilest Errors and Heresies are made the Badge and Livery of the choisest Truths The Discourse before you doth instance in one the title of ANTINOMIAN which was originally the character of loose and licentious Libertines i● by some of our new Doctors appropriated to them who have most faithfully managed the Protestant Cause against the Papists and in the cheif Points which are depending between them to wit Our Justification by Christ alone without Works and Conditions performed by our selves and our full and perfect Deliverance from the Curse of the Law Though there is no true Christian but will rejoyce to suffer shame for the sake of Christ yet by these arts the Ignorant and Simple have their ears stopt and eyes shut against the Word of Life for few have so much courage as to look into that which is generally branded with an evil name So that in a short time a few nick-names shall do us more hurt then Fire and Faggot did heretofore The Lord therefore keep these purposes in your hearts till you have fulfilled them and inable you to perfect the Work which you are called to that the Truth may spred and Godliness flourish that Righteousness may be equally administred and Wickedness especially in High Places severely punished that Learning whereof there is so great use both in Church and State may be encouraged and Peace if possible be restored unto us For the effecting hereof I doubt not but you have the earnest Prayers of all the Faithful throughout the Land I can assure you of him who is Yours Honors most humble Observer W. Eyre The Fourth day of the Nineth Moneth 1653. TO My Deare Flock in the City of NEVV-SARUM unto which God and their own Choise have made me an Over-seer Loving and Beloved Brethren IT was a frequent saying in the mouth of Luther That after his death the Doctrine of Justification would be corrupted A few years last past have contributed more to the fulfilling of his Prediction then all the time that went before Can there be a greater evidence of mens Apostacy from this Article of our Faith then their branding of the Doctrine it self with a mark of Heresie Though our Adversaries are grown more subtle to distinguish yet they are as wide from the true Doctrine of Justification by Christ alone as the perverters of the Faith in Luthers daies It is not easie to number up all the wiles and methods wherewith Satan hath assaulted this Foundation-Truth he knew it was too grosse to tell men That they must be justified by Works seeing the Scriptures are so expresse against it And therefore mens wits must be set on work to find out some plausible distinctions and extenuations a little to qualifie and and sweeten this Popish leaven to take off the odium of the phrase and to rebate the edge of those Scriptures which usually are brought against it It is true say they we are not Justified by Works of Nature but we are Justified by Works of Grace and though we are not Justified by Legal or old Covenant Works yet wee are Justified by Evangelical or New Covenant Works performed by our selves And againe works though they are not Physicall Causes which no man ever affirmed yet they are morall Causes or Conditions of our Justification though they do not mer● in a strict sense by their innate worth and dignity yet in a large sense and by vertue of Gods Promise and Covenant they may be said to merit our Justification and Salvation Or if these will not doe it the matter is dispatched if Faith may be but taken in a proper sense the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere fetches in all other works within its circumference But that delusion which is least apt to bee suspected by wel-meaning Christians is the calling Works or Inherent Holinesse by the name of Christ the successe of this bait we have seen of late in too many who have dallied so long with the notion of a Christ

in Christ nor any more benefit by his death then reprobates till they did believe and that they are but dreamers who do conceit the contrary I know not what could be spoken more contradictory to many plain Scriptures which shall be mentioned anone more derogatory to the full atonement which Christ hath made by his Death and more disconsolatory to the souls of men in laying the whole weight of their Salvation upon an uncertain condition of their own performing And therefore after the Exercise was fully ended I desired the Minister that Preached that with his leave and the patience of the Congregation I might remonstrate the insufficiency of his Grounds or Reasons to uphold the Doctrine he had delivered three of which I took more especial notice of One was drawn from the parallel between the first and the second Adam As men said he are not guilty of Adams sin till they have a Being so the Elect have no benefit by Christ till they have a Being whereunto he added those old Philosophical Maxims Non entis non sunt accidentia and Accidentis esse est inesse Another was That where there is no union there can be no communion but there is no union between Christ and the Elect before they believe Therefore the Elect have no communion and participation in the benefits of Christs death before they have a Being and do believe in him The