us Ministers neverthelesse I shall not go about at this time to enumerate all the differences betwixt them but shall content my self to name only this one as being sufficient for my present purpose viz The conditions which God requires of man in both these Covenants are very different the condition of the Covenant of Works being perfection of obedience or the perfect fulfilling of the whole Law but the condition of the Covenant of Grace is Faith in Christ Repentance and Sincerity of Obedience Now as Adam was to do or perform the former condition or the condition of the former Covenant for life so are we to perform the latter condition or the condition of the latter Covenant for life also Should we go about to set up the perfect fulfilling of the whole Law as the condition of salvation and in such sort work for salvation this indeed were legal working and to work as Legalists or should we expect salvation as merited wages for our work this were to work legally but to labour by his strength to perform the conditions of the Covenant of Grace to believe repent to return unto and to keep with God in the duties of New Obedience that so we may live and to expect from Gods free grace and mercy that in so doing we shall live this is to work as a Christian and as becomes the Gospel of Christ Object But is it not the ready way to make people trust unto or to rest in their own good works or duties to tell them that they may do them for salvation Answ 1. I shall in the next place answer this Question with two or three other Questions 1 Is it not the ready way to make people to cast off the doing of all good duties and good works to tell them that they may not ought not need not to do them for salvation 2 Is not the danger as common and great this way as that Or is it not as dangerous to think to go to heaven without the doing of good as by resting on the good we do Is it not as ordinary for people to perish for barrenness as for bringing forth fruit to themselves 3 Whether is it not fitter for a Minister to instruct people how far forth they may and how far forth they may not trust in and rest upon their own Duties Graces works or holinesse for salvation then to tell them that they ought not to do any good duty for salvation As this latter is a thing unlawful so the former is a thing I am well assured not only lawful but also expedient and necessary in order therefore thereunto bee it knowne 1. In general That we are not to trust unto or rest upon our own good Works Duties or Graces for salvation in any such sort as Christ alone and his Righteousnesse is to be trusted unto or rested upon 2. More particularly bee it known 1. That we may not trust unto or rest in them as our legal Righteousnesse i. e. such as for which the Law of Works will pronounce us righteous or as any part of our legal Righteousnesse in conjunction with Christs 2. Consequently hereupon we may not rest in them as things that are absolutely perfect and exactly commensurate or answerable to the rigour of the Law 3. Not as things by which Gods Justice is satisfied his wrath pacified or by which we make him an amends for breach of the first Covenant 4. Consequently hereupon not as things whereby in any strict or proper sense we do merit salvation we having indeed no works formally ours which do make the reward to be of debt and not of Grace In these respects we are to disclaim all our own Works Duties Graces Holiness and to trust unto or rest upon Christ and his Righteousnesse wholely and solely 2 But in the second place be it knowne 1 In general That because Christ alone is to be rested upon for salvation in the foresaid respects we have no more reason to conclude from thence that we may can or ought in no sense to rest in our own good works or duties for salvation then we can conclude that because Christ alone doth save us therefore it may not can not ought not to be said in any sense that we do save our selves which notwithstanding is the frequent language of Scripture 2 More particularly be it known 1. That we may rest in or trust unto our own good Works Duties and Holinesse for salvation in subordination to the free grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus accepting them and pardoning the sinfulness of them 2 We may rest on them as things which do assure us of our title unto or actual interest in the satisfaction and Righteousness of Jesus Christ there being a personal or evangelical righteousnesse necessary to salvation as well as a legal righteousness i. e. it being not sufficient for our actual enjoyment of salvation that Christ was righteous or did fulfil all righteousnesse of the Law unless we in our own persons do labour to bee righteous as he was righteous 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom â—f God be not deceived neither Fornicators nor 3 We may rest in them as the wayes wherein or which is to the same purpose as was said in the particular foregoing as the conditions without which Christ Jesus will not save us for without holinesse no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12 14. neither is Christ the Authour of salvation actually enjoyed unto any other then such as do obey him Heb. 5.9 1 Tim. 4.16 Neither is the resting upon our own holinesse in these senses any whit against the glory of Christ this being in effect and in deed neither more nor lesse but this viz. To rest upon Christ and Christ alone for salvation in Christs own way i e. the way of holinesse and righteousness I do not mean perfect holinesse and righteousnesse according to the Covenant of Works but such as is expected and required from us as necessary to salvation according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace I doubt not but the most self denying servants of Christ did in this sort rest upon their own holinesse for salvation in special Hezekiah praying to the Lord That he would remember how he had walked before him with a perfect heart 2 King 20. beg and Nehemiah praying to the like purpose with subordination to the mercy of God pardoning his defects chap. 13.22 and David praying and saying Lord save me for I am holy Psal 86.2 and Saint Paul saying I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith hence forward is laid up for me a Crawn of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. To rest upon our own holinesse for salvation in the sense immediately aforesaid is no more then for a man who doth use the creatures moderately as meat drink sleep recreation in or upon the use of them to depend on God the only Authour
