he in regard of his paternall displeasure after the committing of them m reconciled unto him until he repented of them and humbled himself for them But his reason 7. n Nothing in us can make God love us les because he loves us not for any thing in our selvs but in and through Christ Yet God doth love us also by his good leav for his own graces in us and our exercises of the same o The Father himself loves you saith our Savior to his Disciples because ye love me and believ that I came out from God 8. p If he should love us more or les as we sin more or les he should be as man And in some things he is as man for q man bears Gods image and r a good man resembles God God is in somethings as a natural father himself saith it s As a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth those that fear him Yea in this particular he is like a discreet parent who tho he love his child deerly as wel when he doth amisse as when he doth well yet is he not so wel pleased with him nor can take that delight in him when he seeth him take some evil course as otherwise he might and should yea therefore is he then angry with him because he loves him and chastiseth him for this end to reclaim him from the same Thus the Antinomians themselves confes that God caried himself toward his in the times of the Old Testament And the like Christ himself professeth of himself in the New Testament t As many saith he as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent To these may be added those other his assertions concerning Faith 1. a Faith is truly and simply this a being perswaded more or les of Christs love And what prophane wretch almost is not prone enough hereunto or may not nourish such a perswasion more or les upon groundles grounds we may wel say of such perswasions as himself elswhere of desires b Who is there that have not a desire All the World of common believers are carried on by this principle of a desire and are they not by the like principle of a perswasion 2. c Men cannot believe too suddenly Yes they may believ too sodainly as did Simon the sorcerer suretoo soon and if too soon then too sodainly presume and be perswaded they may of Christs love if that be faith 3. e None can beleev too hastily on Jesus Christ Tru. but to beleev on Jesus Christ and to have some perswasion more or les of Christs love are divers things 4. f We ought not to stay the exercise of our Faith for repentance or humiliation or any other grace As much as to say beleev we may tho we do not repent directly contrary to g Christs own and h his Apostles method Yea but can we have tru faith then without repentance and without any other grace 5. i None ought to qestion whether they beleev or no Yet the Apostles incite men to try their faith and the sincerity of it both k Paul and l James 6. m In the Gospel all are immediately called to beleev To day if ye wil heare his voice Were they called on so in the Gospel and were they not called on in like manner under the Law I suppose those words were the n Psalmists before they were the o Apostles And are not men called upon in the Gospel to repent immediately as wel as to beleev p Paul was mistaken sure if it were not so and our Saviour himself saith q Repent and beleev 7. r Christ commands to beleev and this is his commandement that we should beleev in the name of his Son Jesus Christ Now commands of this nature must be obeyed not disputed Gods servants do not reason their duty out first with themselves but fall to doing as they are commanded And doth not Christ command s to repent as wel as to beleev yea doth he not t command first to repent and then to beleev for in that order his words run And had this Autor but writ or red out the text he cites he had found somewhat more then faith in it u This is his command that we beleev in his Son Jesus Christ and that we love one another as he gave us commandement But why commands of this nature is not the commandement of repentance and charity and conversion and humiliation of the same nature with that of faith and belief or are there any of Gods Commandements then that because not of this nature may be disputed and not obeyed for some such matter do these terms of restriction import to wit that some of Gods commands are of that nature that they must be obeyed and not disputed others of that nature that they may not be obeyed but disputed No servant indeed of God ought to reason his duty why God should command him to do this or that either with God or with himself but when he doubteth what it is that God enjoyneth him he may x examine and search what the good will of God is that he may not be mistaken in it and so think that he hath done what he should when he hath done nothing les like those that y thought they did God good service when they did that that he utterly abhorred and when they have done what they supposed they should do they may without wrong or disparagement to their Master unles the Apostle were mistaken z try and examine their work whether it were so done as it should be Yea but saith this Autor 8. a We ought no more to question our faith which is our first and foundation graee then we ought to question Christ the foundation of our faith 9. b I find not any in the whole cours