out of their Churches which should be the Porch of Heaven is the way to be shut out themselves of the heavenly Jerusalem If those that have long reproached me as unfit to be in their Church and said ex uno disce omnes with their Leader find any unsound or unprofitable Doctrine here I shall take it for a great favour to be confuted even for the good of others excluded with me when I am dead Jan. 21. 1691. Richard Baxter THE CONTENTS Chap. 1. HOW to conceive of GOD. Pag. i. Chap. 2. How to conceive of the Trinity in Unity p. vii Chap. 3. How to conceive of the Hypostatical Union and Incarnation p. xxiii Chap. 4. How to conceive of the Diversity of God's Transient Operations p. xxx Chap. 5. Whether any point of Faith be above 〈◊〉 contrary to Reason p. xxxii Chap. I. Prefatory Who must be the Iudge of Controversies The true Causes of the Divisions of Christians about Religion p. 1◠Chap. 2. The Doctrines enumerated about which they chiefly disagree p. 22 Chap. III. Of God's Will and Decrees in general Th. Terms and several Cases opened p. 2◠Chap. IV. Of God's Knowledge and the Differenc◠about it p. 4◠Chap. V. Of Election and the Order of Intentio◠and Execution p. 3◠Chap. VI. Of Reprobation or the Decree of Damnation the Objects and their Order p. 4◠An Answer to Mr. Polhill of Futurition p. 4◠Chap. VII Of God's Providence and predetermining Premotion Of Durandus's way p. 7◠Chap. VIII Of the Cause of Sin What God doth and doth not about it p. 82 Chap. IX Of Natural Power and Free-will p. 89 Chap. X. Of Original Sin as from Adam and nearer Parents p. 94 Chap. XI Of our Redemption by Christ what it doth how necessary p. 89 Chap. XII Of the several Laws and Covenants of God p. 99 Sect. 1. Of the Law or Covenant of Innocency made to Adam Divers Cases p. 113 Sect. 2. Of the Law of Mediation or Covenant with Christ When and what it was p. 121 Sect. 3. Of the Law or Covenant of Grace in the first edition What it was p. 126 Sect. 4. Of the same Law with Abraham's Covenant of Peculiarity and the Mosaical Iewish Law of Works p. 132 Sect. 5. Of the Law or Covenant of Grace in the last edition the Gospel Divers Cases about it opened p. 138 Chap. XIII Of the universality and sufficiency of Grace What Grace is How far universal and sufficient p. 154 Chap. XIV Of Man's Power and Free-will since the Fall Adrian's Saying That an unjustified man may love or chuse God's Being before his own What to ascribe to Grace and what to Free-will in good p. 173 Chap. XV. Of Effectual Grace and how God giveth it Doubts resolved p. 181 Chap. XVI Of the state of Heathens and such others as have not the Gospel What Law the Heathen World is under and to be judged by Whether any of them are justified or saved The Heathens were the Corrupters of the old Religion and the Jews of the Reformed Church Mal. 1. 14 15. and Sodom's Case c. considered p. 188 Chap. XVII Of the necessity of Holiness and of Moral Virtue p. 203 Chap. XVIII Of the necessity of Faith in Christ where the Gospel is made known p. 212 Chap. XIX Of the state of Infants as to Salvation and Church-membership p. 216 Chap. XX. Of the nature of Saving-Faith its Description and Causes p. 226 Chap. XXI Of justifying Righteousness Iustification and Pardon The several sences of the words and several sorts of them Our common Agreement about them p. 238 Chap. XXII Of the Imputation of Righteousness Christ's righteousness in what sence ours and imputed and in what sence not p. 256 Chap. XXIII How Faith justifieth and how it is imputed for Righteousness Several questions about it Repentance c. resolved p. 267 Chap. XXIV Of Assurance of our Iustification and of Hope What Assurance is desirable What attainable What Assurance we actually have Who have it The nature and grounds of it Whether it be Divine Faith p. 279 Chap. XXV Of Good works and Merit And whether we may trust to any thing of our own 1. What are Good Works 2. Whether they are necessary to our Iustification or Salvation 3. Whether they are rewardable or meritorious 4. What is their place use and necessity 5. Whether to be trusted to p. 282 Chap. XXVI Of Confirmation Perseverance and danger of falling away 1. Whether all Grace given by Christ be such as is never lost 2. Whether that degree be ever lost which to Infants or Adult giveth but the posse credere 3. Whether any lose actual justifying Faith 4. Or the Habit of Divine Love and Holiness 5. Whether some degree of this may be lost 6. If Holiness be not actually lost is the loss possible 7. Whether there be a state of Confirmation above the lowest Holiness which secureth Perseverance 8. Or doth Perseverance depend only on Election and God's Will 9. Whether all most or many Christians are themselves certain of their Perseverance 10. I◠such Certainty fit for all the justified 11. Is it unfit for all and doubting a more safe condition 12. Doth the Comfort of most Christians rest upon the Doctrine of Certainty to persevere 13. Doth the Doctrine of eventual Apostasie inferr Mutability in God 14. Why God hath left the point so dark 15. What was the Iudgment of the ancient Churches herein 16. Is it of such weight as to be necessary to our Church-Communion Love and Concord p. 300 Chap. XXVII Of Repentance late Repentance the time of Grace and the unpardonable sin p. 314 BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Iohn Salusbury at the Rising Sun in Cornhil A Rational Defence of Nonconformity wherein the Practice of Nonconformists is vindicated from promoting Popery and ruining the Church imputed to them by Dr. Stillingfleet Bishop of Worcester in his Unreasonableness of Separation Also his Arguments from the Principles and Way of the Reformers and first Dissenters are answered And the case of the present Separation truly stated and the blame of it laid where it ought to be and the way to Union among Protestants is pointed at By Gilbert Rule D. D. The Christian Laver Being two Sermons on John 13. 8. opening the nature of Participation with and demonstrating the necessity of Purification by Christ. By T. Cruso Six Sermons on various occasions By T. Cruso in 4◠The Conformists Sayings or the Opinion and Arguments of Kings Bishops and several Divines assembled in Convocation A new Survey of the Book of Common-Prayer An END of Doctrinal Controversies c. CHAP. 1. How we may and must conceive of GOD. § 1. A True Knowledge of God is necessary to the Being of Religion and to Holiness and Glory No man can love obey trust or hope beyond his knowledge Nothing is so certainly known as God and yet nothing so defectively known Like our Knowledge of the Sun of which no man doubteth
themselves to him as their Owner to obey him as their Ruler and to love and seek him as their ultimate End and to believe that his Mercy will not let us be losers in so doing nor to do it in vain § 14. But the Supernatural Revelation telleth us much more than all this Of the promised Seed the means of our Salvation and of our Duty in believing them and of the Certainty and Nature of the Pardon Deliverance and Blessedness which we shall attain § 15. The â—receptive part at first was not to Believe as much of Christ as is necessary since his Ascension but to Believe what God promised and revealed of him to the Church at that time § 16. Even under the Old Testament God increased his Revelation of the Messiah gradually The Prophets spake plainlier of him than any thing written before Therefore a more extensive and distinct belief was needful in one Age than in a former § 17. Yet even the Apostles were in a state of Salvation before they understood and believed that Christ must Dâ—â— for Sin rise again Ascend and Intercede in Heaven for his Elect. § 18. Yet all this was partly revealed before by the Prophets and plainly foretold them by Christ himself Therefore it was not of absolute necessity to Salvation then to believe all of Christ which had been before Revealed though it was a duty to them that knew it § 19. Therefore under the Covenant of Grace the Condition of our right is narrower than the Duty which we are commanded to perform § â—â— The Promised Benefits presupposing the Common Antecedent Mercies were Summarily Christ and Life in him That is that for