not necessarily be understood of all manner of punishment and de praesenti for the instant present time but either de praesenti or de future either for the present or for the future for albeit God pardoning the sinner doth dissolve the obligation to punishment and doth thereby confer upon the sinner Jus ad liberationem a right to impunity neverthelesse this right to freedome from punishment may be for present only from a part of punishment and so not a plenary freedome but not from all punishment save only de future for the future as I shall have occasion afterwards to demonstrate 2. When I say That pardon of sin doth consist in a dissolution of the obligation to punishment I must not be understood necessarily and alwayes concerning an absolute but either an absolute or conditional dissolution For I take remission of sin in this life to consist only in a conditional dissolution of the obligation I mean full remission or remission as to all manner of punishment the condition hereof being our perseverance in the faith and fear of God for as a sinner is not actually remitted and discharged or disobliged from punishment but upon the condition of his faith repentance c so neither is this discharge or disobligation continued but upon the condition of perseverance Though a Believer be actually disobliged from punishment immediately upon his believing and though the full and final pardon of such a one be never so certain in respect of the eternal purpose of God and in respect of the purchase of Christ God having purposed and Christ having purchased for them grace to persevere yet is it but conditional in the Covenant of Grace or promise of the word This seems to mee apparent by the description of that person to whom God doth promise fully and finally to pardon for which see Rev. 2.17 To him that overcometh will I give a white stone in which Scripture observe two things 1. What is meant by the thing there promised under the name of a white stone viz. Absolution or pardon the signe being put for the thing signified the Apostle alluding in that expression to the custome of the Romanes with whom a white stone was a signe of absolution as a black stone of condemnation 2. To whom this absolution is promised viz. To him who doth overcome or persevere It is a vain thing to except that perseverance is only a qualification in a person or the qualification of a person to whom pardon shall be continued or who shall fully and finally be pardoned for whatsoever is such a qualification hath the nature of a condition without which the mercy shall not be continued and perfectly enjoyed It appears likewise by the expresse promises and threatnings of the Word for which see Heb. 3.14 For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold fast c. 2 Tim. 2.12 If we suffer for him we shall reign with him if we deny him he also will deny us Ezek 18.24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that a wicked man doth shall he live All his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he dye Although the common saying of our Divines be as I believe a true saying Peccata non redeunt yet I do not believe it to be true otherwise then upon supposition viz. of a Believers perseverance in Faith and Obedience otherwise to what purpose is that admonition 2 Joh 8. Look to your selves that we lose not the things which we have wrought And that admonition to the like purpose Rev. 3.11 Hold fast that which thou hast that no man take thy crown And otherwise why should God threaten to deal with Apostates as with that wicked servant whose doom we find recorded Matth. 18.32 O thou wicked servant I forgave thee all that debt because thou desinedst me shouldst not thou also have had pity on thy fellow servant as I had pity on thee And his Lord was wroth c. I know what some do here except saying That the scope onely of a Parable is Argumentative and the scope of that Parable is not to shew That a sinner may forfeit the benefit of his former pardon by relapsing into and persisting in new sins but only to manifest That forgiveness of others is a necessary qualification to be forgiven of God or a necessary condition without which God will not forgive us Unto which I answer That look as forgiveness of others is a condition without which God doth not at the first vouchsafe actual forgiveness to any person so the continuance of that forgiveness on mans part is a condition of the continuance of forgiveness on Gods part or a condition without which God will not forgive him at the last I do willingly believe That God useth these and the like conditional comminations as a * And ergo I think those do deserve to be blamed who are so zealous for the doctrin of the Saints perseverance as they wil not patiently suffer even those who do hold the said Doctrine of Perseverance to use all such means as God hath appointed to be used and which God doth sanctifie for that end among which I doubt not but this is one viz. To inform the Saints that their sins are not absolutely pardoned in this life but conditionally or upon the condition of their perseverance and that therefore they are to fear hell and damnation no lesse then others unlesse they hold that fast which they have of which