be called a worke 2 Thess 1.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet wee are not justified by it as it is a worke or gracious quality but as it is the hand of the Spirit by which wee receive and are made partakers of those treasures of grace which are freely given unto us in Christ Jesus Christ hath already done what is to be done by way of satisfaction to the justice of his Father and hath already made peace by the blood of his Crosse Col. 1.20 what he doth in us now is to satisfie our consciences concerning our full redemption by him that you in beleeving may be filled with peace of Conscience being perswaded that wee are of the Father in the Son who by the Father is made unto us wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Faith being nothing but a light comming from God Christ discovering God and Christ to our spirits and uniting our spirits to God in Christ By faith we beleeve what is recorded concerning the grace of God in Christ As the Prophet to my apprehension holdeth it forth in those expressions of his Isa 53.1 Who hath beleeved our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed In the latter part of these words the Prophet doth interpret the former part he beleeveth the report of God to whom the arme of God that is his Sonne Jesus is revealed And when a man beleeveth in Christ Christ is revealed to that man Faith being the first thing that is wrought in the spirit of a man whom God doth justifie in his owne conscience by which the grace of God in Christ is revealed unto him for his justification Justifying faith when it is wrought by the powerfull operation of the Spirit in the heart doth remove prevailing doubts concerning our justification the faithfull beholding the all-righteousnesse of free grace applying to his conscience the clensing vertue of the blood of the Lord Jesus Faith is a gift of the Spirit establishing the soule Isa 7.9 If ye will not beleeve surely ye shal not be established The soule can never be firmely setled and quieted but by beleeving Unbeleife doth question and doubt of the promises of free grace for justification But when in the power of faith we are carried above it with Abraham Rom. 4.20 we stagger not at the promise through unbeleife but the spirit is fixed and stands immoveably upon the truth of grace God saith in the Covenant of his grace Heb. 8.12 I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnesse and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Hee that beleeveth doth set his Seale to the truth of God in beleeving the promise Iohn 3.33 He is confident that God is faithful who hath made this promise to the children of men and by beleeving the great and precious promises of grace he is made partaker of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 By an heart of unbeleefe wee depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 but by faith wee draw neere to God and apply Christ to our selves Faith being contrary to unbeleife as in the nature of it so in its operations An unbeleever doth not give credit to the truth of the generall promises of Gods grace and so remaineth unjustified in his conscience A beleever in faith nothing wavering James 1.6 doth give credit to what is reported And the Gospel commeth to him not in word only but in power and the holy Spirit and in much assurance 1. Thessalonians 1.5 Object But some may be ready here to object this against what I have delivered that though I doe acknowledge that by faith grace in Christ is applyed unto us yet in effect I say no more then what I delivered before when I proved that by faith the grace of God in Christ is first manifested and made over unto us Answ They misapprehend me when they conclude that I make faith onely an assurance of because I doe maintaine that it is the first evidence and witnesse of our justification Faith doth assure but it doth not onely assure us of Christ but doth apply Christ and makes a difference between assurance and application which I illustrate by this similitude Suppose one should lye in Prison for debt his debts being paid and he not knowing it and afterwards knowing that his debts were paid hee should rejoyce in the newes and enjoy his liberty this man doth not by the newes which he heareth enjoy only comfort but his liberty so it is with us before we beleeve we lie in prison and yet our debts are paid by Iesus Christ when the newes is brought by the spirit to the eare of the soule wee rejoyce in hearing the newes but besides this presently wee enjoy our liberty and all those riches which our surety who hath paid our debts hath bestowed upon us so that by faith though wee are assured of Gods love in the first place yet wee are not only assured but likewise Christ is applied unto us we are united unto him and doe enjoy all things in him and receive all good things from him Seventhly We are saved by faith which is so to be understood that by the mis-vnderstanding of it wee may not detract from the glory of Gods grace and from that everlasting righteousnesse which we have in Iesus Christ who is Jehovah our righteousnesse Ier. 23.6 Abraham when he beleeved and his faith was counted unto him for righteousnesse had a vision of God and his word did inwardly appeare unto him Gen. 15.1 and he beheld God as his shield and exceeding great reward and supreme righteousnesse so a beleeving man doth so looke upon faith as his righteousnesse that he doth then behold God in Christ as his supreme righteousnesse for his justification Isa 45.25 1 Cor 1.30 As Adam when hee was justified by his righteousnesse and true holinesse did so looke upon his owne righteousnesse for justification that hee did at the same time behold God as his chiefe good and righteousnesse so a beleeving man doth so looke upon faith as his righteousnesse by which hee is saved that hee doth at the same time behold God in Christ as his cheife righteousnesse Though hee acknowledgeth faith his righteousnesse in its place yet he accounteth it as nothing in comparison of that righteousnesse which hee hath in God and his Son Jesus Christ And saith with the psalmist Psal 71.16 I will goe in the strength of the Lord God I will make mention of thy righteousnesse even of thine onely Hee doth not by this undervalue the righteousnesse of faith hee prizeth it above the world and all things in it which carnall men doe value at so high a rate But according to the minde of him whose gift faith is hee sets the gift in his heart and esteeme belowe him who is the giver of it Hee seeth salvation to bee more from the giver of faith then faith it selfe Hee looketh upon faith not as the cause of justifiing grace but looketh upon
power of God is sufficient for the enabling of us to rest upon his owne grace for salvation I need not spend many words in proving this because the argument laid downe to prove the negative part of the Text wil reach the affirmative For if not of our selves it will unquestionably follow that it is of God that we are enabled to believe In the next place I shall prove that as it is the work of his power so it is the worke of his owne free grace When he enableth a man to believe he puts forth not only the power of his omnipotency but the power of his grace he doth not looke upon any thing in the creature to move him to give faith to the creature but he lookes upon his own grace and he sees no other motive or argument to move him to give faith to men but those that lye in the bosome of his owne grace from the dayes of eternity I shall prove this first by Scripture and then by some considerations First you have it proved by Scripture Phil. 1.29 To you it is given not only to believe but to suffer Hence I gather that it is the gift of Gods grace to enable a man to believe As it is the free gift of Gods grace to call forth a man to suffer for him So in 2 Tim. 2.25 The Apostle bids Timothy with meekeness of spirit to endeavour to recover those that opposed the doctrine and truth which he held forth and preached If peradventure God will give them repentance for the acknowledging of the truth You see then God must give repentance or changednesse of minde by which he is enabled to believe truth to the glory of God Now as I have cleared it by Scripture so I shal cleare it by some considerations The first shall be drawne from the promises of God The promises as they do prove that man cannot doe any thing by his owne power but that all is done for us by the power of God so they prove that all is done for our spirituall good by grace For promises of the new Covenant doe not only acquaint us with the power but grace of God If Adam had beene preserved in his obedience and never had fallen he had been preserved by the power of God but not by the grace of God as grace is strictly taken in the Covenant of grace so that as we have proved that faith is not of our selves but from the power of God by leading you to the promiser so now we shal prove that we are saved by grace through faith by bringing you back again to look upon promises as they are the streams flowings forth of Gods grace unto us What need God promise to do that which we are able to do of our selves Therefore seeing we have the promise of grace for it wee may conclude that it is by grace not by any power in our selves Rom. 15.12 wee have a promise for faith In him speaking of Christ shall the Gentiles trust So likewise in Jerem. 24.7 We have a promise of God that hee will give us the knowledge of himselfe I will give them an heart to know mee that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God and they shall return unto mee with their whole heart Here God hath promised to give us a heart that we shall know him Now seeing God hath promised to give us a heart to know him therefore I conclude wee are not able to give such a heart to our selves God hath promised to circumcise our hearts to take away the fore-skin of our spirits therefore wee are not able to circumcise our selves God hath promised to turne us therefore wee are not able to turne our selves Turn us O Lord and we shall be turned Lam. 5.21 Intimating thus much that we cannot come towards him till heeturne the face and countenance of his favour toward us answering to that in Jer. 31.18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullocke unaccustomed to the yoake turne thou me and I shall be turned And therefore God doth usually mixe promises with exhortations that man should not conclude from Gods exhortations unto him that there is a sufficient power in him to doe what hee is exhorted to doe as in Hosea 14. when he had exhorted Israelto returne unto the Lord he presently addeth vers 4. I will heale their backesliding All the Prophets doe subscribe to this truth Jona 2.9 Salvation is of the Lord by promise He will teach us his wayes and we will walke in his paths saith Micah Mic. 4 2. and Zeph. 3.12 I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poore people and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. God will fill his spirituall house or Temple with glory And I will give peace saith the Lord of hosts Hag. 2.9 God will be the glory in the middest of the spirituall Jerusalem Zech. 2.9 And hee will remove the iniquity of the land in one day v. 3.9 All these promises are plaine demonstrations of Gods powerfull grace and mans weakness Secondly we have not only the bare promise but the Covenant of God and this Covenant confirmed and bound by an oath Mic. 7.20 Thou wilt performe the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworn unto our Fathers therefore it is not by any power or worke in our selves If it be the fruit of the covenant of grace and God hath covenanted in his grace to doe it for us then certainly wee are not able to doe it our selves But God hath covenanted to doe it for us he hath covenanted to write his law in our hearts The law of faith as the Apostle calls it Rom. 5. Therefore we are not able to work faith in our own spirits Why should God tye himselfe in a Covenant and binde this Covenant with an oath to doe this for us if we were able to doe it our selves why should God doe any thing for his owne names sake if the creature can do enough to make it selfe happy by his owne strength In vaine is a Covenant of grace promulgated for mans salvation and for discovery of this salvation If man can finde out the way of salvation by his owne wisdome why must Christ guide our feete into the wayes of peace Luke 1. if of our selves we can find out these ways of life peace God hath made it his work therfore it is not our work wrought by our owne strength God hath promised saith as a gift freely to be bestowed upon undeserving man therfore man by the improvement of his parts and labour cannot purchase it as the reward of his endeavours Thirdly God worketh faith in time according to his eternall purpose and decree before time But the eternall purpose of God is the purpose of his grace therefore God worketh faith according to his purpose of grace The first of these
be enabled to doe those works which we are not able to doe by vertue of morall commands The covenant of grace and gospel-Gospel-promises should be as ineffectuall for sanctification as the law if all that were wrought in us under that covenant were sin or sinfull And therefore it will follow that a man under grace hath a purity of sanctification in him God brings us from Moses who was the Law-giver and delivers us from the Covenant of works in giving us to Jesus Christ who is the giver of grace that he may make us holy in a gracious life and conversation The Apostle sets this forth unto us Rom. 7.6 But now wee are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newnesse of spirit and not in the oldnesse of the letter We are freed from the service of God in the law of works under which wee serve as slaves till wee be brought to Christ that wee may serve as sonnes in obedience to all morall commands under the sweet gracious glorious government of the Lord Jesus Christ who is as well a Law-giver Isa 33.22 to write his lawes of faith and love in our hearts Hebr. 8. As a Saviour to save us from our sins And to cut off all objections against this argument wee may take notice that the fruits of the spirit are not onely called good and holy as they are in the promise or command but they are good and holy and called fruits of righteousnesse as they are wrought in us and by us with the omnipotent help and assistance of the holy Spirit We are called the trees of righteousnesse Isa 61.3 and feare and love are fruits of righteousness as wrought in us Jer. 31. Hebr. 8. The 14th Argument may be drawn from the oath of God If God should not performe this for the Saints God should be perjured which is blasphemy to speak The oath of God binds him God in his word which is the character of his mind hath discovered his hatred of perjury and false swearing we cannot think that God who hates perjury in others should forsweare himselfe but we have not only the promise but the oath of God for this so that unlesse we will say that God for-sweares himself we must subscribe to this truth to witt that God gives his Saints his Spirit and in the Spirit holinesse and righteousnesse I will give you a place for this Lu. 1.73 74. The oath which he sware to our Father Abraham What hath he sworne That he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies here is our Justification we are delivered out of the hands of sin death and the Devill But is this all No He hath delivered us out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve him without fear that is without slavish fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life Some acknowledge that the people of God shall live holily and righteously to men-ward as they speake but that the righteousnesse of sanctification is not to God-ward This place overthrowes this distinction he saith not that wee shall walk holily and righteously before men only as hypocrites may but he saith that we shall serve in holinesse and righteousnesse before him We shall not do such works which Luther and others have called vices vitia affirming that all the works of the regenerated man are vices nor such works which are sinful vitiata as some others speak but such workes which God who cannot lye cals righteous works nay righteousnesse in the abstract we shall serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse not only in the sight of men for oft-times they look on good works as though they were bad but good in the sight of God they come from a sweet fountain therefore the water cannot be bitter or brackish from the fountaine of his owne Spirit in his Saints If the works of the Saints were nothing but sin or sinfull how could the Oath of God be fulfilled that they shall serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life Object Before him in this place as in other places doth meane under his protection Gen. 17.1 Answ Though it may be granted that sometimes before him may signifie under his protection yet it doth not appear that it should be the meaning of the holy Ghost in this place But he doth rather informe us how Saints doe approve themselves before God by sanctification As Paul laboured in godly sincerity to have his conscience void of offence towards God and towards men According to that speech of Hezekiah Isa 38.3 Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight But suppose wee should grant you this it doth still stand true that our service is in holinesse and righteousnesse And can any man be so blinde to thinke that a man shall serve in righteousnesse under Gods protection that hee should not see the righteousnesse which is wrought under his protection and if it be righteousnesse which he seeth then it is righteousnesse before him or in his sight Arg. 15. To deny the purity of the man born of God is to deny one end for which Christ dyed for Christ dyed to bring us to be partakers of a pure Divine nature in which pure nature we are to live move and act holily The place by which I shall confirme this is in Heb. 9.14 The blood of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God shall purge our consciences from dead workes to serve the living God We are therefore washed from sin in our Justification that we may serve God by Sanctification And what spirituall man will call that the service of God which is sin or sinfull For to doe that which is sin or sinfull is to doe the Devils service or else I am to learne that which we need not be taught to wit what it is to doe the Devils service Arg. 16. The resurrection of Christ doth teach spirituall men to act purely in their new nature to the glory of their Father Rom. 6.4 As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we should walke in newnesse of life To walk in newnesse of life is it to walk in the oldnesse of that which is sin or sinfull let any Spirituall man judge Arg. 17. We may draw another argument from the Kingly office of Christ He as a King hath a command over his Subjects but he hath not the command over us when we doe that which is sin or sinfull and therefore wee doe something good as his Subjects in obedience to his commands bona bene Good things must be done well And therefore Christ doth not onely enable us to doe that which is righteous but hee doth enable us to doe it righteously Why is Christ King but that we should
a way of beleeving and so come to distinguish true faith which is given by the Spirit from the false faith of hypocrites and Libertines which floweth onely from a principle of humane wisdome and not from the powerfull operation of the Spirit of God At this present I shall observe this method First I will shew that we are not saved by works I meane by the works of the Law Then I shall shew that wee are not saved and justified by works which are the fruits of faith or done under the Covenant of grace Thirdly I shall shew that we are not saved by works in which wee yeeld obedience to any Gospel Ordinances though they be Ordinances appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ himselfe to be practised by the Saints I take in this because I have found in my own spirit and in many that I have dealt with a secret and subtle kinde of Poperie by which wee are apt to attribute something to the practise of Ordinances in reference to our justification And hence it is that people are so ready to run into every new way of worship which is brought to light thinking that unlesse they finde out the right discipline and government of Jesus Christ the right Baptisme and Ordinances they are not true Saints nor sufficiently justified Therefore I shall take in this too to shew that as wee are not justified by more inward and spirituall works so neither are wee justified by any outward observation of Ordinances or submitting to any command of the Lord Jesus Christ but onely by our obedience to the first and principall command of the Gospel by which we beleeve justification by grace through Christ without works For the first of these heads I shall briefly shew how it is not by works passing by many things that I have formerly spoken of and I shall onely lay down foure or five considerations for the confirming of this that wee are saved and justified before God and in the Court of our own conscience without any works whatsoever The first consideration may be this Wee cannot be justified by works or by the Law because there was never any man had a legall righteousnesse but the man Christ Jesus This is Pauls undeniable conclusion laid down in Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and come short of the glory of God The devout Jew as well as the prophane Gentile is brought in before the tribunall of God as a guiltie sinner coming short of such a glorious righteousnesse which the Law doth require of him that he may be justified under it The Gentile never walked according to the written Law of nature which is written in his heart nor the Jew according to the Law of his Maker written in Tables of stone All the works of the Law may be reduced to two heads The first are those works that wee doe in obedience to God to shew our love to him Secondly The works that we doe to shew our love to our neighbour Now if we take works in either of these two respects I shall shew that all the men and women in the world come short of such a legall righteousnesse and perfection that the holy just and pure Law of God requires It will be cleare that no man ever loved God as he ought God doth command us that wee should love him with all our heart and with all our strength with the whole streame of our affections But what man did ever love God in that manner Suppose a wife should entertaine many thousand lovers besides her husband could any say that that wife loved her husband So many fins as wee have so many lovers we have so the Scripture cals them Jer. 3.1 Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers that is thou hast followed many sins and lusts base and vile corruptions Now it is thus with all the men in the world wee have all gone a whoring from our God so that though all men yea even Turks and Heathens pretend to love God the great God that made them yet there is no man that ever loved God as he ought That man that thinks that he ever loved God as he ought and as the Law requires he is very blind and not enlightned to this day to see the puritie and spiritualitie of the righteous Law of the just and high God Suppose a Subject should alway contrive rebellion and conspire against the person of his King as defirous to take away his life and to pull the Crowne from his head will any say that this Subject loves the King Thus it is with all men wee are all traytors and rebells against the King of Heaven if we had strength we would take the Crowne from the head of God and set it upon the head of the Devill If it were in our power God should not reigne and be King in the world but the Devill This