the sake of Christ's future Merits we should have Pardon Justification Reconciliation with God Adoption Sanctification and Glory and all necessary Helps and Means thereunto § 20. The Penalty was 1. The Pâ—ivation of Recovery 2. and a far sorer punishment for Ingratitude and contempt of Christ and Mercy § 21. This Law or Covenant in this first Edition was made with Adam as the Father of all Mankind and so with all Mankind in him as truly and as much as the Covenant of Innocency was For 1. God's Word maketh no difference 2. Adam was as much after the Common Father of Mankind and all we as much in him as before the Fall And he that will say that God arbitrarily Judgeth otherwise of us must prove it if he can 3. The express Word of God in many places proveth it joyning Children with their Parents in such Blessings and therefore including the Children of Adam § 22. The same Covenant with some positive Additions it pleased God to renew to and with Noah because he was as a second Head and Father to the generality of all Mankind all coming from his Loins as they did from Adam's § 23. As all Mankind was made the Subjects of God under this Law of Grace so by it they were all to be Governed and Judged allowing a diversity of Degrees in the Promulgation Mercies and Penalties thereof SECT IV. Of the same Law with Abraham's Covenant of Peculiarity and the Mosaical Iewish Law of Works § 1. ABraham being a subject to this same Law of Grace did so faithfully Believe and Obey it that it pleased God to reward him extraordinarily by 1. Renewing the Covenant by special Application to him and by the promises of Peculiar Privileges to him and his seed § 2. Not that his Infant seed was the first that was taken into Covenant For the Covenant of Grace had from the beginning been made with the Faithful and their Seed as well as the Covenant of Innocency was § 3. The Peculiarities of this Covenant were Initially promulgate to Abraham Isaac and Iacob and more fully to the Iews as a Politick Body by Moses in the Law with some particular Sub-additions by David and the Prophets § 4. 1st The Promise to Abraham was besides the Common Covenant of Grace renewed 1. A promise of peculiar Favour to his Seed increased to a political Society in Canaan and differenced by special Mercies from all the People of the Earth 2. A promise that the Messiah should be of his Seed § 5. This Covenant did not Discovenant the rest that the World nor put them into any worse Condition than they were before § 6. The peculiar Precept of that Covenant was That by Circumcision as a Seal and Symbol and by peculiar Gratitude and Obedience and relinquishing the Sins of the Degenerate World about them they should difference themselves from others as God's peculiar People § 7. As the Covenant of Peculiarity was not a separated state but an additional Privilege and Reward to Abraham as faithful to the Common Covenant of Grace so Circumcision was the Symbol neither of Abraham as under the Law of Grace alone nor as under the Covenant of Peculiarity alone for that was never alone but as of One under both even under the latter as a Reward for his special Fidelity in the former And so it was â— Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith in the Common Covenant of Grace which he had being yet Uncircumcised though a Symbol also of his after Peculiarities Rom. 4. 1 2 c. § 8. Infants interest in the very Covenant of Peculiarity and Iewish Church-state was not infeparable from Circumcision As Infants were ever Members in the Common Church and Covenant of Grace with their Parents before Circumcision so they were also without it Members of the Iewish Church when as all the Females were Members and all the Males in the Wilderness who for Forty Years were Uncircumcised Yet is it called The Church in the Wilderness when except very few at last it was an Uncircumcised Church Acts 7. 38. § 9. Much less did God lay such a necessity on the outward Sacramental Act as to deny Salvation to the Uncircumcised aforesaid as some would have us think that even under the Gospel he doth by Sacraments The Covenant was still necessary as consented to by the Adult for themselves and their Infant seed but not alway the outward sacrament or symbole § 10. The gathering of Israel into a Policy by Moses as a Theocracy and their receiving a Law from God himself as a Political Body was but the full Establishment of the Covenant of Peculiarity in performance of what God had promised to Abraham and in Circumcision had begun § 11. This Law of Moses therefore must be Considered as an Affix or Appendix to the Common Law of Grace and so either as related to it or as considered simply and distinctly in it self without that relation And as it was a Divine Political Law for the Government of a Republick as such § 12. The Common Covenant of Grace was the Soul as it were of this Political Jewish Law and therefore was really expressed in it in the Decalogue and other parts As it was the Soul of their state of Peculiarity which was the Reward of Abraham's Faithfulness in the
rather calleth it than a Habit at first even in the Adult And Calvin saith That some men semen fidei qualecunque perdunt Adam had such a Holiness as might be lost And why may we not say that Infants first Grace is of such a sort or degree 2. And yet that none are saved without more but that upon this first degree they have a right to Salvation and that their further Holiness shall be given them whom God will as part of their Salvation to which they have right At furthest at death in the same time and manner as perfect Holiness and Mortification of Sin is given to Believers that are till death imperfect A loseable degree of Holiness like Adam's may be the way to more in all that so die § 23. Divines use to mention three degrees of Grace in order to Faith it self 1. So much Grace as maketh a man able to believe which they call Sufficient Grace 2. So much more as efficiently determineth him to the Act of Believing This they call effectual special Grace and Protestants call it our Vocation effectual 3. So much more as giveth him a fixed habit of Faith Love and all Holiness together This Papists call Iustification and Protestants Sanctification Vid. Amesii Medull de voc sanct Rolloc de vocat Bishop Downame against Pemble Append. to his Treatise of Perseverance c. § 24. Now some hold all these loseable some hold only the last not loseable and almost all hold the first loseable Now 1. What if we think that Infant 's first Holiness besides relative Pardon and jus ad impunitatem regnum is but of the first degree Though a meer moral Power to believe be not enough to the Adult because the Act is necessary to them yet say Protestants The Habit is not necessary to their first Covenant-Right but is given by the Spirit in sanctification as a Covenant-Benefit And why may not Infants be in a pardoned state that at first have but that Grace which giveth a moral Power to believe when they come to age Consider of the matter § 25. I have so fully elsewhere proved That Infants Church-membership was instituted both in the Covenant of Innocency in the first edition of the Covenant of Grace in the Covenant of Peculiarity with Abraham and in the last edition of the Covenant of Grace by Christ and also that God never had a Church on Earth of which Infants were not Members if the adult Members had Infants that I will now supersede that Work CHAP. XX. Of the Nature of Saving-Faith § 1. SO much of this came in before on the by as will excuse my brevity here I have before shewed That the Faith now in question is not meerly our general Belief and Trust in God as a part of our Holiness but the mediate Belief and Trust in God our Redeemer and our Saviour which is made the Condition of the Covenant the means of our sanctification And also that as the editions of the Covenant vary and promulgation of it so it is not the same degree or acts of Faith as to the particular credenda or Articles to be believed that was and is necessary to all persons in all times § 2. Though the word Belief in English and Assent in Latin signifie strictly only the act of the Understanding and Saving Faith is oft named from one act yet