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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	grace_n	life_n	reign_v	4,565	5	9.3210	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85510	A modest vindication of the doctrine of conditions in the Covenant of Grace, and the defenders thereof, from the aspersions of arminianism & popery, which Mr. W. E. cast on them. By the late faithful and godly minister Mr. John Graile, minister of the gospel at Tidworth in the county of Wilts. Published with a preface concerning the nature of the Covenant of Grace, wherein is a discovery of the judgment of Dr. Twisse in the point of justification, clearing him from antinomianism therein. By Constant Jessop, minister of the Gospel at Wimborn minister in the county of Dorset. Whereunto is added, a sermon, preached at the funeral of the said Mr. John Grail. By Humphrey Chambers, D.D. and pastor of the church at Pewsie.	Graile, John.; Chambers, Humphrey, 1598 or 9-1662.; Jessop, Constantine, 1601 or 2-1658. Pauls sad farewel to his Ephesians.	1654 (1654)	Wing G1477; Thomason E817_1; Thomason E817_2; ESTC R207370	97,971	125

inquiring Dost thou renounce the Divel c. he replyed I do renounce Which Answer when Infants could not make of themselves they had Parents and Sponsors who made it for them Thus was there a formal stipulation required of growne persons at their first admission into Covenant and the administration of the seal of the Covenant to him Farther As before baptism growne persons did thus professe and promise so by being baptized did they seal For this Seal of Baptism as it is Gods seal to us assuring us of remission and other benefits promised in the Covenant so is it also the Christians Seal unto God whereby he seals the promise of Repentance Faith and new Obedience Hence are they said to be baptized into Christ into his Death into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost To be baptized into any ones name is to be consecrated to his Worship so that he is named from him as from his Lord and that he dedicate himself wholly to his service saith Piscator And learned Zanchie having at large expressed the same in several particulars doth briefely sum up all Baptism is a note and mark whereby we do protest that we will observe the Conditions of that Covenant which in Christ is established between God and us Baptism is saith Bishop Davenant A Covenant made with God of loading a more holy life therefore we must take care that what was once Sacramentally done in Baptism may be performed truly throughout our whole life As Souldiers saith Martyr swear in the name of the General and are so bound to him that it is not lawful for them afterwards to be conversant in the enemies tents if they do the offence is capital So by Baptism we are obliged unto Christ and we swear that we will not afterwards at any time revolt to the Divel So also Paraeus It is known from the Catechisme That we are baptized in the name of the Trinity because we are bound in the name of God to faith in to Worship and obedience of God and we do also promise again these things unto God We are baptized into the death of Christ in a double respect first in respect of God in as much as he doth by the Seal of Baptism give and seal to us the benefits of the death of Christ Secondly in respect of our selves by promising again faith to believe these so great benefits of Christ and the mortifying of sin by the power of the death of Christ that it reign not over us any more With these forementioned doth also Mr. Byfield concur who tels us that Baptism is a Bond that tyeth us to the desires and endeavours after the beginning and finishing of our death to sin and Spiritual life according to these Authors sense of the places forenamed Baptisme sealeth our promise of Repentance Faith and new Obedience to God as well as his promise of remission unto us It is our pledge our Covenantmony and military oath whereby we do tye and bind our selves to the service of the Most High which I cannot possibly conceive how it should be such if there were no restipulation or repromission in the Covenant as you maintain Thus much at present concerning Restipulation in the Covenant passe we on to some other Arguments and because I remember you told me that I had in my Sermons a number of Citations out of the Old Testament you shall hear some more of the Arguments I used then for some of them I have set down already To what hath been said add then Gods mercies are to be obtained in Gods way that way and manner which God hath from all eternity pitched on therein to bring men to the enjoyment of these mercies But God hath from all eternity purposed to give Remission Justification Adoption c. as through Christ for he hath predestinated us to the Adoption of children through Jesus Christ Ephes 1. 5 7. so through faith in Christ and in a way of repentance Rom. 3. 25 28. chap. 8. 28. Acts 13. 38 39 48. chap. 5 31. chap. 11. 