themselves to him as their Owner to obey him as their Ruler and to love and seek him as their ultimate End and to believe that his Mercy will not let us be losers in so doing nor to do it in vain § 14. But the Supernatural Revelation telleth us much more than all this Of the promised Seed the means of our Salvation and of our Duty in believing them and of the Certainty and Nature of the Pardon Deliverance and Blessedness which we shall attain § 15. The â—receptive part at first was not to Believe as much of Christ as is necessary since his Ascension but to Believe what God promised and revealed of him to the Church at that time § 16. Even under the Old Testament God increased his Revelation of the Messiah gradually The Prophets spake plainlier of him than any thing written before Therefore a more extensive and distinct belief was needful in one Age than in a former § 17. Yet even the Apostles were in a state of Salvation before they understood and believed that Christ must Dâ—â— for Sin rise again Ascend and Intercede in Heaven for his Elect. § 18. Yet all this was partly revealed before by the Prophets and plainly foretold them by Christ himself Therefore it was not of absolute necessity to Salvation then to believe all of Christ which had been before Revealed though it was a duty to them that knew it § 19. Therefore under the Covenant of Grace the Condition of our right is narrower than the Duty which we are commanded to perform § â—â— The Promised Benefits presupposing the Common Antecedent Mercies were Summarily Christ and Life in him That is that for the sake of Christ's future Merits we should have Pardon Justification Reconciliation with God Adoption Sanctification and Glory and all necessary Helps and Means thereunto § 20. The Penalty was 1. The Pâ—ivation of Recovery 2. and a far sorer punishment for Ingratitude and contempt of Christ and Mercy § 21. This Law or Covenant in this first Edition was made with Adam as the Father of all Mankind and so with all Mankind in him as truly and as much as the Covenant of Innocency was For 1. God's Word maketh no difference 2. Adam was as much after the Common Father of Mankind and all we as much in him as before the Fall And he that will say that God arbitrarily Judgeth otherwise of us must prove it if he can 3. The express Word of God in many places proveth it joyning Children with their Parents in such Blessings and therefore including the Children of Adam § 22. The same Covenant with some positive Additions it pleased God to renew to and with Noah because he was as a second Head and Father to the generality of all Mankind all coming from his Loins as they did from Adam's § 23. As all Mankind was made the Subjects of God under this Law of Grace so by it they were all to be Governed and Judged allowing a diversity of Degrees in the Promulgation Mercies and Penalties thereof SECT IV. Of the same Law with Abraham's Covenant of Peculiarity and the Mosaical Iewish Law of Works § 1. ABraham being a subject to this same Law of Grace did so faithfully Believe and Obey it that it pleased God to reward him extraordinarily by 1. Renewing the Covenant by special Application to him and by the promises of Peculiar Privileges to him and his seed § 2. Not that his Infant seed was the first that was taken into Covenant For the Covenant of Grace had from the beginning been made with the Faithful and their Seed as well as the Covenant of Innocency was § 3. The Peculiarities of this Covenant were Initially promulgate to Abraham Isaac and Iacob and more fully to the Iews as a Politick Body by Moses in the Law with some particular Sub-additions by David and the Prophets § 4. 1st The Promise to Abraham was besides the Common Covenant of Grace renewed 1. A promise of peculiar Favour to his Seed increased to a political Society in Canaan and differenced by special Mercies from all the People of the Earth 2. A promise that the Messiah should be of his Seed § 5. This Covenant did not Discovenant the rest that the World nor put them into any worse Condition than they were before § 6. The peculiar Precept of that Covenant was That by Circumcision as a Seal and Symbol and by peculiar Gratitude and Obedience and relinquishing the Sins of the Degenerate World about them they should difference themselves from others as God's peculiar People § 7. As the Covenant of Peculiarity was not a separated state but an additional Privilege and Reward to Abraham as faithful to the Common Covenant of Grace so Circumcision was the Symbol neither of Abraham as under the Law of Grace alone nor as under the Covenant of Peculiarity alone for that was never alone but as of One under both even under the latter as a Reward for his special Fidelity in the former And so it was â— Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith in the Common Covenant of Grace which he had being yet Uncircumcised though a Symbol also of his after Peculiarities Rom. 4. 1 2 c. § 8. Infants interest in the very Covenant of Peculiarity and Iewish Church-state was not infeparable from Circumcision As Infants were ever Members in the Common Church and Covenant of Grace with their Parents before Circumcision so they were also without it Members of the Iewish Church when as all the Females were Members and all the Males in the Wilderness who for Forty Years were Uncircumcised Yet is it called The Church in the Wilderness when except very few at last it was an Uncircumcised Church Acts 7. 38. § 9. Much less did God lay such a necessity on the outward Sacramental Act as to deny Salvation to the Uncircumcised aforesaid as some would have us think that even under the Gospel he doth by Sacraments The Covenant was still necessary as consented to by the Adult for themselves and their Infant seed but not alway the outward sacrament or symbole § 10. The gathering of Israel into a Policy by Moses as a Theocracy and their receiving a Law from God himself as a Political Body was but the full Establishment of the Covenant of Peculiarity in performance of what God had promised to Abraham and in Circumcision had begun § 11. This Law of Moses therefore must be Considered as an Affix or Appendix to the Common Law of Grace and so either as related to it or as considered simply and distinctly in it self without that relation And as it was a Divine Political Law for the Government of a Republick as such § 12. The Common Covenant of Grace was the Soul as it were of this Political Jewish Law and therefore was really expressed in it in the Decalogue and other parts As it was the Soul of their state of Peculiarity which was the Reward of Abraham's Faithfulness in the
man can do any more good than he doth and so That he hath no meerlysufficient Grace to any one act in all his life § 28. The Controversie about sufficient Grace is the same in the true meaning of it with that of the Power of Mans Free-will For when by sufficient Grace we mean nothing but the enabling a Man to the act or giving him Power to do it the stress of the Question is Whether Man hath truly any Power to do more than he doth For if he have such a Power Grace hath given it him if it be for a Work that Grace is needful to So that indeed were it not for Custom and Expectation this Question should be handled under that of the Power and Liberty of Man's Will § 29. No man hath at the present Grace sufficient for his Salvation if he have longer time to live Because the Grace or help of the present hour is not sufficient for the next but there must be continual Supplies from God supposing that we distinguish of Grace by the distinct numerical acts and hours for and in which we need it But if you distinguish of Grace by the species of Acts for which it is needful and not by the numerical acts then it may be truly said that the same Grace in specie which a Believer hath to day may be sufficient to his Salvation or to his life's end § 30. But if you speak de gradu that Grace may be sufficient to one thing which is not sufficient to another And so 1. An Infidel may have Grace sufficient to forbear some Sin or avoid some Temptation or use some means that tendeth to Faith and Repentance who hath not Grace sufficient to believe and repent unto Salvation 2. A man may have Grace sufficient to enable him to believe and repent unto Justification and yet not have at that instant Grace sufficient to enable him to love God above all as God with a fixed habitual Love and to live an holy life for the Spirit and Sanctification are promised on condition of Faith and Repentance 3. A sanctified man that is yet but weak may have Grace sufficient to live to God a holy life at present and yet not have Grace sufficient for greater trials of Duty and Temptation And therefore Augustine and all his Followers still say That the Grace of Perseverance is a Gift over and above the Grace of meer Sanctification in the weakest degree § 31. By all this it is evident that he that disputeth of the sufficiency of Grace must first distinctly tell us 1. Whether he mean extrinseck Grace or intrinseck 2. If extrinseck Whether he mean it comprehensively of all extrinseck Grace together or only of some particular part of sort 3. If the latter Whether he speak of the sufficiency of Christ's Death and Righteousness Sacrifice Merit Intercession c. or of the sufficiency of the Gospel-Covenant or Promise or of the sufficiency of Preaching Praying and other means or of the Scripture-Records c. 4. If he speak of intrinseck Grace Whether the Question be of Sufficiency ex parte Dei agentis which none must question or ex parte effecti 5. If the latter What is the effect whose sufficiency he questioneth 1. Is it a Grace or Power to do some more common good use some means forbear some evil as the Unregenerate may do 2. Or is it a Power truly to repent and believe 3. Or to love God habitually and live holily 4. Or to overcome greater Temptations and persevere 6. And he must tell you whether he speak 1. De specie whether the Grace or Power sufficient to this sort of Acts or Duty be sufficient to another or to all 2. Or de gradu Whether this degree be sufficient against a greater degree or sort of Temptation 3. Or as men use to distinguish Grace and Help by numerical Acts and Hours Whether the Grace of this Hour and Act be sufficient for the next or for all The sence of all these Questions is distinct 7. But his last and greatest difficulty will be to tell you truly and plainly what is that Grace which is the subject of his Question of its sufficiency in the general nature of it and as related to the thing which it is called sufficient to § 32. For by Grace he meaneth 1. Either somewhat ex parte Dei agentis 2. Or ex parte effecti or 3. Quid medium 1. Grace as it is in God the Agent 2. Or as it is in Man the Recipient 3. Or as it is somewhat between both § 33. I. Grace as it is in God is nothing but his Essence not as Essence but as an essential Power Intellect and Will denominated by Connotation from the effect This is commonly agreed on God doth operate per essentiam and not by Accidents § 34. II. If they mean any mediate thing between God and the Effect either they speak of the first effect or a second and so on If they speak but of secondary effects and the meaning be only whether one effect be a sufficient Cause for another they mean either an outward or an inward Grace or Effect If an outward then the sence of the Question is Whether some other Work of God be sufficient to move the Will of Man And then it must be told what other Work you mean Whether an Angel or the Planets or the Word or Preacher or an outward Mercy or Affliction or what it is But if you speak of the very first effect then the fancy is almost proper to Aureolus among the Schoolmen to think that there is something from God antecedent to the Creature and Motion which may be called Action or Energy or Efflux which is neither the Creator nor a Creature neither Cause substantial nor Effect but Causation As if some Beam of Virtue or Force went from God to produce every Creature and Motion which is neither God nor the Creature or Motion But this is commonly and justly rejected as feigning a third sort of Entity between God and the Creature which it passeth the wit of Man to conceive of what it should be ☞ And if God do immediately per essentiam cause that middle Entity or Action or Force which he saith is no Creature why may he not as well immediately per essentiam cause the Creature and motion it self This therefore cannot be the thing meant by Grace in this Question To question the sufficiency of God's Essence is intolerable To question the sufficiency of a mediate divine Efflux or Action which is between God and the Creature and Effect is to dispute in your Dream of a Chimera an unproved and a disproved and commonly-denied Entity To dispute of the sufficiency of Angels Scripture Sermons c. to work Grace is not the thing commonly intended in this Controversie of Grace Each several sort of means may be sufficient in its own kind and to its own use but no one of them is sufficient to the
rather calleth it than a Habit at first even in the Adult And Calvin saith That some men semen fidei qualecunque perdunt Adam had such a Holiness as might be lost And why may we not say that Infants first Grace is of such a sort or degree 2. And yet that none are saved without more but that upon this first degree they have a right to Salvation and that their further Holiness shall be given them whom God will as part of their Salvation to which they have right At furthest at death in the same time and manner as perfect Holiness and Mortification of Sin is given to Believers that are till death imperfect A loseable degree of Holiness like Adam's may be the way to more in all that so die § 23. Divines use to mention three degrees of Grace in order to Faith it self 1. So much Grace as maketh a man able to believe which they call Sufficient Grace 2. So much more as efficiently determineth him to the Act of Believing This they call effectual special Grace and Protestants call it our Vocation effectual 3. So much more as giveth him a fixed habit of Faith Love and all Holiness together This Papists call Iustification and Protestants Sanctification Vid. Amesii Medull de voc sanct Rolloc de vocat Bishop Downame against Pemble Append. to his Treatise of Perseverance c. § 24. Now some hold all these loseable some hold only the last not loseable and almost all hold the first loseable Now 1. What if we think that Infant 's first Holiness besides relative Pardon and jus ad impunitatem regnum is but of the first degree Though a meer moral Power to believe be not enough to the Adult because the Act is necessary to them yet say Protestants The Habit is not necessary to their first Covenant-Right but is given by the Spirit in sanctification as a Covenant-Benefit And why may not Infants be in a pardoned state that at first have but that Grace which giveth a moral Power to believe when they come to age Consider of the matter § 25. I have so fully elsewhere proved That Infants Church-membership was instituted both in the Covenant of Innocency in the first edition of the Covenant of Grace in the Covenant of Peculiarity with Abraham and in the last edition of the Covenant of Grace by Christ and also that God never had a Church on Earth of which Infants were not Members if the adult Members had Infants that I will now supersede that Work CHAP. XX. Of the Nature of Saving-Faith § 1. SO much of this came in before on the by as will excuse my brevity here I have before shewed That the Faith now in question is not meerly our general Belief and Trust in God as a part of our Holiness but the mediate Belief and Trust in God our Redeemer and our Saviour which is made the Condition of the Covenant the means of our sanctification And also that as the editions of the Covenant vary and promulgation of it so it is not the same degree or acts of Faith as to the particular credenda or Articles to be believed that was and is necessary to all persons in all times § 2. Though the word Belief in English and Assent in Latin signifie strictly only the act of the Understanding and Saving Faith is oft named from one act yet really that Faith which in Scripture is made the Condition of Pardon and Salvation doth essentially contain the Acts of every Faculty even Assent Consent and Affiance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and fides do properly signifie Trust even a consenting or voluntary Trust upon believing as is afore said § 3. We do very aptly call both the Act and Object by the same name fides in Latin and Faith in English oft-times For Faith is a trusting on another's Faith Fidelity or Trustiness and so the fides asserentis seu promittentis fides credentis are related § 4. The Faith that hath the promise of our Justification is not to be called one only Physical act in specie much less in numero That were but prophanely to jest with holy things but it is a moral act or work of the Soul containing many physical acts Otherwise we should be all confounded not knowing how to distinguish of all our physical acts of Faith secundum speciem and then to know which of them is the right And it would be but some very little of the true Objects of Faith that justifying Faith must be constituted by In a word the Absurdities are so numerous that would follow that I will not be so tedious as to name them § 5. Saving Faith is such a moral work as we use to express by the names Believing Trusting Consenting Taking Accepting Receiving in Contracts personal with men If we say You shall Trust such a Physician or take such a man for your Physician all men understand us and none is so logically mad as to think that by Taking or Trusting we mean only some one physical act of the smallest distribution If we say I take this man for my King my Master my Commander or Captain or this woman to be my Wife c. every one knoweth here what Taking meaneth viz. our Consent to that Relation according to the nature and ends of it § 6. Therefore though we use divers names for this Faith and also on several occasions give several half-descriptions of it we mean still the same thing and suppose what we omit to make the description entire § 7. When we call Faith a Believing or Assent we mean such an Assent as prevaileth with the Will to accept Christ with his Grace as offered in the Gospel and consent to the Baptismal Covenant and this indeed as a fruit of the assenting act but as essential to justifying Faith § 8. When we call it Consent or Acceptance or Receiving Christ we mean that as Man's Soul hath an Intellect and Will and a true actus humanus vel moralis is the act of both but of the Intellect as directive and of the Will as more perfective or as the Faculty primarily moral so the same Faith which is initially in the intellect's Assent is perfectlier in the will's Consent And it is the Receiving of a Saviour believed or the Consent to a believed Covenant We suppose Assent when we name it Consent § 9. And when we name it Affiance or Trust we include both the former and mean a resolved practical Trust and dedition of our selves accordingly to one that covenanteth to bring us from Sin and Misery to GOD and Glory where Belief and Consent to that Covenant are supposed § 10. And the Terminus a quo and the renunciation of Competitors and Opposites is connoted if not essentially included in Saving Faith And therefore Christ doth so often tell us of forsaking all if we will be his Disciples § 11. I use to express it by this similitude A Prince redeemeth a