proof of the Assumption was managed thus The union between Christ and the Saints is a personal union which cannot be supposed till their persons have a Being A third ground upon which he laid the greatest stress was to this purpose The Elect have no benefit by Christ before they do believe because God hath made a Covenant with his Son That they for whom he died should be admitted to partake of the Benefits of his death by Faith § 6. Whereunto my Replies were to this effect I told him that I conceived his first Allegation made very much against him For if the Righteousness of Christ doth come upon all the Elect unto Justification in the same manner as Adams sin came upon all men to condemnation as the Apostle shews it doth Rom. 5. Then it must follow That the Righteousness of Christ was reckoned or imputed to the Elect before they had a Being and then much more before they do believe in him for it is evident that Adams sin came upon all men to condemnation before they had a Being for by that first transgression sayes the Apostle vers 12. Sin entered into the world And more plainly Death passed upon all men The Reason follows because in him or in his loyns all have sinned Now as in Adam the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is All that shall perish were constituted sinners before they had a Being by reason of the imputation of his disobedience to them so in Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All that shall be saved were constituted righteous his obedience being imputed unto them by God before they had any Being otherwise then in him as their Head and common Person There is a late Writer who tells us that there is not the same Reason for the imputation of Christs Righteousness to all the Elect before they believe as there is for the imputation of Adams sin unto his posterity before they have a Being Because says he the issues of the first Covenant fell upon Adams posterity in a natural and necessary way but the issues of Christs death do come to us in a supernatural way But this Reason seems to me to be of small validity for the issues of Adams disobedience came not upon his posterity by vertue of their natural propagation for then his sin should be imputed unto none until they are actually propagated and the sins of other parents should be imputed to their posterity as much as Adams because they descend as naturally from their immediate Parents as they do from Adam so that the issues of Adams sin may be said to descend to his posterity in a supernatural way i. e. By vertue of Gods Covenant which was made with him as a common person in behalf of all his posterity and in the same manner do the issues of Christs obedience descend unto Gods Elect by vertue of that Covenant which was made with Christ as a common person in their behalf and therefore unless they can shew any Proviso or restriction in the second Covenant more then in the first why life should not flow as immediately to the Elect from Christs obedience as death did from Adams disobedience the Argument will stand in force But to return to my discourse with Mr. Warren I added That those Logical axioms non entis c. have no force at all in the present Controversie It doth not follow that Christs Righteousness cannot be imputed to us before we have an actual created Being because accidents cannot subsist without their Subjects for as much as imputed Righteousness is not an accident inherent in us and consequently doth not necessarily require our existence Christ is the Subject of this Righteousness and the imputation of it is an act of God Now the Apostle hath observed That God in justifying and imputing Righteousness calleth things that are not as if they were Rom. 4.17 As the Righteousness of Christ was actually imputed to the Patriarks before it was wrought and our sins were actually imputed to Christ before they were committed so I see no inconvenience to say That Christs Righteousness is by God imputed to the Elect before they have a Being § 7. As to his second Reason before mentioned I excepted as I conceive but justly 1. Against his calling our union with Christ a personal union which seems to favor that absurd notion That a believer loseth not onely his own proper life but his personality also and is taken up into the Nature and Person of the Son of God Divines do call our union with Christ a Mystical and Spiritual union because it is secret and invisible to be apprehended by Faith and not by Sense or Reason but the Hypostatical or Personal union is proper unto Christ in whom the Divine and Humane Nature do constitute but one Person 2. Against his Assertion proposed Universally That there is no manner of union between Christ and the Elect before they do believe for though there be not that conjugal union between them which consists in the mutual consent of parties yet is there such a true and real union that by means thereof their sins do become Christs and Christs Righteousness is made theirs God from everlasting constituted and ordained Christ and all the Elect to be as it were one Heap or Lump one Vine one Body or Spiritual Corporation wherein Christ is the Head and they the Members Christ the Root and they the Branches Christ the First Fruits and they the residue of the Heap In respect of this union it is That they are said to be given

