They that see how justly they deserve to bee forsaken of God and given over to their owne hearts lusts and to be for ever sinning and blaspheming God in hell where God will never command them to think of him speak of him doe for him pray to him more cannot but account it a high and speciall favour of Jesus Christ to command them any thing or bid them doe any thing for him a poore humbled prodigall will account it great love to bee made a hired servant Iohn Baptist will count it a high favour if he may but untie Christs shoe-latchet and bee commanded by him to doe the meanest worke for him David wondred at Gods grace toward him that God should command him and in some measure enable him to offer willingly Lord saith he what are wee I doe therefore marvaile how any can pretend that they are acted by the love of Christ and not by the law of commands considering that there is so much love in this for Christ to command and how they can professe their relish of preaching Gods free grace and love and yet cannot away with sweet and gracious exhortations pressing to holinesse and holy duties in the revealing and urging of which there is so much free-grace and heart-love of Christ Jesus surely if the love of Christ is to lead us then the commands of Christ wherein hee discovers one chiefe part of his love are to guide us and be a rule of life unto us The man who in his cool and deliberate thoughts imagines that a Christian under the rule of the law is a Christian under bondage may be justly feared that himself is still under the bondage of sin and Satan and never yet knew what the true love of Christ Iesus is to this day Thesis 93. The fundamentall errour of Antinomians ariseth from this in imagining the great difference between the law and Gospell to be this viz. That the law requires doing but the Gospel no doing and that all beleevers being under the Gospell are therefore under no law of doing but wee must know that as the Gospell exacts no doing that thereby we may be just so it requires doing also when by Christ Iesus we are made just For if the Gospell command us to be holy as God is holy 1 Pet. 1.15 and perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Matth. 5.48 then the Gospel doth not onely require doing but also as much perfection of doing as the Law doth the Law and the Gospell require the same perfection of holinesse onely here is the difference which many have not observed the Gospel doth not urge this perfection nor require it of us as the Law doth for the law calling and urging of it that so hereby we may be made just it therefore accepts of nothing but perfection but the Gospell requiring it because wee are perfectly just already in Christ hence though it commands as much as the Law yet it accepts of lesse even the least measure of sincerity and perfection mixed with the greatest measure of imperfection Thesis 94. The Law say some of the Antinomians is to bee kept as an eternall rule of righteousnesse but their meaning then is That beleevers are thus to keep it in Christ who hath kept it for them and if they meant no more but that Christ hath kept it for righteousnesse to their justification they speak truely but their meaning herein is not only in respect of their justification but also in respect of their sanctification for they make Christs righteousnesse to bee materially and formally their sanctification hence they say A beleever hath repented in Christ and mortified sinne in Christ and that mortification and vivification is nothing but a beleeving that Christ hath mortified sinne for them and beene quickned for them and that That sanctification which is inherent in Christ and not that which is inherent in us is an evidence of our justification But this principle which confounds a Christians justification and sanctification as it casts the seed of denying all inherent graces in a Beleever so it layes the basis of refusing to doe any duty or conforme to any law in our owne persons for if this principle bee true which no Orthodox writer doubts of viz. That we are to seek for no righteousnesse in our selves to our justification because wee are perfectly just and made righteous for that end in Christ then it will undenyably follow that wee are not to seek for any holinesse and sanctification in our selves because we are perfectly sanctified also in Christ Iesus who hath repented and beleeved and mortified sinne perfectly for us in his owne person Look therefore as the perfection of Christs righteousnesse to our justification should make a Christian abhorre any personall righteousnesse of his owne to his justification so if wee bee perfectly sanctified in Christ then perfection of Christs holinesse to our sanctification should make a beleever not onely renounce the Law but to abhor all personall holines through the Spirit to our sanctification and then a Beleever must abhor to seek any love or feare of God in his heart which is not painted but professed prophanesse and the inlet not per accidens but per se to all manner of loosenesse and wickednesse in the world Thesis 95. Wee deny not but that Christ is our sanctification as well as our righteousnesse 1 Cor. 1.30 but how not materially and formally but virtually and meritoriously and with meet explications exemplarily our righteousnesse to our justification is inherent in him but our sanctification is inherent in our selves yet it is derived from him and therefore it is virtually and meritoriously onely in him and hence it is that wee are never commanded to justifie our selves unlesse it be instrumentally and sacramentally when as we are commanded by faith to wash our