making us inherently righteous or performers of the Condition of the Covenant of Grace hath another form The Act of esteeming us righteous hath another The Act of our Advocate defending our righteousness another The Act of Justifying-evidence and Witness another The Act of sentencing us righteous another And the Act of executive Justification or rewarding and saving us as righteous another And accordingly Iustification passively taken hath as many forms as it signifieth various Effects To be in a state of conditional Iustification to be Performers of the Condition of the Law of Grace to have jus impunitatis right to Impunity that is to be pardoned and to have jus Doni Praemii regni coelestis a right to Glory as a gift and as a reward in several respects are all Effects of God's foresaid Acts and every one hath its proper Being and Form And all this as given us for the Merits of Christ's righteousness concur to make up our whole Iustification as constitutive and virtual in Law and each part hath its proper form And then Apologetick Judiciary or Sentential and Executive Justification are also various Species which have their Forms § 36. Obj. Unius rei unica est forma Justification is one thing and therefore hath but one form Ans. 1. One Iustification is but one thing but there are divers things so called even in Scripture When Christ saith By thy words thou shalt be justified Mat. 12. and Paul saith that we are justified by the â—pirit of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. and Iohn saith He that is just let him be justified still Rev. 22. they have not all the same Sence 2. One thing may have one form and yet it s many parts have many forms Our righteousness taken for the whole of it is one whole whose form is signified by that general Name of our total righteousness and yet its parts are all those before-mentioned which yet each severally are commonly called righteousness But of these things before § 37. Either then let us meddle as little as may be with arbitrary Logical Notions in Theology or let us handle them exactly or else unskilful using them in weighty matters becomes a vain entangling of poor Souls and a childish way of troubling the Church of God The truth is the forms of such Acts are best known by their bare Names if they be rightly named and by the Name many understand what they are where neither they nor their Teachers can find other words by which to give you a fair Definition of them which maketh me think of some of our over-wise and over-righteous Catechizers of the ignorant who use to turn plain honest persons from the Sacrament of Communion if they cannot tell them what God is what Holiness is what Faith Repentance Sanctification Iustification Adoption is by some congruous Description when yet a wise Examination might shew that by the Name they understand the Matter it self though not by distinct Notions and when the Catechizer too often would be found shamefully to seek if he were put to answer his own Questions by a true Definition as I have tried § 38. To conclude there are many sharp Volumes written of late which reproach Imputed Righteousness to which they seem induced by some mens misexplication of it and by such unwarrantable words as some Independents use of it in their Savoy-Confession And they dream that we deny all necessity of Personal fulfilling the Conditions of the Law of Grace as a means of our Justification and Salvation But they utterly wrong the generality of Divines of my acquaintance and notice And I must tell them for the Independents that they did not subscribe or vote that Confession as some present assure me but only a very few men brought it in and read it and none spake against it And some worthy persons of that Assembly upon conference assure me That how ill soever it be worded they themselves did mean it as I and other Protestants do and did disclaim the obvious ill sence And I add Had these Contenders but taken up with the distinction of Imputation which Mr. Bradshaw giveth in the Preface to his reconciling Tractate of Iustification it might have quieted them by informing them in what sence Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us and in what not And they would have seen that which is not ours as Proprietaries of the thing it self in se may be called ours because the Effects are ours and it was given to God for the meriting of those Effects for us CHAP. XXIII How Faith justifieth and how it is imputed to us for Righteousness § 1. ABout this also there are many needless notional Controversies among men that are agreed in the matter it self As whether Faith justifie as it receiveth Christ in all his mediatorial Office as Prophet Priest and King Or only as in his Priestly Office And whether as it receiveth him in all the parts of that Office or which Or as it receiveth his Righteousness only Whether Faith justifie us as an Instrument only Or as a Condition Or as meritorious Whether it justifie us by being it self imputed to us for Righteousness or it be Christ's righteousness only that is so imputed Whether Faith alone justifie us or also Repentance Desire Hope or any other acts of the Soul towards Christ Whether only Faith in Christ justifie and not Faith in God the Father or belief of the Promise or of Heaven c. Of all which briefly § 2. I. The word Receiving Christ Grace c. hath two different sences necessarily to be distinguished 1. Physical Receiving is the strict sence as pati and recipere are all one Which is 1. To receive the meer Act of the Agent terminatively or 2. To receive a further effect of that Act. 2. Moral receiving is nothing but accepting of an offered thing by consent of Will And so to receive supposeth an offer and is nothing but Consent to it § 3. To receive Grace in the strict physical sence is to be made gracious or to be the Patients of the Operation of Grace if it be real But to receive relative Grace physically is nothing but to be made so related So to receive Sanctification is to be sanctified and to receive Justification or Pardon is nothing but to be justified or pardoned § 4. But how is Christ himself physically received That were easily known if you knew how he is physically given But for a Gift of Christ's person by physical attingency we can say nothing of it by Scripture-warrant that I know of It is no matter for our Disputes But in two sences Christ is said to be given to us 1. In Relation as a King to his Subjects or a Husband to his Wife And so we physically receive those Relations as aforesaid That is we are made related to him 2. In the real Communication of the Spirit of Christ to us And so we physically receive the Spirit in its operations that is He worketh them on us
Salvation it self and the Image and Glory of God upon us § 63. V. About the next Question I may yet be shorter How far any Works of ours may be trusted in I think all agree 1. That nothing of ours or any Creature should be trusted to for any thing proper to God or proper to Christ or any thing that belongeth not truly to it self He that ascribeth any thing to our Faith Love or Obedience which is proper to Christ's Merits or God's Mercy and so trusteth them doth greatly sin and he that trusteth them for more than God hath assigned to them to do § 64. 2. That we must take heed of scandaous Language and therefore must not talk of trusting on any act of our own when it is like to be understood as put in Competition with God or with Christ's Merits as if the Question were Whether we must trust God or our selves Christ's Righteousness or our own For our own is not in the least measure to be trusted for that which belongeth only to Christ's Righteousness to be or do § 65. 3. That yet it is a great Duty to trust every means of Salvation appointed by God in its own place and for its own part alone even to preaching Sacraments Afflictions c. And accordingly to trust our own Faith Love Prayer Obedience so far as they are Means and have God's Promise and no further which is no more than to trust in God that he will bless such means He that trusteth his Sword doth not trust it to fight of it self without his Hand When God hath promised Mercy upon Prayer and to the Obedient or Penitent for a man to think that God will yet do no more for us if we repent pray and obey than if we do not is to be Unbelievers and say rebelliously It is in vain to serve the Lord. He is so far to trust to Faith Repentance praying hearing meditating diligence as to trust that God will bless them and reward them and look for more from him when we use means than when we do not CHAP. XXVI Of Confirmation Perseverance and Danger of falling away § 1. I Shall reduce all that needs to be said on this point to these following controverted Questions 1. Whether all Grace procured and given by Christ be such as is never lost 2. Whether that degree of Grace be ever lost which giveth the posse credere without the act of Faith commonly called sufficient Grace in Adult or Infants 3. Whether any lose actual true justifying Faith 4. Whether any lose true Holiness or love of God in the Habit 5. Whether any degree of this be ever lost or all special Grace have such Confirmation as the Angels have 6. Whether if Holiness be never lost it be possible to lose it and be in danger 7. Whether there be a state of confirmed Persons besides the meerly sanctified that from the degree or kind of their grace never fall away 8. Or whether Perseverance depend on meer Election and God's Will which secureth only some of the justified 9. Whether all or most or many Christians are themselves sure to persevere 10. Whether Certainty of perseverance be fit for all the justified 11. Whether it be unfit for all and a more unsafe Condition than doubting 12. Whether the Comfort of most Christians lie upon the Doctrine of such Certainty 13. Whether the Doctrine of Eventual Apostacy infer any mutability in God 14. Why God hath left this point so dark 15. What was the Judgment of the ancient Churches after the Apostles 16. Whether it be an Article of such evidence and weight as to be put into our Church-Confessions and we should force men to subscribe to it or make it necessary to Ministration Communion or Christian Love and Concord § 2. Q. I. Whether all Christ's Grace given us be such as is never lost Ans. No except Iansenius and his Followers I know of no Christians that ever affirm it and he doth it on this false supposition That the common Grace which worketh only preparatorily by fear is not the Grace of Christ but a grace of other Providence and only Love is the grace of Christ. But it is injurious to Christ who is the Lord and Light and Saviour of the World and God's Administrator-general into whose Hands all Things and Power is given to say That since the Fall there is any Grace in the World that is not his Grace and that our preparatory grace and all that 's common is aliunde some other way He that readeth Ioh. 15. Matth. 13. Heb. 6 and 10. may see the contrary § 3. Q II. Whether sufficient grace to believe which giveth the meer power of believing to Infants or Adult be ever lost Ans. These Questions suppose that there are these several sorts of Graces disputed of by Divines 1. Common grace 2. Power to believe and repent 3. Actual Faith and Repentance given by that called special Vocation 4. The Habit of love and all grace called Sanctification to pass by Relative grace as Justification c. 5. Confirmation of these Habits And we now speak only of the second And the very Being of that Grace is controverted Whether God ever give besides the natural Power a moral Power to believe to any that never do believe And 1. it is certain by Adam's instance that he gave him a power to have perfectly obeyed when he did not 2. And therefore no man can prove that now he giveth no man a moral Power to believe that doth not 3. But it seemeth most probable that he doth because his Government and Man's Nature are not tota specie changed 4. And it is certain that still all men have power to do more good than they do 5. And even the Dominicans grant this Sufficiency of grace 6. But yet for my part I am not certain of it § 4. But if there be such a power given which never acteth Faith which I think most probable it is either in the Adult or Infants if in the Adult no doubt it 's lost for they that will not believe to the last retain not still the moral power in their Rebellion § 5. But in the Case of Infants I think those of them that die before the use of reason lose it not nor any of the Elect that live to full Age But as to others after long doubt How far Infant-Grace is loseable this seemeth now the most probable solution to me § 6. Viz. There is a Grace that reacheth but to a moral Power to repent and believe before men have the Act or proper Habit Such Grace to persevere did put Adam in a present state of Life or acceptation with God this Grace Adam lost Accordingly such grace that containeth but this mâ—â—al power in an Infant 's Disposition with relative grace of Pardon is sufficient to provâ— his right to Salvation if he so die because he is not bound to the Act nor capable of it and even the Adult
Will is always fulfilled though not always by the same means And the fulfilling of his will must â—e our ultimate proper End § 11. And because that the excellency of God's works is his own Image or Glory shining in them and the Perfection of the whole Universe most fulâ—y containeth that Glory therefore we may say that God's Glory is his End and that as it is found in the perfection of the Universe of which the Glorified Church is an eminent part § 12. Therefore they that call the Glorifying of God's Mercy in Saving and of his Iustice in Damning men his End and all that tendeth hereto the Means do name a means and that not the highest as the End For the Glory of Mercy and justice is but part of God's created or caused Glory and especially as it is on this or that Individual But the perfection of Christ Angels Saints Heaven Earth and all things is that Glory which may be called materially God's End as being his perfectest Effect as the Complacency or fulfilling of his will herein is the most formal notion of it But God's Glory appeareth in every Creature and every providential change in its proportion and if any will call that God's End we must not make a strife of words if we mean the same thing § 13. According to this explained sence of Intention the distributing of God's Decrees juxta ordinem intentionis will make no considerable Controversie but in the distribution of them juxta ordinem Executionis we more commonly and easily agree And it being but the divers denominations of God's simple will from the effects it is from the Effects â—ure that they are fitlyest distinguished § 14. As to the controversies about the Oâ—jects of God's Decrees meaning the Personal oâ— subjective Object as distinct from the effects of the Volition or the presupposed State of him that God Decreeth the gift to If we will distribute God's Decrees or Volitions as the parts or gifts decreed are distributed then the question is all one as What State a man is supposed to be in when God gives him such or such a Gift which is a thing that we are not much disagreed about § 15. e. g. The Recipient of the Gift of Glory is a persevering faithful Saint The Receiver of the Gift of Perseverance is a true Believing Saint The Gift of Iustification Adoption and the Spirit of further Sanctification is given to a penitent Believer Faith and Repentance are given usually to persons prepared by a more common Grace having the means of Grace and for ought we know sometimes suddenly without such Preparation And so on to the beginning CHAP. VI. Of Reprobation or the Decree of Damnation § 1. THough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture signifieth one whose existent Pravity rendereth him disapproved loathed and rejected of God yet we here continue the word Reprobation as ordinarily used for the Decree of rejecting men for ever that we may be understood not refusing any â—itter name § 2. God's essential Will as such is not called Reprobation nor a Decree of Damnation as distinct from other Volitions Therefore the distinguishing denomination must be fetcht from the effects or objects which it hath relation to § 3. Therefore where there is no effect or object of God's Will there is no such will to be named and asserted But so much as God effecteth in or towards Mans damnation so much he must be said to will § 4. God effecteth no mans Sin and therefore he willed not or decreed not to effect it § 5. He effecteth it not either for it self or as a means to something better Therefore he decreed not to do either § 6. God effecteth much without which Sin could not be as the Life and Power of the Sinners his abused Mercies Objects c. Therefore all this he decreed to do even as his own Works which Sinners make the occasions of their Sin § 7. If it be said that God permitteth Sin therefore he decreed to permit it These things must be answered 1. Permission is an ambiguous word Strictly it signifieth in Physicks nothing at all but a mâ—er Negation which is non impedire not to hinder But in Politicks it oft signifieth a positive Licence or voluntary Concession of Leave for a man to do or possess something And many Divines by Permission mean not bare non-impedition but also some action that tendeth to the procuring of the event In the first and proper sence it followeth not that God decreed to permit Sin because he â—â—rmitteth it For permitting here is but a bare verb and signifieth nothing Not-to-hinder is meerly nothing And nothing is no terminus to denominate Gods Decree or Will But as permitting signifieth any positive act which men make an occasion of Sin it is improperly called Permission and it was spoken of before And though God's general Influx be presupposed that is not Permission nor part of Permission And as Permission signifieth Leave to Sin God permitteth none for it is not Sin if so permitted 2. And if it would hold that God Decreeth his Permission of Sin it followeth not that he decreeth the Sin permitted for that is not a capable object of his Volition § 8. God effecteth punishment even in Hell at least part of it of which in due place therefore he decreeth or willeth so to effect it § 9. God damneth none but Sinners Therefore he decreed to damn none but Sinners Therefore a Man only as a Sinner is the object of the Decree of Damnation or Punishment seeing the Decree is denominated from the effect § 10. It is not a Sinner meerly as a Sinner that God will damn else all Sinners should be damned But it is only a certain sort of Sinners who prevalently and finally reject remedying means and mercy Therefore it is only such that are the Objects of the particular Decree of Damnation § 11. In the first instant we are Men in the second innocent in the third guilty of Sin against the meer Law of Innocency in the fourth we are brought under the Law of Grace upon the Promise of a Redeemer and in the fifth we have the Common Mercies of that Law and Redemption given us as means to our performance of the Duty which that Law requireth and obtaining further Mercy In none of these instants is a man the object of the Decree of Damnation God damneth not any man meerly as a Man or as Innocent or as a Sinner against the meer Law of Innocency nor as redeemed and under the Law of Grace nor as receiving the common means and mercies of that Covenant Nay nor as in the sixth Instant he is guilty of sinning against such Mercies for else all that do so should perish But only as in the seventh instant he is found a prevalent final rejecter of the special Grace and abuser of the common Mercies of that Covenant And therefore the Decree is to be accordingly denominated though God's essential will have
Conclusion helped by Grace whereof the major only is de fide He that believeth is justified but not the Minor I believe Therefore we usually call it a fruit of Faith § 42. Some incautelous Divines in the heat of Dispute do indeed say That it is de fide divina or a Divine Word that I am a true Believer And Chamier too unhappily goeth about to prove it by saying That it is the Word of the Spirit in us which is the Word of God As if the Spirit spake in us new Articles of Faith or a new Word to be believed whose work in those that are not inspired Prophets is but 1. to cause us to believe that Word already given 2. To be a witnessing Evidence that we are God's Children by making us holy as he is holy as similitude witnesseth a Child to be his Fathers 3. And to help us to discern that Holiness or Evidence and to exercise it and to gather Comfort from such discerning it and exercise § 43. We now commonly disown all such Assertions I meet with no sober Divine that owneth them because we grant that Conclusio semper sequitur partem debiliorem But yet we find that those few that call it de fide do most of them mean no more but that it 's partly de fide because the Major Proposition is so and so they differ but about a Logical Notion § 44. Some have said indeed beyond-Sea That a man cannot believe and not know it but we know thousands may believe and yet doubt whether it be a sincere and saving sort of Faith But I have written so many Books of these matters that I here add no more CHAP. XXI Of the nature of Righteousness Iustification and Pardon § 1. THE Controversies about Justification have made a great noise but I think that those de re are few in comparison of those de nomine even among all sorts of Christians and the confounding them by unskilful Heads who have made the ignorant believe that those which are but de nomine are de re hath kindled foolish Wrath and quenched Christian Love and taken up poor Souls with a deceitful Zeal who have thought that they were contending for great and necessary Truths when it was but for Logical Notions Names and Modes of Expression over-commended to them by their several Teachers § 2. The Words Iustice Righteousness and Iustification are very ambiguous used in many sences in the Scriptures and in the Writings of Divines and in the common use of men which I have opened in so many Books and so largely as shall here excuse my breviâ—y The Sences which we are now most concerned to take notice of are these following § 3. Righteousness is considered materially or formally Materially it is 1. immediately 1. A righteous Action 2. A righteous Disposition or Habit 2. And thence a righteous Person § 4. Righteousness materially is 1. in some or other particular Action 2. Or in the main bent of Heart and Life 3. Or in Perfection The first denominateth the Person Righteous in hoc or secundum quid The second denominateth him a sincerely Righteous Man The third a perfectly Righteous Man § 5. In the notion of the material Cause is included also the Comparative or Relative State and Proportion of Actions When the Action is duly qualified and modified in its physical Nature and Circumstances it is materially just § 6. The form enquired of is Quid morale And it is the Relation of the Action and Habit and Person as congruous to the justitia mensurans or the Rule of Righteousness The Rule or Law first maketh jus vel debitum and saith This shall be your Duty and your Neighbour's Due and declareth God's Due And the jus being constituted by the Law natural or positive that which agreeth to it is jâ—stum So that Righteousness formally is a moral Relation resulting from the physical mode and relation of Actions and Habits as compared with the Law or Rule A moral Relation founded in a physical Congruity § 7. Righteousness is both materially and formally distinguishable as towards God or Man Materially as it is God or Man that we deal â—ustly or injuriously by Formally as it is God himself or Men ruling under him who give us Laws and make the debitum vel jus or dispose of Propriety § 8. Righteousness towards God being Relative to his Laws is to be distinguished according to the several Laws that men are under and according to the several parts of the Law which give the word divers Sences § 9. 1. Righteousness as related to the Precept as such is nothing but Obedience whether partial sincere or perfect He that doth righteousness is righteous § 10. 2. Righteousness related to a meer Condition of Pardon or Salvation c. is the performance of that Condition which may be the Causa judicanda § 11. 3. Righteousness as related to the premiant or donative part of the Law or Promise is our jus ad praemium our Right to that Reward or Gift § 12. 4. Righteousness as relative to the penal part is our jus ad impunitatem or when punishment is not due to us according to that Law § 13. 1. Righteousness as related to the Precept of the Law of Innocency is materially perfect personal continued Obedience to our Creator § 14. 2. Righteousness as related to the Condition of that Law is the same because nothing but the said perfect Obedience is there made the Condition of Life § 15. 3. Righteousness related to the rewarding part of that Law is right to that Life which is there promised that is to God's Love and Felicity § 16. 4. Righteousness related to the Penalty of that Law is a Right to Impunity as to the Death which it threatneth to Sinners § 17. 1. Righteousness as related to the meer preceptive part of the Law of Grace is also perfect Obedience for the future not Innocency as to the time past for even Christ maketh perfect Obedience our Duty though he pardon sin § 18. 2. Righteousness as related to the Condition of the Law of Grace is sincere Faith and Repentance as the Condition of our first Right to the present Gifts of the Covenant and also sincere Love and Obedience to the end as the Condition of our final Iustification and Glory § 19. 3. Righteousness as related to the Reward of the Law of Grace is our Right to our Relation to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and all the Gifts of the Covenant Christ Grace and Glory § 20. 4. Righteousness as related to the penal part of the Law of Grace is our Right to Impunity as to the Punishment threatned specially by that Law § 21. The meritorious Cause of both these last our Right to Impunity and to Life is the Righteousness of Christ for the sake of which the Condonation and Donations of the Covenant of Grace are given us § 22. This Righteousness of Christ is his fulfilling the Conditions