really that Faith which in Scripture is made the Condition of Pardon and Salvation doth essentially contain the Acts of every Faculty even Assent Consent and Affiance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and fides do properly signifie Trust even a consenting or voluntary Trust upon believing as is afore said § 3. We do very aptly call both the Act and Object by the same name fides in Latin and Faith in English oft-times For Faith is a trusting on another's Faith Fidelity or Trustiness and so the fides asserentis seu promittentis fides credentis are related § 4. The Faith that hath the promise of our Justification is not to be called one only Physical act in specie much less in numero That were but prophanely to jest with holy things but it is a moral act or work of the Soul containing many physical acts Otherwise we should be all confounded not knowing how to distinguish of all our physical acts of Faith secundum speciem and then to know which of them is the right And it would be but some very little of the true Objects of Faith that justifying Faith must be constituted by In a word the Absurdities are so numerous that would follow that I will not be so tedious as to name them § 5. Saving Faith is such a moral work as we use to express by the names Believing Trusting Consenting Taking Accepting Receiving in Contracts personal with men If we say You shall Trust such a Physician or take such a man for your Physician all men understand us and none is so logically mad as to think that by Taking or Trusting we mean only some one physical act of the smallest distribution If we say I take this man for my King my Master my Commander or Captain or this woman to be my Wife c. every one knoweth here what Taking meaneth viz. our Consent to that Relation according to the nature and ends of it § 6. Therefore though we use divers names for this Faith and also on several occasions give several half-descriptions of it we mean still the same thing and suppose what we omit to make the description entire § 7. When we call Faith a Believing or Assent we mean such an Assent as prevaileth with the Will to accept Christ with his Grace as offered in the Gospel and consent to the Baptismal Covenant and this indeed as a fruit of the assenting act but as essential to justifying Faith § 8. When we call it Consent or Acceptance or Receiving Christ we mean that as Man's Soul hath an Intellect and Will and a true actus humanus vel moralis is the act of both but of the Intellect as directive and of the Will as more perfective or as the Faculty primarily moral so the same Faith which is initially in the intellect's Assent is perfectlier in the will's Consent And it is the Receiving of a Saviour believed or the Consent to a believed Covenant We suppose Assent when we name it Consent § 9. And when we name it Affiance or Trust we include both the former and mean a resolved practical Trust and dedition of our selves accordingly to one that covenanteth to bring us from Sin and Misery to GOD and Glory where Belief and Consent to that Covenant are supposed § 10. And the Terminus a quo and the renunciation of Competitors and Opposites is connoted if not essentially included in Saving Faith And therefore Christ doth so often tell us of forsaking all if we will be his Disciples § 11. I use to express it by this similitude A Prince redeemeth a
was under before Christ's Incarnation And 2. whether Christ repealed it to them § 17. 1st And it is proved That on God's part the said Law of Grace continued And man's Disobedience could not here nullifie the Law as it did that of Innocency Because it was a Law that allowed Repentance till the time of Death So that when they sinned never so much they were still obliged by it to repent that they might be saved Their Rebellion deprived them of the Benefit but did not end the Law nor rendered them uncapable of its Obligation God made Adam and after him the Heads of Families his Priests He had then publick Worship natural and instituted sacrificing and the distinction of clean and unclean Beasts Sabbath and Marriage as well as calling on the Name of the Lord are expressed As the Covenant to Noah was the same with that to Adam with some small Addition so no doubt were the Precepts of Noah As the Canaaniâ—es sacrificed so their marrying in the prohibited Degrees is called one of their Abominations It 's very probable that not only the Decalogue in sence but also all or most of the particular Mosaical Precepts which are but the Instances Explications and Applications of those Generals were given before the Flood and some more which even the Nations Traditions kept some remembrance of though not named particularly in the Text. § 18. And it was not God's Covenant of Peculiarity with Abraham and the Iews that ended it to the rest of the World as I before proved § 19. So that though there be difficulty in opening the Terms of the Law of Grace as it stood to all Mankind besides the Iews there is no difficulty to prove that it did indeed so continue § 20. And that Christ hath not repealed or nullified that Law of Grace to the World that never have the Gospel which they were under before his coming is evident 1. Because he came for the Benefit and not the Destruction of the World to make their Condition better and not worse But had he nullified that Law of Grace to all the World and given them no better in its stead save to a few he had come directly by himself to take away their Mercies and make them miserable For it is certain that though the Apostles Commission was to preach the Gospel to all Nations and every Creature yet it is comparatively but a small part of the World that ever heard it or had the means to know and believe in Christ. And all the rest were under a Law of Grace before and therefore are so still 2. And â—â— Christ repealed that Law by which Act did he do it Not by making a better Edition for that could not have any such Effect to them that never did or could know of that Edition And there is no other Repeal to be found in Scripture 3. And if the Law of Grace be nullified to all the World that hear not the Gospel are they since under any Law of God or none if none they are either no Men or damned Men for they are no governed Subjects If they are under any what is it The Law of Innocency I have proved it is not And the GOSPEL or second Edition of the Law of Grace it is not For that cannot oblige where it never is promulgate It being a supernatural Revelation can extend to none to whom it is not directly or indirectly sent Therefore it is evident that Christ leaveth such under that Law which he found them under § 21. What this Law to the World containeth having before opened Chap. 12. § 3. I shall not repeat it but only here add 1. It is certain that though this Law make perfect Obedience for the future to be a Duty to them and us yet not to be the Condition of Salvation but that it doth hereto accept sincerity 2. That it maketh not the particular Articles of our present Creed about Christ's person Birth Life Death Resurrection heavenly Intercession in our Nature necessary to their Salvation For before Christ's Coming no Jewish Believers could believe That this Iesus in his demonstrable Person is the Christ but that Christ should come And after he had long taught them and pronounced them blessed the Disciples knew not that he must die rise ascend intercedâ— in Heaven come again c. 3. It is certain that all that the Prophets had any way foretold of Christ to the Iews was not of absolute necessity to Salvation to the Iews themselves to be understood much less to the World that never heard it For Christ proved out of the Prophets That he was to die and rise and so to be glorified when yet the Apostles had not understood it till that time And the Jewish Believers had very dark if not erroneous Notions of the person of the Messiah to come And to believe that he should be of Abraham's Sâ—ed as it was part of Abraham's Covenant of Peculiarity so it seemeth to be necessary only to such as were under or knew that Covenant and not to all § 22. And it is certain that when the Messiah was come they were not bound to believe that he was yet to come though they knew not of his coming because it was then an Untruth § 23. The proclaimed Name of God Exod. 24. with Psal. 19. Prov. 1. Act. 10. and 14. and 17. Rom. 1. and 2. Heb. 6. 