said fear I shall speak more at large in Chap. 26. whereupon I cannot but professe my opinion how I think that the foresaid persons are so affected in their zeal that they do much disservice both to God and his Saints as taking a direct way to confute the Doctrine of the Saints perseverance and to overthrow that in practice which they do labour to uphold in Doctrine I mean they do take the ready way to cause the Saints to Apostatize sanctified meanes for the perseverance of the Saints in the faith and fear of God and therefore it is in no sort agreeable unto my intent to urge those and the like Scriptures to prove the Apostacy of the Saints but only thereby to prove That the continuance of our pardon in this life is but upon the condition of our perseverance in which respect it is not absolutely but conditionally in this life enjoyed 3. There being several sorts and degrees of punishment viz Punishments in this world and punishments in the world to come look how far forth or in what sense God doth forbear to punish so far forth or in that sense or with respect to that kind or degree of punishment but no further to be understood God in Scripture is said to pardon Let this be observed the rather because it will as I verily think
ver 12.13 Then shall ye call upon mee and yee shall goe and pray unto mee and I will hearken unto you and yee shall seeke mee and find mee when ye shall search for mee with all your heart This the Prophet Daniel understood very well though the Antinomians of these times through the just judgment of God doe seeme so blinded as not to understand things of this nature as appears by his practice I have heard it as a tradition that petty Malefactors amongst us condemned to bee burnt in the hand were to suffer the hot iron til they prayed with a loud voice God save the King And do not the Antinomians deserve to ly under the afflicting hand of God till such time as they pray with the Psalmist saying Look up on my affliction and my pain forgive all my sinnes Psal 25.18 together with the ground rise and reason of it recorded Dan. 9. beg Because hee did know gods assured purpose by his promise therefore he set his face to the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication yea with fasting sackcloth and ashes To seek God by prayer and fasting for the averting of what God hath threatned seems strange to none but to seek God by fasting and prayer for that which God hath promised infallibly to believers doth seeme so strange to Antinonians as that they account it a thing needlesse and ridiculous May God be pleased of his greatmercy to enlighten and reduce them 2. Be it considered that in the said fifth Petition of the Lords prayer we pray for forgivenesse of sinne not only as to be enjoyed after death but also in this life i.e. that present judgments which our sinnes might deservedly bring upon us may be prevented suspended moderated or if inflicted may be shortned sweetned removed sanctified and turned to our benefit for in these things as hath been already demonstrated doth consist partly the forgivenesse of sinne Now what intelligent Christian is there who will not acknowledge that they have need of such things as these viz. the preventing moderating removing sanctifying of temporall judgements and afflictions 3. Be it considered That as the Saints doe sinne daily more or lesse so their new sinns do bring a new obligation to punishment or else they could not be accounted sinners neither could they be pardoned as needing no pardon which said obligation they have need should be taken off by a particular pardon besides their first general pardon for that any sinne is pardoned afore it be committed I shal at large disprove in another Consectary for which said particular pardon a believer is according to his neede to pray to God hee having no assurance from God to obtaine either it or ought else without prayer such cause have wee to give the like counsel to the best among the godly as Simon Peter did to Simon Magus saying Repent and pray to God that thy daily sinnes may be forgiven thee 4. Be it considered which I think will generally be acknowledged that the sinnes of believers after conversion specially their more grosse false and eminent backslidings doe subject them meritoriously to the condemnation of the law and to the * Else why doth God threaten them upon their back sliding with the forfeiture of their former pardon Ezek. 18.24 Matth. 6 15. 18. lat See Mr. Burges of justification p. 242 243. forfeiture of that right which they had to the pardon of former sins by vertue of the Covenant and that these new sinnes do not de facto condemne a believer is to be ascribed to the Lord Christ by whose blood wee have an entrance into the Covenant of grace and a standing or continuance in it by his intercession Rom. 5.2 with Heb. 12.24 7.24 by which intercession the Covenant of forgivenesse or the promise of pardon is continued to be the believers discharge against all new sins and the remembrance of old Now have not believers need to pray to God that he would not take that advantage of their forfeiture of former pardon as justly hee might doe Yea is it not necessary that they should so doe as ever they doe expect that hee should not take the advantage of the said forfeiture For consider that as Jesus Christ doth intercede in heaven for the continuance of remission of sinne in the behalfe of the Saints so hee doth intercede and actually procure for them all such grace or graces as without which their pardon shall not be continued thence is he said to be exalted by God not only to give to Israel remission but also repentance not the former without the latter yea first repentance for sin and then remission of it Act. 5.31 Now what ground hath any believer to hope for the continuance of his pardon except he shal pray for it as Christ doth continue in heaven so he shall