Believers or consent to the Covenant of Grace if at age 3. These penitent Believers sins are pardoned virtually before they are committed supposing them but Sins of Insirmity but this is properly no Pardon nor so to be called because it is but the position of those things which will cause Pardon hereafter To be only virtual is not to exist but to be in causis But it is too grosly inferred hence by some That it is not God then that actually justifieth but Man that performeth the Condition as if the Condition which is but a suspension of the Donation and the performance a removal of the suspending Cause were the donative Efficient and so the Receiver were the Giver As if he that opened the window were the Sun or efficient Cause of the Light or he that lets off a Crossbow by removing the Stop were the spring that effecteth the motion of the Arrow § 62. Neither Pardon nor Justification are perfect before death For there are some correcting Punishments to be yet born some Sins not fully destroyed some Grace yet wanting more Sins to be forgiven more Conditions thereof to be performed The final and executive Pardon and Justification are only perfect CHAP. XXII Of the Imputation of Righteousness § 1. THE great Contentions that have been about this Point tell us how needfull it is to distinguish between real and verbal Controversies The opening of the Doctrine of Redemption before Chap. XI hath done most that is needful to the solution of this Case we are commonly agreed in these following Points § 2. 1. That no man hath a Righteousness of his own performance by which he could be justified were he to be judged by the Law of Innocency that is all are Sinners and deserve everlasting Death § 3. 2. That Jesus the Mediator undertook to fulfil all the Law which God the Father gave him even the Law of Nature the Law of Moses and that which was proper to himself that thereby God's Wisdom Goodness Truth Justice and Mercy might be glorified and the ends of God's Government be better attained than by the Destruction of the sinful World and all this he performed in our Nature and suffered for us in our stead and was the second Adam or Root to Believers § 4. 3. That for this as the meritorious Cause God hath given him power over all Flesh that he might give eternal Life to as many as are drawn to him by the Father and given him Joh. 17. 2. He is Lord of all and all power in Heaven and Earth is given him Matth. 28. 19. and he is made Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1. 22 23. Rom. 14. 9 And for these his Merits a Covenant or Law of Grace is made to sinful Man by which all his sins are freely pardoned and Right to Impunity and Life is freely given him if he will accept it and penitently turn to God § 5. 4. Whenever a man is pardoned and justified or hath Right to Life this Law of Grace doth it as God's donative Instrument And whoever is so pardoned and justified it is for and by these Merits of Christ's Righteousness § 6. 5. But Christ doth initially pardon and justifie none by this Covenant but penitent Believers and therefore hath made it our Duty to repent and believe that we may be forgiven and have right to life as the Condition without which his donative and condonative Act shall be suspended § 7. 6. God never judgeth falsely but knoweth all things to be what they are And therefore he reputeth Christ's meritorious Righteousness and Sacrifice to be the meritorious Cause of all mens Justification who are justified and of the conditional Pardon of all the World 2 Cor. 5. 18 19 20. and as sufficient and effectual to the assigned ends as our own personal righteousness or suffering would have been and more though it be not so ours as that of our own performance would have been nor so immediately give us our Right to Impunity and Life but mediately by the Covenant § 8. 7. And as God reputeth Christ's Righteousness to be the prime meritorious Cause for which we are justified by the Law of Grace as afore-said so he truly reputeth our own Faith and Repentance or Covenant-consent to be our moral Qualification for the gift and our Holiness and Perseverance to be our moral Qualification for final Iustification and Glory which Qualification being the matter of the Command of the Law of Grace and the Condition of its Promise is so far our righteousness indeed and oft so called in the Scripture as is aforesaid § 9. 8. Therefore God may in this Sence be truly said both to impute righteousness to us and to impute Christ's righteousness to us and to impute our Faith for righteousness to us in several respects § 10. Thus much being commonly agreed on should quiet the Minds of Divines that are not wise and righteous overmuch and it beseemeth us not to make our arbitrary Words and Notions about the Doctrine of our Peace with God to be Engines to break the Church's Peace seeing Angels preached to us this great Truth That Christ came into the World for GLORY to God in the highest and for PEACE on Earth and for GOOD-WILL or LOVE from God to Man or mutual complaâ—ency and his Servants should not turn his Gospel into matter of strife § 11. That which we are yet disagreed about is the Names and Notions following As 1. What is meant by the Phrase of Imputing in several Texts of Scripture as Rom. 4. 11. That righteousness might be imputed or reckoned to them also Ans. The words seem to me to have no difficulty but what men by wrangling put into them To have righteousness impuâ—ed to them is to be reputed judged or accounted as righteous Men and so used the cause being not in the Phrasâ— it self but fore-described § 12. So what is meant Rom. 4. 6. by imputing righteousness without works Ans. Plainly reputing or judging a man righteous without the works which Paul there meaneth § 13. So what is meant by Not imputing sin Psal. 32. 2. 2 Cor. 5. 19. Rom. 5. 13. Lev. 7. 18. 1 Sam. 22. 15. 2 Sam. 19. 19. Rom. 4. 8 Ans. Not-judging a man as a Sinner guilty of punishment not charging his sin upon him in Judgment which is as 2 Sam. 19. 19. c. because he is not truly guilty or as Rom. 4. 8. c. because he is forgiven § 14. 2. What is meant by imputing our Faith to us for righteousness But of that more purposely anon § 15. 3. Whether imputing Christ's righteousness to us be a Scripture-phrase Ans. Not that I can find § 16. 4. Whether it be a fit or lawful Phrase and whether in so great matters departing from Scripture-phrase and pretending it necessary so to do be not adding to God's Word or the cause of Corruptions and Divisions in the Church and an intimation that we can speak better than the
Flesh and the Devil and take God and Glory for thy all § 18. Christ's own righteousness being not essentially given to us in it self but given for us and to us in the Effects to say That the receiving of that which is not given is the only justifying act of Faith is to say That we are not justified by Faith at all But if they mean the Effects of Christ's Righteousness then it is but to say We are justified by no act of Faith but by consenting to be justified by Christ's Merits Which is not true § 19. They contradict themselves that make Christ's Priestly Office the only Object of Justifying Faith and yet make his whole Righteousness and Merit that Object For who knoweth not that all Christ's Righteousness was not performed by him only as Priest § 20. And Christ's Priesthood hath many other actions belonging to it besides his Merits offered for us Even his present Intercession Which must be excluded if Christ's Righteousness here as under the Law were the only Object of this Faith § 21. II. The second Question I had never troubled the World about so much as I have done had I not found too many Protestants scandalize the Papists by laying too much on the Nation of Instrumentality ill explained But the judicious are here all in sence of the same mind § 22. For by an Instrument they mean not 1. an instrumental efficient Cause of Justification 2. Nor of making Christ's Righteousness ours For we give it not to our selves 3. But they take the word Instrument mechanically or less accurately and tell us that they mean a receiving Instrument as a Boy catcheth a Ball in his Hat But so as that it is a moral Instrument that is both materially a moral act and the Instrument of a moral not physical reception § 23. But when they have all done they do but entangle and trouble themselves and others with an unapt Logical notion For as it is so easie to confute the gross Conceit That Faith is an instrumental efficient Cause either God's or Man's of our Justification which I have done so oft that I will here pretermit it so this Notion of a Passive Instrument is unapt because 1. The Act of Assent is essential to this justifying Faith as well as Acceptance and so is Trust which yet are no more Instrumental in reception than many other Acts even Love Desire Hope 2. Because our Consent to other things as well as to be justified and our Faith in God the Father are as truly the Condition of our Iustification as our Consent to be justified 3. And because this Metaphorical use of the Word Instrument leadeth people to dream of proper Instrumentality and misleadeth them from the apter Notions The Covenant-Donation is the justifying Instrument § 24. I conclude therefore summarily 1. Faith as Faith in the Father Son and Holy Ghost in the Sence of the Baptismal Covenant is the apt Matter to be the Condition of our Justification by the Gift of that Covenant 2. If Justification be taken for making us just Performers of the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace so Faith justifieth us 1. Constitutively initially as it is the beginning of that Righteousness it self 2. And by a moral efficiency as it is a cause of Love and Obedience 3. If Justification be taken for the Gift or right to Impunity and Life in and with Christ so Faith is the Condition of it and no otherwise justifieth 4. But if any will call this by the name of a Submerit with the Ancients meaning but that it meriteth Justification as a Child meriteth a piece of Gold from his Father by putting off his Hat and saying I thank you and humbly taking it instead of scornful or neglectful refusing it I will not quarrel with any such § 25. But remember that as wise men seldom make any thing a Condition of a gift which hath no worth in it to please them so God saw and put such a worth or aptitude in Faith or else he had not so much as commanded it § 26. But yet a Condition simply as such signifieth neither Merit nor Causality at all but only the terms on which the gift shall be suspended till they be performed And so the performance of a Condition as such is no efficien 〈…〉 of the gift but a removing of the suspending impediment § 27. Therefore Dr. Twisse oft calleth Faith Causam dispositivam justificationis which belongeth not to the efficient but material or recipient Cause and the true Legal Notion of its next Interest in our Justification is its being Conditio praestita and the true Logical Notion is to be Dispositio moralis materiae sive subjecti recipientis call it Causam vel Conditionem dispositivam as you please And I think this Question needs no more § 28. III. As to the third Question the truth is obvious That Christ's righteousness is imputed and yet Faith is imputed to us for righteousness in several Sences that is each is reputed to be to us what indeed it is Two things make up the Sence of Faith's being imputed to us for righteousness 1. Faith is really the Condition of the Covenant of Grace which whoso performeth he is righteous against the Charge of Non-performance of that Condition and it is reputed our subordinate Evangelical personal righteousness 2. And supposing Christ's Merits and our Redemption by him this Gospel-righteousness is all that is required of us on our parts instead of all that perfect Obedience which the Law of Innocency required So that our Faith taken in the Scripture-sence is our real righteousness related to the Condition of the New Covenant and instead of a more perfect righteousness of Innocency forasmuch as after Christ's Redemption is required to be performed by our selves § 29. This no Christians that are sober can deny as to the thing And as to the Name it is plain to the impartial that will see that Paul Rom. 4. 22 23 24. and Iam. 2. 23. by Faith means Faith it self indeed and not only Christ the Object of Faith as some affirm with too great Scandal read over the Texts and try what Sence it will be if you put Christ instead of Faith § 30. Obj. But it is not Faith in and of it self that 's meant but as connoting the Object Ans. The latter clause is true it is Faith as connoting the Object Christ But the former is a contradiction For Faith it self essentially connoteth the Object If you speak not of Faith in genere for it is not any kind of Faith that is our righteousness but of the Christian or New Covenant Faith in specie who knoweth not that the Object specifieth it And therefore if it be Christian faith as connoting the Object it is Christian faith as Christian faith § 31. But will any sober Christian deny that 〈…〉 ur righteousness in one sence and Faith 〈…〉 inate 〈…〉 in another and that both are accord 〈…〉 ed to us
§ 15. 5. No external acts of sincere Obedience distinct from internal Faith and Repentance and Consent are necessary before to our first Justification that is to our right to Impunity and life in Christ. § 16. 6. Even internal Obedience to Christ as Christ distinct from our Obedience to God as God and our Subjection to Christ or Consent to be his Subjects and obey him is not before necessary to our part in Christ or our Union or Justification as in its first state or beginning § 17. 7. Therefore if we should suppose that a Man should die immediately upon his first internal Faith and Consent to the Covenant before he had time to do one Act internal or external of formal Obedience to Christ as Christ that Man would be saved But the Supposition is so utterly improbable that it is not to be put as a matter of Dispute The Thief on the Cross performed some Obedience § 18. 8. No Works of Man's are necessary to profit God or can add to his Perfection or Felicity He needeth not us nor any of our doings § 19. 9. No Works of ours are necessary to make up any defects in the Merits of Christ or to any use which is proper to Christ or his Merits or efficacious Grace § 20. 10. No preparatory Works of Man's I think are absolutely before necessary to God's effectual converting of him unless you will call the Acts of Nature by which he is fit to hear and think preparatory Works unfitly For God can give his Grace to unprepared Souls § 21. On the affirmative also we are agreed 1. That all Mankind are under God's Government by some Law and owe Him Obedience to that Law § 22. 2. That it is only Disobedience that God punisheth according to the Penal part of that Law which men live under § 23. 3. That it is only Obedience which God rewardeth according to the rewarding or promissory part of the Law that men are under § 24. 4. That the Law of Grace and not only that of Innocency hath its Commands of Obedience and Promises of Reward § 25. 5. That men must believe that there is a God before they can believe that Christ is the Anointed of God and the Mediator between God and man and therefore must first believe God's Soveraign Government § 26. 6. God commandeth men to believe in Christ and so maketh it their Duty and to take him for their Lord and Saviour by Faith § 27. 7. Men ought thus to believe in Christ and accept him in obedience to this Command of God believing that it is his Will § 28. 8. Therefore there is some sort of Relief in God and Obedience to God which is in order before our Faith in Christ And Faith in Christ as it is voluntary and free is an Act of such Obedience to God § 29. 9. Yet is it the antecedent Teaching of Christ by Nature by the Word or Spirit or all by which we now come to know God to be God and that he is to be believed and obeyed Therefore Christ is mens Teacher and thereby bringeth them to believe first in God before he is known to be their Teacher and believed on himself As the Sun-beams before its rising give some Light to the Earth § 30. 10. God hath commanded men that hear not of Christ the use of some means which Mercy hath through Christ afforded them which have a tendency to their Salvation and should be used to that end And his bare Command to use such means much more as seconded with abundance of Mercies tell us that he bids not men use them in vain or without any hope of good success of which before § 31. 11. He that heareth of Christ and believeth not or believeth uneffectually and is not a converted sound Believer is under God's Command to use certain means allowed him to procure Faith and true Conversion and that not without all hope of good success § 32. 12. It is God's ordinary way to give his first special converting Grace to predisposed Subjects prepared by his commoner Grace in which Preparation some Acts of Man have their part And the unprepared and undisposed cannot equally expect it § 33. 13. Faith and Repentance are Acts of Man and pre-requisite to Justification Therefore as Acts and Works are words of the same sence so Works even Works of Special Grace are pre-requisite to Justification Obj. But not as Acts but for the Object Answ. That 's a contradiction Christ is Christ whether we believe in him or not and it 's one thing to say Christ is necessary and another thing to say Believing in him is necessary It is not necessary meerly as an Act in genere but as this Act in specie and it is specified as is aforesaid by its Object Not only Christ believed in but Believing in Christ is pre-requisite as a moral disposition to Justification And in that sence a Work or Act of Man § 34. 14. It is before shewed that this Faith is a moral Work containing not one only but many physical acts He that believeth in Christ believeth in him as sent of God to reconcile us to God to bring us to Glory to save us from Iustice Sin and Enemies to sanctifie us by his Word and Spirit with many such acts that make up the Essence of Saving-Faith This is the Work of God that ye believe on him whom the Father hath sent Joh. 6. 28 29. § 35. 15. The Faith that hath the Promise of Justification is essentially a subjecting our selves to Christ that is a taking him for our Lord and Saviour by Consent Which is a Consent to obey him for the future § 36. 16. Though this actual Obedience to Christ besides Subjection be not pre-requisite to our first being justified it is requisite to the Continuance of our Justification For we consented to obey that we might indeed obey and are perâ—idious if we do not § 37. 17. The World and Conscience will judge us much according to our Works § 38. 18. The same Law of Grace being the Rule of Duty and of Iudgment God will judge all men according to their Works required by that Law by justifying or condemning them § 39. 19. Final justification and glorification are the Rewards of Evangelical Obedience and the reason rendered of Christ's justifying Sentence Matth. 25. passim is from such acts of Man as qualifying them for the free Gift of God § 40. 20. There is a moral goodness in these Works of Man by which through Christ they are pleasing to God which is their aptitude to this acceptance and reward In all this I think all sober Christians must needs confess that they agree § 41. III. And as to the Case of Merit a few words with understanding men may dispatch it We are agreed on the negative 1. That no Man or Angel can merit of God in proper Commutative Justice giving him somewhat for his Benefits that shall profit him or to which