selves Isa. 1.16 and as Paul at his baptisme was commanded to wash away his sinnes Acts 22.16 but wee are frequently and abundantly exhorted to repent beleeve mortifie our affectiions upon earth to walke in newnesse of life to be holy in all manner of conversation c. because these things are wrought by Christ in us to our sanctification and not wrought in Christ for us as our righteousnesse to our justification Thesis 96. They that are in Christ are said to be compleat in Christ Col. 2.10 and that they receive all grace from his fulnesse Iob. 1.16 so that is seemes that there is no grace in themselves but it is first in him and consequently that their sanctification is perfected in him but wee must know that though the perfection and fulnesse of all grace is first in Christ yet that beleevers have not all in him after one and the same manner nor for the same end for our righteousnesse to our justification is so in him as never to be inherent in us in this or in the world to come but our righteousnesse to our sanctification is so farre in him as that it is to be derived
with the holy Ghost when they heard this Gospel thus preached upon condition of beleeving Act. 10.43 Doth not the Apostle say that the Gospell is the power of God to salvation because therein is Christs righteousnesse revealed not to sinners as sinners but from faith to faith The condition of works is impossible to be wrought in us by the Spirit but the condition of faith though it be impossible for us to work it in our hearts yet it is possible easie and unusuall for God to work it by requiring of it Ier. 3.22 which is no prejudice to Gods free-grace because faith is purposely required and wrought because it chiefly honours and advanceth free-grace Rom. 4 16. The promise is of faith that it might be by grace If Mr W.C. will not preach Christ upon beleeving how will he or any man else preach it Will they tell all men that God loves them and that Christ hath died for them that he that gives grace and salvation will work faith in them Truly thus W.C. seems to affirm but if they shall preach so to all sinners as sinners and tell â—hem absolutely God will work faith in them also I suppose that the Church wals and plentifull and abundant experience would testifie against this falsehood and the Scripture testifies sufficiently that every man shall not have faith to whom the Gospel is preached Now I do beseech the God and father of lights to pitty his straying servants who are led into these deep and dangerous delusions thorow feeble mistake of the true difference between old and new Testament Ministries and that he would pity his people for whose sins God hath let loose these blinding anct hardning doctrines by means of which they are tempted to receive that as the Gospel of truth which is but a meer lye and to take that as an evidence of salvation that is in truth the evidence of perdition and condemnation as hath been shewn Thesis 118. The second thing remains to be cleared whether sanctification may not be a first evidence and therefore more then a carnall inferiour and last evidence as Mr Saltmarsh cals it For if it be not a doubtfull but a clear and certain evidence in it self as hath been proved why may it not be a first evidence why may not the Spirit of God who works it in a person justified first reveal it as an evidence that he is justified What mortall man can limit the Spirit of God to what evidence he shall first bring in to the conscience of a justified estate For let sanctification be taken in the largest sense for any work of saving grace wrought in the Elect whether in vocation to faith or in sanctification which strictly taken followes our justification by faith and take evidence not for evidence of the object for Christ Jesus in his free-grace must be seen first as the ground on which faith rests but for evidence of testimony to the subject and then I thus argue that this first evidence of speciall actuall love in beholding Gods free-grace to a sinner it is either 1. Without the being of faith and other graces Or 2. Without the seeing of them only the eye looking up only to Christ and free-grace But this first evidence is not without the being of faith and holinesse for then it should be to a man actually under the power of sin and his filthy lusts and the devil which hath been already proved in the former Thesis to be a meer delusion there being no such word of the Gospel which reveals Gods free love and actual reconciliation to a sinner as a sinner and as under the power of his sins but the Gospel rather reveals the quite contrary and to affirm the witnesse of the Spirit clears this up is to pretend a testimony of the Spirit contrary to the testimony of the world and yet I strongly fear and do fully beleeve that this is the first evidence which some men plead for viz. to see Gods love toward them while they neither see grace or any change of heart in them or have grace but are still under the dominion of their sin And on the other side if any affirm that this evidence is not without the being of grace but onely without the seeing of it so that a Christians first evidence is the seeing of Gods free grace out of himself without seeing any faith or grace in himself and seeing nothing else but sin in himself this I confesse is nearer the truth but it is an errour which leads a man to a precipice and near unto the pit for if this be so then these things will unavoidably follow 1. That a Christian must see the love of God toward him in Christ and yet must not see himself to be the person to whom this love onely belongs for according to this very opinion it self