to life but by death And when a man hath seen and felt nothing but sin and death in himself the law cannot tell him nor let him know of a righteousness and life ordained for him in another out of himself and therefore here it ceaseth to help He that expecteth conversion by the Law may as well seek light in darkness life in death conversion where confusion terrour and desperation is Who can credit your bare word in this that the law which is found both by Scripture and experience to be the word that revealeth and worketh wrath and death should yet be the ministry also of conversion to the soul I cannot do it M. B. Onely two things must be premised Answ Nay not onely two but a third also viz. that what you say is infallibly true without exception your new divinity must pass for current M. B. First that the law could never work to regeneration were it not for the Gospels promise Answ You mean not that the Gospel-promise should be any ingredient to the ministry of the law and so by the vertue and efficacy of this as some special pearl used amongst other things in themselves of little or no force this cure or work should be effected but you say that vertue should go forth equally and indifferently by law or Gospel and this because God hath promised to give a new heart through Christ as the Medium by and in whom he creates and changes it anew for so you would contradict your self but thus you intend that Gods promise to give this heart is grounded on Christ as the reason of making it but the performance may be by the law But is it your part to make this to appear for truth By regeneration we are become children to God but if this be by the law then are we but like Ishmael children of the bond-woman Well your words want weight and credit too I wonder you should think such private fancies would ever be received having no warrant but your pen. What have you no Text nor Author to produce not one sentence or word from either for confirmation M. B. So that while a Minister preaching of any commandment doth thereby mold and new frame the heart Answ You want a probatum est for it M. B. All this cometh by Christ who therefore dyed and ascended into heaven c. Answ Every word of God is pure add thou not to his word lest he prove thee and thou be found a lyer Prov. 30.5 6. Where is it said that Christ dyed and ascended to give such power and vertue unto the law M. B. So that there never was in the Church meer pure Law nor meer pure Gospel Answ It is a heavy accusation and charge never what not in the Prophets Apostles nor yet Christs time but alway a Miscellaneous or mixt doctrine this seemeth too bold and rash If you shuffle all together it was not alway so the promise in Paradise That the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Serpent and that to Abraham Gen. 12. That in Christ all the families of the earth shall be blessed was surely pure Gospel without any Law M. B. But they have been subservient to each other in the great work of conversion Answ Subserviency was alway granted and taught but that may be without mixture Christ or the Gospel and the Law cannot be and dwell together and as the dead fly marreth the Ointment in the box so the least thing of the law mingled with the Gospel corrupteth it and wholly destroyeth it saith Luther they are so repugnant and opposite you know the nature and operations of contraries and the doctrine of grace and of works are contrary Rom. 11. If of grace it is no more of works You say you approve of Luther Qui scit inter legem Evang discernere c. sciat se esse theologum but you will not meddle with that now Answ No nor no time else it is needless if they were alway intermingled how can they be otherwise now and if either severally or both joyntly may effect true conversion what need we make a difference or why it is of so great consequence to give an exact difference between them I understand not But in the closure you seem as if you would have eat your own words saying God may make the opening of the moral law instrumentally to concur thereunto you are providing hereby some moor rome aforehand for fear of that strait your former assertion brought you into M. B. The second thing which I premise is this That howsoever the law preached may be blest to conversion yet the matter of it cannot be blest to Justification Adoption or consolation Answ More strange still what conversion is it which is not included in Justification by it the soul is re-united and reconciled to God Totus processus a peccate c. The learned have taught and told us that the whole passage and way from sin wrath and death unto righteousness favour and life is by mean of free justification What is blest to justifie is blest to convert us to God but the Gospel and not the Law you grant is blest to Justification Adoption Consolation When Paul did beseech the Corinthians to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.19 20 or to receive the Atonement was not that to turn to God no God had the heart to eschew evil and do good is not to turne unto God My son give me thy heart and then let thy eyes observe my wayes Christ is the way to God Again is it possible to partake of Adoption whereby we become children by one doctrine and to receive the qualification or divine image or likeness reinstambed on us by another doctrine 3. Is not our Reconciliation or coversion the ground of our hope and consolation The promise of the Gospel giveth no ground of hope or consolation to the unconverted 1 Pet. 1.3 We are begotten again to a lively hope Who can have hope in God or consolation from him but he that is regenerated or converted or is there any ground or reason of either but onely in this that we are called and converted to the faith of the Gospel Blessed be God who hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace 2 Thes 2.16 You put in after Not in any thing he doth as if you made no difference between conversion and mans doing or work which is gross And yet elsewhere you erect much hope and consolation of future good and glory upon mans doing and duty which here you deny see pag. 40. where you say there is a promise made to our works c. M. B. Therefore let us not confound Law and Gospel nor yet make them so contrary in their natures and effects that where one is the other cannot be An. If this your doctrine doth not confound them while you say they were never pure nor distinct in the Church and not telling what is Law
stay out my Quarter yet I did and then a Writ was procured from the Colonels to apprehend and imprison me My offer was To let me have justice and I would justifie what I taught and held and let them see their errours an easie thing to do but they refused Then I went to London with intention to Petition the Parliament but friends who had better intelligence and experience disswaded and deterred me So finding little hope of relief I returned and removed my family into Yorkshire so giving place to their fiery zeal Gentle Reader I have presumed on thy patience in setting down these passages by which it is clear that they seek themselves and not Christ and his Truth and chuse rather to use Club-law as did Cain the false Prophets Pharisees and Hypocrites in all times of persecution to extinguish or suppress the light of heaven then that it should discover their nakedness and shame If thou ask Why are they bent and enraged more against you Antinomians then any other Sect Answ They can tell thee great things and would have thee believe we are unworthy to live in any Commonwealth But the truth is and many of them cannot be ignorant of it we teach onely what is Orthodox and the old-received truths of God And do desire no more favour then what Justice can deny to none viz. leave to speak for our selves before we be condemned Onely they see the inconsistencie of divers of our Tenets with theirs and Dagon or the Ark must fall And how questionable and unjustifiable their assertions are to any indifferent capacity viewing and considering them in the true light and therefore would put out our Candie It would make a Christian face to blush or his heart rather to bleed to hear what stuff they can put off and vent in their Sermons I resorted to their Exercises divers yeers yet never heard one doctrine of Free-grace of Christ Faith or Justification Legal Reformation is taken for Regeneration and Evangelical Sanctification I have spoken with old and zealous prosessors who knew not what it was to be justified by faith except this was the meaning of it That God would accept of them for their good works and duties If any one which yet Nature is principled for be framed and brought somwhat into a Legal way to performances he is judged a true Convert and may set up his rest If they do well they tell you they can believe sufficiently upon their kinde of works they build their faith The Law is not preached as the ministry of death to cast down and to kill that Christ may be the life and spiritual resurrection but the life that most speak of is to live and walk in the Law yet Paul saith I by the Law am dead to the Law that I may live to God Gal. 2.19 I am resolved of this that if people had experience of a sensible death working in them by the Law and that nothing but the curse and wrath could be had in their works and ways and had felt as sensibly a reviving and quickning in the faith and apprehension of Christ there would be little ground of difference remaining but till that be or at least that the Law be preached for death and not for life and peace as too many do how can the controversie be ended But flesh and blood may object What good success can I promise to this my enterprise I go against the full tyde and violent current of humane policie and learning of such a religious multitude all being combined and conspiring against me Are not my adversaries in number infinite rarely qualified admired for sanctity and zeal backed and invested with worldly Authority countenanced by the times and the sole-esteemed pillars of the Church What am I how dare I oppose them Who is my Patron My answer is 1. I do not come forth in mine own name or strength nor measure my self with them for then hope of