when Noah offered up his burnt-offerings to God The Lord smelled a sweet savor c. Gen. 8.21 So when Christ offered up himself a sacrifice of atonement the Lord smelled a savor of rest and was fully satisfied for the sins of his people 3 There is no reason can be given why those words should be terminated to the person of Christ seeing that God was never displeased with him nor had our Saviour any doubt or suspition of it and therefore it was altogether needless that God should declare his well-pleasedness to him in his own person 4 The well-pleasedness of God is to be extended unto them for whom Christ offered up his sacrifice but Christ did not offer up his sacrifice for himself but onely for sinners Ergo. § 3. Well haec non successit alia aggrediamur via his next Exception therefore is That if we should extend it unto men the exception 2 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 So that in his sense I am well pleased is as much as I will be well pleased with them when they have performed the terms and conditions required on their part A gloss which I dare say was never dreamed of by any Expositor before himself Here 1 let the Reader observe how bold he makes with the Holy Ghost for when God tells us he is well pleased to say no he is not now but he will hereafter is not to interpret but contradict the Scripture 2 His gloss contradicts it self for if our reconciliation with God doth depend upon terms and conditions performed by us then it is not through Christ alone that God is well pleased with men whensoever it is and Christ is at most but a partial cause of our reconciliation § 4. But to render his Paraphrase more probable he hath cited divers other places where as he pretends Verbs and Participles of the Present tense have the signification of the future Though says he the Verb in this place be not the Present tense but the first Aorist though it be the Aorist what is that to the purpose seeing as every School-boy knows the Aorists have the signification of the Preterperfect tense and not of the Future and if that enunciation will hold in the Preterperfect tense as Beza grants then is it much more true in the Present tense But to his Allegations I answer 1 That in most of his instances there is no necessity to feign a change of Tenses as John 4.25 Messiah cometh i. e. The promise of the Messiah draws nigh to be fulfilled So Chap. 5.25 The hour is coming and now is c. The dead did then hear the voice of the Son of man both in his own and in his Disciples Ministery So 2 Cor. 3.16 the Verbs are most properly rendred in the Present tense When Israel shall or doth turn unto the Lord the vail is taken away for as Cameron notes their Conversion to God doth not precede the taking away of the vail but both are at the same time Rom. 8.24 By hope we are saved The enunciation is true and emphatical in the Present tense for in many other places the Saints are said to be saved and to have eternal life whilest they are in the body John 3.36 5.24 6.54 56. Col. 2.10 Eph. 2.5 8. Tit. 3.5 1 John 5.11 12. They have here the beginnings or first-fruits of that Salvation the complement and perfection whereof they as yet do wait for they have now the joy and comfort of their Salvation thorough Faith and Hope because Hope looks upon the promises of God not as doubtful but as sure and certain Heb. 11.1 2. They are now sayed by Hope or they shall never be saved by Hope for Hope that is seen is not Hope in the world to come they are saved by sight and not by Faith or Hope So that Text 1 Cor. 15.57 is most properly rendered Thanks be unto God that giveth or hath given us the victory through Jesus Christ. For the Saints have already obtained victory over death and the grave in Christ their Head Rom. 8.37 In all things we are more then conquerors And John 16.33 Be of good cheer I have overcome the world So Heb. 10.35 Your confidence hath a great recompence of reward to wit In the present effects which it did produce as inward peace joy c. according to that of the Psalmist Psal. 19.11 In keeping thy statutes there is great reward But 2 if I should grant what he desires that in all these places there were an Heterosis of Tenses for I acknowledge this trope is frequent in Scripture yet this great flourish will amount to nothing unless he had shewn by the circumstances of the Text or the nature of the thing that it must be so expounded here for if men had liberty to feign Enalloges of Numbers Cases and Tenses at their pleasure it were easie to elude the meaning of the plainest Texts § 5. 