upon the Act have right to Acceptance and to the Spirit to cause the Habit in order of Nature before they have the Habit Therefore Infants may be in a state of such Right and Life before the Habit though they shall not possess Glory without it And yet the Adult are not in a state of such right by the meer Power before the Act because the Act it self is made necessary to their Justification but so is it not to Infants So that Infants and Adult may receive a meer power to repent and believe and lose it after at age by actual sin though this be a loss of a state of Iustification to the one sort their fins of Nature being pardoned but not to the other who are not pardoned without the Act And yet it followeth not hence that the grace of habitual Sanctification is lost in any § 7. If this solution please not let them that can give us one that is less inconvenient and we shall thankfully accept it but it must be none that yet I have heard of not the Anabaptists nor those of their Adversaries who leave us no certainty of the Salvation of any particular Infants but only say God will save them that are Elect but no one knoweth who they are nor how few or many nor can tell us of any promise made to any upon any antecedent Character or Condition nor give Believers any more assurance of their own Childrens Salvation than of any Heathens Nor theirs that say Baptized Infants are saved by relative Grace alone without any internal real Grace Nor theirs that say They have the Spirit but tell us not in what operation or say it is only right to the Spirit hereafter Nor theirs that say That all Baptized Infants at least of godly Parents have habitual Holiness Faith Love c. such as the Adult in Sanctification have and that some at Age do lose it I think this less inconvenient than any one of these § 8. Q. III. Whether any lose true actual Faith and Iustification Ans. That a common uneffectual Faith may be lost is no doubt But concerning the other there are three Opinions 1. Some say No it cannot be lost because that Faith hath the Promise of the Sanctification of the Spirit as well as of Pardon and right to Life Therefore seeing habitual Holiness is not lost that which hath the Promise of it is not lost 2. Others say That actual Faith at first is like Adam's loseable Grace and that it giveth us actual Pardon and right to Life if we so die and right to the Spirit in relation to sanctifie us in time and by degrees But that every one that hath the Spirit hath not the Habits of Love and Holiness but he sometimes is causing many Acts before he produce a Habit ad modum acquisitorum 3. Others say That both Faith and habitual Holiness are oft lost I delay the solution till the rest be considered § 9. Q. IV. Whether habitual Love or Holiness or the Spirit be ever lost Ans. That there is a confirmed state or degree of Holiness that is never lost I do hold and that this is attainable and in that state men may be certain of Salvation But whether the least degrees of habitual grace be utterly loseable which prove a present right to life till they are lost I must plainly profess I do not know much may be said on both sides And if my Ignorance offend any it offendeth me more but how shall I help it I think it is not for want of study nor of impartial willingness to know the Truth And Ignorance of the two is safer than Error by which we trouble and seduce those about us And in this case so many great and excellent Men have erred either Augustine with the generality of the ancient Churches or Calvin Zanchy and most of the Reformed that my Ignorance is pardonable where their Error it self is pardoned But let those that are wiser rejoyce in the greater measure of their Wisdom But yet think not that taking up either Opinion upon the trust of their Party is such § 10. Q. V. To the next some have said That had Adam done but one act of Love or Obedience he had been confirmed as the Angels in a state of Impeccability And that so are all that once truly believe in Christ. But Experience utterly confuteth that For all men sin after believing § 11. Others say only That men may sin and may lose acquired Grace but no degree of that which is infused But we have small reason to think that our encreased degrees are not as much infused as the first degree was And yet Experience proveth that such added degrees may be lost § 12. Others say All added degrees may be lost but none of that which was first infused Indeed could we prove that God alwaies at first infuseth only the least degree consistent with Salvation then this must be held by all that deny that any fall from Justification But for ought we know God may the first minute give one man more Grace than to another in long time and that first degree may be lessened by his sin § 13. Q. VI. Whether it be possible to lose that Holiness which never will be lost Ans. The word Possible respecteth either a Consequence in Arguing and is a Logical Possibility or it respecteth the natural power of Causes and is called Physical Possibility In the first sence it is impossible that any thing should come to pass that doth not because God knoweth it will not And it is a good consequence God knoweth that this will not come to pass therefore it will not And it is impossible that this Consequence should be false But as to the natural Possibility no doubt but of our selves we can sin nay it is not an act oâ— Power but of Impotency or from a defect of Power And the Habit given us is not a sufficient Power to ascertain our Perseverance of it self But if you speak with respect to the Power of God by which we are preserved we must thus answer That it is impossible for us or any Creature to overcome God's Power or Will And if it be first proved that God will cause us to persevere by the way of Physical irresistible determination by Power then it must be called Impossible to fall away or commit any Sin which he so saveth us from But if he keep any as a free Agent by the sapiential disposal of his Free-will and so procure the event of a contingent action then it must be said that this and many things are possible which never come to pass That God only decreeth that we shall not fall away and not that it shall be impossible Thus Dr. Twisse and the Dominicans themselves use to speak But for my part I â—ake God's manner of working on and for us to be so unsearchable and this notion of Possibility or Impossibility of so little moment when we are
willeth them to be future or because they are future from the free Agent 's Will Ans. 1. God's Knowledge ex parte sui is his Essence and hath no Cause for it is no Effect God's Understanding Will and Power are essentially One but as various inadequate conceptions they only make up perfect Unity and are not Causes and Effects to one another much less caused by any Creature 2. But Futurity is caused by that which causeth the thing future And therefore the futurity of Sin is caused by Man that causeth Sin so far as it is capable of a Cause of which more in due place But as Futurity is not Existence so it needeth not an existent but sometimes only a future cause 3. And God's Intellect is terminated on things as Intelligible and that is as they are And so on things that are future by his own will as such and on things future by Man's Will as such as far as Futurity is an object of an eternal mind § 9. The many Disputes de scientia simplicis intelligentiae purae visionis mediae I think best abbreviated according to the forementioned Principles God's essential Understanding is but One Things intelligible are many God's simple Intellect may be variously denominated as related to and terminated on various intelligible Objects and so according to their Order But this signifieth no real diversity at all in God but in the things known Nor must we dream that Scientia simplicis intelligentiae is like man's a knowledge of certain Logical Notions or Propositions by way of Thinking as to know that This is possible and the other is possible and that is convenient as if God needed such second notions to know by but it is infinitely above Man's mode of knowing His Knowledge is first effective and then intuitive and this without diversity or change in God § 10. It is a great aggravation of the Presumption and Prophaneness of many voluminous School-Disputes about the unsearchable nature of divine Intellection that the certain Knowledge of our own great ignorance even about every silly Creature and of God's incomprehensibleness and infinite distance do not prevail to repress such audaciousness and bring men to more Modesty and Reverence of God And how much more learnedâ—y and wisely doth he answer abundance of their Questions who saith I know not than they that by presumptuous conclusions take on them to know what they do not nor ever will do in this World CHAP. V. Of ELECTION § 1. ELECTION in Scripture sometimes signifieth God's actual choosing or taking one Man or People from among others to himself either for his special Complacency and Service by Sanctification or Conversion or to some special Office as David was chosen from among his Brethren And sometimes it signifieth God's eternal Will or Decree so to choose call or sanctifie and save men at a determinate time as in Eph. 1. and elsewhere § 2. God will convert justifie adopt and save some men by his Grace § 3. Therefore it is certain that God from Eternity did will or decree so to do For the event in time maketh it fit so to denominate God's eternâ— will Though there was nothing before the Creation really but God and so real existent Man was not the Object of his Will and Man in esse cognito was nothing but God himself there being nothing else from Eternity except as Eternity comprehendeth Time § 4. In the same manner as God bringeth men to Grace and Glory he willeth or decreeth to do it For his Decree to do it is no real Act of God distinct from his Essence but it is his simple essential will denominated from the effect related to it Therefore the Controversies about Election â—re resolved into those about the giving of Grace â—nd Salvation and there will be clearlier opeâ—ed § 5. Glorification Perseverance Adoption â—ustification Sanctification Faith and Repentance â— or Vocation preparatory common Grace and â—he Gospel and other means of Conversion are â—everal Gifts of God's Grace through Christ Therefore God's Decrees to give them may be â—liversly denominated from relation to the effect The Decree to glorifie may be distinguished from the Decree to convert to justifie â—c And yet where all these are really conjoined and are but as the parts of one Engine the several gifts which make up One Salvation as the object â—or effect is in that sence One so may God's Decree be called One as related to it So that they that say God's Decrees about our Salvation are many and they that say They are one do both speak Truth and disagree not § 6. They that will denominate God's Volitions or Decrees according to the Order of Intention must not mean that Ex parte Volentis God hath really many thoughts Volitions or Decrees and that the first is de fine and the next de mediis But only that in the order of real Causation one of God's Gifts or Effects is made to be a Cause or Means to the production or attainment of another and so the latter is to be Man's End intended in the use of the former and so Man is first to intend the End before he useth the Means But no Gift Work or Creature is to be called God's End except when we speak Vulgarly after the manner of Men that which we will not defend as proper Speech § 7. Yet God may be said to will and nâ—â— One thing to produce or Cause another whicâ— importeth only that it is a second Efficient Causâ— of that Other and the other an intended Effect and also that the other is to man to have rationâ—â— finis and so may be called finis operis operanâ—â—â— secundarii § 8. God is not an Efficient Cause of Himself or any thing in Himself and therefore not properly an End to Himself because there is nothing in Him Caused But if any will speak otherwise as if there were in God himself Eternal Causatioâ— Efficient and final and Eternal Effects and thereby explain the Doctrine of the Trinity let them remember that they venture on singular Expressions and such as favor of Imperfection but we hope that they differ from the Commoner way but in a Logical Notion rather than in a real Conception § 9. If we may not say that God is his owâ— End for every End hath a Means and there is no Means to God's Beings or Perfections then he is not properly said to have any End For nothing but Himself can properly be his End § 10. Yet when by an End we mean but improperly the ultimate Effect and not any thing which to God is Causa agendi and so declare that we take the words End and Intention equivocally as to God and Man the phrase may be used And in that sence we must say that God's will as Efficient being the Beginning of all things God's will as fulfilled and pleased is the End of all which yet signifieth not any diversity or change in God for his
would not do all those must die for Obedience even to those commanded Tasks was then made necessary by God And as to temporal death it was not by that Law to be escaped but on the strict terms thereby required So that doing these things was necessary to life temporal and to eternal in sincerity And the driving on the People by temporal punishments to these externals was that Body of the Law which the mistaking Jews had separated from the Soul of it § 24. And he saith None could be justified by the Works of the Law because this written political Law and its externals were in this Dispute put in opposition to Christ and the Law taken for the meer Body of Moses's Law separated from the Law of Grace which was its Soul and no doubt 1. It is Faith in the Redeemer and Covenant of Grace which is the Condition of constituting Men Iust which they must have before any Obedience to their particular Laws could be sincere and acceptable and the faithful keeping of the Law of Grace which is made the Condition of salvation 2. And to dream that legal Strictness Ceremonies Sacrifices or other legal Works would justifie them without Christ and Faith in him or any otherwise than as Acts of Obedience to their Redeemer by which their fidelity to the Covenant of Grace was to be expressed while that Law was in force was contrary to the true meaning of their Law it self § 25. The rest of the World were not in the Covenant nor under the Law of Peculiarity or Jewish Policy And as such as is said it is now all abrogated even the Decalogue it self though its Matter be still in force as aforesaid SECT V. Of the Law or Covenant of Grace in the last Edition or the Gospel § 1. VVHether the Covenant of Grace in the first edition to Adam and this of the second edition by Christ shall be called One or Two the same or diveâ—s and the old Church and the Gospel-Church the same or not the same in specie are but needless questions about the bare Name of Oneness as long as we agree wherein they differ and wherein they differ not In some respects they may be called the same and in some not the same § 2. The Parties in the first Covenant of Grace were really but two GOD and Man unless you could prove that Christ had then such a superangelical Nature in which he mediated as some before mentioned hold But the Parties in the new Covenant of Grace are really Three viz. GOD as the absolutely Supreme who gave us a Mediator and Christ the Mediator as the supreme Subadministrator to whom all Power is given and Man the Subject to both § 3. The Benefits of the first Edition respected a future Saviour and his future Righteousness Sacrifice and Mâ—rits But the Benefits of the second Edition respect an existent Mediator and his merits and sacrifice already performed and accepted of God § 4. The revelation of life eternal and Man's spiritual felicity and duty is far clearer in the second Edition than in the first § 5. As there is more done for us so there are more full and excellent means provided for Man's information conversion sanctification and salvation in Apostles Scriptures Miracles spiritual Ordinances than under the first § 6. As the means excel so the Spirit is given in a greater measure answerable to the greater Revelation and means And is specially Christ's Witness and Agent in the World and the mark of his peculiar ones § 7. And as more is done for us so more is now to be believed by us Many necessary Articles are added to our Faith That this Iesus is the Messiah that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under P. Pilate was crucified dead and buried descended to Hades rose again the third day ascended to Heaven is there glorified in our Nature Head of all c. are all new Articles of our Faith which before were not required because not revealed or the matter extant § 8. This second Edition is both the Covenant of Grace and a Covenant of Peculiarity far excelling the Iewish Covenant of Peculiarity Believers are a holy Nation a royal Priesthood a peculiar People c. § 9. This Covenant supposeth the antecedent gifts of a Saviour to be incarnate and do his meritorious and sacrificing part and all such Preparatories and of Life Gospel and Opportunities given to the Sinner § 10. The parts of the Covenant are 1. The Conditional Gifts or Benefits 2. The Condition or Terms of Right 3. The Rule of Duty 4. The Penalty for violation or neglect of the Covenant § 11. 1. The Gifts are God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in their Covâ—nâ—nâ—-Relation to us and the love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy spirit Or as it is briefly expressed in 1 Ioh. 5. 10 11. Christ and life in him that is Pardon Iustification the Spirit Adoption and Glory at first in right and after in possession and all means and mercies which God seeth meet to bring us to it § 12. 2. The Condition of our first Right is 1. That of natural necessity viz. Repentance and Return to God 2. Of natural and instituted necessity Belief and Confidence in Christ and Covenant-Consent § 13. The Condition of our continued and consummate Right and full Possession is the former Faith and Consent continued Repentance renewed when we knowingly sin and sincere Obedience and Perseverance § 14. 3. Seeing sincere Obedience supposeth a Law we must know that more is in the Precept than in the Condition Therefore we distinguish of necessitas praecepâ—i medii The Precept requireth perfect Obedience as due But Sincerity is the Condition and will save without Perfection § 14. The Precepts or Law of Christ now contain 1. The Law of Nature for all Things and Iudgment are given up to him 2. The new peculiar Laws of Grace containing our special Faith in Christ and his special Institutions of Church-Order Ministery Worship c. § 15. The Penaelty of the Law of Grace in this Edition is as in the first 1. A Privation of its Benefits to Nonconsenters or Insidels with a greater dâ—gree of punishment for Ingratitude 2. And withdrawings of the Spirits help for our quenching and resisting it and abusing Mercy 3. And temporal castigatory Punishments to Believers for their saults § 16. The Sum of all essential to this Covenant is in Baptism and the Lords Supper which are therefore Sacraments and Symbols of it and Baptism was appointed by Christ himself to be the solemn Initiation Badge and Character of his Disciples and Church-Members § 17. The History of Christ's Life and Sufferings and of his Apostles Life and Preaching and all the â—est of holy Scripture is God's Word and his Doctrine belonging to the Gospel-Covenant But it is the Covenant it self or Law of Grace which all that are under it must
that he giveth not Salvation to all men and yet that he doth give many and great Mercies to all men and especially that he hath given to the World and not only to the Elect an express conditional Pardon of Sin and conditional Iustification Reconciliation Adoption and Right to Glory And sober Divines had rather say that this universal conditional Deed of Gift is the effect of Christ's Sacrifice and Sufferings than that God giveth it to one part of Men for Christ's death and to the other part not for his death but as without it And we are agreed that Christ doth give to some such special Grace as shall and doth infallibly prevail with them to repent and believe and also actual Pardon Justification Adoption and Salvation § 19. Therefore in this sence Christ died for all but not for all alike or equally that is He intended good to all but not an equal good with an equal intention Whatever Christ giveth men in time as the fruit of his death that he decreed from Eternity to give them And whatever he never giveth them he never decreed to give them What he giveth them absolutely he decreed to give them absolutely And what he giveth them but conditionally he decreed to give them but conditionally Therefore being agreed of the fact and event we must be agreed of the Intention or Decree and what needs there more And by this time you may answer their Objection that say Why not a common and conditional Election as well as a common and conditional Redemption Ans. Neither of them are conditional as to the Act of God and Christ There is no act of ours the Condition of God's decreeing ex parte Dei but only of the thing decreed nor of Christ's Death or Intent but only of the benefit That a conditional Act of Grace or Deed of Gift of Christ and Life to all Mankind in common in the tenor of it should be made was both decreed by God and purchased by Christ. But 1. This is not the whole of God's Decree or Christ's Purchase and Intent 2. And this is not to be called Election as it signifieth a choosing of some from among the rest Common Redemption and the Decree of Common Grace both antecede that which is properly called Election in order of Nature in esse objectivo that is God decreeth to give Faith and Salvation effectively to some of them that had common Grace § 20. The old Solution which Schoolmen and Protestants have acquiesced in is That Christ died for All as to the sufficiency of his death but not as to the efficiency of their salvation Which is true but must be thus explained Christ's Death and Obedience were not only sufficient but effectual as to their first effects that is They effected that which is commonly called Satisfaction and Merit and hence and from the Covenant of God they were also effectual to procure the Covenant of Grace as of universal tenor and therein a free pardon of Sin and gift of Right to life-eternal to all on condition of due acceptance This conditional Gift of Christ and Life is effected And this efficacy of the antecedent Mercies must either be called part of the sufficiency of Redemption as to the consequent Mercies viz. Actual Pardon and Salvation or else an efficiency beyond the sufficiency antecedent to the said special efficiency That Christ's Death hath effectually procured the Act of Oblivion or conditional Gift of Life to all Mankind but it doth not effect the actual salvation of all To the universal Grace it is both sufficient and efficient but to the special Grace and actual Salvation it is sufficient to All as after shall be opened but not efficient which is by the Refuser's fault and forfeiture § 21. When we say that either Christ's Death or Grace is sufficient to more than it effecteth the meaning is that it hath all things on its part which is absolutely necessary to the effect but that somewhat else is supposed necessary to it which is wanting § 22. As there is a common Grace actually extended to Mankind that is common Mercies contrary to their merit so there is such a thing as sufficient Grace in su◠genere which is not effectual So that though it be disputable in what cases this is found and what not yet that there is such a thing is past dispute § 23. By sufficient Grace here I mean such without which Man's Will cannot and with which it can perform the commanded Act toward which it is moved when yet it doth not perform it and this without any other degree of help than that which procureth not the act So that it is not all that is useful to the effect nor all that is necessary to easie or prompt performance or to the infallible ascertaining of the act nor to the melius esse only that we speak of but so much as is necessary ad esse and efficient of the true posse When you can properly say that a Man can do this you say that he hath all that is of necessity to the doing of it § 24. Iansenius himself is so far from denying this Grace called Sufficient that he asserteth that by this improved by free-will without such special Grace as of it self giveth the Act as well as the Power the good Angels stood when the bad ones fell and Adam stood till the time of his Fall And so that such a thing there hath been § 25. And seeing God is still the same and man's will the same in its natural faculties and God seemeth to us to delight in Constancy it is very improbably imagined that God did for so short a time Rule Angels and Men by such a Grace as he would never after make use of in the World and that Man's free-will did for so short a time do its Duty by that Sufficient Grace and never after do any one act by the like Grace in any one to the World's end § 26. It 's true that such Grace will not serve our turn to do that now in our lapsed state which Adam could have done in Innocency no nor will all our effectual Grace yet reach it that is to have continued sinless But it is incredible that no common Grace of God now is as sufficient to the performance of the least good act which is good but secundum quid as Adam's was to the fulfilling of all God's Law and that the best unregenerate man is not able to do any better than he doth or forbear some Evil that he doth as well as Adam to have forborn all § 27. At least to the Regenerate such a Grace must be acknowledged For though of the rest Iansenius will say They do no good because they love not God and goodness and on the like reasons others will say That the Regenerate do no good because all hath sinful mixture or imperfection yet he will not say so of the godly And must we believe that no godly