is in the heart of wicked flesh it brings forth nothing else it loves it self and the devill but hates loaths and abhorres God and had rather that the Devill should sit on the throne then God the Father and the Lambe at his right hand So that a man being unable to obey the Law of God God cannot justifie him by his Law but must pronounce him a rebell for sin is rebellion and spirituall high treason against God In Ezek. 2. when God sent the Prophet to teach the people he tells him what people he should meet with he saith they were such as would not heare him such as would sleight him and would not indure to heare sound and good doctrine and calleth them rebells And he said unto me Son of man I send thee to the children of Israel to a rebellious Nation that have rebelled against me even to this very day You see sinne is called rebellion in the Word of God But some will say certainly I was never such a rebell as you make me I apprehend not that I ever hated God in such a manner Answ If thou dost not see how thou abhorrest God and how in the flesh thou lovest the Devill more then God thou hast not to this day a sight of the just and pure will of God For it is not enough that thou abstaine from grosse sins and prophanenesse that makes a man scandalous to the eye of the world but thou must abstaine from every sin from every vaine thought or else the Law will passe the sentence of condemnation on thee as a rebell If it were possible that a man could so live on earth that he should never dishonour God in any action that he should never dishonour God by any word of his mouth but all his words should be to the glory of that God that made him and to the glory of that wisdome of the Father by which he made all things yet if this man should have but a sinfull ungodly rising in his heart against God the Law would take no notice of all the good deeds of this man all the good words
so wee are saved by grace Wee are made happy brought from a cursed condition into a blissfull condition from horror to joy from hell to heaven from the state of nature to the state of Glory onely by the grace of God It is onely by Grace that wee are what wee are By Grace our sins are pardoned by Grace wee have an inheritance with the Saints by Grace wee are the high born sonnes of the great King of heaven and earth by Grace wee are blessed and loaded with all spirituall and temporall blessings in Jesus Christ and are brought to the enjoyment of eternall felicity happinesse and blissfulnesse Thus wee are saved by grace and by grace alone One of the Ancients doth speake excellently to this purpose Nemo se palpet de suo Satanas est de deo beatus est quid est enim de suo nisi peccatum suum Let no man boast of himselfe for of a mans selfe he is a Devill by God a man is made happy What is a man of himselfe but sin Yee are saved by grace Againe salvation in Scripture is taken for salvation before God in the Court of heaven And it is taken for the saving of a partie in his own spirit and conscience if wee take it in the first sence a man is saved in the Court of heaven onely by grace What is the Reason that the accusing mouth of the Law being stopped no Bill no enditement can be brought against the Elect in the Court of Heaven Is it not this because God in his grace justifieth them This is the Apostles argument Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who can implead or bring an action against them before God for breaking his Law He that is the Judge of the Elect is their justifier Grace hath cast out of Heaven the accuser of the Brethren which accused them before God night and day Rev. 12.10 The accuser can bring no enditement complaint or accusation against the Saints there There is no sin in our consciences that can be heard to accuse us in heaven because there is grace for our justification God beholds his Sonne Jesus Christ before his eve upon whom he hath laid all our sins The bloud of Christ doth with powerfull and undeniable arguments plead for those for whom it was shed The straying and stragling sheep which are within the reach of Gods eternall Grace cannot be condemned because the good Shepheard hath given his life for the sheep Joh. 10.11 God knoweth that he hath received satisfaction before hand for their sins by the hand of the Lord Jesus who is not now to pay any thing but hath already made payment for all their debts and is become the Mediator of the new Covenant of Grace which is sealed in his own bloud under which Covenant upon this consideration there can be no remembrance of sin Heb. 10.14 God beholding his Elect in their propitiation and alwayes hearing the sweet voice of their wrath-appeasing advocate making an heavenly melody in his eares And alwayes beholding our happinesse before himselfe in heaven lying wrapt up in his own grace doth acquaint us in his word of truth That wee are saved by grace Secondly If we take salvation in the other sence for salvation in our spirits and consciences and in this sence we are saved by grace There can be no salvation brought home to our hearts but by the sight of grace If wee had the sanctification of all the Saints which have lived since the fall of Man and should looke upon it all as ours to give comfort to our soules and to assure us that wee are in a state of salvation and should not looke above it to behold Gods grace and our sanctification in it and from it it would not give us any solid comfort or assurance of our salvation Nothing can shine in the heart to give it any comfort but what doth shine and give light in the light and beames of this grace Wee never come to see our selves in a condition of safety till wee see the grace of God Looke unto mee and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else Isaiah 45.22 None but God can save us and nothing but the sight of God can bring salvation to us Still wee have some objection or other against salvation and justification till God silence all objections by the sight of his own grace There is that onely in God and in Jesus Christ that will silence all objections If our conscience flie in our faces and tell us that wee have committed many thousands of sins more then wee can reckon or number up yet when God gives us a sight of himselfe his sonne and grace the mouth of conscience is stopped and wee see all our sins swallowed up in his love Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us saith Philip. Joh. 14.8 When God sheweth us himselfe our spirits are at rest When Grace is discovered and Gods light doth shine upon the soule Sin death damnation cannot terrifie the soule But they are filled with a spirit of joy in beleeving their free justification who before through feare of death were subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 Grace appeareth greater and stronger to bring salvation then sinne powerful to bring damnation Our sins the sins of all the men of the world being the acts of creatures are finite but grace that justifieth us is the grace of an infinite God and is boundlesse and infinite Men are unassured of their salvation unlesse this Grace be presented to the eye of their spirits And men and Devills cannot prevaile against us to enforce us to question our justification and salvation when wee looke upon it That peace which the world cannot take from us nor give unto us that joy which neither the Law nor the workes of the Law can convey unto us nor bereave us off that salvation which damned Feinds can never rob us of is communicated to us by the beholding of Gods grace in the face of the Lord Jesus The soule when it hath a sight of this grace it stands with boldnesse at the Throne of Grace and though it feele hellish sin in it selfe yet it is able to dispute with all the Divels in Hell and to maintaine the freenesse fulnesse and compleatnesse of its own justification from all sin by the grace of God in Jesus Christ If the Divell shall then suggest this to a man that he is a sinner The beleeving soule will make this answer It is true I am a sinner but I am not terrified to desparation because I am ungodly but I rejoyce in this that God justifieth the ungodly by his grace Rom. 4.5 If the Divell shall reply But thou art a great sinner and there is a great damnation The believing soule will returne I am not tormented by the great damnation prepared for great sinners but
ungodlinesse wordly lusts He doth not say that grace in the first place teaches us to deny ungodlines worldly lusts but in the first place it brings justificatioÌ„ salvation through beleeving then secondarily the same grace teacheth us to deny ungodlines worldly lusts After we have believed for salvation the holy spirit is given Ephes 1.13 In beleeving we enter into our rest Heb. 4.3 keep the yeare of Iubile see our selves instated in happines and keep a christian Sabbath It is only in beleeving that wee are brought to the enjoyment of that felicity which is by the grace of God in Jesus Christ The Apostles in their Epistles doe not hold forth any truth more frequently then this Gal 5.6 In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by Love And Ro. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When the Keeper of the Prison asked Paul Silas what they should doe to be saved suppofing salvation was only attainable by working they did at one discover unto him his error blindnesse acquainted him with the soul saving truth of the Gospel assuring him that if he beleeved on the Lord Jesus he should be saved Acts â—6 31 We find not rest in our spirits by the â—â—ght of our works love sincerity labours envours but by the sight of Gods grace in Christ Having by these places of Scripture confirmed to you this truth I shall now amplyfie it by shewing unto you more fully how it may be in truth affirmed that we are saved through faith In the first place it is by faith and by faith alone not by faith joyned with workes but by faith without workes I deny not but where true faith is workes will follow yet salvation is through faith without workes When wee are brought into the bosome of the Lord Iesus wee enter not into the bosome of his love by our love and faith together but by faith which produceth Love Our eyes are shut to the beholding all things in our selves and the eyes of our spirits are enlightned to behold what is in Gods Grace and the Lord Iesus Consonant to this is Pauls sweete and comfortable conclusion Rom. 3.28 Wee conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law Love to God and his people is a worke commanded by the Law but according to Pauls conclusion of truth wee are justified by faith without the deedes of the Law therefore we are justified by faith without love to God or his people When God discovers his Grace to a man for his justification hee shewes him that as his evill workes cannot bring damnation unto him so his good workes cannot bee availeable for his justification That assurance of Gods love which some professors have got by the sight of their owne workes being never illuminated in their understandings to behold Gods Grace in the light and beames of Grace is not the true assurance of the gospell but the deceit and lying divination of their owne spirits concerning their owne happinesse for salvation is by faith without workes God doth not require us to doe good workes for salvation in the conscience but doth positively and absolutely exclude them as things which have no influence at al upon that first assurance which he doth give unto his people of his love which is by a pure simple unmixed act of faith The spirit of Grace is never given to comfort us untill God hath stripped us of our owne righteousnesse workes and performances and hath brought us to the Throne of Grace to bee justified by free Grace without any thing in our selves that may make us fit for justification and salvation The Apostle doth lay downe this as a truth seconded by his owne experience and the experience of all true Saints Gal. 2.16 asserting that a