continue so long as he is on earth to make intercession for it I have been the larger in this particular not only for the reducing of the Antinomians in this point and for the information of certaine others who do think that assurance of pardon is the maine thing prayed for by believers in that Petition but moreover that every man understanding what he is to pray for and hath need to pray for in that behalf may be induced not only the more frequently but also the more feelingly and fervently to pray to the Lord for the same CHAP. XIX An answer to the three following questions 1. Doth God alwaies pardon a sinner instantly upon the confession of his sinnes 2. In what sense or how farre forth doth a sinner receive a present pardon immediately upon the confession of his sinnes 3. Whether a truly penitent and believing sinner having once confessed a sinne is at any time thereafter to confesse it in order to forgivenesse The affirmative to which last question is asserted and proved Certaine particulars added as Cautions for the preventing of mistakes and for the better understanding of the Authours true sense and meaning CONSECT XIII 13. THE premises being duly considered will assist and guide us in a right resolution of the following questions 1. Doth God alwaies pardon a sinner instantly upon the confession of his sinnes Or when shall the present promises of the text be made good to the sinner that confesseth his sins Answ Not fully for the present time or as soone as confession is made nor fully so long as he lives in this world but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is the Apostles phrase Rom. 5.6 in due season and in Gods good tme Besides the reasons forecitied in evidence thereof I shall subjoine these two considerations 1. Remission of sinne being a grace or benefit purchased by the blood of Christ as our adoption and regeneration are why should it be thought more strange that we are not fully made partakers of remission afore the day of judgment then of adoption and regeneration And yet the truth is here and so it must bee
for Justification and Remission of sin are all one as I shal demonstrate in the sequel of this Exercitation do work in or upon the sinner a real change and as to the reality therefore of a change there seems to me to bee no difference at all and yet there being sundry kinds of real changes or all real changes being not of the same kind this to my seeming is the difference betwixt them viz. That Gods sanctifying a sinner doth work a real change in the sinner from Corruption to Grace from the evil of sin to the good of holinesse which for that cause may not unfitly be stiled a real moral or holy change and Gods justifying or pardoning a sinner doth work in him or upon him a real change from the evil of misery or punishment to the good of happinesse and which for that reason docendi gratiâ I may stile a real physical or political or happy change but why this change should be stiled purely relative and be denied to be real in way of contradiction to that of Sanctification I for my part am not as yet convinced this change being such in reality and in very deed as is wrought in or upon a poor naked and wounded man when of poor he is made rich and of wounded is made whole Thus really as to mee seemeth doth Gods justifying or pardoning a sinner alter or change the sinner from what he was afore as well in person as in relation the subjects of this change as really differing from those who are not justified and pardoned as doth a child of wrath and mercy or as doth a Saint in glory from a Reprobate in hell Solid and judicious Mr. Blake in his Vindiciae Foeà eris in his undertaking to prove Justification to be not an Immanent but a transient act in God doth seem to vary from what hath been commonly taught by our Divines in acknowledging that the Effect which Justification doth work as terminated in a sinner is a * The like also doth Mr. Burges acknowledg in his Book of Justif p. 169. real Effect for otherwise I see no cause why he should parallel Gods grace in justifying a sinner to the grace or favour which Pharaoh did expresse towards Joseph in bringing him out of Prison saying That act of Pharaoh had as real an effect upon Joseph and was terminated in him in his advancement out of Prison for rule in Egypt as though a Physician in case of sicknesse had wrought a cure upon him For my own part I cannot but think that look what real change is wrought in a poor prisoner by his deliverance out of prison or in a wounded man by his cure such a real change is wrought in or upon a sinner by Gods justifying and pardoning him Gods remitting sinners being resembled to or being set forth by healing the broken hearted delivering Captives and setting at liberty them that are bruised And yet notwithstanding the said comparison to illustrate that change which Justification doth work in a sinner Mr. Blake and in that particular I am not satisfied doth expresly deny That Justification doth work any physical change in man and in that saying I cannot but professe my dissent from him The reason why our Divines have commonly denyed that Justification or remission of sin doth work any real change or any change upon the sinner more then relative I humbly conceive to be this viz. Because they do generally look upon remission of sin to be onely a disobligation of the sinner from punishment i. e. from being bound to suffer that punishment which otherwise would have been sooner or later inflicted but seeing remission of sin is as wel Gods taking away of punishment already inflicted upon the sinner as Gods discharge of the sinner from being obliged to suffer that punishment which otherwise according to desert hee would have inflicted at one time or other as in this respect the change is relative so in that respect it is unquestionably real CHAP. XXIV The Description of forgivenesse of