18. Therefore till men actually repent and believe they cannot actually partake of remission Adoption Justification and those other benefits and purchases of Christs passion Againe those mercies which the Prophets and Apostles propose and promise unto men not absolutely but on termes of Repentance and Faith they are not absolutely but upon performance of the proposed termes to be expected but the faithful messengers of God both in the Old and New Testament do both proffer and promise remission in this manner Look into the Sermons of the Prophets and we shal find in their fullest and highest descriptions of free grace and offers of mercy they still require repentance of men So Isai 1. Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow But when when they should seriously set upon the practice of Repentance for so in the words foregoing Wash ye cease to doe evil c. Come now and let us reason No parley at all before this to be expected So cha 55. a place much insisted on by Dr. Crisp for to prove the absolute freenesse now in hand There are many things required as thirsting coming hearing seeking calling forsaking of sin and turning unto God So the other Prophets Jer. 3. 12 13 14. Ezek. 18. 31 32. chap. 33. 11. chap. 36. 26 27. Zach. 1. 3. Now whereas you told me That these were proofs out of the Old Testament I hope you neither deny proofs thence to be authentical nor yet the Prophets then to have been Preachers of free grace The Covenant I hope was for substance the same then that it is now not a conditional one then and an absolute one now The Fathers of the Old Testament saith Luther before Christ appeared in the flesh had him in the Spirit believed in him and were saved by him as we are according to the saying Jesus Christ is one yesterday to day and shal be the same for ever Luther in Galat. c. 4. v. 2. Come to the New Testament and we shall find that salvation was held out in the same manner then Christ and his fore-runners were Preachers of Repentance yea the Commission for preaching of the Gospel which is still on record doth shew how it was then and is still to be published not without but on terms of Repentance Luke 24. 47. That Repentance and remission oft sin should be preached to all Nations The rule of which their commission the Apostles observed as they themselves tell us Testifying both to Jewes and Gentiles repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20. 21. Nay it would be no difficult task to pick out most conditional Particles out of their and our Saviours Sermons c. scil Mark 9. 23. Acts 8. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 6. 14. Rom. 10 9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si modo Coloss 1. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth.

other passages in him 1. He tells us that in this Covenant there is and must be a mutual consent between God and us yea a consent testified by both parties for immediately after his definition of the Covenant in the substance of it which wee mentioned before he comes to consider the administration of it which he saith is dispersed by the Lord by voice and visible signes In testimonium mutui consensus inter Deum nos In testimony of this mutual consent which is between God and us The same he doth elsewhere more largely repeat as I shall shew you by and by How both parties do give their consent in making the Covenant he doth afterwards declare and withal the freenesse of the Grace of God in both The whole substance of the Covenant saith he is free In respect of God he properly makes the Covenant with us when he doth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit seal the Promise of free reconciliation offered in the Gospel and beginneth our renovation to eternal life doth daily carry it on and at last doth perfect it In respect of us who were dead in sins and trespasses the Covenant is received when the Holy Ghost is freely given to us whereby being raised from death to life it comes to passe that we not only have a will and power to believe the Promise of free grace concerning reconciliation by Christ and the renewing of us that we may enter into the inheritaace of the heavenly Kingdome but also do believe or receive faith it self So that the freenesse and absolutenesse of the Covenant doth not consist in this that there is no condition or duty required on our parts but none that is to be performed by our own strength as he some few lines after doth expresse himself Thus saith he it is certain that this whole Covenant is meerly of free Grace and doth not depend on any condition of our owne strength but on the free mercy of God in Christ apprehended by faith which himself doth bestow The offer or tender of a double Promise in Christ to wit of the remission of sins and sanctification and so the donation of Christ himself is in respect of God most free The acceptation on our part is also free because it is the action of God in us whereby he doth seal the Promise to our hearts so that being acted by him we do act being by him made Believers we do believe and being