3 Those words Heb. 11.6 Without Faith it is impossible to please God do not conclude what he would have them to wit That God is not wel-pleased with his Elect in Christ before they do believe for the Apostle speaks there of mens works and actions and not of their persons No man can please God without Faith no not Believers themselves their Religious Services are not pleasing to God unless they are done in Faith for bonum est ex causa integra Now Faith is a principal ingredient in the Saints obedience for if it be not done in Faith it is not done in love Gal. 5 6. And consequently it is not fruit unto God Rom 7.4 Gods wel-pleasedness with his Elect is the immediate effect of the death of Christ for that which raised a partition wall between God and them was the breach of the Law now when the Law was satisfied for their sins this partition was broken down his favor had as free a current as if they had not sinned And therefore the blotting out of our sin and our reconciliation with God is ascribed solely and immediately to the death of Christ as in many other Scriptures so particularly Ephes. 1.6 7. 2.13 14. Col. 1.20 21. 2.13 14. 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself he did not onely act towards it as Mr. W. glossed those words in his Sermon but saith the Text he did not impute their sins unto them for whom Christ died The actual blotting out of sin sayes Mr. Perkins doth inseparably depend upon satisfaction for sins and satisfaction with God doth necessarily imply the very real and general abolishment of the guilt and punishment of sin That which makes our persons acceptable to God is the Righteousnes of Jesus Christ but now our actions are not pleasing unless they are conformable to the rule and all necessary circumstances do concur the cheif whereof is

promise that he will be reconciled with sinners upon such terms as he himself shall propose 3. After Intercession on Christs part and Faith on the sinners part and now is God actually reconciled and in friendship with the sinner This Grotian and Vorstian Divinity is monstrous gross which renders God as changable as a fickle Creature and palpably denies his God-like nature scil His Simplicity Eternity Omnisciency Immutability c. Arminius himself was more modest then to affirm a change in the Will of God nay Plato was a more Orthodox Divine in this point who said That the first mover can be moved of none but by himself The Will of God is not inclined or moved by any thing without him unto any of his acts whether Immanent or Transient for that which is the cause of his Will is the cause of himself seeing that his Will is his Essence The death of Christ doth not cause any alteration in the Will of God his Merits are not the cause why God doth love us or will to us the blessings of his Covenant they did not change God ex nolente in volentem ex odio h●bente in diligentem as Greevenchovius dreamed And the Reasons are 1 Because God is unchangable he neither ceaseth to will what at any time he intended nor doth he begin to will what he did not always purpose 2 Because no reason can be given of the Will of God Aquinas says well Nullum temporale c. Nothing that hath its being in time can be the cause of that which is eternal for then the effect should be before the cause Now that I may not actum agere I shall desire the Reader to consult what Mr. Owen hath said in answer to this notion of Gr●tius whereof if Mr. W. had vouchsafed to take any notice he might have seen cause enough to decline from the steps of his admired Grotius § 10. Thirdly he infers That because the Apostle saith Vers. 11. We have now received the atonement or reconciliation Ergo Not before we believed To which I answer 1 He might as well reason that because the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15.20 Now is Christ risen Ergo He was not risen before he writ that Epistle and from Eph. 2.2 The Spirit that now worketh in the children of unbelief Ergo He did not work in them before 2 If it be referred to our receiving or apprehension by Faith it doth not prove that the reconciliation or atonement was not made before There is a wide difference between the making or obtaining of reconciliation and our receiving of it though we cannot receive or apply it to our selves any otherwise then by Faith yet it follows not That God did not account it unto us before The Typical Sacrifices made a present atonement much more the real see Heb. 9.14 § 11. Fourthly He gives us his opinion concerning the immediate effect of the death of Christ Which saith Mr. Baxter is one of the greatest and noblest questions in our controverted Divinity he that can rightly answer this is a Divine indeed And no doubt but Mr. W. deserves the Bell in his account Let us therefore see what a glorious atcheivement he ascribes unto it It is saith he through the death of Christ that the promise of reconciliation is made by and according to which we are actually reconciled unto God after we do believe to wit at the day of judgement when we have performed that and all other conditions required of us which in sum is as if he had said That the death of Christ procured no certain or immediate effect at all For notwithstanding his death it is possible that none may be saved for things obtained under condition are as to their accomplishment altogether uncertain for the condition may be fulfilled or it may not be fulfilled The utmost which hereby is ascribed to the death of Christ is That he hath obta●ned a salvability for sinners or a way whereby they may become their own saviours which in the old Popish English is That Christ hath merited that we might merit Eternal life or as the Remonstrants have refined