prevailing is gone But when God is set against them and his invincible Verity so opposed by them how vain and light then are all these powers and excellencies 2. I have been carried against the stream almost these twenty yeers yet they could not prevail by reason of the Lords strength and presence 3. However the voyage fall out I have not much left to lose onely my outward liberty in part and a few days it may be of my natural life can be in jeopardy And hath the sacred Truth of God and the desired good of his Church been so prevalent that for their sakes I have sustained such loss suffered so many things already and shall I now shrink or be unwilling to sacrifice the loan of what is remaining The Lord leave me not to that temptation 4. In all their opposition I see nothing to convince but am rather thereby confirmed They would see a mote in Dr. Crisp's eye but will not see a beam in their own If to my self I were guilty of any their unworthy imputations or of doing or yet offering a hundredth part of that wrong I received from them or if my conscience did not witness with me that I had sought to give unto them all possible satisfaction more then was desired or would be accepted of then I should not have that inward peace and contentment which now I enjoy And 5. lastly why should I desire a Patron and so become injurious to any in engaging them or rendering them to be suspected I know the Truth is able to protect it self and the servant of it and further then I am found in the way of Verity I seek no shelter The Name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous runneth into it and is safe Prov. 18.10 Thou Lord hast seen it for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand The poor committeth himself unto thee thou art the helper of the fatherless Psal 10.14 R. Towne Vindiciae Evangelii OR The Vindication of the Gospel from the unjust Censure and all Aspertions of A 〈◊〉 ntinomy Or A Reply to Mr ANTH BURGESSE'S Vindiciae Legis c. SIR YOur other Advantages are many but God and his Truth are with us therefore we may be confident in our just Cause and Quarrel and the Victory is certainly ours Your whole Colledg and Assembly approve of and commend your Book that is I confess cause of sadness and grief to my spirits but not one jot of terror Truth is of more weight and authority with me then the Consent and Judgment of all the Learning and Principalities in the world and as Luther writ to K. H. 8. I prefer one Paul before a thousand Thom. Scotus c. You anticipate our expectation of your future Reply in your Preface to the Reader I hope you will not for I perceive by this that the light of Truth hath almost overcome you a little more glory of it may happily both convince and convert also But your Ground or Reason of not Replying
evident enough that those things whereof we are accused are not so we overthrow no force at all in your sense thus we have it in confesso that you do deny the condeming power the stones then that you cast may fall upon your own head M. B. 2. Some Swenckfeildians held that a man was never truely mortified till he had put out all sense of conscience for sin Answ Let the understanding reader judge whether this your doctrine of taking away the damnatory power of the law doth not directly tend to that end and can produce no other effect or fruits but senselesseness and wretched security for if I apprehend no danger in the law it revealing no wrath nor threatning nor condemning nor terrifying I can then rest quiet and secure under the law and in sin and so never seek nor desire to come and dwell under the protection of Christ in his Gospel LECT VII VIII IN these two Lectures I finde many things not currant with me and more which are dubious and questionable but as he medleth not with his Antinomian so I willingly let all pass as having no minde to raise or occasion new disputes the Church being too much disquieted already LECT IX Rom. 2.14 For the Gentiles do by nature c. M. B. Sect. 1. ANtinomians seem to deny all the preparatory works upon the heart of man Answ Can there be a heart desiring Christ and willing to receive him for righteousness reconcilation and life and yet be no preparatory work these a man with but half an eye may see and read in Doctor Crisp against whom this exception is made And what other preparation is needful or you do 〈◊〉 may be known hereafter M. B. Holding that Christ immediâ—â—◠〈…〉 himself to grâ—ss sinners abiding 〈…〉 Answ Your terms are ambiguous by that word immediately may be thought as if your adversary denyed all use of means as an Euthusiast or else that Christ communicateth himself before the sinner can or do prepare to meet him or receive him according to that of the prophet I am found of them that ask not after me Isa 65.1 as he called Matthew sitting at the receit of custome Mat. 9.9 and Peter Andrew James and John Mat. 4.18 21. And so he prevented Paul Act. 9.4 5. for will ever the stray sheep seek first to the sheperd or is it not the shepherds office to seek the scattered and lost Luk. 19.10 you are no patron of free-will why then do you wrangle in a matter so clear After that I was turned I repented Jer. 31.19 2. You say to gross sinners Do you make a difference before Christ and Faith come Paul saith There is no difference between the profane Gentile and legal Jew Rom. 3.9 the Jew is in no wise better then the other although the blinde Pharisee thought and judged otherwise Luk. 18.11 or is not Christ as free for one sinner as another for a gross and great offender an idolater a Necromancer as Manasses a blasphemer and persecuter as Paul for Publicans and harlors as for a refined and reformed legalist Alas Sir what then shall become of all gross sinners if Christ may not communicate himself unto them you would have them amended first that may like you but it pleaseth not Christ who is most glorified in the chief of sinners like that skilful physician whose art and faithfulness doth best appear in the healing and recovery of a patient desperately sick But by what power or means shall a gross sinner reforme and amend before Christ come to him who said truly Without me yo can do nothing you seem by this book to be just of the elder brothers that is the Pharisees minde Luk. 15.12 who was offended and murmured because the loose and sinful prodigal was so freely received and kindly welcomed and entertained What your fears or other reasons may be Eph. 1.6 I cannot well tell but Christ took more pleasure in conversing with gross sinners the mercy and grace of God is become most free and rich to the praise of the glory of it when such are freely justified and received into favor and never did nor shall any love so much and be so serviceable and full of expressions of love as such unto whom most are forgiven Luk. 7.47 3. But you add abiding so 1. Answ What after Christ hath communicated himself Impossible 2. You know your adversary can intend no such thing nor hath any such words but his expressions are otherwise as appeareth in his book to any reader 3. And if you mean abiding so till Christ come to him I say then you must work some strange cure on such an one in making him a Proselyte but I forbear M. B. And though they hold us passive at the first receiving of Christ which all Orthodox do yet they express it in an unsound sense comparing God unto a physician that doth violently open a sicke mans throat and poure down his physick whether he will or no. Answ 1. If you think that a man must or may prepare himself you are not so Orthodox as to hold us passive at the first receiving of Christ 2. You stumble at the similitude used but have not other approved Divines compared Gods dealing with man at first to a riders rough handling of a wilde colt who is forced to cast him ere he can shooe him and by a strong hand and sharpe usage to subdue break and tame him Neither of these do imply any more then is warranted Jer. 31.18 and other places Are you of opinion that God in the conversion of a sinner doth nothing against the will of man look then on Manasses Paul Adigondo peccatum in conscientiam the Jailor was there not violence done whilst God useth afflictions without and the terrors of the law within driving sin into the conscience and so compelleth the man to come in Luk. 14.23 no bitter potion or aloes is so unpleasant and loathsome unto the body as the due working of the law is ingrateful to the conscience besides the patient knowing that his physick is given not to kill but of purpose and with a minde to prevent death and to cure the diseased body will more willingly receive and digest what is so untoothsome but the soul when the law revealeth sin and wrath and the spirit of bondage beginneth to work knoweth nothing of Gods purpose herein unless it be that his minde is to destroy and therefore it doth struggle and refist as much as in it lyeth It may be truly said in a good sense that God who worketh the Will and the Deed Phil. 2.12 doth save a man against his will for man of himself is both unwilling to suffer and abide the work of God in him and upon him and also to have salvation in Gods way therefore said Christ You will not come unto me that ye may have life Joh. 5.40 and none will come unless the Father draw him Joh. 6.44 And how often would