11. do seem to be the Expositions of the true Sence and Tenour of that Law of Grace Gen. 3. 15. which the World before Christ's coming was under and yet is where the Gospel cannot be had § 24. The Texts that say He that believeth not shall be damned plainly refer to such as hear the Word to be believed and speak of the Unbelief of what is revealed and not of what is unrevealed § 25. Rom. 10. saith no more but that no man can believe in Christ without the Revelation of him by preaching or declaring and that no man that heareth can be saved without believing in him nor no man saved at all without that Faith which the Law that he is under maketh necessary to Salvation But if all were damned that believed not that this Iesus is personally the Christ all before his Incarnation must be damned But if not all before then the same thing was never made necessary after to all that could not possibly hear of it § 26. The same I say of Ioh. 14. 6. No man cometh to the Father but by me 1. No man is reconciled to God and pardoned and hath right to life in all Ages of the World but for the sake of the meritorious Sacrifice and Righteousness of Christ as promised Gen. 3. 1. before and performed after But this was the part of God and our Redeemer which he promised in his part of the Covenant and performed For God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing to them their sins so far forgiving them as to make an Act
as the Iudge will justifie by Sentence and Execution then our Conversion is part of that Justification 10. That Scripture sometimes taketh Justification in that sence and most frequently by Righteousness meaneth that which consisteth in our Acts and Habits In all this there is no place for Controversie or Disagreement § 51. They that say That we must have inherent and performed Righteousness but that no man is at all justified by it must take justifying in some particular limitted sence which therefore they should explain by distinction or else they speak gross contradiction For it is no Righteousness if it constitute not the owner righteous so far or in that point nor yet if the owner may not be justified by it in Iudgment against the accusation of being in that point or so far unrighteous If he that doth Righteousness is righteous that Righteousness will materially justifie him against the false accusation of the contrary § 52. Yea while they make Faith Repentance and Holiness but Signs and Evidences of our right to Life-eternal they thereby allow it some place in Justification For Evidence hath its place in Judgment And they are moral Evidences and not physical only § 53. If men understood how atheological and perilous it is to conceit that either Faith or any thing of ours no though we were innocent is any proper efficient Cause of God's own internal acts in our Justification and would understand that all can be no more than dispositio receptiva which Dr. Twisse calls causa dispositiva a meer receptive Aptitude which is but the Qualification causae materialis that is of the Subject to be justified it would presently lead them out of their vain Contention about Faith and Gospel-Obedience herein and shew them how each in several respects and instances qualifie Man for the beginning or continuance of Justification or for Right to Glory § 54. It seemeth strange to some to find the whole Old Testament and all Christ's Sermons and all the other Apostles inculcating inherent and performed Righteousness as that which Men must be judged about to Life or Death and yet to find Paul so oft pleading against Justification by Works But if we will take the Scripture together and not by incoherent scraps the reconciliation is evident Man is now sinful and condemned by the first Law and is now under a Law of Grace that freely giveth Pardon and Life through a Redeemer to those that believingly accept the Gift according to its nature and consent by Repentance to turn to God and live a holy life in sincerity Now God doth through all the Scripture tell us That no one shall pass with God for a just man or be saved that will not do this but shall be condemned further for refusing it And thus he that doth Righteousness is righteous and all shall be judged according to their works thus required by the Law of Grace To deny this is to deny the scope of the whole Scripture and the Government of God But Paul disputed against those that taught that the Gentiles must be proselyted and keep the Law of Moses or else they could not be accounted just men nor be saved And he proveth that the Gentiles being under the Law of Grace may pass with God for just men and be saved if they Believingly accept the Gift of Grace according to its nature and consent by Repentance to turn to God and live a holy life in sincerity though they keep not the Jewish Law Yea further that though the Jewish Fathers were obliged to keep that Law it was as it belonged to the Covenant of Grace and of Faith and that before that Law was given Abraham and others were just and saved by Faith according to the universal Law of Grace and that the Task of Works according to the Mosaical Law will of it self make no man just or savable and consequently no other Task of Works which would make the Reward to be not of Grace but of Debt and is opposed to or separated from Redemption and the free condonation and donation of the Covenant of Grace This is the plain drift of Paul § 55. Works of Evangelical gratitude love and obedience according to the Law of Grace subordinate to and supposing Redemption and the free gift of Pardon and Life to penitent believing Accepters are those that Christ and Iames and all the Scripture make necessary to Salvation and our Consent and Covenant so to obey is necessary to our first or initial Iustification and our actual Obedience to the Continuance and Confirmation of it But a Task of Works either of Moses's Law or any other set against Redemption and free Grace or not as aforesaid duly subordinate to them is disclaimed by Paul and all Christians as that which can constitute no man just in God's account nor such a one as hath right to Salvation § 56. I verily think that were their verbal and notional differences discussed and men understood themselves and one another it will prove that this aforesaid is the true meaning of almost all Christians and that they agree in this sence while they mischievously contend about ill or unexplained words § 57. What I have said of Justification is mostly true of Pardon of Sin Pardon is threefold 1. Constitutive which is God's giving us a Right to Impunity This is God's act by the pardoning Covenant or Law of Grace 2. By Sentence judging us so pardoned 3. Executive taking off or not inflicting Punishment deserved § 58. God's non punire and nolle punire not-punishing and his will not to punish are true pardon when the Sinner and Sin and Guilt are pre-existent But they are no pardon before because not capable of such a relation and denomination for want of a real terminus Therefore God's eternal will to pardon or his not punishing man from Eternity before Man was Man or sinful must have no such name which afterward it may have without any change in God but in man only § 59. Some worthy men say that Pardon is not Justification nor to be pardoned is to be righteous and that Righteousness is never taken in Scripture for Pardon but many score or hundred times for our performance of our Duty according to the Law of Grace Therefore they would have Righteousness and Pardon still distinguished § 60. But I have plainly before proved that Righteousness hath many parts and the word many sences and though Pardon be not that Righteousness which consisteth in a Conformity to the Precept and so is not our universal Righteousness yet Pardon is passive that Righteousness which consisteth in our right to Impunity both as to the punishment of Loss and Sence And Pardon with Adoption or the Gift of Life is that Righteousness which consisteth in our right to Life eternal § 61. 1. All mens sins are pardoned potentially and conditionally in the Law of Grace 2. No mens sins are pardoned actually as to a right of Impunity till they are penitent