of Christs preaching or the disciples when they preached to them to beleev asking the qestion whether they beleeved or no or whether their faith were tru faith or no I find one saying c I beleev Lord help mine unbelief but not Lord whether do I believ or no and d Lord increase my faith but not Lord whether is this tru faith or no It would be a strange qestion to ask the Master of the feast whether his dainties were reall or a delusion would not such a question disparage him for a sorcerer So in the things of the Spirit to be over-jealous of the truth of them as in my tempted poor souls are doth not become the faithfulnes of Jesus Christ Why Faith should be called the first and foundation grace I know not tho e many of our Divines so speake I suppose with f others and without prejudice to any of contrary judgement that as there is the * seed and spawn of all sin together in mans heart from the time of his
heated it so with conditions and qalifications of believing and repenting and humiliation and conversion and self-deniall and renunciation of all that men could not drink of it without sealding their mouths and it was no marvel therefore that the young man i went so heavy away from him Nor do I wonder now so much that Mr. Eaton in whose steps this man treads should make Christ a legal teacher and what should it greiv any servant of his to have that name given him that is given his Master either before him or with him k Christs Sermons saith he as the Prophets saith Mr. S. for the most part run all upon the perfect doctrine and works of the Law relating withall some of the above-mentioned passages And if such as this be no Gospel preaching nor such as wil stand with free grace then undoubtedly our Saviour never preached either Gospel or free grace If any shal object as this Autor doth that l Christ tels you in few words and his Apostle in as few As Moses lift up the Serpent in the wildernes so the Son of man must be lift up that whosoever believes on him should have life m John 6. and Paul tels you n If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the ded thou shalt be saved The answet is easie Our Saviour Christ in his preaching cannot cros or contradict himself what he saith in this latter place doth wel concur and consist with what he said in the former He propoundeth faith and mentioneth it only there not as if he reqired nothing els but faith of his followers or of those that shal have share in the salvation by him purchased for there is no exclusive in the text nor are his words les peremptory in those other passages then in this and altho o unto justification nothing but faith is reqired because faith hath a peculiar office in that work that no other grace hath yet there is more then faith reqired unto salvation nor was it needful that Christ should every where name whatsoever he reqired and sufficient it was for him sometime to name faith onely for that the faith which he there nameth and reqireth is such as without those other reqisites joyned with it cannot be sound and sincere As for the Apostles of Christ what the subject matter of their Sermons was and what method and manner of preaching they used how exactly treading in their Masters steps as himself did in the steps of John his forerunner how dissonant from that that this Autor propounds and commends how consonant to that he thus girds at and traduceth as a legall and no Gospel-like way wil plainly appear if we shall but briefly consider what John Baptist began with our Saviour himself seconded him in gave in charge to his Apostles and they constantly observed from the first to the last wherein we shal have a short breviari of the whole Gospel as in Scripture it is described John we know began with preaching of pardon of sin and salvation upon condition of faith and repentance and newnes of life For he called upon them to p repent and to q bring forth fruits beseeming repentance that is whereby the sincerity of their repentance might appear and be approoved withall telling them that for satisfaction to be made unto Gods justice for their sins they were to believe on Christ to rest and rely on him as r the Lambe of God who by his sufferings did take away their sins for s so the Apostle Paul tels us he preached and this Autor therefore spake not so exactly or warily in another Treatise of his where he saith that * John preached repentance Jesus Christ faith and repentance as if John had not preached as wel faith as repentance which the Apostle saith he did Now as our Saviour in his first Sermon went the very same way that John did He began to preach saying Å¿ Repent saith one Evangelist t Repent and believe the Gospel saith another so in sealing the Apostles his Disciples their commission he biddeth them u Go out into the wide world and preach the Gospel to every creature But what Gospel or what manner of Gospel was it that they were to preach the Gospel of life and salvation upon condition of faith and repentance and obedience that v whosoever believs and is baptised shall be saved whosoever believeth not shal be damned Yea but where have we repentance wil you say and obedience And that x repentance and remission of sins that is remission of sins upon repentance as