Christ and life in and with him but all is still kept in suspence and reserved till future So where the Spirit of truth saith God hath given unto us Christ and eternal life in him your Ghost saith nay but he will his promise is de futuro give us them upon condition of our good works and by them as a way we must come to Christ and salvation God hath conveyed and given nothing by promise There is no Christ nor life in reality and substance communicated by the word and Sacrament these are empty shels The just liveth by faith what feedeth he on to nourish and encrease life what on the Wind well you teach that we must live in hope to have all in the end upon condition of our obedience and service And for this reason you call upon men to work and please God But the truth saith Christ hath received all for us and we enjoy all in him You say that because we hold works are no conditions of salvation therefore we loose mens reines to carnal walking It s a Popish cavil or slander And argueth a spirit in the Author too servile and mercenary which will do no good but for lucre and to gain by it and such a spirit must needs accompany your doctrine Mr. Rutherf pag. 463. Mr. T. saith In sanctification as well as in justification we are meer patients and can do nothing at all and pag. 464. The blessedness of man is onely passive not active in his holy walking Reply As this is objected in your other book so you have your answer to it But my words are in Assert pag. 68. What can you do to the sanctifying or changing of your self more then in your justification It s Gods act to sanctifie throughout you cannot make one hair white or black Who would think that Mr. Rutherf would quarrel with this You alter my words to make them capable of your gloss and sense But all men may see that I speak of the act of sanctification and not of the expression and fruits of it If you can sanctifie your self in whole or part glory in your freewil and power but that is the greatest arrogancy of Antichrist saith one So I leave you with your absurdity unto the worlds censure you shew neither text or reason against me 2. And that blessedness is passive not active in holy walking you must grant or when you say any thing against it deserving or requiring it you may then expect your answer Blessedness in holy walking is declarative shewing how God hath renewed and enlarged the heart but that phrase is yours not mine Mr. Rutherf Town the Antinomian said Pag. 501. David confessed his sins not according to truth and the confession of faith but from want and weakness of faith c. Reply My words are David prayed that his sins might be pardoned which you grant were pardoned Now then did he thus pray according to truth and the confession of faith or from want or weakness of faith and of the effectual apprehension of forgiveness Is not Mr. Rutherford now the Antinomian who against Law so palpably mistakes his Adversary There is great difference between confessing of sinne and praying for pardon If God my own conscience men yea Satan require that I confess my self a sinner I shall readily do it for this is to justifie God in his Law saying There is none righteous c. And this may well stand with my faith and effectual apprehension of pardon for I confess what I am in my self I believe what I am in Christ through that grace that justifieth the ungodly Thus while your mistakes onely make me erroneous whom otherwise you find not so who is now the Antinomian Is not the Author of the errour so all will returne to your own discredit and disadvantage And what a gross slander is that which followeth viz. Town and all Antinomians teach that it is unbeliefe a worke of the flesh of old Adam c. that justified persons confess or feel sin sorrow or complain of the body of sin as Paul Rom. 7 This is as if the continual dwelling of sinne in us did not trouble us or could not consist with faith in justification by Christ or that now the spiritual estate of the soul being clear and safe made up in Christ sin in no other regard were sorrow or trouble to us But you cannot in this neither make good your charge You care little how falsly you accuse us so that you make your Bill foul and black enough to make us still more odious and vile M. Rutherf pag. 505. M. T. contendeth for a compleat perfection not onely of persons justified but also of performances so that saith he pag. 75. I believe there is no sin malediction or death in the Church of God he will have a perfection not of parts but also of degrees this he proves from Luthers words perverted Reply What perfection I contend for you must yeeld me or else with your heart you believe not that there is a holy Church which is indeed as Luther saith nothing else but I believe that there is no sin no malediction no death in the Church of God but this is in Christ not in our selves by justification not by inherent sanctification for this is imperfect You say I pervert Luther take his words again So mightily saith he worketh faith that he that believeth that Christ hath taken away sin from him he like Christ is void of sin Again Christ will have us to believe that like as in his own person there is now no sin nor death even so there is none in ours there is no defect in the thing it self but in our incredulity Let us see what construction or sense you can make of these words But you pervert my words or meaning as if I meant it that sin dwelleth not still in us a fiction But Luther addeth as you read in the Assertion That to reason its a hard matter to believe these inestimable good things and unspeakable riches Moreover Satan with his fiery darts and his Ministers with their wicked and false doctrine go about to wrest it from us and utterly to deface this doctrine and specially for this Article we sustaine the cruel hatred and persecution of Satan and the world for Satan feeleth the power and fruit of this Article Consider what you Read M. Rutherf pag. 510. When D. Tailer objects as a limb of their fleshly divinity No action of a believer after justification is sin M. T. Answers Nothing but of the way no action is sin the disorder or ataxie of the action is sin But D. T. meaneth that there is no disorder in the action of a justified man by their way c. can this be any but the divinity of the flesh Reply If the Dr. say it you will swear it But my answer is direct to his words yet sith you now help me to know his meaning I say there is disorder in
answer 1. If Christ died not for such how could such come unto him or believe on him So that there is a sweet harmony yea who else could be saved for what difference is there originally and inwardly though not in outward expressions and out-breakings to the eye of the world the strictest Pharisee is as wicked and unclean as the loosest Libertine God looketh upon the heart But 2. you ask how can an enemy to Christ close with Christ I answer Is it not possible for enemies to be reconciled or for a Rebell convinced of his danger to submit and receive a gracious pardon being offered and when he is receiving it he may rightly and worthily be called a Rebell though afterward he become a true professed Subject 3. Neither the Text alledged nor the Doctor say enemies to Christ but when we were enemies viz. to God his justice and holiness in reference to his law For as God absolutely considered cannot be the object of mans hatred so God in Christ as Mediatour cometh under another Notion as being the onely meanes to slay enmity and reconcile both in himself You say it is more then in some places they allow Ans When you shew some place we may speak to it But how frequently read you in Doctor Crisp these and like expressions If God give thee an heart to come if thou canst believe if now thou have a mind to close with Christ c. which ought to have prevented all these exceptions as annulling the grounds and reasons of them I marvell that any understanding and experienced man should except against his Ministery it tending specially to encourage the poore and troubled soul to come freely and with confidence unto Christ assuring it there is no such force and let as the conscience of sin and his own unworthiness will suggest Oh how hard a thing is it in the feeling and horrour of sin to look up to free-grace and to receive Christ the gift of God without all disputings and reasonings about workes or qualification It is an evill rooted deeply in nature even that opinion which your doctrine maintaineth nourisheth and strengtheneth enough to overthrow the soul in the hour of tentation witness all experience And so the thought and consideration of some conceited goodness doth breed presumption and an unwarrantable perswasion of being the rather accepted If the Doctor had said that Christ is theirs and become their salvation whenas yet they had no heart to receiue or desire him you had some ground of excepting against him M. B. Christ dyed not onely to justifie but to save us Answ 1. Christ hath saved all that are to be saved Tit. 3.5 2. But it followeth not therefore that any can lay hold on salvation without justification or the righteousness of faith although he may so do without the righteousness of works Tit. 3.5 for justification is to life the Antecedent of it Rom. 5.18 M. B. Indeed the grand principle that Christ hath purchased and obtained antecedently to us in their sense will as necessarily infer that a drunkard abiding a drunkard shall be saved as well as justified Answ That Christ hath purchased and obtained all graces as you call them is so clear and fully convincing in the light of the Scripture that you cannot deny the truth of it onely our sense of it is corrupt and erroneous as you say but why do you not tell what our sense is It is out of no love that you conceal it but rather it argueth a minde in you to make the world thinke worse of us then you can make us to appear What you make or how you pervert our sense would be seen but that grand principle will necessarily infer the contrary to the conclusion you make for what Christ purchased for us must necessarily be dispensed and given therefore cannot that grace of Regeneration be withheld from them that are Christs but it cometh to them not in the preceptive way of the Law but through the word of promise which you cannot skill of If any should teach that some graces favour and part of eternal life were left to be purchased and obtained by our obedience and service that doctrine might finde more free passage and better entertainment But I wonder you are so peremptory and unadvised in making such an inference as if justification did leave a man as it found him and there were no vertue efficacy nor health in it nor that pretious faith apprehending it or as if we did teach so as by you we are slandered the contrary still lying under your eyes You need and must be forced to acknowledge that Tot us processus c. the only and whole passage from sin to righteousness from death to life from bondage under wrath and the curse unto liberty and the receiving into favour and felicity is attributed by Scripture and