effect But if you will put the Question as of All together it must be so explained § 35. III. The Grace therefore meant in this Question can be no other than either some effect on the Soul as tending to a further effect or the aforesaid comprehension of necessary extrinseck means If the former be meant as it is by almost all Schoolmen and Disputers of this Case then 1. It must be enquired Whether such a thing be and 2. What it is if it be § 36. 1. Bradwardine and some that go his way do deny the being of any such thing as we now dispute of and say That God's essential will as a will is the immediate Efficient and the Act of Man is the Effect e. g. Faith and because God willeth that Act it doth immediately exist as the World did by his creating will And so here is no place for the Dispute of Sufficient Grace For God's Will is certainly sufficient to cause what he will cause And Man's Act either is existent or not And there is no Grace antecedent to it to be called insufficient unless you will vainly say that Gods essential Will is sufficient to nothing but what he preduceth which is a Dispute unfit for sober men § 37. 2. But because the contrary Opinion is far more common that there is an inward Grace e. g. to believe or consent antecedent to our Act whose sufficiency is questioned it poseth the Wits of all the Schoolmen much more is it above many Contenders that never so much as studied it to say what it is The Notions of Alvarez who calls it motus and of Vasquez and others I have elsewhere considered and here pass by And I have shewed that I take it to be so far past man's reach as to be unfit for hot Contention But so far as we may conceive of it it must be in this twofold notion 1. As it is some Divine Impress on the Soul which is Analogus to the Vis impressa received from the Mover in the Patient in corporal Motion 2. That this Impression received doth in primo instant◠put the Faculty into such an immediate Ability to the Act or such a state of Disposedness to the Act as may be called a Moral Power the natural Faculty being supposed and puts the Will in such a state as to the act of Consent as that it can do it but is not necessitated to it nor actually determined but can forbear And this is called sufficient Grace 3. And in the next instant when the Will doth consent God and Man are both Causes or Agents and the Grace is effectual by both Causes God the first and Man the second § 38. 2. The Pelagians and some others seem to think that God doth not operate immediately on mans Soul as to proximity of Causation but immediately on superiour Causes and Means as Angels Word Objects c. and that when all means are duly ordered man may be said to be able in his meer natural powers for the Act because those means are now Grace sufficient to excute it And that when one Means of an hundred is wanting it is insufficient Grace § 39. We all confess that God worketh by means and we cannot name an Act on us which he always or ordinarily doth without any means or second Cause And we acknowledge that there are gracious means and that ordinarily these must have a sufficiency in their kind But withal we must say that God worketh immediately as to proximity of Causation when he worketh not so immediately as without second Causes And that whether by means or without means as he pleaseth there must be such a Disposition communicated to a depraved undisposed Soul as shall be a moral power and put it into an immediate capacity to consent or act And to dispute the sufficiency of the means is one thing and to dispute the sufficiency of this inward Disposition or Power is another And this must be the question § 40. The common disputed question is Whether all men have Grace sufficient to believe which must be negatively answered They have not Those that never heard the Gospel have not § 41. But 2. have all that hear the Gospel sufficient Grace to believe Ans. No many of them are hardened by former sinning so as to be set at a greater distance and enmity than many Heathens § 42. But 3ly All the World hath Grace or merciful Help sufficient to enable them to do less evil and more good than they do and to use some means better than they do which tend to further Grace And they that do not this are justly denied further Help § 43. 4. But the sticking difficulty is Whether any men in the World have Grace sufficient to repent and believe savingly who do not To which I answer 1. The Question is of less moment than it 's commonly made to be seeing those are unexcusable who use not that Grace which was sufficient to their foresaid use of means and less resistance to God's Grace 2. But certainly to answer the question negatively or affirmatively I cannot as not knowing any more of Gods working on mens Souls than he himself hath told us of 3. But if we may conjecture upon Probabilities it seemeth to me most likely that there is such a sufficient Grace or Power to repent and believe savingly in some that use it not but perish For 1. if Angels had and used such a sort of Grace 2. And if Alam had such a sort of Grace and used it a while 3. And if unregenerate men have such a grace for lower Acts which tend to Faith 4. And if the Faithful have such a grace to do more good and less evil than they do 5. It seemeth very improbable that only to the fifth Instance to repent and believe none in the World should have such a sufficient grace § 44. And though Iansenius seem very singular in denying that there is now any such sufficient grace of Christ in the World which is not effectual either to believe or to do any other good that is That Christ's grace enableth no man to do any more good than he doth yet indeed it is most in two ambiguous Words that Iansenius differeth from others though many unskilful Disputants suppose it to be much more material a difference viz. 1. In one Syllable GOOD For he will call nothing good in man's Actions but Holy Love and its Effects and so saith That no unsanctified Man doth good and therefore hath not Grace sufficient to do it But moral Good is taken in three Sences or Degrees 1. Good secundum quid in a degree not predominant And so Infidels and ungodly Christians have some good 2. Good secundum quid vel imperfectum but in a degree predominant And so the Godly do good though mixt with evil 3. Good in perfection and unmixt with evil and so none do good till they are perfected in Glory To say nothing of essential simple Good
per se and independant for so none is good but God only And all this is the Effect of Grace § 45. 2. But saith Ian senius there is some grace which is not gratiâ— Christi the grace of Christ and such is all that cometh from meer fear without Love which is a kind of providential preparatory grace but not the grace of Christ. Ans. It is not that eminent and special grace of Christ But to think that it befalleth men without Christ's procurement and is not a commoner sort of Christ's grace when all Power in Heaven and Earth is put into his Hand and he is made Head over all things to the Church is below a Christian Divine to imagine and too injurious to Christ. But by all this it appeareth that even Iansenius differeth from others more about the Names of Good and Christ's Graces than about the Matter CHAP. XIV Of Mans Power and Free-will since the Fall § 1. SO much is said Chap. 9. of Mans natural Power and Free-will and so much now Chap. 13. of grace and the Power given by it as may allow me to be short in what is here to be added § 2. All that natural Power and Liberty which was essential to the Will remaineth in it since the Fall For Man is of the same Species § 3. The Will is still a self-determining Principle supposing 1. God's necessary Influx as he is the first Cause of Nature 2. And the Being and convenient Position of Objects 3. And the Perception of the Intellect 4. And the concourse of necessary concomitant second Causes § 4. The three Faculties of mans Soul are all vitiated by sin 1. The vital active Power is so far dead to God and Holiness as to need the cure of quickening and strengthening and exciting Grace 2. The Intellect is so far blinded as to need the cure of illuminating grace 3. And the Will is so far turned by Enmity from God to the inordinate Love of carnal self-interest and Creatures as to need the cure of converting sanctifying Grace § 5. Grace healeth the Will of this Enmity and vitious perverseness so far as it prevaileth which is 1. common Grace enableth it to common good and prepareth it for better 2. Special Grace causeth it actually and habitually to will and love special Good that is God as God and the Creature for God and Holiness as his Image 3. Perfecter Grace bringeth up the Will to perfecter holy Acts and Habits § 6. Nature it self is not in lapsed man divested of all moral or Divine Principles Abilities and Inclinations In the Intellect there are commen Notices of a Deity that is That there is one God who is infinitely powerful wise and good And in the Will there are some Inclinations still to good as good and therefore to God as far as he is truly conceived of as good and so far as that conception is not conquered by a cross Conception of some Enmity And so of other Good § 7. Nature and common Grace may cause a man to go as far in Love and Religion as those whom we call the highest Hypocrites or almost-Christians may do which our practical Preachers do frequently tell the People at large in Books and Sermons § 8. Such may have a common sort of Faith in Christ even formerly to the working of Miracles and of Repentance and Reformation and of good Desires and love to goodness and good Men yea to God himself § 9. For men are not so corrupt by Nature much less under the Effects of common grace as to hate all goodness or to hate all that is in God They may love God as he is the Almighty Creator Preserver and Natural-Orderer of the World and the Cause of its Being Motion Beauty Harmony and all natural Good And they may love him as he is the Giver of life and all natural Blessings to themselves and as he is the Preserver of them and their only Security and Help in Danger and not only as his Blessings gratifie their Senses but as all their Hope of everlasting Happiness is in his Power and Love They may love him as he doth this good to others also and is the common Benefactor to the World without whom it could not subsist a moment And they may love him as he maketh such Laws as preserve their lives and Properties and Rights from Fraud and Violence and by making other Men conscionable just and charitable to all do both gratifie themselves and tend to the common Order Peace and Welfare of Societies and of Mankind § 10. I am not able to confute or deny what Adrian afterwards Pope hath written in his Quodlibets That an unsanctified Man not in a state of Salvation may so far love God even above himself as to consent rather to die and be annihilated than were it possible God should be annihilated or not be God For a Heathen might consent to die for his Country And he is a Bâ—ast and no Man that would not rather be annihilated than all the World yea or all the Kingdom or all the City should be annihilated or than the Sun should cease to be or to shine And he that knoweth that if there were no God there could be no World no Being Motion Knowledge Goodness or Felicity in the World besides that which is worse the Cessation of the Infinite Good himself must be yet more unmanly if he would not rather be annihilated alone if per impossible you suppose he could live alone than all this greater Evil should come to pass He that tells men that they shall be saved if they would rather be annihilated than that there should be no God doth make them a promise which God hath not made § 11. But as the same Author observeth that which the unholy cannot do is to love God as God as the ultimate Object and most amiable Good to be known and by Love and Holiness enjoyed and pleased by a holy Soul and this above all sensual terrene Delights and to love him as the holy Ruler of the World who forbiddeth all sinful sensuality and all mens inordinate Conceits Desires Delights and Practices and requireth holiness and purity of Mind and Life and Sobriety and Temperance and Self-denial in all that will be saved And as he is a just Judge who will execute all these Laws and condemn the ungodly to endlers Misery They love not God as he is the holy Goâ—â—â—â—our and righteous Iudge of men that would restrain them from their sinful Wills and Pleasures and damn them if they will not be holy And consequently they love not his Laws and other means by which this is to be done Because loving the pleasure of their Lusts and being averse to things spiritual high and holy they love not that holiness and rectitude in themselves which God commandeth Rom. 8. 5 6 7 8 c. § 12. Though God as the Fountain of Nature continue the natural power and liberty of the Will yet its moral
Impotency Pravity or ill Disposition by which it is averse to Holiness and prone to Sensuality must be cured by Grace where common Grace and special cause common and special Effects in the Cure § 13. The moral Power given by Grace consisting in the right Disposition of the Will is not of the same kind with the Natural Power or Faculty And the Words CAN and CANNOT used of both sorts have not the same signification but are equivocal otherwise Sin and Grace should change mans Species Those Disputants therefore that confound them for the sounds sake deceive the Auditors § 14. We must say then That quoad vires vel potentiam naturalem every man can believe who hath the use of Reason Objects revealed and extrinseck necessary Causes that is He wanteth not the natural Faculty or Power nor needeth another natural Faculty but only the Excitation Illumination and right Disposition of that which he hath But as to the said right Disposition or moral Power no one can truly repent and believe without that Grace which must so dispose him Common Grace must dispose him to a common Faith and special Grace to a saving Faith § 15. It is more proper to say That an Unbeliever and unholy Sinner will not repent and believe than that he cannot though that also may be truly said if well explained But the meaning is not that he cannot though he sincerely would Nor yet that he cannot be willing for want of the natural Power of willing But 1. That he hath a Logical and 2. A moral Impotency that is an Indisposition he wanteth both Disposition Habit and Act but not the Faculty § 16. It is an abusive miscarriage of those Disputants who in the Words CAN and CANNOT use to confound not only as aforesaid natural and moral Power but even Logical also which is neither and signifieth no more but that in ordine probandi such Premises being put the Conclusion Can or Cannot follow For so it may be truly said That no man can do speak or think any other than he doth and nothing can ever come to pass but what doth come to pass even from Gods fore-knowledge this will follow For seeing nothing ever will be otherwise than God foreknoweth it will be a Disputant will say It can be no otherwise but he must only mean that posita praescientia divina the Conclusion cannot be true that the Event will be otherwise when yet as to the nature of Causation we must say sensu physico morali that it Can be otherwise oft-times though it will not be otherwise § 17. These things considered it appeareth that we are commonly agreed as followeth 1. That all Men have natural Powers and Free-will to good even spiritual good that is Whenever such good is chosen or willed it is done by the natural Power or Faculty and when it is not willed it is not for want of a natural Faculty but its due Disposition § 18. 2ly That as to Civil or Law-power and Liberty all men have much more than Liberty granted them by God to repent and believe For Helps and a Command are more than Leave or Liberty But Liberty from the Penalty for sin belongeth only to the pardoned § 19. 3ly That as to Ethical Power and Liberty which lieth in a right Disposition of mans Faculties every man hath it so far as Grace hath prevailed and wrought it in him and none any further § 20. Or as Liberty is denominated from the Evil which we are free from 1. All mens wills are free from being constrained to sin 1 By natural inclination of the faculties themselves 2. Or by the senses 3. Or by Objects 4. Or by Men 5. Or by Devils 6. Or by God Because the rest cannot and God will not no not physically premove and predetermine it thereto § 21. 2. The wills of all men are free from any Commands to Sin that is God cannot command it for else it were no Sin and if men command it their Commands are null and lay no obligation on the will to obey them § 22. 3. We are free from sinful Dispositions so far as Grace freeth us and no further Therefore by common Grace men have common Liberty and by special Grace saving Liberty but none perfect Liberty here and no unsanctified man hath saving Liberty of Will that is such by which he is duly disposed to such acts as have a flat Promise of Salvation And where now doth our difference remain § 23. Obj. The difference is Whether a bad man can change his own will Ans. Your can meaneth the natural Power or the due disposition As to the first he can that is he hath those faculties which want not natural Power to act better But as to the latter he cannot without Grace that is through indisposition he will not § 24. Q. But is not Grace the only cause of the Change Ans. Grace only causeth the first Impress on the Soul which moveth it to act but the Soul or will it self is a Cause of the Act else it were not Man but GOD that doth repent believe obey c. § 25. Q. But is it Grace or Free-will that is the chief Cause Ans. Grace no doubt Which is commonly acknowledged by the several Parties § 26. The very marrow then of all the question about the Power and Liberty of the Will is that so often before mention'd Whether Man's Will be made of GOD such a self-determining Power as can truly do any more good than it doth or forbear more evil without any more Grace from God than that which it hath while it doth no more And whether ever the Will can and do make a various use of the same degree of Divine Assistance And this as is said is confessed of the Angel's Case and Adam's For if Adam had not Power to have stood when he fell by the same Grace that was given him but fell because God withdrew or with-held such necessary Grace without which he could do no other than he did we may then lay by these Controversies and think how to answer Infidels § 27. Those persons that make others odious by their revilings for holding Free-will or denying Free-will without telling men what Freedom it is that they mean natural ethical legal or logical Freedom from Coaction necessitating Premotion natural Inclination or viâ—ious Disposition c. should be rebuked by the Lovers of Truth and Peace as the Peace-breakers of the Church and World that presume in their proud ignorance to reproach others for that which they understand not § 28. They that say That the Liberty of the Will as natural is not violated but by Coaction and that Coaction is nothing but making a man will against his Will in the same respect and act and so that to will and to will freely is all one and that to will by Coaction is a contradiction viz. to will and nil the same and that God predetermineth all mens wills to all sinful
habits and acts in specie as circumstantiated by immediate necessitating or unresistible premotion and yet taketh not away their Liberty because he maketh them will and not nil the sin These do but play with the name of Free-will and are confuted as aforesaid from the instance of Adam and from the scope of Scripture and do subvert the Foundations of Christianity To will is the proper act of my will and if he that moveth me by prime physical efficiency to will the circumstantiated act of Sin deprive me not of my Liberty because it is willing that he maketh me do then if Men or Devils had Power to make me will Sin as I cause my Pen to write or the Fire to burn this or that it would be no loss of Liberty But of this more largely elsewhere CHAP. XV. Of Effectual Grace and how God giveth it § 1. AS I said before about Sufficient Grace so here about Effectual the first thing to be done by Disputers is to agree what that is which they here call Grace as the Subject of the Question And as I there shewed 1. It cannot or must not be God's essential Will or Power for that is simple and immutable and not in it self save relatively distinguishable into sufficient and effectual 2. An Efflux or vis which is neither God nor the Effect there is none or none proveable 3. It is not Faith it self that is meant here by Grace for it is the Grace that effecteth Faith and it were absurd to ask what Faith is effectual to make or cause it self This is true both of the Act and Habit. The meaning is not what Habit of Faith is effectual to the Act nor what Act to the Habit or it self but what Grace of God is effectual to cause both Act and Habit. 4. Therefore there is nothing left to be meant by Grace but the two things before mentioned viz. 1. The gracious Means or second Causes appointed by God to cause our Faith 2. The first moving Impress on the Soul as it is antecedent to Act and Habit supposing that such there is though some deny that there is any such thing § 2. And for the first all means will be uneffectual without God's inward Operation by his Spirit He must work on the Speaker and on the Hearer to make means effectual as is agreed on But whether as God worketh in Naturals according to the aptitude of natural second Causes so he work Faith and other Graces by a settled proportion of Concourse agreeable to the Aptitude of gracious second Causes or Means of Grace is a Question too hard to be boldly and peremptorily determined by us that are in so much darkness § 3. But it seemeth to us that God would not have made it so great a part of his Government to establish a Course of Means if he did not intend to work ordinarily by them and according to their fitness Christ is the chief Means and instituteth the rest Scripture Ministers Example good Company merciful Providences Afflictions Meditation Books Prayer Sacraments c. are all appointed for such effects And if God would ordinarily work immediately without means what need all these This teacheth Infidels to say that he may do it without Christ. The Spirit first indited the Word as we cut a Seal to be the instrument of Impression and then by that word doth work on Souls § 4. But if God did tie himself not only ordinarily but alwaies to apt means no mortal could say what means is sufficient and what is insufficient and what is more than sufficient even necessarily efficacious For the means 1. are very many and more than we can take notice of and if one be wanting it may render the rest insufficient or uneffectual how excellent soever in themselves 2. And that means is fitted to one Hearer that is not fitted to another All have not the same temptations hindrances prejudices objections weaknesses nor obstinacy And God only knoweth when means are adequately fitted to the desired effect upon mens Souls § 5. And though many of the means operate ex parte sui necessarily yet so do not all For Preachers and Instructers are free Agents and so it must be other effectual means that must first move them to do their Duty for a Sinner's good Which who can judge of § 6. But God is the Arbitrary Absolute Lord of all means and therefore he can change and dispose of them as he pleases and yet work by them So that the Effect is nevertheless from God's free or arbitrary Volition though he never went beyond the aptitude of means When even a silly man can turn the natural course of Water and Wind to move his Mill or Sails at his pleasure without any alteration of their natures A Fisher can use his Bait as may serve his end and a Physician can vary his Medicines to cure the Disease without changing their nature or curing without them § 7. But there is no question but God can work without means and Intellectual Souls being so near to the first Cause it is utterly uncertain to us whether in Works of Grace God have not a double operation on the Soul one by his appointed means and another by immediate Influx and if it be so how these concurr to one and the same effect and also how God doth immediately move Souls are all past Man's reach and should be acknowledged above our Disputes § 8. II. God hath more inward operations on Man's Soul than one or two whether with means or without to bring us to Faith and Repentance The mind must be enlightened the dull faculties must be excited especially Conscience and Will and the Will must be touched with the gust of Divine Love to breed a holy Complacency in good and many Impediments must be removed some by outward acts of Providence and some by inward Grace And where Impediments are not removed no doubt but there needeth more of the other Acts of Grace to bring such a Soul to Faith and Repentance than in one where there is less resistance § 9. And seeing that Recipitur ad modum recipientis and the disposition of the Recipient hath so great a hand as common Experience telleth us in almost all the Changes in the World what wonderful variety of Effects doth the same Action of the Sun produce throughout the World by the diversity of receptive dispositions Therefore no mortal man can say when the efficacy or success of Divine Grace is more to be ascribed to the Preparatory Disposition of the Recipient by a former act of Grace and when more to the present moving Influx nor what proportion these alwaies bear as comparable And what man dare say that he can search out the waies of God § 10. When we know so little of the secret Energies of natural Principles nor how God produceth Animals in the Womb nor how he causeth our Food to nourish us nor how any of our Senses do