it belongs only to a beleever and one that hath the being of grace and not to a sinner as a sinner 2. Then a Christian must not see the love of Christ and free grace of God by that proposition or testimony of the Spirit which reveals it and that is this Tu fidelis thou Beleever called and sanctified art freely beloved and thus a man must not see his estate good by the light of the spirit nay thus a Christian must receive the testimony of the Spirit which assures him that he is loved without understanding the meaning of the Spirit which is not thou sinner as such but thou Beleever art beloved not thou that hast no grace but thou that hast the being of it art beloved 3. Then the first evidence is built upon a meer weaknesse nay upon an untruth and falsehood for it is a meer weaknesse not to see that which we should see viz. the being of faith and grace in the heart in which respect the promise is sealed and if any man by not seeing it shall think and say there is no grace no faith no sanctification and now he sees Gods love to such a one and he thinks himself to be such a one when he sees Gods free grace and hath this first evidence it is a falsehood and an untruth for it is supposed to be there in the being of it all this while suppose therefore that some Christians at their first return and conversion to God or afterward have grace and faith but see it not in their assurance of Gods love the eminency of the object and good of it swallowing up their thoughts and hearts from attending themselves yet the question is quo jure they do not see nay should not see and take notice of the being of them in themselves Is not this a meer weaknesse and falsehood which is now made the mystery of this first evidence and indeed somewhat like Cusanus his summa sapientia which he makes to be this viz. Attingere illud quod est inattingibile inattingibiliter That a Christian must see and touch Gods deep love and yet neither
see not touch nor feel any change in himselfe or any being of grace when in truth it is there in which respect also Gods free-grace and love is revealed 4. If this be the first evidence then no Minister no nor any Apostle of Christ Jesus can give any first evidence of Gods love by the ordinary dispensation of the Gospel for although a Minister may say Thou art a sinner therefore the Lord Jesus may save thee yet he cannot say upon that ground that therefore the Lord Jesus will save him for then every sinner should be saved No Minister can say to any unbeleever Christ hath redeemed thee therefore beleeve or say absolutely Thy sins are pardoned for then he should preach contrary to the word which expressely tels us That he that beleeves not is already condemned No minister can say God will work faith in all you that are sinners as hath been shewn but they can say Thou Beleever are pardoned thou that art sanctified art reconciled c. It is therefore an evill speech of one lately in print who cals That a bastard assurance arising from a lying spirit which first proceeds from the sight of any grace and thence concludes they are justified and shall be saved For I would thus argue that this worke of grace suppose love to the Saints hunger and thirst after righteousnesse universall respect to all Gods Commandments c. it is either common to hypocrites and unsound or else it is peculiar to the elect and sincere If the first then it cannot be either first or second evidence it can be no evidence at all either without or with seeing first Gods free love to sinners as sinners if the second then either Gods promise made to such as are hungry and humble and have a work peculiar to Gods elect in them must be fals which is blasphemous to imagine or else whensoever it is seen whether first or last it must needs be a most blessed and sweet and sure evidence for when we say that such a work of grace may be a first evidence we do not mean as if the work simply considered in it self could give in any evidence but only as the free promise of grace is made to such as have such a work of grace this promise we say to such persons whensoever they see this work gives in full and clear evidence of their blessed estate And if the word of grace to a sinner as a sinner may give in a first evidence as some imagine then much more may it give in evidenceâ— where there is not only the word of grace but also the spirit of grace yea the work of grace to assure the conscience and for any to affirm that faith and sanctification are good evidences if justification be first evident is but a quirk of frothy wit for it may be as safely affirmed on the contrary that justification is a good evidence if faith and sanctification he first evident for 't is not these simply but the promise which is our evidence which is never to a sinner as such I shall therefore conclude these things with shewing the true grounds of effectuall evidence of the love of Christ. Thesis 119. The free-grace of God in Christ not works is the only sure foundation of justifying faith or upon which faith is built Rom. 3.24 25. 1 Pet. 2.4 5 6. Mat. 16.18 This free-grace therefore must first be revealed by the Spirit of God in the Ministry of the Gospel in order unto faith Rom. 10.14 15. Eph. 1.13 which generall revelation of free-grace some make to be the first evidence on which faith rests and thus far it is true but now this free-grace is revealed two waies 1. In the free offer of it to be our own by receiving it Act. 10.43 Gal. 2.16 2. In the free promise of it revealing it as our own already having actually and effectually received it Ioh. 1.12 Rom. 5.1 2. 