of Rome that have managed them against each other And so are some of the Church of England and of foreign Protestants But I must testifie that the most that I hear or read inveighing reproachfully against others about them are men that tell me they talk after their Leaders of things that they never understood I am ashamed to hear of 't in the Pulpits one Party rendring the Doctrine of Predestination as odious Blasphemy and another Party crying down Universal Redemption and Free-will and Arminianism as an Enemy to God's Grace and neither of them know what they speak against One Davenant or Camero or Le Blank sheweth more insight into the Controversies which they reconcile than forty of these zealous Railers do § 10. I meddle not in this Book with the Controversies about Church-Government or Worship A settled worldly Interest and the various mental dispositions of the Contenders convince me that I can there do little for reconciliation God must do it if he have not forsaken this world But meer Doctrinal Controversies though of great moment methinks should not be so linked to a worldly Interest but that men should be willing to know the Truth or to endure others to know it That which I have attempted is by meer and clear explication without much argumentation to end such Controversies And to make men understand one another and the things which they dispute about and by abbreviating my Catholick Theology to make the Conciliation fitter for all Students And the Success of that Book giveth me great encouragement which hath been unanswered to this day when I looked that it should have brought the Contentious of both sides about my ears And I rejoice in the Success of Le Blank 's Theses which I publish'd he sent them to me to publish and I gave them to my Bookseller to print and he sold his Copy to another For all the dismal effects that the History of the low Countries and Dr. Heylin in Archbishop Laud's Life mention of these Controversies I rejoice that these many years last past they have made in England less noise than ever and are talked of with more peace and moderation And that I have a special share in the Comfort of this effect And what Names soever Peace-haters and Man-haters and Saint-haters call men by Christ saith Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God CHAP. II. The Doctrines about which they chiefly disagree enumerated § 1. THE forementioned causes of Divisions in general do operate among Christians 1. About Church-Government 2. About God's Worship and 3. About Christian Doctrine in particular All which are turned into the matters of our Discord The two first I intend not to meddle with in this Discourse And as to the third the Controversies about Doctrine which most trouble the Churches are 1. About God's Decrees and His Will in general 2. About his Foreknowledge 3. About Election in particular 4. About Reprobation 5. About his Providence and Predetermination of all actions in general 6. About his causing or not causing Sin 7. About Natural Power and Freewill 8. About original Sin 9. About Redemption by Christ. 10. About the Laws and Covenants of Innocency Works and Grace 11. About Universality and Sufficiency of Grace 12. About Man's Power and Free-will since the Fall to obey the Gospel 13. About effectual Grace and how God giveth it 14. About the state of Heathens that have not the Gospel 15. About the necessity of Holiness and the state of moral Virtue 16. About the necessity of Faith in Christ where the Gospel is made known 17. About the state of Infants as to Salvation 18. About the nature of Saving Faith 19. About the nature of Pardon and Justification 20. About the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to Believers 21. About the manner how Faith justifieth us and how Faith is imputed to us for Righteousness 22. Of Assurance of Justification and Salvation and of Hope 23. Of Good works and Merits and how far we may trust to any thing in our selves 24. Of Confirmation Perseverance and of danger and falling away 25. Of Repentance late Repentance and the Day of Grace and the unpardonable Sin 26. Of our Communion with Christ's Glorified Humanity and with Angels and glorified Souls 27. Of the state of separated Souls 28. Of the Resurrection and Everlasting Life Of each of these I shall shew the pacifick Truth which must unite us and shew how far all the Reformed Churches are therein agreed and whether the Papists are or will be agreed with us I shall referr to their own consideration CHAP. III. Of God's Will and Decrees in general § 1. THE Will of God signifieth either I. His own Essence and that 1. under the notion of a Power or Virtue analogically to the Faculty in Man or 2. under the notion of an Act as it is considered only ex parte agentis without the effect II. Or the said Essence as related to the Effects or Objects and thence denominated III. Or the Extrinsick Objects and Effects themselves called his Will because willed by him § 2. These later are I. His Works of eminent Power with Wisdom and Goodness viz. Creation Preservation and Natural Motion by God as sons naturae II. His Works of Eminent Wisdom with Power and Goodness viz. ORDER and specially Moral Government the parts of which are 1. Legislation Antecedent to man's actions 2. Retribution by Judgment and Execution consequent to them especially by the Redeemer in the way of Grace III. His Works of Eminent Love or Goodness with Power and Wisdom especially Glory begun and perfected § 3. By God 's Decrees is meant his Volitions of what shall be which are but his Will considered as in such acts Now concerning all these sences of God's Will § 4. I. God's Will in it self considered is his Essence and not any Accident in God § 5. II. Yet esse Velle are not Conceptions of the same sence or importance but are distinct inadequate Conceptions of the same God And so is also Intelligere § 6. III. As Posse Agere are not really two things in God so his Will as a Power Faculty or Virtue and his Will as an Act or Volition in himself are not two things but two inadequate Conceptions of that which is simple Unity in God for Man's narrow mind can no otherwise know him § 7. IV. God doth operate or effect immediately by his Essence and not by any Action of his which is between his Essence and the Effect Whether you call it his Agere Intelligere or Velle or all conjunct by which he effecteth it is nothing besides his Essence which is so called For there is nothing in rerum natura but God and the Creature and the Creature 's Actions And Aâ—râ—olâ—s that stiffly argueth that God's Creating Action is neither God nor the Creature but a middle thing doth satisfie no mans Understanding and is commonly rejected and he can mean with sence
true difference of God's Laws and Covenants let him tell me more and I suppose we shall agree de re though not de ratione nominis And let it now suffice to tell you how I would be understood my self Though the word Law be some time taken more narrowly and the word Covenant oft for Mutual Contract which is but a Law consented to yet being to speak of each term as signifying that Regulating Frame by which God Ruleth us and will Judge us and by which he giveth us his Gifts and Rewards I mean the same thing in several respects called by the several names The absolute Antecedent Gifts of our Great Benefactor being supposed inclusively in both SECT I. Of the Law or Covenant of Innocency made to Adam § 1. I Shall in this order Treat briefly of the Divine Laws I. Of the Law of Innocency to Adam II. Of the Law of Mediation to Christ. III. Of the Law of Grace to fallen Man And there 1. As in the first Edition to Adam and Noah 2. As in the same Edition joined with the Jewish Law of Peculiarily to Abraham and of Works by Moses to Abraham's Seed 3. Of the Law of Graces as in the second Edition by Christ § 2. 1. The Law of Innocency contained a Precept and Prohibition and a Retributive part to which Adam was bound to be a Voluntary Subject and therefore to Consent which will allow it the name of a Covenant But here the brief Narrative in the Scripture calleth to us to distinguish of things certain and things uncertain whoever assert them § 3. 