their Office nor how our Souls do use the Corporeal Spirits c. And when Christ hath told us That the Wind bloweth where it listeth and we hear the sound of it but know not whence it cometh and whither it goeth and so is he that is born of the Spirit Ioh. 3. 8. Should not this with the experience and consciousness of our Ignorance suffice to keep us from bitter Contendings about that which is certainly beyond our reach and from presumptuous boldness with the unsearchable things of God § 11. Whether you will with Bradwardine and many others say That it is God's meer Volition that effecteth all things ad extra or whether you will say with the most That it is not his Will alone but his Will as operating by his executive Power the meaning seemeth to be the same and the difference to be but notional as is aforesaid For they that speak in the first manner mean That it is not God's Will as in it self immanently considered but his will as going forth to produce an effect which emanation or exertion is from the effect called by those that speak in the second manner God's Executive Power § 12. The prime Reason of the Effect is God's Wisdom Will and Power as the Cause And so the prime reason why Means and Grace become effectual whenever they are effectual must be from God the prime Cause § 13. The first Impress on the Soul moving it toward the Act e. g. Faith is the first Grace internal sub ratione effecti And this God himself worketh on man as on a meer Patient tho' not antecedently to all former acts of Man or all preparative dispositions usually yet antecedent to that Act of Man to which it moveth So that as to this 1. Man is passive 2. and the Divine Operation or the powerful Will of God is not only sufficient but effectual for that Impress or Motus is effected § 14. Though God being a Spirit moveth not by such Contact as Bodies do on each other yet must we conceive of his motion and the motion of all Spirits on Bodies as analogous to corporeal Contact and as a motion by Efflux and eminent Contact of Virtue and Essence according to the more excellent nature and operation of Spirits or else we cannot conceive positively of them § 15. It is already proved that God useth various degrees of Impress or Motion on Souls of which some do by their proper power or degree so ascertain the effect that the Argument is alwaies good as a causa where-ever God doth so move there the Effect that is the Act e. g. Faith or Consent followeth And this Grace is effectual ex propria vi vel virtute But that God sometime operateth by a less Impress or Motion which doth not from its own force inferr the effect but so far disposeth the Mind or Will to the Act that the man can do it without any more grace which is it that is called Sufficient Grace as aforesaid § 16. It is a thing not to be believed that this latter degree of Divine motion is never eventually effectual to the Act Seeing 1. it is granted that there is such a Power in Man's Will as câ—n act in some cases by that degree of Grace called Sufficient And frustra fit potentia quae nunquam reducitur in actum 2. And it 's granted that the Angels and Adam did act by such help Therefore as to acts preparatory before special Faith few do affirm that they are all done by such Grace as is necessarily effectual ex propria vi alone but that sufficient Grace leaveth them often to Man's Will § 17. Therefore all that remaineth is to resolve what is the reason of the certain effect when we believe To which I say 1. It is ever an effect of two Causes at least God's motion and man's faculty and so both must be said to be the Cause of the effect 2. But man's will is no Cause save a recipient Cause of God's Part or Impress 3. God sometimes at least maketh so powerful an Impress as doth necessarily determine man's will by a Necessity consistent with his Liberty 4. It cannot be proved by any man that no man believeth by that sufficient Motion which doth not necessarily determine his will seeing many preparatory acts are done by such a motion And it 's probable that it is oft so 5. But the certainty of this or when and how oft it is so no man can know § 18. But by which degree of Grace soever the effect be produced still God's Will is the chief cause of it which can procure the effect infallibly when it doth not necessitate Yea and his premotion or impress called Sufficient is incomparably more the cause than Man's Concourse is though God leave some part of the Causation to man's Free-will § 19. But when the Effect doth not follow that is when men believe not it is man's will by omission and resistance that is the chief cause and culpable and not God's omission or non-determination § 20. The same degree of divine Impress or Motion which prevaileth with a Soul predisposed by common Grace is not enough to prevail with some others that are ill or indisposed Though God's Absolute Will and Answerable Operation would prevail with any how bad soever CHAP. XVI Of the State of Heathens and others that have not the Gospel § 1. THE opening of the several Laws or Covenants of God before hath taken up most that is necessary to be said about this point The question Whether any but Christians are saved is agitated on both sides by so much the sharper Censures by how much the nearer it seemeth to concern the Fundamentals of Religion § 2. On one side some say That nothing is more fundamental than God's Nature and Government and Beneficence and the Attributes which belong to him in respect to each And they say That for God to be the Ruler and Benefactor of the World and to be also gracious and merciful and Love it self and a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him are our Fundamentals which are not consistent with this That all the World since Adam except a few Believers or Jews and Christians that were born from Adam under as absolute a necessity of being remedilesly damned as of dying § 3. Here they use first to consider of the number viz. 1. That it is not past the sixth part of the World that are called Christians 2. That the far greatest part of these perhaps twenty to one have not competent means to understand what that Christianity is which giveth them their name and which as to the name they profess The Circassians Mengrelians and other Georgians the Armenians the Muscovites the Cossacks the most of the Greeks and Abassines yea and Papists besides the Copties Syrians Nestorians Iacobâ—tes Maronites Christians of St. Thomus c. and too many Protestants are bred up in so great ignorance that multitudes of them never are
these are the World in the worst sence 3. Consenting Subjects under the Common Law of Grace who yet were not Iews nor are not in the Covenant of Peculiarity And such are in a state of Salvation though not in the Church of the peculiar as the Subjects of Melchizedeck Sem c. and so are both in the Church and in the World in several sences § 37. Having delivered that in this great Question which seemeth to me agreeable to God's Word I advise those that use to assault such things with reproach which they find reproached by their Party to remember that God is Love and Christ is the Saviour of the World and the Pharisaical Appropriators of Mercy and Salvation do seldom know what spirit they are of CHAP. XVII Of the Necessity of Holiness and of Moral Uirtue § 1. HOLINESS is our Dedication Separation or Devotedness to God and alienation from all that stands in competition or contrariety to God § 2. It is our Separation to God as the Creator of our Nature and our Redeemer and the Author of Grace and our Felicity and the Cause of Glory As the first Efficient supreme Dirigent and ultimately final Cause § 3. It is our separation to God as our Owner by Resignation as our Ruler by Obedience and as our Benefactor and ultimate End by Thankfulness and Love in the acknowledgment of his infinite power wisdom and goodness as essential to himself and related to his works § 4. Holiness is our dispositive actual and relative separation to God 1. When our Souls are habitually inclined to God and to his Will 2. When we actually give up our selves to God and to his will by Consent first and Obedience and Love after 3. It signifieth the relation of the Person as thus habitually and actually separated A holy Priesthood 1 Pet. 2. 5 9 11. § 5. Holiness is the Habit and Act of all the three Faculties of the rational Soul viz. 1. Of the vitael Active Power by Quickening and Strength 2. Of the Intellect by Illumination 3. Of the Will by Conversion Love or Complacency § 6. The Soul as sensitive and the body it self are said to be sanctified so far as they are dispositively and actually subject and subservient to a holy Soul in Holiness and related accordingly as separate to God § 7. Our Holiness is no alienation from the Creature as a Creature in its due place and subordination to the Creator but contrarily containeth our Honour of and Love to all God's Creatures for his sake and impress and a devoting of all that is ours to his use But it containeth a renunciation of that which is against his Honour and Government and Love as such § 8. As God communicateth Holiness really and relatively to Man so holy persons communicate such Holiness to Creatures below them as consisteth in the use and relation of things separated to God by a due separation of them by their dedication and holy use and that in various degrees § 9. True Holiness is the Health the Rectitude the Honesty the Justice of man's Soul and therefore necessary as his Duty by God's Law even of Nature and to his Happiness both in the very nature of the thing and by the determination of God's Law It is a contradiction to be happy and unholy Rev. 20. 6. § 10. Holiness is the end or perfection of our Nature and God's chief Interest in man and is begun by Grace and perfected in Glory § 11. The Fear of God and his Iudgments and a Care of our own Souls and a Sorrow for Sin and a desire of Happiness may be not only Preparatives but lower parts of Holiness but the true formal specifying nature of it consisteth in a love of God's infinite goodness and a Will addicted to obey his Will or a Pleasedness in pleasing Him This is Holiness § 12. Because a man is denominated according to the predominant bent of his Will or Soul he is not to be called Holy who hath some slight inclination to please God and more to please his own carnal Appetite and Will or greater love to the Creature than to God § 13. Christ himself came into the World to recover sinful Man by Holiness to God and disdained not to be a means of Man's Sanctification and to make this the notable operation of his Holy Spirit on us § 14. Whatsoever Law Men are under before Christ or since Jew or Gentile Works or Grace no man can be saved and happy without Holiness that is unless they be devoted in Obedience and Love to GOD and Goodness § 15. No man can be damned that is holy while such nor can God hate and make miserable those that truly love him and his governing Will. § 16. Yet a person that is holy may deserve Damnation by deserving to be denied that help of the Holy Spirit by which his Holiness must be continued And as to be saved is to be perfectly sanctified so to deserve Hell is to deserve to be forsaken to the â—oâ—al loss of Holiness And so though it be hard for us to know whether Adam's first loss of Innocency was a total loss of Holiness yet if it were not it was a forfeiture of divine help and so a mediate loss of it And so a man that loveth God sincerely may by great Sin deserve to be deprived of the Spirit and therefore we must pray for the pardon of such desert for the sake of Christ though we cannot be damned or miserable while holy § 17. Obj. But how doth God love a holy Soul if he forsake him and with-hold his Spirit And if he be not loved of God he is miserable If he be loved he will not be forsaken Ans. Answer this your self as to the Case of the Angels and Adam God loved them and yet not so as to secure them from the loss of Grace But he so far loved them efficiently as to give them that grace by which they could persevere but not that by which they necessarily should persevere and he loved them complacentially according to the goodness which was in them and yet they lost it § 18. Obj. That is because they were left to their Free will and had but sufficient Grace and not efficacious determining Grace But it is now otherwise with all true Believers Ans. True Believers have not determining efficacious Grace to prevent all sin nor all such sin as Noah Lot David Peter did commit And that sin deserveth an answerable desertion of God it being a deserting him first so far And though God pardon it yet the desert is presupposed to the pardon for it is desert of punishment that is pardoned § 19. Quest. If a man were holy that is an obedient Lover of God and Goodness without Faith in Christ would that save him Answ. 1. The Covenants of Grace requireth various degrees of Faith according to its several editions and promulgations It is not the same degree of
Faith as to the Objects extensively which was required of Jewish Believers before Christ's Incarnation as is now of us nor the same degree that was required of all the rest of the World as of the Jews 2. But such a Faith in God our Redeemer as that Law which men are under maketh necessary to Salvation is necessary to Holiness And to ask what God will do with a man that is holy without Faith is to talk of a non-existent Subject There is no such man for without Faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him notwithstanding original and actual Sin and the Law of Innocency condemning us and therefore that he is under a pardoning and rewarding Law of Grace Heb. 11. 6. No man can be sanctified without the Merit Doctrine and Spirit of Christ nor without that degree of Faith which the Covenant which he is under requireth § 20. Quest. What if a man that was sanctified by believing should retain his Holiness or Love and Obedience and lose his Faith in Christ Answ. It is a thing that never was nor will be and not to be disputed of § 21. Moral Virtue in the proper sence of the word is the same thing as Holiness taken comprehensively as containing our Love and Duty to God and to man for God's sake But as Holiness is taken narrowly for our Love and Duty to God as distinct from our Love and Duty to Man so Moral Virtue is the genus and Holiness the chief species of it And thus we take Moral Virtue and Moral Action and so all Morality as contradistinct from Physicks or things meerly natural not falling under the genus moris And so Virtue and Vice or Sin are all that is Moral that is Moral Good and Moral Evil And this is the first and most notable sence of the word But some of late have used Moral as contradistinct from Holiness or Grace or from infused Habits or from Faith and Christianity and some tell us confidently but falsly That this is the most fit and famous sence and the word so to be taken when not otherwise explained It 's the sad case of Mankind that we have no words but what are liable to ambiguity And it 's the unhappiness of the Church that hath so many Teachers that will dispute write and wrangle about words unexplained and in the end shew that under divers terms they mean the same matter in which they are agreed and know not their Agreement § 22. As Holiness is sometimes taken so largely as to comprehend all that God commandeth and sometimes for the natural part of our Duty Love and Obedience as distinct from Faith in Christ which is the mediate Grace and of supernatural revelation so is Morality or moral Virtue distinguished § 23. They that take moral Virtue so narrowly and improperly as to mean no other moral Virtue than Heathens had or than is taught in Aristotle's Ethicks should first tell us That this is their sence and then they may boldly declaim against those Preachers that take this for sufficient or that preach no other For Scripture and Christianity were to little purpose if they taught us no more than the Writings of Philosophers do § 24. And no doubt but it is a pitiful sign and an odious Crime in a Minister of Christ to say little to the People of the Mysteries of Man's Redemption the Person and Offices and Works of Christ the Covenant of Grace and the special Blessings given by it our Union with Christ Justification Adoption and the special Works of the Spirit on Mens Souls and all the Duties and Pleasures of a Heavenly Conversation in the love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Spirit and all this under pretence of magnitying and preaching up the Love of our Brethren and Charity to the Poor and Iustice and Temperance as if Man were our God and to wrong man were the only Sin and to wrong God were none or God could be no otherwaies wronged § 25. But Covetousness and Pride contradicteth their own Doctrine For among their good works those of Piety are first extolled and those are the enriching of the Church and that is themselves and why them more than the poorer People about us Because they are sacred persons and belong to God and serve at his Altars Very good And is Piety to a sacred person and such as they so great a Duty and yet our Piety as immediately to God himself an indifferent thing in comparison of our Duty to Man Yea some usually make that part of their Piety which consisteth in the observance of their own Traditions and unnecessary Injunctions to seem of great weight while the holy observance of God's own Laws is perhaps accused as too much preciseness or hypocrisâ—s when indeed the Hypocrite is he that instead of the life and serious practice of true Christian-Holiness sets up and resteth in the Image of Holiness and certain formalities that are lifeless to deceive himself and others § 26. Where there is no Faith and Love to God nor Duty done in obedience to God there is no true moral Virtue but somewhat equivocally so called whatever good such may do to the Common-wealth or to their Neighbors for it wanteth the principle end and object that should inform it § 27. An Hypocrite may be said to have moral Virtue as he may be said to have Holiness that is only secundum quid yea but analogically yea but equivocally in that he hath no other sort of Faith and Love and Obedience § 28. An Infidel's moral Virtue and all unsanctified Heathens or other persons is of the same sort only with this described of the Hypocrite And they err not that say They have no true moral Virtue but analogical § 29. Yet Nature and common Grace do give men that which is truly good and not only minus malum and may do much good to others and some to themselves and is truly laudable and amiable considered without the mixture simply in it self But because the contrary evil is still the predominant part in all the unsanctified it will not properly denominate them good men nor the whole action a good action save equivocally analogically or secundum quid because the form denominateth which is here wanting § 30. But if any one think otherwise that the name of moral Virtue yea or Holiness is due to the best actions or habits of Heathens Hypocrites or any unsanctified men it is but a Controversie de nomine and no otherwise to be regarded while we agree of the things signified by that name § 31. It is certain that now there is no moral good in any man on Earth that is not the effect of some Grace of God common or special for even Nature now as reprieved and maintained is an effect of common Grace much more further