1 Ioh. 5.12 The free offer of grace containing Gods call commandment and beseechings to beleeve and be reconciled gives us right to this possession of Christ or to come and take and so possesse Christ Jesus by faith Ierem. 3.22 1 Cor. 1.9 Rom. 1.5 6. The free promise of grace containing revealed immutable purposes and actual assurances of present and future grace gives us right to the fruition of Christ or to enjoy Christ as a free gift when 't is offered the command and desire of the donor to receive it to be our own gives us right and powet to possesse it and when it is received his promise to us assuring us that it is and shall continue our own gives us right and priviledge to enjoy it and make use of it For by two immutable things the promise confirmed by oath we have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to the hope before us Heb. 6.17 18 19. The free offer is the first ground of our faith why we receive Christ to be our own but the free promise is the first ground of the assurance of faith why we are assured and perswaded that he is our own already for the Gospel containing three things 1. The revelation of Christ 2. The offer of Christ. 3. The promise of Christ to all those that receive this offer Hence faith which runs parallell with the Gospel the proper object of it first sees Christ secondly receives Christ thirdly is assured of the love of Christ having received him The free offer of grace being made to the soul because it is poor and sinfull cursed and miserable and that therefore it would receive Christ hence it is that in this respect the soul is not bound first to see some good in it self and so to receive him but rather is bound at first breathings of God upon it rather to see no good i. nothing but sin and perdition death and darknesse enmity and weaknesse and therefore to receive him Luk. 14.21 Revel 3.17 18. Gal. 3.22 Rom. 11.32 Hos. 13.3 But the promise of free-grace being actually given to the soul and not declared only as it is in the free offer because it hath received Christ already by which he is actually its own hence it is that in this respect the soul is bound to see some good or saving work of grace in it self first and so embrace and receive the promise and Christ Jesus in it So that although in receiving Christ to be our own we are to see no good in our selves wherefore we should receive him or beleeve in him yet in receiving him as our own already we must first see some good the work of free grace in us or else we have no just ground thus to receive him No man can challeng any promise belonging to him without having a part in Christ the foundation of them no man can have Christ but by receiving of him or beleeving in him Ioh. 1.12 Hence therefore they that say that the first evidence of Gods love and free grace or actuall favour iâ— to
therefore so under the law i. the feare and terrour of the law as they were the summe of all this is that although we are not so under the law 1. so accompanied and 2. so dispensed as they were under the Old Testament yet this hinders not but that we are under the directive power of the Law as well as they Thesis 109. The Apostle speakes of a law written and engraven on stones and therefore of the morall Law which is now abolished by Christ in the Gospel 2 Cor. 3.6 7 11 13. Is the morall law therefore abolished as a rule of life now no verily but the meaning of this place is as the former Gal. 3.25 for the Apostle speaking of the morall Law by a Synecdoche comprehends the ceremoniall law also both which the false Teachers in those times urged as necessary to salvation and justification at least together with Christ against whom the Apostle here disputes the morall Law therefore is abolished first as thus accompanied with a yoke of Ceremonies secondly as it was formerly dispensed the glorious and greater light of the Gospel now obscuring that lesser light under the Law and therefore the Apostle vers 10. doth not say that there was no glory shining in the Law but it had no comparative glory in this respect by reason of the glory which excelleth and lastly the Apostle may speak of the morall Law considered as a Covenant of life which the false teachers urged in which respect he cals it the Ministry of death and the letter which killeth and the ministers of it who were called Nazarei and Minei as Bullinger thinks the Ministers of the letter which although it was virtually abolished to the beleeving Jews before Gospell times the vertue of Christs death extending to all times yet it was not then abolished actually untill Christ came in the flesh and actually undertooke to fullfill this Covenant for us to the utmost farthing of doing and suffering which is exacted and now it is abolished both virtually and actually that now we may with open face behold the glory of the Lord as the end of the law for righteousnesse to every one that doth beleeve Thesis 110. The Gospell under which Beleevers now are requires no doing say some for doing is proper to the Law the Law promiseth life and requires conditions but the Gospell say they promiseth to work the condition but requires none and therefore a beleever is now wholly free from all Law but the Gospell and Law are taken two waies 1. Largely the Law for the whole doctrine contained in the Old Testament and the Gospell for the whole doctrine of Christ and the Apostles in the New Testament 2. Strictly the Law pro lege operum as Chamier distinguisheth and the Gospell pro lege fidei i. for the Law of faith the Law of works strictly taken is that Law which reveals the favour of God and eternall life upon condition of doing or of perfect obedience the Law of faith strictly