quickned or created by Christ unto good works we do walk in them Thus far Olevian in that place and who is there Sir of these whom you oppose that doth not say the same with him So that your quoting of him is at least to little purpose for your opinion I might farther shew you that he in another place repeating the same thing adds once and again that God in giving faith to his Elect and chosen ones doth thereby give with it to them also universam substantiam foederis the whole substance of the Covenant So that the remission of sin promised in the Covenant is not Antecedent but Consequent to faith which in effect is as much for the conditionality of faith in reference to the pardon of sin the salvation of souls as is contended for by those whom you oppose but I will not insist on that I shal for your and the Readers better information and satisfaction touching the judgment of this learned Divine in this point entreat you to observe 2. That as he doth plead for a mutual consent of both parties in the Covenant So he doth withal maintaine that when God for his part performes the federatory action as his phrase is Prius assensum à nobis stipulatur he doth first require our assent to the Promises and Duties or Conditions of the Covenant Thus hee expresseth himself more then once shewing withal that this Position is most agreeable to the Scripture of the Old and New Testament alledging to this purpose that voluntary and federal Contract betweene God and the people expressed by Moses Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and his Judgments and to hearken unto his voyce And the Lord hath this day avouched thee to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee Deu. 26. 17 18. Setting down at large several Reasons why the Lord is pleased thus to proceed in the administration of his Covenant and that in reference to both the Elect and Reprobate those which are sincere and those which are but hypocritical professors of and parties in the Covenant So that if you lay all the passages of Olevian together you may at least wise the indifferent Reader may see that you have gained nothing by him nor have your Adversaries lost him 4. Having dispatch'd Olevian in the next place I turn to Zanchy whom you alledg as being fully for you And I confesse at the first sight looking on him with a bare superficial glance he doth seem wholly to be yours especially if you pitch on one passage and do not compare it with others in the same place 'T is true he doth affirm that God saith Most absolutely without any condition of Faith and Repentance inserted I will betroth thee to me for ever But if you please seriously to weigh what he delivereth in his Commentary on the same Chapter and compare one thing with another you shall find that 1. The absolutenesse which he speaks of lyeth in this not that faith and repentance are not required on the Churches part to make up the match but that the making or dissolving of the Matrimonial federal Contract between the Lord and the Church shall not depend on any condition to be performed by the Church of her owne power and strength for the Lord doth undertake even for the Church to work in her Faith Repentance and ●ll other Graces requisite to the making and perpetuating of the match that it bee not broken so he speaks and doth declare himself in the end of that very Paragraph the beginning whereof you take hold of as serving our turne God promiseth both a new Marriage and also all things which even on the 〈…〉 are necessary for the making and confirming of● the Match And more fully afterwards He promiseth That he will cause that we shall be joyned to him in a perpetual mariage But the mariage cannot be perpetual unlesse as in God so also there be in us Faith and the Spirit of Christ continuing to the end by which this marriage is both contracted and preserved Therefore he doth promise that faith and the Spirit of Christ shall continue in us You may there at large see him assert That there are connubi● leges as he calls them Lawes of the marriage or conditions thereof which are to be observed by the Church for her part which God doth undertake to write in her heart that

a gold chain with a rich Jewel of the Crown in it and withal should bind himself to give her both the chain and a will to wear it Again He is both without doors knocking and within doors opening yet he never cometh in but upon condition we open which condition is also his own work He offers Righteousness so the sinner believe and he works belief that the sinner may have Righteousnesse pag. 109. Thus you see others as well as Dr. Preston assert the absolutenesse of the Covenant in that part who yet still maintain the other part viz. the promise of life and salvation to be conditional which as hath been already shewed Dr. Preston doth maintain 8. As for Mr. Walker he denies not all kinds of conditions in the place cited but only Conditions Legal and conditions for which meritorious ones but conditions which are as a means by which the