sin given by that very learned and godly Divine Dr. Twisse which is by some highly commended as most accurate examined and refuted and the evil consequences of the same detected together with the Authors Apology for his taking upon him in ought to expresse his dissent from men of such prime worth Stars of the first Magnitud as confessedly that Doctor was CONSECT XVII 17. IT followes That that Description of D. Twisse undertaking to acquaint us with the nature or quiddity of Remission of sin is not Vsquequaque quadrant consistent with truth he saying That remission of sin is nothing else but either Gods denying to punish or else his will not to punish His words are Remissio peccatorum si quidditatem inspicias nihil aliud est quam aut punitionis negatio aut volitionis puniendi negatio Lib. 2. pag. 273. It is the latter part of the Doctors description which I do dissent from and shall endeavour to expugne In my entrance hereupon I shal suspect that some will censure my attemps herein as also what I shall in an intended supplement to this Discourse attempt in one point against Mr. Pemble as an act of insolency and unsufferable presumption objecting against mee with such reproach as Mr. Kendal doth against Mr. Baxter for a like attempt against the selfe same renowned Authour saying Sic dama Leonem Insequitur audetque viro concurere virgo Surely Mr. Kendal hath said Satis pro imperio satis pro opprebrio whereby to deter any such as I am from contradicting ought in the said worthy Authours he having concluded his Digression against Mr. Baxter with this Sarcasme Ne tu divinam Iliada tentes Sed longè sequere vestigia semper adora But my Apology is 1. As I do much magnifie the said Authours Dr. Twisse and Mr. Pemble worthily accounted among the most pious and learned Divines that our English Nation hath brought forth so I should abhor my selfe as in dust and ashes should my conscience in the least accuse me of any willingnesse to detract from them or of seeking to magnifie my self in opposing them unto whose inferiours by very many degrees I must ever confesse my selfe inferior not a little 2 An endeavour as in the fear of God with modesty and humility to discover errour in whomsoever and to vindicate the truth specially such Truthes and Errors which are of momentous consequence will be I doubt not acceptable to God however it should prove ungrateful to some men 3. By how much any man is more eminently pious and learned who hath vented and laboured in the support of an Errour by so much the more taking and spreading is the Error like to prove 4. I am verily perswaded that were the foresaid Authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now living upon earth they would upon all due occaâ—ion declare themselves to be men after Davids heart in this particular even as David was a man after Gods
for any sinner I mean that any sinner should enjoy the full and final pardon of his sins otherwise then upon the condition of his perseverance as was afore said This Confectary is of necessity I suppose unavoidable In Isai 30.1 The Prophet denounceth a woe to those Who take counsel but not of him and that cover with a covering but not of his Spirit I may truly say of the Antinomian Preachers that they do minister consolation but not of God and they do comfort their Disciples with comforts but not of Gods Spirit the Comforter Such is this comfort whereby they do seek to comfort their heareâ—s in telling them That their sins are as absolutely forgiven as if they were in heaven I do lesse wonder that the Antinomian Preachers are accounted by the ignorant and profane multitude the only comfortable Preachers for well I wot their error here is twofold 1. They comfort those to whom comfort doth not belong our commission being limited in the application of comfort only to the broken hearted which they not observing do speak peace to the wicked oft times 2 That they tender to Believers their own dreames and the fulsom luscious conceptions of their own fancies in steed of the savoury wholsome consolations of Scripture But as Elijah said to the Messengers of Ahaziah 2 Kin. 1.3 Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub the God of Ekron So may I say unto this sort of Comforters Is it not because ye think that the comforts of Scripture are not sufficient that ye frame and feigne comforts of your own devising Or is it not because your mouthes and the mouthes of your Disciples being out of taste the comforts of Scripture do not relish but are so unsavoury that they will not down with you For my own part I know no more warrant for a Minister to create Comforts then he hath to create Commands it being as much against the sufficiency and perfection of Scripture to attempt the one as the other and as our blessed Saviour did therefore admonish his Disciples to beware of the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees they teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men so have I reason to admonish Christians to take heed of the leaven in special of this leaven of Antinomian Preachers they preaching for Gospel consolations of their own framing This admonition is the rather needful 1. Because albeit it be very toothsom yet it is not therefore the more wholsome There bee sweet poysons as well as bitter 2 By how much it is more sweet by so much it is like with the more eagernesse to be swallowed The mouthes of people do water after such delicacies their ears do itch to hear such Gospel they loving to hear rather what is smooth then what is right what will please rather then what will profit what is sweet rather then what is sound according the humour of the people of old as is recorded by the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah Isal 30.9.10 This is a rebellious people lying children children that will not hear the Law of the Lord which say to the Seers See not and