the phrase His death hath made God placabilem but not placatum A shift says Pemble devised meerly to uphold the liberty of mans will and universal Redemption Whereunto the abettors of this notion do hie them apace § 12. But against it I shall oppose these considerations 1 The Scripture no where ascribes this effect to the death of Christ That he died to obtain a conditional grant that we by performing the condition might be reconciled to God but to obtain peace and reconciliation it self Daniel doth not say that Messiah shall be cut off to obtain a promise but to make an end of sin c. Chap. 9.24 Nor the Apostle that Christ by the blood of the cross hath obtained a conditional promise of reconciliation but that he hath made peace Col. 1.20 broken down the partition wall Ephes. 2.14 delivered us from the curse Gal. 3.13 And our Saviour in that of Matth. 26.28 which Mr. W. cites doth not say That he shed his blood to procure a conditional promise whereby all men may obtain remission but for the remission of the sins of many i. e. of all the Elect. 2 If Christ by his death obtained onely a conditional promise then was his death no more available to the Elect then unto Reprobates no more to Peter then it was to Judas whereas the Scripture shews us That the effects of Christs death are peculiar onely to the Elect. See John 10.15 16 26. 17.9 20. 3 If Christ by his death obtained but a conditional promise then do men more for their Salvation then Christ hath done for he that performs the condition doth more to his Salvation then he that obtained the conditional promise notwithstanding which he might have perished 4 It makes Christ to have died in vain at least without any determinate end in reference unto them for whom he died seeing that notwithstanding his death it was possible that none at all might be saved And thus as Mr. Owen hath noted he is made a Surety of an uncertain Covenant a Purchaser of an Inheritance perhaps never to be enjoyed a Priest sanctifying none by his Sacrifice a thing we would not ascribe to a wiseman in a far more easie undertaking If Mr. W. shall say that Christ is certain that the Elect will perform the condition required we shall demand whether this certainty doth arise from their wills or his will If he say from their wills and his fore-sight of their well using of their natural abilities to fulfil the condition required he shakes hands with Papists and Arminians who make our Election and Redemption to be ex praevisa fide A conceit that hath been confuted over and over if from his own will because he hath purchased Faith for them then he obtained more by his death then a conditional promise § 13. Fifthly

perswaded better things of him and such as do accompany Salvation In the mean time I shall gladly hear the utmost that he hath to say in the defence of his Opinion § 2. His first Argument of this last rank is grounded upon those words Isa. 55.3 Come unto me that is Believe in me John 6.35 and I will make an Everlasting Covenant with you Ergo The New Covenant is not an absolute promise and none have any interest in the Covenant before they believe To which I answer 1 the Particle Vau may be taken Illatively as in some other places it is thus For I will make an Everlasting Covenant so that the Covenant is the ground of our coming and not è contra Or 2 if we take it Copulatively as our Translators do no prejudice can come thence unto our Assertion for I will make an Everlasting Covenant is all one as if he had said I will perform or give to you all other benefits promised in my Everlasting Covenant even the sure mercies of David as the Apostle expounds it Acts 13.34 Those promises which are proposed conditionally by the Prophets are rendred absolutely by the Apostle as for instance that of the Prophet Isa. 59 20. The Redeemer shall come to Zion and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob. The Apostle Rom. 11.26 renders it Then shall come out of Zion the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob implying that Faith and Repentance are parts of the Covenant which God will give unto them for whom Christ hath procured them § 3. His second Argument is That 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 Ergo before believing none have interest in the Covenant We grant that this precept or exhortation Believe in the Lord Jesus is frequently found in the New Testament but that this doth formally contain the tenor of the Gospel or New Covenant we have before disproved The Gospel properly and strictly taken consists neither in the precepts nor promises of the New Testament but in the declaration of these glad tidings that the promises which God made unto his people in the Old Testament are now fulfilled to wit the promises concerning the coming of the Messiah and the clear exhibition of all the fruits and effects of his Mediatorship So that the sum of the Gospel is rather comprized in this That Jesus Christ is come into the world to save sinners yea the cheif of sinners That by his one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Now they that are sent forth to publish and declare these glad tidings are to invite and command all men every where to