1. The Preceptive part was revealed by Nature or Supernaturally by Voice or Inspiration or Vision c. The former being Lex natura integrae the Law of Intire Nature though the Chief is least spoken of in Gen. because it is supposed legible in Nature it self § 4. The Law of Nature properly so called is in esse Objectivo that signification of God's Will concerning Man's Duty which was discernible in the Universa rerum Natura in all God's Works but principally in Mans own Nature as related to God and all Persons and Things about him § 5. But Improperly or Metonymically so called the Law of Nature is in esse subjectivo the Communes notitiae which Man had and was to have from the said Objective Law of Nature But properly this is rather the Knowledge of the Law than the Law it self being not perfect in Adam himself at first but was to be perfected as he came to know more and more of the Works of God and varying much now in several Persons Yet may it well be called God's Law written in the Heart when we have the Knowledge and Love of his primary proper Law § 6. This Law of Nature bound Adam to perfect Devotedness to God as his Owner and perfect gratitude to God as his Antecedent Benefactor and to perfect Obedience to God as his Ruler and to perfect Love to God as his ultimate most amiable End And this perfect Obedience was to be perpetual § 7. It was Adam personally that the Law bound to this perfect perpetual Obedience and not another for him or that he should obey by a Representative or a Delegate a Servant or by any other § 8. Nature even in its depraved state now telleth us that all Sin against God deserveth Punishment Therefore the Law of Nature had a Penal part § 9. It is a great doubt with many Divines whether the Law of Nature had any premiant part or promise and so was a Covenant because say they Duty obligeth not God to reward us But it seemeth to me as far past doubt as the penal part For the question is not what our Duty performed obligheth God to much less in point of Commutative Iustice where no Creature can Merit of God Iob 35. 6 7 8. If thou be Righteous what givest thou him c. But it is presupposed that God first became Man's Benefactor and his Ruler and his Law is the Instrument of his Government and his Promise is but the signification of his Will what he will give and on what Terms And God in Nature signified his Will to bless the Obedient and love those that love him For as a Ruler he is Iust and if he differenced not the Righteous from the Sinner what were his Justice Were there no other Reward but the Continuance of the Paradise-Blessing freely given him which Sin would forfeit it would have been a great Reward And if God equally take away his Gifts from Good and Bad it is not Governing Iustice though as the Act of a Proprietor it be neither Iust nor Unjust so that the very essence of Undertaken Government containeth a discovery of God's Rewarding Will which is the promissory or premiant part of the Law of Nature § 10. The Degree and Kind of the Natural Reward must be gathered 1. From the state that Man was in 2. From the nature of his Duty 3. From the state of Perfection which his Nature was made inclined to desire and seek § 11. 1. Man being freely placed in the state of Innocency and God's Favour in the Earthly Pleasures of Eden as a Sanctified state of Communion with God seeing Sin was to be punished with the privation of these we may gather that the Innocent should not have been deprived of them § 12. 2. Man's great Duty being to Love God perfectly according to his present Ability and to please him and delight herein we may gather that the Innocent should have the felicity which is herein contained even in the Delights of loving and pleasing God § 13. 3. Man's Nature being not made in its utmost perfection but in via with a desire of knowing God loving him pleasing him and delighting in him yet more according to his Capacity we may gather That obedient Man should have attained that Perfection For God maketh not the capacities dispositions and desires of Nature in vain § 14. But whether all this should have been given on Earth or in Heaven is not so clear in Nature or Scripture But 1. The Translation of Henoch and Elias maketh it probable that so Man should have been translated 2. And so doth the Glory purchased by the Redeemer 3. And the matter is the less because where-ever the place be the same state of Enjoyment would make it a Heaven to such a person § 15. Neither doth Nature now tell us How long Man must have obeyed before he had merited the full Reward of his Perfection But only that he must conquer all the Temptations that God would try him with and must persevere till God should please to translate him not appointing him any determinate time Nature and Scripture favour this § 16. There are some who considently conclude without either natural or Scripture-proof That had Adam performed but one Act of Obedience to God before his Sin he had been confirmed is the Angels as his Reward And what a Sinner do they make Adam before
that save him 2. The Godfather may be an Hypocrite and mean nothing that he promiseth and shall the Child be saved by his Lye that damneth the Lyer himself 3. Why should a Promise of future Education save a Child that must die to morrow or ere long 4. But if it be the meer opus operatum of Baptizing that must save that may be a Profanation when unduly applied and the Priest's sin that damneth himself cannot save others § 11. 8. Some lay the hope upon Ancestâ—rs Faith and say That if the Great Grandfathers or others before them were faithful the Infants shall be saved But then are all Men saved for Noah's Faith Or how far must our Confidence ascend § 12. 9. Most of the Anabaptists with us hold That there is no Promise nor Assurance of the saving of any particular Infants in the World either Christians or Heathens but only that God electeth some whom he will sanctifie and save and reprobateth others whom he will damn without any notice given to the World who they be or how many or how few So that we cannot say that he will save Ten or that he will damn Ten of all the World nor have the Faithful any more promise than Heathens of the Salvation of their Infants and so are not to baptize them § 13. 10. The commonest Opinion among the English Calvinists is That God hath made no certain Promise of the Salvation of any particular Infant but by his general Promise of mercy to the Seed of the Faithful hath given us cause to hope that more of them than of others shall be saved and therefore that they are by Baptism to be entred into the visible Church as we baptize the Adult while we are not certain but they may be Hypocrites § 14. But I think this would not warrant their Baptism nor give us any certain hope of any ones Salvation God hath but one Covenant of Grace which giveth us Christ and Life and God hath ordained no Baptism but what is for the Remission of Sin and making us Members of Christ if we have the Conditions of Right to Baptism The Adult profess Faith and Repentance if they have them in sincerity and consent with the Heart as well as the Tongue they are certainly pardoned If they are Hypocrites and consent only with the Lips they have notoriously the Qualification which the Church must require and so are received to outward Communion but not that which God requireth to Remission and Salvation But if an Infant be the Child of a true Believer he hath all that God and the Church require And therefore if he be to be baptized he is certainly put into a state of Life because no Condition is wanting on his part § 15. 11. Others say That the Children of all Christians Sinners or Hypocriâ—es if baptized are in a state of Pardon and Salvation and that God will not punish the Child for the Hypocrite or prophane Parents Sin But by that rule Heathens Children should be in as safe a case because God will not punish them for their Parents sin Either something on the Parents part is a Condition of the Child 's Right or nothing If nothing Heathens and Christians Children are equal If something it must be true Faith as to God's acceptance For whatever the Church must do that knoweth not the Heart it is incredible that God should have such a Covenant Thy Child shall be saved if thou wilt though lyingly offer him to me tho thou shalt be damned for that Lye § 16. 