to the Prophets Prophesie not unto us right things speak unto us smooth things prophecy deceits So wee preach comforts to people though they be deceitful comforts they regard not though we cozen people yet so we comfort them they care not Jer. 5. lat The Prophets prophecy falsely and the Priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will ye do in the end thereof This Question What will ye do in the end thereof is in this case not to be omitted for consider in the next place the danger of comforting Believers by telling them That their sins are as absolutely pardoned as if they were in heaven The danger hereof will appear by what I shall next offer unto consideration as a reason of the foresaid Admonition 3 Consider the tendency of this comfort For my own part as I look upon the whole body of Antinomianisme as a Doctrine of security so I look upon this particular branch as that which tends directly to make a Christian to neglect his watch to lay downe his weapons and to cast off his Armour It is such Musick as tends to lull a Christian asleep in the Divels lap and it is Gods great mercy if he awake out of that his dream of being in heaven before he sees himself absolutely to bee in Hell I would have said more to this particular but that Mr. Baxter in his Book stiled Directions for getting and keeping Spiritual Peace and Comfort hath spoken directly and amply thereunto in his eighteenth and twentieth Direction which I shall here transcribe Know that God hath not commanded you to believe that you do believe nor that you are justified or shall be saved but only conditionally and therefore your Assurance is not a certainty properly of Divine faith Pag. 189. Direction 18. Never expect so much Assurance on earth as shall set you above all * If there be no possible danger what need of such admonitions caveats cautions as in Eph. 6.11 2 Joh. 8. 2 Pet. 3.17 Caveats need not but where danger is in some respects at least possible possibility of the losse of heaven and above all apprehensions of real danger Pag. 211. Direction 20. I shall conclude this Consectary with that Item which Ahab gave to Benhadad when swelling in his confidence 1 King 20.11 Let not him that girdeth on his harnesse boast himself as he that putteth it off Let not any Saint militant here on earth that girdeth on his harnesse for the spiritual warfare boast himself as if he were as absolutely sure of heaven as the Saints now triumphant who have put it off CHAP. XXVIII That the repentance which the Gospel requires is not only repentance from the pardon of our sins as the Antinomians affirm but for the pardon of them proved and evinced by several Arguments Several Objections of the Antinomians answered wherein it is punctually declared In what sense Evangelical Repentance may be said to be from pardon of sin and in what sense for the pardon of it It is disputable whether Gods glory and our own salvation are to be looked at as two ends or only as one the former being a necessary result of the latter An Objection answered That it is a singular favour of God and a favour in some sense peculiar to the times of the New Testament that God hath so cleerly revealed unto us our eternal salvation as the great end not excluding but including his glory of mans working or of all Christian duty That good works may be stiled the way to salvation That the difference betwixt the Covenant of Work and of Grace lyes not in this that Adam was to work for life and we not for but only from life Our own good works duties graces or holinesse how far forth or
the light of Nature that some end was to be proposed unto man in all vertuous actions they did therefore much beat their brains and busie themselvs to find out what that end must be in the determination whereof it fell out with them as in most of their other great inquests some thought one thing and some another scarce any among them being constant to themselves or so fixing in ought as not to fluctuate Some of them did conceive that the maine end of their acting should be the hope of another life after this This indeed was asserted by many of their Poets and Philosophers yet not without some hesitancy even in the chiefest viz. with a Fortasse and a Non nimium affirmaverim I have seen Tully * Epist 64. Et fortasse quem putamus perisse praemissus est Seneca and Socrates quoted as hesitating herein Plato himselfe bringing in his Master Socrates saying thus before his death Hoc scio spem mihi esse venturum me ad viros bonos quod tamen non nimium affirmaverim And when the heathen sought Arguments for the confirmation of their hopes herein they found little to fix them in a certitude and assurance of such a life to come much of what they alledged holding no better for men then for beasts Whence it was that some of them devised a transmigration of souls from men into beasts and from beasts into men And this opinion of theirs being built upon no certain evidences others were inclined to assert That vertue is reward to it self and that we must labour to be vertuous and to do vertuously only for Vertues sake a wise man being sufficiently happy as they said when he is tormented in the Bull of Phalaris But others were much unsatisfied in this Opinion as irrational and absurd they taking it for granted That where dangers torments and death are there felicity especially in the highest cannot consist unlesse men should content themselves with a sound of empty words without any reality Some of them did therefore place their supreme good and utmost end in the enjoyment of sensual pleasures after this life which divers of their Poets meant by their fansie of the Elisian fields and this is the opinion of the Mahometans at this day But this opinion was rejected by many of the wisest and most vertuous among the Heathens they thinking that this opinion did degrade men into the rank of bruit Creatures and