free gift is received and as a qualification whereby one is made capable and fit to receive and enjoy the free gift such he granteth and calleth them Conditions in the place cited by you saying There is no condition of the Covenant propounded but only the way and means to receive the blessing or the quality and condition by which men are made capable and fit to enjoy the blessing which is as much as I plead for under that Title As for Mr. Strong though both what I have heard from him my self and also what I have heard from others who have seen his Sermon induce me to believe that he is not against our conditions yet having not his Sermon I must be altogether silent at this time concerning him By this Sir you may see that I have looked into the most of the Authors which you cited and amongst them all I must professe unto you that I find not one that speaketh fully for you but more against then for your Tenent and for that sort of conditions whose cause I plead I must intreat you therefore to shake hands with them and leave them to stand on my side To them I shall add some few more 1 Mr. Perkins shall be the first who puts down conditions in the very description of the Covenant saying The Covenant of Grace is that whereby God freely promising Christ and his benefits exacteth again of man that he would receive Christ by faith and repent of his sins In the Covenant of Grace two things saith he elsewhere must be considered the substance thereof and the condition The Substance of the Covenant is that Righteousnesse and life everlasting is given to Gods Church and people by Christ The Condition is that we for our parts are by faith to receive the foresaid benefits and this condition is by grace as well as the substance 2. Mr. Reynolds shall be the next in his Treatise of the Life of Christ p. 399. he calls Faith the conveyance and p. 403. We expect Justification by faith in Christ Faith unites us to Christ and makes his death merit life kingdom sonship victory benefits to become ours You may see p. 451 452 453. That to marriage between Christ and his Church whereby the Church hath a right and propriety created to the Body Name Goods Table Possession and Purchases of Christ is essentially required consent which consent must be mutual for though Christ declare his good will when he knocketh at our doors yet if we keep at distance stop our ears at his invitations there is then no Covenant made It is but a wooing and no marriage c. Pag. 465 466 467. That the office of Faith is to unite to Christ and give possession of him till which union by Faith be made we remain poor and miserable notwithstanding the fulness that is in Christ Pag. 478 479. and to name no more pag. 512. setting down the difference between the two Covenants he saith They differ in the Conditions for in the old Covenant legal obedience but in the new Faith only is required and the certain consequent thereof Repentance 3. Mr. Ball shall be the third who saith The Covenant of Grace doth not exclude all conditions but such as will not stand with grace and pag. 18. The stipulation required is that we take God to be our God that is that wee repent of our sins believe the Promises of mercy and embrace them with the whole heart and yeild love fear reverence worship and obedience to him according to the prescript rule of his Word and p. 20. If then we speak of Conditions by conditions we understand whatsoever is required on our part as precedent concomitant or subsequent to Justification Repentance Faith and Obedience are all conditions But if by conditions we understand what is required on our part as the cause of that God promised though only instrumental Faith or belief in the Promises of free mercy is the only condition 4. Let learned Pemble be the fourth who speaking of the difference between the Law and the Gospel saith The diversity is this The Law offers life unto man upon condition of perfect obedience cursing the transgressors thereof in the least kind with eternal death The Gospel offers life unto man upon another condition viz. Repentance and Faith in Christ promising remission of sin to such as repent and believe That this is the main essential difference between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace we shall endeavor to make good against the Romish Apostacy And about a leaf after Hence we conclude firmly that the difference between the Law and the Gospel assigned by our Divines is most certain and agreeable to the Scriptures viz. That the Law gives life unto the Just upon condition of perfect obedience in all things The Gospel gives life unto sinners upon condition they repent and believe in Christ Jesus Where you may take notice that he layes it down not as his own private opinion but as the general Tenent of all the Orthodox Divines in his time and that in opposition to our Popish Adversaries It was then no Popery to hold conditions in the Covenant and as he of the Divines of his time so may I of the Divines of this present age See their consent and harmony herein Larg cat p. 9. 5. Doctor Downam shall be the fifth That which is the only condition of the Covenant of Grace by that alone we are justified But Faith is the only condition of the Covenant of Grace which is therefore called Lex fidei And l. 7. c. 2. Sect. 6. Our Writers distinguishing the two Covenants of God that is the Law and the Gospel whereof the one is the Covenant of Works the other is the Covenant of Grace do teach that the Law of Works is that which to Justification requireth Works as the condition thereof The Law of Faith that which to Justification requireth faith as the condition thereof The former saith Do this and thou shalt live the latter Believe in Christ and thou shalt be saved