gifts But it is perverseness in some School-men who make common Grace and special at least as to Faith to be differenced only in the Causation one being not infused and the other infused but the same in act and so that no man can know whether he have infused or acquired Faith which some call but a Moral Virtue CHAP. XVIII Of the necessity of Faith in Christ where the Gospel is made known § 1. INfidels take scandal from Christ's making Faith in himself to be so necessary to our Salvation as if it tended only to his Honour and were in its own Nature of no necessity to our happiness but arbitrarily made so § 2. And their reason also against this necessity is because believing is an act of the Intellect and Intellection is not free and in its self is no moral Act. A man cannot know or believe what he would no though he most earnestly desired it And will God condemn men for that which they fain would do and cannot Especially when mens intellectual Capacities do so greatly differ that some seem to differ but little from the Brutes § 3. This Scandal ariseth from their not well understanding the Nature and Reasons of our Faith in Christ. 1. They falsely suppose it to be only an Act of the Intellect where many Divines have given them the Scandal 2. They falsely suppose That the Intellect herein is necessitated to unbelief 3. And they consider not the Ends and Uses of our Faith § 4. 1. The true nature of our Faith is our Trusting in Christ as our Saviour who hath reconciled us to God by his Sacrifice and Merit that he may bring us to God by Iustification Adoption Sanctification and Glory It containeth Assent Consent and Affiance though through penury of Words we are fain to call it by some one of these names oft-times as the occasion requireth But indeed the very sence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fides and Trust includeth all And when the Act of the Intellect only is named it is as including or informing both the other § 5. 2. Though the Intellect be not free of it self it is free by participation being quoad exercitum under the Empire of the Will that is free And the Will by commanding it to act search think of the Evidences of Verity may do so much towards the specifying of the Act as that the meer weakness of Understanding without the fault of a vicious Will shall keep no man in damnable Unbelief § 6. For Christ hath many ways provided against meer Weakness of our Understanding 1. By the fewness and plainness of necessary Articles of Faith 2. By the fulness of Evidence of Credibility 3. By great Means and Helps for our Faith which he appointeth 4. And by the powerful Helps of his Spirit which is ready to illuminate us by these means § 7. No man was ever yet known that could say I have done my best to have obtained Faith and did not obtain it Though many can say I earnestly desired to believe and could not Because those may desire it that yet use not the means aright and faithfully and that indulge their own Prejudices or carnal Lusts which hinder it § 8. 3 In the saving of Sinners there is considerable 1. The great Benefits already given in the Purchase Merits and Covenant 2. The greater Benefits offered and to be received hereafter 3. The Means to be used on our part for obtaining them 4. The danger and loss if we miss of them 5. The ultimate End of him that giveth them § 9. And 1. will not any reasonable Infidel confess That Thankfulness is naturally due for great and inestimable Benefits And how can a man be thankful for that which he believeth not was ever done for him or given him Or can he be thankful to he knoweth not whom § 10. 2. Do not great Benefits freely offered require Acceptance And how can a man accept of that which he believeth not was ever purchased procured or offered him Will you accept a shadow § 11. 3. Christ never meant to carry Sluggards asleep to Heaven but to save them in the use of his appointed means 1. They must learn and obey his Doctrine and can they obey it that believe it not 2. They must take Heaven procured by a Redeemer for their Hope and Portion and love desire and seek it above all And who will do this that believeth it not and the Word that promiseth it 3. They must take Christ for their Guide and Mediator and Intercessor to bring them thither and they must forsake all here that stands in competition that they may obtain it And can you do this and not believe and trust him that must save you Will you venture your life in the Hands of a Physician and take his Medicines if you believe not that he hath Skill and Will to cure you Will you leave your Country and follow one over Seas that promiseth you a Kingdom if you trust him not § 12. 4. And who will avoid Sin Temptations and Hell that believeth not him that tells them of the evil and of the danger that is before him § 13. 5. And God can have no lower End ultimately than Himself and the Glory of our Redeemer is more excellent than mine or yours And therefore if We have the Salvation it is meet and necessary that God and our Redeemer have the Love and Thanks the Praise and Glory of it § 14. Yet hath not God arbitrarily made Faith more necessary than it is in the true Reason and Aptitude of it to its Ends. He hath not made to all a Faith so necessary of Christ and his Intercession and therefore though Infants and Ideots cannot actually believe they may be saved by Christ And though those before Christ believed not all that we must now believe nor the Gentiles before so much as the Iews yet neither of them were thereby excluded from Salvation § 15. Quest. Hath not Christ made the Case of Christians harder than it was before his Incarnation to Believers by making so many more Articles of our Faith and those of necessity to our Salvation Ans. No no more than it is our Misery to accept of more Mercies and Benefits than were offered to others Our Belief is not of numerous unnecessary difficulties but it is of such things as we must receive and be Partakers of it is the means of our use and fruition Who would take it for a Misery to believe that the King will give him a Lordship or that a rich Man will give him so much Money if he will come and thankfully accept it Every act of belief is but a means to some Benefit to be received § 16. As Christ is the way to the Father and the Mediator is to bring us unto God so Faith in Christ is the Mediate or healing Grace to help us to Holiness or the Love of God which being its End is as much more noble than Faith in
Slave and also promiseth him great Possessions and Honours in a Kingdom in the East Indies or at the Antipodes if he will leave his Servitude and his Country and all that he hath there and go with him in his Ship and patiently endure the Sea-trials till he come thither Here he must 1. believe that the Prince hath paid his ransome 2. That he is a wise man and knoweth what he promised and skilful to conduct him safely through all the perils of the Seas 3. That he is an honest man and intendeth not to deceive him 4. That he is sufficient or able to perform his word 5. And if upon this belief he trust him he will let go all and venture in his Ship and follow him And here one tells him that the Ship is unsound another tells him that the Prince is a Deceiver unable to perform his Word or unskilful or dishonest and some way untrusty and another tells him that small matters in his own Country are better than greater with so much hazard and sets out the dangers and terribleness of the Seas Now if the man be ask'd Do you believe or will you trust me or will you not here every one by believing and trusting knoweth that a practical Trust is meant which lieth in such a confidence as forsaketh all and taketh the promised Kingdom for all his hope Such is our Saving Faith § 12. As many Acts and many Objects go to constitute Saving Faith so if you will logically anatomize it all these following must be taken in § 13. 1. The principal Efficient Cause is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost respectively according to their several operations § 14. 2. The Instrumental Cause is the Word of God and the Preaching and Preachers of it or Parents Friends or some that reveal the Word unto us § 15. 3. Subordinate auxiliary means are Providential Alterations by some awaking Judgments or inviting Mercies or convincing Examples c. § 16. 4. The Soul of Man in all its three Faculties Vital-active Intellective and Volitive is 1. the Recipient of the Divine Influx and then 2. the immediate Efficient or Agent of the Acts of Faith § 17. 5. Preparatory Grace and Duty is ordinarily Man's Disposition as he is the Recipient of God's Grace and the Agent of believing But God is free and can work on the unprepared but it is not to be taken for his ordinary way § 18. 6. The formal Object of the assenting Act of Faith is veracit as Dei revelantis the Veracity or Truth of God revealing his Will § 19. 7. The formal Object of the accepting and receiving Act is the Goodness of the Benefits offered us by the Covenant as offered § 20. 8. The formal Object of our Trust or Affiance is God's fides Fidelity because of his aforesaid Veracity in promising and his Power Wisdom and Benevolence as a Performer and this full Act comprehendeth all the rest It is God's Trustiness § 21. 9. The material Objects of the assenting Act in genere are all God's Assertions or Revelations More especially the Gospel or the Christian Faith objective according to the Edition of the Covenant which we are under § 22. The Essentials of our objective Christian Faith constitute the Essence of our active Saving Faith and the Integrals of it constitute the Integrity § 23. And it is of great importance to distinguish here as to the Word and Objects between 1. the signa or words 2. the signification or sence 3. the things matter or incomplex objects as distinct from words and sence viz. God Christ Grace Heaven Goodness Iustice Men c. And to hold 1. That the words are not necessary for themselves but for the sence and therefore Translations or any words which give us the same sence may serve to the being of Saving Faith 2. That the sence it self is not necessary for it self ultimately as if Holiness lay in notions but for the things which that sence revealeth viz. God to be loved and obeyed Christ to be received the Holy Ghost to be received and obeyed Holiness and all Grace to be received loved used encreased our Brethren to be loved Heaven to be desired c. All sence will not bring us to the reception of the things for all is not apt but any that doth this which must be divine and apt will constitute us true Believers § 24. 1. The material Objects of our acceptance and consent are the Word of God commanding offering and promising and the good of Duty and Benefit commanded offered and promised that is All that is given us in the baptismal Covenant God the Father and his Love the Son and his Grace and the Holy Ghost and his Communion The Father as reconciled and adopting us the Son as having redeemed us to teach rule justifie and save us the Holy Spirit to sanctifie comfort and perfect us § 25. 11. The material Object of our Trust or Affiance is God himself the prime Truth Power and Good and Christ as his Messenger and our Saviour and the Holy Ghost as the Author of the Word and the Word as being the Word of God You must pardon us as necessitated to call God a material Object analogically for want of words § 26. 12. The ultimate or final Objects of Saving Faith are 1. God himself the ultimate ultimum that is the perfect Complacency of his will in his Glory eternally shining forth in our Glory and the Glory of Christ with all the Church triumphant 2. Next to that This Glory it self which is a created thing and the Perfection of the Universe and of Christ's Church and our selves in which it consisteth And therein our own Perfection and our perfect sight love and praise of our glorious God and our Redeemer 3. And next under that the first fruits of all this in this World in the foresaid love of the Father and Grace of the Son and Communion of the Holy Spirit and the Church § 27. If therefore we were put to give a full description of Saving Faith we must be as large as this following or such-like in sence viz. The Faith which the Adult must profess in Baptism as having the Promise of Justification and Salvation is a sincere fiducial practical Assent to Divine Revelations and especially to the Gospel revealing and offering us God himself to be our God and reconciled Father Christ to be our Saviour viz. by his Incarnation meritorious Righteousness and Sacrifice Resurrection Doctrine Example Government Intercession and final Judgment and the Holy Ghost to quicken illuminate and sanctifie us that so we may live in the Love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Spirit and of the Christian Church being saved from our Enemies Sin and Misery initially in this Life and perfectly in eternal perfect Glory With a fiducial acceptance of the Gifts of the Covenant according to their nature and a sincere federal Consent and with a sincere
devoting and giving up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and renouncing of all that is inconsistent with this Covenant Which Assent Consent and Trust are the effects of the Gospel and Spirit of Christ and are founded on God's Fidelity that is on the Veracity Love and Sufficiency of God Almighty most wise and good and on Christ the Father's great Apostle and on Christ's sub-Apostles and on the Gospel and especially the Covenant of Grace as on God's revealing and donative Instrument and on the manifold obsignant operations of the Holy Ghost miraculous and sanctifying as God's infallible Attestation to the Gospel-Verity § 28. Historical Tradition of the Words Books and Matters of Fact are subordinate necessary means of transmitting the Objects to our sense of Hearing who live at such a distance from the Time Place and Facts § 29. But though all these things aforesaid are in true Faith yet a distinct Perception or Description of them all is not necessary in him that hath them But a more general Conception of it which will but consist with the true Reception of the Things signified by the Words God Christ Grace c. may be certainly saving to a plain and simple-hearted Christian when one that can describe it accurately may be graceless For it is Believing and not Defining Faith which God hath made necessary to Salvation § 30. Therefore we do ordinarily well use shorter Descriptions to the People and sometime we say That Faith in Christ is our Christianity that is our Assent and Consent to the Baptismal Covenant and our Self-dedition to God therein For in Scripture it is all one to be a Believer a Disciple of Christ and a Christian. § 31. Sometimes we say That saving Faith is a fiducial-practical Assent to the Truth of the Gospel and Consent to the Covenant of Grace or an Accepting of all the Benefits of the Covenant as they are and on the terms offered or an Accepting of Christ and Life in and with him there offered us § 32. Sometimes we say It is a practical Affiance or trusting on Christ as our only Saviour for Salvation or to bring us to God and glory And in all these and the like we speak truly and mean the same thing some terms being used on occasion while the rest are implyed and to be understood § 33. Those that will needs call no act by the name of Faith but Assent and confine it to the Intellect do yet seem to differ with us but de nomine about a Word and not the Matter For they confess if there concur not a Consent of the Will it is not saving but as some call it â—ides informis and so that Assent and Consent make up our necessary Condition or means of our Union with Christ or Interest in the Covenant-Rights or Gifts And then seeing we are agreed so far of the matter it 's not worth much striving whether one only or both Acts shall be called Faith § 34. When the first Reformers had to do with men that commended uncertainty of our Sincerity and Salvation and kept People under a Spirit of Bondage and tempted them contrary to the Nature of Faith to love this World better than the next and to be afraid of dying by being doubtful whether they should be saved in the heat of opposition some of them called Faith Assurance or certain or full Persuasion of our own personal Election Pardon and Salvation But those that came after them and those that conversed practically with Men of troubled Consciences and observed the state of the greatest part of good Christians followed not this Example but spake more cautelously and soundly and described Faith as I before have told you For they found that not one of a multitude of godly Christians could say they were certain of their Election Sincerity or Salvation And some that were forwardest to say so were none of the best and had not what they said they had § 35. But whatever the transmarine Divines say I can witness that except ignorant Antinomians or such Sectaries rejected by the Orthodox I remember not that I have met these forty years with one Divine that taketh saving-Faith to be such Assurance of our personal Election Justification or Salvation especially the first act which is not to believe that we are justified but that we may be justified § 36. Indeed you would think those few must hold this who say That Justification is an immanent eternal Act of God But 1. this is but a difference about the word Iustification All confess that God's essential Volition of our Justification is eternal as being himself but some think that his Will may be denominated an Eternal Iustification and others better say Not But all confess that the Law of Grace doth justifie no man till he believe much less the Sentence of Christ as Judge And though some call our Perswasion that we are justified by the name of Faith yet they deny not another act of Faith antecedent to this that maketh us true Christians § 37 And indeed besides Mr. Pemble and Dr. Twisse both excellent Men it 's rare to meet with any English Divine that talks for Eternal Iustification And Mr. Pemble who let fall some such things in his Vindiciae Gratiae did set all right again in his Treatise of Iustification being very young when he wrote even the last And Dr. Twisse who in his Vindic. Gratiae hath some such words speaketh elsewhere soundly as Mr. Iessop his Scholar hath shewed in a Treatise purposely written to prove it when I had taken exceptions against his words § 38. It is therefore shameless Calumny of those who perswade their Followers That the Reformed Churches take Faith for such an Assurance or Belief that we are justified or elected and shall be saved only because they find some such word in some former disputing Doctors of ours when as all or near all have so long renounced that Opinion that he would be a Wonder among us in England Scotland or Ireland and I think abroad that should hold it § 39. Yet we still say That saving Faith is not only a believing that God's Word is true but a believing it with personal Application to my self § 40. But that Application is such as followeth 1. I believe that Christ hath died for my sins as well as for the rest of the World 2. I believe that the Gospel offereth Pardon and Salvation to me as well as to others 3. I believe that God will have mercy on me and Christ and Life shall â—e mine if I shall truly believe and repent and Glory if I persevere 4. Hereupon I accept the Offer and Consent to the Covenant of Grace which giveth me right to these Benefits if I consent 5. And so far as I can say that I am sincere in my repenting and believing so far my Faith helpeth me to conclude that I am justified § 41. But this last is a mixt act and a rational
extend to the Justification must extend to if perfect § 41. But no man is perfectly and absolutely just or justifiable For instance 1. If we be accused to have sinned we cannot be justified directly against this Accusation but must plead guilty by Confession For factum non potest fieri infectum and that Fact will for ever be culpable Adam did sin will for ever be a true assertion The Guilt of fact or fault is never done away in it self that it was really a fault and that we really did it will be an everlasting Truth Of which more afterward § 41. 2. If the Accusation be That in Adam we deserved Death it must be confessed Yea temporal Death and correcting Punishments are not only deserved but inflicted and not pardoned nor we justifiable herein § 42. 3. If the Accusation be that we deserved to have Abatements of Grace With-holdings of the Spirit and abatement of what Glory we might else have had all this must be confessed § 43. 4. Yea if it be said That our Sin primo instanti deserved Hell it must be confessed and against all this there is no direct Justification § 44. But against these Accusations we must be justified 1. If it be said that we are of Right to be damned or have no Right to Heaven but to Hell this must be denied And we must be justified by these several Causes 1. Because God's Iustice and the Ends of the violated Law are satisfied by Christ and by his Righteousness a free Gift of Pardon and Life are merited for us 2. And this free donation is the Law that we are to be judged by which giveth us Christ to be our Head and Pardon and Life with him § 45. 2. If it be said That we are Unbelievers impenitent or unholy and did not fulfill the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace we must deny it and be justified against this by our Faith Repentance and Holiness it self or else we must be condemned and perish for nothing else will do it § 46. And seeing it will be the work of the day to judge men as performers or non-performers of the said Conditions of the Law of Grace therefore it is that the Scripture speaketh so much of inherent or performed Righteousness and of Christ's judging men according to their works that is their works which are the performance of that Condition § 47. To be judged according to our Works is to be justified or condemned according to our Works For to be judged is the genus and to be justified or condemned are the species Iudging is justifying or condemning § 48. While all are agreed that all men shall be justified or condemned according to their Works it is unreasonable to quarrel at that height that many do about the syllable BY whether men be justified and condemned by their works as if according to them and by them had a different sence when as to judicial justification the sence is the very same though as to the making of men just the sence may differ § 49. We are commonly agreed that no man is justified by Works in any of these following sences 1. No man is justified either constitutively or judiciarily by his Works done according to the Law of Innocency that is by perfect personal Obedience and Love because we have it not 2. No man is justified constitutively or judiciarily by his Works done according to the Mosaical Iewish Law as such 3. Much less by any Works of his own or other mens invention which he accounteth good and are not so 4. No man is justified by any Works set in opposition to or competition or co-ordination with Christ but only in subordination to him and his Righteousness by which we are redeemed and for which we are all first conditionally pardoned and justified by the Law of Grace 5. No man could be justified by his Gospel-Obedience or his Faith if he were to be judged by the Law of Innocency as not redeemed 6. No man's Faith or Obedience will justifie him in Judgment against this accusation Thou art a Sinner or this Thy sin deserved Death Nor as one that hath fulfilled all the preceptive part of the law of Christ. 7. No Works do justifie us as meriting Life of God in proper commutative Justice 8. No man is justified by Tasks of working as contradistinct from believing and trusting on Free Grace or by external works without Christ's Spirit and spiritual Evangelical Duties 9. No good Work or Act of Man was a Condition of God's giving us a Redeemer or giving us a conditional justifying Law of Grace 10. Man's true Faith and Repentance is not before the Grace which worketh it and therefore is no Condition of that Grace 11. Man's antecedent common Works while he is impenitent merit not properly the special Grace which causeth Faith and Repentance 12. We have no Works that are acceptable to God but what are the fruits of his Spirit and Grace § 50. And on the other side we are agreed 1. That we are justified by the Works of Christ as the Meritorious Cause of our Justification 2. That the Justification purchased and given us by Christ is given us by a Law or Covenant of Grace which giveth as God's Instrument Right to Impunity and to Life to all true penitent Believers And therefore he that is justified according to this Law of Grace from the charge of Impenitence and Unbelief must be justified by his Repentance and Faith materially as being the Righteousness in question as is aforesaid 3. That without Holiness none shall see God And if any be accused as unholy and on that account no Member of Christ or Child of God or Heir of Heaven his Holiness must be the matter of his Justification 4. That though our Faith Repentance and Holiness be no universal absolute Righteousness yet they are that on which the judiciary Scrutiny must pass and which will be the question of the great day on which our Life or Death will depend as on the Condition or moral Qualification of the Receiver 5. That in this sence all men shall be judged by Justification or Condemnation according to their Works or what they have done that is as they have performed or not performed the Conditions of that Law of Grace which they were under as aforesaid 6. That therefore they that will be justified at last must trust in Christ that redeemed them and be careful to perform the Conditions of his Law of Grace and both must concurr 7. That that which is the Righteousness which must justifie us in Judgment is the same that must now constitute us just 8. That when our Right to Salvation is the thing in question to be judged that which justifieth our Right to Salvation justifieth the Person as to that Right and so far the same thing is the Condition of our Right to Salvation and to our Justification 9. And if any with Augustine will mean by Iustification God 's making us such