taken is that doctrine which reveals remission of sins reconciliation with God by Christs righteousnesse onely apprehended by faith now the Gospell in this latter sence excludes all works and requires no doing in point of justification and remission of sins before God but only beleeving but take the Gospel largely for the whole doctrine of Gods love and free grace and so the Gospel requires doing for as 't is an act oâ— Gods free grace to justifie a man without calling for any works thereunto so 't is an act of the same free grace to require works of a person justified and that such poor sinners should stand before the Son of God on his throne to minister unto him and serve him in righteousnesse and holinesse all the daies of our lives Tit. 2.14 and for any to think that the Gospell requires no conditions is a sudden dream against hundreds of Scriptures which contain conditionall yet evangelicall promises and against the judgement of the most judicious of our Divines who in dispute against Popish writers cannot but acknowledge them only thus viz. conditions and promises annexed to obedience are one thing saith learned Perable and conditions annexed to perfect obedience are another the first are in the Gospel the other not works are necessary to salvation saith Chamier necessitate praesentiae not efficientiae and hence he makes two sorts of conditions some antecedentes which work or merit salvation and these are abandoned in the Gospel otherâ— he saith are consequentes which follow the state of a man justified and these are required of one already justified in the Gospell there are indeed no conditions required of us in the Gospel but those onely which the Lord himselfe shall or hath wrought in us and which by requiring of us he doth worke will it therefore follow that no condition is required in us but because every condition is promised no verily for requiring the condition is the meanes to worke it as might be plentifully demonstrated and meanes and end should not be separated Faith it selfe is no antecedent condition to our justification or salvation take antecedent in the usuall sence of some Divines for affecting or meriting condition which Iunius cals essentialis conditio but take antecedent for a means or instrument of justification and receiving Christs righteousnesse in this sence it is the only antecedent condition which the Gospel requires therein because it doâ—h only antecedere or go before our justification at least in order of nature not to merit it but to receive it not to make it but to make it our own not as the matter of our righâ—eousness or any part of it but as the only means of apprehending Christs righteousnesse which is the only cause why God the Father justifieth and therefore as Christs righteousnesse must go before as the matter and moving cause of our justification or that for which we are justified so faith must go before this righteousnesse as an instrument or applying cause of it by which we are justified that is by meanes of which we apply that righteousnesse which makes us just 'T is true God justifies the ungodly but how not immediately without faith but mediately by faith as is most evident from that abused text Rom. 4.5 When works and faith are opposed by the Apostle in point of justification affirming that we are justified by faith not by works he doth hereby plainly affirm and give that to faith which he denies to works look therefore as he denies works to be antecedent conditions of our justification he affirms the contrary of faith which goes before our justification as hath been explained and therefore as doe and live hath been accounted good Law or the Covenant of works so beleeve and live hath been in former times accounted good Gospel or the Covenant of grace untill now of late this wilde age hath found out new Gospels that Paul and the Apostles did never dream of Thesis 111. A servant and a son may
say he doth sin no not when he commits murder adultery and the foulest enormities in the world Which Doctrine though so directly and expressely against the light of Scripture the confessions of all the Saints yea of the light of nature and common sense and is the very filth of the froth of the sume of the bottomlesse pit yet some there are who are not ashamed to owne it the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and depth of a perfect Familist consisting in this viz. when a man can sinne and never feele it or have any remorse or sorrow for it and when one hath attained to this measure He is then Deified and then they professe the Godhead doth petere fundum animae as they call it when beleeving that he hath no sinne he can therefore neither see it or feele it From which depth of darknesse the God and Father of mercies deliver his poore people in these corrupting times and I with that those who defend this kinde of a Beleevers immunity from the law did not lay this corner stone of hell and perdition to their followers I am sure they lead them hereby to the mouth of this pit who upon this principle refuse either to mourne for sinne or pray for pardon of sinne or to imagine that God afflicts for sin being now freed from the mandatory power of any law of God they being now not bound to act by vertue of any command Thesis 99. If God did worke upon Beleevers as upon bloâ—ks or brute creatures they might then have some colour â—o cast off all attendance to the directive power of the law and so leave all to the Spirits Omnipotent and immediate acts as the Starres who being irrationall and uncapable of acting by any rule they are therefore acted and run their course by the mighty word of Gods