in the end for troubling of the Church her peace they were some of the chief of them cut off and banished May not my dear brother the like use be made of your present Doctrine Yea is it not think you already made by divers Are not the hearts of many taken off thereby from their faithful Ministers and Pastors whom before they loved prized hearkened to received good from yea haply received their conversion by if they be indeed converted are not I say their hearts taken off from these their spiritual Fathers so that they neglect their Sermons contemne their counsels call them nick-name them Legal Teachers and Ministers of the Old Testament when yet I hope you your selfe cannot in your conscience but acknowledg them for the true Ambassadors of the Lord Jesus May not this ill issue of your Doctrine lye heavy on your spirits Again may not the Writings of Pemble Preston Perkins and other our Worthies now with God for their holding of Conditions and professing the conditions of Faith and Repentance as without which we cannot have life be laid aside and neglected Nay are not these Authors themselves contemned as men of darker times and not acquainted with such cleare light as now shineth though you know there is more of the power and marrow of Christianity in one of their pages then in ten leaves of your new lighted Meteors Beside are not many of the godly who love you and were hearers of you driven from your Lectures or at least cannot come to them without fear and jealousie others thereby amazed not knowing whom to follow and most called away from the practice of Religion to that needlesse disquisition of a curious speculation When he builders clash the Building must needs be interrupted and when the Witnesses disagree the Jurors can bring in little better then an Ignoramus in their Bill I do beseech you Sir to consider how by this your Tenent the names and Doctrine of Gods faithful Ministers dead and living are aspersed the minds of the godly troubled the peace of the Church disquieted the hands of the wicked strengthened the mouthes of the Adversaryes opened and the hearts of your friends exceedingly sadded and to draw back your foot before you are gone too far By the wicket of an interpretative absolutenesse I should hope that you might yet recover your self in safety however by the door of retractation I am sure you may and though that work be an unpleasing businesse to flesh and blood yet is it one of the noblest Offices of a Christian souldier in which spiritual warfare as well as in temporal as much honour may be gained by a good Retreat as by a couragious Incounter or prosperous Victory FINIS PAULS SAD FAREVVEL TO HIS EPHESIANS OPENED IN A SERMON At the FUNERAL of Mr. JOHN GRAILE Minister of TIDWORTH in the Country of WILTS By HUMPHREY CHAMBERS D. D. And Minister of the Gospel at Peusie in the same County Praelucendo periit He was a burning and a shining light John 5. 35. The Righteous perish and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Isai 57. 1. London Printed for Math. Keinton at the Fountain in Pauls Church Yard 1655 A Funeral Sermon COncerning the very sad occasion of our present meeting there is no need that I speak unto you seeing it is or may be knowne unto you all that we have at this time accompanied though not a very aged yet an able faithful painful and godly Minister of Jesus Christ unto his grave that house prepared for all the living where as to his body he is to rest until that great day when all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of life they that have done evil to the Resurrection of damnation at what time the faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ how much soever contemned clouded and cloathed with reproach in this world who have fed the stock of God taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being example to the flock when the chief Shepherd shall appear they also shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away Yea they shall then together with all other Gods servants enter in all fulnesse into the joy of their Lord and be possessed of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them The Holy Ghost tels us in Eccl. 7. 