man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Iesus Christ even wee saith he have beleeved in Iesus Christ that we might bee justified by the faith of Christ and not by the workes of the Law for by the workes of the Law shall no flesh bee justified It is not as the Papists say that faith which hath love joyned with it which they make the forme of faith by which wee are justified but it is by faith without any workes at all by which wee are justified and have peace of conscience Augustine doth plainely lay downe his judgement in this point according to truth Noli presumere de operibus ante fidem quia peccatorem te fides invenit etsi te fides data facit justum impium invenit quem faceret justum Presume not upon thy workes done before faith because faith findeth thee a sinner faith hath made thee just it found thee wicked whom it should make just The second reason why it is thus by faith alone is because it is by grace unlesse we were justified by faith we were not we could not be justified by Grace This reason the Apostle lays downe Rom. 4.16 Therefore it is of faith that it might bee by Grace As if he should have said unlesse you hold that there is a justification by faith alone without workes you deny Grace if you will bee justified by faith and workes conjoyned you destroy Grace Therefore it is by faith alone that it may be by Grace When we have a true sight of Grace wee see a sufficiency in that Grace to doe us good for our justification and salvation soe that there is nothing needfull necessary besides grace In which respect Luther saith that workes are not necessary to justification but pernitious to salvation the gospell requiring faith only according to that of the Apostle Gal. 3.12 The Law is not of faith the law hath nothing to doe with beleeving that doctrine which bids a man to beleeve that he may bee saved that is the doctrine of the gospell the law biddeth us not to beleeve but the man that doth it shall live in it The law bids us worke but the Gospell bids us beleeve not worke and beleive but beleive only We confound the Covenant of workes and the Covenant of Grace if wee presse an absolute necessity of doing good workes for justification This was the Divinity of the blood-sucker Bishop Bonner who in a Sermon propounding this quest How grace is to be applyed to us for justification doth answer by beleeving rightly and living uprightly joyning faith and holinesse for justification by grace whereas by the Scripture of truth it is manifest that faith alonedoth lay hold of Christ and doth appropriate him unto us And that holinesse doth flow and streame from the apprehension of our free justification by grace through faith alone though faith is not alone but is accompanyed with other fruits of the Spirit which follow it This must be well understood or else we shall nullifie the grace of God wherefore God enableth true beleevers
one not by confounding of the person of Christ with the person of a Believer but by the union of these two in the Spirit As the members are one with the head and yet the head is not the members nor the members the head Secondly In this objection as they destroy the personall being of a Believer so they destroy the personall being of Christ as he is the Word made flesh There Christ is nothing but God they apprehending that Christ hath offered up his humane nature wisedome and righteousnesse as things of the first creation and that hee hath no being now but in spirit which they call Christ in the Spirit the spirituall man or God I shall therefore in few words deliver the truth of God concerning the man who is born of God This phrase is taken first largely and so every Creature may be said to be of God because every creature is the workmanship of God and hath its being from God And in this sence all wicked men are called the Off-spring of God Acts 17.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly It is taken strictly And so it is to be understood not of those who have their being from God by creation but by spirituall regeneration And thus it is here taken and in other places John 3.5 Except a man be borne of water the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God John 1 13. In this sence neither God Christ or the Spirit are the new man or the man born of God But the speciall and gracious presence of God through Christ by the spirit doth make a man a new Creature 1 Cor. 1.30 John 1.13 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man is in Christ he is a new Creature He doth not say that if any man is in Christ that then hee is Christ or that Christ is the new creature but that man who is in Christ he is the new creature Having shewed you who the new man or the man born of God is who is here spoken of and freed the Text from famelisticall blasphemies I shall desire that you may be acquainted with this truth Every true Saint is a man born of God 1 Consid It will not advantage a man to make a profession of Christ and to submit to all the outward Ordinances of Christ unlesse a man be made a new creature by Christ Gal. 6.15 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature We must be borne againe or else it had been better for us never to have been borne Christ will not own any for his or approve them as his Disciples whatsoever profession they doe make of him unlesse he be formed in them 2 Cor. 13.5 Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be unapproved They are the Devils children who are not borne of God John 8.44 2 Consid God hath engaged himselfe in the Covenant of grace that those who are his shall be borne of him Ezek. 36.26 A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you an heart of flesh As a Carver when he maketh an Image doth begin at the outside of the Timber and cuts shaves and smooths that So hypocrites doe begin at the outside and doe smooth themselves in their outward conversation to men-ward And so there is but an image insteed of a new creature But true Saints are made new inwardly Some say that the heart is the first thing which hath life Cor est primum vivens It is true in the new creation God doth give unto the vessels of his grace new hearts Rom. 10.10 With the heart man believeth unto righteousnesse Jer. 32.39 3. Consid Men who are not borne of God cannot haue fellowship with God If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darknesse welye 1 John 1.6 But true Saints have fellowship with the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ 1 John 1.3 And therefore they are borne of God 4 Consid God is to be known served and worshipped by true Saints but we cannot truly know him serve or worship him so long as we are old creatures in the state of nature and therefore it cannot be denyed that true Saints are borne of him An old creature is spiritually dead and cannot see God A dead creature cannot performe the actions of a living creature And a sinner cannot serve the living God and performe that spirituall worship which God doth require of those who are quickned to spirituall worship by Jesus Christ 5. Consid The new Heaven and the new Earth is only provided for new creatures but it is provided for Saints and they expect it 2 Pet. 3.13 And therefore they are borne of God Mat. 19.28 Our Saviour saith that such who have followed him in the regeneration shall sit upon Thrones The Saints are translated out of the Kingdome of the world into the kingdome of grace by spirituall regeneration and therefore they shall be translated from the Kingdome of grace into the Kingdome of glory By these considerations it is evident that true Saints are borne of God Vse Let us not try our Saint-ship by our large professions of Christ and subjection to such things which we apprehend to be his Ordinances for externall worship but by our new creation It concerneth every man to be thorowly assured of his heavenly birth who would make his claime good for heaven and glory and be assured that he shall escape the damnation of Hell As our Saviour said of Judas Mat. 26.24 That it had been good for him he had not been borne So it had been good for us that we had never been borne if wee shall live and dye professors of the knowledge of God in Christ and not dye possessors of God in Christ by the new creation Consider therefore 1. That every change or alteration which may be wrought in a man doth not make him a Sonne of God by spirituall regeneration Morall principles may make a great change in a man And Pharisaicall principles may make a man seeme to be very religious to himselfe and others But the Pharisees proselite is farre enough from a true Convert And except our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we cannot enter into the Kingdome of God We may walke farre in the way of the Law and performance of duties to make our selves new creatures and the Sonnes of God by our own righteousnesse and legall reformation and may at last stumble at Christ and never come to know what it is to be borne of God 2. A man may take a long walke in the paâ—â— of the Gospell and may after a sort escape the pollutions of the world by Gospel-principles and may taste of the powers of the world to come in the conclusion may sit down short of a new creation here and glory hereafter 2 Pet. 2.20 Hebr. 6. Never truly knowing
our selves by our faith love and working of righteousnesse and saith vers 19. That hereby we assure our selves before God therefore this distinction is of no validity in this place though some thinke that it will answer all our arguments Argu. 3. The olde man and the new man are distinguished by their contrary natures and operations But if the new man were sinfull and his operations sinfull The new man would be confounded with the old man who is sinfull in himselfe and his operations but this is contrary to Scripture The old man is corrupt according to deceitfull lusts but the new man after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Eph. 4.22.24 And speaking of these in the Concrete as in us Eph. 5.8 9. he saith to them Ye were sometimes darknesse but now are ye light in the Lord walke as children of the light For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodnesse and righteousnesse and truth Argu. 4. Those works which are commended by Jesus Christ for good works are good works but the workes of the Saints are commended for good works therefore they are good Revel 2.2 Our Saviour saith that he knoweth the workes of the Angel of the Church of Ephesus and his labour and patience that is he approveth or commendeth his workes and so Rev. 3.8 It would be a disparagement to the judgment of Christ to commend sin or sinfull works for good workes And therefore I conclude that they were good works And by consequence that the works which are wrought by a man borne of God are good works Obj. They were washed from their pollution in the blood of the Lamb. Answ When we speak of the new man and his works we look not upon him or his works but in Jesus Christ And thus he is washed from all the sins of the flesh and the works of God in us are well pleasing unto God the worker through Jesus Christ through whom hee did work them in us Arg. 5. Christ doth not present that which is sinne or sinfull to the Father to be accepted but he presenteth our workes 1 Pet. 2.5 Wee offer up spirituall sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ If Christ did present any work that were sinfull he might present our sinful works It is evident therefore that there is something which is good which is presented as well as something in us which is sinfull which is forgiven Malum ex quolibet defectu The lesse defect doth make a thing evil and if there be such a defect in the work of the man who is born of God to make it sin and evill what reason can any man give from Scripture why every sinne should not be presented and accepted as well as those sins which they call good works Arg. 6. The Scripture calleth the works of the man born of God neither