all sound Divines to that article of free justification so that in true and strict sense salvation is inseparable from it Yet that the world may see how the simple intent and sense of Dr. Crisp is misrepresented by you these are his words pag. 66. Christ the only way If a man saith he have a little holiness and righteousness he thinks now that in regard of that he may without presumption close with Christ Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners but it seems a man must be righteous before he have to do with the calling of Christ See now whether this be with or against the Gospel-free-grace therefore even to sinners is it no licentious doctrine nor doth it a jot maintaine the continuance in sin I say therefore that Christ doth belong to a person that closeth with him though he be in his sinfulness Christ indeed doth wash cleanse and adorn a person when he is closed with but there is none clean till Christ himself do enter who makes clean where he doth enter Do not then so misconstrue the Doctor as if his doctrine were inconsistent with the truth All that you can gather and directly conclude from him is that sinners under that very notion and name are called upon in the Gospel to come unto Christ that he is tendered unto them while they are such If God give a heart to a wicked man at this instant willingly to close with Christ he giveth him an absolute and compleat and perfect interest in Christ And these his expressions imply as much as you in truth can require For can there be a heart given to come a real willingness to close with Christ where there is no sight and sense of sin and danger why doth the soul desire Christ believe in him is it not that it may be saved from sin wrath and damnation and obtain righteousness life favor and salvation doth not the hastening unto the City of refuge sufficiently prove the man to be a manslayer so here it argueth a true inward conviction of and a real confession of a guilty estate yea a perswasion that in
God humble us and yet we will not be humbled man standeth out till he be made to yeeld A frantick man will not be bound or cured besides he is held captive and letted by Satan though voluntarily the strong man must first therefore be cast out by one stronger 2 Tim. 2.26 Eph. 2.2 Yet being overcome converted and made willing by the Spirit of God his will believeth converteth and inclineth according to the way and voice of the Gospel so not at first but afterward man being changed is become willing and active M. B. page 86. Yet fifthly We may hold truly some antecedaneous works upon the heart before these graces be bestowed on us this take to antidote against the Antinomians who speak constantly of the souls taking Christ while it is a grievous polluted soul Answ There is no such fear of hurt by your Antinomian doctrine as you still pretend but is far more danger in your so many antidotes and the poison as is now apparent lyeth and lurketh elsewhere But that the world may yet more fully and cleerly see how in this also you wrong your adversaries 1. It is evident that both the honey-combe and the Assertion do grant and teach as much concerning the antecedaneous work upon the soul as it is Gods and not mans as you can rightly call for And whereas D. Crispe doth compare God to a physician so violently working upon and inforcing his patient c. Is not that a sufficient preparative yet further God giveth saith he an heart to desire and receive Christ c. Now who can be supposed to have an heart desirous of Christ but he that is a sensible sinner apprehensive of his fearful estate without Christ and convinced withall that Christ and Christ alone can reconcile and save The alone tender of our Saviour to any doth imply a lost condition without him and may not God even then let the soul see it hath no Christ and so is in sin and death and thus awakening it at that present stir up the desire and longing after him for salvation and so that free and gracious tender of a Saviour to such becometh very seasonable and acceptable I must you will so vainely quarrel with your friends and the truth too Oh but this will not be received that the soul should take Christ while it is a grievous polluted soul we have this often set before us and I think it is sufficiently answered at least I grow almost weary in replying unto it Will you have this so polluted soul to be half or in part washed and cleansed before Christ do it 2. Do you think that the tears of repentance humiliation confession c. have power to wash the soul from sin as you know Doctor T. did teach or will such acts or exercises diminish the evil of sin when a man is made to know and feel into what wo and misery his sin hath plunged him he cannot by that think better of himself but only grieveth complaineth and feareth the more Thus I write because which is the best I can make of it I take your meaning to be that Christ should be tendered to none but to such as feelingly do acknowledge their sin Now the sense of sickness and pain doth no whit extenuate the same or the confession of a great debt is no abatement of it Further when the woman with the bloody issue desired and sought to many for cure and health in vain was she by that diseased the less in body yea or when through the same or report of Christ she was strongly perswaded that if she could but touch the hem of his garment she should recover did even this perswasion remedy her disease till that vertue went from Christ to effect the cure Two blind men cryed Lord that we might see and were they less blind therefore before Christ opened their eyes then other blind folke who did not so complain nor seek to Christ Indeed these two were not contented with that comfortless condition but that did aggravate misery and afflict more rather then mitigate and ease it only the uncertain hope of some help did somewhat sustaine and relieve their spirits And so to conclude the soul is not less polluted when it knoweth and confesseth with tears its great pollutions and whatever work or exercise else you will put the soul unto it will not thereby cease to be polluted as much as before for it s no act or work of mans but Gods only that cleanseth and healeth sin LECT X. Rom. 2.14 If the Gentiles do by nature c. M. B. Pag. 95. THe law if it was not in it self a covenant of grace yet it was given Evangelically and to Evangelical purposes and therefore the Antinomian doth wholly mistake in setting up the law as some horrid Gorgon Answ Your if importeth that you question the matter and do rather incline to hold the law in it self a covenant of grace and if it be a covenant of grace then it is not a covenant of works for grace and works be as two things most contrary which cannot agree Rom. 11.6 2. If the law in it self was a covenant of grace then there were two of grace 3. You would confound Law and Gospel which you told us out of Luther are to be kept at a like distance as heaven and earth 4. Yet it was given Evangelically say you Answ Who can credit you in this for the law came in a terrible manner as in thunders and lightenings and the Lord descended upon mount Sinai in fire and the whole mount quaked greatly so that all the people trembled Exod. 19.16 18. But the Gospel came in a joyful manner The Angels said unto the shepherds Fear not for behold I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Luk. 2.10 Neither was the law in a proper and strict sense given for Evangelical purposes for God purposed by his Gospel to give pardon freedom peace joy refreshing health and rest to the souls and consciences of his people but by the law he intended to reveal sin and wrath to terrifie wound and condemn c. These two ministrations are to produce two contrary effects for humbling bruising and beating down of the soul being convinced of sin guilty of death and worthy of Gods everlasting wrath is the true and proper effect of the law and that for which it was especially given as Gal. 3.19 Wherefore then serveth the law it was added because of transgressions that is to discover them to cause fear and horrour in the conscience and so to conclude or shut up the soul under a fearful and inevitable bondage and malediction verse 22. And thus did Paul set up the law in a most horrid and terrible manner as if there were no Christ neither grace or redemption to be expected from God as Luther saith so that the mistake is wholly yours And if no such indignation and terrour be by the law what need a Mediatour
could not save by faith and salvation now not to be sought by grace onely in Jesus Christ saith the Margent But we believe through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be saved even as they Fathers do Learned Zanchy stateth the question between Paul and the false teachers to be An praeter Christum c. whether besides Christ good works also be necessary to salvation Mr. B. And if this should be the sense of the Text then it was clear that the Galatians were not made partakers of Gods spirit by the corrupt doctrine that was taught them of late by their Seducers but before while they did receive the pure doctrine of Christ and therefore it was their folly having begun in the spirit to end in the flesh this may be a probable interpretation Answ Yet these exceptions may be against the latter part 1. The question made by the Apostle is divisive whether they received the Spirit by the doctrine of faith or by the other for by one they must needs have it And not whether they received the spirit by both doctrines conjoyned and confounded so that you mistake the form of the question 2. They begun in the spirit while they abode in the doctrine of Christ for righteousness and salvation onely and their folly in ending in the flesh was in that besides the righteousness of faith they would have also works of the law for salvation for this is to end in the flesh that is in themselves having begun in Christ by the spirit or as saith Piscator this is called an ending in the flesh because it is a way both heavy and impossible Mr. B. That which I shall stand upon is this The Jews and false Apostles when they went furthest joyned Christ and the observance of the moral Law