11. That a good name is better then precious ointment with that rich Embalming is our dear Brother gone unto his grave which will make his memory sweet and precious enough to all that knew him and love God And of such a one who is buryed with this sweet Odour the Holy Ghost witnesseth in the end of that verse That the day of death is better then the day of birth The day of Birth brings every one to an afflicted dying life but the day of death bringeth every such one yea every child of God to an everlasting life of never dying glory Whether you that are the Inhabitants of this place were sensible of your blessing in the enjoying the Ministry of this our deceased Brother or are apprehensive of your losse in his departure from you I cannot say for you are all strangers unto me but this I am sure of concerning very many who have occasionally enjoyed the fruit of his Labours that they sadly bewail the removing of one so furnished with skil and will to declare the truth of God and to oppose the old Superstitious and new or rather renewed Errors which on the right and left hand do oppose the Progress of a blessed Reformation amongst us And upon this Account my heart greatly mourneth over this brother of ours whom God hath taken away from us by whose death a great breach is made amongst us of the Ministry in these parts at this time wherein open profanenesse and pernicious Errours do so much abound When wee consider our Brothers Ministerial Qualifications and Graces his Ability and Humility embracing and beautifying each other his conscionable and Christian circumspection over himselfe and his Doctrine it is very doubtful whether he were more ripe for life or fit for death Questionlesse this our Brother after he had notice of deaths approach towards him could not but be sensible of the Apostle Pauls strait between a desire of living to do good to others and dying to receive good for himselfe of serving the Lord Christ in life and possessing the Lord Christ more fully in death yet I am confident that in this case he did prostrate himself obedientially at the feet of the will of God And seeing the Lord hath now declared his purpose to make this our dear Brothers gain our losse we must

one spark of the Law of God therefore he justifieth God in his Word and confesseth that he is guilty of death and eternal damnation The first part then of Christianity is the preaching of repentance and the knowledg of our selves And some few lines after The Law doth nothing else but utter sin terrifie and humble and by this meanes prepareth us to Justification and driveth us to Christ And about two leaves after Being thus terrified by the Law the man utterly despaireth of his own strength he looks about and sigheth for the help of a Mediator and Saviour Here then cometh in good time the healthful Word of the Gospel and saith Son thy sins are forgiven thee believe in Jesus Christ crucified for thy sins These sayings of Luther Sir do fully assure me that Luther held a necessity of Legal sorrow and humiliation in persons to be justified and that to prepare them for Justification which is directly against the second Position of your former Sermons concerning the absolutenesse of the Gospel wherein you pleaded what you could against the necessity of such legal sorrow and humiliation But passe we over these and consult we Luther about that necessary mean of faith Let the Question be whether in the Gospel faith be not required to the actual enjoyment of Justification and Remission and to the obtaining of a right thereto and interest therein Or whether we may have a right to and interest in or actual enjoyment of these benefits without faith or before faith We wil not go beyond his Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians for the discovering of his mind herein and begin we where we left Chap. 2. ver 16. Here is to be noted that these three Faith Christ and Acceptation or Imputation must be joyned together Faith taketh hold on Christ and hath him present as a Ring doth a precious stone and whosoever shall be found having this confidence in Christ apprehended in the heart him will God account for Righteous This is the mean and this is the merit whereby we attain the remission of sins and Righteousnesse So on vers 20. of the same Chapter a place cited already he teacheth that it is through faith we are united to Christ and come to call the benefits we have by him ours Cap. 3. 13. about the middle For as much then as Christ reigns by his grace in the hearts of the Faithful there is no sin no death nor curse But where Christ is not knowne there all these things do still remain Therefore all they that believe not do lack this inestimable benefit and glorious Victory And on ver 14. We are all accursed before God before we know Christ and there is no other way to avoid the Curse but to believe A little after This gift of the Spirit we receive not by any other Merits then by faith alone Ver. 26. Faith in Christ maketh us the children of God And Verse 28. comparing our believing to the looking on the brasen Serpent saith thus This is true faith concerning Christ and in Christ whereby we are made members of his body flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone In him therefore we live move and have our being Christ and our faith must be throughly joyned together Vers 29. If ye be Christs then are you Abrahams Seed that is to say If ye believe and be baptized into Christ If ye believe I say c. then are ye the children of Abraham not by nature but by Adoption Yea in the place first cited with which we shall conclude this testimony cha 2. 