before with John y repentance unto remission of sins be preached in his name and z teaching them saith he to do whatsoever I command and what he commands and requires of all his was before in part shewed And did not the Apostles think we keep to their commission or preached they any other Gospel then what Christ their Master had enjoyned them No other undoubtedly We may boldly say of them all as one of them of himself they had the grace a to be faithful but had not so been had they swarved from their charge Yea but saith this Autor b What did Peter preacht Cornelius or Philip to the Eunuch or Ananias to Paul or Paul to the Jaylor but Jesus Christ onely I answer 1. It is most certain they could lay c no other foundation for man to rest and rely on d for salvation but Christ onely But it followes not hence that they preached nothing els or that they offered and tendered salvation by Christ without any condition at all or otherwise then as Christ had himself propounded it and enjoyned them to preach it 2. We have e not their whole Sermons but some brief summaries or some principall heds of them 3. In these summaries of them we have those things preached and pressed for which this Autor taxeth his brethren as legalists repentance by Peter in his f first and g second Sermon and that in the former pressed upon those that were h pricked in heart already in the latter backt with i a return that is alteration of cours of life 4. In some they needed not to pres much what they found them wrought unto already Ananias needed not to pres Paul to prayer as k Peter doth Simon the sorcerer because he was l by God informed beforehand that he prayed nor Peter to pres holinesse of life upon Cornelius whom he found m moulded and wrought in that regard to his hand but to n acqaint him with the particularity of the Messias his person whom yet he had beleeved on and expected before and yet he preached more then Jesus Christ onely to him when in that Sermon he assured him that o in every Nation whosoever he were that feared God and lived righteously he was accepted
haynous an exces it is liqor too * precious to be wastfully spilt If the Master have choice Wine reserved for his reconciled friends that are willing tho before at ods yea at dedly fewd with him yet now to come in and entertain terms of amity with him and the servant shal pour out of it to dogs and swine or serv it out to sturdy rogues and idle vagrants at the dore such as either scorn and curs his Master or refuse all commerce and acqaintance with him tho invited thereunto because they like not his disposition nor can endure his demeanour I suppose such a servant would have litle thanks from his Master for his labour And had not this Autor clipt off the first words of the Text which he points us to for his warrant herein it would alone have been sufficient to check this his professed profusenes and have enformed him withall what manner of persons they are unto whom this Wine is to be dispensed Eat O friends f saith he and drink yea drink abundantly O beloved But what speciall warrant by revelation or enthusiasm matters now a daies much pretended he may profes to have for this I know not Wel I wot and am sure that neither the place alledged nor any other Scripture the onely sure touchstone we have now to try truths by for the Spirit speakes not but according to it doth or can warrant much les enjoyn any such exorbitant exces either in this particular or in ought els 2. For the crying down of Christ it is a foul and fals calumny which together with many others of the same stamp this Autor here would fasten on the faithful Ministers of Christ men as jealous of and zealous for the honour of Christ their Master I may boldly say it for their labours shew it as himself 3. It is true indeed that Free grace cannot of it self have such an effect as he speakes of but this brother may remember what a zealous preacher as g his name imports and assertor of Free grace telleth us that there are not wanting and those not a few that h turn Gods grace i into wantonnes or lasciviousnes and men may preach and publish free grace in that manner that they may by such their preaching pave a path to that foule abuse which that many of our Antinomian tenents do is to me beyond controversie and I shal leave it to the consideration of others religious and judicious to deem and determine whether some assertions scattered here and there in this discours do not warp too much that way among the rest whereof take these for a tast 1. k The promises belong to sinners as sinners l not as repenting or bumbled sinners Whereas our Saviour saith that m he came to call sinners to re pentance and to save consequently not all but penitent sinners onely for n unlesse they do repent he tels them expresly they shal perish 2. o All that ever received Christ reeeived him in a sinful condition Yet the Apostle enformes us that that faith whereby we receiv Christ for p to receiv him the Evangelist tels us is to believ on him is not an holy onely but q a most holy faith nor can a man be said to be in a sinful condition whose r heart is possessed of so holy an habite or disposition term it whether you please nor can the heart act to the receiving of Christ until it be thereof possessed For how can a man put forth an holy act while he remains stil altogether unholy 3. They are but weak beleevers and like melancholy people who think things far otherwise then they truly are right smoking Flax wherein there is more smoke then light more ignorance then tru discerning Which among other things t think poor souls that tho God be reconciled with them and love them at some times yet he may be provoked again angry again for new sins and failings and are then much troubled how to come at any peace again as they were before u they suppose they can not sin so as they do and yet not be accountable x and think that afflictions are sent upon them for their sins Yet the Apostle telleth the Corinthians that they might and did a provoke God by som unadvised courses and carriages and that b for some such Gods afflicting hand was upon them and I suppose God called them then to account But what is this but to encourage men freely to offend and sin without feare of offending of God or provoking him to wrath or being ever called to any account or chastised at all for it making God like a fond indulgent father an other Ely if not more regardles then c he of his childrens cariage not affected at all with it tho it be never so scandalous and disgraceful to their Christian profession Of the same or the like stamp is that which followeth tending to beat men off from being troubled at all for their sins as d David or e Peter were and from seeking to make up the breaches made between God and them by their sins and to make their peace again with him by their renewed practice of repentance 4. f All worship and spirituall obedience is to run in the way of this dispensation not for procuring love or peace with God nor for pacifying 5. g There is nothing but the taking in of the Law and accusings and condemnations of it that can trouble the quiet and peace of any soul for where there is no law there is no transgression and where there is no transgression there is no trouble for sin all trouble arising from the obligement of the Law which demands satisfaction of the soul for the breach of it and such a satisfaction as the soul knows it cannoe give and thereby remains unqiet as a debter that hath nothing to pay Yet David albeit h having from the mouth of God by a special expresse received a release from the condemnations of the Law was i troubled and that not a little for his sin if we may believ him or the Spirit of God speaking by him nor was that therefore the ground of his trouble for his sin nor is it the onely ground of such trouble that this Autor here affirms But proceed we 6. k No sin can make one les beloved of God Had he added but or les liked he had spoken full out in plain terms after the usuall Antinomian strain but he is somewat more cautions herein then some other Yet being a scholler he need not be minded of that distinction so common in the schools of a love of benevolence and a love of complacence tho God never loved David the les in regard of wishing wel to him for any sin committed by him yet was he not so wel pleased l with him when he committed some sins nor was
naturall birth so there is the seed of all grace sown together in mans soul at the very first instant of his spirituall new birth and that faith is a branch of sanctification as all other graces of the like nature are But to let that pas a man may qestion his faith and yet not qestion Christ for Christ may be Christ tho this or that party have no share in Christ or to use his description of faith be not perswaded more or les that Christ loves him a man tho he qestion not the foundation it self yet he may qestion whether he have built on it or beside it and so whether that be a foundation unto his building or no And I make no qestion but that many that pretend to believ yea that are perswaded they do so and wil not easily be beaten of from that their perswasion and stick not to compare for belief with the best yet had need to have their faith tried and may wel have it qestioned as wel by others as by themselves Yea we find in Scripture examples and instances of such as might wel have qestioned whether they beleeved aright or no and whether the faith they made profession of were tru or no g Simon the sorcerer sure might have done wel to qestion and try the truth of his faith nor might those resembled by h the seed sowen in the rockie ground but wel have done the like by theirs as also those i who tho they are said to believ in Christ yet Christ himself would not trust them and those vain k ones James speakes of that had a fruitles and baren faith Nor were this to aske the master of the feast whether his dainties were meer delusions or to make our blessed Saviour for he I suppose is the feast master he meaneth a sorcerer but to enqire whether we our selves have not been deluded when in some night vision such as the enthusiasts of our times too much hanker after we have with l Lucians sowter dreamed of a great feast and of such his dainties and of communion with him in them when as all hath been nothing but m a nightly delusion They did not qestion the truth of God that sought for wisdome whereby to discern between Gods messages brought by his Prophets and