as the Iudge will justifie by Sentence and Execution then our Conversion is part of that Justification 10. That Scripture sometimes taketh Justification in that sence and most frequently by Righteousness meaneth that which consisteth in our Acts and Habits In all this there is no place for Controversie or Disagreement § 51. They that say That we must have inherent and performed Righteousness but that no man is at all justified by it must take justifying in some particular limitted sence which therefore they should explain by distinction or else they speak gross contradiction For it is no Righteousness if it constitute not the owner righteous so far or in that point nor yet if the owner may not be justified by it in Iudgment against the accusation of being in that point or so far unrighteous If he that doth Righteousness is righteous that Righteousness will materially justifie him against the false accusation of the contrary § 52. Yea while they make Faith Repentance and Holiness but Signs and Evidences of our right to Life-eternal they thereby allow it some place in Justification For Evidence hath its place in Judgment And they are moral Evidences and not physical only § 53. If men understood how atheological and perilous it is to conceit that either Faith or any thing of ours no though we were innocent is any proper efficient Cause of God's own internal acts in our Justification and would understand that all can be no more than dispositio receptiva which Dr. Twisse calls causa dispositiva a meer receptive Aptitude which is but the Qualification causae materialis that is of the Subject to be justified it would presently lead them out of their vain Contention about Faith and Gospel-Obedience herein and shew them how each in several respects and instances qualifie Man for the beginning or continuance of Justification or for Right to Glory § 54. It seemeth strange to some to find the whole Old Testament and all Christ's Sermons and all the other Apostles inculcating inherent and performed Righteousness as that which Men must be judged about to Life or Death and yet to find Paul so oft pleading against Justification by Works But if we will take the Scripture together and not by incoherent scraps the reconciliation is evident Man is now sinful and condemned by the first Law and is now under a Law of Grace that freely giveth Pardon and Life through a Redeemer to those that believingly accept the Gift according to its nature and consent by Repentance to turn to God and live a holy life in sincerity Now God doth through all the Scripture tell us That no one shall pass with God for a just man or be saved that will not do this but shall be condemned further for refusing it And thus he that doth Righteousness is righteous and all shall be judged according to their works thus required by the Law of Grace To deny this is to deny the scope of the whole Scripture and the Government of God But Paul disputed against those that taught that the Gentiles must be proselyted and keep the Law of Moses or else they could not be accounted just men nor be saved And he proveth that the Gentiles being under the Law of Grace may pass with God for just men and be saved if they Believingly accept the Gift of Grace according to its nature and consent by Repentance to turn to God and live a holy life in sincerity though they keep not the Jewish Law Yea further that though the Jewish Fathers were obliged to keep that Law it was as it belonged to the Covenant of Grace and of Faith and that before that Law was given Abraham and others were just and saved by Faith according to the universal Law of Grace and that the Task of Works according to the Mosaical Law will of it self make no man just or savable and consequently no other Task of Works which would make the Reward to be not of Grace but of Debt and is opposed to or separated from Redemption and the free condonation and donation of the Covenant of Grace This is the plain drift of Paul § 55. Works of Evangelical gratitude love and obedience according to the Law of Grace subordinate to and supposing Redemption and the free gift of Pardon and Life to penitent believing Accepters are those that Christ and Iames and all the Scripture make necessary to Salvation and our Consent and Covenant so to obey is necessary to our first or initial Iustification and our actual Obedience to the Continuance and Confirmation of it But a Task of Works either of Moses's Law or any other set against Redemption and free Grace or not as aforesaid duly subordinate to them is disclaimed by Paul and all Christians as that which can constitute no man just in God's account nor such a one as hath right to Salvation § 56. I verily think that were their verbal and notional differences discussed and men understood themselves and one another it will prove that this aforesaid is the true meaning of almost all Christians and that they agree in this sence while they mischievously contend about ill or unexplained words § 57. What I have said of Justification is mostly true of Pardon of Sin Pardon is threefold 1. Constitutive which is God's giving us a Right to Impunity This is God's act by the pardoning Covenant or Law of Grace 2. By Sentence judging us so pardoned 3. Executive taking off or not inflicting Punishment deserved § 58. God's non punire and nolle punire not-punishing and his will not to punish are true pardon when the Sinner and Sin and Guilt are pre-existent But they are no pardon before because not capable of such a relation and denomination for want of a real terminus Therefore God's eternal will to pardon or his not punishing man from Eternity before Man was Man or sinful must have no such name which afterward it may have without any change in God but in man only § 59. Some worthy men say that Pardon is not Justification nor to be pardoned is to be righteous and that Righteousness is never taken in Scripture for Pardon but many score or hundred times for our performance of our Duty according to the Law of Grace Therefore they would have Righteousness and Pardon still distinguished § 60. But I have plainly before proved that Righteousness hath many parts and the word many sences and though Pardon be not that Righteousness which consisteth in a Conformity to the Precept and so is not our universal Righteousness yet Pardon is passive that Righteousness which consisteth in our right to Impunity both as to the punishment of Loss and Sence And Pardon with Adoption or the Gift of Life is that Righteousness which consisteth in our right to Life eternal § 61. 1. All mens sins are pardoned potentially and conditionally in the Law of Grace 2. No mens sins are pardoned actually as to a right of Impunity till they are penitent
agreed what will be the event that I think the Controverfie not worth the handling but made among other snares of Satan to trouble the Church and draw us to vain Janglings about words that edifie not from the Simplicity that is in Christ. § 14. Q. VII Whethâ—r there be a state of Confirmation here Ans. 1. Undoubtedly there are some Christians that are strong rooted settled established and some that are weak and like Children toss'd up and down Rom. 4. 20. 15. 1. Heb. 5. 12 14. 1 Ioh. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 16. 13. Eph. 6. 10. 2 Tim. 2. 1. 1 Cor. 15. 58. 1 Pet. 5. 9. Col. 2. 5. Eph. 3. 16 17. Col. 2. 7. There is a need of strengthening Grace 1 Pet. 5. 10. Luk. 22. 32. Rev. 3. 2. Act. 9. 22. Col. 1. 11. 2 Tim. 4. 17. Psal. 138. 3. Phil. 4. 13. § 15. 2. It is agreeable to Scripture Reason and Experience to judge that strengthened Christians stand faster than the weak and that it is in it self more unlikely that they should be seduced and forsake Christ. § 16. Seeing it is so doubtful whether any that are sincere fall away we have great reason to think that it will hardlier be proved of the Confirmed I know that Strength hath several degrees and it 's hard to determine just what this Confirmation is but I am perswaded that abundance of confirmed Christians there are who have taken hold of Christ by Faith and Love and have clear light and great experience and so much Grace as that from that Confirmation it may be inferred that they never fall away and perish and consequently that Certainty of Salvation and not only of present Justification is attainable in this Life And some of the Papists themselves are of this mind though others of them say That even a state of Confirmation may be lost § 17. Q. VIII Whether Perseverance depend on meer Election Ans. It was Augustine's Judgment and his Followers That Election is the ascertaining Cause of Perseverance giving the special Grace of Perseverance but what that Grace was besides Divine Volition and Preservation whether any special confirming degree or kind it is not easie to gather out of him And I think it past doubt That God doth elect some to Perseverance and all persevere whom he so electeth and because he electeth them and no other But whether many also are truly sanctified and justified that are not elect and so do not persevere as Austin held I said before I do not know § 18. Q. IX Are all or most Christians certain that they shall persevere Ans. No For 1. most Christians in the World hold that Perseverance is uncertain to the godly and how can they be certain of it to themselves 2. Most that hold otherwise hold it but as uncertain and are not themselves certain that it is true though they call it certain I am uncertain And I find not by other signs that the most have more knowledge than my self And he that is not certain of the Premises is not by them certain of the Conclusion 3. Most Christians are uncertain that they are sincere and justified And such cannot be certain to persevere in that which they are not certain that they have § 19. Q. X. Certainty of their present state of Iustification is not fit for those that sin as much and are as bad as ever will stand with sincerity till they repent Therefore certainty of Perseverance must needs be unfit for them And therefore God never giveth it to such § 20. Q. XI Certainty of Grace Iustification and Perseverance and Salvation is a most excellent desirable thing above all the Treasures of the World and to be earnestly sought by all and tendeth not of it self to carnal security but to fill the Soul with holy Love and Thankfulness and Joy and make our Lives likest to Heaven on Earth O blessed are they that do attain it And woe to them that dispraise it and perswade men to causeless doubting It is the height of our attainment here in it self and the improvement and maketh us live a Heavenly Life and long to be with Christ But we cannot therefore say that those have it that have it not But all should promote and seek it § 21. Q. XII They that are certain that all true Believers persevere have one great help towards their own Consolation But if they be uncertain that they themselves are true Believers this will not comfort them As they that are perswaded only that all Confirmed Christians persevere must know that they are confirmed before this can give them the comfort of Assurance § 22. But I have elsewhere fully proved 1. That most Christians have not the comfort of their own certain Perseverance for want of the Certainty of their Sincerity if not of the Doctrine it self 2. And that thousands and millions of Christians live and die in Peace and Comfort that have not a proper Certainty of Salvation 3. Much more may such live in Joy that are sure of their present state of Grace though not of their Perseverance § 23. For Experience telleth us that though most of the Christian World are against the Doctrine of Certain Perseverance of all true Believers yet many of them live and die in Comfort § 24. And Church-History and the Ancients Writings tell us That though for many hundred years the Christian Doctors commonly held That some lose true justifying Faith and perish yeâ— multitudes lived and died in Joy and went with boldness through the flaâ—es § 25. And we see in all things that men are affected according to what is predominant and he that hath far more Hope than fear and doubting will have more joy than sorrow though he be not certain but some doubting do remain § 26. It is certain in it self that God's Promises in the Gospel are all true But every one that truly believeth it is not properly certain of it past all doubt And he that hath the least doubt of the truth of the Gospel must needs doubt as much of that Salvation which is expected on the Gospel-Promise And yet such Believers may have Peace and Joy according to the measure of their Faith and Hope § 27. We see among men no Wife is certain one day or night that her Husband will not forsake or murder her no Child is certain that his Father will not kill him nor any one of his dearest Friend And yet we can have Love Peace and Comfort in our Relations without such certainty For it 's melancholy folly to live in fears of things utterly unlikely and to cast away the Comforts of great probability § 28. Yea no godly man is certain that he shall not fall into such hainous Sin as Noah Lot David Peter did or that he shall not kill his dearest Friend or himself And yet when a man is conscious that his Nature his Reason his Experience and his Resolution do all make him hate such a wicked act and that there
of everlasting glory through Faith § 7. This Repentance is the same thing with Conversion and as I said before Faith it self includeth Repentance in its Essence as denominated from the terminus a quo it being a Turning from Unbelief to God by believing in him as God and to Christ by believing in him as our Saviour and to the Holy Ghost by believing in him as the Agent and Witness of Christ and our Sanctifier § 8. Particular Repentance is our turning with Sorrow from a particular Sin to our contrary obedience to God § 9. Without that universal Repentance or Conversion which turneth the Mind Will and Life to God from created Vanity and this World no Man can be saved because he continueth an Idolater and Rebel and doth not indeed take God for his God nor Christ for his Saviour nor the Holy Spirit for his Sanctifier but is an ungodly Man and a Forsaker of God and his own Felicity § 10. Repentance as towards God is sometime distinguished from Faith in Christ And then Repentance is our turning to God as God by Faith Trust Love and Obedience resigning our selves to him as our Owner subjecting our selves to him as our Ruler and loving him as our Benefactor and chiefly as the Infinite Good in himself our ultimate objective End And this is the greater Duty respecting God as our End even the same with Love to God for the procuring of which Christ came into the World and Faith is given us And then Faith in Christ is the mediate grace and duty by which we are brought to this Repentance § 11. Not that any man can truly take Christ for his Saviour before he taketh God for his God for the Love and Intention of the End is before our Choice and Use of the Means But Christ being our Teacher first bringeth us to assent to the Truth of God's Perfections and Relations to us and then to the Truth of his own Gospel and by this Assent bringeth us first to a common and then to a special Consent at once that God be our God and Christ our Saviour but so that we desire God as our End and Christ as Mediator as the Means § 12. Universal Repentance or Conversion doth virtually contain all particular future Repentance but not actually Therefore where this is that Soul may be saved without actual Repentance for some particular sins or sorts of sin As e. g. if we are ignorant that such or such a thing is sin for want of necessary Instruction or if in a crowd of business some sinful Thought Passion or Word pass unobserved or if we do our faithful endeavour to find out a sin and cannot remember it as who can remember at Conversion one of many that he has committed in Unregeneracy and after many are forgotten And every Man dieth in some sin which he hath no time here to repent of viz. in some sinful imperfection of all grace and duty and omission of due degrees of Love and other Acts For all which virtual repentance will be accepted § 13. But great and heinous sins must needs have actual repentance because it will not consist with the Truth of Holiness to be so indifferent or easâ—e towards them as not to observe them and remember them And if they be known and remembred they will be repented of when the Soul hath opportunity to consider what it hath done For habitual repentance is necessary to Salvation and Habits will act when they are not extraordinarily hindred having notable Objects and Opportunity § 14. Yet some sins that are great materially in their nature may be lessened much to some persons by unavoidable ignorance and so may not have an actual repentance As e. g. in times of War to kill men in a wrong Cause is one of the greatest â—ins in the World and yet when by the darkness of State-cases the Question who is in the right is so difficult that very few can decide it and after their utmost search each Party thinks that God bindeth them to fight for their King or Country such persons cannot have a particular repentance while they are not able to see that they were deceived § 15. It is therefore a Case of exceeding difficulty what sins may stand with Iustification not particularly repented of and what not or as some speak which are mortal and which venial sins or sins of Infirmity § 16. But he that hath a care of his Salvation must hate all sin in the general as sin and keep up his watch and be willing to know all the worst in himself and diligently use the means to know it and resolve to forsake it to his power when he knoweth it that so he may not be wilfully impenitent And he that will sin as far as he thinks will stand with grace either hath no true grace or shall not know that he hath it § 17. The time of repentance or mercy may be said in two Sences to be past 1. When a man shall not be accepted and pardoned though he should repent And so the Day of grace is never past in this Life and the Damned do not truly repent in our present Sence so that for a penitent person to fear that the Day of grace is past or his Repentance too late if true is to contradict the Scope of the Gospel which giveth pardon to every one that truly repenteth 2. When a man that before had some motions and helps to repent and obstinately resisted them shall be given up to his Obstinacy and never have such motions more Thus the Day of grace may be past with many And such persons turn from God to Wickedness and are hardened in the love of sin and usually blinded to defend it and hate a holy Life But those that do repent or fain would repent or yet feel God moving them to repent have no cause to think that God hath thus forsaken them For it is only obstinate and continued forsaking God that is the sign of one forsaken by him § 18. And this also is no proof to us that such a Person is finally forsaken For many that have rejected grace many years are afterward converted by that grace So that all that we can say is That such as God hath forsaken do continue to the end to reject his Mercy and prefer their Lusts but that he will so continue to the end no man himself can tell before the end § 19. About the unpardonable sin there are two Coâ—â—oversies 1. What it is 2. Whether it be absâ—â—â—â—ely unpardonable That final impenitency is unpardonable is undoubted But the sin in question is called The Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost of which having written a special Tractate I now only say That it is the Sin of such as believing not Christ to be the Son of God but a Deceiver and yet being convinced of his and his Disciples Miracles do in their judgments think and blasphemously say and maintain that they were done by