16. Because thou believest in me saith the Lord and thy faith layeth hold on Christ whom I have freely given unto thee that he might be thy Mediator and High Priest therefore be thou justified and righteous Wherefore God doth accept or account us as righteous only for our faith in Christ Because we do apprehend Christ by Faith all our sins now are no sins But where Christ and faith bee not there is no remission or covering of sins but meer Imputation of sinne and Condemnation I hope Sir in those places Luther speaks plainly enough to the purpose in hand and doth sufficiently declare his belief in this particular to be that faith is required to our justification and that to the obtaining of it that it doth marry us to Christ and so state us in a right unto his benefits that till we have this faith we are accursed caitiffes under death wrath and condemnation and that before God or in his sight Nay Sir he doth say that it is because of our faith and for our faith and that faith is the merit by which we have it which though I doubt not but may passe with a favourable construction yet are higher titles of Honour then any of our Divines do give unto her in pleading for Conditions in the Covenant Your next Author was Peter Martyr his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans I have where I meet with that common place De Justificatione in it the passage you cite viz. We deny that the Testament of God concerning the remission of sins in Christ hath a condition annnexed to it But first I conceive that Martyr here denies only a condition of Works or a Legal condition Such legal conditions Pighius did plead for And that these are the conditions which Martyr doth deny his owne words in the very same page do clearly expresse For having in the line next after the passage you quote out of him alledged that of the Apostle at large Gal. 5. 15 16 17. hee presently from this Testimony drawes this inference as an Explication of his former negation of conditions in the Testaments Haec verba clarissimè docent These words do most clearly teach that the Testament which God made with Abraham was pure and absolute et sine ulla legali conditione and without any legal condition But that he should deny the condition of faith or that faith was required to Justification that common place shewes not but rather the contrary for about some leaves after speaking of that Rom. 4. It shall be imputed to us as it was to Abraham if we believe he thus saith Is it not here clearly enough said That we must believe that that Jesus Christ whom God raised againe died and rose again that we might be justified and that all our sins might be forgiven us And a little after Every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him hath eternal life Thus therefore we infer But I believe on the Son of God therefore I now have and shall have that which he hath promised Vnlesse faith be wanting wher by we may apprehend the things offered we are justified by the Promises Martyr in that common place reasons wholly against Justification by works And the condition there spoken of unlesse we will do apparent injury to the Author we must understand the condition of works or of the Law which

of hope of a future happinesse or glorious Resurrection 1 Thess 4. 13. Howbeit with due moderation in humility of soul and quiet submission to the will of God it is not onely warrantable but laudable a practice which grace bringeth the people of God unto to mourne over the faithful Messengers of God when they are by death called home out of this present world When Steven was slaine by the Jewes Devout men carried him to his Burial and made great lamentation over him This is mentioned by the Holy Ghost not as a groundlesse but as a gracious practice of these Believers evidencing their Christian love to Stephen that blessed Martyr of the Lord. In proportion to this great lamentation made by devout men at Stephens Funeral and the sore weeping of the Believers of Ephesus at Pauls final parting from them mentioned in my Text I doubt not but our mourning over our deceased Brother at this time is lawful and laudable in the presence of the Lord. I will not multiply words in reference to this our Reverend Brother now taken from us I shall leave his Works to praise him in the Gate being well assured that many who have felt and tasted the power and comfort of his Ministry will beare witnesse to him and the working of God in him for their good One thing there is relating to his