concluding rather that man was born and fitted of the Gods for higher things Thuswe may perceive at what an uncertainty the Heathen were in this point Now for the Writings of Moses there were some among the Jewes professors of the Moisaick Law viz. the Sadduces who held That there was no such thing as eternal life or everlasting salvation promised or held forth by Moses in his Writings which alone the Sadduces do receive for Scripture nor in any of the Writings of the Old Testament as the Socinians at this day do assert though I think that if there were no other Scripture to confute them in this that one place in Joh. 5.39 were sufficient where Christ bids the Jewes search the Scriptures saying For in them ye think to have life eternal However I say the Sadduces did not expect any such thing as eternal life in the Writings of Moses being therein veiled under Types and Shadowes rather then cleerly revealed renouncing therefore all hope of good things to come as the end of doing good they did cum gentibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jump with some of the Heathen in their foresaid Opinion viz. That Vertue it self is the end of Vertue and that we must do vertuously for no other end then for Vertues sake To this purpose I am assured that I have somewhere read in the Writings of Josephus concerning the Sect of the Sadduces though I cannot presently direct to the particular place These things being considered should me thinks move us Christians unto thankfulnesse that God hath not left us in the dark about this matter as he did the Jewes especially the Heathen but hath given us as with open face to behold our eternal salvation as the great end of faith and a good life so that wee may say thereupon with the blessed Apostle 1 Cor. 9.26 We therefore run not as uncertainly as did the Sadduces and as did the Heathen So fight we not as one that beateth the air but we run to obtain a Crown incorruptible And the consideration hereof should also cause us to stop our ears against the insinuation of those amongst us who have suggested to us That to love Jesus Christ for the benefits e. g. freedome from hell and eternal life which we expect by from and through him is but a whorish love like that of a dishonest woman who loves her harlot for the Rings Bracelets and Jewels that he bestows upon her which is in effect to suggest That to love Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer is not conjugal but adulterous love How far such suggestions are from Scripture warrant whither they tend and where they are like to end I leave to the consideration of the wise Object Are good works the way of or to salvation Answ Whatsoever the Marrow of Moderne Divinity sayes to the contrary Scripture will warrant us to say That albeit good works are not the way to salvation in such a sense as Christ is the way yet they are the way thither they being stiled the way of peace and the path of life Isai 5.9 8. Prov. 3.17 and 5.6 and we being commanded to walk in them Ephes 2.10 A man cannot walk but where there is a way either of his making or finding And if good works bee not the way to salvation then are they the way to damnation seeing all wayes do lead either to God or the Divel to heaven or hel◠Because Christ Jesus is in some sense our only Saviour did Saint Paul therefore blaspheme or wrong Christ by saying to Timothy that in looking to himself and his Doctrine he should both save himselfe and those that heard him And why then because Christ is in some sense the only way to salvation should we be accused as blaspheming or wronging Christ in saying yet with the Scriptures That good Works or good Duties are the way to salvation Obj. Is not this the difference betwixt the Covenant of Works and of Grace that Adam under the former was to work for life and Believers under the latter are to work from life Answ As the Covenant of Works and of Grace do differ in many things so they do accord in some and particularly in this thing viz. That as Adam was to act for life so are we also as hath been already proved Quest Where then is the difference betwixt the Covenant of Works and of Grace Ans The differences betwixt them is a point as I think of very great concernment well worthy much to be studied and frequantly to be preached by
be imputed and not imputed to a sinner 123 Chap. 18. The necessity for believers themselves to pray daily for pardon according to the tenour of the fifth Petition in the Lords Prayer asserted and evinced as well by Argument as answer to an Objection it being withal more at large and distinctly declared what are the particular things which a Believer according to the tenor of that Petition is to pray for 125 Chap. 19. An answer to the three following Questions 1. Doth God alwayes pardon a sinner instantly upon the confession of his sins 2. In what sense or how far forth doth a sinner receive a present pardon immediately upon the confession of his sins 3. Whether a truly penitent and believing sinner having once confessed a sinne is at any time thereafter to confesse it in order to forgiveness The Affirmative to which last Question is asserted and proved Certain particulars added as Cautions for the preventing of mistakes and for the better understanding of the Authors true sense and meaning p. 137 Chap. 20. That all sins past present and to come are not at once actually pardoned That no sin is from eternity actually pardoned An Objection answered That no sin is actually pardoned till the sinner be in a capacity of receiving or enjoying it What those things are which do put a sinner into a capacity of actual pardon declared in their particulars together with Reasons for the remarkablenesse of the same An Obiection answered With a vindicating of that Assertion in Rom. 4.17 wherein God is said to call the things that are not as though they were from Antinomian purposes p. 163 