equally together for justification and salvation whereas the Law separated from Christ did nothing but curse and condemn not being able to help the soul at all Answ It is as probable if not more as I said that they held Christ sufficient to justifie but not to save without works 2. They joyned Christ and the Law for justification and salvation say you And you joyn them for sanctification and salvation so no such great difference 3. If the Law separated from Christ did nothing but accuse and condemn then it seemeth if it be joyned with Christ it will acquit and justifie or you think it hath left that power to condemn being joyned to Christ Came Christ to take that power from the Law or to mitigate and meeken it by uniting it to himself or to redeem his elect from under the Law to live and abide where no Law is to accuse Rom. 8. Who can lay any thing to their charge Is not Christ also our sanctification and redemption as well as our justification without the Law 1 Cor. 1.30 This doctrine is of God saith Paul there but yours is but of man Also you disclaim that the Law of it self is able to stirre up the least Godly affection in us but Christ and Law together can and not Christ without it If the soul be married to Chist her husband he cannot make her to bring forth fruits to God but Moses the former dead husband must be raised up again and so the beleiver hath two husbands to make him fruitfull and both at one time a thing utterly against the Law and the Ordinance of Mariage civill or spirituall for as in the civill two are thereby become one flesh so they that are joyned to Christ are one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 Mr. B. More places of Scripture are brought against this but they will come in more fitly under the notion of the Law as a Covenant Answ It 's true there are many more pag. 165. of the Assert unto which as many might be added but you have enough of these the rest you reserve to a more fit occasion And I had thought to have enlarged this point but that it is lost labour and I may ill spare any Mr. B. Thus therefore I shall conclude this point acknowledging that many learned and orthodox men speak otherwise and that there is a difficulty in clearing every particular about this question but as yet that which I have delivered carrieth the more probability with me Answ I thank you for your ingenuous and free acknowledgement I am not alone in this my opinion as yet I think you are in yours for any thing I mean that can be read in the Orthodox for otherwise the whole Colledge would not have given you such hearty thanks and your book so superlative commendation if they inclined not your way 2. Whereas you find difficulty that is because you have taken the staffe by the wrong and worst end contending against the clear truth I will not say against the light and checks of conscience But the more difficult the more fit for one of your quality and parts to encounter with that so your victory might happily have been more glorious Yet you have brought it no further even in your own thoughts but to be questio probabilis and you found it in as perfect condition and state when you entred upon it nay I say more I never read that it was controverted by any Protestant till now but your words imply that you may be of another mind to morrow The Lord instruct and establish us Mr. B. And I will give one Text more which I have not yet mentioned that is Act. 7.38 where the moral Law is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lively cracles that is not verba vitae but verba viva vivificantia so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giving life not that we could have life by vertue of obedience to them but when we by grace are inabled to obey them God of his mercy bestoweth eternal life Answ Before you were onely defensive sheilding your self as busily as you could against those Scriptures that fought against you but now you are disposed to give your adversary one stroke and yet the arm or weapon rather will not serve to fasten one blow either to hurt or fright this is but a childish skirmish or flourish It is granted the moral Law may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lively oracles or words and so it is in its own nature yea and in the Ministry of it life is propounded as Deut. 30.19 I have set before you life and death and Levit. 18.5 Ye shall keep my statutes and my judgements which if a man keep he shall live in them but this life it promiseth to give is upon such tearms and impossible conditions that as yet none was quickned by it but contrarily it brought death upon all by reason of that poysonfull enmity and maliciousness of our common nature whereupon Paul is bold and peremptory to affirm that all that are of the works of the Law are cursed Gal. 3. this inbred enmity is discovered but not cured by
not unto themselves but unto us they did Minister the things that are now reported unto you 1 Pet. 1.12 Mr. B. There are two notorious falshoods 1. That God indeed saw sin in believers in the old Testament but not in these of the new Answ To see sin is as an Act of Gods justice in the legall Ministration under which they were in the old Testament but now as is cleared we are not under that Ministration as sometime you yeeld so that it may follow that God might see sin in those and not in these You conceive and think of God without reference to his word and would have sin the object of his eternall and incomprehensible sight in a carnall sense and imagination Can you believe that God remembreth the sinnes of his people no more as his Covenant is Heb. 8.12 And why not then be perswaded of this Mr. B. Was not that place God seeth not iniquity in Jacob spoken of the Church in the old Testament and besides If the Godly were in Christ then doth it necessarily follow by his principles That God must see no sin in them Answ The Authour took that place as I remember to be a Prophesie of a future state 2. Though they were in Christ yet not being adulti but in their time of minority under that legall government God might see and impute sin temporally unto them so there appeareth no absurdity or contradiction but that you love to have your own words Mr. B. The second difference he maketh is that God seeing did therefore punish and afflict for it but he doth not so now So Moses was stricken with death c. Now who seeth not how weak and absurd these Arguments are for doth not the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. speaking of those under the new Testament say That some were sick some did sleep were not Ananias and Sapphira struck dead immediately Answ Your words indeed are that his Arguments are weak and absurd but you make no such thing to appear As for that of 1 Cor. 11. his Answer to it still may suffice for you shew not any invalidity of it nor regard his distinctions there given Besides It will not be granted that those Corinthians nor yet Ananias and Sapphira were believers And so your reason falleth short of the point in question Mr. B. The Arguments of the Antinomians for the greater part do not onely overthrow the use of it to believers but to unbelievers also Answ Their Arguments if rightly conceived of and used do not overthrow the use of the Law to either but then you must keep it within its own proper limits and use it lawfully I grant if you understand those words The Law is a Schoolmaster to Christ historically onely for some make a mysticall and spirituall sence of them also then the meaning is that the same believing Jew who before was under the Law yet since Christ is freed from that servitude and so his state is changed that Pedagogy is no longer yea and believer or unbeliever in the daies of the Gospel we are not to meddle with that administration by Moses but onely to give care to the Gospel which is preached to all for the obedience of faith Rom. 1.2 5. but then it will necessarily follow that he that believeth is actually freed from the yoke of the Law if from the whole occonomy then from every part And he liveth by his faith onely under meer free grace Rom. 6.14 Mr. B. We will grant that to a believer the Law is as it were abrogated in these particulars 1. In respect of justification 2. Condemnation 3. Rigid obedience 4. It s no terrour nor are the godly slavishly compelled to obey 5. It doth not work nor increase sin as in the wicked 6. It is abrogated in many accessaries and circumstances Answ You say you had rather use the word Mitigation then Abrogation as being proper c. And I mislike both as they are used in reference to the Law for both Scripture and experience shew that neither word is incident nor can possibly befall the Law of God for it is inviolable If the Fire burn you not not Sea drown you it s not because they have lost that naturall power to do it but in that you happily are kept out of either such as abide under the Law find no true abrogation or mitigation And if the Law justifie not it 's not because the power of it to do it is lost or lessened for then it could not promise life to the observers saying Do. and live but in that it doth not justifie and give life actually to any that weakness is not in the Law but in man through the flesh Rom. 8.3 for the Law neither can nor ever yet had power to justifie a sinner nor one that failed the least in the observance of it And the like may be said in respect of condemnation The Law curseth and threatneth upon Sinai but cometh not on Mount Sion In Christ we are freed from the Law and so from its Condemnation so the change is in the state of a Christian but no alteration in the Law at all Your own expression cleareth it While the Law by reason of sinne doth pursue me I runne to Christ for refuge and seek to be found in him this I implyeth that the Law hath not lost any of its threatning or cursing power and that my security is not that the Law wanteth power to condemn but that I am in Christ and under his protection Phil. 3.9 As for your third respect of mitigating the rigid obedience as you call it yet I see you are forced to yeeld what D. Tailer and others did not that it cannot be maintained If we fail in the least tittle we are presently gone by the Law And as Christ hath not obtained at Gods hand that the Law should not oblige and tye us to a perfect obedience so you might as truly say he hath not procured that the Law should not justifie us being sinners for this it could not do before But I am glad to have such words from you that all our obedience is accepted not because of any mitigation in Gods justice or for dignity in the duty but onely in and through Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 the best piece of Divinity I find in your Book but then there is no mitigation of rigid obedience in the Law To the fourth To speak properly the Law is therefore no terrour because a believer is not under it for it is a terrour to all that be under it the Christian being under grace is free from terrour And if he be sometime or something afraid that is not because there is not fulness of security in his condition but through the imperfection of faith as children we fear where and when we have no true cause neither doth it argue any less terrour in the Law And you have some strange add unsound expressions in this Section for grant a regenerate and ungenerate part