sinfull or sinne but works of righteousnesse Faith is called righteousnesse Rom. 4. and Rom. 5. the last Paul calleth the sincerity which was in him speaking of it in the Concrete godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 Paul prayeth that grace may be with all them who love the Lord Jesus in corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doth he pray for such whom hee thought were no where to be found or for all true Saints whom he did know did love the Lord Jesus in incorruption Reply If they be considered as they ought to be done so they are not evill but as they be done by us so the holy Ghost is not affraid to call them menstruous rags even our very righteousnesse not our old man only Isa 64.6 Answ The Prophet doth not speak here of the righteousness of a man underthe Covenant of grace considered under that Covenant For in the precedent verse he doth acknowledge that the righteousnesse of such a man is not as a menstruous ragge Thou meetest him that rejoyeth and worketh righteousnesse But he speaketh of men as looked upon under the olde Covenant and of their works as done under and to be judged by that Covenant which appeareth by the following words Our iniquities like the wind have taken us away And there is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee For thou hast hid thy face from us and we are consumed because of our iniquities We must not judge of this truth by expressions which holy men have made use of in confessing the sins of the whole nation of the Jews in the language of the Jewish nationall Covenant but by those passages of Scripture in which God doth speake of a man as under the Covenant of grace with his works wrought by the spirit of grace 7 Arg. God doth remember the workes of his Saints Heb. 6.10 God is not unrighteous to forget your worke and labour of love saith the Apostle He will remember the good works of men borne of God at the great day of judgement The good workes of some are manifest before-hand and they that are otherwise cannot be hid 1 Tim. 5.15 They cannot for ever be hid because God will make mention of them at that day But hee hath engaged himselfe by oath to remember our sins and sinfull actions Hebr. 8. And therefore the works of the spirituall man are not sin or sinfull Arg. 8. There is no law against the workes of a spirituall man or the fruits of the spirit of grace and therefore they are not sin because where there is no law there is no transgression But there is no law against these This is plain by that passage of the Apostle Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance against such there is no law Object They are here considered as they are precisely the fruits of the spirit and as they ought to be done by us and so they are no sins but consider them as acted by us even with the spirits assistance and so they are defective and sinfull Answ The Apostle doth not speake of the fruits of the spirit as Tully of his Oratour Plato of his Common-wealth Moor of his Utopia as of things no where to be found But he speaks of the spirit as in us and the fruits of it as in us And doth plainly tell us that if we are led by the spirit we are not under the law and that there is no law against the fruits of the spirit But I shall have occasion hereafter to speake more fully of some places where the Apostles and servants of God doe speak plainly of these works as done in us that so I may break the neck of this distinction which is made as a Catholicon or salve for every sore Arg. 9. God doth give a testimony concerning his Saints that they are righteous and holy which is spoken in reference to their spirituall nature and actings and therefore they are righteous and holy The judgment of God is according to truth hee being the God of truth Doth not God give this
testimony of Job Job 1.1 That he was a perfect man and upright one that feared God and eschewed evill And though man may oppose this yet it seemeth by Gods speech to Sathan that the Devili could not contradict it Job 2.3 And the Lord said unto Sathan hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect man upright one that feareth God and escheweth evill Did any thing which was sin or sinful procure this honourable title to David that he was a man after Gods owne heart 1 Sam. 13.14 Doth not the Scripture of truth inform us concerning Zacharias and Elizabeth his wife that they were both righteous before God walking in all the Commandements of God blamelesse Luke 1.6 They did not onely walk in the great Commandement of God concerning faith for Justification but in all the Ordinances and Commandements of God Is not Lot called a just and righteous man who was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked 2 Pet. 2.7 And was his sinfull soule vexed with their evill deeds or his righteous soul speak in the language of Gods Word and ye must acknowledge that it was his righteous soule vers 8. God is not like unto some indulgent parents who by their fond indulgency doe account that to be a vertue which is the fault of their children and them to be vertuous who are vile God calleth nothing righteousnesse which is sin or sinfull Nor those to be perfect and upright which are not so indeed and therefore seeing God doth call his children righteous holy and perfect wee may not be affraid to call them so unlesse wee will be affraid to follow his judgment Object They were righteous before God by Justification and before men by holy walking Ans We deny not their justification before God by faith but withall we affirme that they were righteous before him by their holy walkings As these places doe sufficiently prove with others which we shall hereafter speak of Let us not delude ous soules to think that righteousnesse sanctification is to the eye of men only The purest sanctification of a Saint is not so visible to men as unto God Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visite the fatherlesse and Widowes in their affliction and to keepe himselfe unspotted from the world which will be further manifested by our next argument Arg. 10. Almighty God is a God of pure eyes who cannot behold any iniquity any sinfull thing or sin with an eye of approbation But this God who cannot approve what is sin and sinfull this God approveth and professeth that he is well pleased with the performances of his Saints therefore the performance of the Saints cannot be sin or sinfull The Apostle in Philip. 4.18 Professeth that the worke of the Philippians in sending to relieve his wants was an odour of asweet smell a sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God God hath pure eyes and pure nostrils and therefore if it had been sin or sinfull it could not have pleased his eye nor have beene an odour of a sweete smell unto his nostrills Object They are so but not in their owne nature Answ If they be not so in their own nature they are filthy and odious in their own nature and yet accepted by grace If one thing which is filthy and odious in its owne nature be accepted why should not other things which are filthy and odious in their owne nature be accepted for good workes If this can be made good Whoredome and Adultery will prove good works which hath been asserted by some who have said that the filthinesse of whoredome being done away the action is well-pleasing to Almighty God as well as any good work Arg. 11. One end and intention of God in electing of us was that he might make us holy that he might make us good trees to bring forth good fruit Though God doth not elect us because wee doe believe or because wee doe love yet hee hath elected us that wee may believe and that we may love So that wee frustrate one end that God hath in electing us if we doe not grant that God gives us a new nature and new hearts According to that of the Apostle 2 Thes 2 13. We are chosen unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth And in Eph. 1.4 He hath chosen us in him that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Object We doe apprehend our election imperfectly which is the cause of the sinfulnesse of our works Answ By reason of that which is in the flesh we cannot so perfectly see our election as wee shall doe hereafter Yet in the spirit for the present we doe so fully apprehend it that by Gods grace in the apprehension of it wee are made unblameable and holy before him in love which is all that I contend for I may adde this that if God had chosen us to love joy sanctification and the like which are sin and sinfull that then he had chosen us to sin or to something sinfull which conceit in my apprehension doth carry such an absurdity in the face of it that it needeth not a Confutation Object They are not sin in their morall nature as they ought to be done but they are so as done by us Answ God hath not chosen us unto them as they are considered onely in his command But he hath chosen us unto them as they are to be acted and done by us as it is plain by the words of the Text and therefore this objection hath no strength in it to weaken our argument Arg. 12. If the new creature were sinfull his workes sinful or sin it would nullifie Gods intention in our Justification who doth justifie us when we are unholy that he may make us holy Ephes 2.10 Wee are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good workes which God hath before ordained that we should walke in them Wee are not ordained to walke in any thing which is sin or sinfull but to walke in good workes We are redeemed from sin that we might be purified unto himselfe a peculiar people And grace teacheth us to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world not sinfully but righteously God maketh us good trees by justification and then enables us to bring forth good fruit There must be a root before there can be fruit So God gives us a roote or seed of holinesse before wee can bring forth holy fruit and righteous actions And when the good seed is sown in good ground it cannot but bring forth good fruit Mat. 13.23 which place may give more light for the clearing of that objection where it was said that there could not bee good fruit though the seed were good because the ground is not good Arg. 13. God doth free us from the law of works and doth bring us under the covenant of grace that we may by grace