believe in him whom God hath sent assuring them in the Name of God That all that do believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life The command of believing with the promise of life to Believers are parts of our Ministery they are not the tenor of the Gospel or New Covenant The Covenant whereof Christ is the Mediator is said to be better then the former because it doth consist of better promises Heb. 8.6 Now what those better promises are he tells them immediately out of Jeremy I will put my Laws into their hearts c. wherein the Lord promiseth all good things unto them without the least restipulation from them It is said indeed they that are called i e. do believe shall receive the promise of the eternal inheritance It doth not follow that their calling unto Faith was the condition whereby they obtained the inheritance no more then because it is said Chap. 5.9 Christ is the Author of Salvation to them that do obey him Ergo. Works and Obedience are conditions on our part to obtain Salvation Which places do describe the persons that are saved but not the tearms or means by which they do obtain Salvation they that are called do receive i. e. Enter into the promised inheritance he doth not say that by vertue of their calling they do enter or were invested with a right and title thereunto the repeating of his Consequence is answer enough They that are called shall receive the eternal inheritance Ergo None have any interest in the Covenant before believing or the New Covenant is not an absolute promise § 4. His next Argument is to this effect The Covenant of Grace is to be preached to every man but the absolute promise is not made to every man Ergo The Covenant of Grace is not an absolute promise Answer The Argument is faulty both in Matter and Form the Assumption should be But the absolute promise scil of Mercy and Forgiveness without Works and Conditions performed by us is not to be preached to all men which is false But we will take things as they lie before us 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. Here is a grain of Corn in a heap of chaff It is true that the Gospel or Covenant of Grace ought to be preached unto every Creature Mark 16.15 Matth. 28.19 But it is not true that the Preaching of the Gospel is to call upon men to fulfil the conditions of the Covenant or that Faith is the condition of it The place alledged sayes no such thing the words are an Exhortation to sincerity and perseverance in our Christian Profession by a similitude taken from foolish Racers who by giving over before they come to the Goal do lose the Crown We also have a race to run there is a Crown set before us and therefore we ought to take heed least by any means we fall short thereof though no man shall enter into the Heavenly Canaan without Faith yet it follows not that Faith is the condition whereby we get an interest either in that or the other blessings of the Covenant The Absoluteness of the New Covenant is no ways inconsistent with the Preaching of the Gospel unto every Creature For what is it to Preach the Gospel But 1 to publish these joyful tidings That the Son of God is come into the world to save men from their sins that in the Sacrifice which he hath offered there is plenteous Redemption for the cheif of sinners 2 To press and exhort all men without exception to believe in him 1. With the assent of their mindes that all things which are written of him cheifly concerning the merit of his sufferings and the efficacy of his death are true and infallible 2. With the imbraces of their hearts to wit With such affections as are suitable to so great a good and more particularly to trust relie and roul themselves upon him for all the purchases of his death and in so doing confidently to expect the fruition of

them in the fittest times Now the Absoluteness of the New Covenant is so far from being any impediment to Faith as that it affords men the greatest encouragement to believe both to cast themselves into the arms of Christ and to put on a strong confidence of inheriting all the promises seeing that in their accomplishment they depend not upon Works and Conditions performed by themselves § 5. Mr. W. demands 1 Whether there be an absolute promise made to every man that God will give him grace Though there be not yet are the general promises of the Covenant a sufficient ground for our Faith for as much as Grace therein is promised indefinitely to sinners which all that are ordained to life shall believe and lay hold of But says Mr. W. is it sense to exhort men to take hold of Gods Covenant or to enter into Covenant with God if the Covenant be onely an absolute promise on Gods part c. What contradiction is there unto sense in either of these For 1. what is it to lay hold of the Covenant but as Benhadads Servants did by Ahabs words 1 Kings 20.33 to take up those gracious discoveries which God in his Covenant hath made of himself to sinners and to resolve with the woman of Cannan not to be beaten off with any discouragements Which act of Faith is called The taking of the Kingdom of Heaven by violence Matth. 