death which I cannot omit that the Lord greatly testified his acceptation of him in his Work in that he dyed of Epaphroditus his sicknesse of whom the Apostle wrote That for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death The Work of Christ of which Epaphroditus was sick was as far as wee can judge a special part of the Disease of which this our Brother dyed for after that some symptomes and beginnings of a bodily weaknesse had seized upon him his turn came to supply a Lecture at a place somewhat remote from his owne habitation which therefore some neerly related to him earnestly perswaded him to forbear for that time but such was his Zeal towards the work of Christ that it caused him to neglect his friends advice and his own health and to overlook his present danger and so undertake the Work of Preaching the Gospel in his course under the weight of which labour of love his weak body did apparently sink in the time and place of that publick service after which returning home he declined more and more untill the time of his death Our Saviours words therefore seem plainly to reach this our Brother and pronounce him blessed Blessed is that servant whom the Lord when he cometh shall find so so doing The Lord when he came to this our Brother by death found him doing so doing doing his Lords Work faithfully and therefore looking on him we have cause to part with him rejoycingly being much assured of his blessednesse yet looking at our selves we have cause to part with him sadly when we consider that we shal have his help and see his face no more A Pillar is fallen and by the fall thereof a great breach made in this place this County this Land which that the Lord may be pleased in mercy to make up by increasing the number strengthning the hands and blessing the Labours of his faithful Servants in the Ministry we have great cause to bow our knees before him and to beg this favor from him in the name of the Lord Jesus to whom with the Father and blessed Spirit be praise and Glory for ever Amen FINIS a Vind. Ley Lect. 26. pag. 249. b Ames coron artic 1. c. 1. § 4 Impetration is the foundation of application c Camero in Ps 68. inter Arg Solut. Med. ult d Prideaux Ser● Draught of the brook And Perk. Ref. Cath. of Merit e Panstr Cathol tom 3. l. 14. c. 16. 21. ad 25. f Ibid. 9. 38. 12 Cor. 4. 17. h Jer. 3. 13. i 〈…〉 k 〈…〉 p. 112. l Gataker Rejoynd p. 31. m Fidem ponī ut conditionem salutem quidem antecedentem sed electionem ipsam consequentem nunquam à nostris negatum fuit summā verò cum religione constanter traeditum Cor. de Elect. c. 1. §. 4. p. 7. n 2 Thes 2. 11. o Rejoynder p. 47. p Si igitur haec esset mens et sententia Synodi quod simpliciter vellet monstrare illum de quo jam diximus modum et ordinem quo juxta Scripturae traditionem Deus utitur quando homines vult deducere ad justificationem et si illa quae Scriptura tradit procedere tribuerent non viribus liberi arbitrii sed gratiae Dei et operationi Sp. Sancti nec in illis praeparationibus constituerem meritum aut dignitatem propter quam justificemur facilè posset de vocabulo praeparationis dextrè juxta Scripturam intellecto conveniri Exam. part 1 p. 172. q Falsum est igitur quod in 9 canone nobis tribuunt quasi docemus nullum plane motum voluntatis divinitus donatum et excitatum praeced ere acceptionem justificationis Omnino enim docemus poenitentiam et contritionem praecedere Non dicimus praecedere tanquam meritum quod suâ dignitate cooperatur ad justificationem consequendam sed sicut sensus morbi aut dolor vulneris non est meritum sanationis sed urget et impellit ad desiderandum quaerendum et sucipiendum medicum r At Evangelium non promittit salutem absque ulla conditione legis observandae neque id nostrumquisquam docuit modò ne conditio pro merito sumatur tom 3. l. 15. c. 2. § 9. nam et fidei conditio non est antecedens sed consequens quia nullum fidei meritum attenditur sive fides non est causa salutis ſ Non negamus bona opera ullam relationem habere ad salutem habent enim relationem adjuncti consequentis et effecti ad salutem ut loquuntur adeptam et adjuncti antecedentis ac disponentis ad salutem adipiscendam atque etiam argumenti confirmantis fiduciam ac spem salutis sed negamus ulla opera nostra causam esse posse meritoriam justificationis ac salutis Bel. ener tom 4. lib. 6 cap 6. s Promissiones cum conditione obedientiae ut causae juris quod habemus ad rem promissam sunt propriae legis sed promissiones cum conditione obedientiae ut adjuncti aut effecti rei promissae vel dona●ionis ejus locum suum habent in benignissimae gratiae regno ubi meritis nostris nullus habetur locus cap. 5. §. 2. t Haec et hujusmodi opera cordis interna sunt omnibus justificatis necessaria non quod contineant in se efficaciam seu meritum justificationis sed quod juxta ordinationem divinam vel requirentur ut conditiones praeviae seu concurrentes sicuti poenitere et credere vel ut effecta à fide justificante necessariò manartia ut amare Deum diligere proximum De just act cap. 30. Q. 1.