Chap. 21. Caution given as touching a right understanding of the two following Propositions laid down by that very learned pious Divine Mr. Anthony Burges in his Sermons concerning Justification viz. 1. No wicked man ever hath any sin forgiven him 2. It is onething for God to forgive and another thing for God not to demand and exact punishments p. 187 Chap. 22. That forgivenesse of sin is a Transient not Immanent act in God proved and cleared Several descriptions of actions Immanent and Transient set down Mr. Baxter vindicated in a passage about this distinction wherein Mr. Kendal hath as the Author thinks causelesly excepted against him Transient Actions are of two sorts and unto what sort of transient Actions forgiveness of sin is to be referred p. 192 Chap. 23. That remission of sin Quoad terminum remotum or as in execution is a real yea physical change and not a change purely relative as is commonly supposed p 204 Chap. 24. The description of forgivenesse of sin given by that very learned and godly Divine Dr. Twisse which is by some highly commended as most accurate examined and refuted and the evil consequences of the same detected together with the Authors Apology for his taking upon him in ought to expresse his dissent from men of such prime worth Stars of the first Magnitude as confessedly that Doctor was p. 209 Chap. 25. That a Believer his pardon notwithstanding is in his confession of sin to put himself under the curse of the Law why and how declared That a sinner after pardon is a sinner and that God doth look upon him as a sinner albeit he doth not deal with him or punish him as such p. 223 Chap. 26. That a Believer during his warfare on earth is to fear hell and damnation why and how proved and manifested as also cleared in the way of answer to several Objections notwithstanding the Doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints be acknowledged in answer to which Objections the consistency and co-operation of the love of God and the fear of God is proved What manner of fear it is that love doth expel and what manner of fear it is that love doth retain declared Notwithstanding that Believers are restrained by the love of God yet that God doth use several other means whereby to constraine i. e. effectually to induce them proved and what those several means are specified more at large The consistency and co-operation of faith and fear maintained and proved That filial and slavish fear do not differ in their object matter or in the thing feared but in the manner of fearing asserted and how proved and cleered by a due interpretation of that Scripture in Luke 1.74 The difference betwixt fear as it is the fruit of the spirit of bondage and as a fruit of the Spirit of Adoption opened and asserted p. 235 Chap. 27 That a Minister of the Gospel hath no warrant so to absolve a Believer as in the name of God to tell him That his sins are as absolutely pardoned and that he is as absolutely sure of heaven as if he were already in heaven p. 289 Chap. 28. That the repentance which the Gospel requires is not only repentance from the pardon of our sins as the Antinomians affirm but for the pardon of them proved and evinced by several Arguments Several Objections of the Antinomians answered wherein it is punctually declared In what sense Evangelical Repentance may be said to be from pardon of sin and in what sense for the pardon of it It is disputable whether Gods glory and our own salvation are to be looked at as two ends or only as one the former being a necessary result of the latter An Objection answered That it is a singular favour of God and a favour in some sense peculiar to the times of the New Testament that God hath so cleerly revealed unto us our eternal salvation as the great end not excluding but including his glory of mans working or of all Christian duty That good works may be stiled the way to salvation That the difference betwixt the Covenant of Works and of Grace lyes not in this that Adam was to work for life and we not for but only from life Our own good works duties graces or holinesse how far forth or in what sense to be disclaimed and not trusted unto for salvation as also in what sense or how farre forth they may be trusted unto or rested in for salvation declared more at large A Caution annexed to prevent mistake That there are two kinds of presumption both which are distinctly to be made knowne unto people by the Ministers of the Gospel and carefully to be avoided by all as dangerous rocks in the steering of our course towards the haven of eternal happinesse p. 297 Chap. 29 The Conclusion p. 350 FINIS In the Epistle 〈…〉 above p. 23 l. 19. r. direct Book Pag 1. line 18. r. God p. 9. l. 3 r. mercy l 29. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 11 r Gods p 17 r Gods p 17 r sort allusive p 19 l 12 r. translatitious p 35 l 16 r intuitive l 24 for same r sin p 38 l 21 for second r. double p 58 l 18 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 73 l 13 for are r is and for be r by l 16 r the. p 77 l 14 r this p 79 l 17 r or be for sin p 88 marg l 9 r morally p 95 l 20 r judicial p 101 l 24 for as r or l 25 r great p 103 l 19 for the other r this p 108 l 1 for cherish r there is l 3 for he r the. p 117 l 15 blot out in p i 42 l 11 for and r but. p 144 l 4 r bold p 151 l 22 r Epidemica p 157 l 23 blot out threatning p 203 l 3 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l 12 for esse r se p 205 l 28 r contradistinction p 216 l 4 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 229 l 4 blot out that p 233 l 24 for or r and and marg l 2 r substrata p 248 l 19 for with r in p 250 r will execute p 257 l 2 r unfaithfulness p 272 l 22 r into p 278 l 24 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 279 l 6 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 285 l 29 r doth p 294 l 8 r according to p 336 l 10 for next r first