live under his commands Why are we his subjects why are we his servants but because wee are under his commands and under his laws You know the Jewes said they would not have Christ to be their King but the voyce of every Christian is to cry up Christ to proclaime him King and to owne him only as their Ruler And Christ being King rules and reigns in the hearts of his people by lawes and commandements and precious statutes worthy of such a King Now Christ gives us not a law as Moses gave a law that was grievous to those that heard it but Christ gives a law of love a law of sweetnesse by which hee rules in the midst of his enemies in our hearts what is in the flesh in us is an enemie to Jesus Christ but Christ Jesus sitting upon his Throne as King in our renewed regenerated and enlightned spirit rules in the midst of our sins his enemies which oppose him Christ is not such a King as other Kings other Kings make lawes and adde penalties to their laws for those that break them but they have no power to enable their Subjects to keep them But here is the priviledge and prerogative of our King when Christ makes lawes he doth not only give us lawes and bid us keepe them but he hath power in himselfe by which he enableth us to do that which he commands us to doe If Christ should command us to love should not enable us to doe that which he commands he should be such a Law-giver as Moses that gave a Law but gave no power to doe it But Christ is not such a Law-giver as Moses As he is not a rigid Law-giver to bid Saints doe it upon penalty of damnation or to worke for life and salvation so neither is he like Moses who could give them no power but there is a power and strength goes with Christs commands to enable us to doe what Christ the King commands Therefore if any of you give Christ the glory of his grace by believing that he hath abolished all your sins by his death be not dismayed at the sight of your corruptions Fight the good fight of faith Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world Christ that commands you to obey his Father will enable you to obey his Father Christ reignes in the hearts of his people not only by making known to them the covenant of his owne grace but by supplying them with strength to doe his will Lord give what thou commandest said one and command what thou wilt Christ commands us what to doe and gives us power to doe that which he commands Such a King is Christ that frees his people not onely from the condemnation of sin but from the power and dominion of sin in their spirits lives and conversations Blessed be God saith the Apostle that ye were the servants of sin Are they so still now they are under grace No but being made free from sin ye are the servants of righteousnesse sinne shall not have dominion over you why ye have a new King ye are under grace ye are under King Jesus If a Tyrant should tyrannize over Subjects and depose their lawfull King if this King afterwards should overthrow this Tyrant and deliver his Subjects from tyranny and bondage by overcomming the Tyrant would hee suffer this Tyrant to tyrannize over them or his people to be under the lawes of the Tyrant We were under Satan the Tyrant under his lawes and commands under the law of sinne and concupiscence but Christ comes and overcomes the Tyrant that ruled tyrannically in our hearts and will hee suffer that Tyrant still to rule us by those commands which he gave us when wee were in bondage to him No we shall not be under the bondage of the flesh if we understand the liberty of grace and of the Spirit The Apostle saith that we doe not live nor eate nor drinke nor doe any shing to our selves because Christ dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord of quicke and dead Rom. 14.8 9. Christ dyed and rose that he might be Lord and King and reigne and set up his Scepter of holinesse in the hearts of his people This was prophesied in Psal 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power When Christ as King comes with power his people shall be willing Christ bids them believe and they believe he bids them love and they doe love they run through fire and water they lay downe their honours and riches at his feet and love not their lives unto the death Object The enabling of Christ in working is not of the same extent with his command Answ In the spirituall and regenerate part the power of Christ is as large as his command The fayling is not from the new but the olde man The whole man or person is under the command so that a man yea every man doth sin because he doth not doe in his person as he is a man what is commanded Charge the fault where it is to be charged upon the flesh which is the cause of a mans sin and then look upon grace which hath abolished sin and you shall finde the new man conformable to the will of God and the man good and holy in part to wit in his regenerated part It is further objected that Christ biddeth us to cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit which no man doth It is granted and therefore we deny not but that every man sinneth if we take him physically But as farre as we are in the Spirit wee are cleansed from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit so that the new man doth fulfill it and Christ doth reign in him though the flesh prove a Traytor and rebellious against his commands Arg. 18. Another argument may be brought from the consideration of the Image of Christ If this were true that all the works of the Saints were in their formalitie sinne this would follow that the Image of Jesus Christ were an Image of unholinesse and sin I ground my argument upon that place of the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 Wee all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Here the Apostle shewes that the Saints are changed into the Image of Christ Now if there were nothing but sin and unholinesse sinfulnesse in those who are looked upon as spirituall as some conceive it wil follow that the Image of Christ into which they are changed must be an image of unholinesse If my love be unholinesse I am changed to that image of love which is in Christ and so it would follow that the Image of Christ doth consist in unholinesse Object If there be perfect sanctification in the new man then wee may bee justified by it Answ I deny that it doth not follow We shall have perfect
sonne of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him 1 John 5.20.3 They are all gone out of the way But we can blesse God who through Jesus Christ hath brought us into the way of salvation 4. There is none that doth good no not one and there is none that is righteous But hearken unto the speech of John 1 John 3.7 Let no man deceive you hee that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous I might runne over all the other particulars there laid downe but I shall content my selfe with what is spoken in the 17. 18. its said that the way of peace have they not known and there is no feare of God before their eyes Is a regenerate man an enemie to the way of peace and doe not they feare God to whom God hath sworne Jer. 32.40 That he will put his feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Again secondly you would prove it by this argument because hee speaketh of all those who are justified But let me tell you that we must distinguish of a man before and after his Justification Every man is such a man before Justification and in this respect he speaketh of all men but after justification there is a change wrought in a man as I have formerly proved at large unto which I refer the Reader But thirdly you instance in David and Abraham who were regenerated men Answ Wee are not to forget that the Scripture dosh acquaint us that there is a two-fold righteousnesse of a regenerate man The righteousnesse of Justification and the righteousnesse of sanctification Of the first of these the Prophet speaking saith that a man is blessed to whom sin is not imputed of the latter where hee saith of the same verse And in whose spirit there is no guile which the learned Zanchius doth apprehend to be spoken in reference to that sanctification which is in the unregenerated part understand the distinction rightly and you cannot want an answer to this Objection Arg. 3. Wee believe not so stedfastly nor love so perfectly as we ought therefore is our faith love imperfect and sinfull Ans 1. If we should grant the antecedent we may deny the consequence It is true that if a man doth not believe so stedfastly and love so perfectly as he ought that then the man doth sin consider him physically And this wee have alwayes granted but it doth not follow that his faith and love is sin but that which is in the flesh is sin which is the cause that he doth not believe so stedfastly and love so perfectly as he ought Amesius doth give a sufficient answer to this in answering an argument which Bellarmine doth bring against the Protestants to wit that sins doe not please God in Christ It is true saith he that sin doth not please God but the stain of sin being done away the good which remaineth is pleasing unto God Sane quidem certe sedpeccati maculâ in Christo deletâ bonum substratum placet Tom. 4. l. 6. c. 8. 2ly We say that a regenerate man looked upon in the new Covenant doth believe stedfastly and love perfectly His unbeliefe and hatred of God which is in the flesh being covered with the rich mantle of Gods grace and mercy as far as he doth believe truly he doth believe stedfastly and as far as he doth love he doth love perfectly Let not his offend any man that I say he doth love perfectly It is granted by most Protestant writers that a regenerate man hath a perfection of parts though not of degrees A childe may have an humane nature and the parts of a man as well as a man of forty yeares old A sparke of fire hath the true nature of fire a drop of water hath the nature of water in it as wel as all the water in the Sea So a sparke or drop of love hath the divine nature of love in it as well as that which burnes in the breasts of a Seraphim and therefore is not sin or sinfull And for this reason it is said that Abraham was not weak in faith though it is unquestionable that hee had his weaknesse in the flesh as well as other men and that hee staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God Rom. 4. And this is the meaning likewise of Amesius in the place formerly cited where hee saith That the good works of the faithfull are not only good by the object of them but in reference to all the causes of them the efficient materiall formall and finall cause Opera fidelium non tantum sunt bona ex objecto sed etiam quoad omnes causas efficientem materiam formam et finem Arg. 4. Sanctification in the feare of God is alwayes perfecting whilest we live here in this life 2 Cor. 7.1 and therefore it is not perfected untill the life to come Answ Sanctification is said to be perfecting here in reference to that which is in the flesh which is to be put off that sanctificaiion may come in the place of it not in reference unto that which is already wrought as though that sanctification were not already perfect if we take perfection as it is opposed to that which is sinfull 2. It is said that our Saviour encreased in wisdome Luk. 2.52 will you say that his wisedome was sinfull at first because he did encrease and grow in it You may as well say so as conclude that our sanctification is sinne or sinfull because it doth grow or increase to a greater perfection Arg. 5. If our workes be in themselves perfect then might Paul have desired to have been found in them before God Answ I deny the consequence For these good workes are not wrought in us that they may be the cause or matter of our Justification and therefore Paul will not appeare before God in them for Justification But Paul and every true Saint being justified by faith without them doth dare to bring them in the presence of God as secondary evidences of Gods love to him According to that of John 1 John 3.14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren hee that loveth not his brother abideth in death ver 19. And hereby wee know that we are of the truth and shall perswade our hearts before him Which you maintaining them to be sin and sinful doe not doe Arg. 6. If the new man doth not sinne then he is not the man who is pronounced to bee a blessed man Psal 32. Rom. 4. Answ This is a plaine fallacy You take the new man here physically whom wee take according to Scripture Spiritually and Theologically Justification to speak properly is neither of the new man nor old man but of the person in whom there is an old man and a new man And this man is justified from the sinnes of the old man by the work of