power and therefore attend no rule but Beleevers are rationall Creatures and therefore capable of acting by rule and they are also sanctified and delivered from the power of their corrupt nature and therefore have some inherent power so to act for if they be not now dead in trespasses and sinnes they have then some new life and therefore some inherent power to act according to the rule of life the Image of God renewed in them is in part like to the same Image which they had in the first creation which gave man some liberty and power to act according to the will of him that created him And if the first Adam by his fall conveyes to us not onely condemnation but also an inherent power of corruption then the second Adam the Lord Iesus much more conveyes unto all his posterity not onely justification but also some inherent power of grace and holinesse which is begun here and perfected in glory for as sinne hath abounded so grace aboundeth much more and yet suppose they had no inherent power thus to act yet they have an adherent power the Lord Christ Iesus by faith in whose Name they may and shall receive power to act And therefore although God works in us both to will to do of his good pleasure yet this hinders not but that we are to work out our salvation with feare and trembling by attending the rule by vertue of which we are bound to worke both by putting forth that power which we have already received from God as also in fetching in that power we have not yet received but is reserved daily in Christs hands for us to enable us thereunto Thesis 100. If they that say a Beleever is not to act by vertue of a command do mean this only viz. That he is not to act by vertue of the bare letter and externall words and syllables of it they then speak truely for such kinde of acting is rather witchery than Christianity to place power and vertue in bare characters and letters which though mighty and powerfull by the spirit yet are empty and powerlesse without it But if their meaning be that wee are not to act by vertue of any command in any sense then the assertion is both pernicious and perilous for the Lord Iesus being the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first subject of all grace and gracious efficacy and power hence it s true wee are not to make the command of God the first principle of our obedience for this is proper unto Christ by the Spirit Iohn 5.40 Iohn 16.13 14. 2. Tim. 2.1 Ephes. 6.10 Rom. 8.2 But because the Lord Iesus conveyes by his Spirit vertue and efficacy through his word not onely words of promise but also words of command as is evident Ier. 3.22 Acts 2.38 41. Mat. 9.9 Psalme 19.8 Hence it is that a Beleever is bound to act from a command though not as from a first yet as from a second principle though not as from the first efficient yet as from an instrument in the hand of Christ who in commanding of the duty works by it and enables to it and therefore we see Abraham comes out of his owne Countrey because called and commanded of God to follow him he knew not whither Heb 11.8 And Peter cast his net into the 〈◊〉 meerely because he was commanded Luke 5.5 And David desired Oh that my heart were directed to keep thy precepts because God had commanded Psa. 119.45 There is a vertue a vis or efficacy in the finall cause as well as in the efficient to produce the effect and every wise agent is bound to act by vertue or for the sake of his utmost and last end Now the naked commandment of the Lord may bee and should be the chiefe motive and last end of our obedience to his highnesse for whatever is done meerely because of Gods command is done for his glory which glory should be our utmost end in all our obedience And hence it is that that obedience is most absolute and sincere whether it be in doing or suffering the will of God which is done meerely in respect of commandment and will of God when the soule can truely say Lord I should never submit to such a yoke but meerely for thy sake and because it 's thy will and thou dost command it What is it to love Christ but to seek to please him and to give contentment to him What is it to seek to give contentment to him but to give contentment to his heart or his will and what is his will but the will of his commandment If therefore it bee unlawfull to act by vertue of a command then it is unlawfull 1. To love Christ 2. To be sincere before Christ. 3. Or to act for the glory of Christ. And hence it is that let a man do the most glorious things in the world out of his owne supposed good end as the blind Papists doe in their will-works and superstitions which God never commanded nay let him doe all things which the law of God requires give his goods to the poore and his body to bee burnt and yet not doe
a sinner as a sinner had need consider what they say for is it to a sinner as possest with Christ and receiving of him or as dispossest of Christ not having of him but rather refusing and rejecting of him If they say the first they then speak the truth but then they raze down their own pernicious principle that Christ and Gods love belongs to them As sinners If they affirm the latter then they do injuriously destroy Gods free grace and the glory of Christ who think to possesse promises without possessing Christ or to have promises of grace without having Christ the foundation of them all For though the common love of God as the bare offer of grace is may be manifested without having Christ yet speciall actuall love cannot be actually our own without having and first receiving of him And if the Spirit of God convince the world of sin and consequently of condemnation while they