Ministerii sumpla and the express words in the text do make it more then manifest that the Apostles comparison is taken from the very substance of Moses Ministery to wit the Morall Law and not that part onely which is Ceremoniall as you would have it for verse 7. it is called that Ministery that is written and engraven in stones Whence it is easie to gather that Paul speaketh not of the Ceremoniall Impressum insculptum ex hoc locoisacile colligitur Paulum non agere de Ceremoniis sed de ipse Decalego B. but Morall part for it was the Decalogue that was so written and delivered in Tables of Stone 2 Your words imply that there is no difference in truth and strict sence between Law and Gospel so that the Spirit be taken with them both which directly contradicteth the Apostle who calleth one the Ministery of death and condemnation and the other of life and righteousness for the Spirit working by the Law doth kill and condemn and therefore is also called a Spirit of boudage Rom. 8.15 but the Spirit by the Gospel quickneth and giveth life being a Spirit of Adoption and liberty The Spirit is one and the same but the Ministrations be different and so are the effects produced by either You say the difference is because Christ the Author of the Gospel is the fountain of Life But is not Christ the Author of the Law also He is called the law-giver And though Christ be the Author of Life yet you cannot shew wheâ—e the Law is called the Ministery of Life as if Christ did use it to convey and give Life Also to say that the Spirit quickeneth by the Law is to enforce a sense flatly against the Apostle Moreover your expressions do make the place more obscure dark in telling us that the Gospel also without Gods Spirit is the Ministration of death because it is as impossible to believe as to obey the Law Whereas Paul therefore calleth the Gospel the Ministration of righteousness and life in that the Spirit thereby begetteth faith in the hearts of the Elect whereby they come to righteousness and life So Piscator The Law then having the Spirit working by it killeth as we see in Paul Rom. 7. But the Gospel maketh alive justifying all the Elect of God 2. You fail much in your second respect also for 1. as is proved and cleared that the opposition is chiefly between the Morall Law and the Gospel 2 However in a proper and true sense the Law is done away in the kingdom of Christ yet where infidelity is the Law remaineth but where the word of righteousness and life is there can the Ministery of sin and death have no place even no more then the darkness of midnight hath at noon-day but spirituall things are spiritually discerned 3. Paul intends that glory to be of the Law whereas you interpret it to be that accidentall glory which did shine upon Moses A word of these things shall suffice LECT XXIX Matth. 5.17 Whosoever shall break one of these least c. SEe and consider the words of the Prophet Psal 7.14 15 16. This Lecture above all yet sheweth much gall to be in your ink Now your task is neer an end The residue is but to make a grave or ditch for your Antinomian and to describe and delineate the man that all mistake being prevented he may forthwith be sentenced and sent to his appointed place but stay Where or who is he You are in a golden dream Mr. B. When there shall be a reformation and truth break forth c. then those corrupt Teachers who would poyson men should be discovered and be of least that is of no account Answ Seeing this will be when the truth breaketh forth Now Lord send forth thy light and thy truth that all false teachers and doctrines of lies and vanities may be put to shame and confusion And if your dream be true look to your self You fear not perhaps presuming upon your own supposed innocency externall sanctity the present state of our times the reputation you are in the authority and multitude of your combined fraternity c. as being now set upon a mountaine that will never be moved But the Church the Truth and quarrell is Gods He is strong that is Judge to put down the mighty from their seats to scatter the imaginations of the proud and to returne all the intended evill upon the head of the authors and devisers In him the fatherless find mercy he preserveth the simple and meek that trust in him Read Isa 66.5 Hear the word of the Lord ye that tremble at his word Your Brethren that have cast you out for my Names sake said Let the Lord be glorified but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed and Joh. 16.2.3 Some look for no better from your hands if left unto your will and have already sound the like dealing for the Scripture must be verified Mr. B. They overthrow the law when they hold such principles that will necessarily by way of consequence inferre the abrogation of the Law And thus though some Antinomians do expresly and boldly assert the abolishing of it at least to believers Yet others c. disclaiming it held such assertions as necessarily inferre the abrogation of it Answ You cannot prove and make it appear that any do assert the abolishing of it so it may be taken for a slander and false accusation 2. In way of correction as having overshot your self and would eat some of your Words You say At least to believers Now first What need believers a Law so farre as believers they live by Faith and walke by Faith yea and warre by Faith 2. The Law affordeth nothing to nourish or supply any defect in the Christians Faith 3. Yet you nor none can directly and duely inferre hence that they do abrogate the Law so much now to vindicate them But to returne your words upon your self I think that you do hold such principles that necessarily by way of consequence at least do abrogate the Law yea and make void repentance in great part after Faith is come and bring in carnal security and a false peace into the soul for one principle of yours is That direction and obligation to obedience be the sole essential constitutes of the law So that that which condemneth justifies promiseth and threatneth is not properly the Law but it hath been not onely asserted but proved already that these are as assential to a Law as the former Again What will you call that which doth condemn and promise favour and peace to the good if it be not Law I am sure it is no Gospel have you a third name for it 2. Whence have these power to condemn c. if no Law be in them The Scripture faith The Law doth curse reveal wrath c. I argue thus Whosoever denieth the Law a power to condemn and justifie he destroyeth the Law But Mr. Burg.
curse and condemn yet it hath power to rule command and direct 4. The Law with the preface and promise added to it was given as a Covenant of Grace 5. The Law is taken most strictly for that is meer mandatory without any promise at all 6. God doth use his Law as he doth his whole word to beget and to increase the life of Grace 7. While a Minister is preaching any commandment he doth thereby mould and new-frame the heart 8. I suppose that Christ hath obtained of God by his death that such efficacy and vertue should go forth in the Ministery that whether it be Law or Gospel the souls of men may be healed and converted thereupon 9. I cannot yeild to that that the Law worketh only preparatorily 10. There was never in the Church of God meer pure Law or meer pure Gospel 11. Onely two things go to the essence of a Law 1. Direction 2. Obligation 12. In the Moral Law is required justifying Faith Repentance and our Sacraments be commanded in the second Commandment 13. The Moral Law containeth more then the Law of Nature 14. Good works are necessary to Salvation in regard of the presence of them 15. Our holy duties have a promise of pardon and eternal life not because of their worth but yet of their presence 16. To every godly action thou dost there is a promise of eternal life 17. Goods works be conditions without which a man cannot be saved 18. Good works are in their owne nature a defence against sin and corruption 19. Our good works be a motive moving God as a King that preferreth one that saluteth him 20. The State of reparation cannot be absolutely said to be better then that in innocency 21. We are not by Christ more righteous then Adam was or imputed righteousness though infinite in Christ is only imputed to us for that we lost and ought to have and we need no more 22. The Gospel makes known Christ and then the Law thus as it were illightned by the Gospel doth fasten a command upon us to believe in Christ Mr. Rutherf 23. Gods decree of grace in the execution of it may be broken in a linke by some great sin but Christ cannot but soder the chain and raise the fallen sinner 24. The Law hath power to convert by the Spirit 25. Sinners remaining in that damnable state are not to believe but as thus qualified that is humbled wearied self-condemned onely 26. Yet though thou were upon the borders of hell the Gospel excepts thee not from the duty of believing and coming to Christ They that sin against the holy Ghost are condemned for unbelief 27. Saving humiliation is conjoyned with