those n dreamers dotages who yet pretended to be sent by God as wel as the best and would not stick to demand of Gods Prophets o when the Spirit of God went from themselves to speak unto them Nor did the Apostle Paul when he called upon the Corinthians to p try their faith nor the Apostle John when he called on the faithful to q try the Spirits whether they were of God or no thereby incite them to qestion Christ the foundation of faith or to qestion Gods Spirit the worker of it but to be wise and wary in discerning between truth and falshood between sound and unsound between faith wel grounded and deceitful fancies and groundles presumptions between teachers delivering the doctrine of life and grace according to the word and such as warping from that rule yet pretended to have the Spirit Tru it is indeed that mans weaknes in the apprehension of the work of Gods Spirit in him may make the truly godly without ground or good cause sometime to qestion the truth of it in them but there is no ground or just cause for any thence to infer that no man ought to qestion whether he believe or no or whether his faith be tru or no every one otherwise should be bound to presume that he doth beleev and that his faith is tru faith For not to infist on that which we lately touched on that when the Apostle called upon some to try their faith he presumed that some such faith there was as would not go for currant but would proov r unsound when it came to the touch or the test and when he useth more then once that discriminating term of s faith not counterfeit or unfained he implies therein that there may be counterfeits and there are indeed not a few as of Christianity so of faith Not to insist hereon I say this Autor himself acknowledgeth that t there may be a kind of faith as in them that believed in the parable and in time of temptation fell away and yet not in the power of Christ nor in the life of the Spirit and that v such faith tho a ded faith may go far in resemblance carying the image of something like the new man and whether think we then is such faith to be questioned or no or wil this Autor say that for those that have such a faith to call their own faith in qestion is to qestion Christ himself But indeed according to this Autors ground there is no need for any man to qestion what manner of faith his faith is since that without any such ado whatsoever his faith be he may have interest in Christ For saith he 10. x For the way of comming by a right or purchasing an interest in this righteousnes or salvation wrought by Christ it is held forth without price or works onely for taking and receiving and believing on all being wrought to our hands so as this is as good a ground for one to belief on as another without exception y the covenant being such as was established with Noah Gen. 9. 11. nothing reqired on mans part and z this being a Scripture way he would upon these principles leav a soul Where to set aside his terms of purchase and price as if ought in that kind were by any of us attributed to faith or repentance or any work of ours and yet herein he contradicteth himself when he telleth us one while that salvation is held out a freely by the Prophet Esay in that phrase without price and yet an another while that b all the ministery of the Prophets did run in this strain as if Gods love were to be had in way of purchase by duty and doing Nor to resume again what hath been formerly said of believing and receiving another manner of matter then this man makes of them And that the like may be charged on him to that he chargeth upon the Legalists to wit c propounding to men the promises of the Gospel with such conditions of repentance d and sorrow for sin c. which because they are things that they e can not do f in steed of drawing a soul unto Christ put it further of from him for may it not as wel be objected to him as it is by him to them that he professeth indeed to make an offer of free grace and free promises but he propounds them so clogged with conditions of receiving and taking believing on that these being such as men are not able to do of themselves g they dare not meddle with them until they be prepared by
Christ Unles this Autor can or dare say that men may and can believ on Christ tho they cannot repent of their sins or be sorry for them and that the one is an easier work then the other or is not of h Gods gift and i a work of grace as wel as k the other But not to insist on these things If there be as good ground for any one without exception to believ as another that is as he defines faith to perswade himself that Christ loves him and he hath a share in the salvation purchased by him why did not Peter exhort Simon the sorcerer to perswade himself so but bad him l repent and pray for pardon yea why doth he himself make distinction of persons saying d I speak now to the weak and wounded believers for sins not to the earnall and unregenerate in sin Yea if the Covenant of the Gospel that is of life and salvation by Christ be as absolute without any condition on mans part as that e with Noah concerning the not drowning of the whole world again then it is all one whether men receav it and believ it or no the promise of life and salvation and the