do not beleeve Ioh. 16.9 I wonder how it can then convince them of pardon of sin and reconciliation before they do beleeve unlesse we will imagine it to be a lying spirit which is blasphemous These things not considered of have and do occasion much errour at this day in the point of evidencing and hath been an inlet of deep delusion and open gaps have been made hereby to the loose waies and depths of Familism and grosse Arminianism and therefore being well considered of are sufficient to clear up the waies of those faithfull servants of the Lord who dare not sow pillows nor cry peace to the wicked much lesse to sinners as sinners both from the slanderous imputation of legall ministrations after an old Testament manner as also of making works the ground of faith or the causes of assurance of faith the free offer being the ground of the one and the free promise the cause and ground of the other Briefly therefore 1. The free offer of grace is the first evidence to a poor lost sinner that he may be beloved 2. The receiving of this offer by faith relatively considered in respect of Christs spotlesse righteousnesse is the first evidence shewing why he is beloved or what hath moved God actually to love him 3. The worke of sanctification which is the fruit of our receiving this offer is the first evidence shewing that he is beloved If therefore a condemned sinner be asked whether God may love him and why he thinks so he may answer Because Jesus Christ is held forth and offered to such a one If he be further asked why or what he thinks should move God to love him he may answer Because I have received Christs righteousnesse offered for which righteousnesse sake only I know I am beloved now I have received it If he be asked lastly how he knows certainly that he is beloved he may answer safely and confidently Because I am sanctified I am poor in spirit therefore mine is the kingdom of heaven I do mourn and therefore I shall be comforted I do hunger and thirst and therefore I shall be satisfied c. We need in time of distresse and temptation all these evidences and therefore it is greatest wisdom to pray for that spirit which may clear them all up unto us rather then to contend which should be the first And thus we see that the whole morall law is our rule of life and consequently the law of the Sabbath which is a branch of this rule We now proceed to shew the third branch of things generally and primarily morall Thesis 120. Thirdly Not only a day nor only a rest day but the rest day or Sabbath day which is expressed and expressely interpreted in the Commandment to be the seventh day or a seventh day of Gods determining and therefore called The Sabbath of the Lord our God is here also enjoined and commanded as generally morall For if a day be morall what day must it be If it be said that any day which humane wisdom shall determine whether one day in a hundred or a thousand or one day in many years if this only be generally morall then the rule of morality may be broken because the rule of equality may be thus broken by humane determination For it may be very unequall and unjust to give God one day in a hundred or a thousand for his worship and to assume so many beside to our selves for our own use There is therefore something else more particularly yet primarily morall in this Command and that is The Sabbath day or such a day wherein there appears an equal division and a fit proportion between time for rest and time for work a time for God and a time for man and that is a â—â—venth day which God determines A fit proportion of time for God is morall because equal man cannot determine nor set out this proportion God therefore only can and must A day therefore that he shall determine is morall and if he declares his determination to a seventh A seventh day is therefore morall Gomarus confesseth that by the Analogy of this Commandment not one day in a thousand or when man pleaseth but that one day in seven is morall at least equal fit and congruous to observe the same and if the Analogy he speaks of ariseth virtute mandati divini or by vertue of Gods Commandment the cause is in effect yielded but if this Analogy be made virtute libertatis humanae so that humane liberty may do well to give God one in seven because the Jews did so and why should Christians be more scant then I see not but humane liberty may assume power to it self to impose monthly and annuall holy daies as well because the Jews had their new moons and yearly festivals and by Analogy thereof why may not Christians who have more grace poured out upon them and more love shewn unto them under the Gospel hold some meet proportion with them therein also as well as in Sabbaths But it can never be proved that God hath left any humane wisdom at liberty to make holy daies by the rule of Jewish proportions Beside if humane wisdom see it meet and congruous to give God at least one day in seven this wisdom and reason is either regulated by some law and then 't is by vertue of the law of God that he should have one day in seven or 't is not regulated by a law and then we are left to a loose end again for man to appoint what day he sees meet in a shorter or a longer time his own reason being his only law and this neither Gomaras nor the words of the Commandment will allow which sets and fixeth the day which we see is one day in seven which not man but God shall determine and therefore called The Sabbath of the Lord our God Thesis 121. The hardest knot herein to unloose lies in this to know whether a seventh day in generall which God shall determine or that particular Seventh day from the creation be