12. That which I acquiesce in is this That God who visited Adam's Sin on all his Posterity hath in the Covenant of Grace also so joined Infants to the Parents that till they have a Will to chuse for themselves their Parents may chuse for them and dispose of them for their good and God taketh them as Members of the Parents so far And so he hath made many express Promises of mercy to the Faithful and their Seed and Threatnings to the Wicked and their Seed And that this Mercy cannot be consistent with their Damnation for it is to be their God and to love and bless them which cannot stand with damning them And God having but one Covenant seeing they are in the same Covenant with their Parents and not another if it give Pardon to the Parents it doth so also to the Child of whom no Condition is required but that he be offered by a believing Parent to God whose Acceptance is Salvation § 17. Therefore I think that the Synod of Dort truly conclude Act. 1. 17. That faithful Parents need not doubt of the Election and Salvation of their Children dying in infancy The Covenant certainly pardoneth and saveth them § 18. But this is not only because they are born of their Bodies nor yet is their Faith the efficient Cause of it but there are two things go to qualifie the Receiver as the dispositive Condition that is 1. That he be the Child of a faithful Parent who devoteâ—h himself sincerely to God 2. And that he be by the Parent devoted to God by Consent that he be in the mutual Covenant Which virtually all the Faithful do that have Infants because they devote themselves and theirs to God to the utmost of their Capacity And the Recipient Subject being thus qualified God Covenant pardoneth him as the efficient Instrument by signifying God's Will § 19. Though the Promise here be not so plain I deny not that all true Proprietâ—rs whose own the Child is here be as Parents § 20. God having not made the Case of Infants so plain to us as our own that are Adult there are difficult Objections against this way but as it seems to me much more against all the rest § 21. The grand Objection is That then some Infants lose a state of Salvation when they come to age Ans This will follow but far haâ—der things from all the rest But 1. This was thought no Absurdity for a Thousand years after the Apostles when I cannot prove that any one man thought that none of the Adult themselves fall away from true Sanctification and right to Life When even Augustine the famous Defender of Election and Grace against Pelagius thought that all the Elect only persevered and that more were justified and sanctified than were Elect and that the rest all fell away 2. Davenant answereth this That Infant-grace may be lost and yet not the Grace of the Adult Because it is but a Relative Regeneration and an Extrinseck Remission of Sin that giveth them Right to Impunity and Life or if they are said to have the Spirit it is not in a fixed Habit of Grace If you say They cannot be saved without real Holiness I answer § 22. 3. Distinguish of Holiness and of the Season of it 1. Infants have not actual Faith nor necessarily a proper Habit which is a disposition to facile acting that same act But a semen a Seed as Amesius
Salvation it self and the Image and Glory of God upon us § 63. V. About the next Question I may yet be shorter How far any Works of ours may be trusted in I think all agree 1. That nothing of ours or any Creature should be trusted to for any thing proper to God or proper to Christ or any thing that belongeth not truly to it self He that ascribeth any thing to our Faith Love or Obedience which is proper to Christ's Merits or God's Mercy and so trusteth them doth greatly sin and he that trusteth them for more than God hath assigned to them to do § 64. 2. That we must take heed of scandaous Language and therefore must not talk of trusting on any act of our own when it is like to be understood as put in Competition with God or with Christ's Merits as if the Question were Whether we must trust God or our selves Christ's Righteousness or our own For our own is not in the least measure to be trusted for that which belongeth only to Christ's Righteousness to be or do § 65. 3. That yet it is a great Duty to trust every means of Salvation appointed by God in its own place and for its own part alone even to preaching Sacraments Afflictions c. And accordingly to trust our own Faith Love Prayer Obedience so far as they are Means and have God's Promise and no further which is no more than to trust in God that he will bless such means He that trusteth his Sword doth not trust it to fight of it self without his Hand When God hath promised Mercy upon Prayer and to the Obedient or Penitent for a man to think that God will yet do no more for us if we repent pray and obey than if we do not is to be Unbelievers and say rebelliously It is in vain to serve the Lord. He is so far to trust to Faith Repentance praying hearing meditating diligence as to trust that God will bless them and reward them and look for more from him when we use means than when we do not CHAP. XXVI Of Confirmation Perseverance and Danger of falling away § 1. I Shall reduce all that needs to be said on this point to these following controverted Questions 1. Whether all Grace procured and given by Christ be such as is never lost 2. Whether that degree of Grace be ever lost which giveth the posse credere without the act of Faith commonly called sufficient Grace in Adult or Infants 3. Whether any lose actual true justifying Faith 4. Whether any lose true Holiness or love of God in the Habit 5. Whether any degree of this be ever lost or all special Grace have such Confirmation as the Angels have 6. Whether if Holiness be never lost it be possible to lose it and be in danger 7. Whether there be a state of confirmed Persons besides the meerly sanctified that from the degree or kind of their grace never fall away 8. Or whether Perseverance depend on meer Election and God's Will which secureth only some of the justified 9. Whether all or most or many Christians are themselves sure to persevere 10. Whether Certainty of perseverance be fit for all the justified 11. Whether it be unfit for all and a more unsafe Condition than doubting 12. Whether the Comfort of most Christians lie upon the Doctrine of such Certainty 13. Whether the Doctrine of Eventual Apostacy infer any mutability in God 14. Why God hath left this point so dark 15. What was the Judgment of the ancient Churches after the Apostles 16. Whether it be an Article of such evidence and weight as to be put into our Church-Confessions and we should force men to subscribe to it or make it necessary to Ministration Communion or Christian Love and Concord § 2. Q. I. Whether all Christ's Grace given us be such as is never lost Ans. No except Iansenius and his Followers I know of no Christians that ever affirm it and he doth it on this false supposition That the common Grace which worketh only preparatorily by fear is not the Grace of Christ but a grace of other Providence and only Love is the grace of Christ. But it is injurious to Christ who is the Lord and Light and Saviour of the World and God's Administrator-general into whose Hands all Things and Power is given to say That since the Fall there is any Grace in the World that is not his Grace and that our preparatory grace and all that 's common is aliunde some other way He that readeth Ioh. 15. Matth. 