covenant made with Christ concerning it shal be made good unto them as wel as that made with Noah shal be made good unto men whether they know it and heare it and believ it or no so that his clause of onely for taking and receiving and believing on is here idle and frivolous the promise and covenant being as free and absolute in the one as in the other and nothing at all not so much or les then so in that other reqired This therefore is not onely no Scripture way tho he so term it but a cours directly cros and contradictory to Scripture tending to encourage men whether they be penitent or continu impenitent whether they come out of their sins or continu stil in them yet to perswade themselves or presume rather that they shal be saved by Christ and such unsound and rotten principles wil in the end proov like Egypt unto those that rely on them as f a bruised staf of reed or cane that is not onely unable to stay a man up and support him but wil run into his hand and with the shivers maim him that shal rest himself on it Wil you see then the sum of this mans Diviniti who complaineth so oft of and taxeth as g gros and carnall h the Divinity of former ages and these times The result of all the fore-mentioned assertions is in effect this The promises of the Gospel to wit of life and salvation by Christ belong to all without exception to sinners as sinners and to all consequently because all are sinners and all therefore are immediately bound to believ what but these promises which are not at all conditionall but absolute as absolute as that promise to Noah of never drowning the world again nor is any man in any wise to question his faith nor what ground he hath for such his belief And what followes from these premises but that men may be saved whether they repent or no tho they never turn to God or persist in a lewd and loose cours of life to the last I might wel have added whether they believ or no tho they never attain to tru faith For Christ he says may be ours without faith and if no condition at all be reqired on mans part as in that covenant with Noah then not so much as belief and he rejects therefore j the reformed and more generally received opinion as himself terms it of salvation in Christ by faith instrumentally intervening and k that none are partakers of free salvation but by faith as if he were directly bent to cros and contradict that of the Apostle l Ye are saved by grace through faith and m God hath elected you unto salvation by sanctification and n tru faith Which what is it but to teach men to believ a lie that God wil save such as indeed never shal be saved and to encourage them upon groundles perswasions and misapprehensions the more securely never qestioning how it stands with them to run on hoodwinked untill sodainly they fall headlong into hell I remember while I abode at Lincolns Inne to have visited sometime a religious Lady sister to a reverend Divine of speciall note in those daies whom I found somewhat perplexed the ground thereof arising from some conference that had newly passed between her and a grave Divine of great repute but in somethings warping a little the way that these men now run who qestioning with her about her estate upon delivery of such principles as she supposed to have good ground from Gods Word for the triall of her faith and interest thereby in Christ began to chide her and told her that she went needlesly about the bush when she had a neerer and readier way at hand Then being demanded what cours he would advise her to take he told her she must thus reason much after this Autors manner God will save sinners But I am a sinner Therefore God will save me To passe by what I farther spake either in confirmation of the way she was in or the confutation of this new one I told her not to trouble her with rules of Logike or Schole maximes to discover this fallacy she might with as good ground thus reason God wil damn sinners But I am a sinner Therefore God wil damn me And the conclusion I doubt not in this latter how ever it follow from the premises for twenty to one at least wil by woful experience proov the truer of the twain Howbeit if as the Apostle saith of some that o they are given up to strong delusions that believ some kind of lies I know not what to say or think of those that teach men to believ such lies as these are Yea but this way of trying our faith and estate by signes and marks it is but p a broken work q a narrow a weake r a puzling s a perplexing t a distracting u a gros a carnal way For with all these deterring and debasing terms is this Autor pleased to commend and adorn it Yet 1. some ye see have been needlesly puzzeld and perplexed by suggestions from such principles as this Autor here lays when they were quietly setled on good ground in the other way before by such as have disturbed them in it and sought to beat them out of it as this Autor throughout his whole discours here doth And as for his x experiment of a disquieted soul tossed to and fro by times for twelv yeers together among * those bungling or cheating Chirurgeons our Legal Teachers who either for want of skil could not or for their own ends would not give him any ease but powred in Wine or Vineger rather in stead of Oyl