Christ Dr. Tayeler A man may get from under his dangerous state by the attaining and exercise of three saving Graces Faith Repentance and inchoate obedience Repentance wipes off old scores repealeth all the actions of the Law getteth all sins cast into the bottom of the Sea Inchoate obedience hath promise of acceptance and is accounted as full and compleat obedience to the Law The way to escape the yoke and coaction of the Law is to become a cheerful and free observer of it That these are not of the substance of the Law but circumstances appendce and consequences viz. 1. That the Law yoaketh every man to a personal performance of it 2. To exact personal and perfect obedience upon pain of eternal death 3. To urge and force it self upon the conscience with fear and terror 4. That no life or salvation must be expected by the Law but by keeping it wholly and exactly 5. That the Law arraignes and condemnes the sinner and is the Ministery of death Without the law no man can know what God is nor his worship nor how to perform duties Good works be conditions of blessedness Mr. Bedford Christ hath freed us provided that men by faith lay hold on Christ keep close to him and walk according to those rules of holiness that he hath prescribed for in so doing we obtain what the Law promised life and salvation Believers are not under that condition of full and perfect obedience but under a condition of sincerity of obedience The Law as circumstantial viz. as it is a covenant of life and death is abolishod Mr. Bl. in serm Christ came to save none but holy ones Setting up of Familiy-duties like the sprinkling of the blood of the Paschal lamb will keep out the destroying Angel Mr. All. sem As Christ was glorified because he first glorified his Father so we must first glorifie God by our obedience and serve him if we will be saved There is a general equity that if God save any he save them that serve him To be glorified of God is to be received into communion have acceptance peace of conscience joy in the holy Ghost Adoption and the inheritance these we shall have by honouring and serving of God here so that by honouring God we do good to our selves Mr. No. The law is the word of Grace that bringeth salvation Grace cometh by the Law as well as by Gospel And so expounded those Texts Tit. 2.11 2 Cor. 6.1 Act 20.32 Mr. H. God made man for happiness and the Law must be his rule and guide unto it The Covenant of Grace is not absolute and free but upon condition of our good works or works are considerations or Causa sine qua non as when a great treasure is promised for going a hundred miles The Covenant of works requireth perfect obedience and the condition of the covenant of Grace is at least a purpose and endeavour to keep the Commandments The Lord give us a good understanding in all things and make us rightly to discern between things that differ To God belongeth glory for ever Amen FINIS Monomachia OR A Single REPLY To Mr. RUTHERFORD'S Book CALLED Christ's dying and drawing of Sinners Vindicating and clearing onely such Positions and Passages in The Assertion of Grace as are palpably mistaken and perverted and so mis-called ANTINOMIAN Wherein also it appeareth that the Adversaries dealing is neither just nor candid By Robert Towne Luke 6.22 23. Blessed are ye when men hate you and when they separate you and revile you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of man's sake Rejoyce ye in that day c. for after this manner their fathers did to the Prophets Joh. 9 39. And Jesus said For judgement I am come into this world that they which see not might see and they which see might be made blinde James 3.14 15. If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the Truth This wisdom descendeth not from above c. Qui aliorum verba calumniantur illi arte alium fingunt ac formant sermonem quà m ab co quem calumniantur est dictus Moll Jac. 3.14 Aemulationem dixit amaram quia non regnat nisi dum veneno malignitatis infecti sunt ut omnia in amarulentiam
whose be the errours and mistakes Be thou wise and impartial and if any can in love clear them to be mine he may call for my retractation and have it The Lord keep us in that faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Farewel MONOMACHIA or A single Reply to Mr. Rutherfords book called Christs dying and drawing of Sinners vindicating and clearing onely such positions and passages in the book intituled The Assertion of Grace as are by him palpably mistaken and perverted and so miscalled Antinomian THe first Exception that I find is against this passage in Assert pag. 37. Holy walking and good works can no more be meanes or the way to the kingdom as Mr. Towne and other Antinomians say then motion within the City can be a way to the City in regard the man is in the City before he walk in it Reply If all must be Antinomians who so have held and said in our sense then you will condemn with us all the Orthodox But 2. If you can put a good construction upon their words why will not charity do the like for us will you be partial 3. Where is your confutation or conviction of errour 4. The kingdom of grace and glory is but one in nature and kind as all do assert the difference is in regard of degrees And the entrance into it is by regeneration Joh. 3.5 which is before all works therefore we do rightly teach that a man must first be in the New-Jerusalem the City of God before he can walk in it 5. If you will take the kingdom strictly for the future state of glory and felicity which you know your Antinomians do not in this their position yet even then it is the free gift of God without condition of our works as Rom. 6.23 The free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Neque enim obedientia nostra ant causa est aut conditio propter quam accepti coram Dco As the mean through which it can be received is Christ so faith is the instrument by which as a gift is received and taken by the hand from the giver Lastly There is one in your bosome will tell you that we are not against good works which God hath ordained that we should walk in amongst men onely as you grant them to be improperly conditions of life so we according to the Scriptures and the Orthodox do affirm that opinion to be false and dangerous from which it's most hard to withdraw mens minds and thoughts it is so naturall unto them and in the best construction it doth obscure the free grace of God in Christ Jesus Importing that Christ saveth not without works or faith cannot receive Christ in the promise for both righteousness and life but he is held forth for salvation upon condition and after our good works so that faith also must be kept in suspence and Gods promise too untill the end of our holy walking Mr. Rutherf Neither do these places make justification and regeneration all one as Mr. T. with other Antinomians do for we are not regenerated by faith but that we may believe but we are justified by faith 2. Regeneration putteth in us a new birth the image of the second Adam justification formally is for the imputed righteousness of Christ which is in Christ not in us Reply 1. You may see there pag. 78. that it is brought in as the saying of Melancthon whose words upon Joh. 3. are these Christus justificationem dicit esse regenerationem c. Christ saith that justification is regeneration this is indeed to mortifie the flesh and to be renewed in Spirit True mortification is the sence or feeling of death whereby the flesh is confounded and judged vivification is in that death a sense of life peace joy of heart c. As also of Mr. Fox who saith thus Regeneration is not a being altered into a new bodily substance from what we were but a being turned by reconciliation into a new state of grace so as such who were before dead to God and damnable creatures and children of wrath are now accepted purged justified from the malediction of original and actual sin they who were separated from God are restored again into favour and grace I could adde others of as good judgement and experience as is any adversary Your reasons are invalid for 1. If regeneration be to faith and so be before it then it followeth that either we come not to Christ and become one with him by faith which elsewhere you affirme as do others or else regeneration doth precede our union which is against the noon-light of Scriptures We are in Christ before we become new creatures 2 Cor. 5.17 Joh. 15.1 2. 2. Then regeneration is not the begetting of man again to God as Jam 1.18 but a begetting of new qualities or a renewing of Gods Image in him who as yet is a sinner in the state of nature a Child of wrath c. And so the accident will be before and without its proper subject there being found the likeness of a Sonne without the Sonship it-self Or at least by your opinion one may be regenerated and so the Child of God who is not as yet justified nor in favour and acceptance with God This is clear if regeneration be to faith And then we are to believe that we may be justified reconciled c. 3. Then also either the word is not the seed of our new birth as 1 Pet. 1.23 or else the word is effectual to regenation without and before faith But the word profiteth not without faith Heb. 4.2 And faith is first required to make us Sonnes of God as Joh. 1.12 The power to become the Sonnes of God is given to them that receive Christ or believe in him so Gal. 3.26 Ye are all the Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus If by faith then not before it Our second thoughts may be more satisfactory Mr. Rutherf pag. 257. Mortification and new obedience as Mr. T. and others say is but faith in Christ and not abstinence from wordly lusts that war against the soul Reply 1. Abstinence from worldly lusts cannot be mortification formally and properly so called for it is to kill and crucifie lust Gal. 5.24 that is more then to abstain from it 2. Your accusation is false for I say not so see the place again Mr. Rutherf pag. 272 To repent to mortifie sin is not to condemn all our works as Mr. T. saith Assert pag. 15 16. righteousness and judgement and our best things in us and then by faith to flee to grace nor is it to distrust our own righteousness and to embrace Christ in the promise Because 1. this is faith and we are justified by faith not by repentance and mortification neither receive we Christ by repentance Reply Your wrong is manifold for I confound not faith and repentance but say that they are inseparable in the subject and yet to be