13. Heb. 6 and 10. may see the contrary § 3. Q II. Whether sufficient grace to believe which giveth the meer power of believing to Infants or Adult be ever lost Ans. These Questions suppose that there are these several sorts of Graces disputed of by Divines 1. Common grace 2. Power to believe and repent 3. Actual Faith and Repentance given by that called special Vocation 4. The Habit of love and all grace called Sanctification to pass by Relative grace as Justification c. 5. Confirmation of these Habits And we now speak only of the second And the very Being of that Grace is controverted Whether God ever give besides the natural Power a moral Power to believe to any that never do believe And 1. it is certain by Adam's instance that he gave him a power to have perfectly obeyed when he did not 2. And therefore no man can prove that now he giveth no man a moral Power to believe that doth not 3. But it seemeth most probable that he doth because his Government and Man's Nature are not tota specie changed 4. And it is certain that still all men have power to do more good than they do 5. And even the Dominicans grant this Sufficiency of grace 6. But yet for my part I am not certain of it § 4. But if there be such a power given which never acteth Faith which I think most probable it is either in the Adult or Infants if in the Adult no doubt it 's lost for they that will not believe to the last retain not still the moral power in their Rebellion § 5. But in the Case of Infants I think those of them that die before the use of reason lose it not nor any of the Elect that live to full Age But as to others after long doubt How far Infant-Grace is loseable this seemeth now the most probable solution to me § 6. Viz. There is a Grace that reacheth but to a moral Power to repent and believe before men have the Act or proper Habit Such Grace to persevere did put Adam in a present state of Life or acceptation with God this Grace Adam lost Accordingly such grace that containeth but this mâ—â—al power in an Infant 's Disposition with relative grace of Pardon is sufficient to provâ— his right to Salvation if he so die because he is not bound to the Act nor capable of it and even the Adult
upon the Act have right to Acceptance and to the Spirit to cause the Habit in order of Nature before they have the Habit Therefore Infants may be in a state of such Right and Life before the Habit though they shall not possess Glory without it And yet the Adult are not in a state of such right by the meer Power before the Act because the Act it self is made necessary to their Justification but so is it not to Infants So that Infants and Adult may receive a meer power to repent and believe and lose it after at age by actual sin though this be a loss of a state of Iustification to the one sort their fins of Nature being pardoned but not to the other who are not pardoned without the Act And yet it followeth not hence that the grace of habitual Sanctification is lost in any § 7. If this solution please not let them that can give us one that is less inconvenient and we shall thankfully accept it but it must be none that yet I have heard of not the Anabaptists nor those of their Adversaries who leave us no certainty of the Salvation of any particular Infants but only say God will save them that are Elect but no one knoweth who they are nor how few or many nor can tell us of any promise made to any upon any antecedent Character or Condition nor give Believers any more assurance of their own Childrens Salvation than of any Heathens Nor theirs that say Baptized Infants are saved by relative Grace alone without any internal real Grace Nor theirs that say They have the Spirit but tell us not in what operation or say it is only right to the Spirit hereafter Nor theirs that say That all Baptized Infants at least of godly Parents have habitual Holiness Faith Love c. such as the Adult in Sanctification have and that some at Age do lose it I think this less inconvenient than any one of these § 8. Q. III. Whether any lose true actual Faith and Iustification Ans. That a common uneffectual Faith may be lost is no doubt But concerning the other there are three Opinions 1. Some say No it cannot be lost because that Faith hath the Promise of the Sanctification of the Spirit as well as of Pardon and right to Life Therefore seeing habitual Holiness is not lost that which hath the Promise of it is not lost 2. Others say That actual Faith at first is like Adam's loseable Grace and that it giveth us actual Pardon and right to Life if we so die and right to the Spirit in relation to sanctifie us in time and by degrees But that every one that hath the Spirit hath not the Habits of Love and Holiness but he sometimes is causing many Acts before he produce a Habit ad modum acquisitorum 3. Others say That both Faith and habitual Holiness are oft lost I delay the solution till the rest be considered § 9. Q. IV. Whether habitual Love or Holiness or the Spirit be ever lost Ans. That there is a confirmed state or degree of Holiness that is never lost I do hold and that this is attainable and in that state men may be certain of Salvation But whether the least degrees of habitual grace be utterly loseable which prove a present right to life till they are lost I must plainly profess I do not know much may be said on both sides And if my Ignorance offend any it offendeth me more but how shall I help it I think it is not for want of study nor of impartial willingness to know the Truth And Ignorance of the two is safer than Error by which we trouble and seduce those about us And in this case so many great and excellent Men have erred either Augustine with the generality of the ancient Churches or Calvin Zanchy and most of the Reformed that my Ignorance is pardonable where their Error it self is pardoned But let those that are wiser rejoyce in the greater measure of their Wisdom But yet think not that taking up either Opinion upon the trust of their Party is such § 10. Q. V. To the next some have said That had Adam done but one act of Love or Obedience he had been confirmed as the Angels in a state of Impeccability And that so are all that once truly believe in Christ. But Experience utterly confuteth that For all men sin after believing § 11. Others say only That men may sin and may lose acquired Grace but no degree of that which is infused But we have small reason to think that our encreased degrees are not as much infused as the first degree was And yet Experience proveth that such added degrees may be lost § 12. Others say All added degrees may be lost but none of that which was first infused Indeed could we prove that God alwaies at first infuseth only the least degree consistent with Salvation then this must be held by all that deny that any fall from Justification But for ought we know God may the first minute give one man more Grace than to another in long time and that first degree may be lessened by his sin § 13. Q. VI. Whether it be possible to lose that Holiness which never will be lost Ans. The word Possible respecteth either a Consequence in Arguing and is a Logical Possibility or it respecteth the natural power of Causes and is called Physical Possibility In the first sence it is impossible that any thing should come to pass that doth not because God knoweth it will not And it is a good consequence God knoweth that this will not come to pass therefore it will not And it is impossible that this Consequence should be false But as to the natural Possibility no doubt but of our selves we can sin nay it is not an act oâ— Power but of Impotency or from a defect of Power And the Habit given us is not a sufficient Power to ascertain our Perseverance of it self But if you speak with respect to the Power of God by which we are preserved we must thus answer That it is impossible for us or any Creature to overcome God's Power or Will And if it be first proved that God will cause us to persevere by the way of Physical irresistible determination by Power then it must be called Impossible to fall away or commit any Sin which he so saveth us from But if he keep any as a free Agent by the sapiential disposal of his Free-will and so procure the event of a contingent action then it must be said that this and many things are possible which never come to pass That God only decreeth that we shall not fall away and not that it shall be impossible Thus Dr. Twisse and the Dominicans themselves use to speak But for my part I â—ake God's manner of working on and for us to be so unsearchable and this notion of Possibility or Impossibility of so little moment when we are