the spirit in the new man which doth carry him to the grace of God in Jesus Christ Arg. 7. Pauls best workes were accounted by him but as drosse dung therfore they were not perfect Phil. 3. Answ 1. This may be very well understood of his workes done under the Law As the preceding words do seeme to hold it forth where he speaketh of his Jewish priviledges and Pharisaicall righteousnesse And secondly the words following will seem to carry it this way because hee saith that hee accounteth all things dung for the excellent knoweldg of Christ by which is evident that he speaketh of all things as they stand in opposition to the knowledge of Christ 3. This argument maketh nothing for you because you account this knowledge sinfull But let us take it as you do and an answer is presently at hand to wit that the Apostle doth not speake these words absolutely but comparatively They are all dung in comparison of Christ and in reference to their uselesnesse to justification Dung will as soone justifie a man from sin as that love which floweth from faith Arg. 8. This that the new man sinneth not doth in a very high measure if not altogether overthrow all the offices of Christ 1. His Kingly office as having none to rule not the old man for hee savoureth no the things of God be is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be not the new man for he needs not the government of Christ hee is already perfect and cannot sin 2. His Priestly office which is to make propitiation for the sins of those which shall be saved now the new man who only shal be saved never did nor could not commit any sinne 3. His Propheticall office For whom should he teach the new man needs not his teaching seeing he with all his works is already perfect and can be no otherwise The oldâ— man is not capable of his teaching Answ I have already detected the fallaciousnesse of this argument in answering to the 6th Argument Yet give mee leave to prove in few words that this doctrine doth magnifie Christ in the glory of his spirituall offices First in his Kingly office the glory of a king doth lye in subduing his enemies And in thi the glory of Christ considered as a King doth appeare that hee doth vanquish the enemies of us his Subjects by ruling in our hearts with his Scepter of righteousnesse According to that of the Psalmist that hee shall rule in the midst of his enemies By this wee see his regall power over the old man Again the glory of a King is wrapt up in the willing obedience of his Subjects and this is made good in the new man His people being made willing in the day of his power For what is here objected that the new man needs not the government of Christ It is as if one should say that a man doth make void and overthrow royall government because he maintaineth that the Kings Subjects are willingly obedient unto him But you say that they are perfect and therefore his government is needlesse The spirits of just men are made perfect Heb. 12. And will you therefore conclude that the government of Christ over them is needlesse But to passe this by 2. It will appeare that the Priestly office of Christ is not overthrown but established rather by this doctrine for first we hold that no man liveth as a new man who doth live under the guilt of sin and therefore by the eye of the new man wee are daily to looke upon Christ as a Priest in whom is no sinne who by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 Again the Priest was to offer up the sacrifices of the people for them and by this doctrine we establish Christ in his Priestly office which we could not do if we should say that there were nothing in us but what is sinne and sinfull in us The people were to bring something which was good to be offered up by the Priest to God The blinde lame and sicke were not to be offered unto God Mal. 1.8 Neither is that which we doe that is sin or sinfull offered up by Jesus Christ to the Father but that which is good And thus wee establish Christ in his Priestly office by affirming that there is something good in the new man which is the matter of acceptance 3. Wee doe not overthrow his Propheticall office by this truth For he doth daily teach us in the new man Whereas you say that he needs not his teaching wee say that the new man hath his dependance upon Christ for wisedome knowledg and understanding And as a burning Lampe doth daily stand in need of oyle to be powred into it for the maintaining of the light thereof so we say that a Christian doth daily stand in need of spiritual oyle to be powred into his soule by Jesus Christ that he may shine forth in the light of truth Will you dare to say that the soules of the Just made perfect have no need of the teaching of Christ and that they have no dependance upon him because they are perfect Againe it is necessary in respect of the old man who is filled with hellish darknesse ignorance that Christ be looked upon as the great Prophet that wee may put off the ignorance which is in him may be more in the Spirit of Christ which will lead us into all truth It being the way of Gods working to shine into our dark hearts to enlighten them with the knowledge of his grace in Jesus Christ You may begin to see by what hath been delivered that this doctrine doth not overthrow the offices of Jesus Christ but doth sweetly to the glory of his Father confirm him in them Arg. 9. If the regenerate man work perfectly then is the wages reckoned unto him not of grace but of debt Rom. 4.4 But this cannot be that the wages either of the blessings of this life or the life to come should be of debt unto him and not of free grace seeing the Apostle testifieth that God of his free grace gives us his beloved Sonne and together with him all things Rom. 8.32 Answ This first place which is alleadged doth not reach the point in hand because the Apostle doth there speak of works done under the law for Justification and doth thence conclude that if a man be justified by those works which he doth under the law that then the reward is not of debt but grace because the law being not of faith Gal. 3.12 doth give nothing unto us in a way of grace But we are speaking of workes done and accepted under a Covenant of grace The principall cause of mens errour and mistake in this controversie is because they examine the new man and his workes by the law of works and not by the law of sanctification holinesse and love in the new Covenant of grace If wee did examine his workes
by the law of holinesse which is in the new covenant we should plainly perceive that it is by the Spirit of grace that his workes are freely wrought in him and by this means all legall glorying and carnall boasting is taken away According to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.7 Who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it By which you may plainly see that the argument will not hold good to say that if a man work perfectly under a covenant of grace that his reward is not of grace but of debt I shal therefore give you a short answer to the first part of this argument by distinguishing of a two-fold working 1. under a law of works and there it is true that if a man worke perfectly his reward is of debt 2. Under a covenant of grace where a mans sin is freely forgiven him and by free grace he is enabled to worke righteously and there his reward is not of debt to speak properly but of grace Secondly Though we deny that God giveth any reward to a spirituall man as a debt due unto him for his merits and deservings yet wee affirme that God giveth rewards to a spirituall man who doth good works And therefore it is said that Christ commeth with his reward with him to give every man as his worke shall be Revel 22.12 And Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt for he had respect unto the recompence of reward Hebr. 11.26 And this reward may be called a debt not in reference to mans merrit but in reference to Gods promise of grace as a man by his promise may make himselfe a debter to a beggar And therefore the Apostle speaking unto the Saints Hebr. 6.10 saith That God is not unrighteous to forget the worke of the Saints and labour of love And John exhorteth us that wee lose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward 2 John And in this sense something may be given unto us as a reward of that work of grace which is given unto us before it Our confidence in Gods grace may have a great reward in this respect According to that of the Apostle Heb. 10.35 Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward And this may be an answer to the second part of this argument Arg. 10. If the workes of the regenerate be not evill because the holy Ghost worketh them Then the works of the unregenerate as his love and obedience to his parents are not evill Answ There is a generall concurrence of God as the prime cause in the doing of some things by wicked men and thus God may concur to the doing of a thing yet the thing as done by the wicked man may be evill because not done in faith And it is no solid argument to conclude from hence God did concur in the doing of this thing and therefore it is not sin or sinfull 2ly There is a speciall concurrence of Gods grace and Spirit in the doing of a thing as hee is the principall agent in working good spiritually in the Saints who are under a covenant of grace And when God doth concur w th the speciall powerfull assistance of his grace for the effecting of a thing in a Saint it is safe to draw a conclusion to prove the goodnesse of the thing from the considering of the principall agent which did concurre in the doing of the thing As John doth in these words maintaining that a spirituall man considered as a spirituall man and acting as a spirituall man cannot sin because his seed remaineth in him By which distinction you may see the weakness of your argument with which you would prove the unsoundnesse of my arguing from God considered as the principal agent to the effect And the disparity of Gods working in the regenerate and unregenerate When God doth work in a spirituall man that which is spirituall it is not only good substantially and materially but formally and circumstantially by the grace of God as I have proved at large And therefore this argument is not strong enough to overthrow what hath beene delivered Arg. 11. Either the holy Ghost workes the works of the regenerate man wholly as the sole cause and then it is not wee but the holy Ghost that believes that loves that fears God that repents that prayes for the forgivenesse of his sin c. which were absurd to imagine or else we also work with him in some kind of causality to the producing of those workes that so the works may be said to be ours our loving our fearing our rejoycing our praying If so then are we in this working either perfect or imperfect Agents If perfect agents then is there no ignorance in our understandings no depravation in our wille no perversenesse in our affections The contrary whereof all the truly faithfull find by experience and the Scripture abundantly testifieth But if we be imperfect agents then cannot perfection come out of imperfection no effect can be better than its cause Ans 1 The efficiency of the first cause doth not take away the efficiency of the second cause In God we live move yet it is not God that moveth he though he moveth all things cannot be moved himself immobilis movens omnia Aug. So it is not God that repenteth but we repent The ignorance of which truth hath been the cause of the wicked mistery of Familisme which my soule abhorreth And therefore we shall agree in the truth which is implicitely laid down in the first part of your Dilemma 2ly Whereas you say that all the faithfull grant that man is an imperfect agent I answer that if we take perfect here in this point as it is opposed to that which is sinfull so many Saints doe grant and all should and will as more light is beamed into their soules grant it that the sanctified and spiritual man considered as farre forth as he is a spirituall man doth work as a perfect Agent not as an unholy but an holy man And therefore according to your rule his action must be spirituall and holy And this may give an answer to that argument which is brought from Job Who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane Job 14.4 3ly Whereas you say that no effect can be better than its cause c. This is not universally true A man imperfect by the want of his armes or legs may beget a childe which is perfect and hath its limbs But this not being much to the purpose I shall not contend about it Arg. 12. If the new man never sin Christ came not to save the new man for he came only to save sinners Answ The new man taken in this spirituall and theologicoll sence is not the object of salvation but an elect person guilty