I knew him not But I perceive this to be your fundamental error for from the want of knowledge of the true nature and efficacie of this doctrine of Free-grace have you raised all slanders Christian liberty is carnal licentiousness to a Legal eye a loveless apprehension and a faithless heart Such spirits as are not principled for it cannot skill of it and misconceit breeds misreports and too much credulity is an easie inlet for the worst you can say into such a minde as receives not the love of the truth Grace is by him turned into wantonness c. Thus you bely him and they that are not of the light believe you and hence is the overflowing of your gall which hath so filled the veins and passages of your book with bitter invectives and falshoods If you had produced one clause rightly interpreted crying down true holiness in its due place and for its proper ends you might have had credit Yet true Evangelical sanctification will discover the vanity and unsoundness of Legal reformation It is not all one To serve in the oldness of the Letter and in the newness of the Spirit Also Christ our righteousness is the bond of union with God by faith in whom we abide in God and walk with him We cannot deal immediately with God in our own holiness Lastly you think we are out of love with sin onely for fear of an ill turn and do not hate it as sin as if the love of God and the love of sin could lodge in one soul or the Spirit received by the hearing of faith did not work and cause an antipathy and contrariety against sinfulness or that the chain of the Covenant of grace could be broken and one link or branch sundered from another If you so mistake your Patients we will not have your for our Physician FINIS Reader these books following are printed for Nath. Brook and are to be sold at his shop at the Angel in Cornhil 1. TImes Treasury or Academy for Gentry excellent grounds both divine and humane for their accomplishment in arguments of discourse habit fashion with a Ladies Love-lecture and Truths triumph summing up all in a Character of Honour By Ri. Brathwait Esq 2. Morton on the Sacrament In folio 3. That excellent Piece of Physiognomy and Chiromancy Metoposcopie the Symmetrical Proportions and signal Moles of the body the subject of Dreams to which is added the Art of Memory By Ri. Sanders Student Fol. 4. Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum containing several Poetical Pieces of our famous English Philosophers which have written the Hermetique Mysteries in their ancient Language By Elias Ashmole Esq 5. Chiromancie or the Art of Divining by the lines engraven in the hand of man by Dame Nature Theologically Practically in 19 Genitures with a learned discourse of the soul of the World and universal spirit thereof By Geo. Wharton Esq 6. Catholike History collected and gathered out of Scripture Councels and ancient Fathers modern Writers both Ecclesiastical and Civil in answer to Dr. Vane's Lost Sheep returned home By Edw. Chisenhale Esq 7. The whole Art of Survey of Land shewing the use of all Instruments but especially the Plain Table Whereunto is added an Appendix to measure regular Solids as Timber Stone useful for all that intend either to sell or purchase 8. An Arithmetick in Number and Species in two Books 1. Teaching by precept and example the operation in Numbers whole and broken by Decimals and use of the Logarithms Napyers bones 2. The great Rule of Algebra in Species resolving all Arithmeticall questions by supposition with a Canon of the powers of numbers fitted to the meanest capacity by Jonas Moore late of Durham 8. 9. Tactometrica or the Geometry of Regulars after a new exact expeditious maner in Solids with sundry useful Experiments Practical Geometry of Regular-like Solids and of a Cylinder body for liquid vessel-measure with sundry new Experiments never before extant for Gauging A Work very useful for all that are employed in the Art Metrical By Joh. Wyberd Dr. in Physick 10. An Astrological discourse with Mathematical Demonstrations proving the powerful and harmonical influence of the Planets and Fixed stars upon Elementary bodies in justification of the validity of Astrologie By Sir Chr. Heydon Knight 11. Magick and Astrologie vindicated in which is contained the true definitions of the said Arts and the justification of their practise proved by the authority of Scripture and the experience of antient and modern Authors by H. Warren 12. An Astrologicall judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the sick also the way of finding out the cause change and end of a disease also whether the sick be likely to live or die By N. Culpeper 13. Catastrophe Magnatum or the downfal of Monarchy by N. Culpeper 14. Ephemerides for the year 1652. being a year of wonders by N. Culpeper 15. Lux Veritatis or Christian Judicial Astrology vindicated and Daemonology confuted in answer to N. Homes D.D. By W. Ramsey Gent. 16. The History of the Golden Ass 17. The Painting of the Antients the beginning progress and consummating of that noble Art and how those antient Artificers attained to their still so much admired excellency Israels redemption or the prophetical History of our Saviours Kingdom on earth By Robert Matton 18. An Introduction to the Teutonick Philosophy being a determination of the Original of the Soul at a Dispute held in the School at Cambridge at the Commencement March 3. 1646. By Charles Hotham Fellow of Peter-house 12. 19. Teratologia or a discovery of Gods wonders manifested in former and modern times by bloody rain and waters By I.S. 20. Fons Lachrymarum or a fountain of Tears from whence doth flow Englands complaint Jeremiah's lamentations With an Elegie upon that son of Valour Sir Ch. Lucas By J. Quarles 8. 21. Oedipus or a Resolver being a clue that leads to the chief Secrets in Nature and true resolution of Amorous Natural Moral and Political Problems By C. M. 22. The Celestial Lamp enlightning every distressed soul from the depth of everlasting Darkness to the height of eternal Light By Tho. Fettisplace 23. Nocturnal Lucubrations or Meditations Divine and Moral with Epigrams and Epitaphs By Robert Chamberlain 24. The unfortunate Mother A Tragedy By Tho. Nabs 25. The Rebellion A Comedy By T.R. 26. The Tragedy of Messalina By Nat. Richards 8. 27. The remedy of Discontentment or a Treatise of Contentation in whatsoever condition Fit for these sad and troublesom times By Jos Hall late B. of Exon and Norwich 12. 28. The grand Sacriledge of the Church of Rome in taking away the sacred Cup from the Laity at the Lords Table By the late Reverend Daniel Featly D.D. 4. 29. The cause and cure of Ignorance Error Enmity Atheism and Prophaness or a most hopeful way to Grace and Salvation By R. Young 8. 30. A Bridle for the Times tending to still the Murmuring to settle the Wavering to stay the Wandering to strengthen the Fainting By Joh. Brinsley Minister of Gods Word at Yarmouth 31. Comforts against the fear of Death wherein are several evidences of the work of Grace By John Collins of Norwich 32. Iacob's seed or the excellency of seeking God by prayer By Jer. Burroughs Minister of the Gospel to the two greatest Congregations about London Stepney and Cripplegatâ—â— 33. The Zealous Magistrate a Sermon by Tho. Threscot 34. Britannia Rediviva or a Soverain Remedy to cure a sick Common-wealth preached in the Minster at Yorke before the Judges August 9. 1649. by J. Shaw Minister of Hull 35. The Princess Royal preached in the Minster in York before the Judges March 24. 1650. by Joh. Shaw Minister of Hull 36. Anatomy of Mortality divided into eight Heads 1. The certainty of Death 2. Meditations of Death 3. Preparations for Death 4. The right behaviour in Death 5. The Comfort in our own Death 6. The comfort against the Death of Friends 7. The Cases wherein it 's lawful or unlawful to desire Death 8. The glorious Estate of Gods Children after Death By George Strende 37. New Jerusalem in a Sermon for the Society of Astrologers August 1651. 38. Mirrour of Complements fitted for Ladies Gentlewomen Scholars and Strangers with forms of speaking and writing of Letters most in fashion with witty Poems and a Table expounding hard English words 39. Cabinet of Jewels discovering the nature vertue value of pretious Stones with infallible Rules to escape the deceit of all such as are adulterate or counterfeit by Tho. Nichols 40. Quakers Cause at second hearing being a full answer to their Tenets 41. Divinity no Enemy to Astrology a Sermon intended for the Society of Astrologers for the year 1653. By Dr. Tho. Swadlin 42. Historicall Relation of the first planting of the English in New England in the year 1628. to the year 1653 and all the material passages happening there Exactly performed 43. Select Thoughts or Choice Helps for a pious spirit A Century of Divine breathings for a ravished soul beholding the excellencie of her Lord Jesus By I. Hall B. of Nor. A new piece 44. The holy Order or Fraternity of Mourners in Zion To which is added Songs in the night or Chearfulness under Affliction By Ios Hall Bp. of Norwich A new Piece 45. The Art of Memory or a cure for a weak Memory Wherein the natural defects of that noble faculty are artificially repaired by the regular application of Images and Idea's easie to be apprehended by the meanest capacity and useful to all persons from the Gown to the Clown A new Piece 46. History of Balaam and Ionah and Iohn the Baptist in Verse with other Poems By Io. Harvy Esq A new Piece 47. Re-assertion of grace Vindiciae Evangelii or the vindication of the gospel Or a Reply to M. Anth. Burgess Vindiciae Legis and to M. Rutherford By Robert Towne A new Piece 48. Anabaptist anatomized and silenced or a Dispute with M. Tombs By Mr. Joh. Cragge A new Piece 49. Practical Divinity or the grounds of Religion in a Catechistical â—y By M. Christopher Love A new Piece