11 12. Which is when a Soule appropriates generall Promises to himselfe in particular And against Hope beleeves in Hope The Apostle calls it Fleeing for refuge to lay hold on the Promise Heb. 6.18 which Promise is the same which God confirmed by an Oath Vers. 17. Now wee doe not finde that God did ever confirme any Conditionall Promise with an Oath but onely those Absolute Promises of his Grace Isai. 54.9 10. Psal. 89 34 35. As for the other phrase of entering into Covenant with God Though wee never find it in the New Testament that the Apostles did exhort men to enter into or to make a Covenant with God yet I conceive that it may bee used in reference to the Externall Administration of the New Covenant Men may bee said to enter into Covenant with God when they take upon them the profession of Christianity and give up themselves to bee the Lords People In this respect wee may exhort men as the Apostle doth To give up themselves a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God and to abide stedfast in the Covenant of God or rather as the Apostles phrase is To hold fast their Profession firme unto the end Hebr. 3.6 It were absurd to exhort men either to make or to concurre to the making of the Covenant of Grace which is his act alone who sheweth mercy unto whom he will § 6. His next Interogative is a very strange one he asks us Whether if the Covenant be an absolute Promise it be sense to accuse blame and damne men for unbeleefe and rejecting of the Gospell Was it ever known that men should be counted worthy of death for not being the objects of an absolute Promise By his favor who did ever say that men are damned for not being objects of an Absolute Promise We say the condemnation of Reprobates doth inevitably follow upon their not being included in that Covenant which God hath made with Christ or Gods not giving them unto Jesus Christ but this is antecessio ordinis non causalitatis their exclusion from this Covenant is but an Antecedent and not the cause of their destruction Men are damned for not beleeving that Grace which God hath manifested to sinners for not receiving it with that esteem and such affections as it doth deserve so that formally the cause of their damnation is not their non-being objects of Gods absolute Promise but their disobedience to the Command of God If he say as the Remonstrators have done before him That they are unjustly blamed and damned for unbeleefe seeing they have no Object for their Faith no Christ to beleeve in We shall Answer That there is a reall Object proposed to their Faith though there be no such absolute Promise that God will give Grace to every man in particular the Object of Faith is the Written Word and more especially the Free Promises of Mercy unto wretched sinners for the sake of Christ which all men are commanded to beleeve both assensu intellectus amplexu voluntatis and for their unbeleefe they perish everlastingly If he shall ask Why God doth command them to beleeve in Christ seeing he never intended they should have any good or benefit by Christ I must say with the Apostle Rom. 9 20. O man who art thou that disputest against God We ought to look to his Commands and not curiously to search into his Councels Deut. 22 29. We know that the Preaching of the Gospell was ordained principally for gathering Gods Elect now because Ministers know not who are Elected and who are not It was necessary that the offer of Grace and command of Beleeving should be universall which will be imbraced and obeyed by all that are ordained to life § 7. His fourth and last Argument against the absolutenesse of the New Covenant is If the Covenant of Grace be an absolute Promise then no men in the world but wicked and ungodly men are in Covenant with God To which I Answer 1 It is very true That the Covenant of Grace is made with Christ in behalfe of sinners and none else Matthew 9.13 The whole need not a Phisitian but the sick If men were not sinners and ungodly there would be no need at all of the Covenant of Grace the Covenant of Works would have been sufficient either it is made with sinners or none 2 It will not follow that when men are in Covenant or doe partake of some blessings of the Covenant that immediately the Covenant ceaseth when we are in Glory the Covenant shall not cease for the continuance of Glory is promised in the Covenant no lesse then Glory it selfe for which cause it is called an Everlasting Covenant So that his inference is very irrationall If the Covenant be an absolute Promise then none but wicked i. e. unregenerate persons are perfectly in Covenant with God It followes rather from his owne opinion for if the Covenant be a conditional Promise when the condition is performed the Covenant is so far forth fulfilled and the Preformers of it so far forth doe cease to be in Covenant and so consequently none but wicked men i. e. such as have not yet fulfilled the Condition shall be the objects of the Covenant or the persons to whom it doth belong Or else it must follow that none at all are perfectly in Covenant with God the Performers of the Condition are not because the Condition being performed the Covenant is fulfilled and thereby ceaseth to be a Covenant and the non-performers of the Condition are not for till the Condition be performed