and sinfull in himselfe And the new creation is a blessed consequent of our redemption by Christ but I have sufficiently answered this before Arg. 13. That which is not in its owne nature agreeable to the holy law of God is not perfect and without sin for sin is the transgression or disagreement with the law of God 1 John 3.4 But the best of a regenerate mans actions are not agreeable to the law of God being not done with all the heart with all the soule with all the understanding and with all the strength Mat. 22.37 Deut. 6.5 Ans 1. By this argument you would bring the spirituall man to judge himselfe by the law or old covenant but hee is better taught by the Spirit And as hee doth not put his person under the old covenant so doth he not judge his actions by the old covenant but by the new covenant of grace According to that of the Apostle Gal. 5.18 If ye are led by the Spirit ye are not under the law And thus looking upon what is wrought by the Spirit under the new covenant he seeth it in its own nature agreeable to the law as it is delivered unto him in the hand of the Lord Jesus Not that Christ doth require lesse holinesse than is required in the old covenant but because he giveth us more grace enabling us to keepe his Commandements by the keeping of which we know in the light of the Spirit that we truly know him And the Commandements of Christ are kept by the Saints Evangelically two manner of wayes 1. By believing for justification 2. By holy walking for sanctification not that we can keep them by holy walking but as we walk in the light of our justification And thus he is as well able to keep the commandement of love as the commandement of faith Suppose a King should pardon a Traytor and should give him an assurance of pardon for all future Treason which he might run into and had power to enable him in some things and sometimes to be obedient unto him as a loyall Subject would you not say that this Subject were a loyall Subject all his trayterous acts forgiven and his loyall obedience to the command of his Soveraigne being accepted Thus it is between God and us He forgiveth all the treasons of the flesh and accepteth of the obedience of the spirit God doth account that all the commands of the Law are fulfilled by us when that which is not done is pardoned Omnia tunc facta deputantur cum id quod non fit ignoscitur which is true in a sense in reference to sanctification as well as to justification And a spirituall man thus looking upon himselfe in the glasse of the covenant of grace doth know that he is a keeper of the Commandements of God and can say with the Psalmist Ps 119.10 With my whole heart I have sought thee O let me not wander from thy Commandements All his defects and imperfections with the committing of evil and omitting good in the flesh are done away and that which is good is accounted so by the law of God as it is presented unto him in this Covenant So speake ye and so doe as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty saith James Jam. 2.12 As God doth judge our persons by the law of liberty or the law of the new Covenant so he doth judg our actions and thus they are perfect And the law of the new Covenant is not only faith for justification but love for sanctification And thus this place is expounded by the learned Paraeus Arg. 14. Paul did not think himself to have fully apprehended or to be already perfect but strove forward Phil. 3.12 13. which cannot be said of the olde man but only of the new man for the old man doth not strive forward for the prize of the high calling Answ Though Paul had not attained to that perfection which he looked for at the resurrection Yet hee had attained to a perfection of parts which is opposed to sinfulnesse Which doth appear by what followeth in the 15. vers of the same Chap. where he doth acknowledg the Saints in this sence to be perfect with which verse I shal put a period to my answers to your objections As many as be perfect be thus minded if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveale even this unto you Vse 2. The lessons which God hath taught me from these meditations have beene very powerfull by his grace for the convincing 〈◊〉 of sin in a Gospel-way and for the humbling of my soule under his mighty hand by seeing the huge masse of corruption which is in the flesh that little quantity of pure gold which is in the Spirit It was the speech of one of the Ancients that grace in some Saints is like a spark in the Ocean And thus I have apprehended it in my selfe Yet I see that as it is wrought by grace so it is accepted by grace being not under the law as delivered in the first covenant and yet not without the law to God but under the law to Christ 1 Cor. 9.21 And this hath been a strong motive unto mee to hunger and thirst after the righteousnesse of sanctification commanded and promised in the new Covenant which doth comfort mee with an assurance and confidence that that which is perfected here in part inchoatively shall be perfected in degrees consummatively I can say with David Psal 138.8 The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me he will not forsake the works of his owne hand And seeing the strength and power of the flesh in mee I am carried up in spirit to admire and wonder at Gods omnipotent grace by which through faith which worketh by love I am preserved together with all Saints unto the day of salvation in Christ Jesus who is over all Rom. 9.5 God blessed for ever Amen FINIS
truly to believe in his grace through Christ In the second place I shall shew you that faith is the gift of Gods grace As God alone by his almighty power is able to enable a man to believe so God alone can give us this excellent and precious gift of faith by which we are made partakers of the divine nature and carried to heaven to behold the glory of our God in the face of Jesus Christ First faith is the gift of the power of God and therefore Isaiah 53.1 we read of the arm of God which is to be put forth for the enabling of men to believe the Gospell Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed The strength of a man doth usually lye in his arme wherefore God to shew that few doe believe John 12.38 doth prove it by this because his arme or strength is revealed to few The arm power strength of God must be put forth and revealed to men or else men will never be able indeed and in truth to believe what God hath related and reported concerning his glorious grace in Jesus Christ This will appeare by some few considerations First it is the prerogative of Gods powerful will to shew mercy by giving faith for salvation to whom he will and therefore it is not in the power of sinfull man effectually to will his owne salvation Rom. 9.18 Jam. 1.18 Of his owne will be begot us God is the God of salvation and therefore the creature cannot be a Saviour to himselfe Save me saith the Psalmist for thy mercy sake Psal 31.16 Why should the Psalmist have prayed unto God to save him if hee had beene able to save himselfe by working faith in his owne heart wee are all sinners saved by obtaining a Psalme of mercy And it is God that granteth us a psalm of mercy for the saving of our lives and giveth us learning by which wee are enabled for to read it The will of God is the supream ruler and governour in all things and therefore in this for the giving of faith unto whom hee pleaseth for salvation Man lies under unbelief many yeares when God once comes and speakes the word to command light to shine then presently we are enlightned He created light by the word of his power and made the heavens so by the same omnipotent word and power of his he is pleased to create and set up new light in the understandings of those whom hee intends to save giving to them the knowledge of the sweetnesse of his grace and glory in the countenance of Jesus Christ Secondly It is the gift of his irresistable power His will and power cannot be resisted Rom. 9. If there were not such an irresistable power in grace no man could ever be made a partaker of grace All the strength of the naturall man doth fight against grace and taketh up armes against Jesus Christ so that if God did not work irresistably there would never bee wrought the work of grace in the heart of any man If God will perswade Japhet hee shall dwell in the tents of Shem Gen. 9.27 I will worke saith God and who shall let it Isa 43.13 That is none shall let it All the Devils in hell cannot hinder the worke of faith when God intendeth to work it As many as are ordained unto eternall life shall believe Acts 13.48 All Christs sheep shall hear his voyce Ioh. 10.16 The gathering of the people shall be unto Shilo Gen. 49.10 God hath determined the thing to be done before it is done And all his counsells of olde are faithfulnesse and truth Isa 25.1 He should be unfaithfull if his determinations should not come to passe The Apostle in the Ephes 1.11 saith that the Saints have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of God who worketh all things according to his owne will And if we consider the eternall Counsell and determination forgiving faith to some particular person we shall finde that it is impossible that these men should not believe in that moment in which God hath appointed to worke faith in their heart and therefore the Apostle doth acquaint us with the immutability of this counsell Heb. 16.17 And James saith Jam. 1.17 That with God there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning Wherefore seeing God doth dispense the gifts of his grace unto his people according to his unalterable decrees and unchangeable counsells it will be evident that he worketh upon men irresistably God should erre in his prescience or fore-knowledge of things if he should fore-see and determine that a man should believe and that man at the same time should remaine in unbeliefe As an Astrologer would be deceived if he should fore-see and fore-tell that a thing should come to passe and the thing foretold should not come to passe It must be granted therefore that Gods decrees are certaine irrevocable and immutable and that God working according to these decrees doth worke irresistably and therefore faith is his gift because it proceedeth from his irresistable power according to that of our Apostle It is the gift of God Thirdly Darknesse cannot create light Faith is a spirituall light and therefore it cannot come from our darknesse but must have its birth and beginning from some heavenly light And God is the powerfull light from whom faith is beamed into our hearts Five things are required to seeing 1. A visible object 2. The organ of sight 3. A light to discover this object 4. A medium through which this object is to be seene 5. That the organ be in a living and waking creature And these things are likewise requisite to seeing a thing spiritually by faith which all are from the power of God 1. It is God doth present unto us the spirituall object which is to be looked upon for salvation 2. It is God giveth us spirituall organs or eyes 3. Spirituall light to discover spirituall things 4. A medium Iesus Christ through whom wee looke upon him 5. A spirituall life and being It is a thing proper and peculiar to God to create a thing out of nothing and it is his prerogative and power in believing to make us new ereatures By which it wil appear that true faith cannot be of our selves but it is the gift of God Fourthly That which stablisheth Saints in the faith that power doth at the first worke faith in them but God by his power doth stablish Saints Rom. 16.25 The Apostle doth make it a priviledge proper to the power of God to stablish Saints in the faith and therefore it is proper to his power to bring us to the faith Fifthly The promises of God in giving Christ to open the blinde eyes Isa 42.6 7. His engagements to teach us to know him according to that of the Prophet All thy children shall be taught of God His covenant in Christ that we shall know him Heb. 8. doth sufficiently demonstrate that nothing below the omnipotent